“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” - Mathew
5:3
Understanding the text:
o
Beatitudes – Blessedness
o
Blessed –
§
Approved by God
§
Happiness not affected by circumstance
o
Poor in spirit –
§
Personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy
§
Conscious confession of unworthy before God
o
Kingdom of Heaven (God) – Life with in God’s
dominion
Why are we ‘poor in spirit’?
o
God made us in His image to worship him, to
reflect his attributes, to glorify Him in everything that we do. Expectation is
to obey ALL the commands; failing one is failing in all.
o
But we are fallen, therefore everyone are
objects of wrath
o
We are total depraved and everyone NEEDs God
o
We are all dead spiritually and therefore need
Christ!
o
Rom 1, Rom 5:8, James 2:10, Rom 8:29, Rom 3
Consequences of being fallen
o
God is Holy, loving, righteous
o
God’s loving and righteous at the same time,
therefore God’s wrath is on us due to the fallen nature of man.
Why is the ‘poor in spirit’ in the kingdom of God
o
Only a person who has the realization/attitude
of being poor in spirit is in the kingdom of God
o
A person who has not understood the sinfulness,
the depraved humanity, the consequences of it, cannot really appreciate the
grace of God or salvation
o
If not understood, Christ is accepted for making
better life, where as Christ is needed for a new life, since we are dead
without Christ
o
Only a person who has this realization would
continue in the faith and live a holy life in God, others would not persevere
o
This is not only a one time realization but an
attitude that needs to be in a believer, trusting God each day and not on their
performance (This is a whole another
topic [Gospel centered life] probably talk about it as a second part on Nov 22)
o
When we come to Christ we rebuild our life on
Christ not have Christ go with our life.
o
Romans 3, Luke 5: 8-10 (Peter),
Questions to Ask Our self
o
Have we ever thought or understood the holiness
of God, His greatness!
o
Did we realize our un-worthiness, sinfulness and
the wrath of God, when we heard the Gospel of Christ?
o
Or did we accept Christ for better, easy,
materially blessed life?
o
Remember the attitude of being poor in spirit is
a norm in the kingdom
o
Everyone walking around are carrying the weight
of Gods wrath but they don’t realize it
o
When we present the gospel, first of all we need
to clearly communicate the need, before actually getting on to the work of
Christ.
o
If someone doesn’t realize the need for Christ,
it becomes like throwing pearls before pigs
My sermon on this can be heard here
My sermon on this can be heard here
No comments:
Post a Comment