"Where to Begin" Matthew 5:3

Episode 65

Title: "Where to Begin" Text: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Introduction: What does it mean to be poor in Spirit? 2 Corinthians 6:10 says, "As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." The Apostle Paul references the many riches available in Christ despite our poor condition. Christian people are poor in spirit, yet we possess something more valuable than money could ever buy.  

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;" - Ephesians 3:8. 

“Unsearchable” mean they are unfathomable. Paul is literally telling us that our riches in Christ are too deep to be measured. For a person to truly experience the riches of Christ, we must first become poor in spirit. Charles Spurgeon once said, “You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything but Christ.” 

The Beatitudes begin with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” The poor in spirit describe a person who is spiritually bankrupt. The Puritan preacher Robert Harris once said, "Such poverty of spirit is the starting point of life... God undoes a man before He saves him, mars him before He makes him, takes him all to pieces and then joins him together forever."

“Mike Vetrone was accustomed to luxury sports cars and beachside mansions during his years as a drug runner for the New York Mafia, a lifestyle that is now a distant memory. “With judges, court clerks, and casino officers on the payroll, I pranced through Atlantic City like the mayor,” he says now.1 Yet Mike soon began a descent into a heroin addiction that threatened his life. After a customer discovered that Mike had stolen some of his drugs, Mike packed a bag and fled to Florida. Menacing death threats followed him, intimidation that continued for months. “I remained alone,” he remembers, “bound by my addiction, facing a dismal future.” He began thinking of suicide. “I was now haunted by what was, in fact, a not altogether unpleasant idea of ending my misery with the click of a trigger,” Mike says. ‘My .22 caliber handgun, which was usually within arm’s reach, held a fresh cartridge. After two years, the moment of reckoning had come.’ On an uncharacteristically overcast morning in South Florida, Mike dropped by a favorite haunt, Big Apple Bagel, to pick up what he assumed would be his last meal. Back in his apartment, he flipped on the television, looking for company one last time as he ate. On came a television preacher. With a distinct southern accent, the man exclaimed, “Life has a way of grabbing you by the collar, forcing you down to your knees.” Mike turned up the volume. “There’s a chain that binds every soul,” the preacher exclaimed, “and that chain is sin—an addiction from which Jesus’s death and resurrection sets us free.” Suddenly, as the television evangelist invited viewers to embrace Christ, Mike felt energy pulsing through his veins and found himself shouting at the television, “Yes!” In that moment, he no longer felt alone but sensed an encircling presence. Mike was facing not the end of his life, but a new beginning.”  - Castaldo, Chris. The Upside Down Kingdom: Wisdom for Life from the Beatitudes (pp. 7-8). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

The title of the lesson is “Where to begin”. No doubt, a life in Christ as a citizen of the kingdom begins with being poor in spirit .Something to note about the Beatitudes is that Jesus begins and closes them with the Kingdom of Heaven. As discussed in our previous lesson, the Beatitudes are not things that we necessarily do, but are our identities in Christ. As a Christian, we just do not up and decide that we are going to be merciful and hunger and thirst after righteousness. These are the laws of the kingdom that have bec