April 6, 2008  •  Pastor Randy Smith

The apostle Peter uses a rather unique term to describe Christians. Twice in his epistle he refers to us as “aliens” (1:1; 2:11).

Webster defines an alien as one who is foreign, strange, not natural. The term is most commonly used for the hypothetical visitor from outer space because he is completely different from us. After all, if he came off the spaceship wearing Levi Jeans, listening to an iPod, asking for his “coffee” (as you folks pronounce it here in New Jersey), we could hardly classify him as an alien. The “Man from Mars” is an alien because he is completely unlike the citizens of Earth.

Christians are called “aliens” because the citizens of God’s kingdom not “should be” but “will be” completely different from those who reject the Savior.

How are we different? While much of what we do and say will be similar to the unbeliever, our primary differences lie in the attitude of our heart. Here is where many professing Christians go wrong. They act like the Pharisees (Mt. 23:25-26). They try to clean up the outside of their lives, but they are never truly transformed by the Holy Spirit on the inside. Based on their internal disposition, they remain just like the world. And to those living here, they are viewed as natives, not aliens.

As we begin studying the “Sermon on the Mount,” the most famous sermon ever delivered, we will be confronted with the radical nature of a true Christian. The words of Jesus will take everything we have learned from the world and turn it upside-down. At first, it might be offensive and provocative and convicting. But on further reflection, we will see that this sermon really turns everything right side up. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “The first time you read it, you feel that it is impossible, but the second time you feel that nothing else is possible.” God’s way, though diametrically opposed to the world, is the right way and to the Christian anything less should be considered alien.

When we were last in Matthew we learned in 4:23 that “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.” The remainder of verse 23 and verse 24 speak of His healing ministry which gave authority and credibility to that which He taught. As a result verse 25 says, “Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.” Continuing, chapter 5, verses 1-2, “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them.”

The sermon contained in chapters 5-7 begins in verse 3 (and continues to verse 12) with what we commonly call the “Beatitudes.” “Beatitude” comes from the Latin word “beatus,” where we get the English word “beautiful” or in this case “blessed.” Therefore, another way to refer to the Beatitudes is to call them “The Blesseds” (Gr. Makarios), as Jesus begins each of these Beatitudes with the words, “Blessed are.” Jesus wanted to instruct His followers that they are blessed! In other words, the whole sermon starts off with this encouraging truth” “Rejoice Christian because you are blessed!”

The format for the Beatitudes is simple. In each saying the heart attitude is initially stated followed by the promised blessing.

I pray the Spirit of God will teach us as we study these eight Beatitudes over the next four weeks the blessed result of demonstrating the heart attitude that describes the citizens of God’s Kingdom.

It is important to note from the get-go that Jesus spoke these words to “His disciples” (5:1). “The crowds” (5:1) were only outside observers. And His instruction was not by way of command but rather encouragement to people who think and act differently than the crowds, the world. There is something that Jesus wants all His disciples to realize. The world does everything in its power to judge, ridicule, criticize and malign our way of living. Yet here we are given a reminder that they are the ones living contrary to God’s ways, and we are the ones who are truly blessed!

So in one sense these Beatitudes, spoken to professing believers, are encouraging, affirming our source of true blessing and true happiness. Yet in another sense they are convicting because they describe the nature of every true Christian. In other words, if we are not living this way we have no right in saying we are members of God’s family. Again, we are to be seen as aliens to the world. If so, we will continually manifest these traits that imitate Jesus Christ and demonstrate His likeness as He molds us into His character.

With all this said, let’s look at the first beatitude this morning as we prepare for the Lord’s Supper.

In verse 3 Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said the blessed or happy are the “poor in spirit.” What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” I believe it is safe to say that being “poor in spirit” has nothing to do with looking out for number one or achieving God’s favor based upon our actions or inflating our self-esteem, self-confidence or self-righteousness or anything else the world promotes as the pathway to happiness.

As Nancy Leigh DeMoss remarked, “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’—contrary to what we would expect, brokenness is the pathway to blessing! There are no alternative routes; there are no short-cuts. The very thing we dread and are tempted to resist is actually the means to God's greatest blessings in our lives” (Brokenness, The Heart God Revives, p. 105).

Could it be that there are so many depressed and unfilled souls because most people are chasing their happiness in a way contrary to the teaching of the One who created them? Could it be that God really wants us to be happy and that God is most glorified in us when we are most happy in Him, but the evil one has once again twisted and maligned the truth to leave humanity chasing after lies and futility? Could it be that all God’s true children are ones that listen to the voice of their Shepherd and demonstrate a “poor in spirit” attitude that emulates the character of their Shepherd?

As it was stated earlier, to be “poor in spirit” is to be broken. This is the spirit we see throughout the Beatitudes. Verse 4, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Verse 5, “Blessed are the meek” (NIV). And the list continues along these lines.

While away last week I read the book by Roy Hession entitled The Calvary Road. The entire work is about cultivating a lifestyle of brokenness.

On the first page in the first chapter he said, “Our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of revival. It is painful, it is humiliating, it is the only way. It is being ‘Not I, but Christ,’ and a ‘C’ is a bent ‘I.’ The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God’s will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory—that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words, it is dying to self and self-attitudes” (p. 21-22).

Better yet, I’ll put it in the words of Christ: “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?’” (Lk. 9:23-25). Or as He said in John 15, “For apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

That is why the apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Are you filled with pride or are you poor in spirit? Are you broken? Take the following inventory:

Proud people focus on the failures of others.

Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.

Proud people think of how God is benefited by them.

Broken people know they have nothing of themselves to offer and simply desire to be used by Him.

Proud people are independent and self-sufficient.

Broken people recognize their need to be connected with the body of Christ

Proud people die on every hill to be proved right.

Broken people are willing to yield the right to be right.

Proud people find little need for prayer.

Broken people understand this need for reliance upon the Lord.

Proud people desire to be served.

Broken people are motivated to serve others.

Proud people are unapproachable, obstinate and unreasonable.

Broken people are easy to be spoken to.

Proud people feel confident in how much they know.

Broken people are humbled by how much they still need to learn.

Proud people look down upon others.

Broken people esteem others as better than themselves.

Proud people compare themselves with others.

Broken people compare themselves to the holiness of God and understand their desperate need for mercy.

(Adapted From: Dennis Rainey, One Home at a Time).

Consider some of the heroes of our faith. Their strength came in the fact that they were broken. Remember Paul? “I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

The more we are emptied of self, the more we will experience His infinite value and immeasurable worth and majestic glory. Until we understand the magnitude of our need, we will never understand the fullness of His provision. This is why proud people always feel distant from God.

Again, are you broken? Are you poor in spirit? Considering the heroes of our faith, it is to fully acknowledge with the apostle Paul, “That nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not” (Rom. 7:18). Or to join Abraham and consider ourselves to be “dust and ashes” before God (Gen. 18:27). Or agree with Job, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:4). Or to cry with Isaiah the prophet, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isa. 6:5).

It is significant to notice that this is the common attitude of God’s people. And it is significant to notice that this is the attitude that resulted after these people trusted God for salvation. Does this spirit apply only to these men? No, it is the mark of all< true believers!

The great theologian, Jonathan Edwards, once said, “There was no part of creature holiness that I had so sense a great of loveliness as humility, as brokenness of heart and poverty in spirit. There is nothing that I longed for more earnestly. My heart panted after this, to lie low before God as in the dust that I might be nothing and that God might be all” (Memoirs).

It is rightly understanding who we are in the presence of God—nothing more, nothing less.

All in all we are talking about a person who agrees with God regarding his own sinfulness and spiritual bankruptcy. He is empty of his spiritual resources, understanding that he has nothing to offer to earn the favor of heaven. He realizes the just penalty for his transgressions. And coming to the Lord as a spiritual beggar (“poor” (ptochos) can also be translated “beggarly”), he relies completely on the Lord’s mercy and grace alone.

A great biblical example is found in Luke 18. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:10-14).

After eleven years as a full-time pastor, I am coming to hate the sin of “spiritual pride” more than anything else – especially when I see it in my own life.

God finds no joy over the self-righteous. Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:7; cf. 7:40-50). The ones who think they are spiritually rich are always sent away empty-handed (Lk. 1:53; cf. Rev. 3:17). On the other hand, God rejoices in the “poor in spirit.” “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:2)

Is Peter’s description of us as aliens beginning to hit home? Pursue this kind of living, and the world will say you are out of your mind (cf. 5:10-12). Yet to the contrary, the Word of God will say you are “blessed.” Why? Look at the second half of the verse: “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Theirs”—a possessive thing. “Is”—present tense—those and only those who live this way have that the assurance that they are citizens of heaven, natives of another world right now!

Again, allow me to be very clear. The verse does not teach that the “poor in spirit” will earn or merit the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God belongs to those who are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ. What this verse is teaching is that those who are saved will possess this attitude which demonstrates the reality of a changed heart. To these people and only these people is the kingdom of God a present reality.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We can easily pretend this verse does not exist as many people do, but there is no way we can misunderstand the words of Jesus Christ. Those poor in spirit are on the narrow road to heaven. And those not poor in spirit are on the broad road that leads to destruction” (cf. Mt. 7:13-14).

So to those ridiculed for their distinctive Christian way of living—rejoice! And to those still clinging to their self-works and self-indulgence and self-reliance and self-sufficiency take heed—stop conforming to the ways of a fallen world and by faith embrace the words of God.

Do you understand God’s greatness and your littleness? Do you demonstrate the reality of a transformed life? Aliens here because “yours” is the kingdom of heaven. And according to the words of Jesus Christ, you are among the ones who are truly blessed!