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When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

Introduction:

The testimony of the kind of faith that Daniel Webster had was written and can be read by anyone who visits his tomb. Over his grave, there is a tombstone, with his very own epitaph. It says the following,

“Philosophical Argument: My heart has always had the assurance that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to be a divine reality. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be the production of a human being. That faith has entered into the depth of my conscience. All of man’s history gives evidence to that.”

Some people have said that the Sermon on the Mount was a message that the Lord Jesus Christ preached in just twenty min-utes, but that it had an impact that would continue throughout the ages. Many Christians and non-believers have written about or commented on the Sermon of the Mount. One of those persons was, that well-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi. Fifteen years before his death, he spoke about the Sermon on the Mount.

He said, “I have to tell you, with all humility, that Hinduism as I know it satisfies my soul, fills all of my being and gives me the rest that makes me desire only one thing---the Sermon on the Mount.”

One commentator wrote, “The Sermon on the Mount has always been a formula for taking the Christian to a higher level. Its message has the mark of that that comes from heaven above. It calls us to the highest conduct and the best ethic.”

What do we really find in the Sermon on the Mount? Some people have said that in the Sermon on the Mount we find an impossible list of rules for humans. That is true. The Sermon on the Mount is an impossible list of rules for the natural man, for the unforgiven sinner, for that person that has not received Christ into his heart.

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount has a list of rules, but it is much more than a list of rules. The Sermon on the Mount is a portrait that describes the attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, and actions of the citizens of God’s kingdom called the disciples of Jesus Christ.

As you study the Sermon on the Mount, you can see the progression of the life of he/she who is truly a citizen of God’s kingdom or a disciple of Jesus Christ. You can see how a person like you and I becomes a citizen of God’s kingdom and the impact that decision ought to have on our lives.

In short, the decision of becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom should change our lives so radically that we cannot avoid acting

what we already are---citizens of the kingdom of God, Jesus’ disciples.

As we read and study the Sermon on the Mount, we will see some portraits. From those portraits, we can pull out practical teachings for today. It begins by confronting and challenging us to answer the question: Am I a citizen of God’s kingdom or not?

Second, if we are citizens of God’s kingdom, it will encourage us to make a serious and honest self-examination about our present behavior. It is my prayer that this sermon helps you and me with those two things.

The first of those lessons the Sermon of the Mount teaches us is about the greatest joy one can have. What is the greatest joy a human being can have?

1. What is the Greatest Joy? (Matt. 5:3)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

A. The pursuit of everyone.

Every person in this world seeks to experience the greatest joy, not a short or temporary one, but one that is long and permanent. All of us want to be happy! As a result, every person looks for how to achieve that happiness.

We can see that truth in all of the things humans have invented through the centuries. The many games, the many forms of having fun, and the many ways of achieving pleasure, have all been human attempts of finding that that he so much desires, that that was lost when sin entered the world— joy.

The absent of problems and struggles. The absence of pain and suffering. Peace with God and fellow man. The eternal assurance of the soul. Humans desire all of that. Interestingly, that is what the Lord Jesus Christ begins to address as he begins the Sermon on the Mount. Look at verse 3 again.

B. The meaning of the word “blessed”.

“Blessed,” says the Lord.

What did the word blessed mean, that the Lord mentions it nine times in the first ten verses of his sermon?

The word that has been translate here as blessed is a word that in its original language described a person that was and is happy or fortunate. The idea behind the word is one of having eternal assurance in the midst of the struggles of life. It was also used in those days just like one of our declarations—Congratulations.

It looks like the Lord was telling his disciples and was also telling the rest of the people on the hill indirectly, “Do you want to be joyful? Do you want to be happy for the rest of your life? Then, listen to what I’m about to tell you.”

Who likes to be sad? The great king Solo-mon said, “…a broken spirit dries the bones,” however, “a merry heart does good, like medicine…” Proverbs 17:22

Did you know that you use 72 muscles on your face to show that you are sad, while you only need 14 muscles to show that you are happy? You do less exercise in giving a smile than putting on a somber face!

If that is true, why is it that we cannot be always happy? The reason is simple. We cannot be always happy because we are a sinners and because we look for happiness in the wrong places. Moreover, because of our pride and vainglory, we want to find it on our own. We want to do it our own way.

That is the reason why the Lord begins the Sermon on the Mount this way. He begins by saying, “Blessed.” It appears as if he is saying to them and us, “I know you’re looking for joy. I know you’re looking for happiness alone, but let me tell how you can find it.”

So, in the following verses, the owner of the true and lasting joy tells them and us the secret to obtaining the greatest joy of all.

Please notice that Jesus did not say, “Happy are the poor in spirit.” He did not use the word “happy” because happiness is the result of what is happening in our lives. If we have a good day, we will be happy. If we have a bad day, we will not be happy. He did not use the word “happy”. He used the word blessed or “joyful.”

2. What is the secret to the Greatest Joy of All?

Look at verse three again. “Blessed are the poor in spirit...”

The Lord says, “Do you want to experience true joy? If you want to experience true joy, become poor. However, not just any kind of poverty---spiritually poor.

A. We must begin by acknowledging our spiritual poverty.

If we want to experience true joy, we must first recognize the spiritual state we find ourselves in. I believe that the majority of us can identify with poverty in one way or another. The dictionary describes the word “poor” as the lack of quantity and quality, the lack of money and possessions, the lack of production.” And the list goes on.

What that definition is telling us is that there are many kinds of poverties. There is material poverty: the lack of food, clothing, and housing. There is also physical poverty: when we are temporary ill or have a critical and terminal illness. All of us can identify with one of those forms of poverty.

But there is also social poverty. Examples of that are people who live alone, those who are isolated, and those that do not know others. There is also mental poverty. Today, they call it “mentally challenged, but it is also a type of poverty.

Who likes to be poor? Who likes to be lacking something he needs? It is not a good experience or feeling to have a need and not be able to supply it. However, when the Lord says that we must be poor in order that we can experience true joy, he is not talking about any of those poverties.

Jesus does not say, “If you want to have true joy you must be material, physical, social, or mentally poor.” He says, “If you want to have true joy you must be or acknowledge that you are spiritually poor.”

B. What is spiritual poverty?

That leads us to ask ourselves a serious question, and the question is, what does it mean to be spiritually poor? Let me give you some examples of, what I believe, means to be spiritually poor.

First, a person who is poor in spirit is that person who has that attitude about himself. Second, a person who is poor in spirit is that person who humbly recognizes that he cannot depend on himself. Third, a person who is poor in spirit is the person that upon measuring his life with Jesus life, screams, “Have mercy on me, oh God, for I am a sinner!”

The Lord Jesus Christ gave us some examples of what it means to be poor in spirit with some of the parables he told. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16:19-31, is a good example, but I would like us to look at the example he gave in Luke 18:9-14, in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

“Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised other: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

The Lord ends his parable by saying something shocking, “I tell you, this man [the tax collector, not the religious leader] went down to his house justified [in a right relationship with God] rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In other words, the poor in spirit is the individual who recognizes that he is a sinner and can do nothing to save himself. That person recognizes that his life is mortal, corruptible, and deserving of hell. He acknowledges his spiritual condition.

He is spiritually sick. In reality, spiritually dead. He needs a new life. He is separated from the glory of God, is on his way to hell, and cannot do a thing to save himself.

The poor in spirit acknowledges that only God can forgive and cleanse his sins. He acknowledges that God made that possible by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross by resurrecting Him from the dead. He knows that the doctor who can heal him of his dilemma is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In simple terms, the poor in spirit is that individual that admits that he is a sinner, asks God to forgive him, turns away from

his present way of thinking, believing, and living puts his trust in what Jesus did on the cross, believes in Jesus as his personal Savior and surrenders to him as Lord.

That is what it means to be poor in spirit. And the Lord Jesus Christ tells us, that if we want to have true joy we must be that kind of a person. We must be spiritually poor, not material, physical, social, or mentally poor.

C. How to be truly be joyful?

You might be asking, “How can a person become truly joyful simply by admitting that he is a sinner, asking God to forgive him, turning away from his present way of thinking, believing, and living, by depositing his trust in Christ and what he did on the cross, and by inviting Him into his life as Savior and Lord? How can a simple decision like that produce true joy? Look at what Jesus said, again, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

What was Jesus trying to say by that? What was he trying to say when he said that we would be joyful if we repent and believe in Him? What he was saying is that when we repent and believe in him we would experience the greatest joy of all because when we do that we will become possessors and benefactors of the kingdom of God.

Let us first talk about the kingdom of heaven. What is the kingdom of heaven? First, the kingdom of heaven is synonymous to the kingdom of God. In other words, when Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, he is also talking about God’s kingdom. Second, the kingdom of heaven is the place where God’s authority, power, purposes, and will is fulfilled.

The kingdom of heaven is the place where God exercises His authority and purposes---although He is very different to human kings. In God’s kingdom, His will is always done.

That is the reason why we see the Lord teaching his disciples, in the prayer Our Father, to ask God that His will be done on earth like it is done in heaven, because in heaven, in God’s kingdom, His will is always done.

Applying all of that to our text, the kingdom of heaven becomes first in the heart of the poor in spirit, and then in heaven where the poor in spirit ends up one of these days when he dies and eventually on the new earth where God the Father will be king just like He was at the beginning.

That is why the poor in spirit is joyful. First, God comes to live in his heart, and begins to fulfill His will in him. Second, God gives him the guarantee of a place in heaven in His celestial kingdom. Third, God promises that the poor in spirit that he will live forever with Him in His earthly kingdom in the future. In addition, upon receiving the kingdom of God as his possession, the poor in spirit also receives the promise of receiving all of the benefits, the privileges and the responsibilities of being a citizen in of God’s kingdom.

What are the benefits that the poor in spirit receives? To start with, he receives the forgiveness of all of his sins. For that is the only way he can enter into heaven and be right with God. According to Revelation 21:27, sin cannot enter heaven. “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

However, God’s word tells us if we repent of our sins and place our faith in Christ all our sins will be forgiven. Look at how Isaiah 1:18 paints it. “Come now, says the LORD and let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

One of the benefits of a citizen of God’s kingdom--he that is poor in spirit--is that his sins have been forgiven. That is why he is so joyful. There is no condemnation. He is right with God.

Another benefit the poor in spirit receives is the citizenship in the heavenly nation. In other words, when you repent of your sins and receive Christ as Lord and Savior you begin to have a second citizenship. One of those two citizenships is temporary---the other one is eternal. Which one is temporary? The citizenship of this lifetime on earth. Which one is eternal? The life in God’s presence in heaven.

That is why we read the apostle Paul saying that for him dying was a gain. That is why scriptures exhort us not to forget that we are only pilgrims through this world. That is why the poor in spirit is joyful. He is a citizen of God’s kingdom. His first citizenship is here, in this world of pain and suffering, but it is only temporary.

But there is another benefit the poor in spirit receives and that benefit is that God converts him into a new creation. “There-fore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, ALL things have become new.”

The old creation cannot enter heaven. The old creation is mortal. However, the new creation is immortal. The old creation dies twice. The new creation dies only once. In other words, if we are born twice we will die once, but if we are born only once we will die twice.

That is the reason why the poor in spirit is joyful, he does not only receive forgiveness of sin and is given a second citizenship that is eternal, but he is also made into a new creation that will live for all eternity.

Listen to how Paul described that new creation. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” God the Father has predestine that he who is poor in spirit will be conformed to the image of Christ. Like the Christians of those days used to say, Wow!

But there is one more benefit the poor in spirit receives, which gives him the greatest joy of all, and that benefit is of serving his new king. In the kingdom of heaven, God is king. God governs. God governs with justice, righteous-ness, love, compassion, mercy, and equity. In the kingdom of heaven, God commands and His citizens obey. His will is always done.

So, receiving the king of heaven means that the poor in spirit will live under God’s government, which is supremely better that his own and of sinful men. The generosity that God pours upon that person moves him to surrender voluntarily as His servant.

The poor in spirit responds that way, when his new king buys his freedom with the blood of the king’s only begotten Son. The poor in spirit voluntarily becomes His savior and redeemer’s servant. That is why he is called the joyful one. That is why the Lord calls his “blessed.” What else can an un-deserving sinner desire, and how generous is his God that He grants to him what he desires so much—the greatest joy of all.

So Jesus also says that to us today. “Do you want to experience the greatest joy of all? Do you want the kingdom of heaven to be yours? Become poor in spirit.”

Conclusion:

Let me put it another way. Do you want to be more than a millionaire? Experience the greatest joy of all. How can you experience the greatest joy? By acknowledging your spiritual poverty. You must Acknowledge, accept, and admit that your sin separates you from God and heaven. You must acknowledge that you cannot save yourself. You must accept what Christ has done for you. And you must surrender your life to him.

Let us pray.