Imagine that someone is wearing a clean, freshly pressed white shirt. Suddenly another person comes up behind him and dumps a bucket of raw sewage over his head. His shirt is now filthy! But instead of admitting that it is filthy and getting a change, this man pulls out the part of the shirt that was tucked into his pants and says, "See, part of it is still clean. It’s not really that dirty." Yet pulling out a remaining clean part of the shirt doesn’t remove the stench of the rest of it.

I did a little calculating the other day and do you realize that if I figured right, this sermon I preach to you this morning may be my one thousand five hundred and eighth Sunday morning sermon since my ordination in August of 1977?

OK, so you’re not impressed. That’s a lot of wind, you say? Well, I don’t really blame you, because I know of a preacher who accomplished more in a single sermon than I have accomplished in all 29 years of my full-time ministry. In fact, this one sermon is known the world over and is probably the most famous sermon of all time. You have a copy of it with you, buy the way. Its right there in your Bible. I refer to that sermon preached by Jesus that we call The Sermon on the Mount.

I want to begin a new study with you this morning which I’m going to call Learning from the World’s Most Famous Sermon. Matthew chapters 5-7 contain the text of this most famous message. If my plans go well, my treatment of it should yield a series of messages – just how many I don’t yet know. The sermon this morning is based on the first words of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:1-3. I’m calling Only Beggars are Blessed. But before I get to that part, let me give you a little introduction and background to this most famous sermon of Jesus.

1. Getting to Know the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is thought by some to be the epitome of Jesus’ teaching. Its 107 verses of intensely concentrated doctrine about His kingdom certainly set the tone for the truths the Lord put forth during His three and one half year ministry. One enthusiastic commentator refers to the Sermon on the Mount as "The Sinai of the New Testament." It has also been called "The Manifesto of the King" and the "Magna Charta of the Kingdom." It is a very important part of the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament. If it were absent from our Bibles, vital understanding about the Son of God would be lost.

The best-known portions of the Sermon on the Mount include the Beatitudes, The Lord's Prayer, Jesus' admonitions to turn the other cheek, the Golden Rule, and His teaching about the salt of the earth and the light of the world. There is also commentary on the Ten Commandments. It is a very full message.

Jesus revealed in this sermon for the first time ever what life in His soon-to-come kingdom would be like.(1) That kingdom, I believe, is the church.(2) It is one in the same with the kingdom that Daniel predicted would come in the days of the Roman Empire,(3) that would never be destroyed, outliving all the rest of the kingdoms of the world. (4)Jesus’ words in The Sermon on the Mount are what living as Christians today in God’s kingdom is all about. It is full of applicable to us living today.

Chronologically, this sermon fits into that time when Jesus’ popularity was in a steep climb. He had recently been baptized by John. He had faced the temptations of the devil in the wilderness. He had worked a good number of miracles. He had called his 12 disciples who would later become His apostles. He had driven the money changers out of the temple for the first time. He was becoming well-known in the land of the Jews – if not yet recognized as Messiah and God’s Son, at least acknowledged as one of the great teachers of the day. Multitudes followed Him.

Matthew’s prolog for the sermon is in the last verses of chapter 4 and it sets the scene very adequately:

Both Matthew and Luke record this sermon – or at least they record the essence of its teaching. It is possible that Jesus taught shorter versions of its content on more than one occasion as Luke seems to indicate.

A feeling of good will existed between Jesus and the people at this point in His ministry – especially the common people. They hung on His every word.

Jesus’ teaching was new and different from that which the multitudes were accustomed. Some might even say it was shocking to the audiences who first heard it. Held up against the backdrop of the culture in which the Jews lived, His words were in many ways revolutionary – the very opposite of what was accepted as normal religion.

For instance, both Roman culture and Jewish teaching in Jesus’ day emphasized pride and power as virtues. In contrast Jesus taught gentleness and humility.(5)

The Roman culture in Jesus’ day was known for its revelry and excess. Jewish religious society in that day was known for its attitude of comparative superiority. In contrast to both of these, Jesus spoke of those who would be humble and mourn for their sins.(6)

The Roman culture in Jesus’ day was decadent. Jewish religion was corrupt. People got away with whatever they could. In contrast, Jesus spoke of those who would hunger and thirst for righteousness. (7)

The Roman culture was ruthless and cruel in its judgment. Jewish culture mimicked the same. In contrast, Jesus taught the blessedness of showing mercy.(8)

The Roman culture placed little or no emphasis on the inner man. Jewish religion placed most of its emphasis on outward conformity.(9) In contrast, Jesus spoke of those who were concerned about the purity of their hearts.(10)

The Romans were a warring culture, conquering whatever they desired. The Jews resented the Romans and would have gone to war themselves had they been able. In contrast, Jesus spoke of the blessedness of peacemakers.(11)

The Roman culture pretty much left you alone as long as you went along with their program and didn’t buck the system. The Jews also would leave you alone as long as you towed the Jewish party line. Jesus, in contrast, spoke of a time when His disciples would so upset the status quo of both the Romans and the Jews that they would be persecuted for exposing their hypocrisy.(12)

In order to appreciate the effect of this sermon on its first time hearers, Matthew tell us at the end of it, in chapter 7:28-29:

You may notice as you read through the text of the Sermon that Jesus never quoted a rabbinical source to give authority to His teaching. This was very different from other rabbis of Jesus’ day who quoted earlier Jewish writers for their authority. Jesus had no need to quote these recognized Jewish scholars because He was the real Author of truth - God in flesh – come to reveal Himself.

The first twelve verses of this famous sermon are often referred to as "the beatitudes," a word meaning "happy" or "extremely blessed." In fact, these first 12 verses, probably the best known and most often quoted in the sermon, provide for modern people a thumbnail sketch of what God wants His followers to be. A careful study of their meaning will go far in helping us to "grow it he grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," as Peter would later put it in 2 Peter 3:18. These verses provide a benchmark against which we can compare our lives and our progress. In short, this is what Christians should be like. If you and I are on our way to becoming like Jesus' description in the Beatitudes we are doing and living as God wants. Let’s read the first twelve verses…

Jesus goes on in the sermon to tell about discipleship and to contrast His teaching to the rendition of the Law of Moses taught by the religious leaders of His day. Clarifying to His hearers that He did not come to abolish the Law of Moses, but rather, to fulfill it, He contrasted what they were used to hearing with the higher standards of His kingdom: "You have heard that it was said…" He would remind them. Then quickly He would follow up by saying, "But I say to you….." Clearly a new wind was blowing, though it should not have been a surprise, having been foretold by the Jewish prophets for 1500 years. Their long awaited Messiah had come, and this was the gist of His message for them. Little did they understand the upheaval His teaching would bring to their lives. Yet we dare not relegate this famous sermon to only its effects on those who lived when Jesus walked he earth. Their Messiah is ours as well. His words to them are relevant to us.

As I already said, the early words of this sermon are often referred to as "the Beatitudes." Our English word "beatitude" comes from the Latin "beatis," which means "happy," and the little suffix, "tude," which is the equivalent of our suffix "ness." So these verses are all about happiness.

If you look in your mind’s eye out across the acres and acres of faces of the people Jesus preached to, it doesn’t take much consideration to understand that there were people of every kind, from all different walks of life and all different kinds of circumstances. There were rich and poor. There were literate and illiterate. There were successes and failures, single, married and divorced. There were probably some of various races, some who were religious, and some who were not.

Yet while all of these people were different, just as any crowd of similar size today might be, they were all, deep in their hearts, seeking the same thing. They were all seeking happiness. Granted, many of them were probably like many of us - looking for it in all the wrong places. Some were perhaps already frustrated and disappointed in their quest. Some of them had doubtless been slammed down by life pretty hard. Others perhaps had not yet experienced life’s deep disappointments. Some sought healing. Some sought teaching. Some were probably there because someone else had invited them. Some perhaps had no good idea why they were there.

When we refer to the first twelve verses as ‘the Beatitudes" then, we mean literally, "the happies." Jesus spoke of concepts that would give great joy to those who would follow Him and be a part of His coming kingdom. But there is even more to it than that…

William Barclay points out in his commentary on Matthew that the Greek word for "blessed" that appears nine times in these first twelve verses is MAKARIOS. The meaning of MAKARIOS, says Barclay, could be seen very well by looking at one of the popular uses of it in New Testament times. The Greeks called the island of Cyprus, HE MAKARIA, which meant "the happy island." They called it that because they believed Cyprus was so lovely, so rich and so fertile an island that one would never need to go beyond its shores to find perfect happiness in life. It had such minerals, such natural resources they believed, that it contained all of the necessities of a happy, self-sufficient life.

MAKARIOS then, says the language scholar William Barclay, describes that joy which has its secret in itself – a joy that is self-sufficient and does not depend upon outside circumstances to exist. It is independent of all chance.

Our English word "happiness" gives itself away, says
Barclay. It has as its root the little word HAP, which means "chance." The concept behind our English word "happiness" depends upon chance circumstances to exist. If things are going well, then we are happy. If they aren’t, we’re not happy. Two other English words illustrate this dependence on chance. We say something is "haphazard." What we mean is that it might happen, it might not. It is on-again, off-again, depending on random chance.

The kind of happiness that Jesus refers to in the opening words of His Sermon on the Mount does not depend upon chance. It does not have to have new and pleasing things occur constantly in order to exist. Those who would receive His teaching would be able to live above the mundane and sometimes stressful and discouraging issues of this life because they looked forward to something far better. This, I believe, is the real key to understanding Jesus’ teaching in these verses.

So let’s take a look at the first of these "beatitudes" of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount - the point that I made in my title of my message today:

2. Only Beggars are Blessed.

The Lord says in verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

How are we to understand this statement? Doesn’t it at first sound strange that Jesus would say that self-sufficient, blissful happiness could be found in being poor in anything? Can poverty bring happiness? His hearers must have instantly been puzzled when He said this. But as you examine the verse more closely it gets even tougher.

In Greek language there were two words for "poor." There was PENES, which described a man who was poor enough that he had to work for a living. The man who was PENES poor, after paying all of his bills for the necessities of life, had nothing left over. He went along like many today, from paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by, never building up an excess, never able to purchase any "extras."

You might say, "Hey, that’s me!" But it probably isn’t because we have many things today that we call "necessities" that the PENES man of Jesus’ day would not have been able to afford.

But PENES isn’t the word that appears in our text here. The word used in Matthew 5:3 is the much "poorer" word (if we can say it that way) PTOCHOS. PTOCHOS described absolute poverty. It was the descriptive term for that class of people who were destitute or poverty stricken. The PTOCHOS man was one beaten to his knees by life’s circumstances. Not only had he nothing left over for luxuries. He couldn’t even afford the necessities! In fact, in that day (before social welfare programs) such a one was reduced to begging. This is the person - one reduced to begging - that Jesus said would find true happiness.

"What?" someone says, "If that’s the kind of happiness Jesus offers, then you can count me out!"

But Jesus isn’t talking about one who is financially poor. He speaks of one who is "poor in spirit."

Perhaps these two words for "poor" that I mentioned (PENES and PTOCHOS) could aptly describe two approaches to God. There are those who come to God with a PENES approach. Remember, that’s the one who can afford the basics but has nothing left over for the extras. "I may be poor in some of the things God expects," reasons such a one, "but at least I don’t have to depend upon God for everything. I don’t have to beg from Him. I’m basically a good person. I don’t beat my wife. I don’t get drunk. I work my 40 hours. I pay my taxes. The Lord is getting a pretty solid citizen when He gets me, even though I’m not exactly a spiritual giant." Such a person might sense some spiritual need, for sure, but probably would not consent to being called "needy," and certainly would chafe at the term "beggar." That would be too humiliating.

Then perhaps there are those who would come to God with what we might call a PTOCHOS approach. Remember, this word (the one in our text) described one who cannot even afford the basic necessities of life. He was destitute, unable to support himself, desperately poor.

The one man, the PENES man, approaches God with an attitude of basic self sufficiency. He sees himself as needing only the "extras" in the spiritual life that make life more enjoyable. He comes to God because it makes him feel good or perhaps helps him improve his character. By contrast, the other man, the PTOCHOS man, comes to God realizing that he is so poor he has absolutely nothing to offer. He needs everything.

A parable that Jesus spoke later in His ministry perhaps will help us understand these two approaches to God. In Luke 18:10-14 there is Jesus' story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (or publican as older translations put it.) Here is how it reads:

So then, two men came to God. One was a very religious Pharisee; the other was a hated tax collector. The Pharisee was quite satisfied with his life. In fact he figured that, by comparison to the nearby tax collector, he was a fine specimen of religion. The tax collector, on the other hand, was so ashamed of his life that he could not even lift up his up his eyes to God.

The two men worshipped. One came in confident proximity to God. The other stood at a shamed distance.

Two men left their worship. One man was justified. The other was still in his sin.

Question: Which man in the parable left justified? You would think it would be the Pharisee, the guy who had the most going for him. He was the PENES man. He had enough good works to cover the basics. He just didn’t have the extras. But notice how it went. The guy who gained God’s approval was the hated tax collector! He was the guy who realized he had absolutely nothing going for himself with God. He was the PTOCHOS man. He was so spiritually destitute that he had nothing worthwhile of his own to hold up to God - and he knew it!

What does all this mean? You would think that the Pharisee would be the one who was more pleasing to God. After all, he fasted two times a week. He tithed. And apparently he avoided things like swindling and injustice and adultery, things that tax gather had probably done. So what’s the deal?

Jesus spelled it out for us in verse 14. Everyone who humbles himself will be exalted and everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

The Pharisee’s problem was self-sufficient pride. In his mind, when it came right down to it, He didn't need God. He exalted himself. "I’m not like other people," he said, "and especially I’m not like that disgusting taxman over there. I do this and this and this." His focus was on himself. He thought he was already good enough before God. He just needed some extra blessing in his life. In contrast, the taxman was humble. "I have nothing to offer you, God. I shouldn’t even be here. I’m a sinner, and I’m very ashamed of it."

Actually, tax gatherers in that day were quite wealthy in financial ways. By all the standards of worldly success, they were riding near the top. But this guy knew that wasn’t what counted with God. Spiritually, he was nothing but a beggar.

Someone has rightly said, "You can’t be filled until you’re empty. You can’t be worthwhile until you’re worthless."(13)

The Pharisee failed to realize what many that fill church buildings today fail to realize. Because we sin, all of our good works and good behavior are cancelled out. We’re worthless to God. As Isaiah put it in Isaiah 64:6, "All of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment."

Imagine that someone is wearing a clean, freshly pressed white shirt. Suddenly another person comes up behind him and dumps a bucket of raw sewage over his head. His shirt is now filthy! But instead of admitting that it is filthy and getting a change, this man pulls out the part of the shirt that was tucked into his pants and says, "See, part of it is still clean. It’s not really that dirty." Yet pulling out a remaining clean part of the shirt doesn’t remove the stench of the rest of it.

Probably all of us have done some things that God would approve. Some of us might even be rather proud of these accomplishments. But we’ve also sinned and pointing to our good deeds doesn’t remove the stench of our sin from God’s perspective. That was the problem with the Pharisee. He was a lot worse off than he realized or was willing to admit.

The taxman on the other hand, knew how he looked to God. The only thing he could do was to throw himself on God’s mercy and beg for forgiveness, which he did. "God be merciful to me, the sinner!" As a result he received what he asked for. The other man went away still in his sins.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus said, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

So how important is this matter of being poor in spirit? The Greek scholars point out that the word "theirs" in this verse is both emphatic and exclusive.(14) It carries the idea of "theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven."

The point is that if you don’t realize your absolute destitution in spiritual things, you aren’t going to get into God’s kingdom. It’s the beggars who are blessed. It is the people who know that they’re nothing in God’s sight that he declares to be something.

There was a church in the ancient city of Laodicea that had a big problem. They were not poor in spirit. In fact, they thought that as churches went, they were pretty hot stuff – rich in all the right things before God. But Jesus called them down on the matter. Their spiritual strut was disgusting to Him. Here’s what He said to them in Revelation 3:17-19:

May God give us spiritual eye salve that we may see. May He give us white garments to cover up our filthiness. May He help us understand that only the beggars are blessed. Amen.

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. See Matthew 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; Mark 1:15 for verification of Jesus’ intent to set up His kingdom in the first century. Also see Mark 9:1
2. Matthew 16:18-19
3. Daniel 2:28-45
4. Daniel 2:44
5. Matthew 5:5
6. Matthew 5:4
7. Matthew 5:6
8. Matthew 5:7
9. Matthew 23:27
10. Matthew 5:8
11. Matthew 5:9
12. Matthew 5:10-12
13. John MacArthur, KINGDOM LIVING HERE AND NOW, 1980, Moody Press, Chicago, p. 42.
14. R.C.H. Lenski, THE INTERPRETATION OF MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, 1961, Augsburg Publishing House, p. 185. Lenski says that this means "‘theirs’ in the sense of ‘theirs alone,’ barring out all others who come before God with a different attitude."

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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