You Can't Be Filled Until You Are Empty

I love history. I find it fascinating to go down to Buckeye Furnace and imagining what life was like back when this was a burgeoning iron production hub. I enjoy museums and historical sites. I even worked at a living history museum for two summers while I was in college. So when I went to Russia on a mission trip, I was really interested in the history of the city where we lived. Everything seemed to be named after someone named Minin, so I asked my roommate who he was. I found out later that he was a merchant, but he became famous for mustering a volunteer militia who expelled the Poles from Moscow, but my roommate couldn’t come up with that. He finally suggested that maybe he had been a famous warrior who had won a battle against France. I knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t know his story. Finally, Oleg said authoritatively, “Minin was a great man.”

 It’s funny that many people can live somewhere for a long time but they don’t know all that much about where they live. This is why the Sermon on the Mount is so important for us; we can live our whole lives in the church but never understand what the Kingdom is all about. I know plenty of people who are trusting in their ability to live life as “great” men or women… or at least as “better than average” men or women. But Jesus describes the Kingdom in some seriously radical, different, even, can I say, “weird” terms. He uses this sermon to describe to his disciples the kind of Kingdom He wants to build in the lives of his followers.

In Jesus’ time, Judaism was dominated by four distinct groups. The Pharisees were the traditionalists – the holiness movement of the time. They were extremely concerned with keeping even the tiniest aspects of the Law, going so far as to write lots of new laws in order to make sure nobody accidentally broke one. They made quite the show of their holiness, making sure everyone knew when they were fasting and how much they were tithing.

The Sadducees were the liberals. They weren’t so interested in tradition or the shows of holiness, but they were extremely wealthy and influential. One of their main premises was that they rejected the idea of an afterlife. Sadducees thought there was no resurrection. I always learned to differentiate these two groups by the word trick: the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection, so they were “sad, you see.”

There were also the Essenes – a separatist group that thought the best way to keep holy was to keep yourself apart from the negative aspects of society. If you lived away from all the nonbelievers in your own compound, you could keep from being polluted by their sin.

Finally there were the Zealots. They were the militaristic ones who thought they should arm themselves for a war. Interestingly, Jesus, who is all about peace, called a Zealot as a disciple. Can you imagine how Simon the Zealot felt when Jesus began to describe the life in His Kingdom?

As a preacher, understanding your audience is a key to delivering an effective sermon, and Jesus understands His. He knows that they need to know what His Kingdom is like. So he dives right in. He pronounces blessings – happiness that is rooted in salvation – ushering in the end times. The Pharisees thought that holiness was simply a matter of outward actions, so they worked hard to keep their behavior in check, all the while, ignoring the attitudes of their hearts. But the Beatitudes describe the attitudes that ought to be in the believers life and heart. As 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

The four branches of Judaism might have come up with these “blessings” – Blessed are the ones who follow every facet of the Law…

Blessed are the ones who use their position and wealth to lead…

Blessed are the ones who draw apart from a polluted and sinful world…

Blessed are the ones who fight for their beliefs…

But Jesus starts with this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

Now, if you thought the stuff of the narrow road and small gate were weird, this is flat out insane. It’s not the way our culture works, and it wasn’t the way the culture worked in Jesus’ day, either. But Jesus is radically reinventing culture. Just an aside here: the Beatitudes are meaningless to anyone who has not trusted Jesus as Savior. This isn’t a self-help sermon: “How to Get to Heaven in Eight Easy Steps” where if you just do all these things and work them really hard, you’ve got it. It’s all about a transformation of the attitudes and desires of our hearts.

It’s no accident that Jesus starts here; many commentaries agree that the Beatitudes build on one another, starting with being poor in spirit. But what does it mean to be poor in spirit?

First of all, don’t mistake poor in spirit for poor financially. There are times in the Bible where Jesus talks about rich people – once he told a rich young man to sell everything he owned and give the money to the poor and then come, follow me. When the man went away sad, Jesus told his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But Jesus isn’t saying here that one has to be poor financially to enter the Kingdom. He is just stating fact – that it’s hard for the rich to not be owned by our possessions. But poor in spirit has a different meaning. If Jesus meant the financially or materially poor would inherit the Kingdom, then why would we ever want to give money or food to the poor? Why would we want to help them? Why would the Bible tell us to? Because if that was what we were to aspire to, it would be better to take from them, to oppress them…

To be poor in spirit is to realize who you are. They realize that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that “all” doesn’t mean “everyone out there,” but, rather “me.” Anyone who is truly poor in spirit is the one from whom the ground of self-sufficiency has been taken, the heart on its knees, characterized by an utter dependence. In other words, I’m a sinner and there’s nothing I can do about it. But to be poor in spirit isn’t to sit around moping about “poor old me.” In fact, many times when someone is giving you their “poor old me, I’m such a miserable person” shtick, what they are really doing is fishing for a complement. “Oh, you’re not that miserable! You’re such a great person!” All that you have there is false humility.

What Jesus is describing is also nothing new. It’s the same thing we read from David in Psalm 51:17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. And Psalm 34:18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The Greek word that we translate “poor” is a specific kind of poor. We’re surrounded by poor people, but there are all kinds of poor. There are people who are working poor – they have jobs, but they’re just getting by, maybe paycheck to paycheck. This isn’t the word Jesus uses. The word he uses could be translated “begging poor,” meaning you’re so poor you have to beg. And so Jesus illustrates this concept in Luke 18:9-14:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Did you see the fundamental difference between these two men? The Pharisee thought that his holy actions would bring justification. But the tax collector knew he was a sinner and he knew he couldn’t do anything about it on his own. So he threw himself at God’s mercy. Being poor in spirit is the fundamental characteristic of a Christian, because you can’t be filled until you’re empty. This is the first beatitude because until we admit our need, we can never receive what God has for us.

The opposite of poor in spirit is spiritually proud. The Pharisee in Jesus’ story was only interested in showing how good he was. He shows off his Sunday School perfect attendance medals. He’ll be quick to tell you all of the church positions he has held and currently holds. He’ll tell you all of that, but honestly, spiritual pride is not evidence of holiness but of sinfulness. When Jesus’ disciples asked him who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (Matthew 18:2-5)

Anyone who is poor in spirit will accept God’s estimate of themselves. We have to know who we are, not on our own, but that our true identity lies in Christ. This does not mean we stop doing the things we’re good at or like to do. It does not mean we have to deny our personalities or try to suppress them. It simply means we have to know ourselves as God knows us. God made us in His image. We sinned and ruined the image, but the Holy Spirit has been drawing us toward God because of God’s great love for us. Jesus died for us because we couldn’t save ourselves. This is who we truly are.

And if this is who we truly are, the poor in Spirit yield everything to God for Him to make us all that He wants us to be. God is at work transforming us, but He won’t go where He is not welcome. He will not transform the stiff-necked or proud. So yield to God daily and draw your strength from him.

Some would have us focus on how bad we are, how far we’ve fallen, all the times we’ve failed God, and, while those facts are out there, this isn’t the goal of being poor in spirit. God isn’t just heaping shame on his people. So instead of focusing on how bad we are, focus on how good God is! Focus on Christ and the blessing he gives us!

And in that state, look for opportunities to serve others. I’m not talking about the opportunities that will get you written up in the paper, but look for daily small opportunities. Instead of thinking of yourself, ask God to show you how you can serve someone else, not because they are somehow “less fortunate” but just because God loves them.

Those who are poor in spirit accept others and serve them because they have accepted themselves. You know who you are in Christ and you know that nobody can separate you from him. They further accept their circumstances. If we look back to what Paul says in Philippians 4, we can learn a lot about this. In verse 11, he starts: I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. The poor in spirit have a right attitude toward material things.  Verse 12: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. What is that secret?  We find it in verse 13: I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

A self-satisfied and self-sufficient person has no need for God and is not poor in spirit. This is why Proverbs 3:34 (which is quoted in 1 Peter 5:5 and James 4:6) says: God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

Just a word of warning from Andrew Murray: humility is the grace that, when you know you have it, you have lost it.

So, how do we become poor in spirit? I want to start with a warning. Don’t start by trying to do it yourself. There are some who would go live in a hut in the woods, but it’s not about monasticism. Others would jump into serving others with the goal of becoming something, but it is not about us doing something, it’s about God.  So if you want to become poor in spirit, spend time in the Word. Spend time in prayer. Daily live with God. Becoming poor in spirit has to be led by the Holy Spirit. If you find that you are being controlled by something other than God, that has become an idol. So if you can’t part with your money, you are serving money. If your family is more important to you than God, your family is an idol. A remedy to idol worship is fasting. Not simply fasting from food, but from whatever it is that is controlling you. If your money is your god, give it away. The oldey-timey phrase for this is starving the flesh.

And as you are doing this, ask God. God is the one who gives good gifts. God may just be waiting for you to ask. Even Jesus says (in Matthew 7:11), “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

The last matter I want to get to is this: Why does poor in spirit bring blessing? The main reason is that this kind of humility is Christlike. Philippians 2:3-11 says:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is who Jesus is, and Jesus was rewarded for it. In the same way, we are called to be like Jesus, and we will be rewarded. When we submit to Jesus Christ he shares his authority with us.

Pride makes a slave of a person while humility sets that person free. Self-promotion makes us a slave to people, things, and circumstances. Poverty of spirit puts us in the position of looking to God for everything we need. If you need nothing but God, what can anyone do to you? But even more, when you need nothing but God, you’ll find that God gives you all you need and more.