Main Idea: Being simply Christian begins with a declaration of spiritual bankruptcy.

This morning we begin a new sermon series called "Simply Christian: Living as Jesus Told us." Beginning this Sunday through the end of September we are going to examine what the Christian tradition calls "The Sermon on the Mount." As we begin today I want you to understand why I am having us spend six months of Sunday mornings on three chapters of scripture. There are two reasons that I have for doing this. The first reason is that as a church we need what I call "the long view" of scripture. What I mean is that we need to spend time as a congregation focused on larger portions of scripture in order that we might understand more fully the message of the Bible. Too often we want a quick fix for an immediate need or problem instead of seeing the larger picture of what God is saying to us through the Bible.

The second reason deals with the message itself of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. I am at a stage in my own personal spiritual journey where I hunger and long to strip away much of what we as a culture identify as what it means to be Christian and simply examine what Jesus said about being his follower. Every day there are more and more appeals to identify exclusively with one expression of Christianity or another. Yet what I long for is simplicity, not a simplistic formula for following Jesus. I thirst for the sheer, raw life of the words of Jesus to wash over me and over you in order that we might discover together what it means to be "Simply Christian." Isn’t there something in you that longs, aches, hurts, hungers for a fresh understanding of what Jesus said and how he said to live? I believe that like no other time in current history there is a need for a people who call themselves followers of Jesus than to be and live "simply Christian."

How do you do that? I’m glad you asked because that is what Jesus told us in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7. We call it the Sermon on the Mount. This wonderful sermon gives us direction as to what it means to simply be Christian. What Jesus teaches is a way of living that is to mark our character because we are his followers, not things to do so we can be Christians. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete of all the sermons we have of Jesus. It very likely was much longer maybe even hours long. What Matthew gives us are the essential principles that Jesus spoke and taught. It is, in my estimation, one of the most radical, revolutionary and powerful statements ever uttered on this planet. If there was ever any question as to what a Christian was to be, all that you and I need to do is join those other disciples on a hillside above the Sea of Galilee and hear these words of Jesus. To read the Sermon takes about ten minutes. To live the sermon takes a lifetime of grace.

One of the marvelous realities about the sermon is that it has never lost is relevancy. It is just as contemporary today as it was in Roman occupied Palestine of the 1^st century. Again when you think of what Christianity has become in our culture, what it means to be Christian, and the way we have come to define it then you read the sermon and you hear a different note—really a different thunder. Today Christians believe we must have political muscle, supernatural evidences, a successful marketing strategy, personal justification for my problems and be led by people who demand unquestioning authority. The truth is all of those are challenged by the simple statements of Jesus that begin with "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (v. 3)

Jesus starts his message by saying that being simply Christian begins with a declaration of spiritual bankruptcy. Why did he start there? There are many things he could have said like being loving or kind but instead he used an analogy that is immediately a challenge for us to understand. Why start by talking about those who are in some way the "poor"?

In order to understand that we need to look back at Matt. 4:23-25. Matthew describes Jesus ministry as expanding and penetrating geographically. He went into "all Galilee" which is in the northern area of modern day Israel. Then he says that the news about him went farther into "all Syria". (Matt. 4:23-24). He was also penetrating the culture with his message by teaching in the synagogues, the places where Jews gathered for teaching and instruction. He was as well making an impact on the area by his miraculous healing. Matthew tells of people coming to him from every area with every type of disease and problem. He says, "…people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon-possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all." (Matt. 4:24) Then it says in Matt. 5:1-2, "One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him,
² and he began to teach them." He saw around him the very lowest of the low, the bottom of the bottom rung on the ladder of society and culture. Without hesitation he says, ""Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (v. 3) He is saying this is where my words are the most needed and the most wanted-with those who know they have nothing! His first word of instruction was this: What I have come to give is for those who realize they have nothing and are nothing without me!

He proposes first an unusual promise: "Blessed…." What does it mean to be blessed? He begins the next seven statements with the same word. What does it mean and why is it unusual? Why should we want this promise? To be blessed means to be happy or fortunate. For us, that can mean something as great as the price of gas going back to under $3.00 (Can you believe that saying that would make us happy?) or as simple as glad you haven’t had the flu. As Jesus used the term it meant much more. It meant to have the approval of God on your life regardless if you feel happy or have fortunate circumstances. What Jesus describes in these verses will not make you feel happy or good in a human emotional sense. What he does say is that you can know you have the approval of God when this lifestyle or these attitudes mark your life. Regardless of how you might struggle to feel approved or affirmed by others, you can know God says, "He’s special! She's great!" if these things are identified in you.

That’s the basic question we have to struggle with: Do I want to be happy or blessed? Don’t get confused – not a question of being outwardly emotionally glum or giddy. It’s a question of my being interested in what makes me feel good or having God’s approval. Often those two collide rather than being compatible. If you only want to make yourself feel good then you will act in such a way that says, "I don’t need God," "I won’t let spiritual issues disturb my lifestyle." "I will refuse to believe I’m not capable," and that, "I’ll leave my relationship to God in a convenient place rather than make it part of who I am and what I do." If that’s your attitude, then you have just forfeited the blessing and approval of God. If you don’t want spirituality to mess with your way of living then you just continue to pursue feeling good emotionally because being simply Christian is just way too much of a hassle.

However if you want God’s approval, then you must admit your sense of helplessness without him and be willing to be disturbed spiritually. When you face these things then you can know he says about you: "He’s special! She’s great!" I understand if you are still struggling with approval in your life. I know it hurts and frustrates. It is something that we all desire and feel we need. Yet Jesus offers us lasting approval when we decide to respond to what God says really counts – We are promised God’s approval.

What attitude or characteristic, though, is required of me to discover this approval? It’s really the most shocking of all the eight. It is a demand to declare spiritual bankruptcy. To have God’s approval, I must display an essential poverty. When we see the words "poor in spirit" we get confused. We think it must mean poor in a literal physical sense or poor in some area of our self- esteem. There are two basic words for poor in the New Testament. One means someone who works for a living and never seems to get ahead. The other is a person who is absolutely destitute. He has no way of meeting his physical needs. A person so crippled by life that if God doesn’t help him, he’s finished. That is the word Jesus uses here!

What does it mean for us? It means to see yourself as totally helpless and destitute without God’s power in your life. To have the approval of God, we must say, "I’m homeless. I’m out on the streets. I have nothing else to draw on spiritually." Dallas Willard says, "Blessed are the spiritual zeros-the spiritually bankrupt, deprived and deficient, the spiritual beggars, those without a hint of religion…" (The Divine Conspiracy, p. 114) Jesus says that this admission or recognition is the first essential for experiencing all that it means to have his kingdom.

That statement is one that we are reluctant and refuse to make because we believe another ethic: Whatever it is you want you have to want it badly enough and your success to achieve it depends on the intensity of your desire. Success depends on your energy or your intellect, your strength or your street smarts. Someone has said, "There is no end to the qualities that supposedly account for success. But all of them reflect human power to somehow ‘Go for ‘it’’ and get the job done: ‘Our rewards in life will depend on the quality and amount of contribution we make.’" ("Your Work Matters to God", p.27) To say, "I am helpless to get where I want to be" is not part of our understanding of success.

Yet Jesus commends the attitude of the tax collector who said, "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 18: 13-14) An attitude of spiritual bankruptcy is initial and continual. It’s initial in that it is how we begin our life as a follower of Jesus. If you’ve never come to the place to see your total inability to save yourself and trusted all of your salvation to Christ, it’s very likely you are not a Christian. Until you’ve seen yourself as absolutely incapable of doing anything to gain God’s grace or his favor, you have a problem. On the other hand an attitude of spiritual bankruptcy is also continual. It is what makes a Christian effective now! It’s something we can’t afford to be without, that as we walk with God each day we say, "I’m spiritually bankrupt. I’m destitute spiritually. I’m totally dependent on you."

It is no secret to you that we face a great series of challenges as a church. My mind doesn’t stop anticipating how to resolve those challenges. Two weeks ago, in the night on Monday or very early Tuesday morning, God spoke to me in my mind reminding me that I cannot meet those challenges without his power, that I cannot do it alone. I must depend on his presence in my life. Later that week I read these words that Paul wrote from 2 Cor. 1:9, "In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." Even Paul, who was so much of everything that Jesus taught, had to admit that he couldn’t make it without confessing he was spiritually bankrupt!

Will we dare to be simply Christian discovering God’s approval by admitting we are spiritually helpless? I wonder what would happen the next time you gather with a group of religious types and you just admit you are a spiritual zero, absolutely nothing without God? That isn’t easy but if we want to be simply Christian, that is where it starts, declare an essential poverty—spiritual bankruptcy.

Jesus ends his statement about spiritual bankruptcy by telling us of a guarantee of a possession that lasts. He assures that "the kingdom of heaven" will be ours. When a person walks through humiliation of bankruptcy they are faced with wondering what is it they are going to be able to keep. We might wonder if I declare spiritual bankruptcy what is it that is left for me? What gain is there for me? Jesus said, "That the kingdom of heaven has become your guarantee and your reward!" For admitting spiritual worthlessness I get what is spiritually priceless!

What does this concept mean, "The kingdom of heaven"? It means a life lived under God’s rule or reign. But it is more than our trading one place of control for another. A person who is genuinely bankrupt is under the control of those to whom they are indebted. "The Kingdom of Heaven" is a life sought for and desired through all of human history that is ours quietly through the connection we have with Jesus. It means that your life, while spiritually destitute, approved by God, will be under the rule and control of God’s power and fully accessible to his life now and forever! Peter Kreeft said, "We are to become spiritually poor only for the sake of becoming spiritually rich, detached from what we can own so that we can be attached in a different way to what we cannot own, detached from consuming so that we can be consumed by God". (Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue)

Maybe you've come here today and the wheels have fallen off your life. Circumstances in your life have left you broken and demoralized. Maybe you have failed in your marriage. Maybe you've failed in your career. Maybe you've failed as a parent. Maybe you're struggling with a secret addiction. Maybe you're carrying a shameful secret. But whatever has happened, you're spent emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Jesus says to you today, "Take heart, my kingdom begins where yours comes to an end."

This morning I invite you to start your spiritual life over again, to start by being simply Christian. Doing that means declaring spiritual bankruptcy, accepting God’s approval and receiving God’s life. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they whose spiritual resources are bare, whose spiritual pockets are empty, whose human options are exhausted, whose human strength is depleted, who, in their brokenness and humility, cry out for the grace and mercy of God. Yours is the very kingdom of God!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

bitppit@fbcjonesboro.org