“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
14 sermons cite this verse
… the word blessed is interchangeable with the word happy. So you could just as easily say, happy are the poor in spirit, happy are the meek, happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and so forth. So keep that in mind as we read them again. Jesus is unlocking for us the secret to happiness. Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 2. He opened his mouth and taught them, that would be the disciples, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. We'll stop there. Let's review what we already discovered together. First of all, happy are the humble. …
… That would be the disciples saying, verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. We'll stop there. Let's review what we already discovered together. First of all, happy are the humble. Happy are the humble. Blessed are the poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit means you see yourself as you really are, spiritually destitute, A sinner in need of a savior. Number two, happy people are unhappy people, if you will. Blessed are they that mourn, verse four, for they shall be comforted. Contextually what this means is I see my sinful condition. I'm sorry for the way that I am. …
… Then he opened his mouth and taught them, that would be the disciples, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. So there are the first Beatitudes. Now, this has been wrongly understood to be saying blessed are the poor. This is not what Jesus said. He said blessed are the poor in spirit. What does this mean? Happy people are humble people. Happy is the person who sees themselves as they really are. Lost, hopeless, and destitute, and desperately in need of God. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. So you have to see yourself for who you are. …
… that would be the disciples, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Point number one. God wants you to be blessed and happy. God wants you to be blessed and happy. There was a blessing that the priests were to pronounce over the people of Israel. And they would say, the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you and make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. God wants to bless you. Let me take it a step further. God loves to bless you. …
… that would be the disciples, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. So there are the first Beatitudes. And it's interesting that the word blessing is used again and again. You know, people use these words, even people who are not believers, they'll talk about blessings. Well, only the believer can genuinely experience blessing. I think sometimes we use the word bless to get rid of someone. and someone's talking too long, we say, great seeing you, God bless you. And it says, go away now, right? But here's point number one. God wants you to be blessed and happy. …
… His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the judgmental. Oh, no, that's not in there. Sorry, that's not it. It's actually blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Today, I'm going to preach from the Word of God with the help of His Spirit. From this title, allow joy to reintroduce himself. Allow joy to reintroduce himself. If we walked these Los Angeles streets and we started asking different people who taught the most important message on joy in human history, we would get all types of answers. …
… and our blessedness as well. So again, if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 12, and in the sermon, I've entitled the sermon, The Pursuit of Happiness. And you, of course, recognize that phrase. we're going to celebrate the document that comes from this summer, July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And you remember that one phrase. Most people don't remember the 27 statements to King George of the things we were unhappy with. What we remember is that preamble. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are, join me, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So the pursuit of happiness. So what is happiness exactly? And how do we pursue it? And what we're going to find is that Jesus offers us a very different path to happiness and really defines it differently than what we find in the world. So the word happy in Greek is actually in Latin is beatus. And this is where we get the name beatitude from. Beatus is the Latin word for happy or fortunate or blessed. …
… The poor in spirit, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Are you kidding me? The realm of God's dominion that exists throughout the galaxies? that which is at rule over the house of the living God The kingdom of God is how the Holy Spirit manifests himself. the kingdom of God is not meat or drink. It's not in the natural. It's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is in the spirit. So when he says the kingdom of God is yours, he says the reality of the spirit is now your inheritance. The reality of his dominion, his expression of liberty and life, all the things that he brings to the table. That is what you get through being poor in spirit. You enter into that. And now he says, and that person is going to feed to the fullness on the goodness of God. This concept of the goodness of God has to be more than just a point on our theological statements. It's got to be what fuels us, what sponsors us, what empowers us, what shapes our thinking, our seeing. …
… And what does Jesus say? He says, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn. Now, I think sometimes we hear that word blessed and we think, oh, consecrated, we set apart. We don't know what it is to be blessed. It means to be set apart. It means to be consecrated. When Jesus actually says this word, it's the Greek word is makarios, which doesn't mean blessed. It doesn't mean set apart. It actually legitimately, it simply means happy. So Jesus is saying, no, actually happy, not just set apart, but you're genuinely happy. when? When you've spotted the counterfeits and you no longer spend real currency on counterfeit happiness. And the four counterfeits are what? The four counterfeits of happiness are wealth, power, pleasure, and fame. Because all those four things, wealth, power, pleasure, fame, they all promise to make us happy. Wealth promises this, you'll be happy if you have enough. power promises you'll be happy if you're in control pleasure promises you'll be happy if you can minimize pain and maximize feeling good and fame is you'll be happy if everyone knows you and here's the problem here's the problem with the counterfeit happiness is they actually all do that they all do make us happy the problem with counterfeit happiness is they actually work i mean honestly let's be honest get some money get happy. …
Thank you to have a seat. So after this, after this, something will be different. After this, something will have changed. After this Mass, there is something that will never go back. By the end of this Mass, there is something that will never be the same. Right after this. even thinking about that after this after this life you know when it comes to after the afterlife when it comes to life after death there are so many questions and one of the questions people ask you know kids ask this all the time but some adults ask this they ask the question um will my will my pet be in heaven which is a good question i mean you love your pet you want to know if your pet will be in heaven and i think smart people wise people good people will say something along the lines of, well, if you need your pet to be happy in heaven, then you'll have your pet in heaven, which is a great answer. It's just such a good answer. And it's a good answer because the person offering the answer knows the truth. The truth is you won't need your pet to be happy in heaven. That here's the reality of that. But someone says, well, yeah, but like, will there be golf in heaven? Will my spouse be in heaven? Will my family be in heaven? Will my friends be in Who else will be in heaven? …
… And I want you to see the abandonment, the sacrifice that it's associated with. Look in Matthew chapter 5 verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the what? Kingdom of heaven. So in order to have the kingdom of heaven, in order to inherit the kingdom of heaven, you've got to be poor in spirit. Look down at verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the what? Kingdom of heaven. If you want the kingdom of heaven, you're persecuted because of righteousness. That's a sacrifice. There's a cost there. Well, it continues on. Look over in Matthew chapter 13, and we're skipping over tons and tons of instances where kingdom is mentioned. But look with me at Matthew chapter 13. Look at verse 44 with me. This is a couple of parables that Jesus uses to talk about how we can inherit the kingdom, what we would do, what we would give to be a part of this kingdom, to experience the glory of this kingdom. Look at chapter 13, verse 44. It says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. And then in his joy, he went and sold all he had and bought that field. …
… This is the kind of poverty that our Lord spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 3, "'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.'" If you want to enter the kingdom of God, you start with a recognition of your utter bankruptcy spiritually. Nothing to be proud of, nothing to be confident in, nothing to offer God, no achievements. He is looking rather for the humble and broken people, Isaiah 66. And as Psalm 51 says, He's looking for the broken and contrite heart. All evangelism begins with this point. The good news is only good news if you understand the bad reality of the condition of the sinner. Sinner is helpless under the law of God, has nothing with which to commend himself to God. Spiritual poverty. Secondly, sinners are described as captives, prisoners, literally prisoners of war, in exile, waiting execution. He sent me to proclaim release, aphasis, can mean forgiveness, forgiveness to the captives, set the captives free. …
… limits this is how i want to close verse three and verse 10 say something that absolutely bless me and i'm done verse three verse 10 verse three says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god y'all see that now verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now the rest of these beatitudes and promises say for shall for they will or they shall but verse three and verse 10 oh i hope you wake up verse 3 verse 10 don't have a shall be or will be it says for theirs is so that means that some of this happiness and some of the residuals that come from this kind of happiness is not something i've got to wait on if i am being persecuted because of what i do for jesus the moment i decide to have a spirit that is humble that is dependent on god yours is the kingdom of heaven. I know why you're not shouting because that's not everyday language for us is it? …
… preaching one word today you'll see in a minute i'm preaching one word and either you grab it or you don't but it's one word i'm gonna read a lot but i'm preaching one word today matthew chapter five verse one through twelve listen at the beatitudes these supreme blessings matthew chapter five verse one through twelve new revised standard version reads like this when jesus saw the crowds he went up to the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him then he began to speak and taught them saying read it with me verse three blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness but they will be filled blessed are the merciful but they will receive mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were message bible let's read let's read let's read message bible message bible message bible here we go let's read one two three read when jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds he climbed …