Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on June 30, 2024.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Out of Luke Chapter six. My apologies again. I just got wrapped up in singing and was just going to go right on. Luke 6:17 26 after coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases and and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well, the whole crowd was trying to touch him because power was coming out from him and healing them all.
Then looking up at his disciples, he said, blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.
Take note your reward is great in heaven. For this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep.
And woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets. We’re going to be looking today at being sacred or being secular. And being sacred, according to the text, leads to blessings, where being secular leads to woes. So it should be obvious to you that you want to be on the sacred side. Things that are sacred are things that are set apart for God.
It can be objects, things, actions, attitudes. People themselves can become sacred if they are set apart for God. And when we accept God’s gift of salvation, we choose to set ourselves apart to Him. Instead of living for ourselves or living for the world, we set ourselves apart. We make ourselves sacred for the Lord.
First, we believe in our heart and we confess with our mouth. I mean, we believe in our heart that Jesus died for our sins and that he rose from the dead. But secondly, it tells us that we make ourselves sacred by confessing with our mouth that Jesus is now our Lord. We consider him in all things instead of considering ourselves. In other words, we allow him to become the ruling person in our life.
So when we are sacred in God’s sight, when we claim him to be our Lord, everything becomes under his control. Whenever we have a decision to make, we stop and think about the Lord. What does he want us to do. Whatever we speak and whatever we do, it should come in alignment with what Jesus Christ wants for us. And even our motivations, we need to consider them, that he is in control and we want to please him in everything.
On the other hand, someone who is secular, all their things, their actions, their attitudes, and they themselves are set apart to serve this fallen, sinful world. And if Jesus is not in control of someone’s life, then the world is in control. Somebody that is secular, whenever they make a decision, they think about, what is my family going to think about this? What are my friends going to think about this decision? How is it going to affect my job?
And when they speak with their mouth, when they do things, it’s all about not trying to please Jesus, but they want to please the world, they want to please those around them. And even their motivations aren’t based on pleasing the Lord, but their motivations are on being successful, on achieving, of being popular in this world. Today. We’re going to examine two passages that are similar so that we get a better understanding here about what Jesus is talking about. And we call this cross referencing.
When you do Bible study, we look to other passages that help us to understand the whole. Because the Bible is its own best commentary. It’s the best resource for a better understanding of it. We’ll have teachings that are doctrinal in the New Testament, but then we look at the lives of people, we look at experience, experiences, we look at things that happen, and those are examples of what it is that the Lord is teaching us. But when it comes to comparing Scripture passages, there are some people that say, well, when we look at the New Testament, Luke wrote this and Matthew wrote this.
They’re all mixed up because they didn’t say the same thing. And they’re trying to tell us that Scripture disagrees with itself and we can’t trust it. But I want to give you two reasons today that answer this question. Why does Scripture sometimes seem to disagree with itself? And I want to give you two reasons why that might sometimes be.
The first thing is that different people often notice different details when witnessing the same event. And that doesn’t mean that either account is wrong. You’re all going to leave church today. You’re going to leave our time together. And someone might ask two different people, what did you hear in the message?
And what those people say can be completely different because the Lord is leading them in different ways. It doesn’t mean you weren’t in here. It doesn’t mean you didn’t Hear the message, you were just sitting in a different place or your mind was in a different place. But another reason is that Jesus ministry covered about 1,000 days, and he probably repeated his teaching at multiple times in various locations. It is possible that what has been identified as a parallel between two Gospels is actually a case where two gospels actually record only similar events or teachings.
I preached this sermon twice today. If you come to both services, you might say, well, you didn’t say the same thing in the first service that you did in the second. It’s just because things aren’t always repeated exactly the same way. But we want to see that in the text today because we’re looking at Luke 6 and for better understanding, we’re looking at Matthew 4. And some people would say, well, they’re in disagreement because they don’t say the same thing word for word.
But just look at the text for a minute. I’ve got some things underlined and scored so that we can see these are probably actually different things. The first thing it says in Luke 6 after coming down with them. Now if you look down below where it’s underlined in white, it doesn’t say he was coming down. It says he went where he was going up on the mountain.
In Luke 6 it says that he stood while he taught. But look down at Matthew 4, what’s he doing? So he sat down. And then the people that he was talking to in Luke, he’s talking to people from Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. Now Tyre and Sidon are on the sea coast, so they’re going to be on the west side of Israel.
But when we look at Matthew passage, they were from Galilee and Decapolis, but now it’s looking at the west side. They’re looking at the east side of Israel. Decapolis and beyond the Jordan is all on the other side. So someone might try and tell you, you know, Scripture doesn’t agree with itself. We can’t trust it.
Well, usually there’s some reason there, and in this passage it’s because these are two different occasions. Jesus just happens to be teaching on things that are similar. And also the Luke passage includes a series of woe statements that we’re going to look at today that are not included in Matthew. Now let’s go to Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 12. And I’m going to read the parts that are similar to Luke.
We won’t read the extra things that are added in that are in smaller print. But in Matthew 5 we read. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Then verse 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
And then verse 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven, for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So going back to look at Luke, if we only looked at Luke and it talks about those that are poor and hungry and weeping and hated, we might not get the full meaning here. We could think, oh, this is talking about someone who just doesn’t have any money, or this is someone who hasn’t had a meal to eat.
But when we add in the rest of Jesus thought from Matthew, what we’re talking about here is a spiritual condition in people’s lives. It’s not physical being poor, but it means being poor in spirit. So Deb, there we go. Great poor, not just physically, but poor in spirit and hungry not just physically, but hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Weeping is further described as mourning and being hated and persecuted.
So what we want to see today as we’re looking at the text is that we want to be on this side of being sacred so that we can receive the blessings of the Lord. But that means that we have to be poor in spirit. We have to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we have to weep and mourn, and we have to be willing to be hated and persecuted. Let’s look at blessed verses one. Whoa.
What’s the difference here? To be blessed means to be fortunate and happy, but it’s deeper than that. It’s a religious joy which stems from salvation and the consequent relationship with God. To be on the blessed side means that you have an eternal, established relationship with God through Jesus Christ, Christ’s death on the cross. Now, on the other hand, Jesus is going to express this woe to people.
It’s not a threat to them, and instead it’s this expression of dismay and regret and compassion. It’s a disappointment and a condemnation combined because Jesus is looking at these people that are self sufficient that they think that they can earn their own salvation and he feels sorry for them and he has compassion on them because he knows eventually they will be condemned because they have not chosen him as their Lord and Savior. Let’s Go back to Luke 6. Blessed are you who are poor because the kingdom of God is yours. And a little bit fuller meaning in Matthew.
Blessed are the poor and spirit. Spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. What does the word poor mean here? It doesn’t mean you can’t afford the newest pair of Nikes. It doesn’t mean that you can’t afford the nicest house.
This is poorness. That is referring to someone that is so impoverished they have to beg just to survive. This is the purpose. Person that has no job and they’re unable to work and they’re completely dependent upon asking other people to provide for their needs. But again, this isn’t just about a physical poverty and poorness.
This is about a spiritual poorness that we are supposed to have. It’s not being materially poor because there were many people in Jesus day and even today they hate have physical wealth, but they still possess this attitude of being spiritually poor that Jesus wants us to have. The poor in spirit acknowledge that they have absolutely no means of saving themselves. They’re like the people in the passage here that are diseased and tormented by demons. They had absolutely no way of getting themself healed or of casting the demons out of themselves.
So they come to Jesus in essence poor in spirit. They are begging him for healing. They’re begging him for relief, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. And as we look at this today, we likewise must come to Jesus in regard to our sin. Sin in this same manner that we have to come to him and say, I am poor in spirit.
I can do nothing to save myself. We’re going to look at a parable in Luke 18:9 14 and here Jesus tells about two men. One of them is poor in spirit and one of them is rich in spirit. And it’s interesting because the man that is poor in spirit is physically rich. It shows us that we’re talking about a spiritual condition here.
Jesus says he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Get that they trusted in who? In themselves, but not in God. That they were righteous and they looked down on everyone else. Jesus tells us that two men went up to the temple to pray.
One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other people, greedy, unrighteous adulterers or even like this tax collector. This man is not poor in spirit because he thinks that he can achieve salvation for himself by living a particular way. But then we look at the man that is materially rich also in the passage, and he’s the tax collector.
But before we read that, it tells us the Pharisee went on to say that he’s even doing things that he thinks are going to save him. I fast twice a week and I give a 10 10th of everything I get. But then we have the tax collector, physically rich, but poor in spirit. He’s standing afar off. He would not even raise his eyes to heaven.
He couldn’t even look up to the Lord because he was so ashamed in realizing his condition. And he just kept striking his chest and saying, God have mercy on on me, a sinner. God have mercy on me, a sinner. He knew he couldn’t do anything to save himself. He knew that he didn’t have anything that could deal with his problem.
He was poor in spirit. And Jesus says, I tell you this, one went down to his house justified rather than the other. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. We want to go now to Romans, chapter three. And Paul wrote here about the doctrinal aspect of what we really look like before we come to faith in Jesus Christ.
And as we read about these descriptive words, it sounds like an awful person that he’s talking about. But actually he’s talking about people that think that they’re righteous, that they think that they can earn their salvation, that even those are just as awful, they have just as bad a sin condition as those that are not following or even thinking about the Lord at all. Jews and Greeks are all under sin. It doesn’t matter where you’re born or what country you’re from, or whether you’re male or female. It doesn’t matter what your parents were like or your grandparents.
Everyone is under sin. He emphasizes that by saying, there is no one righteous. And he emphasizes again, not even one. No one can say, I am righteous before God for anything I do. Because there is no one who understands.
There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. All alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.
They deceive with their tongues. Vipers venom is under their lips. And their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and wretchedness are in their paths.
And the path of peace they have not known. And there is no fear of God before their eyes. For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law. So he’s not just talking about people that are evil and say that they’re not following the Lord. He’s talking about people that are saying that I’m living a good life, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s going to give me eternal salvation.
These people that are justified in their own sight, these same descriptive words apply to them. They’re worthless, they’re open graves, they’re deceptive, they’re bitter, they’re swift to shed blood. The person who is poor in spirit will agree with God when they read this text, and they’ll say, yes, God, this is me. I can do nothing to save myself. God, please save me.
Whereas the person that Jesus is referring to with the woe is the person that sees themselves as being rich in spirit. And they’re going to say, no, this isn’t me. I’m a good person. I’m going to get to heaven, and you have to let me in, because I’ve done good things throughout my life, or I had great parents, or my grandmother prayed for me. Whatever the reason is, they think that they’re rich, but they in essence are poor in the end.
So we read this here in Romans. We want to go now to Luke chapter six again, and we want to see what are some evidences of being poor in spirit. And the first thing is that people that are poor in spirit who recognize and acknowledge their lost condition, they are hungry. And what is it that they are hungry for? The text tells us here that they are hungry for righteousness.
Let’s read it. In Luke 6, we read, Blessed are you who are hungry now because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh. Blessed are those in the same way, according to Matthew, who hunger. And it further describes it.
And they’re also thirsty for righteousness. What does it mean to want righteousness? Well, to be righteous means to be completely conformed to God’s desire for man. Jesus Christ gives us that righteousness. But still in the mind of the poor in spirit, they’re saying, I just am so hungry to be like Jesus.
I want to be what God’s word tells me I’m supposed to be. I’m hungering for that. I’m thirsty for that. When we go back to Psalms, we see this expressed by the psalmist in Psalm 42 and Psalm 63. In the first verses, we have a deer that has been running from someone that’s pursuing him, or he’s been running from.
From a lion and he’s panting and he’s worn out. It says that this deer is longing for flowing streams. And that’s a picture of the psalmist says, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I finally come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night. The poor in spirit have this deep hunger and thirst to follow after the Lord. And it’s not just because they’ve missed one meal or they haven’t had something to drink in the last hour. This is someone that’s going through a desert. And if they don’t eat something soon, they’re going to die.
Or they’re going through the desert. And if they don’t drink something soon, they know they’re going to die. And they have such a intense desire to eat and to drink. And that’s the picture of what we’re supposed to want in regard to God’s righteousness in our life. Psalm 63 God, you are my God.
I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you. My body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate and without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. People that are poor in spirit are hungry for the righteousness of God.
We have to emphasize that. That righteousness only again comes as a gift, doesn’t come because of anything that we do. It doesn’t come because of anything we give or because of who we are. Let’s read what Romans says. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets.
The righteousness of God is. Read the yellow words with me through faith in Jesus Christ. And it’s to all who believe. There’s no distinction between anyone, for all have sinned and. And fall short of the glory of God.
And they are justified freely. Nothing can be paid for it. It’s not earned. It’s given freely by his grace. And read again with me.
How does it come? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. People that are pure, I mean, that are poor in spirit, have this strong desire for God’s righteousness. But the next thing that we also see is that they’re weeping and they’re mourning. Luke says, blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh.
And Matthew says, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. The Greek word here for mourning means it’s extreme sadness. It’s not that you’re sad you missed breakfast or you didn’t get a phone call from a friend. This is a word that’s used to describe what someone feels when they’ve lost a close friend or a relative. Those who mourn because they have spiritual needs can expect God to comfort them.
The psalmist said this. It’s said throughout Scripture that we desire God so much that it can bring us to tears. Whenever we feel like we are far away from Him. We desire to be close. To what extent do the poor in spirit recognize and acknowledge their lost condition?
They are hungry for it. They are weeping and mourning for it. But the passage also tells us that they are willing to be hated and persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. In Luke we read, blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. You should rejoice in that day and you should leap for joy.
You should take note your reward is great in heaven. And then Jesus compares them to the true prophets in the Old Testament. For this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets in the Old Testament. The prophets that followed God were the ones that nobody liked. They weren’t the most popular preachers because they weren’t giving this wonderful positive message all the time.
They were just speaking the truth of God. We go over to Matthew 5 and we read here that blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And again, Jesus says, you are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. Be glad and rejoice because your reward is great in heaven, for that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. People that are truly poor in spirit are willing to be cut off, to be disassociated, to lose their jobs, just to acknowledge the fact that Jesus is their Lord.
In our small group this week, one of the men shared in his business. They had put out during COVID You know, everybody share somebody that you love the name of someone that you love. So this big corporation everybody put out there, you know, I love Joe and I love my mom and whatever. Well, one person put out there the name of Jesus, and you know what happened to that person? They were fired because it was inacceptable to associate yourself with Jesus.
But that person was truly pure in spirit, willing to put his job on the line by associating himself with the name of Christ. We’re talking about sacredness leads to blessings, and being secular leads to woes the blessings are that when we are in Christ Jesus, we have an inheritance. We’re promised satisfaction. One day we will have laughter, and one day we will have a great reward. But Jesus cautioned those he shared this woe, this concern.
But if you think that you’re rich right now, spiritually, you’re going to end up with nothing because you’re depending on yourself. And instead of the work of Jesus Christ, if you think that you’re a righteous person now and that you’re full, well, if it’s on your own terms, you’re going to be hungry in eternity. And instead of laughing, you’re going to be weeping and mourning. Instead of being favored in public now you’re going to have death instead. It’s up to us to examine our lives and decide which side are we on.
Are we poor in spirit? Are we truly hungering and thirsting for righteousness so much that we weep to be with God? It saddens us, and we mourn when we’ve done things to separate ourselves from him. And are we willing to give up our jobs and our friendships and for some people, their family and even their lives to say that Jesus Christ is our Lord going to end with a passage from Luke chapter 13. And it’s just a further caution to us today, because in this Jesus says that there are people that think that they belong in the kingdom of God and they’re going to go through all of this life thinking, I have salvation, but because they weren’t truly poor in spirit and they didn’t put their faith in Jesus Christ.
In the end, Jesus is going to say, I never knew you, even though they thought they were known. Luke chapter 13. He went through one town and village after another, teaching and making his way to Jerusalem. Lord, someone asked him, are only a few people going to be saved? And he said to them, make every effort to enter through the narrow door.
And that narrow door is Jesus Christ. Because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door. There are going to be people that they don’t try to receive salvation by coming through Jesus Christ. They’re going to try to come in through the windows or they’re going to try to jump over the walls. They’re going to try to come in another way by either giving to the church or by doing good things or thinking that they come from a great family.
And this is what Jesus is going to tell them one day.
Then you will stand outside and you’re going to knock on the door saying, lord, open up for us. And he will answer you. I don’t know you or where you’re from. And then they’re going to say, but we ate and drank in your presence. We came to church and we had the Lord’s Supper and, and we heard your teaching in the street.
We heard messages. But he’s going to say, I tell you, I don’t know you or where you’re from. Get away from me, all you evildoers. And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place. And when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but yourselves thrown out.
So I ask you to examine your hearts today. Are you a true believer? Are you poor in spirit? Are you hungering after righteousness? Are you weeping and mourning?
And is your life an example of someone who is willing to give up everything? You’re willing to lose anything just to associate yourself with the name of Jesus Christ. May we pray? Heavenly Father, we just ask that you would either encourage our hearts today that yes, we are poor in spirit, Father, and this represents us. But if there’s anyone among us today that has not seeing that their life follows this pattern, maybe they just think that they’re going to heaven, but they haven’t accepted Jesus as their personal Savior.
We pray that you would touch their hearts today, that they would come to you and say, lord, I am a sinner. I can’t do anything to save myself. I’m trusting in Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation that he gives to us by his death, his burial and his resurrection. And from now on, I will tell others that you are the Lord of my life. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.