The Beatitudes series — Matthew 5:3–12
By Tony Holcomb
The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Matt. 5:3).
In 2015, I had the privilege to visit the Holy Land for the first time. The church where I serve graciously sent me to Israel as a pastor appreciation gift. Wow. What a blessing. It makes us happy to receive wonderful gifts. It makes us happy to take wonderful trips. But the “new” eventually wears off of gifts. We must return to work from great trips and that happiness fades.
Can there be real lasting happiness and eternal joy?
People everywhere are searching for happiness. They try all sorts of things to make them happy but it doesn’t last. Even our own Declaration of Independence says we have certain inalienable rights and one is “the pursuit of happiness.” But happiness is not just something we should pursue but something we should obtain. And not just on a temporary basis but permanently and eternally.
As we begin a series on the beatitudes, I have been privileged to write this sermon on the first one. Let’s begin by defining the key word, “blessed.”
“Blessed” is translated from the Greek word “makarios” which means “happy.” “The Beatitudes” is the title given this passage in Matthew 5:3–12. The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin word also meaning “happy.” Most people define happy as being temporary and joy as more permanent. But look at how Noah Webster defines “happy” in his dictionary published in 1828.
Definition of happy
The American Dictionary of the English Language defines happy as “being in the enjoyment of agreeable sensations from the possession of good; enjoying pleasure from the gratification of appetites or desires.”
The pleasurable sensations derived from the gratification of sensual appetites render a person temporarily happy, but we only can be called really and permanently happy if we enjoy peace of mind in the favor of God. To be in any degree happy we must be free from pain both of body and of mind. To be very happy, we must be in the enjoyment of lively sensations of pleasure, either of body or mind.
In Noah Webster’s definition we see happiness can be permanent but only in God. Oh how we need dictionaries like his today.
How can we have this permanent happiness? The answer is in the happy passage of the Beatitudes.
‘Poor in spirit’
While in the Holy Land, I had the great blessing of visiting the Church of the Beatitudes. This beautiful church surrounded by gardens sits on the hill of the traditional site of “The Sermon on the Mount.” Here Jesus proclaimed to a great crowd of people just who could truly be happy. He began with the “poor in spirit.” Jesus said, “Blessed (or happy) are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That must have gotten their attention. Many of the listeners were no doubt poor and seeking happiness and real meaning in life. But what did He mean by “poor in spirit”?
A paradox
Many have difficulty understanding this verse. It seems to be a contradiction or paradox. How could the poor in spirit be happy? Imagine how you would feel being shipwrecked. There you are clinging to a life raft in the middle of nowhere contemplating your desperate situation. Suddenly the Coast Guard rescue ship comes over the horizon headed toward you.
Think of the relief and happiness you would feel when being pulled aboard that rescue boat. It’s humbling, recognizing your inability to save yourself; your need for rescue is being “poor in spirit.”
Need for Jesus
Real happiness, real joy, real purpose and real fulfillment can only be found in Jesus Christ. And for us to find Jesus we must recognize our need for Him. The only way we can be saved from this sinful world is to know we need to be rescued then get on the rescue boat when it comes by. Being “poor in spirit” is recognizing our desperate situation. It is seeing the utter hopelessness of our sinful self and crying out to God for rescue. The answer to the crowd’s need for rescue and real happiness stood before them on that mountain. Did they recognize Him and cry out to Him for salvation? Only if they were poor in spirit, recognizing their hopelessness, then feeling his outstretched hand pull them into the ark of safety.
Ark of safety
The rescue boat, the ark of safety, is Jesus Christ. He pulls us on board when we are poor in spirit, drowning in our sin and crying out to Him. He pulls us into the Church of the Living God — the kingdom of heaven — in which we cannot fall overboard or be snatched out. What real and permanent happiness we have when we are rescued by Christ and brought into His kingdom of heaven forever.
As I sat on the mount basking in the temporary happiness of a great gift and a great trip, I was reminded of my eternal happiness in knowing personally the One who preached the sermon on the mount that day. He is the One who rescued me from my sin 44 years ago and He knew then that I would be sitting where others “poor in spirit” sat so long ago and received the same real lasting happiness that continues to this day.
Even now I continue to bask in the eternal happiness of knowing Jesus and being in His kingdom.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Tony Holcomb is pastor of Beulah Baptist Church, Boaz. He has been in ministry for more than 34 years — 12 years as a minister of music and 22 years as pastor, five of which was on the missions field leading a church plant in Montana. He is a graduate of Snead State Community College in Boaz, Samford University in Birmingham and Trinity College of the Bible in Newburgh, Indiana. He and his wife of 35 years, Shan, have one daughter, Mary.
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