Poor in Spirit

Sermon On The Mount: Poor in Spirit
Matthew 5:3

Introduction: 1. The Kingdom of Heaven in its universal sense, Daniel 7:13, 14; Matthew 28:18; John 3:35; Philippians 2:9-11 cf. I Corinthians 15:25
2. Not everyone enters the Kingdom; Matthew 5 3; 7: 21; 5: 20 cf. John 3: 3, 5; Mark 9:45 & 47
3. The “Sermon on the Mount” is relevant because it declares the “norms” of the Kingdom.

I. The Beatitudes Reveal the Characteristics of the True Child of God…
A. These traits are always present in the believer…
B. They are often hidden…
C. They are not to be confused with “personality traits…”
D. They are not found in the unbeliever…

Some Sobering Implications 1. 2.

II. Blessed are The Poor in Spirit is the First Beatutude…
A. All others flow out of it…
B. To be “poor in spirit is not…

1. Poor in material goods…
2. Spiritual ignorance…
3. To think of ones self as absolutely useless
   C. To be Poor in spirit is:
4. To be in need…Psalm 69:32, 33; Isaiah 25:4; Zechariah 11:7, 11
5. It is to know, feel and confess one is spiritually empty…

Gospel Lessons: 1. The child of God has been spiritually awakened…
2. Several Biblical examples to consider Luke 18:9-14; Philippians 3: 8; Isaiah 6:1ff
3. The natural man is anything but “poor in spirit” before God…

III. Blessed—The Happy estate of the poor in spirit…

Application: 1. Consider the importance of this beatitude…
a.
b.
c.
2. Consider the evidence of being poor in spirit…
a.
b.
c.
d.