Today we are launching a series that could very well last the rest of the year! We will have some other sermons here and there and we are planning a series on the family but we are going to delve into the first teaching that Jesus did. It is called the Sermon on the Mount. The series is entitled Quest for Faith.

For some time I have had a strong conviction that it is time for some spiritual growth in our church. For some of us this series and the teachings of Jesus may seem impossible to follow. For others these messages will call us to be does of the Word and not hearers only.

Jesus was in the early days of His ministry when something changed. In chapter 4 of the book of Matthew we read these words:

23 Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 24 News about him spread as far as Syria, and 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. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns,[h] Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Will you just take a look at that crowd? Can you imagine what that must have looked like? Look at the fit that are bringing the unfit. Look at the well that are bringing the sick. The crowds were flocking around Jesus. They all had their hands out for something sensational. People still gather today around the sensational. Some come from just an idle curiosity but deep down underneath it all is the hunger to find some one who will heal.

Jesus was not deceived by the thronging masses, He saw through their fickleness. He knew that one day in the future they would leave Him alone to face death. He knew that after three years of pouring His own life into these masses that He would only have around 120 people to show for it. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “He took accurate measure of the depth of their conviction and its shallowness. He knew they would kill Him, and yet He stayed with them, and loved them, and died for them.”

“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.” Matthew 5:1-2

I want to go back to pick up five words from these verses: “he saw the crowds gathering”

Probably the people in that area of the world had no idea how many needy people there were living around them. The people who came were from every social context you can thing of. Jesus attracted all kinds of people. Pharisees were side by side with Publicans, and the religious were side by side with prostitutes. Wherever Jesus is working you will find this kind of crowd gathering.

Seeing the crowds motivated Jesus to take his disciples up the mountainside to give them what has been referred to by some as a manifesto of faith. In other words, He was giving them the inside scoop on what it was going to mean to become a Christ follower.

I need for you to know that this teaching we are committing to this year was not for the masses. We are taking a bit of a risk in teaching these truths. Jesus took his disciples to the mountain to teach them (the 12) and the crowd followed. He didn’t banish them or send them away but He had his hands full just trying to get this message into the hearts and minds of the twelve men who had left everything to follow Him.

The first Beatitude is:

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” Matthew 5:3

Sophie Tucker, the actress, was asked years ago about her early struggles for success and whether or not she had found a certain special happiness in her years of poverty. She answered, “Listen, I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor. And believe me, rich is better.”

This statement seems to be the direct opposite of what Christ is saying in this first great principle about how you and I can find happiness. When Jesus was talking about poverty He was not talking about poverty as we most often think about it. Being poor in this context is as other translations have rendered it; poor in spirit.

To be poor in spirit is to be spiritually bankrupt. It is a person who has caught a glimpse of the awesome holiness and righteousness of God and in the same glimpse has viewed themselves and their inadequacy of personal righteousness.

To be poor in spirit is to be in a place where God can connect with you and change your life. To be anything less than this is to be filled with self sufficiency which will only lead us away from Christ.

Let me take a few moments and talk to two groups of people that I am sure make up most of this congregation today.

First of all I know that there are some people here today who have made choices in their lives that have produced devastating results. You are in a place today that is so far from where you ever envisioned yourself being. It may feel like a dream or maybe a nightmare. In many ways, you have at certain times a sense of hopelessness. For you sir or ma’am, let me offer this sermon today. It is when you get to the bottom of yourself and you grow tired of messing up your life with self centered and self destructing choices that you are in a place to connect with the life changing power of Jesus Christ!

Secondly, I believe that there are some of us who long ago received our “pass for heaven,” and we have been more or less following Christ ever since. The problem develops when we get to the place that we start defining our relationship with Christ by our own system and level of commitment. We measure ourselves by ourselves and others and not the word of God. In fact, I am becoming quite convinced that we sometimes choose to ignore the word of God because it is way to convicting and may mess up our lives as we have them arranged.

Can you think of anything more destructive and devastating to your soul? Can you think of anything more ridiculous than professing to be a Christ follower but not following Him with all your heart, mind and strength?

When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough. --Maude Royden

Let me go back to this scripture for a moment. One verse kicks off some of the most profound teaching that Jesus Christ left us a record of:

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” Matthew 5:3

The word blessed or blesses can be translated “happy.” Happy are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of heaven is theirs.

The Kingdom of heaven is a natural sequence not an arbitrary reward. It is not a change in outward surroundings but a change in the inward position of the heart. God creates a condition within a man or woman that allows them to find happiness or blessing everywhere. He makes us happy or blessed by our character, for character makes us look differently around us and we work to change the circumstances we find ourselves in. Happiness begins within us and never without.

"The Bible has no sympathy with saying things ought not to be as they are. The practical thing is to look at things as they are. What is the use of saying there ought to be no war, in the meantime there is! There ought to be no injustice, there is! There ought to be no violence, there is! Solomon never wastes his time in that way; he says these things are. We can ignore facing them, or we can face them in a way which will lead us either to despair or to the Cross of Jesus Christ." - Oswald Chambers

There are three lessons that we need to know and learn about this first principle of Jesus teaching:

1. It is impossible to live a life of discipleship on your own.

We cannot pull ourselves up “by our own bootstraps,” so to speak. This is not a program of self-will or will power. It is not self-help or self improvement. It is not self-assessment or self-reliance. In fact it has nothing to do with your self.

When you come to Christ and desire to be a follower it is with a realization that the only way you can live up to His word and standard is complete reliance on Him. Historically the church has always built in man made rules that are supposed to keep us from breaking God’s commands and principles of life. It was Jesus who dealt with this in Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” He goes on to end the first section of the Sermon on the Mount with these words, “Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

When faced with these words we should all pause and meditate on what this means. It means that all the rules or laws in the world won’t make you righteous. There is only one thing that will ever bring you to righteousness and holiness and that is a complete desiring for and devotion to God.

The apostle Paul picked up on this teaching in Romans 3:19-20: “ 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

Keeping rules and laws won’t promote discipleship and Christ following but realizing this is critical to being able to take steps in that direction. Christ fulfilled them and it is only when we surrender our lives to Him that we are able to experience His power to enable us to live out our faith and live up to His goals for us.

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity says “The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

2. There must be an emptying before there is a filling.

You and I must become poor in spirit before we can hope to be rich in God’s spiritual blessings. The idea of full surrender and emptying one’s self to allow God to fill us with Himself in the form of His spirit is almost a lost concept.

Historically anyone who has ever accomplished anything significant for God has found it necessary to empty themselves of themselves. It was discovered by St. Augustine. Before his conversion, the future Bishop of Hippo was proud of his intellect and knowledge, and these things actually held him back from believing. It was only after he had emptied himself of pride and his sense of being able to manage his own life that he found God’s perfect wisdom through scripture.

Martin Luther experiences was similar. He entered the monastery to earn his salvation through piety and good works. He experienced nothing but acute failure. It was only after he recognized his own inability to please God and emptied himself of all attempts to earn his salvation that God touched his heart and showed him the true meaning of salvation by grace through faith.

When you and I are willing to empty ourselves on the inside it is then that God will pour Himself in us and through us. It is then that we have some hope of experiencing the power of the One who give us these standards to live by and who enables us to begin to live them out ourselves.

There were two armies... one twice as strong as the other. The commander of the larger army sent an envoy to other asking for surrender. The commander of the smaller army called up three men. To the first he said. "Fall on your sword." The man immediately stuck the hilt of his sword into the earth and then impaled himself on his own sword. To the second the commander said, "Thrust yourself through with your spear." The soldier immediately went to a nearby tree where he fixed his spear firmly the but end braced against the ground among the roots. He backed off a few steps and then ran and fell on his own spear the point thrusting through his heart. The commander then turned to a third soldier and said, "Run and leap off of that precipice." The envisage looked over the edge of the cliff to see the small thread like shape of a river far below. The soldier came running and with a leap disappeared over the edge to be dashed on the rocks below. Finally the commander turned to the foreign envisage and said, "I have 10,000 men who without hesitation will die for me like that. . . tell your commander I demand his surrender." The envisage hurried back to their camp begging their commander to quickly surrender.

In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote:

“The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

3. Nothing but direct confrontation from God will produce it in our lives.

John Piper summed up our problem well with his statement, ‘The weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we “keep ourselves stuffed with other things”’ Emptying oneself before there can be a filling by God is a great principle but it is also an unnatural act. A true poverty of spirit can only come one way. Nothing but a direct confrontation with the holy, just and loving God will ever produce it.

You will never be poor in spirit by looking within or looking around at others. It is too easy to latch on to someone who is in worse shape than us. We will find someone who is prouder than us or more unforgiving than us and we will congratulate ourselves on being humble. We will find someone who has a bad temper and although we have a temper we will congratulate ourselves on being more in control.

Some of us do this with our weight don’t we? My brother used to measure himself by the smallest little adult lady in the church to see how tall he was getting. It made him feel really good to stand beside this four foot something lady and look down on her.

Do you really want to have poverty of spirit so that you might be filled with God’s presence in your life? Look to Christ. Open His word and let Him speak to you through it. Wait before Him in contemplation and prayer.

Isaiah the prophet in the Old testament saw God and cried out, “ 5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.” Isaiah 6:5

C.S. Lewis once wrote of this experience, “Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.” “You’ll never realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got.” — Mother Theresa

On April 21st, in the year 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez sailed into the harbor of Vera Cruz, Mexico. He brought with him only about 600 men, and yet over the next two years his vastly outnumbered forces were able to defeat Montezuma and all the warriors of the Aztec empire, making Cortez the conqueror of all Mexico. How was this incredible feat accomplished, when two prior expeditions had failed even to establish a colony on Mexican soil? Here’s the secret. Cortez knew from the very beginning that he and his men faced incredible odds. He knew that the road before them would be dangerous and difficult. He knew that his men would be tempted to abandon their quest and return to Spain. And so, as soon as Cortez and his men had come ashore and unloaded their provisions, he ordered their entire fleet of eleven ships destroyed. His men stood on the shore and watched as their only possibility of retreat burned and sank. And from that point on, they knew beyond any doubt there was no return, no turning back. Nothing lay behind them but empty ocean. Their only option was to go forward, to conquer or die.

That pretty much sums it up. If you want to embark on this quest for faith you must ask yourself am I willing to lay aside everything I am holding onto. You must decide if you are willing to lay aside even the religious stuff

The best-selling book among all Christian books right now is The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Warren begins his book with these words…

“It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God.”

On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University’s department of research surgery. A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age. When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death. However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it. The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side. Then the stony coating was lifted form the heart as an orange is peeled. Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally. "I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation.

There is a parable of life here. Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life. They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs. They are hardened by the pressure of circumstance. Inevitably they become smothered and insensitive to the divine. Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray. It becomes simpler to work than to worship. Self-satisfied, proud, often cynical, our hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christ can perform when we dare to surrender our hearts’ burden before him. (Charles M. Crowe. Sermons For Special Days. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 163).