Thursday, February 6, 2014

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

2:49 PM | Posted by | | Edit Post


Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3


         Two thousand years ago, Jesus was born into a culture that was every bit as broken as the one we live in today. The nation of Israel was subject to the rule of Rome, a brutal empire that dominated the Mediterranean world. Because the Jewish people had rejected God and had lived in apostasy for over four hundred years, Israel had been reduced to a mere shadow of the glory it had enjoyed when its leaders walked closely with God. Men like David and Solomon were not perfect, but their lives were characterized by an intimate knowledge of their Creator. This knowledge fueled a love relationship with God, which enabled these great leaders to guide Israel through a time of unparalleled affluence. But by the time of Jesus’ birth, the religious leaders had lost their way. Instead of seeking intimacy with God, they focused on empty religious rituals. Holiness was determined by how closely you followed the letter of the Law, instead of how closely you walked with God. The Pharisees and Sadducees spent most of their time arguing over minute details in the Torah, looking for new rules and regulations to follow, instead of offering hope to the desperate masses buried under the weight of Roman occupation.
           Because of these conditions, the daily lives of the Jewish people were filled with drudgery and hardship. The Roman overlords took the best of everything the Jews worked so hard to produce. Their once great religion had been stripped of its ability to offer any hope. This was an atmosphere ripe for rebellion and war. If ever there was time for a dynamic leader to step up and take advantage of this dissatisfaction, this was the time. The people were desperate for freedom from Rome and hope for the future!
           Into this chaos stepped a charismatic young rabbi with an unexpected message—a message that offered both freedom and hope, but not in the way the people were expecting. While the masses were focused on their external circumstances, Jesus was focused on the interior of their hearts. And it is here, at this point of contention, that Jesus chose to share some of the most powerful words ever spoken, words that hold the cure for what ails the sinful human heart.
 “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them, saying: 3‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’” (Matt. 5:1–3).
          I want you to try and imagine this scene as it was unfolding. When we look at the end of Matthew chapter 4, we see that Jesus had begun His ministry in Galilee by demonstrating God’s ability to meet the people’s needs.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.  – Matt. 4:23–25
As Jesus began to demonstrate God’s mercy and grace by healing the sick and delivering those who were demon-possessed, He became what we would call, in today’s vernacular, a “celebrity”. As a result of His fame, large crowds wanted to be near Him.
But instead of soaking in their praise and encouraging their adulation, Jesus took His disciples and retreated from the crowd. What could have been His motivation for doing this? Wasn’t His goal to reach the lost? I believe the answer is very simple. The crowd’s motivation for following Jesus was wrong. It wasn’t because they were grateful for what God had done on their behalf. It wasn’t because they were overwhelmed by His display of mercy and grace. It wasn’t because they desired a personal relationship with God. And it certainly wasn’t because they now had a passionate desire to serve God and His Kingdom. The bottom line was they wanted Jesus to take care of them and make their lives better. They were anticipating a Messiah who would come and throw off the shackles of Rome. By performing signs and wonders in their midst, they assumed that Jesus must be the long-awaited (physical) Savior of the (physical) Jewish nation. You can imagine what they were thinking after they watched Jesus perform His miracles: “Hey, if this guy can heal the sick, cast out demons, and provide food for the hungry, then surely He can destroy the Roman armies and restore Israel to her rightful place. If we just stay close to this guy, He’ll take care of everything.”
But this takes us back to what we said in the last post If you don’t understand the nature of your disease, you won’t understand how to find the cure. Their problem wasn’t Rome; it was the denial of their need for God. Their problem wasn’t external, it was internal. It was the condition of their hearts. And so Jesus came to set them free, not from the tyranny of Rome, but from the tyranny of self, from the constant pull of selfishness and pride.
           Like so much else that Jesus taught, this runs absolutely counter to everything we hear in our culture. And certainly, by what we see in the Gospel accounts about His disciples, it was counter to what they thought as well. Many times during Jesus’ ministry, while He was focused on the inward change necessary for broken individuals to find wholeness, His disciples were busy arguing about which one of them would be the greatest in Jesus’ new kingdom. We find a perfect example in Luke 9. “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48Then he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest’” (Luke 9:46–48). Jesus obviously had a very different idea than His disciples as to what constitutes greatness. And because of this difference, being poor in spirit was not a characteristic that His followers seemed to value. It’s very much the same for us in our culture. We are raised to believe that everything revolves around us and our personal desires. We’re inundated by television commercials that are designed to foster this belief. Whatever I think I want, I should be able to have, and when this happens, then I will be happy. “If I get the right haircut, the right car, the best house, etc., then I’ll be satisfied!
         The Kingdom of Heaven is not the establishment of some earthly kingdom, as the disciples were hoping. It is instead the establishment of God’s government in the heart of every believer. It signifies the surrender of our hearts, minds, and souls to the Lordship of our Savior Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus said that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). In essence, this means surrendering control of our lives to the Spirit of God as He dwells in our hearts. The Kingdom of God is any place, including the human heart, where God’s will is recognized as sovereign.
         When we become poor in spirit, we willingly surrender control of our hearts to the direction of the Holy Spirit. We give up self-control and selfish ambition in exchange for God’s will for our lives. Like our Lord on the night He was betrayed, the cry of our hearts becomes, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Above all else, we will desire to do God’s will and work, regardless of the cost. We can actually say with sincerity, “Whatever it takes, God, I’m ready!” Like a cancer patient who will submit his body to the doctor’s knife in order to get rid of that part of himself that is riddled with disease, a person who is poor in spirit willingly submits himself to the truth of God’s Word; a truth that cuts like a knife at the sin and selfishness that riddles the human heart. 
            For a more detailed study of the Beatitudes, see my book entitled "The Cure -prescription for life"
 For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life",  available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com  - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites
Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Why We Desperately Need the Beatitudes

7:08 AM | Posted by | | Edit Post


Every year in the US, 1.4 million people are given the news that they have cancer. Of that number, over five hundred thousand of them are told that it is terminal. Think about the impact of this diagnosis: one day you are living your life under the illusion that you are invincible; the next day you find out that you have cancer and that you are likely going to die. I have never been diagnosed with cancer. I’ve never had to sit in a doctor’s office and have the doctor tell me that my tumor is malignant. But from talking with people who have, I know a process takes place in the human heart and mind that forces us to begin dealing with our own mortality. 
Although not always exactly in this order, the process looks something like this:
1)    denial: cancer is something that happens to other people;
2)    what are my options: how can I take care of this problem and make it better?
3)    re-evaluating priorities: if my time is limited, I want to start focusing on what’s important;
4)    acceptance and treatment: okay, I admit I can’t handle this on my own, so I’m going to accept the treatments that are being offered.

Most of the time this means a complete life change: a new diet, a new set of habits, and ruthlessly getting rid of anything that might have contributed to the disease. A transformation takes place in how your priorities shape the way you live your life. When you boil it all down, you realize an important truth: you don’t want to die, you want to live! At this point you are now ready and willing to do whatever takes to find the cure! 

As a matter of fact, billions of dollars are raised every year by all sorts of organizations attempting to find the cure for cancer and other terminal diseases. The sad reality is that what we can see so clearly when it comes to our physical health, we reject when it comes to our spiritual health! We’ll do almost anything to find a cure when we are sick. We’ll get rid of food. We’ll get rid of products that contain dangerous chemicals. We’ll stay out of the sun. We’ll submit our bodies to chemotherapy (actually shooting poison into your body to kill the cancer so that the rest of the body can live). We’ll do whatever it takes to avoid the things that lead to cancer and physical death, and yet never give a second thought to the things all around us that lead to spiritual cancer and spiritual death. 

What is very interesting to note is that while Jesus did much to help people who suffered physically, when it came right down to it, His main focus was spiritual life. Every time He healed a person, every time He cast out a demon, every time He provided food, it was always to open the person’s eyes to their deeper need for God. Let’s look at a couple of examples from the Bible:
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  – John 4:13–14

Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”   John 4:31–36

In these verses, Jesus makes it clear that God knows we have physical needs, and that He is more than willing to meet those needs on our behalf. But His concern is that we spend so much of our time and energy trying to meet our physical needs, assuming that once we have met them, we’ll then be happy and satisfied. We somehow convince ourselves that if we meet our physical appetites, we will also satisfy our spiritual hunger. But this just doesn’t match up with reality. We live in one of the most wealthy and affluent cultures to ever exist on earth. A small minority of people in America are without access to everything they need to meet their basic physical needs. But satisfying physical needs can never take the place of satisfying our deeper spiritual hunger. If you don’t believe me, watch one episode of True Hollywood Story. Do a little research on the average life expectancy of a childhood star. Even scarier, simply take a look at the deterioration of the families in your own community. Everywhere we look we see brokenness and despair. The rate of suicide among teenagers is skyrocketing. Drug and alcohol abuse are rampant. Traditional families are disintegrating. And large numbers of people are simply checking out of life! As one person described to me recently, concerning her attempts to minister to some of the broken people who frequent the bank where she works, “Sometimes it feels like being in a movie, surrounded by zombies.”



 When our God-given spiritual needs go unmet, the result is a spiritual cancer—a disease of the soul that is just as fatal and just as deadly as any form of physical cancer. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” We may not want to admit it, but we are all spiritually sick. There is a cancer spreading rapidly through our culture and we’re all being directly affected!
 
People were no different two thousand years ago in the Middle East. Jesus walked into a culture full of people who suffered from the same problems we face in our culture; the people of Israel were just as broken and empty as we are today. Just like us, they had seen the failure of education, economics, government, and science to bring peace to broken human hearts. They had witnessed some of the greatest advances in human history (made by the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans), yet their everyday lives still seemed meaningless and empty. They were trapped under the iron fist of Rome, a ruthless enemy who didn’t believe in their God. And so the first century Jews became convinced that if they could just get a new king, a king who believed in the God of Israel, everything would get better. All they needed was a king who would punish Rome and restore Israel to her rightful place as God’s Kingdom here on earth. In human terms it makes sense, doesn’t it? We usually look for physical answers to our spiritual problems. But Jesus came with a very different message—a message that included the cure. But in order to embrace this cure we have to first understand the nature of our disease.

The Beatitudes
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus begins what is known as the Sermon on the Mount (which is, without a doubt, the greatest sermon ever given) with a group of sayings that have become known as the Beatitudes, a phrase that means “the Blessings.” Throughout the remainder of this series of blogs on the Beatitudes we will carefully study our Lord’s words, that include His cure for what ails the human heart. Jesus is going to teach us some unexpected and life-changing truths. For example, He will reveal to us that:
1) Often, the way up can only be found when we’re willing to bow down.
2) We have to deal with our sorrow before we can find true joy.
3) We will probably have to endure persecution, if we want to experience God’s power.
4) Dying to self is actually the way to feel the most alive.

When we finish this amazing section of Scripture, we’ll see that Jesus wants us to understand an essential truth—because our problem isn’t physical, the cure won’t be physical either. Until we understand the depth and nature of our disease, we will never understand the nature of the cure. It wasn’t a new king the people of Israel needed in order to get right with God. It was a new understanding of their brokenness and sin, that separated them from their Heavenly Father. They felt empty and alone because they were not in proper relationship to the One who had created them. 

What they needed most of all was the humility to recognize their sin and to accept God’s grace (instead of their own efforts) as the solution to overcoming their problems. As much as I might want to see a change in the leadership of this my country, true spiritual revival won’t come from our political leaders. As much as I would love to see science solve all of our medical problems, true health won’t come from research. As much as I would love to see every child receive a great education, true knowledge and wisdom won’t come from our schools.

As we will learn from the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, transformation must start in the hearts of God’s people—a people who humbly bow down and receive God’s grace; a people who surrender control and stop trying to be God; a people who are willing to accept what God has to offer. Only then will we find healing for our broken hearts, forgiveness to bind up our wounds, and unrelenting love to give our lives meaning and purpose.

Jesus describes the people who are transformed by God in this manner as salt and light. “You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:13a, 14–16).


For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life",  available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com  - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites



















 
Thursday, January 9, 2014

Finding the Gospel of Grace in the Beatitudes

1:11 PM | Posted by | | Edit Post
For many Christians, the decision to follow Jesus Christ begins with the Gospel promise of new life and abundant living. We become aware of our sin, understand that Jesus' death on the cross paid the penalty for that sin, and learn about His resurrection from the dead, which provides great hope through the promise of eternal life. Verses like John 3:16, John 1:12, and John 10:10 describe some of the incredible blessings that God pours out through His grace for those who believe in Jesus Christ. These blessings include: the forgiveness of sins, being made into children of God, and an abundant life in Christ. When we start to contemplate these things, the gift of grace seems overwhelming. 

However, at some point in our Christian walks we must start reading the rest of the Bible in order to grow and mature in our faith. And if you're like many of the Christians I've studied the Scriptures with over the years, it is sections of the Bible like Mathew 5:1-16 that cause you great confusion, What in the world is Jesus talking about when He says "blessed are the poor in spirit?" How could he be serious when He says, "blessed are those who mourn?" Why would He try to convince us that being "meek" or facing "persecution" could lead to a life of blessings? In fact, this section of Scripture known as the Beatitudes (which means the blessings) is the beginning of powerful oration, know as the "Sermon on the Mount", in which Jesus seems to completely redefine what it means to live a righteous life in God's eyes. At first glance, Jesus' message almost seems designed to lower our expectations of ever being able to successfully live out the Christian life. If we just quickly skim through the text, not taking time to carefully study what Jesus is truly teaching, we could easily miss the beauty of His message, coming instead to the tragic conclusion that the life he is promising to His followers is not the kind of life we would want for ourselves. After all, where is the Gospel promise of new life and abundant living to be found in Jesus' words here in Matthew 5?

If you have struggled with biblical texts like the Beatitudes, trying to square the message with what you understand about the Gospel, the next several blogs are designed for you. It is my prayer that as we uncover the beauty of Jesus' message in the Beatitudes, it will deepen you love for your Savior and empower you to walk in the light of His truth!

 Matthew 5:1-16 (NIV), "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life",  available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com  - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites


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