[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Advent is about remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. Advent is also about anticipating and preparing ourselves for the promised return of the Messiah. And continuing on the Advent series, “Down to Earth,” today, my sermon is titled, “Jesus Came to Bring God’s Kingdom.” So let’s pray and then dig right in.

Before we look at the birth of Jesus and the very beginning of his days here on earth, I want to take you briefly to the very last days of his life on earth and look at three images, three scenes from the life of Jesus, and I want you to store these images somewhere in your mind because they will serve as a backdrop to what we are going to be talking about for the rest of the evening.

The first scene is that of Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. A very huge crowd gathers to see this prophetic scene played out before their very eyes. Their hearts of full of hope and anticipation, and they are waving palm branches, and they are shouting in unison:

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

That’s the first scene that I want you to store in your mind. The second scene is just a few days after this triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And this scene is not a joyful scene like the first. Here, Jesus is betrayed by one of his disciples named Judas. After he is arrested, Jesus is tried by the High Priests and then eventually he is led to Pontius Pilate to be investigated. And in the heart of this inquisition, Pilate asks Jesus:

"So you are a king?"

That’s the second scene. And the third scene I want to ask you to store in your mind is that of the crucifixion of Jesus. As Jesus is hanging nailed to a cross, wearing a crown of thorns, desperately fighting for every ounce of oxygen, there are these Roman soldiers who are mocking him, saying:

"If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

So these three images - Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey, his inquisition by Pontius Pilate, and his crucifixion and mocking by the Roman soldiers - let these images sink in. We’ll come back to them in just a little bit. But now, please open your Bible and turn with me to Luke 1:26-38. If you don’t have a Bible, please feel free to grab one from either end of the stage. We are going to be looking at a lot of scripture tonight. Luke 1:26-38:

Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

This is the story of what has been traditionally called in the Catholic church, “The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary.” And what I want to do now is to look at this passage, along with a few others, and make four quick observations. And then for the rest of our time together, I would like us to try to figure out what it all means for us today.

The Birth of the King
The first point that I want us to observe is that this story of the birth of Jesus is the story of the birth of the King. What we learn from this exchange between Mary and Gabriel is the identity of the long-awaited Messiah, the King of Kings, and his name is Jesus.

Look at verses 32 and 33 again:

Luke 1:30-33
But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

"Son of the Most High." "Throne of his father David." "He will reign." At the heart of what Gabriel tells Mary is that she is going to give birth to a King. And not just any king, but a king whose nobility has roots in divinity. He is a king unlike any other king that was born before or since that time. The Jesus that we worship is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So, let’s go back to the three images that we talked about in the beginning: The image of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the image of Jesus being questioned by Pontius Pilate, and the image of Jesus hanging on a cross being mocked by the Roman soldiers, all of these images relate to how somebody responds to Jesus being a King. For some, their response was to worship, like those who were waving palm branches, and shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” For others, their response was one of curiosity and confusion, “So you are a king?” And of course there were others who responded with violence and anger at the notion of a God who would come down to earth and die on a cross for the sins of the world. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"So you are a king?"
"If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

What about you? What is your response tonight? I know there are many of you here tonight who would say that you are a worshipper of King Jesus, that you would align yourself with those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem waving palm branches, shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And I know there are some of you for whom, the notion of King Jesus intrigues you. Like Pontius Pilate, you say, “So Jesus, you are a king?” You find yourself somewhere in between belief and doubt.

There are some of you for whom this idea that Jesus is King is absolutely absurd. It bothers you. It annoys you. It makes you angry. You could easily see yourself standing next to the Roman soldiers who mocked Jesus on the cross saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. I have no need for you, Jesus!”

What is your response? Every single one of us, we must all come face to face with the fact that the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords not merely of Christians but over every single individual. And at the heart of the Christian faith is the question, “Who is your king?” Because whether we know it or not, we all serve a king. For some, our king is money. For some, our king is power and fame. For some, we are the king of their lives. We are all bowing our knee to a king. Who is your king? This leads us to our next observation.

The King and His Kingdom
The second observation from this passage is that this Jesus, this King is establishing the kingdom of God that will reign supreme over every kingdom of men. Look with me in verse 33:

Luke 1:33
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.

Some 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 9:6-7:

Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Jesus is the fulfillment of this very prophecy. Jesus came to bring God’s Kingdom. The great narrative of the entire Bible, the story behind all the stories of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, the backdrop for everything that happens in the Bible is the great anticipation for the King of Kings to be revealed to the world, because when the King comes, so does his kingdom; because where the King is, there is the kingdom. The story of creation, the flood, the exodus, the exile, the prophets, everything is pointing to that moment of moments when this king will be revealed. And what Gabriel tells Mary is that this moment of moments has finally arrived. The king will finally be revealed, and his name is Jesus, and he will establish his kingdom.

The King and His Mission
So if this is a king unlike any other who is establishing a kingdom unlike any other, the question that begs asking is what is he doing? Or to put it another way, what is the mission of the king? Turn with me to Luke 4:14-21:

Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So here is the mission of this king who is establishing a new kind of a kingdom: Jesus says, “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he says in verse 21, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus makes the outrageous claim that what the prophet Isaiah wrote about some 700 years ago was about him. It was about Jesus being the king. It was about this king establishing his kingdom. And at the heart of this kingdom is a radical message of justice and peace. At the heart of the message of the king is the crazy notion that he is bringing good news to people who do not deserve it. It is good news to the poor and the downtrodden, the prisoners and criminals who have done wrong, the blind and the mute, those who have been pushed to the margins of society, the oppressed. This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the great news of the kingdom of God.

You see, the gospel is the gospel when it heals the sick and the brokenhearted. The gospel is the gospel when it sets the captives free from sin and bondage. The gospel is the gospel when the orphans, the widows, and the immigrants in our midst are loved and taken care of. The gospel is the gospel when the hungry are fed and the homeless are given shelter. The gospel is the gospel when the weak are made strong and we speak up for those who have no voice. The gospel is the gospel when the prodigals from every corner of the earth run home to the open arms of Jesus. The gospel is the gospel when the kingdom of God is ushered in not just in our church, but in our homes, in our schools, in our dorms, in our slums, in our companies, in our streets. Do you know this gospel? Are you living this gospel? Jesus is inviting us to experience the power of this gospel. Jesus is inviting us to drink deeply from the life of this gospel.

The King and His People
And in this new kind of a kingdom established by a new kind of a king, for a mission unlike any other, we see that this king is calling to himself a people unlike any other. If you were to read through the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – and you were to carefully study the words and actions of Jesus, this King Jesus, his ministry was radically oriented towards the most unlikely people. Jesus was constantly surrounded by a ragtag bunch of misfits and troublemakers, the sinners and the tax collectors, the prostitutes and the lepers. It was as if Jesus felt most at home being with people whom the world rejected. These are the people of the King. King Jesus says, “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So we saw the identity of the king. We saw that this king is unlike any other king, who is building a kingdom unlike any other. We saw that this king’s mission was to bring a radical message, the good news, to those who have been rejected by the world, and it is out of this collection of misfits and troublemakers that he is calling to himself his people, the people of the king.

Making the Mission of the King Our Mission
So what does this all mean for us today? Here we come to the meat of what I want to talk to you about tonight. What does it mean for us today that Jesus is king? What does it mean for us today that Jesus is establishing his kingdom? What does it mean for us today that this king has a radical orientation towards those in the margins of society?

What a king demands is not merely courtesy. What a king demands is not merely nice gestures. What a king demands is not merely good answers and good behavior. But what a king demands from his people is absolute allegiance. What a king demands from his people is complete submission and surrender.

So tonight, for those of us who would call ourselves Christians, let me ask you this: When you said “Yes” to Jesus, what exactly did you say “Yes” to? When you said “Yes” to Jesus, what did you mean by that? Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the first thing that you must realize is that in the kingdom of God, the king owns everything. The king owns your time. The king owns your energy. The king owns your money. Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the king owns your passions. The king owns your attitude towards the poor and the weak. The king owns your thought life. The king owns your sex life. Did you say “Yes” to King Jesus? Then the king owns how you make decisions about your career. The king owns the agenda you set for your life. When we said “Yes” to King Jesus, at the heart of that “Yes” was the setting aside of our own mission so that we can take up the mission of the king and make it our own. When we said “Yes” to King Jesus, at the heart of that “Yes” is the prayer, “Not my will, but yours be done!”

And King Jesus says that his mission is this: “I have come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” So how do we make this our mission?

You say, “Insoo, I am a student as OSU. I don’t really know many people who are poor.” “Insoo, I work at Starbucks so I don’t normally hang around a lot of prisoners.” “Insoo, I am a Doctor. And unfortunately, the neighborhood where I practice and where I live, I don’t see too many poor people.” How do we make the mission of the King Jesus our mission?

Well, I am not going to give you an easy out tonight. I am not going to say something easy like, “Give a few dollars to the poor.” I am not going to say something easy like, “Go spend a few hours in a prison and pray for them.” I am not going to give you an easy out tonight. Not because these are bad things. They are good things. But what is required for us to make the mission of King Jesus our mission is to not merely do the things that Jesus did, but we must also have the eyes of Jesus to see as he sees, and we must also have the heart of Jesus to feel as he feels. The actions of Jesus flowed out of deep conviction and deep passion. And it is only people who have deep convictions and deep passion that can change the world.

Discover Your Convictions and Passions
Some of you here tonight have huge convictions and huge passions. And you already know what King Jesus is asking of you. But what if you don’t? You’ve been living life following your friends around, taking the classes they are taking, majoring in the same things they are majoring in, working in the same place they are working in, so you’ve never had the opportunity to discover your convictions and your passions. Or maybe you grew up in a family where your grandfather was a lawyer, and your father was a lawyer, so the natural thing for you was to become a lawyer, so you’ve never had the opportunity to discover your convictions and your passions. And if that is you, there are two questions that you need to ask yourselves to discover your convictions and your passions:

The first question is this: What bothers you? As you look around the city, as you look around the world, what do you see that bothers you? As you look around the world, what makes your heart ache? As you look around the world, what brings tears to your eyes? As you look around the world, what pisses you off? What if that passion is not merely the result of your personality or upbringing? What if God put that there?

Maybe every time you see that commercial on TV about children dying of starvation in Africa, your eyes fill with tears and something in your heart screams for justice. What if God put that there? Maybe you see on the news a piece about a little girl who was abducted and was forced into sexual slavery, and you feel this rage rising up in you. What if God put that there? Maybe in your classroom, every time there is a discussion about immigration or maybe abortion, your heart begins to beat faster, and all you can think is, “It’s just not right!” What if God put that there?

So if you want to discover your convictions and your passions, the first question to ask yourself is this, “What bothers you?” The second question is, “What pain have you experienced in your life that God can use for his glory?”

For some of us here tonight, there may have been some painful moments and events that have largely shaped who we are today. If that is you, I believe that one of your greatest strengths can come from this place of weakness and brokenness. One of your greatest passions can flow out of that great pain you’ve experienced. And some of you have already experienced this. Your love for the poor grew out of experiencing poverty yourself as a child. Your passion for women who are going through crisis pregnancies flows out of your personal experience having gone through the same thing. Your heart for foster kids and homeless kids flows out of your experience having been adopted. I believe this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Our King Jesus can bring beauty out of pain. Our King Jesus can bring life out of suffering. Our King Jesus can cause all things to work for the good of those who love him.

So ask yourself, “As I look around the world, what is it that bothers me?” And, “What pain have I experienced in my life that God can use for his glory?”

What Now?
If that speaks to you, starting tonight, I challenge you to begin to pray for these things. And not just some vague prayer, but very specific prayer with two very specific questions: “God, I feel this passion for the children dying of starvation in Africa. God, I feel this burden for children in sexual slavery. God, I feel this passion for immigrants. God, I feel this passion for women in crisis pregnancies. What do you want me to do about it? That’s the first question. “What do you want me to do about it?” And the second question is, “God, who do you want me to do this with?” God, what do you want me to do, and who do you want me to do this with? You are asking God to give you your kingdom mission. And you are asking God to give you your kingdom team. And as God begins to bring clarity to your kingdom mission and your kingdom team, and when he says do it, may we each answer as Mary did when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word.”

And as you do it, people are going to begin asking you why. “Why are you doing this?” “Why are you doing that?” “Why does it matter so much to you?” And at that moment, you have a choice. You can choose to honor yourself or you can choose to honor your king. It’s so easy to not to talk about Jesus, isn’t it? It’s so much easier to leave Jesus out of it, isn’t it? But here is the thing: There is much good that you and I can accomplish for the king and his kingdom. We can use our passions and our skills and our talents to do great good in this world. But the reason that you and I pray, “Let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is because only Jesus can bring true freedom. Only Jesus can bring true healing. Only Jesus can bring true justice. Only Jesus! Only our King Jesus! So as Paul says in Colossians 3:17:

Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In God’s Kingdom, everyone has a place. In God’s Kingdom, everyone has a purpose. In God’s Kingdom, everyone has an assignment.

One of my favorite people in the Bible is King David. His is an amazing story of God choosing an ordinary person for an extraordinary task. His is an amazing story of a man who said “Yes” to his King. His is a story of man, an imperfect man, a sinful man, who lived out his passion and conviction for God. His is a story of a man who understood his kingdom mission. And it says in Acts 13:36:

Acts 13:16
David served the purpose of God in his generation.

David lived to serve the purpose of God in his generation. And David died having fulfilled his God-given kingdom mission in his generation. Joshua House, may we serve our King Jesus and his mission with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. May we live as the people of King Jesus! May we serve the purpose of God in our generation!

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

This Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season. In the church year, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner!

I love this season. I really do. I love to see families and friends come together to celebrate and catch up after a year of being apart. I love to decorate the Christmas tree and drink $10 cups of holiday drink from Starbucks. But you know what I am beginning to hate more and more every year? I’m sure many of you here will relate to this. I hate the crazy long lines no matter which store you go to. I don’t know where these people are during the rest of the year, but they all show up at the one store that I want to go to, and of course, they buy the very things that I am trying to buy.

Somewhere in history, Christmas has become the best friend of the retail industry. The National Retail Federation expects consumers to spend $437 billion this Christmas. Compare that number to $2.7 billion that was given to victims of hurricane Katrina or the $2.8 billion that was given to 9/11 charities.

Advent originated as a period of fasting in preparation for Christmas. And while many Christians still do practice fasting during Lent in preparation for Easter, this practice of fasting in preparation for Christmas has largely been forgotten. Advent is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is the celebration of Immanuel, God with us. Advent is also a time to meditate on the second coming Christ. But somewhere along the way in history, Advent has been trumped by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What should be a season of waiting and fasting has become a season of stuffing.

We live in the midst of the greatest wealth this planet has ever known, and yet, we are some of the most miserable people that have ever lived. It appears that somehow, as we’ve become more efficient in living life, as we’ve become more adapt at doing things faster and better, as we’ve become more affluent, we are paying the price in the loss of deep and meaningful relationships, we are paying the price in lack of civility, we are paying the price in taking life for granted. And the greatest price we are paying as a civilization is that God is being pushed further and further into the margins of society.

For the past 11 weeks we have been doing a series called “Your Gospel is Too Small.” You and I have been given this incredible gift, this miraculous gift of salvation, this amazing invitation to become a new creation in Jesus Christ and to partner with the creator of the world to make all things new. And we have taken this great gospel and have turned it into religion. We know just enough about the gospel to make us conscious of our sinfulness, but we haven’t dived in fully, we haven’t surrendered fully, we haven’t been drinking fully of the abundance that awaits those who dare to risk it all for the kingdom of God, to experience not merely the suffering, but as Paul says, to experience the “power of his resurrection.” This gospel of Jesus Christ embodies the fullness of love, healing, forgiveness, generosity, justice, compassion, and welcome. And today, as we conclude this series, I want to talk to you today about what I believe to be one of the most important, and yet also the most neglected, practice of an authentic Christian, and that is thanksgiving, gratitude, saying thank you to Jesus! So today’s message is entitled, “Greater Thanks.” Let’s pray.

Please turn with me to the book of Luke 17:11-19. If you do not have a Bible, please feel free to grab a Bible from either side of the stage. We are going to be really digging into these 9 verses today.

Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

The Setting
Let’s look at this verse by verse. In verse 11, we see the setting of this story.

Luke 17:11
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

We see Jesus traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee, ultimately to his final destination, Jerusalem, where he will be crucified on a cross. For 33 years of life, including 3 years of public ministry, everything in the life of Jesus has been leading him here. Jesus is on a mission to establish the kingdom of God here on earth. But first, “he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” Jesus knows that there is a cross that awaits him at the end of this journey, yet his focus is resolute. There is an urgency in his walks now. His aim and his goal is clear. He can see on the horizon, a cross. So it is with this backdrop that this story we see today is taking place.

The Ten Lepers
And as he is walking with resolve, with purpose, with a sense of urgency, as he is walking, Jesus encounters ten lepers and he stops.

Luke 17:12
As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance

We are introduced to ten men with leprosy. We are given no other details about these men other than the fact that they have leprosy. We are not given their names. We do not know how old they are. We do not know if they had family. All that we are told is that these men have leprosy. Leprosy is their identity. The whole of their existence has been boiled down to a disease. And there is good reason.

Leprosy is caused by bacteria that attacks the nerve endings and destroys the body’s ability to feel pain and injury. Leprosy would begin with little specks on the eyelids and on the palms of the hand. Then it would slowly spread over the whole body. And once it reaches the nerves, it will take away your ability to feel pain so that you won’t know if you are stepping on a nail; you won’t know if your hand is too close to the fire; you won’t know if there is a cut in your body that needs attention. So over time, one by one, your fingers and toes become shortened and deformed and your body becomes covered with injuries. You are literally wasting away.

But even with all of these physical ailments that a leper would experience, the greatest punishment of leprosy is not physical.

In the time of this story, since there was no treatment of any kind, lepers were confined to leper colonies, forced to live outside the walls of the city, and there, far away from the rest of humanity, you were sentenced to live out your days. And if you ventured out of the colony, you had to walk at least six feet away from other people. And to do this, you carried bells or clappers to alert others while yelling, “Unclean! Unclean!” You were not invited to parties or weddings. You were not allowed to enter the temple courts to worship. And if that wasn’t bad enough, people thought that anyone who was suffering from leprosy was experiencing the divine wrath of God. So not only were you rejected by society, but you were also thought to have been rejected by God himself. Leper’s life is one marked by rejection and isolation. It was such a horrific disease that in the Bible, leprosy is often used as the ultimate expression of an outcast. The greatest punishment of leprosy is not physical.

So here are these ten lepers, destitute, despised, and desperate. Have you ever felt that way before? Maybe some of us feel like that right now. And if that speaks to you, I have some amazing news for you! Jesus came to seek and save people just like us! You see, this is exactly what the gospel is all about.

The gospel is the gospel when it heals the sick and the brokenhearted. The gospel is the gospel when it sets the captives free from sin and bondage. The gospel is the gospel when the orphans, the widows, and the immigrants in our midst are loved and taken care of. The gospel is the gospel when the hungry are fed and the homeless are given shelter. The gospel is the gospel when the weak are made strong and we speak up for those who have no voice. The gospel is the gospel when the prodigals from every corner of the earth run home to the open arms of Jesus. The gospel is the gospel when the kingdom of God is ushered in not just in our churches, but in our homes, in our schools, in our slums, in our companies, in our streets.

Do you know this gospel? Are you living this gospel? Jesus is inviting us to experience the power of this gospel. Jesus is inviting us to drink deeply from the life of this gospel. But we so often settle for mere trickles. The gospel is so much greater!

The Desperate Cry
These ten lepers, without a name, they hear that Jesus is going to be walking by. And we read this in verse 13:

Luke 17:13
and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

The ten desperate lepers have no concerns about propriety. They don’t care about saying the right things, or asking in the right way. They don’t care about what someone else might think of them for behaving in this crude manner. They don’t care about any of that. Desperation causes people to take drastic measures. But in our age of affluence, we are often too proud to admit that we have a need. For some of you, you feel this desperation in your heart for Jesus, but your pride will not allow you to say, “Jesus, I need you!” And to you, this is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:3:

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

The kingdom of heaven belongs not to the proud, not to the self-sufficient, not to those who can pull themselves up by the bootstraps. No, the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit does not mean weakness, or shyness, or gutless. To be poor in spirit does not mean that the person thinks that he or she has no self-worth. But a person who is poor in spirit is someone who humbly acknowledges his unworthiness before God, someone who realizes that they have absolutely nothing within themselves to commend them to God. Desperate, the poor in spirit kneels before God in humility because he knows that that is the entryway into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God belongs to the poor in spirit.

Some of you need to cry out to Jesus today. Some of you need to swallow your pride, set aside what others might think of you. Like the lepers, some of you need to cry out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on me!”

The Miracle of Healing
And Jesus, with love and compassion in his heart, responds to the ten lepers, and they experience the miracle of healing. Verse 14:

Luke 17:14
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

The sight of these ten lepers fills Jesus with love and compassion. He stops from whatever he is doing and he interacts with them. He treats these lepers with dignity and love - something they have not felt in a very, very long time! He tells them to go see the priests. And in commanding the lepers to show themselves to the priests, Jesus was simply following what was required by the law as we see in Leviticus 14. The priests would carefully examine the person who had any sort of infectious skin disease, and if the priest deemed that he has been healed, he would declare that the person would be restored back to society.

So when the ten lepers hear this command to show themselves to the priests, they know what this means. Can you just imagine what’s going through their mind? Can you imagine the expression on their faces? Can you see hope rising in their hearts again?

And we read that it was as they stepped out in obedience that they were healed.

Luke 17:14
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

There is an interesting contrast here from another leper that Jesus healed earlier in the book of Luke:

Luke 5:12-13
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Here, we see another leper who encounters Jesus, and his healing is very different. It involves physical touch, and the healing is immediate. But for whatever reason, which we are not told, Jesus takes a different approach to healing here. I think we can safely say that Jesus will heal in any way that he sees fit.

But going back to the ten lepers in today’s passage, what is noteworthy is that they were healed as they stepped out in obedience. There is something incredibly powerful about being obedient to God regardless of our circumstances.

The Grateful Samaritan
Let’s read on. Verses 15 and 16.

Luke 17:15-16
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

So here is the heart of this passage, the very central teaching moment of this whole section. This is the very reason why this story is in the Bible. And it is about gratitude, about thanksgiving, about saying thank you to Jesus! Something so elementary, so simple, so small, and yet, so incredibly important, so incredibly powerful, so central to what it means to be a Christian.

My wife and I are the proud parents of two incredibly energetic and passionate boys. The oldest, Elliot, is three years old. And the younger one, Isaiah, is one. And believe it or not, while they may look like angels, kids are born with this amazing ability to make their parents go bald. And for you who have not yet experienced the joy of parenthood, you may not believe this but kids don’t always listen to what you have to say. It’s like they have a mind of their own. Parenting is by far, hands down, the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. All the sleepless nights, all the worrying about their health and development, all the prayers for their safety and protection, all the fears about whether or not you are actually a good parent or not, do you know what makes it all worth it for me? It is that illusive, rare moment when one of them would look me right in the eye and say, “Thank you, daddy!” No matter how crabby of a day I may have, no matter how worried I may be about our finances, our future, our ability to provide for them everything they need, no matter what, when I hear those words, “Thank you, daddy!” my heart just melts! And here is the thing: I know that they don’t fully understand what they are saying, especially the one-year old, who can barely even say the words. It doesn’t matter. Something in my heart leaps when I hear those words. Simply put, “Thank you!” is one of the most powerful things that you can say to someone!

So, what is it about gratitude, about thanksgiving, that makes it so powerful?

The Definition of Gratitude
The word gratitude is derived from the Latin gratia, meaning “favor,” and gratus, meaning “pleasing.” All derivatives from this Latin root have to do with gifts, generosity, and of giving and receiving. The French language is especially rich in expressions having to do with gratitude. And the term “reconnaissance” comes from a French word meaning investigating and exploring for the purpose of gathering information. While we may be familiar with its usage in a military sense, when used in the context of gratitude, it means to investigate and explore one’s life for the purpose of seeing to whom thanks should be given. Did you catch that? Gratitude means to investigate and explore one’s life for the purpose of seeing to whom thanks should be given. So gratitude is the active work of recognizing and acknowledging. It is more than just being polite. It is more than just being nice. Gratitude is hard work! It is to do the work of reconnaissance of our lives to recognize and acknowledge, to actively seek out where thanks should be given.

And at the heart of gratitude is the recognition of the relationship. Gratitude is inherently interpersonal. For there to be gratitude, there needs to be more than just one person involved. In other words you cannot thank yourself! “Well, Insoo, I want to thank myself for buying myself a brand new iPhone for my Christmas present. That was unbelievably generous of me! Thank me! Thank me! Thank me so much!” So, if you find yourself thanking yourself a lot, maybe, you probably don’t have this gratitude thing down just right.

The Necessity of Gratitude
So if gratitude is the active work of recognition and acknowledgement, why is it so important? Why is gratitude necessary?

In recent years, there has been a tremendous amount of study being done on the issue of gratitude. And one of the foremost experts in the field is a man named Robert Emmons who is a professor at the University of California, Davis. And he and a few of his colleagues have done groundbreaking research in this area and what they discovered is that experiencing gratitude leads to increased feelings of connectedness, improved relationships, and even altruism. They found that when people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving, and closer to God. They also found that grateful people are less lonely. In other words, gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably change your life!

Gratitude is how we train hands to stop reaching for more. Gratitude is how we train our hearts to stop desiring after more. We tend to lose sight of all that we already have, for the want of what we wish we could have. This is that sinful part of our human condition. Wasn’t that, after all, what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden? Gratitude empowers us to want what we already have! Gratitude empowers you to live life with an open hand instead of a closed fist!

Centuries ago, the philosopher Cicero argued that among all the virtues, gratitude is “the parent of all the others,” a virtue that begets other virtues. Learning to become grateful has transformational effect on every part of your character. To put it another way, gratitude is one of the primary ways that you and I can become more like Jesus. So, do you want to be a more patient person? Work on gratitude. Do you want to become more compassionate? Work on gratitude? Do you want to experience more peace and joy? Work on gratitude. Do you want to grow in kindness? Work on gratitude.

Jonathan Edwards, arguably one of the greatest theologians, noted that what one believes about God is far less important than the feelings one held toward God. For Edwards, gratitude was the sign of true spirituality, the yardstick by which authentic faith could be measured. You can know all the doctrines, the creeds, and Scripture of the Christian faith, but if that knowledge doesn’t lead to gratitude in your heart towards God, then all you have is information. Relationship, on the other hand, takes a lot more than just data.

The theologian Karl Barth wrote that:

Grace and gratitude go together like heaven and earth.

It is simply impossible to profess to be a Christian and not have a profoundly grateful heart, for at the heart of the Christian faith is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the heart of the Christian faith is the humble acknowledgment that what truly matters is not what I do, but what Jesus did on that cross. How can we not be grateful? How can we not praise God in thanksgiving? How can we not fall at the feet of Jesus and say, like the Samaritan, “Thank you, Jesus!”?

The Sin of Ingratitude
We see in 2 Timothy 3:2 that ingratitude is one of the sins of those who have fallen away from the faith:

2 Timothy 3:2
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy

And we read this in Romans 1:20-21:

Romans 1:20-21
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God [information], they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.

Ingratitude is a sin. Just as gratitude begets other virtues, ingratitude also begets other vices. Ingratitude leads inevitably to a confining, restricting, and shrinking of the person.

The Cost of Gratitude
In choosing to return to Jesus, the Samaritan was making a costly decision. What awaited the ten lepers upon being examined by the priest was the invitation to be restored back to society, to be normal again, to be accepted again. And when this Samaritan returned to Jesus, he was, in actuality, saying that thanking Jesus was more important than anything else in this world. While the nine were obsessed with the gift of healing, this one Samaritan was obsessed with the giver behind the gift. Seeking the giver and not the gift; to thank God not merely for what he has done but who he is. This is the greater thanks! This is exactly why we see over and over again throughout the Bible this refrain: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Greater thanks is not merely a delight in the benefits that God gives, though that is part of it. Greater thanks is more than merely counting your blessings, though that is part of it. Greater thanks is rooted in something else that comes first, namely, a delight in who God is. A sign of a mature Christian is that he or she seeks after the giver more than the gift.

Look at these two verses with me:

Ephesians 5:19-20
speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Give thanks in all circumstances! All circumstances! Always give thanks to God for everything. You cannot do that if you are merely counting your blessings. In order to give thanks in all circumstances, you must look beyond the gift to the giver. It is the relationship that will empower you to give thanks in all circumstances.

Let me share quickly share just three things to help you grow in gratitude:

First, become a generous person. Generosity and gratitude go hand in hand. Grateful people are generous people. One great paradox of gratitude is that gratitude increases as you give. If you are finding it difficult to sense gratitude, this holiday season, I want to challenge you to give. Give of your time, give of your energy, give of your talents, give of your money. Give as much as you can as often as you can, and when you think you can’t give any more, give some more! Become a generous person.

Second, set aside just 15 minutes at the end of each day to do a reconnaissance of your life, to actively examine your life to see to whom thanks should be given. Before going to bed, examine your day. What happened? Who did you see? What did you say? What didn’t you say? Do you need to reconcile with anyone? Do you need to thank someone?

Third, regularly confess your sins to God. The power of confession or sins is that we are reminded not merely how sinful we are, but how gracious our God is. True confession leads not to despair, but thanksgiving!

The Thankless Followers
So this Samaritan, this foreigner, this leper, comes to Jesus and thanks him. And here is what Jesus says in response:

Luke 17:17-18
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

So the question for us today is this: Are you a grateful person? If you were to ask someone who knew you well, would they say that you are a grateful person? How much of your prayer life is devoted to saying “Thank you!” to Jesus? Do you regularly come to God with a praise of thanksgiving, or do you find it difficult to give thanks to God? Are you the one or are you the nine? Maybe, right now, you are in the midst of chemotherapy, desperately fighting for your life. Maybe, right now, you are in the midst of getting a divorce from your spouse of 25 years, or maybe you are desperately fighting for your marriage. Maybe, right now, you are struggling financially, and you are desperately trying to make ends meet. And if that is you, my challenge to you is to practice radical gratitude - choose gratitude anyway! Choose to give thanks through the pain. Choose to worship God through the suffering. Choose to love God through the trials. Choose to be obedient to the very end! No matter what! No matter what! Why? Because God sees. Why? Because God knows and he understands. Why? Because radical gratitude moves the heart of God. Why? Because Jesus is alive! He is alive and he has overcome the world! How can we not praise God? How can we not thank God? How can we not love God?

The Miracle of Salvation
And while in verse 14 we saw the incredible miracle of healing, here in verse 19, we see an even greater miracle, the miracle of salvation.

Luke 17:19
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Did you know that you can be physically healthy and not be well? Did you know that you can be in perfect physical condition and not be well? You can have buns of steel and everything! Did you know that you can run marathons and compete in triathlons and still not be well? Did you know that? In order to be well, the healing must go deeper than just our skin. What Jesus is offering is not merely healing, but a transformation from the inside out. This is the gospel!

This Advent season, let me challenge all of us here today to make it your goal to become a radically grateful person. Let us not remember merely what God has done, but who he is! How can we not be thankful? How can we not be grateful? How can we not say “Thank you, Jesus!” Let us give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever! Let’s pray.

[Painting of Paul preaching in Athens by Raffaello Raphael Sanzio]

This fall, I am leading the preaching mentoring class for 9 first-year students at Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI). Since this is my first time leading a preaching mentoring class, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some thoughts on what I am learning in the process of teaching others how to preach.

First, a quick overview of the class: We are meeting once a week for 7 weeks. Each class begins with a short teaching followed by 3 students who will preach a 15-minute sermon, which is then followed by a 15-minute evaluation. With this schedule, each student will preach 2 sermons. For the first sermon everyone will preach from the same passage (Luke 5:1-11). And for the second sermon, the student can choose whatever passage they want. Here is what the schedule looks like:

1. Introduction
2. Objective of Preaching
3. Text and Thesis
4. Structure and Flow
5. Introductions and Conclusions
6. Illustrations and Applications
7. Open Q&A

For the class text, I am using the VLI Preaching Manual written by Steve Robbins (director of VLI) as well as the Preaching Manual that Rich Nathan wrote which I referenced HERE.

What I Learned After Week One
The 9 students that make up the class are quite diverse. They vary greatly in age, stage of life, as well as spiritual maturity. For the first class I did a brief introduction and spent the rest of the time letting each student share their story. And one of the themes that kept on coming up is the utter fear and great joy expressed by many students who were asking, "Can I really do this?"

Do you remember the first time that you got to preach? I do.

I remember staying up late many nights writing and rewriting and then rewriting some more. I remember feeling absolutely terrified sitting there in the front row before it was my time to walk up to the stage. I remember looking through all my notes a dozen times to make sure that none of the pages were missing, as if someone would actually want to steal them! I remember that my heart was pounding so hard for the first few minutes that it was making me stumble over my words. I remember thinking, "Who let me up here?" And then somewhere in the middle of my sermon, as I began to find my rhythm, I remember the fear slowly subsiding and this great joy begin to rise within me. And I remember thinking, "I can't believe that I get to do this!"

It seems to me, that for many of us, as we become more "experienced" in preaching, we begin to take for granted this awesome question, "Can I really do this?" Somewhere along the way, we become "competent" and we begin to lose sight of the grandeur of it all. Somewhere along the way, we find a working method in our preparation and delivery, and it becomes "routine." Somewhere along the way, the fear begins to dissipate. But so does the joy.

If this describes you, I would encourage you take a minute today and try to remember what it felt like to preach your very first sermon. Ask yourself again and again, "Can I really do this?" because I do not believe that we were ever meant to get to a place where we become "proficient" (or worse yet, "self-sufficient") in our preaching. And if you want to find that fear and joy in your preaching again, try teaching someone who has never preached before.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes this in his Preaching & Preachers:

To me the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.

This is how I feel today. And by the grace of God, I hope that 40-50 years from now, I am still asking, "Can I really do this?"

Last week, Vineyard Columbus launched its first ever satellite campus. We are thrilled to report that the campus drew over 470 people! Beyond just the numbers, we are hearing some amazing stories of people who stepped into a church for the very first time, people experiencing the love of Jesus for the very first time.

Today, I am reminded again of these words of Jesus: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

On September 13th, Vineyard Columbus will be launching its first ever satellite campus in Sawmill, about 15 minutes from the main campus in Westerville.

In its 20 years as a church, Vineyard Columbus has planted over 25 churches, but this is the very first satellite campus. Unlike a church plant, the satellite campus will still be a part of Vineyard Columbus, sharing its mission and vision, as well as the leadership and resources. The campus will have its own campus pastor with local small groups. We will video tape the sermon from the Saturday night service to show at the satellite campus on Sunday morning.

So, why a satellite campus instead of a church plant? One of the biggest reasons is that the satellite campus model will create more service opportunities for people who may have a desire to step out but may feel uncomfortable joining a new church plant. It has most of the benefits of planting a church, but with lower risks. Here are some stats about the multi-site churches according to the Christian Standard:

In 1990, there were 10 multi-site churches. In 1998, there were 100 multi-site churches. In 2004, there were 1,500 multi-site churches. Today, one out of four megachurches is multi-site. Additionally, 33 percent of all churches are considering multi-site, seven of the 10 fastest-growing churches are multi-site, and nine of the 10 largest churches are multi-site.

Vineyard Columbus will still plant churches and send out missionaries. But this new model will give us one more tool in our toolbox to develop passionate, mature, reproducing disciples of Jesus.

CLICK HERE for more information about the Sawmill Campus.

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Standing at 29,029 feet, Mt. Everest is the highest peak on the planet! And it was on May 29, 1953, at 11:30am that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people ever to climb this glorious peak. And since that day, there have been over 2700 people who have reached the summit of Mt. Everest. And while these 2700 people were able to go back home with some pretty amazing bragging rights, there are over 200 people who have perished attempting this treacherous climb, of which there are close to 150 bodies that were never recovered.

The quest to climb Mt. Everest demands the absolute best of those who attempt it. It takes over a year just to prepare your body and mind to make this climb as you are stretched to the absolute limits of what you can handle mentally and physically. And not only the training, but the financial burden is no small matter, as the required permit alone costs over $20k. Not to mention all the equipment and supplies. The quest to climb Mt. Everest means that everything else in your life takes a backseat. For a solid year, anyone who dares to climb Mt. Everest must have a singular focus. It demands everything of those who dare to climb.

When George Mallory, a mountaineer who made three attempts to climb Mt. Everest was asked why he wanted so badly to climb this treacherous mountain, he quickly and simply replied, “Because it’s there!” “Because it’s there!” This statement has been called “the most famous three words in mountaineering.”

Whether it’s Mt. Everest or the K2, the grandeur of the highest mountains beckons us upward. Even for those of us for whom climbing means taking the escalator from the first floor to the second floor at Easton, there is something deep within us that is moved beyond words when we behold the splendor of the highest peaks on the planet, as if God dwelled there.

Last week, John Cook started a new teaching series entitled, “Called to Worship.” And he talked about what worship is and how we are to worship as the living body of Christ. And today, as we finish up this series, I want to shift focus from the act of worship to look at the worshipper; to move from the activity of worship to the person who is doing the worshipping. Because, as John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement said:

We learned that what happens when we are alone with the Lord determines how intimate and deep the worship will be when we come together.

What if worship is more than what we do at church? What if, in fact, worship is more about what happens from Monday through Friday? What if what God is really after is not so much about what we do, but rather, who we are becoming? What if, more than the act of worshipping, what truly touches the heart of God is the kind of worshipper we are becoming? What if?

I want to spend the brief time that we have together to ask a question which I believe to be the most important question that any person can ask. And so today, borrowing from the passage that we will be studying, I’ve entitled my sermon, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?”

So before we dig into Scripture, please bow your heads with me in prayer. Let’s pray.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Psalm 24. If you do not have a Bible, we have Bibles on either side of the stage, so please feel free to come up and grab one.

Psalm 24:1-10
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory.

The Premise
What a marvelous passage! The Psalmist begins with a broad sweeping statement that sets the stage for all that is to follow. He writes in verses 1 and 2 these words:

Psalm 24:1-2
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.

The Psalmist says first that before any attempt is made to ask that question of questions, we must first understand the premise. And in his mind, everything revolves around the fact that there is a God, and that he created the earth. And not only the earth, but all who live in it, you and me, we, too, have been formed by the mighty hands of this creator God. It starts there.

As Christians we believe that there is a God. As Christians we believe that this God is a God of love. We believe that he created the heavens and the earth and all who live in it. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe that he came to seek and save the lost. We believe that he died and that he rose again from the dead. As Christians we believe that there will come a day when Jesus will return, that day of days when he will sit on his glorious throne, where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord! And so as Christians, we worship. We worship God!

Because God exists, worship exists! Worship is God-centeredness. Worship is to be consumed with who God is. Worship is the forgetting of ourselves in remembering who God is and what he has done. Worship is the movement from apathy to awe. Worship, from start to finish, is all about God, all for God, and all to God. Worship begins and ends with God! Because God exists, worship exists! And this is the premise upon which we ask this question of questions.

The Question of Questions
The Psalmist writes in verse 3:

Psalm 24:3
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?

If there indeed is a God, if indeed he made the earth, and if indeed he made you and me, really is there a greater question that we can ask than this one? Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

This is the cry of every generation! And this is the fundamental question that every single religion is trying to answer: Who is able to meet with God? Or to put it another way: Who is that man, woman, or child, who can see God?

This is the question that has consumed mankind ever since the great fall in the Garden of Eden. Since that day, in an attempt to ascend this mountain of the Lord, to stand in his holy presence, to see God, we’ve created Golden Calves, we’ve built the Tower of Babel, we’ve built monasteries, we’ve made pilgrimages to the Holy City, we’ve built $9 billion dollar particle accelerators to collide subatomic matters. All because we want to see God!

Who is the mighty man or woman who can scale the towering heights of the Mountain of the Lord? Let us examine ourselves today and ask, “Is it me?”

The Answer May Surprise You
So what is the answer to this question of questions? Well, I think the answer may surprise you. The Psalmist declares that what God is after are not the strong people, the smart people, the self-confident people, the successful people, the accomplished people, or even the religious people. But this is what we read in verse 4:

Psalm 24:4
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

What God is after, what God is longing for, what God is searching for are people who have clean hands and a pure heart, people who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false God. So what does it mean to have clean hands?

In the Bible, hands are used in many different symbolic ways. To shake hands is to enter into a formal agreement, to clap hands is to celebrate, to put one’s hand over his mouth signifies silence, to put one’s hand over his head means grief. And of course, to lift “holy hands” is an act of worship. So, the question we are asking today is, “Are these hands, these ‘holy’ hands that we raise to God, clean hands?”

And what about pure heart? What does it mean to be pure in heart? Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, says this:

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The gospel of Jesus is first and foremost concerned about the heart. All of the emphasis in the teachings of Jesus is centered around the heart of a person. Why? Because the heart is the fount out of which everything else flows. It is the origin of all of our words and our actions. So we read in Luke 6:43-45:

Luke 6:43-45
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

It is out of the heart that all that is good, lovely, and beautiful comes. But the heart is also where the darkest parts of who we are reside. So, we read in Matthew 15:19:

Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

When someone murders, when someone has an affair, when someone lies, all those actions have their origins not in the brain or the eyes, but the heart.

A pure heart is a heart that is without hypocrisy, a heart that has absolutely nothing to hide. A pure heart is an undivided heart. And is it not the divided heart that is the fundamental problem for us in attempting to ascend this mountain of the Lord? “I want so much to see God but my eyes keep wandering!” So how clean are your hands? How pure is your heart?

Four Costly Offerings of Those Who Dare to Climb
There is a great story in the Bible where King David wanted to build an altar to the Lord so that he can offer sacrifices to God. So he looks around for a land to buy where he can build this altar. And as he approaches this plot of land that looks promising, the owner comes out and he immediately falls flat on his face. King David tells him that he is looking for a land to build an altar to the Lord, and upon hearing this, the owner tells King David that he can have absolutely anything he wants for free. And this is what King David says:

2 Samuel 24:24
I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.

What have you offered God lately that cost you something? When was the last time that you gave God something that was actually painful for you to give? When was the last time that you actually deprived yourself of something to honor God? When was the last time that you offered God an actual “sacrifice” of praise, worship that cost you something?

For those who dare to climb the mountain of the Lord, what God is asking of you is for an offering that costs you something! The journey up the mountain is a costly endeavor. And there are four costly offerings that are required of those who dare to climb:

1. The Costly Offering of Repentance
So, the first costly offering of those who dare to climb is repentance. To be that person who can ascend the mountain of the Lord, we must first deal with our sin. The great pastor and author John Stott said this:

Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony

There is a time in our worship to be joyful, to be loud, and to celebrate. But there are also times where the most worshipful thing that we can offer God is repentance. Sometimes the loudest worship is profoundly silent!

Here is one thing that I would recommend you try: Instead of rushing to church and running in as worship begins, what if you made it a point to arrive at church just 15 minutes before service begins just to sit here in silence before God while holding the communion elements in your hands, to reflect on your week, to pray, and repent. To sit alone with God for just 15 minutes a week, if you take this seriously, it will revolutionize your life! Worship will take on a whole new dimension in your life. Just 15 minutes every week! I double dare you to try!

Have you learned to despise sin in your life? Have you matured enough as a Christian to absolutely hate sin? Have you put to death your sins?

Romans 8:13
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

To become a person who has clean hands and a pure heart, we must, by the Spirit of God, put to death the sin in our life.

2. The Costly Offering of Self-Denial
The second costly offering for those who dare to climb is self-denial. Going back to Psalm 24, here is what we read in verse 4:

Psalm 24:4
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

Self-denial means removing the idols from your life, removing the false gods in your life, starting first with yourself.

Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

So what are the idols in your life? What are the things that you’ve put up on a pedestal? It is easy to point out things like sexual immorality, lust, and greed. We say, “Of course we need to remove those idols!” But what about the idol of comfort, the idol of safety and security, the idol of marriage, the idol of family? Sometimes the biggest idol in our life is a good thing which simply takes the place of that greatest thing, which is God.

Let’s take, for instance, money. It is arguably the great idol in most of our lives. To remove an idol, you must break the stronghold that it has on your heart. And if money is your idol, I think the best way to loosen its grip is to give it away, as much as you possibly can, as often as you possibly can, to the point that it hurts a little bit. If you haven’t been tithing, start there. And if you are already tithing, try this: Every year, give just 1% more. If you are giving 10%, start giving 11% next year, and then 12% the year after. So that 10 years from now, you are giving 20% to God. Can you imagine giving 20% to God when the average American gives only 3.2%? The truth is, the more we make, the less we give. Period. What better way to loosen the stronghold of money in our lives than to become that person who gives away more and more each and every year?

To remove the idols in our lives, we must radically orient our lives toward God, and we must often find ourselves humbly on our knees before God, that most fundamental posture of the Christian. Have you humbly kneeled before God lately or have you been kneeling before idols?

3. The Costly Offering of Perseverance
The third costly offering of those who dare to climb is perseverance. Anybody can climb anything once. But what truly distinguishes the pros from the amateurs is perseverance, that ability to climb again and again and again. To persevere means to become a marathon runner rather than a sprinter. To persevere means delayed gratification, paying the price now to receive that glorious prize at the end.

James 1:12
Blessed are those who persevere under trial, because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Maybe some of you are on the verge of giving up. Maybe some of you have given up already. And if that is you, I want to say to you gently, kindly, sincerely, “Get up!” Get up! Get up and climb again! There is no failure so big, there is no hurt so huge, there is no sin so great, that God cannot redeem you, that God cannot restore you, that God cannot use you again. So, get up and climb!

4. The Costly Offering of Faith
So far we talked about the costly offering of repentance, self-denial, and perseverance. But none of that means anything without faith! More than anything else, what is required of those who dare to climb is faith!

Because here is the rub: No matter how hard you try, no matter how much you repent, no matter how much you deny yourself, no matter how you persevere, it is ultimately God who gives us the clean hands and a pure heart. You cannot do this on your own. You simply cannot do this on your own. The whole notion of clean hands and a pure heart is reserved purely for people of faith, those who put their trust in Jesus, and him alone!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher at Westminster Chapel, said this about the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taught, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The Sermon on the Mount… comes to us and says, “There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”

In other words, as we read in Proverbs 20:9:

Proverbs 20:9
Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

Who among us is sinless here today? Who among us can keep our hearts pure? We cannot do it. We simply cannot do it! But thanks be to God because:

Matthew 19:26
With human beings this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

It is God alone who is ultimately able to give us clean hands and a pure heart. It is ultimately God alone who can make us into true worshippers. And what we are called to do is to humbly kneel before Jesus, that most fundamental posture of the Christian, and echo that prayer of David:

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a pure heart, O God.

It is God who cleans hands and purifies the hearts. And the means with which he does this is faith. To become the kind of people who can ascend the mountain of the Lord requires faith. Well, to climb at all is an act of faith, isn’t it? That’s why we read in Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Those who dare to climb the mountain of the Lord, those who dare to stand in his holy presence, those who dare to see God, they do so by faith!

So no matter where you are today, by faith in Christ Jesus, you, too, can ascend the mountain of the Lord. You, too, can stand in his holy presence. You, too, can see God! You, too, can worship God! By faith!

The Reward for Those Who Climb
The Psalmist writes in verses 5 and 6, these words:

Psalm 24:5-6
They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.

The great reward for those who climb is blessing and vindication. So, what is blessing? What does it mean to be blessed? Well, contrary to popular belief, to be blessed does not mean that you get to drive around in a Mercedes with a bumper sticker that says, “Too Blessed to be Stressed!”

To be blessed means to be approved by God! To be blessed means that God is smiling down on you. To be blessed means to receive the “applause of heaven.” He is approved by God. And there is no other approval that is more significant than this approval which comes from God, the creator of the Universe, he who made us, he who knows us intimately, he who has no beginning and no end, he who holds all things in his hands. To be approved by God, he is indeed a blessed person! This is the reward reserved for those who dare to climb.

And then we read that he will not only receive blessing from the Lord, but that he will also be vindicated. So what exactly does it mean to receive vindication? Well, to be vindicated means to be justified, to be acquitted, to be exonerated. Vindication is something that is reserved for those who have been unjustly blamed and punished. So, how exactly does this apply to us? Why do we even need vindication? For what? From whom?

Living as salt and light in this world is not always easy. There will be times when people will mock you, when people will insult you, when people will laugh at you, when people will persecute, when people may even try to kill you because of your faith. Actually, Jesus tells us that this is a part of what it means to live by faith. So, when by faith, you choose to live a life of obedience to God, when you choose to save sex for marriage, when you choose to have that baby instead of getting an abortion, when you choose to tithe even when you are struggling financially, when you choose to obey God even when it costs you something, or maybe even everything, I challenge you to persevere, I challenge you to not give up, because God will bring vindication.

Those with clean hands and a pure heart, this is the generation that is seeking after God. Can you, today, say this of yourself? Can we say this of Vineyard Columbus? Are we that generation, who with clean hands and a pure heart, are ascending the mountain of the Lord?

The Prayer of Worship
The Psalmist concludes this wonderful Psalm with a prayer of worship.

Psalm 24:7-10
Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory.

The Psalmist, with eyes of faith, sees Jesus! With eyes of faith, he sees Jesus who ascends up a different kind of a mountain, a hill where he is nailed to a cross. With eyes of faith he sees that it is only because Jesus ascended that mountain that we are able to ascend the mountain of the Lord. With eyes of faith, he sees Jesus, and he cries out, “Who is this King of glory? The Lord almighty – he is the King of glory!” This is the prayer of all our worship!

One of the most striking stories in the Bible, for me, is found in Luke chapter 7. It is the story about a woman, who the author Luke makes the deliberate point to describe as a “sinful woman.” This woman hears that Jesus was eating at the house of this religious leader, a gathering where people of her caliber were clearly not welcome. But still, she must see Jesus. As she gets closer to this house where Jesus is eating, she sees that there is a crowd gathered around this house. And seeing the crowd, her heart sinks. She sees how people are looking at her with disgust in their eyes. She can feel on her skin their indignant judgment. She can taste in her mouth their foul whispers and murmurs. But still, she pushes through. She has come here on a mission. She makes her way through the crowd, carrying in her hands the most valuable thing that she owns, a jar of perfume that is worth about a year’s wages. And quietly, with love and adoration in her heart and tears of joy in her eyes, she walks right up to Jesus, gets on her knees, and begins to clean the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair. And after all the dirt has been wiped clean from his feet, she gently kisses them and lavishly pours this precious perfume on the feet of Jesus. This sinful woman, in faith, ascends the mountain of the Lord holding in her hands a costly offering, and she receives love and the forgiveness of her sins. She sees the face of God! Praise the Lord that Jesus loves sinners!

Geoge Mallory said that the reason that he climbed Mt. Everest was “because it’s there!” For us Christians, those who worship God, we ascend the mountain of the Lord because God is there! We need no other reason!

[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

I came across the lyrics of a song written by a man named Mac Davis. The song is entitled “It’s hard to be humble.” I would like to read the lyrics of this song to you. So, sit back and listen to the heart-touching lyrics of this beautiful ballad:

Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. I can’t wait to look in the mirror ‘cause I get better lookin’ each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a heck of a man. Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doin’ the best that I can. I used to have a girlfriend but I guess she just couldn’t compete with all these love starved women who keep clamoring at my feet. Well I probably could find me another but I guess they’re all in awe of me. Who cares I never get lonesome ‘cause I treasure my own company. I guess you could say I am a loner, a cowboy all locked up and proud. Well I could have lots of friends if I wanted, but then I wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. Some folks say that I’m egotistical - heck I don’t even know what that means. I guess it has something to do with the way that I fill out my skin tight blue jeans.

Mohammed Ali, the famous boxer, once said:

When you’re as great as I am, it’s hard to be humble!

Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of CNN, once remarked:

If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect!

I believe that one of the most distinguishing characteristics of our culture is pride. It seems as if our world is fueled by pride. And this is so much the case that being prideful has become an art form. From the moment that we get up in the morning until we close our eyes to go to sleep, we are the center of the universe.

But the world that Jesus is ushering in, this kingdom of God, is radically different from the world that we have grown accustomed to. This kingdom of heaven has a radically different set of values and priorities. And in many ways, the laws of this kingdom are completely upside down from the laws of this world.

Tonight I want us to look at the Sermon on the Mount and see a description of this upside down world of Jesus. Borrowing from the text that we will be studying tonight, I’ve entitled my sermon, “Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit.” Please bow your heads with me in prayer before we continue. Let’s pray.

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount has been called the greatest sermon ever preached. I don’t think that it would be an exaggeration to say that there is no person alive today that has not been touched in some way by the teachings found in the Sermon on the Mount. Every sermon that has ever been preached since that great sermon, any where, at any time, even to this day, has been profoundly influenced by this sermon of sermons.

The Sermon on the Mount is found in chapters 5-7 in the Gospel of Matthew, but when it was originally preached, it was probably a lot longer that what we see in chapter 5-7. So what we have in the book of Matthew is some of the key points, the highlights, the essence of what Jesus preached.

I wish that we could spend a couple of hours digging into the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount tonight, but since we don’t have that kind of time, what I am going to focus on is just one small section at the beginning of that Sermon called the Beatitudes. And out of all the Beatitudes, I am going to be spending a majority of the time on verse 3, which is the very first Beatitude. And the reason that I am going to focus on that first Beatitude is because there is a definite progression to the Sermon on the Mount. They are not just random list put together haphazardly. There is a definite order. Each Beatitude builds on the previous one, and as you go down the list, you will see that it gets harder and harder. But it all starts with the first Beatitude. Everything else that Jesus will teach on in his Sermon on the Mount, it all begins with this first Beatitude:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Everything starts here. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

And before we read the passage for tonight, let me share just two more important points:

First, the Sermon on the Mount is a description of what every Christian should look like. This is not some extreme list of things for super Christians or Christian leaders. This is a description of what every single Christian should look like. And we are to demonstrate not just one or a few of the Beatitudes, but every single one of them. The Beatitudes are not a prescription of how someone becomes a follower of Jesus, but rather, they are a description of what someone who is already following Jesus looks like.

And second, it is vital to understand that the traits described in the Sermon on the Mount are not natural characters that we are born with, but they are supernatural, meaning that it is something that God builds into us. So, in a very real sense, what we see as the description of what a Christian should look like, can, in fact, be only lived out by those who are truly Christians. Christian or not, many people may possess personalities and demeanors that may look similar to what is described in the Sermon on the Mount. Many of us here tonight, Christian or not, may naturally be meek, may show mercy at times, may pursue peace in their lives, but what Jesus is teaching here is not a personality trait or a natural disposition. What Jesus is getting at here is a supernatural empowering of the follower of Jesus so that they may shine before all man that they may glorify God. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. So regardless of what your natural disposition may be, we all can, we all must, by the power of the Holy Spirit, live this out!

So with that in mind, let read the passage together.

Matthew 5:1-16
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. 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. 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 city 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.

As the scene opens, we see that it was a particularly busy day in the life of Jesus. People were coming from everywhere to see Jesus. For you see we are told in chapter 4 that news about this Jesus who was preaching the good news of the kingdom, who was healing diseases and casting out demons, news about this Jesus is spreading like wildfire. So huge crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, were all coming to see Jesus. Can you just imagine, not merely the size of this crowd, but what kinds of people were gathered here? People who are sick, people who are fighting terrible diseases, people who are dying, people who are demon possessed, people in painful relationships, people struggling with all kinds of addictions and brokenness, people who have absolutely nowhere else to turn, people rejected by the world are flocking to Jesus by the thousands!

And in the midst of this crowd, I imagine that his disciples are absolutely fired up. This ragtag bunch of misfits who signed up to change the world with Jesus, they are full of anticipation and excitement, thrilled to be a part of this great movement of God in this world. And Jesus takes these disciples, and it is to them, not the crowd, that Jesus begins to preach the Sermon on the Mount.

He takes his disciples up on a mountainside, and he sits down taking the teaching posture of a rabbi, and he begins his message.

Well, let’s pause for a moment here. What kind of message do you think his disciples are expecting to hear right now? Think about it! Here they are, up on this mountainside, with Jesus, and as they look down from the mountain they can see thousands of people. There is great sense of excitement in the air and they are probably expecting to hear something along the lines of, “The revolution is here! And this is how we are going to change the world. We’re gonna get radical. We’re gonna get crazy. We are going to raise an army of powerful soldiers like you’ve never seen before. We’re going to march across this land. We’re going to destroy our enemies. And the world will know that we are here!”

But that is not at all what Jesus says. He says:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What? Jesus, are you sure you know what you’re talking about?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Jesus, do you know how popular we are? Do you know how famous you are?

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Jesus, do you not see how powerful we can become? Do you not see that we can start a revolution here?

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.

Really, is there anything on that list that sounds revolutionary to you? Poor in spirit? Those who mourn? The meek? Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness? The pure in heart? The peacemakers? Those who are persecuted because of their righteousness? Seriously, can this list possibly be any more lame? And yet, is there anything more counter-cultural?

I imagine that as Jesus was speaking these words, for many of those who were gathered there, that their hearts just dropped. Many of them were probably confused, maybe even a little sad or angry. I bet there were some there who were desperately looking for a way out saying, “This is not what I signed up for!” But there are others in this group who are listening to these words of Jesus and their eyes are getting bigger, and their heart is beating faster, and they are dreaming with their eyes wide open, saying “Can this really be true? Is this really how the revolution is lived out?”

And I imagine that many of us here tonight have a mixture of emotions on hearing these words of Jesus. I know that many of you are absolutely fired up after the awesome experience you had at Breathe. Mike and Jay shared some amazing teachings. There is a new passion burning in your hearts right now, maybe like you’ve never ever felt before. And I think that is awesome! I say, “More, Lord! Lord, set us on fire for you! Use us to change the world! We want to be a part of that!” And I want to say to you tonight, as Jesus spoke to a group of people 2000 years ago, a group not all that different from us:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is where it all begins. This is where it starts. This is how the revolution of Jesus is ushered in. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the mantra of the revolutionaries of Jesus. This is the mission statement of revolutionaries of Jesus. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is where it all starts because the kingdom of heaven is only expanded by kingdom people with kingdom values. If we want in on this revolution of Jesus, we must first become the kind of people for whom the values of the kingdom defines the core of who we are. And that begins here: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Blessed
As we read in the passage, each Beatitude begins with the word, “blessed.” So what does “blessed” actually mean?

There are some versions of the Bible that translate the word “blessed” as “happy.” And I think that is very unfortunate because while “blessed” does indeed speak of happiness, to be blessed cannot be simply reduced to being happy. Happy is a feeling. Happy is subjective. Happy is good. But it does not fully encompass all that it means to be blessed.

Also, to be blessed is not talking about the person who is driving that Mercedes with a bumper sticker that says, “Too Blessed to be Stressed.”

So what does it mean to be blessed? To be blessed means to be approved by God! To be blessed means to be approved by God. God smiles upon the person who is blessed. The blessed person is one who receives the “applause of heaven.” He is approved by God. And there is no other approval that is more significant than this approval which comes from God, the creator of the Universe, he who made us, he who knows us intimately, he who has no beginning and no end, he who holds all things in his hands. To be approved by God, he is indeed a blessed person!

Poor in Spirit
Jesus says that those who are blessed, those who are approved by God, are the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit! What does it actually mean to be poor in spirit? Well, let me start off by explaining what it does not mean.

To be poor in spirit does not mean weakness, or shyness, or gutless. To be poor in spirit does not mean that the person thinks that he or she has no self-worth. To be poor in spirit does not mean to be some loser, or some sort of a spiritual Napoleon Dynamite.

A person who is poor in spirit is someone who humbly acknowledges his unworthiness before God. A person who is poor in spirit is someone who realizes that they have absolutely nothing within themselves to commend them to God. So, to be poor in spirit is to know that we are spiritually bankrupt.

The poor in spirit is a person who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is justified before God by faith alone, and that by grace. So, in a very real sense, we find in this short little phrase “blessed are the poor in spirit” the entirety of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The person who is poor in spirit understands in his heart of hearts that God is God and that he is not. And it is this person who is blessed, who is approved by God.

The chief ambition of his life is to be make Jesus famous. He is profoundly humble, but absolutely confident because he knows God intimately. He does not strive for praise or honor. Fame and fortunes do not concern him in the least because he knows that his real treasure is found in God alone. He will not be shaken when the storms and the waves come because he knows that God holds all things together in his hands. He is able to worship in the midst of pain and suffering because he knows that God is a God of justice, and he will one day, make right all that is wrong, and reward all that is right. He kneels before God in humble adoration because he knows that that is the most fundamental posture of the Christian. He knows that it all starts there. He knows that being on his knees before God is the entryway to everything that follows in the kingdom of God. This is the man of God, the woman of God who is poor in spirit, and he is truly blessed.

Poor in Spirit in the Bible
The distinguishing mark of some of the greatest people in the Bible is that they were poor in spirit.

David, the greatest king of Israel was poor in spirit. And when the prophet Nathan reveals the great promises of God to David, this is David’s response in 2 Samuel 7:18:

2 Samuel 7:18
Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?

“Who am I, Lord?” This is what poor in spirit sounds like!

And of course, our Lord Jesus, was the greatest example of what it means to be poor in spirit. From his birth in a manger to his death on a despicable cross, his life exemplified what it means to be poor in spirit. So, Paul writes to the saints in Philippi these words:

Philippians 2:5-8
In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

The Beatitudes of the World
And all this talk of being poor in spirit, this is not a very popular message in the world today, is it? If you brought together some of the greatest minds in the world today and asked them to put together a list of traits of people who are truly blessed, I don’t imagine that “poor in spirit” would make the top 100 on that list. I would imagine that their list would look more like this:

Blessed are the strong
Blessed are the smart
Blessed are the rich and famous
Blessed are the beautiful and handsome
Blessed are the aggressive
Blessed are the assertive
Blessed are the proud
Blessed are the self-confident
Blessed are those who know how to get ahead in life
Blessed are those who know how to manipulate people

And I say that this is a list that the world would write up, but don’t you think that most of us in this room would normally tend to agree with that? Maybe we won’t use exactly those words, but we would probably use words like these:

Blessed are the leaders
Blessed are those who have lots of friends
Blessed are those who are married
Blessed are those who really know the Bible
Blessed are those who are gifted in evangelism
Blessed are those who know how to pray for healing

And to that Jesus says, “No, no! You are getting it all wrong! Blessed are the poor in spirit.” In the economy of God, what matters to him, what truly touches the heart of God is not the same things that impress us, the things that make us go, “Wow!” What truly touches the heart of God is when we humbly kneel before God declaring humbly that we have nothing to offer God for his extravagant love and mercy. The Christian on his knees before God. On our knees before God! It all starts here! It all begins here!

When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, and before they entered the Promised Land, God spoke these words to his people:

Leviticus 18:3-5
You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for whoever obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.

God is reminding his people that they are a holy people, set apart for him, and they are to be distinct, different from any other people in the world. More than anything else, the Beatitudes are what distinguishes us from the rest of the world. And more than anything else, the Beatitudes are what will attract the world to Christ!

What if the revolution that Jesus is ushering in is not so much about what we do but rather who we are becoming? What if what you and I can accomplish for God begins not from our hands, but rather, our heart? What if?

For those of us who are Christians, we have been redeemed from the Egypt of our lives. And as we embark on this faith journey to the Promised Land, Jesus is speaking to us today saying, “You must not do as they do in the world, where you used to live. I am the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.’”

So let me ask you tonight: Are you poor in spirit? As you look at yourself in the mirror, as you examine your life, can you say about yourself that you are poor in spirit, that you humbly acknowledge that you have nothing in yourself to commend you to God? Can someone distinguish you from a non-Christian?

Becoming Poor in Spirit
So how does one actually become poor in spirit? First thing’s first: You cannot do this on your own. Here is how Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who was the great preacher at Westminster Chapel, explains this:

The Sermon on the Mount… comes to us and says, “There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”

To become poor in spirit, you must begin by understanding this simple and profound truth: You cannot do it on your own! It’s the same thing as saying, “I will work my butt off to become the humblest of all human being!” Well, right there you revealed that you so radically and completely missed the point altogether!

To become poor in spirit, you must often find yourself on your knees before God, the most fundamental posture of the Christian. To become poor in spirit, you must often find yourself crying tears of repentance. To become poor in spirit, you must often find yourself in exuberant joy at the greatness of the salvation that God has given us. And I think one of the greatest indicators of whether or not someone is truly poor in spirit is reflected in their prayer life because prayer is one of the most crucial ways that we demonstrate our desperate need for God, that to pray is to acknowledge that you can not do life alone. And also the content of your prayer reveals much about your spirit. Is most of your prayer focused on telling God what you want him to give you and what you want him to do for you? Or does your prayer often echo the humble words uttered by the tax collector who prayed, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”?

For Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
Jesus says, “Blessed is the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The great reward that is reserved for those who are poor in spirit is the kingdom of heaven. And it is theirs and theirs alone!

Well, what is the kingdom of heaven? First off, it is the same thing as the kingdom of God. Matthew, like many other Jewish writers of his time, felt that to speak of God was too holy and too lofty, so they would find different words to speak of God, which in Matthew’s case was “heaven.” So what exactly is the kingdom of heaven, this kingdom of God?

The kingdom of heaven is the sovereign rule and reign of God. The kingdom of heaven is not bound by space or time. The kingdom of heaven is not merely what awaits the saints of God in the glorious future, but the kingdom of heaven is the in-breaking into today, a taste of all that glory and wonder that is to come. We can experience the kingdom right here and right now! Absolutely, positively we can experience the kingdom right here and right now! The kingdom is here. The rule and reign of God is upon us!

Again and again, Jesus preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” Jesus is able to say this because in the act of God putting on flesh and entering into our space and time, the kingdom of God has indeed broken in to our universe. The kingdom of heaven is here! And the means by which we can now taste of that future glory which is yet to come is to be poor in spirit.

How to Start a Revival
The end of this section of the Sermon on the Mount concludes with these words:

Matthew 5:13-16
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 city 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.

I get thrilled whenever we talk about revival. This is my prayer. This is my heart’s cry: Lord, let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Do a new thing in our midst! But it seems to me that most of our responses to talking about revival, or even evangelism for that matter, usually end up with some sort of a fancier, cooler, church program or outreach event. And while I am all for those things, when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I am absolutely convinced that what the world needs more than anything is a church full of people who are simply and radically living out the Sermon on the Mount. The world is not looking for powerful Christians. The world is not looking for Christians who are oozing with charisma. The world is not looking for slick programs. What the world is looking for are people who are simply committed to living out the radical words of Jesus. And I believe the world will forgive us if we fail at times. The world will even forgive us if we fall flat on our faces at times. But what the world will not forgive is when the church stops doing the very thing for which she was created, and that is to be a city on a hill, a lighthouse on the harbor, a beacon of hope in a dark world, shining brightly declaring, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

So this is how to start a revival: Let your light shine before others!

Christian, you are salt of the earth! You are the light of the world! How are you living as salt in your workplace? How are you being the light of the world in your classroom? And if you are not living as salt and light, then you are confronted with a simple question: Is your light really a light? Is your faith really a faith? Are you a Christian without Christ? Are you just a “formal” Christian? Lloyd-Jones writes:

There is nothing in God’s universe that is so utterly useless as a merely formal Christian.

And who is the formal Christian? Well, the formal Christian is that person who knows just enough about Christianity to ruin the world for him, but not enough to fully embrace all of its beauty and power. The formal Christian is that person who understands just enough about Christianity to be aware of his own sinfulness, but not enough to understand that there is supernatural life bursting out of him.

The true Christian cannot help but shine. A chair was made to sit on. A plane was made to fly. A Christian was created to shine! He simply can not escape notice. So Joshua House, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Live in such a way that when people see you, they declare, “There must be a God!” So, let your light shine.

History teaches us that it is always when men and women take seriously the words of the Sermon on the Mount that true revival springs up. When we pray, “Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” the answer to that prayer begins here: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Let’s pray.