Luke chapter 6 and last time
we kind of went through verse 17 through 19 and we noted that
Jesus had been up on a mount to pray all night. He'd been
in communion with the Father and And we know that the next
day, the next morning, he chose his 12 apostles out of the disciples
and one of them was Judas, who was the traitor. And he came
down, it says he was on the mountain in prayer, and then he came down
with them. And we looked at the spiritual
aspect of him coming down with them. And he went to the multitude
and he healed them all. It says there in verse 19, So today we're gonna be focused
primarily on verse 20, and not even the whole of verse 20, but
I thought it would be good for us to examine this, what it's talking about here
a little bit. And he lifted up his eyes on
his disciples and said, Blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom
of God. And I think it's important for
us to look at a few things here preliminarily that he's drawing our attention to
the disciples, number one here. And we notice that there's a
lot of people here. There's the multitudes, there's
the disciples. And out of those disciples, he
chose 12 and named them apostles. And this word blessed, and we
looked at that last time a little bit, and it expresses large,
lengthy, long, and it kind of gives us the context of beyond
measure. You're blessed beyond measure.
You're happy beyond measure. You're supremely blessed. a sense of extreme happiness
due to the recognition of that blessedness that's been bestowed
on us by God. And it just, it's something that
can't really be described to someone that hasn't really experienced
it. And it's a little bit different
from the blessed that it talks about in Ephesians chapter one,
where it says, blessed be the Lord. God our Father. That's the Greek word eulogio,
which means to speak well of. It's talking about God, blessed
be God, because we're speaking well of Him because He has made
us supremely blessed with all spiritual blessings. So kind
of two different words again that we usually find that they've
been translated the same English word and they're kind of different
in the Greek. So it's important to have that
differentiation. So he addresses some here whom
he refers to as blessed beyond measure and happy because that
has been bestowed on them. And he addresses some who have
made themselves happy. because of what they've bestowed
on themselves. There's kind of a big difference
here and we won't fully develop that this time and probably next
time. But I wanted to talk today about
this kingdom, the kingdom of God it talks about here. And kind of in the background here,
be thinking about that, this Sermon on the Plain. It has some
components of the Sermon on the Mount that was talked about in
Matthew, but it has a lot of elements that are not in that
one, and that one has a lot of elements that aren't in this
one. But they're not just a new set of modern-day rules or modern-day
law for you to live by. There are things that talk to
the church about And it says, you're supremely blessed because
of something or someone. And that is the context of what
we're trying to get at today. And we'll find that Christ fulfills
everything that he demands he fulfills. And we mentioned that
the last time. He's done for us what we couldn't
do for ourselves. And we'll find some things in
here that, boy, I wish I could do that. I wish I could be all
these things. I wish I could do all these things.
But we always end up like Paul. It seems like the more harder
I try to do certain things, the less It's just like the opposite
happens. So it's kind of a situation there that Christ has
supplied that for us and taken that burden for us. In addition
to the context to whom this is delivered, there was a multitude
there that He'd healed. There was a multitude there that
followed Him. And as we learned in John, When
He fed them all and did all those things that it talks about in
John, and when He gave them a gospel truth, some of them said, well,
that's a hard saying. And they walked no more with
Him. So just because it says they were there, the multitudes
were there, and maybe they were His disciples for a while, some
of them didn't stick with Him. And we run into that in modern
day time. Well, I believe this, but not that. When we get to
the hard saying, it's only hard if you're in an unregenerate
state. It's like our pastor was saying to me this morning. The
fall is not hard to understand and believe if you've been saved
from it. And you know exactly how serious
it is. You don't have a problem with
election. You don't have a problem with predestination. You don't
have a problem with any of those things because you know that
that's what God did for you. and not you yourself. But if
you're still stuck on your own works, developing your own system
to get with God, then of course those are hard sayings and you're
not going to walk with them anymore until something big happens in
your life. So this message that we're looking at
here, it follows many spiritual displays of Christ applying the
gospel. And metaphorically, he did these
things actually, but metaphorically they speak to something much
broader, much grander, more magnificent. In chapter 4, he came to Nazareth
where he'd been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And he read something there that's key to what we're going to be
looking at today. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And that's
the very thing that we're looking at in verse 20. It's blessed
be ye poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And he
closed the book. and gave it back to the minister
and said, today, this scripture has been fulfilled. I am here. I'm here and I'm doing these
things. And that's what he said when
John sent it to him later on. They said, are you him or do
we look for someone else? And he says, go tell him these
very things. Go tell him the sight has been
given to the blind, the gospel's been preached to the poor, all
these things that he read about in Isaiah. I did all those things. Go back and tell John that's
what's happened. He didn't send him a secret code
with a stamp on it that said, yep, I'm him. He said, if you
don't believe Moses and the prophets, then you won't believe anything else.
So, keeping in mind those this preaching. And each time he brings,
as you go through the book of Luke, each time he does something,
he kind of brings another level of spirituality to it. And he
doesn't just say, abracadabra, you're healed. Bing, bang, bong,
you're all fed or something. He always adds an element of
spirituality to what he's doing and kind of brings them along
a little at a time. He says, one time he says, thy
sins be forgiven you. And the guy is a crippled up
person. So what's that got to do with your hand not working
or whatever, or your cat walk. And he says to the leopard, I
will thou be cleansed. Not just healed. He brings a
level of spirituality that conforms to the gospel each time he does
something. And that's a little bit more
each time. And brings us along as the church
and says, oh, he cleansed that. And that's what He does for us
in our spiritual life. When He gives us the new birth,
He cleanses us from all of that and makes it like it never was. And He says, Thy sins be forgiven
thee. And He says, well, whether it's
easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or take up thy bed and
walk, or your hand is made whole as the other. To Him, it's it would have happened
either way, but for the church to understand the spiritual aspect
of it, it's rather important. And so keeping that in mind,
as we look at this preaching and forgiving and healing, I
think it's important that we have some understanding of this
kingdom of God here that it's talked about as it's revealed
to the Lord's sheep. Blessed be ye poor for yours
is the kingdom of God. And it's always in a kind of
a perfect tense. It's not like this will be yours
or this could be yours. It's yours is. If I say yours is, that means
you have it now. And blessed are is another case. If you are, if blessed are means
that's something that you have in the here and now. And so to
national Israel and even to many today, they look for a physical
kingdom to come in which their enemies will be vanquished and
they'll be triumphant. They still look for that today.
That's the hope of many today, this physical kingdom realm thing. And they miss the point of all
of it. The scriptures give us a much
different understanding and view of the kingdom of God. And it's
more of a who than a what. And I think once we come to that
revelation, things become clearer to us and things become more
precious to us and it gives us more understanding in the gospel. And the question was always being
asked and it still being asked today, the disciples asked that
in Luke chapter 17, 20. And when he was demanded of the
Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation,
not with ocular evidence. And so many look for that today.
We were just talking about that earlier in the office this morning. If I just can see the signs coming,
then I can go do a bunch of more good stuff to get me up to where
I need to be in case he comes. And we find that more in Luke.
Later on in Luke, he talks about those times. He said it might come on the
third watch or maybe the fourth, who knows? But he says, the church
is not to worry, he says, is my father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom, and I'm here. I'm here. So, in Luke 17, 21, it says,
neither shall they say, lo here, lo there, for behold, the kingdom
of God is within you. So that's not really a place. It's not really a thing. It's a who. And even the disciples
had their view that the kingdom would be restored to Israel and
it would be of necessity, then it would be the kingdom of Israel,
not the kingdom of God. They said in Acts chapter one,
when they were therefore come together, they asked him saying,
Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? They just had the total wrong
view of that. That spiritual portion of that
was kind of going over their head and it took them some time
before he revealed that truth to them. That was their impression,
that you should restore the kingdom to Israel and throw the Romans
out. So, to that, that was unimportant.
So that, in the long run, that means nothing. that the spiritual
kingdom of God is much more nearer than you think. And it's more
important. And all this other stuff is just
temporary stuff that's coming and going all the time. So let's
look at a couple of verses that give us some understanding of
the kingdom of God. Norm asked me a question this
morning and I had kind of discovered this as I was going through because
In Matthew almost every single time he says kingdom of heaven. Three or four times he says he
refers to it as the kingdom of God. John only refers to it three
times. In Mark and Luke it is the kingdom
of God nearly every time. A couple of times they say the
kingdom of heaven. It's really talking about Christ. So that semantics there is not
a critical thing for us spiritually. It's talking about the Lord.
In John chapter 3, we learn some things about the kingdom of God. In John chapter 3 verse 3, when
he's talking to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus is kind of in this
same boat of this spiritual kingdom. It doesn't mean anything to him.
He's thinking in physical terms. When the Lord says, you must
be born again, that's a physical thing that he's thinking about.
Can a man enter into his mother's womb again and then be born?
He says, how can that be? That's not going to happen. So
in verse 3 of John chapter 3, Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, of a truth, of a truth, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus standing right there in front of him, the Messiah, the
Savior, and he just looking at him like Gandhi or some wise
man or something. He didn't see him as the Savior
yet. And remember, he says he cannot
see the kingdom of God. He can't. And the Lord said,
remember we just read in Luke chapter 17 verse 20, the kingdom
of God cometh not with observation, not with ocular evidence is what
that means. Not with ocular evidence. Because
many saw Jesus, and they just saw a man. Some thought he was
a wise man, some thought he was a prophet, some thought this,
some thought that, until he was revealed to them as the God Almighty,
the Savior. That's all they saw of him. In
John chapter three, verse five, he says, verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And so it's important
for us to think and remember, is this a place or a person that
we're speaking of here? He cannot see it, cannot enter
it. And many times, metaphorically,
Jesus says, I'm the way. I'm the gate, I'm the door. He
says a lot of things that are talking about himself, but he
puts them metaphorically in almost a parable-like way of saying,
well, here's a physical truth that you can apply to a spiritual
situation. He's not really a door like that
door there, but he is the door. And the way, he's the way. And in Romans, the 14th chapter,
verse 17, he says, the kingdom of God is not in meat and drink. He tells us what it's not. And
a lot of times we can know something more about something by being
informed of what it's not. It tells us a lot about what
it is. And the great thing about this verse here, is it tells
us right after what it tells us is not, it tells us what it
is. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy. And those three things are in
the Holy Ghost. Those three things are fruits
of the Spirit. Those three things are in Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, In
verse 20 it says, the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in
power. And we know that Christ had all
power. I've got all power. All the power
there is, I have it. It's His, by His almighty power,
says in Ephesians 119, we believe according to the working of His
power, His mighty power. So, think about that in the kingdom
of God. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9,
it says, know ye not, don't you know this, that the righteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? The unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. So that's a spiritual application
there of the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, and then he
goes on to say all these gross sins that we're guilty of in
our unregenerate state and so on, those kind of things in the
flesh are not going to inherit the kingdom of God, but the righteous,
are going to inherit the kingdom of God. And it says, what is
the name by which she shall be called? The church, the Lord,
our righteousness. And first Corinthians 1550, he
says, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Again, it's not in a physical
realm that we're looking at here. Neither does corruption inherit
incorruption. So, and then he says some more stuff
here in John chapter 18, verse 36. He says, my kingdom is not
of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. And a little bit before that
in Luke chapter 18 verse 24, Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful
because this young ruler had a lot of rich stuff. And he says,
well, get rid of that. Don't count on that. That's not
going to get you anywhere. And he said he was sorrowful
because He didn't want to get rid of his physical things. And Jesus says, how hardly shall
they that have riches enter the kingdom of God. And that's what
we find here. And as we do this contextual
comparison here, blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom
of God, but woe unto you that are rich. You've received your consolation.
We'll explore that more the next time we get together, Lord willing. He says it's easier for a camel
to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. You can't buy your way in. In
Luke 8, verse 10, here's an interesting thing. He said, unto you it is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others
in parables, that seeing they might not see and hearing they
might not understand. So again, we have a spiritual
aspect to it. And it's spoken of as kind of
a mystery, a mystery that God has been hid from the foundation
of the world, but it's revealed unto the church. electing eternal
love of the church and redemption of them by the Son in the covenant
of grace. He says, it's a great mystery. He says, I can't hardly even
tell you all about it. It's such a great mystery. In Mark chapter 12, verse 32,
the scribe said unto him, Master, Well, Master, thou hast said
the truth, for there is one God and there is none other but He.
And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding
and with all the soul and with all the strength. Everybody that
can do that, raise their hand. I see a nobody, so. We wish we could. And to love
his neighbor as himself, failed that too. is more than all whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom
of God. And what he meant was, I'm standing
right here and you're standing right there. not far from a physical
kingdom. Oh, if you do a couple of more
really good things and exhibit some really good wisdom and can
actually do these things, voila, you'll be transported into the
kingdom of God. He says, spiritually, you have
an understanding of these things, and I'm here, and you're there. He says, you're not far from
the Kingdom of God. And he says, no man dares to
ask Him any questions after that. Some of them just said, I'm not
getting this is a hard saying. Jesus proclaimed Himself the
Kingdom of God. In Mark 1, verse 14, after John
was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God. And He said, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Not like it's coming or we're going to be invaded by this extra
kingdom that's going to descend on us or we're going to be all
whisked away to this other kingdom. He says, the kingdom of God is
at hand. I am here. Repent and believe
the gospel. Quit believing in your riches.
Quit believing in your own self-righteousness. Quit believing In anything, you
have to have total reliance on me for salvation. The kingdom of God is at hand. And so we look at this opening
verse of this Sermon on the Plain, this level place of the gospel,
and to understand that the poor are
supremely blessed because the kingdom of God is yours. It's
not something you're going to get. You're in possession of
it now, spiritually. And we really need to understand
that you must be born again to even see the kingdom of God,
as it said in John 3. You must be born of the spirit
to enter into the kingdom of God, John 3, 5. The kingdom of
God is righteousness and peace and joy. All those things are
in Christ, as it says in Romans 14, 7. 14, 17. The kingdom of
God is not in word, but in power. We can get up here and say, kingdom
of God, kingdom of God, kingdom of God, all day long. And it
means nothing unless you've had the application of, you must
be born again. You must be born by the Spirit.
You must be born from above, is what that says in John chapter
three. And understand that the kingdom
of God is righteousness, and Jesus is our righteousness. He
is our peace. Where we were at enmity with
God, now He's our peace between us and God. He created that for
us. And joy, we have joy when we
understand these things. We're not in an apprehensive
state saying, oh man, look at all the stuff that's going on
in the world, and I'm not ready. The Lord's people are saying,
if that's what it is, bring it on. I'm ready. We look to see
Jesus. We long to see Him again. So flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. It's a spiritual thing. It's
the spirit. God is a spirit and you must
worship him in spirit and the truth. The kingdom of God is
not of this world and neither are the elect. And we could,
we read that in John 18, 36. And if we went over to the Lord's
prayer in John 17, 14, he says, I've given them thy word and
the world hates them. And we run into that here a little
bit later in Luke, here in this block of scripture. The world
hates them because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. My kingdom is not of this world,
and they are not of the world, and I am not of the world. But
yet we're in this world, we're in this realm, and the kingdom
of God is a mystery. The mystery of free grace. And
you can only understand that after you've had 1, 2, 3, and
4 applied to you. You don't get to go to number
8 until you've had 1 through 4. It's a mystery. In a little bit of time here,
I'd like to look over in Ephesians. Again, we always have the same
problem when we go to Ephesians chapter 1. You just can't break
in and read it from one sentence from it. I always think of Paul,
he says, man, I've got something to tell you. It's like he has
to go, and then he He has this real long sentence that he just,
and he doesn't even want to pause anywhere in it until he gets
to the end, and there is no end. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1, 3, who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Blessed are
ye, the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. because He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be wholly set apart
without blame before Him in love. All that's been put aside by
His substitutionary sacrifice. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That's
such a wonderful thing there. It's even hymns just from that
one sentence there. We have hymns that are just dedicated
to that. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will."
So the kingdom of God is a mystery, but he's made himself known unto
the church. He says, I didn't come to do
my will, but I came to do the will of the Father, and that
everyone that believeth on me shall have eternal life. according
to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him,
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."
We have obtained an inheritance, and that is Christ. And you go
back in the Psalms, and it talks about Him as being fine treasure,
that if we seek for it with all our heart and soul, we find it.
It's because we're looking for it. Our pastor's taking us through
the Old Testament. He was looking for Christ in
there, and he finds Him all over the place, and sometimes he says,
I missed a spot. We're backing up. I left this
part out. So I have a, as we finish up
here, I have a quote from a theologian named Martin Lloyd-Jones, and
he wrote an entire book on the kingdom of God, and I just stole
one sentence out of it, or not even a whole sentence, but he
said, Indeed, the kingdom of God comes to us in the person
and work of Jesus Christ Himself, His substitutionary death on
the cross, and His triumph over death and sin. The kingdom of God comes to us
in the person of Christ. And when we look at things that
way, it causes us to have an understanding of things that,
or maybe we didn't have before. So that foundation, we'll next
time get together, we'll look at, blessed be ye poor, for yours
is the kingdom of, you have Christ. No matter what your circumstances,
in physical world, you have Christ. And more importantly, the poor
describes This word poor is very interesting. It's the most abject
form of poverty. It's the beggar. I have nothing. I like that top
lady hymn. In my hand, no price I bring.
I don't have it. I've got nothing. Just total reliance on Christ
for salvation. And so, I think that as we look at all
these times in the previous couple of chapters where Jesus did things
on the Sabbath day to call attention that He is our rest. And Hebrews
says, if we enter into his rest, we
cease from our own work. We cease from trying to provide
our own anything. We cease from all that. And so as we come to our understanding
of the Kingdom of God based on Scripture, we can only conclude
the poor here refer to none others, but those to whom the Spirit
of God has borne again from above." He's taken away their stony heart. They're giving them a new heart.
A heart to love Him. All those things that it talks
about. The I wills of Ezekiel. I will, I will, I will, I will.
And they'll dispense with Well, I've got
all this stuff. I've got my own righteousness.
I'm doing pretty well. I'm depending on that. So, nothing
in my hand I bring. Totally relying only on Christ
for all our salvation. Nothing of self-merit. And when
they come to that point, Jesus, they're truly blessed. They're
truly happy. knowing we're strangers and pilgrims
in this world, and we're one with Christ, and thus, in his
kingdom. I am his, he is mine, forever
and ever. Another hymn I like. So, we'll
stop there. One more verse. Hebrews chapter 12,
verse 28. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is
a consuming fire. Hebrews 12, 28, 29. We receiving
a kingdom. We've received Christ and he
is a consuming fire. So we'll stop there. Lord willing,
next time we'll pick up with more on this poor part. Books
on that as well, poor. So, thank you for your attention
and be free.