Theirs Is the Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 5:1-12 contains the so-called beatitudes in the teachings of Jesus. The beatitudes are at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, a highly studied and significant record of Christ’s teachings in His own words.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

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

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against
you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (ESV)

I want to point out the first one: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Most of the times I have heard talks and sermons on this verse, the speaker, be it a man or a woman, gives a rather wrong interpretation. They tend to treat the phrase “poor in spirit” as if it means “poverty of spirit,” “lack of spirituality,” “going through hard times spiritually,” “struggling in one’s faith,” ‘’falling short of having of the Spirit of God,” “hungering for the spiritual things.”

None of these interpretations are right, as long as they insist that the poverty relates mainly to the spiritual state of the person. It is actually that the spiritual state of the person is such, that that his attitude is of being materially poor in this world.

The New Life Version even translates it like this: “Those who know there is nothing good in themselves are happy, because the holy nation of heaven is theirs.” Not that far from the proper meaning but still focusing on rather lacking spirituality and worthiness of self, rather than focusing on lacking of material possessions.

The Greek translation of “poor” actually means “those who own nothing.” It is not the poverty that defines the spiritual condition, it is the opposite – the spiritual condition evokes a feeling of poverty, a sense of owning nothing of material value in this world. It is not that you are in a destitute spiritual state. That would not be a blessing, but a curse. Jesus teaches that it is a blessing to be so spiritually connected with the things of God that regardless of your actual wealth or lack thereof here on earth, you consider yourself to be poor. Materially poor. Financially poor. You have nothing; you have it, but it is of no value to you, nor is it a goal in your life.

This interpretation goes along with the other teachings of Jesus on the competition between faith in God and material wealth, mammon. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24); the invitation to the rich young ruler to leave his wealth and influence, discard of his possessions and to come follow Him (Mark 10:17-27); sending His disciples on a mission trip to preach and demonstrate the kingdom of heaven without any means of payment (Matthew 10:9).

The mission in Matthew 10, of sending the 12 apostles, contained two parts: to proclaim the message and to do works that obviously went along with that message. The message was: “The kingdom of heaven is near.” The works were: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” Freely you have received, freely give (v. 8). The demonstration of the kingdom of heaven was not to be tied to the secular financial system of exchange of value and money.

The above examples additionally speak that it is a blessed state when in your spirit you have
acknowledged that you have nothing to hold on to in this world. This acknowledgement can be applied to people who are actually rich in this world, and have a lot of money and possessions, and people who are materially poor and have very little to live life on earth. Both categories of people can be either “poor in spirit” or the opposite – “rich in spirit.”

To understand “poor in spirit” we may look to explain what is to be “rich in spirit.” If in your spirit you focus on money, material possessions in order to secure your life on earth, then regardless of the state of your finances and material wellbeing, you are “rich in spirit.” Your spiritual life, your connection to God, is tied to your earthly state of wellbeing. Your life is tied to earth. You understand the clear logic of this life and this world; that if you have money and possessions, you will have an easy and desirable life on earth. As long as you live on earth, riches will help you fulfill your dreams and desires, and people will respect and honor you. If you’re poor on earth, you will have few friends, and you will live a limited life. These are the simple reasons for all the “get rich quick” schemes to be so popular, as well as lotteries and gambling. People want to get rich, so they can have a good life on earth.

However, spiritual life is a category of the teaching of Jesus that points to life that recognizes not only living in this material world, but also that man has an inner life, connected to the aspiration for more, for a life beyond the mere life on earth. That is why it is the spirit that is charged with judging the value of life – be it on earth or in the spiritual realm. This is to say that you can be poor by the spiritual values you have, even if you are rich in earthly possessions – they do not interest you. You do not hold them in as high a regard as you do matters of the spirit, of life eternal, of God, and of issues of moral value.

One might wonder how can someone who is materially poor can also be poor in spirit; or more simply put, if you do not have anything, how can you be rich in spirit? In the very same way that you can be rich in possessions, yet poor in spirit. People who are poor do not necessarily lack completely. They still have some money or possessions, but very little in order to live a happy life on earth. However, they understand that to live a good life on earth, you need to have money and possessions. Thus, they strive and want to change the situation. They want to move from poverty to riches. That is the reason why many people from poor regions and countries emigrate and move to start a life in richer countries. That is why people seek education and “opportunities in life” – because they are “rich in spirit” – it is their understanding that riches are the way to have a good life in this world. And those of poor countries who cannot move to rich countries, if we expand that example of today, feel sorry, left behind, as if they’re missing out on life. “Riches” is their standard, even if they don’t have access to it. Their internal spiritual life is overwhelmed by the desire to be rich, and not poor in this world. Therefore, they are rich in spirit.

In an opposite fashion, the poor in spirit, either rich or poor in possessions, consider themselves poor because they know that no riches or earthly goods would be taken to the eternal life which they expect and hope for. They are blessed because they have seen the truth about what is actually of value. However, the blessing does not end with only this understanding. Jesus continues to say that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The Lord’s prayer goes: “May Your kingdom come, may Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” In Matthew 18 we read that “whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will bound in heaven.” For those who seek God and His kingdom, life on earth is not limited to success on earth. There is an invisible, spiritual, yet real intertwining of the earth, the visible world, and the presence of heaven on earth as a result of the work and ministry of Jesus and the faith of those who seek God.

If you are poor in this world, then naturally, the kingdom of heaven is what you are looking for. This means that the resources of the kingdom of heaven will be at your disposal. If you are rich in this world, you do not need the kingdom of heaven, because you are spiritually rich. You are satisfied that you have goals in this life and for this life. That is why we are blessed, if in our spirits we feel poor according to the world’s values and possessions, and like we have nothing to hold onto on this earth. We live for the world to come, yet the blessings begin even now.

The message is: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” and it belongs to the poor, who have nothing in this dying world.

Short Bible Study: The spirit is willing but the body is weak

Mark 14:38

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This verse is an admonition by the Lord in the context of Him asking His disciples to keep watch while he prays in the garden of Gethsemane. That prayer is crucial for history and salvation. Will He go to the cross or not? Jesus said to His disciples “keep watch while I pray.” The apostles instead fell asleep.

Jesus needed His disciples to watch in the sense of being a moral and spiritual support for His prayer about this crucial decision. They seemed to have sensed the importance of what was about to come – Peter stated a bit earlier that he would never deny Jesus, that he would die for his Lord. Yet, he and the rest, who sore allegiance to Jesus fell asleep during a less trying requirement to be loyal.

It is a tendency of the flesh to escape pivotal spiritual moments and battles. It is too much for us to bear. Yet there is a remedy for this weakness – prayer.

Our spirit is willing and ready, but we live in a mortal body. We are not only spirits. I like the term “flesh” rather than “the body” used in KJV. The flesh is our being, spirit soul and body, living under the conditions and the demands of a fallen world. If we do not control the flesh by the spirit in us, or rather with the help of the Holy Spirit, our being and our life will take its course according to the directions received not from God but from the world, or the desires of the flesh.

We must therefore purposefully treat our prayer and spiritual life as an integral part of the needs and task of our lives in this world. Equal to shopping, eating, working for a living, time with family. Actually, as if our spiritual life is more important than all of these activities.

Often, we pray for our earthly needs, but those are included in our prayer of higher tier, the one for that addresses the purposes of the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Our watchfulness is based on our placing the values of the kingdom of God as the frameworks from which we discern and judge things, people, and events, and on that basis – our prayer, so we do not fall into temptation, and consequently – sin.

We do not need a modern, relevant, or emerging church; we need a watchful and prayerful church. We do not need big congregations; we need prayerful assemblies where the truth of the Gospel and the Word of God is the foundational standard. But that starts with individually carving out time and effort to bring into our daily routine watchfulness and prayer.

Sermon Diary: How to Hear God’s Voice

Sheep

“My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27)

Reading the Scriptures, we understand that man’s life is dependent on his communication with God. The Creator of the universe created us to communicate both with Him and with each other. To fulfil this purpose of His, He has given us a voice and the ability to read, write, and listen. Without the use of the senses, which are the entrance to our consciousness and souls, without our much-needed communication, life is practically impossible.

God wants us to hear His voice much more than we want to because He is not ignorant of our need to be saved, as we are often. We seem to be deluded about His role and will in our lives. For this reason, we often turn away from God as He reaches out His hand to us to give us eternal love, the perfect expression of which we see in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It is good to know that the Bible gives us many practical instructions on how to hear God‘s voice. In many cases, when we read and study the Scriptures, when we receive dreams from Him, when we converse with and receive advice from mature Christians, when we observe natural phenomena or study historical events, we can hear with our spiritual senses the words of the Lord of all things visible and invisible.

At the same time, we can rarely define God’s voice as audible – in the sense we put when we talk about human relationships. Because of our separation from God through sin, He speaks in a fallen world more covertly—often enigmatically. For this reason, it is necessary to be active in listening in order to be able to hear Him.

There are certain spiritual principles to apply when seeking to hear God’s voice, but three of them are especially effective if we apply them with faith:

1. “My sheep hear my voice”
Jesus said this: “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). These words make it clear to us that in order to understand the words of the Lord Jesus, we must be His, to be obedient as sheep, to be active in listening, for Him to know us and for us to follow Him.

2. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear…”
In many places in the New Testament, and especially in the parables that Jesus told His followers, we can read these words: “He who has ears to hear, let him listen…”. Of course, we know very well that there are no people without ears. Jesus’ call is about those who are interested in His teaching paying attention to His words and being open to receiving and reflecting on them. Only the listeners will understand the true content of what He is saying.

3. “The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth”
The Lord declares: “And when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but whatever he hears, that will he speak, and he will declare to you the things to come” (John 16:13). From these words we understand that even without having the intellectual capacity to perceive all truth, we will be guided into all truth by the Spirit of God. We also realize that through the words of the Spirit we will receive prophetic vision and knowledge by which we will be informed of things to come.

Short Bible Study: John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. 

We are so used to the verse in John 3:16 and, unfortunately, to its out of context interpretation. This interpretation seems to focus on a “positive message” where just the first half of the verse is the focus of attention: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…” (I am keeping the punctuation of the ESV). This emphasis points to God’s great love which moved Him to sacrifice His Son as a propitiation for the sins of rebellious mankind is very important. The lack of love, kindness, and real acceptance is ruining people’s families, friendships, and lives. Man needs the message of true love. However, it is the omission of the rest of the verse and the context of this teaching that exacerbate the problem of misunderstanding God’s love and replacing it with human wants.

The unconditional love of God actually has a condition: eternal life is given to those who believe in Him, the Son. For the full context we must read the passage including verses 17 to 21:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of our sins, and God’s graceful acceptance for anyone into this truth is unconditional. There are no preferences, anyone, even the gravest sinner, the evilest man is welcome.

The passage however explains the fate of those who reject the Way of God to reconciliation with Him: without belief one is already condemned because they did not believe in the name of the only Son of God. But the Word of God does not stop here. In His teaching Jesus gives an explanation exactly what the judgment is: man’s choice of evil and thus rejection of the true light of God. It is the works of man in rebellion to God that are evil and are made such just because of that rebellion. Thus verses 19-21 give the precise rationale why man loves darkness and evil, resulting in his desire to stay away from God and His Son, who is light.

With this fuller perspective we understand the love of God better:

1. God loved the world even if it was evil;

2. His love for the world moved Him to a point to offer His only Son as a sacrifice for man’s sins;

3. The love of God results in an offer of eternal life;

4. Man is evil, loves darkness, not God;

5. To enter into eternal life one must believe in the name of His only Son.

(Which means to acknowledge Jesus’ origins and essence in God, and his descent to this world in the flesh to become a man and Savior). The love of God is unconditional at the entry point but it does not condone remaining in once former state of being. True faith changes us. If one continues in darkness, he does not believe in the Son.

God’s love does not spare the painful truth. The reason for people rejecting His Son and salvation is their love for their works which are evil and done in darkness. For one to enter into peace with God he has to turn his back to darkness and move to the light. There is no love that leads to eternal life outside of the Son of God. Without faith in Christ what awaits one is judgment.

This full contextual view of John 3:16 gives us a better glimpse of the love of God for us. We are made aware not only of His nature, and His sacrifice, but even more so, as we understand our own sorry and fallen state. The love of God releases us from the grip of our own chains and addiction to darkness. Yet our darkness and corruption will condemn us to judgment if we reject the sacrifice of God, through the work, death, and resurrection of His only Son.

God is a loving Father, but He is also a righteous Judge. His true love is seen in the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins, evil, and damnation. If we believe in His Son we will clearly see who God is, but we will also fully know who we are. We will understand that due to our rebellion and following corruption we do not deserve eternal life yet He gave it to us, if we believe in the Name.

John 3:16, the love of God and eternal life are inseparable from the second part of verse 16, and the clear teachings of verses 17 to 21. Only if we consider the context, we will fully understand the meaning of “God so loved the world” and John 3:16. Do you want eternal life? Believe in the name of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.

Short Bible Study: Proverbs 16:3

Man praying with his hands on the Bible

Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Proverbs 16:3

To commit one’s works to the Lord does not mean to relinquish all responsibility and to “let the Lord take care of it.” One’s works are his own works. Committing them to the Lord would mean that such works are given over to God as He is the Maker and Master of man and his life.

The establishment of plans, as a result of committing one’s works to the Lord, also means that there is an exchange, prayer, communication between man and God. It is a process of “committing” and then the plans are the “feedback” from God. But these plans are now established.

Often, we don’t fully commit our works to the Lord because we want to keep control. Then things do not go so well. In our human pride we feel that it is us who know best how our works should be performed. However, if we humbly say to God: “Lord, these are my works. Do what you have to with them!” then His intervention, in response to our humility, will make our plans stand. Our work will have a direction, shaped in heaven.

It is a relationship in which we must acknowledge that without God we would be able to do nothing of value, even if activities abound.

A Short Bible Study: Matthew 5:10

tied hands and a cross

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This verse is part of the Lord’s teaching known as the Beatitudes. It is an encouragement to those who are under an oppressive, unjust, and cruel treatment because of their faith in Jesus.

Without such a great promise — to be blessed for being subject of persecution — one would ask himself “Why am I suffering? Is it in vain?” But the words of Jesus are a promise that standing for the righteousness of God in this world has a great reward — the kingdom of heaven. In God’s kingdom eternal righteousness and justice reign. Those persecuted on earth will inherit this kingdom — it is theirs, it is their home, their inheritance. Those formerly mistreated for being citizen of this eternal kingdom will now live in it, they will be its rulers.

Standing with righteousness against the unrighteous, and paying a price has a great reward in waiting.

A second notion is that wherever there is a kingdom there is a system of justice. The justice of the eternal kingdom of God is founded on the just and eternal God. The suffering of those who stood for the name of God and His Son, under the persecution of the wicked kingdoms of this world, will be redeemed with the reward of heaven. For those who are faithful justice will mean their sacrifice will be their badge of honor before the King of kings.

Victory against Religious Restrictions Bill

Evangelical Christians in Bulgaria take to the streets to oppose new anti-religious laws at the end of 2018

Evangelical Christians in Bulgaria take to the streets to oppose new anti-religious laws at the end of 2018

 

Anti-Christian persecution in Bulgaria does not come with violence and imprisonment but by legislature and intimidation. In the 17 years since the last religious law was adopted in 2002 more than 17 attempts to introduce restrictions on religious freedom by a change of the law were attempted by various political factions.

In May last year, all major political parties proposed two highly restrictive bills which if adopted would have ended freedom of religion in Bulgaria and driven the church underground.

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Is the defense of religious freedom a legitimate Christian ministry?

“Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith,” says Robin David, the ADF International allied lawyer defending the pastors in court. “In India, many citizens face fierce harassment because they belong to a religious minority.”

These Christian pastors in India are being persecuted not because they are a minority but because they are Christians.  While “nobody should be persecuted for their religious belief” may be a nice sentiment, the reality is that persecution occurs on a daily basis. In fact, anti-Christian irrational hatred and the resulting persecution is amply talked about and predicted in the Lord’s teachings and throughout the New Testament.

It is right and proper for us to support each other as believers and stand up against persecution and the injustice it represents. The NT teaching that Christians must be ready to embrace suffering for the name of the Lord does not constitute a surrender to the claims of evil without opposition on our side. Jesus suffered ultimately but He never stopped to assert His divine right to be recognized as the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Savior of the world. We see the same example through the lives of the apostles and the martyrs of the faith.

Being subject to persecution should never be seen as a reason for Christians to approve of persecution, even if they gladly embrace it as a sign of their loyalty to Christ.

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