Cultivating an Attitude of Humility

November 3, 2019 Speaker: Ted Detiveaux Series: Be Attitudes

Topic: Humility Scripture: Matthew 5:1– :3

Cultivating An Attitude of Humility

Is anyone else besides me a do it yourselfer? (DIY story gone bad)

Matthew 5:1-3

1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

         Today we would like to examine the attitude of humility.  We will attempt to answer the question, what does it meanto be poor in Spirit? 

 

         Poor ptochos (toe-hass)- lowly, afflicted, helpless, powerlessto accomplish an end

 

         So, what is Jesus saying when he says Blessed are the poor in spirit?

 

         When you think of the poor, you think of people who are hungry, even desperate. They would go to any extremeto have their needs met.

 

         (Kids panhandling in Philippines)

 

They are often dependentupon someone else to meet their need.  Jesus is not sayingthat we should quitour jobs, leaveour homes and become dependenton other people for our survival, but He is saying we should be equally desperate and dependentupon Him.  Because without Him we are incapableof doing anything.  Without Him, we are spiritually deprived and destitutewithout hope.

 

         Acts 17:28

         for in Him we live and move and have our being

 

         Everythingthat we do, everything that we areis because of Him.  He has given us abilitiesand the intellectand the resourcesto accomplish that which He has planned for our lives. 

 

         To Be poor in Spiritis to have an attitude in which yourealize apart from Himyou are nothing.  Even though this totally goes against the idea of self-sufficiencywhich most of us have been taught all our life. In fact, one psychologist writes an article titled, “Self Sufficiency: an essential aspect of Wellbeing.”  According to him, in order to experience wellbeingof life that you need to become more self-sufficient.

 

We have self-help booksfor everything which teaches an individual how to fix yourself. As if the answer is found in our own abilitiesor within our own knowledge.

  1. Presence- if your bold enoughthen you can fix your biggest problems.
  2. Yes-If you just say yesto those things which you are scared of, then that will alleviate your fear
  3. Grit-if your passionateenough if you persevereenough
  4. Lightly- stress free life
  5. How not to die-if you eat the right things then you won’t die

But if our life’s difficult answers could be found on the inside of us, then what is the role of Christ?

  • Why would He have to die on the cross, if we can fix ourselves?

 

The truth is that we lack the abilityto fix ourselves.

 

         In Luke 18, Jesus speaks a parable to His disciples.  In this parable we will see two differenttypes of people with two different attitudes. One is self-sufficientwhile the other realizes that he could do nothingof himself.  Yet only one will be justifiedin the eyes of Christ.

 

Luke 18:9-14

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 

 

What parable is He speaking of?The parable of the persistent widow, who pleads to the judgefor justice.  This parable that He spoke of was a lesson on prayer, on how we should be persistentin making our petitions known to God.  He is now teaching this same parable to the self-righteous Pharisees.

 

(picture of Pharisee)

 

The Pharisees pridedthemselves in their knowledge of the law, and thus separatedthemselves from the common people.  They dressed and acteddifferently than the common Jew.  In fact, the word Pharisee means “to separate.”  They were righteous according to their own merit.  They thought themselves to be holy and even holierthan everyone else.  They thought they could demandanything of God.  They were a proud and arrogantpeople.  They viewed others as unfitto receive salvation, and believed they alone were God’s chosen people.

 

In Matthew 23, is a whole chapter in which Jesus reprimandsthe Pharisees for their hypocritical conduct.

4For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; 6They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

 

14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation.

 

That is just some of the highlights of chapter 23.  The message is clear that Jesus abhorssuch attitudes.

 

So being that their name meant “to separate”, Jesus speaksthe parable separatelyto them.  But this parable carried the same powerful insight as He had spoken to His disciples.  If they had grasped the concept that Jesus had clearly illustrated to them then they too would receivethe same gracethat was given to his faithful followers.  

 

But such grace would only be given to those who realized they were poor in spiritnot to those who claimed to know it allor have it all together.

 

Mark 2:17

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

As a doctorcould only treat a patientwho realizes their need of a physician.  He can’t treat those who never step footin his office.  Jesus gives the invitation to bothhis followers and to those who were not His followers.  Some would listen, others would not.

 

 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 

 

We have already talkeda bit about the Pharisee, now a little about the tax collector.  It should be obviousthat if you bear the name “tax collector” that you’re probably not likedvery much.  How many of you like paying taxes to the IRS?  How many people think we pay too many taxes?

 

The Roman government imposedmany taxes on the people.  Poll tax payed for every 14-year-old maleand 12-year-old female,landtax, importand exporttaxes, markettax, very similar to our day in age in which there is a tax for any and everything that could be taxed.

 

To add to this the Roman Publicanswho had paid for their rightto collect the taxes, would employJewish mento collect the taxes for them.  Which was a brilliantplan, because they just sat back and collected the money without having to deal with the public.  They used the Jewish tax collectors as scapegoats.

 

These Jewish tax collectors would often overtax their fellowJews and then pocket the surplus.  So, one could see why these tax collectors would be hated with animosityby their fellow Jews.

 

When Jesus opens His parableby mentioning that both a Pharisee and tax collector went to the temple to pray, His listeners would have automatically pinned the Pharisee as the “good guy’and the “tax collector as the bad guy.”

 

Perhaps this is how we all view these two individuals so far.  From the outside the Pharisee lookedthe part, he had the robes,hat, and from the outside the tax collector was unworthy scum.

 

11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 

 

Surely the Lord did not intendthis sort of prayer when He taught his disciples to pray. Yes, we are to start off with praise and thanksgiving, but this Pharisee’s prayer of thankfulness was more like an opportunity to boastabout his self to God.  

 

As if he was to inform God how magnificentof man that he was.  He makes himself to be better and even above all of who he considers to be the worst of men.  There was no petitionasking for God’s help or asking forgivenessof his sins, because in His eyes he was self-sufficientand thought that he could be justifiedthrough his own good works.  His self-piousness has caused him to degrade othersfor their sins while committing one of the most offensive sins to God.

 

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverse mouth I hate.

 

It is easy to point out other people’s sinsand act like you are so holy.  The Lord hates itwhen we are prideful and are not willing to admit our need for Him.  Besides hating it, He resistthose who are prideful.

 

James 4:6

 

But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

 

The oppositeof being prideful is having an attitude of humility. We find the account of the tax collectorgoing to the temple and his response is much differentthan that of the Pharisee.

 

13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 

 

Both went to the temple to pray, but only one said a real prayer.  The tax collector stood afar off, meaning he had a reference for Godand felt unworthyof coming to close.

 

could not even lift his eyestoward heaven, implying that he felt ashamedfor the things that he had done and who had become.

 

He beat his chestshowing that he was upset with himselfbecause of his sin. He prayed that God would be mercifulto him, and he admittedthat he was a sinnerunlike the Pharisee.

 

We can say this man was poor in spirit.  He realized that God was his answer, and that he was impoverished withoutHim.  As a poor man expresses a dependencyupon others for survival, he was dependentupon God for his salvation.  He could not make itanother day without God in his life.

 

(John Piper) To be poor in spirit is to have a sense of

  • powerlessnessin ourselves.
  • spiritual bankruptcyand helplessnessbefore God.
  • moral uncleannessbefore God.
  • personalunworthinessbefore God.
  • It is a sense that if there is to be any life or joy or usefulness, it will have to be all of God and all of grace.

 

This is what it means to be poor in spirit

 

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

Jesus would resistthe prayer of the Pharisee, he would not be justified, his sins would not be pardoned, he would not be considered righteousin the eyes of God.

 

While the tax collectorwould receive forgivenessfor his sins, he would be justifiedbefore God and welcomedinto God’s family as one of His children.

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

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