The Beatitudes

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 Is Poverty a Blessing?
 Very few would agree poverty is a blessing.
 Most speak of poverty as a curse rather than a blessing.

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Greek word for ‘poor’ - Ptochos

 This adjective
describes not just
simply poor but
completely destitute
(bankrupt).
 This word is always
used in a bad sense.

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 Ptochos is to be absolutely poor

 A man who has no

power.
 Has no prestige.
 Has no influence to
defend himself against
the insults and assaults
of the world.
 People can walk all over
you and there’s nothing
you can do about it.

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What is the poverty of the Spirit

 Not poverty of the

Holy Spirit
 A personal
acknowledgment of
spiritual bankruptcy
 Conscious confession
of unworth before God
 Deepest form of
repentance

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 Prayer of the publican
Luke 18:10-14

 “God have mercy on me, a sinner”

 No attempt to justify self or to excuse one’s sin
 Totally emptied of pride and completely self abased
 Compare that with the self-righteous prayer of the
Pharisee who did not see his total unworth before
God.

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Three Truths from this Beatitude

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 Truth no. 1

 The way to power lies

through the realization
of one’s helplessness
 The way to victory lies
in the admission of
one’s defeat
 The way to goodness
lies through the
confession and
acknowledgement of
one’s sin

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How the sick can get well

 The first necessity of

a sick man if he is to
be well is to admit he is
not well and that he
should seek a cure.
 Unless he realizes that
he is sick and
acknowledges that by
seeing a doctor, he will
never be well but only
gets worse.
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 Truth no. 2

 This Beatitude makes a

complete revaluation of what
constitutes wealth.
 True wealth can never consist in
the possession of things.
 The man who has nothing but
money to meet life is truly a
poverty stricken man.
 The rich man is not the one who
has the most but who needs the
least.

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Truth no. 3
 The way to true
independence lies
through dependence in
God
 The way to true
freedom comes
through complete
surrender to God

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John Wesley & the Moravian Christians
 John Wesley was on a voyage
to another country when his
ship met with a terrible storm.
 People were screaming and
scrambling for life jackets or
floats.

 Like everyone else, he too

was caught up with running
back and forth for dear
life, trying to balance the
ship to keep it from
capsizing
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John Wesley & the Moravian Christians
 In the midst of all this
commotion and terror, he
suddenly saw a group of people
kneeling quietly in deep earnest
prayer with folded hands.
 John was deeply impressed by
the faith of these Moravian
Christians for fear was not
reflected on their faces but
perfect peace.
 He decided right there and then
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that same kind of faith in him.
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We cannot be filled unless we are
empty of selfish pride

 When we realized our lack

of righteousness
 When we are emptied of
our pride
 When we realized how much
our need is
 Then we are ready to be
filled by God’s spirit and
only then can we truly be of
service to Him
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Kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor

 The kingdom of God

belongs to the poor of
spirit because only they
ask to be in
 Only they realize how
spiritually bankrupt
they are
 Only they go in search
of righteousness

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Those who are contented are
disqualified from heaven

 Those who are contented

are complacent
 They do nothing about their
spiritual condition because
they see no need.
 Consequently they are
disqualified from heaven

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Paraphrased Beatitude No 1
 O’ the happiness of the
man who has realized his
own utter helplessness
and his own utter
inadequacy and who has
learnt to put his whole
trust in God; for then he
will humbly accept the
will of God and in so
doing becomes a citizen
of the kingdom of God

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