Rev. David Holwick B Life On the Level, #1
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey (well-received)
January 13, 2013
Luke 6:17-23
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I. The thrills of poverty.
A. One man's story.
Tom Monaghan grew up very poor.
His father died when he was five years old.
His mother, who worked as a domestic servant, put him and his
brother in an orphanage until she could afford to take care
of them.
When Monaghan got out on his own he worked diligently and
founded the Domino's Pizza empire.
In 1998 he sold it for one billion dollars.
What do you do with a billion dollars?
Tom bought a Bugatti Royale luxury car.
Only six were made - he paid $8.1 million for his.
He also bought a Gulfstream jet, and a helicopter, and an art
collection.
He sank seven million dollars into a new mansion in Ann Arbor
and another $35 million into an island retreat.
He owned the Detroit Tiger's baseball team.
Every billionaire needs their own sports team!
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Which situation would you rather have?
Would you want to be a poor kid in an orphanage?
Or would you rather be a billionaire?
Give it some serious thought....
B. We are material beings in a material world.
1) Madonna is not the only one who has noted this.
2) Given our druthers, we would rather have nice stuff, and
be happy, and be treated well by other people.
3) Almost every human culture takes the same view.
a) But Jesus did not.
b) Jesus has a pretty weird take on reality - it is
topsy-turvy compared to almost everyone else.
c) If you consider yourself a Christian, you need to think
carefully about what he says.
II. The core of Jesus' teaching.
A. The key ethical teaching of Jesus is found in this chapter.
1) When people think of the message of Jesus, they are thinking
of this material:
a) Love your enemies.
b) Turn the other cheek.
c) Do to others as you would have them do to you.
d) Build your house on a rock.
2) It goes against what is taught in most philosophies.
a) Even many Christians aren't sure how to handle it.
b) Some of it sounds dangerous, all of it sounds hard.
B. Two versions, in Matthew and Luke.
1) Matthew's is known as the Sermon on the Mount. (chap 5-7)
2) Luke's is often called the Sermon on the Plain.
a) It is similar material, so Jesus must have picked
a fairly level area in the hills around the Sea
of Galilee.
b) Luke's version is shorter but even Matthew's version
only takes ten minutes or so to read.
c) Undoubtedly, Jesus spoke much longer, but these passages
preserve the gist of what he said.
C. Differences can be seen in the beatitudes.
1) He has four blessings compared to Matthew's 8, and Luke
adds four woes that Matthew doesn't have.
2) The main difference is that Luke's version is very concrete.
a) Matthew looks at people who are poor in spirit, who
hunger after righteousness.
b) Luke simply speaks of the poor, the hungry, the sad.
1> It is very earthly; Luke doesn't spiritualize it
like Matthew does.
2> Many scholars think Luke's version is the closest
to what Jesus actually said.
3> So what did he mean by it? How are we supposed to
take it?
III. You can see Jesus as a Marxist.
A. He would be elevating the poor lowly masses of people.
1) They don't have much in the way of material things, but
God loves them and lets them win in the end.
2) What was called "Liberation Theology" in Latin America
liked Luke's version of the beatitudes.
a) God was opposed to the upper class and middle class,
but he liked poor people who lived in hovels.
b) In this theology, Jesus is a Marxist revolutionary who
is promising the poor a redistribution of the earth's
wealth at the expense of the wicked capitalists.[1]
c) Some have called this "situational salvation."
1> If your situation is poverty, you are saved.
2> If you are rich, you are not.
B. Most people don't see poverty as much of a blessing.
1) Vaudeville actress Sophie Tucker was once asked by reporters
about her early struggles before she became a success.
They wanted to know whether or not she had been happy in
her years of poverty.
She answered, "I've been rich, and I've been poor.
Believe me, honey, rich is better!"
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2) The Bible itself doesn't see poverty as a good thing.
a) The teaching of Proverbs 30:8-9.
"Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only
my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say,
'Who is the Lord?"
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the
name of my God."
b) Jesus also teaches that God will provide for our needs.
C. The one thing poverty gives you is focus.
1) Those who are poor and hungry and broken depend on God
because they have no other options.
2) This attitude is found throughout the Old Testament.
a) The poor have a humble faith whereas the rich think
they deserve everything they have.
b) Consider these verses from the Psalms:
Psalm 14:6
"You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but
the LORD is their refuge."
Psalm 22:26
"The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the
LORD will praise him--may your hearts live forever!"
Psalm 37:14
"The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring
down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways
are upright."
c) Note how the poor are those who seek God, whose lives
are upright.
3) This helps explain Matthew's version of the beatitudes.
a) When he says "poor in spirit" he is giving a thought-
for-thought translation of what Jesus said.
b) They are poor, but spiritual. They hunger for God's
love and help.
IV. The blessings go beyond this life.
A. They point to a future life with God.
1) The world is messed up now, but it will be better for you
in the future.
a) Note Luke's tenses: you WILL be satisfied, you WILL
laugh, you WILL be rewarded.
b) The future may not be in your lifetime - you might have
to wait until heaven. But it will come.
2) Pie in the sky?
a) Many modern revolutionaries have rejected Jesus because
of this.
b) They want change NOW, not later.
B. In a way, the future is now.
1) The first beatitude has the present tense - yours IS the
kingdom of God.
2) Jesus' teaching is really about salvation.
a) He did not direct it to everyone.
b) Three groups were present when he preached.
1> A vast crowd that was mixed, with Jews and
foreigners of varied interest in Jesus.
2> A smaller group of disciples, people who considered
themselves committed followers of Jesus.
3> The smallest group of all, the twelve apostles.
c) Jesus aimed this teaching at the middle group.
1> They followed Jesus but not all of them would be
considered saved.
2> Some held back before making a full commitment.
3> Jesus wanted them to put their trust in him, just
like the poor put their trust in God.
V. Are you one of the blessed?
A. Perhaps you feel poor enough to be among the blessed.
1) It is common to feel the pressures and limitations of life.
2) But has it drawn you closer to God?
B. The rest of Tom Monaghan's story...
One day, Billionaire Tom Monaghan was reading a passage from
C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity."
Lewis proposed that, in the scheme of Christian morality,
pride was "the great sin."
A rich man's striving for greater wealth, Lewis contended, was
not greed but pride.
"That hit me right between the eyes," Monaghan said.
"C. S. Lewis told me that it was pure pride.
You wanted to impress other people -- impress them with all
your worldly goods and accomplishments."
As he lay in bed that night, Monaghan said, he swore a
"millionaire's vow of poverty."
The next day, he began to dispossess himself of the earthly
treasures he'd accumulated.
He abandoned his dream house, which was still under construction.
The house had cost $7 million; it sits unfinished in a field
of weeds.
Monaghan sold almost all of his art collection, some of it at a
staggering loss.
He sold his $35 million island resort for $3 million.
He gave up the helicopter, the Gulfstream business jet, and the
Bugatti.
He sold his baseball team.
Tom told a writer, "I had to get rich to see that being rich
isn't important.
I was getting too sidetracked by the quest for that stuff.
I mean, it was a game."
After he made his decision, Monaghan announced that he would
devote the rest of his life, and his resources, to God.
"I want to die broke," he declared.
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He now has a contentment that eluded him before.
He is a blessed man.
You probably are not a billionaire like Tom Monaghan.
But you can be just as blessed if you put your trust in God.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] Adapted the sermon “Be Blessed!” by Rev. Samuel D. Zumwalt of
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Wilmington, North
Carolina, < http://www.stmatthewsch.org>; Kerux Sermon #63866,
February 11, 2007.
# 2477 “Rich Is Better,” James Boice, from his book “The Sermon On
the Mount,” page 21; added November 1, 1992.
#34153 “A Millionaire’s Vow of Poverty,” Peter J. Boyer, New Yorker
Magazine, from Boyer’s article, “The Deliverer,” page 102,
February 19, 2007.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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