Blessed are the Poor...

In the world today their are many half truths that people live by, and the world of religion is no different. I was recently asked to give the message at the 'Bread of Heaven' ministry's outreach in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a group of societies down-trodden, forgotten and left behind. It was truly a blessed event for all involved, here was the small part that I played thanks to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. May you who read this be blessed as well.



First of all, I would like to give a general thanks the volunteers from the Huntington Chapel who have given of their time tonight, as they do every third Saturday night of the month. Specifically though to Bob and Lindy for their service in running this ministry for the past couple of years. Not just here, but also at the Chapel they have been a welcome addition.



Though he is not with us tonight, I would like to give special thanks to Bob Bergers for following through on what God put 'on his heart' regarding the Chapel's involvement here and elsewhere outside the four walls of our cozy little corner of Shelton, Connecticut.



But mostly, I would like to thank those who have come to receive the ministry offered here. If you have been here more than once, you know that this outreach is a little different than most here in the City of Bridgeport, because you get blessed by receiving the Word of God. While the clothing is important, as is the food, both what is served and given away, it is the spiritual food of God that is the most important thing that you receive, because only with it can you ever hope to receive eternal life. Not only that, but you are a blessing to us, for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Because in doing so, we serve and grow closer to our God.



Give thanks to God for using Pastor Dave to found this ministry more than 18 years ago. It has not only grown in size and it's ability to serve, but unfortunately, has grown more and more unique as the years have gone by. It is the Word of God that marks as different, this ministry from the others throughout the Bridgeport region, both secular and religious alike. Those that fly the flag of religion leave out the essence of what they are supposed to represent. As if somehow having the ministry in the basement of the church, or a building attached to it, fulfills their obligation to Whom they ultimately serve.



Though it was the Pharisees that Jesus was speaking of when in the Gospel of Matthew he quoted Isaiah 29:13, it may as well have been spoke to these very same religious institutions today!



Matthew 15: 7-9a (NKJV)



Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

‘ These people draw near to Me with their mouth,

And honor Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.

And in vain they worship Me,



We are to feed the hungry and cloth the naked, but if we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ we must obey the 'Great Commission' as well...



Matthew 28: 18-20 (NKJV)



And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”



Mark 16: 15-16 (NKJV)



And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned."



It is that very last part of verse 16, 'he who does not believe will be condemned', THAT is our motivation to seek and save that which is lost.



My full time employment for the past 15 years has been as a chauffeur for a couple of limousine companies here in Fairfield County, and my travels have brought me throughout the northeast. From Boston all the way down to Philadelphia and then some, and of course including many, many times, countless times to New York City. In that time I have met many who are in similar circumstances to those here tonight. At the very least I am sure to find out how their walk with God is going, and again, at the very least leaving them with a Bible trac. When I have had the opportunity and the means to do more, I have, but I am careful of what my Saviour taught me in his Sermon on the Mount, found in the very beginning of Chapter 6...



Matthew 6: 1-4 (NKJV)



Matthew 6


Charitable Deeds



“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly."



Besides, what I do is nothing special, it should be expected of someone who claims to be a Christian, and if you run into someone who claims this but is not charitable, or is making sure all who are around can clearly see how charitable he or she is being, call them out on it, rebuke them! If they are truly a Christian, they will listen and take heed to the rebuke, if they brush you off, then they have greater problems than not being charitable to you and you should pray for them. This is how Christ tells us we should be as a Christian, from his teaching of the disciples in this passage of the Gospel of Luke...



Luke 17: 7-10 (NKJV)



And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’



So we are all to be like 'The Good Samaritan' that Jesus speaks of in Luke Chapter 10...



Luke 10: 30b-37 (NKJV)



“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”



When Lindy had asked me to give the message tonight, I was musing about what things would be like when we got to heaven, more specifically, the different paths that our lives took, how many wrong turns we made on the road of life before we got right with God. I believe part of having perfect knowledge when we are there, will be that we will know what are life would have been like if we had taken the right road at 16, 18, 25, or even 40. For me it wasn't until just after my 41st birthday that I began to walk on the narrow road that leads to eternal life. But that is a conversation intended to be had amongst the brethren; fellow believers. And just like Jude wrote in his Epistle, that he wanted to speak of the common salvation of the saints, but rather he had to implore them to contend for the faith against false beliefs and false teachers.



And so it goes tonight, I must first address the big myth I have heard, in one way or another, from some of the down-trodden along the way. It goes something like this; since the Bible says that it is hard for the rich to go to heaven, and because I am poor in every way, I must be getting a free pass!



Now that statement has a lot of truth in it for sure, but as it is it is like many false beliefs, a whole lotta truth with a little falsehood weaved in between. It is the essence of what the devil does to Scripture through his false teachers. Let's look at it in two parts, first...



The Bible says that it's hard for the rich to go to heaven...



True. Yes, the Bible does mention that it will be difficult for those well-off to find heaven in the hereafter, but why??? If it were simply because they were rich on earth, then there might be some merit in thinking the opposite was true. But as always, we must go to the Scriptures to find the truth, truth with a capital T...



It is from the story of the 'Rich Young Ruler' where the most famous quote about the rich appears, and it appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, but we will only be taking a look at the story from the Gospel of Mark...



Mark 10: 17-25 (NKJV)



Now as He (Jesus) was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”



The problem is not that he is rich, but rather that he puts his wealth in front of everything else. It is when the rich have money as their god, their false idol, is when their riches are a problem and a hindrance to heaven.

Others who knew their Bible would point to the story of 'Lazarus and The Rich Man', and at first glance you might get the impression that indeed the poor do get a free pass to heaven.

Luke 16: 19-31

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

As you can see, the focus here is not on Lazarus but the Rich Man and the evil done towards the poor beggar, and how if he had known the Scriptures as he'd ought to of, he would have taken care of him.

Once more others referred to Jesus speaking of the poor, the hungry, the sick and the persecuted gaining their reward in heaven. Really? Lets go to the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount once again, Chapter 5. We will read verses 6, 10, and finish with 3...

Matthew 5: 6, 10, 3

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst... for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

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

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

So what is 'poor in spirit' exactly? It is the opposite of self-sufficiency. It speaks of the deep humility of recognizing one's utter spiritual bankruptcy apart from God. It describes those who are acutely conscious of their own lostness and hopelessness apart from divine grace. Jesus was teaching that the kingdom is a gracious gift to those who sense their own poverty of spirit.

I'll let you in on a little secret... that thing about the 'free pass'; it's true! But we all have the opportunity both great and small, rich and poor, to receive this free pass. The most commonly referred to verses in the Bible describing the Christian Doctrine on Salvation is found in Ephesians 2: 8-9, but to get the richness of this verse, I will begin reading at verse 4.

Ephesians 2: 4-9

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

How do we receive this gift? It's as easy as A, B, C!

A) Acknowledge that you are a sinner. The Bible tells us that we all are. Romans 3:23 says, 'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...' When Jesus hung upon the cross and uttered the statement, "It is finished!" He meant for all sin, for all time. Through one man, Adam, sin came into the world, and through one man, the God-man, Christ Jesus, sin was abolished.

B) Believe that Christ died for your sins. That through his death on the cross, his blood shed has the ability to was you clean.

C) Confess Him as Lord and Saviour. Not simply that He is your Saviour, but the He is also Lord of your life! And how ever he wants to use you once you have come to him, you must follow whereever he leads you. He will take you as you are, where you are, and he just might leave you there to minister to others. This past Tuesday I met a man, we will call him, 'Andrew the Sax player', and he was saved more than ten years ago. He was a drug-addicted, alcholic-dependent, homeless, jobless living between homeless shelters and the streets of New York City. Today he spends his days playing his sax for money on the streets, and what ever he doesn't need for the day he gives away to someone who is more in need than he, and oh, by the way, he is still homeless. God has called him to minister to those still where he was, and the best way to do it is to be there. As he told me, a white boy from the suburbs is not going to have credibility with some of those like he can.

So are you ready? It can be done, here and now, for today is the day of salvation, are you ready to make that commitment? If so, you don't have to wait to go to church tommorow, you don't need to tell it to a priest. For Jesus Christ is your sole intercessor, your High Priest. call out to Him, confess your sins and repent of them. Turn from them and turn to Jesus. Don't just believe in Him, put your trust in Him, like you would a parachute. You don't simply believe that the parachute will work, you put it on! So put on the Lord Jesus, and he will make you anew; a new creature in Christ, impueding His rightousness to you, crediting your account so to speak before God. So on the day of judgment you will be found blameless, not because you are a good person, or because you have been among the down-trodden of society, but because Jesus paid your fine upon the Cross at Calvary. And if public confessions is not your thing, go home, read your Bible, make Psalm 51 your personal prayer of repentence, and after you have repented, make Psalm 103 your personal prayer of praise for His great riches of mercy. If you are ready to recieve Him, the time is now, come forward and let us pray for you, and pray with you.