During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.

LESSON 6 – Becoming poor in spirit should make you mourn Bible References:

• Matthew 5:4 (1)
• 1 John 2:1, 2 (2)

Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. I hope you are feeling really lousy today. If you have been thinking on what Jesus said about becoming poor in spirit, you should be feeling miserable about yourself. And if you are, then you’re right where you should be and ready to become happier than you have ever been before.

Now don’t be thinking I am delusional for saying if you are miserable then you are ready to be happy. All I am doing is drawing attention to a genuine paradox that Jesus taught, after He said we need to become poor in spirit. Here is what He said.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (1)

Again, Jesus starts with the word blessed just as He did when saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. This word blessed is a life defining word because it refers to a special type of happiness. It’s not the kind we experience when having a good day or after getting a better-than-expected raise at work.

This happiness has nothing to do with circumstances. What Jesus refers to here is a joy that touches you deep inside and is specifically the result of something God does. But how can someone be happy while feeling miserable about themselves? I mean, what was Jesus’ thinking?

When you do come to terms with your poor in spirit condition, it should naturally make you feel awful because God designed you to be a perfectly righteous, happy person and the truth is, you are not. That is why this attitude of mourning should be natural when you understand how bad you really are. But this comfort is unique because it’s something that only God can make happen, you cannot do it for yourself.

This word comfort is a verb, and it refers to an action that the Spirit of God does to your mourning. Remember what we learned last week. When you recognize and acknowledge how poor in spirit you are God gives you His kingdom, which is the invisible Spirit of God living and reigning from inside of you. But you must understand, the Spirit does not just sit there idle on the throne of your heart. He is constantly working inside of you. And when you mourn for your awful condition, He floods your emotional feelings of sorrow with a kindness that lifts you up from your despair and stands you happily on the mountaintop of His forgiving grace. The question is how in the world does He do that?

There is a word that defines His action of comfort, and it’s called propitiation. This is one of the most comprehensive words God uses to describe what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Here is its definition as used in the Bible. Propitiation is the means God uses to lavish grace and kindness on us sinners without violating His own judicial righteousness.

The only way God can lavish grace and kindness on a poor in spirit; horrible sinner, is because of the means He chose to deal with our sin. God didn’t just ignore it or excuse it. Instead, He punished the hell out of it by placing His own Son Jesus on the cross and then had Him become our sin. Then, while Jesus was nailed to the cross and filled with everyone’s sin, God punished Him with the full payment that all our sin requires.

And because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, whenever a person mourns for their horrible condition, God is free to do what He loves to do, which is to lavish His propitiatory grace and kindness on our sorrow.

The Holy Spirits’ comfort reaches deep into your emotions, where nothing can diminish its effect on you because His comfort addresses the reason for your sorrow.

Mourning and happiness are quite a contrast of emotions. But the reason God can comfort our sorrow is because His judicial nature, which cannot overlook sin, has been completely satisfied through the propitiation of Jesus.(2)

This attitude of mourning, while at the same time being intensely happy, makes living in the kingdom unlike anything else. For nothing can take this joy away due to the fact it didn’t come from outside of you. It comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit who takes God’s grace and kindness and lavishes it upon your poor in spirit sorrow.

Whenever I teach this, I like to have my wife make a beautiful plate of strawberry shortcake and then I take a full can of whipped cream and start spraying it on top of the strawberry’s. While I am doing this, I ask someone to tell me when I have reached the point of lavishing the whipped cream. No one ever stops me until the whipped cream is so high and wide it covers the entire plate of strawberry shortcake. It usually gets about a foot high before it finally begins to fall on the floor. This is lavishing.

I hope you can picture that in your brain. To me, this is the perfect example of God lavishing His grace and kindness on our mourning. And remember, the only reason He can do this is because His Son willingly offered Himself, to be punished for all our sins. His sacrifice purchased this gift of comfort the Holy Spirit gives you. And it’s only when you are one of God’s favored ones that you get this.

How valuable is this gift of the kingdom that was bought and paid for by the propitiatory death of God’s Son! So, do mourn for your sinful condition as you should ─ but at the same time let the Holy Spirit make you extraordinarily happy because of the means God used to lavish you with grace and kindness without violating His own judicial righteousness.

I hope you are beginning to see why the cross of Christ is so important to the kingdom of God. It’s the only way we poor in spirit sinners can become favored and inherit the purpose of life.

Well, that’s it for today and once again, there’s just one thing ─ The propitiation of Jesus allows the Spirit of God to lavish you with grace and kindness and turn your mourning into extreme happiness.

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