What He has Done

Reading: Matt. 5:3, Luke 4:14-30, Rev 3:17, 18, Eph 1 and 2

"Blessed are the poor in spirit." 

Matt. 5:3

After Jesus was tempted by Satan we read: "Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit's power... When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood town, He went as usual to the synagog on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 

because He has anointed Me to preach to the poor; 

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, 
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 

Luke 4:18, 19  NKJ

He rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant and sat down. All eyes in the synagog were fixed on Him. Then He said  

"Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing". 
Luke 4:21

They were moved by His speaking, but they began to wonder, how this could be? The passage spoke of was foretelling the coming of Messiah. Then it began to sink in, Jesus, Joseph's son, whom they knew all of His life had just proclaimed to be the great Messiah, the Anointed One of God!!! This did not end well for Jesus that day. However, we will stay focused on what He said, because through this prophecy in Isaiah, He is telling us who He is and what He came to do. Read those verses above again and be moved by who He is and realize He came not only for the people at that time, but He also came for us today. He spoke to his disciples about “The Spirit of truth.” He told them, “You know Him for He dwells WITH you and will be IN you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  And He did through the coming of His Holy Spirit, who is among us today.

Are you poor? Poor in the wealth of this age? He is anointed to preach to you. Are you broken hearted? He came to heal broken hearts.  Do you see yourself as poor in spirit... poor in possessing the wealth of the kingdom of God? Or do you see yourself as sufficient, as rich, having everything you want and not needing a single thing from God? Do you see your own wretchedness apart from Christ or are you too blind to even see how poor and miserable you really are compared to the riches of the Kingdom?  We need to see ourselves honestly in light of the Glory of God. In this season of my life, I am lacking.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus says to the church of Laodicea:

"You say, 'I am rich. I have everything I want. 
I don't need a thing!' 

And you don't realize 
that you are wretched and miserable 
and poor and blind and naked. 

So I advise you to buy gold from me, 
gold that has been purified by fire. 

Then you will be rich... " 

Rev. 3: 17, 18 NLT

What are kingdom riches? What was Jesus talking about?

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ... He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding "... because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God... And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit... God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised... Eph 1:3- 14 Once you were dead because of your... sins... by our very nature we were subject to God's anger... But God is so rich in mercy and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead... For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness..." Eph 2:1-7 NLT 

I wish I could type every verse from Eph 1 and 2. They are all amazing! But then again, you can get out your own Bible and rejoice in the wealth God has given to us, who believe in Christ and have received His marvelous grace.

The wealth is His grace. God's Riches At Christ's Expense! The wealth is what He has done, what He has accomplished. The greatest wealth is HIM. The passages above in traditional translations repeats over and over "IN HIM". He is the wealth, it is when we are IN HIM, that He provides the wealth and HE DWELLS IN believers! Praise God for the riches of His wonderful grace! Praise Jesus who lives IN us!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:3 NKJ

We enter the kingdom as a child, who has nothing to offer, as one born with a whole new life. We are actually adopted by the King of the universe, and enter into a whole new inheritance. This adoption was not free, it came at a great price. God, the King, 

"paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. 

And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 

It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless spotless Lamb of God. 

I Peter 1: 18-19 NLT

WHAT HAS HE HAS DONE?

Isaiah prophesied what the Messiah, what Jesus would suffer in Isaiah 53. Actually I will quote a song we sang on Sunday that is a paraphrase of this:

"He was pierced for our transgression. 

He was crushed for our sins. 

The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. 

And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed."

Thank Him, worship Him and glorify Him for what He has done. We enter into new life with nothing to offer and everything to gain. We receive the incredible wealth of His grace, 

God's Riches At Christs Expense.