Read, study, ask questions, interact...this is a virtual group. All are welcome and invited to participate and consider ideas, perspectives and different viewpoints. Remarks should be courteous and respectful with our goal being to hear and understand rather than defend or defeat. This is basically an outline of a group that happens live on Tuesday mornings at Andrew Chapel. I use a lot of resources in preparation. For this study let me give credit to "Beatitudes" by Maxie Dunnam, "Beatitudes from the Back Side" by J. Ellsworth Kalas and "Matthew" by Stanley Hauerwas.

Read the text in as many translations as possible. If you don't own "The Message" then I highly recommend you Google and read the Beatitudes in Eugene Peterson's remarkable version of this text.

May the Holy Spirit fill you mind and heart as you consider God's Word this day.

Bible Study
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Matthew 5:3
Consider these alternate meanings for the words of Matthew 5:3
Blessed - Happy - sense of complete satisfaction of all needs.

Poor- The New Testament was originally written in Greek which has two words for “poor”. One means to work, have little, nothing to spare. The word in the beatitudes is “ptochos” meaning absolute and abject poverty. It comes from a root meaning “to crouch or cower”.
Financial and spiritual poverty are linked, we feel powerless when we are broke and empowered when we have money. Though Jesus wasn’t speaking of financial poverty we can’t really think of being poor in spirit without dealing with the link to money. If you won $10 million what would you do? How would you feel? Does the idea of great wealth make you imagine power? There’s the link to “poor in spirit”.
In Hebrew, poor and humble are closely related. Humility and poverty come hand-in-hand now as they have for much of human history.

Spirit- Poor in spirit, not poor in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit but our personal spirit. When our spirit decreased the presence of God’s Spirit increases.
Jesus was speaking to Jews under Roman rule. They were always poor in spirit, humiliated. A Roman soldier could command you drop your things and carry his up to a mile. Taxation was unfair and based on the whims and desires of the tax collector. These things and many others put the Jewish people in a constant stay of humiliation and apparent spiritual poverty.
Consider people you know who are poor in spirit - a poor person, a wealthy person. How are they alike? How do they differ?
Read Luke 18:9-14

Kingdom of Heaven - Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.
Read Matthew 3:1-3 Repentance requires poverty, utter poverty of spirit and it is essential to enter the Kingdom of God.

Other ideas to consider this week -
Read Exodus 20:1-2. How is the first commandment similar to the beginning of the Beatitudes? Note the Ten Commandments are “Do this” or “Do Not do this”. The Beatitudes are about the heart, inner motivations and processes.

Consider each of the beatitudes. How do you see it lived out in Jesus’ life? What does it look like for Jesus to be “Poor in Spirit”?