Maranatha Baptist Church
Satisfied
  • My Worth Is Not In What I Own (At The Cross)

      • Psalms 14:1-2ESV

      • Psalms 14:3-5ESV

      • Psalms 14:6-7ESV

  • Give Me Jesus
  • Christ Is Mine Forevermore

      • Matthew 5:1-5ESV

      • Matthew 5:6-9ESV

      • Matthew 5:10-12ESV

  • Matthew 5:6 ESV
    6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
    When I was in high school, I remember have a lot conversations about people’s favorite words. Clearly very important world changing conversations. At the time we certainly thought we were being philosophical - but probably just pretentious. I remember one person saying their favorite word was “seven”. Another “cigarette”. (They didn’t smoke, they just liked the word.) However, beyond all of the silly choices one person said their favorite word was “righteous.” He then followed up with the statement that he wants his grave marker to simply read his name and the word “righteous”. Much like the person who said “cigarette” was not a smoker, the guy who said righteous was not someone I would describe as such.
    For that reason, I am certain he simply meant “righteous” in the sense that it was used in the latter half of the of the last century, which colloquially meant “cool” or “awesome.” And of much use in surf culture… being that I was in California that sort of makes sense.
    At the time, I was beginning to study theology and have a greater understanding of my Christian faith - so while he thought “It’d be neat to have an obscure word that means cool” on my tombstone - in the back of my mind I began to think “That would indeed be a great word to have on one’s tombstone - if it meant what the word normally means.” If at the end of your life people celebrate that you were had patterned your life in conformity to God’s will - then it certainly would be a great word to have stamped above your grave marker.
    The life of the blessed. The life of a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
    If we remember that the Sermon on the Mount is about demonstrating the characteristics of the citizens of the Kingdom of God then this beatitudes shows us that Jesus’ people are those who hunger and thirst after righteous living.
    Much like blessed are poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn and blessed are the meek, primarily started with our understanding of our relationship with the Lord. So does this beatitude.
    If poor in Spirit is the understanding that you do not bring anything to your salvation, except the sin that makes it necessary.
    And if mourning is mourning over the heinousness of your own sin.
    And meekness is gentleness that results in humility to understand that you cannot do this on your own - but your need for a savior… then all of those beatitudes lead us to a hunger and a thirst for righteousness.
    “It is not enough to mourn over past sin; we must also hunger for future righteousness.”
    Now while, we can all agree that Jesus isn’t using surfer terms to describe what we ought to hunger and thirst for - we still need an appropriate definition.

    Hunger and Thirst

    Jesus uses one our most basic physical needs to demonstrate how we ought to desire righteousness. That as one desires food and water, they ought to also desire righteous living.
    Jesus uses this sort of language frequently in the Gospels.
    He tells the woman at the well that anyone who drinks of the water that he gives will never be thirsty again, and he tells his disciples that who ever
    To yearn for righteousness as the newborn cries for his mother’s milk. To crave righteousness as the beggar does bread. So much so that nothing else will do.
    Living in America, most of us have seldom had to deal with intense hunger. Maybe you have. Most of the time when we think of hunger we are comparatively mildly hungry.
    Think of the small child who says they are hungry and they want a snack, but dinner is in 20 minutes so they are told no… when a steak dinner with vegetables are on their plate they aren’t hungry anymore - because it’s not cookies.
    But given Jesus’ audience it seems much appropriate that we think of tongue sticking to the roof of your mouth thirst, audible belly grumbling desperate hunger.
    The kind of hunger that leads you to desperately search everywhere you can for food.
    And if we remember our Psalm for this morning, we see there is a conundrum. We are not in and of ourselves righteous. Psalm 14, Psalm 53, and Romans 4 all teach us that we are not righteous. We are not able to achieve righteousness of our own.
    Because our sin has corrupted our humanity - we cannot be righteous on our own. We need help.
    We are desperate.
    Yet even in our natural state, we do desire God. We do not desire righteousness. Like all of the other beatitudes that we have see so far this hunger and thirst for righteousness is a work of the Holy Spirit. We need to Holy Spirit to change our appetite.
    So that we might have a desperate desire to be made righteous.
    What do we hunger after? Many people in this world hunger after power, fame, wealth, an audience, a legacy, happiness, possessions.
    But the answer for the Christian is that you hunger and thirst after righteousness.

    Righteousness

    Much like a good menu identifies for you the ingredients of a dish at a restaurant - it is appropriate that we understand what we are told to hunger and thirst after.
    D.A. Carson defines righteousness in this text, as “a pattern of life in conformity to God’s will.”
    Righteousness is a reoccurring topic in the Sermon on The Mount.
    Jesus speaks here of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and that they will be satisfied.
    A few verses down here, in v 10, Jesus tells them that those who are persecuted because of righteousness sake are blessed. So at least in that sense, righteousness is a reason they will be persecuted, which means it is something worth being persecuted for.
    But Jesus also gives warnings about righteousness.
    In verse 20, Jesus warns the disciples that unless their righteousness exceeds the [self] righteousness of the scribes and pharisees they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
    Jesus also gives the disciples a warning, concerning practicing their righteousness before others so as for them to be celebrated… instead of the Lord being glorified. And then in Matthew 6:33 Jesus instructs his disciples to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
    Righteousness is something to crave, but not something to boast in. Righteousness is worth being persecuted for, but it is also something that should be of our primary concern. And yet Jesus sets the standard for righteousness to be greater than what the scribes and pharisees aspire to.
    But if I remember my own words from previous weeks that this isn’t a checklist of characteristics to aspire to, but rather the characteristics of the redeemed.
    We might be tempted to think that this text means that we simply desire for righteousness to abound in the world around us. That we hunger and thirst for court cases to be ruled justly, and for good laws to be passed, and bad ones to fail. And while that may be partially true that isn’t where it starts.
    The one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness understands that most important area for them to see righteousness is not first in the world around them, but first in our lives, and our hearts.
    It starts… (POINT TO YOURSELF)… here.
    But as I already mentioned… there’s a problem. We are not in and of ourselves righteous. We do not act righteously, we do not seek God.
    Righteousness is not something we can work for our earn, it is something that we must be given.
    So we have to look to the righteous one. The New Testament regularly refers to Jesus as the righteous one. Especially at his trial, Jesus was not merely declared “not guilty” but rather Jesus was declared by many to be righteous.
    Jesus Christ, the only man to walk on the earth who never sinned, and was perfectly righteous.
    Jesus places his righteousness upon those who believe in him.
    A few weeks ago I stated that the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, is ultimately about the doctrine of justification. Justification is the legal declaration of our forgiveness. We are legally declared just/forgiven before God.
    Salvation is not merely that we are forgiven in Christ, but that we are declared righteous. This is what is known as the doctrine of imputation. Christ places his righteousness upon us.
    By grace through faith.
    We see this idea beginning with Abraham that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He was considered righteous because of his faith. Paul uses this language in Romans 4-5, but also similarly in Philippians where he writes:
    Philippians 3:9 ESV
    9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
    Our hunger and thirst for righteousness is first and foremost a desire that the Lord would make us righteous. That in Christ Jesus we would be granted his righteousness. And this is what is true of the believer - if you are a Christian - you have professed faith in Christ Jesus, and his atoning death, and victorious resurrection - then there is a stamp of righteousness upon you.
    When the Father looks at you - he doesn’t see a lost sinner - he sees righteousness.
    However, there is an additional application to this. While we should desire that the separation between us and God that our sins created be bridged, and the broken relationship repaired - we also out to desire righteousness in the world around us.
    Sometimes we need to be humble enough to admit that maybe we don’t fully understand what righteous judgment is. Sometimes that is complicated in the world around us. Especially, when we find ourselves dependent upon news media.
    In many issues of justice, or righteousness, we find ourselves easily drawn to pick a side as if we are rooting for a sports team. Even as we hear of various high profile court cases on the news, or we see tragic murders, abortions, and other miscarriages of justice - and like the Psalmist we cry out “How long O Lord.”
    “How long until you hear my prayers?”
    Prayers for righteous revival in our country. Our state. Our city.
    How long until you make things right?” How long until you return and put sin to an eternal death? “How long until you come and judge the living and the dead?”
    This would be a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
    But we need not be anxious. When anxiety over world events, and lack of justice comes remember this beatitude. The wicked will not prosper.
    And those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.
    What will actually satisfy? Jesus.
    I’ve already mentioned how Jesus brings the satisfaction of our desire for righteousness in ourselves.

    They Shall Be Satisfied

    Augustine of Hippo wrote in his confessions “
    The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations Famous Prayers

    Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until in you they find their rest.

    We will only be satisfied in our desire for righteousness if we find our righteousness in Christ.
    Jesus Christ, the personification of righteousness, satisfies. In John 4:14, Jesus tells the woman at the well that whoever drinks of the living water that he provides will never thirst again.
    John 4:14 ESV
    14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
    And two chapters later in John 6:35.
    John 6:35 ESV
    35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
    Jesus satisfies all of our spiritual desires.
    In him, is the satisfaction of our desire to be made right with God. In him is the satisfaction of our desire to for the world to be renewed and restored and for righteousness to cover the land.
    But Jesus also leads us to be satisfied in our earthly desires as well.
    Paul in prison, at the end of the book of Philippians is able to right that he has learned the secret to contentment, to living in poverty, or living in abundance, in hunger, or in plenty, or in need - Paul has learned that it is Christ who strengthens, Christ who satisfies. It is why Paul can sing rejoice in the Lord always again and again even in prison. He is satisfied in Christ.
    He knows that he has been stamped and declared righteous in Christ - and that Jesus will come and again - that Jesus is making all things new. And when the one who is Faithful and True comes and makes war, he will do so with righteousness and justice.
    Conclusion:
    “All the trouble in the world today is due to the fact that man is not right with God, for it is because he is not right with God that he has gone wrong everywhere else. That is the teaching of the Bible everywhere. So the desire for righteousness is a desire to be right with God, a desire to get rid of sin, because sin is that which comes between us and God, keeping us from a knowledge of God, and all that is possible to us and for us with God and from God. So I must put that first. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the man who sees that sin and rebellion have separated him from the face of God, and longs to get back into that old relationship, the original relationship of righteousness in the presence of God. Our first parents were made righteous in the presence of God. They dwelt and walked with Him. That is the relationship such a man desires.” MLJ
    Jesus is teaching us that we ought to crave for a righteousness that is greater than we can produce on our own, but also that we out to live our lives in a righteous manner.
    We first and foremost ought to long for the renewing of our minds to aspire to meditate on the law of the Lord. That we would pursue righteousness daily in our lives. But also that we might see righteousness abound in the world around us.

      • Matthew 5:6ESV

      • Philippians 3:9ESV

      • John 4:14ESV

      • John 6:35ESV

  • Come Unto Jesus

      • Matthew 5:7ESV

Maranatha Baptist Church
info@mbcglobe.org
http://www.mbcglobe.org
4 members • 2 followers