Matthew 5:6
The Gospels in Harmony Sermon #105-13018
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:6
Blessed are they which do, as opposed to they that don't.
Is this simply an action or a need?
I dare say, if you are in desperate need of being closer to God through Jesus Christ, the doing would come through necessity. Doing would be such a deep desire that religion would fade away in the light of Faith and Obedience to the Word of God alone. Constant communion and desire for strengthening your relationship with Jesus Christ would be your first love.
You would not be thinking about credit for religious acts as hunger and thirst. You would not be counting the number of times you attended church and telling yourself, "Yep, I really do hunger and thirst compare to most everyone else."
The number of times you attend your local house of worship has nothing to do with hungering and thirsting for the righteousness.
The only true righteousness that a Christian should stand in is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So hungering and thirsting for righteousness is hungering and thirsting for Jesus.
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whosoeateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
John 6:53-56
Our text is so poetic in form I fear many get lost in the flow. The beatitudes are quite beautiful if you read them with emphasis on the words "Blessed" in a smooth and regulated timing. But they were not meant to be read as poetry. They were individual statements of promise for true disciples. They were the revealing of the power of faith and obedience for the true disciple. They were proof God knows the hearts of men and those with all of the attributes of a true disciple will receive the blessing of life in and with Jesus Christ, forever.
Too often people are taught that just believing is all that you need to be saved.
Believing what?
Believing you can say a prayer and ask for forgiveness and it's over?
Or believing Jesus lived and died for you and above all things you desire, you need to live and die for Him. Do you believe that eternal life is in Jesus Christ? Do you believe you must separate yourself from this vile and wicked sin filled world to be with Jesus? Do you believe if you live in faith and obedience to His Word, He will come and live in you? Do you believe you need to consume the Word of God to live for Him?
Oh my dear friend, believing today has been reduced to repeating a few words in prayer and then professing to be saved. You have been given your get into heaven ticket and all is good. Is this even close to the examples we have of disciples in the Bible? Is this even close to the description of the attributes and attitudes of disciples given in the beatitudes? I dare say not!
We have a simple metaphor given here in verse 6 of Matthew 5.
Hunger is a word used for the feeling of desperate need for sustenance.
Solid, edible, digestible, sustenance.
Without it a person will surely grow weak, sick and die.
With it one will grow in strength, health and longevity.
Solid food takes times to break down. It remains within us and the goodness of it is absorbed until more is added to replenish it.
Edible food is food that is not harmful but helpful in its composition.
Digestible food is what a body can break down and absorb.
Sustenance is a term which combines the first three to explain their necessity for sustaining, growing and living a healthy productive life.
Hungering for righteousness is hungering for Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the living Word of God.
Anyone who desires salvation is confessing they cannot live without Him.
But we just explained simple necessities of life.
All living creatures must feed to live.
My dear friends, we are still reading the beatitudes with the understanding that Jesus is speaking of the spirit. The spiritual blessings for the spiritual attributes and attitudes of true disciples which translate into physical blessing now and forever.
So how does one hunger and feed spiritually?
Hungering for Jesus is the insatiable desire to be with Jesus. To be near Him and know Him and commune with Him and serve Him.
Hungering for Jesus is knowing that without feeding on Him, taking in His living Word, you will become weak and sick and vulnerable to any and all things in this world that will lead to death. The inedible foods God has told us by His Word not to eat.
Hungering leads to eating. The taking in of solid, edible, digestible, sustanence.
Solid is the truth of the Word, not a mere false image or impression of truth.
Edible is the goodness of the Word given for us.
Digestible is the ease of understanding in the Word.
Sustenance is the combining of the first three to explain the desire to live in and for Jesus Christ.
If you do not desire to know and live in the truth of the Word, the goodness of the Word, growing in the Word, you do not hunger for the Word of God. You do not hunger for the righteousness of Jesus Christ in your life.
Remember we are weighing the truth in the Word “do” as in relation to do not.
This is a very cut and dried, yes or no statement of blessing as well as the spiritual attribute and attitude of the believer.
A believer with a hunger for righteousness is a true follower and disciple of Jesus.
That person knows he must feed on the righteousness of Jesus Christ to live for Jesus Christ. He knows the poison of the world and the goodness of living in and for Jesus Christ. He lives for Jesus because he is given life through Jesus.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:6
Thirst in many ways is the same as hunger. Without the proper amounts of fluid intake a body will dehydrate and become weak, sick and die. Once a person has become mindful of the benefits of maintaining enough fluids he will desire a steady amount. People, who are mindful of their health, drink fluids regularly to keep from becoming thirsty. They thirst for what keeps them from becoming weak and sick. They don't drink fluids to keep from dying, but rather to live better.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
John 4:10
The water of life is what true disciples thirst for. Not that they are not promised eternal life through faith in the Word but it is the Word that continuously quenches the fiery darts of Satan and keeps the faithful and obedient, living well.
Hunger and thirst are the result of the lack of or need for food and water to sustain life. The physical aspect of this verse it is easy to understand. When you need food you are obviously hungry and when you need water you are obviously thirsty. But we also understand that hunger and thirst is used here metaphorically.
Spiritual hunger and thirst must be fed and quenched spiritually.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:35
In John 6 Jesus is clearly speaking about the giving of eternal life through committing oneself to Him in faith.
The difference here is Jesus is saying he who comes to Him in faith will be sustained in life forever. That is being justified before God in heaven.
In Matthew 5:5 Jesus is speaking of the justified who are His disciples.
You are given the life of Christ that you will live forever but your hunger and thirst for Him will never end until you are glorified through Him.
I will never believe that anyone who has tasted the bread of life and drank from the water of truth in the saving Word of God, will not hunger and thirst for more.
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the Lord, ye his saints:
for there is no want to them that fear him.
Psalms 34:8-9
Notice the Psalmist writes ----O fear the Lord, ye His saints:
Seeking the righteousness of God means presenting yourself before Him in all humility and giving Him all your praise and worship in true commitment as well as yourself in faithful service. “Ye His saints”, means the purified, clean, free from defilement of crimes, idolatry and all other things unclean and profane.
This is a saint. You are justified in the sight of God; just as though you have never sinned. Washed, cleaned, clothed and set apart unto God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You are a new creature in Christ.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
You will no longer hunger for the sin of the world but for the righteousness of Christ.
You will no longer thirst from lack the truth in the world for you will drink from the Spirit in the Word of God.
Once again this is a promise of God for the disciples of Jesus Christ.
This promise is for them who are saved and have devoted themselves to Him in discipleship. And what is that promise?
------they shall be filled.
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:38
When you give your all to Jesus Christ, He gives His all in return.
And believe me; His all is much, much greater than yours and the worlds. Amen!
Filled not just fed, not just pleasantly satisfied and not just occasionally.
Filled means continuously full.
You will have the full measure of the righteousness of Christ when you give yourself to Christ. In Christ we are anointed and ordained to walk in His footsteps, shining His light and His righteousness.
The disciple who hungers and thirsts for righteousness will be filled, because he knows to seek righteousness in Jesus Christ.The living, sustaining, Word of God.
You in Christ and Christ in you!
Pastor Steven Freede
Cornerstone Independent Church
1/30/18