Only Those Who Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness shall be Filled!
Nutritionists tell us that, “we are what we eat.” This means that our appetites determine our diet, and our diet determines our intake, and our intake determines our health. This is also true in the spiritual realm. Jesus challenges us to look at our spiritual appetite with the penetrating words found in the Beatitudes.[The Sermon on the Mount]. Jesus is telling us all that our hunger for God will determine our spiritual well being or our spiritual health. Let us take some time and examine this blessing that Jesus pronounces over those who have a desire to know Him better and work towards that end. If we are going to understand what this means, we need to know what Jesus means by the term righteousness. All we understand about this word is that it has something to do with being right and doing right. According to the Scripture, righteousness is a lifestyle that distinguishes us as true Christians and invites opposition from the world around us. We know this because Jesus goes on to say that, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” [Matthew 5:10]. If we take these two and put them together it would look like this: “We are to hunger and to thirst after a kind of life that will cause some people to persecute us for our faith.”
Our Scripture Text for this Morning is: Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
Righteousness starts in the heart and changes a person from the inside out. In Matthew 5:20 we note that Jesus defines what it is to be righteous. It says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” It is clear from the Scripture that the Pharisees had an hypocritical form of righteousness or an outward show of righteousness and lacked the genuine sincerity that God requires from us. True righteousness starts in the heart and changes a person from the inside out. It is not an artificial outward appearance that can impress those looking at you for that moment. We need to understand that righteousness does not need to be seen by others, but only by God! Again we know this because Jesus tells us that! In Matthew 6:1 Jesus said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” The Pharisees loved to pray in public, loudly! They loved to dress up in their religious garb and throw their offerings in the metal container so that those around could hear the coins fall. They were prepared to sacrifice anything to win the praise of others. Their religion was built on the praise of men and not of God!
By contrast, true disciples seek a righteousness that doesn’t need to be seen by others, but only by God! Righteousness causes us to seek God’s approval above everything else. In Matthew 6:33 we read. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Many seek many things and much of what we seek is not what God wants for us. When we seek Him before anything else, His wisdom prevails over our lives and we choose to live in a state of contentment and spirituality which the Bible says is of “great gain.” Seeking His righteousness means letting His Word set the standard for our lives. It means seeking to do that which is pleasing to God! This reflects our level of self-denial and Christ centeredness. When we tie these truths together this is what we have: We are to hunger and thirst after a true Christian life, that changes us from the inside out, so that we no longer seek the praises of men, and this causes us to seek God’s approval above everything else! This kind of life is possible for all of us. Jesus says that anyone who lives this way is blessed by God. Now let us take a look at the power of hunger. The people that Jesus addressed totally understood what it meant to be hungry or thirsty. In that region, few were prosperous, and they all probably experienced hunger or thirst at some time or another.
Remember that they lived in poverty without groceries stores and refrigerators and running water. They may have gone days without food. They were well acquainted with hunger pangs. Maybe we have never experienced hunger like these people. To us, hunger means waiting ten extra minutes for the food to be ready, or thirty minutes for the preacher to finish. Hunger for most of us is that sensation in our stomach that makes us stop at McDonalds for fries and a drink, even though we just ate a few hours ago. I can safely say that we are more privileged than many that know what hunger really is. Maybe that is why we don’t really identify with the message that Christ is sharing on the Mount. Jesus uses the metaphors of eating and drinking as the motivating power to live a righteous life. The fact of the matter is that “we have to want it…” No one can force you to eat. If you are hungry then do something about it – in other words, “take action.” Appetites aren’t filled until you do something about it. But it does not stop there, we need to “keep coming back for more…” one does not stop hungering and thirsting after righteousness once he or she has crossed the line of faith. It is a constant pursuit to live a life of righteousness – a yearning from within to be more and more like Jesus!
Be Blessed, Go Blessed and Stay Blessed,
Pastor Rickey Naidoo
Ekklesia Family Church
Elandspark, Alberton.
Email: [email protected]
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