The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to inform God’s disciples of the qualities they are to possess and display to a watching world.
So far we’ve come to see that a blessed Christian is someone who is:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
• Blessed are those who know they live under God’s grace all the time, and can offer nothing to buy His favour.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
• Blessed are those who saw that things are out of line with God’s will, and are moved by the things that move the heart of God.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
• Blessed are those who are humble and submissive to God.
• They are able to rest upon God’s sovereignty rule, and let God have His way.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Notice there is a progression.
• We need to first be poor in spirit - understanding our need of God – only then can we reach this 4th Beatitude.
• No man ever becomes hungry and thirsty after righteousness until he is convinced of his spiritual poverty.
• The poor in spirit, will mourn because we are far from God’s will, and humble themselves before God, and seek for righteousness.
• Then they will learn to extend that grace and be merciful to others.
• And gained purity in heart, be peacemakers and eventually even to endure persecution for Christ’s sake.
“Blessed are those who hunger & thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
• The fact that Jesus uses these two words – hunger and thirst – shows that man has a need, an emptiness longing to be filled.
• To be filled not by anything else but by the pursuit of God & His righteousness.
• "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that only God can fill." - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
• If Jesus says, “Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you” – then it can only mean this, that God alone can fully satisfies us.
• There is a need and there is a fulfilment. And God is our only true fulfilment in life.
• Without God, there will always be emptiness in our life. We can’t find fulfilment apart from Him.
The only gratifying thing in life is to seek God and His righteousness.
• To be free from sin and right with God; to be all that God has meant us to be.
• The one who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.
• Apparently, no other pursuits can guarantee your true satisfaction.
It’s amazing what Jesus says about man’s hunger and thirst.
• In John 6:35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
• In John 4:13-14 Jesus told the Samaritan woman by the well: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The spiritual urge is not our first urge, but we need to have it.
A man will never hunger and thirst after righteousness until he has ceased to hunger and thirst after perishable things.
• By nature we hunger and thirst after the things of this world – be it things or positions.
• As long as these things gratify the heart, we cannot serve the Lord. We cannot serve two gods.
• As long as we cherish the idols of our silver and gold, they will have control of our heart.
• As long as we still pursue the things of this world, we will never experience true hunger and thirst after righteousness.
• And therefore will never be filled. Only those who crave for righteousness - the things of God - will be filled.
• To be fulfilled and happy, we need to move away from things.
In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon said he filled his life with pleasures and enjoyments of all kinds, undertook great projects, amassed possessions and power.
• Yet life is meaningless. Everything is meaningless, until you learn to FEAR GOD and keep His commandments.
• For this is the whole duty of man. (Eccl 12:13)
The reason why the things we have did not make us happy is because they CANNOT make us happy.
• A large bank wants to get people to borrow money from them, and advertises with this question: “What do you need to make you happy?”
• It’s getting people to buy into a myth, that money can give you happiness.
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and triples that want another way.”
This seeking for things to satisfy one’s life is a disease – an attitude of the heart.
• I read last Tue (Oct 2) TODAY papers, the Focus on the Family article by James Dobson.
• A financial counsellor Ron Blue tells a story of a visit to a small, rural village in Africa.
• Ron asked a resident there what was the biggest problem facing his village. The man said: “Materialism.” Ron was taken aback.
• He expected it to be the lack of food or medical attention, or perhaps problems with neighbouring villages. But materialism?
• These villagers didn’t have TVs, cars or satellite dishes – the sort of things we associate with “the good life”.
• This villager told Ron: “If a man has a mud hut, he wants one made out of cow manure. If he has a cow-manure hut, he wants a stone hut. If he has a thatched roof, he wants a tin roof. If he has one acre, he wants two. It is a disease of the heart.” He said: “It has nothing to do with where you live.”
Take a good hard look at your heart and ask ourselves from time to time, what am I hungering for?
• Don’t be overwhelmed by the cravings for things and better things.
• It’s good to have them, but don’t get carried away by it. They cannot fill the void in our heart.
• One day we are going to leave all of them down. This world is not our home.
• We don’t even have to pack-up and go; we just go, leaving everything behind.
This life is like a mirage (an optical illusion).
• Many things stand before us and look as though they will satisfy us.
• When we reach it, we find it empty.
Don’t be fooled into believing that things will satisfy us and give us a happy life.
• We can eat its bread for all we want and yet not get filled. We can drink to our heart’s delight and not get our thirst quenched.
• Jesus says He alone has the bread that fills, and water that quench.
• And that’s for eternity to come! Only God can do that.
• Only when we hunger and thirst for the things of God can we find true happiness and fulfilment in life.
God’s promise: “they will be filled”. Look at God’s promises in these beatitudes.
• God is gracious and generous. We are assured – we will have the kingdom of heaven, we will be comforted, we will inherit the earth, and now we will be filled!
• We have a generous God who knows our needs and can fulfils them completely. No wonder He says He wants to give us an abundant life.
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430):
“You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Sometimes I have friends talking to me and asking me questions about being a pastor.
• They actually asked with a concern, thinking that having to serve God this way is a “sad” thing, not being able to earn more, probably no promotion or bonuses, not being able to enjoy life or have fun like the rest of the people.
• They were wrong. I find myself happier than many of my friends.
• I’m more gratified and fulfilled, living a more purposeful, meaningful life, and feeling that every minute is well invested.
We have to get this perspective.
• It is so blessed to see that we don’t feed on the things of the world.
• We are going to feed on only one thing. We won’t hunger for natural bread only, but for every word that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord.
• Israel can survive even in the desert, just on the manna given by God.
Love God like Loving a Cow?
Meister Eckhart: Some people want to love God in the same way as they love a cow. You love it for the milk and the cheese and for your own profit. So do those who love God for the sake of outward riches or inward consolation. But they do not love God correctly, for they merely love their own advantage.
Meister Eckhart says we are looking for something along with God, and behaving exactly as if we were making of God a candle to look for something. When we find the things we are looking for, we throw the candle away. Whatever we seek along with God is nothing. It does not matter what it is - be it an advantage or a reward or a kind of spirituality or whatever else - we are seeking a ‘nothingness’, and for this reason we find a ’nothingness’.
Malcolm Muggeridge expresses this thought is his confession:
I may, I suppose, regard myself as being a relatively successful man. People occasionally look at me on the street. That’s fame.
I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for the highest slopes of Inland Revenue. That’s success.
Furnished with money and a little fame, even the elderly, if they care to, can partake of trendy diversions. That’s pleasure.
It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time. That’s fulfilment.
Yet I say to you, and I beg of you to believe me, multiply those tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing, less than nothing, a positive impediment, measured against one drink of that living water that is offered to the spiritually hungry.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
• Do we have hunger and do we have thirst after righteousness?
• As Christians, we will have this spiritual hunger and thirst. If we do not have it, we are spiritually dead.
• To hunger and thirst after righteousness is a very good indication that you are spiritually alive.
• But we need to whack this appetite up and prevent the world from killing it.
Be hungry and thirsty for God:
• Avoid things that would kill our spiritual appetite – sin, distractions…
• Seize every opportunity to be in the right places, doing the right things.
• Read the Bible…
