Righteous Hunger

Jesus announces good news to those who recognize their desperate need for righteousness and justice. They live in brokenness, in a broken world, with broken relationship with God and others, and they are actively making things worse most of the time. Trying harder doesn’t fix things and temple sacrifice is temporary and unsatisfactory. Righteousness is right relationship with God and others that leads to right living that leads back into right relationship. Our soul recognizes the desperate need for righteousness… and it is only found in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is the Lamb of God who makes us righteousness (imputed)… and ushers us into an entirely new way of living (imparted righteousness). The rest of the Sermon on the Mount will be about the beautifully-satisfying right-side-up inside-out righteous life we can have in the Kingdom.

KVD - Day of Righteousness

KVD Recap. Beautiful day, beautiful sunshine, bit of cloud cover, but no rain.

Camp kids bringing testimonies.

Water was clear, kids and adults professing faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ… and then baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That was, no joke, a little taste of heaven.

Scale of 0-100, how great was that day?

A “perfect” day.

We know it wasn’t perfect, though, right? Even on a beautiful day...

Some folks were late to church last week. Can you imagine??? SHAME! They had to sit in the front row!!! So embarrassing :D.

Some folks worked hard while others played. Some folks got sunburned. Some folks brought relational drama in with them… and I bet some folks created some drama while they were here.

We baptized some sinners… and even with this powerful symbol of death and resurrection, of new life… some went right out and sinned again. What’s that about?

Scale of 0-100, how great, how righteous was that day?

And, 0-100, how righteous were you on that day?

What about since then?

Anyone out there been righteous since last week?

Not just obvious sins committed. How about sins of omission? How about sins done to you? All of the above? Me too.

How about broken relationships, anyone else have those? I have some of those.

How about intimacy with God, anyone achieved perfect ongoing intimacy with God? I need that. I don’t have it. Pray for me.

New plan for church, everyone gets a little name-tag as you walk in. We have ChatGPT scanning all your social media, your texts, your location history, your internet history, your phone records, your Alexa recordings, generating a Righteousness Score for you.

And you wear that in to church. Maybe sit accordingly. Least righteous to the front, they need Jesus most. That’s why I’m up here, all the way to the front.

Terrifying, right?

Romans 3:10 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Is that the sad and/or terrifying news you came to church to hear?

No. Gross.

Well here comes Jesus.

Hungry and Thirst

Jesus is walking down the line, announcing the good news of the Kingdom.

Good news to the spiritually impoverished. If the King says you’re in… you’re in.

Good news to those who mourn, in the Kingdom alone there is comfort, because there is restoration and resurrection.

Good news to the meek, even the weak, those who usually get nothing, they are co-heirs and rulers with Jesus in the Kingdom. The whole earth is their inheritance.

What about those who hunger and thirst?

Matthew 5:6 ESV

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Righteousness

We are going to hear this word a lot in the Sermon on the Mount. The Greek word captures both the Hebrew word for “righteousness” and “justice.” This is the word the Greek philosophers go on and on about, what is the “right kind of life?” The right way to do life? To live with gods and with others? What is a successful life? A righteous life.

The picture we see in Scripture encompasses both right relationship and right living. It is connection with God and living according to all His ways. It is connection with others and acting in love towards them… and receiving love from them.

Right relationship that leads to right living that leads to right relationship. It’s a beautiful cycle, an upward spiral.

We saw this again and again with the prophets.

Righteousness and Justice in the Prophets.

Righteousness and Justice.

What kinds of things does God call out? Idolatry, worshipping other gods, absolutely!

But also, social justice. Care for widows and orphans. Care for people who are quite literally hungry and thirsty, mourning, impoverished spiritually and materially.

So HIGH overlap between those he has mentioned so far. The “sat upon, rat upon, spat upon...” and those who hunger and thirst for a “world made right.”

Right relationship that leads to right living that leads to right relationship. It’s a beautiful cycle, an upward spiral.

Unless… it becomes a downward spiral.

Wrong relationship with God, broken relationship, that leads to broken living. Broken relationship with others, that leads to broken living, hurting and harming one another, and that further damages the relationship, breeding more anger and resentment, and down and down we go.

Anyone have some unrighteous spirals?

The world is upside down… and this is it. Brokenness. Unrighteousness. And our soul knows that it is wrong. Just like when we mourn, we know that death is wrong… our soul knows that unrighteousness is upside down.

We aren’t supposed to hurt and be hurt.

We aren’t supposed to feel constant guilt and shame, trapped in it… and yet constantly generating more of it.

The world is trapped in a downward spiral of unrighteousness.

And anyone who is aware of it… they are going to feel the lack of it.

What do we call it when we don’t have food? Hungry.

What do we call it when we don’t have anything to drink? Thirsty.

Yes, we need to recognize it, acknowledge our need.. but it isn’t good to be stuck in hunger and thirst. That is deprivation, starvation, thirstation, dehydration!

Forever Hungry

What does the world have to offer here?

Same as with those who mourn. Nothing, really.

Distraction. Squirrel! Look over there!

Numb the pain. Alcohol, drugs, endless scrolling, whatever works. Numb that feeling of dissatisfaction, that hunger and thirst, until you don’t feel it anymore.

Or try harder, more about that next week. Try harder to fix all the things, fix the world, fix yourself, ultimately fail, and then… “Squirrel!” Rinse and repeat.

Even in Ancient Israel...

Where would one get satisfied with a desire for righteousness and justice?

Temple sacrifice? An endless cycle… ultimately unsatisfying.

A teacher to teach that a better more permanent sacrifice was needed.

Faith. Abraham’s faith was “accounted to him as righteousness.”

Does that satisfy a desire for actual righteousness? A desire to see it, to be it.

Imputed Righteousness

Imputed Righteousness - Jesus’ Robe of Righteousness...

Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, a righteous life, he made the scale, lived it, every day, day after day, perfectly righteouss. Perfect obedience to His Father, perfect love with His Dad, perfect love for all others, start to finish.

We want to know what righteousness looks like, it looks like Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We cannot shortcut this. This is of absolute importance. The righteousness of Jesus, taking our place, so that when God sees us he sees the righteousness of Jesus. Revelation uses the metaphor of robes, washed white in the blood of the Lamb.

Apart from anything we do, we are washed in the blood of Jesus. We can never earn a thing, we don’t get “righteous” enough to get into heaven before or after that. Only by the blood, only by the righteousness, only by Jesus Christ, the King, do we enter the Kingdom.

But… good news!

But there is more to this righteousness thing.

What is the rest of the sermon about? It isn’t so much about the imparted righteousness… it is a picture of life in the Kingdom of God. The Righteousness in the Kingdom of God.

Imparted Righteousness

Sometimes we call this imparted righteousness, or the process of sanctification.

Eric, after his baptism, asked my Dad, Elder Mackintosh, when do I feel different? His answer was great: “More every day, now you go and live it. This is a starting point.”

Romans 6:22 ESV

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

And what does Jesus say to those who are aware that the world is upside-down, that they are in a downward spiral of broken relationship and broken living. To those that feel the need for righteousness:

Matthew 5:6 ESV

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

They shall be… satisfied.

Filled up until full. Fully filled.

Which kind of righteousness is Jesus talking about? He doesn’t specify. Ever. They aren’t artificially separated. That’s a helpful lens for us… but Jesus offers everything that righteousness is.

Right relationship AND right living. With God? Yes. With others? Yes. All of it.

Full up. Satisfied.

Satisfied

That’s fun to say.

I can get some satisfaction.

Yesterday, hadn’t eaten all day, not since Thursday dinner. 24-hour fast. And we went to eat at Yak & Yeti’s, Indian place up at 144th and like I-25.

Tandoori grill, with garlic jalapeno naan… oh my goodness. Ate slow, savored every bite, couldn’t eat half of it… Because I was so full.

So… satisfied.

I went to Yak n Yeti’s and they gave me a t-shirt… and it was accounted to me as chicken. Would I be fully satisfied?

Only in the Kingdom of God, only by the Grace of the Father, in the life of the Son, by the power of the Spirit is LIFE available. Righteousness. Right relationship with God, right living with God. Right relationship with others. Right living with others. Life and life more abundant.

Jesus goes on to describe what life like this looks like. True righteousness, beyond the “Scribes and Pharisees.”

Your relationship with God finally made whole and complete. Restored. Forgiven and redeemed and restored. Yes. By the blood of Jesus.

Your ability to honor and obey God, not just by external precepts, but by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit writing His Will on your heart. Your heart after his heart, your will with His will.

Your relationship with others made whole and complete. Restored. You free to truly see and know and love, not only your friends, but your enemies. Supernaturally empowered to do so.

Picture this in your actual life. Take a moment. Some of these are easy, some are hard to imagine because sin has a hold of you here.

Life without anger. Can you imagine? Free from it!

Life without lust. Without sexual brokenness.

Life with honesty and trust.

Life with love.

Life with intimate ongoing relationship and conversation with your heavenly Dad. Simple, beautiful.

Life without worry of any kind. Wow! Can you imagine being free of worry?

Life With God.

The part of you that recognizes that, that desires it, that hungers and thirsts for it… that is the part that was MADE in the image of God for relationship with Him. You were made for that kind of Life-With-God.

The part that rejects it is sin and rebellion, and in the Kingdom of God, that can be over with. Not just in eternity, it’s a process but it can start today. It can take another next step today.

Righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus himself before the throne of God now and forever.

AND the righteousness of Jesus being lived out, made real, in your actual life today.

We settle for so much less than what Jesus promises.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… because in the Kingdom of God, by the power of God, leading us and sanctifying us step by step… we will be satisfied.