40-20 The Food That Satisfies
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Matthew 5:6
Matthew 5:6
Scripture Reading Ps 63;
Ever since Abraham fled to Egypt on account of a severe famine that struck the land (Gen 12—the first recorded famine in the Bible), violent hunger and starvation have been a chronic problem for mankind. Famines produced by crop failure because of drought, flooding, pestilence, and even war have left a trail of misery and death because of a shortage of food—this has been the case thruout human history. Famine struck Rome in 436 BC and thousands of people threw themselves into the Tiber River to escape the agony of starvation. England was stricken with famine in 1005 AD. All of Europe suffered famines in 879, 1016 and 1162 AD.
Jews were familiar with the painful and powerful craving of the body for food and drink. There is an account in the book of Kings that details the persistent hunger that had come upon the land as a result of poverty, famine and siege.
24 Now it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver (about 2 lbs), and a fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” 27 He said, “If the Lord does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” 28 And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 “So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
Horrible atrocities resulted from this starvation (Lord told Israel that disobedience would lead to this kind of invasion and perversion would result—Dt 28:52-57). Ancient people knew this intense hunger and what it would take to satisfy the cravings of the body.
Today, despite great advances in technology there is still famine in parts of the world today. According to World Vision, today, nearly 45 million people in 37 countries are at risk of starvation…catastrophe is unfolding in the Horn of Africa: Across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.
Amazingly, the US has not experienced the widespread famine (hunger/starvation) in our history—though there have been severe droughts in parts of the country (even extended periods—the dirty 30s). It is difficult for most of us to identify with severe hunger/starvation. But we see what extreme lengths a person will go to in order to satisfy hunger—even eating his own children—it has happened in the past. It is this persistent hunger/craving that becomes an illustration that the Lord uses to describe the spiritual appetite of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven. But in our Lord’s teaching we also discover a severe spiritual hunger that the world is facing and instead of finding satisfaction in Him, it turns to itself to find something that will bring a measure of fulfillment.
An example of this was Elvis Presley. He desperately tried to find satisfaction (for the spiritual hunger within in) from the things of this world. It is reported that in his prime he was earning $5-6 million per year. In his first 2 years of stardom it is estimated that he grossed $100 million. He pursued fulfillment in materialism—3 jets, 2 Cadillacs, Rolls-Royce, Lincoln Continental, Buick and Chrysler station wagons, a Jeep, dune-buggy, converted bus and 3 motorcycles. His favorite car was the 1960 Cadillac limousine which had a top covered with pearl-white Naugahyde. The body was sprayed with 40 coats of paint that included crushed diamonds and fish scales. The metal trim was plated with 18-karat gold. Inside was 2 gold-flaked telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and golden hair clippers; it had an electric shoe buffer, a gold-plated TV, record player, amplifier, A/C and refrigerator capable of making ice in 2 minutes.
It could be said that he had everything—yet his life detailed the tragedy of those who become victims of their own appetites. The Lord asked Israel:
2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.
What is the secret to satisfaction, finding fulfillment in life? This is the subject of the 4th Beatitude and as Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains:
This Beatitude again follows logically from the previous ones; it is a statement to which all the others lead. It is the logical conclusion to which they come, and it is something for which we should all be profoundly thankful and grateful to God. I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture, you can be quite certain you are a Christian. If it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again.
Poor in spirit—to recognize your spiritual bankruptcy
Mourn—misery and sorrow b/c of your sin and the sin around you
Gentle (meek)—flows from humble submission to God’s will/purpose
This next one is the next progression that when you turn from self and from sin—you will crave the righteousness of God being the very person of the LJC—
6 “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
I want to point out 3 features of this Beatitude that will help your spiritual appetite to grow and to become satisfied.
1.The Metaphor
1.The Metaphor
“Blessed” (approved/accepted by God) these are the happiest
Hunger and thirst that are spoken here by Jesus are a strong metaphor for intense desire, longing, to desire something strongly. Matthew uses the term “hunger” 9x in the Gospel and 8 of them refer to literal hunger…feeling the pangs of the lack of food.
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.
It should be apparent that in the SM Jesus is not referring to this physical hunger and physical thirst (for lack of water) but he is speaking about the spiritual appetite. Spiritual hunger is the character of kingdom citizens. And this spiritual hunger, the spiritual appetite is driven by such longing, passionate, intense desire that nothing else could possibly satisfy this spiritual hunger except the spiritual food—being God Himself.
It is like a man who is floating in the open sea, stranded on a life raft. The sun relentlessly beats down on him. His body begins to weaken and to cramp b/c he is in the process of dying without water. His lips have long been parched. His eyes are seeing spots and his stomach is tied in knots. This man needs and wants only 1 thing: water. He has no interest in watching TV, surfing the interwebs, no desire for amusement or entertainment. He wasn’t thinking about his many possessions back home. The stock market was not on his mind…he had no concern for who was going to win March-madness (or world series). He needs, he yearns, his every and all-consuming desire is for water. He will not be satisfied until he has it—and nothing else matters.
That’s David in several of the psalms.
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
Ps 63—David is fleeing Absolom who is trying to usurp the leadership of Israel from his father…in the desert (dry and weary without water)…
vv 1-5
That is a spiritual appetite, a spiritual hunger/thirst, the spiritual longing for what will satisfy the deepest desires of the human soul. I’ll have you note that both verbs (hunger and thirst) are in the present tense “blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting…” This condition continues thruout the life of those who belong to Christ’s kingdom. It is not a momentary desire, not even a frequent desire—but an all-consuming, continuous, constant desire (like the man on the life raft). John Butler offers this: “In the physical realm, a good appetite indicates good health. A poor appetite is an indication of sickness. So it is spiritually.” What is your spiritual appetite? What do you crave, desire, what do spend your time on?—these things reveal whether you have a good or poor appetite.
2) The Meal
2) The Meal
What is this spiritual food that Christ’s people long for? Jesus says it is “righteousness” that is essential to spiritual health and satisfaction. But what does this mean? The term righteousness (Gk dikaiosynē) both OT &NT terms carry idea of conforming to a standard. The righteousness of God means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and that He Himself is the final standard of what is right. So God does what is right—and He is the one who gets to define what “right” is. B/c He is righteous and holy God demands righteousness and holiness of the people who are rightly related to Him. That means He demands absolute perfection of His people—which is true of Himself.
There are 2 senses in which righteousness is revealed in the Bible. The first is positional or objective righteousness. In the book of Romans, Paul explains that this righteousness is imputed to the believer (the same one who is “poor in spirit” realizes his spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness to achieve the standard of righteousness that God has put before every human).
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
Paul explains that the righteousness of God is imputed only to those who believe on the LJC…not earned/merited by works—Abraham being the chief example:
6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Many have thought that this is what Jesus is referring to in this Beatitude—and in that case it would explain how one comes to be saved—by earnestly desiring the salvation of the Lord. The problem for Jews in Jesus day is that they believed and trusted in their self-righteousness. The Pharisees were most guilty of this:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Justified is the same term as righteousness. Those who trust in their own abilities/self-righteousness—the gospel is a huge stumbling block b/c they imagine that they are justified/right with God on account of their good works and keeping the Law. But this really isn’t Jesus’ point—b/c He is not describing the plan of salvation but describing those who belong to His kingdom. They are positionally righteous b/c God has imputed the righteousness of JC to them b/c they believed God (like Abraham).
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
What Jesus is speaking of is practical righteousness (or subjective). It is subjective b/c it is the inner righteousness that works itself outward as you live in conformity with God’s will. Jesus is speaking about righteous living. This is the food of those who are hungering and thirsting…they do so having the intense, constant, continuous longing and passionate desire that everything they do is in line with God’s will. And of course, God’s will is that we would do what is righteous/live righteously. Another term for this is “sanctification.” Sanctification is simply being conformed to the image and glory of Christ. And growing in sanctification is the surest mark of a Xn.
Now, the reality is that as a Xn, you are always progressing toward, but never laying hold of—the image of Christ on this side of eternity. There is a bit of a paradox for the believer and Paul addresses it in Phil 3. Here he is expressing his hunger and thirst for righteousness.
vv12-16
That is what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
3) The Measure
3) The Measure
You know what it’s like to be hungry… when you sit down at the table and you’ve had a good hamburger with all the fixings, maybe a potato salad and beans. After you’ve cleaned your plate you’re what? Full? That’s what Jesus is saying—hungering and thirsting (continually) for righteousness will leave you “satisfied.”
The term originally referred to the feeding of cattle (the place where cattle/animals were being fed). There they were allowed to eat until they needed nothing more. That then becomes the sense of when you’re so full you are completely satisfied and are in need of nothing else. This inward satisfaction belongs to those who know Christ.
God satisfies everyone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.
10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
You know, the world only offers emptiness. It can give you pleasures, power, privileges, possessions—but these will never fill you. But Jesus offers what will—His righteousness:
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
While there is this satisfaction in this life…the promise is ultimately fulfilled in eternity.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“There is a day coming when all who are in Christ and belong to Him shall stand in the presence of God, faultless, blameless, without spot and without wrinkle. All blemishes will have gone. A new and perfect man in a perfect body. Even this body of my humiliation shall be transformed and glorified and be like the glorified body of Christ. We shall stand in the presence of God, absolutely perfect in body, soul, and spirit, the whole man filled with a perfect, complete and entire righteousness which we shall have received from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now, doesn’t this cause your spiritual appetite to grow? you can test this:
Do you have a biblical understanding of yourself? Do you know that you possess no righteousness that God would accept (even what you have is filthy compared to God’s perfect standard)
Do you have a deep awareness of your need for deliverance and the need for a Savior? You are helpless and therefore hopeless.
Do you know you cannot obtain this righteousness from within and that it must come from God Himself?
20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. Do you know there are things that will spoil your appetite—things that are contrary to righteousness. They are not necessarily bad in themselves but will easily squelch your spiritual hunger. They are the many things you might “snack on” between spiritual meals—family, health, job, possessions, activities/recreation…these are all things that can spoil the appetite and you’ll find that you are spending less time hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
5. Do you crave God’s Word?
16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.
These are simple ways to being developing a spiritual appetite and the more you hunger and thirst—the more you will be satisfied and the more you will continue to hunger and thirst and find your satisfaction in Christ alone.
