Sermon Tone Analysis

Happy Are The Hungry & Thirsty

Matthew 5:1-12

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Matthew 5:6

This morning I would like to return to our study of the Beatitudes found in Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapters five through seven are called the Sermon on the Mount.

It is Jesus’ most famous teaching.

I encourage you to take some time this week to read through chapters five through eight in Matthew.

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you.

Stop and pause on a word or phrase and reflect on what Jesus is saying.

Before we turn to God’s Living Word, let us come to the throne of the Living God in prayer.

“God of all creation, we ask that You create in us a clean heart and renew our spirits as we worship this morning.

Help us to understand what it means to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to be hungry and thirst for You.

Amen”

What I would like to do is read the passage in our normal fashion from the NIV translation and then lay Eugene Peterson’s The Message Bible translation alongside to reflect on these words in a little different way.

Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes NIV

1.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[i]

Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes The Message Bible

You’re Blessed

When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside.

Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him.

Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions.

This is what he said:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.

With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you.

Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less.

That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God.

He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

You’re blessed when you care.

At the moment of being ‘carefull,’ you find yourselves cared for.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right.

Then you can see God in the outside world.

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight.

That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution.

The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me.

What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.

You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do!

And all heaven applauds.

And know that you are in good company.

My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble”.[ii]

In New York City, there are eight million cats and eleven million dogs.

New York City is basically concrete and steel.

When you have a pet in New York City and it dies, you can't just go out in the back yard and bury it.

The city authorities decided that for $50 they would dispose of your deceased pet for you.

One lady was enterprising.

She thought, I can render a service to people in the city and save them money.

She placed an ad in the newspaper that said, "When your pet dies, I will come and take care of the carcass for you for $25."

This lady would go to the local Salvation Army and buy an old suitcase for two dollars.

Then when someone would call about his or her pet, she would go to the home and put the deceased pet in the suitcase.

She would then take a ride on the subway, where there are thieves.

She would set the suitcase down, and she would act like she wasn't watching.

A thief would come by and steal her suitcase.

She'd look up and say, "Wait.

Stop.

Thief."

My guess is the people who stole those suitcases got a real surprise when they got home.[iii]

A lot of us are like those New York thieves.

We're chasing after happiness, and we grab what we think will give us happiness; however, when we get it, it doesn't quite deliver.

When I was pastoring a church in Missouri, we took our youth group on a mission trip to Tennessee.

We stopped in Memphis on the way out and visited Elvis Presley’s home, “Graceland.”

I have always wondered why it was called “Graceland.”

(The original owners, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Moore, named it after their Aunt Grace.)

I don’t think Elvis Presley ever understood this fourth Beatitude.

His life was a pitiful pursuit of materialism and sensuality.

In Elvis’s heyday he earned between $5 million and $6 million a year.

It is estimated that he grossed $100 million in his first two years of stardom.

He had three jets, two Cadillacs, a Rolls-Royce, a Lincoln Continental, Buick and Chrysler station wagons, a Jeep, a dune buggy, a converted bus, and three motorcycles.

His favorite car was his 1960 Cadillac limousine.

The top was covered with pearl-white Naugahyde.

The body was sprayed with forty coats of a specially prepared paint that included crushed diamonds and fish scales.

Nearly all the metal trim was plated with eighteen-karat gold.

Inside the car there were two gold-flake telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and gold hair clippers, an electric shoe buffer, a gold-plated television, a record player, an amplifier, air conditioning, and a refrigerator that can make ice in two minutes.

To the outside world, it appeared that Elvis had everything.

Elvis’s sensuality is legendary.

Those friends and relatives most familiar with his state in the last months of his life tragically reveal that Elvis had very much become the victim of his appetites.

He was what he had eaten—in the profoundest sense.[iv]

Elvis Presley’s tragic life dramatizes the significance of the Lord’s teaching in this fourth Beatitude, because in it Jesus sets forth the appetite and menu that brings spiritual well-being:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

HUNGER & THIRST

The truth is that many of us today really do not know what it’s like to be hungry or thirsty.

When we are thirsty, we can go the facet and out pours water that is drinkable, clean and pure.

That’s not true for so many other people in this world.

When we are hungry, we can stop at any fast food place and pick up something from the dollar menu.

Again, that’s not true for many people in different parts of the world.