Blessed are those who hunger and thirst (text only)

How Did we Get Here?

We got here through the natural flow of the blessings of God. In God’s mercy and grace, our heavenly Father draws us to realize our spiritual poverty. There is nothing that we can bring to God to deserve his forgiveness for our sins and his blessing on our life. In God’s mercy and grace, our heavenly Father brings us to mourn outcomes of evil in our own lives and in the world. In God’s mercy and grace, our heavenly Father works in us to help us admit our meekness, our weakness, our complete powerlessness to overcome our spiritual poverty and the effects of evil in our lives. This flow of God’s mercy and grace which is the showering of God’s blessings for us – however painful they may feel – leads us, again by God’s mercy and grace, to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

The meaning of this beatitude does not require excessive explanation. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to have an emotional desire to be righteous that is like the desire to eat or drink when we are hungry and thirsty. Eventually, our hunger and thirst for food, will compel us to eat and drink. Likewise, God uses the circumstance of our lives and the work of the Holy Spirit to compel us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. A normally healthy person does not have to work to become hungry or thirsty; it happens naturally. Likewise, a person who is following the wooing of the Father through their spiritual poverty, through their mourning, and through their meekness will naturally hunger and thirst for righteousness.

What is righteousness? Righteousness is a character and actions that are full of moral integrity as measured by God’s revealed will, which includes acting with justice and faithfulness.[1]

It is easy to let the term “righteousness” trip us up in the verse. Because, contrary to the Bible and Reformed Doctrine, people teach that righteousness is a state of life which we must reach. The Gospel is that we do not reach righteousness, but God fills us with Christ’s righteousness. Let’s remind ourselves what the New Testament teaches us about our righteousness in Christ.

Paul writes in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth,

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

Paul was saying to those Christians and to us, when most of you came to Christ you were weak and powerless in the eyes of this world. According to this world’s standards, you were spiritual zeros who could never merit God’s favor and blessing.

1 Corinthians 1:26–30 NIV

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Paul says that we are righteous, holy, and redeemed in Christ. How does that happen to us? Paul explains in his letter to the church in Philippi.

Philippians 3:8–9 NIV

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

God confers on us all the moral standing of Christ’s sinless life when we have faith in Jesus. Nothing else can transport us from being a spiritual zero to standing pure and blameless before God.

Paul explains how it is that on the Day of the Lord, we will stand before God pure and blameless.

Philippians 1:9–11 NIV

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Righteousness is the fruit of Christ’s life in us. It is this “fruit of righteousness” that will cause us to be pure and blameless in the day of Christ’s return. Paul wrote in Romans 8:10,

Romans 8:10 NIV

But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

We are righteous because Christ is in us. Because of Christ’s righteousness in us the Spirit gives to us a quality of life that is like the life of Jesus which enables us to live like Jesus in this world and which will continue into eternity.

We can never reach a state of righteousness by our own efforts. When we believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit fills us with the righteousness of Jesus that makes us pure and blameless before God.

In short . . .

Righteousness is simply believing in Jesus so that Jesus lives in us and lives his life through us.

Once we receive this unmerited, undeserved blessing of righteousness in Christ, we do have a responsibility to grow in righteousness.

The Apostle Peter put it like this,

1 Peter 2:2 NIV

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

One way to assess how we are doing in growing in the fruit of righteousness – that is our desire to have more of the life of Jesus flowing through us – is to ask ourselves individually and as a church family . . .

How hungry are we?

not slightly very ravenous

📷

When it comes to hungering and thirsting for righteousness, where would you place yourself on this scale?

· I am not at all hungry for the life of Jesus to flow through me.

· I am slightly hungry for the life of Jesus to flow through me.

· I am very hungry for the life of Jesus to flow through me.

· I am ravenous for the life of Jesus to flow through me.

Another way to assess our growth in righteousness is to ask . .

How full are we?

When it comes to experiencing the fullness of the life of Christ flowing through you, where would you place yourself on this scale?

empty unsatisfied somewhat full

· 📷 I am empty. I don’t sense the life of Jesus flowing through me at all, but I yearn for more.

· I am unsatisfied with the extent that I sense the life of Jesus flowing through me – and I yearn for more.

· I am somewhat satisfied with the extent that I sense the life of Jesus is flowing through me, but I yearn for more.

· I am full of the life of Jesus flowing through me most of the time – and I yearn for more.

Wherever you might place yourself on this scale, the real problem comes if you cannot say “and I yearn for more.” Hungering and thirsting for righteousness always involves a positive sense of not yet experiencing all the life of Jesus in me that I yearn to experience.

If we say we belong to Jesus, and yet have no yearning to experience his life in us more and more fully, then we have to ask ourselves, why would that be the case?

If we want to experience more of the life of Jesus in us, we must take in the proper nutrition. As Peter puts it, we must have “pure spiritual milk.” If we want to grow in righteousness, we need to examine the quality and frequency of our spiritual nutrition.

What’s our nutrition intake?

In the same way that we speak of physical food being junk food or nutritious food, there is also spiritual junk food and spiritually nourishing food.

Physical junk food may taste good, make us feel good, and give us an immediate boost of energy, but in the end, it harms our health rather than helping it. Nutritious food, especially, when we are weaning ourselves off of junk food often does not taste good or make us feel good in the moment, but over time it makes our body and mind healthier and able to stand up under stress and to better heal itself. Likewise, there is spiritual junk food that has immediate appeal and makes us feel good in the moment, but quickly lets us down under the stresses and pressures of life. The test of the quality of spiritual food is always one question: “If I take this into my life and apply it, will it over time produce more of the life of Jesus in me?” If so, eat and drink as much as you want – it can only help you and it will never hurt you!

When it comes to taking in spiritual nutrition, where would you place yourself on this scale?

none snacking & variable regular & good

📷

· My spiritual nourishment intake is none.

· My spiritual nourishment intake is comparable to snacking. It’s enough to get me through the moment and sometimes its junk food and sometimes its good for me.

· My spiritual nourishment intake is comparable to eating regular meals that are good for me.

No matter where we locate ourselves on these three scales we can learn from Jesus how to move upward in a positive direction on each of these scales.

How Can we learn from Jesus to up our scales?

Increasing our hunger and thirst

When it comes to increasing our hunger and thirst to grow in righteousness we can learn from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. After fasting for 40 days and nights, Jesus was hungry for real food and thirsty for real water. Then . . .

Matthew 4:3–4 NIV

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

We can increase our hunger and thirst for righteousness by taking seriously the stones we are trying to turn to bread in our life. It could be the pursuit of happiness at all costs, the never-ending quest for professional success, the obsession with building wealth, or the pursuit of acceptance through always trying to please others. This list could be endless.

What is your stone or stones that you are desperately trying to turn into bread to satisfy what you are hungering and thirsting for?

Once we name those things, then we can let those stones lie in the dust. We know we cannot live on them, but we can live on every word that comes out of God’s mouth. We can ask Jesus to make us ravenous for his Word, then start walking in that direction and let Jesus naturally increase our desire for God’s Word.

Increasing our fullness

When it comes to assessing how fully we are experiencing the life of Jesus, we can learn from Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus’ disciples had gone into town to buy food, after the conversation with the woman his disciples returned and said, “Rabbi, eat something.”

John 4:32–34 NIV

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

What amount of time do I spend pursuing my will? How am I aligning my will with the Father’s will to reconcile all things to himself through the blood of Jesus by loving God and loving my neighbor through living out and talking about the story of Jesus?[2]

Improving our spiritual nutrition

Finally, we can improve our spiritual nourishment by learning to feast on Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

What exactly is the grace we receive in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper? It is the grace of the presence of Jesus. We take the Supper to remember Jesus’ death for us; his righteousness, his very life is present with us and in us. As a church family we experience the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when we share together the Lord’s Supper. Sharing the Supper together reminds us that when we are not together, we are still bound together by the life of Jesus in us. It reminds us that when we are not together the presence of Jesus is with and in each of us every second of every day. This is the promise and grace of which the Supper before us reminds us. We take on solid spiritual nourishment every moment that we spend time with Jesus when we gather and when we are alone. We take on pure spiritual milk every moment that we remember that Jesus is living his life through us when we are together and when we are alone.

Here’s . . .

The story of us

The story of you and the story of me.

God takes our brokenness, our spiritual poverty, our mourning over the effects of evil in our lives and in our world. God takes our meekness, our complete powerlessness to do anything that can secure our hope in a hopeless situation. God uses all of this to woo us to himself by causing us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is nothing less than Jesus living his life in and through us. In this way, God causes all things to work together for our good. He brings us into the protection and provision of his rule and reign in the Kingdom of heaven, he provides real and eternal comfort for our mourning over sin, and he completely overturns our weakness in the face of the powers of darkness, by filling us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God looks at us, he does not see our poverty, he does not pity our mourning, he does not see failures. God the Father looks on us and He sees Jesus in us and says . . . there you see the family resemblance . . . he/she looks like my Son and everyday he/she is looking more and more like Him – that’s my child, he/she is filled to the brim with the righteousness of my Son - gloriously pure and blameless before me.

Blessed assurance Jesus is mine, O what a fore taste of glory divine, Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit washed in His blood.

This is our Story, this is our song:

Blessed are those, bless are we who hunger and thirst for righteousness for we will be filled with the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord!

[1] Anderson, G. P. (2014). Righteousness. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[2] Colossians 1:19-20