07-11-07 #Disciple Bible Study Titled: "Hungering and Thirsting after Righteousness"

[Disciple]

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).154

We begin our study of this great beatitude with a quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

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.

This one short verse of Scripture brings to us an incredible message of hope, and a message that should spark a deep sense of joy in all of us who are believers and those who may be seeking Christ. Satisfaction is available, but only through Christ.

In one sense, we can all relate to this passage of Scripture – we all hunger. We may not be able to know the depth of hunger the people of this time were going through, but we experience a daily hunger that comes back and needs to be satisfied. I can remember times in my life where I longed for certain foods and hungered and thirsted to a great degree. We can all relate to this concept of hunger; that is why this is such a great illustration that Jesus uses here in the Sermon on the Mount.

Let’s read this verse in the context of Matthew 5:1-12.

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:1-12).


Why is hungering and thirsting such a good illustration? Because as water and food is to the body, so righteousness is to the spiritual life. We as humans hunger and thirst not only for food but for satisfaction in life. We search in all kinds of different areas to be filled, to be satisfied, but we always end up falling short.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

John Piper states: “God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing.” Blaise Pascal said that we all have a “God-shaped void” in our lives. All men are hungry and thirsty; the problem is that we try to fill that emptiness, that hunger, with things other than the righteousness of God. Some of you reading this message are empty; you have not been satisfied. You are trying to fill that “God-shaped void” in your life with all kinds of things, but you are left empty, unsatisfied. There is an incredible message of hope for you if you are searching for the answer.

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 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 let your soul delight itself in abundance (Isaiah 55:1-2).

Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate, says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:11- 13).

These two sets of verses are very powerful. We are spending our money on things that do not satisfy; we are drinking from cisterns that can hold no water. Our satisfaction is not being met in the things of this world. We try to satisfy ourselves with money and power, education, sex, ****ography, boyfriends and girlfriends, toys and earthly possessions that allow us fun and entertainment for a time, but yet all these things lead to a deeper sense of need, a deeper longing for satisfaction, because they do not fill that need.

C.S. Lewis states:
We are half hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.

What a powerful quote by C.S. Lewis! We as human beings are far too easily pleased. We fool around with so many things that do not satisfy, things that do not, and cannot, fill that void and emptiness, all because we are far too easily pleased. We think so often that the things of this world will satisfy, when we always end up falling short of what we desire, and a lot of it is because we are not seeking the right things. The joy that is offered to us, the peace that is offered to us, the satisfaction that is offered to us, is unbelievable if we would only grab hold of Jesus and His offer to be our satisfaction.

A great illustration of this is the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. He took the inheritance his father had given him, left home, and went to a far-off country where he squandered his inheritance money on riotous living, on things that would not satisfy. He was far too easily pleased and fooled into thinking that this was what life was all about, only to fall short. When he had a lot of money, he had a lot of friends and parties. But when the money was gone, so were his friends. At this point in time, he begins to “go down hill” in a major way, to the point of living with pigs and eating the slop they ate.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones quotes J.N. Darby:
To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in His heart towards me. When the prodigal son was hungry he went to feed upon husks, but when he was starving, he turned to his father.

In Matthew 5:6, Jesus is not just talking about mere hunger, but about starving after righteousness.

Picture the audience listening to Jesus. They were Galileans, not well liked by the rest of the Jewish community; they were lower class citizens; they were viewed similarly to the way the Jews looked at the Samaritans.

Looking at the crowd surrounding Jesus, what do you think their view of righteousness was? I can guarantee you their view of righteousness was a skewed view, a wrong view, due to the portrayal of righteousness by the religious leaders. When reading and studying Matthew 5:6, you must look over to Matthew 5:20 to see the connection Jesus is making. The view these people had of righteousness was an incorrect view; Jesus was correcting that view and showing them that it was an issue of the heart.

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).

I can see this as being the picture of righteousness the audience has, a picture of the religious leaders who are outwardly righteous and pious but inwardly sinful, corrupt men. They look and see the judgmental attitude of the Pharisees, the hypocritical nature of these men. They may in some way look good on the outside, but inwardly they are missing the point of doing the things they are doing. The Pharisees are feeling as though by their actions they are gaining righteousness and doing right in the eyes of God. Here in this passage Jesus is lengthening the distance between God and man and addressing the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, as well as the issue of the heart of the people in the crowd. Here Jesus is raising the bar and addressing the issues of the heart. Jesus is presenting to the crowd that He is that true Righteousness; He is the One they have been hungering and thirsting after, and the only One who can fill that emptiness inside them. He is saying He is the good news, the gospel. The gospel has come, and it has come in Him. He is presenting Himself as the means to satisfaction.

If we look at other passages, we see Him making this same point. Jesus is the only way to righteousness, and His righteousness satisfies.

The Woman at the Well - Jesus answered and said unto her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 14:13-14).

Feeding the 5000 – Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him (John 6:26-27).

Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy, and here in this verse in Matthew, He is presenting this point to the audience before Him. To some, this message brings refreshment because they see the Pharisees and the self-righteousness of the Pharisees and are “turned off;” now they are given a new perspective in Christ, an offer of satisfaction through Him, the true Righteousness. Others in the audience are radically “turned off;” I am sure there were religious leaders in the crowd who were angered and bothered because they were being told they could not achieve favor with God through the law and through their own righteousness. God’s favor could only be met in Christ’s righteousness.

This truly is a message of hope to those who are lost and perishing, to those in Jesus’ day and in our day. The emptiness that fills their lives, and ours, can only be satisfied in Christ, the true Righteousness. Only by hungering and thirsting after Christ can that void, that emptiness, be filled. The things of this world will not satisfy; only Jesus Christ satisfies. This is the message, then and now, to those who do not already have a relationship with Jesus, a message of hope. So why keep “messing around” with things that will only cause more pain and emptiness? An offer of joy, peace, and satisfaction among many other things is made to you in Christ – and in Christ alone.


This message is one of hope to unbelievers, but what is this saying to believers? I truly believe there is a big, important message to us as believers. The first question is simple: In your life right now, what are you hungering and thirsting after? Where is your heart? In one sense, it is easy for us as believers to see that we are filled and satisfied when we accept the free gift of salvation, but too often that is where hungering and thirsting stops. Many believers struggle with big areas of sin, and they try to fill a hole with something other than Jesus Christ. Many pastors have fallen to the tragedy of ****ography; many families have been destroyed through not hungering and thirsting after righteousness only to end up in divorce. Some of us sit week after week in the pews at church longing for a day in and day out satisfaction. Do we as believers hunger and thirst after righteousness?

Hungering and thirsting is continual. Every day I get hungry; around 11:00 a.m. or sometimes earlier, my stomach starts to growl, and I feel like I am going to digest myself if I don’t get food. This is a daily pattern we go through, each one of us, because our body needs food; it is the same with thirst. This is the same in the spiritual realm of life. We need to hunger and thirst, actually starve, for righteousness in our lives; it is a day-by-day thing that is a continual part of our lives. It is like going to a nice steak restaurant and eating a big steak and baked potato or French fries with a side salad. You eat dinner and are full that night, but you long for the same meal again the next day, and the next. With righteousness, once we get a taste of it and hunger for it, that hunger for righteousness grows, and we should want to keep feeding that desire to satisfy our lives with righteousness. We are called to holy living as believers. We are called to live lives of holiness to our God, which is a sweet smelling aroma to Him.

Matthew 5:6 is a powerful passage, a passage that exudes hope all through it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” We are blessed if we hunger and thirst after righteousness. How? Because we are filled; we don’t hunger any longer as the world hungers because our satisfaction has been met in Christ. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness has both an evangelistic message for those who do not know Christ, as well as a message to those who are in Christ. I conclude with a simple question: What are you hungering and thirsting after in your life? I pray that all of us can answer, “Righteousness.”