Starving for Justice (Matthew 5:1-12)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.040 Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Fifth Chapter of the Gospel according to 2 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:11.109 Matthew. Matthew Chapter Five will be reading verses one to twelve. The sermon 3 00:00:11.189 --> 00:00:16.670 will be on Matthew Chapter Five, verse six. This is the word of 4 00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:21.500 the Lord and, seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and 5 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:25.739 when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his 6 00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:31.660 mouth and taught them, saying blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs 7 00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:36.090 is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall 8 00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:40.409 be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 9 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:46.130 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 10 00:00:46.210 --> 00:00:51.840 Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the 11 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:57.039 pure and heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the Peacemakers, 12 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:02.079 for they shall be called Sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted 13 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:07.430 for Righteousness Sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you, 14 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:11.430 when they revile and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you 15 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:17.870 falsely. From my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is 16 00:01:17.909 --> 00:01:22.700 your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 17 00:01:23.939 --> 00:01:26.060 Thus far, this reading of God's holy word, the grass withers in 18 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:33.170 the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. Well, 19 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:41.290 if you pay attention to the news at all, I'm sure that you've noticed 20 00:01:41.329 --> 00:01:46.609 that over the last few years we have seen an ever rising level of anger 21 00:01:46.769 --> 00:01:53.760 and agitation among many of our fellow countrymen. Riots, murders, assassination, 22 00:01:53.879 --> 00:02:00.549 attempts, speech codes being imposed on college campuses, protests, assaults, lawsuits 23 00:02:00.590 --> 00:02:07.550 and firings against Christians and against people who are now what they call intellectual minorities, 24 00:02:08.469 --> 00:02:14.430 ever more extreme calls for what people call social justice. All of these 25 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:22.300 things are in the news seemingly all the time, everywhere you look. We've 26 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:25.620 seen a lot of it this past week and, though I imagine that many 27 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:30.770 of these things are as distressing to you as they are to me, and 28 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:34.009 we may be tempted not to want to look, not to want to see, 29 00:02:34.169 --> 00:02:38.210 not to want to pay attention, nevertheless it's important for us to take 30 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:44.169 notice of these things. The theologi and Carl Bart, with whom I have 31 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:49.479 many disagreements but who has a good quote, once said this. He said, 32 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:55.280 Take Your Bible and take your newspaper and read them bath, but interpret 33 00:02:55.400 --> 00:03:02.710 your newspapers from Your Bible. What Bart meant when he said that was that 34 00:03:04.030 --> 00:03:07.310 if we're going to be faithful, we have to pay attention to what's going 35 00:03:07.469 --> 00:03:13.620 on in the world around us, but we must never forget that everything that 36 00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:19.699 is going on in this world is already interpreted and it must be interpreted by 37 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:24.419 us in light of scripture and, in a sense, Jesus is fourth be 38 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:30.490 attitude here before us this morning addresses and interprets the essence of what we see 39 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:36.729 going around us in the world today. All of the ankst and the tension 40 00:03:37.129 --> 00:03:42.360 of all these social justice warriors on campuses and in the streets, and the 41 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:47.479 the enraged people who are blowing up your facebook page, your twitter account. 42 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:55.110 They're all yearning for something. We do have eternity written in our hearts, 43 00:03:55.189 --> 00:04:01.030 don't we, and we're yearning for things. These people that are causing such 44 00:04:01.189 --> 00:04:06.750 disruption, it seems that they have a deep seating longing for something that this 45 00:04:08.030 --> 00:04:15.060 world cannot give them. They are starving for justice, but they're looking for 46 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:19.420 it in all the wrong places and through all the wrong means, running Christian 47 00:04:19.819 --> 00:04:25.050 bakers and floors out of business or tearing down statues, or trying to get 48 00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:29.129 to the person you want or don't want an office, at whatever level it. 49 00:04:29.250 --> 00:04:33.850 Maybe none of these things that are so consuming us as a society are 50 00:04:34.009 --> 00:04:39.959 ever going to achieve the things that the people trying for them think that they 51 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:46.800 will. What will achieve what we long for, what will achieve what God 52 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:54.629 designed us to long for, quite simply, is Jesus. Jesus and his 53 00:04:54.949 --> 00:05:01.509 glorious kingdom will bring us all the justice that we yearn for. Jesus and 54 00:05:01.750 --> 00:05:08.100 his Gospel, his good news, and his good news alone will bring us 55 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:14.180 the righteousness that we all hunger and thirst for. The longing that in the 56 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:17.740 in the the hearts of so many people who who that that's it that's driving 57 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:23.009 them, the longing that's driving them to tear apart, seemingly the very fabric 58 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:28.649 of our society, is rooted in a misplace. Search for what Jesus did 59 00:05:30.129 --> 00:05:35.319 when he disrupted the very fabric of the cosmoss through his work on the Cross 60 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:41.920 and through his ascension into Heaven, Othor has now crowned him king of kings 61 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.480 and Lord of Lords, forever and ever, world without end, men and 62 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:53.670 a men and and that is what our beattitude is about this morning. In 63 00:05:53.829 --> 00:05:58.870 the last few sermons that we've had, in this introduction to Jesus's sermon on 64 00:05:58.910 --> 00:06:01.910 the Mount, which is what the beattitudes are, we've seen that Jesus has 65 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:06.379 told us so far that the citizens of his kingdom, firstly, are those 66 00:06:06.459 --> 00:06:13.459 who are spiritually destitute. Secondly, he told us that the citizens of his 67 00:06:13.540 --> 00:06:17.970 kingdom are the kind of people who mourn in this fallen world, yearning for 68 00:06:18.129 --> 00:06:24.889 Eden. Thirdly, he told us that they are those powerful, strong, 69 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:30.689 even dangerous people who allow their strength to be bent to the will of their 70 00:06:30.769 --> 00:06:34.519 father who is in heaven. And now, this week, Jesus tells us 71 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:41.199 that those who are blessed, that is, those who are supremely happy in 72 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:46.000 this life, are, he says, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, 73 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:50.829 for they shall be filled. And so I'd like us to look at 74 00:06:50.829 --> 00:06:55.949 this beatitude this morning in two parts. First, I would like us to 75 00:06:56.110 --> 00:07:01.980 see that Jesus is describing a yearning after righteousness and second I would like is 76 00:07:02.019 --> 00:07:08.259 to see how, he says we can go about getting filled. So as 77 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:13.540 we consider the beatitude, it's always good for us to place whatever we're reading 78 00:07:13.899 --> 00:07:17.930 in the cont text of its audience and its author and all that's good stuff, 79 00:07:18.529 --> 00:07:23.209 and so I think it's good for us to remember the context of this 80 00:07:23.370 --> 00:07:28.250 sermon, something about the character of the people who came to hear Jesus preaching 81 00:07:28.370 --> 00:07:32.399 that day. And of all the things that characterize the people that day, 82 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:38.480 perhaps the single most unifying thing about them is that they were all likely poor. 83 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:44.629 Most of the people in Palestine and Jesus's Day lived and grinding poverty. 84 00:07:45.389 --> 00:07:50.230 History tells us that King Herod and his efforts to build wonderful cities and palaces 85 00:07:50.670 --> 00:07:56.910 and to build a temple greater than the Temple of Solomon and in general, 86 00:07:57.149 --> 00:08:01.740 to glorify his own self, Herod the great so heavily taxed and depressed the 87 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:09.300 people of Judea that the whole region was reduced to utter destitution. And the 88 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:15.329 irony of their poverty was that Judaea and Galilee ought to have been very wealthy 89 00:08:15.410 --> 00:08:22.490 areas. Galilee had an ideal climate and excellent fishing. Judea itself was situated 90 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:28.000 at the crossroads of Commerce and the ancient world and had wonderful harbors and and 91 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:35.080 all sorts of wonderful things that should have made Galilee and Judea exceptionally rich areas. 92 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:39.320 It should have been that way, but it was not. It was 93 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:46.070 a poor and an oppressed region. Life was not at all what God's people 94 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:50.750 hoped for. Life was certainly not what the prophets had foretold would be the 95 00:08:50.870 --> 00:08:56.259 blessed condition of God's people in the era in which the Messiah came. There 96 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:03.419 was no justice in Judea, and that made the people who came out to 97 00:09:03.539 --> 00:09:09.049 hear Jesus that day so very eager to hear what this special holy man might 98 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:15.529 tell them about the coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah. And the reason 99 00:09:16.009 --> 00:09:20.690 that the people had no justice was because Herod and Rome and the rest of 100 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:24.960 their overlords, they all lived for themselves. They weren't afraid to run roughshod 101 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:30.200 over other people in order to get what they wanted for their lives and their 102 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:37.519 unrighteousness, their overlord's oppressed and abused and brought poverty to God's people. And 103 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:45.110 you know, when we see injustice, we condemn it, and rightly so 104 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.990 because no one likes to see the poor oppressed or the weak abused. It's 105 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:52.139 not right and we want to say something about it. We want to do 106 00:09:52.419 --> 00:10:00.779 something about it. But you know, though, we see oppression very clearly 107 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:05.500 in others when they are oppressing us. Right when somebody's oppressing you, you 108 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:11.210 see it with an eagle eye, don't you? Nevertheless, virtually none of 109 00:10:11.289 --> 00:10:16.970 the oppressors see what they're doing. Then, if they do, they excuse 110 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:24.519 themselves for it somehow. Now that said, I want to say something to 111 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.720 us that's rather harsh. It's one of those it's one of those Bible truths 112 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:37.070 we don't like to think about, and that's this. You and I are 113 00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:43.470 part of the problem. You and I are all oppressors, we are, 114 00:10:45.710 --> 00:10:50.500 but we're not oppressors in the way people think of oppression when they talk about 115 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:56.779 oppression and justice. See, we're oppressors of other people whenever we deny them 116 00:10:58.059 --> 00:11:05.490 God's righteousness. We oppress people, whenever we don't act towards people as Jesus 117 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:11.769 would have US act toward them. The words, if this helps you to 118 00:11:11.850 --> 00:11:16.610 think about it, the words and the Greek. The good reverend will know 119 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:22.679 he just took another Greek class, that the words for for righteousness and justice 120 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:26.840 and Greek are the same word. So if you want to understand justice, 121 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.159 you have to understand justice comes through righteousness, and if you want to understand 122 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:35.309 righteousness, you have to understand that righteousness is a full arm of justice, 123 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:41.710 that it's one word in the Greek language. And so what I'm driving at 124 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:48.059 here, the idea, is that whenever you are I sin against other people, 125 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:56.940 we are at some level and in some way denying justice and righteousness to 126 00:11:56.059 --> 00:12:03.889 others and therefore we are oppressing them. And I say that because in the 127 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:09.009 Bible we find that oppression isn't just doing something bad. It's not just harming 128 00:12:09.370 --> 00:12:13.730 someone. We tend to think that's what oppression is. Right. It's when 129 00:12:13.730 --> 00:12:18.480 we actively do something harmful to someone, like Herod Robbing Everyone Blind to make 130 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:24.360 himself look good. But in the Old Testament, profits in particular, we 131 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:31.789 see that oppression isn't just hurting others, it's not just sinning directly against people. 132 00:12:31.190 --> 00:12:37.230 Rather, oppression is when we, on a practical, daily interpersonal level, 133 00:12:37.429 --> 00:12:43.990 it's when we deny other people get this. Oppression is when we deny 134 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:52.820 other people the experience of the love of God in Christ. Let me unpack 135 00:12:52.940 --> 00:13:01.210 that. Jesus is king. Got That, and as King Jesus is all 136 00:13:01.450 --> 00:13:07.129 so our good shepherd and as such he desires that his people, his sheep, 137 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:15.039 receive his kingdom blessings. And it's kingdom blessings are that we should all 138 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:22.519 live in perfect bliss forever in his new heavens and yourth and until he comes 139 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:28.230 again to restore Eden to Earth. His desire is that all of his people 140 00:13:28.230 --> 00:13:33.750 should be having a foretaste of that wonderful blessed life to come. He wants 141 00:13:33.789 --> 00:13:41.659 us, at some level to be experiencing heaven's joys in the now, and 142 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:46.899 one of the chief ways that he intends for you and I to receive his 143 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:56.409 kingdom blessings here and now is as he loves us through his people. We 144 00:13:56.529 --> 00:14:01.529 receive his kingdom blessings as he loves us through our brothers and sisters in Christ. 145 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:09.759 See, God the Holy Spirit dwells in you and me right and he 146 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:15.759 ministers to you and me, and one of the chief ways that God the 147 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:22.559 Holy Spirit Ministers to you and me is as he ministers through you and me 148 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:30.190 and through his people. When Jesus was preparing his decipe holes for the work 149 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:33.230 that he would give them to do once he had been crucified, resurrected and 150 00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:39.980 ascended into heaven. He said this in John Chapter Five. I have a 151 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:45.259 greater witness than John's for the works which the father has given me to finish. 152 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:50.740 The very works that I do bear witness of me proving that the father 153 00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:54.649 has sent me. And in John Chapter Fourteen, one of my favorite verses 154 00:14:54.730 --> 00:15:00.250 in the Bible, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in 155 00:15:00.409 --> 00:15:05.330 me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater 156 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:15.000 works than these will he do, because I go to my father see now 157 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:18.559 that Jesus has ascended to his father's right hand. He hasn't left us alone, 158 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:24.110 no matter how alone some of US may feel, we are never ever 159 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:28.789 alone. He is with us. God, the Holy Spirit, lives in 160 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:33.470 US just as surely as he dwelt in his glory between the Cherub him over 161 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:37.539 the temple, over the mercy seat in the holy place in the temple, 162 00:15:39.019 --> 00:15:45.340 and the Holy Spirit is with us to empower us to bring Jesus, his 163 00:15:45.659 --> 00:15:50.330 Justice and his righteousness into the lies of those around us. And that's a 164 00:15:50.450 --> 00:15:56.490 wonderful promise, but what does this have to do with us being oppressor's? 165 00:15:58.009 --> 00:16:00.889 Come on, Austin, you stirred us up, you said something. Now 166 00:16:00.009 --> 00:16:04.600 tell us what this has to do with us being oppressor's. Well, this 167 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.840 the standard for how we are to bring Jesus is righteousness into the world. 168 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:18.320 Is The standard of Jesus's love for us. Remember the second greatest commandment. 169 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:22.230 We're to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, mind, 170 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:25.549 soul and strengthen. The second commandment is like unto it. You shall 171 00:16:25.710 --> 00:16:32.309 love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus, of course, has modeled that 172 00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:36.580 for us. He's shown us how he wants us to love our neighbors, 173 00:16:36.980 --> 00:16:47.289 for he came and he demonstrated his love to us. In John Chapter Thirteen, 174 00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:57.370 Jesus says this a new commandment. I give to you that you love 175 00:16:57.570 --> 00:17:03.840 one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 176 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.440 By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love 177 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:12.960 for one another. And in First John Chapter three, he says this. 178 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:18.109 By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, 179 00:17:18.910 --> 00:17:23.230 and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever 180 00:17:23.269 --> 00:17:27.589 has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart 181 00:17:27.670 --> 00:17:32.740 from him. How does the love of God abide in him? My little 182 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:37.299 children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and 183 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:42.980 in truth. You See, the righteousness that Jesus wants us to bring into 184 00:17:44.019 --> 00:17:52.049 the lives of those around us is a practical, tangible and selfless love that 185 00:17:52.210 --> 00:17:56.329 will bring a taste of the heavenly kingdom into the lives of our neighbors. 186 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:04.839 God is calling on us to love as Christ has first loved us, selflessly, 187 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:14.630 humbly, patiently and prayerfully. I don't think it's a coincidence that, 188 00:18:15.109 --> 00:18:18.789 setting us up like this in the beginning of the beattitudes, Jesus comes to 189 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:23.029 the end and he tells us that were supremely happy if we're persecuted or hounded 190 00:18:23.589 --> 00:18:32.900 or oppressed, because he wants us to love people in the face of the 191 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:41.730 hostility, in the face of the rejection, in the face of the hatred, 192 00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:48.289 and so because that is the standard of Christ's righteousness that were to bring 193 00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:55.799 into the lie lives of those around us. By definition, then, when 194 00:18:55.880 --> 00:19:02.039 we deny them that righteousness, when we deny them his justice, we are 195 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:08.799 oppressing them, and we're oppressing them because we do not lift their yoke from 196 00:19:10.150 --> 00:19:17.950 them by bringing Christ's love to them. Come unto me, all you who 197 00:19:17.950 --> 00:19:22.349 are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 198 00:19:22.509 --> 00:19:26.299 yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in 199 00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:30.859 heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is 200 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:37.970 easy and my burden is light. Now we all want other people to love 201 00:19:38.210 --> 00:19:45.089 me like that, don't we? We all want to be loved selflessly and 202 00:19:45.369 --> 00:19:51.970 prayerfully and humbly and patiently. We long for other people to think of me 203 00:19:52.450 --> 00:19:56.359 and my needs first and foremost. We want other people to give us that 204 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:03.680 kind of kindness, that kind of Gospel Righteousness, and we mourn when we 205 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:10.509 don't get it. We Mourn because we read the Gospel promises about this, 206 00:20:10.589 --> 00:20:17.630 this new kingdom that's coming, this community of faith all over the world where 207 00:20:17.789 --> 00:20:23.339 people love one another as Jesus has first loved us. But so often we 208 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:30.140 don't receive that kind of love. And so when we don't receive that kind 209 00:20:30.220 --> 00:20:36.049 of love from others, what do we do? We pull back behind our 210 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:41.650 shelves, we withdraw from other people because they've heard us and because they haven't 211 00:20:41.690 --> 00:20:48.329 loved us like Jesus says they should. Almost inevitably we start to blame game. 212 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:55.359 Oh well, you know these people over here, or those Christians over 213 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:59.720 there, are that church over here, they they have failed us. We 214 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:07.869 say, they haven't loved me like Jesus says they should, and so we 215 00:21:07.990 --> 00:21:14.150 start to excuse ourselves from not loving them that way either, don't we? 216 00:21:14.230 --> 00:21:18.549 We say, well, this guy did this to me, or or she 217 00:21:18.819 --> 00:21:22.380 didn't do that for me, or these people they never call me, so 218 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:26.500 I'm not going to be nice to them either. I'm just going to take 219 00:21:26.539 --> 00:21:33.809 my toys and go home. Thank you. Other examples that we may come 220 00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:40.130 up with are when people hide from their spouses or children by being busy at 221 00:21:40.170 --> 00:21:47.049 work or activities. Children hide from their parents through video games and screens. 222 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:53.480 Parents hide from their children by obsessively watching TV shows on the stream it forever 223 00:21:53.559 --> 00:22:03.750 and ever network, whatever it may be. We may find sometimes that we 224 00:22:06.029 --> 00:22:12.630 just avoid other people at Church even maybe we say, oh well, I've 225 00:22:12.670 --> 00:22:17.059 got this casserole at home or that the Croc Pot's going to bowl over. 226 00:22:17.140 --> 00:22:21.660 Good to see. I got to go because we've got our noses out of 227 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:26.779 joint or maybe we hold back our hand from the needy because we say, 228 00:22:26.779 --> 00:22:30.730 Oh, I've been taken advantage of too many times, I'm closing my purse. 229 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:37.329 See, we long for others to be righteous to us, and then 230 00:22:37.369 --> 00:22:42.490 we avoid being righteous to them. We Want Gospel Justice, but we're afraid 231 00:22:42.730 --> 00:22:49.279 really to give it freely ourselves, and we excuse ourselves for not bringing Christ's 232 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:56.039 love and righteousness into their lives. And in so doing we become passive oppressors 233 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:02.869 of Christ sheep. And we don't even see it, but deep down in 234 00:23:02.990 --> 00:23:08.869 our hearts we still long for that promised kingdom community, don't we? We 235 00:23:10.029 --> 00:23:15.940 still hope for that kingdom fellowship, but we haven't got any idea how to 236 00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:22.619 find it. We all know the ideal, don't we? And then we 237 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:32.930 say, but how? Well, here, in this short little beatitude, 238 00:23:32.930 --> 00:23:41.480 Jesus tells us this. Those who hunger and thirst after his righteousness shall be 239 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:51.039 filled. But how well? When Jesus says that when we hunger and thirst 240 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:56.190 for righteousness will be filled, he means something more than you had just kind 241 00:23:56.230 --> 00:24:00.869 of hanker after it. You know, it's not like a little cheese stick 242 00:24:00.910 --> 00:24:03.069 or something that you want on your way to the doctor's office. This is 243 00:24:03.390 --> 00:24:10.380 something you're desperate for. When Jesus says this here he's describing people who so 244 00:24:10.859 --> 00:24:15.700 long for righteousness that they become like those who are literally starving to death, 245 00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:22.619 people who are so parched with thirst that they are like men dying of dehydration 246 00:24:22.660 --> 00:24:29.210 in the desert. And as I thought about this, it occurred to me, 247 00:24:29.410 --> 00:24:33.410 you know, right before the beatitudes, in chapter four, Jesus is 248 00:24:33.609 --> 00:24:41.759 in the Wilderness being tempted by Satan, and I thought maybe that's the kind 249 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:47.599 of hunger he has in view here. Forty days and forty nights without a 250 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:52.839 bite to eat, and the kind of first that he is referring to hear, 251 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:56.589 it strikes me that it's it's the kind of thirst of someone who's spent 252 00:24:56.789 --> 00:25:02.390 days in the blistering heat of the desert without a drop of water. You 253 00:25:02.509 --> 00:25:06.950 know how you read about that kind of dehydration, where your mouth is dry, 254 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:10.660 your tongue swells up, your head aches, your eyes go bloodshot, 255 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:15.500 your lips swell and crack and split and bleed. What he's talking about here 256 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:26.609 is a hunger and a thirst that's becoming an overpowering all consuming passion. And 257 00:25:26.730 --> 00:25:30.650 as I thought about that, I asked myself, what is it that's you're 258 00:25:30.650 --> 00:25:41.119 hungry for, Austin, and I I thought, well, really, mostly 259 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:45.799 I just want to be the man Christ wants me to be, the husband, 260 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:49.269 the father, the friend, the neighbor, the coworker that Jesus wants 261 00:25:49.309 --> 00:25:55.869 me to be. I want to be the sort of person who gives his 262 00:25:56.150 --> 00:26:00.710 love away freely and fearlessly, like Jesus did. But you know, there 263 00:26:00.789 --> 00:26:04.660 are so many fears, there's so many distraction and is, there's so many 264 00:26:04.779 --> 00:26:11.339 hurts in this life that they keep me from it. I know you know 265 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:18.019 what I'm talking about. Let's I thought about that. I thought about the 266 00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:22.450 Prodigal son, of all people. Jesus says that when the Prodigal Son ran 267 00:26:22.529 --> 00:26:26.529 away from his father, he went and lived profligately, that is, he 268 00:26:26.690 --> 00:26:33.720 lived for his own wants and desires. In Life, Prodigal tried to make 269 00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:38.000 himself happy by pleasing himself and doing what he thought was good for himself. 270 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:42.480 But eventually, of course, what happened? All of that selfish and self 271 00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:48.910 centered living landed him in the PIGSTI. His reaping of Sel, or his 272 00:26:49.230 --> 00:26:56.910 sewing of selfishness in it up in reaping of misery. And it's been said 273 00:26:56.990 --> 00:27:00.309 of the Prodigal that when he was hungry he was content to eat husks, 274 00:27:00.430 --> 00:27:04.779 that is, pig slop. When he was hungry, he was content to 275 00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:11.339 eat husks, but when he was starving, then he turned to his father. 276 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:18.250 And you know, I think there's a reason that spiritual rags to riches 277 00:27:18.369 --> 00:27:26.049 stories like the prodigal son resonate with us so much. I think that it's 278 00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:30.200 not insignificant that the first be attitude calls on us to have a recognition that 279 00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:37.759 we all are spiritual beggars. I think the reason they resonate with us so 280 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.640 much is because we know deep down that each of us is like prodigal or 281 00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:47.549 like the prostitute we drive by on the street or the addict in the wash 282 00:27:48.910 --> 00:27:55.549 who then comes back right. We love the hear that powerful testimony. I 283 00:27:55.990 --> 00:28:02.940 once was lost, but now I'm found. We know what we're called to 284 00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:06.859 be, we know what we long to be and we know that we're not 285 00:28:07.180 --> 00:28:11.819 there yet. So why not? Why aren't we there yet? And I 286 00:28:11.930 --> 00:28:17.049 think at least part of the answer is that we haven't yet been faced with 287 00:28:17.210 --> 00:28:23.490 our true hunger and thirst, like they have. In a lot of ways, 288 00:28:23.930 --> 00:28:29.839 I've long thought that the person who's destroyed his life would sin to the 289 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:34.319 point that he hates what he's become and despises what he's made of his him 290 00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:40.799 of his life, is often far better off than the person who succeeds in 291 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:48.789 life, and the reason for that is that, like the Prodigal, the 292 00:28:48.950 --> 00:28:56.940 utter failure, the spiritual beggar gets so hungry that he's finally willing to stop 293 00:28:56.140 --> 00:29:03.420 eating slop and turn to his father. So what do we find when we 294 00:29:03.539 --> 00:29:10.369 turn to our father? We find that he set before us a bright and 295 00:29:10.569 --> 00:29:18.130 a shining, Glorious Gospel promise. He says that he'll make even foolish pig 296 00:29:18.329 --> 00:29:23.359 slop eating sinners like you and like me into the kind of people, the 297 00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:29.119 kind of fellowship, the kind of covenant community that will be used by God, 298 00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:33.119 the Holy Spirit to minister to other people and to take the Gospel into 299 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:41.069 every nook and cranny of this broken town and this fallen world. And the 300 00:29:41.190 --> 00:29:47.750 way that he will do that it's not by constantly reminding us that were failures 301 00:29:48.109 --> 00:29:52.940 or by heaping up commands on us that both he and we know will never 302 00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:55.980 keep. The way he's going to get us to do that is not by 303 00:29:56.019 --> 00:30:03.299 enjoining us to try harder or to be good. Instead, he makes his 304 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:10.329 people into that kind of community of righteousness, that Community of Divine Justice that 305 00:30:10.890 --> 00:30:15.130 lifts people's burdens and freeze them from the oppression of sin. He does that 306 00:30:15.329 --> 00:30:22.200 by setting his Gospel promise before us, and that promise is that we do 307 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:27.680 not have to withdraw into our shelves, we do not have to let the 308 00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:36.190 fact that we don't see that ideal covenant community being excused for not seeking to 309 00:30:36.390 --> 00:30:41.069 live according to kingdom precepts. Anyway, his promise is that he is with 310 00:30:41.309 --> 00:30:48.789 us and he will find a way to forge that justice and that community in 311 00:30:48.950 --> 00:30:52.619 spite of whatever the world, the flesh and the devil may throw against him. 312 00:30:52.660 --> 00:31:00.380 And all you and I have to do is let him. We just 313 00:31:00.579 --> 00:31:03.329 have to let him. All that we have to do to start to see 314 00:31:03.490 --> 00:31:11.410 this community around us filled with his righteousness is to start to shrug off past 315 00:31:11.410 --> 00:31:21.559 hurts and past pains and let Jesus love others through us. That's what we 316 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:27.640 have to do. And when we finally believe that that is possible, when 317 00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:33.750 we finally get it into our hearts that that's not a vague, amorphous hope, 318 00:31:33.829 --> 00:31:37.710 but that is a sure promise of King Jesus himself, then we will 319 00:31:37.750 --> 00:31:44.990 finally see that these husks that we're eating aren't really satisfying and that indeed we're 320 00:31:45.230 --> 00:31:51.059 starving for that new life. We're parched with thirst for that kind of righteousness. 321 00:31:51.099 --> 00:31:56.539 And when we see that, Jesus tells us that he's right there. 322 00:31:56.660 --> 00:32:02.930 He was right there all the time and he's right here right now to give 323 00:32:02.970 --> 00:32:07.450 you and I the ability to finally come out of our shelves, get over 324 00:32:07.529 --> 00:32:13.329 our fears and start to love gee other people. Is Jesus first loved US, 325 00:32:14.329 --> 00:32:22.920 and Christ gives us that ability to do that very simply by constantly reminding 326 00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:27.880 us of those simple Gospel truths we reformed folk are always going on about. 327 00:32:30.670 --> 00:32:35.670 He reminds us that he loves us. He reminds us that he's always loved 328 00:32:35.750 --> 00:32:38.349 us. He reminds us that, because he loves us, he died for 329 00:32:38.509 --> 00:32:43.710 us. But what's more than that, he has now risen from the dead 330 00:32:43.829 --> 00:32:50.420 and he rules and reigns over the whole universe as king. He reminds us 331 00:32:51.539 --> 00:32:59.170 that he is the sovereign Lord who is himself meek. He turns all of 332 00:32:59.369 --> 00:33:04.690 his sovereign power, the power that he used on the first day of creation 333 00:33:05.009 --> 00:33:09.529 to call all things into existence from nothing, to light the stars of flame 334 00:33:09.690 --> 00:33:15.440 and to form the earth. He uses that very power that he uses it 335 00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:24.559 and he bends that to serve his church, to serve us to the end 336 00:33:24.759 --> 00:33:30.549 that we might be his hands and his feet to a lost, confused, 337 00:33:30.710 --> 00:33:37.670 bewildered in dying world. Jesus has ascended to serve us by sending his spirit 338 00:33:37.829 --> 00:33:44.259 to equip us to serve others in his name, into the glory of his 339 00:33:44.380 --> 00:33:52.660 father. And he sent his spirit to remind us of his promise that, 340 00:33:52.819 --> 00:33:58.250 no matter how we have been hurt, no matter how others have failed us 341 00:33:58.289 --> 00:34:07.250 or abused us or abandoned us, nevertheless our father is always faithful, and 342 00:34:07.569 --> 00:34:15.599 his faithfulness frees us to step out from behind our fears and our excuses and 343 00:34:15.800 --> 00:34:23.119 our passive oppression. Through that faithfulness, he sets US free to live according 344 00:34:23.159 --> 00:34:30.429 to his kingdom. Calling. That Simple Gospel gives us the strength to see 345 00:34:30.429 --> 00:34:36.949 our hunger and thirst, and it also fills us so full that we cannot 346 00:34:37.110 --> 00:34:43.019 help but overflow with his love into the lives of those around us and that 347 00:34:43.139 --> 00:34:45.900 that is good news.