Sermon on the Mount - Blessings 2 and 3

Matthew 5: ⁵ God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

⁶ God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.

Humility is in short supply in our very narcissistic world, but Jesus doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the consistency of this message. In Matthew 20, Jesus teaches about those who come to Him and haven't been with Him very long, and how they are the same in the pecking order as those who have been with Jesus for a long time. Actually, there is no "pecking order" because Jesus doesn't agree with the levels of superiority we put on people and situations. When telling this story of the vineyard workers, Jesus easily showed His disciples that He doesn't think the way the world does, and neither should we. In fact, Jesus shows we should think the opposite of the world, and in Matthew 20:16, Jesus says 16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” There's your "pecking order," and it is not at all like the world's. God's blessing for those who are humble is that we will inherit the whole earth, also known as the New Heaven and the New Earth. To humble ourselves first of all to the King of kings is the beginning, and that humble attitude takes root when we ask, seek, and knock. Just another way our Savior is telling us a mystery of God that those who don't know Jesus will never understand without being born again in the Spirit, where we get our answer.

Andra and I just ate Mexican, and boy, am I full. I love a good chimichanga, and I surely had one for lunch. As we neared the area where the restaurant was located, I turned to Andra and said, "I'm really getting hungry." Had the restaurant been closed, my hopes for food would have been dashed, and I would have been very upset! Ever since I began studying the Word of God and not just reading it, God has developed a "hunger" in my soul that causes me to have such a desire to learn from the Bible that I get really hungry for its great truths. God's Word ALWAYS satisfies my hunger, but the blessing is I now hunger for His righteousness. Only God could do that, and only could it be done in me because I am a new creation, recreated for His purposes. It doesn't mean I am a spiritual giant, but it does show that the hunger for righteousness is just a natural outflow of a new life. Praise Jesus because He was the one who did it, and I get the eternal benefit. Any justice I experience is in putting myself in the hands of our Lord, and whatever I may lack in looking big in the world is easily made up for by knowing the righteousness of God and Him putting a thirst for it. SO DRINK!! His water is pure and untainted and refreshing, and it causes us to be changed.

When Jesus said "if you drink of this water you will never thirst again" Jesus was speaking to the changed heart that is eternal watered by His grace. When we get a taste for that water, we desire to taste it again and again, and guess what? That water is in us for eternity and always accessible. Nothing else will satisfy our thirst like this living water given to us by Jesus. Live in His righteousness, and you will thirst for the taste that you remember you tasted when you were born again. If you want the world's justice or righteousness, you will quickly see that there is no comparison to the living water of God. The blessing is right there just take it!!

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren