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OBEY HUNGER (4 OF 8)

by Steve Jones

Scripture: Matthew 5
This content is part of a series.


Obey Hunger (4 of 8)
Series: Obeying the Beatitudes
Steve Jones
Matthew 5


INTRODUCTION: A Rabbi addressed a class of young Jewish boys. He said, ''the Jewish people have survived their 5760th year as a people. You could contrast that with the Chinese people who have only survived their 4690th year as a people. Now what does that mean to you? After a few seconds a young boy raised his hand and the rabbi said, ''Yes, David, what does that mean?'' David said, ''It means the Jews have had to suffer without Chinese food for 970 years!'' It's always about the food, isn't it? Maybe not, but today it is.

In Jesus' ''Great Commission'' he said, ''Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to OBEY everything I've commanded you.'' In our current sermon series we're studying the beatitudes at the beginning of the sermon on the mount. ''Beatitude'' is Latin for ''happy.'' These are the attitudes of the happy life - but they're a little counter-intuitive. Take the beatitude for today for instance.

Mt.5:6 ''Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.''

No one wants to be hungry and thirsty for anything - so where's the happiness in that? Good question and I'm glad you asked. The answer depends upon how you understand hungry and thirsty and righteousness and filled. Let me explain because we really NEED this blessing today.


I. PLAIN OLD HUNGER AND THIRST

Lk.6:20-21 ''Blessed are you who are poor...Blessed are you who hunger''

That verse comes from the parallel account in Luke's gospel. We started in Matthew and then went to Luke. You may have noticed that while Matthew's version adds ''righteousness'' as in ''hunger and thirst FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.'' In Luke's version Jesus simply says, ''Blessed are you who hunger now.'' Is this a contradiction in the Bible? Not at all. There are no genuine contradictions in the Bible. But it may b ...

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