we are hungry people

today we look at Matthew 5:6

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied

history has shown we are hungry people hasn't it?  Look at Genesis 3 our first Adam the dolt ate the fruit he wasn't supposed to.  If you look at Matthew 4 the temptation that was brought to Jesus was to eat something he shouldn't have.  This was a temptation because in his human nature Jesus got hungry.

We see this is each beatitude builds off the one before you do the one in response to the one before.  So you realize you are sinful you mourn that sin then you realise you are meek.  so in response the the first 3 beattitudes you hunger for righteousness.

i think there are couple things to remember about this beatitude

Notice Jesus uses a picture of something that happens everyday and like a good baptist I can relate being hungry.  If we are told we can't eat we get mad.  We need to want righteousness everyday.

Also note it is Jesus righteousness that we receive not necessarily the one we hunger for. Sometimes people want to piggyback a pastor's righteous but the only righteousness we piggyback is Jesus righteousness

blessed are the meek

today we look at the 3rd beatitude in Matthew 5:5

(on a side note after reading this could you give me some input on my blog like how i am doing and how i can improve)

blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth is so counter to how i was raised because i was raised to believe the strong inherit the earth.

of course we must realize meekness is not weakness anyone want to call Jesus weak?  anyone... anyone...
yeah i didn't think so. also the bible days moses was meek does anyone want to call the person who went toe to toe with the most powerful man on earth at the time weak? i didn't think so.  but when got angry it was against the pharisees as a whole never against a insult to him but against social injustice and hypocrisy. i admit i have a problem with this because i have a temper when i am insulted but thank God i am getting better at. in this i ask a question in this parable from Luke 18

      ⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

who do you identify with the pharisee or the tax collector? i admit sometimes i act Pharisaical but thankfully less than i used to

blessed are those who mourn

today we look at Matthew 5:4 the second beatitude which is built off the first because once you realize your sinfulness you mourn that sinfulness like the tax collector in parable from last week's study

now this beatitude does mean that you be a grouch because i have a hard time picturing Jesus as a grouch

You know i have noticed that the church does not like to mourn for our sins or the dead. I was confused because the church teaches us to be when someone dies and is in heaven, but that is not Christlike because Jesus mourned for Lazarus and he knew he was bringing him. if we do not mourn our sins how do we show God we are sorry for our sins.  this is also a continual thing not a one time thing because we constantly sin

matthew 5:3

It is time to start the beatitudes which are statements that begin with the word blessed, which i think should be translated happy because blessed seems like a old fashioned word

the first beatitude is this:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I first feel a need to say what this does not mean first because i think with all the beatitudes we tend to take them out of context and misinterpret them. You will notice as we go through them that these verse are not to be taken alone and they are in this order for a reason.

Being poor in spirit does not mean to think we are zeroes. I think since God sent his son to die for us implies value.  Sure the image of God in us is fractured but we are still made in the image of God. It also does not mean to be like Eeyore the donkey.

Being poor of spirit means realizing that spiritually we are bankrupt.  I think the best example i can think is a parable Jesus told of the pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14

⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

I think another false notion about being poor in spirit is that we need only be poor is spirit once but sometimes we think we deserve grace but if we deserve grace its not grace