Salvation’s Appetites | Matthew 5:6

Scripture

• Matthew 5:6

About this sermon

Introduction: The Bible is unmistakable in its message that where you find true Christianity, you meet with someone who has been transformed. You meet with NEW CREATION. ESV Galatians 6:15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ESV 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ESV Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ESV Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. The Bible is equally clear that the new creation is explained by nothing less than an encounter with God Himself. GOD’S POWER IS THE EXPLANATION FOR THESE NEW PEOPLE. Where you find true Christianity, and the life that exists in it, you don’t have something explained by psychology. You don’t have something explained by moral reform. You don’t something explained by sociological influence. YOU HAVE NOTHING LESS THAN A REALITY BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD — WHICH IS TO SAY — THE POWER OF GOD. ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ESV 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ESV 1 Corinthians 1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. WHAT IS ALSO CLEAR IS THAT GOD’S POWER HAS BEEN ENCOUNTERED THROUGH THE PROCLAMATION OF GOD’S WORD. Each of those verses I just read referred to the message of Christ. The gospel is God’s power (Romans 1:16), the word of the cross is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18), we preach Christ crucified, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:22). ESV 1 Peter 1:23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; AND IT IS NOT JUST OUR BEGINNING IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE THAT IS EXPLAINED BY GOD’S POWER, OUR CONTINUATION IS EXPLAINED BY GOD’S POWER. ESV 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. FINALLY, THE BIBLE IS EQUALLY CLEAR THAT WHEREVER THE NEW CREATION EXISTS, WHEREVER SALVATION HAS COME, WHEREVER THE POWER OF GOD HAS TRANSFORMED A LIFE, THE EVIDENCE OF THAT NEW LIFE EXISTS. Salvation is experiential as well as forensic. The new birth produces new living. Faith of a different sort now exists. New eyes. New ears. A new heart. A new fellowship. A new love. A new worship. NEW APPETITES. That is what our beatitude describes. What is it like to be alive with Jesus as King? What is life lived under the reign of Jesus? What kind of person can be described as spiritually blessed, graced, fortunate, in this world and in the world to come? THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN STUDYING. BLESSED ARE THE HUMBLE. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE KNOWN GODLY SORROW. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE BROUGHT TO THE PLACE OF SURRENDER. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO KNOW THE DESIRES THAT FLOW FROM THOSE REALITIES. This morning we consider what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness under two headings. (1) The desires that belong to the people of God (2) The reward promised to those with these desires. REMEMBER. These people inherit the kingdom of heaven (vs.3,10). • THE DESIRES THAT BELONG TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD Jesus is presenting a spiritual reality to His hearers that made use of a comparison with a powerful physical reality. He is saying that the people who are blessed, the people who will inherit the kingdom of heaven, know a kind of desire in the spiritual realm that can be compared to desires that we know in the physical realm. People know what it is to be hungry for food. People know what it is to be thirsty for water. People know what it is to have hunger and thirst satisfied. And those desires that regularly occur because we are alive, are especially powerful and important when it’s a matter of life and death. READ THE ACCOUNTS IN SCRIPTURE OF HOW PEOPLE BEHAVED WHEN AN ENEMY WOULD BESIEGE A CITY. You get an idea of the powerful nature of physical desires when life depends on the satisfaction of those desires.

Topics

• Salvation