Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: Christ, Our Satisfaction
Now the conclusion of this study is that where there is this desire for righteousness there will be filling, and the filling will be a filling with Christ.
In this sermon, spoken early in his three-year ministry, Jesus said, “Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” But he did not elaborate further on the filling. Later, as his teachings had begun to make their impact on the small circle of his listeners, he did. He said to the woman of Samaria, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water… Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10, 13-14). To the disciples who had witnessed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves in Galilee he added, “I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
Have you drunk deeply at that spring and fed on that bread? Or are you still feeding on things that do not satisfy? When the prodigal son left home he expected to find complete satisfaction. He wanted to live. And life to him meant money, clothes, food, companionship, and fun times. Instead of these things he found poverty, rags, hunger, loneliness, and misery. When he was hungry, he turned to feeding swine. It was only when he was starving that he turned back to his father. In his father’s company he found all that he had thought to find in the world. His father clothed him, fed him, welcomed him, and filled his days with joy.
It would be eternally sad if you should turn from the one who guarantees satisfaction to things that will never satisfy long! How blessed if you should return to the Father through the way he had told you to come, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and should thereby find his satisfaction.
Study Questions:
What does Jesus mean when he says that those who seek after righteousness will be filled?
Why do people pursue other things that are clearly less worthy and satisfying than Christ? What does this reveal about their worldview and how they approach all of life?
Application: Are there things of this world that have a tighter grip on your attentions and affections than they should? Is there anything of which you need to let go and focus more intensely on Christ?
Key Point: It would be eternally sad if you should turn from the one who guarantees satisfaction to things that will never satisfy long! How blessed if you should return to the Father through the way he had told you to come, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and should thereby find his satisfaction.
