What he was saying of course was that humanity has changed the God revealed to us by the Bible from someone who is totally other than humanity into someone who is just like us. We have changed God and consequently His Son Jesus from someone who stands against the values and characteristics of the world – into someone who affirms the values and characteristics of the world.

So it could be argued that many evangelical Christians have taken the Jesus of the gospels and transformed Him from the Son of God who came to redeem the world by taking the nature of a servant being made in human likeness and have turned Him into a white anglosaxon card-carrying middle-class conservative who affirms the dominate traits and values of the culture.

But what we have discovered as we have been studying the whole idea of the Kingdom of God is that God’s kingdom, His rule stands diametrically opposed to self, and to the world. Jesus Christ did not come to affirm the traits and values of the culture in which we live but to transform the traits and the culture in which we live by transforming individual lives.

We have discovered this opposition to the world especially in our study of the beatitudes.

Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit – the world says blessed are the self-sufficient, the strong. Jesus says “Blessed are those who mourn – who allow their hearts to be broken, who weep over their sin." The world says don’t worry about your sin, As long as you’re not hurting anyone, go ahead.

Jesus says blessed are the meek, the world says blessed are the powerful.

This is why it is so important for us to study the Word of God for we need to be asking ourselves if we are indeed worshipping the Jesus of the gospels or have we invented a new Jesus who represents the dominate desires, traits and values of our culture and have begun to worship Him? Are we worshipping a Jesus who calls us to be in the world but different from the world or are we worshipping a Jesus simply affirms all the greed and hatred and jealousy and revenge that has come to be a part of our culture?

Have we, in the words of Paul to the Romans (1:23) exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

So it is with this spirit that we must approach the Beatitudes seeking the biblical Jesus seeking what it means to be a Biblical Christian and not some cultural description of what Jesus should look like, and what a Christian should look like.

We pick up our study of the Beatitudes and we come this week to the remaining five beatitudes. And I love the way Martin Lloyd Jones describes this fourth beatitude - he calls it the mountain peak of the beatitudes. The first three climb up to this attitude and the last three climb down.

The first three are concerned with our need, he says, realizing our poverty before God, mourning over our sins and the consequences of sin in the world, being made meek as we realize the extent of our sin and our inability to save ourselves. These three emphasize the vital importance of a deep awareness of need. Then comes the great statement of the satisfaction of the need, God’s provision for it. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; for they shall be filled.

Having realized the need, we hunger and thirst, we long to be so thoroughly like Christ, we desire with every fibre that is alive within us to be free from sin and its effects and even the desire to sin and then God comes with His wondrous answer that we shall be filled, fully satisfied (page 107 of Lloyd Jones)

Have you ever hungered and thirsted for righteousness? Righteousness is behaviour - it is doing what is right. Have you thirsted for a live that is without sin, and does what is right? I have. And it’s usually right after I have sinned. It’s usually right after I have slapped God in the face so to speak, when I have known the good that I ought to do but do the other. And it’s after I’ve done that when I wish I could be delivered from this body of sin. Have you ever felt like that?

The good news is that Jesus doesn’t say blessed are those who ARE righteous, but those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Consider it – hunger and thirst – they are both appetites that begin to gnaw at you little by little, at first your stomach begins to growl, then you get a headache, then the pain in your belly gets stronger and you get weaker and you simply must have food and water so that you can stand it no longer those appetites must be quenched.

I recently read a legend that describes what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It’s about a boy named Siddhartha. He showed a keen interest in knowing about God. He asked everyone and anyone whom he thought could help him to give him instruction. Eventually, he heard of a special guru who lived alone, high in the mountains. It was said that this guru knew about the things of God more than any other teacher or prophet.

Having learned of this great and wonderful guru, Siddhartha went to find him, and when he did he asked the simple question, “Who can I find God?” The guru did not immediately answer. Instead he asked the young Siddhartha to follow him. He led the boy to the edge of the lake, and then unexpectedly and violently, grabbed the head of Siddhartha and shoved it under the water.

Siddhartha tired to escape the iron hold of the guru, but to no avail. Even when the strength that comes from the panic of drowning set in, he could not break the guru’s hold.

Just when it seemed as though his lungs would burst and his life would end, the guru pulled Siddhartha’s head out of the water. The boy gasped to regain his breath. And just as he was about to cry out against the guru for what he had done to him, the guru raised his hand to silence him. Then he softly to Siddhartha, “When you want God as much as you have just wanted breath, you will find him.” (Campolo - Carpe Diem page 114)

And so with the desire for righteousness. It is to be repulsed by sin, it is to want to be free from the desire to sin, it is a deep need to want to be released from the power of sin and it grows within you until you cry out with the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death.” (Romans 7:24)

It grows out of a recognition of our need but also a recognition that God can fill us.

Such people are like Blind Bartimaeus, who continues to cry out to Jesus for mercy despite the crowd telling him to hush. They are like Jacob struggling with the angel by the river Jabok not letting go until he receives the blessing.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Notice too that it does not say, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for their own well being. We have a large number of Christians who go from meeting to meeting, convention to convention listing to this motivational speaker to that motivational speaker hoping to be filled with God. They see it in others but they don’t possess it themselves but they never get it.

For that’s not surprising, we are not meant to hunger and thirst for our own well being, we are not meant to hunger and thirst for experience we are meant to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Something else about hungering and thirsting is that they are never fully quenched. You satisfy them once and they are back again 6, 12, 24 hours later. So with the Gospel.

“You see the Christian is one who at one and the same time is hungering and thirsting and yet he is filled. And the more he is filled the more he hungers and thirsts. That is the blessedness of this Christian life. It goes on” (Jones page 83).

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Notice it does not say, hope to be filled, or might be filled they will be filled.

Having climbed to the top of the mountain with deep desire and need we now begin to come down the other side of the mountain and see the results of being filled. We become merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers and as a result become persecuted for righteousness sake. (Jones page 107)

Blessed are the merciful for they will shown mercy.

Now you cannot start coming down this side of the mountain, so to speak, if you have not first climbed up it and reached its summit. It follows all the others, I am poor in spirit, recognizing God’s holiness and my utter helplessness. Not only this but I mourn because of the sin that is within me and around me. Not only that, I am meek which means that I know myself with all my sin and even my greatest enemy could not tell me anything worse about me. I have a level assessment of who I am in the sight of God.

Because of this I hunger and thirst for righteousness I have longed for it, I know I cannot create it on my own. I simply desire that new nature that would put me right in the sight of God and give me a new life. I have seen it in Christ and by His great mercy I am filled.

Now how is this righteousness expressed? It is expressed in showing mercy. Remember this is not an evangelistic sermon. Jesus is preaching to His followers. So this is not a condition of becoming a Christian. But it is a condition of maintaining the relationship we have with God through grace.

Now it follows if I have received this mercy I will in turn be merciful. And if I am merciful I will continue to be shown mercy. That is what this fifth beatitude means.

Of course it is impossible for me to forgive those who hurt me, who slander me, who sin against me if I have not first experienced the forgiveness of the Holy God whom I have slandered and sinned against.

But here we are told that if we want to experience more of God’s mercy we must be merciful. This is the truth that Jesus repeats in what is called the Lord’s prayer, He says we should pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

You see the Christian life is not like a cup where we receive and receive and receive but should rather be compared to a tube where we give mercy and receive mercy.

Again this is so different than what the world teaches. The world teaches revenge. The number one movie in the theatres right now is “Kill Bill” in it a woman who has had her wedding destroyed wakes from a coma to revenge those who did the deed.

This is not the Christian way. Blessed are those who are merciful for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

Notice that this promise is given to the pure in heart - not those pure in the practice of religion, or pure in their external practice of religion.

You see this is the problem that Jesus had with the Pharisees. He said, “You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. They were like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleaness.” (Stott page 48, Luke 11:39; Matthew 23:25-28)

Blessed are the pure in heart it is the heart that matters to God.

As you know the theological position on Baptism in this church – is that it is not a basis for membership into our church. We believe that it is not a requirement of membership in the Kingdom and so it is not a requirement of membership in the church. We believe that what matters to God is the heart. So we read, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7)

Now understand, and hear me. If you are follower of Christ and are not baptized as a believer you should be. It is an outward sign of an inward transformation and commitment.

But you say, “It’s just a ritual – God knows my heart I don’t have to go through with it. But that’s silly talk really.”

I mean you don’t treat your cat that way. You don’t’ say, "Well, the cat knows I love her so I don’t have to pet her." Nonsense. You love your cat, so you take it up on your lap and you snuggle it and stroke its head and allow her to softly purr – because you love her.

On a higher level you don’t treat your spouse that way. You don’t say when her birthday or Valentines Day rolls around, “Well dear, you know I love you in my heart and that should be enough for you.” Ridiculous. Love has to be expressed. It is because you love your wife that you give her flowers, and clean up the kitchen after you’ve made your sandwich, or give her a gift at her birthday and Christmas or any other time of the year. It is an expression of your life. Your love starts in your heart but moves from there to expression in passion, in loyalty, and kindness, and gentleness, and generosity and the rest of the fruits of the spirit.

Where would your salvation be if God treated us that way and did not express His love for us in Christ.

So Baptism is an expression of what has happened within us and our love for Him – and so we all need to follow our Lord’s command in this regard.

Having said that, let us beware of placing to much emphasis on the externals of our faith and let us examine our hearts. God examines the heart. To obey is better than sacrifice.

And this is frightening because we can fool everyone around us, you know wear a Christian smile and laugh at the fellow Christian’s jokes but on the inside be saying, “Boy I really don’t like that guy, I wish he would drop dead.”

To be pure in heart – purity here means to be without hypocrisy, not to be two-faced.

“Their whole life, public and private, is transparent before God and men. Their very heart – including their thoughts and motives is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior or base. Hypocrisy and deceit are abhorrent to them; they are without guile.” (Stott page 50)

And to such they will see God.

How can we be pure. It only follows after poorness of spirit and mourning and meekness and hungering after righteousness, it comes from God.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God.

Now this promise seems to stand against the words of Christ in Matthew “do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Those words are true. It is true that as a result of Christ’s coming into your life you will have disturbance. But it is also clear that we followers of Christ are never to seek out conflict or even be responsible for it. On the contrary we are called to peace, and to pursue it and strive for it with all our hearts.

Blessed are the peacemakers – Why? Because they will be called children or sons of God. We will share in the title of Him who is the only begotten Son of the Father. Jesus the Son of God who came to make peace by the blood of His cross.

And then finally, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Notice that it does not say, blessed are those who are persecuted for being fools. Blessed are those who are persecuted for being obnoxious. Blessed are those who are persecuted for being unwise.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Righteousness – that is blessed are you when you practice righteousness. That is when you are being like the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore blessed are those who are persecuted for being like Him.

Why people insult you and malign you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you – you are blessed.

Why? Because the world hates Christ – it has hated His prophets down through the ages and it will hate you when you act and think like Christ.

This is where the Christ of culture and the Christ of the Bible stand in stark contrast. The Christ of culture says come follow me and you will have a good life, happy life a carefree life, a wealthy life, you will get to have everything your way.

But the Christ of the Bible says, You will be persecuted, the world will hate you, you will have trouble in this life because of me.

Can you believe He said this? Can you believe that even the 12 disciples decided to follow Him? But look at this – for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And because of this we rejoice and are glad. For our present sufferings do not compare to the future glory.

My friends, what kind of Christ do you worship? What kind of Christian are you? Do you want to be a Biblical Christian? Then come to Him and tell God that desire and you will be filled, and He will correct you with His word and He will bring into His gates of splendour to live with Him forever.

(footnotes to come)