Part 1 — the communion sermon

Hunger, thirst, and be filled

This message was preached at a communion service — a day of renewal — on one of the most important subjects in all of Scripture: righteousness. It opens with a promise and ends at the Lord's table, where Christ becomes our righteousness.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 (KJV)

1. The promise — and its one condition

Being filled with righteousness is not just a concept; it's a promise. But it has a condition: you must hunger and thirst for it. And here's the catch — the promise only applies to those who actually feel the hunger.

What hungering really means When you're hungry at home, you open the cabinet — beans, rice — and fill yourself. But that's not what Jesus means. Picture a homeless person: they can't open a cabinet. They have to beg, because they recognize they cannot fill themselves. That's the hunger Jesus blesses — the spiritually starving who know they have nothing.

2. The Laodicean — starving and not knowing it

Jesus describes the opposite condition in Revelation 3:17 — people in the very same spiritual poverty, but unaware of it:

"Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Revelation 3:17

The difference between Matthew 5 and Revelation 3 isn't their condition — both are empty. The difference is awareness. And the promise "ye shall be filled" only reaches those who know they're empty.

3. "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold"

Notice Jesus' response to the Laodiceans — and the question hidden in its first eight words:

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed… and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Revelation 3:18

The beautiful irony "Buy of Me gold" — but He just called them poor. Imagine pulling up to a homeless person and saying, "Buy some gold from me." They'd say, "I can't — I have no money." That's exactly the point. Jesus is waking them up to their condition, forcing them to recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy — so they'll stop being self-righteous and reach for the real thing.

4. The paradox: "none righteous" — yet "righteous men"?

Scripture is blunt about human righteousness:

"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Psalm 14:3; cf. 53:3)
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6)
"There is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10) The verdict on self-righteousness

Yet the same Bible calls many people righteous — Abel, Noah, Daniel, Job, Joseph, Cornelius, Zacharias, Simeon — even Samson and Lot. So does Scripture contradict itself?

No contradiction We reconcile it by recognizing one thing: no one is righteous in and of himself. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The righteousness God saw in those men did not come from within them.

5. So where does righteousness come from?

"By faith Noah… prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Hebrews 11:7

The righteousness which is by faith — faith in Christ. That brings us to the critical junction. To be righteous, two things must be recognized:

The two recognitions One: we are not inherently righteous on our own. Two: we cannot make ourselves righteous by our good works. Good works are good, and good works are necessary — but we do not become righteous by them. Righteousness comes only by faith in Christ.

6. At the table: Christ our righteousness

So what is righteousness? By human standards, "the quality of being morally justifiable." But in its deeper meaning, it's being right in the eyes of God — which means you must both believe in God and believe God.

The bread and the cup Communion incorporates the symbols of the bread (His broken body) and the wine (His spilled blood). By partaking, you confess not only that Christ existed and died — but that His sacrifice is true, and that it is sufficient. In that act, you are recognizing that Christ is our righteousness.

"The wedding garment, provided at infinite cost, is freely offered to every soul… What could God do for us that He has not done in providing the great supper, the heavenly banquet?" Christ's Object Lessons, p. 317 (read at communion)

Sam says See the whole arc, friend? Admit you're the beggar (not the Laodicean who "needs nothing"). Stop trying to bake your own bread of righteousness — it comes out filthy rags every time. Then receive Christ's righteousness by faith, freely offered like a wedding garment "at infinite cost." That's the gospel, sealed at the table. Now let's make sure you don't fall into either ditch on the way home.

Next: The Two Ditches → Take the Righteousness Quiz