The sermon continues a series through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, arriving at the fourth: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6, ESV). The preacher first traces the logical progression of the Beatitudes so far. Poverty of spirit (Matthew 5:3) names those who recognize themselves as spiritually bankrupt before God, deserving only judgment. Mourning (Matthew 5:4) follows as that recognition turns to grief over sin committed against a God who has pursued His people in love even in their faithlessness. Meekness (Matthew 5:5) is the collapse of pride that results — the sinner comes to God empty-handed, a beggar pleading for what he does not deserve. Every Beatitude, the sermon argues, is tied together by the single thread of sin: the deepest problem of humanity, the reason for exile from God's presence, and, by God's mercy, the reason the Son was sent to bear the punishment sinners could not bear themselves. The gospel is freely offered to all who come, but it is received only by those who first admit their need for it — entrance into Christ's kingdom begins with repentance, not with arriving at an earthly place or seizing power.

The sermon then turns to the fourth Beatitude itself, unpacking hunger and thirst as the ancient world understood them — not the mild discomfort of a skipped meal, but a hunger and thirst intensified toward starvation and dehydration, shadowed always by the nearness of death. This, the sermon contends, is why food and water become so precious in Scripture's imagination, and why materialist and evolutionary accounts of humanity (illustrated by Maslow's hierarchy of needs) reduce human desire to mere survival and pleasure-seeking. Those who live only for self-preservation or for the pursuit of worldly pleasure, the sermon argues, never rise above the level of animals, their convictions cheap enough to be traded for bread. Yet history shows people who ascend beyond this — the sermon recounts the self-immolation of the Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963 Saigon, protesting the persecution of Vietnamese Buddhists under Ngô Đình Diệm's government, as an example of a human being willing to die for an ideal rather than merely survive. Such acts prove humanity is made for more than self-preservation: it hungers for righteousness, for the world to be set right.

But the sermon presses further: even this noble hunger for righteousness is not satisfied on its own terms, because in a fallen world rules are written by the strong to govern the weak, and righteousness without power is no guarantee at all — as the monk's protest, tragically, produced not reform but further violence and civil war. The sermon asks how Jesus, who wielded no military or political power, could still promise satisfaction to those who hunger for righteousness. The answer is found in the Messianic promises of the prophets: the coming King who would judge in righteousness and bring peace between nations (Isaiah 11; Isaiah 2:4) and draw the nations to seek the Lord in Jerusalem (Zechariah 8). This righteousness is not self-defined but God-defined, rooted in the covenant relationship between King and people. The sermon then names the deep problem this creates — those who come to Jesus desiring a right world know that they themselves are not right, and cannot demand justice on others while remaining unjudged themselves. The solution, the sermon argues, is a righteousness that is not native to the sinner but given as a gift: the Servant of Isaiah 53:11, who bears the iniquities of many so that many are counted righteous, satisfied in His own suffering so that sinners might be satisfied in Him.

The sermon closes by insisting that this satisfaction is eschatological, not immediate — even the martyrs in heaven cry out, "How long?" awaiting the full righting of all wrongs (Revelation 6:10), and God comforts rather than rebukes them. Believers are called to resist substitute saviors — money, relationships, career, entertainment — that merely numb the pain of an unrighted world, and instead to hunger continually for Christ's righteousness: trusting fully in Christ rather than in human ideologies or activism, waiting patiently for His return, and, in the meantime, striving to live rightly because that is now the believer's proper inheritance and calling.

Bible Verses Used

• Matthew 5:1-6: The sermon's primary text — the Beatitudes, culminating in the fourth: hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

• Isaiah 11: Cited to show the promised Davidic King will judge the world in perfect righteousness, not by outward appearances.

• Isaiah 2:4: Cited alongside Isaiah 11 to depict the Messianic King bringing peace and ending war between nations.

• Zechariah 8: Used to show many peoples and nations coming to seek the Lord once His righteous reign is established.

• Isaiah 22:13: Quoted ("let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die") as the biblical description of those who live only for pleasure.

• Isaiah 53:11: The turning point of the sermon — the Suffering Servant is satisfied by bearing iniquities to make many accounted righteous, the basis of the believer's gifted righteousness.

• Revelation 6:10: Cited to show that even martyred saints await future satisfaction, crying "how long?" until all wrongs are righted.