[8:00 a.m.] The Blessing of Persecution (Matthew 5:1-12)

Oh, it's good to see you this morning.

We are still in the Beatitudes but we're about to leave today

as our last Sunday, as far as I know.

Now you never know when part 2 comes up, but far as I know

where you're going to complete the study, the Beatitudes most

Scholars agree that these last three verses all have the same

basic theme, all contain the word persecute and they all have

to do with the same blessing. The same beatitude, they're not

three separate ones, even though they're versed out three, Three

different verses in our text. So here, once again, the reading

and then we'll take a look at that.

Last one seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain

and when he sat down his disciples came to him and he

opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in

spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be?

Comforted blessed, are the meek for they shall inherit the

earth. Blessed are those who hunger and

thirst for righteousness for? They shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive Mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see.

God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of

God. Blessed are those, who are

persecuted for righteousness sake?

For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed? Are you when others, revile you,

and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you

falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward.

Reward is great in heaven for. So they persecuted the prophets

who were before you the word of the Lord, you may be seated.

In this last beatitude the Felicity of this particular

beatitude is quite sobering. The particular reward that's

mentioned here, is that those who are persecuted, theirs is

the Kingdom of Heaven. That's the same thing.

That was said, in the very first one, the poor in spirit for

theirs is the kingdom of heaven and then there's inheriting the

Earth and other things that that accrue to the Once again, will

mention that Christ is speaking to Believers.

If you're not born of the spirit of God, if you're not a son of

God a child of God already. Then this is just not just a

moral standard for you to try to achieve.

Oh you can try but I promise you, you won't be able to only

those that have been graced by the spirit of God, have any hope

of practicing these things. And yet, these are most believe

kind of a setting forth of the ethics the behavioral.

The mindsets, the characteristics of the person

who inhabits the new Heaven and the new Earth, those that are in

the final manifestation of the kingdom of God, we start living

like new creatures, New Creation, new Heaven, and new

earth. New people.

Now in fact, that's what the resurrection of Jesus was all

about. He came and brought in the new,

the resurrection renews. And when Christ was was given

Life by the spirit of God to his dead body, which lay in the

Tomb. He was brought forth of the

spirit of God. Each and every one of God's

people, her brought forth, born of the spirit of God.

And then one day there will be a new Heaven and new earth.

Wherein righteousness dwells and it's only those that hunger and

thirst for righteousness and are ready for that Kingdom.

When it does come, that will be able to enjoy and to

participate. Paid in it.

But alas, we're not there yet, we live in a time of reality, a

fulfillment, but we also live in a last day, there is a dying

order. There is an age that is passing

away and we just happen to be living in that moment.

In that time when the old is passing away, the new has come

and the Lord is positioning his people and teaching them what

they need to know. This particular passage will

deal it more, particularly just a moment as we look at it is

going to talk to us about persecution.

And I am delighted every time I look out at our little group on

Sunday mornings and see. So many young people, so many

young people, are you a menning? You're not young.

What's wrong with you, Mike? But I know you feel young just

like the rest of us do, but there are young people and I

look at the Horizon, we've not known persecution in this

country, really Our basic Christian Heritage.

That was given to us by our forbearers in the 1600s and the

1700s long before this country was ever founded.

There was a ethos an ethic, a worldview that prevailed in the

society. There was a consensus.

There was a common law that came over from the old countries and

came to this country and we've been living under that and

there's been a era Of time in which Christianity was the

accepted. Faith.

Even those who weren't Believers were willing to look at things

the way Believers looked at them in terms of the world and how

the world was created, and how the world operated and what the

principles were that God had placed into nature.

Most of us that are baby boomers around about that age were

raised in a time of indifference when it was a kind of a

take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward the things of God.

The things of God were not expunged from our site and our

memory we were not canceled. We were not thrown out.

We were not boldface rejected but there was a certain

indifference, you could take it or leave it.

That's the way our teachers taught us in school.

That's the way we function. Society, we were free to enjoy

the wonderful benefits of the Christian faith, but many

others, in fact, probably, a majority of the population is

time. Went by were indifferent but not

overtly hostile. Only a few, really bad Souls.

Really out of sort were dyed-in-the-wool atheist

god-hating communist, etc, etc. That everything that God had

said they had listened to Freud and marks and other Others to to

Darwin and others to oppose the Christian viewpoint.

But now we're in an era, I think.

Where the page is turned again. No longer is this a Christian

dominant worldview in our culture?

It's even starting to leave our legal system had left the school

house a long time ago. The gospel left, the church

house. And now Justice is leaving the

courthouse because Justice is based upon truth and I want you

to listen as I just progress through these few thoughts about

this particular beatitude this morning, how often it is said

that it is the persecution that comes as a result of the loss of

Truth. The LIE, the deception.

The wrong data, the wrong syllogism, the wrong

presuppositions, the wrong, given facts.

Are pressed in upon us and the consequences of those are

beginning to bear fruit and we're beginning to be pushed in

a particular direction. And right now, it is principally

verbal. And that's really where it

starts. In fact, that's the way Jesus

refers to it. He says, in the text here that

when men say, all kinds of evil against you, they utter all

kinds of evil. It's, it's language.

They utter? It against you, falsely on my

It's when they revile you and they persecute you, that's the

stage. That is the dominant stage of

persecution, it may start with just a little ignoring, a little

bit of humor, a little bit of ridicule, a little bit of taking

lightly the things of God. And you as a child of God, have

to bear that reproach. And it may move fact.

It usually does in extreme cases, it will move toward

severe persecution and martyrdom. but for the most

part, In most cultures from most of the time, the persecution is

a severe verbal persecution. It is, it is the inter social

and interactive but it's verbal, it's the creating of the

atmosphere of the, of the taunt and the ridicule, the put down

the cancel, The shut up silence. That's where the persecution

rest. Now Jesus didn't leave us

without some idea of where we are in this matter and let me

read a couple of passages for you right in my Bible it's all

done nothing but red letters. That means it's the words of

Jesus. This is Jesus speaking shortly

before the crucifixion to his disciples and I'm right in the

middle of a big passage here, but let me pick up with these

Tonight versus, but before all this, they will lay their hands

on you and persecute, you delivering you up to the

synagogue and prisons and you will be brought before Kings and

governors for my namesake, this will be your opportunity to Bear

Witness. Settle it.

Therefore in your mind's, not to meditate beforehand.

How to answer for? I will give you a mouth and

wisdom which none of you adversaries will be able to

withstand or contradict you will be delivered up even by parents

and brothers and relatives and friends.

And some of you will be put to death.

You will be hated by all for my namesake or as our text says on

my account. But not a hair of your head will

perish. And listen to this.

This this verse is often taken out of context, you've heard the

context, By your endurance. You will gain your lives.

He that endures to the end shall be saved.

Not too long. After Jesus said this. in the

upper room discourse the night before he was crucified, he he

had this to say, And I can't remember where I started there

it is right here. If the world hates you, you

know, that it has hated me before it hated you.

Let's do that strong language. Of course, you know what the

world in this context of Jesus have done from the very first of

Jesus ministry from the time, he's spoken in the synagogue at

Nazareth and inaugurated his ministry, they sought to kill

him. They plotted against him, the

enemies of Christ did everything you can possibly imagine, in

order to stop Jesus from doing and saying, whatever it is he

was doing and saying. And so, this is Jesus now saying

the world hates, you know, that it Hated me before it hated you,

if you were of the world, the world would not love you.

But love, you has its own but because you're not of the world

but I chose you. Anybody struggling with

elections morning, I chose you out of the world.

Therefore, the world hates. You remember the world that I

said to you the word that I said to you a servant is not greater

than his master. If they persecuted me, they will

also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will

also keep yours. But all these Things they will

do to you on the account of my name, remember our passage said,

it's suffering a on the behalf of the name of Christ on his

account because they do not know him who sent me if I had not

come and spoken to them. They would not have been guilty

of sin. Oh, there might be the problem

with the world that might be the point of contention, that might

be the The difference between the believer and the unbeliever

between the disciples in the world between the kingdom of God

in the Kingdom of, man, it may be this matter of sin. one

kingdom is in a rebellious state in a hostile State toward God,

One kingdom is made up of people who bowed their knee.

To the King of Kings and the lord of the Lord's.

But now they have not accept for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my father.

Also If I had not done among them, the works, that no one

else did. They would not be guilty of sin,

but now they have seen and hated both me and my father It's

interesting that every time a portal gospel, preacher stands

to preach and talks about the importance of sin.

Most people don't take him seriously as they ought to.

That's really the whole issue with the whole thing.

Whole creation was good. It was wonderful.

And then came sin. And that's made all the

difference. Why are there Wars, why is it so

to God's Not a good God, he lets all this terrible stuff

happened. Look at all the atrocity.

Look at all the famine. Look at the wars.

Look at all the rape and robbing and stealing and murder and

everything. You think of God didn't do that

sinful man did it. And the record is in the

scriptures from the very first from chapter 4 of Genesis

forward we hear about Cain and Abel.

We hear about a citizen of the world cane and a citizen of

God's kingdom. Bringing the proper sacrifice

getting right with God living, according to God's standard able

and then the story just continues its enlarged.

It goes through a massive amount of time in a massive amount of

humanity, but it's the same old problem, it's sin.

And that's the struggle that is in the world.

That's the struggle that's in our hearts, isn't it?

What do you do with seeing? Do you confess your sin?

Do you abandon your sin? Do you hate your sin, or do you

just try to manage your sin? See if you can manage it.

So that it doesn't cause you so much trouble.

Something you can live with something, you can sort of get

by with. Sin.

But the word that is written in the law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a, cause that's the gist of what's going

on here. With this sinful World hating

Christ, persecuting him, and his people and persecuting them.

It's derivative. We are persecuted because we're

Christ's We belong to him. We're christ-like.

We want to be his, we surrender to him.

We love him. We worship Him.

We've staked everything on him. We've identified with him and we

have been born of his spirit. And there's an enmity and that

persecution goes through. Now noticed this is a quotation

by the way. It's interesting says, as it was

written in their law, which of course it was, but it is most

beautifully set forth in the Psalms.

And this Psalm there's this song is quoted.

In this passage, there's two Psalms that has this direct

quotation and there's a little context to it that you need to

see first when Psalm 37 Fret. Not yourselves because of

evildoers. Do not be envious of wrong

doers, trust in the Lord. And do good and dwell in the

land. And befriend, the faithful

people. And then the psalm that says do

not let those Rejoice over me, who are wrongfully my foes, let

not those who wink the eye. Can you see the surreptitious

ignominious actions of the betraying Judas?

The week of the eye. Let not those wink.

The, I who hate me without a cause for they do not speak

peace. But against those who are quiet

in the land, they devise words of Deceit, It is lying.

It is the truth. That they can't face.

That's where it comes from. Then there's another Psalm Psalm

69, just a few chapter of Q chapters over.

This is talking about those that are, that are persecuting as

well, more in number than the hairs of my head.

Are those who hate me Without a Cause Mighty?

Are those who would destroy me? Those who attacked me with lies

There is the harm. There's the difficulty.

It's a matter of Truth, Christian seek above all else to

speak the truth. and when the truth is not countenanced with

the truth is not heard when the truth is not understood when the

truth is not championed in all areas, whether it's education,

or law or in family life are in business life, Then you have the

complete breakdown in enmity. That comes from that sinful

sinful act and it works its way into all the conversation works

at way and all the lifestyle Works its way into the heart

forms. The character people become

perverse Lying. The summation statement in the

scriptures, one place is all men, are liars.

This is what brings about the persecution.

It's a cliche to say it but we're just not on the same page.

With the unbelievers. We just don't have the same

worldview. We don't have the same Outlook.

And while it might be a mild disagreement in some areas, it

becomes dreadfully serious. At others.

The world does not want to hear the word of the Lord and was the

Cry of one of the persecuted prophets, scripture mentions the

prophets who were persecuted. One of them is Jeremiah Jeremiah

Was persecuted throughout his whole life.

He was made fun of, they tried to shut him up.

They put him in a dungeon. They tried to make him sign a

nondisclosure agreement to where he wouldn't tell anything that

the Lord had said to him, thus said the Lord to Jerusalem.

Maya below. Tell us, just keep it to

yourself. They exiled him, they did

everything. You could possibly imagine.

Do you remember what was in Jeremiah's psychological makeup?

He wanted to quit the ministry, quit preaching, quit telling the

words of the Lord to a population that didn't want to

hear it. He said, I'm just going to buy

me a piece of property and set up a bed and breakfast and run

it. Believe me, I've been there

there's a lot more peace in running a small business in

areas than preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel Faithfully

in boldly, for sure. But he said, I could not be

still. There was within me fire in my

bones and I had to speak. And how did he speak?

He spoke like this Earth Earth Earth hear the word of the Lord.

He preached to the whole planet. Especially to the land, which is

literally what that word means, Earth is the word land.

The land is the land of God's people.

Faithful preachers cannot let God's real estate.

God's people God's Property. the household of faith, the temple

of God, the body of Christ, The Vineyard of Jehovah, We cannot

let it go untended and unpruned and unplowed.

And unloved and cared for. There's just a whole different

world. We live in a different world,

Believers. And if we don't hear the word of

the Lord, And speak the word of the Lord live.

The word of the Lord, loved it. And promote it, and Proclaim it

Earth hear the word of the Lord. Did wear.

Not being faithful. And the persecution comes when

we open our mouth when we try to explain to them just a few

verses out of Genesis in the beginning, God.

Created. The heavens and the Earth.

There's four controversial statement right here are our

culture doesn't believe in a bellini beginning.

Because they don't want to believe in the end.

They don't believe in a hooked on because they don't want to

believe in an eschaton the first day because they know there's a

last day. If there's something outside and

beyond our created time Space Universe, they got some

rethinking to do. Best way to do, ignore the last

day is to deny the first day. So they deny Creation in the

beginning. God.

There's no God. Atheism is the rampant thought

in our land today, not just actually theism and agnosticism,

but practical atheism, even people that claim there might be

might be a god completely, ignore everything he is all

about everything he says, but the Practical atheism and that's

where most of us live. God created.

Heavens and the Earth and everything that is in it.

The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

They don't want to believe that. They think they're the ones

that's in, Kroll control of the fullness of the Earth.

We have some environmental scientist that are telling us.

They're the ones that are in control of the earth, God

created the Earth for his purposes.

The Earth will be here just as long as God wants it to be here.

You don't worry about saving the planet.

If you're saved the planet in one century, I've got a Bible

here that tells me something's going to happen to it and in a

Time beyond that. Can't save the planet.

If you want to God's got a definite thing in mind that he's

doing, he's Sovereign over every bit of that and he's doing it.

So let's get involved with God's purposes.

Not with those that. Don't believe in God.

Said, let us make man in our own image, male and female.

Created, he them. Do you believe that's debatable?

It's not debatable. They've already decided it in in

favor of something else. And those of us that believe

that simple verse of scripture, as reality, of humanity and

existence upon this planet of the population, all of us, we,

we believe that simple proposition male and female

created. He them, we're the ones that are

being hushed, shut up ruled out of court.

Losing jobs, persecution is coming, and it's going to come

because of the simple words of scripture that we espouse.

And that are, that are World in which we live does not believe

in and are hostile to And they may not be able to shut the

voice of God up taking shut, your voice up all the way now.

Just one word as a practical matter here before I give it to

Tommy for our communion, And I meant to mention this earlier,

but I just forgot too. I'm just going to read passage

out of Peter as I conclude out of first First, Peter, chapter 4

and it sort of summarizes. I think what the Lord is saying.

But one of the interesting thing is here, it talks about make

sure when you suffer, and when you're persecuted, That it's for

righteousness sake. Not because you're obnoxious.

not because you got a political cause not because you've got

some weird theological idea. Not because of any other reason.

And when you do suffer, when people revile and rebuke you and

say things about you, make sure it's because it's something that

you've said or done that reflects brilliantly, like a

mirror in the bright Sunshine, the likeness of Christ, And then

you're persecuted there, but even suffer for that.

Listen to what how Peter says is I close.

Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes

upon you to test you as though, something strange were happening

to you. But Rejoice remember, our text

says rejoice and be glad for your reward is in heaven, by the

way, that's the greatest promises, you, it's got a reward

in heaven. You know what the greatest thing

about that is think about the implications means, you're going

to happen, you're going to go to heaven to get it.

That's your hope. That's the best news I've heard

in the whole thing. And that's Peter here tells the

whole thing's rejoice, insofar, as you share in Christ's

suffering that you may also rejoice and be glad when his

glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name

of Christ, you are blessed, let's Peters paraphrasing that

be attitude by the way because the spirit of glory and of God

rests upon you but lay here it is.

Let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or an evil

doer or as a meddler as a busybody.

He that hath ears to hear, Let Him hear.

Yet if anyone suffers us a Christian, let him not be

ashamed. But him glorify God in that

name. Tommy.