Scripture Matthew 5:1, 2, 10
Matt
5:1-12
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus says if you are successful at being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, pure in heart and a peacemaker, then you can count on, besides having the kingdom of heaven, being comforted, inheriting the earth, being filled, being shown mercy, seeing God, being called a child of God, you can also count on being persecuted.
There are, of
course, many reasons for persecution. People are persecutions for racial,
political, and religious reasons. Sometimes people are persecuted for the
friends they have or the way they dress or breast feeding in a public place.
Today people are persecuted because they don’t wear a mask – OR because they do
wear a mask. Strong convictions invite persecution. Me in H.S. persecuted for
my convictions.
Most of us find it difficult to understand how Jesus could say Happy are those who are persecuted. – that seems like the opposite of happiness. Yet Jesus says that happiness and contentment and the joy of living will come to the person who is persecuted…“for righteousness’ sake,” and “for my sake.”
Why are those
who try to live right sometimes persecuted?
And how can
persecution help lead to a full and joyous life?
The supreme
illustration of being persecuted for righteousness’ sake is Jesus himself. He
lived according to his Beatitudes. He lived the perfect life, but he did not
please everybody. He stirred up opposition so fierce that it cost his life.
Why
does goodness or right living stimulate opposition?
Their
convictions do not allow them to follow the popular culture or trends.
Here is an illustration: A young
girl joins her friends who sneak smoking cigarettes after school. But she
refuses to participate in the fun. When asked why, she says, “I just don’t believe it is right.” She is
sometimes respected for this, but not always. She may be teased or even
rejected by her group of friends. (like how I may
have been perceived wearing a mask at the pool last week)
When someone
stands for what is right (or lives a righteous life) it often makes others uncomfortable
who prefer not to live that same way. An upright action also generates envy
among those unable to stick by their own morals. The result, naturally, is
opposition.
Let me give 2
examples from my family:
1. Nathan
and his cousins at Kimberly’s Carousel.
2. Gretchen handing out flyers for SYATP
A person who
does good is often called, among other things, a fanatic, fool, do-gooder,
narrow-minded, a misguided intellectual. Such labels are placed upon anyone who
has the courage of their convictions.
Jesus says that
being persecuted for trying to do what is right leads to a fuller and more
abundant life. The final Beatitude tells us to do what is right, regardless of
consequences. This Beatitude challenges us to stand up and be counted.
We should not
enjoy being persecuted. Suffering is suffering. It is not an automatic sign
that we are right.
It isn’t the
persecution that brings happiness. Persecution is nothing more than an
indication of what is happening. Jesus says we are in good company. (the
prophets who were before you.)
Being persecuted
also means spiritual growth. Nobody ever became an athlete by watching
television. We develop through exercise, physical and spiritual. When we battle
for the sake of righteousness, we profit more than anybody else. This spiritual
strength leads to a fuller and more abundant life. Jesus is perfectly frank. He
says in substance, “Follow me. The road is rough, but is well worth taking.”
--------------
Billy Graham
said: “Here is a spiritual law which is as unchangeable as the law of gravity:
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
We must get this
fact firmly fixed in our minds: we live in an upside-down world. You know the blow-up clown with the weight in
the bottom that you use as a punching bag, there is one that is the opposite of
that with the weight in it’s head and no matter what you do to it, it always
lands on its head with its feet in the air – that is the way of the world.
No matter how
hard people try to live right by their own strength, they always revert to an
upside-down position. From childhood to maturity we are always prone to do what
we should not do and to refrain from doing what we ought to do. That is our
nature. We have too much weight in the head and not enough ballast in our
hearts, so we flip upside down when left alone. The apostle Paul said it best: Romans
7:14-25
We know that
the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not
understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is,
it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that
nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire
to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I
want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I
do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living
in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The
same person who wrote that is maybe the greatest example of one who was a
persecutor who became the persecuted. PAUL
THE PERSECUTOR
Acts 9:1-3
Meanwhile,
Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He
went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in
Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or
women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Acts 7:59-8:3
While they
were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin
against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was there,
giving approval to his death.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the
church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout
Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But
Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men
and women and put them in prison.
PAUL THE
PERSECUTED
2 Cor 11:21-31
What
anyone else dares to boast about — I am speaking as a fool — I also dare to
boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they
Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my
mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison
more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again
and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I
was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the
open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from
rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger
from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at
sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have
often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone
without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily
the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel
weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
If I must
boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of
the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
That is why the
disciples to the world were misfits. To an upside-down person, a right-side-up person
seems upside down. To a sinner, a righteous person is an oddity and an
abnormality. A Christian’s goodness is a rebuke to his wickedness; his being
right side up is a reflection upon the world’s inverted position. So the
conflict is a natural one. Persecution is inevitable.
Do you know that the moral (and biblical) standard was that a man and a woman would first get married, then live together, then have babies? The world has turned that up-side down (even though the bible has not changed its position). There have been several reality shows in recent years where someone mentions they are a virgin, and the would be daters or potential spouse is upset and wonders if they should continue the relationship because the person has no experience and their must be something wrong with them. WHAT? The truth is, that person’s right living is a conviction to the person who has not lived that way and can result in persecution.
Christ’s
righteousness is so revolutionary and so contradictory to man’s manner of
living that it invokes the antagonism of the world.
Persecution is
inevitable to those who are pilgrims and strangers in an alien land as
Christians are in a world of upside-down moral values.
The Bible says: 1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The world, the
flesh, and the devil are our enemies. In times of war one can hardly expect the
good will of the enemy’s forces. Though our weapons are not earthly, the
enemy’s weapons are earthly, and we can expect Satan to use every tool at his
command for our persecution and destruction. War atrocities will be committed.
They who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution.
“We fight,” the
Bible says, “against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” Darkness hates
light. Being at “cross-purposes” with the world is part and parcel of the
Christian life.
As Paul said: Gal 6:14-15 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
When we are persecuted because we were stupid or messed something up, we cannot glory in the cross of Christ for that. It says, persecuted for righteous sake and for My sake!
HAPPY ARE THOSE
WHO ARE PERSECUTED
I
felt that way in high school for my mild persecution.
The persecuted
are happy because they are being processed for heaven. Persecution is one of
the natural consequences of living the Christian life. It is to the Christian
what “growing pains” are to the growing child. No pain, no development. No
suffering, no glory. No struggle, no victory. No persecution, no reward.
You may not be
called upon to suffer as the martyrs suffered. Jesus said: “Men shall revile
you … and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.” The
tongue often inflicts a more painful wound than does the sword. To be laughed at is harder to take
than to be beaten.
Know this – when you are living in righteousness and for Christ’s sake – if you are persecuted there is one who stands with you.
Acts 7:55-56
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Daniel 3:16-18
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the
king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in
this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is
able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even
if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods
or worship the image of gold you have set up."
They
are in the furnace.
Daniel 3:24-25
Then King
Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers,
"Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”
They replied,
"Certainly, O king." He said,
"Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed,
and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."
