Do you feel beat down?

Alright, we are wrapping up our / / Could I Be Happier? series. Our look at the / / Beatitudes, the nine statements Jesus makes in Matthew 5:3-12, which is all part of this bigger Sermon on the Mount - Jesus explaining and giving insight into what life will look like with Him as the leader of our lives. What it looks like to live in and for the Kingdom of God.

Every kingdom, or nation, or land with a ruler has rules, right? And really, that’s what we’re looking at. If you want to live in this kingdom that Jesus was preaching about, then there’s a way to live, there’s a way to conduct yourself, there’s a way to respond and to act. These teachings will change how you view the leadership (God), this will change how you view your role, and this will change how you view the people around you.

/ / One of the biggest Kingdom principles is that you never look down on those who haven’t decided to join the kingdom yet.

That was a big one. Especially for the 12 disciples. They had a hard time understanding how all of this new leadership, or new kingdom would work. More on that in a minute.

But, if you remember, this was really Jesus’ main message. This idea of a new kingdom. John the baptist, who the bible says came before Jesus preparing the way for him - Matthew 3:1-3 says, / / In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”

And the book of Mark says the same thing Mark 1:1-4 says, / / This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!” This messenger was John the Baptist.

John, preaching about a coming kingdom and it’s king. And if we jump down to verse 14 of Mark 1, it says, / / Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News.”

So, the Good News is what? All about this Kingdom.

And there are a whole bunch of parables, stories with meaning and insight for our lives that Jesus starts with, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like...” and he proceeds to explain various aspects or ways of His Kingdom.

Well, Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount is part of this Good News that Jesus is proclaiming.

And when we read these nine statements that we call the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, don’t think of them as rules to follow, but invitations to choose a better way of life.

You can imagine Jesus coming along side you while you’re struggling through life and saying, “There’s a better way, let me show you.”

I was having a conversation this past week about forgiveness, and in that conversation I felt God’s heart for forgiveness. God’s forgiveness has eternal consequence for us. We are made right with God by what Jesus did on the cross, we are redeemed. But forgiveness between each other. When I choose to forgive you, or you choose to forgive me, that’s all about the here and now. It’s Jesus coming along and saying, “I know you want to hold that grudge. I know you want justice in a way of punishment for their actions. Can I show you a better way? It’s called forgiveness. And I can give you justice in your life without you demanding punishment in theirs.”

Talk about Good News, right? Suddenly the friction and pain, the hurt and weight of past situations can melt away in His goodness as we choose to forgive those who have wronged us. Sure, it can take some time. It can take years to get over some wounds. Some wounds run deep, but the work of forgiveness is about stepping into a better life here and now, free of hurt and pain and holding on to the things of the past.

It’s a kingdom way of living!

And if you don’t get it yet, if you still struggle with it all, that’s ok. The disciples, after living and watching Jesus for years still didn’t fully get it until after the crucifixion and resurrection.

In Matthew 20 a mother of two of the disciples, James and John, and these are cousins of Jesus. Their mother is the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother. So, this is Jesus’ aunt, and she comes to him and says in Matthew 20:21, / / “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”

Jesus responds with, “You don’t understand what that is all going to entail, the road I have to walk is going to be rough.”

“Oh, yes, yes” they said, “We can handle it all!”

And vs 24 says, / / When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant.

Ok, these guys who were with Jesus all this time still didn’t get the way of the Kingdom. They thought it was about power and being in a position of leadership. Remember, I said I would come back to the thought that we never look down on those who haven’t decided to be part of this kingdom yet. So, Jesus responds to his disciples, not just James and John, but all twelve of them who are all bent out of shape. Matthew 20:25-27, / / “You know that the rulers of this world lord it over the people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many.”

Completely opposite to the ways of the kingdoms of this world.

And if we’re not careful we can miss it. After all of the teaching of Jesus they had heard, James & John were still like, “Ya, but can we be the most important?”

That’s why Jesus spent this time redefining what it truly means to be blessed. Could I be happier? Yes, but not in the way you think. It’s not going to come with status, or money, or position or power. It’s going to come by choosing to live a certain way. Let me tell you how. So let’s read these nine statements Jesus makes and then we’ll get into the last 2 of them this morning.

/ / Blessed are the poor in spirit - those who recognize their need for God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn - who can truly and deeply connect with their emotions and what they feel, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek / humble / kind, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness / desire more than anything to do what is right, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful / forgiving ones, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers / bringers, carriers and makers of peace, for they shall be called the 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 is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Alright, so those last two are our topic of conversation today, which means today is all about this littler word called / / persecution.

Persecution is a big word. And it’s an important word. There are people in this world that suffer great persecution because of their faith, and there are people who think they are suffering great persecution that might just need to defined as #firstworldproblems.

Now, as I go through all of this this morning I want to make clear, whatever I say or reference, I want you to know I am not downplaying anything you may be going through. I can not and will not presume to be the judge of someone’s persecution. That’s definitely not my place. My purpose this morning is to bring perspective and insight so we can rightly posture ourselves both when it comes to the things we experience in our lives, and as the greater body of Christ, lift up those who are suffering.

There are also things in here you’re probably going to say, “Oh wow, I didn’t realize I was actually being persecuted.”

Like I said, persecution is a big word, which means sometimes we think of it in only big terms. The persecution of the underground church in China or other parts of the world where they could be put in prison or even killed for their faith. And when I think of that I do NOT want to say I’m being persecuted, not in comparison anyway, right?

So we really need to look at this and judge it rightly for our own lives - for this reason - If Jesus says we are blessed, or made happier because of it, then I want to have a right perspective so that I can choose rightly how to respond and live through it. And understand the purpose, or the gain from it.

Now, of the nine statements Jesus has made the first seven we’ve looked at are all about a choice we make in regards to either God, ourselves or the people around us.

Blessed are the / / poor in spirit. We are choosing to rely on God, pursue God, recognize our need for God. Our choice toward Him.

Blessed are / / those who mourn. We are choosing to connect and embrace our emotions in order to experience the comfort of God. Our choice toward ourselves. You need to hear this. It is honoring yourself to allow yourself to feel. Don’t shut your heart down.

Blessed are the / / meek / humble / kind - choosing to act a certain way toward other people.

Blessed are those who / / hunger and thirst for righteousness - choosing to do what is right myself. I am making a choice for my life and my actions here.

Blessed are the / / merciful - a choice toward others, forgiving and giving mercy to those who may have wronged us.

Blessed are the / / pure in heart - a choice again toward God - We looked at that last week the beauty of repentance - 1 John 1:9 says, / / …if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness.

There is a beautiful cleansing and purity of heart as we recognize we can choose to come to God with what we’ve done wrong, and allow Him to make us pure and whole. And then we choose to be pure before Him.

And then Blessed are the / / peacemakers - again, choosing to be a certain way / act a certain way toward the people around us.

But when it comes to these last two, the scenario is flipped.

vs 10 says, / / Blessed are those who are persecuted...

vs 11 says, / / Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely...

And so it can seem like, “wow, we’re just at the receiving end of all of this. That doesn’t seem to be my choice at all. I wouldn’t choose that, that’s for sure.”

And one thing I’ve noticed is that to mitigate this persecution a lot of Christians decide to NOT choose the underlying reality of what Jesus is saying here, SO THAT they don’t have to suffer persecution, because let’s be honest, do any of us want to be persecuted?

Jesus is saying, There is blessing, you will be happier, if you choose something that gets you persecuted. Not intentionally choosing something to be persecuted, but if you make these choices in your life it very well may lead to this. Notice, Jesus doesn’t say everyone will be persecuted, he simply says you can enter this place of happiness, blessing and contentment through it if you do experience it. So don’t just expect you’ll be persecuted, but if it happens, know God’s there with you in it.

The reality is, if you follow through with the first 7 statements of life toward God, toward yourself and toward others, there will be people who just do not understand your way of living, and then statement 8 & 9 are pretty much a guarantee to some degree.

The word Jesus uses in both vs 10 & 11 is / / dioko, which we translate persecute, and it means to make to run or flee, put to flight, to drive away, by implication to persecute.

So, our english definition of / / persecute is to be the subject of hostility and ill-treatment, especially because race, or political or religious beliefs.

So, I want you to keep in your mind this definition - / / “Being made to run or flee, to be driven away...” and I’m going to flip these verse, let’s look at vs 11 first, and then we’ll jump back to look at vs 10

vs 11 says, / / Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Now, when it comes to our choice in the matter, there is a choice here. Like I said, if you follow the first 7 statements of Jesus in this passage of scripture you’re all but guaranteed to experience the last two.

So, we have to recognize - there is a choice here, and Jesus is saying there’s a blessing if you make that choice. But the reason we need to look at it is because all of these things can happen in our lives without this choice and we need to recognize when this is a Matthew 5:11 blessing because of persecution, or simply people being people, being mean, being human, or sometimes we’re just getting the product of our own making...

What do I mean by that. Look carefully at what Jesus says again.

/ / Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely… ON MY ACCOUNT.

Three distinct things here.

/ / revile you... on my account

/ / persecute you… on my account

/ / utter all kinds of evil against you falsely… on my account

The important part there is not what you are experiencing at the hands of others, the reviling, the persecuting and the slander, but it is those last three words, / / “on my account”. That means, “Because of me.”

We have a saying, “Oh don’t do that on my account.” essentially saying, “don’t do that just or my sake...” - we’re saying, “Don’t do that just for me.”

So Jesus is saying that this type of persecution is because of him. What does that mean? It means, because you are a follow of Jesus, you confess and profess that Jesus is your Savior, your direct connection to Jesus and His ways. Thinking about this series, because of the choices you have made in statements 1-7 to follow his way of life, you are being reviled, persecuted and slandered or falsely accused.

Because you follow Jesus.

This is where things can get a little confusing in two different ways. First, true persecution - I don’t really think of that for us here in North America. I’m Canadian and having lived in Canada, American and Europe, the western world doesn’t understand religious persecution, and so when we feel the slightest push back sometimes we can jump to, “We’re being persecuted!” The reality is, and yes, it seems to be less and less as we move forward, but people are pretty tolerant.

Now we did see some things, especially through pandemic, the decisions made that included churches having to close down, people not being allowed to meet, or sing and all of that, and then seeing government officials in large groups and at parties without masks and such, felt like, “what’s going in here, is this the persecution Jesus is talking about?” And we have to be aware of what’s happening, we can’t turn a blind eye to things, but I also wouldn’t jump to conclusions there.

Two things on that. Our constitution is very clear on our right to religious freedom. So understand that right, understand the law of the land, be conscious of what is happening, yes, pay attention to the political arena. I said this last week, I won’t tell you how to vote, I trust that you can and will, with your understanding and foundation of morals and values, that should be based on the word of God and the life of Jesus Christ, that informs the decisions you make. But I can’t tell you how to vote, I can simply encourage you to do so. Tuesday is election day. Please, do your research, think about the candidates on the ballot. Don’t just vote based on color, and by that I mean blue or red, or because that’s what you’ve always done, or because that’s what your family has always done. But vote as a concerned, praying, people loving follower of Jesus to the best of your ability!

Now, here’s where I went wrong in my own understanding of this scripture. I read it as, / / “Being reviled, persecuted and slandered simply because I’m a Christian.” ?

And I think that is wrong thinking in some ways, because I have come to see that there is more in the choice I am making for my life than anything else.

What does it mean when Jesus says that these things will happen to US, on HIS account?

Listen, and it’s sad to say, but being a “Christian” can end up simply being a title, but truly following Jesus will shine a spotlight on you, and you probably wont’ have to even tell anyone that you’re a Christian.

What do they say, “How do you know if someone does crossfit - because they’ve already told you..”

/ / If you have to tell someone you are a Christian maybe ask yourself if your life wasn’t showing them that are...

I will never forget this moment in my life. I had to go back to my high school to get my transcript and when I went in a couple years after I had graduated when I was in the office waiting for the guidance counselor to pull my records, she asked me what I had been doing the past couple years and I said I was at a Christian ministry school and her response was, “oh, wow, I didn’t even know you were religious”

And man, that hit like a tonne of bricks. It really did. My life during those years clearly showed no signs of following Jesus.

Now, I’m not saying you’re walking around with some sort of shining light on your head that indicates, “I’m a Christian, I follow Jesus...” Or, I went to national day of prayer, or prayer around the flagpole… or the fact that most days I’m wearing a shirt that says, “God loves you...” kind of a dead give away. But I always find it funny that in a conversation with someone they could be just cursin’ like a sailor and suddenly they realize I’m a pastor and I usually get, “Oh, I’m so sorry pastor...”

To this day, even as much as we can say, things might be a little more difficult for followers of Jesus, I STILL get that response today. There’s a respect, not really a persecution. And I would suggest that a lot of the push back followers of Jesus get is actually based on people’s perspective of the church, and people’s perspective of hypocrisy.

We often times aren’t treated poorly for what we believe, we’re treated differently for how we’ve expressed what we think we are supposed to believe and what we’ve shown by our life’s actions that sometimes says we don’t actually believe it.

Perceived persecution… people not liking the church because it’s been hypocritical. That’s not on Jesus’ account. that’s our own doing.

Perceived persecution… being pushed aside because of what we believe because we have been trying to push moral and biblical living on people who don’t believe the same way. That’s not on Jesus’ account.

Perceived persecution… I watched a video a while back, and I tried to find it, it was truly eye opening, but it was people being interviewed on the streets of south Florida, being asked if they had major life challenges or concerns where would they go? Many said friends or family. And then they were asked would they consider going to a church. And most answered no, others answered why? and some just laughed.

Listen to some of these thoughts on perspective and maybe why the church gets treated differently, or simply just identifying as a Christian may receive push back that isn’t actually on account of Jesus:

/ / Only 21% of non-Christian people have a positive perception of the local church.

/ / 80% of Christians have a positive view of church (meaning 20% don’t?) 1 in 5????

/ / Half of non-Christian Americans don’t trust local pastors.

/ / 85% of Christians trust the Christian pastors in their community (meaning 15% don’t?)

/ / What we call Millennials, Age 22-36, simply think the church is detached from the real issues of today.

Why? Carey Nieuwhof says, / / “The church has been harsh, judgmental, exclusionary and too often, abusive. These aren’t qualities people should expect from Christians, but too often, that’s exactly what Christians have shown them.”

My point is this. There is truly being treated differently because of what we have chosen to do in our lives that is legitimately following the way and practice of Jesus Christ, and then there is being treated differently because of the worlds perception of what the church is or what Christianity is. And the reality is that one of those is on account of Jesus, and unfortunately the other is on account of our history as a church. And of course I’m speaking in a general sense here.

But let’s swing it around the other way. I want to briefly look at some stats on the other extreme here. And this is a point of prayer for us as a church who does NOT go through these things.

There’s an organization called Voice of the Martyrs that advocates and does their best to inform the world on persecuted Christians. They have a website called prisonalert.com and on it they list 14 people who have been wrongfully imprisoned for their faith. Listen to this.

5 are in China, one man was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for trying to stop them from removing the cross on the top of his church. Another pastor and his wife were detained 4 years ago already, and charged with, “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations”. If they are fully convicted they could face up to 15 years in prison. Another person serving a 12 year prison sentence for “gathering a crowd to disrupt the public order” along with fabricated fraud charges.

Of the list of people imprisoned on this site, there are 4 men listed who have been in prison since 2004 in the country of Eritrea…

18 years on account of Jesus...

Another organization called Open Doors reports over / / 360 million Christians live in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination on account of Jesus. They put out an annual report called the World Watch List as a resource for the church to pray. You can download it free on the internet. They list 50 countries, 11 they consider extreme persecution, 39 of very high persecution. In contrast, 7 years ago, there was only 1 country that scored high enough to be considered an “extreme” level of persecution. The extremes are Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia. And I won’t list the other 39 very high on the list, but America, and Canada, and Norway where we lived are not on that list...

This is the extreme. The latest reporting period was from October 2020 - September 2021:

/ / 5,895 Christians have been killed on account of Jesus.

/ / 5,110 churches and other Christian buildings have been attacked

/ / 4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.

/ / 3,829 Christians were abducted for faith-related reasons.

/ / 1 in 7 Christians worldwide experience high levels of persecution.

And those are some alarming stats but I love their perspective. We can easily be sucked into feeling depressed over these things. But remember what Jesus said, / / Blessed are you when...

The report says this, / / “Over the next year, be encouraged that you are standing with God’s persecuted people. They already know the power of prayer… As you pray, look for the ways God strengthens your faith, and look for the ways He provides help and refuge for persecuted Christians all over the world.”

Talk about a great perspective. And again, that’s the extreme. So, was Jesus even talking to us at all? The western church?

The answer to that is of course yes, but probably in different ways. First we need to make sure we understand what Jesus is NOT saying here.

/ / Jesus did NOT say, Blessed are those who are persecuted for being RELIGIOUS.

I have known people that can end up being pushy and obnoxious with their Christianity, especially these days in the world of social media, posting things that get immediate backlash from people who just don’t believe the same thing. Not that making a statement is bad. Not that standing up for or advocating or stating truth is bad. But if you “read the room”, you know if you’ll get backlash on things, and social media is basically a big room you’ve invited people into, and you know that not everyone will agree, so you are inviting that level of backlash. And I wouldn’t say there’s blessing in that. We aren’t happier because of that, that’s for sure. And most of the time it’s simply in HOW we say it, and that can be fixed by asking WHY we are saying it.

/ / Jesus did not say, Blessed are those who are persecuted for standing for a political cause.

Especially in this season, there is a real pull to be drawn into the political arena. I wonder if that’s why they call it the political “arena”, because a battle always starts...

Politicians are masters at using people to promote their cause and won’t shy away from standing with prominent Christian leaders, being seen getting prayed for, stopping in at churches, even if it isn’t part of their belief system, simply to get a vote.

When you post your political beliefs online and you’re bound to get some persecution, but it’s not on account of Jesus. There’s no blessedness in that persecution.

So, what did Jesus mean? Remember I said you needed to keep in mine the definition of persecute, / / “being made to run or flee, to be driven away...”

When we are pushed away, or driven out of the space we are in, because of our devotion to Jesus Christ and His ways, in the truest sense of what that means, we are then experiencing this type of persecution.

And I would suggest that although we don’t experience the extreme of this like Christians do in other countries. Some of the stats we read about how people view the church here certainly indicate how we do experience certain things, although not physical, but they do impact our lives.

Jesus says we are / / blessed when people revile us on his account.

Sometimes when we simply identify that we are a follower of Jesus, it comes with a hefty backlash because of peoples perspective.

/ / Revile by definition is, criticized in an abusive or angrily insulting manner.

Now, like I said, how we say what we say and reading the room, so to speak, can mitigate that - thinking about how we say things, thinking about who we are talking to, speaking truth in love, not just truth for the sake of making a point. And of course, there are times where not being ashamed of the gospel compels us to stand for what is right, or to do the right thing, which causes this type of backlash. Again, read the room, are you trying to defend God, he doesn’t need you to defend him. Are you trying to make your point for the sake of making your point? Are you instigating an argument with someone you don’t even know, or aren’t in relationship with, and in that are you showing that the gospel has had a real impact in your life, or are you simply showing you think like the disciples did, “God, give me authority over other people in your kingdom...”

Strongs dictionary says of this word / / revile, undeserved reproach, which means you are receiving an undeserved expression of disapproval or disappointment or accusation.

So we simply have to ask, / / was it deserved or undeserved? Did I act in a way that maybe was NOT like Jesus that invited a response of backlash, or did I act like Jesus in that situation and STILL received that backlash?

Then Jesus also says we are / / blessed when people utter all kinds of evil against us falsely on His account. Again, it’s important to note the word falsely. 20% of non-Christian America not trusting the church isn’t because we’ve been doing it right, it’s because the church has a pretty messed up reputation at the moment. So that accusation isn’t false. It may be false about you, and me, and this church. As far as I know, and hopefully true, we haven’t hurt anyone. So if someone were to say that Cutler Bay Worship Center is a terrible place that goes around hurting everyone - that would be false. But for someone to say the Christian church has gone around hurting a whole lot of people - that’s not actually false, and that’s not persecution on account of Jesus. That actually requires us as a greater church body to take a posture of humility and repentance before both God and people. And THEN we do the hard work of being LIKE Jesus, and if that gets us persecuted, then so be it.

Now, where I think we struggle more is the previous verse, let’s go back to Matthew 5:10, / / Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Ok, the important phrase in that verse, / / for RIGHTEOUSNESS sake.

Not on account of Jesus, not on account of our belief or our identification as Christians, but for RIGHTEOUSNESS sake.

We looked at this a few weeks ago in vs 6, / / Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

And now he’s saying we might get persecuted for it…

If you remember what that meant, / / righteousness is to do, or be made RIGHT.

/ / Christianity isn’t about learning to NOT do wrong, but to embrace doing what is right!

Now, we know we are not saved by doing what is right. We are saved because Jesus Christ has MADE us righteous by HIS righteousness, by HIM doing what was right.

But, as Romans 6:15-16 says, / / …since God’s grace has set us free from the law, [that is, being MADE righteous by CHRIST’s righteousness], does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Ok, so the goal is two-fold.

/ / 1. To have faith in Jesus Christ who MAKES us righteous by HIS righteousness, and THEN

/ / 2. to live a life of obedience to Him that produces in us righteous living.

Jesus said in John 14:15, / / “If you love me, obey my commandments.”

And John references that in his first letter, 1 John 5:3, / / Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

So, we are called to live a life of righteousness and that righteousness, thankfully already comes with a blessing.

I mean, think of it this way, righteousness shows up twice in this list of nine.

First Matthew 5:6,/ / Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The GNT says, / / Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.

The CEV says, / / God blesses those people who want to obey him more than to eat or drink...

The TPT says, / / How enriched you are when you crave righteousness.

So, there is blessing in choosing to do what is right. That make sense.

But, we know that doing what is right isn’t always met with the greatest of responses. I think the more the world around us rejects the ways of God and adopts a less moral understanding of living, the less righteous living is what is celebrated. It used to be that doing what was right was a celebrated thing. Now it seems you do what you want and if you get away with it, good on ya.

Have you ever been in a situation where let’s say someone tells a joke that’s just not good. I mean, it’s off-color for sure. And you’re in the moment and part of you feels like, “oh man, that was funny...” and the other part of you is like, “ya, i shouldn’t laugh at this...”?

Sometimes righteousness is the most simple thing. What do you stand for? What do you do? How do you respond in situations of wrongdoing or a morally compromising situation?

But, you also know up front, how you respond will make others feel uncomfortable, and you’ll probably get looked at differently in the moment.

It’s going to get quiet, awkward, and someone will probably call you some sort of name...

Remember the definition of persecution? Being made to run or flee, being driven away.

/ / When we take a stand for what is right, sometimes it means we are driven away for that stand. And although it may feel like rejection, you can actually hear the voice of God in that moment rejoicing in your choice of righteousness. Blessed are you when people push you away for doing what is right.

You’re at work and someone sees something that’s not theirs, and they’re more likely to take it rather than report it, and they invite you into the process. Do you respond with, “Sweet, Bonus!.” or do you respond, “That’s not right, we should actually report this.” knowing full well this might get you pushed away.

Ever have that moment where you walk out the store and realize you didn’t pay for something, or they gave you too much cash back or something like that. Do you turn around? I was at BJs one day, and I often use the self-checkout lanes and I scanned everything in my cart and they checked my receipt at the door and as I was loading everything in my truck I realized that my pack deli ham was under something and it didn’t get scanned and they didn’t see it as I was leaving.

And I walked back into the store and of course there’s someone at the front entrance and I said, “I realized this didn’t get scanned, I just need to go pay for it.” And the lady looked at me almost confused like, “Why would you do that?” And her response was actually, “That’s cuz you’re a good person...”

I mean, wouldn’t anyone do that when they realize? Maybe not. Maybe it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Choosing to live righteously, not to win any prize or win my salvation but because out of an overflow of gratitude for Christ MAKING me righteous, my obedience of Christ produces in me righteous living.

Jesus is very obvious with his invitation to a life of righteousness.

I find it interesting, there’s this picture I’ve seen on social media often, it says, if you want to be like Jesus, go party with sinners, upset religious people, say confusing things etc.. etc...

Like there’s this, “Jesus was a friend of sinners… so don’t tell me to not be at the bars on Saturday night.” Sure, except Jesus was never influenced by the sin surrounding him, he actually called the sinner OUT of their sin to a place of righteous living over and over again.

Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, he had robbed countless people. Luke 19 tells the story and in vs 7 it says, / / But the people were displeased, “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled...

But, listen to what happens as a result of Jesus spending time with Zaccheus. He doesn’t just go hang out and condone sinful behavior and eat a super nice meal because Zach has a tonne of money. Luke 19:8 says, / / “Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give back four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to b a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

/ / If you’re going to hang out with the lost, make sure you’re there to seek them out and bring them to salvation!

The point of Jesus hanging out with the sinner was because the sinner is lost and needs help finding their way back onto the path of life.

And that is true for every single one of us. If Romans 3:23 says we have all sinned, we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Then we have all missed the mark on the road to life and we NEED Jesus to come find us and help us back onto that path.

If you remember the story of the woman who was caught in adultery. It’s in John 8:1-11. This woman is literally dragged to Jesus and thrown at his feet, and scripture says she’s been / / “caught IN THE ACT of adultery”. Can you imagine. Dragged from your bed and thrown at the feet of the Messiah. And those who accused her are doing this not because they care about her, but because they are trying to trap Jesus. If he agrees with the law of Moses they get to stone her, if he preaches mercy and grace, he’s gone against the law of Moses and they get to stone him. Precarious situation to say the least.

And Jesus, as always knows exactly what to say not only to silence his accusers but to bring truth to them, AND mercy to the afflicted.

John 8:7-11 says, / / They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down and wrote in the dust...

There’s some thought here about what he was writing in the dust… maybe it was the 10 commandments, or laws that he knew the others would have failed at. That’s all speculation, we have no idea what he wrote, But it was enough to make them rethink their position.

/ / When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowed with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Incredibly powerful statement. Maybe even the most powerful statement Jesus makes when it comes to righteousness.

In that statement Jesus is saying, / / I have MADE you righteous, now go and BE righteous.

/ / Here is the GIFT of righteousness… now go live a LIFE of righteousness.

This might help. Listen to how other translations word Matthew 5:10. And these will sound very similar to what we read when we read Matthew 5:6 a few moments ago:

NLT, / / God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right...

CEV, / / God blesses those people who are treated badly for doing right...

GNT, / / Happy are those who are persecuted for doing what God requires...

MSG, / / You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution...

Commitment means dedication in following well. by definition / / commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity, an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action.

Our commitment to Jesus should restrict what we are willing to do in our lives, in that, we choose to do what is right, and by doing so, we are actively choosing to NOT do what is contrary to righteousness. We become ok with, or embrace, a restricted lifestyle.

This isn’t a hard thing to understand. In the same way being committed to our health means we have to restrict our diet, right? We restrict what we am willing to do WHILE choosing to do what is right. Jesus will pick this very theme up in Matthew 7:14, still part of the Sermon on the Mount, when He says, / / For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. The MSG says, / / The way to life - to God! - is vigorous and requirest total attention.

Jesus in his conversation with this woman who was brought to him is just as much pardoning her as he is inviting her into the process of righteous living. Can you hear him say to her, “I am not condemning you because the entire reason I came is to make you righteous and empower you to live a life that exemplifies that righteousness.

Paul encourages the church in Ephesians 4:1, / / I [am] a prisoner for serving the Lord, [and I] beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

And that’s not an unbearable demand, remember what John writes in 1 John 5:3, / / Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome (NLT) / / … don’t weight us down as heavy burdens (TPT)

The persecution Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 5:10 is not simply because you are a Christian, but it is because you are following Jesus and your life shows it - You choose to do what is right. You don’t just accept the GIFT of righteousness, but you are living a LIFE of righteousness.

When Paul says live a life worthy of our calling, it’s because you are called to something! You are called to live a life of following and committing to the way of Jesus that is evident in how you act and what you do and how you respond to situations and people and life.

Should Christians be the most blessed people? Not in our traditional sense or understanding of blessing - being financially and stuff based, but in the sense of happy and content and fulfilled in our following and relationship with God, most definitely. And it’s in those hard and difficult times that the light of Christ shines brightest in us because it gives us opportunity to be faithful to him in response to his faithfulness to us.

And this is the invitation of Jesus, / / We need to change our thinking and see the Gift of Righteousness as the Empowerment to BE righteous in our lives.

My goal isn’t to prove I’m better, or more righteous, or can follow the rules better than other people. And my goal isn’t to earn salvation or credit with God by my right actions. My purpose is to honor God with my life through my actions. To be faithful because He is faithful.

So, what I really want you to get this morning is this:

Don’t be afraid to choose to do what is right. In fact, the best thing you can do is to investigate what God says is right and do your best to live by it. Because between Matthew 5:6 and 10 we see that / / we are both Blessed in the doing AND we are blessed when the world looks as us and rejects us, pushes us away, tells us to leave because of that doing.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want a double blessing! Well, there it is. Do what is right and you’ll be happier in life - and when people don’t understand why you do what is right, and treat you differently because of it, there will be a happiest you experience IN GOD because of that too.

Jesus said when we are persecuted for doing what is right we are blessed because we receive the kingdom of heaven, or as we’ve looked at before, this is the authority and royalty of heaven. When we live under his rule and his authority we are living under the blessings of his rule and authority. Think of it this way, this is why people come to America. People who are currently living under a rule and authority of oppression look at American and say, “If I could just get under THAT rule and authority, I could have the American dream. I could make it.”

When you live under the rule and authority of Jesus Christ you are living in a place where grace flows freely, where his mercies are new everyday, where you are blessed, favored, and set free from the sins that once held you back. Empowered by being MADE righteous, to live righteously.

This is precisely why I don’t want to be responsible for making up what is right or wrong. This is why I don’t want to live under someone on this earth’s determination of what right or wrong is. I don’t want the world to come up with the standard of morality. Because I don’t want to live under their authority or rule. I want to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Be under that authority.

We can’t be unaware that we live in a world that is trying to normalize what scripture tells us absolutely breaks the heart of God. And I don’t want to take that on as my standard of living, accepting what the world says is ok as the rule and authority in my life.

This is an invitation to choose what is right, not based on what the world, the media, your friends or family say, but what God says. THEN you will be blessed. And if someone comes to you and says anything against you because of that, God will bless you then too! Might not feel like it in the moment, because the anger of humanity can hurt, but ultimately I’m going to stand before God, not man. When I die I’ll be front and center before God, not any political leader, or boss, co-worker or friend… I’ll be in front of God Himself.

What Jesus is saying here is that / / when you choose to do what is right, you are submitting yourself to HIS rule and authority, which means you are giving him permission to have influence and power in your life.

When we do what is right, his blessing follows. When people around us don’t understand and react to it, He blesses that too!

I want to pray for you and bless you this morning, or, I want you to pray with me and let’s ask God to bless us as we finish this series let’s ask that God reminds us and continues to lead us in these things. That we would experience the blessing of God, truly being happier in our lives, content with our standing and situation because of Christ’s continued work in us as we CHOOSE to follow his ways.