Blessed Are the Persecuted

Introduction

Thank you guys for allowing me to be here tonight to study God’s Word and worship with you all. My name is Joel Hayworth and I’m the Lead Pastor down the road at First Baptist Church in Salem, MO. I’ve been there for 2 years now and went to school at SBU - graduated in 2018 and got my masters at MBTS in KC and am currently working on my PhD in Expository Preaching. I love learning, but more than that, I love students, and even more than that, I love the Word of God - so I’m excited to be here and to get to study God’s Word together.

Real quick, have most of your guys’ speakers been interactive or not interactive at all?

Take mental note here

Whenever I lead Bible studies, I like to be interactive which means that I want to think through the text of Scripture together to process what Jesus is telling us. What are a few things that have stood out to you so far in the Sermon on the Mount? We’re at the end of the Beatitudes tonight, so if you were to summarize Jesus’ opening part of this long sermon, how would you describe it so far?

Countercultural Kingdom Characteristics of Christ Followers

We’ve seen how Jesus’ Kingdom is an upside down kingdom where it isn’t the boastful that are blessed, but those who are meek. It isn’t the mighty who get extra blessing from God, but those who are merciful. Jesus is demonstrating that His Kingdom doesn’t always align with the way that we think of kingdoms and power dynamics in our world today - and that’s what makes the Sermon on the Mount as timely as ever for us in the 21st century. Tonight, our text is the final 3 verses in this opening section on the Beatitudes. Let’s read this short passage and then unpack what Jesus is telling to His audience and why it still matters for us today.

Matthew 5:10–12 CSB

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Assurance #2: The Kingdom Belongs to the Persecuted (10-12)

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness…

Really important observation before we unpack any further. I’m sure you have been told this over and over, but if you haven’t or if this is your first time here and you’re reading your Bible in Matthew 5:10 and you see blessed are the persecuted and you think that you have to be persecuted in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, understand that this is a misunderstanding. The beatitudes are NOT entrance requirements. It’s not like Jesus is the instructor of the class and He’s holding a final examination and if you don’t get a 100%, then you don’t get in. Our entrance into the Kingdom of God is NOT up to our perfect obedience - if it were there would be 1 person in heaven and that would just be God by Himself. Jesus is not saying that in order to pass your final for this class called Christianity 101, you have to be killed for your faith like many of the early followers of Christ were in Scripture like Stephen in Acts 7. We can’t earn our way into His Kingdom - if we could then it wouldn’t be called being saved by grace, it would be called being saved by merit.

Think of the word persecution. Whenever we hear that word, our mind often goes a couple different directions, but usually whenever we hear that word at least in the Bible and when thinking of Jesus and His disciples, we think of being killed or martyred for your faith. Persecution is more than just that, though! In the book of Hebrews, we see over and over a call to “persevere” and “run the race with endurance.” The reason why these commands show up there is because those Christians were facing economic, relational, and personal persecution from those around them. Whenever you converted to Christianity from Judaism or paganism, you went through persecution from your family, your friends, many even business owners or local officials because Christianity was seen as an outsider religion. What Jesus is saying is that if you experience this because you follow Him, you are blessed and you can be assured that the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. Here is a list of “degrees of persecution” by Craig Bird:

1. Disapproval 2. Ridicule 3. Pressure to conform 4. Loss of educational opportunities 5. Economic sanctions 6. Shunning 7. Alienation from community 8. Loss of employment 9. Loss of property 10. Physical abuse 11. Mob violence 12. Harassment by officials 13. Kidnapping 14. Forced labor 15. Imprisonment 16. Physical torture 17. Murder or execution

Yes, murder and torture and imprisonment are forms of persecution, but so is being shunned by a former friend or loved one. That is persecution and that stings. It hurts whenever people disapprove of us simply because we follow Jesus Christ.

Missionary David Livingstone once shared this as he prepared to face persecution as he shared the Gospel with people in Africa, “I am immortal until the will of God for me is accomplished.” A former pastor always told me this, “You are invincible until God calls you home.” Yes, we will endure persecution as we follow Jesus Christ. Yes, things will not be easy. Yes, people will likely insult us and say false things about us… but God is still working in us. He still has a plan for us. Persecution doesn’t get the last laugh - in fact, if you look at the early Roman Empire there are numerous examples of people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ because of the testimony of Christians enduring persecution well. There were Christians thrown to lions and gladiators in the great colosseums of Rome and they sang of their faith in Jesus until they were killed. That seems really extreme… but how is it even a possibility?

This bookend of the beatitudes serves as another present assurance for believers. Gone are the 6 consecutive future “will be” promises and here we find yet another present truth - the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are persecuted because of righteousness. In a world where evil seems to win the day and injustice dominates the headlines, what do we need to be assured of? That eternity is not like this fallen world. That the Kingdom of Heaven is unlike the Kingdom of man. In our world where people are vying for power and will persecute anyone who gets in their way, we need to hold on to the hope that God’s Kingdom is an upside down one. The Kingdom doesn’t belong to the powerful, but to the persecuted. It doesn’t belong to the clever speaker, it belong to the contrite sinner.

Our human mindset tells us that whenever we are opposed, insulted, lied about, and rejected that we need to run away or cause a fight… Jesus tells us to simply rejoice and be glad. He doesn’t say that we fight fire with fire or anything of that sort - He simply says to rest assured that the Kingdom of Heaven is their and to know that their reward is great in heaven.

Rejoicing in persecution seems crazy! Yet this is what we see throughout the New Testament

James 1:2 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

Philippians 1:29 CSB

29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,

It’s incredible how often persecution/suffering shows up in the New Testament - this idea shows up over 50 times! This is what Jesus promised His followers they would experience. This idea that Christianity is a nice, middle-class, air conditioned, comfortable life is a lie that people would have never dared believe until hundreds of years after Jesus. We will suffer in various ways. Jesus told us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily, and to follow Him. My question for you all tonight is this: Is Jesus worth it? Is Jesus worth short-term pain? Paul believed so, look at what He called his suffering in 2 Corinthians 4:17

2 Corinthians 4:17 CSB

17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.

The man who was shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, picked on, stoned, and eventually killed… he said that all of those things are momentary light affliction. The reason that Paul could say that was because he knew that awaiting him was a crown. He knew Matthew 5:10 that his is the Kingdom of Heaven. He knew that his reward wouldn’t be in this world but in eternity to come and that’s where he kept his focus. He kept looking to the goal of becoming like Jesus in this life and being with Jesus for all eternity. We can have this hope and joy because we know that we belong to Jesus and He will get us through the good and bad that we face in this life. Our great reward is a certain reward and being persecuted or going through trials and tribulations aren’t a sign of God’s disproval… often, they are the means that God uses to grow our faith in Him and train us to look more like Jesus. Because of this, we can be glad, even in tough times. Our reward isn’t here… it’s in the future.

How many of you have ever had to climb a ladder to put up Christmas decorations or Christmas lights? The purpose of a ladder is to help you access places that you wouldn’t be able to get to without it. Usually we have to get toward the top of the ladder to reach our destination but before you can reach the top you have to take the first step. The rest of the steps are useless without getting on the ladder itself. From that point, you continue to take steps up the ladder but if you refuse to get on the ladder, it’s useless to you and your goal. This is the final beatitude and it’s important - but it’s useless to suffer for Jesus unless you are poor in spirit. It’s useless to undergo persecution for Jesus Christ if you think that you don’t really need Jesus. Think of the beatitudes like a ladder. You get on the ladder by repentance and faith in Jesus, and you progressively become more like Jesus… this is the pinnacle in our passage tonight. You are never more like Jesus than when you willingly lay down your rights, comforts, and conveniences for others and experience persecution for the cross of Jesus Christ! That’s the most Christlike thing that we can do! How do we get to this point? Persecution isn’t fun and it doesn’t sound appetizing… how can we get to the point where we understand rightly that we are blessed when we experience suffering for our faith? Only after we have been adopted into God’s family.

Some of you are here tonight and I trust that you are genuinely born again, after all you’re taking time out of your busy college schedule to be here and study from God’s Word when you could be doing a million other things! If this is you, understand that these Beatitudes are a call to action for you to grow in your spiritual walk. You all are in such an amazing time in your lives - stressful? Sure. Confusing? Sure. Exciting? Absolutely! As a follower of Christ, realize that these are fundamental characteristics of citizens of heaven. These beatitudes are found in the DNA of followers of Jesus Christ. Ask yourself this question: Is my life marked by my own ability and intellect, or upon my complete dependency upon God and His grace? As we reflect on Matthew 5-7, we see our desperate need for God’s grace.

To sum up the beatitudes, we can think of them like this, they are words of:

Celebration for disciples

Invitation for those who are outside looking in

Transformation for those being led by His Spirit

If you are on the outside this evening, if you haven’t repented of your sins and placed your faith in Christ as Lord, understand that the Jesus offers you a hope and a great reward in glory. The amazing part of belonging to Jesus is that we can find joy even in the difficulty and uncertainty of this life. We can rejoice today even in times of difficulty because your hope is not in food, power, money, or status - your hope is found in the Lord and He does not change. Only then can you hold onto the assurances of verses 3 and 10 and say that the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. Answer this question internally: How can you better live out these Kingdom Characteristics in the days ahead?

You know what the last word of the Old Testament is, don’t you? It’s curse… What is the first word of Jesus’ first recorded sermon? Blessed. Trust in Jesus and be eternally blessed.