Jesus and the Upside Down Kingdom, Part 8

Matthew 5:3–12 ESV

“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 is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Today is Palm Sunday.

It’s the day that we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Could it be that we have we coopted the view of the Christian life that Jesus gives?

It’s as if in some small way we have begun to by into the kind of lifestyle that Jesus came into Jerusalem with.

Just like the crowds on palm Sunday viewed Jesus as the king to come, we have begun to view the Christian life of a “blessed life” rather than a life of persecution.

Matthew 21:1-11 shows the kind of Messiah the people expected to deliver them from the Romans.

But the kind of Messiah they received was far greater than they could have imagined.

The kind of Savior they received bore the sins of His people.

But I think we begin to co-opt this vision for our own lives.

Rather than seeing the kind of suffering that Jesus requires to be His followers, we desire to have a life free from hostility.

More than 100 years ago, northern India was a very superstitious region.

In one village, listened to a missionary, and his heart grasped the Good News of Christ.

He and his whole family came to saving faith.

Like in most places around the world, their village became enraged at them.

The chief told the young convert, “Renounce your faith, or be killed!”

“I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back.”

With anger the chief order for his sons to be killed. “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife, too.”

“Though no one joins me, still I will follow. No turning back.”

The chief then ordered his wife to be killed. “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live! There is no one for you in the world!”

“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.”

The beatitudes express the nature of someone who inherits the kingdom of heaven.

They have progressed from inner man to outer man.

The person who is spiritually bankrupt, mourns their sin, gentle before God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Will inevitably exude a life of mercy toward others, single-minded devotion toward God, and will make peace all around them.

But these beatitudes have more to do with how others view us.

This beatitude is the MOST searching of them all.

This is the first beatitude to discuss how others will interact with us.

Every other beatitudes starts with internal.

But this one begins with externals and moves to how they treat Christians.

The Sermon on the Mount C. The Persecuted—5:10–12

If you wish to avoid persecution in the world, here is what you must do: mimic the world’s standards, never criticize its values, keep quiet about the gospel, laugh at its sordid humor, smile and keep silent when God’s name is mocked and reviled, and be ashamed of Jesus Christ.

You will be persecuted for righteousness’s sake. (Matt 5:10)

Matthew 5:10 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The sandwich of the kingdom of God

The beatitudes begin referencing the kingdom of God.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But here they conclude with receiving the kingdom of God.

Matthew 5:10 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The spiritually bankrupt receive the kingdom of God.

So do those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Those who do what is right will be persecuted.

Those who inherit the kingdom are persecuted for righteousness sake.

It’s not a far stretch to see that those who are bankrupt in heart are those who do what is right.

Not all persecution will be blessed.

Persecuted NOT for opinion.

There is a way we can be persecuted that does not honor Christ.

This includes things like being persecuted because we stand on political opinions.

Straight Line Issues

These are issues to have a clear biblical connection to the problem.

For example, abortion has clear, gospel imperatives.

To support abortion is to undermine the gospel because it undermines the image of God.

Jagged Line Issues

These are issues on things not nearly as important for the sake of the gospel.

The gospel is not directly associated with this issue.

Church

It’s not enough for our community to know what were against.

The world must know what we’re against.

But the world had better know what we are FOR.

Persecuted NOT for personality.

There are people that think they're being persecuted for the kingdom of heaven.

But they really are being persecuted because they are jerks.

“[People who] are rude, insensitive, thoughtless—or piously obnoxious. Some are rejected because they are discerned as proud and judgmental. Others are disliked because they are lazy and irresponsible.” —R. Kent Hughs

If a person were persecuted for living a heinous and immoral life, then this kind of persecution would not be celebrated.

Persecution is NOT optional.

Persecution is placed alongside of things like, “mercy”, “purity”, and the like.

Persecution is NOT a prerequisite to the kingdom but a response of those who see people enter the kingdom.

Everyone who is righteous will be persecuted.

This kind of reviling and persecution is not optional for the believer.

Persecution will come upon the believer who lives in step with the beatitudes that Jesus has already mentioned.

The public will hate us.

We should not expect our culture to like us.

We should actually be concerned when the general public likes us.

We aren’t trying to make them hate us.

But we need to speak the gospel in such a way that they will hate us.

1 Peter 4:12–14 ESV

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 insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, 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, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

What does Jesus mean by “for righteousness sake”?

This is an important distinction, because when we have taken for righteousness sake to mean a whole host of things.

But as we’ve seen in the beatitudes, “for righteousness” (Matt 5:6) is speaking of the righteousness that comes from God that produces a righteous life.

In some senses Jesus means that it is right living.

Persecuted because of our changed life in Jesus Christ.

Persecution here is to “harass someone especially because of their beliefs” (BDAG).

It’s the kind of persecution that comes in the face of a person living a righteous life.

The Apostle Paul when he was persecuting the believers was living an incredibly pious life.

He was living a “good life.”

He was living in every observable way a “good life.”

He went from the persecutor to the persecuted.

He went from harassing Christians to a Jesus follower.

This switch caused great persecution in his life.

So if Jesus has in mind here merely a righteous life, then the life of Paul does not make any sense.

He did not entirely change his morality.

Acts 9:19–24 (ESV)

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him,

The difference in Saul is NOT a different morality.

It’s NOT a fundamentally different ethic.

It’s fundamentally a different object of trust.

Before Saul was trusting in his fleshly status.

But now he came to trust Jesus as Lord.

Philippians 3:3 ESV

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—

Philippians 3:7–9 ESV

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

“The condition of being despised and rejected, slandered and persecuted, is as much a normal mark of Christian discipleship as being pure in heart or merciful. Every Christian is to be a peacemaker, and every Christian is to expect opposition. Those who hunger for righteousness will suffer for the righteousness they crave” — John Stott

Christian

We really must expect to be persecuted from people in our lives.

Persecution is a “normal” part of the Christian life.

It was an entirely different righteousness that Paul discovered.

It was a righteousness that comes by faith.

Non-Believer

If you know any believers in your life.

I can promise you that you will hate and revile them.

Even if it is a sort of “tame” hatred.

You will still mutter all manner of evil against them.

Matthew 5:10–12 ESV

“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.

You must answer persecution with joy-filled gladness.

Matthew 5:11 NLT

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

What kind of persecution does Jesus have in mind?

Insults and harassment because of Jesus Christ.

The persecution that Jesus imagines will come upon Christians will come because of Him.

Church history is littered with examples of a bloody history.

But much of the “reviling” that we face comes from people all around us.

Sneers because we refuse to participate in our former life.

Verbal slanders.

Social outcasts.

The important qualification of “falsely.”

Peter picks up on this beatitude and now applies it to us in particular.

1 Peter 3:13 ESV

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

What can anyone do to us if we are eager to do good and do not care when others harm us?

The answer is NOTHING.

They can do nothing to the person who is committed to the good and unfazed by evil.

1 Peter 3:14 (ESV)

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.

Persecution effects us.

It changes us.

Starves our dependence upon the world.

It makes us less attached to the world that we live in.

It makes us less dependent upon the approval of others.

It makes us people who do not care what the world thinks of us.

If we should suffer for righteousness sake, we will be blessed.

When the goal of pleasing God governs us.

Another person's sins and failures become opportunities, not obstacles, to please God more and more and to grow as a Christian.

Shrivels our need for others approval.

If your goal is to please and glorify God.

Then it won’t matter if other people reject us.

If your efforts are primarily motived by pleasing God more than anything else.

Then you will experience peace, joy, and comfort regardless of the outcome of the situation.

And most importantly, you will be pleasing God.

1 Peter 3:14–16 (ESV)

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

Christian

Who can harm you if you’re living for the smile of God above all else?

When you live for the smile of God, you are able to speak truth without fear of approval or disapproval.

When you live to be in a place of blessing before God.

You live with joy in the presence of God.

Feeds our hunger for the kingdom.

The same is true when Jesus says in John 15:18-20

John 15:18–20 ESV

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember 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.

Jesus promises for His followers that they will experience hatred and persecution before the world around them.

Others will hate them because they convict the world by their obedience.

If they were still of the world, then they would be loved by the world.

But because Jesus has chosen them out of the world, they will be loved.

2 Timothy 3:12–13 ESV

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

How can a person be considered a Christian that has never experienced rejection from the world on behalf of that kingdom?

How can a person be considered a Christian that never practiced a different ethic from the world?

Nominal Christianity

This is one of the surest signs of nominal Christianity.

Friend, if everyone loves you.

You really need to consider if you’re willing to suffer for Christ’s sake.

You really need to consider if you’re on a path of inheriting the kingdom.

This does not mean we are always under persecution

Rejoice and be glad because our reward is great.

Luke 6:22–23 ESV

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Christians are assured that they suffer with the Son of man when they are reviled and spoken against.

For the present: “Blessed”

Christian

We need to rejoice when others speak ill of us for Christ’s sake.

We need a kind of joy-filled, merry spirit everytime we are spoken against.

When you hear things like, “bigot”, “lack of empathy”, “unloving”, “traditional”, any manner of evil, we need to first examine that it is NOT true what they are saying.

And with knee jerk reaction, REJOICE.

Because it is a sign that we are under the blessing of God.

It is proof that we are under the favor of God when others revile us and slander us in the present.

Embrace persecution joyfully because the persecuted will inherit the kingdom of God.

Then when we have come to grips that it is false, we should rejoice.

We should rejoice and celebrate because we are under the smile of God.

We are under the smile of God in the present.

For the future: “Crowned!”

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Church

This does not mean we sit around and wait for some glory day.

No.

We pursue Christ and walking in Christlike obedience in every area.

All the while joyfully embracing every form of persecution that comes our way.

Embrace persecution joyfully because the persecuted will inherit the kingdom of God.