Do the Right Thing: Blessed are those who are persecuted...; Build your Life #10, the 8th Beatitude

Kid’s Minute: How do you know what is right and what is wrong?

1)Your dad told you to clean up your toys, but you’re having fun.You don’t want to stop playing. Besides, the room is messy, and you don’t feel like cleaning up. What is the right thing to do?

2)You throw a ball in the house & break your mom’s favorite decoration. She hears the crash & comes running to see what happened. If you tell the truth, you know you will be punished. You could say you accidentally bumped the table. What is the right thing to do?

3)You got in trouble, and you’re angry. Your parents punished you, but you think your sibling deserves to be punished. You could hit, pinch, or trip your brother or sister when no one’s looking. You could hide or break one of your sibling’s toys. What is the right thing to do?

I gave you three scenarios, & you each told me what the right thing was to do. How do you know what is the right thing? We know because our parents tell us, more importantly, we know because God tells us. Ephesians 6:1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Psalm 51:6, Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts… Proverbs 12:22, Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal truthfully are His delight. Ephesians 4:32, And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

God is always right, so obeying Him means doing the right thing.

Intro: We’re in a series of messages on the Beatitudes, today we are at Matthew 5:10, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are like me, your eye immediately goes to the word “persecuted”, & rightly so. It is an awful thought, one that, thankfully, we don’t really know anything about. That may change, it probably will change, but it’s just not been our lived experience. We’re going to talk more about persecution next week- what it means, what it looks like, and how to respond to it, so for this week, I want us to focus on why Christian persecution happens.

We need to read the whole block of Beatitudes because there’s something here that will help us get to the heart of the matter. Matthew 5:3–10, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I want to let you in on a little secret- hermeneutical principle (principles of interpretation), how to study & apply the Bible- this principle is called an “inclusio.” An inclusio is a literary device similar to a refrain (repeated in music or poem). An inclusio brackets a section with the repetition of material at the beginning and end of a text.

The block of 8 verses (3-10), start with the Kingdom (#1, vs. 3) & end with the Kingdom(#8, vs. 10) with righteousness in the center (#4, vs. 6). Structurally, the beatitudes begin with the kingdom, end with the kingdom, with righteousness in the middle. This means something.

ILL: I can’t help but think of an Oreo, the Good Stuff is in the middle. I think the same is true for Vs. 10. When we look at this beatitude, the word that likely catches our eye is “persecuted,” but our attention should be on “righteousness.”

Persecution happens to all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons, but Jesus does not say “blessed are the persecuted...”, no, He says “blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.”

When we say, “for the sake of,” we are talking about purpose or motive; out of consideration or regard for a person or thing; for someone's or something's advantage or good. The word, “sake,” coming from Jesus means “on account of, because of.” So, the persecution Jesus is talking about is on account of, or because of righteousness. Righteousness refers to a standard- a way to be, a way to live, a way to do.

To be persecuted for righteousness’ sake is to be persecuted for doing the right thing according to God’s standard. I want to encourage you to do the right thing even when it won’t go your way. Three reasons:

1. God is RIGHT.

As it relates to God, “righteousness”refers to His divine attribute or activity. God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel.

Romans 1:16–17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

ILL: For years, I have held the standard for loading dishes in the dishwasher, no one meets my standard. God has a standard- a right way to be, a way to live, a way to do; only Jesus met His standard.

Righteousness is an attribute of God that is manifested in His saving activity, i.e., God reveals His righteousness in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The good news about Jesus Christ is the way that the righteousness of God is made known. Romans 3:21–22, But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed… through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe...

Who are the beatitudes about?believers, people who are blessed because they believe in Jesus, people made right because they believe in Jesus, people who try to make things right, because they believe in Jesus.

John Stott: The beatitudes paint a comprehensive portrait of a Christian disciple. Spurgeon: Together they are a ladder of light—and each one is a step of purest sunshine. Observe carefully and you will see that each one rises above those which precede it...There is a great advance from the poor in spirit to the pure in heart and the peacemaker... And the peacemaker, while the highest form of Christian, will find himself often called upon to take the lowest place for peace’s sake.

This beatitude on persecution for the sake of righteousness grows out of peacemaking activity.We make peace with God through the Gospel, and as we live a gospel-centered life & seek to do good in the world, we will meet with persecution. Why? The world is wrong.

2. The world is WRONG.

Ulrich Luz- “Righteousness” is a human attitude or conduct. One can be persecuted only because of that conduct, not because one merely longs for (divine) righteousness. Righteousness is characterized by Christian practice and confessing Jesus. I.e., Christians are not persecuted for righteous longings but for righteous living.

Whenever Christians reflect the righteousness of God through the Gospel, through godly living, and through doing good, it will rub the world the wrong way, & persecution will happen. 2 Timothy 3:12, Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

If we could travel back in time & see the 1st century through the eyes of Jesus & the Apostles, we would see a world not that much different from ours.I contend that the 21st century is more like the 1st century than any century since. When Jesus came on the scene & gathered His group of followers, it rocked the world. It shook the foundations of the religious, moral, political, & socio-economic world.

ILL: Acts 16:16-24,Paul & Silas in Philippi, a slave girl possessed with a demonic spirit made a lot of money for her masters by fortune-telling. She recognized them & followed them for many days crying out- “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” Whether mocking or not, Paul cast out the demon- “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” and “when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.” They charged them with troubling the city & teaching different customs. They were stripped, beaten, imprisoned, & put in stocks.

Whenever and wherever the Gospel, godly living, & doing good comes to bear on a culture, it transforms humanity, it gives people back their dignity, and disrupts society. Do not underestimate how offensive genuine righteousness really is. This is why they killed Jesus.

People are inherently sinful, so the systems we create are inherently sinful- religious, moral, political, socio-economic. The Gospel brings sin to light, it sets people free, things start to change, & the world system just can’t handle that. The righteous are often persecuted because they disrupt the world’s false sense of peace. The Gospel overthrows the world’s systems. ILL: Anomaly (Lecrae)- The system didn't plan for this

When Christians do the right thing, it rubs the world the WRONG WAY because it wants things to STAY THE SAME.

3. Heaven is REAL.

The Righteously Persecuted RECEIVE the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember, the kingdom of heaven is the promise of the 1st Beatitude as well as this one, & it brackets all those in between.

The “kingdom of heaven” is a key phrase that refers to people who acknowledge God as their King and who look forward to the fulfilment of His purpose in their lives.The way we put it in the 1st Beatitude was- Heaven is a Reality for you because Christ Rules over you.

I.e., you can experience the kingdom of heaven right now in the personal presence of God, within the community of believers, & wherever the righteousness of Christ reigns. There is coming a day when Christ returns & makes all things right, we will see Him as He is, & experience the fullness of a new heaven on earth.

ILL: I have a former professor who wrote about this dual reality in Heaven on Earth.He describes the longing for heaven “like flying from Dallas to New York City but having a layover in Little Rock, AR. Little Rock is a nice place, but it is not New York City! You want to see the bright lights of Broadway & Times Square, take in a show, visit the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, and maybe dine at Delmonico’s or shop at Saks Fifth Avenue. With such expectations, I doubt the port of Little Rock would rattle your cage. God’s ultimate goal is not for us to go to heaven but for heaven to come down to us on earth!”

2 Peter 3:13, Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Bonhoeffer describes it this way- There shall the poor be seen in the halls of joy. With His own hand God wipes away the tears from the eyes of those who mourned upon earth. He feeds the hungry at His banquet. There stand the scarred bodies of the martyrs, now glorified and clothed in the white robes of eternal righteousness instead of the rags of sin and repentance. The echoes of this joy reach the little flock below as it stands beneath the cross, and they hear Jesus saying: “Blessed are you!”

The Beatitudes are almost over. There’s one more week to go, I ask you- are you one of the blessed? Are you one of the happy ones, the truly fortunate ones, the ones who possess the kingdom of Heaven?