Peace and Persecution

What have we been talking about for the last 3 weeks?

The Beatitudes!

And what are those?

Statements that Jesus makes about people who are followers of Jesus.

So, we are in the last 2.5 beatitudes. I say we have a half, because 11-13 are really just connected with vs. 10, but they feel a little different

This week, however, we are talking about peace and persecution, which are a little different!

Matthew 5:1-12.

Peace

As with all of these, there are so many questions that we have to deal with whenever we talk about one of the statements of Jesus.

What is peace?

Peace in this context is connected with the Hebrew word shalom, which means a full and complete peace.

Whenever the Bible talks about peace, it’s a callback to the beginning of creation.

In the beginning, before all time began, God was. He created and ordered everything and it was good. Life, really good, as in there was no fault in it. Everything was exactly as it was meant to be, and it was called shalom, or peaceful.

Then, because of humanity messing stuff up, we no longer live in peace like we were supposed to. There’s war and death and illness and the Kardashians and everything is all over the place.

And yet, Jesus, who is God that came and lived as a man, is called the Prince of peace, meaning that He is the One who brings peace.

And so, with all of that background, He tells the disciples, and, through the disciples, us, that we are to be people who bring peace.

If you are a follower of Jesus, then we are to be people who bring peace.

What does that look like?

being a peace-maker is to literally bring peace into wherever you are.

So, instead of causing fights and problems with our friends, we should be the one that brings them together.

Instead of spending time arguing with people or trying to one-up the people around us, we should be encouraging others.

It’s really easy to make fun of people to make ourselves feel better, but that’s not the way to bring peace

How might you bring peace to the people around you?

Persecution

And then we get to the weirder part of this section.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted…”

What does persecution mean?

Persecution is to be treated poorly or harmed because of your faith.

Persecution can be something as terrible as being beheaded for believing in Jesus like some of our friends in the Middle East or as simple as losing friends because you pray at lunch.

So why does Jesus say that it’s a good thing to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake?

Weak faith can’t stand persecution.

If I can’t tell someone that Jesus loves them because I’m terrified that they’re going to hate me, where’s my faith at?

If I can’t pray when I’m at school because I don’t want people to look at me funny, who am I really trusting in?

If my faith is not in Christ, than I have so much to be afraid of, because Christianity is countercultural.

Our views towards sex go against what your friends and many of your teachers believe

Our views toward treating others who are looked down on goes directly against your friends

Our belief that we need a Savior is offensive to those who believe that we’re all good enough.

And so, if my faith is not in Jesus and I’m just doing the “Christian thing,” I will never be able to stand in front of the people around me and live a life that is like Jesus.

But, a faith that is rooted in Jesus is functionally different. A faith that is rooted in Jesus will not fold under pressure, and it will not bend to the whims of the people around you.

And so, for those who can stand under the tough part of being a follower of Jesus, the receive the kingdom of heaven, they are blessed by being in the Kingdom of God.

Blessed are You

Then, Jesus moves on to wrap up the beatitudes, and He does it in a really interesting way.

He changes the way that He talks, He switches to talking about “you”

That is significant, because it means that He is changing tenses.

So, this whole time, Jesus has been looking around at all of His followers and giving statements that can sound like they’re about these super Christians that can do everything and never do anything wrong; but then Jesus looks them in the eye and says “blessed are you”.

You, as in, the one that messes up all the time; or you, the one that always says the wrong thing, or you, the one who can’t pay attention.

Jesus is looking at his disciples in the eye when He says these things and then they start to realize, “He’s talking about me. This isn’t just some far off teaching that we don’t need to listen to or that won’t matter in the long run, He’s telling me what I am going to look like if I start following Jesus.”

And that is true of you.

If you decide to follow Jesus, then you and I are supposed to start looking like the type of person that Jesus has been describing these past three weeks. We will become poor in spirit and mournful and meek and desiring righteousness and merciful and pure and peaceful and persecuted because that is what Jesus did.

God created the entire universe and everything in it, and when He did, He made everything perfect, including people. So, you and I were made to be perfect and be with God forever. However, we messed that up with our sin, which is whenever we make the decision to care about ourselves more than God, or when we look like the opposite of what Jesus has told us these last three weeks. Those sins stain our soul, and we can no longer be with God because He’s absolutely perfect. And that’s where we were stuck. We can’t fix ourselves, because we’ve obviously tried and can’t make it happen, and it’s not like any of the other jacked up people in our lives can do it either. That’s where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is God, and yet He chose to live as a human. He lived a life that is perfect and full, and taught how you and I are supposed to live. And then He gave Himself up on a cross and died to pay for our sin and the stain that was on our soul. He covered our brokenness because we couldn’t. He was buried and dead, and yet came to new life 3 days later. So, if you believe in Him as God and Savior, that He is the One whom we need, then we can start living for Him and with Him now, and that will continue on forever.

And what that looks like is starting to live like Jesus said to live in the Beatitudes.

Someone who did this so well is a guy named Cyprian of Carthage.

He was a pastor in 250 AD. He had just led his church through a plague in his city where he told his people that they should be willing to die for other people to provide care because that’s what Christians need to do, when he was arrested for being a follower of Jesus by the Roman government.

He was sentenced to execution. Pagans and Christians from the city showed up to the execution to protest, but the governor decided he had to die. So, Cyprian went to his spot where he was going to be executed, prayed, and then prepared to be executed. He paid the executioner a months wage to show that he forgave him. The executioner’s hands were shaking, so Cyprian tied his own blindfold and went to the chopping block, where he was killed.

That is a man who followed Jesus’ words. He cared for people, and he cared for God. I pray that we can have a faith like Cyprian.

Questions:

What is one Olympic sport you would like to compete in?

What does it mean to be persecuted now? Why are people who are persecuted considered blessed?

What can you do to bring peace to those around you?

Can we live the life that Jesus shows in the Beatitudes? How?