PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE

 

Keep in mind that the Beatitudes are not a list of things that Jesus is telling us that we need to do to be saved, because salvation is not an accomplishment, nor is it a reward, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. The Beatitudes are what Jesus says we are when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. The Beatitudes tell us what we are by the grace of Christ

 

When Jesus defines what being a Christian looks like, He minces no words. In short, concise statements, He gives the facts of what a Christian will be like. He is poor in spirit, mourns over sin, bends his will into submission to God, hungers and thirsts for righteousness, exercises mercy, is pure in heart, seeks to model peacemaking, and is certain to face persecution.

 

Now in verses 10-12 Jesus tells us how the world system will respond to such a follower of Jesus? If you live as I am teaching you to live, if you are willing to stand up for what is right and live to the glory of God, this is going to run against the grain of human society. There is going to be opposition and hostility. You are going to be persecuted. But you are blessed when that happens because you are in the right place, and the kingdom of heaven is yours

 

As I said last week, if you interpret the words of Jesus, deny yourself, and pick up your cross and follow Me as a call to popularity in a world that is run by the spirit of antichrist, you better change your thinking now or get off the bus.

 

Matthew 5.10-12. So much for the modern perception of Christianity! The Christian filters their life through the perspective of eternal values.

• Jim Elliot, who was martyred for his faith in Christ once aid: ("he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose")

 

Kent Hughes explains why there is so little persecution among much of professing Christendom today in the church in America.

• But by far the greatest reason there is so little persecution is that the church has become like the world. If you want to get along, the formula is simple. Approve the world's morals and ethics-at least outwardly. Live like the world lives. Laugh at its humor. Immerse yourself in its entertainment. Smile benignly when God is mocked. Act as if all religions converge on the same road. Don't mention hell. Draw no moral judgments. Take no stand on the moral/political issues. Above all, do not share your faith. Follow this formula and it will be smooth sailing.
• If you decide to live your faith out in private, and never speak out for the truth of God’s Word, remember Luke 9:26, where Jesus said this: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed."  Jesus said, "If you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you."  The last thing I want, and I think the last thing any of us wants, is for Christ to be ashamed of us.  But it can happen. 

 

Pastor Greg Allen, also commenting on persecution in America writes these words:

• Because we live in a nation that is historically Christian at its roots; and because we enjoy the freedoms given us by the First Amendment, we American believers don't suffer much in the way of large-scale persecution - particularly not the intensely violent kind of state-sponsored persecution that many of our fellow believers in other parts of the world suffer.But we do live among a people who's fundamental values and priorities are becoming increasingly contrary to God, and that is often hostile to the cause of righteousness. And the irreconcilable clash between two diametrically opposing systems of life - the life devoted to obedience to Jesus Christ, and the life devoted to the values and priorities of this world - must inevitably result in the hostility of the people of this world being poured out on the disciple of Jesus Christ.

 

Define persecution:

Persecuted: to endure suffering for Christ. hurt, ostracized, attacked, tortured, martyred, and treated hostily.

Reviled: verbally abused, insulted, scolded, mocked (cruel mockings, Hebrews 11:36).

 

Persecution can come in a lot of different ways, but what Jesus speaks of happens for those whose lives clash with the pervasive views of the world.

• How else can you explain the believers in Nigeria, minding their own business in living Christian lives, helping others, exercising their faith, being brutally killed, often by mobs?
• How do you explain the Christian believer who is always on time at work, who does his work dependably without complaint, but he is passed over for a promotion while it is given to someone much less qualified and deserving?
• How else do you explain the Christian student that is blackballed by the student body from being elected to the student government or denied recognitions that ought to be normal in school life?
• Sinclair Ferguson writes: Real loyalty to Jesus Christ even creates friction in the hearts of those who truly follow Him and those who pay him only lip service. This was the case in Galatians 4, when Paul was contrasting the regenerated, born again Christian with those who were religious and following the dead letter of the law he said, Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
• Some of the fiercest persecutors of the bride of Christ are liberal, unregenerate religious people. Some of the most intense persecution of Christians has been at the hands of religious zealots of other faiths or at the hands of the organized, dead religious system that is the child of Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation.

 

With this final beatitude, Jesus is telling us that this is the way the world is going to treat you because you are My follower. But note that this persecution is for righteousness sake, not for being obnoxious or rude. For example, a believer might suffer trouble and hardship from the people of this world because they behave in a pushy and obnoxious manner.

One pastor wrote: I remember hearing about a young college student who used to go to the student commons building during lunch, stand up on a table with everyone all sitting around him, and deliberately preach a 'fire-and-brimstone' sermon to them until the security people came and drug him out. He said that he got a thrill out of doing that. I certainly can't fault him for wanting to preach the gospel; and, without question, there are times when the preaching of the gospel calls for bold methods. But whatever else we may say about what that college student did, you really can't call his getting thrown out of the building "persecution". And we shouldn't call it "persecution" either, when we suffer for being unnecessarily obnoxious and rude.

 

The same pastor writes: someone might suffer trouble and hardship because they are being fanatical over a 'cause'. There was a minister a year ago or so who was executed by the state for having shot an abortion doctor to death. He claimed that he was serving God in this way; but the Bible tells us that "the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:20). It is certainly right to use all legal means to oppose abortion - and this is especially true for a believer. But it wouldn't be right to call what happened to that minister "persecution". A better name for it would be "prosecution". He broke the law and committed a violent act of murder. We shouldn't consider it "persecution", in the sense that Jesus is speaking of, when we go to such unrighteous extremes for a "cause".

• In my opinion, in both of these examples, the individuals got what they deserved for having behaved in a foolish or thoughtless manner. I am not saying that either one of these individuals were not Christians, I am just pointing out that they were acting in a way that is not being described here by Jesus in this beatitude.
• If we are “persecuted” or “insulted” by being called a jerk, or a crook, or a thief, or a hypocrite, or an idiot, then the best thing to do is to make sure that the claim isn't true and leave it in God's hand. And of course, if it is true, we need to repent before God and apologize to those we have offended! But if we are called "a Jesus freak", or "a religious fanatic", or (the really popular one now) "a fundamentalist extremist", or any of the other insults the people of this world throw on those who love and follow Jesus, don't be ashamed of it. Welcome it. They're identifying you with Jesus, and that's a great honor. They called Him names too.

 

Christians will be persecuted for being like their Master.

• John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

• To become like Jesus means that we will become light, and light by nature exposes darkness, and darkness hates the light. Thus, the persecution that Jesus is talking about is the persecution that comes because of one's relationship to Jesus Christ. It is not you but Jesus Christ that ultimately becomes the aim and rationale in persecution. You are persecuted because of your relationship to Christ.
• And make no mistake about it beloved, Jesus does have death in view here as a possible cost of following Him because that is what they did to the prophets (Matthew 23:30; 1 Kings 18:13; 19:10; Nehemiah 9:26; Jeremiah 26:23). This is what they would do to the disciples. So he says in Matthew 24:9, "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake."

 

The apostle Paul wrote his last letter to his young friend and ministry associate Timothy. It is a very sobering letter to read, because it was written just before the apostle was beheaded in prison for his faith in Jesus Christ. He clearly knew that he was about to pay the ultimate price for his beloved Savior (4:6); and so He talked in very serious terms to Timothy about persecution.

2Ti 3:10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,

• 11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

 

You may say to yourself, "Well; that's Paul and God hasn't called every-day believers like me to provoke the same kind of opposition and trouble that Paul provoked through his preaching."

More than likely, that is true, but listen to what Paul would go on to write to Timothy:

3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

• Once again we see that the reason why Christians are persecuted is because they are living for Christ sake.
• The apostle Paul writes these words on the basis of a deep conviction about the nature of Christianity and the nature of the sinfulness of man. He is convinced that there is such a tension between the message and way of life of Christians on the one hand and the mindset and way of life of the world on the other that conflict is inevitable.
• We cannot call ourselves Christians and legitimate members of Christ's body if we do not desire godliness, and along with that desire to live for Jesus Christ and what is pleasing to Him comes persecution.
• Kent Hughes: if the person who claims to follow Christ never experiences any persecution at all, it may be reasonably asked if he or she is really is a Christian.
• There was never anyone more loving than Jesus Christ.  There was never a greater peacemaker than Jesus Christ.  Some people responded to His love and entered into that peace.  But even though Jesus was the most loving, gracious, kind, and peaceful person who ever lived, everywhere He went, He created antagonism because He confronted the issues.  It is so with all the righteous.

 

And if you think that the persecution Jesus is speaking of was only limited to His apostles, let me remind you of what Paul once wrote to the believers in Philippi - while he himself was still in prison. He told them,  

• Philip 1:28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. 29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 30 Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
• Now I am not advocating that we all walk out of here this morning and be obnoxious and unloving, for that is never the Holy Spirit. All that I am trying to communicate to us this morning is that if we are genuine, faithful followers of Christ and we haven't experienced much in the way of persecution, then we are to consider ourselves to be the exception - not the rule.
• The rule is that, ordinarily, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will - at some level - suffer persecution from the people of this world. As the apostle Paul said, it is something that God the Father "grants" to us - a privilege from Him that we not only to believe on His Son Jesus, but also to suffer for Him. And it's something that will be faithfully reward.
• But the fact that we are persecuted is not to be looked upon as a curse, but as an honor. When the apostles were persecuted and beaten in the book of Acts, we read:
• Acts 5.40 and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
• I'm not saying that every Christian will be beaten like the apostles were, for that would not be true, and I could even sound a bit condemning. I'm not even saying that a sold out Christian is going to suffer persecution from the moment that they wake up until they set their heads on the pillow at night. I am only saying that when we choose to live according to God’s standards in this world, at some time or another, we are going to know the rebuke of the Cross. 

 

1Peter 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

• Peter reminds us that our response to persecution and being reproached for being faithful Jesus Christ is that we bring Him glory.

 

Persecution separates the wheat from the tares:

• Mr 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

• The person who is typified by the seed sown on stony ground does not continue on in persecution because he does not have the roots of the gospel deeply planted in his heart and life. Thus, apart from Christ in his or her life, church and religion may be practiced, but to endure persecution for the cause of Christ is out of the question.

Persecution cause the gospel to spread and the church to grow:

• Ac 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
• Ac 11:19 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

 

Responses to persecution:

Do not retaliate, never.

• Ro 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
• Mt 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Elizabeth Elliot returned to the place where her husband was martyred and led many of them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

• Avoid harboring resentment and anger. They are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Christ. If they reject you, they suffer nothing, if they reject Christ they suffer eternally….
• Do not allow persecution to depress you. Ask God to give you the big perspective…ask God to give you a love for your persecutors.

 

Things to remember when you are being persecuted:

• Ro 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
• Persecution for Christ’s sake can never separate us from His perfect love.

 

Mt 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

• Jesus can say rejoice and be exceeding glad because He knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that the reward of heaven will more than compensate for any suffering we must endure in the service of Christ. "Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
• Though the believer is persecuted now, he will know the joys and delights of Christ's kingdom for all eternity. As Paul, who understood much about the experience of persecution put it, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Cor 4:17-18).
• For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us . . ." (Rom. 8:18). And I know that the apostle Peter spoke of "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"; and that we are to rejoice in this prospect, "though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials" (1 Peter 1:4-6).
• The Christian can rejoice because persecution is not the end even if it means death. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer walked from his prison room to the gallows, he said to a friend, "This is the end-for me the beginning of life"
• Jesus wills for his disciples to desire the reward of heaven more than we desire the reward of the world. Jesus wills for us to have our treasure in heaven not on earth (6:19–20). Jesus wills for your heart to be so set on heaven that to leave this earth is a cause of rejoicing.
• For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus comes full circle with the beatitudes. He promise to the poor in spirit is the promise to those who are persecuted and reviled for His Names sake. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How shall we keep our hearts in heaven? Make a regular practice of your life to consider the prophets of old who were persecuted and killed for the cause of God and righteousness. Turn often to Hebrews 11:36–38 and read how by faith they suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—of whom the world was not worthy!  Go often to these great men and women of old and get inside their hearts. Put yourself on the rack with them and learn how to love heaven with them.

Let me close this morning with this question/challenge to you my KF family….What about you?  Do you know what it is to live such a Godly life that you become a rebuke to people around you, not because you're obnoxious, not because you're proud, not because you're demanding, not because you're authoritarian, not because you talk too much, but because there is too much of Christ manifest in you? 

Are you willing to pay the price?  Are you willing to live the way God wants you to live, to live the Kingdom life, to be a living illustration of the Beatitudes whatever the price?  To bear the reproach of Jesus Christ?  Are you willing to take your cross like He took it?  Are you willing to suffer the loss of all things that you may gain the Kingdom?  Are you willing to pay any price?  That's what Jesus is asking for, and those are the only kind of people who can change the world for His glory. 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; we have great cause to rejoice and be exceedingly glad whenever we are genuinely persecuted for the sake of Jesus Christ….for ours is the kingdom of heaven.