Scripture portion: Matthew 5:10-12
“BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE: FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BLESSED ARE YE WHEN MEN SHALL REVILE YOU, AND PERSECUTE YOU, AND SHALL SAY ALL MANNER OF EVIL AGAINST YOU FALSELY, FOR MY SAKE. REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDING GLAD: FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN: FOR SO PERSECUTED THEY THE PROPHETS WHICH ARE BEFORE YOU.”
Introduction: Now we are entering into the last step of our spiritual journey. If you are faithful in the ministry of peace-making, then God may grant you the privilege of being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. This should not be surprising for us. It is indeed a great privilege and blessing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. We are now going to meditate upon what it means to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness and why it is considered a blessing to us. May the Holy Spirit teach to our hearts.
If we continue faithfully in the ministry of peace-making, we will be persecuted. We are being persecuted for the Kingdom of God. We are being persecuted for the sake of Jesus. We have meditated previously that Jesus Himself is righteousness. The Kingdom of God is nothing but righteousness. So, when we are being persecuted for Jesus and His coming Kingdom, we are actually being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. There are many people who claim that they are striving for righteousness in this world, and that they are being persecuted for what they believe is righteousness. People are revolting, waging wars, and bearing persecutions for what they believe is right. Some may be just and others may be unjust in doing so. But, what is common to all of them is that they are being persecuted for temporary and worldly things. The world sees them as super heroes and their names will last in the memory of this world for many generations. These people feel privileged for what they are doing. They are honored by everyone. But we are God’s servants. The cause for our persecutions is greatly different from the causes of their persecutions. They may be persecuted for a just or an unjust cause. But we as the servants of the Most High God can be sure that we are being persecuted for a just cause. How much more should we be privileged for that? How much more will we be blessed and honored in Heaven? We are being persecuted for everlasting, glorious, and eternal things. See the world. People are blindly giving up themselves to persecutions for what they believe, whether it is right or wrong. What about us? We know that we are in the path of everlasting righteousness. We know that the righteousness we are preaching about is going to be established on the earth with power and glory in the second coming of the King of Kings, Lord Jesus. Do not hesitate. Do not take a backward step. Do not fear about being persecuted. Do not be discouraged by your present afflictions. You are suffering for an eternal cause. Your reward is going to be unimaginably great. Keep telling to yourself that you are being persecuted for the greatest cause, a cause greater than any other in this world. Remember that the sufferings which you are going through are negligible compared to the glory which is going to be manifested when Lord Jesus returns to this earth.
Till now I have tried to encourage believers who are hesitating to go forward bravely for being persecuted for the sake of righteousness, and also to remind the privilege and blessing of those who are already being persecuted for the sake of Jesus. Now, we will meditate upon three kinds of possible persecutions believers may undergo for the sake of righteousness. (Physical, mental, and spiritual persecutions)
Physical Persecutions: Many faithful believers became martyrs for the sake of Jesus because of physical persecutions. We all know very well about believers around the world, being persecuted. Many believers are being tortured and killed mercilessly in various countries (even in countries which are supposed to be secular). This world had tortured and killed Lord Jesus in the most cruel way. So, we as the faithful followers of Lord Jesus, should not be surprised if someone attacks us physically, for the sake of the gospel. We should be prepared for everything. We have both heard and known people from the families of gentiles being saved and afterwards persecuted by their loved ones for their faith. We know about many women being physically persecuted by their husbands for their faith. We know about parents persecuted by their children, or children persecuted by their parents in the same manner. But we should take courage. We should not lose our patience. For, our reward will be great in Heaven. Lord Jesus had set the perfect example for us to follow. He bore all the physical persecutions with the hope of the glorious joy which He would attain soon. Likewise we should be filled with the Holy Spirit and hope of joy when we are being physically persecuted for the sake of our faith. I pray that God will give strength and comfort to all the believers around the world who are being persecuted physically for the sake of His Kingdom.
Mental Persecutions: We all know that our persecutions for the sake of righteousness are not only physical but also mental. Many believers are being tortured mentally. If someone from a gentile family gets converted, then that person is being treated as a stranger. Their own loved ones hate to be with them. They are becoming alone. They are being scolded cruelly. The amount of mental agony they go through cannot be expressed verbally. Also, those who are in the ministry are being accused mercilessly and falsely. They are bearing all the evil sayings of the disobedient people. They are being insulted. They are being mocked at. They are being accused falsely of crimes and mistakes they never committed. All these cause great mental agony. But Jesus is saying: Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven. It is real that some times the mental agony will be so great that we feel like we will go mad. Our minds fail to work properly. It goes dumb. We will be in a very depressed state that we no longer want to here to any one. We just want to be alone. We do not hear the comforting words of others. My beloved, listen to the voice of your Comforter. He is none other than Holy Spirit. When it seems like your mind is collapsing due to evil sayings and false accusations, listen to the loving, caring, and the sweet voice of the great Comforter. Let the Holy Spirit fill your mind with that glorious and incomprehensible peace of Heaven. Lean on Him. He will surely heal your depressed and damaged mind.
Spiritual Persecutions: When believers are being persecuted physically and mentally for the sake of righteousness, it is possible for fellow-believers to take notice of those persecutions. But spiritual persecutions cannot be noticed by any one (even by fellow-believers unless God reveals to them in their spirit) except to the believer who is undergoing those persecutions. It is not too much to say that many believers who are standing firmly in the ministry are not even aware that they are being persecuted spiritually. The Bible clearly tells us that all believers (especially those who are in the ministry) are waging a spiritual warfare. A war in the spiritual realm is going on between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. The fact that we are in the ministry implies that we are fighting against the kingdom of satan for the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of God. In the process, we come face to face with the army of evil spirits. In fact, what we think to be normally physical or mental persecutions may be some times coming directly from the evil spirits. This will be especially true in the lives of true God’s servants, because, true ministers of God will really threaten the kingdom of satan. The evil spirits will try to quench the fire in the spirits of God’s servants in many wicked ways. They will try to make him or her powerless in the ministry. This, they will do by force or by deception in many ways. For this reason, the servant of God should always be alert with earnest prayers. Jesus said that no evil spirit can by no means harm us. But if we are not alert and not continue in prayer, we will find ourselves defeated in this spiritual warfare. It is the grace of Lord Jesus which is empowering us again and again to wage war against evil spirits. His grace is sufficient for us. Even though we fall down many times, His grace will lift us up. We should be very diligent in seeking continual fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Remember that we are enduring these spiritual persecutions for the sake of righteousness. Endure until the end. Jesus will reward us richly. We will rule along with Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Conclusion: In the first step of our spiritual lives we saw that the poor in spirit will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We see similar words in the last step of our spiritual lives where it is written that those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. But there is a difference between the reward for those who overcome the first step (being poor in spirit) and those who overcome the last step (those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness), though the reward for overcoming both the steps seems to be the same in words (for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven). The meaning of “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” in the first step is that they will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But the meaning of the same words in the last step is that those who overcome this step will rule in the Kingdom of Heaven along with Lord Jesus. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
May the Lord give you grace to climb all these steps in your spiritual life in this world. God bless you.
