Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount with nine Beatitudes – sayings that start ‘Blessed are’. Jesus wants us to be blessed – meaning, happy or fortunate.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus presents us with the key characteristics of the Christian. Some people have said they’re the blueprint of the Christian. Others have suggested that they show the Christian’s DNA.
Today, we’re looking at the eighth and ninth Beatitudes. They're very similar. They’re both about persecution – so the ninth Beatitude is probably not a separate Beatitude but an elaboration of the eighth.
We’ll take a look at them shortly but I’d first like us to notice the similarity between the first and eighth Beatitudes.
The first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.”
The eighth Beatitude – which is, in many ways, the last – is “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.”
In the first and last Beatitudes, the phrase at the end is the same as the phrase at the beginning. We could say that these identical phrases form book-ends to the Beatitudes. They show that the Beatitudes are a set on the subject of THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN – the kingdom which Jesus is king of.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus describes a person who is in the kingdom of heaven. Actually, Jesus doesn’t say ‘IN’ the kingdom of heaven. He says ‘theirs IS the kingdom of heaven’!
In the first Beatitude Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’. The start-point of coming into relationship with God is humility. Later on, Jesus says the same thing in a slightly different way. He tells his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’
Jesus then gives six more Beatitudes. They show us a whole set of characteristics of the person who is in the kingdom of heaven.
Then we come to the eighth and ninth Beatitudes, the two we’re looking at today. They are both on the subject persecution. Persecution is one of the clearest characteristics of a Christian.
If a person is being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, then it’s clear that they're following Jesus.
In 2009 we [our family] were living in Azerbaijan. One Sunday we were hosting a Christian meeting at our home when 13 policemen raided our home. They questioned everyone. Afterwards, one young man decided to stop being a Christian. He didn’t fancy being persecuted for his faith.
There was also a woman we knew. Her husband and her brother beat her after she became a Christian. But she didn’t stop being a Christian. Her acceptance of persecution showed clearly where she stood. Jesus’ words, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ apply to her.
So, to recap, the Beatitudes are a set of characteristics of the Christian. A person becomes a Christian at the first Beatitude – coming to God in repentance and saying, ‘Have mercy on me, a sinner.’ But as the person continues as a Christian, the other characteristics become evident.
Perhaps this illustration will help.
Let’s imagine I’m walking in a wood with my son. He asks me what an oak tree is. How can he tell? I could point to a little oak tree shoot in the ground. ‘You see those leaves?’ I ask. ‘They tell you it’s an oak tree.’ I could point out some branches that someone has cut down. ‘You see the grain of the wood?’ I ask. ‘That tells you it’s an oak tree.’ Or I might point to some acorns on a tree. ‘Those acorns tell you it’s an oak tree.’
The oak tree shoot doesn’t yet have wood. THAT characteristic hasn’t appeared yet. Nor does it have acorns. THAT characteristic hasn’t appeared either.
A person who has just become a Christian might not experience persecution straight away. But as they continue in the Christian life, they will.
The fact that Jesus places persecution here in his list of characteristics in itself points to that. But Jesus makes it very clear elsewhere. He told his disciples, ‘If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours’ [John 15:20b]. People certainly DID persecute Jesus, so people WILL persecute his followers. That means us – assuming we’re following Jesus.
Paul says the same thing. He tells Timothy, ‘Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…’ [2 Timothy 3:12]. There are no ifs or buts here. ‘ALL who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus WILL be persecuted’.
Logic also tells us that we’re bound to be persecuted. About four years ago, Pope Francis published a document – in English it has the title ‘Rejoice and Be Glad’ – in which he calls people to holiness. He wrote that living the Beatitudes means ‘going against the flow’ in a world that pushes us in the opposite direction from holiness. That’s exactly what scripture tells us. In the Bible, ‘the world’ often means the world that is in rebellion against God. Jesus is going against the flow of the world. If we follow him, we’re going to be bumped.
If you follow Jesus you will have to stand up for things. If you don’t stand up for things you won’t be persecuted – and you won’t follow Jesus. It isn’t possible to follow Jesus and not be persecuted. The verses we looked at tell us that.
If you’ve been a Christian for five days you might not have faced persecution yet. But if you’ve been following Jesus for any length of time and have never faced persecution then there’s something fishy going on.
We can actually make a strong case that being persecuted is not simply ONE of the characteristics of the Christians; it’s perhaps the clearest characteristic.
About a week ago I was listening to Radio Solent while I was driving. Some sort of gardening show came on. Someone had sent the gardening experts a picture of a plant in their garden and they wanted to know what it was. The gardening experts had some ideas about what it was. ‘But’, they said, ‘you really need to wait until it’s flowered to know what it is.’
A person may look like a Christian. But when persecution comes along, he or she may give up. Our willingness to endure persecution proves the genuineness of our faith. The apostle Peter tells us the same thing. Trials test our faith and show it to be genuine – and that brings honour to Jesus [1 Peter 5:7].
In the eighth Beatitude Jesus makes a general statement about persecution. In the ninth Beatitude, he expands on it. He gives some concrete examples of the kind of persecution we might face and he talks about how we should respond to persecution.
I want to make two brief points. In the ninth Beatitude, Jesus says:
‘Blessed are you when others REVILE you and PERSECUTE you and UTTER all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.’
Jesus says ‘revile’, ‘persecute’ and ‘utter’. ‘Persecute’ might mean some kind of violent attack. Most of us remember Habila and Jemimah and their daughter Hadessah who attended Rosebery Park last year. For those who didn’t know them, they are a Nigerian family from a part of Nigeria where there are frequent violent attacks against Christians. Christians are killed and houses and churches are burned down. That’s persecution. No difficulty understanding that.
But notice that Jesus also said ‘revile’ and ‘utter’. Jesus is including things people SAY to us. The things people say can cause a lot of pain. Jesus knows that.
Here is the final point. Jesus says:
‘Rejoice and be glad, FOR YOUR REWARD IS GREAT IN HEAVEN, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’
There’s a scene in the first Star Wars film where Luke Skywalker is trying to persuade Han Solo to help rescue Princess Leia. Luke tells Han Solo that the princess is rich and powerful.
‘Listen’, Luke says, ‘if you were to rescue her, the reward would be...’
‘What?’
‘Well, more wealth than you can imagine!’
‘I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit!’
This is Star Wars. It’s fictional. But Jesus IS King of Kings and Lord or Lords. He owns everything. He’s very generous. If Jesus says, ‘your reward is great in heaven’ then it’s going to be really something. I don’t IMAGINE that. I’m sure of it. If man is going to make life really unpleasant for us because we’re following Jesus, be in no doubt that Jesus will give you a great reward. That’s what he’s promised.
We can stand against the flow of the world. In fact, followers of Jesus are the only ones who can. The apostle John tells us that. He wrote, ‘For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?’ [1 John 5:4-5].
So, let’s stand. Let’s go against the flow. We will get bumped along the way. But it’s possible to stand. When we do, we prove the reality of our faith. And we can even rejoice and be glad! We’re richly blessed. Ours is the kingdom of heaven! And our reward in heaven is great!
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 27th March 2022
