Responding To Persecution Series

Intro

Persecution: Will we experience increased persecution in the days ahead? If so, will we be prepared and equipped to handle it well? These are questions that naturally arise as we read our text today. It’s found in Matthew 5:10--12: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”i

We are nearing the completion of our study in the Beatitudes. In these Beatitudes, Jesus has revealed to us the pathway of life. These are the qualities that attract the blessing of God. They are counter-intuitive and contrary to the carnal mind.ii They call us to humility rather than self-sufficiency and pride. They call us to mourning rather than partying and revelry. They call us to meekness and peacemaking rather than a pursuit of personal rights and privilege. In short, they define walking in the Spirit rather than walking in the flesh.iii To all those who will enter this straight and narrow pathway, God promises transformation that leads to life everlasting.iv That’s why we are so passionate about understanding these keys to the kingdom.

Each beatitude addresses an attribute of character that God desires in his children. The last attribute is stated more indirectly than the first seven. It addresses the persecution that will be experienced by those who are characterized by the first seven beatitudes. Then it provides instruction for responding to that experience and the blessing that follows: “for great is your reward in heaven.” The word blessed is used twice in this final beatitude.v We count it as the eighth beatitude because Jesus is pronouncing a blessing just as he has done in the previous.

There are others who do not count this as a beatitude, and some count it as two beatitudes. The important thing is that we understand what Jesus is saying and live accordingly.

The key to understanding these beatitudes is to get a scriptural revelation of each quality. How do we know that biblical mercy is not tolerance of evil? How do we know that it is not indiscriminate acceptance of evil? We examine Scripture as a whole on the subject of mercy and find limits that God sets on his exercise of mercy. For example, in Hebrews 10:26-29 we read: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” There is a point when the longsuffering of God has been exhausted, the sinner’s heart is fully set on rejection of God’s grace, and nothing is left for that person but judgment. If I read into Matthew 5:7 a twisted concept of mercy, I am in danger of grave deception.

How do we know that biblical peacemaking addressees the issues and calls for repentance of sin? We know that by examining, in the Bible, how God makes peace. He does not appease rebels. In his love and grace, he provides forgiveness through the cross. He pays the ultimate price for peace; then he offers reconciliation through the gospel of peace. Biblical peacemaking does not abandon truth and justice. God’s peacemaking is more honorable than mere appeasement. And when we see the apostles proclaiming the gospel of peace, we find them confronting sin and calling people to repentance. Jesus’s concept of peacemaking would have been consistent with Scripture, and the apostles' method of peacemaking reflected Christ’s concept of the term.

If we approach the seventh beatitude with a concept of peacemaking that is simply appeasement and peace at any price, then we will completely misunderstand that beatitude. That’s why we have taken time in this study to make sure our understanding of the quality declared in each beatitude is consistent with the overall revelation of Scripture.

Without a biblical understanding of each quality (poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, etc.), we can make the Beatitudes say just about anything. One reason the Beatitudes are broadly acclaimed by many in the world is they are reading their own definitions into the key terms. They think they are meek because of a natural gentleness in their personality, but they are not surrendered to God and, therefore, do not qualify for the blessing pronounced by Jesus. Our first expression of meekness must be toward God and the authority of his word. Without that, we are not operating in biblical meekness. For example, God says in Isa 66:2, “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit [poor in spirit], And who trembles at My word.” The Hindu who would not kill a cockroach considers himself meek. But his meekness is not consistent with biblical revelation. He has not surrendered himself to God’s way of salvation. He does not respect the authority of God’s word. He is meek by his own definition, but he is not meek according to biblical revelation. For each beatitude, we must begin with a clear understanding of Jesus’s concept of that characteristic.