Persecution: A Badge of Honor--Sermon on the Mount Series

            In the early 1900’s, a man organizing an exploratory journey to the South Pole is said to have placed an ad in a newspaper that read like this: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness. Constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” There’s nothing quite like the truth, huh? I suppose that captain could always tell his crew, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

            Throughout the Gospels, we see a similar honesty from Jesus concerning the troubles that his followers could expect to suffer because of their testimony for him. With apologies to Joel Osteen, if Jesus had been a published author, he certainly would not have entitled his book, “Your Best Life Now.” Jesus consistently told his closest followers that following him would result in suffering in the here-and-now. Consider just a few examples:

·         Matthew 16:24-25—“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

·         Matthew 24:9—“…they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.”

·         John 15:20—“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

Of all the statements Jesus ever made, perhaps none have been proven true with more consistency than statements like these about persecution. The history of Christianity has been written in the blood of men and women who have faced hatred simply because they have faithfully followed Jesus Christ. Even today, one organization estimates that 100 million Christians around the world are being persecuted for their faith—and that number doesn’t even include people like you and me, who may not face violence because of our faith, but may still face insults and other forms of rejection.

But predictions about persecution were not Jesus’ only words on this subject. In fact, we will see in the Beatitudes today that Jesus pronounces a blessing on those who face persecution for him, and we’ll find out why as we take a closer look at Matthew 5:10-12 [READ Matthew 5:10-12]. Let’s break down these verses by talking through three questions that will help us get to the heart of the matter.

WHY IS THE PERSECUTION MENTIONED HERE TAKING PLACE?

            We should note that Jesus is not talking in these verses about suffering we may face from a health problem or from world events like a tornado, a drought, or a downturn in the economy. I do think we will be blessed if we maintain a good testimony in those events, but that simply is not what Jesus is talking about at this time. He is thinking specifically about moments in which we become a target for the hatred of others because we are living by his standards and proclaiming his message.

            It is easy to think that we in the United States really don’t face persecution for our faith, and I will admit that the rejection we face does seem like nothing compared to Christians in other parts of the world who face imprisonment or death because of their faith. But notice that in v. 11, Jesus mentions examples of persecution like insults, slander, and gossip. Those are precisely the forms of persecution that we are most likely to face in our lives today, so I think these verses are more directly applicable to us than we might think.

            We should also note that Jesus would not be talking about times where we might face hostility for representing him in a way that’s just downright obnoxious! Sometimes we find ourselves in heated conversations about religion where we lose our cool or act with arrogance and a lack of love. We may be insulted by others in those moments, but that’s not really persecution—that’s just a case of people responding with the same attitude that we displayed through our tone of voice or choice of words or our actions.

So, I am a target of persecution only if someone makes me the target of their hatred because they see the character of Christ in me.

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO PERSECUTION?

            It is never a pleasant experience to be the target of someone’s anger for any reason, so how should we respond when we find ourselves being persecuted for our faith? The Lord’s answer is very clear—“rejoice and be glad!” That sounds strange enough, but wait ‘til you get a load of this—the Greek verb translated “be glad” really encourages expressions of gladness. One Greek dictionary says it conveys gladness that often involves verbal expression and appropriate body movement. In other words, we’re talking about doing a touchdown dance!

Now why in the world would we respond this way to something as unpleasant as persecution?

WHY SHOULD WE RESPOND THIS WAY?

1. We have a great reward to look forward to

            This is why we can have such joy and gladness during persecution despite the pain of the moment. All persecution hurts, whether you face insults, slander, abuse, or even death, but Jesus is not calling us to some sadistic love of pain or even to a denial of the pain of the moment. He is simply calling us to change our perspective from the present to the future; to lift our eyes from the suffering of the moment to the satisfaction that will be ours down the road. Enduring persecution in a God-honoring way today will produce benefits for us in heaven.

            We have already talked about this concept of rewards in some of the earlier Beatitudes. Now sometimes it sounds “unspiritual”—almost selfish—to think about obeying God with the motive of receiving a reward, but the Bible actually leads us to the opposite conclusion. Hebrews 11 says that Moses made the choice to stand up for his people “because he was looking to the reward (Heb 11:26).” The Apostle Paul wrote that he presses on toward a deeper knowledge of Christ “for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14).” In the very next verse he wrote, “Let those of us who are mature think this way!”

            So its actually a sign of maturity to be motivated by the rewards that God promises. And why is that? Because it reveals that we believe the promises of God! So we can celebrate when we face persecution because the experience produces a reward for us which we will claim when we one day see the Lord.

We can also respond to persecution with joy because…

2. We are in great company

            Jesus reminded His audience in Matthew 5:12 that the Old Testament prophets faced persecution for speaking up for God. Those men were godly men, faithful servants, and it is an honor to be placed in the same category as them even if we’re placed there because we face similar persecution.

            Hebrews 11:32-38 contains a description of the accomplishments and the sufferings of the prophets. Why don’t you look at that passage with me? [READ Heb 11:32-38]. I think the parenthetical statement of v. 38 says it best—these were men of whom the world was not worthy. Now in some ways, we’d rather not be in a group like that because of what they had to suffer. That’s okay on one level because we’re never told to seek for persecution. But if it comes to us, we find ourselves in the company of people of whom the Bible says the world was not worthy.

            This is why we can have such great joy and gladness even in the midst of persecution. We can look to the past and see ourselves stepping into the company of great men, and we can look to the future and see the reward from God that awaits us. Its really all about a change of perspective, isn’t it?

            John Chrysostom provides us with a great example of the perspective that we should have during persecution. Chrysostom was a pastor in Constantinople in the late 300’s AD, and his faithful gospel preaching got him into trouble with the Roman Emperor. At one point, he was called before the Emperor because he had denounced the Emperor’s wife, and he was threatened with banishment if he did not recant his statements:

            “Sire,” he replied, “you cannot banish me, for the world is my Father’s house.”

            “Then I will slay you!”

            “No, you cannot, for my life is hidden with Christ in God.”

            “Then your treasures will be confiscated!”

            “Sire, that cannot be, either. My treasures are in heaven, where no one can break through and steal.”

            “Then I will drive you from men and you will have no friends left!”

            “You cannot do that either, for I have a friend in heaven who has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’”

What a difference our perspective can make!

            Allow me to close our time now with a couple of thoughts on the application of these verses to our lives. There is some irony in the fact that this statement “blessed are those who are persecuted” comes directly after the statement “blessed are the peacemakers.” We might think that if we’re trying to live at peace with others, we won’t face persecution. If only that were true! But this statement about persecution reminds us of the tremendous importance of living at peace with each other in the church.

            We’re not all that surprised when we face insults and rejection from people outside of church. In fact, the Apostle Paul told his young assistant, Timothy, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12).” We’re going to face it in some form, but when we face insults and rejection from people inside our own church, the pain can be almost unbearable. After all, where else can we turn to find love and acceptance? If we do not have peace with each other, our great temptation then is to make our peace with the world. It is very tempting at that point to stop living an obedient Christian life just to feel acceptance from someone, even if it comes from people who do not hold Christian values.

            Our church should be like an oasis from the rejection that we face in the world. That is why we must be peacemakers, as Jesus said. On so many levels, we simply cannot afford to fight with each other.

            Finally, as we take some measure of comfort in the fact that we rarely face the most severe forms of persecution in our country, let us never forget that many of our brothers and sisters around the world cannot say the same. Many Christians at this moment face imprisonment, physical abuse, and even death because of their faith. In Hebrews 13:3, we are commanded to remember our brothers and sisters: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” There are a number of good organizations today that work to help us remember the plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters. I would recommend to you The Voice of the Martyrs—you can find out more about their work at www.persecution.com. Let us remember to pray for our Christian family.

A Chip Off the Old Block--Sermon on the Mount Series

            There was once a man who attempted to sail all the way around the world by himself. He didn’t make it very far before a storm in the Pacific Ocean destroyed his boat and washed him ashore on a deserted island. A massive search-and-rescue effort was launched, but the man wasn’t found until five years later when a low-flying plane spotted his campfire. The plane radioed the location back to a US Naval Base, who sent a boat out to rescue the man.

            The man was ecstatic when he saw the ship coming to the island. He ran out to the beach and started jumping up and down, and when the sailors stepped foot on the island he just started hugging all of them. They were about to take him out to the ship when the man said, “Could I take a few minutes to show you around at what I built during the last five years?” The sailors figured it couldn’t hurt, so the man took them over to an impressive cabin that he had made for himself. Then he said, “Here’s a garden that I planted, and I even diverted a stream that flows down from the mountain so I could irrigate my crops. And here’s a canoe that hollowed out from a log so I could paddle out into the ocean and go fishing. But let me show you the best thing of all!”

            So he took the sailors up to the highest point on the island, and there they saw a small hut with a cross on it. The man said, “Here is my church! This is where I come to worship God. I built it on the highest point of the island because I feel so close to God up here.” As the man was speaking, the sailors noticed another small hut with a cross on it about 50 yards away, so they said, “What’s that over there?” The man looked a little annoyed and said, “Oh, that place? That’s the church I used to attend.”

            Sometimes that joke seems all too real—that if a Christian were by himself on a deserted island, he would still find a way to have a church split! We are not universally known for our ability to get along, which is very sad on so many levels—especially in light of the next Beatitude that we’ll be discussing today. In Matthew 5:9, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” As we study this Beatitude today, we’ll see just how attractive this idea of being a “peacemaker” really is, and it should inspire us to have that kind of reputation in our own lives and in our church.

“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS…”

            This phrase presents us with a clear example of how easily ideas can sometimes get lost in translation. Jesus was quite possibly speaking these words in Aramaic, which was a dialect of Old Testament Hebrew, Matthew then recorded them in Greek, and this morning we are reading them in English. Our English word “peace” doesn’t capture everything about the concept of peace of Jesus and his fellow Jews would have had in mind.

            We basically define peace as the absence of something—the absence of war or the absence of fighting. Its good to be in that kind of state of peace, but the Jewish people would have said that we have a pretty wimpy idea of peace. After all, by our definition, a nation like Haiti has enjoyed peace for a long time, but obviously they still haven’t had very pleasant conditions in their country. The United States was technically at peace with the Soviet Union during the Cold War because we never issued a declaration of war, but no one would say that our nations had a good relationship.

            Instead of defining peace as the absence of something, the Jewish people defined it as the presence of something. To them, peace was really the presence of all good things. The Hebrew word for this idea was shalom, and I don’t think we have any single word in English that’s just like it.

            When the Jewish people spoke of shalom, they probably would have pictured two things—the Garden of Eden and the kingdom of the Messiah. In the Garden of Eden, there wasn’t merely the absence of war, there was the presence of all good things. Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect relationships with God, each other, and the animals all around them. They had perfect health and perfect strength; they were surrounded by natural beauty that had no trace of death or decay. The ground was fertile and cooperative for growing good things.

            The Jewish people also looked forward to shalom in the kingdom of the Messiah. Isaiah 9:6 called the Messiah “the Prince of shalom,” and the prophecies about his kingdom describe not merely the absence of war (although that’s included as well), they describe an almost complete return to Edenic conditions—long life, good health, sincere worship of God, godly behavior, peace between men and animals, and fertile, productive ground.

            So when we read this Beatitude, we should think of a “peacemaker” as someone who works toward shalom in the lives of others—someone who not only removes a bad thing like hostility but actually replaces it with good things in the lives of others. When we think in these terms, we start to see how woefully inadequate our concept of peace really is compared to the concept we find in Scripture. This is never more obvious than when we have a fight or a disagreement or a misunderstanding with someone else. Our concept of peace tells us that as long as we are not actively hostile to someone else, then we have fulfilled the biblical commands. In other words, as long as I’m not doing bad things to you, then I’ve forgiven you and I’m living at peace with you.

            But then Scripture comes along and says, “Wait a minute! Don’t stop there! That’s the first step, but now how are you seeking to do good for that person?” That’s a much different way of thinking than our normal concept of living at peace with each other.

            I’m going to hit very close to home for just a moment. I think in a small town like ours, we are very good at maintaining this appearance of “peace” where we’re not actually doing bad things to each other because we know that’s wrong, but under the surface we’re not quite getting along as well as we let on. In larger towns and cities, when people have fights or disagreements they normally just end up avoiding each other. If two people in a church butt heads, one of them normally just ends up leaving. If you’ve lived in a larger town, you know what I’m talking about—there’s practically an invisible conveyor belt between churches that just takes people from one church to the next. People just sign their kids up for a different baseball team, or they join a different health club. They just avoid each other.

            Well around here, we don’t really have that option so much. You’d basically have to move away if you wanted to avoid someone completely, so in some ways I’m tempted to think that we’ve perfected the skill of putting up a good front. We mumble “hello” to each other and then we pat ourselves on the back for the great thing we’ve done, when all we’ve really done is the bare minimum that we could do to truly have healthy relationships with each other.

            I’m not going to lie—living at peace with each other is one of the hardest things that God calls us to do. But if we’re going to hit the bull’s eye on this one, the first thing we have to do is make sure we’re aiming at the right target! Peacemakers are those who work to see good things come about in the lives of others. Jesus pronounces a blessing on such people because, as he says, “they shall be called sons of God.”

“…FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD.”

            In Jewish culture, calling someone a “son of” something was simply a way to describe what kind of character they were displaying. For example, Jesus called the Apostles James and John the “sons of thunder,” probably because of an incident when they wanted to call down fire from heaven on a village of Samaritans. Judas was called the “son of perdition,” which means utter loss or ruin.” In Acts 4, the apostles gave a man named Joseph the nickname “Barnabas,” which means “son of encouragement.”

            So to put it simply, I think Jesus was saying that peacemakers are blessed because they display the same character as God. Its like saying that peacemakers are “a chip off the old block.” After all, God has set an example of doing good things even to those who are hostile to him. Notice what Jesus says just a short while later in this sermon in Matthew 5:43-45 [READ 5:43-45]. When Jesus says, “love your enemies…so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven,” He reveals that the idea of showing love is synonymous with the idea of being a peacemaker. That connection shows us that being a peacemaker is central to our mission as Christians.

            In John 13:35, Jesus told us as plain as day how other people would know that we are his “disciples”—a word that means “student.” How will people know that we are students of Jesus, that we are learning His ways? Here’s what he said: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35).” When people see us loving each other, then they will know that we are students of Jesus because they will see that we have learned his way of life.

            On the night before Jesus died, he prayed a very moving prayer that’s recorded in John 17—why don’t you turn there with me? In that prayer, people just like you and me came to his mind at one point, and what do you suppose his prayer request was for us? Let’s read it, beginning in v. 20. The Lord had been praying for the apostles, and now in v. 20 he says, “I do not ask for these only (meaning the apostles), but also for those who will believe in me through their word”—that’s you and me and all the other people who have been saved since Jesus returned to Heaven. What was his request for us? “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.”

            But why? What would be the result of this unity? “So that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Why is it that some people refuse to believe that Jesus came from Heaven? Could it be because they see nothing heavenly among the people who call themselves His students? Let’s go on to v. 22: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

            Do you know why some people don’t believe there’s a loving God in Heaven? Its not because they see tornados or earthquakes or because they get cancer or because they lose a child. Its because they see Christian people who can’t get along, and then they hear us say, “We’re God’s children!” If you see grown-up siblings who can’t get along, does it lead you to think that their parents must be kind, gracious, and loving? No, you’re led to think just the opposite.

            My friends, we do unimaginable damage to our proclamation of the Gospel if we cannot live at peace with one another. What does it do to our testimony if people see us fighting and then hear us say, “You know, you can have peace with God, too, just like we do?” Living as peacemakers—according to a biblical standard of peace—is absolutely essential to Christ’s mission for us to make disciples of all the nations.

            I’ve mentioned over the last few weeks that there are a lot of similar themes in the Sermon on the Mount and in the book of James (that James was actually the Lord’s brother). In James 4, he tells us exactly why it is so hard for people to get along with each other [READ James 4:1-2; when you read “murder,” remember that Jesus said harboring anger in your heart is just as bad as murder].

            It all really comes down to selfishness. It starts with the fact that my desires are at war within me; my sinful desires are battling in my heart for supremacy, and if I indulge them, before long I’ll be battling you for supremacy. My sinful desires put me in that mindset where I want what I want, when I want it, and from exactly the people from whom I feel I deserve it. When I allow that mindset to reign in my heart, its like a conquering general—always looking for new lands to conquer.

            So how can we become peacemakers, so that we can have the blessing of living like a chip off the old block? I think we’ve taken an important step today by realizing that we often assess ourselves by the wrong standard. We’ll never hit the bull’s eye if we aim at the wrong target! We need to repent of patting ourselves on the back simply because we’re not actively doing harm to others. As we learned last week when we talked about purity of heart, our hearts will not be pure as long as we assess ourselves by the wrong standards, because we will ignore the dirt that needs to be cleaned up.

            The next step is fairly obvious—we need to actively do good to others. We need to pray that God will bless them with every good thing in their lives, and do what we can to make that happen as God gives us opportunity.

            May we be a community that presents a convincing case to the world through our unity that God is love because they see the family resemblance in us, his children.