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.

The Darkness Shall Turn to Dawning--Sermon on the Mount Series

            If we had the opportunity to never again feel physical pain, I imagine we would all be tempted to take advantage of that opportunity. Just imagine—never having to deal with aches and pains again. No more sore muscles, no more creaky joints. That sounds great at first—doesn’t it?—but in reality, not being able to feel physical pain is a dangerous situation.

            There is actually a very rare medical condition known as CIPA, which describes people who were born without the ability to feel pain. Again, that might sound nice, but think about how dangerous that is. You could sustain a serious injury and not realize it because you couldn’t feel the pain. You know how you can sometimes get a small cut and not realize it until you see yourself bleeding? Imagine that on a much larger scale. Imagine if you couldn’t feel a deep, serious cut. Imagine if you touched something hot and left your hand there because you couldn’t feel the pain. While it might sound nice to feel no pain, pain actually plays a very important role for our bodies.

            In the same way that pain plays an important role for the body, grief and mourning play an important role for the soul. These emotions arrest our attention and force us to deal with things that we would not naturally choose to deal with, but just as physical pain tells us that there is a problem and drives us to deal with it, grief and mourning do the same.

            Our text for today is the second Beatitude, which you’ll find in Matthew 5:4—“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This is another statement from Jesus that turns worldly wisdom on its head, but it has such an important lesson to teach us. Let’s take a look at the two halves of this verse.

“BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN…”

            We often hear this verse at funerals, but that’s not exactly the kind of mourning that Jesus is talking about here. Don’t get me wrong—God is the source of our comfort when we lose a loved one, that’s just not what this particular verse is talking about. In all of the Beatitudes, Jesus is talking about our spiritual condition and spiritual character traits. Jesus must be talking about mourning over something in our spiritual condition, and that naturally brings up the idea of sin. So Jesus is apparently talking about mourning over sin, and I think we could say that such mourning would include our own sins and the sins of others that we see all around us.

            So, blessed are those who mourn over sin. That is the proper response when we become aware of sin within ourselves or within the people around us. What a challenging and humbling thought this is! An awareness of sin should produce within us a response that may be likened to the grief of losing a loved one. This word for mourning is also the normal word in the Bible for mourning someone’s death.

            This is no light or casual response to sin. This is not, “the devil made me do it.” This is not, “Its no big deal—I’m already forgiven.” This is not “boys will be boys” or “everyone makes mistakes” or “that’s why pencils have erasers.” This is a sense of loss, a sense of brokenness and disruption and dysfunction in the way that things are supposed to be. According to Jesus, this is the kind of response to sin that God approves of.

            Now I will be the first one to raise my hand and admit that I do not always respond to sin this way, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’m probably not the only person in this room who needs to admit that! So why do we have this other response to sin? Why do we tell ourselves, “it was no big deal?” Well, the major reason of course is our sin nature. We are attracted to sin the same way that magnets are attracted to your refrigerator, so when we sin that part of us certainly doesn’t feel like anything is wrong or broken.

            Our sin nature is certainly the over-arching reason why we may not mourn over sin, but there are some other factors that are less obvious but still play a big role. Let’s spend some time thinking about them.

WHAT FACTORS MAY DISCOURAGE US FROM MOURNING OVER SIN?

1. Cultural Factors

            a. Heritage

            Many of us in this room can trace our heritage back to Europe—more specifically, to northern Europe; countries like Germany, England, Norway, and Sweden. Within this cultural heritage there has often been disapproval of strong emotions. They have sometimes been seen as signs of weakness and thus have been discouraged. That’s very different from the Middle Eastern culture in which Jesus walked and talked. That’s not to say that mourning over sin would have been natural for His audience, but they didn’t have this cultural barrier that many of us have in our background.

            b. Contemporary Factors

                        1) Fear and disapproval of grief and sadness

            Our culture fears and disapproves of mourning in virtually all its forms. The psychiatric community literally wants to treat grief like the common cold—its okay if it hangs around for a few days, but after that we better start to medicate it! Just last year, the official handbook for American psychiatrists revised its guidelines so that now you could be diagnosed with a mental illness if you grieve the loss of a loved one for longer than two weeks! A number of psychiatrists correctly protested that change, but nevertheless it is now enshrined in the “Bible” of American psychiatry.

            Our society struggles to see how any good can come out of grief, especially something like grief over sin. We are so concerned about having a positive self-image that grieving over our actions sounds dysfunctional and harmful. Yet it is precisely the response that Jesus encourages us to have. Considering that the Devil is active in our world today, it should not surprise us that society points us in a different direction than Jesus does.

2. Factors Within the Church

            a. Misunderstandings about Happiness and Joy

            Within our church and with our church friends, we can feel a lot of pressure to appear happy all the time, but this pressure stems from a misunderstanding about happiness and joy. As we discussed last week, happiness is a good feeling that you get when you like what is happening around you, but joy is more of an attitude that we can choose to embrace. It is an attitude of optimism in light of what God has done and what He has promised to do.

            That is an attitude that we can adopt at all times, but it doesn’t mean that we will always feel happy. For example, in Philippians 4:4, Paul writes, “Rejoice always,” and in the same letter, he tells the Philippian believers that he is writing to them with tears! So was Paul breaking his own command? No, and that’s because happiness and joy are not exactly the same thing.

            I think the pressure to appear happy is also reinforced by some of the songs that we sing. For example, consider the refrain of the hymn, “At the Cross:”

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away

It was there by faith, I received my sight

And now I am happy all the day.

Have you ever sung that song even though you felt like you weren’t being totally honest? I’m not always happy all the day, and if I confuse happiness and joy in my mind, it is easy to feel like something is wrong with me. In reality, there are times when I most certainly should not be happy, like when I become aware that I made a sinful choice. I can still have an underlying optimism because of God’s grace, but I should grieve over the dysfunction of my heart.

            b. A sense of pressure to put on a good face for those who don’t attend church

            We want to present our church in an attractive light to people in the community, but in our efforts to do this we can feel pressure to exude a fake happiness that is just a show. Sometimes we compound this with our outreach efforts. I can remember times when I have invited someone to church by saying, “You should come sometime. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Now, what kind of pressure does that create if the person comes to a service? Well, I’m going to feel pressure to make sure things are enjoyable for them. After all, that’s what I told them they would find, so now I want to deliver! As part of that, I certainly don’t want them to see me grieving over sin, because that doesn’t seem very enjoyable.

These days, when I invite someone to church, I just try to say, “Why don’t you come sometime? We’d love to have you.” I feel like I can say that with total honesty, and I’m not promising them anything more than perhaps a friendly reception.

So how can we overcome these factors that discourage us from mourning over sin? Let’s talk about a few ways to cultivate this response.

HOW DO WE CULTIVATE THIS RESPONSE?

1. Make the effort to reflect on your life

            We cannot mourn over our sins if we’re not aware of them. Some of our sinful choices are very obvious to us, but perhaps many of them are not, and sinful attitudes can be even more difficult to diagnose. Therefore, we must learn the Word of God and allow it to point out our sins so that we can then respond to them properly.

            Reflecting on our lives is a crucial step for Christian maturity, and I dare to say that this step cannot be fully taken in just a short devotional time each day. We must build a structure into our lives that brings the Word of God back to mind and that allows some time for reflection. With the schedules that we so often sign up for, we cannot afford to have our hearts and minds arrested by grief over sin. We have to keep going on to the next thing and the next thing, and our attention has to be given to the next project. Where are the quiet moments that allow for reflection? We must make an effort to create those moments.

2. Pray for sensitivity toward sin

            I think King David’s prayer in Psalm 139 is a model prayer for us all: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” David’s prayer acknowledges the deceitfulness of sin. Sinful attitudes in particular do not just announce their presence in our lives, and even when we suspect that we may have sinned, it is easy to justify our actions. So we must pray for God to point out our sins and lead us down the proper paths.

3. Reflect on the sacrifice that was necessary for your sins to be forgiven

            When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He was crucified, He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me…if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done (Matt 26:39-42).” Jesus was talking about God’s wrath toward sin, and He received a clear answer to His prayer the next day—it was not possible for sin to be forgiven except through Christ’s sacrificial death. If any other means of forgiveness were possible, surely God would have chosen it, but there was no other way. Christ’s sacrifice reveals how serious God considers sin to be, and reflecting on His sacrifice can help us avoid a flippant or non-chalant attitude toward our sins.

“…FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.”

            We must also remember that mourning was not the final word in this Beatitude. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” How would this comfort come? Well, first it would come through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke those words, the Holy Spirit did not yet live in the hearts of men and women, but when Jesus taught the apostles about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He called Him “the Comforter.” That title comes from the same Greek word that Jesus uses in this Beatitude.

            Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit confirms in our hearts the truth of the Gospel—that we are forgiven by trusting in the crucified and risen Lord. This is why joy can remain even as we grieve over our sins. “Though sorrow may last for a night, joy comes in the morning!”

            And yet, the fullness of this comfort will not come until the kingdom of Christ is established on this Earth. Any comfort we receive today can be nothing more than a ray of sunshine breaking through an otherwise dark sky. We are comforted by the forgiveness of our sins, but we will continue to struggle with its temptation. We rejoice to see kindness in our world, but we will continue to see senseless acts of terror. But one day, “the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noon-day bright, and Christ’s great kingdom shall come to Earth, the kingdom of love and light!” Then, we will see the fullness of this comfort, as the Prince of Peace reigns on His throne!

The Beginning of Blessings--Sermon on the Mount Series

            We’re getting very close to the start of graduation season, and if you attend many graduations this year, you’ll probably hear some of the regurgitated slogans that capture the wisdom of our age—favorites like:

• ·         “Follow your heart; it will never lead you astray”
• ·         “If its meant to be, its up to me”
• ·         “Realize your own potential for greatness”
• ·         “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

I started to wonder the other day how Jesus might be received as a graduation speaker today. I’m sure a school would have a packed house if they could announce that Jesus was their graduation speaker, but how would people react if Jesus walked to the podium and said, “The first thing you need to understand is your complete lack of anything that might allow you to lay claim to God’s favor.” I wonder if Jesus would get invited back the next year.

      Today, we’re going to hear basically that message from Jesus as we start to look at the Sermon on the Mount. This will be merely the beginning of a complete overhaul of much of the so-called “wisdom” that we hear in our culture today. You can expect to receive a new outlook on life as we learn to see it from Jesus’ point of view.

      Our study will take us first of all into a collection of verses known as The Beatitudes. Let me make a couple of comments about these verses in general before we study the first one today. First, as we read The Beatitudes, we should not read these statements as a list of things to do in order to be born again, or in order to receive forgiveness of our sins. Nor should we read these verses as a checklist to use in order to measure whether you have been born again; or in other words, to find assurance of salvation.

The best commentary on The Beatitudes comes in Matthew 5:19, where Jesus states that we will not all have the same status in His kingdom on Earth. He says that some will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, and some will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. The Beatitudes, then, are a description of the kind of person who will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. I think this is confirmed by v. 12, which says that the person described in The Beatitudes will have great reward in Heaven. These verses tell us how to live in order to hear that statement of approval from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

      Second, in all of these verses, we will read that the person being described is called “blessed.” Let’s talk about what that word means. When you hear this word, don’t equate it with the word “happy.” As you’ve probably heard at some point, happiness is simply an emotional response to what’s going on around you. In fact, the word “happiness” is related to the word “happening,” as in what’s happening around you. So happiness is simply a good feeling that you get when you like what’s happening around you.

            But this word “blessed” is not talking about a feeling that just comes and goes in your life. Blessedness is the status of being approved by God. It is a status that we can enjoy now as we live out these attitudes and actions, and it is a status that will one day be made obvious to everyone in Christ’s kingdom because of the rewards that the “blessed” person will receive. So blessedness goes beyond a mere feeling of happiness, and it remains even if your circumstances make you feel unhappy—it is a wonderful thing, indeed!

With these points in mind, we are ready to look at the first Beatitude which is found in v. 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“THE POOR IN SPIRIT…”

            Right away, we learn that Jesus would not do very well as a modern-day self-help speaker. Instead of telling us to realize our inner potential and power, He tells us to realize our inner poverty! When Jesus says, “poor in spirit,” he’s talking about the way that we view ourselves with respect to God. Do I see myself as having credit in my spiritual bank account (so to speak) that I could use to bargain with God, or do I see myself as having nothing with which I could purchase or gain His approval and favor?

            Its very important for us to understand the word “poor” that Jesus uses here. When we hear the word “poor,” we probably think of those who are financially poor in our country. Now, in our country in particular, it is possible for people to be financially poor, yet have a fair number of things. They may not have much, its true, but they often do have something. But Jesus is not saying, “Blessed is the man who can say, ‘I may not have much credit built up with God, but at least I have some!”

            The word that Jesus uses is the Greek word ptoxos. It’s the word that’s used to describe Lazarus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where we’re told that Lazarus would lay at the gate of the rich man’s property and long to eat anything that fell from his table. Lazarus was a beggar, and he was totally at the mercy of the rich man.

            So Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who realize that they are totally at the mercy of God, who understand that they have nothing with which to gain His approval or favor.” We would normally use the word “humility” to describe this attitude, and it is perfectly portrayed in Jesus’ story about the Pharisee and the tax collector. Let’s take a look at that story in Luke 18. (If you’re not familiar with this, tax collectors were seen as traitors by the Jewish people of Jesus’ day because they worked for a foreign government. Jesus is not putting down anyone who works at the IRS!) [READ Luke 18:9-12]. Notice that this Pharisee felt like he had some credit in his spiritual bank account; he thought he had some airline miles on his spiritual credit card because he regularly performed religious activities, and he thought that God must have been impressed by that. Now, let’s read about the tax collector [READ vv. 13-14]. The tax collector is a perfect example of someone who is poor in spirit. He realized that he was totally at the mercy of God; he had nothing that would impress God and no way to bargain with Him. He could do nothing but ask for mercy, and Jesus said that’s exactly what God was looking for.

            Now its very important to remember that we’re supposed to have this attitude not only when we accept Christ and are converted, but throughout our lives as well. It is easy to allow a particular idea to quietly take root in our minds—the idea that we do start to accumulate spiritual “credit” with God after we are converted. We realize we have no credit before God when we’re converted, but we might think that from that point forward, we start to build up credit with God like fuel points at Dillons, and then we can cash in that credit when we want God to heal us from cancer or get our kids out of a bad relationship or something like that.

This attitude can produce bitterness and anger within us when hard times inevitably come in our lives. We may find ourselves saying, “God, how can you allow this to happen to ME? I go to church; I gave money to that missionary whenever he came through town; I took food to that sick person that one time; I invited over those neighbors of mine who are hard to get along with.” We get angry with God because we feel like we had somehow built up credit with Him that was supposed to bring only good things and not bad things.

In reality, we do not build up credit with God at any time. There is never a moment when we can say, “I deserve this or that from God.” Now, we can recall the things that God has promised to do in His grace, but that is different from saying, “I deserve this or that.” Jesus drives home this point with a short story in Luke 17:7-10 [READ Luke 17:7-10]. So what’s the most that I can say for myself when I’ve done all—ALL!—that God commands? “I am an unworthy servant; I have only done what was my duty.”

Now, as we’ll see, it is true that God promises to reward those who obey Him, but even those rewards are a sheer act of God’s grace. We will not receive them because we deserve them; we will receive them because God is incredibly, amazingly, unfathomably gracious!

“THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”

            Looking again at Matthew 5:3, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for (or we could also translate this “because”) theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is why Jesus called them blessed—not because life will be all sunshine and rainbows for them in the here-and-now, but because of their relationship to the kingdom of heaven.

            Now when you hear this phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” don’t simply think “they will live in heaven with God after they die.” That is true, but Jesus is talking about more than that. It is so important for us to remember that part of our future destiny is to live again on this planet with Jesus when He returns to reign as king over the Earth. Even if we die today, we will return to this planet with Jesus in our resurrected bodies to live with Him in His kingdom.

            You may remember that last week, we read that the basic message of Jesus’ very first sermons was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 4:17).” Jesus was talking about the worldwide kingdom of peace that was promised in the Old Testament. When Jesus came into world the first time, He was prepared to establish that kingdom, but the people were not spiritually prepared for it—that’s why He first called them to repent. But when the people almost unanimously rejected His call to repent, God delayed the establishment of that kingdom, and it has been delayed now for almost 2,000 years as God has sent the message of the Gospel far and wide throughout the Earth.

            But when Jesus mentioned the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5:3, that’s what He was referring to—the worldwide kingdom of peace that Jesus will one day establish in this world. And notice that Jesus says of the poor in spirit that the kingdom is theirs. I think this is a little different than simply saying that the poor in spirit will live in that kingdom—which is true—but I believe Jesus is saying that the poor in spirit will have a piece of ownership in that kingdom.

            Let me clarify what I mean by pointing you to a conversation between Jesus and the Apostles in Luke 22 [READ Luke 22:24-30]. Don’t miss what Jesus is doing—He is giving the Apostles a role in His administration, so to speak. This is similar to what our president does when he comes into office. There are certain jobs that the president can give to anyone he wants—Chief of Staff, Senior Advisor, Press Secretary. And who does he give those positions to? To the people who were working closely with him during his campaign. Their positions are a reward of sorts for the work they did for the president.

            This is Christ’s reward for those who serve Him—for those who grow and display the kind of character traits He desires, for those who faithfully stand with Him. He gives them an honored position of service to Him in His kingdom. I believe this is what Jesus means when He says of the poor in spirit, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They will share in Christ’s authority to reign.

            This idea fits perfectly with the mission that God gave to mankind way back in Genesis 1. God said of mankind, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the earth (Gen 1:26).” When Christ sets up His kingdom in this world, He will fulfill God’s original intention for mankind, and we will serve with Him in that task to a greater or lesser degree based on our faithfulness to Him today.

            As I noted earlier from Matthew 5:19, some will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, and some will be called great. How do we pursue that greatness in the kingdom of Christ? Not in the way that the wisdom of our age would tell us. The frame of mind that puts us on the right track is to remember our utter spiritual poverty before God. At no point do we possess anything on our own that would allow us to gain God’s approval or favor. As Lazarus was completely at the mercy of the rich man when he laid there at his gate, so we are completely at the mercy of God for all things. This is the attitude that is called “blessed” by Jesus, and it is the attitude that will help us willingly receive the rest of the words that He will speak in this sermon.

Reflections on The Jesus I Never Knew--Ch. 6

As you can see, I am not planning to take a "book club" approach to my reading reflections. I'm not planning to reflect on every chapter of every book, but only on statements and lessons that I find particularly moving and beneficial.

In chapter six of his book, Yancey has a great discussion on the Beatitudes that Jesus uttered in his Sermon on the Mount. Yancey concludes that the Beatitudes really speak on three levels: they are (1) dangled promises; (2) a "great reversal" which challenges worldly values; and (3) a psychological reality for those who adopt their way of life (Yancey mentions Henri Nouwen as an example of this principle, who is another author that I would like to read sometime).

Yancey concludes by writing the following: "When I first heard the Beatitudes, they sounded to me like impossible ideals given by some dreamy mystic. Now, though, I see them as truths proclaimed by a realist...Jesus knew how life works, in the kingdom of heaven as well as the kingdom of this world. In a life characterized by poverty, mourning, meekness, a hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and persecution, Jesus himself embodied the Beatitudes" (p. 126).

Yancey's observation is a helpful corrective against the temptation to view statements like these from Jesus as being little more than zealous exaggeration--i.e. that Jesus doesn't mean what he says, he is simply exaggerating for effect. But Jesus' life tells a different story--not only does he mean what he says, but he lives it out too. What a challenging example to follow, but what a rewarding path to tread!