Blessed are the Persecuted

Today on the To Win the Many Podcast, we look at our final Beatitude, blessed to the persecuted, which is found in Matthew chapter 5, verses 10 through 12. Now, in this Beatitude, it seems a bit odd. It seems to sneak up on us in the text, it surprises us a bit. And it's also a double Beatitude. When you look at the passage, it says in verse 10 of Matthew chapter 5, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And then follows that up with verse 11, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Verses 11 and 12 change noticeably from the third person to the second person. These are also elaborations. Think of them as applications of the truth there that you see in verse 10. So verses 11 and 12 are, they elaborate, but they also apply the truth a bit more. And the reminder in the Beatitudes is whatever we see in the Beatitudes, that is the blessed life. So for us, verses 10 through 12, remind us that the persecuted life is the blessed life. The persecuted life is the blessed life. Now let's walk through this and make application along the way because we need to understand persecution for righteousness sake. It's not just a general persecution, it's not just a general hardship, it's persecution for righteousness sake and also the blessing that coincides with that. So we'll walk through this step by step, step number one, persecution is the normal Christian life. Persecution is the normal Christian life. Notice the when used rather than if it is when you are persecuted. When people insult you is what it says. So this highlights the fact that persecution is a part of the kingdom life. Jesus speaks of persecution often in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10 verses 16 through 25. Jesus says that he was sending them out as sheep among wolves. It's interesting when you think about Nick Ripkin, I remember him asking this question, when does sheep overcome wolves? When does sheep overcome wolves? The sentiment there, sheep among wolves, that's not a, that's not a, a fairy tale picture, so to speak, it is a picture of persecution, it's a picture of hardship. Second Timothy 3 verse 12 says all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, not might be, not could be, but will be persecuted. You can see in Matthew chapter 10 verse 34 the distinction and the division between believers and unbelievers and in Luke 626 says woe to you when all men speak well of you. John Stott said persecution is simply the clash between irreconcilable vow, vow you systems. Bonhoeffer said with every beatitude the Gulf is widened between the disciples and the people and their call to come forth from the people becomes increasingly manifest. Persecution is the normal Christian life, being slandered, being persecuted is as normal a mark of Christianity as being pure in heart or being merciful. I remember talking to a guy just recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and he was explaining to us the effects of it. And he said essentially what I'm having to do in my life is establish a new normal, meaning his body was experiencing symptoms, his body was experiencing effects of an autoimmune disorder and they were so comprehensive that his normal life was vastly different. He had to establish a new normal. When we become believers in Jesus we are part of a new normal. We are different people who live differently, consequently we're treated differently. This goes as far back as scripture, the New Testament, but also that great classic work, Fox's book of martyrs where you can see the persecution of the disciples, you can see all kinds of persecution around the world for New Testament leaders. Chuck Corals pulling from an article the New Persecuted inquiries into anti-Christian intolerance in the New Century of martyrs stated and I quote, "recent estimates suggest that 70 million Christians were martyred in the first two millennia of church history." Of these 70 million, some 45 million which is approximately two thirds were martyred between 1900 and 2000, persecution is the normal Christian life. That's step one. Step two, persecution comes in various forms. Persecution comes in various forms. Now think of it in terms of persecution versus marginalization, we tend to be marginalized more than persecuted, meaning our influence in society has been deteriorating and is continuing to deteriorate. So there's a marginalization on many of us in the West as opposed to persecution. You also have individual versus group persecution. Group persecution is widespread while individual persecution is an isolated incident. We need to be careful, we need to be careful not to attribute someone else's persecution to our account. So when an individual is persecuted in the United States for their Christian beliefs and this happens, think the Christian Baker out in Colorado. But I need to be careful that I don't take his persecution and apply it or a lot to my account because he was persecuted doesn't mean that all of us Christians in the United States are persecuted specifically when we're talking about verses 10 through 12. So individual persecution versus group persecution. When Jesus says they insult you, they insult you, meaning mocking and verbal shaming, these were the words that were hurled at Jesus while he was on the cross. You can see it in Matthew chapter 27 verses 39 through 34, 44, same kinds of mocking and verbal shaming. They insult you. And then he says they persecute you, which means to run after and to pursue. Matthew 2334 described persecutors chasing Jesus disciples from town to town. This aspect of persecution is associated with killing, crucifying and also the scourge on Jesus followers. So he says they insult you, they persecute you and they falsely say every kind of evil against you. These are false accusations against the righteous. Faults accusations against the righteous. Gianchuk quarrels does a great job of listing some of these false accusations in the first three centuries of the church. Christians were accused of cannibalism, incest, atheism and a general hatred of humanity. So these are some of the false statements against believers historically. Now when he says they, when they falsely say, when they insult you, when they persecute you, who are the persecutors, who is the day in this passage? Well we would start with the unrighteous. Those who are rejecting the person in the teachings of Jesus, the unrighteous invite, essentially, they invite the righteous to engage in certain activities and lifestyles. And when the righteous do not engage in these activities, the unrighteous hate the righteous and attempt to hurt the unrighteous, I mean the righteous, the unrighteous hate and the unrighteous attempt to hurt the righteous. So the unrighteous are those who will persecute believers. But it's not only the unrighteous in the sense, think non-Christians. You might say they're the same, but just to parse it out a bit more, non-Christians, think of the New Atheist movement, where the New Atheist actually told people to publicly mock Christians. Those who reject the way of Christianity, meaning the value system of Christianity, they are going to mock, they're going to scorn and ridicule Christians. So non-Christians will ridicule Christian stances on abortion. They'll ridicule the Christian stances on sexual ethics. They will ridicule the Christian stances on justice and grace and forgiveness. So the unrighteous, the non-Christian, and also there's a third category here, which is the nominal Christian. Throughout Christian history, nominal Christians have persecuted genuine Christians. Again, you might say, well, nominal Christians are unrighteous and they're non-Christian. But in order to help us advance the conversation, think of those who would claim to be Christian, they are not acting as though they are genuine Christians. Throughout Christian history, these quote unquote Christians have persecuted genuine Christians. Lloyd Jones says, formal Christianity is often the greatest enemy of the pure faith. When I look back on the evangelical awakening, you have George Whitfield and John Wesley. They started with an attempt to preach in the church itself and they were removed or they they were killed. kicked out of the church. They had to go preach outside to find an audience who would listen because they were being rejected and in a sense persecuted by those nominal Christians, by the Christian institution itself. When you look at the great awakenings in the history of the US, there was a spiritual coldness within the church, within those who claimed to be Christians. And then you had these passionate followers who were rising up within the church and passionate followers of Christ make unpassionate or dispassionate followers feel guilty because they lack passion. It causes the unpassionate or the dispassionate to mock those who have passion, to begin to ridicule them, to begin to cast dispersions on them, to begin to persecute them. It reminds me of when you were in junior higher high school and you were playing a sport or it was PE and you were running around the track. And if you had the kid who was trying his best and running his hardest, he made everyone else in class who wasn't trying their best and they worked running fast. The fast kid or the one trying his hardest always made the other ones look bad. So rather than the others picking up the pace, they just cast blame and they insulted the one who was trying his hardest and running the fastest. The same thing happens in Christianity. Those who are formal and cold are often the loudest, most outspoken against those who are passionate and those who are trying to follow the Lord with their whole heart. So again, persecution is the normal Christian life. Third, persecution must come for the right reason. Jesus says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bluster you and people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Because of me, because of me." So these are people who are persecuted because of righteousness, meaning they're exhibiting a Christ-like character and behavior. They're living like Jesus, they look like Jesus. And it's in his name or because of him, Jesus was a controversial figure. His teachings, his actions inspired others to connect them to the devil. They wanted to stone Jesus. And then ultimately they crucified him. So our association with Jesus ensures that people will not like us. There's gonna be a similar disdain. It is our love for Jesus that leads to our persecution. This is more than being a Christian. This is living like Jesus. And it isn't persecution while being a Christian. It's persecution because you are living as a Christian. Notice that distinction. This isn't persecuted while being a Christian but persecuted because you are living as a Christian. So we are not persecuted in terms of verses 10 through 12 in Matthew 5. We're not persecuted in the following examples. One hardship while being a Christian. That is not persecution for righteousness. Also, we're not persecuted when we are intentionally adversarial or difficult in a way that is disconnected from Jesus and how he would have us live. When I say this, I think of that well known Westboro Baptist Church. Westboro Baptist Church is known to go out. They go to funerals and they go to various places and they present themselves as the arbiters of righteousness as the arbiters of holiness. And they intentionally, they intentionally put themselves in an adversarial position at a very emotional or difficult time. They present themselves in a position to be difficult. And then when they're pushed back on, they call it persecution. That's not what we're talking about here. It's not just being adversarial. That doesn't necessarily mean you're persecuted for the right reason. Also, it's not persecution when we've acted unwisely or made poor choices. Suffering the consequences of poor choices is not persecution. This is a direct result of acting in a righteous manner. We need to be discerning an understanding persecution for righteousness sake. There are a lot of people who would claim persecution, but that doesn't necessarily fit what we're talking about here in Matthew 5. Being persecuted for a political stance. It can be commendable. However, that's not what we're talking about here in verses 10 through 12, unless it's directly connected to living in a righteous way. We would say the fight for life is more than commendable. It's biblical. It's doing what God has called us to. We are not blessed necessarily for being persecuted, for just being good, for just being noble, for being self-sacrificing. I think of the soldiers on D-Day. I think of other soldiers who fought valiant fights and war efforts. They should be commendable. They should be lionized. They should be seen as heroes. And honestly, our society would be a lot better off with more of that kind of behavior. However, that is not what is blessed by God in eternity. This passage serves as a reminder of our focus and our priority. If we are to be persecuted, let it be for righteousness' sake. And consequently, what that means is we will live for righteousness' sake. Think air glittle. Everyone loves the story of air glittle. Air glittle ran in the 1924 Olympics. He ran the 400 instead of the 100 due to his Sabbath commitments. He won the gold and set a world record. Well, a lot of people don't know the rest of the story beyond chariots of fire. Eric and his family went as missionaries to China in 1925. Of course, in 1937, Japan invaded China. After the invasion of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were capturing foreigners who were there in China. And they put Eric in a prison camp there. His family, they left before all this happened. Eric stayed behind and Eric developed a brain tumor. And he ended up dying in a Japanese prison camp that was housed there in China, suffering intense and significant persecution for being a Christian missionary. Prior to the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government actually revealed to the little family that Eric had been included in a prisoner exchange. This was a deal that was made between Japan and Britain. He had been included in a prisoner exchange. However, he gave up his spot to a pregnant woman. So she was set free and he stayed behind. She was set free and he stayed behind. Eric intentionally put himself in a position of being persecuted for righteousness sake. Eric little said this. He said, "If I know something to be true and I prepared to follow it, even though it is contrary to what I want, will I follow it if it means being laughed at by friend or foe or if it means personal financial loss or some kind of hardship?" Eric little endured hardship and persecution and slander and ridicule, even death for righteousness sake. The reason that I use Eric little's example, we need to be real careful that we would count ourselves among the Eric littles of the world. Our persecution needs to be legitimate and it needs to be connected to righteousness because if we are persecuted for righteousness sake, then that means we are in the category of Eric little. And I don't know about you, but I am very hesitant to put my persecutions, quote unquote, persecutions and hardships on that level. It's not that we're not being persecuted. I just think we should be careful to recognize legitimate and true persecution for righteousness sake. And when we do that, by the way, that moves us to step four, and that is persecution means rejoicing. We are not victims throwing ourselves a pity party. We are victors looking forward to the celebration at the wedding supper of the Lamb. So a lot of people who would claim that they have been persecuted also present themselves as victims, you do not see that in scripture. You do not see that in scripture. It says here, be glad, meaning to enjoy a state of happiness and well-being, we are to rejoice, which is a more intensive form of gladness. We are to be overjoyed. We are to be extremely joyful, which will be expressed outwardly. John Stott said, "We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor to sulk like a child, nor to lick our wounds and self-pity like a dog, nor just to grin and bear it like a stoic, still less to pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. We are to rejoice as a Christian should rejoice and even to leap for joy." Which is what we see in Acts chapter 5, verse 40. After they called in the apostles and had them flagged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and release them. Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name. Every day in the temple and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. We do not throw ourselves pity parties if and when we are persecuted, we rejoice. Because we are not victims, we are the victorious ones. Finally, persecution means So persecution is the normal Christian life, it comes in various forms, persecution must come for the right reason, persecution means rejoicing for believers, and persecution means reward in heaven. Again, I go back to corals who said those who suffer persecution are given a prophets honor, the prophets were spokesman for God and guardians of righteousness and models of faithfulness. Earthly suffering for faithfulness will be offset by the heavenly reward. We will be rewarded in heaven, which is one of the reasons we can celebrate and be glad on this side of eternity. Think of Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was publicly opposed to the Nazi regime, he consequently faced imprisonment, torture, danger to his own family, and finally death only a few days before the concentration camp in which he was housed was liberated. Bonhoeffer wrote this in the cost of discipleship. Here at the end of the Beatitudes, the question arises as to where in this world such a faith community actually finds a place at the cross. The faith community of the blessed is the community of the crucified with him they lost everything and with him they found everything. Persecution in this life, earthly suffering, for faithfulness, for righteousness sake, and in his name will be offset by heavenly reward. Praise God, no matter what we go through in this life, we have heaven awaiting us, we have Jesus and an eternity in his presence waiting for us, and we can face persecution with joy and gladness being reminded that there is a reward in heaven. Namely, eternity with Jesus. Blessed are the persecuted, praise God today, the persecuted life is the blessed life.