Matthew 5:10-12

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HOW TO MAKE THE RIGHT ENEMIES
MATTHEW 5:10-12
Series: The Beatitudes - Happiness is... - Part Five

Pastor Stephen Muncherian
December 6, 1998

This morning we’re finishing our look at the Beatitudes - and the teaching of Jesus about what brings real happiness in our lives. I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 5. This morning - so that we can keep all of the Beatitudes in mind I’d like to read starting at verse one - reading through all the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:1-12: "Seeing the crowds, He - Jesus - went up on the mountain, and when He sat down His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'”

Now - verses 10 to 12 are where we want to concentrate this morning. (10) "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men revile - or insult - you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."

A few months ago someone at our College and Career Bible study asked the question - “How do I live for God at work?” I’ve been thinking a lot about that question. There are other questions that are like it. How can I live for God at school? How can I live for God in the community. How do I live for God at home.

Especially when living for God is not the popular thing to do - not the easiest - and certainly misunderstood and ridiculed. And in the context of the verses we’re looking at today - living for God costs - it takes sacrifice.

This is the question we want to focus on this morning - How do we live for God in a world that is against God and His people?

There are three words out of Matthew 5:10-12 that we want to focus on this morning: righteousness - persecution - and prophet. First:

1. RIGHTEOUSNESS

(having a right standing before God - being right with God)

In Genesis 12 we read that God spoke to Abraham and promised him three things: 1) A land; 2) That he would be the father of a great nation; and 3) that through Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. God said to Abraham “Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.” And so Abraham left and followed God.

Of course the most important part of God’s promises to Abraham is that Abraham needed a son - a descendant. And we know this story - Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren - try as the did they couldn’t produce a child.

In Genesis 15 we read that one day Abraham said to God, “God, what good are all your blessings - all these promises - when I have no son? Without a son, some other member of my household - Eliezer of Damascus - will inherit everything.”

And God takes Abraham outside at night and shows him the stars and said to Abraham, “Look up into the heavens and if you can - count the stars. Your descendants will be like that” - too many to count!

Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham “believed in the Lord; and He - God - reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Let me read that again - we want to remember this. Abraham believed in the Lord; and God reckoned - considered - him as righteous.

Okay - the account goes on - when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 - well past the age of having children - Isaac their son was born.

And then the greatest test of Abraham’s faith comes when God tells Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering. Imagine that - parents.

Abraham gets up early - saddles his donkey - splits wood for the fire - and takes Isaac to the place where God told him to go - builds an alter - binds Isaac - puts him on top of the wood - takes the knife in his hand and is just about to sacrifice Isaac - when God says, “Abraham! Put down the knife and don’t hurt the boy. I know that I am first in your life - since you have not even withheld your beloved son from me.” (Genesis 22)

No where does it say that because Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac that God counted Abraham as being righteous. Abraham was righteous - why? - because He believed that God would fulfill His promise - faith in God.

So many people have righteousness - backwards. They think that righteousness is what we do - not who we are before God.

Christianity is a wonderful set of morals - a righteous lifestyle - great principles to live our lives by. Christianity makes more sense than other religions. We’re Armenians and so we’re Christians - and so we practice the Christian faith - we come to church - and pledge - and serve - and live upright lives. But that’s not righteousness. The effects of righteousness - the lifestyle of the righteous - maybe - but not righteousness.

Righteousness is a right standing before God that God gives to us - counts as ours - when we surrender our lives to God in faith.

We receive righteousness when we can say to God - Here I am - all of me - I know I’ve been living in sin and separated from you - but I’m going to trust in you - that Jesus paid the penalty for my sin on the cross - died in my place - washing my sin away with His blood - I have faith in your promise to make me right before you because of Jesus.

And God - looks at us and says - because of Jesus - you are righteous.

This is what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 4:5, “To the one who...believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” - a right standing before God.

The second word is:

2. PERSECUTION

(opposition to those who are righteous)

In all three verses The Greek word "dioko" - is translated as “persecution”. The idea is pursuit - a relentless - dug-in - thought-through commitment to hurt somebody - to put them down or destroy them.

In verse 11 Jesus describes what He means by persecution. He says, “Blessed are you when men insult you, and mistreat you, and say all kinds of evil lies against you, on account of me.”

Persecution has always included all kinds of things - in every century there’s been death - imprisonment - economic deprivation - social ostracism. We may not face any of these - but we’re likely to face the threat of being verbally taken advantage of by other people - being misunderstood - put down - rejected - laughed at - set aside and lied about because of our relationship with Jesus Christ - our commitment to Him.

When I crossed the border from Syria to Lebanon it was about 2:00 in the morning. There are three checkpoints on the Syrian side of the border and three checkpoints on the Lebanese side. Does this sound familiar? At each checkpoint they have to look at everything and give you papers to fill out - and stamp the papers - they love to stamp papers. Who knows what they’re stamping or why - but its important to stamp them.

And on the Lebanese side I needed to get a visa - this was before the U.S. government said it was okay for U.S. citizens to travel to Lebanon. But I’d been told by the Lebanese government that I could get a visa on the border. Of course who knew if that would be true or not.

To get the visa - I had to pay a bribe - a bribe to the guy who woke up the guy who was to give the visa - and then pay a bribe to the guy who gave the visa. Its the way business is done over there.

We do the same thing here - we just call it different things so it doesn’t sound so unethical - bonuses - tips - kick-backs - gifts. So what if its wrong. Its not too wrong. At work there’s a tremendous pressure to cheat and lie. Theft is common. People steal time - and money - and goods.

It used to be that the employer looked out for the employee. The employer felt a sense of responsibility - that job provided for a family - put food on the table. And an employee felt gratitude for the job - and did his or her best. Now the basic rule of employer employee relations is greed. The employer wants more profit by getting more work for less money and the employee wants more benefits and money for less work.

And a Christian - living righteously - in obedience to God - is not going to fit into this greed orientated environment.

On secular campuses today the only group of people left who are fair game for rejection - who can be insulted without anyone’s objection - are people who live their lives with an outspoken commitment to Jesus.

In our community - and even in the church - if we walk a narrow road we are accused of being narrow-minded. Because we live life with a clear purpose - we’re called arrogant. Because we’re willing to call sin sin - we’re accused of hating sinners. On and on it goes - what Jesus calls insults and lies and hatred.

Every other religion, ethnic group, and other category of people are welcomed as part of this great multicultural environment. But Christians who take the Bible seriously are ridiculed and accused of causing human suffering.

Because we are righteous - we are to live righteously - and the world hates that. We need to understand that the world is against us. Satan is constantly working to orchestrate the world to work against God and God’s people.

The Apostle John writes in 1 John 3:12,13 - “Cain was of the evil one, and murdered his brother. Why did Cain murder him? Because Cain’s deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”

Third word:

3. PROPHET

(we are called to declare God’s word - regardless of the cost)

Recently I read a story about a Navy captain in World War II - who was asked by a friend what his most exciting experience had been. He said that it was while he was the captain of a large transport and, along with a big convoy, was making his way across the Atlantic.

One day a German submarine surfaced close by. He saw the white mark of the torpedo coming directly toward his transport - loaded with hundreds of young soldiers. He didn’t have time to change course. He shouted into the loudspeaker, “Boys, this is it!”

Nearby was a escort destroyer. The captain of that destroyer had also seen the submarine and the torpedo. Without a moment’s hesitation, he gave the order, “Full speed ahead.” Into the path of the torpedo the destroyer went and took the full impact of the torpedo - midship. The destroyer was blown apart - sank quickly - and every man of the crew was lost.

For a long time after sharing the story the captain remained quite. Then he said this, “The captain of that destroyer was my best friend. There is a verse in the Bible which has special meaning for me now. It is ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’” (John 15:13) (The Beatitudes, Charles L. Allen, pg. 29)

Think about why the Lord Himself was persecuted to death. Ultimately it wasn’t because He was an economic threat to the business interests of the Roman Empire. Or because He was a direct political threat to Rome. He wasn’t trying to set up a rival religion to that of the Jews.

What made Jesus a threat to everyone was that He exposed what they were on the inside. Some people had claimed their own righteousness. Some had believed themselves a success in living life. Some had gathered power and authority. And they were proud of themselves.

But God-centeredness always shames man-centeredness. The exposure of their real poverty of spirit - the emptiness under the facade - caused people in every setting to hate Jesus.

Prophets are those who declare God’s word. And Jesus is very honest when He says that the prophets before us were persecuted - and when we - in righteousness - living righteously - speak forth the word of God - we will be hated just as Jesus is.

But that’s what we’re called to do. To lay down our lives for others - to put our lives in the path of Satan and his evil agenda - that our brothers and sisters may come to know the salvation of Jesus Christ.

To be poor in spirit means to give up our pride - to mourn means to be penitent to the point of surrendering our sins - meekness means that we must surrender our selves to the plans and purposes of God - our hunger for God means turning away from our ambitions for all things - to be merciful means to pay back evil with good - for purity we must give up all things impure - to make peace is wholly to chose God. These are the ingredients of righteousness that Jesus speaks about in the Beatitudes. And they come with a price. Jesus said, blessed are those who pay the price, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

When we’re persecuted - for righteousness sake - we know that our citizenship is not of this world. There is happiness in knowing that our home is with Jesus - for eternity. Before we pray together - in thinking about what it means to live for God at work - at school - wherever we may be - I’d like to share the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - from his book “The Cost of Discipleship.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young Lutheran pastor - who joined the underground to work for the defeat of Adolph Hitler - and at the age of 39 was martyred.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes this, “Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross.” (The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 96) “If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well a suffering.” (Bonhoeffer, pg. 98) “Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact it is a joy and a token of His grace.”