Hi there, my name is Micaiah and I serve right over there typically. And today
I'll be reading out of Matthew 5, 1 through 12, which will be page 551 in the
Bible's in the back of the pew. When he saw the crowds he went up on the mountain
and after he sat down his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them
saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble for
they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they will
be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are
the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are you when others revile 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 they persecuted the prophets who are before you. This is
God's Word. I'm gonna use a handheld today because it's too much trouble to
switch between all sorts of different kinds of mics so we'll stick with this
one today but thank you Micaiah for singing or for reading. Sorry that the
translation or version was off from the screen there I don't know what happened
there but we'll we'll figure out that kink. Today's scripture marks actually
the end of our look at the portion of the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest
sermon that was ever preached. The portion of that sermon called the
Beatitudes or the blessings or blessing statements. The Beatitudes are a set of
eight proclamations. Eight proclamations about what life as a kingdom citizen
looks like. They tell us how the poor in spirit and the mournful, the
humble, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in
heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted are actually the blessed and
fully satisfied ones. So if you think about it if the world was making a list
the world was making a list of what blessed looks like what might their list
include? Would it look similar to the Beatitudes you think? Or let it look very
different? Well Josh Miller he's a writer a blogger and he took the challenge and
decided that he was going to write the Anti Beatitudes and here's what he came
up with. He wrote, blessed are the self-sufficient for they will climb the
ladder of success. Blessed are those with thick skin and no regrets for they won't
appear weak needy or dependent on anyone. Blessed are the bold for they will
conquer any challenge no matter who or what is in their way. Blessed are those
who live by their own personal truth for they will never have to be corrected or
change their mind. Blessed are those who judge and cancel others for they will
always feel morally and intellectually superior. Blessed are the carnal in heart
because they don't need God. Blessed are the fighters for they will tear down
anyone who disagrees with them. Blessed are those who are praised, celebrated and
honored by many for they have reached the pinnacle of success. Blessed are you
when people love you, envy you, and follow all of your social media accounts.
Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in this life for in the same way
they celebrated all the other important people who came before you. Now you know
the world has a list like that, don't you? You see it in the way that
people live. Maybe you've bought into or believed one or two of those anti
Beatitudes at some point in life. If the Beatitudes describe what life as a
citizen of the kingdom looks like, then these anti Beatitudes do a good job of
elucidating what life of someone who's caught up in the pattern of this world.
How many of you guys know someone who maybe thinks more like the anti Beatitudes
than the Beatitudes? Anyone know anyone? Someone? Depending on when and where you
grew up some of those anti Beatitudes might even sound virtuous to you. Nothing
wrong with them at all. And that's why Jesus's description of what it is to be
in the kingdom life is so upside down. It's a foreign concept to our world.
Why would you humble yourself? Why wouldn't you claw and scratch to get
ahead in this world? Why wouldn't you fight to get that promotion or position
even if it costs that friendship with that other person or that relationship?
Look out for number one. Go get you what you can while you're alive. Blessed are
the self-sufficient. Jesus comes along and says blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are the mournful. Blessed are the humble. This final macarism that we're
going to study today in verse 10. See we're gonna study verse 10 which is the
final one of the eight Beatitudes so we're coming to an end here and then
there's also verse 11 and 12 which are just expounding on that one on verse 10
and they move from that general blessed are those who do this to that very
personal blessed are you when you are persecuted. Verse 10 and 11 and 12 goes
like this. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for
the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you, persecute
you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Be glad and
rejoice because your reward is great in heaven for that is how they persecuted
the prophets who were before you. We're gonna look at today's scripture under
three headings. The first one is blessed persecution. Blessed persecution. Verse
10. The word that's used that we translate as persecuted it has this
kind of range of meaning to it. It can mean driven away, being driven away or
put to flight or run out of town or run out of home. It could be by bullying, it
could be by pressure or by violence, opposition. And this this mean be attitude
right here number eight. Blessed are the persecuted. This one might be just might
be the most upside down of them all. Think about it. Blessed persecution. Happy
are the harassed. Blessed are the battered. How can this pronouncement be?
Well 1st Peter, the book of 1st Peter, it's a letter that was written by the
Apostle Peter to who he calls exiles and strangers in this world. Those who are
foreigners living in a land that is opposed to them, opposed to the gospel.
And he's writing to them who experience suffering at the hand of the very world
that they're trying to reach with the gospel of hope that is Jesus Christ. And
what he writes in chapter 1 verse 3 may very well help us understand this
blessed persecution that Jesus talks about. He begins himself with a
macarism. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his
great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being
guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed
in time. And you rejoice in this even though now for a short time if necessary
you suffer grief in various trials. Why? So that the proven character of your
faith which is more valuable than gold though perishable is refined by the fire
may result in praise in glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What
does Peter tell us about suffering for Christ? He says that it proves the
genuineness of our faith. Oh blessed persecution for you prove the
genuineness of my faith. That it refines our faith to make it more pure and that
our sufferings in our trials can result in reward. Praise, glory, and honor. Why
blessed? Why is it blessed? Persecution because persecution will wean you off of
your enslavement to this world's way of thinking. Persecution will wean you off
of the anti-be attitudes. Persecution will help you exchange the temporal for
the eternal. Persecution will both draw you nearer to the Lord in trusting faith
and it will solidify your faith in your convictions as you face that opposition.
You don't know how strong your faith is. You don't know how strong your
convictions are until they are tested and only then is the genuineness can the
genuineness of your faith be proven. We can say all sorts of things when we're
not facing opposition. We can say all sorts of things about our faith in God
when there's no pressure, when there's no suffering, when there's no pain. But
persecution is blessed because it can push. It can bring pressure down.
Opposition and the genuineness of our faith can be proved and that can result
in rejoicing and joy within us. But this persecution is not just for anything
right? We're told in Matthew that the Blessed One is the one who's persecuted
for what? Because of righteousness. He's persecuted because of righteousness. We
already talked about righteousness back in verse 6 when we studied that blessed
passage but more or less it's the idea that because of your status with God,
that he has redeemed you and and you are made right and whole in him, you are his
now. More than just his subjects, you are kids of the king. You are in the family
made right. And because of this status change and because that also includes
all of the other beatitudes that we've been talking about that's come before,
remember those are marks, marks of the kingdom citizens, marks of the
kingdom kids, the other bad attitudes, the status change as well as the other
beatitudes because of all of those. Guess what's in store for the believer?
Persecution. Persecution. And that persecution and when you're in it, you
are blessed. This is what Jesus says. Because of your status change, you will
also serve God and you will stand with God and with his life and with his truth.
This is what it means to be a child of God, that you stand with God in his life
and in his truth. You will no longer stand with the world. So what does that
mean? It means that when you stand with God for the sanctity of the unborn life,
you will be standing against the world. It means when you stand with God's ideal
of what human sexuality and sexual purity is to be, you will be standing
against the world. It means when you stand with God against the oppressor and
when you stand with the oppressed, as his word makes abundantly clear, you will be
standing against the world and brother and sister at times you'll be standing
against Christians too. Christians who are worldly. Now suffering because you
act stupid or because you do or say idiotic things is not in mind here. If
you act stupid and say idiotic things, guess what you deserve? Persecution. At
least correction. At least correction. But let me ask you this. Is God ever
rejected and hated by people today? If yes, raise your hand. If God is hated and
rejected by people today, do you say yes? Then why do you pretend that they would
love you or they should love you? Today they're rejecting God. Today they hate
God. You're his kid. Why pretend that they should love you and embrace you? What is
the promise of the persecuted? What is the promise of this final beatitude? It
is that the persecuted who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The
kingdom of heaven is theirs and you'll notice that we're right back where we
started because the poor in spirit were also those who are inherits the kingdom
of heaven is theirs. And this brings us great assurance in our salvation. I don't
know if you know that but persecution testing your faith and the genuineness
of it brings great assurance of salvation. It is blessed. And what you
have right here by having the same response blessed are the persecuted
those who are persecuted for righteousness for the kingdom of heaven
is theirs and that's the same as blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom
of heaven is theirs. This is called an inclusio. This is a way that they would
write where they would book and both of them so that we know this is a section.
This is one section or one unit of sayings and thoughts and so we've
come to the end of the beatitudes with this. The kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Who's the persecuted? But the beatitudes really actually kind of culminate in
number eight. See you live the kingdom life long enough. You live one through
seven and guess what's going to happen to you? Eight. You live as a poor in
spirit, humble, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those
who have a pure heart before God. Number eight is coming. Number eight is coming.
Point number two. Blessed accusation. Blessed accusation. You are blessed when
they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against
you because of me. You are blessed. Now we're making that turn from blessed are
the to you are blessed. At this point Jesus turns and speaks directly to his
disciples and he says to each one of them individually not as a group. You are
blessed. When someone insults you, when someone persecutes you, when someone
makes up stuff about you and falsely accuses you, you are blessed. Remember
that. You are blessed. This blessed accusation. And we might deduce from this
that experientially you're not blessed if people are not insulting you,
persecuting and falsely saying all kinds of evil against you because of Christ. If
it is blessed to stand in that place, to be in that place, to have that status,
then it would be less blessed to be outside of it, wouldn't it? And to the
greater degree in which you experience that blessedness or you experience that
persecution, that same degree you'll experience a greater blessedness. Again, a
greater assurance. I know this sounds like crazy talk. Insult me? It really
literally means to knock my teeth in. Knock my teeth. Blessed are you when
people try to destroy your reputation? Blessed are you when they deliver the
final reputational blow to you? Left, right, left, left. Because of me. Why?
Because you are so closely identified with Christ that you cannot escape the
very same thing he would go on to experience and that Jesus Christ today,
even as we testified, still experiences the hostility of those who refuse to
believe and hate God. You have raised the flag of the King and the
Kingdom so high in your life that people know who you are. I don't know if you
know this, but there are no undercover agents in the Kingdom of God. You know, no
secret agent man out there. You know, I'm just trying to infiltrate this world. I'm
gonna act like them. I'm gonna talk like them. I'm gonna behave like them and one
day I'm just gonna boom, pop on the scene or maybe they'll just never notice. I'm
gonna get through this world without them knowing that I was a Christian and
Jesus is gonna be happy with me. There's no undercover agents in the
kingdom. You can't say I'm an undercover Christian. You are blessed when you are
known as his to such a degree that they slander you. When they want to cancel you
to such a degree that they want to assign false motives to you because of
Christ's blessed accusation. You and I cannot seek this out, believe me. We can't
go around offending so that we get accused. But are there people in the
Sacramento area who hate God? Are there neighbors of yours who hate Jesus? Some
Christians will go out of their way to keep the things that people hate about
God on like the down low in their life. Those things that, oh he's morally
restrictive. He doesn't let me have fun. He doesn't let me do all the things
that I want to do and Christians will go, okay well I'm just gonna leave those out
when I talk to this person. I'm just gonna leave this whole idea of what
God is like and what he requires. As Nick talked about earlier in our confession
time, looking to God and seeing his holiness. There's no greater way
to know our sin and see our sin than to see his holiness. When we begin to compare
that, well as believers if we try to hide it under a bushel, keep it out of
sight. Whatever those things are that the world doesn't like, I'm just going to
take note and keep them on the DL. Keep them out of sight. There are Christians
who will distance themselves from their King and their God so that folks will
see them as kinder and more loving and tolerant than God is. I'll say that
again. There are Christians who will distance themselves from their King and
from their God so that other people will see themselves as kinder and more loving
and tolerant than God is. Jesus says that my disciples will be so identified with
me that they will be treated just like me.
Blessed accusation. Which leads us to the third point. Blessed reward. The final
verse of that section, verse 12 says be glad. Be glad. The other ones were
descriptions and proclamations. Do you know that? Blessed is a proclamation. It's
saying, wow how awesome is the life of the poor in spirit because they inherit
the kingdom of God. And Jesus looks at his disciples and says blessed are you
when you're persecuted. And then he goes on to expand and he says here's a couple
more words you can add to your vocabulary to expand on what it means to
be blessed. Here they are. Be glad. Rejoice. Be glad. Rejoice. Because your
reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who
were before you. Be glad. Rejoice. You're in good company my friends. You're in
good company because whatever you are losing here on earth in persecution and
suffering is being offset in heaven by something so much greater. So much
greater a reward. Whatever is to your loss is gain in heaven's economy. All we
need to do my friends is just look to Jesus to see this. When you look to Jesus
as spelled out in Philippians where it says Jesus who existed in the form of
God but did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited instead
what? He emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant and taking on the
likeness of humanity. When he had come as a man he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death even to death on a cross. And for this reason God
highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the
name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Just look to Christ. Just look to Christ who made himself nothing and was
exalted to glory. Oftentimes when we encounter opposition in our faith we
will immediately think something like what's wrong with me? Oh my goodness.
People don't like me. What's wrong? What am I doing wrong? Why don't they
like me anymore? I'm just representing Christ. He's the most loving one ever. Why
don't they like me? And Jesus himself knew that would be our experience and so he
left for us his word in John 15. A servant is not greater than his master. If
they persecuted me they will also persecute you. If they kept my word they
will also keep yours. They will. Jesus told his disciples this and I don't know
if you guys know but this is exactly what happened. Church history tells us
that Paul the Apostle was beheaded. Peter the Apostle was crucified upside
down. Andrew was also crucified. Thomas was pierced by four spears while he was
bringing the gospel to India. Philip was put to death.
Matthias he was burned to death while alive. Matthew was stabbed to death in
Ethiopia. James the son of Alpheus was beaten with clubs over and over until he
died. Simon the Zealot was killed in Persia after he refused to sacrifice to
the Sun God. Dominic that would sound like a tragic loss. Like a failed
mission. Like what on earth is this Christianity thing? Everyone died. Where
is the triumph? Where is the ascension to the high place to success? That's
anti-be attitudes people. It was first apprehended by these disciples by faith.
They believed what Jesus said. We're blessed and then upon their death it was
sight. They received their reward. You want to go deeper into all kinds of
stories look in Hebrews 11. Those who by faith followed God and endured all
kinds of suffering. But there is one story in the New Testament of a man
named Stephen and we hear about him in the course of his service to the church
in Jerusalem. He is appointed to provide service to widows in the church of
Jerusalem and we learn that he's a person who is full of wisdom and full of
the Holy Spirit and he convincingly is able to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ
to other people and they're wowed by it and he's accompanied by miracles and
signs. But there are some in the Jewish community there who oppose him. And one
of the synagogues the synagogue of the freed men they they go to some ruffians
some some people on this you know the street who will make trouble for them
and they go to them and they say hey could you make some false accusations
against Stephen? Could you say things that are not true of him that he
blasphemed God that he's against God so that we can get him arrested and shut up
talking about Jesus? And they did that. They spread false rumors and they had
him arrested and he was brought before the Sanhedrin accused of the crime of
blasphemy against God and when Stephen appeared before the ruling council to
give his defense instead what he did was basically preach a message that said to
the council you guys misunderstood scripture you have hardened your heart
toward God and you're resisting the Holy Spirit you resisted it ultimately by
killing Jesus who is the righteousness of God and when they hear that they
began to yell at the top of their lungs because they don't want to hear it.
Stop him! They gnashed their teeth it says. Stop him from talking no! Obviously
that didn't go over very well for Stephen. Having given his witness before
them of what is true his witness basically condemned him to death. They
began to reach for stones they dragged him outside of the city and began to
stone him. There witnessing this was a young man named Saul. Saul would later go
on to be what we know as Paul the Apostle Paul who was killed for Christ
but there he is giving approval to this and while they're stoning Stephen he
says that he looked out he cried out Lord Jesus receive my spirit he knelt
out and cried out with a loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against them and
then he was killed. Right before that right before they began to yell at the
top of their lungs Jesus Stephen says something that triggers them. This is
what Stephen says right before. Says Stephen looked up to heaven and he said
look that's in the Bible particularly in our English translations look is
typically behold behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man is
standing at the right hand of God and maybe you've heard this passage before
but have you ever wondered why is Jesus standing? A lot of the other passages
talking about the heavenly scene Jesus is sitting his work is done you know
down on the throne he's doing that ruler thing in this vision he's standing for a
ruler to stand it was a sign that Jesus received and accepted Stephen's
testimony. It was a sign that he validated Stephen's message that the Son
of God and of man honored the man Stephen for his faithful witness even unto
death. Jesus stood for Stephen because Stephen stood for him. Could there be any
greater reward? All over the world today my friends Christian brothers and
sisters are standing with God and with Christ Jesus in the face of opposition
in the face of slander and false accusation and even in the face of
imminent death and they are holding their ground and standing because they
believe that the measure of faithfulness or the measure of faithfulness to in the
kingdom of God is obedience to God no matter the cost no matter the cost. Can
we go ahead and get the lights down and since it is missions missions month
we're gonna go ahead and play a video here to kind of cap off the sermon and
we'll get the lights down and get ready to play that but as I say all over the
world our brothers and sisters are experienced this and this is one story
we heard the stories from the past we heard the stories of the Apostles and of
Stephen it continues that tradition continues today of faithful obedience
to God let's go ahead and watch this really good.
God I don't want to die.
Who will take my place if I do?
Jesus told his followers to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the
whole creation to every nation to the ends of the earth. John Chow was a
teenager when he took his first missions trip and when he felt called to invest
his life to reach the people of North Sentinel Island who had violently
rejected all previous contact with outsiders. John answered that call here am
I send me. For the next nine years every decision John made was with an eye
toward going ashore on North Sentinel Island. He served in multiple countries
to gain missions and ministry experience. He trained in linguistics to help learn
their language. He was certified as an EMT in the hope of serving the tribesmen
medically. Once I said yes to Jesus I was committed I was all in. I believe that
the measure of success in the kingdom of God is obedience. I want my life to
reflect obedience to Christ and to live in obedience to him. I think that Jesus
is worth it. He's worth everything.
In 2018 with the backing of his missions agency John went to North Sentinel
Island. He knew the risks but his passion for the North Sentinelese and
his desire to be obedient to Christ drove him forward. Sitting in the boat
getting ready to go ashore John penned a final note and a challenge to his family.
You guys might think I'm crazy and all this but I think it's worth it to
declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get
killed. Rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever he has called you
to and I'll see you again when you pass through the veil. The eternal lives of
this tribe is at hand and I can't wait to see them around the throne of God
worshipping in their own language as Revelation 7 9 to 10 states. I pray none
of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ.
Within hours of writing those words John Chow was killed by the Islanders.
John believed that the measure of success in the kingdom of God is
obedience and he would be obedient to God's call no matter the cost. Who will
pay the price to go to every tribe?
Was John Chow's life a failure? Was that a failure? I think not. He said in himself
I believe that the measure of success in the kingdom of God is obedience and he
obeyed and he went and there's no story. This isn't a Jim Elliot story where
later some people it maybe it's still being written we don't know. All we know
is he said yes and then he died but we know that in the economy of heaven in
the kingdom of God obedience is what we are asked to do and all over the world
people are obediently going and we're we're not measuring their success by
how many people they reach or how many you know codes they cracked in the in
the communities they go to but instead did they go and answer the call? Did they
respond even in the face of great opposition? The likelihood of death. When
you are persecuted your life your life is counting for Christ and will one day
be recognized by him.