Persecuted for Righteousness

Would you turn pleased to Matthew, chapter 5, as we conclude our study on the Beatitudes this morning, come to the last one. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. I can remember reading a book back when I was a freshman at high school and the book had just been published three years earlier and it had won a Pulitzer Prize. Young lady named Harper Lee had written the book about a fictional town in Makeham County, Alabama in 1936 about a lawyer named Atticus Finch and his son Jim and daughter Scout as they worked their way through the difficulties of racial prejudice and injustice in that town. You know the story that has become a award-winning Oscar-winning movie called the Killamawking Bird and in that story Atticus Finch and Attorney is charged with defending a man named Tom Robinson an African-American who has been falsely accused of molesting someone and in spite of all the overwhelming evidence of his innocence and all white jury convicts him and then supposedly while trying to escape from jail which he did not he was murdered so that the appeal trial could not free him. Few people in fictional literature rise to the heroic level of this man named Atticus Finch. His noble mindedness his his penchant for justice his fearlessness in the face of the whole community that's against him really makes this fellow in fictional literature rise head and shoulders above most other heroes it became as you know the defining role of an actor named Gregory Peck he got an Oscar for this along with three other Oscars that were awarded to the movie he would say later on that playing the role of Atticus Finch changed his life. It's a story of a man who defends for righteousness sake another innocent person despite the fact that it will cost him his law practice his place in the community and actually endanger the physical health and even the lives of his two children the story of a man who was persecuted for righteousness sake and in the movie you probably remember or in the book if you read it that as he gives his children some BB guns to play with and he's the uncle named Jack teaches them to shoot he says now you can shoot all the blue jays you want but remember it's a sin to kill a mocking bird later the children would ask the next door neighbor Miss Maughty what Atticus meant by that and she said well to kill a mocking bird is to kill that which is innocent and harmless like Tom Robinson mocking bird became the symbol the motif of something some people unfairly persecuted rather than kill them it was Atticus Finch's purpose in life to defend them there were people like Atticus Finch in this large crowd that Jesus was talking to people whose heart was drawn to righteousness people who were of noble and grand character who were going to do the right thing regardless of what it cost them and Jesus seeing these sorts of people offers to them what he offers to everyone else on this continuum of humanity if they will repent of their sins and come to him if they will surrender and let his rule come into their life if they will enter the kingdom of God and be saved then they will be blessed blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for there 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 were before you now there are some who see in these three verses two be attitudes blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake and in verse 11 blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account but in reality there's only one be attitude and that's in verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake you'll notice that all the other be attitudes are in the third person blessed are those who are poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake and verses 11 and 12 are simply an extrapolation a an augmentation of that because he changes in verses 11 12 from the third person to the second person blessed are you in other words there are righteous people willing to be persecuted for righteousness sake and some standing there listening to him like the apostles like the followers of John the Baptist like the women who were his disciples who would somewhere at some time in the future give their lies for the sake of Jesus Christ Christ is coming now to the end of this continuum of humanity he began on what we might say spiritually was low end of the scale blessed are those who are poor in spirit for there is as the kingdom of and progressively one person at a time he moved through those who were mourning who were lowly who were hungry and thirsting for the right thing the merciful the pure and heart the peacemakers and now he comes to the most noble of them all blessed are those who are willing to be martyrs for the sake of what is right I want to remind you again as I have in all of these messages much to some of your consternation that these are not qualifications that you must acquire in order to enter the kingdom of God that is works righteousness that is righteousness by attitude these are not qualities that we should aspire to or develop in order to be accepted by God that is works righteousness these are not character traits that we inherit once we enter the kingdom of God there's nothing in the context that indicates that these are spiritual conditions we find ourselves in when Jesus invites us to believe in him and to enter the kingdom of God that's hard for many of us to accept you know one of the great things and one of the disturbing things about the Sermon on the Mount is it has this penchant for turning everything we believe upside down it says outlandish things like if someone slaps you in the face turn the other cheek and then slap you again if someone does evil to you don't get even bless them don't worry about money don't think about it at all seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness and he'll take care of the money I've never heard such ridiculous things in all of my life I've never heard such spiritual nincompupery in all of my days except they come from the mouth of Jesus Christ these are the words of God and it's the opposite of the way we think it's what one commentator after another calls the divine reversal Jesus Christ turning the world upside down and if there's one thing that we struggle with most that's the same thing the Pharisee struggle with now I know that nobody in here's a Pharisee it's just the person beside you who is none of us are like them until someone comes along and says you know maybe these beatitudes are not about the qualities that we possess in order to be acceptable to God maybe they're about all different kinds of people and maybe God is willing to let into his kingdom people that we don't like people who are not like us I think that's exactly what Jesus Christ is saying Jesus is turning his religious world Judaism upside down because the Pharisees taught that there were five conditions that you must meet in order to be certain that you're in the kingdom of God first of all you must be Jewish no Gentiles allowed unless the Gentile becomes a Jew through circumcision secondly you most the time had to be male that rabbis taught that women were an inferior species and that the soul of a woman was not like the soul of a man the rabbis actually taught that when a child was conceived in a womb in three months if it was a male it became the image of God of the female it took nine months the women were an afterthought to God's plan just read Genesis chapter two in fact they taught the women like slaves were the property of men they say that you had to be a lawkeeper holy richly pure and decent in lifestyle you had to be physically whole and healthy sickness indicated God's displeasure and if there were certain deformities you couldn't even enter the temple to worship God or participate in the sacrifices and you had to be rich because good financial condition indicated God's approval and poverty indicated God's abandonment the poor were simply uninvited and then along comes a rabbi known as Jesus Christ and he talks to prostitutes and people who are poor in Roman mercenaries and those who've been kicked out of the synagogue and tax gathers and other corrupt people and he says if you will come to me you will enter the kingdom of God and it was that ultimately folks and that alone that God had crucified it was his invitation of the unworthy into the kingdom of God the God Jesus Christ in trouble if you don't believe that because I say it then believe it because Matthew says it turned to Matthew chapter 21 where Jesus tells a parable that gets him in trouble Matthew chapter 21 beginning in verse 28 what do you think a man had two sons he went to the first and said son go and work in the vineyard today and he answered I will not but afterwards he changed his mind and went and he went to the other son and said the same and he answered I will go sir but he did not go which of the two did the will of the Father they said the first Jesus said to them truly I say to you the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you for John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him and even when you saw it you did not afterward change your minds and believe him this is what Jesus Christ is teaching as he preaches his gospel of the kingdom listen carefully to me anything you bring to the kingdom of God is unacceptable it will not warrant inclusion in God's people because whatever you need to enter the kingdom of God will never never be found in you it will only be found in Jesus Christ whether you're a scumbag on the low end humanity or someone willing to die for the right thing it doesn't make any difference neither one of those things will keep you out or bring you in to the kingdom of God only one thing will faith in Jesus Christ remember that's how Jesus Christ sets up this great sermon looking chapter 4 verse 17 he was saying the time is fulfilled in the kingdom of heaven is at hand marks versions even more explicit the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel here's how we get into the kingdom of God we realize that God has come in Jesus Christ and the times of the Old Testament have been filled the day of salvation is near we repent of all of our sins and all of our self-righteousness we repent of everything we are good and bad we turn away from it and we turn to Jesus Christ and we receive him and then we say to Christ my life belongs to you you enter me and rule me I am now a member of the kingdom of God that is how you enter the kingdom of God whether you're a good person or not good person whether you've got all these things going for you or whether you have nothing going for you and that my friends remains still as Martin Luther said the most difficult thing in life to accept that God saves you in spite of yourself and not because of it nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling naked come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace foul I too the fountain fly wash me savior or I die we love to sing those words but when it comes to us we're not that foul we're we're not naked we don't need all that help while we keep the ten commandments lived by the golden door and better than most people and let someone get up and say that we're not that somehow wretched people can get into the kingdom of God before we will and the firm begins to fly but that's exactly what Jesus Christ is saying my friends if you're stumbling over the Beatitudes you don't have a prayer in the rest of the sermon because it only gets more radical if Jesus Christ tells us things we don't want to hear I will confess to you the Beatitudes are not easy you read them off the cup and all these are sweet but then as you begin to think about them they become confusing if you take this as character traits it only works on the second half of the scale if you take it as conditions it's easy to see them on the front half of the scale but if you put him in the context of all these people hearing Jesus preach seeing him heal and do miracles cast out demons and say the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand enter the kingdom of God the logical thing for them to say is how how can I enter the kingdom of God and that is what Jesus Christ is explaining to them that in spite of their condition they can be happy because the kingdom of God will surprisingly come upon them and turn their world upside down and do a divine reversal so we come to the last person quite frankly in your and my eyes a good person a noble person like Atticus Finch blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven who are these people those persecuted for the right thing well Matthew uses the verb diaco which means simply to persecute to pursue to chase after to hound after to seek out in order to drive away a press or do harm he uses this verb six times in his gospel and four of them in this chapter it means in its original word to punish or afflict those who have different views than the establishment that's how the Greeks use this word to punish or afflict those who had different views from the establishment are these people who suffer for righteousness sake believers are they godly people well obviously some of them are look at John the Baptist look at the 12 apostles but I would remind you that John the Baptist and the 12 apostles entered the kingdom of God the same way the rest of his do they all needed to be converted somewhere along the line they needed to shift from their Jewish paradigm of waiting for the Messiah to embracing the Messiah in the flesh they needed repent and receive and believe and surrender to Jesus Christ but you know they're not always safe people sometimes they're people who are not converted sometimes they're people who simply do the right thing I'm just started this weekend the newest biography out on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and as I've read through the first few chapters I'm amazed at all of the people who were secular humanists or Jews or unconverted people who heroically opposed Adolf Hitler and what he was doing and gave their lives for the sake of righteousness but they by no means in doing so warranted the kingdom of God some of them unfortunately died for righteousness sake and never spent eternity with Jesus Christ there's something about persecution and martyrdom that in the human mind we glory in that in the early church martyrdom was considered a special state they actually taught that those who were martyrs guaranteed their salvation was a final and ultimate meritorious act in fact those who study early church history like we did in seminary would learn about something called the donatist controversy in the fourth century it appears that the emperors of Rome were persecuting the church and as some Christians were tortured or threatened or oppressed they buckled and they renounced Jesus Christ and they left the church in order to save themselves and their families but later after the persecution was over they wanted to come back and they repented of what they did and came for absolution and forgiveness to the church and there was a certain group of people called the donatist who said never they will never be allowed in the church and they will never be forgiven by God and they will never go to heaven but those who died as martyrs were glorified the day they died it was a weird way of thinking kind of like our Muslim friends who talk about Shahid the martyrs who participate in a holy war for Allah how that dying for Allah in battle guarantees them a place in glory but that's not true and if there's something that proves that it's these Beatitudes I want you to look at Beatitude number one in verse three and Beatitude number eight in verse 10 and tell me do they not have the same reward blessed are the poor in spirit for there's the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for there's the kingdom of heaven obviously if being a martyr gained some fabulous reward it would be spoken about by Jesus Christ but it is not these people receive the same reward as those who come to the kingdom of God with absolutely nothing nothing in their hands they bring simply to the cross of Christ they cling the ecarsten says this final Beatitude does not say blessed are those who are persecuted because they're objectionable are obnoxious or because they rave like wild eyed fanatics or because they pursue some religious political cause that's weird the blessing is restricted to those who suffer persecution because of righteousness with the blessing is not in their righteousness I'll say again what I said earlier if you look at every Beatitude the happiness the first word happy is predicated upon the second part of the Beatitude not the first you're not happy because you're poor you're not happy because you're sad you're not happy because you're being persecuted you're happy because the kingdom of God finds you and in spite of what you suffer in spite of what you are in spite of the condition that your sins put you in that kingdom of God is what makes you happy in fact Paul would say all who deserve to live God the in Christ Jesus will be persecuted persecution appears to be a state in which many people converted or not will suffer we can find many examples in our own lives of people who are not converted who suffer for righteousness sake I can think of three civil rights workers who back in the 1960s were killed in the Shoeba County, Mississippi two Jews and an atheist they were murdered and buried in the levy of a of a reservoir because they were trying to register black people to vote did they go to heaven not unless sometime in their final moments they put their faith in Christ but they suffered for righteousness sake how about the man who's a journalist who finally comes to the conclusion that the company line of his magazine or his newspaper is wrong and he opposes their lies and tells the truth and it cost him his career what about that person that you admire but you never want to invite to a party because they always have to ask the awkward question they just can't leave bad things to go away by themselves they have to stand up and tell the truth even when it causes difficulty I understand that people are able to heroically stand up for righteousness even risking their lives to do so without understanding or possessing the righteousness of Jesus Christ or being a true believer in the gospel therefore to think that righteousness suffering for righteousness could somehow be a character trait of the kingdom is contradicted by real life and we struggle with that well let me show you that it's possible turn to Romans if you will chapter two see one of the reasons we struggle with this is because we evangelicals really don't have an understanding of common grace we don't realize how strong common graces how common grace can work in the life of an unconverted person and make them do noble things we don't understand the power of general revelation of what is called natural law the people can look at things because of the image of God and through nature's guidance come to the conclusion of right and wrong and stand for the right and we don't understand the promptings the relentless probing of the human conscience that will not give us relief but Paul does and he talks about this in Romans chapter two beginning in verse 12 for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law for it is not the hearer of the law who are righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires they are law to themselves even though they do not have the law they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus here Paul is talking about people who are unconverted they don't even they couldn't spell gospel but because they have a conscience because according to Romans one they're under common grace and because they experience general revelation they can do what the law says not perfectly but sometimes according to Paul better than the people who know the Ten Commandments do we see people like this in the Gospels indeed we do there was a Centurion who had a servant that was sick in Luke chapter 7 and he came and asked Jesus to heal him and the people said he is a worthy man to have you do this for him for he loves our nation and he is one of the ones who built our synagogue now here's a Roman Centurion unconverted who did a good and noble thing the right thing to build a synagogue for the Jews to worship God Cornelius when Paul finds him the scripture says he was a Centurion known from the Italian cohort a devout man who feared God with all of his household gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God an unbeliever who did charitable acts and was God-fearing and noble here's a man called Joseph of Arimathea who as far as we know at the time the Jesus Christ was crucified was not a believer but he was a respected member of the council who also himself is looking for the kingdom of God and took courage and went to pilot and asked for the body of Jesus Christ Nicodemus whom we know is not converted from John chapter 3 later on stood up to his fellow members of the Sanhedrin and said when they were unjustly plotting against Jesus Christ does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he has to say there's a righteous man even Pontius Pilate's wife warned him and said have nothing to do with this man he is righteous and his righteousness had troubled me much in my dreams these people who suffer for righteousness sake are just like everyone else in the Beatitudes they come to Jesus Christ with nothing and in spite of all that they're suffering spite of all of their nobility they lack one thing they lack the righteousness of Jesus Christ and that is what Christ offers them in the kingdom of heaven for there is as the kingdom of heaven he says this is an inclusio if you notice verse three ends with the same phrase there's as the kingdom of heaven and verse 10 ends with the same phrase there's as the kingdom of heaven which means that everything sandwiched between them is part of the kingdom of heaven all these people are blessed by the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of God by King Jesus interjecting himself into their lives and calling them into his divine realm all of them whether they're poor in spirit or ready to be murdered for the right thing they are there being called to Christ and all of them again I can't say this enough I don't want any confusion here I'm not saying that Mahandus Gandhi was going to heaven and not saying that it off Hitler was a child of peace not saying that Mao Zedong is a member of the kingdom what I'm saying is that I don't care who they are from as bad a man is eight off Hitler to as great a man as Atticus Finch there's only one way into the kingdom of heaven the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand you must repent and believe in the gospel you must put your faith in Jesus Christ you must turn away from whatever it is that's captured your life and give yourself to something greater than that and you must surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and be ruled by him which means he will turn your life upside down no mistake about it and that's what Jesus Christ is saying to these people as good and noble as they seem that although they pursue the right thing and are willing to suffer for it perhaps even die for it they don't know the ultimate righteousness that's only found in Christ and in the kingdom of heaven I want to show you something fascinating I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 61 because I believe as many commentators do that when Jesus is preaching in these Beatitudes and Matthew is writing them down that Jesus was speaking out of the context of Isaiah 61 now we know that that was a key passage because in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus Christ was getting ready to open up his public ministry Luke says he opened up Isaiah 61 read from it and said today this scripture has been fulfilled in your midst Jesus Christ saw Isaiah 61 as the prophecy of what he had come to fulfill the spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has ignored me to bring good news to the poor he sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn and grant those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes the order of gladness instead of mourning a garment of praise instead of the faint spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord that they may be glorified they shall build up the ancient ruins they shall raise up the former devastations they shall repair the ruined cities the devastations of many generations in the sermon on the mount as Jesus Christ introduces his new world order and he proclaims these blessings of the Beatitudes he's saying all that Isaiah said I have come to fulfill in fact I want you to look down once more through Isaiah and see I'll almost point by point the Beatitudes are illustrated and prophesied the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news that's exactly what Matthew chapter 4 verse 23 says he was preaching the gospel or the good news of the kingdom and then he said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to bring good news to the poor blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes the old of gladness instead of mourning a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit blessed are the meek or the lowly for they shall inherit the earth he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to those who are bound blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they shall be satisfied that they may be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified they shall build up the ancient ruins they shall raise up the former devastations they shall repair the ruin cities the devastations of many generations blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy strange yourself stand in ten your flocks foreigners shall be your plowman and bindresses but you shall be called the priests of the Lord they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God you shall eat the wealth of nations and in their glory you shall boast blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God instead if you shame there shall be a double portion instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in in their lot therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion they shall have everlasting joy blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God for I the Lord love justice I hate robbery and wrong I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them their offspring shall be known among the nations and their descendants and the midst of the peoples and all who see them shall acknowledge them they are the offspring or the sons of the Lord who has been blessed finally blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness take for theirs is the kingdom of heaven I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exalt in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation is covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom dexins of how like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorned herself for the jewels for the earth shall bring forth its sprouts and as the garden causes what is sewn in it to sprout up so the Lord will cause a righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations there's the blessing for those willing to suffer for righteousness sake that the righteous king of God has invaded the earth and they will receive these three things number one they will receive the righteousness of Christ which will be imputed to them for that is the gospel for I am not ashamed of the gospel Paul says it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it in the gospel the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith for the righteous man shall live by faith these people hungering and thirsting for righteousness willing to sacrifice their life for it will receive the righteousness of Christ now they'll be right on the inside in addition to their rightness of their actions on the outside secondly they will be brought into conformity with the will of God because the Holy Spirit will now in dwell them and their cause of righteousness whatever was will now be shaped and morphed and corrected and refined by the word of God and the grace of the spirit what they thought was righteousness that they were willing to suffer for perhaps really wasn't but as the word of God by the power of the spirit works on their lives their righteousness the things they give themselves to would be more and more refined until it comes in lockstep with the righteous cause of Jesus Christ in the world and thirdly they will become part of something larger than life and greater than themselves and lasting forever this righteousness that God says will cover the earth that will spring forth before all the nations they won't have to worry anymore someday about those who kill a mockingbird but the righteousness of God will triumph in the end and they will be on the winning side you know as much as I hate to say this America is not a noble place anymore and Americans by and large are not noble people we've given ourselves over to the stilliness of our spoiled children to our homes and our possessions to entertainment and sports to the pleasures of sex and physical health and to the wizardry of technology we take such small things and give ourselves to them but here Jesus Christ is calling us to give ourselves to some grand cause something that is larger than your life and mine something that's greater than every person in this room greater than every self in this auditorium and something that will last forever the righteous kingdom of Jesus Christ we may argue about whether or not these be attitudes or qualities or not I'll be candid with you I don't think our problem is a problem of understanding

I think our problem is a problem of acceptance we don't want these people in the kingdom we don't want the kingdom to interfere with our kingdoms but it will it will once Jesus Christ come into your life number one you will no longer hold anywhere in your psyche this delusional idea that somehow because you're converted you're better than other people because you know you're not I don't find anywhere in the Bible where it says that Christians are better than non-Christians they're just under grace and the other people are not yet and I know that once the kingdom of God comes into your life you will not be able to pattern into this sanctuary open up a Bible filter it through your own grid and have it say whatever is confirming to you and your little kingdom those days are over they've not been possible since the sermon on the mount Jesus Christ is here to turn this world over and you and me with it upside down and inside out and he will not rest until it's done until his righteousness covers the earth as though waters cover the sea and that's why he is the king of the kingdom of God and your savior let me pray father we are both challenged and troubled by this sermon on the mount and yet how could we not be for in our sinful selves and this sinful way of mankind this sinful and fallen world it would take a radical message and a great revolutionary change to bring us into conformity with the will of your father to bless us in your kingdom ethic to call us out of ourselves into something that is greater than all of mankind combined and we thank you for it we thank you that you've taken the least of mankind like us and brought us into your kingdom that you do not require things from us on the front end to qualify for this blessing but instead by your grace you give us all we need including repentance and faith in order to cling to Jesus Christ and surrender to him I do pray Lord God for all of us here from the preacher to the last person in the last role that you would work deeply in our lives and hearts so that we are willing to enter this kingdom and with it to be completely and forever changed the old world order is dying and the new world has come the kingdom of heaven is at hand and I pray that you would give us grace even as I pray to turn away from the old world and our old selves in repentance to turn to Christ and to the new man in faith to receive that grace and to surrender to his lordship as we enter the kingdom of heaven and begin life in a new dimension a life with God and with Jesus Christ in the kingdom that is at hand and we pray and ask this for your glory and for our blessing are good for the sake of the world that is yet to come the righteous world that we now pray for in the righteous name of Jesus our lord and savior amen