9 - Matthew 5:10-12 - COUNT ON IT

MATTHEW 5:10-12 - PAGE 1

COUNT ON IT, AM 3/2/03

#9 - SERMON ON THE MOUNT

You are familiar with Murphy's Law, which basically says, "If anything can possibly go wrong at any given time, it will."

You can count on Murphy's Law.

There are other fun laws that people have written that you can count on.

Abbott's Admonitions:

1. If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know.

2. If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

Ade's Law: Anybody can win -- unless there happens to be a second entry.

Babcock's Law: If it can be borrowed and it can be broken, you will borrow it and you will break it.

Crane's Rule: There are three ways to get something done: do it yourself, hire someone, or forbid your kids to do it.

Dieter's Law: Food that tastes the best has the highest number of calories.

Ellenberg's Theory: One good turn gets most of the blanket.

Gold's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly.

Gresham's Law: Trivial matters are handled promptly; important matters are never resolved.

Herblock's Law: If it's good, they'll stop making it.

Krueger's Observation: A taxpayer is someone who does not have to take a civil service exam in order to work for the government. The above laws were found athttp://dmawww.epfl.ch/roso.mosaic/dm/murphy.html

I have chosen this somewhat humorous way to remind us that there are certain things in life that we can count on. In spiritual things we know that we can count on what Jesus says as being true!

We can count on the Beatitudes, those blessed attitudes, which we have been studying, as true. If we are going to live righteous lives to the glory of God, we need to count the beatitudes as true. I say this, as we approach the last Beatitude, because this last Beatitude is very challenging, and, humanly speaking, not pleasant!

Matthew 5:10 - Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This last Beatitude is unique because Jesus gives with it some clarifying remarks.

Matthew 5:11-12 - Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. [12] Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

I see two important challenges in these verses:

WE WILL BE REJECTED

WE ARE TO REJOICE

WE WILL BE REJECTED

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake:

Those who live by the Beatitudes, will become righteous people.

They will live righteously!

Let's review!

Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

· A person who is poor in spirit looks at himself and sees that he or she is a sinner.

· A person who is poor in spirit sees that he has no righteousness of his own.

· A person who is poor in spirit turns to Christ for righteousness.

It is the Lord Jesus who lived a sinless life.

It is the Lord Jesus who gave his life as a payment for my sins.

It is the Lord Jesus who makes me righteous when I trust in Him for forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 - For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Romans 5:1 - Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Remember, a righteous person is not righteous in himself. He is righteous because God has declared Him righteous in Christ.

Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

· It is righteous people who sorrow over their sins.

· It is righteous people who grieve over the fact that they have offended God their Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, their Savior.

· It is righteous people who are sorry enough over sin to want to quit.

· It is righteous people who are sorry enough over sin to trust God to help them quit.

Matthew 5:5 - Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Meek people are strong people with a gentle attitude.

It is the meek person who has "power under control".

How do we know that a meek person is a righteous person?

Jesus was and is righteous.

Jesus was meek.

Matthew 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

· You should read your Bible because you want to live righteously.

· You should pay attention to the Word of God when it is preached because you want to live righteously.

· You should examine your behavior and ask God to control it because you want to live righteously.

Matthew 5:7 - Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

· It is the righteous person who will show mercy to those who are in need.

· It is the righteous person who will forgive someone who has offended them.

· It is the righteous person who is not critical of others.

Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

It is people whose heart God has purified that are righteous.

People with a pure heart see God clearly in the every day course of life and will see Him personally one day in Heaven.

Matthew 5:9 - Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

· Peacemakers are righteous because they are at peace with God.

· Peacemakers are righteous because they help make peace between God and man.

· Peacemakers are righteous because they try to make peace between themselves and others.

· Peacemakers are righteous because they try to bring opposing people together in peace.

Matthew 5:10 - Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

As you live by these Beatitudes, which are righteous ways of living, those who are not righteous will reject you.

Unrighteous people don't like righteous people.

Psalm 34:19 - Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

2 Timothy 3:12 - Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Galatians 4:29 - But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

And notice please, what Jesus says in verse 11.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

When we live righteously, we are doing it for Jesus' sake.

The world hates Jesus.

The world will hate you as well.

The world persecuted the Lord Jesus.

It will persecute you as well.

John 15:18-20 - If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. [19] If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. [20] Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

· Usually when we think of persecution, we think of people imprisoned for Christ's sake.

· We think of people tortured for Christ's sake.

· We think of people killed for Christ's sake.

And indeed that kind of persecution of Christians is taking place throughout the world today.

M. is a Sudanese Muslim convert. He was beat up by his family and reported to the security police. They tortured him at 3 different occasions. After international interventions he was released. When they security police came looking for him again he went into hiding. He is currently still in hiding pending arrangements for him to leave the country. MIDDLE EAST CONCERN P.O. Box 2; Loughborough; LE11 3BG; UK http://www.idop.org/mec.html

24 February 2003 - Ziwar Muhammad Isma'il, a Christian convert from a Muslim background, has been shot and killed for his faith, according to Middle East Concern.

Ziwar, who worked as a taxi driver in Zakho, in the Kurdish authority area of North Iraq, was shot by Abd al-Karim Abd al-Salam at a taxi rack early in the morning on 17 February. Abd al-Salam approached Ziwar and challenged him to return to Islam. When Ziwar refused he opened fire with an automatic rifle. Other taxi drivers gave chase, apprehending Abd al-Salam and handing him over to the police. Abd al-Salam claims that the Islamic prophet Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him to kill Ziwar. http://godcares.com/persecute/firstpage.htm#CHRISTIAN%20SHOT%20DEAD%20IRAQ

There is also persecution that is a lot subtler.

Ø A man is continually passed over for a promotion, because he will not party with his bosses.

Ø A woman is talked about behind her back because she insists on living a Godly life.

Ø A teenage boy or girl is shunned by his or her friends when he or she becomes a Christian and no longer engages in the questionable activities that once ran his or her life.

Ø A man gets in trouble with his aunt and uncle and parents because he chose to witness for Christ to his teenage mentally challenged cousin. I was the one who witnessed.

Ø Christians are ridiculed and mocked and falsely accused because they chose to live righteously and because they chose to share Christ.

Now friend, if you have never been verbally ridiculed for Christ's sake, I'd be concerned.

If you have never been mistreated for Christ's sake, I'd examine my life.

I'm not saying that persecution is continual, but when you are truly saved and living for him, you will draw persecution in some way, shape or form.

Don't be like the college student that Dwight Pentecost told of, who decided to spend the summer working in a logging camp.

"He had come from a Christian home and a very sheltered background. Knowing the profligate life of many of those who living in logging camps, his parents sought to prepare this Christian young man for the opposition he would face and the persecution he could anticipate. They did not hear from their son often during the summer, so when he came home, they questioned him about the attitude of the men toward his Christian faith. He seemed surprised they should ask. He said, 'Why they didn't even give me a bit of trouble all summer. In fact, they never even found out that I was a Christian.'" Dwight Pentecost, The Sermon On The Mount, Contemporary Insights For a Christian Lifestyle (Multnomah Press, Portland, Oregon, 1975, 1980) p. 69

WE WILL BE REJECTED

WE ARE TO REJOICE

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Why should we rejoice when we suffer for righteousness sake?

· First of all, it is an indication that we are Christians.

If we are persecuted because we are acting rightly and righteously that shows that we have been born again. Ours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, [10] Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

We can rejoice because persecution is an indication that we are Christians.

· Secondly, we can rejoice because we look forward to future reward.

Jesus says that our reward in Heaven is great!

In the Book of Revelation Jesus gives personal messages to seven churches. One of these churches is the persecuted church of Smyrna.

Revelation 2:8-10 - And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; [9] I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. [10] Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

· Thirdly we can rejoice because our suffering will lead others

to faith in Christ.

Years ago the communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor with the purpose of distorting the facts and presenting him in a bad light. They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel.

As the author was doing his research, he was increasingly impressed by Taylor’s saintly character and godly life, and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assigned task with a clear conscience.

Eventually, at the risk of losing his life, he laid aside his pen, renounced his atheism, and received Jesus as his personal Savior.

Whether we realize it or not, our example leaves an impression on others. Source unknown http://www.bible.org/illus/i/i-49.htm#TopOfPage

1 Peter 2:15 - For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

1 Peter 3:14-15 - But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; [15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

When we suffer for righteousness sake, many unrighteous will notice and be convicted. When they start to ask about the hope we show during persecution, we need to be ready to share the Gospel with them.

We can rejoice because our suffering will lead others to faith in Christ.

· We can rejoice because we suffer for the Lord's sake.

One of the greatest persecutors of the church was a man named Saul of Tarsus. One day, on the road to Damascus, Jesus saved Him, and he eventually became known as the Apostle Paul.

Jesus said of Him in Acts 9:16 - For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

And please notice Paul's attitude towards persecution:

Acts 20:22-24 - And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: [23] Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. [24] But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

· We can rejoice because we follow in the tradition of the prophets.

Several years ago I was a guest for a few days at Pensacola Christian College. One of the highlights of my couple of days there was sitting on a platform at one of their chapel programs with a large number of other pastors who were also guests. It was an honor to be in such good company.

When you and I are persecuted for righteousness sake, we join another group of honored people, the Old Testament Prophets.

These were men who stood for God, but suffered tremendous persecution. They stood for righteousness and were persecuted for it. What an honor to be counted with that great group of men.

Matthew 5:10-12 - Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [11] Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. [12] Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

WE WILL BE REJECTED

WE ARE TO REJOICE

Because it is an indication that we are Christians

Because we look forward to future reward

Because our suffering will lead others to faith in Christ

Because we suffer for the Lord's sake

Because we follow in the tradition of the prophets

Are you a Christian?

Count on persecution!