In our ongoing study of the Sermon on the Mount, we have come today to the eighth, and the last Beatitude. Most commentators agree that verse 10 is the last Beatitude, and vs 11, is an expansion on the same. The Beatitudes, we have learned, are a description of someone who is a Christian. It is a list of characteristics of a Christian man or woman as given to us by the Lord Jesus.
This last one differs a little from the others in that it is not just a characteristic of what behavior a Christian will have, but what behavior the Christian can expect from others. In other words, it’s talking about how others will treat you if you are a Christian. What reaction the life of a Christian will elicit from the world.
There are several components of this Beatitude which we will look at individually. The first, I suppose, that should be noted is that in this Beatitude, Jesus bookends all the Beatitudes with the phrase, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” I believe that indicates that all the Beatitudes are characteristics of a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus starts with the phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” in the first one in vs 3, and ends with it again in vs 10, which is the last Beatitude. So all these characteristics comprise the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
And for the benefit of those who have not been here for the entire series, let me say again that the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual kingdom. A spiritual kingdom that was inaugurated at Christ’s incarnation, and it will be consummated at Christ’s second appearing. It is the kingdom of Christ which reigns in the hearts and minds of His people. It is a kingdom characterized by life with Christ, the abundant life that He gives which will live eternally. It is a life of holiness, a community of the saints, the chosen people of God, who are conformed to the image of Christ. It is the kingdom of heaven which is instituted on earth, of which Christians are it’s ministers, and who are promised the divine blessings of such citizenship.
We sometimes speak of the blessings of citizenship in this country we live in, America. But we that are Christians have a dual citizenship, and our citizenship in heaven is the one to which we have the greater allegiance. The Christian is the spiritual descendant of Abraham, of whom it was said in Hebrews 11:9, that “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Now God’s call to Abraham was accompanied by the promise that He would bless him. And Abraham was blessed, even though he lived as an alien in the land of promise. And in much the same way, Jesus says that we will be blessed, even though we experience persecution here on earth. This Beatitude illustrates, I believe, that the common interpretation for the word “blessed” is incorrect. We need to correctly understand the meaning of blessed. Jesus says it here 9 times. He will continue to announce blessing or blessedness on those who trust in Him as He continues His ministry. We need to understand what it means.
I have spent a lot of time previously speaking of the correct meaning of “blessed” but I think it bears repeating. Because there are many that want to translate the word “blessed” as happy. I think that trivializes the meaning. In our culture especially, I think happy has hedonistic connotations that are not in keeping with the context of Jesus’s teaching. As the band Switchfoot said in one of their songs, “Happy is a Yuppie word.” I don’t believe that Jesus is telling us how to be happy. Especially in light of this Beatitude. Jesus is not saying I want you to be happy and laugh and have a good old time when people are persecuting you, perhaps even torturing you or putting you to death. No, that is not what Jesus is trying to say here. Jesus is not saying that to be a Christian means that you will never suffer.
I believe that the correct meaning of “blessed” is to be granted special favor with God. To be blessed is to be granted special favor with God. Now that special favor with God encompasses a lot of things, such as forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and a reward in heaven. So it is possible in that context to be blessed, and yet not feel happy. How we feel at any given moment is not what we are to be basing our Christianity upon. But to have the favor of God, the grace of God, the benevolence of God towards you as a Father has for His children, is something that endures and transcends the suffering you may temporarily suffer here on earth.
The next thing we want to notice in this Beatitude is the phrase “for righteousness sake.” It’s important to recognize that Jesus is not saying, “blessed are they which are persecuted,” but “blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake.” And that’s an important distinction. You can be persecuted because you have red hair. You can be persecuted because of your political views. You can be persecuted because you are a fanatic, or because you are obnoxious. You can be persecuted for a lot of things, but only one thing here is being spoken of as meriting the blessing of God. And that is righteousness.
In an indirect way, I think that Jesus is indicating here that a Christian will be characterized by their righteousness. That is an important principle. A Christian is characterized by their righteousness. I think that far too often Christians try to offer excuses for our lack of righteousness. We say we aren’t under the law but under grace. We say that Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven, and other such things to excuse why our lives are not characterized by righteousness.
Listen, we aren’t saved by acts of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. But having been born again, we are born again in righteousness to be righteous. We cannot enter the kingdom of heaven until we have been born again. Jesus said in John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
In being born again, we are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 2Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” So we receive His righteousness by grace, that we might do the works of righteousness.
Jesus in John 14 tells the disciples; vs12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” Now a lot of Christians get all excited about that verse and start thinking about walking on water, or healing the sick and so forth. But is that really what He is talking about? Is He not talking about us doing the works of righteousness which He did? I think so, as illustrated in the verses following vs 12, He says in vs 13, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do [it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Is Jesus saying if I ask for a new car He is obligated to give it to me? No, but His intent is indicated in the statement, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.” He wants us to keep His commandments which is righteousness. And He’s saying that He will help us do that.
So if you read further in that chapter, the next thing Jesus says is that He will send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to give you the power to do what He asks you to do. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, so that we might do the works of Christ, the works of righteousness. So therefore, the characteristic of a Christ that is to be the our characteristic as well is righteousness. 1John 2:29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” So being born again results in being righteous and practicing righteousness.
John reiterates that principle in 1John 3:7 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” There are a lot of deceivers out there who are practically advocating that Christians can live in sin, saying that since we can’t be righteous to be saved, then we need not practice righteousness while saved. But John says that the opposite is true. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. Righteousness is the characteristic of someone who is born of God, a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. A Christian is someone who has been born again with a capacity for righteousness, a desire for righteousness. That’s what Jesus said in the 4th Beatitude, “blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
So what this Beatitude tells us, and which is confirmed by John, is that being righteous, practicing righteousness, is really being like Christ. Jesus says as much in vs 11, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” What does He mean because of Me? Well, He is speaking of a disciple who is like His master. The Christian’s life is one that is controlled and directed by Christ, by his loyalty to Christ, and to live for Christ’s sake. They no longer live for themselves, but for Christ.
Therefore, because we are like Him, we will be persecuted for being like Him. Jesus said as much in John 1:18; “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before [it hated] you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”
Paul said it another way in 2 Timothy 3:12, emphasizing that righteousness is the reason for persecution. He said, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Notice, persecution is tied to living godly, in other words, living righteously.
Now it doesn’t seem logical from a theoretical point of view. You would think that the world would love someone who is righteous. Who practices righteousness. But in fact, they hate them. Cain hated Abel, and killed him. Saul hated David and hunted him. Daniel was hated and thrown into the lion’s den. And Jesus tells us in vs 12 that this was common for all the prophets: “for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” In the New Testament Peter and Paul and the other apostles were hunted and harassed and thrown into jail and eventually killed for their righteousness. Jesus, of course, is our greatest illustration. He was righteous, truthful and merciful, of whom it was said, “a bruised reed he will not break and a smoking flax he will quench,” and yet they crucified Him. And down through the ages godly men and women have been persecuted even to death for the sake of righteousness.
It also bears mentioning that persecution does not always come from the world, but oftentimes from religious people. Paul was persecuted by the Pharisees. Jesus was persecuted by the religious leaders of His day. So it continued through the Middle Ages and through the time of the Reformation as the Church of Rome conducted inquisitions and burned men and women at the stake for what they considered heresy.
Another question that arises from this principle is why are the righteous persecuted? And I believe that the answer to that is that righteousness condemns both the sinner and the self righteous. When Jesus practiced righteousness the religious elites of Israel had their self righteousness, greed and unmercifulness revealed by comparison. And they hated Him for it. The same is true today. If you practice righteousness as manifested by the Lord Jesus, then those who are practicing self righteousness and hypocrisy will hate you because it reveals their hypocrisy, and they will be antagonized against you because of it.
Now there are a few conclusions we can take from the study of this Beatitude. The first one is the conception by many people of the world that Jesus was a man that everyone will admire and applaud reveals that they really don’t know what Jesus actually taught. The gospel that He taught condemned the sinner and the religious man alike because it showed them God’s standard for righteousness. The Jew’s standard for righteousness was externally appearing to keep the law as they had defined it, and yet their hearts were unchanged. Jesus’s teaching revealed that the heart was deceitful and desperately wicked, and that they could not rest on their good works, but only upon the substitutionary sacrifice which Jesus would offer for the sins of the world. His teaching was offensive to the religious and non religious as well who were secure in their own self righteousness. And so they ended up flogging Him and putting Him to death on the cross. And in a similar fashion we err if we think we must try to make the gospel more appealing on the basis that they will like us and admire us for practicing it.
The second conclusion of this Beatitude is that we have to examine ourselves to see if we are really like the Lord Jesus. Are we spoken well of by the world? Or are we identified with Jesus, and with His persecution? Jesus said in Luke 6:26, “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers’ to the false prophets.” In other words, the Christian is not a man of whom the world speaks glowingly about, who is praised by the world. Jesus said the Jews praised the false prophets and persecuted the Lord’s prophets. The real Christian is going to be one whom the world will despise for his goodness, and who will be persecuted even as Christ was persecuted.
And that is because the world is characterized by the natural man, the man who loves his sin and hates the light because it exposes his sin. The apostle Paul said that the natural man is at enmity with God. He is in a war with God. He cannot please God, and so he hates God, and all who remind him of God.
That reiterates what we said earlier about the requirement to enter the kingdom of heaven. For the natural man to be able to enter, he must be born all over again. He must be born again spiritually, so that he receives a new heart, a new nature, and new desires. He must be given Christ’s righteousness and a capacity for righteousness and a desire for righteousness which comes from receiving a new heart. We cannot be like Christ otherwise. We must be born of the Spirit. The old nature has to die, and the new man has to rise up to live by the power of Christ in us.
Finally, let’s ask ourselves in closing one last question. Do we know what it means to be persecuted for righteousness sake? In a certain sense, we might say that persecution is verification of our salvation. If we have become united with Christ, born again by the Spirit of God, practicing righteous as He was righteous, then persecution will be inevitable. Light always exposes darkness. Jesus said in John 3:19-20 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
Notice that in vs 11, Jesus equates persecution with being maligned, being slandered, being falsely accused. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” Persecution often comes in the form of criticism, of being lied about, mischaracterized, slandered. Persecution is not limited to physical pain and suffering, but includes attacks on your character.
But if and when persecution comes because you are practicing righteousness, because you are becoming like Christ, then you can rejoice in it. You can rejoice because God has chosen you as an object of His special favor. You can rejoice because Jesus has counted you worthy to suffer for His sake. You can rejoice because of the reward that is promised to us in heaven.
Jesus said in vs 12, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Here is the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man. The natural man is concerned about the world and about making his way in the world, achieving success in the world. But the spiritual man, the man who has been born again by the Spirit of God, is concerned about the kingdom of heaven. He is concerned about the things of God and how God judges him.
The non Christian does everything he can to avoid thinking of the world to come, of death and judgment and hell. He doesn’t want to think of such things and the devil makes sure that he is amply entertained and busy enough running the rat race that he has no time to think of heavenly things. But the Christian man looks for a city whose architect and builder is God. He doesn’t put down roots here but considers himself an alien in this world, and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. He is concerned with the things of God, and as such, Jesus said, he will receive the reward of heaven.
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Do you know that you are a child of God? Have you been born again by the Spirit of God? If you can’t say that for sure, then I want to invite you today on behalf of the Lord Jesus, believe in His name, believe in the work that He did on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, confess your sins to God and repent of them, and you will receive forgiveness, cleansing, a new heart and a new life, indwelled by the Holy Spirit so that you may be able to live a life of righteousness that is pleasing to God, and will one day be united with God to live with Him forever and receive your reward. I urge you today to receive this invitation and call upon the Lord while He may be found. He is ready and willing to save all who call upon Him in faith.