Who among you bought a car recently? Imagine one of you is shopping for a new car and you met the car sales man and instead of his usual sales pitch – the salesman told the prospective buyer something like this:
• If you buy this new car, I have to be honest with you… it’s very dangerous and you are putting your life at stake.”
• Or something like this, “you know, if you buy this new car, the maintenance is so expensive that you might end up selling all your other possessions.
• If you buy this car… people will think you are weird and they will most likely vandalise your car every morning! ”
Will you buy the car? I don’t think so! No one person who is probably in his right mind would like to undergo this kind of situation.
Of course it’s a very poor comparison but I imagine that scenario when I was reading this eighth Beatitude. The negative things that the sales man was talking about is obviously nothing compared to the persecution that the Beatitudes talk about. I just want everyone to picture the scenario in your minds.
The Beatitudes culminates or climaxes with the eighth “blessed” and probably this is the one beatitude that most people doesn’t like – persecution!
Read Matthew 5:1-12
The 8th beatitude presents to us something that we cannot easily comprehend --- basically, it tells us that for those who live according to the first seven Beatitudes --- [1] being poor in spirit, [2] to mourn over sin, [3] to be meek or humble, [4] to hunger and thirst for righteousness, [5] to be merciful, [6] to be pure in heart, [7] to be an advocate for peace --- if we live according to these seven beatitudes, we are certainly going to experience the 8th… we shall certainly going to be persecuted at one point.
We learned the last time that the Greek word for “blessed” is “macarios” which means “happy” so basically Christ is saying that those who are persecuted are happy!
Anybody wants to be happy?
Jesus is basically saying --- If you are persecuted, you are happy, and you must be happy. From human logic, it doesn’t make sense, right? How can you be happy while being persecuted?
But our faith in the Lord goes against human logic. It is way much deeper than that. This is the reason why the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 --- be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
Once we follow Christ, He helps us, through the Holy Spirit, to renew our mind so we don’t think the way this world thinks and we don’t act the way this world acts and we don’t follow the world’s logic but we instead obey the Lord’s logic. Jesus said to those who are following Him “If any man wants to be my follower: let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
We also need to understand the culture or way of life during the time of Jesus. In those days, when they talk about persecution, they are talking about –
• Being used as a human torch
• Being fed to the lions
• Being stoned to death
• Having your entire family killed because of your faith in Christ
• Being a social outcast and not being able to do business with anyone
• Being treated like a leper
• Being stripped off of all your possessions
• Being mocked, being insulted, being scourged, being beheaded
• And of course, being crucified
Our persecutions today is nothing compared to the definition of PERSECUTION during the time of the early Christians. When Jesus said this Beatitude telling them to be HAPPY in spite of the persecutions that they were experiencing --- He was thinking of the kind of persecutions that they were experiencing at that time which is obviously much worse that what we are experiencing today. So the more we should be happy during our time when we experience our own deal of persecution.
We must understand that different people are persecuted for different reasons. A shoplifter will most likely be persecuted for his wrongdoing or an adulterer will be persecuted by the people around him or even by the law. A thief could be imprisoned for years to pay for what he did. But these are not the kind of people that Jesus is referring to. These are not the kinds of persecutions He was talking about. He is very specific that those who are “persecuted because of righteousness” will be blessed!
If you are persecuted because of your own wrongdoing – e buti nga sa iyo! You reap what you sow.
• If you get a failing mark in school because your teacher caught you cheating or because you did not study
• Or you did not get promoted at work because you are always late or you are always complaining
• Or if you don’t use deodorant, don’t be surprised if no one wants to sit beside you
• Or you don’t have friends because you’re the king or queen of gossip or you are a difficult person to deal with so obviously you shall be ostracised.
And you deserved it!!! So yes, we can all experience persecution but the real blessing comes only when we are persecuted for Christ’s sake.
If you don’t experience persecution, ridicule, criticism and if you don’t experience rejection because of your faith – then you have a good reason to re-examine your relationship with Jesus. If you don’t act differently as the world does, then maybe you still belong to the world. To live as genuine Christians means to attract or invite resentments from your surroundings.
Our life is like this --- you visit a small city where most people basically look the same, they do the same things and say the same things, they have their own culture and way of doing things – then all of a sudden, you come and visit them as a stranger, like a tourist and you are different – your skin colour is different. Your words are a bit different and you do things differently. They are fighting and you try to reconcile them… they slap your right cheek and you offered your left… they are cursing but you are praising God… they are drinking and getting wild at parties while you are sharing food to the hungry and telling them stories about Jesus. Obviously you will be isolated, probably mocked, insulted and persecuted. If you experience that, then you ‘ll know that you don’t belong there. It’s the same in our lives as Christians. if we are not too comfortable in this world, if we feel alienated, if we experience persecution for doing the right things …. then it is a good indication that we have genuine faith.
We learned that the Greek Word “dioko” for persecution means “to chase away” so it obviously signifies physical persecution, harassment, abuse or other unjust treatment. Faithfulness to Jesus may even cause friends and relatives to mock us, hurt us with their words, disown us. But remember that a true child of God is characterised by lack of fear and shame and he exhibits courage and boldness. A lot of Christians break down in times of persecution. A lot of Christian compromise their faith in their effort to save themselves. But God does not want His Good News, His Gospel to be altered, sugar coated, to make it less demanding, or less truthful. Jesus does not want each one of us to share the Gospel with the message that the life of a Christian is all about studying the Bible, doing nice things, having fellowship, sharing food, helping each other, loving each other and singing Karaoke. God does not want us to lead an unbeliever into thinking that Christian life costs nothing.
John MacArthur very well summarized the eight Beatitudes. He wrote in his book Daily Readings in the Life of Christ –
Being persecuted concludes this Beatitude because it is basically the end-result of our compliance to the first seven. The last Beatitude starts with a sobering thought of being PERSECUTED but it ended with a great promise. Kumbaga sa love story, happy ending.
Jesus said in the final verse, i.e. verse 12 -- “REJOICE and BE GLAD for GREAT is YOUR REWARD in HEAVEN.” There is a promise to the persecuted. There is a blessing in persecution and there are actually three phases of the Lord’s Blessing to His Children:
The phrase “rejoice and be glad” is a command that means “to leap with joy” or “to jump with exceeding excitement.” In Tagalog, maglulundag ka daw sa tuwa if there are persecutions. Again please don’t get me wrong. Jesus is not suggesting that we all become masochists who enjoys or derives pleasure in experiencing pain. We rejoice and we are glad not in PERSECUTION per se but for what persecution represents.
Persecution confirms our relationship with God. It increases our dependence on Him. Persecution strengthens and molds our character and it allows us to look forward for His great reward.
Prayer:
Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life. Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:
Father God, I confess all my sins to you today. Please forgive me. Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Him in my life as my Saviour and as my Lord. May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.
The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCCC Richmond during its service on Sunday, July 31, 2016
I apologise if there are grammatical and spelling errors.
I also apologise if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any. as it is purely unintentional.
If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:
www.wordchristiancommunity.com
No comments:
Post a Comment