Disowned by the World, A Blessing!

 

Read Matthew 5

Here are the first two verses of this chapter.

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

Do you know what’s different in these two verses, as opposed to the other 46 verses?  Those other 46 are all in red in my Bible. In fact, those red letters continued unbroken until the end of chapter 7. This is how 7 ends.

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Jesus taught with authority. If you are a learner who does best when reading or listening, then these red-letter words are just what you need. Just meditate upon the words of your Master. You really don’t need a sermon. You’re getting one, but the Sermon on the Mount is always available to you.

We all know this chapter. It contains the beatitudes, is about salt and light, and is about Jesus fulfilling the law.

You know the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.

It’s about Jesus coming to fulfill the law. It’s about following the law unless you can exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. What does that mean? I thought the Pharisees were a bunch of hypocrites.

They were, but they followed the law. So, we have to follow the law?  Yes, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees.

What happened to being saved by grace?  You know, the gift of God. How could the ordinary person follow everything in the law? 

They can’t, at least alone, but in our profession of faith, the righteousness of God is imputed to us. That’s some top-shelf righteousness right there.

That’s way more than the Pharisees.    

Jesus talked about what’s going on in our hearts. He said the anger, hatred, or lust in our hearts is the same as far as sin goes as the actual manifestation of these things in our physical world. God sees the heart.

This is the chapter about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and loving our enemies.

Jesus discussed a lot in this chapter, but I intentionally skipped over one item. Let’s dig into verses 10-12 as a stand-alone package of counsel.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 What did Jesus just tell us?

If you are persecuted because you follow Jesus, try to live God’s way, or just reject all that is unholy and give only God first place, that’s a good thing, at least according to Jesus.

On the surface, it doesn’t seem to be a blessing.  How can being persecuted be a blessing?

It’s not if it’s because you were unwise. That’s just your boss chewing you out.

It’s not a blessing if you are persecuted by the police because you stole your neighbor’s car. That’s not persecution. That’s pursuit followed by prosecution.  By the way, most law-abiding citizens like this.

It’s not a blessing if the hurt you receive is from a hold my beer experience. That’s just stupidity.

It is a blessing if the world rejects you as its own. If the world does not recognize you as one of its children and persecutes you for being a stranger, that’s a blessing. We are strangers in this world.

That’s being disowned by the world because you belong to God. That’s good stuff.

That’s the if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you sort of stuff, and you stand guilty as charged for being known by your love.

The godless of the world are telling us that we are guilty of following the one true God, whom we know best in Jesus, and the Spirit that lives within us.

Jesus tells us that when we are persecuted—in whatever form that takes in this modern century—and the persecution is because we follow him, then we are in good company.

The world came after the prophets, too. You are in good company.

The price might seem very high in the moment; however, in the context of eternity, knowing that God’s grace is enough for us, persecution is momentary in its inconvenience and eternal in its rewards.

Being attacked, scorned, and otherwise hated because you belong to Christ is a good thing.  You think it’s a good thing when you reject the ways of a sinful world, right?

Is it not also a good thing when the sinful world hates you because you look too much like the One they reject?

Is it not a good thing when you are known by your love and not by the rules of those who have so willingly conformed themselves to the world?

Is it not a good thing for the world not to want you as opposed to hearing our Master say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”

Persecution by the world is just it’s way of disowning us. If the world tells us “Depart from me. I never knew you,” just say hallelujah, praise the Lord, and amen.

Consider our trials as minor—I know that seems to be a stretch sometimes—consider them as minor inconveniences on our way to eternal joy.

I’ll close with the words of the Master. Let’s take those with us above everything else we covered.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

So, when you are persecuted because you follow Jesus, go here:

·       God’s grace is enough.

·       You can handle whatever it is at the moment. It’s momentary.

·       Great is your reward in heaven. The world has disowned you because you belong completely to the Lord.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

Amen.

Matthew 5 - Part 4

 

Read Matthew 5

I like to watch Law and Order.  Briscoe and Green were my favorite detectives.  Briscoe could go old school any time he wanted and Green had a bit of a temper but they were good cops.

Of course, Jack McCoy was my favorite District Attorney.  His dad was a cop.  He rode a motorcycle.  He had a passion for the law.  He pushed the limits of his authority.  He put a lot of bad people behind bars, at least on television.

Most of the crimes involved murder or manslaughter—somebody got killed and it wasn’t an accident.  For a homicide to be a murder, there had to be mens rea—criminal intent or at least depraved indifference.  Sometimes we translate the Latin term into Malice Aforethought. 

For as good as these television detectives and prosecutors were, I never saw anyone convicted of having malice in their hearts without a dead body to go with it.  You have to have a body to have a murder.

Jesus said that you didn’t.  If you have malice or hatred or contempt in your heart towards another person, you stand as guilty as the man with the smoking gun next to the dead body. 

Think back to the prophet Samuel.  He was judging the appearance of Jesse’s sons but God saw the heart. That’s how we came by King David.   

So, if God can see the heart, he can see malice and hatred and contempt in our hearts.  Our transgression need not be manifested in the flesh to have fallen short in God’s eyes.

Jesus warns us not to be a hypocrite.  If we harbor something against a brother or sister or have wronged someone in any way, we should not come before God making an offering as if all is well in the world.

We can’t sing, It is well, it is well, but not really let’s just pretend and expect communion with God.

We need to seek reconciliation with our brother or sister and then come and make an offering that would then be acceptable to God.  God sees the heart.

If we are at odds with another person and have not done our best to reconcile with that person, we are a hypocrite to think our offering of anything—time, money, service, song—could be our first fruits.  How could it be the best we had to offer, if our lives were in discord with another person.

Do you want to know what real hypocrisy is?  Two people going to court—secular court—that in itself shows our self-centered, self-righteous, and contempt for God.

If this were a Facebook post, I would have a million angry faces before noon.  We live in a litigious society.  We sue people because our feelings get hurt.  We sue people because we want more money.  We sue people because they have something and we might be able to get it by taking them to court.

Our civil courts are supposed to provide remedies for wrongs as the law allows.  Sometimes equity allows remedy for what is not provided by the law. 

Here is the admonishment.  Don’t come crying to God because you went to court and didn’t get what you wanted.  When you trust human judges over God, you better be happy with what the judge gives you.

There are all sorts of remedies that courts can award.  Money, control, custody, restraint, release of property or documents, and other things of this world.

Do you know what human courts cannot award?  Peace.  They cannot award peace that goes beyond human understanding.

Does this counsel mean that you will never end up in court?  No, but it cautions you to be ready for an outcome that you may have never sought or had wanted to avoid.

God sees the heart.  Courts hear testimony and review evidence and hear arguments.  The best testimony, evidence, and arguments do not guarantee your victory.  You are trusting a judge to decide what is best for all parties.

Get your heart right with God then make your offerings.  Seek justice through God as your first choice for the courts and judges seldom consider your heart.

Next case.  Amen.