July 24, 2016 Afternoon Service Beatitudes Part 3 by Pastor Josh Sheldon

David’s Servants, the King’s Honor, and Christ’s Identification with His People

David took David's servants and shaved off half the beard of each, and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. When it was told David, he sent to hate them, but the men were greatly ashamed.

And the king said, Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehab, and the Syrians of Joba.

Twenty thousand foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah, with one thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the hosts of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array, at the entrance of the gate.

And the Syrians of Joba, and Beth-rehab, and the men of Tob, and Maacah, were by themselves in the open country. When Joab saw that the battle was set against him, both in the front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel, and arrayed them against the Syrians.

The rest of his men he put in the charge of Bishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you.

Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what seems good to them. So Joab and the people who were with him, drew near to the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him.

And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered his city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites, and came to Jerusalem. Our New Testament reading is Matthew 25, then John 26, HB 31.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you? Or thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and welcome you? Or naked, and clothe you?

And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Then He will say to those on His left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then He will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous, into eternal life. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this sermon. We ask your wisdom and strength to be proclaimed to us, and I pray that you would help us to appreciate it, that you would open our ears, that we would understand what you have to say about persecution, about our participation in persecution with our brothers, who are persecuted, and pray that you would teach us all these things in your word.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you, Conley. Please be seated.

The Eighth Beatitude and the Meaning of Persecution

The eighth and final Beatitude is our subject this morning. As we work our way through the Sermon on the Mount, and finish these eight blessings, the eighth of them, Matthew 5, verse 10 through 12, the Lord Jesus Christ teaches this.

This is the word of the Lord. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs 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. And so we look this morning to see what the Lord Jesus Christ says to us about persecution.

And among the lessons that we're going to take from this this morning, Lord willing, we'll take from this this morning, is just how personally God takes it when his people are mistreated for his name's sake.

Now Tom alluded to this when he was speaking, and he's absolutely right, which is why I had Conley read from 2 Samuel 10. Excuse me, 1 Samuel 10. 2 Samuel 10. That one. The reason I had Conley read that is because David, King David, as that type of Christ, as that prefigurement of Jesus Christ, when his emissary went to Hunan and were treated like that, who were they mistreating?

Was it the servants, the emissaries, the ambassadors whose beards were cut and whose buttocks were exposed? No, not ultimately. It was David. David said, so they treated me, and this is why the battle against them, the campaign against them was so swift and so severe.

And so says Jesus Christ in Matthew 25, which was also read to you. Who was refused the act of mercy? To whom was the cup of cold water, the bit of relief, declined? Was it that person? Only in the most limited sense, it was Jesus Christ.

And he takes it as personally as he does the good that was done. He says, you did it to me, or you failed to do it to me. Jesus takes it very personally to himself when his people are mistreated for his namesake.

As we learn in Acts 8 and verse 4, as Saul was writing to Damascus to do more harm to the church, and what did the Lord say to him? Why are you persecuting my church? Why are you mistreating these people?

Why are you so violent? No, none of that. The question was much more direct. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Said the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how personally he takes it. So we have here this morning the eighth, the final of the eight beatitudes being pronounced by God the Father through his son Jesus Christ.

And this blessing derives from what preceded. It derives from what is proven by the character of what we had from the first beatitudes, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, hunger and thirsting for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and now the persecuted.

The consequence of those other characters is that there will be persecution because those other characters describe what? The Christian. Quite simply, that's what a Christian is. And for that, you will be persecuted.

By all those characteristics is demonstrated that the kingdom of heaven truly is ours by having these characteristics within us. There's a condition here, of course, and we must not gloss it over. We must not go past it too fast.

The oppression that we experience or that anyone experiences as these people that Tom described to you, it must be because we've stood firm in our commitment to God's righteousness. It's on account of Jesus Christ that they turn on us.

Suffering for Christ Versus Suffering for a Cause

Now, Martin Lloyd-Jones, he makes a very helpful distinction between suffering for a cause, our pet cause, if you will, which we force fit to fit our Bibles. There's suffering for a cause or there's suffering for Christ.

And he says, go ahead, promote your political, your social cause. It could be a result of your Christian ethic. It could come from your Christian worldview. It could well be a right thing to do. But he says, don't resent God if you find no special blessing from God.

You see, today, what we have in our world, in this country especially, are some very great evils. Abortion, I think, being top on the list is a great evil. But we have to ask whether the cause against it is for Christ's righteousness or for political and social reasons.

Even when the cause flows from our Christian ethic. And he says, there's nothing wrong with going ahead and promoting our political or our social cause or even being activist in favor to promote our cause.

But let's make a clear distinction between our political causes, our social causes, those sorts of things, and Christ's righteousness. The cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is to save sinners, to stop hell-bound sinners in their track and turn them to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.

But I want us to think this morning as we look at this, what is exactly persecution? What does it entail? And if I could take a brief excursus, can somebody get that air conditioner turned down? It's getting really warm in here.

It defaults up to a higher thing when we do it. Did it? We get it right, thank you. We will cool down in a moment. It's a good air conditioner. I want to talk about what persecution actually is. What does it mean?

It comes from a Greek word, it's dioko. And it means simply to persecute, to expel. It's the aggressive and injurious behavior carried out in a hostile, antagonistic spirit, normally by a group. Persecutors are known for their fiery zeal, as Paul confesses of himself in Philippians 3 .6.

It has the idea of impelling something or setting it into a rapid motion. Jesus used this word, for example, in Luke 17 .23, when he told his disciples not to run after people who claim to have seen his return.

Don't run after them. Don't persecute towards them, if you will. Paul uses it twice in the book of Philippians when he speaks of pressing on towards the prize, which is Christ. He's persecuting that goal.

He's running after it. He's pressing towards it. One last example, in Hebrews 12 .14, we are told to strive, to dioko, to persecute for peace. It sounds a little funny when I say it that way. Why would you persecute for peace?

But that's what it means, to strive after it, to be strident about it in a way, to be determined. Persecution is the inevitable response of the world to the testimony of God through his Son. And why it's so hated is that the gospel, the gospel that brings this violence hits the world where it hurts.

It hits the world where it hurts. It hits their pride. The world at large is more Pelagian than Pelagius. Do you know the English monk back in the 5th century named Pelagius who taught that men are born good?

And when you come out of the womb, everything's fine, God's satisfied with you, and then you become bad by the bad things you do. That's a very simplistic description, but that's the idea, that you're basically good until you choose to do what is bad.

I don't want to go any further into this wrongheadedness, but this, the world hates being told it's bad. The world hates the gospel because to apprehend the gospel, you first must apprehend the need for the gospel.

And to apprehend your need for the gospel, what do you need to understand first? That you're a sinner, that you need something, that you're not self-sufficient, that you can't do something that has to necessarily get done because the consequences of not are horrific and beyond.

That's why the world hates this gospel that we stand for. That's why if you display these characters, if you are this character that Jesus has pronounced in the first seven Beatitudes, the eighth Beatitude is a necessary consequence.

You will endure persecution. The world suppresses their conscience with constant and great effort, and to be told that all that work is for nothing would cause them to explode with rage. That so often has happened in history and as Tom pointed out, is happening even now.

And that's why persecution is paired with our stance for righteousness. All this is nothing new. It started in the garden, has not abated since then. Genesis 3 .15 makes part of the curse the constant warfare between these two seeds, the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.

The seed of the devil that would continue on is in John 8 when he says, you are of your father the devil. That seed continuing all that time versus the seed of the woman which issued forth into Jesus Christ, whose seed by faith we are.

Paul sees it played out between Ishmael and Isaac. Galatians 4 .29 says, but just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now.

And so also it is now in our time. Abel is called in Hebrews 11 for righteous. Jesus called him righteous in Matthew 23 .34. His serpent seed brother Cain murdered him. The ultimate persecution because of what?

His righteousness. Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Saul persecuted David. Judah tried to persecute Tamar to death, but he finally confessed that she is more righteous than I. And on and on and on and on it goes right up to today.

Persecution as the Normal Response to Righteousness

Paul wrote, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Jesus said to his disciples and to the church, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And in this world, he said, you will have tribulation.

Now persecution is not something to be sought after. It's the inevitable reaction of a world trying to keep its foundation from falling apart. I defined persecution a moment ago. Y 'all heard this, this determined trouble brought against people because of a certain belief system.

There's another way to say it. I would ask you, have you been persecuted for your faith? And I think most of us would say something like, no, not really. I missed out on an invitation here and there because they weren't sure they want some holy roller at the party.

Or one time a colleague sort of smirked at me and he belittled me a little bit in front of coworkers somewhat. But you know, it wasn't too bad. It was all in jest. It was all in fun. So it was okay. No, no, I'm sorry.

I haven't been persecuted. Praise God for that. Now if you answer like that, if I asked you if you've been persecuted and you gave me an answer like that, then you haven't the mind of Christ regarding what persecution is.

If you answer like that, you say, no, I've not been persecuted. I just got teased a few times. I didn't get persecuted. You don't understand how personally, how seriously, how gravely your Savior takes this.

Remember what he said to Saul. Why are you persecuting me? Not the church. Though it was the church and Paul says that in his letters. But how does Jesus say it? You're persecuting me. We need to have the mind of Christ about this.

Too often we think that unless our goods are confiscated, our experience is beneath God's notice. We think we have to burn at the stake before we can say we've been persecuted. Some of the horror that Tom recounted to us.

What does God's word call it? What does God's word call it? Recall the former days, Hebrews 10 .32. When after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had the compassion, excuse me, you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Now listen again to Jesus' words. When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. Think of it, reproach and affliction in Hebrews. Then he adds that being partners with those who are persecuted by prayer, by practical support, by in our spirits, knowing that we are with them because we together are with them in Christ.

It includes them in the hard struggles. Jesus puts reviling and evil utterances on either side of persecution. When they revile you, when they persecute you, when they utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name's sake.

What is the bar by which we determine whether we've been persecuted? Is it being burned alive? Is it being torn apart by wild beasts? Is it slavery as happens today where ISIS has rampaged and is rampaging?

Government intrusion and imprisonment as today in places like Vietnam? Yes, it is all that. It is that, but it's more than that for us in our daily walk. We go to our neighborhoods. We go to our workplaces.

It's more than that. When saints gather together and pray for men like Pastor Rick, their tribulation are ours. Listen carefully what Scripture says. It says that we are being persecuted with them. If indeed we confess the same Savior, if indeed we confess that we are with them because it is Jesus and we are together with them in Christ.

It is Jesus who's being persecuted. Do you know, dear ones, do you know that you are one with Pastor Rick? Do you know that you are one with the five pastors who were murdered in the Philippines? I think Jesus would say you are.

He would say we are together with them. We are being persecuted with them. God counts it as such. Hebrews 10 speaks of being exposed to reproach, being publicly derided, being shamed, not killed or tortured, but humiliated.

I mean, have you ever been insulted, made fun of because you're a Christian? I'd almost like to see heads nodding. Have you ever been insulted? Have you ever been derided in even what's supposed to be a joking way for being a Christian?

That's persecution. That's what the Bible calls persecution. We're ashamed to call it that because they say it's not enough. I didn't get hurt badly. My body wasn't damaged. My home is still standing, therefore it wasn't persecution.

That is not the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is that is indeed persecution. He takes it as such, and we must. What if someone just teases you? What if it's the little school children in the play yard saying, nah, nah, nah, nah, you're a big dummy.

That sounds silly, doesn't it? Brethren, if you read your Scripture rightly, God doesn't take it lightly at all. God takes it as if you're thumbing your nose in His face. Ask the 42 youths who were mauled by a bear.

After what? They teased Elisha. Hey, Baldy. Hey, go on up, Baldy. Go on up, Baldy. What harm does that do? Ask God. Ask the bear that was sent to maul them. If we bear the name of His Son, then He takes it as if it is His Son who's being teased, which in fact is what is happening.

Think of Hebrews 11, what we call the hall of faith. Starting in the second half of verse 35, some were tortured, refusing to accept relief. Verse 36, mockings, floggings, chains. I mean, these last two seem the worst, but they've been grouped together in the Scripture.

They've been stoned. They've been sawn in two. They've been killed with the sword, verse 37. But then the last half of that verse, they went about in the skins of sheep and goats, afflicted, mistreated.

Sounds bad, doesn't it? It is bad. But it's not getting sawn in two. What says the Scripture? The Scripture says the world wasn't worthy of them. Which ones does it mean? Does this mean only those who were stoned for their faith?

No, not them only. God is concerned for any mistreatment that He receives. And He receives it, dear ones, when you receive it. Even if it's just that schoolyard bully teasing you, saying, nah, nah, nah, nah.

It's to God. And we need to think this way when we pray about persecution, when we answer a question whether we've even experienced it. It might be you or me who feels the sting of it, but when that God-hating pagan insults you because of Christ in you, it's as if Jesus Himself can smell that fetid breath that gave you the insult.

The Reward of the Kingdom and the Cost of Witness

It says, blessed are the persecuted. How are they blessed? First, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the inclusio that concludes the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If the world sees the image that they hate, which is Jesus' image, if they see that shining through you, then there's convincing evidence that you're a citizen of a country that is better than this, better than theirs.

And if hatred cannot be contained, it's all the more confirmed that those characteristics in the first seven Beatitudes are being well displayed in you and by you. I mean, the world loves people like John Spong who make Christianity so milquetoast, so worldly that anyone can claim Christ.

God is love, and you are love, and we all love each other, and we're all going to be saved, and it's all going to be heaven because God is love, and you don't even have to repent. You don't even have to see the cross of Christ where your sins were covered.

That's what they love. But the true Christ, the one who hates sin, the one who avenges himself against the ungodly, that one, the true one, he's unbearable. The old question is, if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

And usually what people mean by that is, did you knock on a lot of doors? Did you hand out so many tracts? And I wonder if a good answer might be, yes. Yes, there is evidence to convict me, and here's the evidence.

Not, I banged on this many doors and refuted these many heresies. Not, here's the tracts I handed out in the subway. Those are good things to do, by the way. What if our answer was this? Yes, I'm a Christian.

The evidence is, my little brother made fun of me. What if the seven-year-old said, my brother made fun of me? That's evidence. My husband grew cool towards me. That's evidence because it's persecution.

My coworker insulted me because of my stance for Christ. My neighbor stopped coming over for barbecues or inviting me to their barbecues. Do you know what all these are in Christ's eyes? These are persecutions.

These are persecutions. It's Jesus who didn't get invited to the barbecue. It's Jesus who's being insulted. Is Pastor Reck a better Christian because he died for his faith? I mean, tradition holds that the one who was sawn in two that's spoken of in Hebrews 11 was Isaiah.

Is God more concerned with that than he is with mockings? Jesus told the church at Smyrna in Revelation 2 .10 that they'd have 10 days of tribulation, and he said, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Now, he's not saying they'd all die after 10 days just to endure. The point is the same as before. Jesus knows and he cares about everything we endure for him. It might seem small to us, but brethren, it's not small to him.

It's not small to him. So often, you know, we commit to the big stuff. We're ready to do the big deal, like when Peter said he'd go to the cross with Jesus if he had to. Do you remember that? Even if I have to suffer the cross for you, I will not run away.

Oh, the big dramatic thing where you get lots of press. Yes, we can all anticipate doing that. Doing it's another thing, as Peter learned. We can all boast that we would do it, but could Peter endure the mocking of a little servant girl?

And do we understand when that servant girl twice mocked him for his faith, teased him as it were, do we understand what that was? It was persecution. It was persecution. Now, we know the end of that story that Peter didn't bear up very well under it.

We know he had to repent. We know how strong he became after the Holy Spirit came upon him. We know the end of that story, but understand that when he was being questioned like that, and questioned in a way that would almost force him to say no, I don't know him, being cornered, and we've all known this, understand that that is persecution.

Would you die for your faith? Yes, would you? Lord willing, you or I won't have to, but praise God that you're willing. Could you stand to be mocked for your faith? How about teased? Would your testimony survive teasing in the break room at work?

If a coworker accused you in front of everyone of being a Christian, and all eyes turned to you, and the whole lunchroom becomes silent, and all the cell phones are put on mute, and the leader of their pack says, is this true?

Do you actually worship an unseen God? You believe that someone came out of a tomb? Really? What school did you go to? You're one of those? I mean, maybe we could stand it a little bit better if we understood that Jesus takes it personally.

Jesus takes it as if those eyes are not boring into you, but boring into him. I mean, that's the lesson of David and Huron, which was read to you earlier. David's servants weren't tortured or killed. Their goods weren't confiscated.

Their families weren't enslaved. They were humiliated for the sake of the king they represented. And David, typifying David's greatest son, how did he take it? With the utmost severity. He took it personally.

As they treated his servants, so did they him. Matthew 25, the goat's indictment, is that they refused to give help to the helpless, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. Who did they refuse? Jesus, personally.

You did not do it to me. Great is your reward in heaven, he says. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, it's interesting. He doesn't say exactly what that reward is other than heaven generally.

Certainly, it's nothing so crass as Islam's 72 virgins or anything like that. Is there some heavenly bank vault where something is tossed in every time we endure something bad because of Christ? No, that's not the case.

The first reward is actually here and now, in this life. It's the confirmation that we really are God's child. Peter and John, in Acts chapter 5, they rejoiced that they were found worthy to suffer dishonor, which a beating in that day certainly was a dishonorable way to be punished.

But they rejoiced they were counted worthy to receive dishonor for the cause of Christ. You see, Jesus doesn't quantify how we must take the suffering. Do we need to act as though the words don't sting?

If we're beaten and we say, ouch, that hurt, have we lost our reward? If insults bring tears to us, have we proven too weak to gain anything from Christ because of it? No, none of that would be the case because just read the Psalms.

Read the many laments. Read the many complaints that the Psalmist gives to God. Persecution is inevitable. It must be for Christ's sake. It must be for the righteousness of God. As his word tells us what the righteousness is, not our own definition, not what I want to do, not the way I want to behave, but what the scripture says, that righteousness, and that not because we're being pugnacious, not because we're being prideful, because we stand for Christ as those poor in spirit, mourning over our sin, meek before others, hungering and thirsting for that righteousness, as those who are merciful to others, pure in heart, peacemakers.

Persecution will happen. If we stand and live for Christ, the devil's fury will show up, maybe in ways so subtle that we can't even trace it back. But know this, that Christ can, and Christ does, and he will in the end avenge every burnt saint, every crucified believer, every confiscated good will vanish from memory at the sight of the reward in heaven, every insult will be read back and punished, every derision will be answered for, and in the meantime, while we wait his return, as Thomas Watson put it for us, Christ died to take the curse from us, not the cross.

Enduring Ridicule, Bearing Christ’s Name, and the Final Call to Rejoice

So I close with simply this, this question. How important is our suffering to our Savior? Have you suffered for his sake? If you just got teased by a co-worker, don't slough it off as if it's no big thing, because if you're Christ's, they tease him.

They looked in the face of the maker of heaven and earth and said na-na-na-na to him. So don't you take it personally, because you stand for Christ. It's against him that this happens. The persecution we endure for his sake is so important to him that the Beatitudes, these royal proclamations from the word of God, the very word of God, they close with this.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Amen?