The Blessing of Persecution

Matthew 5:10-12

May 19, 2002

 

Some of Christ's statements have a way of deflating our perceptions of Christianity. For instance, in our day as modern Christians, there is great emphasis on how wonderful you will feel to be a Christian. Talk runs high of the bountiful blessings of God, the certainty of good health, and assurance of abundant wealth that belongs to all that are Christians. Faith has become the lucky rabbit's foot guaranteeing carte blanche approval of one's desires. Popular books in Christian circles portray a "me-centeredness" that gives the idea that the Lord exists for us to cater to our flabby feelings and whims.

 

Then Jesus describes the Christian. He minces no words. In short, pithy statements, He gives the facts of what a Christian will be like. He is poor in spirit, mourns over sin, bends his will into submission to God, hungers and thirsts for righteousness, exercises mercy, is pure in heart, seeks to model peacemaking, and is certain to face persecution. So much for the modern perception of Christianity! The inclusiveness of each Beatitude in the believer's life can be seen in the bookends, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," showing the encompassing description of kingdom citizens-genuine believers (vv. 3, 10). These are the kingdom citizens-and no others exist. So central and certain is persecution in the believer's life that our Lord amplifies the eighth Beatitude in a personal way [moving from 3rd person to the personal 2nd person] to show what will happen to his people (vv. 11-12). Persecution is a divine instrument that keeps the believer focused on the future. It is the certainty of the church in every age. Kent Hughes explains why there is so little persecution apparent in what we see of the world.

But by far the greatest reason there is so little persecution is that the church has become like the world. If you want to get along, the formula is simple. Approve the world's morals and ethics-at least outwardly. Live like the world lives. Laugh at its humor. Immerse yourself in its entertainment. Smile benignly when God is mocked. Act as if all religions converge on the same road. Don't mention hell. Draw no moral judgments. Take no stand on the moral/political issues. Above all, do not share your faith. Follow this formula and it will be smooth sailing.

Then he adds this striking statement, "But the fact is, the church must be persecuted or it is no church at all" [The Sermon on the Mount, 74]. That may be a shocking comment, but it is equally verifiable through Scripture and the record of history. "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (II Tim 3:12). We cannot call ourselves Christians and legitimate members of Christ's body if we do not desire godliness; with it comes persecution. Jesus tells us, "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" (John 15:20). Every generation of Christians has come to understand this personally. John was banished on the Isle of Patmos while all of his fellow apostles were executed. The tarred bodies of Christians lit the Roman emperor's chariot track. Polycarp in the 2nd century testified of Christ's faithfulness and then was executed; so was Justin, surnamed Martyr because of his testimony to Christ in the same era. John Wycliffe suffered banishment in the 14th C. for giving the common people the Scriptures. The Bohemian John Huss faced excommunication and finally burning for his stance upon the gospel. Wycliffe's followers, the Lollards, carried the gospel from village to village and met with persecution. Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli lived under threat of death. William Tyndale met with death after spending a dozen years in hiding while translating the Scriptures into English. The Huguenots in France, along with the earlier Waldenses in Northern Italy and southern France, suffered untold persecution for their faith in Christ. Bloody Mary, following the death of young King Edward VI-a godly man that furthered reformation to England, put to death 288 choice believers, including 44 women and 4 children, all because of their stance upon Christ. The Covenanters and Puritans join that group, many losing their livelihood, others losing their homes, and still others spending years in prison or meeting with death because of their love for Christ and distinctiveness as Christians. And it continues in our own day.

How does persecution fit into the lives of God's people? Let's consider three questions regarding persecution and see if we can grasp something of what Jesus describes as the blessed life of those that are persecuted. 

I. Why does persecution happen?

We must probe this question to get a handle on what Jesus was saying. We begin by eliminating some generalities that are not included in what Jesus promised to be true of Christians, and then we will proceed to show that persecution is "the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems," as John Stott expressed it [Christian Counter-Culture, 52].

1.  Eliminating generalities

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness," identifies the narrow way that Jesus Christ explains who can count upon God's blessing. "For the sake of righteousness" parallels "because of Me," in verse 11 to give an explanation of what he means. "Righteousness" is both legal and practical in the life of the Christian. It is legal in that it refers to the righteousness of Christ on the believer's behalf before the judgment of God. But here the emphasis is upon the practical, moral outworking of the inward righteousness that belongs to every believer through Christ. It is a righteousness that comes with the new nature in Christ-through the new birth. It is what the believer receives in exchange for his rags of sin and good works as he repents and trusts in Jesus Christ (II Cor 5:21; I Cor 1:30). "Because of" is the same word translated by the phrase, "for the sake of" in verse 10. So Jesus is intentionally paralleling these two statements so that we do not misunderstand what he means because of persecution due to righteousness. It is not a self-generating righteousness he speaks of that will have God's blessing in persecution, but it is that which comes because of one's relationship to Jesus Christ. It is "because of Me," or "for the sake of Me" that the believer is persecuted. It is not you but Jesus Christ that ultimately becomes the aim and rationale in persecution. You are persecuted because of your relationship to Christ. The righteousness that is yours in Christ stands in sharp contrast to the unrighteousness of the world.

Some have misunderstood this passage by adding political or social or cultural or even religious persecution to the scope of God's blessing; but that is clearly not what Jesus spoke of in this passage. He is also not speaking of the so-called Christian fanatics, the ones that do the outlandish or even perverse things out of zeal for their view of Christianity, and thus meet with persecution. Right-wing zealots and left-wing ideologists have no claim to divine blessing when facing persecution. Others meet with persecution due to championing a cause, perhaps in the social or ethical or political realm. But such a cause may or may not have anything to do with righteousness. It is not the cause that brings assurance of divine blessing. Still others in the American evangelical scene espouse particular political views that meet with persecution from the secularists in our society. But political views are not what Jesus had in mind in this promised blessing.

2. Clash of value systems

Persecution can come in a lot of different ways, but what Jesus speaks of happens for those whose lives clash with the pervasive views of the world. How else can you explain the believers in Nigeria, minding their own business in living Christian lives, helping others, exercising their faith, being brutally killed, often by mobs? How do you explain the Christian believer who is always on time at work, who does his work dependably without complaint, but he is passed over for a promotion while it is given to someone much less qualified and deserving? How else do you explain the Christian student that is blackballed by the student body from being elected to the student government or denied recognitions that ought to be normal in school life? Jesus explains it so simply, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness...blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." A clash takes place between two value systems, two ways of looking at life, two ways of living in which every person will fit into one or the other. Those who reject Christ cannot handle genuine righteousness; they have to react to it, and they do so in varying degrees-certainly not all with the intensity of a Bloody Mary! Don Carson points out, "Genuine righteousness condemns people by implication; small wonder that people often lash out in retaliation" [The Sermon on the Mount, 28]. That is where the persecution takes place: the believer seeks to live as a Christian, looking to Jesus Christ and living like Jesus Christ. The world reacts, sometimes with hissing remarks, or with cruel stares, or harsh comments, or aim to do harm, or even brutality.

While the Christian recognizes his spiritual bankruptcy, the world greedily grabs for more things. The Christian mourns his sin while the world glories in his. The Christian bends his affections to the will of God while the world rebels against God. The Christian hungers and thirsts for righteousness while the world lives in selfishness. It is no wonder that Jesus declared, "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" (John 15:18-19).

I know that we are living in an age that advocates tolerance. We are supposed to tolerate everyone and everything, no matter how perverse or destructive-except genuine Christianity. Sinclair Ferguson wisely comments, "The world in which we live assumes that it will welcome Christians with open arms-until the first time it meets the genuine article. Until then, it is ignorant of its real response to the gospel. It assumes that it is well-disposed to Jesus Christ and to God" [The Sermon on the Mount, 41]. Some of you have had this very experience in the workplace. You identified yourself as a Christian right up front, and you were told that you were welcome. But over time, without any sermons or crusades in the office, you have been targeted for criticism, simply because the righteousness of Christ in you clashes with the worldly spirit about you. Ferguson is right, "Real loyalty to him [Christ] creates friction in the hearts of those who pay him only lip service. Loyalty arouses their consciences, and leaves them with only two alternatives: follow Christ, or silence him" [41]. To do that they silence you, and persecution shows its face.

II. How does persecution happen?

Persecution can take on many forms. We often think of it and hear of it in the extreme forms, imprisonment or death for preaching the gospel. That is a very lively and real form of persecution but it also takes on other shapes.

1. Extreme cases

The word "persecuted" comes from a word meaning to pursue or to run after [dioko]. It conveys the idea of someone being relentlessly hunted down for the object of the persecutor. William Tyndale's twelve years in exile demonstrate this as his persecutors sought him in every nook and cranny. Neither the Roman Church nor Henry VIII could find the elusive translator of Scripture until that time he was betrayed by a man that he had befriended and trusted. He was 'hunted down' for years-in itself persecution-until he was imprisoned and six months later (in 1536) put to death at Vilvorde Castle near Brussels. John Bunyan, the tinker and Baptist pastor of Bedford, England, was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, telling the magistrates that told him the only way to escape imprisonment was to quit preaching, "that he would remain in prison till the moss grew on his eyelids rather than fail to do what God had commanded him to do" [S.M. Houghton, Sketches from Church History, 161]. And he did remain in prison for twelve years in all, while his heart broke over his blind daughter that he could not care for, yet his pen never stopped as he produced some of Christianity's greatest literary treasures.

It goes on today in extreme ways. Martin and Grace Burnham, held captive for over a year in the Philippine jungles by Muslim rebels, are still alive but no release is in sight for these New Tribes missionaries. Thousands of Nigerian Christians have been tortured, raped, and killed just because they were Christians. Christians and churches in India are regularly attacked. China continues to imprison and persecute Christians though they cannot slow the growth of the church under persecution. North Korea literally exterminates any house churches they find. Dozens of Christians have "disappeared" during the past couple of years because of this repressive attack on Christianity [all of this information can be found in Compass Direct, May 17, 2002 e-mail version].

2. Common cases

For the most part, persecution takes place in more common ways. Jesus explains, "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." The first term, "insult," points to the reproaching or reviling or railing against Christians because they reflect something of the righteousness of Jesus Christ in their lives. Persecution is more often verbal, even showing up quite often by false accusations. A Peruvian Christian leader faces criminal charges right now due to false accusations made against him. The same happens at home in more discreet ways. Kent Hughes observes, "We must be careful not to imagine persecution in overly dramatic terms. Most of it is mundane, and some is even quite 'civilized'" [73]. By calling it mundane, he is not diminishing the reality or agony of persecution but showing that it is actually very common.

Our friends from France (visiting today) understand this quite well. They tried for years to get a building permit to improve a portion of their church property (in fact, it was an old building that one of our teams worked on) but have been consistently denied for no good reason. Some of the church members have been denied promotions; others have lost their jobs because of their faith in Christ. A few years back, four cars were firebombed in their parking lot during the night. Outside of the car bombing, all the other has become commonplace.

You take a stand at your school for biblical creation; you are laughed at, made fun of, or ridiculed. You refuse to give in to the prevailing views on sexual impurity by remaining chaste and discreet in your behavior and conversation; you are talked about and called "intolerant" along with other choice names. You refuse to do something illegal or unethical at work that your boss wants you to do; so now you are suspect, denied promotions, denied raises, and given poor job reviews. You talk about the sufficiency of Christ alone in the gospel to your professing Christian friend; he thinks you are narrow-minded and treats you like you are a bigot or a cultist. It comes in a thousand shapes and sizes with varying degrees of intensity. But it is still persecution aimed to silence your Christianity or dull your conscience or make you fearful of living for Christ. So how are you to respond?

III. How are Christians to respond when persecution happens?

Our Lord gives three simple applications for the believer's response to persecution.

1. Realization

First we must realize the blessing of God attending persecution. Even though it might be the devil's instigation it does not usurp the sovereign goodness of God at work in your life. The Lord is at work, and inevitably brings blessing upon the Christian in the midst of persecution. "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." How can Jesus Christ say that you are "blessed" if you are going through or enduring persecution? We must remember what He has been doing in the Beatitudes. He is describing true Christianity, what it means to be a genuine kingdom citizen. With every Beatitude, the Lord is giving the believer the assurance and certainty that he is a genuine Christian, so the person going through persecution "for the sake of righteousness" realizes that he has an identifying mark of genuineness on his life. Stott rightly calls persecution, "a token of genuineness, a certificate of Christian authenticity" [52]. Because of this Kent Hughes warns, "Therefore, if the person who claims to follow Christ never experiences any persecution at all, it may be reasonably asked if he really is a Christian" [73].

Notice that Jesus explains for the ones persecuted for the sake of righteousness, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Just as He promised for the poor in spirit, He promises the kingdom for the persecuted. These "bookends" help us see that all of the Beatitudes deal with kingdom realities. When we use that term, "kingdom," we are certainly thinking of the rule and reign of Christ over our lives right now, but we are also looking beyond the now into eternity. That is the focus of this promised blessing. Though the believer is persecuted now, he will know the joys and delights of Christ's kingdom for all eternity. As Paul, who understood much about the experience of persecution put it, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Cor 4:17-18). "Jesus disciples, then," as Don Carson explains, "must determine their values from the perspective of eternity" [29]. In contrast, "the non-Christian does everything he can not to think of the world beyond," while the Christian has a totally different perspective on life even in the midst of persecution, because he lives in the promise of God through Christ for the future [Lloyd-Jones, 140].

2. Rejoicing

Then Jesus commands the most amazing thing for those under persecution, "Rejoice and be glad," or 'rejoice and greatly rejoice I tell you'. Rejoicing means that in the face of persecution "the Christian must not retaliate...he must also not feel resentment..." and "must never be depressed by persecution," as Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains. It is not time for the Christian to shut down, give up, or become vengeful. It is really a defining point for the Christian when he faces persecution. Remember how Jesus explained in the parable of the soils that the one upon whom the gospel seed was sown on the shallow soil of the heart, "when persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away" (Matt 13:21). He could not continue on in persecution because he did not have the roots of the gospel deeply planted in his heart and life. Without Christ in his life, enduring persecution was out of the question.

The Christian can rejoice because persecution is not the end even if it means death. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer walked from his prison room to the gallows, he said to a friend, "This is the end-for me the beginning of life" [quoted by John Piper, www.soundofgrace.com/piper/86/jp860015.htm]. This is why the early believers rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. They felt that they tasted something of the glories of eternity in the face of persecution (Acts 5:41).

In persecution, the Christian identifies with the suffering of Christ, which is why Paul's explanation of Christian assurances in Romans 8:12-17 tells us that we are "fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him" (8:17). It is why this same apostle could rejoice in his sufferings for the sake of Christ, so that he even prayed to share in "the fellowship of His sufferings" (Col 1:24; Phil 3:10). Indeed, he can rejoice not because of persecution but rejoice in Christ in the midst of the persecution because he knows that one day he will see the light of Christ's face, be enveloped by His glory, be delivered from all suffering, and stand in wholeness before the Lord.

3. Reflection

Jesus adds one other thing of encouragement for the believer to give attention to in persecution: "Rejoice...for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." In other words, you are in good company. You stand with Elijah that was persecuted by Ahab, and Jeremiah persecuted by Judah's failing kings, and Daniel persecuted by the jealous provincial governors in Persia. In persecution you stand with Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer as they withstood the flames at Smithfield, and saintly Ann Askew that radiated for Christ before she was burned at Smithfield as well. You stand too with Martin Luther as the Holy Roman Empire stood against him, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris. De Coligny stated, "We must follow Jesus Christ, our Captain, who has marched before us. Men have stripped us of all they could," but they could not take away his faith in Christ [Houghton, 131]. You stand, when persecuted, with Jim Elliot ("he is no fool who give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose") and Nate Saint, with the Burnham's that are yet held captive in the Philippines, and the countless brothers and sisters of Nigeria that have paid for their testimony with their own blood. Our affliction is light and momentary, and so let us be faithful to stand for Jesus Christ's sake whatever the cost might be. 

Conclusion

There are two things I want to ask of you in response to this contemplation of the words of Christ. First, look at persecution differently; see it in the way that Jesus and his disciples, and countless followers of Christ through the centuries did: realize God's blessings and promises, rejoice greatly in Christ, and reflect on those who have gone before us and with whom we are identified.

Second, pray for those that are presently under the extreme, intense persecution. We do not know many of their names or faces, but they will one day stand before Christ with us. Let us hold them before our Lord that He might show His abundant grace to them even now.

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