THE BEATITUDES – PART 9

 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Jesus now comes to the hard part of the initial teaching series. He has spoken to them about how to be humble, how to pursue righteousness, and how to be peaceable, and now He tells them that they should be happy [blessed] if they are persecuted because they are pursuing a life of being holy and pure. Making a stand for Christ in a very depraved world.

We recall that the disciples may only have been with Christ for a couple of months or so up to this stage. They have seen Jesus perform amazing miracles, and without a shadow of a doubt, they know that He who calls himself Jesus is the true Son of God. But this statement must have left them wondering, how can you be happy when people are trying to do you harm. Surely it is not possible!

Almost three years later, when Jesus was arrested on the Mount of Olives, they fled the mount in fear of their own lives: “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:50 NIV). I wonder if they even remembered this part of the lesson. Let us quickly look at the story of Stephen, as found in Acts 6:8-7:60; Stephen gets arrested for ‘working’ for Jesus. When brought before the Sanhedrin: “… his face was like the face of an angel”, and after delivering his speech to them, they decided to stone him to death. Stephen must have been very happy for: “… full of the Holy Spirit, [he] looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look’, he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ “

Jesus does not say that all will be persecuted, for the statement says … those who are, but if you or I am one of those who are, then friends, let us count it as pure joy, for this means that we are making an impact for Christ, and our enemy, the devil, does not like it one bit. What is the worst thing that can happen to us? We can die before our end of days, but to die early simply means we get to be in glory quicker than we thought.

The greatest part of our happiness will be the associated rewards we shall receive when in heaven for how we have represented Christ while we were on earth. So, join with me as we carry ourselves for Christ without shame or fear amongst the people of the world.