Sermon Series: Leveling the Field of Faith

The "Peas" of the Gospel

Matthew 5:10-12 9/26/99 AM Service

In a nutshell: This isn't a popular concept. But we must be prepared for persecution if we're living a life of righteousness. Persecution will come in the form of the physical, verbal insults and false accusations. But there is a promise given to each person who is persecuted because of righteousness. That promise is for the here and now, and for eternity.

I. Introduction

A. Peas

Illustration: When my brothers and I were growing up, and struggling with eating vegetables, my dad told us a story from his childhood.

It happened during a Sunday dinner when he was just a child of 5 or 6. His whole extended family had gathered for a big Sunday dinner after church. His mother (my grandma) served peas on that Sunday. My dad hated peas! The last thing he wanted to do was eat those terrible tasting "balls of green mush". But the rule in his house was that your plate had to be cleaned (everything eaten) before you could leave the table to go and play. So, my dad was left with a predicament. And this is how he solved it.

He became very quiet at the table, and didn't join in any of the conversation. He did this so no one would pay attention to him. Then one by one, he pushed each pea off the top of his plate, and onto the table cloth underneath the lip of his plate. Then, gently he'd lift the plate up, and push each pea under his plate. He did this throughout the course of the meal, until every pea that was on top of his plate was now out of sight, underneath his plate.

A couple of times, he said he had to gently push the plate down onto the table in order to make room for the remaining peas, but eventually he was congratulated by all the adults, for finishing all the peas on his plate. He thought he was in the clear.

Then his mother cleared the dishes from the table. To her surprise, my dads plate was sticking to the table cloth. When she unstuck it, she found that the pile of smashed peas under the plate was the "glue" holding the plate to the tablecloth. Once the discovery was made, my dad was called back to the table and made to eat the pea "mush" off of the table cloth, until it was all gone.

Not only did my dad learn the valuable lesson that you shouldn't try to deceive your parents. He also learned what my grandma had been trying to teach him... Sometimes you have to eat what you don't like, to grow up healthy and strong. B. Transition

Well friends, I have some "peas" I must feed you this morning. Most of you are not going to like what I have to say, because it's not going to "taste" very good. But the fact remains, that if you don't take it in, you're not going to be a very healthy or strong Christian individual, and in your weakness I'm afraid you're going to weaken the entire body of Christ as well. I don't think any of us wants that to happen. So let's take a look at the "Peas" of the Gospel... Turn in your Bibles to:

Matthew 5:10-12 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

C. Prophets Who Were Before You

In the Old Testament, we read of a conversation between the King of Judah, a fellow by the name of Jehoshaphat, and the wicked king of Israel by the name of Ahab. In Ahab's kingdom there was a prophet named Micaiah whom Ahab had thrown in prison. When Jehoshaphat wanted to know what God's desire was regarding a war that he and Ahab were getting ready to fight, we read in...

2 Chronicles 18:6-7 6 But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?" 7 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah." "The king should not say that," Jehoshaphat replied.

Why did Ahab hate Micaiah? Because Micaiah was the only prophet in the entire Kingdom of Israel who was righteous enough to speak God's truth to Ahab. And Ahab didn't like this aspect of Micaiah's righteousness, so Ahab hated him and threw him in prison.

But Micaiah wasn't the only person who suffered because he spoke and lived the truth of God. -Abel was hated by his brother Cain so much because of his righteousness, that he was killed by Cain. -Joseph was hated for speaking the truth in righteousness, by his own brothers; and by Potiphar's wife, so he was thrown in jail. -David was hated by Saul so much, for living righteously that Saul threw spear at him, chased him, and labeled him an outlaw. -Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the three Hebrew captives, were hated by the Babylonians so much for insisting to only worship Jehovah God, that they were thrown them into a fiery furnace. -Daniel was hated by the Medo-Persian people so much that he was dumped into a pit with a bunch of hungry lions. -Mordecai was hated by Haman for speaking the truth and living righteously that Haman construct gallows on which he planned to hang Mordecai, along with devising a plan to kill every Jew he could. -Tradition tells us that Isaiah was so hated by his own Israelite people for speaking the truth that they sawed him in half. -And Jeremiah, according to tradition, was stoned to death by those same Israelites, for delivering God's message to them.

And Jesus says in this final Beatitude, "you can expect the same thing, if you are my followers." I told you, you wouldn't want to hear this, today! But we all need to, if we are going to be a group of people who are strong and healthy followers of Jesus Christ–people God can use to help build His Kingdom. So, this morning, we're going to do three things:

1. Find out who is going to be persecuted. 2. Identify 3 ways those people can expect to be persecuted. 3. Explore the promise that's given to the persecuted.

II. Who is going to be persecuted?

A. Who are the righteous that Jesus is talking about? The people who display righteousness in their lives are the ones who will be persecuted. In our message four weeks ago, I gave you a definition of righteousness that I want to recall to your memory. I said that righteousness is... "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone."

True righteousness begins from the inside–the core of person, where all our decision-making processes start–and then those decisions make their way to our actions. You can't legislate righteousness; it's not a predisposition of your personality; nor can you make a list of rules in a church constitution and use that to define righteousness.

The righteousness, of which Jesus speaks, is a decision–an every hour of every day, constant decision to pattern your life after His life. Practically speaking, it is how we understand Jesus would act if He were walking in our shoes. It is a submission of our free will to follow His will, as He reveals His will to us in the Bible.

And in essences, Jesus says, "If your life's radio is tuning into that frequency, then friend, expect persecution."

B. Why?

Why can we expect persecution? Because when we are righteous, we remind people of Jesus.

John 8:12 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

And righteous people will reflect the light that Jesus came to give off of their righteous lives.

Illustration: When I pastored in Upland, California, The Assistant Police Chief of the city of Ontario was in my congregation. One night, he invited me to go out on patrol with him. As we were riding in the patrol car, a call came over the police radio that a robbery had taken place, and the suspect was fleeing on foot, and the police helicopter had been dispatched.

We quickly drove to the scene and came upon a crowd of cars and people watching as the police helicopter was shining it's powerful spotlight on a man trying to run away from it's light. But even from our vantage point on the ground it was obvious that he was trapped. He had no where to hide. He dodged this way and that in, an open area between two houses. Then he pointed a gun at the helicopter, and shouted obscenities at the helicopter, and made obscene gestures at the helicopter. All because the light from the helicopter was exposing him for what he was–an unrighteous person trying to run from justice.

Now friends, the Bible tells us...

John 3:19-20 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

If you are reflecting the light of Jesus Christ...as you go about your daily business; and your family business; and your homeowner business; and your leisure business; and your citizenship business–in other words, as you're trying to live your life like Jesus would if He were in your shoes–then you can expect persecution, because you are exposing the dark deeds of people that are inconsistent with the righteousness of God.

Illustration: The second-century church leader, Tertullian, was once approached by a man who said, "I have come to Christ, but I don't know what to do. I have a job which is requiring me to do some things that are inconsistent with my Christian faith and the teachings of Scripture. What should I do? I still have to live!" To which Tertullian replied, "Must you?"

Down through the ages, Christian men, women and children have faced all kinds of persecution because they decided to..."think, desire and value like God does, then act on that basis alone."

C. Be Wary if it Doesn't happen

And if the persecution stops, we had better examine our lives to make sure they are reflecting light rather than absorbing darkness.

John MacArthur writes, "The fact that many professed believers are popular and praised by the world does not indicate that the world has raised its standards but that many who call themselves by Christ's name have lowered theirs. As the time for Christ's appearing grows closer we can expect opposition from the world to increase, not decrease. When Christians are not persecuted in some way by society it means that they are reflecting rather than confronting that society. And when we please the world we can be sure that we grieve the Lord." (Matthew 1-7 Commentary)

III. Three Ways we can expect to be persecuted

That leads us to our second task this morning–identifying how we can expect to be persecuted when we are "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone."

A. Physical Persecution

First, Jesus says we can expect to be persecuted, physically. If you look at verses 10, 11 and 12, you'll see a form of the word persecuted in each verse. It comes from the Greek word dioko, which has as it's basic meaning the idea of chasing or pushing away. It has to do with outward things like abuse, harassment and other unjust treatment.

And the interesting thing about the form of this verb, persecuted, is that it is in the Greek form that means "a willingness to accept a continuous action" (passive perfect participle). That means that one of the things this Beatitude is telling us is that a righteous person can't view persecution with the attitude of "I hope it doesn't happen to me." Rather, a righteous person anticipates that persecution is inevitable, but makes the a decision that says, "I'm willing to accept the physical abuse anyway." In other words, "I've counted the cost of following Jesus, and I'm still going to do it."

William Barclay commented on this idea when he said, "All the world knows of the Christians who were flung to the lions or burned at the stake; but these were kindly deaths. Nero wrapped Christians in pitch and set them alight, and used them as living torches to light his gardens. He sewed them into skins of wild animals and set his hunting dogs upon them to tear them to death. They were tortured on the rack; they were scraped with pincers; molten lead was poured hissing upon them; red hot brass plates were affixed to the tenderest parts of their bodies; eyes were torn out; parts of their bodies were cut off and roasted before their eyes; their hands and feet were burned while cold water was poured over them to lengthen the agony. These things are not pleasant to think about, but these are the things a man had to be prepared for, if he took his stand with Christ."

Can I ask you in all seriousness, "What are you willing to endure for the sake of Jesus Christ?" If it's not much, then don't read any farther. Because the promise at the end of this Beatitude isn't for you!

B. Verbal Insults

The second way we can expect persecution when we are "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone" is ... we will be insulted. The word literally means to "throw in our teeth". In other words, insulting is throwing abusive words into the face of an opponent.

Illustration: At a former pastorate, I and several of the evangelical pastors in that area were joining together in prayer against a cult group called Astara, along with the demonic influences that abounded in that area because of the high holy places of demonic worship that were in a nearby mountain range. When we first began praying together, we saw some miraculous events take place. That cult moved their ministry out of the area very suddenly, and many of us saw our youth ministries flourish because of young people coming out of various cult and occult groups. But it didn't come without cost.

The local papers ridiculed us. Our letters to the editor at the local newspaper were refused publishing. I had people shout obscenities at me from across the street to my church. And a group of witches gathered in the park each day, next to our church, to pray against each of us pastors, by name. I even had one of my Board members get right up in my face and curse me out for bringing so many new people into the church and disrupting the balance of power.

But, friends, when you're "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone" you had better expect some "in your face insults". These are the very words of Jesus, Himself.

C. Talking Behind Our Back

Finally, Jesus says that if we are "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone", we will experience people falsely saying all kinds of evil against us. If insults are abusive things said to our face, then falsely saying all kinds of evil against us is abusive words said behind our backs.

I'll be honest with you. This is harder to defend than someone in your face. But it's going to happen. Are you ready for it? Do you realize that ultimately those things are directed a Jesus, not you? It's His light that you're reflecting, and it's His light that exposes the evil of people who live in darkness.

If you're "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone" then people are going to say things like, "O, she's so smug." "What a goodie two shoes." "Let's not ask her to go with us–she'll just put a damper on things." "I hate him. He makes me feel so uncomfortable." "He's weird."

I'll tell you how to stop these abusive words. Just put some distance between you and Jesus. Compromise on what He teaches. Don't follow Him wholeheartedly. Live inconsistently with what the Bible teaches. That will assure your avoidance of having people talk behind your back–but you'll miss the promise.

IV. The Promise

At the end of this Beatitude there is a promised reward for each one of us who expects, experiences, and is willing to go through persecution in one form or another because we are "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone".

Verse 10 tells us the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to us. And verse 12 tells us that we will receive a great reward in heaven. That's a double-whammy. Let me explain what Jesus is talking about.

A. Kingdom of Heaven–here and now

The Kingdom of Heaven is speaking of the here and now. There is a great passage in the book of Acts that speaks about this exact thing happening...

Acts 6:8-15 8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)– Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God." 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. 7:1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"

Then in response to the high priest's question, Stephen responds with a stirring account of the history of Israel and that nation's continuing unwillingness to follow God. Then he concludes this message with these words...

Acts 7:51-53 51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him– 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."

And in response to this rebuke, look at what happened...

Acts 7:54-59 54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Friends the Kingdom of Heaven–the undeniable rule of Jesus Christ in the heart of a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ–brings with it three very important things: 1. The power to say and do what God wants done even in the most difficult circumstances. 2. It includes the peace and comfort of God that will allow us to stand up under the pressure we will face. 3. And it includes the grace of God to endure–even to death.

B. Great is Our Reward in Heaven

But not only is the promise for the here and now, it is also for the life after this one–and that is really something.

The phrase in verse 12 that is translated "and be glad", literally means "to leap for joy". Jesus is giving us a glimpse of the excitement that is waiting for people who have been persecuted because they were "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone". He is talking about "gladness" to the maximum power.

Illustration: Imagine you're sitting at home and you get a phone call from one of the giant sweepstakes companies, and they tell you that you've won a $100 prize. I can imagine you or me saying, to our spouse or a friend, "Hey, this is pretty cool. I just won $100.

But then the phone rings again, and the person on the other line is very apologetic. "I'm sorry sir, we made a mistake when we just called you. Your prize isn't $100, it's 100 million dollars!" Whoa!!!!! This would call for an entirely different level of gladness and celebration than the $100 prize. They'd have to peel you off the ceiling because you've jump so high for joy! This gives you an idea about what Jesus is telling us regarding the extent of the reward that waits on the other side of eternity. It belongs exclusively to those of us who are willing to go through, and have gone through persecution because we have committed ourselves to "thinking, desiring and valuing like God does, then acting on that basis alone".

V. Conclusion

I'm going to ask a very important question of you as we close this morning. If you're not experiencing... (or never have experienced) persecution, WHY NOT? It can be only one or both of two reasons... 1. Is it because you're unwilling to go through persecution? OR 2. Is it because you lack righteousness in your life? Either way, you're not a threat to the "enemy of God". So he's left you alone.

I told you, you wouldn't like this "bowl of peas" this morning. But your willingness to partake of the truth of this Beatitude is of crucial importance to your health and strength as a follower of Jesus Christ, and our church's ability to advance God's Kingdom in this valley and the world! Would you ask God to examine you, right now, and help you deal with the truth of this Beatitude with honesty and with integrity before Him? Amen.