The Sermon OTM – 12/08/2024

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us today
You have come to bring us peace
And yet we are consumed with turmoil.
Needs unmet
Desires left dangling
Expectations real and imagined
Spoken and unspoken
fair or unfair
unfulfilled.
Relationships stressed and strained
Tattered, broken
And instead of peace we have anxiety and worry
Instead of peace we carry resentments
Instead of peace we hold judgements, harshness, bitterness
Save us from this path Lord
Help us reset
Help us realign
Help us start fresh

With every twinkling light help us
With every worn out Christmas song.
With every Santa clause
With every glint of tinsel
With every gift we buy or receive
Help us remember that you came to bring peace to the whole world.
For each of us
For all of us

And then remembering
For every bad driver
Let us pray for peace
For their peace and ours
For every annoying interaction
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and for ours.
For every resentment,
for every wrong remembered
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For every enemy we confront
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For you are our peace
And the peace of the world
And we are overjoyed that we
Can live into our life
abiding with the Prince of Peace
And in turn
become peace embodied for our neighbor
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

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 Matthew 5:10-12

Intro: These last two Beatitudes on Jesus’ list are not easy to digest

Jesus envisions a grim future for us – and if so,
– we’re expected not only to survive it, but to rejoice and be glad
• John Chapman was the Abbot of a monastery in Britain
• he was also a spiritual director to others, especially through letter writing
◦ one man who wrote to him, wanted his insight as to
◦ how he could extricate himself from a painful situation
Chapman, “I cannot possibly show you a way out . . . . [what you have is] the simple experience that suffering is really suffering and that the chief feeling it causes is rebellion against it, and even against Providence for allowing it. ¶ It is all a nasty medicine, but works wonders.”
– we agree it’s a nasty medicine, but doubt it works wonders
• we’re more of the opinion expressed by Helmut Thielicke,
Thielicke, “What a ghastly prospect! It makes one ask in all seriousness how Jesus could ever have gained disciples with an appeal like that.”
• so I think what we need to do first, is back away from these verses
◦ and get an aerial view of the entire Sermon

The backdrop for the Sermon’s central theme is in chapter 4
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17)

This tells us what Jesus is doing with his Sermon:
– he is preparing us to enter and live in God’s heavenly realm (“kingdom”)
• our experience of his realm begins in this life, though does not come to its fullness here
◦ that is the main thrust of Jesus’ message: our spiritual formation to live as residents of the realm here and now
• there is a second theme that is just important: “Repent”
Jonathan Pennington, “. . . the whole of the Sermon relates to the call to repentance in [Matthew] 4:17.”
– I grew up thinking repentance was a dramatic ordeal
• we learned how evil the smallest misdeeds were in God’s eyes
◦ by seven years old, we had already earned the punishment of eternal hell

Growing up, my parents were so sensitive and opposed to profanity that they would discipline us if we said words that sounded anything like a “dirty word”; for instance, we could not say dang, heck, shoot, crude, or fudge.
I did not carry on that tradition with my children. So one year when Christmas came around, we were to meet up with my parents with along with Aunts and Uncles in the home of one of my cousins. On the way there, I warned my kids not to say any of the substitute cussing words we permitted them to use. At one time in the evening all the guys were in the garage, and my cousin Bob was demonstrating his skill with darts. He nicely grouped three darts near the bullseye, and my son Will, who was seven years old, blurted out, “Oh my gosh!” Then he looked over at me and I was giving him the stink eye. He quickly corrected himself and said, “I mean, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.”

• anyway, to repent we had to feel immense guilt, regret, and remorse
◦ then confess our sins and beg God for forgiveness — adding tears with our confession was a nice touch
◦ but that is not the biblical meaning of repentance
– a few years ago we spent several weeks studying this word
• metanoia, translated literally, is a change of mind or thought
• and I believe this is what literally happens in our brains when we repent
◦ old habits are hard-wired between neurons, and those habits must be ended to break the neural connections
◦ repentance is a process of re-wiring the brain with new connections
– changing our “minds” in this way, changes our thoughts, words, and actions

In the Sermon, Jesus is redefining reality–and it is different from the world’s view of reality
(which, while growing up, was programmed into us through family, school, and culture)
– Jesus is reshaping our beliefs, values, and behavior through the lens of God’s realm
• the previous Beatitudes reveal this upside-down worldview of our Lord
• those who are poor in spirit, mourn, and hunger . . . are blessed
– this is the way of repentance — a transformed worldview and a transformed life
• the Sermon is meant to adjust our perception to the realm of heaven
◦ and in the process, reshape our lives accordingly
• I realize this can sound rather mystical,
◦ but the goal of Christianity is to live in world as Jesus lived in the world
◦ our total transformation is yet to come, but this is preparation for it
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Php. 3:20-21)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

The first line of each Beatitude has been a challenge, but this one is the topper
– historically, persecutors have been very creative
• they have devised the most ingenious ways to inflict pain and death
• persecution has been ongoing throughout church history
◦ down to the present day–i.e., in China, Iran, and Sudan and forty-seven other nations,
◦ Christians are suffering and dying for their faith
– I don’t want to minimize the experience of Christians in the US,
• some, because of their faith in Jesus have been passed over for promotion, lost a career or clients,
◦ or were perhaps verbally or physically abused by a parent or other family member
• but for most of us, what the writer of Hebrews told his readers applies to us
“. . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
◦ all things considered, we have it pretty easy
Abbot John Chapman, “I think it an excellent thing to laugh at one’s self a little whenever one feels [like] a martyr.”

I think it’s critical to focus attention on Jesus’ qualifier in this verse, which is,
“for righteousness sake”
– if you’re being annoying, starting arguments, constantly raising your voice,
• or if you’re behaving like an aggressive salesperson for Jesus,
• it’s not persecution when people shut you down

The previous Beatitudes describe a person’s character;
– poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and pure in heart
– or point out what they are feeling or doing; mourning, hungering, making peace
• but in this instance, Jesus is telling us what others are doing to them – they’re persecuted
◦ and it is not rare at all for a peacemaker to die by assassination
◦ Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin

“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”

The final Beatitude is an obvious reiteration of what Jesus just said
– so we want to pay attention to the alterations from verse 10 to verses 11-12
• first we notice that with a slight shift, Jesus personalizes the Beatitude
◦ from “Blessed are those” to “Blessed are you” – for the first time addressing his disciples directly
• like Jesus, St. Paul took for granted, persecution would be a normal Christian experience
◦ writing to Timothy, he recounted his ministry, emphasizing his “persecutions and sufferings”
◦ and then:
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted . . .” (2 Tim. 3:12)
– with a second shift: Jesus identifies the underlying reason for persecution from “righteousness sake” to “on my account”
• for me, this produces a dynamic change in my attitude; that is, if there is a good reason or purpose for my suffering
◦ of course, if there is a good reason, it is often hidden from us

As a prisoner and doctor in Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl noticed some people died who were in better health than others who in poorer health survived. This piqued his curiosity, so he began an informal study comparing the survivors to those who did not survive. Eventually he concluded that the men and women whose death had no apparent cause had lost hope and gave up. But the ones who survived believed that in spite of all the hardship, their lives still had meaning. For “righteousness sake” and for Christ’s sake, gives our live a meaning worth living for through suffering and persecution.

• suffering for Jesus is also a suffering with Jesus
“Remember the word I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20)
– there’s a third difference: where, in verses 11-12, Jesus adds a list of abuses as examples of persecution
– in a fourth difference, he tells (us) to rejoice and be glad when persecuted (!)
– a fifth difference is his promise of a reward (more on rewards when we get to chapter 6)
– a sixth difference, is that here Jesus connects our experience with the fate of the prophets

Perhaps persecution has a unique function we have yet to discover

Anyway, Jesus knew what persecution could do to half-Christians
– that is, people who go to church, enjoy the preaching, and love the music,
• but never gave God’s word enough space in their hearts and minds to sink deep roots
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” (Mt. 13:20-21)
• Jesus wants our faith to survive every sort of challenge and suffering
– so Jesus gives us this warning:
• persecution is not a sign of a breakdown in the system
◦ it isn’t an anomaly, as if it weren’t supposed to happen
• this Beatitude reveals the heresy of the “health and wealth,” “Prosperity Gospel,” and “Name It and Claim It” doctrines
– Jesus experienced the sharp edge of persecution
• he confessed that his soul was troubled over what lay ahead of him (Jn. 12:27)
• he begged the Father to spare him the bitter cup
◦ so he understands our hesitation to embrace this Beatitude
Abbot John Chapman, “It is not an imperfection to find it painful to submit to God’s will. Our Lord showed us that, by His Agony in the garden.”

Conclusion: Personally, I want my life to count for something

And if my death can count for something too, that’s even better