THE BEATITUDES
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:10-12, 2 TIMOTHY 3:10–4:8
DECEMBER 9, 1990
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all manner of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your rewards shall be great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
These words comprise the eighth and final Beatitude of our Lord Jesus Christ as given in the Sermon on the Mount. Throughout the ages, the people of God have been persecuted. Through the centuries, Christians have been persecuted; and in this age of the world, they will continue to be persecuted.
As Christians, our persecution has two sources. First of all, we are persecuted by Satan The devil seeks to destroy the church. In the Bible, in the book of Job, a poem is written in dialogue with a narrative prologue and a prose epilogue. It is included in the wisdom literature of Israel.
Job was a wealthy man, an extremely righteous man, but Satan attacked him. Satan believed that Job’s righteousness was really shallow, that Job was only righteous because God had so blessed him. Satan believed that if the blessings were taken away, Job would lose his righteousness. So Satan came upon Job in attack and persecution. He attacked Job economically. He took away Job’s livelihood. He took away Job’s assets and attacked Job’s family. He killed Job’s children, all ten of them, and he attacked Job personally. He destroyed Job’s health and afflicted Job with disease and illness. He riddled Job’s body with hideous sores and ulcerations. He attacked Job socially. Job had once been prominent in the community. Now he was an outcast in the land.
The case of Job is extreme. Rarely would God allow a Christian to be so persecuted, but Job was persecuted. He was persecuted by Satan. There can be no doubt that God allowed Satan to persecute Job. Whenever Satan persecutes, in some sense, God allows it. Either God allows it, or God has no power to prevent it. We know the latter is not the case because God is omnipotent and has all power in heaven and on earth. But in this age of the world, God does allow Satan to persecute His people. God uses that for testing and for purification. This life is a classroom. Death is graduation for the Christian. Eternity is the real world, the world to come.
Job passed his test with flying colors. He graduated with honors. Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb. Naked I shall return. The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job said, “When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job said, “Though he slay me, yet shall I trust in God” (Job 1:21, 23:10, 13:15).
Satan rarely attacks us personally. Satan is not omnipresent. The odds are that most of you, perhaps all of you, will never be attacked personally by Satan. But Satan has a vast army of fallen demonic beings. The Bible tells us that at the dawn of time, God created a race of spiritual beings called angels, ángelos in the Greek and mal’akh in the Hebrew. Both words mean messenger. Apparently, God created these angels even before God created the universe. The Bible tells us that the angels “shouted for joy at the creation of the world” (Job 38:7). Some believe that the angels inhabit the creation and inhabit the universe.
We do not know that, but this we know. In the beginning one angel fell, one angel that was high and lifted up, one angel that was lofty, perhaps an archangel. This angel fell from glory, and the Bible says his name is Satan. The Bible says his name is the devil, and he is called Lucifer. His fall is described in Ezekiel, chapter 28, and in Isaiah, chapter 14. These passages have double applications because, in some sense, they refer to the King of Tyre; but they also refer to Satan’s fall from glory. For he said in his heart, “I shall ascend above the stars of God, above the angels of God, and I shall set my throne on high, and I shall make myself like the most high God” (Isaiah 14:13-15) In his arrogance and in his pride, he was cast down. “He corrupted,” the Bible says, “his wisdom for the sake of his splendor” (Ezekiel 28:17).
In the apocalyptic language of the book of Revelation, chapter 12, we are told that “Satan, described as a dragon, swept a third of the stars of heaven down with him when he fell.” Theologians and Bible scholars believe that what God is telling us is that Satan took a third of the angels of God when he fell. We do not know how many angels there are. We know that the throne of God, the Bible tells us, is surrounded by myriads of myriads of angels. We know that a myriad is equal to a Roman legion. A Roman legion had 10,000 times 10,000, which is 100 million. Myriads of myriads in the plural would produce a number beyond calculation. Certainly, when Satan fell, he took a great host of angels with him. Those angels, now fallen, are demons, and they live to serve the prince of demons who is Satan. He would persecute the saints.
We are told in James, chapter 2, that demons tremble before God. They know the truth, and they tremble. We are told in Matthew, chapter 8, that demons recognize Jesus Christ as the Lord and the final judge, and they tremble. We are told in Luke, chapter 13, that demons are actually able to afflict people with illness and bodily disease. This does not mean that every time we are ill or every time we have a disease that Satan causes it, but it does mean that sometimes Satan and his host of demons are the cause. We are told in Matthew, chapter 10, that these demons are able to implant unclean thoughts in the mind. This does not mean that every unclean thought in your mind comes from Satan and his demons. We are capable of coming up with a few unclean thoughts on our own.
We are told in Matthew, chapter 12, that these demons actually vary in degrees of wickedness. We are told in the book of Daniel that these demons are organized and structured in such a way that some of them are placed over nation, some over cities, and some over individuals. These demons serve the ruler of this world whom the Bible calls Satan. Satan is the prince of this world, but he is a usurper. As he was once cast out of heaven, one day he will be banished from earth. His destiny is the bottomless pit and the lake of fire.
Even now, God wants us to know as Christians that Satan is defeated. His power is the power of sin and death, and Christ defeated sin on Calvary’s cross. Christ defeated death when He rose from the grave in power and great glory. As a Christian, God wants you to know that “He who is in you is greater than the ruler of this world” (1 John 4:4). God does not want you to fear Satan though Satan does attack you. God does not want you to fear Satan though Satan would persecute you. God wants you to know you have been promised victory through Christ. God wants you, as His people, to “put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11). God wants us to resist the devil, and God wants us to come against Satan and the work of Satan in the power of Christ, in the name of Christ.
The Bible says, “Cast all your anxieties on the Lord for He cares about you. Behold, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, knowing that this same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. When you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace”—and this is the promise—”When you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus will, himself, restore, establish and strengthen you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever” (1 Peter 5:7-11) Satan persecutes us, but we have power and victory through Christ.
Secondly, and finally, as Christians, we are persecuted by the world itself. As Christians, we are, have been, and will be persecuted by this world. Jesus said to His disciples, “If the world hates you, know that the world hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because I called you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember what I have said to you . . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:18-20). Jesus said those words to His disciples, and the disciples were indeed persecuted unto death.
The apostle Paul was beheaded at Three Fountains in Rome. The apostle Peter was crucified upside down, according to church tradition, near the place where the Basilica of St. Peter stands today. All the disciples died a death of martyrdom, persecution, except for the apostle John. He, too, was persecuted, being imprisoned on the island of Patmos for his testimony to Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul and the apostle Peter were persecuted and executed by the Roman Emperor Nero. But Nero was not the last Roman emperor to persecute the church. In the next 250 years, nine Roman emperors blatantly and savagely persecuted the church of Christ, from Domitian to Diocletian. Diocletian tried to eradicate all Christians from the earth. He issued a decree that every Christian was to be killed. Every sacred writing, every writing of scripture was to be burned, and every single Christian church building was to be destroyed. In those first few centuries, some Christians were rolled in tar and set on fire like living torches. Some were wrapped in animal flesh and fed to packs of wild pigs. Some Christians were killed by lions, if not in the Coliseum, then certainly in the Circus Maximus and in Roman arenas all over the Roman world.
Today, Christians are persecuted. “Because I have called you out of the world, the world hates you” (John 15:19). Today, Christians are persecuted, some unto death, all over this world and here in America. Here in America Christians are persecuted, too. Perhaps more subtly but persecuted, nevertheless.
Michael Medved is a movie critic. He has a television show on PBS every week. He has written many articles and many periodicals. He describes what he believes to be the great hatred of Hollywood for Christianity. Medved says that Hollywood tends to hate all religion, but Hollywood particularly hates Christianity. He cites movie after movie, starting with “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which Medved said was “an offense not only to evangelical Christians and their view of Christ but to any orthodox view of Christ.” He describes movies like “Monsignor,” where Christopher Reeve plays the part of a priest who seduces a nun, all the while confiscating funds from the Vatican to engage in corrupt business deals with the Mafia.
He speaks of “Agnes of God,” which gave us the exalted story of a young nun, Meg Tilly, who murdered her own baby and stuffed the little body in a trash can. He describes movies like “True Confessions,” “Mass Appeal,” and “The Mission,” all of which portrayed well-intentioned idealists who were ultimately frustrated by the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He goes on to say that “Protestants really don’t fare much better in Hollywood either.” He lists movie after movie where Protestant pastors are described as greedy evangelists lusting after sex and money. He cites a movie like “Light of Day,” which was made in 1987. The family minister is kind of a pious fraud who impregnates the hero’s sister. He cites movies like “Crimes of Passion” where Anthony Perkins plays the part of a crazy intercity pastor and Kathleen Turner plays the part of a prostitute who this pastor seeks to kill in a sickening and sadistic scene.
Medved cites movie after movie of this sort and “ultimately,” he says, “it’s movies like “Poltergeist II,” which shows Hollywood’s true hostility to the Christian faith. He says, “It proves that mainstream moviemakers love to try to set the traditional view of Christianity on its head.” In this movie, “Poltergeist II”, the villain is actually a hymn-singing evangelistic preacher from beyond the grave who leads a band of demonic Bible belters in an attempt to drag a hip suburban family down to hell. This family would have fallen victim to these evangelical Christians, crazy Christians, if it were not for a Native American, an Native American traditional healer who had to conjure up all the powers of his ancient religion in order to save this family from these Christians.
Medved says, “Hollywood loves to portray Christianity in that light.” If you think Medved is exaggerating, you have to admit there is a certain prejudice against Christianity in the media. There is persecution there, perhaps not so subtle. Even when Hollywood, on a rare occasion, makes a movie with a positive image of a Christian, such as “Chariots of Fire,” movies like that are all too rare. When Hollywood comes up with a movie like that, it tends to be a period piece set in some time past. “Chariots of Fire” took place in the 1920s in England. You will not find Hollywood making a movie that portrays Christianity positively influencing contemporary people. This is the world in which we live as Christians and face day by day. The media shapes, in so many ways, the minds of the masses.
Of course, we have the freedom to worship here. We can gather in this place, and we should be thankful for that. If we mind our own business, we will not be persecuted. But if you really seek to be light on the earth, salt in this world, you will be persecuted. The Bible says everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).
Some of you might be thinking, “Well I don’t feel persecuted,” and maybe you are not. The problem with so many of us is that we blend in so well. If you really want to enter into the role of an evangelist, which all Christians are called to do that we might share our love for Christ with a dying world, you are going to find some persecution. If you want to enter into the role of a prophet, because you are concerned about the growing darkness, you will receive some persecution.
Sometimes as Christians we think at times that we would prefer that people did not know we were Christians. I know sometimes my son and daughter, Drew and Heather, feel that way. It is kind of hard for them being PKs, being a pastor’s kid. Word gets out that their father is a minister or preacher. The word spreads, and they are made fun of. They are persecuted.
You cannot believe it unless you are a pastor. You do not know what it is like for a pastor’s kid—the comments that other kids make. Sometimes when I hear what other kids have said to my children, I want to leave the ministry just for my kids’ sake. Yet God says, “Rejoice and be glad. Your rewards shall be great in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). The Bible says, “Count it all joy” (James 1:2). Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation;” and then He said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
If you really believe that. If you really believe Jesus Christ has overcome the world. If you believe He has all power in heaven and on earth. If you believe He is going to win the victory. If you believe you have eternal life. If you believe you are in His hand. If you believe He will never let you go. If you believe that He is always yours and you are always His. If you believe that you are going to serve Him no matter what the price, you will be willing to pay the price to be light in the world and salt on the earth.
I had a story that I wanted to close with, but I do not have time to share it. It is a story that is intended to illustrate the fact that Christ has power to take our persecutions and use them for good. Christ has power to take the suffering in your life and the persecution in your life and use it for great good. He has power to take your suffering and your persecution, the persecution that comes upon you for righteousness sake as you are seeking to serve the Lord. Christ has power to take that persecution and work great good in your life and for His kingdom. He wants to leave us with that confidence.
This morning, as we close, God wants us to understand that though we be persecuted by Satan and though we be persecuted by this world, we have the victory. If you are suffering this morning, Christ wants to encourage you. He wants to let you know He loves you, and He has the greater power. Keep the faith. You will win the victory for His kingdom’s sake. Let us close with a word of prayer.