Happy Are the Harassed, Part 2

Matthew 5:10-12

I think it is very fitting tonight that we've had an especially good time in fellowship.  I think that is something we really need as Christians.  We have shared and laughed together, we've had a great time, and that is as it should be. 

Someone was saying to me earlier tonight at our prayer time that since she has become a Christian, she finds that she loves to be with Christians so much.  She is so enriched by the fellowship of the believers, she so longs for that fellowship that she had never known in her life.  When she goes back to fellowshipping with the world, there is something terribly missing.  She expressed the fact that she was afraid when she was in certain situations with unbelievers, and she never thought she'd have such a fear. 

She really articulated some of the things that are on my heart to say to you tonight.  We rejoice in our fellowship; there is no question about that.  It's fantastic, rewarding, enriching, thrilling.  We so need this, but there is another side of it.  There is that side that is right outside these great stone walls.  We have to go home to families where moms, dads, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons, or daughters don't know Jesus Christ.  We've got to go to schools where we meet people who don't know Jesus Christ, or go to jobs that have the same problem, or go back to our neighborhood where we face the reality of unsaved people all around us.  That is the other side. 

This should never be a retreat for us, it should be a fuel stop so that we can go out and boldly see God work through us in the midst of the world.  I think that's really what the Lord wants to say to us tonight.  Let's go back to Matthew 5 and look again at the Beatitudes.  This will be our last lesson, Lord willing, on the Beatitudes, and I want to just read them to you again, and then move right into what I have to say tonight. 

"Seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.   Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.  Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

     Let's pray together.  Father, we come tonight to a very needful passage.  It is very hard for us to understand, very difficult for us to fit into such an affluent, materialistic, comfortable culture.  God, somehow help us to see.  By Your Spirit, penetrate our hearts and minds; change our lives.  We give You the glory in Jesus' name, Amen.

When we started studying the Beatitudes months and months ago, we learned that the word 'blessed' really is 'happy,' and the first thing Jesus ever said was that He wanted people to be happy.  He didn't come into the world to make people miserable; He came to make them happy.  That's why His first utterance ever recorded for us, the first sermon He ever gave, in the book of Matthew, the beginning of the New Testament, the first gospel begins with the word 'happy.'

In February 1978, Cosmopolitan Magazine presented a test to determine how happy people really are.  They surveyed all kinds of people, they asked all kinds of questions (I'll not take the time to go through all the questions), and as a result of the testing, they drew a profile of the truly happy person.  These are some of the principles they came up with from their survey. 

Really happy people enjoy other people but are not self-sacrificing; happy people they refuse to participate in negative feelings or emotions; happy people have a sense of accomplishment based on their own self-sufficiency.  How fascinating!  The world says, "The really happy person is: self-sufficient, positive about himself, confident in his ability, not self-sacrificing in regard to anyone else."  That sounds exactly like the definition of a Pharisee to me.

It is certainly the opposite of Jesus' definition of a happy person.  Jesus said, "A really happy person is not self-sufficient but cowering like a beggar, realizing he has no resources in himself.  He is meek rather than proud.  A really happy person is not at all positive about himself, but he mourns over his sinfulness and his isolation from a holy God.  A really happy person is not confident in his own ability but very aware of his own inability, and in meekness, reaches out.  A really happy person, rather than being non-self-sacrificing, is the very opposite.  He's merciful, a peacemaker, and will be merciful and peacemaking if it costs him persecution for the sake of that for which he makes peace and gives mercy."  You see, the world's definition of happiness is not God's definition.  Not at all.  

Nothing could give a more clear picture of the difference between the world's philosophy and divine truth than comparing a test on happiness in our day with God's standards revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Beatitudes.  The world is pursuing happiness on its own terms.  You see in the mad rush of happiness on the world's terms, when it runs into Christianity, there will inevitably be a conflict.  There will inevitably be conviction, guilt, resentment, which results in persecution. 

Our text for tonight is Matthew 5:10-12.  What our Lord Jesus is saying is this: "I'll give you a gilt-edge guarantee that if you live according to the first seven Beatitudes, you'll get the eighth one automatically.  If you function according to those first seven principles, inevitably, you will be persecuted for righteousness' sake."  You will inevitably be persecuted for His name's sake.  It's inevitable!  In the first part of our study, we began to look at verses 10-12.  Let's look at them again.

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you."

Listen, if you want to be truly happy, you have to be happy Jesus' way.  If you seek to be happy on His terms, if you seek to live according to His principles, if you seek to enter His Kingdom in His way, if you're going to go through the narrow gate onto the narrow way, if you're going to build your house on the Rock, if you're going to wind up in the Judgment and hear Him say, "I do know you," not, "I don't know you," then you're going to find that the result of that kind of lifestyle, confronting a hostile, godless world, is inevitably to be a negative reaction.  It's always been that way.

In Italy, in the 15^th century, a man named Savonarola came on the scene.  He was one of the greatest reformers and preachers the world has ever known.  His denunciation of the sins of the people and the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church of this time literally prepared the way for the Reformation.  One biographer says his preaching, "Was a voice of thunder, and his denunciation of sin was so terrible that the people who listened to him went about the streets half-dazed, bewildered, and speechless.  His congregations were so often in tears that the whole building resounded with their sobs and their weeping."  Obviously, the people couldn't handle that kind of preaching, so they burned him at the stake.  It would never be any different. 

I believe that if Christians today were more confrontive about what we believe to be true, and if we really lived the fullness of the Beatitudes in our lives, we would find there would be hostility in the world toward us, if there isn't already, for most of us.  It happens everywhere and at all times.

I've recently been reading a book that Don Richardson gave me after our watchnight service.  Don Richardson was here, a wonderful, God-blessed missionary to Irian Jaya who wrote the classic of mission stories, Peace Child.  He has written a sequel called The Lords of the Earth.  It is not a story of his mission work, as Peace Child was, but the story of a friend of his by the name of Stan Dale. 

Stan Dale had gone to the Yali tribe in Irian Jaya, whereas Don was down in the lowlands working with the Sawi.  Stan was way up in what are called the Snow Mountains working with the Yali.  The Snow Mountains are very high and very precarious, and the villages are on the side of the slopes.  In that area is the Heluk River, which crashes down through the mountains; a thunderous, rapid river.  The constant rains keep it moving at that pace all the time.

The Yali were steeped in an incredible kind of religion and had all kinds of pieces of sacred ground.  As an illustration, if a little child happened to crawl onto one of those sacred pieces of ground, they felt that the little child was desecrated and cursed, and would curse the whole village.  So they would go to a cliff and throw the baby into the rapids, and it would drown, and it's body would be washed into the lowlands.  If anyone ever said a word against the religious system, the religion dictated that they be slaughtered on the spot.  So there could be no rebellion, there could be no change, there could be no possible way of altering anything. 

It tells in the book of one tribesman who decided he wanted to change things.  He tried to point out some of the things that seemed so foolish to him, and they shot him so full of arrows that he looked like a reed swamp.  It was hopeless. 

Hopeless, that is, until a little bandy-legged Australian, about 5'7", undaunted, tramped into the Yali villages.  In an incredible way, this amazing little man opened up his heart, the heart of his wife, and the hearts of his five children to these savage people who were not only headhunters, but also cannibals.  He came to save them from the impenetrable darkness and death of the terrible beliefs and practices that they had in their culture.  Do you want to know what happened to him?  I'll read it to you.

"The native, holding his breath, eased his arrow over the rock and aimed at Stan's side.  For a moment, firelight gleamed on his shiny bamboo blade, especially chosen for killing.  Then he drew his bow to full strength, as other warriors behind him waited their turn.  As if to oblige the warrior, Stan moved across the doorway for something in his pack.  In the next instant, he recoiled, grasping and pulling the five-foot arrow out of his right side.  Chortling over his success, the first warrior leaped from behind the rock blind and promptly shot another arrow into Stan's right thigh.  'We're in a death trap,' Stan gasped, 'They can shoot at us from every direction.  The fire, I've got to put it out.' 

Stan lunged at the fire, trying to scatter its burning brands, and as he did so, another arrow struck his left thigh, burying itself deeply into his muscle.  He flung himself to the far side of the hut, seeking shelter, but there was none.  Two more arrows struck him; one pierced through his right forearm and another penetrated his diaphragm and his intestines.  Stan yanked each arrow out in turn, and then cried back at his tormentors in Yali, 'Run away home, all of you, you've done enough.'  Pain from his five wounds stabbed through him; the floor of the yagwa was now crisscrossed with many arrows, five of them reddened with blood.  Stan pressed against the wall of the yagwa waiting for the next arrow; he saw it coming."

I'm not going to finish the rest of it - you'll have to get the book!  Amazingly, he lived.  They took him out and he was spared.  He was given surgery and turned right around and went back, right back into the same village, back into the same area.  He literally gave years of his life, and then this story.

"Beyond Yendoal the river grew shallow, flowing over a wide, stony bed.  They waded through it for 300 yards and reached a gravel beach.  Beyond the beach, the trail left the river and climbed directly upward to the pass.  Just another 2,000 feet of climbing and they would be over and on their way down to safety.  But the war cry resounded again, much closer now.  Suddenly, they came floundering through the river, bows held high.  Others, streaming down through the forest, their floppy rattan coils rattling.  Stan and Yemu stood at the lower end of the gravel beach, facing them.  Phil [Masters] was alone at the other end, 50 yards away. 

"The three donis waded another 30 yards beyond Phil.  As they all looked back in horror, they saw Stan raise his staff, grimly facing the wickbooned hoard.  'Yemu, leave me,' he shouted over his shoulder.  He kept his staff raised, not to strike, but to form a barrier against the advancing tide of warriors.  'All of you, turn around and go home,' he commanded.  A priest of Kimbu named Barroway slipped around behind Stan and, at point-blank range, shot an arrow in under his upraised right arm.  Another priest, Bunu, shot a bamboo shaft into his back, just below his right shoulder.  Yemu was crying now, and shouting at them to stop. 

"As the arrows entered his flesh, Stan pulled them out one by one, broke them, and threw them away.  Dozens of them were coming at him from all directions.  He kept pulling them out, breaking them, and dropping them at his feet until he couldn't keep ahead of them.  Naleemo reached the scene. 

"After some 30 arrows had found their mark in Stan's body, 'How can he stand there so long?' Naleemo gasped, 'Why doesn't he fall?  Any one of us would have fallen long ago.'  A different kind of shaft pierced Naleemo's flesh - fear.  'Perhaps he is immortal.'  Naleemo's normally impassive face melted with sudden emotion.  Because of that emotion, Naleemo said later [by the way, Naleemo was baptized later as a believer in Christ] that because of his fear, he didn't shoot an arrow into Stan's body, though all of his people did.  Stan faced his enemies, steady and unwavering, except for the jolt of each new arrow. 

"Yemu ran to where Phil stood alone.  Together they watched in anguish at Stan's agony.  As some 50 or more warriors detached from the main force and came toward them, Phil pushed Yemu behind him and gestured speechlessly, 'Run.'  Phil seemed hardly to notice the warriors encircling him; his eyes were fixed on Stan.  50 arrows, 60 arrows.  Red ribbons of blood trailed from the many wounds, but still Stan stood his ground.  Naleemo saw that he was not alone in his fear.  The attack had begun with hilarity, but now the warriors shot their arrows with desperation bordering on panic, because Stan refused to fall.  Perhaps Kusaho was right; perhaps they were committing a monstrous crime against the supernatural world instead of defending it as they intended.

"'Fall,' they screamed at Stan.  'Die!'  It was a plea; 'please die!'  Yemu did not hear Phil say anything to the warriors as they aimed their arrows at him.  Phil made no attempt to flee or struggle.  He had faced danger many times, but never certain death.  But Stan had shown him how to face it.  If he needed an example, it was there.  The example could hardly have been followed with greater courage.  Once again, it was Barroway who shot the first arrow, and it took almost as many arrows to down Phil as it had Stan.  Yemu and the three donis waited until they knew Phil was too badly wounded to survive.

"At the sight of the killings, after both missionaries had fallen on the stony beach, the Yali dragged their battered bodies away from the stones and placed them in separate forest alcoves overhung with bows.  Although the Yali were not headhunters, Bunu, moved by fear, beheaded both Stan and Phil.  Still not satisfied, the killers stripped both bodies naked, systematically cut them to pieces, and scattered bits of bone into the forest to make resurrection more difficult. 

"From the beginning, Naleemo and his friend planned a cannibalistic feast after they killed Phil and Stan."

There is a price to pay, isn't there?  The wonderful end of the story is that the Yali village and that whole territory has now come to Jesus Christ and they don't gather around to eat missionaries;  they gather around the Lord's Table.  But the price was very high.

One of the most wonderful things that I know about in regard to this story is that Stan's fifth child, who was a baby when he died, was saved reading this book about his father.  That's the price.  If you're going to confront the world, there is a price to pay.  That's the way it has always been.  It was with Savonarola.  It was with Stan Dale in the late 1960's when this happened; it will be in the future because we look ahead in Revelation and what do we find in chapter 9?  A group of people under the altar crying out, people who were slain, martyred for the cause of Christ.  It will always be this way. 

Let's look again at Matthew 5:10-12 and see the three points we introduced in our last study: the persecution, the promise, and the posture.  The persecution is in verses 10-11, and we'll just quickly review it.  "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  And then it's personalized.  I think it's one in the same Beatitude, not two, it's just that people who endure this are double-blessed.  There is a general statement in verse 10, and we saw this last time, this is a review.  Then it's personalized in verse 11.  "Blessed are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake."

Let's ask some simple questions: who are persecuted?  I'll tell you who, the ones who live a Beatitude kind of life.  The ones who come to know God through Jesus Christ, the ones who are Kingdom people, who live life on God's terms.  Beloved, I want you to understand that godliness generates antagonism.  You've got to expect this.  I'm not trying to tell you this so you'll go out and be ugly in the world.  I'm not telling you this so you'll go out and make enemies, I'm telling you this so you won't be shocked!

In Philippians 1:29, it says, "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake."  Unto you it is given; this is to be expected, it is not abnormal.  Paul said to the Thessalonians in I Thessalonians 3:3, "No man should be moved by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to these things."  Persecution shouldn't be shocking or make you wonder if you've made the right commitment.  This shouldn't knock you off your pins or surprise you!  We were called to these things.

II Timothy 3:12 has the same thought, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."  We are called to persecution.  It's very basic.  A godless, angry, hostile, sinful world, confronted by Christianity, must react.  The 'who?'  Everybody who lives the Beatitude life, everyone who comes into the Kingdom, everyone who is a son of the Kingdom, who lives this way.  You just go into the world and try to bring mercy to the world.  Go in and try to purify men's hearts by bringing them the consciousness of sin; you go in and try to make peace through the only peacemaker, Jesus Christ.  If you're bold and confrontive in the way that God wants you to be, you'll find that there is a reaction. 

How?  We saw the who, what about the how?  Well, we're going to be persecuted.  How are they going to show their anger?  'Persecution' is from a Greek word that means 'to harass, to treat evilly, to pursue.'  They're going to come after us. 

I believe America is on the threshold of an era that will be much different from what it we have known in the past.  I think that we have been lollygagging around in the post-American Awakening Era, living off the revivals of the past and the benefits that America had from its heritage of those days.  That is fast coming to an end.  Not only is government acting against religion, but religion is acting against itself by proliferating all of the cults and -isms and schisms and spasms and everything else. 

We're seeing the government crack down on religious groups, we're seeing changes in attitudes, we're seeing the IRS and other agencies making laws that are going to directly impact those of use who are in the church of Jesus Christ.  We're seeing reactions to things that once were held to be sacred; the whole idea of church and those kinds of things have all gone the way of mom and apple pie.  "They're going to come after us," He says.

How?  Verse 11.  Remember what we said?  'Revile' is abuse to the face; 'say all manner against you falsely,' that's slander behind the back.  They're going to come at those who are God's people right on the nose and behind the back.  They're going to talk about us when we're gone and react to us when we're there.  There will be open confrontations and private slander. 

I received a letter this week, and I thought I had to share it with you.  "Recently you preached on the last Beatitude, 'blessed are you when men revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely on account of Me.'  In that sermon, you pointed out that if a Christian was never persecuted, there might be something wrong with his Christianity. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to a friend who I had not seen for several years.  She at one time professed Christianity, but is now in the process of divorcing her husband with no just cause.  I knew I had to confront her on what God has to say about divorce; it would mean putting our friendship on the line.  Because of the possibility of her becoming hostile toward me, I was scared and wished I didn't have to confront her.  But having the knowledge of God within me, I knew I had to obey God!  Briefly, this is what happened.

"I reminded her of God's love and grace and how He wanted her family to be happy and to live together harmoniously according to His perfect standard.  I shared with her what God thought of divorce and His guidelines for marriage and divorce, and the more we talked, the more angry and defensive she became.  She said she didn't believe the Bible was God's Word but man's interpretation of what God said.  She further stated that anyone had the right to form their own interpretation of what Scripture meant; the Bible was nice to have around for its guidelines, but it was up to the reader to decide which one applied to them.

"I explained to her how private interpretation could only lead to theological chaos.  When I started to get my Bible to read her some specific passages, she wouldn't allow me to read from it, saying she did not come over to argue the Bible.  In short, there was no reasoning with her.  As she prepared to leave, she became venomous, and with hate in her eyes, she accused me of luring her into my home and having no concern for her.  On that note, she let herself out, slamming the door behind her.

I can say that I now know what it is like to be hated and falsely accused because I took a stand for Christ.  I know that I could be living with this for a long time, as she is divorcing her husband in an effort to get something going with someone in my family.  I love her, and it is with a heavy heart that I realize the extent of her rejection of Christ.  As painful as this has been, I thank God that for the first time in my life, I know what it is to be separate from the world."

Which is worse - to be shot with a Yali arrow or to be hated by someone that you love?  One is over in a short time, one lasts a long time.  But that's how it is, you see.  It's never easy for the committed people.  If it's easy for you, then it is one of two things.  One, you're not a Christian; or two, you're a Christian but you're not manifesting the attitudes that our Lord talked about here.  It's never easy for the Christian.

Look at I Corinthians 4:9.  Let me show you something.  Here, Paul draws one of the most vivid pictures with words that you'll find in I Corinthians.  He says, "I think that God has set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."  Paul says, "You know, I think that when it comes down to where we fit, God has put us last, appointed to death, and made a spectacle."  You know what he has in his mind? 

When a Roman general won a great victory, he was given the privilege of parading his victorious army through the streets of Rome.  As the army came through the streets of the city, they would carry with them booty, spoils, and the trophies of war.  That allowed the general to demonstrate to everyone the tremendous triumph he had achieved.  Always, at the end of the long procession, there came a small group of captives.  They were tokens of the conquered people, doomed to die in the arena.  They were men taken in captive, and men who now were to be led to the arena to fight the beasts and so to die. 

So Paul says, "I think God has set forth us, the apostles, last; as it were, appointed to death.  We are a spectacle unto the world, unto angels and unto men."  Paul uses terms here from that scene.  He sees the apostles, and who are they?  They are like emblems of all truly committed disciples.  They are a group of captives appointed to death.

I Corinthians 4:9 in James Moffatt's A New Translation reads, "God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena."  The Greek term 'appointed to death' was a rare term referring to sentenced criminals paraded as objects of mockery as they were marched to their execution.  Thus Paul likened the apostles to a group of doomed captives brought along at the end as spectacles to be seen, mocked, and killed like condemned criminals. 

Then he says, "We endure anyway.  We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are despised."  Paul was being very sarcastic there.  Then he says, "Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and we labor, working with our own hands.  Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it." 

Paul knew what Christians are called to.  We're not called to ride white chargers into town and be hot shots.  We're not called to be superstars, sanctified celebrities.  We're called to be appointed to death.  "We suffer through this thing; we are the fools and you're the wise!  You look at us as fools," he says.  "And we are weak, but you are strong.  You look down on us.  You're honorable, but we're despised.  To this present hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked, and buffeted, and never have a place to stay.  We have to work with our hands so hard, and we're reviled all the time, and persecuted, but we have to endure it."

How does he react to all of that?  In verse 12, he says, "Being reviled, we