Daily Devotional For Friday, September 6, 2024

Yes – it’s Friday and your weekend is almost here. We are wrapping up looking at the last Beatitude of Jesus found in Matthew 5:10-12:

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (11)  “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. (12)  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (NASB).

These words by Jesus remind us that we should not be surprised when anti-Christian hostility increases. We should be surprised when it doesn’t. Jesus warned us of this in Luke 6:26, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you . . .” (NASB). The only way these Christians can do this 8th Beatitude is because they are consistently doing the previous 7. Without doing those previous 7 Beatitudes, they are vulnerable to compromise, they disobey and give in or give up on their faith and witness. In this final Beatitude, Jesus refers to 3 major types of persecution.

1. First is physical persecution. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness . . .” In Matthew 5:10-12, the word Jesus uses for “persecuted” is the Greek New Testament word [διώκω, dioko]. Grammatically, it is what we call a present participle. We could translate it as “who allow themselves to be continually persecuted.” These people are very much aware they are being persecuted and they are not resisting it or compromising when it comes. 
2. Second, are verbal assaults. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11a, “Blessed are you when people insult you . . .”  This can come in the forms of verbal jabs or pokes, or direct insults. These can come from people at work, home, school and unfortunately, even at church. They can come as a joke or a jest, but it is really a person attempting to jockey for some kind of leverage over you. It can come in the form of sarcasm.  Look at Matthew 26:67-68, “Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, (68) and said, “Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?” (NASB). If they will do this to the sinless Christ, what do you think people will do to us since we are sinners?
3. Third, are false accusations. Jesus said this in Matthew 5:11b, “Blessed are you when people . . .  falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” Look at Matthew 11:19. Here is what Jesus’ opponents accused Him of doing, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (NASB). Slander behind our back is harder to confront than straight out face-to-face accusations. 
• New Testament scholar Arthur Pink writes this: “It is a strong proof of human depravity that men’s curses and Christ’s blessings should meet on the same persons” (Source: Arthur Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 39). We should not be surprised or shocked when people’s curses fall on the heads of people God has blessed. 
• Jesus warned us this would come in Matthew 5:10-12. I like what pastor and author John MacArthur writes here: “When we are hated, maligned, or afflicted as Christians, the real animosity is not against us but against Christ. satan’s great enemy is Christ, and he opposes us because we belong to Jesus Christ, because He is in us. When we are despised and attacked by the world, the real target is the righteousness for which we stand and which we exemplify. That is why it is easy to escape persecution. Whether under pagan Rome, atheistic Communism, or simply a worldly boss, it is usually easy to be accepted if we will denounce or compromise our beliefs and standards. The world will accept us if we are willing to put some distance between ourselves and the Lord’s righteousness” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 228). 
• Jesus warned His disciples in the Upper Room and us as well that persecution would come in John 15:18-21, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (21) But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (NASB).

This persecution comes because of us living righteously for Jesus Christ. But this final Beatitude comes with a promise in Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (NASB). We are going to inherit the kingdom of God. This is Paul’s word in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7:

“This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. (6) For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, (7) and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire” (NASB).

I believe this kingdom is most present, in the millennial reign of Christ on earth and eternal. Even Jesus gave us a promise about His blessing to us for enduring persecution in Mark 10:29-30:

“Jesus said, `Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, (30) but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life” (NASB).

I do not want you to misunderstand me on this. Not every believer is promised protection from martyrdom or insults or having false accusations made against them. But there is a present and millennial promise of inheriting this kingdom. Christian author Don Richardson tells this story in his book, Lords Of The Earth:

“Stan Dale, was a missionary to Irian Jaya, Indonesia. He ministered to the Yali tribe in the Snow Mountains. The Yali had one of the strictest known religions in the world. For a tribe member even to question, much less disobey, one of its tenets brought instant death. There could never be any change or modification. The Yali had many sacred spots scattered throughout their territory. If even a small child were to crawl onto one of those sacred pieces of ground, he was considered defiled and cursed. To keep the whole village from being involved in that curse, the child would be thrown into the rushing Heluk River to drown and be washed downstream.

When Stan Dale came with his wife and four children to those cannibalistic people he was not long tolerated. He was attacked one night and miraculously survived being shot with five arrows. After treatment in a hospital he immediately returned to the Yali. He worked unsuccessfully for several years, and the resentment and hatred of the tribal priests increased. One day as he, another missionary named Phil Masters, and a Dani tribesman named Yemu were facing what they knew was an imminent attack, the Yali suddenly came upon them. As the others ran for safety, Stan and Yemu remained back, hoping somehow to dissuade the Yali from their murderous plans. As Stan confronted his attackers, they shot him with dozens of arrows. As the arrows entered his flesh he would pull them out and break them in two. Eventually he no longer had the strength to pull the arrows out, but he remained standing.

Yemu ran back to where Phil was standing, and Phil persuaded him to keep running. With his eyes fixed on Stan, who was still standing with some fifty arrows in his body, Phil remained where he was and was himself soon surrounded by warriors. The attack had begun with hilarity, but it turned to fear and desperation when they saw that Stan did not fall. Their fear increased when it took nearly as many arrows to down Phil as it had Stan. They dismembered the bodies and scattered them about the forest in an attempt to prevent the resurrection of which they had heard the missionaries speak. But the back of their “unbreakable” pagan system was broken, and through the witness of the two men who were not afraid to die in order to bring the gospel to these lost and violent people, the Yali tribe and many others in the surrounding territory came to Jesus Christ. Even Stan’s fifth child, a baby at the time of this incident, was saved reading the book about his father.

Stan and Phil were not rewarded in this life with the things of this life. But they seem to have been doubly-blessed with the comfort, strength, and joy of their indwelling Lord—and the absolute confidence that their sacrifice for Him would not be in vain” (Don Richardson, The Lords Of The Earth).

Questions To Consider

1. Jesus listed 3 types of persecutions we can face. Which of these have you personally endured and how did you handle them? What was the final outcome?
2. These words by Jesus in Matthew 5:10-12 remind us that we should not be surprised when anti-Christian hostility increases. We should be surprised when it doesn’t. Do you play it safe at work or school or with friends and family with your faith? If so, why? If not, what are the results?
3. What advice would you give to any believer who was experiencing any of these 3 types of persecution?
4. As believers, we are not promised protection from any form of persecution no matter how many times we sincerely and intently pray that God would send His holy angels to protect us. So, how should we pray then?
5. I closed with a very powerful and moving story of a missionary named Stan Dale. Besides Stan Dale not taking any actions to protect his physical life, what spiritual lessons are in this story for you to apply and share with others?

Scripture To Meditate On: John 15:18-21, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (21) But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, in this country we do not face physical or life threatening persecution for our faith. There are others in other parts of the world who do. I pray that You will give them the courage and righteousness to stand firm for their faith in You. I ask Jesus that You give me the courage to stand firm when someone jokes or pokes fun at me or uses sarcasm or harsh insults against me for my relationship to You. I accept in faith since they persecuted You, they will persecute me. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly