Blessed are the Persecuted
The beatitudes are the pathway to God’s heart. These beautiful attitudes begin with blessed are the poor in spirit. When we realize our poverty of spirit God can fill us with his spirit. Blessed are those who mourn over their sin nature for they will be comforted with the comfort of God’s spirit. Those who are hungry and thirst after righteousness shall be filled…. for Jesus said, I am the fountain of living water and I am the bread of life. Blessed are the meek for their heart is prepared to receive the Word of God. Blessed are the merciful… for loving kindness and tender mercy is the nature of God himself. Blessed are the pure in heart… Those whom God has purified through the trials and tribulations to reveal his true character reflected in us. Then blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God. They have accepted Jesus Christ the prince of peace and have been given the ministry of reconciliation and have been committed the word of reconciliation. Peace is the result of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Reconciliation connects our heart with God’s heart.
The final beatitude is blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is their reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Persecution results from the darkness of the fallen world. The darkness hates the light of Jesus Christ. According to John 1, the light came into the world through Jesus Christ and the world rejected the light. However, those who accept that Jesus is Lord reflect the light of Christ. Mark 5 says, Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.
In the early Christian church, the Jews ostracized the followers of “that way” Jesus Christ. Christ followers were cast out of the temple and the synagogue. They were separated from their families and former friends. In Philippians 1, Paul said that in having received the gift of Holy Spirit, followers of Christ would suffer tribulation. You cannot love the things of this world so much that you compromise your love for God, his word and his righteousness. When we love God above all and give up the rights to ourselves, then we shall know the freedom we have in Christ. Jesus said, if you continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
The issue is to stand as a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. Then when the world turns its back on the truth of the Word of God we will stand by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When the world persecutes us and rails slanderous accusations against the truth, we can rest in the assurance that God will deliver us from evil… either in this life or the next.
In the First Century, Nero burned down the city of Rome to rebuild it as a monument to his own ego and ultimate authority. When the people were in an uproar for the burning of Rome, Nero blamed it on the Christians. He turned their hearts against the followers of Christ and tortured them. Then he set their bodies on fire to light the avenues leading into Rome.
The history of the Church has been paved with the blood of the martyrs. They praised God singing on their way to be tortured and killed in the name of their Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of evil men’s attempts to stamp out Christianity, God keeps watch over his people who stand as witnesses to the fulfillment of his promises. When Christians are persecuted for standing for truth, men will see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. God will open the eyes of those he’s called so that they can witness the truth for which his Christians stand… As Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
When we stand as citizens of Heaven for the gospel of God’s grace then our Heavenly Father will honor our stand for truth and righteousness. The godless doctrines of communism in the guise of liberal social democracy are opposed to the godly truth upon which our country was founded as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all.
The priority of the devil’s doctrines of godlessness is to stamp out the liberties wherewith Christ has set us free…. Their purpose is to advance the devil’s mission to separate American citizens from their unalienable God-given rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness based on godly virtue. Ultimately the devil’s purpose is to separate our hearts from God’s heart.
When we confess Jesus is Lord, we count our own life no longer our own. As Christians our life is hid with Christ in God in this earthly life and also in the next. The governments of the world will come to naught. Nations come and go…. According to Isaiah 40 the nations are but a drop in the bucket.
Therefore God’s promise is that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The devil’s poison arrows and flaming darts are the doctrines of devils. The devil and his minions accuse Christians of being close minded, intolerant, hypocritical, and holier than thou. The devil takes the word of God and twists it into lies to set hearts and minds against God, his word, his prophets, and ministers of His word.
Even though we hold dual citizenship as citizens of heaven and citizens of the United States, we are Christians first and Americans second. Having been born again of God’s spirit we are sons of God and our allegiance is to our Father and the country of our new birth in heaven. As Christians not only are we citizens of heaven, but our Father has given us a mission and an assignment… we have been commissioned, equipped, empowered,and enabled by God as his ambassadors. An ambassador is the highest ranking official sent by his Lord to deliver a peace treaty to a foreign land. Our calling as Ambassadors for Christ is the ministry of reconciliation to deliver the pace treaty, the word of reconciliation from Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. To reconcile is to join together that which has been separated. Our mission and our commission is to reconcile God’s people back to God, thereby bringing peace with God. Therefore, we pray you in Christ’s name, be ye reconciled to God. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Romans says, recompense to no man evil for evil. Therefore let not your good be evil spoken of. When we stand up for Jesus Christ and the truth of His word, Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
According to 2 Corinthians 4:5-10, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
Sam Parsons ministered in nursing homes. He went into the room of an elderly faithful Christian lady who was paralyzed from the neck down. She was bed ridden and could not move her arms or legs. When Sam arrived to sing for her, her face lit up with the joy of the Lord. Sam asked her, how are you so joyful in your pain and suffering? She used a chopstick in between her lips to point to the letters on a board and spelled out 2 Cor. 4:17. This verse says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Sam thought to himself, I’m not ministering to her. She’s ministering to me. As she approached the end of this life on earth, she understood the meaning of Jesus’ beautiful attitudes…. to glorify our father in this life and the next…. that Blessed are they who through the trials and affliction of this life, faithfully witness God’s beatitudes through persecution, reviling, and evil speaking, for Jesus said, great is your reward in heaven…
… That as witnesses to our Father’s love and mercy, we may live eternally to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
