Sermon on the Mount 09 – Is Persecution a Blessing?
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 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
Now, we have come to the last part of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. The word of Jesus, which began with ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,’ ends with ‘blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ It is wrapped like a sandwich. Isn’t it? This kind of chiastic (sandwich-like) structure is a representative linguistic method for Hebrews. Here ‘theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ is ‘estin he basileia ton ouranon’ in Greek and the verb used here is ‘estin’ which is ‘is.’ So the exact translation wouldn’t be ‘yours is the kingdom of heaven’ but it would be ’you are the kingdom of heaven.’ ‘Is’ is the verb. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God should be understood as a concept of sovereignty, right? Thus, ‘you are the kingdom of heaven’ is the same as ‘you are ruled by God.’ So you are ruled by God, but how? We have studied thus far, right? What were all the seven blessings? Blessings that do not seem like blessings to the people of the world. Weren’t they a reality of the saints in history that could not be understood? But it is saying that is the appearance of the blessed ones who are ruled by God. That is why it says ‘you are the kingdom of heaven.’
Such reality of the saints in history is sandwiched with the phrase ‘you are the kingdom of heaven.’ Everything is melted into that. It is to show that the people of heaven inevitably experience such a reality which human beings cannot like because they are born by the plan and sovereignty of heaven, and they live by the kingship of heaven, and they are already completed in the revelation of eternity. You are the kingdom of heaven. You are totally taken over by the sovereignty of God. But do you know how this appears to be? It appears as the poor in spirit, as those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In simpler terms, the Beatitudes are kind instructions for the reality of the people of the kingdom of heaven in history. This way, they won’t mourn and thirst and hunger for righteousness once they go up to the kingdom of God, since it is all completed there, right? In the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is kindly explaining about the perception of the reality of the blessed saints in history because the people of the kingdom of God, who are blessed with a heavenly blessing before the creation, must live out the heaven in this history but they can despair or be disappointed since the mechanism of the life in heaven is completely different from that of the life of this world. Now, by the cross, we have come to the world where the heaven in eternity is overlapped with the world of history, right? The people of kingdom of God, who are living this mysterious world which is overlapped with the heaven in eternity and the world of this history, experience the reality of spiritual poverty of knowing that there is nothing good that can come of them as they thoroughly learn of their own powerlessness and impossibility in this world. That was spiritual poverty, right? And by so, they mourn. Why? I mourn because I am not free from sin. And from there, I take on the directionality called ‘meekness’ in the process of acknowledging the exclusive sovereignty of God and therefore the realization of ‘I have no hope without the righteousness of God’ comes out as thirst and hunger. And as I turn away from values other than God and find a new heart that purely comes together as one. I am summarizing what we have been studying so far. Like this, the idols inside of me are recognized and confessed one by one and reconciliation or peace with God takes place. This does not take place in order or step by step in history like the itinerary of salvation, but it is a life of heaven in this world that comes and is experienced at the same time. Jesus is tying together its entire content with ‘being persecuted for righteousness’ sake’. Today’s text is the conclusion of the Beatitudes and the summary of the whole thing. It is the appearance of me being denied and negated for God’s righteousness. All eight of them were like that, right? That is the appearance of being persecuted for righteousness in history. The Greek word ‘dioko,’ which is ‘persecute,’ means being aggressively chased down in a direction I do not want to go by someone rather than being persecuted by being beaten up, cursed, or harmed. It means to aggressively chase or pursue with all haste. It is a passive form of that verb. The passive form of the verb, ‘dediogmenoi,’ means more being chased or hunted down. So the focus of the word persecution is more on the zeal of God, who is chasing His people in the opposite direction of what the Adams in this world pursue after rather than on the act of criticism, curse, or infliction of harm of the people of this world towards the saints. If you picture a shepherd chasing after the sheep, that would be the exact depiction. That is ‘dioko.’ Of course, it also means being persecuted. So, if I were to define ‘persecution’ overall, it would be ‘the reality of being persecuted and hated that comes out in the life of the saints who are being chased down to a destination set by God by the zeal of God.’ If you divide the eight categories into two, the front part as the reality of the saints in history and the latter part as the reality of the eternity, and compare, the reality of the people who live the heaven in this world, or your reality, is the front part, right? All of them, right? Spiritual poverty, mourning, meekness, thirst and hunger for righteousness, being merciful, purity in heart, peacemaking, and being persecuted for righteousness’ sake are all the reality in history, aren’t they? And the reality of eternity is the kingdom of heaven, comfort, land, being full with righteousness, mercy, seeing God, being called sons of God, and again the kingdom of heaven. Who is the kingdom of heaven? It is me. The holy temple, the dwelling place of God is me and the saints. And the rest, who is the land? It was us, right? I explained this to you what the land was, why it said we will inherit the land. Satisfaction full of righteousness, mercy, sons of God, seeing God, they are all taking about us. And the rest of the story is about the church that is complete. As you can see, the front part is the phenomenon of taking away of the self sense of being, autonomy, desire, and selfishness. Such a phenomenon occurs when things are taken away. Wouldn't the people, who used to live in high spirits go down to the place of spiritual poverty when their own autonomy, identity, and sense of being are taken away? Like, ‘oh, I am nothing. I need the righteousness of God’ -thirsting and hungering for righteousness. Why would only sin come out of me? –Mourning. And the latter part is the description of the completion of the sons of God who have become a dwelling place of God in His sovereignty. Summarizing the front parts of the Beatitudes into one word, it is persecution. ‘Dioko’, God’s pursuit, God’s chasing. And by God doing so, how , the people of God who are among the Adams in this world appear to be. They appear to be fallen into pieces and thrown into confusion. The reality of such a persecution primarily appears in us first. Every human being born in this world in Adam lives their life with keeping the sense of being and self identity as a goal. It’s the same for the saints who have been blessed before the creation. Even the people of God come into the world as an Adam in flesh, they live a selfish life no different than that of all the rest of the Adams in this world. Same for the saints. However, those who have been blessed before the creation are born with that blessing. And that blessing is a blessing of becoming the dwelling place of God. Doesn’t it come out in today’s text? It says, “Blessed ones! You will be persecuted and you will receive a reward in this world.” What kind of reward? It is the kingdom of heaven. Reward, blessing, the kingdom of heaven, they are all the same. There has to be a place where God can go into in order to become a dwelling of God. And it has to be not partially empty but fully empty, so God can fill it up. So the more you realize that the old self ego in the flesh must die and the more you sincerely understand this, the place for God inside you increases. That is the life of the saints in history. Think about it. According to God’s new covenant, not only a new heart was given to the saints, the Holy Spirit was also given. Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. That new heart is the ‘good conscience’ that is directed to and seeks God only, as we studied last week. That is the new heart. The heart that ate the fruit of god and evil is the evil conscience, the seared conscience. Since the good conscience is begun by the work of the Holy Spirit, who enters us and teaches us about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment, it does not matter that it's called the Holy Spirit who is in us - since there cannot be a good conscience without the involvement of the Holy Spirit. That new heart knows that we become qualified as the people of God when we ourselves are denied and the sovereignty of God is completely executed in us. Of course, the Holy Spirit knows.
The new heart would try to turn its target to God. The new heart would try to change the target of the heart. But another law inside of it, as Paul describes it, exists and tries to win over. The old self would not allow the moving of the target. It would endlessly try to pull it inside the fence of the fleshly self ego and make it turn towards the things that can be used as a tool for the expansion of the self ego. A war begins inside there. Apostle Paul describes this war like this. There inside of me, persecution and being persecuted are clearly distinguished. Please look.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. –Romans 7:22-23
Clearly, it is a war that only happens inside the people of God who are blessed before creation. But as you can see, God does not help the new heart win the old heart. Having a new heart means the Holy Spirit is inside but the Holy Spirit leaves the old heart to win the new heart. So Apostle Paul is mourning. To say in the context of today’s text, God is letting the old man persecute the new man. Verse 24 is the mourning breaking out from that.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? –Romans 7:24
What is this? This is the spiritual poverty in the Sermon on the Mount. And what is this? This is mourning. And it is also thirsting and hungering for righteousness. And it is being merciful for oneself. ‘Ah, I cannot do without mercy.’ This is being merciful. Knowing that he is dead to righteousness and thus he will fall into eternal death unless someone outside comes and saves him. This is being realized in the midst of the inner man being persecuted by the old man. While the inner being is persecuted by the old man, the mourning of ‘Wow, I am rightly the wretched man. I do have a body of death for sure,’ -in the midst of persecution. What do you call one becoming completely dependent on Jesus Christ, the righteousness prepared by God in such a realization? I told you it is peace, which we studied last week. And I said that is the heart being pure, right? Look at it carefully. See where Paul, who is realizing and mourning that he is the body of death, or Paul, in other words, who is endlessly experiencing the old man persecuting the inner man and making it captive to the law of sin, goes after confessing being mournful and poor in spirit by crying out, “Wretched man that I am!”
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (It means he is going to Jesus.) So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. –Romans 7:25
That is the purity of heart and peace with God. The entire reality of the Beatitudes in history results from persecution and that persecution primarily begins inside of a saint. But that persecution is a tool necessary for the saint’s correct realization of himself and there the power and the glory of God are revealed. I become weak and the power and the glory of God are being revealed. ‘What a wretched man that I am! What should I do?’ turns to ‘I must go to Jesus’ as a dependency to God and then, it turns to ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ This is the fruit God requires of us. The only fruit. He is telling us to go to Jesus.
Therefore, persecution is not something that can happen or not happen but it is inevitable and a necessity and a must. There is a scene where Apostle Paul adamantly speaks like this in Acts.
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. –Romans 14:22
The verb ‘dei’ used here is ‘must’. It is ‘must’ in English. The Greek word ‘dei’ has a stronger meaning than the English word ‘must’. The saints must go through persecution in order to become the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Here for persecution, the extreme word ‘thlipsis’ is used and ‘thlipsis’ is a steel plate that breaks and crushes the original form of a grain, a rugged steel plate. That is translated into persecution. It means I am gone. Why? Becoming the kingdom of God means being completely taken over by the sovereignty of God and it means not even a little of ‘me’ should exist. That is why you are being crushed away. Putting a grain on a rugged steel plate and crushing it is called persecution. This is called ‘thlipsis’, or suffering. Apostle Paul says we must have this in us.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.19 “Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. (The people of God came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea and now God is prophesying how they would live in Canaan, but He is saying that they would live just like they did in the old days. They would live the same way they lived in Egypt.) 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel. -Deuteronomy 31:16-22 In actuality, how did they live in Canaan? They lived the same way. Wasn’t that the book of Judges? We studied this well, didn’t we? They were even worse. The substance would not change even after experiencing the amazing salvation.
Canaan is a land symbolizing the life of the people of God who are already perfected in eternity, living out the eternity in this history. That is why they could not live out the perfect kingdom of God even after entering Canaan. The appearance of Israel in Canaan is our own appearance in this history. Those who are already perfected in eternity are living the kingdom of heaven here in the land of history. Canaan was the land of promise but it was not the complete land of promise. How did they do in Canaan, in the land of promise? Despite the fact that they were the people of God, they were after foreign gods rather than God and broke the promise of the new covenant. Their breaking the new covenant meant they did not consider the grace of God valuable. Wasn’t that the new covenant? They kept the old covenant well since they kept the law and diligently offered up sacrifices.
At this time, how does God chase them? He exposes their real identity and denies them with disasters and sufferings, or persecution, in other words. He is making them realize "this is who you are." Once they are exposed to men’s powerlessness and impossibility, the people of God who have received the Holy Spirit hold onto only the righteousness of God. “Oh, what should I do? Oh my goodness, something must be done.” Then, through the word, the Holy Spirit speaks to me inside. “Jesus died because of you.” At that time, you must hold on to that. The persecution in the form of internal conflict in a saint’s life is inevitable and must take place. But you often lose. Do you feel secure? You are losing everyday but are pretending to win, aren’t you?
Such internal persecution of a saint also takes place externally the same way. Now let’s take a look in detail how the external persecution looks like and what results from it. If you look at verse 10 and 11 of today’s text, it shows well why that persecution comes to the saints of the kingdom of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. –Matthew 5:10-11
In verse 10, it is written ‘for righteousness’ sake’ and ‘on my account’ in verse 11. Exact translation of ‘for righteousness’ sake’ is ‘because of righteousness’. It is ‘those who are persecuted because of righteousness’. If you look at verse 11, who is righteousness? It is Jesus since it says ‘on my account’. Those who are persecuted because of Jesus. It means those who are persecuted because of the righteousness which Jesus alone accomplished and completed. But why would persecution come to us because of the righteousness of Jesus? If we go to Romans, what is compared to the righteousness of Jesus comes out clearly. This is a part we almost memorized. Let’s go to Romans 3:21.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, (This is the righteousness in today’s text, the same word) although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: (It is this righteousness) 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,-Romans 3:21-24
This is the same righteousness which Paul talks about. What is in the opposite of this righteousness? There is the law. So those who are in relation with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, prepared by God, are to be persecuted by those who are trying to build the righteousness of men by the law. The law is in the opposite place of the righteousness. If you read verse 21, it says the law and the prophet bear witness to Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, even though it is the opposite of the law. The true meaning of the law and what the prophets spoke of are all about Jesus Christ. The saints are those who praise the salvation given freely by grace by trusting and believing the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the world persecutes the saints because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to them. I will explain what this looks like in an easy way. Do you know Mother Teresa? She was someone who dedicated her whole life to the poor and sick in India. I have over 30 books about her, which I bought since high school. Isn’t that a lot? She is someone the whole world wants to model after, isn’t she? She is a righteous woman, right? Do non-believers like Mother Teresa or hate her? It was said that non-believers bought 10 times more books about her than believers. So, do people of the world like her or not like her? They like her. They even praise her and call her righteous. We praise her and say ‘let’s model after her, let’s follow her’. The world praises and wants to follow her. Then, is the righteousness of Mother Teresa, the righteousness the Bible is speaking about? The Bible clearly says that in conclusion, you will be persecuted because of the righteousness of Jesus. But Mother Teresa, the righteousness possessed by a human being, what we call righteous, is being praised by the world. Then, the righteousness Jesus is talking about is not the righteousness of Mother Teresa. How about Cardinal SooHwan Kim? Four hundred thousand people came to mourn for him when he died and most of them were atheists and even many Buddhist monks. The whole world praised him and his life. Wasn’t he someone who lived a clean life, poor, honest, fired up for the poor, and fought alongside the weak and poor? Isn’t it why the whole world praised him and even the Buddhist monks came to the chapel and worshipped, bearing the shame? Didn’t all people praise him? What kind of persecution did he receive? Who persecuted him? Then, isn’t his dedication to the poor neighbors or democratic movement he did all his life not the righteousness the Bible is requiring? The Bible clearly says that if righteousness is the cause, persecution comes as a result. And that righteousness has to be the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It comes out in today’s text, ‘for righteousness’ sake, for my account’. So, this righteousness has to be related to Jesus. The righteousness the Bible talks about is this. There is no other righteousness in the Bible. I will explain more as we look into the same part as today’s text in Luke.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. -Luke 6:22-23, 26
What do you think? It says woe to the righteousness of the world which all men praise. Who received such praise? There are people who received such praise and who are they? It says they are the false prophets in verse 26. Then, what did these false prophets do that they received praises from all people? What did they do that even Apostle Paul said, “how long has it been since I left that you follow after those who share a different gospel?” What did they say that even in the time of the first churches people fell away?
Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”13 Then I said: “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” 14 And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 15 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. -Jeremiah 14:12-15
As you can see, what are things like fasting, praying, burn offering, and grain offering? They are the works of the law. The false prophet taught that God would give peace as long as they do these things. This is legalism. They taught the false faith of “God helps those who help themselves”. They meant God will be moved as much as men do. In other words, the false prophets fanned the pride of men saying the works of men could move God and men and valuable enough to gain peace. These are false prophets. They taught the praise-worthy and good works of men can be the basis and condition of acquiring the comfortable and peaceful environment men desire. When they did so, all people praised them. Why? All men who are in Adam are now God-like after eating the fruit of good and evil. But no one is treating them like God. However, the false prophets are fanning their pride and praising their works saying, “This is good enough. This can bring peace”, so the people praise them saying, “You are right”. Like this, all Adams like legalism, which places value on the work of men and heightens the value of men who bring out such work. Doesn’t this look like it confirms the existence of men who have become like God after eating the fruit of good and evil? It is like, “That is right, you have become like God. How can such work come out of men?” But Jesus says being exalted by keeping the law and doing good works like this is being hated by God. Please look.
And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.[a] -Luke 16:15-16
Luke 16:16 Or everyone is forcefully urged into it
We must read thinking why such words are attached to this. If I were to translate the phrase ‘justify yourselves’ to make it easy to understand, the word ‘righteousness’ is in there. It means ‘dekaiosune’, ‘men giving themselves righteousness’. Men make and give themselves their own righteousness. Men give themselves, not the righteousness prepared by God, but a righteousness they produced themselves. This is what it means to ‘justify yourselves’. It means when people give themselves righteousness by their own works, they are called good people, nice people, and righteous people, and they become exalted among men. But God hates those who are exalted by their own righteousness. In addition to this, the Lord is clearly saying that the Law and the Prophets, or the Old Testament, were until the time of John. That was the Old Testament’s way of being exalted, wasn’t it? Keep the law, offer up sacrifices well, live nicely. Then I will reward you. That was the Old Testament. But if you make and give yourself your own righteousness like the Old Testament way, it is an abomination to God. Why? The Old Testament ended in the time of John. And then Jesus says the good news of the kingdom of heaven is preached. The good news of the kingdom of heaven is a gospel accomplished by the righteousness of the cross of Jesus, isn’t it? A gospel in which the righteousness of Jesus is the core. It means the righteousness cannot be acquired in the Old Testament way because the good news will be preached from now on. But they are still being exalted in that way. And in the end, people are trying to force their way into the kingdom of God by their own might, even though the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. Everyone forcing his way in. The end of verse 16 does not mean men can force into the kingdom of God with their own power but it is a phrase pointing out men’s relentless effort to exercise autonomy and keep their pride. This is Arminianism. Whether in the time of the Old Testament or New Testament, Adams who are bound to their sense of being, identity, and autonomy would always try to exalt themselves with their own might and thirst for others’ praise for improving their own value. And they mistake that as a really valuable life. That is why there are people who would forsake their own life for that. If you look at 1Corinthians 13, God is saying there are people who would set their body on fire even without love.
Even today, the world and all people praise those who make the righteousness men agreed upon, with the conscience which ate the fruit of good and evil with their own subjectivity, dedicating themselves to it and fighting with their life for it. That is the true character of Adams. They are considered to have raised the average value of the general population. Despite this, isn’t today’s reformed faith camp promoting such kinds of reformation and revolution? They make a fuss trying to make a healthy, sound, and ideal church which contributes to social justice and human equality, a church praised by the whole world. You would think receiving an evaluation of ‘I would like to go to that kind of church’ from the world by doing the good works praised by the world is somewhat a good way of evangelizing. You would think that is the right way of making a church. If so, we must tear up all the verses like today’s text. Isn’t it obvious? It is said the church of God, the church that holds onto the true righteousness of Jesus, will be persecuted by the whole world just for existing, but the reformed faith camp is saying we should make a healthy church which the people of the world would applaud and even daily newspapers would praise. They are saying it would attract people to that church. Is this right? Did Jesus lose his mind and is now talking nonsense? Jesus is saying that the whole world would come with stones in their hands if the church pursues the true righteousness of heaven, but the church is building its own kingdom of heaven by building the righteousness the whole world praises. Have you seen ‘The heaven of their own’ by Chungjoon Lee? They said they want to build heaven, but they are all main characters.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (“If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” means they did not keep His words. Please do not misunderstand that they did keep.) 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.-John 15:18-21
Like this, Jesus said the world would hate the saints and persecute them. Where in there did He say, “If the church shows itself mature, the world would praise it. So try hard and receive praise from the world”? He just says it will hate. The end. Not it will love you if you try hard but it will hate you. The end. He just says the world would hate and persecute the true church given birth by Jesus Christ and that is it. This is a firm promise officially given to the universal church. One thing clearly promised to Christians is suffering and persecution. There is no such indulgence that the world would not hate if you live nicely and well, even if you look anywhere. Rather, the Bible says the godlier you live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the stronger the persecution. Do not misunderstand. Look at 2 Timothy.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, -2 Timothy 3:12
This means ‘all who want to be godlier’. It means the godlier you become the world would persecute you more and not praise. Even the daily newspapers would praise and boast such great churches. The daily newspapers would praise even those churches that get somewhat near to the goal that today’s healthy and sound churches pursue. But Paul says when someone pursues more and more the godliness in Jesus Christ, the world will persecute and not praise. If so, it becomes clear that the godliness Paul speaks of is not the kind of godly life we may think and pursue. The godliness of the church is exalting only the righteousness of Jesus. The Bible calls this godliness. It is not the dictionary kind of concept you have. Exalting only the righteousness of Jesus and holding only on to it is called godliness. It says the more you live like that, the more the world persecutes.
and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. –Matthew 10:22-23
He is not saying the world would curse and criticize if the church does not live like the church should, but He is saying that all the people of the world would hate them if the church plays out well the role Jesus sent them out to do. He is saying even the family members would persecute the church. Look at the verse right above it.
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, -Matthew 10:21
He says such things will happen if you live by His word. What in the world is the righteousness of Jesus which the saints must hold onto and live by that they should be hated and persecuted by all people, including the family members? The twelve disciples are the model for the church. He is speaking to the church. If so, as one sending out the church into the world, shouldn’t He send them out with some kind of power to fight back the persecution of the world? Shouldn’t He say, “Like I said, you will be persecuted the more you try to live by my word, so I will give you this power.”? As one who is sending them out, isn’t this the right thing to do? But He does not give. Rather, He sends them as sheep into the world that is like wolves. And then, He tells them to be wise as serpents.
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, - Matthew 10:16-17
Be wise as serpents means to not be deceived by the wisdom of the serpent anymore. What was the wisdom of the serpent? Wasn’t it ‘hey, come out of your place and become like God’? Then, what does it mean to be wise as serpents, not to be deceived by the serpents while being sent into the wolves? It means the serpent would surely say “Why should you be persecuted and beat up like the sheep? Wolves? Become like a lion and bite them off!” But you should not be deceived by this. That means as God is sending us as sheep and binding us to persecution saying, “Do not get away from persecution and even if you want to, you cannot.” He is not giving us power but sending us out to die. However, Jesus did give them power. It was not that He didn’t. But why were they persecuted even though they had power? Think about it seriously.
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,[c] cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.-Matthew 10:5-8
He did give them power, didn’t He? He did give power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. He told them to heal for free and so they did. After coming back, they bragged to Jesus, “Wow, demons really came out!” If so, shouldn’t they be praised and treated well? They raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, and cleansed lepers. But why would they be persecuted? Why would He promise persecution? Why would Jesus send them out bound to be persecuted? It was the same for Jesus. Jesus worked the same way. He raised the dead, healed lepers and the sick, and cast out demons. But the world persecuted Him and even His family members called Him crazy. The family said He must be crazy. After that, the entire world unanimously nailed and killed Him on the cross, even though He did all that. It means His disciples will go on the same way. That is why Jesus gave His disciples the same power He showed. And then, He is saying go die in persecution and be sheep bitten to death by wolves. It means to partake in the suffering of Jesus. So the Bible calls the suffering of the church ‘what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions’. It comes out in Colossians 1:24, what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. It does not mean Jesus only suffered 95% of the suffering when He should have suffered 100% and we share some of it. It is called what is lacking in Christ's afflictions because it means it is the same suffering Jesus suffered. Why would the world hate the saints when they raise the dead, cast out demons, and heal the sick? Why did it hate Jesus? What do you think raising the dead, casting out demons, and healing the sick symbolize? It comes out in Isaiah. It is depicting the coming of the kingdom of God. It is depicting that the symptoms of death would disappear when that happens. That is why Jesus said, “Go and tell him the sick are healed, the dead are raised, and demons are cast out” when John the Baptist asked Him, “Are you the one who is to come?” He was telling him “I am the Messiah, I am the kingdom of God.” In one word, it is a picture of the symptoms of death subsiding. Like this, being saved from death means being freed from sin, and being freed from sin means being released from idols since that is the substance of sin. But this is possible only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, because that is salvation. That is why Jesus is instructing to go only to the house of the Jews for now since it is the birthplace of and represents Judaism and legalism. “Go to the house of the Jews and see what they would do. They would kill you. Judaism and legalism will kill you for sure. The righteousness of Jesus has come. Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come! The kingdom of heaven is not constructed by your diligent works but it has come as a gift of God.” He is saying, “telling them this would deny them all so they will kill you since they cannot take it.” That is why He is telling them to go only to the house of the Jews. And then, He is saying, “never fight back the wolves, just die.” It is a picture of the Gospel shattering human-centered humanism and legalism. This is human righteousness being denied and human pride being thrown down on the floor because the Jews were living and trying hard, thinking they were the best, smartest, and most diligent nation in the world, but Jesus and His disciples came and told them to repent. The word repent, ‘metanoia’, means ‘must go the opposite way since the way you are going now is a wrong way'. Then, what about all the things they have been doing diligently? They are all denied. They are eliminated. No wonder they rush in to kill you saying, “What do you think you are that you deny my existence?” They would persecute. Human beings in Adam go crazy when they only see the phenomenon of the dead being raised, the sick being healed, and demons cast out and look at the person performing such phenomenon with reverence. That is why Jesus was received with such hospitality. They even rolled out the carpet with their own clothes. But when they realize such phenomenon are to break down their sense of existence, identity, and pride, they forget all about such facts. Miracles? They are useless. Human beings forget all when their existence and pride are hurt. They can’t help but to dash in to kill each other. That is how scary human obsession to himself is. I will help you understand this using a current situation from today as an example.
Mother Teresa is a mother of righteousness that the whole world praises, respects, and exalts because she is a representative figure who elevated human values. She has set an example of how great humans can be. Of course, human beings admire her. Men praise those that do the things they want to do in order to be praised.
Let’s say someone said this while preaching the righteousness of Jesus : “What Mother Teresa did in this world was a very good, admirable, and beautiful thing but that will not be counted as righteous before God. Why? The only thing that will be counted as righteous is the righteousness of Jesus. What she did will not be counted before God, it is not something that would elevate human values either. Why? Human values, humans being human, humans becoming the people of the kingdom of God is only by the grace of God. Thus, it does not add more to human value. If there is someone who lived a life 1,000 times better and more dedicated in this world, his deed will not contribute even 1% to his salvation and eternal life. Human beings can become worthy beings only by trusting the righteousness of Jesus and only that person can enter the kingdom of God. So before you try to elevate your own value by doing good works and to become someone worthy of praises of the world, please realize that you are the worst of all sinners and hold onto the righteousness of Jesus.”
This is how Jesus and His disciples were like when they went to the Jews, who were focused on being good and diligent, and said “Repent! The kingdom of heaven has come as a gift!” What would happen? Human beings, who proudly have decided on Mother Teresa as an example of human beings, would dash in to kill that preacher. They would all rise up saying, “What do you think you are that you talk badly of such a righteous person? How can you devalue such righteousness?” They will bring charges that he defamed a great person that human beings had agreed as being righteous, with a conscience which picked and ate the fruit of good and evil. It is because when someone whom human beings agreed and established as a righteous person goes down to a place of not being righteous, their judgment itself becomes denied as wrong. "You have seen wrong.” The entire human race, the general human race becomes denied. That is why Jesus and the disciples were persecuted and finally killed. How is it? Does the church get persecuted when the righteousness of Jesus is preached or does it get praised? It gets persecuted. Being persecuted for righteousness’ sake is not about sacrificing, dedicating, and losing out because of believing in Jesus. Rather, it is a life that a saint, who is derised and put down for denying and negating the works of men, that shouts out only the righteousness of Jesus. This is being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, being persecuted for the righteousness of Jesus.
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, (Jews and Gentiles mean everyone in the world. It means all hate it. They preached only the cross of Jesus and they all hated. They all hated.)
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. -1 Corinthians 1:23-24
The people of God only trust Jesus Christ, who was nailed on the cross, and preach only Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the power and wisdom and no other human effort, zeal, or merit can be power or wisdom. When they said this, Jews and Gentiles and all the people in the world hated them. All Adams of the world were hurt in their pride and upset before the cross of Jesus Christ and persecuted those who preached the way of the cross. But this was ‘dioko’. What did I say ‘dioko’ is? It was a product of God’s grace and mercy that occurs from God’s chasing and hunting them down.
But look. In the perspective of winning and losing, being persecuted means losing. Are winners persecuted? Losers are persecuted. Why would God make His people, who preach only the work of the precious blood of the cross of Jesus, lose to this world? A while ago, what kind of fruit did I say is made when we are continuously persecuted in the internal spiritual warfare taking place in us? It is the fruit of “Thanks be to Christ!” The fruit of “what could I have done if not Christ!” The glory and power of Jesus receiving praise by us being exposed as nothing but garbage without the righteousness of Jesus is the fruit of persecution taking place in us. It is the same thing.
Why does God let His people, who trust and preach only Jesus and His cross, be persecuted on earth? It is to expose that the world can never turn back to God on its own. To show that a miracle of God’s people, chosen before creation by the righteousness of Jesus, turning to God, occurred even though this world had to fall into destruction without the righteousness of Jesus and those who trust and preach only Jesus appear as losers. Those who trust and show off human righteousness look great in the humanism perspective. They receive everyone’s praises and splendidly build human pride. On the other hand, how about those who trust only the righteousness of Jesus? Because they only hold onto and preach the righteousness of Jesus and the cross wherever they are, they receive an evaluation of being actionless and as lazy saints who lack diligence. And such people will definitely be persecuted by the world. No matter who sees it, the humanists win. They look greater. And aren’t they the ones who rightly have reasons to persecute us in the worldly perspective? That is why we lose no matter how we look at it. But please remember the word of Jesus. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. They are the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because you are completely taken over by the sovereignty of God and chased down to the place of death of the flesh, to the place of self-denial where men can never go down on their own. That is the kingdom of heaven, where the sovereignty of God is perfectly actualized. That is you! That is the blessed one!” Please remember this. It is okay to be ashamed a little in this world for preaching the gospel, the blood of Jesus. It is okay to appear small before those who boast themselves with their works. First, learn what the righteousness of Jesus is. You must correctly realize your existence has to surrender before and depend on God. Just like today’s text, the disciples who knew that rejoiced and were happy for such persecution when they were released after being beaten in prison for preaching only the righteousness of Jesus.
and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. -Acts 5:40-41
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory[a] and of God rests upon you. -1Peter 4:12-14
As you can see, the persecution received for preaching only the righteousness of Jesus is the persecution of Jesus. That is an honor. It is right to lose like this. That way, the world will be revealed as helpless. The whole world was sentenced as a sinner by Jesus being beaten to death. It’s the same. By your being beaten to death, you are setting the basis for judgment against the world. But you must pray to God for the strength to rejoice for that death because it is really hard. How is losing easy? That cannot be done by our own might, losing when we have power. That is why we pray.
Recently, a senior friend of mine, who preached the gospel well in Korea, was attacked on the internet. He is a pastor who is over 60 but those who tackle him for the gospel he preaches are barely over 30. But they are well educated. When I look, their vocabulary and reasoning are excellent. They seem like they studied theology very well. But this senior pastor does not preach anything other than the cross of Jesus and His precious blood. And on his website, only our church is linked. Many kids pounce upon and revile him but I learned a lot from watching him react.
He sure is a greatly skilled pastor. He just wrote one thing. “Let’s stop about now. Just live by the grace you have received.” He knows that they will not be convinced by debating. He could have become famous if he refuted since many were looking on the website but he just went dead. (This grandpa… I thought it was him because it said Jisoo’s daddy and had a soccer ball in the front hahahhahh but it was not him. His last name was Cha… hahaha) Once he just went dead, all those kids who were dashing to bite on him like a pack of wolves began to quietly leave one by one. It was no more fun for them. He disappeared after saying one thing and they knew many people sided with him. People, that is victory. God told him to die as a sheep before the wolves and he just died. The, the wolves disappeared retracting cowardly.
We are all sent into the world of wolves as sheep. Who sent us? God sent us. Then, we are fighting a fight that we cannot win no matter what methods and tools you mobilize. Even if we win using clear reasons and an extensive vocabulary, Jesus will lose there. We are meant to be persecuted. You who are blessed! You will be persecuted for righteousness! This is the declaration of Jesus but why do we keep trying to win? No! you are the kingdom of God. You are the holy nation, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “Children, you are blessed. You are blessed. Heaven is persecuted by the world. But that is me chasing down like a shepherd chasing the flock of sheep. No one can stop it.” This is the conclusion of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, do not think about getting out of it. Just being persecuted is winning. That is real maturity. Good deeds, nice deeds, just deeds, and honest deeds, they are all good things. However, before you labor for them, begin with the work of dying in persecution. God will wipe away in wrath and anger honesty, diligence, being nice, and goodness pursued without that being done first. Be persecuted and die. You are the blessed ones.
Let’s pray.