“Threat #5: COMFORT (Matthew 5:1-12)” | 2/7/2021
Matthew 5:1-12 | 2/7/21 | Will DuVal
This evening/morning, we continue our “Church Under Fire” series, flagging the 7 greatest threats to the church today. And I realized this week in reviewing and preparing for today, at least 6 of these 7 threats can be thought of as contrasting pairs. The Christian life is in many ways one lived in tension between two dangerous extremes. Take the issue of KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is a GOOD thing, but a DANGEROUS thing. We examined both SIDES of that, in weeks 1 and 4 of this series. On the one hand, we cautioned against the threat of IGNORANCE. As believers, we are called to be people of the TRUTH; Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified IN the truth of God’s word, John 17. But at the same time, we acknowledged last Sunday that it is entirely possible to know all the right truth (“lower-case t”), without knowing personally the “capital T” Truth - JESUS CHRIST - the Way, the Truth and the Life; Jesus, who rebuked the Pharisees in John 5:39 for “searching the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; but they bear witness about me”. The Bible can’t save you; it just introduces us to the One who can. So we beware of IGNORANCE, but we also beware of INTELLECTUALISM. Confusing knowledge ABOUT God for knowing God.
Similarly, we seek the right balance in our DOGMATISM, our doctrinal firmness. On the one hand, we noted in week 2 the threat of COMPROMISE - that on many issues we SHOULD be, we MUST be dogmatic in our stand for truth - abortion, our care for the poor and oppressed, the exclusivity of salvation in Christ - these are NON-negotiables for Christians, and we can’t let their political incorrectness dissuade us from addressing them uncompromisingly. However in week 3, and the threat of DIVISIVENESS, we warned that if we let the pendulum swing TOO far in the direction of dogmatism, we can become RIGID and sectarian. And we begin to split churches not over issues like Jesus’ divinity or salvation by faith, but over worship style preference and the color of the sanctuary carpet.
And this and next week we’re gonna observe one more contrasting pair, this time, around the issue of ACTIVITY. Next week, Jesus is gonna warn us against being OVER-active, the threat of BUSYNESS. But this week he’s gonna caution us against being UNDER-active, the threat of COMFORT.
Polly and I were shopping for a new mattress recently, and I was absolutely blown away by how many options there are out there. She can’t send me grocery shopping, because I spend 15 minutes comparing and contrasting the relative prices and nutritional values of the 17 different kinds of peanut butter they sell at Dierbergs. So you can imagine how shopping for a 4-figure mattress, that I’m going to be spending roughly a third of my LIFE on, how that went. After my decision to follow Christ, my decision to propose to Polly, and my decision to pastor here, this was probably the FOURTH most consequential decision of my life… But at any rate, I must have had this sermon somewhere in the back of my mind, because as we were laying on the 70th or 80th mattress, with the sales associate talking us through the coil count and the newest memory foam technology, I got sort of this IMAGE of Jesus, standing in the far corner of the showroom floor, and me walking over to him, only to realize that he’s not selling a PILLOW-top, he asks if he can interest me in a CROSS.
“What’s the coil count?” I ask.
-
“No coils; just splinters,” he replies.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)
Unfortunately, I’m afraid many churches, even so-called evangelical ones, haven’t always been very faithful sales reps of the biblical gospel. We aren’t always selling what JESUS sold. Cuz it turns out it’s a lot HARDER to sell crosses than it is pillow-tops. If you’re looking for fast-growth tips for your church... if you wanna double your membership, triple your baptisms, quadruple your giving - DON’T sell them CROSSES; sell them HOPE, without the radical call to discipleship; Sell them HEAVEN, without the call to DIE to self.
Sell them “Jesus loves you”, but whatever you do, leave out the part about him hating your sin. About him calling you to CRUCIFY your flesh, Galatians 5:24; crucify your old self, Romans 6:6; and DEFINITELY the part about how much you’re going to be HATED by the WORLD along the way: John 15:19.
The CROSS. “Eh, I dunno…” But COMFORT? Now Comfort sells.
We want a Jesus who saves us from the penalty of our sins, without really minding the PRESENCE of ongoing sin in our life - I can have Jesus AND my sin too, right?
A Jesus who accepts my one-time sinner’s prayer as a valid ticket into Heaven instead of demanding a life-long obedience of faith.
To be sure, God promises to comfort us, especially when we suffer for HIS sake:
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction… For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”
God wants us to be COMFORT-ED, but being COMFORT-ED is very different from being COMFORT-ABLE. The comfort-able don’t NEED to be comforted. In fact, here’s how JESUS warned the comfortable, in his day: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Lk 6:24-26)
SO the very blunt, “look in the mirror of God’s word” question for you and me this evening/morning is this: “Is your faith COMFORTABLE?” Is it PILLOW-TOP Christianity, which is really no Christianity at ALL, according to Jesus?
This evening/morning, Jesus is going to give us 8 Cures for comfortable “Christianity”, in Matthew 5:1-12. And with each, I want to ask you a specific, challenging, personal question to help you evaluate whether yours is a pillow-top faith, or a cruciform faith. The way of the CROSS. Would you stand… Matthew 5:1-12
“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “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.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
Context: Matthew 5:1-12 is commonly referred to as “the Beatitudes”, from the Latin word for “blessed”, or as Kent Hughes - whose commentary I’ll be leaning on heavily in this sermon - (Sermon on the Mount, 14) dubs them: the “Beautiful Attitudes”. They list for us the attitudes, the identifying marks, of bona fide followers of Jesus. Pastors often title this sermon the “Character of the Kingdom”. It’s difficult to overstate the importance and influence of these 12 short verses. St. Augustine described them as “the perfect standard of the Christian life”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer based his classic work The Cost of Discipleship upon its exposition. Even for those outside the Christian faith - this passage profoundly shaped Gandhi’s political philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche - Hitler’s favorite philosopher - hated what he called Jesus’ “slave morality” outlined here. In fact, the Nazis produced their own edited version of the Sermon on the Mount because it was deemed such a threat to their brand of German “Christian” nationalism, and the “will to power” (Hughes, 14). Simply put, the Beatitudes are the most influential section of the most important sermon that has ever been preached. As such, we could easily spend a week a piece on each verse, and still not fully cover their depth. But my aim here is much more modest: I simply want to help us appreciate how UNcomfortable true Christian faith is. And specifically, we should be uncomfortable in 8 ways:
#1: Admit your spiritual bankruptcy. (v3) That’s uncomfortable.
V3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, before we even get to what it means to be “poor in spirit”, we should note that to be BLESSED, here, does NOT mean to be “happy”. Hughes notes: “Happiness is a subjective state, a feeling. But Jesus… is making an objective statement about what God THINKS of [the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek…]. Blessedness indicates the smile of God, or as Max Lucado so beautifully put it, The Applause of Heaven” (Hughes, 16).
So who RECEIVES the applause of Heaven? Enjoys the smile of God? For starters, the “poor in spirit”. Now what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Well, I think Jesus summed it up for us pretty perfectly in a single parable, in Luke ch.18; I can do no better than to simply read it for you: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”” (9-14)
Now, if I asked you whose faith was more COMFORTABLE, the answer is rather obvious, isn’t it? The Pharisee was VERY self-content. Self-assured. Confident. Comfortable. By contrast, there’s nothing COMFORTABLE about THROWING yourself on the mercy of God!
Have you ever had to BEG for something? When you were TOTALLY at someone else’s mercy? Ever forgotten your wallet when you went out to eat? Made it to the end of the meal and realized, “Oh no”. Even then, most servers won’t make you BEG them; at most, they may hold onto your watch as collateral until you can run home and return with your credit card. But how humiliating!
Friends: do you realize that you HAVE no watch to put up as collateral for your salvation. Here’s your SPIRITUAL situation; remember this is about being poor in SPIRIT: you just finished “eating”, enjoying ALL of God’s good gifts in this life - Creation, your relationships, the simple pleasures of life LIKE food and drink, life ITSELF - SO many blessings, you just consume, consume, consume... And then you reach for your spiritual wallet to repay the Lord, only to realize that not only is it not in your pocket - listen; you don’t HAVE a wallet!
And now you’re really starting to sweat, as you look back at the bill, and it reads, “Perfection”. Matthew 5:48 “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The only way to settle up your debt, is to find someone PERFECT willing to lay down his life of pure obedience and TRADE it for all your ungrateful sin and selfishness.
But who on EARTH would do such a thing?!
And just at that moment, JESUS walks in the diner.
And the question for you this evening/morning is: Will you THROW yourself, in HUMILITY, are you willing to be HUMILIATED, and throw yourself at his feet, GROVEL, and beg: “‘God, be merciful to me, I’m a sinner!’” Will you, in your spiritual POVERTY, beg? HAVE you, begged, the Lord, for his mercy?
#2: We need to Be Broken over our sin. (v4)
V4: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Now, Jesus doesn’t explicitly say anything about SIN here, so am I just over-spiritualizing this? I don’t think so. In the Bible, there is nothing inherently good about mourning, or inherently BAD about laughing. So when Jesus said in Luke 6 ““Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep,” I think we need more context to understand him rightly. After all, Ecclesiastes 3:4 states plainly that there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance”. Moreover, some mourning in Scripture is actually CURSED. “Amnon mourned because his lust was not fulfilled by Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:2. Ahab mourned because he [coveted] Naboth’s vineyard” (Hughes, 27).
No, I think the context here, especially being couched between Jesus’ commendations of the “poor in spirit” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, points us to the fact that he’s talking about being BROKEN, specifically, over SIN.
First and foremost, our own sin.
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
We need to not only ADMIT our spiritual bankruptcy, not just on some intellectual level - comprehend the idea of sin, accept the idea that I guess it must have consequences - no, we need to be BROKEN over it, friends! If you’ve never been broken - visibly, emotionally and spiritually BROKEN over the weight of your sin - if you don’t EVER get choked up sharing your testimony, reflecting on what Jesus has done - what he HAD to do - in order to rescue you, being reminded of it in the Lord’s Supper, attending a Good Friday service, watching him hang there on the cross, for YOU - if that doesn’t BREAK you, if it doesn’t cause you to MOURN over your sin, you need to question your faith!
But secondly, we Christians ought to be a people who mourn over not only our own sin, but the sin of the WORLD. It ought to break your heart to watch the people in your life who don’t know Christ continue to SUFFER under the weight of their OWN sin. We ought to mourn for those affected by the sins of others. Do you mourn for the unborn, slaughetered by abortion? Do you mourn for the victim of domestic abuse? Mourn WITH her? Do you mourn with the victim of human trafficking? Do you mourn with kids stuck in failing public schools? Do you mourn with the thousands of people who will die all around the world today from preventable diseases? Do you mourn with the unreached people groups who have literally never heard the name of Jesus, and thus, have no access to God’s CURE for sin? Who does your heart break for? THAT’s your mission field.
They say a mother is only as happy as her saddest child.
A pastor is only as happy as his saddest congregant.
A Christian is only as happy as her saddest NEIGHBOR. And who IS your neighbor? Go read the parable of the Good Samaritan. According to Jesus, the scope of our Christian care and concern should extend FAR beyond where we sometimes draw those boundary lines.
What does your heart break over? Your own sin? The sins of others? What are you doing about it? Is it taking you outside your “comfort zone”?
#3: Cultivate gentleness. (v5)
V5: “5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
What is MEEKness? Hughes explains: “Meekness is NOT weakness. It does not denote cowardice or spinelessness or timidity or the willingness to have peace at any cost. Neither does meekness suggest indecisiveness, wishy-washiness, or a lack of confidence. Meekness does not imply shyness… not can it be reduced to mere niceness.” (34)
I asked Ellery the other day, “Baby, who’s the nicest person you know?” She said, “Jesus”. Typical pastors’ kid. So we read Matthew 23 together. Jesus was not NICE. He wasn’t a nice guy.
But here’s how Hughes does describe Jesus for us: “Jesus said of himself, “I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). As the incarnation of meekness, he displayed it in two ways, both of which showed his power. In respect to his own person, he never retaliated. When he was mocked and spat upon, he answered nothing… Even in the throes of death, he pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)... Yet, when it came to matters of faith and the welfare of others, Jesus was a lion. He rebuked the Pharisees' hardness of heart when he healed the man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, was angered when his disciples tried to prevent little children from coming to him. Jesus made a whip and drove the moneychangers from the Temple… All of this came from the incarnation of gentleness.” (35-36)
But here’s the point, for OUR study on comfort: what did all of Jesus’ gentleness earn him? A CROSS. If you are committed to standing up, like Jesus, for the welfare of others, while refusing to call down a legion of angels to annihilate their oppressors; it’s the THIRD way - it’s turning the other cheek. You refuse to fight back, but you also refuse to lay down and be a victim. THAT is meekness. And what will it earn you, in this dog-eat-dog, will-to-power world of ours? A CROSS! Jesus promised us as much: “if they hated me, they’ll hate you too.” But I’ll call you blessed, and you shall inherit the earth.
Do you trust him? Enough to lose your life in this world, in order to FIND it in the next one? Are you MEEK, uncomfortably meek?
#4: Do you desire the Bread of Life above all else? (v6)
V6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
If the “R” in your Bibles there isn’t capitalized, go ahead and fix that. Jesus isn’t referring here to trying your hardest to be a better person; he’s referring to HIMSELF. The perfect embodiment of righteousness. All OUR good deeds, our BEST deeds, are but filthy rags, to a holy and perfect God, Isaiah 64:6. Heaven’s standard is perfection; we need a righteousness from ABOVE. We need to hunger and thirst for JESUS.
And here’s what he promises us, when we do, friends:
John 4:14 “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””
John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
And right here in Matthew 5: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for [ME, capital “R” righteousness], for they shall be satisfied.”
How can you be HUNGRY... AND be satisfied at the same time? It’s a paradox, isn’t it. And it ONLY applies to Jesus. Jesus is the ONLY thing we can long for, YEARN for, feel like we can NEVER get enough of… and yet that somehow leave us feeling FULL.
So let me ask you: what you desire above all else? What are you insatiably, UNCOMFORTABLY hungry and thirsty for? Better yet, if I asked those who know you best what you want more than anything else in life, how would they respond?
Is it Comfort? A life of ease?
Maybe Recognition? To be noticed for all you are and do?
Maybe you just want A BREAK?! Some rest.
“To make the world a better place?”
Intimacy in your marriage?
A better life for your kids? Salvation for your kids?
There are lots of “good answers” - but only one RIGHT answer, in the Lord’s eyes. Do you desire HIM, and the righteousness that only comes through HIM, above all else? And do you realize that when you DO, you get the whole world thrown in as a mere cherry on top: Matthew 6:33 “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Is Jesus your heart’s deepest desire?
#5: Enjoy giving Compassion and Forgiveness. (v7) I hope you’re appreciating my acrostic here, by the way: the A, B, C, D, E pattern. Maybe that’s not very humble of me, poor in spirit, to point it out, but...
V7: “7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Hughes points out that there are two dimensions to mercy: compassion, physical and emotional care and concern for those in need; and forgiveness, or spiritual mercy. And hughes notes that in BOTH cases, mercy is NEVER just mere sentiment. Compassion is mercy in ACTION. He tells the story of a “19th c preacher who happened across a friend whose horse had just been accidentally killed. While a crowd of onlookers expressed empty words of sympathy, the preacher stepped forward and said to the loudest sympathizer, “I am sorry twenty dollars; how much are YOU sorry?” And then he passed the hat. True mercy demands action.”
James 2:13 warns us that “judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. ”
Similarly, 1 Jn 3:17 “ if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?”
And the same is true of our FORGIVENESS as well. Jesus told the Parable of the Unmerciful Slave in Matt ch18 (21-35) to illustrate this. “The slave owed his master an immense sum - in today’s currency over 20 million dollars. The debt was impossible to repay, so he pleaded with his master who, with astonishing [mercy], forgave him the entire debt. Incredibly, however, the wicked slave went out, found one of his fellow slaves who owed him [pocket change by comparison] and threw him in prison.” (Hughes, 51) When the master found out, he punished the slave accordingly. Why? Because as Paul Tripp says, no one ought to be able to give grace BETTER, than the person who realizes how DESPERATELY in need she herself was of it, and yet how RICHLY God has lavished it upon her, in Christ. We Christians ought to be the most compassionate, ACTIVELY compassionate, FORGIVING people on earth.
Is that true of you, friend? Do you ENJOY showing mercy - giving compassion and forgiveness away to others? Are you UNCOMFORTABLY merciful? If it doesn’t really cost you anything, is it really sacrificial love? God says “it’s more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Is your life a living testament to that truth?
#6: Face the knife, and thereby, the Lord. (v8)
V8 says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Here’s the thing, friends: you don’t become merciful, meek, “hungry for righteousness” by hearing a good sermon from me, or frankly, even from JESUS, and then walking out of here and resolving to try harder. Your spiritual heart condition is far more dire than that. You need more than just some fish oil vitamins for YOUR heart. You need more than just WARFARIN, high-dosage pills, for your heart disease. You need OPEN-HEART SURGERY.
Listen: if only the “pure in heart” shall “see God” - if ONLY those whose righteousness EXCEEDS that of the scribes and Pharisees, the PROFESSIONAL do-gooders, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, Matthew 5:20, if we truly must be PERFECT, like GOD is perfect, Matthew 5:48, then you and I do not stand a chance!
Unless we get NEW hearts. But listen to what God promised to do for you, all the way back 6 centuries before Christ was even born: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses… And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ez 36:25-26) And friends, God made GOOD on that promise 600 years later through the saving death and resurrection of his Son JESUS.
God is the Good Physician.
The Holy Spirit is the scalpel.
And Jesus provided the heart.
Will you receive him? Will you repent of your sins, ask God to throw your OLD dead heart in the trash, and receive Jesus’ own heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by surrendering your life to him in faith today. If you do, you WILL BE SAVED!
Have you HAD that surgery? Listen, you want to talk about COMFORT - surgery is NOT comfortable. RECOVERING from surgery - my mom recently had her knee done, my father-in-law had his hip done… it was BRUTAL. But they’re both SO glad they did. Surgery, when you need it, is SO good. And friends: this surgery, your spiritual HEART surgery, to get a PURE heart, if you haven’t had it - it is ABSOLUTELY URGENT. You have a life-threatening condition. Jesus is the cure. Receive him today. Don’t wait a moment longer.
#7: We need to Get busy fighting for shalom. (v9)
V9: “9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.”
The biblical concept of peace, shalom, in the OT, means so much more than “NOT FIGHTING.” Otherwise, it wouldn’t make much sense for me to encourage you to FIGHT for peace. It would be a contradiction of terms. No, peace, biblically, shalom, means WHOLENESS. Completeness. Nothing lacking; things put right in the world.
So if you’ve been tracking with where I think Jesus is heading in all 6 Beatitudes thus far, what does it mean, in context here, to be a PEACEMAKER?
If you’ve admitted your spiritual bankruptcy…
Been truly broken over your sin…
Desired the gentle character of Christ to be your own, instead of your hard-heartedness…
Desired him, the Bread of Life, above ALL else…
And finally faced the knife for your much-needed heart transplant…
Then the next thing Jesus is calling you to, here, is to PAY IT FORWARD. Because there is an entire WORLD full of people out there who don’t yet know him, and who thus stand rightly condemned under the guilt and weight of their sin. And IN their sin, they are at WAR with God, Romans 8:7, just as you and I once were. But here’s the good news of the gospel, friends: “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace… reconciling us to God in one body through the cross… And he came and preached peace to you who were far off ” (Eph 2:13-17)
And NOW, friends, he’s calling US to go and preach peace, in his name, to those who are STILL far off.
So let me ask you, Question #7: Will you do it? If you’ve been saved, called out of your sin and the kingdom of darkness into God’s GLORIOUS light and freedom, will you share the hope of Christ with those who still live in bondage, who are still at WAR with God, in your life, this week? Will you be a peacemaker? Even if it means DISCOMFORT? Evangelism isn’t usually comfortable. But Jesus hasn’t called us to comfort. He’s called us to WITNESS, boldly.
And lastly, #8: Will you Have Happiness when you’re Hurt for Christ. (vv10-12)
Jesus ends in vv10-12 with the reminder that IF you live for him, IF these Beatitudes, “Beautiful Attitudes”, the “Character of the Kingdom” - if they are the marks of YOUR life, then you WILL suffer for it. The apostle Paul admitted it most clearly of all: “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). THAT’s pretty cut and dry! And Paul EXPERIENCED it most personally as well, didn’t he? He said elsewhere that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14.22)
WHY?! Why does the world hate Christians, TRUE Christians, so much? Hughes explains: “First, poverty of spirit runs counter to the pride of the unbelieving heart. Those whom the world admires are the self-sufficient who need nothing else, not the poor in spirit. Second, the mourning, repentant heart that sorrows over its own sin and the sins of society is [hated] by a world [that rejects the very NOTION of sin]. Third... those who do not know Christ [regard] ‘meekness as weakness’. Fourth, hungering and thirsting for the spiritual - for Christ - is foreign and repugnant to a world that lusts after only what it can touch and taste. Fifth, the truly merciful person… is an awkward, embarrassing rebuke to the uncaring. Sixth, the pure [in] heart focused on God provides a convicting contrast to impure, self-focused culture. Seventh, the peacemaker is discomforting because he will not settle for a cheap or counterfeit peace. The foundational reason such a person will be persecuted is that he or she is like Christ.” (Hughes, 73-74)
So let me end by asking you when the last time you suffered for your faith was, Christian? A faith that costs you nothing is worth exactly what you pay for it. Were you sold a pillow-top faith, all those years ago, when you made a profession of faith? A faith that cost you a trip down the aisle to pray the sinner’s prayer, and lifetime of church attendance… most Sundays… when it’s not too cold or snowing… or COVID… but hey, the perks are eternal life in heaven! And the admiration of the world as well: see, it used to be EASIER, more comfortable to be a Christian in America, than NOT to be. I think that has changed in the past 10 to 20 years. And personally, I think that’s a really good thing. Cuz we’re finally finding out who bought a pillow top, and who bought a cross. Which did you buy, when YOU came to faith?
If you are a genuine, poor in spirit, sin-broken, Jesus-hungry, meek, merciful, born-again heart-transplanted, peacemaking follower of Jesus, WHEN you are persecuted for it - not IF, but WHEN - then hear his blessed assurance as you leave this evening/morning to go be persecuted some more this week: ““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.” Amen and Amen.