Living towards the day: ‘The Peacemakers & Persecuted’ (Matthew 5:9-12)

Living towards the day: ‘The Peacemakers and Persecuted’ (Matthew 5:9-12)

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Hi, good morning Soma. Let me pray. Our Father, we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to your truths as we study your word together this morning and lead us deeper into a knowledge of the gospel of your Son, Jesus, in whom we pray. Amen. Well, I’m sure many of you are familiar with The Lord of the Flies, the 1954 novel by William Golding.

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Perhaps you studied it in school like I did. The story begins with a group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash during wartime. At first, the boys try to create a peaceful and civilized society. They establish rules, they elect leaders, they work together to survive. They believe that because they’re educated, and they’re English, they’re naturally decent and rational.

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But of course, slowly things begin to decline. The boys become obsessed with rumors of a beast lurking on the island. Suspicion

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grows, rivalries deepen, pride and the hunger for power emerge. What began as cooperation deteriorates into violence, tribalism, and eventually murder. What makes the story unsettling is that there’s no outside villains, no invading army, no monster.

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The evil comes from within the boys themselves. At one point, the character Simon realizes this truth: that the beast the boys fear is not something on the island, it’s something inside of them. I think the author, William Golding, understood the human condition. We might think conflict, division, war—these exist because of those people or that nation or that enemy.

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But Golding’s point is that the roots of war live in every human heart. Fear, pride, envy, the desire for control are our inherent fallen conditions, and they

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drive us apart from each other, which makes the words of Jesus here in these final Beatitudes all the more shocking, as He shows the deep contrast between the people who belong only to this world and the children of God, who belong in the new kingdom of heaven.

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In these verses, Jesus says that God’s children are those who live peacefully and rejoice when peace is rejected for persecution. So that’s what I hope we’ll see from this part of God’s Word today. But first, let’s just remind ourselves of the journey we’ve had so far in Matthew chapter 5. We’re in our sermon series, Living Towards the Day, as we look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and we’re at the end of the Beatitudes, this poetic introduction to the start of this sermon, where Jesus is speaking firstly to His disciples with a large crowd in earshot, where He announces the coming of the kingdom of heaven, the great promise to Israel, where He delivers the comfort of God into the hearts of

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the downtrodden, exiled people as He brings hope to the hopeless, as He declares the blessings of God to those who in the world’s eyes are not blessed at all, where the last shall be first.

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Jesus is laying down markers of the new heavenly kingdom which he has brought to arrival, using familiar language filled with Old Testament promise, but shockingly different in expectations. To remind you briefly of where we’ve been on the journey to this point, we had Dave kicking us off a few weeks ago with the fourth Beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

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And we were urged to align our will and pleasure with the will and pleasure of the righteous Son of God. Toby then gave us a brief overview of the Beatitudes as a whole. Stuart last week gave us the new kingdom markers of mercy and pure-heartedness. You’ll notice we’ve skipped right over the first few Beatitudes.

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They’re for next week. I hope you’ve seen the Beatitudes not just as rules to live

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by or things you must do as a Christian to be blessed, although Jesus is calling us to a life of obedience to the Beatitudes. But I hope we’ve seen them as a collection of expressive lyrical statements, declarations that Jesus is making about the promised kingdom of Heaven, the Messiah’s proclamation of the arrival of the upside-down kingdom of Heaven, that is in so many ways opposite to the kingdoms of this world.

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And here in the Beatitudes, Jesus is describing the kind of person whom that kingdom belongs to. Many of the concepts he mentions here in his introduction, he will go on to explore in greater detail as this Sermon on the Mount continues. But we’re picking it up today from this part of the introduction, the next shocking marker of the heavenly kingdom, where Jesus explains that God’s children are those who seek peace.

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As we read in verse nine, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Now, this isn’t Jesus giving instruction on how to be a

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child of God, but rather He is saying the children of God will be peacemakers, or those who make peace will be recognized as children of God in this new kingdom.

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Of course, John 1:12 tells us those who believe in His name are given the right to become children of God. So that’s the instruction of how to become a child of God, and it’s those children who will be peacemakers. Now, before we can understand what peacemaking is all about, we need to understand the need for peacemaking.

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What is this conflict that exists which requires the intervention of peace? Well, we need only turn to Genesis 3 and the Fall to see the great shattering of peace and the origin story for all conflict. The peace that existed in God’s untainted creation in the Garden of Eden is shattered when Adam and Eve fail to trust God and choose disobedience when they eat from the tree they were commanded not to eat from.

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And the consequence is

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conflict in so many forms and shapes. There’s estrangement between God and mankind. God banishes man from the garden, drives them out, and guards against their re-entry. There’s disorder and disharmony in human relationships: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

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There’s fractured relationships between mankind and creation, the world: “Cursed is the ground because of you. It will produce thorns and thistles for you.” And from this moment onwards, conflict and war define the human experience. The peace of God’s good creation is replaced with enmity, war, division, and hostility between person to God, person to person, and person to all creation.

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And the consequences of these conflicts are pain, suffering, and death. From this moment onwards, the world has been crying out for peace, for a force to work against this turmoil and conflict. So in light

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of understanding conflict, what is it to be a peacemaker? Well, to answer this, we need to see the character of God as peacemaker, to understand the response of God to the introduction of conflict into His world.

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For the children of God will have the character of their heavenly Father, the great peacemaker, the bringer of shalom. We see this everywhere in Scripture. It’s really the story of the whole Bible, and we could spend hours considering the way God acts as peacemaker from Genesis through Revelation. But by way of quick summary, we see God actively seeking reconciliation with His people through the covenants of the Old Testament.

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When time and time again Israel chooses conflict with God, God creates the structured frameworks in which His people can live at peace with Him and with each other. When His people are bent on going against Yahweh, it’s God who brings reconciliation, restoration, relationship, shalom. We

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then trace God’s peace through, of course, the promise of the Prince of Peace, as we read in Isaiah, who will bring the perfect peace, the shalom on shalom, a messianic peace, an everlasting peace, a peace of justice and righteousness, established and upheld by the Prince of Peace who reigns forever on the throne of David.

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And this peace extends beyond human relationships to nature and the cosmos, where the wolf will lie down with the lamb—a perfect harmony. The promise of this coming peace echoes again all throughout the rest of Israel’s history and all throughout the writings of the prophets. And then, of course, we see this reality of the promise of God in Jesus.

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He is the Prince of Peace who brings the everlasting peace, who offers true, lasting, eternal reconciliation with God, and who ends mankind’s war with its Creator, and who brings together mankind into a new,

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united humanity by preaching peace to those who are far away and peace to those who are near.

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So this is the peace that was made one through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. It was a costly peace. But not only this, the God of peace continues working through His Spirit to sanctify His people, to call them back to the peace that He has established through Jesus. Those with the Spirit of God produce the fruit of peace.

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As Romans 8 explains in verse 6, “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” God’s Spirit guides us towards peace. That peace was bought by the Prince of Peace on the cross, who was sent by the Father, who’s been working out His plan for peace since the beginning of time.

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See, God is peace-loving, peace-making, peace-sustaining, and the whole history of mankind attests to this. And His children will be peacemakers.

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What God loves, they love. What God pursues, they pursue. Our call to peacemaking comes from God’s character as the great peacemaker, and so we are instructed in Scripture to seek peace and to pursue it, to make every effort to live in peace with everyone, and to be holy, to live out the peace of the Messiah in all our relationships.

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And so what does peacemaking look like then? Well, perhaps the better question we need to ask is: what does peacemaking not look like? Because we might be tempted to think that peacemaking is not making a fuss, or not making any waves, or not upsetting anyone—being a bit timid, being an appeaser. But this isn’t peacemaking.

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I think we can see examples of this kind of false peacemaking in so many areas of life: politics, international relations, friendships, families, workplaces. Perhaps a political leader making a

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symbolic compromise to avoid short-term pain at the cost of any sort of real or long-term solution. Maybe a manager who continually smooths over tension between two of his staff without addressing the actual dysfunction at the heart of the problem. A father who avoids difficult conversations with his children for fear of causing anyone to be upset. A doormat personality in a friendship where someone constantly allows another person to override boundaries, values, and feelings in order to avoid confrontation.

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But if our peacemaking emulates Jesus, well, this type of peacemaking cannot be what he is referring to. This type of peacemaking enables and empowers ungodly behavior. Jesus brought peace by confrontation. He made waves. He was never timid, and he took a stand.

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So again, we still haven’t answered: what does peacemaking look like? Well, when

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framed from God as the ultimate peacemaker, we can understand peacemaking as overcoming enmity, as all the acts of love by which we try to overcome conflict that exists between us and other people.

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It looks like not nursing a grudge, not feeding animosity by ignoring and avoiding that one person that you just don’t want to be around. Peacemaking is building bridges. It’s seeking reconciliation. It’s pursuing harmony. Peacemaking greets an enemy as a friend. It is sincere and genuine. It doesn’t run away from conflict, but rather it speaks to the heart of conflict in order to overcome it, to move past it.

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Of course, this is not an easy task. Perhaps you listen to that description of peacemaking and someone comes to your mind with whom you’d really struggle to adopt that attitude toward—people who’ve caused such trouble in your life that

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you don’t think you could greet them as a friend. Well, this is a call from Jesus to us for righteousness, and it can be costly. It didn’t come easy for Jesus to make peace between us and God, and we’re called to emulate his peacemaking, even when it might be very hard to do so.

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But I think more than all of that, peacemaking is about promoting the ultimate peace of God. It’s about announcing the good news of reconciliation with God and the lasting, eternal peace that is on offer in Jesus. It’s about offering people a way out of the conflict that exists between God and themselves in this broken and fallen world.

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We often talk about this as evangelism. And if this is our goal, well, it totally transforms our relationships. Being a peacemaker is about asking, “What is God doing in this person’s life, and how can I be part of it? How can I lead this person towards

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lasting peace with God?”

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Peacemakers will invite relationships where they can do that. They will seek out people who remain at war with God and show them the path to lasting peace. And I hope and pray that our gospel communities are peacemaking vessels—communities that enter into places of spiritual war and conflict, where enmity exists between God and man, and seek to steer the people of those places towards God’s peace, that they would be communities of ultimate reconciliation.

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But what about when attempts to lead people to the peace of God fail? When attempts to encourage peace are met with conflict? Is this a sign of a failure to live as God’s children, a failure to receive the blessing of God? Well, perhaps Jesus is anticipating that very question, because He goes on to explain that peace offered from those in the kingdom of heaven will be rejected for

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persecution.

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And so now we arrive at the final beatitude in verse 10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus shows us that some will refuse to live in peace, that the righteousness of a new kingdom has enemies, and those enemies stand against the children of God.

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I think it’s important to note that this persecution is earned by righteousness, because it’s very possible to be persecuted for other things. You can be persecuted for being obnoxious, or being fanatical, or being a generally unpleasant person. It’s important we don’t assume that all persecution that we might face is the result of righteous living. But it does mean that righteous living will eventually, in one way or another, bring about persecution.

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And this is because righteous living exposes sin. The righteousness of the kingdom of heaven

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brings into light the corruption and evil of the earthly kingdom and its corrupted values. The pursuit of self-control indicts those who live in excess. Compassion brings into sharp relief the callous of heart. Humility exposes the prideful. The hardworking, punctual, and thorough—they will lay open the lazy and the negligent.

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We should expect persecution when we live by the righteousness of Jesus, because it highlights sin and embarrasses those who are guided by earthly virtues. Let’s just pause here again for a moment, because perhaps this doesn’t sound like peacemaking anymore. How can this beatitude coexist with the one before it? How can we be peacemakers and yet invite persecution, invite conflict by righteous living?

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Well, again, we must not understand peacemaking as appeasement. Peacemaking cannot be the sacrificing of

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righteousness to make people comfortable. It cannot be ignoring or suppressing God’s Spirit at work in our lives because it offends people. Peacemaking is so much greater than that.

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Peacemaking invites people into restored relationships, into reconciliation, and into peace with God, and this invitation will not always be accepted with warmth and thanks. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and we are to unite ourselves to Him. Then peacemaking, in fact, must result in persecution.

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2 Timothy 3:12 tells us the same thing: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Well, we can know we are peacemakers when we are persecuted. Persecution is a sign of peacemaking. Persecution means we are standing with the righteousness of Jesus, declaring the great and lasting peace of the Messiah.

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And the blessing that comes with those

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who are persecuted for righteousness: theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You may note this is a return to the promise of the first beatitude. We haven’t looked at that yet, but “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Here, Jesus is reiterating His key idea, the guiding principle of His Sermon on the Mount: the kingdom of heaven is here, this kingdom has been brought by the Messiah, and it belongs to those who seek righteousness.

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But here in the last beatitude, the pattern of this poem is broken. Really, the beatitude should end here. We’ve had the eight markers of the people of the heavenly kingdom and their resultant blessings described, so time to move on.

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Briefly, Jesus isn’t quite done with this final kingdom marker. He offers something more. Jesus now instructs on the posture for the children of God to carry out in the midst of persecution, and that is to meet it with joy. Verses 11 and

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12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Here, Jesus offers his disciples something more. The comfort that he is bringing to his people is reinforced in the face of persecution. We have the blessing from God reiterated, and a reason to find joy in this suffering.

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Firstly, in verse 11, Jesus gives that final beatitude again, but this time with some additional detail: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you.” Here we get a better picture of what this persecution that comes against the new kingdom will look like: insults, false accusations, evil words.

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But importantly, Jesus also makes it abundantly clear that this new righteousness that he’s been referring to all

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throughout his sermon introduction is his righteousness: “Blessed are you when you are persecuted because of me.” You’ll note that firstly, the persecution is because of righteousness, and in the repeat, it’s because of Jesus. Well, they’re the same thing. Jesus is making the point that this new heavenly kingdom is established through his righteousness. A commitment to righteousness is a commitment to the Messiah, and righteousness always involves a relationship with Jesus.

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So after reiterating the blessing, Jesus says to his disciples in verse 12, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

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See, this beatitude of persecution is not something to do or something to be; it is something to receive—a consequence of righteousness. It’s what comes when this new heavenly kingdom collides with the

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powers of this world. It’s something that those who belong to the new kingdom must face, and in this way, this kingdom marker is unique amongst the beatitudes.

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Really, we can understand this final beatitude as the result, the end product of the first seven beatitudes. If the children of God exhibit the new kingdom markers of meekness, mercy, pure-heartedness, etc., then they can also expect to welcome this eighth and final kingdom marker: persecution. Therefore, Jesus offers comfort.

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He offers an expanded blessing. He doesn’t conclude these beatitudes with, “Children of God, you will suffer, so endure it, grit your teeth, she’ll be right.” Not at all. Instead, rejoice and be glad in the face of insult and evil. Why? Because great is your reward in heaven. See, persecution is a sign of inclusion in the kingdom of heaven.

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The persecuted

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have their rewards in that kingdom. For some of us, persecution for righteousness’ sake might feel very real in our lives. Perhaps you’ve taken a stand for Jesus that’s cost you dearly—the loss of a friendship, a job. Perhaps you’ve been the bearer of insults and false accusations. For some of us, persecution might feel more distant.

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None of us can know when our freedoms may cease or when we might be called by Jesus to take a stand that will cause many to dislike us. But we can know that if we pursue righteous living, persecution will eventually come. And when it does, we are to rejoice and be glad because great is our reward in heaven.

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Or phrased in another way, the more your faith is tested through suffering, the greater will be your reward. Charles Hodge, a Presbyterian theologian, said it beautifully. He wrote, “Afflictions are the cause of eternal

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glory—not the meritorious cause, but still the procuring cause. God has seen fit to reveal his purpose, not only to reward with exceeding joy the afflictions of his people, but to make those afflictions the very means of working out that joy.”

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To expand on Hodge’s words, persecution is not the thing that earns us eternal glory—that’s grace and faith—but persecution is the thing that brings about this glory. So rejoice and be glad in the midst of suffering for righteousness and for Jesus, because that very suffering will receive a very great compensation or a very great reward.

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And we don’t rejoice in our sufferings alone. Jesus here finishes by reminding us of the prophets of old who were persecuted in the same way. We can read of them in Hebrews 11 from verse 36: “Others suffered mocking, flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were

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sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

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In January 2016, Ken and Jocelyn Elliott were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants in Burkina Faso. Perhaps you’ve heard of their story. They’re the Australian couple that spent decades running a hospital in West Africa, spurred on by the love of Jesus and a desire to live for his righteousness. They were taken from their home and used as bargaining chips for a ransom payment during a violent uprising.

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They chose peace in the midst of terrible conflict and great suffering. Jocelyn was soon released afterwards, but Ken was kept hostage for seven years and four months, and eventually quietly released just a few years ago, aged eighty-eight.

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Ken endured extreme heat and bitter cold, sandstorms, scorpion stings, scurvy, and isolation. And when asked if he ever felt like God had abandoned him, Ken’s response was quiet conviction: “No, never. He was always there.”

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Well, how upside down is the kingdom of heaven? It calls its residents to rejoice in suffering. Here in the Beatitudes, Jesus wills us to have our hearts primarily in heaven, our hopes primarily in heaven, our longings primarily in heaven, our joy primarily in heaven.

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For there’s no other way that you can rejoice and be glad at the loss of things of earthly value. How could we rejoice and be glad when these things are taken from us if we have not loved something more? As John Piper puts it, people who have their hearts so much in heaven that they fear no man but rejoice in persecution—well, such radically free and

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joyful people are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, as we read in the following verses.

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And so let me end with this beautiful truth reiterated in 2 Corinthians 4: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.”

Amen.