Matthew 5:11-12; Conclusion of the Beatitudes

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11–12)

I’ll tell you guys straight up that I’m terrified of persecution. I am a people-pleaser. I don’t like conflict. I just want everyone to be happy and get along. And I want people to like me. I have a hard enough time when people talk to me with scorn or when they treat me like I’m stupid … when the reason for their scorn is my faith, that’s doubly hard for me. Don’t even get me started on the possibility of torture. I’m not a physical coward, not exactly—I prefer to call it “avoiding physical conflict so as to keep my dental and medical bills down, because I’m poor”—but I want to whimper and crawl under the bed when I hear what happens to believers in China, in North Korea, and in the Middle East these days.

And Y’shua says that when—not if, when—this stuff happens to us, we get blessed? What is that?!

After some thought, I concluded that persecution is ultimately about Philippians 3:10–11:

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The Fellowship of His Sufferings

We get the opportunity to suffer as Y’shua Messiah suffered for us. This is a window into His heart and His great love for us. We get to experience a small taste of what it was like for Him as He gasped and bled on that Cross.

That’s really what persecution is about: G-d and His plans and His sovereignty. Persecution is, in a sense, not personal. Even if the persecutors can’t or don’t articulate their actions this way, many of them persecute believers because they clearly see Y’shua through the believers. And they hate what they see. They hate His message; they hate the lifestyle His followers live; they hate that He boldly says that He will triumph and rule the earth in the end. By demeaning and torturing G-d’s followers, they hope to harm and grieve Him.

Other persecutors hate their victims’ views of G-d. Y’shua said to Saul on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul was zealous for G-d, or rather who he thought G-d was. These types of persecutors believe they are absolutely in the right. They believe their work is necessary for their victims’ salvation. They hold to their beliefs; they do not go to the source and fellowship with Him in the remembrance of the Cross.

The prophets of old serve as both a warning and an example. They, too, lived a radical lifestyle. They preached a message to people who did not want to hear. These prophets wound up in prison and in lions’ dens, married prostitutes, sat in dust and ashes, lay on their sides for a year. They suffered for the L-rd and they have been rewarded for that. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1. We can look at them and know what we may face in living this godly lifestyle … and we also know that we will have an eternal reward in their company.

The Resurrection from the Dead

Y’shua and Paul both give us the context for persecution: the new millennium. When the Great Tribulation is over and Y’shua returns for His people, He will establish a literal/physical kingdom on Earth to prepare the earth for His Father’s habitation (Rev. 20:4).

The Millennial Kingdom and eternity provide the context for the Beatitudes. The promises in the second half of each verse all speak of that coming time: the kingdom of heaven, being comforted, inheriting the earth, receiving mercy, seeing G-d, being called sons of G-d, receiving the reward in heaven. This is when we will receive the glorified bodies Paul talked about … this is when we will experience the resurrection from the dead and be given new life.

You might ask, “What’s the use of trying to follow this lifestyle if we won’t get our complete reward until the end of the age?” But we can taste that reward now. If we strive to live this lifestyle all of our days, we will experience a measure of fulfillment of these promises in this age. We will be filled; we will see G-d; we will know Him in the fellowship of suffering.

Conclusion

The Sermon on the Mount lifestyle is a lifelong journey that will not end until the L-rd returns. Actually, it doesn’t end even then; we’ll be able to live in His Millennial Kingdom and experience the fullness of the promises in this passage. The point of this lifestyle is to live holy now while looking to the future. Along the way, we will be transformed and become more like Y’shua. We will become a pure and spotless Bride for Him. As Misty’s song goes, “I’m on my way to Zion / To the city called the Bride.”

We can never stop learning from the Beatitudes. I know I have learned a lot over the past few months’ study, but there’s so much more to be drawn from this passage. I will return here many times in the future.

I am going to take a break from blogging on this passage. The end of the Beatitudes is a good place to stop. So until I feel led to resume blogging on the Sermon—thanks for reading. Look for a different series in the near future, perhaps on Hosea.