Our text is Matthew 5, Matthew 5, 1 through 16, and then the end of chapter 7, the last two verses. Let's hear the Word of God. And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my namesake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is, then, good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Chapter 7, verse 28. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this message from Jesus, and we ask you to apply it to us this day. We thank you, Lord, for the wisdom of your word, for the power of your spirit to make it real to us, to have us understand it and apply it. In Christ's name, we give you thanks. Amen. This is a four-part sermon. The series title is The Greatest Sermon, and I think whenever I told Michael Elliott what the title was, he kind of had this little smile, and I want to make sure that it's not my sermon I'm talking about as being the greatest. This text, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, is known as the Sermon on the Mount, and it is 111 verses, and so that's a lot to cover over four sermons. verses per sermon on average. And so that is a lot to cover, and many other people have covered this text in a lot more messages. Sinclair Ferguson did it in 15, another pastor did it in 30, another one did it in 50. A.W. Pink wrote a book about it where each chapter was devoted to a portion of the text, and that book is 64 chapters long. Our own Pastor Kaiser preached on this ten years ago, and he took the Beatitudes and then applied them to the Sermon on the Mount, and that was nine messages. But I believe…I was looking for something that I could do in four, and I believe this is a viable way of presenting the Sermon on the Mount, even though it will be different than others. Why is, in my opinion, the greatest sermon? I think the obvious answer is that Jesus preached it, of course. His sermons would be the greatest. And yet, also I think it has to do with what was said and when it was said. Those also make it great. Most of us, maybe not all of the young people, but most of us are familiar with this phrase, the 400 years of silence. Who's never heard that phrase, doesn't understand what 400 years of silence means? There are some that are honest, that share with us. The 400 years of silence refer to the time before the coming of Christ. And so the Bible was written over about a thousand year period from about 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C., and so we know many of the people that wrote the Bible, their names are familiar to us. Moses, Joshua, the prophet and judge Samuel, David, the prophets whose books bear their names, Ezra the scribe. So over a thousand years these men wrote these as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. As these words were God-breathed, they spoke them, they wrote them down, this is recorded for us for God's church. And yet, that went silent. And so, there was no revelation from God during this period. There were no prophets coming to Israel, conveying this is the Word of the Lord. There may have been fakes that attempted to do this, but they were caught out. Now in retrospect, then in retrospect, we could see there had been no further revelation during this time. And obviously, this was the law before the coming of Christ. It's also interesting, numbers are important. We don't want to go too far with numbers, but yet God uses numbers to signify things, and the number 40 is important in Scripture. And we know that there are 39 books in the Old Testament, and Matthew, the book we're in, is the 40th book. Moses' life was divided up into three 40-year sections. There were the 40 years where He lived in the privileged life of Pharaoh, and yet that rapidly transitioned when He had to flee for His life, and then He lives these 40 years in the wilderness. Then, what would normally be considered the end of your life, God brings Him back to Egypt, and for 40 years He leads these people in the wilderness. And so we have these 40-year distinctions. And so in the 40th year is when this transition occurs. So, 40 can be seen as a testing, a trial, a transition. We know that Jesus was tested for 40 days in the wilderness. And so, I believe with Matthew we see a transition, a significant transition, the greatest transition that you see in the Bible. We see revelation resumed. We see God again speaking to men. Scribes Pharisees Sadducees were not highly respected by Jesus were they? They had run Judaism into the ground and Jesus called them to account for it as he had the right to do it's his church The body of Judaism was nearly dead and it had been nearly dead for centuries and But there was a beating heart that we now know as Christianity in that comatose body of Judaism. And I believe Matthew, and the Sermon on the Mount particularly, can be seen as a heart transplant. Jesus removed that heart from the body of Judaism. And we know that very quickly Judaism died. as we knew it, as they knew it for 1400 years. It's not the same now. It's very, very different. So this heart was taken out by Jesus and the apostles and placed in a new body. It's almost as if at creation when the rib is taken from Adam and a new body is made and springs to life. This is what happened. Judaism served its purpose and now Christianity has risen in its place. This short sermon of Jesus's, 111 verses only, addresses all of what make men and women important on this earth. in our hubris, in our arrogance, in our sin, attempt to make lots of other things very important and to give our life purpose through a variety of other ways. And we as Christians fall prey to this. We are not immune from this. And so this is the anchor. The Sermon on the Mount is the anchor, the touchstone, that all Christians need to understand. And so it's important. It's very popular to be preached on, and it's not without some trepidation that I'm attempting to do it in four messages, but like I said, I think it can be an appropriate way of doing it. The Sermon on the Mount answers fundamental questions of life. What was man created to do? Who were men created to be? What does God expect of man? And how is man supposed to live? For what will God judge man? And for what will God reward man? All of these questions are answered in the Sermon on the Mount. The four messages, and this was difficult to come up with names that I felt appropriately matched what I wanted to share, But I believe appropriate topics can be purpose of man, that's today's, next time is purpose of law, and then faith for living, and then faith for dying. The first one today covers 18 verses, and so the average for the future ones are 31 verses, so we have a lot to read in the future ones. Another, an alternative to today's topic, purpose of man, could be purpose and blessing. There are kind of two components of what we'll talk about. Next time it's purpose of law, and it's the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. There's faith for living, and that regards selflessness and service. And then there's faith for dying, and that addresses our actions and our rewards for those actions. So now, before we get into the text of chapter five, I want to just kind of summarize very quickly what chapter four was about. First, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days by Satan, as I mentioned. Then, John the Baptist is arrested, and thus we see John the Baptist declining and making room for Jesus to come into his ministry. It is the start of Christ's healing and teaching ministry then. He's going all about Galilee. in that area. Then we have the calling of four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Then we come to the end of chapter 4, the beginning of chapter 5, and let me read briefly the end of chapter 4. Great multitudes followed Jesus from Galilee and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan, verse 1 of chapter 5, and seeing the multitudes Jesus went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. It is very common, a very popular perspective, to view Jesus as going up this mountain, which we would perhaps call a hill, such that he can enter into this big natural amphitheater, and his voice could be heard. He could be projected upon all these people. That's one view. I believe that is by far the most popular view. A second view could be that Jesus is escaping the multitudes, as He often did with His disciples, to train them as He was wont to do. And I believe chapters 4-25, what I just read, Great multitudes followed Him, from Galilee and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitudes, He went up in a mountain. And when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then, if you look at the very end of what we read in chapter 7, and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people, not multitudes now, note that it's the people, were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. And then read chapter 8, verse 1. When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him." Now, I am not going to attempt to prove to you one is right, one is wrong, because I don't believe I need to. I don't believe it's that important. What is important is what He says in chapter 5, verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying." So, we could see the focus in the Sermon on the Mount is not Jesus like a Great Awakening preacher, it's Him mentoring His men. So, I just think that's the important thing, and we could disregard whatever assumptions you might want to make about the other. Jesus taught them as one having authority, Matthew 7.28 says. Not only does it say that He taught them as one having authority, it says they were amazed. They were amazed at this. You see, some of these people went up. It doesn't just say His disciples were in awe of this, it says the people. So, there were some of this multitude that went up that mountain with Him. They wanted to know more. They wanted to be with Jesus. And they were amazed. They were glad they went. They were glad they took the opportunity to go up that mountain. John the Baptist had already wowed everyone. Like I said, there had been all this silence for centuries. And John the Baptist comes on the scene. And he's a wild man. He's calling these people to account, pointing his finger in their faces. And the people are like, wow, we haven't seen this in our lifetime. And yet now, he's been imprisoned, and Jesus is rising. The people were astonished because he spoke with authority, as only Jesus can do. Even John the Baptist could not have spoken with the authority that Jesus did, obviously. Now let's go on to the statements. We have eight statements that are referred to as the Beatitudes. Let me read verses 3 through 10. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn. for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. There is a word here that I did not say that should strike you as somewhat odd. It says that He's teaching His disciples, right? He never says the word you or your. He's not telling them to be or do these things that He's just run through, these eight things. What He's declaring is God's standard. And at this point, he's just presenting it. This is the truth. This is what God recognizes as valuable in our world. So he sets it up as the standard by which we all must compare ourselves, must measure ourselves. He depersonalizes this standard to a degree. Jesus is not instructing them, like I said, in what to do or who to be. They're objective statements of truth. This is what living in the image of God entails. This is who God is, this is why He's made us, and this is what you will or will not be rewarded for. The word blessed is interesting. The Greek word is makarios. Blessed can be so difficult for us to understand. We don't typically use it in the sense that we're reading it here. It can be translated happy. Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are those who mourn. Happy are those who are meek. It can be translated completed. They're completed or fulfilled. I like the way a Bible dictionary shared an expanded definition of it. It said that this word, blessed, makarios, describes a believer in an enviable position in God's favor. In other words, this is where we want to be. We want to be blessed in this way by God, because then we are in this enviable position as compared to all other people on earth. Jesus is sharing what will truly fulfill us as human beings. Now again, let's look at these seven statements, verses 3 through 9. Those are seven of the eight Beatitudes. I divide them up into two categories, and that is character and conduct. Poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, I see those as reflecting character. those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful, and those who are peacemakers. That's describing conduct. I believe hunger and thirst for righteousness can be both. It could reflect the character of an individual as well as the conduct of an individual. But let's just share that there are these first seven that appear to be related to this, and let's go into a little bit more definition of each one. And for character, for the three that I mentioned, poor in spirit, meek and pure in heart, I want to use J.I. Packer, his character, as illustrative of these aspects. To be poor in spirit is to be in poverty. You have nothing of your own. So when you are poor, And you are in want. You are reliant upon others. And that's how we're to be. That is a good thing. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven in the present tense. So, acceptance of this spiritual poverty, this situation of ours, is integral to being a fulfilled, contented, enviable Christian. And this is what this man, Justin Taylor of the Gospel Coalition, wrote concerning J.I. In every encounter I had with him, I came away thinking of him not as a great man, but as a man who had personally encountered a great Savior. Each time I had the deep sense of longing not to be more like Packer, but to be more like Christ. I don't think you can have a better compliment as a Christian, as a pastor, as a scholar, as Packer was, than what was just said of him. We don't want the focus to be on the man. We want the focus to be on the Lord. And yet, I think many of us, myself included greatly, err at times in not having the focus be upon Christ. The next one is verse 5, blessed are the meek. Blessed are the meek. And we've talked at times in the past about meekness. Meekness is a humility in which you do have a regard, a high regard for other people. You're not looking down on them. You are looking up at them. can be a false meekness, a false humility that people practice, and that's not obviously what is true here. And I wouldn't say that that's what was true of Packer. This is what was said of him, or he said this of himself. He was asked in 2015 how he would want to be remembered. I should like to be remembered as someone who is always courteous in controversy but without compromise. And that's possible. That is our Christian standard. And if you know men, if you respect men who cannot have that be their desire, they're probably not worthy of your respect as a Christian leader and scholar. If such men think that through harsh and oppressive conduct and character they can achieve God's ends, they are mistaken. Packer had it right. This is how he wants to be remembered, and I think that is how he will be remembered. The third aspect of character, and the last, is, blessed are the pure in heart. And so, the pure in heart are those that have so habitually trained themselves through physical as well as spiritual disciplines to cleanse themselves of sin. Now, we know that that is not a one-time thing. We know that that is not something that you can even accomplish fully. But it's the doing of it that's important. The constant doing of it that's required. Training our mind and heart. habits, forming great habits of life. A longtime friend of Packer's by the name of Timothy George said this of Packer, his smile is irrepressible and his laughter can bring light to the most somber of meetings. His love for all things human and humane shines through. Ever impatient with shams of all kinds, his saintly character and spirituality run deep. See, it has to be lifelong habits that can garner you This type of purity of heart, you can't get it in a day. You have to devote yourself to God every day, cleanse yourself of sin, focus on God alone, and then that purity of heart is essentially God's reward for you being faithful to Him, faithful to His Word, faithful to the path that He wants humanity to walk. So now we'll move on to conduct, and so there are four of them. Blessed are those who mourn. Now, this is mourning over our sin. This is not mourning over earthly loss. This is mourning over our sins, over our own sinful acts, bad ways in which we have treated other people, ways in which we have sinned against others. And as you live your Christian life, if I'm an example, and I don't know, But my only regrets come down to ways in which I have hurt other people. They're not things that you can easily undo. I have hurt my wife repeatedly. Repeatedly. In 1 Chronicles 4, is Jabez's prayer, and a few years ago that went crazy. It was very popular. Let me read it to you. 1 Chronicles 4, and I'll start reading at verse 9. Now Jabez was a more honorable man than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Behold, I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory. that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.' So God granted him what he requested." See, that should be our prayer, and I'm thankful that that was so popularized a few years ago. Maybe people focused on aspects that were the wrong thing, but yet to focus on not bringing other people needless pain is a wonderful aspect of our Christian conduct that we should want. Keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain, because evil will always bring pain to you and to those that you love. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And this is a desperate desire to live uprightly, to not cause pain to others. Hunger and thirst we easily overlook. We in America don't know hunger and thirst. I've read books, a little boy in India, would go out and scavenge with his older brother and younger sister all the time. They were always, always hungry, and so they would go scavenge. They would seek to do little chores. They would steal if necessary. They would mostly, though, try to beg and get money or food. Once, he had followed his brother to the train station. It's the first time he's done this. He's only five years old, but he goes to the train station. His brother says, you wait here, and I'm going to go here. He's waiting there, but he has to kind of flee because there are lots of authorities that would maybe want to take this little five-year-old, beat him. So he goes into a train car, falls asleep, wakes up traveling. He's locked in this car. He can't get out. He winds up in Calcutta. And so he's trying to live on his own in the streets in Calcutta with like thousands of other five-year-olds, and he is caught by the authorities, and he's adopted. He goes to Australia. He's adopted by this Australian couple. He's their only child. Later in life, in his 20s, he finds his mother and his older brother and his younger sister. What's interesting, though, about this is that he had one younger brother, one younger sister, and an older brother. The older brother never came back from that trip. So while he was waiting for the older brother to return and grew tired and weary and went into a scar, his brother may have been killed by that time because he never came back. So, he found his mom and his younger brother and sister. But here he is, he's in his mid-20s now. He's found them after 20 years. And what his hope was to do was to bless them, to get them out of poverty. It was a difficult life. The book is called Lion. It was made into a movie as well. What I remember very vividly is him describing what starving every day is like. All you can think of is food. It's what fills your mind. If you've read the book Unbroken concerning Louis Samparini during the Second World War when his plane is shut down and he's on that raft for months with two other guys, that's what he described. There is a point in starvation where all you can think of is food. And then it goes beyond that point where you lose your desire for food, and that's when you know you're about to die. So, see, these young people, our hunger drives us on. And so what is being described here is something that we can't relate to in America. We don't even fast usually, even as Christians, even though we ought to. It's so hard. Our flesh cries out, feed me, feed me. And we do. We often give up our fasts early, even though we intended to do it. Our flesh cries out and we give in. Thirst even worse at first, of course, because it hits you so fast. I get so thirsty up here. I don't know if my body's changed the last few years, but I drink a lot. Thankfully, I have a large bladder. I'd have to take a couple of breaks otherwise. But this phrase is used, hunger and thirst for righteousness. It's a spiritual application. And so see, what Jesus wants us to know is that thirst, that hunger that you experience when you're dying of dehydration, you're dying of starvation, He wants you to know that that's how He wants you to think of being right with God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The next one is, blessed are those who mourn, or blessed are the merciful. And our self-awareness of our own sin, our desire for purity of heart, a logical consequence would be that we have mercy on others. We don't sit in harsh judgment upon others because we know that it's God's grace that has us where we are, and so we're very reluctant. to bring harsh judgment upon others. We want to, like God, extend mercy to people until that mercy is so fully rebuffed that then all we can do is pray for miraculous salvation or judgment to come upon this evil person who's rejecting God's mercy. And the last aspect of conduct is, blessed are the peacemakers. And so a fruit of righteousness is a desire for peace, and it is a gift from God if we are pursuing righteousness. Peace in our own hearts, peace within our community, our family, our church. We won't always have that peace. We know we're gonna get to that part But that is a gift from God, and so we must appreciate it. Most people don't live peaceful lives. You've probably seen this. When you go and spend time in other people's homes where they don't know the Lord, it can be a very, very angry home filled with abusive language. And you think, how can they be used to this? This is so shocking to me. But again, thank God that that's not your home. Thank God that you have a message for these people, if only they'll hear it. Now, much more time could be spent on these. I have kind of rushed through them. I haven't really spoke of the reward that comes from them, and I'm not going to. But a way that you can summarize these seven Beatitudes is crucifixion of self. And that's what we really are called to do. We are called to crucify our flesh for the benefit of our spirit. So now we come to the eighth beatitude, and I would regard this as the most impossible beatitude. Let's read it. Verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So, we had aspects of these Beatitudes that were regarded as character, three of them, then four of them as conduct, and now one of them has a consequence. If you succeed at the first seven Beatitudes in developing this type of character, this type of conduct, you will be persecuted. It's God's promise to you. It's God's reward to you for being faithful. Remember that I said that blessed, these words blessed, the definition of it is to be in an enviable position with God. And so isn't that where you want to be? And so that's where we ought to want to be, but I don't think we are. We're not there. Many, many Christians in America aren't there, don't want to be there. They don't want to state that as bluntly as I'm now stating it, but that's where they are. Note, too, that that's another one that's in the present. The six in the middle are all in the future. They shall be comforted. They shall inherit the earth. They shall be filled. But the first one, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They're in the present tense. So you experience this now. You will experience this persecution now if you're living the way God wants you to do and growing the way God wants you to grow. Now, there is a key phrase in that verse, though, that we have to talk about. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. That's key. There are plenty of jerks that are persecuted for their own poor behavior. Proverbs 30 verse 33 says, for as the churning of milk produces butter and wringing the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife. So if you're a fighter or you know a fighter, you know that that brings pain, that brings strife, that doesn't bring peace. You're not a peacemaker, you're a warmonger, you're pugnacious. And God tells us, you ought not be like that. There are ways to be contrary with people that yet respect that they are made in the image of God. And so you want to be like that. Rude people are compensated for their bad behavior, but they will almost always routinely deny that they deserve it. Why? Because they're jerks. They only see themselves. They only think of themselves. They don't care about you. They don't love you. And if they say they're Christians, doubt it. Years ago, Tabitha gave me a book series. I've mentioned it before. Peace Child was one of the books. And I believe the same author of Peace Child wrote this other book, and it was about another missionary to Papua New Guinea. And what's interesting is this author does not pull any punches. He presents that missionary as a jerk. He's really a bad person. He wants to serve God, he wants to remain on this mission field, and he was eventually martyred by the local Indians. But I just have to wonder how much of that martyrdom came because of his own jerkiness behavior, and not because he was there representing God. We must want to represent God and not bring any shame upon Christ. And yet, sometimes missionaries are odd people, and perhaps God There are Christians, and God's using them in this way in order to bring about change in a culture. When I read the book about Gladys Aylward, when she goes to China, I don't know if many of you remember that, but the woman that she meets, the elderly woman that she'd arranged to go there with, she's very rude. She's very obnoxious. She treats Gladys badly. She treats everyone badly. Why are people like this? It's aspects of their character. They're not devoted to sanctifying their character. Take me as I am. It's the Popeye motto, right? I am what I am. And so you've got to take me as I am. No, no, I don't. There's the door. Get out. You're rude. Now, she was in a very vulnerable position, though, wasn't she? I mean, she's there, and she's in the middle of China. She doesn't know anybody else that can help her. And the Chinese people at this point were not very nice. She made her best, and she did not become like that woman. She became very different. Now, let's not be swayed by people that think that this is an inevitable consequence of us fighting evil in our culture, that we need to be rude and malicious and argumentative. This is not true. It's not true. J. I. Packer didn't live like that. He didn't talk like that. His conduct and his character reflected that of Christ. Now, was Jesus rude when He called the Pharisees and scribes, hypocrites, you hypocrites? That was a little rude. That's a little in your face, right? And so there is a time and a place potentially for stuff like that when you're dealing with people who are your enemies, they've sworn to be your enemies, you've extended the mercy, and they've rebuffed you. But it never goes to the point. where you yourself are wanting to bring something upon them. It always has to be through the work of God. And see, Jesus was God, so He gets to do things we don't get to do. He can do things that we can't do. Now, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Verses 11 and 12, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Jesus is now talking to them, if you noticed. He had not used the word you, but now He says, "'Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My name's sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.'" So He's applying these Beatitudes now to them, should they evince this character and conduct. If not, then it doesn't apply to you. It's just that simple. But here is where He is now addressing them. This is you. Now, while we, as Christians in America, in Omaha, may theoretically accept the truth of the fact that we are to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when we are persecuted, I believe most of us practically, through the way we live our lives, deny it. I would admit, I deny it. This is a learned thing. This is something that is not easy to get into this habit of thinking and habit of doing. We want to be God. Even now as Christians, we still want to be God. We want to bring the hammer down on people, and we don't want to go through God to do that. We want to do it ourselves, and we certainly don't want them doing it to us. All of that, all of that is of the evil one. We have to admit that to ourselves. We have to realize that one of our roles as the body of Christ on this earth is to endure persecution on behalf of Christ. Earlier I read that text from Colossians 1, and it starts with that, that we endure this on behalf of Christ. I believe instead. that this response to persecution, rejoicing and being glad, is inconsistent with our culture, our American culture. It's inconsistent with our values as a culture and as an individual, and it's inconsistent with our personal desires. We don't want to be persecuted, and we certainly don't want to endure it, but yet that's clearly, clearly what the eighth beatitude declares to be necessary. I believe instead our response is, this is America. They can't do that to me. I have rights. Yes, you do. And just as Paul called upon his rights to free himself from people that wanted to kill him, yes, call upon your rights. I urge you to do so. Remember when I taught on forgiveness? Forgiveness is first a matter of the heart. And you have that forgiveness of someone who's offended you as a gift that you are prepared to give them. You don't give it to them prematurely. You give it to them when they request it, when they admit that they sinned against you. That's when the forgiveness is applied. But in your heart, you have to be prepared to hand these people that gift when they come to you. And not all people are prepared to hand the gift of forgiveness to someone who's offended them because they are harboring it as a grudge in their hearts. And that's the same thing here. I believe that same thing applies. We don't have to want to be persecuted. That's not what we're saying. We're not masochists here. But we don't have to fear it, and we have to acknowledge that God expects it and will reward us for it. And so this is not something we should fear. This is something that we should certainly prepare for, because it's coming. We all know it's coming. Let's not act out in anger and frustration, and this is America. You're a Christian. Be prepared for it. Be prepared to how you will deal with it when it comes to you. There's a saying I'm fond of, I've used it at work quite a bit, sometimes in jest. Admitting a problem is the first step in resolving the problem. And so if you would admit that you have a problem accepting this text, rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you're persecuted, then you know you have a problem. If you're willing to accept that this is where your heart is, this is where it needs to be, you now have to travel to this other spot. Can we admit this? Can we admit that we are not prepared to embrace persecution like the apostles were? Let's read Acts 5. I can still remember as a young Christian reading the book of Acts. I think it's the first book that I went through as a study at my church. And so here I am reading this in the book of Acts, and let me start reading at chapter 5 verse 30. 38, and now I say to you, this is Gamaliel speaking, giving the Sanhedrin advice, and now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. and daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease." I love that. Did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. They endured it, and they left there rejoicing that God considered them worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. We have to want that. We have to recognize that there's value in this, eternal value. But like I said, our culture, our values, and our personal desires fight against that. We don't want it, but we have to crucify the flesh. And crucifixion of the flesh is boosted through prayer and fasting. Remember, when the 70 disciples were sent out, they could not excise that demon from that young man. Why could we not do this, Lord? This type only comes out by prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting are powerful weapons, and we must avail themselves of these weapons. So we go on to the next section, and that is salt and light. Let's read that. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. So, salt and light, you can see that in context they're a little bit different. Salt, if the salt has lost its savor, it's no longer salt. It's going to be thrown out. Whereas the light, he talks about it not being used as efficiently as it ought to be. It ought to be placed on a lampstand. So, we're talking here about Jews who are not in God's kingdom. And then we're talking about those in light that are in God's kingdom and yet are not walking as they ought to walk, because we have jobs to do. We must be salt and we must use, project light in our world. Also note, that when Jesus goes on to verse 13, He says, you are the salt. See, He's moved from the original where He doesn't even use the word you, and then He says, blessed are you, where you're passive, you're being acted upon, now it's time for action. You are salt, be salt. You are light, be light. So you can see that there's this progression from passivity to action that He expects of us. Too many of us want other people to be salt. We want other people to be light. We're thankful that they are. Isn't that enough? But see, God has given you a sphere of influence. God has given you people that only you are interacting with. Out of all the people here, every one of you, even the children, have young ones that only you interact with, and you are the one that is to bring light into the lives of those that need it. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. And what do you do with light? I mean, we all need light. We flip on the light switches, we go to work on something, I can't see, I take out my phone, I turn on my flashlight. What do you do? You direct light at what it is that needs light. You crank it up. I usually keep my phone light on the lowest, because I'm using it at night. But then when I need it bright, I crank it up. You all have that capacity. You all have that ability. You all have that responsibility. And so don't shy away from it. Hone it. Develop that light. Increase the wattage of your light. Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The Beatitudes, I think, capture this already-not-yet aspect of this statement. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. See, the enjoyment is, in many ways, a future enjoyment. It can be in the here and now, but here we are still in a sinful flesh, and so it's difficult for us to experience the full joy, the full contentment that God has in store for us. But you can, and it's promised to you. The more you develop these aspects of character and conduct and deal with the consequence and accept the consequence of persecution for who you now have become. That's the degree to which you will be blessed by God here, in the here and now. The job of a Christian is to so blur the distinction between this world and the next world that you don't live in fear of death. You embrace the possibility of it, even. Yet, as a good worker for God, you're entirely comfortable here. You don't lament your woes and say, oh, I wish God would take me to heaven. That's not a good worker. That's a bad worker. Don't be a bad worker. Be a good worker. God, what do you want me to do next? I'm ready. You know, as a former manager of people, that's what you want to hear from people. What can I do? How can I help? Too many other people are scurrying around. Where can I hide? There was a comedian that talked about how a co-worker, when he was like a kid, introduced him to a hiding place at his work. He said, come with me. So he takes him back to the back room, and there's this false wall, and they shimmy into this false wall. And then they sit there looking at each other. Nobody knows where we are. We're not having to work. but they're crammed into a wall. I mean, how enjoyable is that? But yet, that is sometimes how we think. Not me, I don't want to do that. I'm tired of that. You know how long your day is when you're avoiding work? I mean, you've done this, we've all done this. A day is forever when you're avoiding work. The minutes just go tick, tick. But when you're busy, when you're working, when you're doing what God wants you to do, the time goes by. So see, do that, be like that, don't be like that guy hiding in the wall. Be like the person who, where did the day go? I want to get more done. Okay, there is this already not yet aspect right there in the Beatitudes. We talk about being in the kingdom, and yet we also talk about all these future blessings as we develop this character and conduct. Your purpose, your purpose on earth is to glorify God, and you do that. by being salt and light. You do this by developing your character and demonstrating conduct worthy of Christ, worthy to be persecuted. You are not your own. You have been bought at a price, and therefore glorify God in your body. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your Word, and we thank you for Jesus. creating this 40th book that makes this tremendous transformation of Judaism into Christianity, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. We thank you, Lord, that we live in this time, and we pray that you would infuse us with courage and enthusiasm and initiative to do what it is you're calling us to do, to not waste time, to not pander to sin. But instead, Lord, we ask you to use us, cleanse us, make us upright of character, guide us in our conduct that we would bring honor to You, and when that results in persecution, we pray that we would not flee from it, but like the disciples, we would rejoice that we are considered worthy by You to endure it. We thank You now for this time together, thank You for this Word, and we pray that You would apply it to our hearts and minds and to the week ahead. In Jesus' name we pray and give You thanks, amen.