February 18, 2007
Sermon – The Blessing of Being Like Christ
Lady Astor once said to Winston Churchill, “If you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill responded with, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
Peace has been a problem from the Garden of Eden. After all, God told Satan after he led Adam and Eve astray in Genesis 3:15 – which is the first proclamation of the gospel – The Lord was speaking to the serpent, the devil, Satan when he said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
Ultimately, Satan will be thrown into the lake of Fire for all eternity. But even in the first family a lack of peace existed. We see that when Cain killed Able.
History shows us that there haven’t been very many successful peace efforts. We only have to look to Israel and the Palestinians to see that currently.
But in the 4000 years or so of recorded history, the world has been at peace only 286 years and there have over 8000 treaties made and broken.
John MacArthur said, “Peace is merely that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stops to reload.”
As believers we know that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace rules and reigns in righteousness.
But until then, Jesus tells us today in Mt. 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” Notice not peace keepers.
Jesus talking about his disciples who actively seek to get people to cooperate and not compete or fight. That’s who Jesus is talking about. Jesus was that. When they spit on him he didn’t retaliate. He took it and didn’t say a word. He encourages us to love our enemies in Mt.5:43-48. Turn the other cheek. Pray for those who persecute you. Since Jesus is the Prince of Peace, if we are becoming like him, then we will be more concerned about peaceful relationships then about winning or having it our way.
Peter says same: I P 3: 11 “Love life and see good days -- seek peace and pursue it.”
Paul agrees: Rom 12:18 “As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Do you and I truly seek peace and pursue it? Are you and I, as far as it depends on me and you living at peace with everyone? Some don’t want peace but have you done all you can?
I thought I did until Thursday night. God revealed a trigger spot for me. His Spirit showed me where I have some work to be done.
Not peaceful with ASG Thursday night -- ASG – manager. Apologized.
You in your home – Give up rights and help, community, work – pray for those
Had to be a peace maker with Amy and Janet at times.
Don’t know how ask God. James 3:17-18 READ Are you and I sowing seeds of peace wherever we are? Or are we contentious always demanding our way?
Jesus not talking about keeping the peace. Here talking about facilitating peace – Someone has said, “A peacemaker is someone who overcomes evil with good.”
Illustration – monk – Telemachus 4th C.– sensed God’s call leave monastery go to Rome. Arrived everyone going to coliseum to watch gladiators kill each other. Apparently, he thought, four Centuries later and they’re still killing each other for enjoyment.” Ran to Coliseum and found the gladiators saying, “Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar.” When he saw and heard this, he thought this isn’t right and jumped the rail and went to the center of the field where the gladiators were. He stood between the gladiators, holding up his hands, he said, “In the name of Christ, forbear” which meant to refrain from what they were doing. The crowd protested and shouted, “Run him through.” A gladiator hit him and knocked him to the ground. He got up and said again, “In the name of Christ, forbear.” The crowd continued to chant, “Run him through.” One of the gladiators plunged his sword through his stomach and the monk fell, turning the sand crimson with his blood. One last time he gasped out, “In the name of Christ, forbear.” A hush came over the crowd. Soon one man stood and left, then another and within minutes the coliseum was emptied. It was the last known gladiator contest in the history of Rome.
When you live like Christ, you will be persecuted now but rewarded later.
Jesus said that peacemakers would be called sons of God. Making peace is indicative of being a son or daughter of God.
Term of endearment. – God calls us his sons and daughters. We are his children if we have accepted Christ. The word also means follower, pupil or disciple or a spiritual son or daughter. Peter called Mark his son in I P 5:13.
Being a peace maker doesn’t make you a son or daughter of God. If you have accepted Christ you are already a child of God. John 1:12 tells us that. If you are a peacemaker, As you attempt to live at peace with everyone, they will see your Christ like character and call you a son or daughter of God. We will also know that we really are a son or daughter of God, that we don’t belong to the world that is full of violence and self-centeredness, that we are citizens of another country, that heaven is our home.
Peterson says it best.
9"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
But here’s the downside -- Peacemakers usually are persecuted. – Anyone living like the Beatitudes tell us, living like Christ, will be persecuted.
Remember the beatitudes are like a ladder that we are going up. One rung leads to another.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
J.B. – good example -- in prison -- not sure Jesus is Messiah.
Mt 11:1-6 -- John from prison asks, Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else? Lucado – John thinking if he is the Messiah then get him out
Jesus answers John – disciples – tell him what you see -- blind see, lame walk, deaf hear. “Blessed is he who does not fall away because of me.”
What did Jesus mean? Same as here in the beatitudes -- might not go way we think. It will go Jesus way, don’t fall away. Keep persevering. If persevere, rewards. There is a blessing here and now and later, there and then.
Hebrews 10:32-37 tells us to do the same. Writer admonishes Jewish Christians in verse 35 to not throw away their confidence because it will be richly rewarded.
Later in Hebrews 11 he gives examples of Hebrew Christians, like Moses, who did not throw away his confidence. He was motivated by the promise of eternal rewards.
Read Hebrews 11:24-26.he was looking ahead to his reward. Say it after me, Reward
Eternal rewards can and should motivate us. But remember ..
When we live like Christ you will be persecuted now but rewarded later.
Notice you will be persecuted for righteousness, your acts that embody the beatitudes not obnoxiousness or weirdness.
Took Amy to PESH -- gruesome pix of aborted fetuses. On public property but if asked to move, I don’t believe they were being persecuted for righteousness. I believe if they were asked to move it was because they were being obnoxious. I don’t consider that persecution. Granted they had a right but I don’t think it showed people the love of Christ as they went into PESH.
James Boice explains for us what it means when Jesus says they will be persecuted for righteousness. He says, it means, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because by God’s grace they are determined to live as I live.” The persecution Jesus is talking about comes for living out the beatitudes. It comes because we are like him. And he wasn’t weird or obnoxious.
Notice Jesus doesn’t say if you are insulted or persecuted. In verse 11, he says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
If we are a believer in Christ as our Lord and Savior, persecution will come.
Paul tell us this in Phil 1:29 – It has been granted not only for us to believe but to suffer for his sake.
And in 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul says, “In fact, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the emperor Trajan. There he was to renounce Christ and offer a sacrifice to Trajan. Polycarp refused to curse Christ. Instead he said this:
Eighty-six years I have served Him (Christ), and he ahas done me no wrong; how could I blaspheme my king and who saved me? You threaten the fire that burns for an hour, but then is quenched; you are ignorant of the fire of judgment to come. Why delay? Do what you wish.”
So do we need to go looking for persecution just so we get this blessing? The answer is no. James Boice says this about persecution:
It may take more grace and it may be a greater victory for a man to spend forty years of his life at the same desk in the same office watching other men get promoted over him because they he will not do some of the things that are demanded of officers of the company than it would take for a John Hus to be burned at the stake for his testimony. And it may be more of a victory for a woman to stay at home, raising her family in the things of the Lord while her neighbors laugh at her for being humdrum and unglamorous, than it would be for Joan of Arc to die at Rouen.
Ever had a family member make fun of you because you wouldn’t cheat on your income taxes. My ex-bother in law did. I’m glad Janet’s sister got out of that marriage.
Or how about a family member insulting you because you want to go to church on Sundays?
Think of Job who was persecuted by his alleged friends who said all this was happening to him because of some sin in his life. Nothing could have been further from the truth. But he was persecuted for righteousness by his friends.
Persecution can come in big or little ways. It can be experienced by giving your life or simply being insulted for your commitment to follow Christ.
On the walls of Sishu Bhanvan, a children’s home operated in Calcutta run by Mother Theresa’s order, the sisters of charity, are these words which bring the last beatitude to us in a little different way.
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you will kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
Jesus gave his best, his life, for people who would ultimately reject him. Will you give your best to him so that many may come to know him?
Martin Luther once said, “When the devil harasses us, we know ourselves to be in good shape.” Has the devil been harassing me and you lately because we look like Christ?
When we are persecuted for righteousness sake, Jesus tells us to rejoice and be glad for our reward is great in heaven.
When you live like Christ, you will be persecuted now but rewarded later. This is not our home. If we know Christ personally as our Lord and Savior, we are citizens of another country. We probably won’t receive our rewards here. We will receive them at the judgment seat of Christ, where he rewards or pays us back for our faithful service to him.
Revelation 22:12 Jesus tells us, “Behold, I am coming soon, and I shall bring my wages and rewards with me, to repay and render to each one just what his own actions and his own work merit.”
Paul tells us that this will happen for believers at the judgment seat of Christ. It won’t happen till we get to heaven. What will that day be like for us?
Max Lucado tells a story in his book, The Applause of Heaven, about landing at the San Antonio airport after being away. When he arrived, he was excited to see his family and sure enough they were there waiting. As he walks into the seating area, he sees his two little girls and hears them shriek, Daddy.” I turn and see them – faces scrubbed, standing on chairs, bouncing up and down in joy as the man in their life walks toward them. Jenna stops bouncing just long enough to clap. She applauds. I don’t know who told her to do that but you can bet I won’t tell her to stop.
The applause of heaven. That’s what it will be like for us if we have lived like Christ here and now. Peterson expresses the intent of these last few verses well in The Message: “Not only that – count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens -- give a cheer even! – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”
If you and I want to hear the applause of heaven when we stand before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ, then we will need to not only know the beatitudes but live them out. We can only do that as we become more like Christ every day. Let’s help each other do that not by a legalistic formula but by beholding Christ in worship, prayer, bible study, Sunday school, support groups, ministry teams, and in each other. Let’s do our best by God’s grace to live these beatitudes out here at FCC, in our homes, on our jobs, in our neighborhoods. May God grant us the grace to be poor in spirit, broken individuals, who are meek obedient Christ followers, who are hungry and thirsty for God’s righteousness, merciful, pure, and peaceable.
May God help us to remember that when we live like Jesus we will be persecuted now but rewarded later.
And all God’s people said, Amen.