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“We are the poor in spirit that is we are the ones who know we are spiritually bankrupt. And if we are to enter
into the kingdom of God we bring nothing except our need and cry out to God in our poverty for a salvation that only He can
give. We are those who mourn, mourning over our plight, mourning over our sin, mourning over judgment, recognizing what
awaits us, mourning over the separation from God that characterizes us. And we are therefore the meek, we come not proud
and self confident but humble and broken, seeking salvation from a merciful God. We are those who recognize we don't
have righteousness but we hunger and thirst for it. We are those who having received mercy can show it to others.
We are those whose hearts have been cleansed and made pure. We are those who rather than being at war with God and everybody
else have become peacemakers because we've made our peace with Him. And consequently we are those who will to one
extent or another suffer persecution from a God-hating, Christ-rejecting, Satan-controlled society.”...
“Peacemakers will
be persecuted. That's what happens to peacemakers. We come to preach the gospel of peace. We come to
live out that gospel of peace and we are persecuted for it to one extent or another.”...
... “you see, such
a life reproves the ungodliness of men and provokes therefore their resentment. It is more of the enmity of the serpent
against the holy seed of Genesis 3:15. And so, Jesus is saying we need to expect it.”
“That leads us from the how to the
why. ... John 15:18 Jesus said, ‘If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If
you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world but I chose you out of
the world, therefore the world hates you.’ There's the answer, they hate you because you're not part of
their system. You confront it by your godliness and your righteousness.”...
This is further defined for us in 1 Peter 4:14 ‘If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed.’ There's a
commentary on that beatitude. If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed. And how does that blessing
come? ‘The Spirit of glory and God rest on you.’ Boy, what a promise. When you're being
persecuted God's Spirit rests on you. The Spirit Himself is there attending to you. If anyone suffers because
he's a Christian, verse 1 Peter 4:16, don't feel ashamed but in that name let him glorify God.
The
Only Way to Happiness: Endure Hardship, Part 1 | Matthew 5:10-12
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Copyright
1998, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“John 15:20, ‘The slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.’
Verse 21, ‘They'll do this to you for My namesake.’ It's not that they, it's not that they really resent
you as much as they resent Me. And that's really true. I mean, as a believer you can sort of, you know, wander
through the world safely enough until you confront someone with the Word of God, until you confront someone with God's
divine standards, or what Jesus has said. ... If you were to engage yourself in any environment where sin is overtly
being carried on and bring to bear upon the souls that are there the straightforward truth of God, you would experience persecution.
You have probably experienced to some degree in the families that you're in if you have unbelievers in the family.
And on occasion you have confronted the iniquity in the lives of those unbelievers. You have called them to recognize
their sin and you have felt the animosity and the hostility. Nothing is more irritating, nothing is more offensive to
an unregenerate person than to point out their iniquity and its consequences.”
"It's safe enough, in a sense, for me in the
church. It's not quite so safe outside. They will persecute you, in verse 21 He says, ‘for My namesake.’ It's because you identify with Me. It's because you say you are
Christ's. It's because you bring My name and My Word and My truth to bear upon them. They will hate you
the way they hated Me. And verse 23, ‘And he who hates Me hates My Father also.’ I mean, this is a very, very complex issue. They hate the
truth. They hate you for bringing the truth. They hate Christ for being the truth. They hate God because
He is the true and living God behind it all. So they hate Me, they hate My Father, they hate you, they hate the truth."
...”John 16:1 He says, ‘These things I've spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling.’ I don't want you
to go out there in the world and all this persecution is going to come your way and you're going to fall all over the
place and say, ‘Wait a minute, what's happening here? This shouldn't be going on. This is impossible.
Why is this happening? We thought that the truth would be proclaimed with great power and they would all fall down and
believe and it's not going to be that way.’ In fact, John 16: 2 says, ‘They'll make you outcasts from the synagogue and they'll kill you and think they're doing service
to God.’"
The Only Way to Happiness: Endure Hardship, Part 2 | Matthew 5:10-12
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Copyright 1998, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Blessed
Are the Persecuted | Matthew 5:10-12
Paul [states] in 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (See Acts 14:22; John 15:20; Matthew 10:25.)How could Paul make such a sweeping
statement? "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." He makes it on the basis of
a deep conviction about the nature of Christianity and the nature of the sinfulness of man. He is convinced that there is
such a tension between the message and way of life of Christians on the one hand and the mindset and way of life of the world
on the other that conflict is inevitable.
This
conviction is rooted in the nature of fallen man and the nature of the new creation in Christ. Therefore it does not go out
of date. It is still true today. Sooner or later a deeply God-centered Christian will be mistreated for the things he believes
or the life he lives.
Blessed Are the Persecuted | Matthew 5:10-12
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By John Piper. March
16, 1986 © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
Used by permission
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