Three Consequnces of Living the Good Life Matthew 5:10-16
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The Beatitudes are full of surprises
The Beatitudes are full of surprises
So far we have seen that the good life is full of surprises. Those whom Jesus called blessed, are spiritually poor, deeply aware of their sin, and are meek. This is in contrast to what the world calls living the good life in wealth, hedonism, and arrogance.
Jesus takes the contrasts a step further when he says that even the persecuted are even blessed. How can this be?
Life in the kingdom is different than life in this world. Christians should look different, act different, think different, stand out from the crowd. Jesus makes these distinctions in his ministry. he says that those who follow him are on a narrow road with fewer people, while those who follow the world are on a broad road with most of the world. Jesus says there are good trees and bad trees, and you know a tree by its fruit. Good trees bear good fruit. If you come to Christ, you need to expect your life to be turned upside down. Living the good life according to Jesus will be in contrast to the the good life the world offers you. Jesus says in so many words for those who live the good life in his kingdom,
Although you will be persecuted for righteousness sake, Jesus empowers you to preserve God honoring morality and illuminating God glorying good works.
Although you will be persecuted for righteousness sake, Jesus empowers you to preserve God honoring morality and illuminating God glorying good works.
Jesus empowers you with a new heart.
Jesus empowers you with a new heart.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Daniel Doriani rightly says, “The beatitudes of action all flow from the beatitudes of need and flow through the hunger for righteousness.” Those have understand their poverty of spirit are merciful (v7). They are merciful because they understand they are broken and in need of God’s mercy themselves. Their merciful disposition compels them to be patient and understanding with other peoples brokenness.
Those who mourn over their sin are pure in heart (v8). The eyes of their heart now sees sin the way God sees it, and so they mourn and weep when their heart is lured into impurity and hypocrisy. Instead, they love holiness and wholeness, and long to live a life without compromise.
Those who are meek because they recognize their spiritual poverty and sin prove they are sons of God. Sons of God reflect their Father’s desire for peace, making them peacemakers. The meek know that God has taken great strides to make peace with his enemies, and that he desires his children to pursue peace with the same tenacity as he pursues it. All of these beatitudes flow through a heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, a heart that only God can give you.
In John 3, Nicodemus asks Jesus how he can enter the kingdom of God. Jesus says he must be born again. Confused by this Nicodemus asks how can he be born again when has already been born? Jesus explains to him that it is not a physical birth, but it is a myserteous spiritual birth that only God can do. Jesus says to Nicodemus,
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus is alluding to Ezekiel when he refers to being born of the Spirit. God Promised his people that there would come a day when he would he regenerating work. God says,
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
H goes on to say,
31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.
God promised his people that he will give them a new heart. A hear that desires to obey his commands and walk in is statutes, a new heart that will recognize their spiritual poverty, mourn over their sin, and hunger and thirst for righteousness.
those who walk in the Beatitudes do so because they are born again with a new heart that God has given them. God gives you a new heart that hungers and thirsts for his righteousness and can only be satisfied by his righteousness. Furthermore, you will ask God to satisfy your hunger for righteousness. You are desperate for it, like someone who is famished and dehydrated from walking in the desert.
The righteousness is not necssaruly the atonement. Jesus does get to the atonement later, but in this context is right living before God. It is doing the right thing because you desire to please God. You love his word because it is God’s word. You trust Him because you are convinced he is trust worthy. You love mercy because he loves mercy. You love purity because God is pure. You love making peace because God loves peace. All of this comes from a new heart that Jesus gives you when His Spirit regenerates your heart. His Spirit also lives in your heart empowering you to hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, love purity, and pursue peace with your neighbors and enemies. The Spirit empowers you to live the good life.
One would think that hungering for righteousness, being merciful, loving purity, and pursing peace would be good for the world, and that the world would respond well to your new Christ like, Spirit empowered character. Jesus says not so much. In verse 10-12, Jesus says the living the good life will get you persecuted.
Jonathan Pennington wonderfully describes the situation in verses 10-12. He says, “the disciples have just been told that this kind of kingdom living will clearly result in suffering. This was the climactic conclusion of the Beatitudes. Thus, the images of being salt and light, complete with warnings and exhortations, are like a pushing of the young birds out of the nest to fly. It is required because the prospect of injury is quite fear inducing. Who wants to suffer? Jesus’s disciples need to be clearly exhorted (and even warned) to go forth into the world as his heralds precisely because of the certain prospect of persecution (2).
The good life will bring persecution through your righteous living. (Matthew 5:10-12)
The good life will bring persecution through your righteous living. (Matthew 5:10-12)
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Those who live the good life in Christ will flourish even in the midst of persecution. But why will Christians be persecuted for living rightly before God? Who would hate someone who is merciful, or loves purity, or is a peacemaker? Why would the world want to hurt anyone who is faithful to living out the truth, like for example, following the Ten Commandments?
For starters, we live in darkness. The world is cursed by sin. We live in a world with fallen natures that are hostile to God and cannot please him (Romans 8:7-8). John sums our dark reality in John 3:19
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We also live in world where Satan is given some dominion to work evil in the darkness, using fallen objects of wrath to promote disobedience on mankind (Eph 2:1-3).
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Jesus says you will be persecuted for “righteousness sake.” You will be hated for doing what is right in God’s eyes. One would think peace is a virtue everyone would love. That is not the case. Had you been watching the news in June of 1981, you would’ve heard the report that Anwar Sadat, the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated for pursuing peace with Israel’s prime ministers. In 1995, Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and ultranationalist who radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace initiative with Palestine, assassinated Amir on November 4th after a rally for peace in Israel and Palestine.
God loves peace, and he says to you and I that we act like his children when we pursue peace. And yet, mankind loves to make war, forgoing peace altogether.
Think about righteousness on the playground. You teach your child to always to the truth because God loves the truth. Yet, when the teacher asks you child what happened on the playground, your child faces the consequences for being a “snitch” from his classmates. The honor among criminals is to hide the truth, for the truth exposes your corruption.
What about righteousness at work? Let’s say hypothetically that you work for a large influential airplane making company. While you are at work, you notice that corners are bing cut in the manufacturing of these airliners. You bring the issues to your quality control supervisor. They thank you for your concern and show you the door. You try to go above their heads, but to no avail. So, you decide to blow the whistle on your hypothetical airplane making company. Do you think the company is awarding you an accommodation for correcting their error and potentially saving lives? No. You have to go into hiding and say things like, “I’m not suicidal.” And then you find yourself dead in a pickup truck in a parking lot,” hypothetically speaking of course.
Living for righteousness sake is not popular because, as John said,
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Jesus also says,
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You will suffer persecution because you belong to Jesus. You have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. The light is inside of you, and your God-glorifying good works are seen, but not always appreciated, just like Jesus.
Jesus is the light that came into the darkness , but the darkness did not receive it. He brought life and truth everywhere he meant, but was int he end crucified. So, Jesus tells his disciples, just as it is with me, so it will be with you. Jesus says to his disciples, including us,
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
I have not endured great persecution for Jesus, but I have lost many relationships because of my love for Christ, and I am certain that I am going to loose more in the future. We are living in a time when the church in America is going to suffer for Jesus’ namesake.
The Scottish Government enacted a new Law in April 1, 2024; The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act. Accoring to the Scottish government webpage,
“The Hate Crime and Public Order Act will provide greater protection for victims and communities.
It introduces new offences for threatening or abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred based on prejudice towards characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics.”
What has people worried is the wide open interpretation of “threatening or abusive behaviour”. In Canada, the state views pastors and Christians who preach two genders and traditional marriage as threatening and abusive. Canada has arrested pastors on the grounds of hate speech over the homosexual agenda. Scotland and Canada are run by the same progressive ideology that is in our state and federal government.
There is coming a day, sooner than later, where the police will have the authority to arrest me, and anyone, who preaches the truth of God’s word that contradicts the LGBTQ agenda. We will be seen as threatening and abusive. They will revile us with names like bigots, misogynists, ignorant, immoral, Christofacists who hate democracy. Persecution like this happening now and will continue to progressively grow more violent in the years to come. What does Jesus say to do? Grab you guns and bibles and start a revolution. Get on Facebook and rant about how much our country is going to hell in a hand basket. Get a copy of the constitution and the the ten commandments put up on every school and courthouse. Have your pastor preach political sermons every Sunday ensuring that the church that Donal Trump is our presidential messiah.
No, church, none of these. He says,
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You are suffering for righteousness sake and in the process are proving you belong to Jesus. You are not ashamed of Jesus. You are fulfilling John 15:8
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
You are proving you are in the same vein as the prophets of old who were persecuted before you for the same reasons. The Father is glorified by this good work. Jesus is not ashamed of you, and you are joyafied in the process. J.C. Ryle rightly says,
Persecution is like the goldsmith’s hallmark on real silver and gold; it is one of the marks of a converted man.
J. C. Ryle
Furthermore, your joy in the Lord in the amidst the persecution testifies of the worth of Jesus. The apostles who were beaten by the Sanhedrin for teaching that Jesus is the Messiah, rose from the dead, and sits at God's right hand, after they were severely beaten,
41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
Their community might of expected them to be angry at the injustice. Instead, they found the disciples joy of being associated with His name far more valuable to them than their comfort, even their rights. That is what it looks like to make much of Jesus.
Jesus promises you will be rewarded for your faithfulness, greatly rewarded. Paul says that the suffering you endure now will seem light and momentary compared the glory God has for you in heaven. Keep that in mind when everything hits the fan and it get uncomfortable. Every ounce of pain and suffering serves a purpose and will be rewarded.
Moving on from suffering, Jesus says there are two other consequences; salt and light.
The good life will preserve God honoring morality through your salty living (Matthew 5:13).
The good life will preserve God honoring morality through your salty living (Matthew 5:13).
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
There is a pattern change in Jesus’ words. he moves from “blessed are” to “you are.” The first is
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
There are tow things to consider about salt in this context. First, salt was used in antiquity for enacting a lasting covenant. Pennington notes, that salt was eaten by itself or with bread to commit covenant agreement. For example, God says,
13 You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Also, Numbers 18:19
19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.”
On the one hand, Jesus is communicating to his disciples that they are like adjudicators of the new covenant, or as one commentator put it, being salt, the disciples are covenant witnesses and guarantors of their age.” They are to be the salt of the earth. They are to testify without compromise the gospel of Jesus.
On the other hand, salt is also a preservative. Before the days of refrigeration, salt was used to preserve meat and vegetables to prevent decay. In the same way, those who live the good life are preservers of moral decay in society. Strong God honoring, Christ exalting, bible believing Spirit empowered truth loving morally consistent living Christians have the power to uphold God’s morality in culture and society.
When Spirit empowered salty Christians walk into a room, the demeanor of the room changes. The lewd jokes cease on the lips of your co-workers. The person who may be tempted to cheat on their timesheet changes their mind when they see you clocking out. Not because they love Jesus, but because they know you love the truth and might see their corruption and call it out, or at the very least testify to it if asked. The plans to commit evil get abandon when the evil doers know the Christians will resist them.
What does Jesus mean when says, “salt can loose its flavor?” To grasp his point, we need to understand that in ancient times “salt” was a piece of rock dug from the ground and containing many impurities. Water could wash through it, dissolving the sodium chloride and leaving a residue that looked like a salt rock and even retained its original shape, yet lacked the flavor of salt (3).
But Jesus says in Mark 9:50, have salt in yourselves. You must retain your saltiness. You cannot compromise you Christian convictions. As a church, we cannot over contextualize the gospel by being so seeker friendly we’ve lost our identity in being saved blood wrought Christians. We must accept that we who live in the kingdom of God now, will always be different than the world. We are the salt of the world. Daniel Doriani is spot on when he asks,
If the only visible difference between Christians and secular people is that we go to church on Sunday and give money away more regularly, why would they want to join us? If we divorce, alienate our children, tell lies, and make dirty deals like everyone else, why not play golf on Sunday and spend our money on exotic vacations?
Your salty living for Jesus preserves His morals and values and virtues in the world. May we be a salty people, amen.
The good life will illuminate darkness through the light of your God glorifying good works. (Matthew 5:14-16 )
The good life will illuminate darkness through the light of your God glorifying good works. (Matthew 5:14-16 )
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus us the light of the world (John 8:12). He is the light for the nations to being God’s plans of salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). Jesus is the light in us, and we are his light in the world (Matthew 5:14). We are being conformed into his image. As we grow more and more like him, our lives shine brighter and brighter, and we “walk int he light as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
We cannot hide our light. Why would you light a candle or lamp in pitch black to only cover it up (Matthew 5:15). That is absurd. It is just as absurd to have the light of JEsus inside of you and to not share teh gospel or fuflil the Great Commission. It would be just as absurd to hide the light of his grace to those who are perishing. Jesus says loudly
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
As I said before, we live in a dark world. When jesus was here, the son was up and it was day. When he left night had come, but he did not leave us without light. We are the moon who reflects his light in the darkness. We are a lesser light that reflect the greater light.
In 2020, I asked the Lord to show me the darkest areas of Litchfield. Where does Satan have to most influence. Where in our community can we shine the brightest?
Where can we shine our light before our community to let them see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven?
Where can we shine our light before our community to let them see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven?
God revealed to us that the darkest issues that plague our community is poverty, substance abuse, broken families, impaired learning, and the unchurched are Litchfield’s darkness.
Last year we discussed two strategies for FBCL to implement two good works that shine in the darkness: biblical counseling and Litchfield Christian School. Biblical counseling helps us to address some these areas of darkness by providing the authority and sufficiency of scripture to complicated broke dynamics. That is not to say we do not provide food boxes and work training, but we need to address their heart with the truth of the gospel as we help them with resources.
Litchfield Christian School is a means of grace to families that not only confronts impaired learning and the unchurched, but it has the potential to break generations of poverty, substance abuse, and broken family dynamics by empowering children with a Christian education that helps them flourish in the church, community, and home.
Be salt and life in Litchfield!
Be salt and life in Litchfield!
(1)Doriani, Daniel M. 2021. “Matthew.” In Matthew–Luke, edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, VIII:86. ESV Expository Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
(2) Pennington, Jonathan T. 2017. The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.
(3) Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (New York: Penguin, 2002).
Doriani, Daniel M. 2006. The Sermon on the Mount: The Character of a Disciple. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.