MATTHEW 5:10-16 LESSON # 3

I. Introduction:
Note: Let me tell you a short story: There was once a young college student who was asked to speak to the youth group during the summer since he was home from a Christian college. He deliberately used offensive words and certain annoying phrases that so irritated the adult sponsors that later on the pastors had to take the young man to lunch and let him know that they would not allow him to speak in Sunday School again. Was the young man upset? No!! He thought it was exciting to “take on the power structure”.
Q Was that young man suffering for God?
An = Hardly! He was reaping the consequences of his actions, but not suffering for the sake of righteousness. Jesus said: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10). It is one thing to irritate people because we are irritating persons and another to face insult and persecution because the purity of our lives has struck a nerve.
Note: Sometimes folks are offended by us, not our faith, but merely by our poor behavior. Maybe someone is not rejecting the Bible but us. I have sadly seen this to be true in my own life. They are not rejecting our words but something about our person or our behavior.
Q Why was Jesus Christ persecuted and finally tortured to death?
An = After they have given their answers, then offer what is given below.
Let me frame an answer to that question with the help of Dorothy Sayers.
“The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore–on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him `meek and mild’, and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale ministers and pious old ladies. To those who knew Him, however, He in no way suggested a milk-and-water person; they objected to Him as a dangerous firebrand. True, He was tender to the unfortunate, patient with honest inquirers, and humble before Heaven; but He insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites; He referred to King Herod as `that fox’; He went to parties in disreputable company and was looked upon as a `gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners’; He assaulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings out of the Temple; He drove a coach-and-horses through a number of sacrosanct and hoary regulations; He cured diseases by any means that came handy, with a shocking casualness in the matter of other people’s pigs and property; He showed no proper deference for wealth or social position; when confronted with neat dialectical traps, He displayed a paradoxical humor that affronted serious-minded people, and He retorted by asking disagreeably searching questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb. He was emphatically not a dull man in His human lifetime, and if He was God, there can be nothing dull about God either. But He had a `daily beauty in His life that made us ugly,’ and officialdom felt that the established order of things would be more secure without Him. So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.”
Note: Jesus said if we truly follow Him, if we were truly His disciples, then we too would face persecution because of the righteousness of our lives.
Q Is it fair that good people get maligned and hassled?
An = No, it isn’t. It brings discouragement, but it should be expected.
Q Should we be angry when we see terrible things happen to others or ourselves?
An = Jesus said the proper response is to realize who these suffering people really are.
>>>> Turn with me to Revelations 19:5-7. Let me show you what is going to be sung in heaven; Have someone read Revelations 19:5-7.
Note: Imagine the amount of joy and exaltation that will take place. The visual picture these verses paint is astounding.
Q Who is this bride that will excite great praise to be given to God?
An = It is the true church, the true believers. It is those who have suffered persecution for Christ, the groom. The “honors of men” pale in comparison to the honor of being the source of praise in heaven. How can we be part of that coronation? Hollywood or Political Rallies are small time compared with the unending choruses of heaven.
Q How do we become part of the real and magnificent celebration of the courts of heaven?
An = by being willing to suffer for doing the right thing.
Q Do you know someone who has suffered for doing the right thing? Could you share this with us?

II. Staying Loyal To The King, The Groom: Matthew 5:10-16.
A. Understanding Blessedness: Matthew 5:11-12.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:10-12.
Q How do we become blessed in this section?
An = When men insult us, persecute us, speak falsely of all kinds of evil against us because of Him.
Note: If I am loyal to Him, and I catch it for such loyalty, then Jesus says this is what your attitude should be…
>>>>Have someone re-read Matthew 5:12.
When there is a daily beauty about us that convicts others of their sin and we get persecuted, we are to rejoice. We are to be crazy with joy, because we have just joined the realm of the “blessed”. We are now like the great prophets of old who spoke the truth and paid dearly for their loyalty to God.
Note: Most of us try to be closet Christians. It is like the boy who went to work in the logging camps for a summer job and the youth group prayed for him that his faith would stay strong. When he came back the group asked him how his summer went. He replied: “Great, I had no hassle at all, no one ever even knew I was a Christian”.
B. Staying The Salt Of The Earth: Matthew 5:13.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:13.
Q What does salt represent?
An = We Christians we not called to melt away in the crowd and just fit in. We are the salt of the earth. Salt preserves, salt seasons, salt can sting…. Jesus was the salt of the earth and the planet has never been the same because He was here. He did not let religious people treat prostitutes with contempt, He did not mind touching the sick, and He did not mind associating with a “rough crowd”. He did not walk away when innocent people were brutalized… He has been the most beautiful thing that we have ever known and during His life time they said He had demons and crucified Him.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Jesus said, “blessed are you when you are like Me”.

>>>> Have someone re-read Matthew 5:13
Q What will happen to us if we will not pay that cost according to the end of verse 13?
An = We will be thrown out because we are useless. Nothing is more insipid than a compromised, closet Christian. Nothing is more valuable to your city or work place, or family, than those who will bear anything because of their loyalty to Jesus Christ.
Note: It is not optional to live out and declare our faith. We are either the salt of the earth or worthless.
C. Being The Light Of The World: Matthew 5:14-16.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:14-15.
RQ What if I got a really good flashlight and turned it on, and then carefully put it in a drawer?
Q What is the purpose of light according to these two verses?
An = It is to shine, to be seen and then to help other people see! If we do not share our faith, if we do not try to let others know the beauty of Jesus Christ, then we are cheating the world!
Q Does this mean that I should go home and irritate all my neighbors and family members with my religious superiority?
Q Does this mean that I should irritate all the folks at work by quoting the Bible?
Q Have you ever done or seen this done? What were the results?
Q Do some people bully others with their religion and call it witnessing?
An = Some times the best way to witness to the light is to serve with humility. We should be quick to humbly help the relative in need or to go the extra mile at work. Jesus was humble even though He was God in the flesh. If we are religiously arrogant then we are certainly not witnessing to Him. We have become servants of the Devil.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:16.
Q How do we know our light is truly shinning?
An = If people see our good deeds and they praise our Father who is in heaven, rather than praise us then we are doing it right!
Q Have you seen someone else do this lately?
Note: Remember a few weeks ago we saw that Jesus was the interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. We said that He was the acting out in human form, what He taught in Matthew chapters 5-7. Let me end with reading two short vignettes to you from Matthew, chapter 9.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 9:1-7.
Q What was the response of the crowd in verse 8?
An = They gave praise to God!
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 9:32-34.
Q What was the response to Jesus’ act of mercy here?
An = Here Jesus released a poor, demented, tortured man, but received criticism! Jesus was the Light of the World. He brought clarity, peace, goodness to all He dealt with, but He did not always get the proper response from some people. I think such people live in our time as well.
Note: Goodness given to the world comes at a price to those who deliver it. It will cost but all heaven will resound with joy at the beauty of our loyalty.