VII. The Reconciling Child
Jesus says in verse 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” What happens to a person who repents of his sin and receives Jesus Christ as the Messiah? He wants others to know about his Savior. He wants to see others brought to God. We might call this person, “the reconciling child.” He wants people to be reconciled to God.
The peacemakers are not the individuals whom you see standing on the street corners holding signs that say, “End war.” They are those who, having come to receive peace with God, now want others to have peace with God. Our sin had made us enemies of God at war with Him. The blood of Jesus Christ, removing our sin, makes peace between God and the one who calls upon Him.
The apostle Paul in Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified (made righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a peace that one receives by faith and when you have it, you want others to know it too. These peacemakers are those whom Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 52:7: “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
What a wonderful event takes place when someone is reconciled to God. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17).” You have seen this in the life of one who, now at peace with God, has a joy to share of this new relationship he has in Jesus Christ.
There is no other way to have peace with God except through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:14 says, “He Himself is our peace.” Ephesians 2:17-18 says that “He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.” Why then do we have peace with God? Jesus opened the way of access through the Holy Spirit to the Father. He died on the cross, rose from the dead, went back to heaven and sent His Holy Spirit into the heart of every believer. This is why we no longer need a priest to intercede for us. Jesus has given us full, free access to the Father through the Holy Spirit by His blood.
Desiring to be a peacemaker (bringing others to find peace with God) should be the attitude of everyone who has received Jesus Christ as Savior. This standing of peace with God should cause us to enter into the battle for the souls of men to bring them to peace with God. This is what Paul says at the end of his letter to the Ephesians. We are to be daily prepared for this battle. We are to put on our spiritual armor through prayer. And one of the pieces of this equipment is the combat boots of preparation to share the gospel of peace. We are not ready to share the gospel with anyone unless at the beginning of our day we ask God to put on these boots for us so the devil will not step on our toes when God brings an opportunity to put in a good word for God and the gospel.
Let me ask you this question. What happens to a person who gets excited because God has cleansed his heart by faith and because of it begins to tell others about how they can get right with God and be at peace with Him? Those who hear this man tell them of their sin and their need to be born again by the Spirit of God will become just as excited and trust in the message of peace that he brings.
VIII. The Rightly Persecuted
This point is the last aspect of this repentance that leads to life. In verse 10 Jesus brings us full circle to those who possess the kingdom of heaven: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When someone genuinely has the heart of a peacemaker and seeks to bring others to know peace with God, this person is going to come under a great spiritual attack.
We might call these the rightly persecuted. Jesus said you are blessed when you are persecuted “BECAUSE OF ME.” I say rightly persecuted because there are people who are persecuted but not because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Their attitude, their poor work ethic, their arrogant or haughty manner contribute to their rejection. They may think they are being persecuted for Jesus’s sake, but in reality they bring it upon themselves.
There was an example of this when I was on the submarine. There was a reactor operator who was a Christian. Now the rule is that one is not allowed to read any other material while on watch except that which has to do with the reactor and engineering. But this man wanted to read his Bible while on watch. He was told he could not but continued to do so and was punished for it. He complained that he was undergoing persecution for the Lord because of it. But that was not persecution. If you were told that you could read any other material except the Bible while on watch that would be persecution. But to exclude all material except reactor-related material, so that you are not distracted from paying attention to your watch, that is not persecution.
So Jesus is speaking of the rightly persecuted. Do you see the progression? It is interesting to note that these who now have peace with God are persecuted for sharing this secret of peace with others. It is a strange thing that people would be upset at someone’s desire to tell them how they can know God. This shows us clearly that it is a spiritual battle.
We see the type of persecution. It may be verbal (insults, falsely saying all kinds of evil against you). It is interesting to note the things of which the early Christians were falsely accused. They were called atheists because they did not believe in the multiplicity of gods as the Romans did. They were called cannibals because of the Lord’s Supper. They were called immoral because of their fellowships when they spent extended periods of time together as a family and ate meals together. The Christians called these agape (or love) feasts and so unbelievers implied that there was more to the fellowship than met the eye. They were falsely accused of all these things so that it might tarnish the name of those Christians and Jesus Christ. There was graffiti found in Rome depicting a man standing before a person on a cross with the head of a donkey. The inscription below it was “Alexamenos worships his God.” The mocking reference to Christ is obvious. How many would like their name attached to that?
But how often today are we who desire people to find peace with God mocked? We are called hateful (because we hold to the truth of God’s Word), proud (because we say that we know the truth), narrow (because we proclaim Jesus as the way), fanatic (because we want others to know Him and can’t stop bringing him up into an otherwise mundane conversation) and many other hurtful words that are meant to wound us.
The type of persecution may be verbal or, secondly, it might be physical. The word “persecution” itself conveys this idea of physical attack. When Saul (before he became the apostle Paul) was attacking the church he met Jesus on the way to the city of Damascus in a very extraordinary way. Jesus questioned him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” The word means to pursue after, in this context with the idea of bringing physical harm.
In any case, verbal or physical persecution is always mental. The one persecuting seeks to enact a mental toll upon the one who is persecuted (to keep them from going on telling others about Jesus) and the persecutor hopes to inflict a mental toll upon those who might consider receiving Jesus Christ, for they know that they might very well experience the same thing if they acknowledge Christ as Lord.
Now let’s think about the source of this persecution. It is spiritual (even demonic). There is a spiritual battle going on for the souls of men. And a prime weapon that Satan loves to use to minimize the effectiveness of the church is persecution. He will not escalate to use physical means if simple verbal mistreatment or threats suffice to stop the mouth of the Christian from bringing the truth of the gospel to bear upon people. He’ll not have someone insult you if he knows that a physical problem will keep you away from serving Him in this manner.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians that we are not ignorant of his schemes, but I am afraid that too often we are. We fail to recognize how he is trying to bind us up in this matter of the gospel.
Yet what the devil means for evil, God uses for good. Here then we see the comfort in persecution. The Lord allows persecution to grow the church. It causes the growth of the church spiritually. It allows us to see that though we face difficulties, God is still with us. In Romans 8:35-37, Paul asks, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
How then are we to overwhelmingly conquer in the midst of persecution? We need to rejoice, and you can’t rejoice apart from the Holy Spirit. You need His power. In Acts 13:52, Luke writes (after the apostles had been abused for the sake of Christ), “the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Don’t fear being a peacemaker because, if God should allow persecution, you can look to the Holy Spirit who will fill you with joy in the midst of it. Too often we fear what will never happen. In that case Satan doesn’t have to bring persecution against you if he has you all bound up in fear. Do what God wants you to do and trust Him to work through you. Believe in the filling of the Holy Spirit to work through you and leave the results to Him. You can’t control the results. Peter gave out the gospel and 3,000 people were converted to Jesus Christ. Stephen gave out the gospel and he was stoned to death. You don’t control the response of those around you. But you can control whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit or not. You can control whether you are going to rejoice in the midst of trial or not.
If persecution does take place because you want others to know about how to receive peace with God, then Jesus tells us what we need to do. First, rejoice that you are blessed. “Blessed are you when people insult you…” You have the blessing of eternal life. You have the blessing of suffering for His sake. In Acts 5 the apostles, having been brought before the council, were beaten for proclaiming the gospel. Verse 5:41 says, “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.” There was a joy in knowing that God allows us to suffer for the sake of the One who suffered on our behalf.
Secondly, rejoice that you have a great reward. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.” If you are persecuted for the sake of righteousness you can know that God is using you and these circumstances to reach others with the gospel of peace. If so, then you are going to have great reward. Meditate on these verses when you recognize the persecution that would seek to undo you. Your reward in heaven is great because God Himself will receive you into a place where there will be no more difficulty or opposition or pain or suffering. Though today may be a day of trouble there will come the day when it will be no more. Seeing this as great reward is viewing it through the eyes of faith. It is the eye of faith that can rejoice over a reward that no one can see.
Thirdly, rejoice that you have a great heritage. Jesus said, “Rejoice and be glad… for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This is not something new! For centuries before the prophets were tormented by those who refused to hear the message. They were mocked, sawn in two, imprisoned, beaten, and slain with swords because they were true to God and His message to the people. Read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs sometime. It speaks of Christian martyrs from the time of Christ until the present day. There are many in the past who have suffered greatly for Jesus Christ.
If you will endure persecution for the sake of the truth of the gospel then you are following in a long line of those who have gone before and have been greatly rewarded and amazingly blessed by a God who blesses those who believe Him and His promises. Without faith you will not be able to see the reward of the inheritance awaiting you. Faith is the only thing that will allow you to rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
If you have repented of your sin and called upon the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you have had your heart cleansed by faith, then are you a peacemaker? Do you long for others to have peace with God? If not, why not? Why do you want to hide the gospel under a bushel? Are you afraid of persecution? Are you just fearful?