Blessed Citizens

6 · Full reading of the primary text from Luke 6:12-26, covering Jesus' prayer, selection of the twelve apostles, healing of the crowds, and the Beatitudes with their corresponding woes

So look with me at Luke 6, starting in verse 12. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples And He chose from them 12, whom He named apostles: Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd and His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. Who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and he said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you when you weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. 'But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.' The word of the Lord. May He write its truth upon our hearts.

7 · Explains Luke's structural connection between the apostolic appointment and the Sermon on the Plain: the twelve apostles will carry Jesus' counter-kingdom vision forward into the formation of the early church

Well, Luke is very intentionally showing us a connection this morning. A connection between a choosing of the Twelve and like we said, Jesus laying out this vision of the Kingdom. These 12 men that He calls apostles, that He sets into this apostolic office, they're going to carry the message forward. That's what apostles do. They're messengers. They're going to carry this vision, this message, this teaching forward after Jesus ascends to God the Father. And these 12 men are going to be responsible for forming the early Christian community, for seeing everything that He describes in this vision, the ethics and the attitudes and the practices, for seeing those things become a part of the community of God's people on earth, a.k.a. the church.

8 · Widens the scope of Jesus' teaching from the twelve apostles to all disciples, arguing that Jesus' upward gaze at the broader group signals this counter-kingdom ethic applies to everyone who calls him Lord

But it's not just a message for the apostles. Jesus gives the sermon to all His disciples. This new world order that He envisions, the Kingdom lifestyle and the Kingdom values that He calls for, they don't just apply to Paul, right? Who will get called later on. They don't just apply now to Peter, James, and John. He's laying a claim upon anyone who would call him Lord. That's what we see happening in this text. And we know this because right before he starts reimagining how the world should work, which is what he's doing in this passage, right before he starts to do that, Luke says Jesus literally lifts up his eyes and looks at his gathered disciples. And we can kind of think of the disciples and the apostles interchangeably because they're described that way. But oftentimes, the disciples is a term for the larger group that followed Jesus on His itinerant ministry. And here, Luke is saying, goes up on the mountain, He seeks the Lord in prayer, He comes down, He specifically calls 12 men, not because they're gifted, not because they're special, but because of His own divine prerogative that He's received from the Father. He selects those 12 apostles out, and then He looks up at all of His disciples. He lifts up his eyes. It's a signal that if you would follow Jesus, then this is how you will live.

9 · Directly applies Jesus' gaze to the congregation, making clear that the counter-kingdom ethic being preached is not a historical curiosity but a present claim on everyone who follows Christ

And Jesus, through the authority of God's Word, is lifting up his eyes to us this morning. He's looking out over over us and saying, if you would be my disciple, if you would follow me, this is what it means to be a citizen of the counter kingdom.

10 · Introduces the first beatitude and its corresponding woe, noting the jarring division Jesus creates between the poor/hungry (blessed) and the rich/full (cursed), observing this is the opposite of seeker-sensitive messaging

And then he starts out by saying, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Verse 24, but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. The first thing Jesus sets out for his kingdom is the expectation that the poor and the hungry will be blessed, that the rich and the full and the satisfied will receive woe. Evidently Jesus isn't very up to date on the most seeker-sensitive ways to present your vision. This isn't a great way to draw in, to cast your net wide and get as many people as possible. It's really kind of dividing things. Blessed are you? Stinks to be you. The vision is incredible and it's inspiring and it is unsettling all at once, isn't it?

11 · Unpacks the Greek cultural meaning of 'blessed' (earthly happiness and prosperity) to show how Jesus inverts it: being blessed in his kingdom has nothing to do with external circumstances or earthly prosperity but with one's status in the kingdom of God

Jesus uses this really familiar image in the Greek world to get His point across. It's this notion of Being blessed. And it's not like we talk about being blessed. That phrase just gets kind of thrown around and almost divorced from any meaning nowadays. People just talk about, 'I'm blessed. I'm blessed.' It's almost a meaningless thing. But in this day and age, it's a label. It's a very specific label that's used in the Greek world. And you say someone is blessed, something is blessed, specifically if it's something that leads to earthly happiness. Blessed are you because of this, because it's led you to earthly prosperity and happiness. That's how the Greek world envisioned this phrase. And so immediately, Jesus is inverting their ideas and their conceptions of what it means to be blessed, isn't He? You are blessed! This is how you have earthly happiness. You are blessed! If you're poor and you're hungry and you don't have all the sources of earthly happiness. Your blessing, Jesus says, has nothing to do with your external circumstances. Your lot in the kingdom of this evil age doesn't determine your lot in the kingdom of God. Jesus starts out reimagining even what makes a person well off. Who's well off? Who's advantaged in his kingdom? Well, being well off and advantaged is more than what you've accomplished, and it's more than what you've accumulated.

12 · Articulates the theological purpose of the beatitudes: to assure disciples that God sees and is for those who live by kingdom values despite the cost of discipleship

The sense of the beatitude— that's kind of the technical phrase for this section of Luke's Gospel— the sense of the beatitudes is that God sees His eyes are upon those who live according to the values of the kingdom. Jesus, in this passage, in this first beatitude, the first two beatitudes, is assuring his disciples, God is for you. He sees your plight and he knows the cost of following him.

13 · Defines 'poor' in concrete economic terms (those lacking basic needs at the bottom of the social ladder) and provides historical context of Roman land redistribution, showing both involuntary poverty in Palestine and voluntary poverty among disciples like Matthew and Zacchaeus who left wealth to follow Jesus

Specifically, God sees the poor. And Jesus has good news for the poor. This isn't a spiritualized version of poverty. Luke is very specifically calling to mind people who lack basic needs, people whose status is at the very bottom of the economic ladder. And so at the very bottom of the economic ladder, they also find themselves on the fringe of society. They live their lives with acute vulnerability. They don't have safety and security. They don't have power. They don't have influence. For many in Palestine, that is their situation. When Rome comes to power, one of the things Rome does, it starts to re-scramble things. It takes the land and it takes them out of people's hands, removes their property from them. There's no sense of a Bill of Rights in Rome. You don't have a right to property. Rome comes and takes the property and it redistributes that property as political favors. And so now people who need the land to make a living don't have the land. Even for men like Matthew and later Zacchaeus, some of these disciples are men and women who've willingly become impoverished because they've responded to Jesus' call, right? We saw a few weeks ago Levi sitting in his tax booth wealthy, good living. Jesus comes, looks him in the eye, calls him, and he drops it. He drops that source of blessing, earthly material happiness, and leaves it behind to be impoverished with this itinerant rabbi. Zacchaeus later on in the Gospel is going to have his life turned upside down by Jesus, and all this wealth that he's dishonestly accumulated, he's going to start righteously distributing. Radically giving.

14 · Argues the poor are blessed because poverty removes the temptation to find security in possessions; challenges Western definitions of wealth by showing most Americans qualify as rich by global standards; establishes that the poor are more inclined to trust God rather than material security

Part of the reason Luke is showing us that the poor are blessed is because they don't have the perceived blessing of investing their hopes in earthly possessions. Does that make sense? Part of the reason why Jesus says you are blessed when you're poor and when you're hungry is because you're not tempted to have the perceived blessing of thinking by accumulating stuff, I'm going to be happy, I'm going to be satisfied, I'm going to be secure. We're not accumulating donkeys and horses and things of that nature like they maybe were then, right? For us, it's maybe the temptation of perceived blessings in a car or a nicer car or a newer car. Putting your hope in owning a home, having income that goes beyond the bare necessities, an income that allows for savings and retirement. Those aren't blessings the poor possess. And you'll notice we also need to rethink who is rich, don't we? There's an interesting sociological phenomenon that happens. People tend not to think of themselves as rich. Bill Gates can't help but think of himself as rich. Forbes tells him once a year, 'You're still the richest guy in the world,' right? Warren Buffett gets the same reminder. But most other people don't think of themselves as wealthy. They think of the people who are just above them as wealthy. That's how we tend to think about it. But Jesus in Luke's Gospel is recasting that for us. The reality is most Americans fall into the category of the wealthy. Most Westerners fall into that category. Most of the people that we would say fall below the poverty line still have fridges full of food, they still have televisions. Studies have found sometimes multiple gaming systems and a computer. Those are levels of affluence that parts of the majority world have no sense of. To have consistent electricity is something only the wealthy have. In the Counter Kingdom, blessings, Jesus says, fall on the poor. Why? Because they aren't consumed by the oppression of their possessions. The poor are blessed because they're not oppressed by what they possess. Because of their lack, they're more inclined to turn to God. They're more likely to entrust themselves to God's care and to protection. They don't rest easy because the fridge is full or because the investment portfolio is doing well. That's not why they sleep well at night. They sleep well at night because in their poverty they have learned to cast their anxieties upon God and to trust him.

15 · Real account from Voice of the Martyrs of poor Colombian believers who risk capsizing in unstable boats to reach church, yet when offered a second boat, request it be given to a needier congregation, demonstrating the generosity and God-dependence that marks the truly poor

We heard stories this week at Voice of the Martyr. It's just so helpful to get perspective. One of the men is the regional director over all of Latin America and so he's constantly traveling down to places like Venezuela and Colombia and Chiapas, Mexico Helping and doing what he can to bring tangible benefit to Christians who are being persecuted. And he interacts with these people. And most of these believers live in serious, serious legitimate poverty. Not Western poverty. Lowest of the lowest poverty. He's telling us about some of these Christians who live in Colombia. And these are poor, poor believers. They have to go a long ways to get to church. And oftentimes they don't have vehicles that function properly. And when the rainy season comes, rainy season comes, and the rainy season can be really rainy and wet, the roads are completely just inundated with water and they're unpassable. And so for a lot of the year to get to church, these very poor people have to load themselves up into boats. And we saw pictures of these boats. They're these super long, narrow— I don't know who imagined them, but they're just not stable vessels. They look like they were about maybe 40 feet long and 28 people would pile into them. And there was a video of them getting in and it's like, These people get in these boats every day and they're still having trouble keeping it upright as they cram in 28 people to a boat. And so in order for them to get to church on a Sunday, they have to get in that boat and they have to drive up these rivers. And then the boat has to come back for more because the whole church can't fit in the boat. And so there's this shuttle system. It's not our shuttle system where the parking lot's so big in our large church. And so we have a shuttle system, but we give you a ticket to a little latte at the church's coffee bar. 'Thank you for parking in the other parking lot, we'll give you a latte.' It's not that kind of shuttle system. These people are poor, poor believers, and VOM is seeking to serve them and care for them. He told this amazing story, the regional director did. He said that they found some of these believers and these people making great sacrifices every Lord's Day to go and worship. And they came to one of the pastors and they said, 'We want to buy you another boat.' to make it possible for your church to more efficiently gather for worship. And he's just— pastor's overwhelmed. This is just such a tangible blessing for them. This church has extreme need for assistance. And then he shocked the regional director. He said, but please, if you could, 'Can you give it to that church a little distance away? They have greater need of the boat than we do.' He said, 'I was just shocked. They need this boat. These are poor people who have no way to raise funds for another boat.' And he encounters generosity. He says, 'No, go bless that other church.'

16 · Applies the Colombian boat story to the congregation by contrasting the sacrifices poor believers make to worship with American struggles to get to church, then draws out the lesson that poverty teaches profound trust in God and freedom from enslavement to possessions

That's remarkable. Now there's a whole sermon that we could have on just the sacrifices those people make so they can gather together in worship. And they make the Sharps' commute seem really nice. You got a van with air conditioning. These people are like, literally, don't rock the boat. We might capsize. But to gather with God's people, to sit in a room with your brothers and sisters in Christ when you're suffering for the name of Jesus, What a privilege! It puts in perspective the struggles we have on a Sunday morning to get here, doesn't it? But it also puts in perspective these poor, impoverished believers in Colombia and their sense of blessing. Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Out of their need, they have learned a profound level of trust. They aren't enslaved to stuff. No, our brothers down the road, they need the boat more than we do. They aren't suffering from the oppression of their possessions, and so they're free to generously extend their meager blessings to others.

17 · Directly addresses the congregation's likely discomfort with the beatitude on poverty, refuting the temptation to soften Jesus' teaching and affirming that he genuinely expects radical discipleship, not incremental improvement

Now, if we're honest with ourselves, if I'm honest with you, this is the toughest beatitude to hear, isn't it? This is a hard one. It's part of the reason that people are constantly trying to kind of water down this sermon. Well, Jesus, when He preaches the Sermon on the Plain and the Sermon on the Mount, He's not actually thinking people are literally going to live this way. He's just kind of setting the bar high and hoping you'll kind of come up a degree or two. People make those charges. They think that way about this message. But He is. Jesus really is casting a vision and calling us to live this way.

18 · Addresses the woe against the rich by defining wealth as compulsive accumulation and identifying it as a stumbling block to the kingdom; balances this by affirming rich people can be saved because God can work the miracle of making them trust him more than their possessions

And then part of the reason why it's hard to hear is He says, 'Woe to you who are rich,' because you've already cashed in your consolation. You've already cashed in the chips for your comfort. 'Woe to the full.' people loosening their belts because they've eaten so much. Later you'll be hungry. It's a hard beatitude to hear when you live in an affluent society. As uncomfortable as it makes us, there's no escaping that Jesus teaches— there's no escaping what he teaches us about wealth. Wealth being the compulsive accumulation of more. And what Jesus teaches about wealth is that it's a stumbling block to entering the kingdom. That's there in the text. Part of the blessing of being poor is that stumbling block doesn't sit in front of you. Doesn't mean all the poor are in the kingdom, but it means one of the significant stumbling blocks is removed. So it's not that rich people can't be saved. It's not that rich people can't be in the kingdom. Luke is a physician, right? Theophilus, the primary person he's writing his Gospel and the book of Acts to, for all intents and purposes seems to be an educated Greek. Probably fairly well off. Lydia in Philippi is a business owner. She's got a big enough home she can house the church. Most of Luke's Greco-Roman audience is probably well off. These wealthy people though are in because God can do the impossible. That's the good news we see here for the wealthy. It's not that the wealthy can't be in the kingdom, but amazingly, God can work the miracle of making rich people put more trust in him than they do in their stuff.

19 · Establishes the test for whether wealthy people have truly entered the kingdom: they stop viewing possessions as theirs and practice radical generosity, living in integrated community where resources are shared so there is no lack

And the miracle happens in part because Luke pulls no punches in warning his audience and warning us this morning of the perils of being oblivious to what it means to be affluent. You'll know when rich people have entered the kingdom. Luke's Gospel will cast a vision for this. You'll know when rich people have entered the kingdom because they no longer view their stuff as their stuff. Radical discipleship brings radical hope and radical assurance for people who are impoverished and hungry, and it produces radical generosity in the wealthy. So that they live in community with one another. There's not this sense of the poor go to church here, the rich go to church here. No, they live together. They share together. And where the Gospel is taking root, where the Kingdom is happening, there's hope and there's assurance for those who don't have much in part because there's a sharing from those who do have much. That's what we see in the book of Acts. There's a lack of needs in the church because there's an open-handedness. It's not my stuff, it's the Lord's stuff and I'm going to steward it for the benefit of the kingdom.

20 · Connects the beatitudes to the later parable of Lazarus and the rich man to show how treatment of the poor reveals one's relationship to God; establishes the eschatological reversal where the poor inherit the kingdom's eternal banquet while the complacent rich face judgment

Luke's Gospel will make clear as we continue in it that how we relate to the poor reveals in part how we relate to God. We see that in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, right? Later on in the Gospel, he tells the story of this rich man, fine purple robes, and you just get the sense of he's just laying on his couch, just stuffing his face constantly. That's really the image Luke gives us, Jesus gives us in the parable. And there's Lazarus, this poor, impoverished rich man covered with sores. And he says, just like in the Beatitudes, this rich man lacks for nothing. But when they die, their destinies are reversed. The blessings are inverted. And it's the rich man who finds himself in eternal judgment crying out that Lazarus would dip his finger in the water and give him reprieve. Part of what Jesus is casting a vision for here is that history heads towards an inevitable conclusion. Why are the poor blessed? Why will the hungry be filled? Because there's a banquet coming. There's a wedding feast of the Lamb, and all who are citizens of the kingdom will partake in that day.

21 · Applies the beatitude on poverty and wealth to the church's Financial Peace University program, redefining its purpose from financial security to freedom from enslavement to money, pointing toward storing treasures in heaven

Little obvious application: why are we doing Financial Peace University? What's the reasoning behind that? The whole point of it isn't so you'd find peace of mind and ultimate joy in your finances. The reason we're doing Financial Peace University isn't to get everyone in the church living in the black and not the red. It's not to make sure everyone's out of debt. It's not to make sure everyone is really well set up for retirement. That's not why we're doing it. The goal of the course is to be a means, along with other means, primarily the preaching of God's Word, to be informed by God's Word, to free us from the tyranny of money and possessions. Both the person who's enslaved to the lender and the person who's enslaved to the mutual fund. And there's slavery to both. Why? I don't really like the name Financial Peace University, but I'm hoping it's an on-ramp to kingdom peace, that you would store up treasures in in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy.

22 · Signals the shift from the first beatitude (poverty/hunger) to the second beatitude (weeping/mourning)

Second, Jesus shows us blessed are those who weep.

23 · Unpacks the beatitude on weeping as referring to both grief over suffering and repentance, establishing that God draws near to the brokenhearted in both senses; contrasts this with woe on those currently laughing, which is not judgment on joy but pity for those oblivious to their coming judgment who live without regard for Jesus

This next category is for those who weep. In the ancient world, weeping is usually a sign of one of two things: you're in mourning or you're repenting. And I think it's really catching both of those. The point Jesus makes is that in the counter-kingdom, God draws near to the brokenhearted. He draws near to people who are brokenhearted because they're suffering and they're facing difficulty and they're facing loss. And He draws near to the brokenhearted because their heart has been broken. It's been taken from a heart of stone and it's made a heart of flesh. And they're repenting and they're turning to the Kingdom. And Jesus says, 'When all is said and done, when the Kingdom is fully consummated and I return, those people who are weeping now, who are mourning for loss, or mourning in repentance, their tears will turn to laughter. And conversely, woe falls on those who are full of laughter now. And Jesus isn't saying woe on the optimists, woe on those who like to laugh with their friends. That's not the idea. This idea of woe isn't even like some of the woes that Jesus will extend to cities in the gospel. He'll see cities that reject His message and outright reject His kingdom, and He'll pronounce judgment on them. That's not exactly what's happening here. This woe, these woes, they're more almost expressions of pity. Jesus expressing pity for groups of people who are under divine judgment and who are oblivious to their plight. Woe to the Mary. Woe to those who laugh and drink and celebrate and enjoy life, but they have no regard for Jesus. A day is coming when their laughter will turn to tears and their mourning, when their levity will become a gnashing of teeth. The image of the kingdom isn't that the Real Housewives of New York City win. The image of woe is that they are oblivious to what the future holds for them. And in a culture that celebrates that lifestyle, that paints beautiful pictures of what it looks like, that sucks you into thinking that's how to live, Jesus shows us it's a falsehood.

24 · Articulates the sermon's central binary: the two kingdoms are mutually exclusive and demand total allegiance; attempts to straddle both are illusory—one's heart is ultimately owned by one kingdom or the other

Jesus' sermon on the plain is driving home the point: you can't have the best of both worlds. It can't be done. You can't have the best of both worlds. Each kingdom demands total allegiance. They're totally antithetical to one another. It's impossible to have one foot in the kingdom of this world and one foot in the kingdom Jesus imagines, in the kingdom Jesus calls his disciples to. It's not possible to do it. You can have the appearance of doing it. Some people try and have the appearance of doing it, but in reality, your heart is owned by one kingdom or it's owned by the other kingdom.

25 · Shifts from individual blessing to corporate responsibility: the beatitude on weeping calls the church to share a common life where those who aren't suffering come alongside those who are, with concrete examples including housing abuse victims and writing to imprisoned pastors

Luke's purpose in writing this isn't just to encourage true believers as they walk the path of radical discipleship. Jesus is calling us. He's He's seeking to stir up empathy and to stir up fellowship. Fellowship, remember in our series on Acts a year ago, year and a half ago? To share a common life. So as you read of the blessings that come to those who are weeping, part of what Jesus is calling us to is that those who aren't weeping would come alongside those who are weeping. And not just in the sense that you mourn with people when they get the diagnosis of cancer. You send the encouraging email. Yes, do that! But that you walk with people through the treatment and through the remission. That when you hear of a spouse who's being abused, you would open your home knowing it might bring risk. What if that man comes to your door in anger? A guy who has uncontrollable outbursts of anger, but that you would open your home to the vulnerable woman at sacrifice to yourself, give her the bedroom, move your kids all into one room. Calls to write letters of support to imprisoned pastors in Iran and their families, expressing solidarity with them. Encouraging them that the global church, their brothers and sisters under the headship of Christ, is praying with them, remembers them, is with them in their suffering.

26 · Introduces the third and final beatitude on persecution for bearing Jesus' name

And that leads us to the last blessing. The final blessing is for those who are hated and who are excluded, who are reviled and spurned as evil on account of Jesus. Blessed are the persecuted.

27 · Drawing on personal experience at Voice of the Martyrs, unpacks the beatitude on persecution by clarifying that the 'name' spurned is not personal reputation but the name 'Christian' itself—a term originally meant as pejorative mockery that Jesus reframes as a sign of God's favor

It's a fresh one for me, spending a week at Voice of the Martyrs. Sobering really doesn't begin to describe what it's like to serve down there. When you go to chapel and they have speakers come in and they're telling these stories of people who are really deeply suffering because they're associated with Jesus. But again, Jesus reverses our expectations. It's not natural to suffer ridicule and to face hardship, to be sent off to prison, to have your home stolen from you, and to consider all those things a mark of being blessed. That's not normal. Well, that's precisely what happens, Jesus says, in the counter kingdom. In fact, Jesus says, 'Rejoice!' Literally, leap for joy. It sounds like the guy on the mat, right? He leaves leaping for joy. You should be responding like the guy who's been paralyzed all his life and now he can walk. When you suffer and your back is broken in prison and now you live the rest of your life paralyzed because of the name of Jesus. How does that happen? I think the key for grasping it, grasping how that can be the case, is the phrase 'when they spurn your name as evil.' At first blush, it kind of seems to be implying when they look at you and your reputation gets ruined because of Jesus, right? That's kind of how I think we're inclined to think about it. That's not the point Jesus is making here. Your name is singular. Luke isn't referring to a damaged personal reputation. He's referring to the name you bear as a follower of Jesus. Luke is going to record for us in the book of Acts that the first time believers are called Christians is in Antioch, and the name isn't a compliment. Oh, Christians. No, this is a derogatory nickname. It's meant to mock these people who put their hope in a man who was crucified. It's mocking these people who put their hope in a man who was persecuted and put to death in the most shameful way imaginable. It's a pejorative label. These fools would lose their social standing. They would lose their families. They would lose their businesses. Sometimes they would even lose their lives to follow some Palestinian Jew who died on a cross. Christians. But what they intend as a reproach, Jesus envisions we will bear as an intrinsic sign of God's favor.

28 · Articulates the unifying theological center of all the beatitudes: blessing comes not from the external conditions (poverty, hunger, weeping, persecution) but from proximity to Jesus—the beatitudes are radically Christocentric, revealing that citizenship in the counter-kingdom means nearness to Christ

Implicit in all these Beatitudes is that the blessed one, the good citizen of the counter-kingdom, is favored. Not because they're poor or because they're hungry or they're weeping or they're persecuted, No, they're blessed because in all of those states, they are close to Jesus. These are remarkably Christ-centered, Christocentric Beatitudes. The term that's meant to be a revulsion, Christian, is a symbol of our joy. Yes, I am a Christian. I'm one whose hope is bound up with my union with Jesus Christ. The Beatitudes are radically, inherently Christ-centered. There is a joy for citizens of the counter-kingdom because of the great benefit of their citizenship, and that citizenship fundamentally brings them near to Jesus. That's what Jesus is showing us. Or rather, that as we suffer hardship in a world set against the kingdom of God, Jesus draws near to us. And that's the good news of the gospel. Once your enemies, now seated at your table. Jesus, thank you.

29 · Returns to the Colombian context to emphasize the real cost of persecution: pastors traveling in danger, leaving families vulnerable to violence, and a woman martyred for evangelizing her neighbors—sobering the congregation with actual martyrdom that puts Western evangelistic timidity in perspective

But that doesn't make it easy now, does it? It's not easy for pastors in Colombia, those pastors who get in the boats. These pastors live in constant danger to minister to this spread-out flock. They have to go and have to journey to other villages. Not enough pastors to go around, not enough training for these men. So they go and they travel and they face hardships from these guerrillas and these paramilitary groups in the area. And when they leave, they leave with the knowledge that to go and pastor their flock means they leave their wives and their children vulnerable. Vulnerable to abuse and beatings and being scorned and even raped. One of the Christian women in those Colombian congregations was shot to death for evangelizing the guerrillas' wives and daughters. That's some perspective, right? She's martyred for doing what she saw as basic discipleship, sharing Christ with her neighbors even under the threat of death. Kind of casts a new light on being afraid to speak across the backyard fence.

30 · Applies the beatitude on persecution to the American context post-Supreme Court decision on marriage, arguing that coming reproach for biblical Christianity will clarify allegiances by making casual Christianity untenable—a development with great gospel potential despite the cultural anxiety it produces

Won't be easy for us either. We talked earlier about the Supreme Court decision this week, the SCOTUS decision that just got handed down. There will be real hate and reproach and reviling and dishonoring for being a Christian faithful to the Scriptures. It will happen. To be a true citizen, a radical disciple, to be one who's in the counter-kingdom will mean now with that decision it has been officially legitimized That's out of step with how our country thinks. Go read the comments section on op-eds in the Washington Post by Russell Moore and others and see how they think about us, right? Those things are happening now. Let's not pretend they're happening like our brothers and sisters in Colombia, right? Let's not delude ourselves. But it is happening. Our temptation, I think my temptation is to bemoan these developments. You can get angry, right? Right? Some people are getting angry. You can get fearful. But in the midst of it, I think there's actually great potential. In the midst of these massively shifting cultural values, there is great gospel potential. In part because it's getting increasingly difficult to keep a foot in both worlds. We are watching in front of our eyes the quick death of casual Christianity. And that is a very good thing. The social benefits that come from being labeled as a Christian are eroding with an alarming speed. You are either radically for Christ or you are against him. And so these are trying times and many around us are wringing our hands. But Luke's Gospel would show us this is not unusual. It's normal Christian experience. Christ's Kingdom can't coexist for long with a fallen, a broken, a dying, a deceptive kingdom.

31 · Contextualizes American cultural shift within the long arc of church history, arguing that nothing fundamental has changed—the world has always opposed Christ's kingdom, and current persecution for biblical marriage fits precisely the pattern Jesus predicted in Luke 6

And then you think of people saying this is a new era. This is a new day for Christians in America. In some ways it is. But in the grand scheme of things, I think Luke would say not much has changed at all. On the one hand, the world still rails against the Kingdom of Christ. That's exactly what Luke draws our attention to. The situation Americans find ourselves in over issues like the definition of marriage is not dissimilar to what Christians in the Soviet Union experienced 50 years ago. A government embracing and enacting anti-Christian values. That's to say, we find ourselves in precisely the situation that Jesus predicted. In Luke chapter 6. Precisely the situation Jesus was in. We bear reproach because we bear his name.

32 · Brings Acts 5 to bear on the contemporary situation, showing how the apostles responded to persecution by rejoicing and continuing faithful witness, modeling the response American Christians should have to current cultural opposition

One of my favorite passages is Acts chapter 5, and I think in this we see the unexpected blessing the Supreme Court has given to the church in their decision. Not something we seek out, but something providentially we've now received the opportunity to experience. And when they had called in the apostles, this is all the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, they beat them and they charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus. And then they let them go, in part because they're afraid of the power of God. And then they, the disciples, the apostles, left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. That's like straight out of the beatitude, suffering evil because of the name. We were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. And then every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. They suffer. The authorities are behind the suffering, and they don't shrink back. They don't get angry. They consider it a distinct honor and privilege. And then they go out into their workplaces. And their neighborhoods and their communities, and they share that this crucified Jesus that the world scorns is real, and he's living, and he's reigning, and he's calling us to himself.

33 · Addresses the 'wrong side of history' taunt by asserting Jesus' ongoing cosmic sovereignty: nothing changed with the Supreme Court decision because Jesus remains enthroned, directing all history toward the eternal blessing of his disciples—which explains why he can invert earthly notions of blessing

I think it also hasn't changed because in the grand scheme of things, Jesus is still seated on his throne. It's not just that Christians always suffer. It's that Jesus has been and still remains directing the course of history. That's kind of one of the phrases that gets thrown out right now to kind of sneer at Christians. You're on the wrong side of history, man. Don't you know? Like, your side is losing. You are going to be reviled for generations after this for believing these backwards ideas. That distorts the true picture of reality that Luke paints here. Christians should have no desire to be on the right side of human history. Who cares what direction human history is going? I want to be on the right side of cosmic history, of the history that Christ is reigning over. Nothing changed with the Supreme Court decision. Jesus is still Lord. He's still enthroned in the heavens. He's still the one directing all of history towards its conclusion, towards His ends, towards His glory, and that conclusion is to see all those who believe the gospel, everyone who's entrusted themselves to Christ's counter-kingdom, to live as radical disciples in a world that doesn't understand it, that conclusion, that end, is that every one of them would receive the full measure of the King's eternal blessing. That's why Jesus can have these inverted, reversed notions of what it means to be blessed.

34 · Marshals Philippians 1:27-30 as Paul's perspective on persecution, showing that suffering for Christ is a grace granted by God and linking contemporary opposition to the apostolic pattern of conflict for the gospel

I love how Paul says it. Paul usually says it best. He's just so helpful in casting our perspective. In the letter of Philippians, he's writing to the church in Philippi in Macedonia, and he's writing from a prison cell, right? Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live as a radical disciple of the counter kingdom, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. Our opponents are the Supreme Court. Whoop-de-doo! Jesus is Lord! This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, that they stand opposed to the gospel, but of your salvation, and that from God. And then this is so helpful. End with this perspective. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

35 · Returns to the primary text to close the sermon with the eschatological promise undergirding the entire beatitude on persecution

Blessed are those who are persecuted on account of the Son of Man, for great is their reward in heaven.

36 · Closing prayer asking for transformation into doers of the word who are reshaped by the gospel vision, with specific petitions for endurance, faithfulness, compassion toward enemies, freedom from materialism, and ultimately for nearness to Jesus as the true reason for seeking kingdom blessings

Lord, it is much harder to live this message out than it is to hear it and than it is to preach it. And Lord, we want to be not just hearers of your word but doers of your word. Lord, we don't want to be like the crowds who come to witness a miracle or to experience power and a healing and then go back to everyday life in a lost and dying world. Lord, we want to be changed by the word of the gospel. We want to encounter Christ in all of his power and in all of his glory. We want to have our hearts and our minds and our dreams and and our goals reshaped by the gospel and reshaped by the vision of the kingdom that Jesus gives us. Lord, we want that as a body and we pray for your help. We pray for endurance, we pray for wisdom, we pray for faithfulness, we pray for compassion, we pray that you would make us merciful and gracious even to those those who hate us because of you. We pray that our values and our perspectives and what we live for wouldn't be marked in a bank account, but it would look with the eyes of faith to the eternal, bountiful storehouses of heaven's treasures. And in all of this, Lord, we pray that the reason we would seek these blessings is because these things bring us near to your Son, Jesus. Send the Spirit of Christ to stir that up in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.