Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. Stephen has been teaching the Bible for over four decades, and we bring you these messages to help you know God, think biblically, and live wisely. Just before Stephen's message today, please take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast. That helps more people find this biblically faithful teaching.
Now, here's Stephen. Jesus promises here in his sermon that the world will turn their name into something evil. The Christian in China today is called a threat. The Christian today in North Korea is considered treasonous to their great leader. A Christian in a Muslim world is called an infidel.
But even in our own culture today, the Christian is being redefined as intolerant, unloving, hateful. One of the most famous musicians of the last century was an African American named Marian Anderson, a woman who was a committed Christian, born in 1897 to believing parents. Who raised her and her siblings in Philadelphia? She would grow up to sing professionally, everything from opera to gospel. She performed at the Metropolitan Opera and on stage throughout Europe to sellout crowds.
During her rather incredible career, she sang before Congress and heads of state. Toscanini, the world-renowned conductor, said that hers was the finest voice of the 20th century. Later in life, a reporter asked Marian, "What was the greatest moment in her life?" Now he suspected it might have been the concert she gave to the King and Queen in Buckingham Palace. Or perhaps singing at the inauguration of President Eisenhower, or being the very first recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, maybe receiving the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991, two years before her death. She didn't speak of any of those.
She quietly responded that her greatest moment in life. Was that day many years earlier, when she went home and told her mother she would not need to take in washing anymore? Her mother would not need to do the laundry of neighbors in order to help the family eat. How do you define greatness? What would you say, as you look back over your shoulder, is the greatest moment?
A great day? That was a great event in your life.
Now, over time, that's going to change, no doubt. In fact, just a couple of months ago, Marcia and I went to Charlotte for a few hours to celebrate our grandson's. Birthday. We sponsored an afternoon of of fun and games at Dave and Buster's. If you've never been, it's it's it's crazy.
It's loud, noisy, but it has a restaurant attached with really good food for adults who are in the process of losing their hearing and. A lot of money. Later that night, he went on a scavenger hunt with clues that had been designed by Marcia, known to him as Gigi. And later on that night, when he climbed into bed, he said to his mother, "This was the greatest day of my whole life." Well, Jesus is about to tell us that really the greatest things in life aren't about money or. Medals.
He's gonna, he's gonna turn everything upside down. It's gonna be disturbing to his audience, and to this day, it is unwelcome.
So, go back with me to Luke's Gospel in chapter six. Jesus has been demonstrating his credentials as the true King, not only of Israel but every nation, really. He's healing by his very presence, which was prophesied of the true Messiah. He's he's demonstrating his irresistible, unstoppable authority over the demonic world, also prophesied in the Old Testament of the Messiah. He's setting the captives free.
Now he begins preaching on the subject of what really makes you happy, what it means to be blessed. The word is makarios. What it means to be genuinely discovering the favor of God that leads to happiness. True happiness. This is what it likes, though, in the more narrow context of of what it means to belong to the King, what it means to be a citizen of His coming kingdom.
What does that look like?
Well, let me tell you this up front again. If you're new to our study, Jesus is going to reveal to them the harsh realities of life now, but the heavenly realities of the kingdom coming. But the first thing we've got to do is redefine in our minds and hearts what it means to have the blessing of the King in our lives.
Now, sort of get a running start on our last session. We noticed the first redefinition of being truly blessed, verse twenty: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." And we said this is much more than financial destitution; this is spiritual desperation. Blessed are those. Who depend entirely upon the king in order to get into the kingdom? You could paraphrase this to read: "Happy are the helpless who come to Christ and trust in Him alone." This is the person who gets a reservation in that kingdom.
The person who enjoys here and now what it means to have their security and their assurance. In belonging to Him, because we're not depending on ourselves.
Well, I had a good week. I guess I'm in. You know, I haven't missed church for four weeks in a row. I'm probably in. I haven't missed devotions for four days running.
I'm I'm good.
Now we are helpless. We are spiritually destitute. The key is we are connected to the King, and we trust in Him alone.
Now, secondly, Jesus informs us that truly happy people have an appetite. First part of verse twenty-one: Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. In Matthew's parallel account, he adds some helpful words: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. First, blessed are the spiritually helpless.
Now, blessed are the spiritually hungry. See, you demonstrate your citizenship in the kingdom of God by evidencing an appetite for kingdom food—the glory of God, the Word of God, the character of God—described here by righteousness. This is subjective righteousness in hungering for whatever is right. Whatever is right is righteous. The Apostle Paul writes it this way.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, worth repeating. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise. Think on these things. Let your mind be saturated. Be fed upon these things.
Here's your menu for a righteous life. Feed on these things.
Now, the word Jesus uses here, "and you shall be satisfied," is a word that comes directly from the farm. It's a word that primarily means to feed. The cattle, Cortazzo, filling them up with feed. They're satisfied. They're well fed.
Jesus hints at this paradox: you're satisfied with something that fills you up, then you're hungry again for that which satisfies you, and you're hungry again. You feast on his word, his glory, his nature, his attributes, his creative handiwork. Everything about him, everything that's right and excellent and pure and all that's righteous, and and you get filled up and hungry again. This is the psalmist saying, "My soul is consumed with longing, hungering after your word." He satisfies the longing soul. And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
So here's the paradox: you're hungry for that which satisfies. You feast on it, and then you're hungry all over again. I mean, it's kind of reminding me when I study this of Thanksgiving. You pull up to the table like hungry cattle, and you feast beyond that which is reasonable. And then a couple of hours later, what are you doing?
You're in a kitchen, getting a piece of pumpkin pie or making a sandwich. What does that prove? That proves you need counseling. No, that proves you're you're alive. Proves there's life.
A deceased body doesn't have an appetite. A living body gets hungry. It's filled. Gets hungry. It's filled.
Gets hungry. It's filled. This is true physically and spiritually. You are longing for the Word and the will and the way and the work of God, and you never really reach the point where okay, that does that. You never get past this sense of dissatisfaction, do you?
Seems like you are never going to get over your spiritual need all over again. You know why? Because you are spiritually alive. Happy are the helpless. Happy are the hungry.
Now Jesus turns everything upside down again in this third beatitude. We could paraphrase it to read, "Happy are the hurting." Notice the last part of verse twenty-one: "Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh." Again, in context, Jesus is describing citizens of the kingdom of God living down here for a little while, and there is a lot of weeping, a lot of things to weep about. This is, I think, specifically in relation to that spiritual destitution. These are tears of repentance and humility. This is what one author called an emotional breakdown that follows true recognition of spiritual bankruptcy.
Tears of sorrow that lead later to the laughter. Without sorrow, Jesus' description of. Judgment is that weeping will never end. His description of heaven is what those tears will be wiped away. One more beatitude here.
He doesn't pull any punches. Look at verse twenty-two. 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. Notice here that Jesus doesn't say, "Blessed are you if people hate you," but when they hate you, not if they exclude you, but when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name.
The Lord uses four verbs here to describe what they could expect. They will be hated. That verb. Means to be detested, literally to be pursued with hatred. They just aren't going to leave the disciples alone.
Maybe you're there. You're wondering why don't they just leave me alone? They they might hate you. Why? They may never be able to put their finger on it.
Secondly, they will be excluded. He writes, "This means being disowned, ostracized by family and friends." Perhaps you've experienced something similar. We have people in our church family from other nations that are much more restrictive who were disowned, dishearded, disinherited. I remember when I gave my life to Christ at the age of seventeen, I lost all my friends. Started from scratch because I had a different appetite.
You can understand that, I'm sure, can't you, as a believer? Excluded. Early church history records that Jewish converts to Christ had their names scrubbed from the rolls of the synagogue. Essentially, effectively, no longer related to the Jewish nation. They were disowned.
They were disinherited. It's as if they were dead. Thirdly, Jesus promises his disciples that they will be reviled. This means disparaged, run down, denounced, criticized, cut down, mocked. But then, perhaps for many of them, Jesus has his fourth verb here.
When the world will spurn your name as evil, this means to be defamed. In other words, the world takes this final step in ruining a believer's reputation and turning their good name into something evil. When the believer did nothing but good. They make sure it's because we're doing good, but benefit. The Bible says if you're reviled by doing evil.
Depending on where you live and when, this will rise and fall, ebb and flow. It didn't take the Roman Empire long to turn the name Christian, which they were first called at Antioch, into something evil. If you read early church history, which I love to read, they accused the Christians of being cannibals. They twisted the meaning of the Lord's table. They're eating flesh and drinking blood.
They're cannibals. People believed it. They accused Christians of holding weekly orgies. Misunderstanding the phrase "love feast" and the command to love one another, they said, "Oh, they're they're they're perverted when they gather together." One historian I read noted that above everything else, Christians were accused—get this—of hating humanity. They were called haters of humanity.
And for a number of reasons, they refused to enter into social activities, attending the festivals of their guilds because they were related to idolatry, and so they were called antisocial. You just don't like people. They were called treasonous because they refused to call Caesar Lord, which every good citizen did. They they refused. They would claim only that Christ was Lord.
They're treason. They're treasonous. For that, believers who actually love their neighbors and love their world for the sake of Christ were called haters of humanity. Jesus promises here in his sermon that the world will turn their name into something evil. The Christian in China today is called a threat.
The Christian today in North Korea is considered treasonous to their great leader. A baptized believer in Japan is considered disloyal to his ancestors. A Christian in a Muslim world is called an infidel. We can go on. But even in our own culture today, the Christian is being redefined as intolerant, unloving, homophobic, backward, judgmental, and yes, hateful.
Jesus promises that the followers of Christ are going to be in some measure detested, disowned, denounced, and defamed. And what's the real reason for all of this? Jesus tells them here again in verse 22, on account of the Son of Man, they they they hated me before they ever hated you. Jesus said, "There's a spiritual undertone here. There there is this hatred of the kingdom of darkness against the king over the kingdom of light." In other words, then the name is spurned, the Christian's name and reputation.
Why? Because you believe that that Jesus alone is Lord. I mean, how dogmatic is that? Because of our belief in in the biblical gospel of heaven and hell, sin and salvation, how judgmental is is that? Because of our belief in the moral claims of Creator God regarding gender and sexual relationships, how backward can you be?
Because of our belief in God's design for marriage, well, you're just unloving. Our belief that Jesus is God incarnate, Jehovah in the flesh—the only way, truth, and life. Nobody gets to the Father except through Him. How narrow can you be? You must hate people.
That's what we believe.
So it isn't because you hate humanity, or because you're backward, or unloving, or narrow. We simply believe the word of God. Period. It's not up for a vote. We don't determine what we believe by the courts, denominational councils.
We simply hold to the word of God. You believe all of that? You're heading into a storm. That perhaps may grow.
Now, keep this in mind. When Jesus is saying this at this particular moment, he's sounding really strange to his disciples. They are surrounded by. Thousands of adoring people who are clamoring to see Jesus and and hear Jesus just get near to Him. I mean, what do you mean we're we're going to be hated and excluded and reviled and and defamed because we're associating with you?
Everybody, I mean, look around, Lord. They love you. You're famous. They can't get enough of you. You're the greatest.
Later on, the rejection of Jesus begins to pick up steam, and sometime after this sermon, we're told in John's Gospel that many of his disciples left him and would no longer walk with him. We're not going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. What do you do? What are you going to do if they take your name and twist it into something evil? What are you going to do if following Jesus doesn't win friends, it loses friends, it costs friends?
What are you going to do when you get ridiculed, or maybe even fired from your job because of your moral beliefs? What are you going to do when that professor mocks Christianity and you stand for it, and you're ridiculed, and then on your way home from class you get a flat tire on top of everything? Jesus isn't paying off. We will leave him and no longer walk with him. It's too much trouble.
Jesus is saying early on, even when he's surrounded by thousands of adoring fans. Wait, wait and see. What Jesus wants his disciples to do is take a longer look at life. Notice verse twenty-three: Rejoice in that day. And leap for joy, really?
Jump for joy? Why? Look, behold, your reward is great in heaven. Look further down the road. For so their fathers did to prophets.
In other words, you're going to be treated much like the prophets were treated by this nation. What they do, they killed them. They told the truth to their generation, but just take a little longer look. Wouldn't you like to have the reward of an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, a Daniel? He's also implying that the generation of the prophets did not have the last word; God did.
So remember this coming day. And that'll give you joy as you work through the realities of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Don't let your perspective get stuck down here by what you see around you. I read recently of an interesting event. I tucked in my files years ago.
Came to mind as I studied, dug around, found it. This perspective the Lord wants us to have that it was illustrated so well by this. I'll read it on a balmy October afternoon in 1982. Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, was packed. More than 60,000 diehard University of Wisconsin fans.
were there to cheer on their football team. They were cheering against Michigan, but what seemed odd, however, as the score became more and more lopsided, was the fact that Michigan had a better team that year. But even while Wisconsin was getting just literally creamed, there were these bursts of applause. And shouts of joy from the Wisconsin fans, who were losing. How could they cheer when their team was being beaten so badly on the field?
Well, it turns out that 70 miles away, another Wisconsin team, the Milwaukee Brewers, were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. In Game Three of the World Series, and the Brewers were winning. Most of the fans at this college football game were listening on their portable radios, and they were responding with joy to something other than that which was happening on the field in front of them. Imagine the other team scores a touchdown!
Yay! Jump for joy here. Why? How? How do you do that?
Don't just look at what's happening on the field in front of you. Jesus reminds them that that that's not all there is. The apostle Paul put it this way: so we do not lose heart. Why? You got every reason to.
Well, think about this: this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen on the field in front of us, but to the things that are unseen—the coming kingdom. The things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
So make sure you're tuned in to the Kingdom Station. Don't let the signal get overpowered. Or, or, or distorted by the static of the kingdoms of earth. Don't get all bent out of shape. It's temporary.
You belong to the King. His kingdom is coming. It happens to be your inheritance.
So, stay tuned. That was Stephen Davy, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org.
