Blessed Even in a World of Sinners
Matt 5:9–12 – Living in the Kingdom: Sermons in Matthew 5–7 – Daniel J. Baker – July 13, 2025

Introduction

“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Matthew 5:1–12. “Thanks be to God.”

Chris Elston is sometimes known by his nickname, "Billboard Chris."[1] That’s because he is often seen walking around cities wearing a sandwich board with strong clear statements.

His focus is on the area of how the medical community sometimes treats “Trans Children.” Especially the way they are given puberty blockers unnecessarily and treated with surgeries that are also medically unnecessary. The harm to these children can be catastrophic and sometimes permanent.

His billboards say things like:

• “Children are never born in the wrong body”
• “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers”
• “Gender ideology does not belong in schools”

He’s worn these billboards in many countries of the world. The result is being physically assaulted, having his equipment broken, a lot of verbal abuse. He has been the victim of lawsuits. In other words, he’s been persecuted.

Jesus says in Matt. 5:10 that those persecuted for righteousness’ sake are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Does Chris Elston’s situation constitute persecution for righteousness’ sake? That is a question we want to have in our minds as we consider Jesus’s words in these last three Beatitudes.

In the Beatitudes we’re hearing the words of Jesus to his disciples, which means to us. Matthew presents him as the new Moses: “he went up on the mountain” to deliver this message, like Moses on Mt. Sinai. Jesus will give the Law of God for his people, just like Moses.

Matthew also presents Jesus as the Davidic King. The King promised in the covenant with David who would reign forever. And in the Sermon on the Mount we hear about Living in the Kingdom of God. Jesus’s sermon is not a sermon about how to get into the Kingdom but about Living in the Kingdom.

This morning the emphasis is on Living in the Kingdom even in a world of sinners. Living in the Kingdom we are blessed even in a world of sinners.

The sermon: (1) The Peacemakers; (2) The Persecuted; (3) The Reviled.

Prayer – Flood in Texas, team in Zambia

I. The Peacemakers

Read Matt. 5:9.

“Blessed...” Once again, we need to think about what it means to be “Blessed.”

• Two sides to it.
• One side of it is what we receive from God. He is giving us his favor. His approval. His grace. It is his smile upon us.
• The other side is what we experience because of God’s smile on us. We experience joy and fullness. We experience peace in our conscience. We experience faith and confidence in the Lord. It is our smile toward God in return. We might be smiling through tears and pain, but there is joy nonetheless.
• Being “blessed” means the joy of life lived with God’s smile upon us.

In our Beatitudes this morning, we’re reminded that this joy can be ours even in a world of sinners. A world of sinners is a world of conflict. It’s a world that mocks and oppresses Christians and righteousness.

But in a world of conflict, Jesus says “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

The word “peacemaker” is a very literal translation of the Greek word, which has the verb “make” attached to the noun “peace.” A “peacemaker” isn’t simply a “peaceful person”—“I’ve got a peaceful easy feeling...” It’s someone who is proactive and engaged in actually making peace.

Another translation makes this idea very clear:

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. (NLT, Matt 5:9)

As Christians we’re called to be “peacemakers,” not “relational pacifists.”

A relational pacifist says there’s never a time for battles between people. A Biblical peacemaker says, “I desire true peace but sometimes a battle is necessary to achieve it.”

A relational pacifist backs down from every fight. But a Biblical peacemaker knows that righteousness and justice demands that sometimes we must engage the fight. Maybe that’s defending myself in a certain situation. Maybe it’s coming to someone else’s defense. There’s at time to fight.

An unfaithful pacifist would say that no doctrine is worth dividing over. A Biblical peacemaker says that some doctrines and some truths are worth fighting over.

Ecclesiastes 3 says, there’s “a time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecc 3:8). That’s true between nations, but it’s also true between people.

Wisdom is knowing which time this is.

Being a peacemaker starts with being a certain kind of person.

The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil. (2 Tim 2:24)

A “quarrelsome” person says it’s ALWAYS “a time for war” and NEVER “a time for peace.” EVERY doctrine is worth fighting about.

But Paul says, NO. Being “quarrelsome” is a sin. It’s the opposite of a “peacemaker.” It’s someone stirs up conflict instead of helping to resolve it.

A “peacemaker” actively tries to bring peace where there is division and conflict. But it’s not “peace at any cost” (Lloyd-Jones).

In parenting: All parents desire a peaceful home. But a “peace at any cost” approach is not the way to get there.

“Peace at any cost” can lead to an abusive home where the parent demands quiet. And anyone who disrupts the peace will severely punished. This is not being a peacemaking parent, it’s being a selfish parent.

“Peace at any cost” can also lead to a home where issues aren’t really dealt with. The parent is too afraid to disrupt the peace and never brings up hard issues. Sins in the child go unpunished and undealt with. It feels right, because there’s peace.

But ultimately this way of parenting is also selfish. You prefer the comfort of peace, so you stop short of doing what will help your child.

Being a “peacemaker” sometimes involves going after the hard issues. Because you don’t want a false peace that only looks and feels like peace. You want a true peace that comes from actual change and growth. It’s the peace on the other side of the conflict.

The promise Jesus speaks to the peacemaker is that “they shall be called sons of God.”

And this makes sense because our God is “the God of peace.”

May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. (Rom 15:33)

And he is the God who sent Christ to die on a cross to pay for our sins so that we might believe and have “peace with God” (Rom 5:1). He is the ultimate “Peacemaker,” who made peace between us and himself.

We were his enemy, but he has made “peace.”

So a son of God should also be one who is a “peacemaker.”

II. The Persecuted

The second way we encounter sinners in the world is when we are persecuted for living a righteous life, following Jesus in a world that hates him. Read Matt. 5:10.

One might expect the “sons of God” to be esteemed in the eyes of the world. Wasn’t King Solomon sought out by the Queen of Sheba? Wasn’t Joseph esteemed in Pharaoh’s house? Wasn’t Daniel esteemed even by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar?

Sometimes righteousness and favor in the eyes of men go together. But Jesus reminds us that this isn’t always the case. Sometimes righteousness is met with persecution and not with worldly favor.

Persecution means being mistreated—anything from mocking, to being overlooked for a promotion, to a lawsuit, to imprisonment, to being executed.

But what’s critical is WHY you’re being persecuted. Notice that important qualifier, “for righteousness’ sake.” We can be on the receiving end of persecution for a lot of reasons:

• When we’re evil and ungodly to people, they might retaliate in kind.
• As a Christians we can be unnecessarily offensive. We can be condescending and proud about our Christianity. We can be the Pharisee, boasting of our own righteousness—forgetting that God and God alone has saved us. If we’re being proud and people retaliate, this isn’t being persecuted “for righteousness’ sake.”
• We can also be foolish and clumsy or reckless in our attempts to share Christ and be salt and light. A lot of us have memories of when we were first saved and needed to share the gospel with our parents or friends and it was done in a foolish way. Sometimes people react poorly to us.
• In these cases, we might be persecuted, but it’s not necessarily “for righteousness’ sake.”

Jesus is speaking of persecution “for righteousness’ sake.” We’re being mistreaed in some way, and it’s specifically because of righteousness.

• We’re speaking God’s truth and doing it in a loving way.
• We’re acting with integrity in some situation, and people don’t appreciate it.

When it’s a non-Christian persecuting a Christian, it’s challenging. But when it’s a so-called Christian perseucting a Christian, that’s especially hard to take. Yet, much of the persecution in the Middle Ages and early Reformation era was just this, so-called Christians persecuting Christians.

But once the Reformation was underway, sometimes the persecution was Christians against other Christians.

In England in the 1500s and 1600s, church power was in the hands of the Church of England, The Anglican Church. The Anglicans did not appreciate anyone who stepped outside of their principles and practices. In the 1600s a group of Baptists rose up in England. They held to the baptism of believers and not infants. They did not believe worship should only be done according to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

One of these men was Benjamin Keach (1640–1704).[2]

• On one occasion Keach was imprisoned and fined for being “a seditious, heretical and schismatical person, evilly and maliciously disposed and disaffected to his Majesty’s government and the government of the Church of England.”
• His crime? He wrote a children’s primer to teach basic grammar and a guide to the spelling of various words. But the really offensive act that earned him the criminal treatment was that it also contained references to believer’s baptism. Thomas Disney, an Anglican pastor, saw this and would have none of it. He had Keach arrested, imprisoned for 2 weeks, fined 20 pounds, approx. $10k in today’s dollars, a sizable amount for a poor Baptist preacher. He destroyed every copy of Keach’s book.
• On another occasion Keach was taken into custody while preaching to a troop of cavalrymen. But four of them tied him down and were about to trample him to death with their horses. He was saved only because their commanding officer came upon them and ordered Keach released.
• He was pilloried twice—hands and his head through holes in two boards. The person pilloried would be the subject of much reviling and verbal abuse. He used the opportunity to preach Christ but was told if he didn’t stop he’d be gagged. He quoted our verse, 5:10, and then stopped.

The bitter aspect of this persecution is that it wasn’t from unbelievers. It was from people claiming to be followers of Christ. Yet, they saw someone believing in believer’s baptism as a threat—not just to the church but also to the society.

But Jesus says no matter who is persecuting you, if you are persecuted “for righteousness’ sake,” you are blessed, because yours is “the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus doesn’t mean you’ve EARNED your way in by being persecuted. Your persecution is a sign that you ARE IN.

And note the present tense: “Theirs IS the kingdom of heaven.” The promise is not about entering the kingdom in the next life but being in the kingdom of heaven right now.

Being in Christ’s kingdom means living with Christ as your King even now. You enjoy his life and protection. You enjoy fellowship with the King even now. He is your Defender and Protector.

And one day you will enter the fullness of the kingdom. In that redeemed heaven and redeemed earth, righteousness will never be persecuted. But in this fallen world, righteousness will sometimes be persecuted.

III. The Reviled

And now our third Beatitude. This third one is really an extension of the second Beatitude. It’s addressing the same idea, being “Blessed” when we are persecuted for Christ’s sake. But it adds more. Read Matt. 5:11–12.

“Revile” (Grk., oveidizō) means to be verbally attacked, insulted, mocked. The apostle Peter was present when Jesus said this. In his own epistle, he will call us to something similar:

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Pet 4:14)

Jesus adds to this: “persecute you,” “utter all kinds of evil against you falsely.”

Once again is the caveat: “on my account.” Blessing is promised for those who are verbally attacked because of Christ—not because we’re being a jerk or proud or unwise.

Peter makes the same point:

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. ¹⁵ But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. ¹⁶ Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Pet 4:12–16)

Jesus says when we’re persecuted “on his account,” we’re experiencing what “the prophets who were before you” experienced. They experienced more of it, but it’s the same kind of treatment we’re receiving.

Even faced with this kind of mistreatment, we are to “rejoice and be glad”!

Why?“Your reward is great in heaven”!!!

We don’t rejoice in the suffering itself. We’re not masochists. We’re not philosophical idealists who believe in pursuing good character even if there’s no life after death.

No, what puts all suffering and persecution in another light is “your reward...in heaven.” We can rejoice when we’re persecuted because the reward we’ll receive in heaven is so much greater.

We’re not always comfortable with the idea of reward when it comes to godliness, as if it’s somehow selfish to do Christian things in order to receive a reward. It feels more noble to say, “I don’t care whether I’m rewarded or not, this is the right thing to do.”

But that’s not biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity holds out the promise of reward to us. It’s a reminder that God has wired us to care about rewards and to seek after them.

But these rewards aren’t gold star stickers or gift certificates to Outback Steakhouse. They’re of infinitely greater value.

What is our reward in heaven?

Well, the first reward is God himself, of course! There’s no greater prize we can receive than God himself:

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.(Phil 3:8)

And then is the reward of heaven itself, the new heaven and new earth, with all the people of God fully redeemed and glorified:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev 21:3–4)

But God is so generous that even on top of these unspeakable rewards is reward for obedience, and this is held out to us as something to motivate godly behavior:

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³ each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor 3:11–15)

Paul in this passage is saying that our obedience does not add to our salvation, but it does add to our reward.

Conclusion

The Blessed life is life in the kingdom of God. It is a blessed life even when we are encountering the sins of the world.

Like Chris Elston. At the beginning I talked about Chris Elston, “Billboard Chris,” and some of what he’s faced. Can he claim these Beatitudes of Jesus?

• Well, I don’t know his heart. But let’s assume he’s a born-again Christian and as a Christian he’s trying to take on a major issue of our day.
• He’s speaking God’s truth to the culture. His tactics are unconventional, but he is generating conversation about important things.
• It does seem that yes, he’s being persecuted for righteousness’ sake and for Christ’s sake.
• It’s a specific cultural issue and not the gospel itself, but it’s still a stand for righteousness.
• May he walk in love and humility as he speaks for truth.

Our persecution may not result in attacks from CNN or lawsuits in foreign courtrooms. It’s possible our integrity and our righteousness will earn us the label of being “TOXIC” or “UNSAFE” by a child or grandchild. They may choose to cut ties with us because of a stand we take on some issue they care about.

There’s nothing easy or pleasant when this happens. It’s a great personal suffering.

Jesus reminds us here that if this happens “for righteousness’ sake,” “for Christ’s sake,” we are still blessed. The kingdom of heaven is ours. Our reward is great in heaven. Christ is ours, and we are his. As our King he protects and defends and walks with us.

If you’re right now separated from Jesus the King, turn to him. Bow before him. Acknowledge that you want his blessings. Pray and tell him you want to enjoy life in heaven with him.

If Jesus is your King, trust him. Trust that even if right now people have turned against you, he is still holding out blessings for you.

If you’ve sinned against people and that’s why they’ve turned against you, repent. Confess your sin and ask for their forgiveness.

But if the break in the relationship remains, know that God is with those who are persecuted for his righteousness’ sake. He is with those suffering for Christ’s sake. He will never leave you or forsake you.

Let’s pray.

[1] See https://adfinternational.org/news/free-speech-victory-in-australia-for-billboard-chris-as-x-post-censorship-overturned and https://www.foxnews.com/media/activist-billboard-chris-reflects-violence-protesting-gender-surgeries-children.

[2] Information on Keach from Kiffen, Knollys, and Keach: Rediscovering Our English Baptist Heritage (Peterborough, Canada: H&E Publishing, 2019), 142–144.