In what is called “the Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7, Jesus preaches salvation to a Jewish crowd of people and pulls down with supernatural wisdom and authority their unique strongholds.  For instance, in the very first statement, one of the Beatitudes, He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The Jews didn’t see themselves as spiritually poor, but spiritually wealthy.  They were by rights, God’s chosen people.  Of course, they were already “blessed” through the Abrahamic covenant, and even in their own eyes, the Mosaic covenant, according to the Deuteronomic code.  None of their thinking was true on this, so Jesus eviscerated it in the Sermon.

Another Jewish thought is “the kingdom.”  They would have considered themselves already the beneficiaries of the kingdom through the Davidic covenant.  “Heaven” is the abode of God and they saw themselves as the children of God, so wherever God was, they would be, even as God resided in the tabernacle through the wilderness.  Jesus confronts their wrong thinking when he shows the rich man is in Hell, not in heaven in Luke 16.  None of this, the kingdom or heaven, was theirs, however, unless they were poor in spirit, which meant that they acquiesced to their own spiritual poverty, that they really were lacking and in dire need.  They needed to do what the Apostle Paul did and count their own spirituality as loss and as dung for them to win Christ or find themselves under the reign of the Messiah in His kingdom with all its promised blessings.

The Jews already saw themselves as sadly and badly not receiving their just desserts, their appropriate reward.  According to their own assessment, they were persecuted by the Romans as they had been by many other various empires previously.  This would fly in the face of being a blessed people and a kingdom people.  It was an unacceptable circumstance that should be turned around and would be reversed by a true Messiah.  That’s not what Jesus said though.

Just like the people in the kingdom of heaven would be first poor in spirit, they would also be persecuted for righteousness sake (Matthew 5:10).  Persecution is the guaranteed cost of a truly saved person and Jesus frontloads this in His gospel presentation in Matthew 5:10-12.  As people enter into true salvation through Jesus Christ, they need to expect persecution.  They need to count the cost.  Jesus said in Luke 9:23, that if any man will come after him, let him take up his cross daily.  Jesus issues that understanding right up front to those who might receive the kingdom.  It’s a narrow road with few on it.

Churches today do not give their targets for attendance or membership the impression that they will suffer or be persecuted by joining up.  That’s a way to shrink the numbers.  However, it is the method of Jesus.  He included that in His gospel presentation and more than once.  Do not expect to have it easy if you’re a Christian, and that’s not why you’re receiving Christ, for what you’ll receive in time, because that’s going to be persecution.  Very likely why less are truly converted today is because they do not see the Christian life as worth suffering for.  They would choose a Christianity full of pleasure, but not the one with guaranteed pain, so they reject genuine Christianity for the placebo.  Churches offer the placebo, because that’s what people want.  Then the entire program of the church revolves around various pleasures, especially for the young people.

The Jews thought they were persecuted already, but they were were persecuted for unrighteousness.  Daniel prophecies why Israel would be dominated by the Romans.  He was downhearted by the lack of enthusiasm for God among the captives in Babylon, comfortable to just stay and not return to the land for true worship of God.  They would keep being chastised because of their faithlessness and then they took that as persecution.  Actual persecution is for righteousness and not unrighteousness.  Just because the Jews of Jesus’ day were suffering didn’t mean they were persecuted and neither did it mean they had a future kingdom for them.  No, that kingdom was only for those persecuted for righteousness.

People in the future kingdom do not fit into the present one, the kingdom of this world.  The people under the future reign of Jesus are those who want a present reign of Jesus.  People who want Him to be king in the future have got to want Him to be king in the present.  Those over whom Jesus reigns will be persecuted. They will not fit in. They will be despised, reviled, and accused falsely by men.  That will be the norm for those following Jesus Christ into the kingdom and He wants them to know that right up front.

Jesus isn’t going to take away persecution in the short term.  He offers the future kingdom as a motivation for present rejoicing.  The basis for being exceeding glad now is the reward in heaven for all eternity.  There is a lack of joy in churches and in professing Christian families because of something far less than persecution.  The church and family members are not getting their way and they don’t like the discomfort now.  They expect to be treated better and have their rights protected.  When they get hard preaching from scripture they become easily offended.  When they are required to live like a Christian, they are put off and threaten to quit, if not just to find another church where they’ll be treated like they want.

Professing Christians aren’t looking for a church where they will suffer.  They are looking for a place of creature comforts with lots of friends.  This is not what Jesus told true believers to expect.  He told them just the opposite and He included it in His gospel presentation.