I am a Jesus pusher!!! Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus highlighted one truth. In the Beatitudes, we discovered it. We do not merit, work, or accomplish the Kingdom; it is not a discipline we achieve. God congratulates us for having arrived. We are helpless. How can we claim the Kingdom as ours? Jesus, the deciding factor, came to us. Our helplessness becomes the platform for the display of His Person. We respond to Him, and He moves our world. We do not influence our world to get into the Kingdom; we impact our world because we are the Kingdom people, our purpose, our design, as we depend upon His power. He establishes us on the hill for the display of His Person. We become the visible image of the invisible God as He flows through our lives.
People see God in us through the light of persecution. Our self-sourcing screams for us to hide. Self-sourcing will always run away, escape, or to deny in some manner. If one church is difficult, why not go to another church? If my wife gives me problems, why not escape and go to another marriage? If I work with people I do not like, why not move to another job? Jesus ends the Beatitudes with the note of persecution. After seven beautiful descriptions of God’s glory sourced by His presence, He thrusts us into suffering (Matthew 5:10-12). It is absolute; people will persecute us. Persecution produces and displays the greatness of the Kingdom’s linkage. Jesus views this truth as one that sets our hearts on fire. “Rejoice “and be Kingdom’s exceedingly glad’” is His exhortation (Matthew 5:12). I am a Jesus pusher!!!