The Beatitudes Part 17

INTRO: In our last message we introduced the subject of persecution. I said that persecution is a huge subject. What we have in this beatitude is found in Genesis 4:1-9 (read). Here we have the first two boys born to Adam and Eve, and one persecuted the other to the death. And the reason was the precise one given in our passage, Matthew 5:10. It was because Abel’s righteousness’ inflamed his brother.
I have read that today there are some 200 million Christians that live under persecution. I expect that includes nominal Christianity. One hundred and sixty five thousand or likely more by now, die for their faith every year. Some eighty percent of those who are called Christians live under persecution. Those numbers probably refer to such as live under life threatening situations, the actual number could be higher.