Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We've been studying blessings in Matthew chapter 5. And the blessing that we're going to look at today is hardly something that we would normally call a blessing, but yet the Lord calls it unambiguously a blessing. Matthew, chapter five, verse number one. If you'd look at that with me. The Bible says, and seeing the multitudes, he that's the Lord Jesus went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
[00:00:43] Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
[00:00:53] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
[00:01:01] Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. This is the one I was referring to.
[00:01:09] Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:01:17] Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
[00:01:28] Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
[00:01:40] Let's pray together.
[00:01:43] Our Father, thank you for the chance to once again meet together as the Church of God. Thank you for the family members and visitors that are here this morning that have come to honor their loved one. And Lord, thank you for that. Thank you for them being here. And I pray that the Word of God would be a true help to them. I pray for our people as well that are here every week. And I pray that, Lord, that you would work in the hearts of each and every person. Lord, as we look at the words of our Lord and Savior.
[00:02:12] Lord, there is great profit, there is great benefit in hearing and taking heed to what you have spoken. I pray that more than anything that your people would go away from this place knowing and understanding the word of the Lord.
[00:02:28] Lord, I also pray if there be one among us who does not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ and does not yet know what it means to have eternal life.
[00:02:36] And that question stands in doubt. Lord, would you please convict that person and make them to see their need for the Lord Jesus.
[00:02:49] So Lord, bless and guide as we look in your word. Lord, fill my mouth with the things that your people need to hear this morning because I ask in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:59] So I would hardly say it's a blessing, one of the blessings that we might count, that we are persecuted for righteousness sake, like verses 10 and 11 describe. Remember, in these Beatitudes are not, as we saw last Sunday morning, are not guidelines to say, all right, do these things and you'll be saved, you'll go to heaven. That is not what we're talking about here. As an example, verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's already a done deal. They are already. They have already been translated from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God. And these things that we read here in the Beatitudes are characteristics of those who are part of the kingdom of God. And various blessings and various results are described through these things.
[00:03:54] But in verse 10 is the first mention by our Lord of a common subject that he brings up very often in the Gospels and during his earthly ministry. And that is the subject of persecution. Now, when I talk about persecution, the first thing that comes to most of our minds is we think of people that are in mainland China, or we think of people who are in a majority Muslim country where we're serving and serving the Lord Jesus, worshiping, meeting together are outlawed.
[00:04:29] And really, that's not what we're talking about here. Although that's. It definitely applies. That is not the main thrust of what we're talking about here. And you'll see what I mean in just a minute. Persecution, as we see here, is mentioned in verse 11. It says, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. So this is not so much what we might call official persecution, but this is just regular, we might say regular persecution.
[00:04:57] And the Lord is going to teach on this subject many, many times throughout his earthly ministry. What's interesting, though, is generally during the ministry of the Lord Jesus, there wasn't a great deal of persecution to speak of by the disciples. Remember these words in the Sermon on the Mount, the target audience is not the world at large. The target audience is in verse two, them, the disciples. And so you gotta keep it in that context.
[00:05:29] Now, what's interesting about this word, persecute, verse number 10, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. The definition of this word is interesting.
[00:05:40] It means to chase or to hunt or to pursue with the intent to capture, injure, or kill.
[00:05:53] That's what the word means. It means to chase somebody down, to seek out, and to subject a person to hostility or treatment. The key here in persecution is the idea that we are not looking for trouble.
[00:06:08] We are merely trying to serve our Lord with purity of heart, with a clear conscience, trying to obey his commandments and follow his word and love him with all of our hearts and do his will. And as a result of only that, not harming anyone, not doing anything ill toward anyone, but as a result of our relationship with our Lord, we are being sought.
[00:06:36] We are being. We might say the common way we talk about it is we say, someone's coming after us, coming after us. We're not seeking out trouble, but trouble is seeking us out. Take a peek at Daniel, chapter number six. Don't lose your place here if you would, in Matthew 5, but look at Daniel, chapter 6. I want to show you an example of this in real life.
[00:07:00] That is in the. In the Old Testament scripture. Here, Daniel 6. Look at verse number four. Daniel 6, verse four.
[00:07:12] Daniel had been elevated to a high position of honor in the kingdom of Persia.
[00:07:19] Verse number four says, then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.
[00:07:27] That's just so good. That's so good. They sought to find a way, some way to catch Daniel in doing wrong as it regarded his job and his position in the kingdom. And they couldn't find it. You know why?
[00:07:43] Because Daniel lived and did his job uprightly.
[00:07:48] All right? And then notice what it says in verse, continuing verse four. But they could find none occasion nor fault.
[00:07:56] For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. You're gonna see this principle later. But. But notice verse 5. Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
[00:08:15] Now notice.
[00:08:16] Has Daniel sought out trouble?
[00:08:19] No. Has Daniel done anything wrong? In fact, he's called faithful. He was. I mean, Daniel is a Jew. He believes differently than this king of Persia.
[00:08:29] He is not seeking trouble. He is a peacemaker.
[00:08:33] Trouble is seeking him. They're coming after him. Notice what it says here in verse number 10.
[00:08:39] Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, that is a writing to forbid anyone to make an appeal to any God but the king.
[00:08:49] When he knew that writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God. Notice as he did aforetime.
[00:09:06] What's Daniel doing?
[00:09:07] This is the nature of persecution. Is he causing trouble? No. He's literally just trying to live for his God. He's literally just trying to Serve and love God with all his heart with a clear conscience and doing exactly what he had ever done.
[00:09:23] Next verse.
[00:09:24] Then these men assembled and found Daniel cursing, drunken or what? What? No.
[00:09:36] Praying and making supplication before his God. Notice. Here's what I want you to see. This is a perfect example of persecution because Daniel's just trying to live for God and he's being chased down, he's being sought out. And this is the nature of persecution.
[00:09:50] Now go back to Matthew, chapter five, if you would. And I want to.
[00:09:54] I want to look at this in more detail.
[00:09:58] In verse number 10, it talks about those that persecute them for righteousness sake. Verse 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
[00:10:12] Now, what's interesting is that persecution comes to a disciple of Christ. Remember, we already covered this. But a disciple is someone, not only someone who has believed the Lord Jesus Christ, but is someone who has believed and then has decided in answer to the Lord's call, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? And so the Lord says to the disciples that they will be persecuted, and there is a blessing attached to that fact.
[00:10:43] But this persecution comes from kind of an unexpected source.
[00:10:48] It comes from an unexpected source.
[00:10:51] Now, I know we're going back and forth a little bit, but look at John 15 really quick.
[00:10:57] I want to show you this source. John 15, verse number 18. We'll come back to Matthew 5 in just a minute. John 15, verse number 18. Jesus again speaking to his disciples. In John 15, verse 18, he says this. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
[00:11:26] Now he's getting ready to talk about persecution.
[00:11:36] We often have this idea that persecution usually comes from those who do not have religion. We might call it the secular world. We see that in our country, because that is happening. People who are hostile to religion generally are often setting their sights on people who are religious. But that is not always the case. In fact, it is actually the minority of the time. So we have this idea that those who hate God, those who do not go to church, we might say it like that. Those who do not have and live by a religion are the ones who are primarily persecuting. Because notice in verse 18 of John, it says, for if the world hate you, well, that's not people who go to church. That is wrong.
[00:12:23] Verse number 18, notice it says, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. Let me ask you a question.
[00:12:30] Who was the perpetrator of the persecution of the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:12:37] It was the religious.
[00:12:40] It was the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It was these religious groups. These were not people who did not have religion. They were people who had religion. It was not people who did not know the Bible. It was people who did know the Bible. They were the Lord had. He had no trouble from those who were sinful and the prostitutes and the drunkards and the tax collectors. We've already talked about that in Matthew, have we not?
[00:13:07] That's not the trouble at all. The trouble always 100% of the time came from the religious.
[00:13:13] Think about that. So when Jesus says the world, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. He's not talking about the secular people, he's talking about the religious people.
[00:13:27] And what we need to know is in verse number 18, our persecution as disciple of Christ comes out of the Lord's persecution when he was on the earth. That's what he's saying. Verse 18, verse number 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. You see, we're part of the kingdom of God.
[00:13:54] No longer part of the kingdoms of this world. We've been translated from that kingdom to the kingdom of God's dear Son.
[00:14:01] And so we're different. And the world likes to play whack a mole with people who are different for righteousness sake.
[00:14:13] Now notice what it says in verse number 20. Remember the word that I said unto you. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake. Notice what the Lord says about the persecutors, the religious right. These are religious persecutors, he says, because they know not him that sent me. I want you to remember that, because I'm going to mention that again. For if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
[00:15:01] You see, the fact that these people persecuted the Lord Jesus says as much about them as it does about Him.
[00:15:13] Now if you can keep that in your mind, because that's going to overlap with what we see in Matthew 5. Go back to Matthew 5, if you would.
[00:15:26] So Jesus compares and relates his Disciples persecution which will come to his own.
[00:15:38] Let me give you a news flash.
[00:15:41] If the Lord Jesus Christ lived today, he would be persecuted.
[00:15:48] He would.
[00:15:49] If you ask almost anyone in this world, they oh no, Jesus, he went about doing good.
[00:15:56] That's what he did. Then what was the result? Is the world substantially and essentially different now than it was then? Oh, well, we've developed. No, we have not. The wicked nature of man is just the same now as it was then. It is in no way different. If the Lord, if what Jesus said is true, if he lived today, he would also be subject to persecution, just like he. Because he told us we would be for the same reason that he was in 2000 years ago.
[00:16:26] When we think about the source of persecution, it's not the secular world, but it's the religious world. One thing I've experienced, and maybe you have experienced as well, is how many times the disciples of Christ, you and me, who are trying to follow him and live for him, are persecuted by other believers.
[00:16:50] I remember when I was in high school, I remember there was my wife and I in our class.
[00:16:57] We had just recently been saved and we just, we weren't thinking about being holy rollers or holier than thou. And we were accused of all kinds of things in high school, you know, by whom? By the kids who all went to church.
[00:17:15] And they were the ones, they were the ones slandering, they were the ones giving us reproaches because we were trying to live for God. And that is exactly what, that is exactly what we find in our day.
[00:17:32] Anybody that goes out and does evangelism.
[00:17:36] How many times, Brother Jim, Brother David, have you been confronted by a church going person to stand in your way? You're not doing it right. You're being offensive. You're this, you're that to hinder you. It's always the church people because that's always been the source of the persecution.
[00:17:55] The religious people that claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ and yet, and yet are involved in the persecution of the disciples of Christ.
[00:18:16] God forbid, even in the life of Paul, in his ministry, he talked about false brethren, right? In Galatians and Second Corinthians he talked about false brethren. In other words, there were people who paraded themselves around as Christians who they themselves were the sources of persecution of Paul and his ministry. It's amazing.
[00:18:39] God forbid that we should ever be involved in. God forbid that we should ever reproach someone who is living for God and hinder them, even listen, even if they disagree with us, because we believe the scripture teaches in the freedom of the conscience.
[00:18:58] This idea that, this antagonism. Listen, now I'm trying to describe something. I want everybody to get it. Please, please try to understand what I'm saying. If I can express it right. There's a segment of people, church going religious people who have antagonism, actual antagonism toward other people who are believers in Christ because those people are trying to live for and follow the Lord Jesus. There's actual real antagonism and it comes out in the way that they revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely.
[00:19:42] That's the persecution.
[00:19:44] And these are in the Christian world.
[00:19:49] I'm going to say something about that in just a minute. But God forbid that we should ever listen, that we should ever be found, ever be found reviling someone, a disciple of Christ who is trying to follow the Lord because they're trying to follow the Lord. God forbid that is a wicked sin in God's sight.
[00:20:08] You know what? If you as a church going person have been involved in reviling someone because they're trying to live for God, you better check up because that is an indicator that you do not know nor love the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:20:26] You think of someone, I think of my son Josh. You know, he goes to work and you know, and you guys all know you have been reviled, you've been reproached, you've been mocked and ridiculed because you wouldn't drink when other people were drinking, or you wouldn't laugh at the jokes or you've been called names or whatever. And I know all of that is not the end of the world. It's not a big deal. But God forbid that a child of God would be involved in that. And yet it happens, does it not?
[00:20:53] Well, the church I go to, they don't do the church I go to. Well, they say it's okay. Listen, whatever that might be, whatever might be the case, that doesn't mean that we revile others who are trying to live for God.
[00:21:13] So the source of persecution is a little bit surprising.
[00:21:17] You expect it from one quarter and it comes from another.
[00:21:22] But look in Matthew 5 at the causes of persecution. Verse 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Verse 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. There's two causes, righteousness and Jesus.
[00:21:49] Two causes. Peter also describes this same pattern in first Peter 3:14 and one Peter 4:14.
[00:21:58] And of course we just need to say it out front. It says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. We should never be the if we do wrong and we have a sour attitude and we don't live uprightly and don't love others and people treat us badly because we cut them off and gave them the finger. Yeah. If they persecute us for that, we might deserve that kind of persecution.
[00:22:22] And that's not the persecution. That's blessed.
[00:22:26] That's not it.
[00:22:28] I sure hope that would never happen.
[00:22:33] In First Peter, the Lord tells us that if we're going to be persecuted, let it be for our good, not for our evil. Right?
[00:22:42] But notice it says in verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Notice it doesn't say doing good.
[00:22:51] There's a difference between doing good and righteousness.
[00:23:00] Doing good and right. The world often lauds those who do good. But this world, and I mean the religious as well, hate the righteous, hate the righteous.
[00:23:16] Look at 2nd Timothy, if you would. Chapter 3, 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, verse 10, 2nd Timothy 3:10.
[00:23:43] Notice the words here. Paul says to Timothy, but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. Now look at verse 12. This is striking.
[00:24:06] Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
[00:24:15] First thing I want you to see is this.
[00:24:18] This is not reserved to preachers only, but to all disciples of Christ.
[00:24:24] So Paul talks about his own persecutions and we might think, well, he was a preacher and he was bold. No, no, no, no, no, no. He corrects that idea in verse 12. Because he says, and all that will live godly and Jesus shall suffer persecution. Notice it doesn't say all who do good.
[00:24:41] Because there's a difference between doing good, being morally good, and being righteous.
[00:24:50] The fact that it says live godly. This indicates in verse 12 that we're talking about practical, upright living in the sight of God. That's what when we talk about righteousness in our text in Matthew, chapter five, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. We're talking about doing and living according to that which God tells us is right, not according to this kind of nebulous, undefined idea of what good means according to the world.
[00:25:23] That's not what we're talking the world loves somebody who does good.
[00:25:27] When we try to live righteously and it is right, the Lord commands us to live uprightly according to what his word says. But when we do that, when we do that, it will bring about persecution.
[00:25:45] Now, what I'm not talking about is living a clean, you know, living a basically moral life. This is how we. This is the way we kind of make everything generic. And we take something that is righteousness and we take it to mean. Well, it just means I don't cheat on my wife and I don't go to jail and I don't do drugs. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a disciple of Christ who's living for God and trying to live uprightly.
[00:26:18] Being morally okay, being morally upstanding in the sight of others is not the same as living righteously in the sight of God.
[00:26:30] The world will leave you alone.
[00:26:33] Because here's what happens. You have a group of people, remember, remember the religious. Remember that the source of most persecution is from the religious. So you have these religious people who try to live a morally acceptable life.
[00:26:52] They don't curse too much. They don't get too drunk.
[00:26:57] You know, they try to be kind and help people when they can. And they always, always press the button to donate at the checkout.
[00:27:13] But then they see someone who is righteous, a child of God who is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, who wants nothing more than to live according to what the Lord Jesus has spoken.
[00:27:31] He wants nothing more. And he's unashamed. And he is unwilling listen now. He is unwilling to compromise what the Lord Jesus has told him to please men.
[00:27:47] And a distinction, a fracture grows between the morally good religious folk and someone who is trying to live for God.
[00:28:02] Because when this group looks at that group, this group says it makes them look bad.
[00:28:13] They poke at it and reproach them and slander them. Well, they're just doing it for this.
[00:28:20] Or they just think they're better than everybody else. And that thought never enters the disciple of Christ's mind. You know why? Because that is the opposite of being poor in spirit and meek like we just read in Matthew 5.
[00:28:32] And because it makes the morally good religious person who is not righteous. Because it makes them feel bad that they're not living up to the same standard. Because that group is constantly comparing themselves with this group. And this group's just trying to compare themselves with the Lord Jesus.
[00:28:51] They target this group.
[00:28:58] You know what it shows us that this world, this world is wholly given to wickedness.
[00:29:07] That's why they're willing to persecute people for righteousness.
[00:29:13] And also shows us that this world, even though they're members of churches that have Jesus in the name, yet they hate the Lord Jesus. Because those who love him and follow him and are his disciples are the targets of their persecution. The persecution demonstrates that proves it.
[00:29:34] You know, listen, there's a lot of people that are seeking to follow Jesus in a way that maybe I wouldn't exactly do it, but God forbid that I should revile that person if they're following Jesus with all their heart.
[00:29:56] Martin Lloyd Jones said this. That was why the Pharisees.
[00:30:03] The Pharisees and the scribes hated our Lord. It was not because he was good. Everybody loved Jesus because He was good. That's how he's described. He went healing people and doing this, doing that, but yet they hate it. How could you hate someone who did good? Here's why.
[00:30:18] Because he was different.
[00:30:20] He was righteous. And his righteousness as a light, he said it in John 15, shined as a light upon their darkness and they could not tolerate it because light always exposes darkness.
[00:30:39] If we are persecuted for righteousness sake, like we see in verse number 10, this means two things.
[00:30:47] That the righteousness that I'm talking about, that practical, everyday, upright living for the Lord is visible for others to see.
[00:30:59] And if we are persecuted for righteousness sake, it is because there is actual righteousness in us.
[00:31:12] And it says in verse number 11, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. What if we're persecuted for Jesus sake because of our association with him? Listen, if we're persecuted because of our association with the Lord Jesus, this means that the world, who is the persecutor actually does indeed associate us with him. You know what that is? That is a blessing.
[00:31:39] The disciples are first called what at Antioch Christians. They by the world were associated with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:31:48] Now here's a question I have for you. Why is it that many Christians never have never experienced any kind of persecution?
[00:32:01] They don't know what this means.
[00:32:04] Never had someone revile them, say bad things about them. Or as Luke says, I'll just read this to you. Luke puts it in a little bit different of a way.
[00:32:14] Luke chapter six says this.
[00:32:17] Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil.
[00:32:29] He says, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.
[00:32:38] Why do so many Christians never have. Why is it that so many have never experienced Persecution. Here's why.
[00:32:46] Because as a disciple of Christ, they're not living right.
[00:32:50] They're not living righteously.
[00:32:53] Because if they did, the world would notice and would reproach and revile them and separate them and say, I'm not inviting them out. I know what that's like. In my own family, I know what that's like. Well, they don't drink, so we're not even going to invite them.
[00:33:08] I know what that's like and you probably do too.
[00:33:11] Do I regret it? No. Do I feel bad? No. I feel bad that they feel like they have to do that, but I don't feel bad about it.
[00:33:21] Why is it that some Christians never feel persecution for Jesus sake? Could it be because they're not really affiliated with Jesus in the sight of this world?
[00:33:32] No one notices their association. They don't ever talk about him. They don't ever take a stand for him. They don't ever say no to some things. Listen, if you're a disciple of Christ, if you think you're going to live in this world for Jesus and you think there's never going to be a time when you're going to have to put your foot down and say, I'm sorry, but no, you are mistaken. But I promise you, if you don't put your foot down at times, they won't persecute you.
[00:34:00] It is when you have to put your foot down and say, no, I'm not doing that. Why not?
[00:34:06] Because I love Jesus and I'm not going to do something he tells me not to do.
[00:34:13] That's when it starts again. Martin Lloyd Jones says this.
[00:34:21] And yet it is not our idea of what we call the perfect Christian nearly always. And yet is it not our idea of what we call the perfect Christian? He nearly always, nearly always that he is a nice popular man who never offends anyone and it's so easy to get on with.
[00:34:40] That's not a description of a person in the kingdom of God, is it?
[00:34:45] See, these two or three verses in Matthew 5 fundamentally change the assumption that we have. And this assumption. Listen to me, this is important. This assumption that we have is deeply ingrained in the way we think. And here it is. We think that everyone will be our friend if we're right with God.
[00:35:04] And that is not true.
[00:35:10] Christians have an absolute phobia that someone might think ill of them and of their faith.
[00:35:17] And that phobia actually drives them to please this world.
[00:35:25] It is a vain pursuit because you cannot please Christ and this world at the same time. And what's more is because of this phobia, you know what they do?
[00:35:36] They judge the rightness or wrongness of their life and their choices based upon the reaction of this world who hates the Lord Jesus and doesn't want to, doesn't love righteousness. And they. Well, if they. I'm not going to do that because they might be upset.
[00:35:51] Instead of looking solely to the Lord Jesus, this thinking is flawed.
[00:35:59] We cannot use this as a thermometer to judge righteousness.
[00:36:07] This is why churches have the music that they have, the methods of evangelism. Certain things they talk about and don't talk about. It's all about looking at this world and their opinions. Because we know if we make them upset, we know we're doing something wrong. Actually, the Lord Jesus said the opposite. The polar opposite. Did he not?
[00:36:26] Just to be clear, I'm not talking about being overtly offensive to people. Of course not.
[00:36:33] Listen, you can tell as a disciple of Christ, you can tell somebody, no, I'm not being involved in that. With tears coming down your face. You absolutely can do that. With the right attitude. You can. Listen, you must.
[00:36:47] We must.
[00:36:49] If we're going to be followers of the Lord Jesus.
[00:36:57] Believe it or not, I'm almost finished in Matthew 5. Notice what it says in verse 11.
[00:37:03] Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. To revile means to subject a person to insult or abuse, to talk or to criticize them in an angry, abusive or insulting way. I already read in Luke 6 where it talks about how they would separate you from their company. Listen, this is not bloodshed here. The persecution being described here is essentially verbal and social persecution. That's all.
[00:37:31] I wouldn't say that's a huge deal, would you? Considering there are Christians in China that are being imprisoned and put to death.
[00:37:39] There are people in Muslim majority countries that are being imprisoned and put to death, being disappeared in North Korea because of their faith in Christ, because they merely possess a Bible.
[00:37:51] That is certainly persecution. But that is not all that persecution is.
[00:37:56] Right here. We're not talking about that. We're talking about somebody saying something bad about us.
[00:38:02] And even that causes some people to wilt.
[00:38:07] Okay, I won't do that anymore. I won't talk about Jesus. I'll just go along with him just to keep peace.
[00:38:23] If we cannot tolerate abusive words for our Lord Jesus Christ, what shall we do if there's actually abusive action?
[00:38:40] So the form of persecution is not maybe what we think of imprisonment, all of us like to. All of us like to think, well, if they start arresting Christians, I'm going to be the first to go. Yeah, but if, as a disciple of Christ, we cannot even tolerate somebody speaking ill of us because we're trying to live for God or because of our Lord Jesus and our association with him, what do we think we're going to do when the laws start to change?
[00:39:13] And then lastly, the comfort of persecution.
[00:39:17] Notice in Matthew 5, look at what it says in verse 10, Blessed are they which are persecuted. Verse 11, Blessed are ye. And then in verse 12, Rejoice and be exceeding glad. What an odd statement for someone who is being reviled and scorned and mocked and separated from and treated differently and run down behind their back. What is. What an odd way to respond to rejoice, be glad. And Luke says to leap for joy.
[00:39:56] We don't rejoice over people who are persecuting us and speaking ill of us because we're trying to live for God and because we love the Lord Jesus and because we talk about Him. No, we don't rejoice over the fact of the persecution, but we rejoice over what that persecution indicates.
[00:40:17] The persecution is proof positive. Please hear me. We're almost finished. See, the persecution they intended for evil. But to us, to us, it is proof that we are actually living right, that we're actually doing the will of the Lord.
[00:40:43] They've noticed.
[00:40:45] They've noticed.
[00:40:48] The Lord uses the evil as a comfort.
[00:40:54] It's a comfort to us because the persecution indicates that they know we love Jesus and believe in Jesus and want them to believe in Christ also.
[00:41:05] You know, sometimes we wonder, am I doing this right?
[00:41:09] Am I living for the Lord? Right? Am I good testimony? Am I living uprightly? Can people see it? Is it making a difference? Is there an effect, Lord? Am I doing? Am I living right for you? And then the Lord allows persecution to come and says, see, there's your answer.
[00:41:32] See, persecution is the evidence.
[00:41:37] That's why the persecution comes.
[00:41:40] So it becomes a source of comfort to us. Remember in Acts, chapter five, in our study of Acts, remember, they went out of the council rejoicing they'd been beaten, right? They went out of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy. You know what those stripes were? Listen, those stripes on their back. 40 saved one, right? You know what they were?
[00:42:03] They were evidence that those men really loved Jesus.
[00:42:11] The persecution was the evidence.
[00:42:15] Now we don't need to pick, get a martyr syndrome or martyr mentality. A victim. Victim mentality. That's not what I'm talking about. But in our honest, conscientious pursuit of living for the Lord to please him, to talk about him and to tell others about him in our. In our honest pursuit of the Lord. In that way the Lord will often give us a little thumbs up and say, and the way he does it is through the way this world who doesn't know him and doesn't love him and doesn't love righteousness, responds to that. They testify to us. And in that way we rejoice.
[00:42:58] Notice it says this. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward. What is a reward? A reward is something you receive for doing right. Right? Am I right? Is that how I understand it?
[00:43:12] All right. The Lord says you have a reward. The evidence of that reward waiting on you is the persecution for that cause. You ought to rejoice. Notice he says this at the very end, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
[00:43:27] You think of Elijah and the prophets of BAAL and Jezebel. You think of Daniel, you think of Jeremiah, you think of Elijah or Isaiah. You think of the prophets of old.
[00:43:40] And there's many more than that.
[00:43:43] Here's what the Lord says. The Lord puts his disciples who endure persecution in the same category as these prophets. We think of these prophets as almost like superhuman.
[00:43:54] Like they had a level of faith in God and a level of following the Lord that just exceeds ours. And there's no comparison. And that is not true. In fact, James 5 actually says this. It says Elias was a man subject to like passions. Right? In other words, bust him down a level or two. He's just a man.
[00:44:21] We find it difficult to compare ourselves to these prophets that we read in Scripture.
[00:44:27] But listen, they lived in the same world. We live in the same hostility toward God as we live in. Same hatred of righteousness as we live in.
[00:44:40] And you know what they got?
[00:44:42] We get the same reaction. They got the same reaction that this world gave to these prophets is the reaction they give to us.
[00:44:57] And so that is evidence so that we can clearly see, see ourselves in their number.
[00:45:08] Isn't that amazing? To be numbered with Elijah, Jeremiah, Moses, Daniel, David.
[00:45:19] This is what this verse says.
[00:45:22] We are not different than them.
[00:45:25] We truly are among them these men and these women who we revere for their faithfulness.
[00:45:34] And the proof that we're among them is how this unchanged world has reacted to us both.
[00:45:48] It's just a statement of fact.
[00:45:51] I'm closing my Bible. Don't turn your brain off quite yet.
[00:45:55] The Lord Jesus declares that one of the characteristics of a person in his kingdom is that they are persecuted.
[00:46:05] Are you living in such a way before your God with a clear conscience, with pure heart?
[00:46:14] Are you living in such a way that it provokes the ire of those who do not know him and do not love him?
[00:46:21] Is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on your lips? Is it on my lips to such a degree that they readily associate us with him and it's evidenced in the way they respond? We're not looking for that. We don't want people to mistreat us.
[00:46:39] But the Lord says they will.
[00:46:43] They will and God forbid.
[00:46:47] Are you one of those who has actually been the persecutor of someone who was honestly trying to live for the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:46:59] That is proof positive that you need Jesus, that you need him, that you are without Him.
[00:47:11] That's what Jesus said.
[00:47:14] Let's pray together.
