Hope Church LV Sermons
Be Happy :: Happy are the Persecuted
Well, if there was one word that truly summed up the teaching of Jesus, in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, it would be the word radical. In Matthew chapter five, we find Jesus sitting on a hill, talking to his disciples. And there are thousands of people around him looking on and listening in. And Jesus is sharing with them a message that goes directly against what the culture was saying. And it went directly against what the religious leaders of that day were teaching. But even though those things were true and it was counter-cultural, Jesus spoke up. And he shared about a way of life that was radical. For seven weeks now here at Hope, we have been examining his teachings in a section of scripture referred to as the Beatitudes. And we've given you a definition every week of exactly what a beatitude is. That's a pretty word, but what does it really mean? And I wanna put that definition up again this morning as we begin, here's what a beatitude is. A beatitude is a declaration. Of a radically different way of life that's made possible through a relationship with Christ. And that results or produces real, unshakeable happiness. That's a beatitude. And here in Matthew chapter five, Jesus is sharing characteristics that are true of people who are in his kingdom. And this weekend, we come to our eighth and final beatitude. And this one, the eighth one may just be the most radical of them all. And it's a pretty tough one. It's pretty hard to talk through and really get your heart around. Because this one is actually a product of the first seven. You could say it this way. To the degree that you and I fulfill the first seven beatitudes, to that degree, we will experience the eighth. Because when the first seven beatitudes are dominant or are priority in our life, the Bible tells us that we will be persecuted. If you have your Bible this morning, turn with me to Matthew chapter five. And I wanna read for us verses one through 12, the entire section here that is referred to as the beatitudes. If you don't have a Bible this morning, it's okay. We're gonna put it up on the screen for you so you can also follow along. Matthew chapter five verse one. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and he began to teach them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. And then our text for this morning. Blessed are those who've been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Verse 12, rejoice and be glad. For your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It's radical. It's different. And this morning, just like every other week in this series, we're gonna ask some questions that hopefully will give us some clarity into what was in the mind and heart of Jesus that day when he sat on that hill and he spoke this message to his disciples. And here's the first very simple but very important question. What is persecution? I think if we went around the room this morning, a lot of people could probably give examples of persecution. Something you've saw on television, something you've read in the scriptures, something that's happened in your life personally. But if you had to articulate a specific definition of what persecution is, what would you say? Our teaching team wrestled with that this week and we came to a definition that I believe really communicates in essence what persecution is and I wanna give it to you this morning. Persecution is opposition from others to Christ living through me. Anytime there's persecution, the type of persecution Jesus is talking about here in Matthew chapter five, it's because someone is raising up an opposition or a resistance to Jesus. And there are really two key phrases in this text that really shaped that definition. Jesus says in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Then in verse 11 he says, blessed are those who are persecuted because of me. So we understand Jesus is talking about a specific group of people and the group of people he's talking about are those who have pursued righteousness, pursued a righteous way of life. And because of that, they have encountered opposition or persecution. You see, when Jesus was on the earth, there were only a couple ways that people responded to him. They would either see his teaching and his ministry and be attracted to it and embrace it and begin to follow him or they would be outraged by it. And they would begin to rebel against it and go try to find a hammer and some nails to figure out how can we kill this man named Jesus. And the same is true today. When people see the life and ministry of Jesus pressed out through us, they're either going to be attracted to it and want to embrace it and follow Christ or they're gonna be outraged by it and want to rebel against it and want to persecute his followers because he is living his life. Through us. That's what persecution is. It is opposition from others to Christ, living through us anytime there is persecution in the context of what Jesus is speaking of in this text. It is because people have an issue with Christ. And I believe as he communicated on that hill that day, that's what he meant. But in this text, I not only want you to see what Jesus did say, about persecution, I want you to see what Jesus did not say in this text. And I want to read for you a couple of things that Jesus here in this text did not say. Jesus didn't say blessed are those who are persecuted for being over zealous. You see, there's a major difference in being persecuted for righteousness and being persecuted because of my own antagonism or my own selfish actions. And I think there was a group of people in Jesus' day and there's a group in our day who are full and quick to express a lot of zeal, but very slow to communicate compassion. They are very quick to share out loud condemnation, but very, very slow to communicate grace. When I was in college, I went to a Christian university, we had to attend chapel several times a week. And I remember walking to chapel one day and off to the ride, I saw a young man who was kind of standing on a platform screaming at every person who walked by, telling them they were wearing the wrong clothes and that they were doing the wrong things. And if they didn't listen to what he was teaching, that their lives were gonna be horrible and their end result was gonna be destruction. And he was doing it in such a way, he was just angry at everyone he walked by. And you would see him around campus and he would start to walk in a certain direction towards a group of students and immediately those students would go the other way. And he would seek to engage in conversations with people and immediately students would walk away. And he wore the badge that said, "I'm persecuted for my faith, "but I would submit to you this morning, "by the way he did ministry. "The only righteousness that was present in his life "was a self-righteousness." I'm thinking he was better than everyone else. And Jesus here, when he says the persecuted, he's not talking about those people who were overzealous and full of condemnation and lacking in grace. He wasn't talking about those people. Jesus also didn't say, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for lacking wisdom." There are a lot of people who seek to begin a business or a company or a ministry or a campaign and they do so seeking no counsel and they get out in the world and they fall flat on their face because no one has had a chance to speak wisdom into their life and they're not a light in our culture, they're a hindrance in our culture. And Jesus wasn't talking about them either. Jesus didn't even say blessed are those who are persecuted for a good cause. The common denominator in the persecution Jesus was talking about is a pursuit of righteousness and righteous living. Martin Lloyd Jones said it this way. He said being righteous, practicing righteousness really means being like the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore they are blessed who are persecuted for being like Him. What is more, those who are like Him, always will be persecuted. Jesus specifies a group here, a group that because of their pursuit of a righteous life, their pursuit of Christ, them seeking to demonstrate the life and ministry of Jesus are persecuted. And I would ask you this morning, if you're engaged in any form of persecution, is it happening because of your pursuit of righteousness or is it happening because of your own selfish actions? That's very important to understand this morning, but when Jesus expressed this, He was talking about a persecution that came about because of a pursuit of righteousness, which begs a second question this morning. What does persecution look like? We've established what it is. It's an opposition from other people to Jesus, people not liking Jesus' life and ministry. But what does it look like? Well, verse 11 in this text gives us three very, very clear examples of exactly what persecution looks like, three forms of persecution. We'll give verse 11. He said blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Here's the first form of persecution we see in verse 11. Verbal insults. Verbal insults. This word insult simply means to cast into one's teeth. It's the idea of standing face to face with someone and throwing harsh words in the face of another person and in order to hurt them or harm them. There's a great example of this in Matthew, chapter 27. It's actually happened to Jesus. Matthew 27 said the scribes and elders were mocking him meeting Jesus saying he saved others. He can't even save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now. It's the idea of throwing insults in the face of another. And you don't have to follow Jesus very long in Las Vegas to have these types of situations where you're in the office or you're with your family or you're with another group. And because of your pursuit of righteousness as an adult you encounter opposition. But I think there is another area. It's probably where this form of persecution surfaces the most in our culture. And I think it's in the area of students and teenagers. I've been to the malls, I've been to the schools and I've heard how students talk to each other when they're friends, much less how they talk to each other when one has been radically rescued and one is not. If you're a teenager in the room this morning I want you to look at me. I want to say something to you specifically. I know that as you live on your campus and you seek to pursue purity, to pursue a way of life that's radical and that's different there will be moments when there are things you're left out of, things you don't get to engage in because of your relationship with Jesus. And I know in those moments when that happens you feel really awkward and you feel like you've been left out and you almost feel not normal. But I want you to listen to me. If you're a Jesus follower, you're not normal. You're radical. And don't you dare compromise your pursuit of righteousness for any form of verbal insult that your friends or the people around you may ever say to your face. It's not worth it. Jesus here is talking about what you face every day and he says, you're blessed. You're not weird, you're not strange, you're not out of the ordinary. You're blessed according to Jesus. And I recognize that you go to school every day and you hear language and you hear different ideas and different things take place that are crazy and that break the heart of God. But God's placed you where he's placed you not for you to conform to their image. He's placed you where he's placed you so that you can be a light and a pursuer of righteousness right in the middle of that darkness. And parents, I believe there should not be a day that goes by that before you send your students into school, you don't look them right in the eyes and speak the word of life into them. You encourage them to pursue righteousness. You encourage them that the purity they're going after, the choices they're making that honor God is the way God desires for them to live. And though everyone around them may be saying something different, they're to be radical children of God in this generation. And parents, I wanna challenge you to do that. Don't just assume that they know it. Don't just assume that they get it because I said it last week, I believe on a daily basis, you should look your student in the eye and encourage them in their pursuit of righteousness because I guarantee you as they operate at school, they're gonna encounter verbal insults. That's very important. And that's one form of persecution that Jesus gives her in this text. There's a second form. This form is physical abuse. He said, "Her blessed are you and people insult you "and persecute you." This word persecute in verse 11 means a chasing or a driving away. It means to pursue. It means you have an issue with someone and you are chasing them away from your presence because you don't wanna be around them. Did you know that right now, March of 2010, we have over 40 brothers and sisters in Christ who'd lived in the country of Laos who have been chased out of their village, ran out of their home and taken into the wilderness and left to die by the government because they will not forsake the name of Jesus. And the government says, "You can go back home. "You can go back to life as normal. "If you will just renounce the name of Christ." And fathers and mothers and husbands and wives and children and brothers and sisters all say, "No way." It's not worth it. Death is not too high of a price to pay for my allegiance and my pursuit of a righteous king named Jesus. That's happening right now. And that is a form of this physical abuse that we read about in verse 11. Last year I was in another part of the world and I was talking with a young Christian man on the side of a street and I said, "What do you do for a living?" He said, "Well, I have a little stand "and I sell chips, ice cream and sandwiches." I said, "Oh, really? "How long have you been doing that?" He said, "Several years." And he said, "But pastor, selling those things "is not my mission every day." He said, "My mission every day is to give the people "who I sell things to, one of these." And he pulled out a New Testament. He said, "I've been able to lead hundreds "of Muslims to Christ this year "because every time I sell them something, "I give them a New Testament." And they've been looking for it because our government doesn't allow it here. And pastor, pray for me. Pray that the government wouldn't find out about what I'm doing because they'll take my business away, they'll take my money away, they'll take all of those New Testament away and I don't know what they might do to me. That's happening right now, all over the world. And for us, that might look like you never getting that promotion because of your pursuit of righteousness. It might mean you never being in that specific social network because of your pursuit of righteousness. It might mean you never really get what you always wanted because you've chosen to chase after Jesus. And I would say this morning, that's okay. 'Cause if you look at it from a global perspective, it could be a whole lot worse for us here in America. You do know that church all over the world doesn't look like it does here. There are people who carry the same Bible that you carried in this morning who would be in very, very deep trouble if it was found by the government. And another form of abuse that America may come into one day is this chasing or driving out because of our pursuit of righteousness. People are experiencing it right now, all over the world. The third form of persecution that we see here in this text. And it is false accusations. He said, "Blessed are you and people insult you? "They persecute you." And when they say all kinds of evil things against you, this is the idea of hurtful things said behind a person's back. It's when someone depicts that you've said something that you really didn't say or that you've done something that you really didn't do. And the world does this to the church so that other people would question our integrity, that they would question our authenticity, that maybe we're not all we're cracked up to be. This is the form of persecution we see in the garden, in the book of Genesis. What did the enemy do? He tried to get Eve to think that God said something he really didn't say, and that God meant something that he really didn't mean. He lied. And as we operate day in and day out in a culture that is far from Christian, we're gonna encounter these forms of persecution. Because Jesus didn't say if you're persecuted. He said, "When?" And I wanna challenge you with something. There's a lot of people who would say, "Travis, "I've never experienced that. "I've never been persecuted in any form, large or small." And my fear is there's a lot of people in America who claim to follow Jesus who've never been persecuted, and I think the reason for that. And it breaks my heart because I know it's true of me sometimes, is because we have chosen to pursue popularity more than we have chosen to pursue righteousness. That's the only explanation. Because Jesus says those who pursue righteousness with a reckless abandon will be persecuted. So the only reason that we would not be persecuted on this earth is if we're not pursuing righteousness. And God forgive us for the moments when we're sitting around a group of people and the Holy Spirit prompts on our heart that we're to speak up, or we're to step in and share some form of truth, but we don't because we're afraid of what other people might do or how they might react to us. I have those moments, you have those moments. And I want to encourage you, don't be afraid. Even in the moments when it's difficult, let your pursuit be righteousness. May we be a church that pursues a righteous life over popularity, over feeling, over anything else. And whatever may happen is gonna happen. But we know that we made our chief desire, our savior. Those are three forms of persecution, which begs another very important question. It's our last question this morning. If we know what persecution is, and we know kind of what it looks like, how it may come to us, what form, how do we respond? I mean, how do we respond to these things? If people are saying lies about us, or they're insulting us, or they're physically doing something to exclude us, or push us away, what's our response as the church of Jesus Christ? Well, I'll be honest with you. I think because our flesh is our flesh is our flesh. Our initial response always is to retaliate. We won't revenge, we want to get back at them, but I want to encourage you to do something. Jesus didn't just say here, hey, you're gonna be persecuted, deal with it. He said, you're gonna be persecuted, and here are two very important promises to those who are persecuted. I wanna encourage you, as you encounter opposition, may you process your response through these two very important promises that Jesus gives here in this text. Here's the first promise he says. He said, you are persecuted, yours is the kingdom of heaven. And I believe in his heart, he was thinking about all the things that because of our pursuit of righteousness, we were never gonna attain. He knew that there'd be many things we wanna be a part of, we wanna engage in, we wanna enjoy, but because we're pursuing righteousness, we choose not to. He's saying, listen, there's coming a day, and I'm gonna make up for it. Everything that you think maybe you didn't get to have as much as you wanted one day in heaven, you're gonna see a reward that is many times over greater than anything you could have attained on earth. And he also said this promise, because I know one of the main things the enemy does to us when we're persecuted is he makes us feel like we're all by ourself. I've had many conversations after the service of the people who came up to Travis, I'm the only Christian in my office. I'm the only Christian in my whole company. I'm a only Christian in my whole family, Travis. No one else knows Jesus but me, and I feel like I'm alone. Well, this promise is for you because Jesus says, you're a part of a kingdom, and you're not by yourself. And so in those moments when it's difficult, remember, yours is the kingdom of heaven. He's gonna make up the difference of everything that you did not attain here on earth, and much, much more, and you're not by yourself. There are brothers and sisters across the globe who are walking where you're walking, and we're in this thing together. You need to process your response through that promise. But a second promise he gives. He says, but your reward in heaven is great. Those who suffer, those who are persecuted, who face opposition for the sake of righteousness will receive a reward that is eternal because it's in heaven, but also that it's great by heaven's standards. If I asked you this morning, what's a great reward? You would say a house, a car, vacation time, money, something like that, because that's all we know. That's great by earthly standards. But the reward Jesus promises here to those who are persecuted is going to be great, but it's gonna be great by heaven's standard. Martin Lloyd-Jones said it this way, my whole outlook upon everything that happens to me should be governed by these three things, my realization of who I am, my consciousness of where I'm going and my knowledge of what awaits me when I get there. We must process our response to persecution through the filter of these powerful promises given by Jesus in Matthew chapter five. I'm closing, I wanna give you a couple of correct responses to persecution. Here's the first one. The first correct response is that we shouldn't be surprised when it happens. We should not be surprised when it happens to us. Second Timothy three says, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ will be persecuted. Jesus was honest. He says here, I didn't come to make your life easy. I came to make your life great and whole and full. First Peter chapter four says, beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you, but to the degree that you share in the suffering of Christ, keep on rejoicing. So that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit of God rests on you. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he's not to be ashamed that he is a glorified God in that name. When you encounter persecution this week or in the days ahead, your first response should be that you're not surprised. You knew this was gonna happen. Jesus said very clearly, those who pursue righteousness will be persecuted, but here's a second response that straight from verse 12. He says in verse 12, "Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great." Our second response, we should rejoice and be glad when it happens. And even though we don't understand at all, and there's a lot of pain and there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of frustration. Jesus said there are still reasons to rejoice even in the midst of intense persecution. And as we finish, just very quickly, I'm just gonna move through these. I wanna give you four things that in the midst of your persecution, if you and I will respond in the right way, these things will be true of us. Right now, our brothers and sisters in Laos who are having worship services in the wilderness because they've been kicked out of their village for pursuing righteousness, their response has been correct. So these four things are true of them. They can be true of us as well. And there are also four things that you can pray for people who are going through persecution. It's hard sometimes when a person comes to you and says I'm being persecuted to pray that it would stop because Jesus said it's gonna happen. But here are four things that I hope you'll take and put on a mirror or in your car or in your journal, just to remind yourself so that when you encounter these forms of persecution, you can remember these things because they're very important. Here's the first one. There is a reason to rejoice and be glad in persecution because it deepens our intimacy with God. There are levels of fellowship that we go to in difficult times. And God teaches us things there and deepens our love for him there like he never could in any other situation. Paul in Philippians chapter three said it this way, "That I may know him." That means an experiential knowledge of intimacy and the power of Jesus' resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. He's saying just as much as I deepen my intimacy when I experience the power of God, my intimacy would deepen just as much when I experience his suffering. So that tells us there's a greater purpose to suffering than just pain. And one of the results is that it can deepen our intimacy with God and if we'll respond in the right way, on the other side of it all, we'll love God more and we'll know him better in an intimate love relationship. Here's the second thing, that if we respond in the right way, we'll be true. It will remind us that this world's not home. It will remind us that this world isn't our home. When the Bible speaks of us, the Bible says things like new creations, aliens in this world. We are here, but we are radically different and we are citizens of another place. The world is getting darker and darker and darker and we are to be conformed more and more and more to the Son of God's image. So what does that naturally mean? That there's going to be hard moments and in those hard moments, where do you remember? This isn't home. This isn't home. Paul said it this way. Later on in Philippians chapter three, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory. If we'll respond in the right way, we'll be reminded, it's a testimony to us. Whenever things happen, I'm not home yet. I'm not home, here's the third thing. We'll respond in the right way. It will develop our character. It will develop our character. James one says it this way, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials or persecution, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect to complete lacking in nothing." In those moments, God wants to teach you things and get your attention in ways that he never could otherwise. He wants to develop your character. Here's the fourth one. And it's actually the last part of verse 12. Jesus says, "For your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." The fourth thing, the fourth reason we can rejoice is because persecution identifies us with heroes of our faith. Persecution identifies us here in 2010 with all of the heroes that we read about and hear about through the Old Testament and New Testament. It identifies us with them. And Jesus here does something that's very subtle, but it's very powerful. He's talking to these disciples who were low servants, not a great education, not a lot of money, just depending on which one it was. They weren't known in society. And he says, "You know what, when you're persecuted, you're in the same company as all those saints of old who we hold up on such a high pedestal. I'm grouping everybody together because we're all in one kingdom. And when we're persecuted, whether it be at your school or at your office or in your family, guess what? If you'll respond in the right way, you're a testimony to the world and it identifies you with all the heroes of the faith. I wanna read a short piece of Hebrews, chapter 11. It talks about some things that have been endured for the sake of righteousness. Talking about these heroes of the faith, they were stoned. They were sawn into, they were tempted, they were put to death with swords. They went about in sheep skins, in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not even worthy of wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. That's who we're being identified with. Those Christians of the first century who were set on fire down streets to light up the city, they were burned because of their pursuit of righteousness. We're being identified with them when we respond to persecution the right way. That changes everything about our perspective. And if we'll respond the right way, I promise, those four things will be true of you or anyone else who experiences persecution. God will deepen your intimacy with him. He'll remind you that this isn't home. He'll develop your character and you will be identified with heroes of our faith. We are living in the greatest days in the history of Christianity to be alive. There are more people coming to know Jesus as rescuer today than in any other point in history, but there are also more people being persecuted for the sake of the gospel today than we've seen since the first century of Christians. And God in his sovereignty has positioned us in America. And maybe at this point, we're not experiencing being held at gunpoint or rushed out of high schools because we're worshiping God, but we have brothers and sisters on the other side of the world who are. So why has God placed us where he's placed us? He's placed us here in America with a freedom to carry the Bible that you're holding to worship in a public high school because we are to hold the ropes for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world who are enduring persecution, not because we're better, not because God loves us more, but because in this kingdom, God's established, he knew he would need people to go and to pray and to give to those who are being held at gunpoint and who are dying of starvation for the sake of righteousness. He says, if you pursue me, you're gonna be persecuted. It's okay, Jesus was too, but he said, it's not eternal. It's temporary and it will produce in us real, unshakeable. Happiness, let's pray this morning. God, we're lying to ourselves if we think it's not. God, this is a difficult sermon to even communicate, God. But Lord, we trust your word and we're committed to teaching all of your word. And God, I pray for the people in this room. Lord, some of them are walking into some dark places tomorrow morning where they're being ridiculed and insulted and God, sometimes it's easy just to feel like they're on an island, but God, I pray, I pray for them. I pray they wouldn't. I pray that these principles we've looked at today would ring in their hearts. God, it would continue just to resonate inside of them. If they're a part of the kingdom, and Jesus, you said this would happen. So we shouldn't be surprised by it. God, we should rejoice. And I pray that you would accomplish those things that we talked about this morning in their life today. God, thank you that you just didn't tell us what was gonna happen, but you gave us extremely encouraging promises about what it would mean for us as Jesus followers. Lord, I pray for the students in this room. Lord, I know every day they're walking in some dark places. But would you encourage them, God, would you encourage the parents to speak life into their students, to speak truth into their students, to encourage them in their pursuit of righteousness? (gentle piano music) If you hear this morning and you don't have a relationship with God, he loves you. And he desperately desires a relationship with you. And if you have questions, or this morning you would say, you know what, I wanna give my life to Jesus. We've got some pastors and some prayer volunteers all around this room, and they're there because they'd love to talk to you. And in just a minute, when we stand and respond, I wanna invite you to step out, go to one of them. They just wanna have a conversation. For the rest of us, we're gonna stand in a moment and just kinda sing this declaration. I said, God, whatever, whenever, blessed be your name. So Jesus, I pray you would speak to us during this time of response, God. If it's to pray for our brothers and sisters, if it's to examine our own pursuit of righteousness, or God just to worship you, or would you allow this to be a time that is free? In a time where we focus on you, we love you Lord. Your name I pray. (gentle music)