When was the last time somebody let you know that you do not belong? You do not fit in.
! You are not in. You are not in. You are not in. You are not in. You are not in. You are not
longer a part of this family. Whether it's subtly or secretly behind your back or violently,
you now know that you do not belong there anymore. I want to speak to you this morning
about persecution because it's the last of the Beatitudes that we've been dipping into
over the last month in the summer. If you look at verse 10 of Matthew 5, blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's another
one of these paradoxical promises from Jesus, isn't it? It just sounds so upside down to
our normal way of thinking. Blessed are the persecuted. But actually it's the only promise
that Jesus pushes that little bit further, isn't it? If you look on in verse 11 and 12,
blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. He pushes this point,
doesn't he, on persecution. Notice it is not a question of if, but when you are persecuted,
isn't it? And this is pointed directly to his disciples. When they revile you. When they persecute
you. This will be your experience, my disciples. This is the Christian experience. This is the
mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ. Persecution of some variety. So that is our sales pitch to
you this morning if you're not a Christian. This is the Christian experience. Come and be
persecuted. Sounds odd, doesn't it? But the strange thing here is Jesus is saying this will be a mark
of blessing, of tremendous blessing. Rejoice and be glad in it, Jesus says. The word rejoice
means to leap for joy, to celebrate in your persecution. It's so different from the things that we
normally hear, isn't it? Even from people who might say they are Christians, from the prosperity
gospel. A mark of blessing in that false gospel is prosperity and popularity and prestige. That's
how the world normally thinks, isn't it? But that's just so against what Jesus is saying here.
Jesus says to his disciples in John's gospel, if they persecute me, they will persecute you.
Paul says to Timothy, all who desire to live a godly life will suffer persecution.
So this is a subject, it's an issue that is relevant to all of Jesus' disciples, not just some in the
world. And so what we need is a robust view of persecution, but as a mark of blessing.
We're not wanting to dumb down Christians' suffering this morning in any way, but to see actually the
wonderful reason that it happens and its purpose and the reward for persecuted disciples of Jesus.
So that when somebody makes it clear that you do not belong in this world, because you are a disciple of Jesus,
we can rejoice and be glad as Jesus commands us to.
There are three things that I want us to think about this morning. The reason, the purpose and the reward
in persecution. The reason, the reason, the reason, the reason a distinctive life will collide with the world.
That's the reason. A distinctive life will collide with the world.
Now Jesus saves this beatitude, this blessed promise, doesn't he, until the end of his list.
I don't think he does that because it's the hardest one, he's sort of trying to keep the worst till the end.
But it's because actually living a life in accordance with the first seven beatitudes will mean that you will get the eighth.
It is just the natural consequence of living the authentic Christian life.
So the reason for persecution is this distinctive life, ordered and governed by the Lord Jesus.
It is how we already live, laid out in his beatitudes, that leads to this persecution.
It will provoke the world to respond.
Now if you just go through them, you can see that, can't you, maybe really quickly.
I know we haven't gone through all of these.
But if you look in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit.
Poverty of spirit clashes, doesn't it, with human pride in the world.
Just look down again, mourning for sin.
We looked at that a few weeks ago.
That just jars, doesn't it, with human arrogance.
And the idea that actually we're all fine.
We don't need God to sort our sin problem out.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
That's totally, totally at odds with our permissive society, isn't it?
Meekness clashes against self-assertion.
Purity of heart is opposed to all of the compromise and all of the hypocrisy in the world.
Peacemaking cuts against the argumentative and the cynicism, doesn't it?
And it just goes on, doesn't it?
You see at every point here, the authentic Christian life laid out by Jesus clashes with the world.
In every moment.
Because Jesus' disciples live a distinctive, Christ-centered, God-centered life that is lived for the honor of God and not for man.
It lives for the blessings that come from him and not in this world.
And so it's a drastic contrast.
It's a collision with the world.
John Stott, the Anglican preacher, said that persecution, Christian suffering, is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value systems.
In other words, Christianity lived like this in the world is like chalk and cheese, isn't it?
It just does not mix.
It's on a collision course.
You cannot reconcile them.
There will always be a conflict of interests.
I hope there are some non-Christians here this morning.
You're really welcome, if that's you.
And maybe if you are a Christian, you've got friends, you're in the community.
It's good, isn't it, to do that.
To love folk who don't know Jesus Christ yet.
And have relationships and friendships.
And to love those people.
But there is always that sense where there comes a point and there's just a difference.
There is a world of difference between how Christians live their lives and how others don't.
And maybe you feel that this morning.
Relationships are often fraught with that feeling that you just don't mix.
And when the world lives that sees Christianity like this, there will be a disparity.
There will be a conflict.
And it will threaten some folk, won't it?
As we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
And as we mourn for sin.
Some will find that unpalatable.
They will be convicted.
They will feel guilty.
They may even resent you and be hostile to you.
You'll be accused of being moralistic and straight-laced.
People might talk behind your back.
They might think you're deluded for believing in a God.
They might think you're lazy for not working on a Sunday.
All sorts of things.
Because you are distinctive.
And you are on a collision course with the world.
And so Christian persecution, it says to you, actually, you are living the Christian life as it's meant to be lived.
This radical, Christ-centered, upside-down life of blessing, it will clash with the world.
And it will provoke a response.
And the world will want to say to you, you do not belong here.
So if you're persecuted in any way, be encouraged that this is authentic Christian living.
Because you are on a collision course with the world.
That is the reason.
I want to mention a fairly big caveat, though, at this point.
Because not all persecution is caused by our godly distinctiveness, is it?
If we're honest.
Jesus says quite clearly here, blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
Isn't it?
That's an important addition.
Not all persecution is a mark of blessing.
Because not all persecution is for righteousness' sake.
Jesus says here.
So you've got to ask, why is it happening to me?
What has provoked this?
What have I done?
What are they angry about?
As to why I'm being persecuted?
It is not good to be persecuted for doing bad things, is it?
Augustine said it's not the punishment that makes the martyr, but it's the cause.
Do you see?
It is not simply because we might get a hard time that we are doing the right thing.
It is why we are doing it.
The persecution does not tell you about the person's cause.
Persecution in itself is not a good gauge necessarily for somebody's orthodoxy.
Let me try and explain that.
Some sort of false Christian groups, even some preachers, use this verse, verse 10, to warrant false teaching.
Or evangelism that is just abrasive.
And they think it gives them license to be overly aggressive, to be inflammatory, to be arrogant, to be tasteless, to be unloving.
And to be quite frank, to be just downright unhelpful.
And when they get thrown into prison, or they get abused, or they get egged in the streets,
they think that is a divine endorsement of what they're doing.
The Jehovah's Witnesses use this verse, don't they, to endorse their beliefs and behaviour.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians.
They just say that.
The more they're sent away, though, from house to house, the more they feel better about what they're doing.
Because they get a frosty response, they're annoying people, but they think persecution is a sign that they are doing the right thing.
But it can be an awkward gauge for orthodoxy.
So we've got to be careful on this, haven't we?
Just because people are annoyed by you, does not mean that you are being persecuted for the right reason.
The persecution that Jesus speaks about here is for the sake of righteousness.
It happens because of this biblical, Trinitarian, Jesus worshipping radical life that is meek, that is poor in spirit,
that is humble, that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, that grieves over sin and so on.
So I just want to have that in mind.
But with that in mind, I don't you know what this really is about.
You notice, don't you, when other people snub you because you will not cut corners at work.
You're singled out for not getting drunk at university.
Your family will not speak to you because of your faith or words.
It is not just physical violence, is it?
Persecution.
Look at verse 11.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
It's verbal, it's social, it's financial, it's emotional, unfairness and discrimination and snubbing and awkwardness.
But when that happens, Jesus says we can rejoice because we know the reason.
And it tells us that we're living the authentic Christian life as disciples of Jesus and we're on a collision course with the world.
And so we will get a response.
Actually, we should be thinking to ourselves, shouldn't we, I should be a bit worried if none of this ever happens to me.
That is the reason.
A distinctive life collides with the world.
Secondly, the purpose.
The purpose, a distinctive life will bring glory to the Father.
A distinctive life will bring glory to the Father.
Just drop your eye down to verse 13 to 16 for a second.
Jesus here gives us three images, doesn't he, to illustrate the distinctiveness of the disciples in the world.
So you've got the salt of the earth, the light of the world and the light in the house.
They're all images, aren't they, of the difference, the contrast that the disciples of Jesus have in the world.
The difference they make.
This is the distinctive life.
He's carrying on the same theme, really.
But the important thing is the reaction it gets from the world.
Just look at verse 16.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
As the world sees this authentic disciple living way, it will look so different to the world.
It will be bright and tasty.
As different as light is from the dark, it looks like it's from another world.
It is life, but it's life not as we've seen it or as we know it.
It is an alien kind of life.
And as they see that, there will be a conflict, there will be a collision, but there will be conclusions made about the people living this life.
And the conclusion will be that Christians have a heavenly Father who should be praised and worshipped.
This distinctive life, it says to the world that we have a heavenly Father because we are heavenly people.
And when we are persecuted, you're simply reminding us of the truth that we already know.
We do not belong here.
Persecution is a heavenly Father.
And in turn, Jesus says, they will give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Persecution, it isn't just an unwanted by-product.
It is part and parcel of this life that we have to live in this world.
It must happen.
it's as if, isn't it
we are aliens in the world
and we appear in the world
and our lives should be so different
so alien
and people look at us and they say
you're not from around here
you're like foreigners
you're like aliens
you're like strangers
and if you try and avoid the persecution
and the collision with the world
this will not work
that is Jesus' point in these three images
isn't it
if the salt loses its saltiness
if the lamp is hidden
or the hidden city on a hill
they're pointless aren't they
the whole purpose of them
is to be different
and to stand out
and to give light
and to show or have a contrast
with the world around it
to give flavour and light to the world around
so we must
we must
we must go through with it
because there is a purpose behind
persecution
and we will be persecuted
and the glory of God is at stake
and there will be those who draw
the right conclusion
and praise our Father in Heaven
when they see this distinctive life
when we don't shrink back
I'm sure you
most of you know the story of Saul's conversion
we're going to be looking at it next week
in Holiday Club
it's great isn't it
he is converted on the road to Emmaus
that famous scene where Jesus appears to him
in blinding light
he meets the risen Lord Jesus
but interestingly
interestingly in reflection
in the book of Acts
Paul remembers what happened
in that moment
he relays that incident
to King Agrippa
in Acts chapter 26
if you want to follow along
it's in Acts 26
verse 13
he said
I saw on the way
a light from heaven
brighter than the sun
that shone around me
and those who journeyed with me
and when we fall into the ground
I heard a voice saying to me
in the Hebrew language
Saul, Saul
why are you persecuting me?
it is hard for you
to kick against the goads
he is saying there isn't he
that the Lord Jesus
before that moment
had already been working on him
the Lord Jesus
had been goading him
had been pricking his conscience
had been prodding him
to turn and praise
Jesus
now the only time
that we've actually heard about
about Saul
in the book of Acts
before his conversion
is that scene
where he watches
the Christian disciple
Stephen die
he is martyred
and he watches
and he approves
of his death
he persecutes Stephen
for his Christian faith
for the sake of righteousness
Stephen dies
and he is the one
dishing out the persecution
he watches
as this disciple
of Jesus
dies
in front of him
and he does it
for his beloved Lord
in the same way
actually
it's very similar
to the death of Jesus
and he watches
this brave man
die for the sake
of the gospel
and I wonder
at that moment
was the Lord
goading him
there
it must have been
mustn't it
it must have goaded him
to watch this disciple
so faithfully
and bravely
die for the gospel
it must have convicted him
deep
in his soul
somewhere
it must have challenged him
it may have caused
resentment
and jealousy
and even more hostility
against the church
and for a time
he kicked against
those goads
but in the end
he couldn't resist
the Lord's command
of his life
but you see
even in Saul's conversion
the persecution
of a disciple
of Jesus
when he received it
and took it
and gracefully
bore it
it goaded
the world around him
Stephen
it goads
the souls
of this world
and it convicts them
and it shouts to them
we have a heavenly father
who you need to praise
and ask forgiveness from
we have a heavenly father
and we will respond
with gladness
and rejoicing
in this persecution
because we don't belong here
we have a heavenly father
you know your parents
may hate your new faith
and you still honour them
that shouts to them
that you have a heavenly father
you're misunderstood
and misrepresented
and you don't repay evil
with evil
and it shouts to them
you have a heavenly father
you may suffer
and die
and it will say to the world
I have a heavenly father
and he is worth dying for
he is worth putting up
with whatever it is
that you throw at me
he is the one
that I fear
and love
and praise
and you need to give him
the glory
persecution
means that
you are calling
the world
to praise
your heavenly father
you are a worship leader
as you are persecuted
in different ways
when they see
your good works
Jesus says
that sort of persecution
it goads the world
and convicts the world
and moves them
to praise God
so if you are getting
a hard time
for your Christian faith
this morning
don't think that
that is in vain
because every time
you bite your tongue
and every time
you show grace
and you respond
with mercy
and every time
you're falsely accused
and every time
you're faced with
ignorance
and arrogance
and you respond
with kindness
and patience
you are living
the authentic
Christian life
and every time
you're hurt
and laid aside
and mistreated
and you love
your enemies
you are calling
them to worship
you are calling
them to praise
your heavenly father
and they will be
moved at times
they will be
convicted
they may resent
you and hate you
but some of them
in the end
will join you
and will praise
your heavenly father
they will want
to join
the aliens
as they see
this distinctive
life
displayed before
them
they will want
to be a foreigner
they will want
to be a blessed
disciple
of Jesus
that's the reason
a distinctive
life collides
with the world
it brings glory
to the father
thirdly the result
the result
a distinctive
life
brings a distinctive
reward
a distinctive
life
brings a distinctive
reward
just look at
verse 12
again
rejoice
and be glad
for your reward
is great
in heaven
for so they
persecuted
the prophets
who were before
you
this is the
big incentive
isn't it
this is the
meat
this is
what we have
been looking
forward to
this is what
it's all about
a reward
Jesus says
it's not the
sufferings
themselves
that are your
prize
we're not to be
masochistic
we're not looking
for some
perverse pleasure
in suffering
as a Christian
and Jesus
isn't coy
he isn't
embarrassed
about talking
of the
prospect of
rewards
the word
can mean
wages
or salary
you know
it's the same
word that you
might use
as a merchant
in the ancient
world
a merchant
who goes
to find
expensive goods
in another
land
and you invest
all of your
money in
buying some
goods
you maybe
buy a shipment
in Italy
or in Africa
and you know
that if you
can get it
home
it will be
a priceless
cargo
you can sell
it at a
massive profit
but
sailing
taking cargo
around the
Mediterranean
was a really
risky business
it was a
risky thing
to do
often cargo
was lost
in perilous
journeys
in storms
in rough
seas
you could lose
everything
but this
merchant
does not
mind a few
rough seas
he does
not mind
a few
storms
he doesn't
mind some
danger
he doesn't
mind a lot
of suffering
when his
ship
comes into
port
because of
the opulent
riches that
will follow
and you will
not mind
suffering
or persecution
when this
reward
comes in
it is a
reward given
by grace
we do not
earn it
Thomas Watson
said it is a
reward as far
above your
thoughts
as it is
above your
desert
the greatest
of the greatness
of it is
opposite to how
much you deserve
it
it is a reward
given in grace
not merit
and the reward
Jesus speaks
about is very
distinctive
verse 10
theirs is the
kingdom of
heaven
great is your
reward in
heaven
this is not an
earthly reward
but a heavenly
one
it is something
above and
beyond what
this world
offers
it is to
enjoy and
behold
the kingdom
of heaven
to enjoy
God
to go
as aliens
to the
home that
we love
it is a
picture that
we get of
the disciples
of Jesus
ushered into
God's throne
room in the
kingdom of
heaven
and it is a
picture of
satisfaction
if you look at
Revelation
chapter 7
maybe read it
later on
it is a
great scene
of enjoyment
and awe
joy and
wonder and
joy and
love and
peace and
harmony and
protection
as Jesus'
disciples are
around the
throne worshipping
God
Revelation 7
they are before
the throne of
God and
serve him day
and night in
his temple
and he who
sits on the
throne will
shelter them
with his
presence
never again
will they
hunger
never again
will they
thirst
the sun
will not
beat down
on them
nor any
scorching
heat
for the
lamb at
the centre
of the
throne
will be
their
shepherd
he will
lead them
to springs
of living
water
and God
will wipe
away
every tear
from their
eyes
one writer
said that
one breath
of this
paradise
will extinguish
all the
fires of
earth
it will
be
wonderful
so as we
finish
has someone
made it
clear to
you that
you do
not
belong
because you
belong to
Jesus
let me
close with a
quote from
the preacher
Martin Lloyd
James
he said
by thus
persecuting
you the
world is
just telling
you that
you do not
belong to
it that
you are a
man or
woman apart
you belong
to another
realm thus
proving the
fact that you
are going to
heaven
the Beatitudes
they are
paradoxical
aren't they
they are
upside down
in this
world
they describe
a life which
collides with
this world
at every
moment
and this is
authentic
Christianity
and as we
live it out
we will
provoke all
sorts of
responses
won't we
but some
will see
that distinctive
life and
they will
wonder and
they will
see that we
have a
father in
heaven who
needs to be
praised and
glorified
but others
when they
see that
they will
hate us
and they
will resent
us and
they will
say you
do not
belong
here
and actually
when they
say that
they will
be right
won't they
because we
are waiting
for our
wonderful
reward
in heaven
let's
pray
Thank you.