Let's start with this question.
What are you willing to suffer for?
My family and I, my family and me, we,
have been watching the qualifying trials for the Olympics.
Anybody else watching some of these stuff?
The gymnastics have been phenomenal, track and field, swimming.
And as I'm watching these athletes compete on the highest level,
it occurs to me, man, for them to do that,
they've got to suffer the loss of some stuff.
I doubt they like to eat or can eat chocolate cake as much as I do.
I doubt that they're making regular Culver's runs like I do.
Not only are they suffering loss, or so we think, in their diets,
could you imagine what it would be like for an Olympic-level swimmer,
how many laps every day someone of that caliber has to swim?
You know what?
It's like, how do you deal with the boredom?
Where does your mind go?
And then there's the kind of just physical pain.
Whether that's injury, one has to suffer,
or, I mean, if you're familiar with track and field at all,
the 400 is a grueling race on the human body.
Every race is agony.
Man.
They're willing to suffer.
What are you willing to suffer for?
Let me turn up the volume a little bit now.
These athletes suffer,
they willingly suffer the loss of something for gold and glory, right?
What are you willing to suffer harm for?
Not just the loss of something,
not just going without,
but what are you willing to suffer harm for?
What are you willing to be persecuted for?
When I talk about persecution,
and Jesus is going to talk about it,
it shows up three times that word persecute
in our passage today,
verses Matthew 5, 10, 11, and 12.
I'm approaching it generally like this.
Persecution is when someone is singled out and harassed for who they are or what they stand for.
So persecution, generally speaking,
is someone getting singled out and getting harassed for who they are or what they stand for.
What are you willing to be persecuted for?
What are you willing to suffer harm for?
Now throughout the ages,
people have been persecuted for a variety of reasons.
Good and evil,
all in between,
political,
social,
religious,
economic,
all sorts of different kinds of persecution.
It runs the gamut of human experience in history.
Which just goes to show,
it's a really sad commentary on the wickedness of the human heart.
We've been persecuting each other for a long time.
But this morning,
we are coming to the end of the Beatitudes.
Matthew 5, 10 is the last stop on the line in the Beatitudes.
And Jesus says,
blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus has something peculiar,
something particular in mind
when He's talking about persecution in Matthew 5, 10.
What He's basically saying is this.
If you have been called to follow Jesus,
you've been called to suffer for Jesus.
If you've been called to follow Jesus,
you've been called to suffer for Jesus.
And persecution is not an if,
it's a when.
It's not if.
It's when.
This morning, I want to help you see
who are those who are being persecuted for righteousness' sake.
And in order to do justice to this last Beatitude,
we need to delve into verses 11 and 12.
Because this is the only Beatitude Jesus elaborates on.
And so here we have the Beatitudes.
Close out in 5, 10.
And then He elaborates on the last one.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
In verses 11 and 12.
He really wants us to pay attention.
He's emphasizing this last one for a reason.
But just to be clear,
Jesus is not asking His followers in Matthew 5, 10.
He's not asking them,
hey, are you willing to suffer for me?
He's telling them,
you will suffer for me.
And above all, He says this,
when you suffer for me,
rejoice.
And be glad.
It's a command.
And it's surprising.
Your calling to follow Christ
was your calling to suffer for Christ.
And all of us,
if we're followers of Jesus,
if we're living out the Beatitudes,
if we are looking and smelling like Jesus,
we're going to suffer for Him.
For His sake.
And so in order to help you see this
from this passage,
I'm going to make three points this morning.
I want you to help you to see that
if you're a follower of Jesus,
you're called to suffer for Him.
And I want to help you see that three ways.
First, the structure of this passage.
It's emphatic.
There's something about the structure
that helps us see that Jesus is really serious
in what He's saying here.
And then I want to hit on the subject matter
of being persecuted.
Okay?
So structure, subject,
and then we hit the surprise of the passage.
There's actually two surprises here.
And so that's how we're going to cover
this passage this morning.
The structure, subject, and the surprise.
Let's turn to the structure of this passage
which emphasizes what Jesus is saying here.
So if you look at Matthew 5.10,
we read,
Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
And we've got to ask the question,
who are those those?
Who are the those
that Jesus is talking about here?
And that's where I want to help you
see something going on in this passage
that may feel like a little English lesson at first.
So bear with me.
Has anybody heard the words
literary structure before?
Literary structure.
You might have heard them
in two different contexts,
like literary, okay, words, structure,
I think of buildings, form,
but I don't tend to use those together, okay?
So what we're talking about
when it's literary structure
is the form these words are taking
in the Beatitudes.
And they say something.
The form says something.
Let me show you.
Look at Matthew 5.3,
the first Beatitude.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs, say it with me,
is the kingdom of heaven.
Now go down to 5.10.
5.10 says,
Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake,
and say it with me,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Do you see anything familiar there
between those two verses?
They're bookends.
And so those two last parts
of 5.3 and 5.10,
they serve as bookends
for what Jesus is talking about.
And so what that means for us is
Jesus is saying
everything that comes in between
is to be taken as a whole.
It's taken as a composite profile
of a citizen of heaven.
And so all of this,
all of the Beatitudes,
they describe one person,
a follower of Jesus,
all of them together.
And so he's saying,
in light of those kind of
blessed are the poor in spirit,
blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You see that?
Those are bookends that help us
to see that Jesus is talking
about one person here.
So the those in 5.10
are the beautiful ones in God's eyes.
Those who are manifesting
the Beatitudes.
The blessed ones.
Those who are mourning their sin.
Those who are meek.
Those who are hungering, thirsting
for righteousness.
The merciful.
The pure in heart.
Those peacemakers.
That's the those.
So, all the citizens of heaven.
Those who have been transferred
from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of the beloved Son
through the blood of the Son.
That's who Jesus is talking about
in 5.10.
Blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
Now, a couple other things
structurally
that I want you to see here.
So, there's that
those bookends, right?
But I've been telling you
all along here
when we've been going through
the Beatitudes
it's a progression.
They build on one another.
And so,
we've gotten to
the last Beatitude.
This is the thunder.
This is what Jesus
wants to leave us with.
And so,
this progression
because it ends on
blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
Jesus,
by its position
in the progression,
Jesus is emphasizing it.
And not just that,
He then elaborates on it
in 11 and 12.
And so,
He said,
just to be sure,
I want you to see something,
okay?
And so,
I want you to see
how Jesus
emphasizes this.
So,
verse 10,
blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake
for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
It's third person,
okay?
Those people,
this is what's going to happen.
This is what's true of them.
And then look what happens
in verse 11.
Jesus turns up the volume.
And this is how He does it.
He says,
blessed are you
when you,
when others revile you
and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely
on my account.
You see what He did right there?
He goes from talking about them
to talking about you.
He dials it in on us.
He's emphasizing this.
So,
whatever this last beatitude is,
it's where Jesus
is closing out
and emphasizing
and we've got to know
what He's talking about.
It's important.
And so,
we've talked about this structure
that is emphasizing
this last beatitude
and it has to do
with persecution.
So,
let's talk about this
subject matter
of persecution.
Blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
What is persecution?
Well,
as I told you in the intro,
it's getting singled out
and harassed
for who you are
and what you stand for.
And what I want you
to see right now
is how it shows up
three times in this passage.
So,
verse 10,
blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
Verse 11,
blessed are you
when others revile you
and persecute you.
And then in verse 12,
rejoice and be glad
for your reward
is great in heaven
for so they
persecuted the prophets
who were before you.
Persecution is the subject matter
going on right here.
Jesus is wanting
to say something
to us about it.
to prepare us
to help us think
well about it.
Well,
we need to ask the question,
okay,
that's the definition
of persecution.
What does this persecution
look like?
Because when I,
I'm guessing,
when you think of being persecuted,
you think about people
getting burned at the stake.
You're thinking about
missionaries
from bygone eras
and even present times
who suffer the greatest cost
and they're put to death
for Jesus.
Well,
that's true.
That's part of
what persecution is.
But it's not just that.
And thanks be to God,
Jesus elaborates on this.
And so,
He talks about persecution
in 5.10
and then He comes back
in 5.11
and helps us get
the gamut
of persecution.
Would you look at 5.11?
Blessed are you
when others revile you.
That means throw insults at you.
When they persecute you,
that means press hard on you.
Pursue you.
Come after you.
It can have a physical connotation.
And utter all kinds of evil
against you
falsely on my account.
False accusations.
So when Jesus is talking
about being persecuted,
He's not just talking about
getting beat up and killed.
He's talking about
when people talk
behind your back.
When people make fun of you.
When people cast insults
on you
for being a Christ follower.
When people
accuse you falsely
for things,
evil things,
on account of Jesus.
And so,
what Jesus means
by persecution
is not just this narrow
kind of people
dying for Jesus.
It includes,
but it's so much more.
And I'm guessing
if you're a follower
of Jesus,
you can relate
to what He's talking about.
You've suffered it.
You've suffered
the behind the back talking.
You've suffered
missing job promotions
because you won't do
certain things
in the workplace.
So,
we've been talking
about this subject matter
of persecution.
What it is.
Now,
I want to be clear
on that you see
who this is for.
Jesus does not say,
blessed are all
who are persecuted,
period.
He does not say that.
He says,
blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
What does righteousness' sake mean?
Well,
it's what He's been talking about
in the Beatitudes
that precede it.
Those who are poor in spirit,
those who mourn their sin,
those who are meek,
hunger and thirst
after righteousness,
merciful,
pure in heart,
peacemakers,
those,
that's the righteousness' sake.
It's very Christ-like.
If you start looking
at those Beatitudes,
you start seeing
a profile of Jesus Himself.
If you live that way,
you start smelling
and acting like Jesus.
But then,
Jesus,
if there's any question,
He elaborates on this.
So,
in verse 11,
He says this,
blessed are you
when others revile you
and persecute you
and utter all kinds
of evil against you falsely.
I don't know
what your version says.
It may say,
for my sake.
My version,
the ESV says,
on my account.
The righteousness' sake
ultimately
is Jesus' righteousness
for His sake.
And so,
what Jesus is saying here,
those who are blessed,
those who are happy
when persecuted,
those who rejoice
and can be glad
are those
who are suffering,
being singled out
and harassed
for Jesus.
He says,
says it's going to happen.
For righteousness' sake
is the equivalent
of saying
for Jesus' sake.
You might be like,
hmm,
you know,
nobody told me that
when I became a Christian.
That would have been
good information
when I became a Christian.
In Luke 14,
Jesus is talking
to these crowds
about the cost
of following Him.
And do you know
what He says to them?
Hey,
before you follow me,
just make sure
you do the math.
He says,
hey,
before you follow me,
you want to be like
the person
that when they build
their house,
they make sure
they have enough money
to cover it.
You want to be like
those kings
who go out to battle
but before they go out,
they send out envoys
to make sure
that if they engage
in battle
with this other army
that they can actually
beat it.
And what Jesus
is saying there is
make sure you know
what you're getting into
when you follow me.
And so if you're not
a Christian
in this room,
you need to realize
that following Jesus
is costly.
You suffer for Him.
There's great joy
in it.
And if you're someone
who'd become a Christian
and you didn't realize it,
it's like,
hello!
Surprise!
You're going to suffer.
What the New Testament
says over and over again
is that
to suffer for Jesus
is to be expected.
It's not if,
it's when.
Can I show you
some passages
where it's very clear?
In 2 Timothy 3.12,
Jesus says this,
oh, Jesus,
Paul says this,
indeed,
all who desire
to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
No exceptions.
If you want to turn
in your Bible
to the book of John,
John 15,
and, you know,
when you hear John 15,
you're like,
oh, yes, Jesus.
He's the vine,
we're the branches,
we abide in Him
and He in us,
and then we bear
Jesus' fruit,
fruit that is,
smells and tastes,
feels like Jesus.
That's right.
That's the passage.
And then,
a little later on,
in verses 18 through 21,
in the same passage,
Jesus says this,
if the world hates you,
know that it has hated me
before it hated you.
If you were of the world,
the world would love you
as its own,
but because you're not
of the world,
because I chose you
out of the world,
therefore,
because you're mine,
therefore,
the world hates you.
Remember the word
that I said to you,
a servant is not greater
than his master.
If they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you.
You're going to get singled out
and you're going to get harassed
because you're a follower
of Jesus.
Expect it.
But all these things
they will do to you
on account of my name.
Verse 21.
Let me bring you
to one more passage.
1 Peter.
Chapter 4.
1 Peter.
Chapter 4.
Starting in verse 12.
Beloved,
do not be surprised
at the fire trial
when it comes upon you
to test you
as though something strange
were happening to you.
but rejoice
insofar as you share
Christ's sufferings
that you may also
rejoice and be glad
when His glory is revealed.
If you are insulted
for the name of Christ,
you are blessed
because of the spirit
of glory
and of God
rests upon you.
And then he says,
but let none of you
suffer as a murderer
or a thief
or an evildoer
or as a meddler,
someone who sticks their nose
into other people's business.
Yet if anyone suffers
as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God
in that name.
I'm not sure
if you noticed this,
but Peter says
that you may also rejoice
and be glad
when His glory is revealed.
If you are insulted
for the name of Christ,
you are blessed.
Do you know why
Peter sang that?
Peter was right there
listening to Jesus
during the Sermon on the Mount
when Jesus is talking
about the Beatitudes.
So when Jesus says,
blessed are those
who are persecuted,
that burned into Peter's mind.
And he knew that firsthand.
When he says,
rejoice and be glad,
it shows up here.
It burned into his mind.
So what I want to show you there
is that the Apostle Paul,
John, Peter,
all these guys say
that Christians will suffer
persecutions for Christ.
Jesus did.
This subject matter
is really important to get.
Especially where we are right now
as a culture.
None of us
are being threatened
with being killed.
At least no real threats.
We had something this past week
that was pretty interesting.
But what I want to make clear
is that Jesus is saying here,
it's not if you will suffer,
but when you will suffer
persecution for my sake.
If you've been called
to follow Christ,
you are called
to suffer for Christ.
Now I want you to see
the surprise.
There are actually
two surprises
in Matthew 5,
10 through 12.
Two surprises.
The first one is this.
You start feeling it
when you go from 5.9
to 5.10.
And so in verse 9,
you're like,
blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called
sons of God.
And you're kind of like this.
You read that and you're like,
oh yeah, let's rock.
Yeah, let's rock.
You know those college football games
where the football team
is running out to the field
through the tunnel
and they got that thing
up above them
that says win one
for the gipper
and they're like,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
hit it, hit it, hit it.
Let's go out.
Woo, woo, woo, woo.
You know, on our doors
we have,
you are now going out
into your mission field.
Go be peacemakers.
And we leave last week,
we're like,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it.
Peacemaking mission.
Woo.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
And then you read verse 10.
Go, baby.
Go be a peacemaker
and get persecuted for it.
Go.
Woo.
It's a little bit of a surprise.
It's a little bit of a twist.
You're kind of thinking,
well, I wasn't expecting that.
In fact, in my flesh,
I would say seven beatitudes
are enough.
Seven beatitudes are cool.
Poor poverty of spirit, sweet.
Mourn, sin, great.
Meek, hunger, thirst, God.
Merciful, pure in heart,
I want that.
Peacemakers, okay, that's good.
Okay, five, nine.
Okay, let's just kind of scratch out
10, 11, and 12.
We can go from five, nine
to being salt and light in the world.
That would be great.
But Jesus doesn't let us do that.
He says there's going to be a cost
to your peacemaking,
just as there was a cost
to my making peace with you.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
The irony is,
those who are seeking to make peace
get persecuted for making peace.
They get singled out and harassed.
Persecution is like the opposite of peace.
You know, it's like this.
All right, okay.
Why would anyone want to hurt,
injure one of Jesus' peacemakers?
Why would anyone want to do that?
I mean, they're just trying to be nice.
Well, let me help you with that.
The kind of peace
that God is seeking to make with sinners
that He sought to make with us,
the kind of peace that God is seeking to make
requires that sinners,
the sinfulness of a sinner's heart
gets exposed.
The peacemaking that we're called to do
for God to make His appeal through us,
2 Corinthians 5,
that appeal to sinners is
you are a sinner
and you need to be reconciled to God
through the blood of Jesus.
And so the peacemaking that we're called to
is not to kind of ignore sin
or sweep sin
or to appease sin
or to minimize sin.
It's to actually expose sin.
Just as my sin got exposed,
when I first came to Christ.
So God,
through the peacemaking gospel
of Jesus Christ,
confronts a sinner's sinfulness.
If you're starting to talk to people
about their sin,
you know what?
Some of them say,
oh man, thank you so much
for letting me know that.
Others will be like,
will you shut up?
You're a freak.
Get out of here.
Okay, alright.
Why would anyone want to hurt
one of Jesus' peacemakers?
Why would anyone want to hurt Jesus,
the ultimate peacemaker?
Think about it.
Jesus showed up,
the God-man,
the Prince of Peace,
showed up,
and by His very presence
and His poignant teaching,
He exposed sin in sinners.
Some of them fell at His feet.
Others called for His crucifixion.
By the time that Jesus was crucified,
the Pharisees,
those leaders and teachers of the law
in Jesus' day,
they hated what Jesus was saying.
They hated what He was teaching.
He was contradicting these men.
Calling them to account.
And in a couple weeks,
we're going to get into that.
We're going to see what Jesus says.
He's like,
you have heard it say this,
but I say.
And He did it publicly.
And so those guys,
He offended them.
And they hated Him for it.
Check it out.
Like,
these men felt threatened
by the Prince of Peace.
They felt attacked
by the Prince of Peace.
And they persecuted Him
for who He claimed to be
and what He taught.
Remember,
the Beatitudes are a corporate profile,
a composite profile
of being a citizen of heaven.
And as you grow
in these Beatitudes
and you become more and more beautiful
in God's sight,
you're becoming more and more
Christ-like in His sight.
And so as you take on Christ's character
and as you take on His cause,
you're going to be more offensive
to people,
though more beautiful in God's sight.
Brothers and sisters,
when you take responsibility
for your own sin against God
and you mourn over it,
you talk about it
with other people,
that can tick people off.
And you're like,
well, why?
What's wrong with that?
Because your honest dealing
with your own sin
ends up exposing the sin
in them.
and there's a good chance
they're not going to like that.
Alright, I'm going to give you
two examples here
of what this could look like
and what I'm guessing
some of you have already experienced.
Just to kind of
flesh this out.
Guys,
let's say you're with other guys
and the topic of pornography
comes up.
And these other guys
are not necessarily followers
of Jesus.
And so they start joking about it.
They start making fun of stuff.
They start laughing about it.
And it becomes very obvious
that they're laughing about it,
but you're kind of like,
I don't know,
what do I,
this is awkward.
And they notice
that you're not joining them.
So what do they do?
You don't think this is funny?
Hey, Mike,
you don't think this is funny?
And then,
you know,
you say something like,
well,
I don't.
Well, why not?
Well,
I think pornography
is the exploitation of women
and men.
I think that
it's wrong.
Oh.
Okay.
What else?
Is there any other reason
why you don't
think this is funny?
And then it comes out.
My Savior doesn't think
it's funny.
My King
thinks this is grievous.
My King,
my Lord,
the one I follow,
the one I want to be like,
if He were here,
He wouldn't look at pornography.
He would call it exploitation.
He would call it sin
and wrong.
If you say anything like that
in a group like that,
you know what happened?
You know what may happen?
The next day,
you might get emails
with links to porn sites
just to mock you,
just to tempt you,
because you're a follower
of Jesus
and you're seeking
to walk through this world
in a way that pleases Him.
and you suffer for Him.
You're reviled.
Evil accusations.
You see how this can work?
Let me bring another subject up.
Single women.
You're in a group
with other single women,
non-Christian friends,
and maybe some Christian friends,
and the topic of sex comes up.
And it becomes evident
that everybody
is having sex
except you.
And someone asks you,
why are you being so quiet?
And you have to say something like,
well,
I'm not having sex.
And then you start getting
these kinds of questions.
Are you afraid of getting an STD?
And you're kind of like,
well,
that's a good point,
but no,
that's not the driving reason.
Do you not think
that would be enjoyable?
No, no,
that's not it.
Did something happen
in your past?
And you're thinking
in your mind,
yes,
something did happen.
The Prince of Peace
came and saved me.
Called me to Himself.
Called me to live
in a way that
is like Him
and for Him.
And then so you have to
end up saying something like,
no,
I don't do that.
I want to obey my Savior
and live for Him
in every area of my life,
including my sexuality.
And so for me
to fully obey Him,
if I'm not married,
I'm celibate.
That's the way it goes.
And I know that pleases Him.
And so one of these other ladies
says something like this to you.
So what you're saying is,
because I'm sleeping
with my boyfriend right now,
you think I'm a sinner.
And you have to say
something like this.
Well, you know,
what God actually says,
and then you're interrupted
with something like,
whoa, whoa, whoa,
wait, wait, wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
Wait.
You are saying
that this guy
who lived 2,000 years ago,
died and was
quote, unquote,
raised from the dead,
is commanding you
to abstain from sex now
because you're not married.
Is that what you're saying?
Seriously?
Is that what you're saying?
And you have to say
something like,
that's a pretty good summary.
Yeah?
And then you hear
under this lady's breath,
wait until the other girls
hear about this.
You are such a self-righteous prude.
Anybody experience
anything like that before?
Because you're a follower of Jesus.
It comes out.
You're walking away
that pleases Him.
You're beautiful in His eyes,
but you're offensive
in the eyes of other people.
And you get singled out
and you get harassed for it.
Know that Jesus is like,
you are beautiful, darling.
Keep on keeping on.
Blessed are you.
So what we see,
the surprise here is
that those who are blessed,
poor in spirit,
pure in heart,
peacemakers,
surprise,
you get persecuted for it
on account of Jesus.
Blessed are you
when others revile you
and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely
on my account.
That's surprise one.
Let me point you
to surprise two.
But before I do,
do you know what flack is?
Flack?
In World War II,
B-17 flying fortresses,
flying out of Britain,
over Europe,
over Germany,
they would have
hundreds of pounds
of bombs
and they would fly over
German industry
in order to kind of
wipe out
the production of war.
Planes like
Hell's Angels
or Sons of Fury,
Memphis Bell,
all B-17s,
crews of 10.
Well, I'm not sure
if you realize this,
but when they would fly over
their bomb target,
they would have to,
the pilot would have to
level out
and create a stable
flight platform
in order for the
bombardier to line up
his Norden bombsite.
And so for at least
five to seven minutes,
they would fly
straight as an arrow,
making no maneuvers
to avoid enemy attack.
They exposed themselves
to injury
in order to fulfill
their mission.
And I'm not sharing this
because we're going to
drop bombs on
our non-Christian family
and friends.
That's not why
I'm sharing this.
I'm sharing it
because God has called us
to fly straight
and to open ourselves
up to injury
for his glory,
for his sake.
And what would happen
is they would,
German,
the Nazis would fire up
what's called flack.
And so they would
launch these things up
with cannon
and there would be bombs
that would explode
and so this melting
hot metal would explode
and it was designed
to fly through machines
and men.
Just ravage anything
within its explosion.
So could you imagine
these flight crews
of ten flying for five
or ten minutes
over a flight
over a target zone
getting hammered
by flack?
We're going to get flack.
If you're a follower
of Jesus,
you're going to get flack
for it.
Superheated metal
designed to hurt you
with words.
Gossip.
We shouldn't be surprised
that peacemakers
for Jesus
are going to be
persecuted for Jesus.
Surprise too.
It's the command.
Verse 12.
Rejoice and be glad.
When you are getting flack,
Jesus says,
don't ignore the pain.
Pain's real.
It's kind of scary.
But then he says,
rejoice and be glad.
Rejoice and be glad.
Blessed are you
who are persecuted
for my name's sake.
Rejoice and be glad.
They're the only commands
in the Beatitudes.
This is the only command
in the Beatitudes.
It's emphasis.
Jesus, it's popping it.
It's like rejoice,
be glad when you suffer
for me.
And in order to wrap us up
this morning,
I want to give you
three reasons to rejoice
when the flack comes.
It might come today.
It might come tomorrow.
It's coming.
Three reasons to rejoice.
The reason number one,
to rejoice
when persecuted for Jesus,
is found in verse 12.
You're among good company.
So they persecuted the prophets
who were before you.
You're in good company.
Moses,
David,
Daniel,
Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
Job even.
All these prophets suffered
for righteousness' sake.
And it just doesn't end
in the Bible.
It's all throughout
church history.
Hudson Taylor,
John Huss,
John Patton,
Henry Morden,
Amy Carmichael,
Hudson Taylor,
Adoniram Judson,
all these suffered
flack for Jesus.
You're in good company.
You're in great company.
Because Jesus suffered too.
Who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross.
He knows mocking firsthand.
He knows it.
You're in good company.
Rejoice when you suffer.
You're suffering with good company.
Second, rejoice.
Persecution is proof positive
of your heavenly citizenship.
It proves it.
If you are willing
to suffer for Jesus,
it shows that you're legit.
Your citizenship
is not in this world,
but in a world yet to come.
In Matthew 5.10,
Jesus says,
Blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
You've got a passport
that says,
Kingdom Citizen,
and it's stamped
with the blood of Jesus.
Legit!
So when you suffer for Jesus,
and it's clear it's for Him,
it demonstrates
that your citizenship
is no longer in this world,
but in the world to come.
If you're taking notes,
write down Hebrews 11,
verses 13-16,
and be encouraged by that.
Reason number three.
This is where Jesus goes
in verse 12.
Rejoice and be glad
for your reward
is great in heaven.
Reward.
Rejoice.
There's reward.
When you suffer now,
there's going to be reward then.
Now when you think of reward,
I'm guessing you think
of material things.
And yes,
if you're a follower of Jesus,
you probably do have a mansion
on the boulevard
in the New Jerusalem.
Okay?
Just saying.
But,
that's not the greatest reward.
Let me try to capture
the greatest reward.
Just imagine hearing this
with your name in it.
Michael.
Well done.
Well done,
good and faithful servant.
Enter the joy
of your master.
Come on in.
Enjoy what I have for you
and with you.
The greatest reward
in heaven
is Jesus.
He's there.
Jesus Himself.
Well done,
good and faithful servant.
enter the joy
of your master.
That's the second surprise.
It's weird.
Could you imagine
what happens
when a Christian
who suffers for Jesus
starts to rejoice?
Do you know what happens?
People notice.
And those who persecute us
get a taste of the gospel
that they would have
never known otherwise.
We love those
who persecute us.
When you suffer flack
for Jesus,
rejoice.
You're in good company.
You're a citizen.
And your Savior awaits.
We've looked at the structure.
We've looked at the subject.
We've looked at the surprises.
This morning,
remember,
your call to follow Jesus
is a call to rejoice
in suffering for Him.
Let's pray.
God in heaven,
thank You so much
that You would call us
to share in the sufferings
of Jesus.
We're not interested.
We're not masochists.
We're not seeking it out.
God,
we would pray for peace.
We would ask,
God,
for our leaders
would govern in such a way
that we can live
in peaceful ways,
making peace.
But God,
I do pray that You would
give us the grace
to be faithful to You
and to even rejoice
when we catch flack
for our Savior.
In Your name we pray.
Amen.