Let us pray. Our blessed God, our Father, Lord, we bow before you now as we open up your word. We love this word because it tells us of you. It reminds us of who we are and what you have accomplished in order to draw us to yourself. As we open this word now and we think of these great eternal truths, May the Spirit of God come to His people, to your people, and grant that we may understand it fully, to be strengthened in our faith, to face what could be very difficult days ahead. Remindful that we stand in a very long train of the faithful who faced persecution. May you grant, O Lord, that we will have ears to hear. and eyes to see the glory of Christ in your word. For it is in his name that we pray this, amen. As you're seated, please turn with me again to Matthew chapter five. When you're there, please put your finger also in Luke chapter six. And we'll read both of these texts together in just a moment. When you have been studying the Bible for a long time, and in particular the New Testament, you notice that certain themes continually bubble up to the surface. The church, according to the New Testament, will face opposition from within that will come in the form of false teaching and sin and, unfortunately, apostasy. And it will also face opposition from without, which will come in the form of persecution. In the Gospels, Jesus prepares his followers for opposition that will range from all false accusations and hate to imprisonment and even death. The book of Acts, as you know, records the fulfillment of those predictions, as you see a number of people undergoing intense persecution from the officials that are around them. The apostles write regularly on this subject in the epistles, and the book of Revelation makes it a central feature of our life. It is a feature, it is not a bug, when it comes to the historic Christian faith. The first century, of course, was very inhospitable as a place for new Christians. Persecution arises first within Judaism. First, people are being put out of the synagogues. They are being divorced from their family. Their businesses are failing because they're no longer receiving the same kind of support that they once did. By the middle of the century, that persecution has radiated out from Rome. It didn't have to be this way, of course. It was possible that Christianity could have remained quiet and peaceful if they had just done a few things. First of all, if they had remained in the synagogue and just quietly became Christians. If they had been willing to say to each other, Well, you know, there is a sense in which Caesar really is Lord. I mean, he's not exactly the Lord that we have, but why don't we show a little pagan hospitality? Go along with the language. Let's not rock the boats. Let's go along to get along. But of course, that's not what they did. In both the synagogues, as well as the Agora, They began to say, Jesus Christ is the Messiah that you have been waiting for, and that there is salvation in no other name except his name. He is the one that the prophets have spoken of. And if we are going to be faithful to those Old Testament scriptures, we must point you to Christ. Let us read from those Old Testament texts and tell you who this Jesus is. And then, of course, in the Agora, They begin to say, there is one Lord and one God, and it isn't Caesar. We have a king. He died on a Roman cross. He was raised gloriously from the dead. He is exalted back to the Father's right hand. And he will one day come to judge. And he is now calling everywhere to repentance, to turn from your sins, and to believe in his name. Their willingness to carry forth that mandate, to proclaim that message, got them kicked out of the synagogues and thrown into prisons. And many of them suffered brutally because of this. And of course, Jesus knows that this is going to happen, so he begins to prepare his followers. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the earliest instances where the Lord explicitly tells the disciples you're going to face opposition. This brings us to the last of the Beatitudes in verse 10. Let's read it together. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then notice in verse 11, he switches pronouns. No longer is he talking about the third person plural, those. Instead he turns to his disciples and he uses the second person plural, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. So just in case you're thinking, that I'm talking about some group out there. No, I'm talking about you. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now just turn over to Luke chapter six. This is the Sermon on the Plains, and he has a shortened version of the Beatitudes, and I just want you to read verse 22 with me. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name's evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did the same to the prophets. So what we have been seeing all along in the Sermon on the Mount up to this point is that the norms of Christ's kingdom cut across the grain of the world's loves. And inevitably, that's going to bring conflict. John Stott, in his little commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, says, persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value systems. The world's on one side, God's on the other, and we're caught in the middle. And in that vice grip, things are going to get painful, difficult, harsh. This message sounds harsh, and the kind of life that you want to do everything in your power to avoid. No one wants to get beaten, slandered, lose your job, treated as an outcast, put in prison. Nobody wants to go through that experience. But the Lord says here, as well as many places in the Gospels, this is what you should expect. If it doesn't happen, great. But this is what you ought to be prepared for. And if you're going to be my disciple, are you really ready for this? Are you prepared? I have been preaching on this subject for 40 years, and over the years as I have done it, I've always felt a little uncomfortable, and the reason is because I have been painfully aware of what a charmed life I have lived. And you begin to talk about persecution and opposition and difficulty, and then you look in the mirror and you say, well, what do you know about those things? There are people around the globe who have suffered greatly and are suffering greatly for the cause of Christ, but that isn't you. And it always felt, to preach on this subject, a little presumptuous that I, who have lived such a charmed life, should be talking about persecution. And certainly, even to this day, none of us are facing what many of our brothers and sisters have faced throughout centuries and what some of them are going through right now. But for the first time, it really feels like we may have to understand this in a more practical way going forward. The winds of change are aloof. And whatever kind of moral consensus stood as a kind of levy holding back wickedness and evil is cracking. There are fissures that are taking place in that consensus. And right now, it is Christian families and Christian churches and Christian schools that are kind of the last bastion of places where you can go to get any kind of moral sanity. And it's not like we're going out there trying to invite opposition and persecution. But as Stott said, there is an inevitable clash between the values of this world and the values of the kingdom of God. And it is high time, if you have not thought about this, to pick your side, to decide where you're going to line up When that inevitable clash happens, whose side are you on? These words are more timely to us, American Christians, than I think they have ever been. I'm not a prophet. I'm not the son of a prophet. I'm not here trying to predict what the next five years are going to be. But you'd have to shut your eyes to see. the kind of massive social change that began in the 1960s and just has picked up steam in the last 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 years. It's really remarkable. And that growth appears to be going exponentially. Now, God is sovereign, and he can certainly reverse these trends. But in the meantime, you and I have to hear words like this and say, are we ready? Are we ready to stand for what is true, what is right? Are we ready to say there is one king who gets our ultimate allegiance, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ? And come what may, we are unwilling to give that up. Now, I want to try to answer three questions this morning. three basic questions that I think this text addresses. Here's the first one. What kind of persecution should you expect? He gives us five different words here to describe what's going to take place, the first of which is the general term, persecution. And whatever else it means, it certainly meant for Christians in the first century and many Christians since then, physical persecution. Just in the first century, history tells us that Christians were beaten, imprisoned, stoned, beheaded, boiled in vats of hot oil, set on fire, crucified, fed to wild animals. We're not even out of 100 AD yet. Things got worse for Christians throughout the centuries. But it isn't just physical, it's also verbal. Notice he says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. And in verse 11 he says, blessed are you when others revile you. It's emotional. Luke chapter six, verse 22, which we read a moment ago, says they may hate you. It's legal. uttering false testimony against you, falsely on my account, or in Luke chapter 6 verse 22, it said, spurn your name as evil. Do you know what Christians were called in the first century, among other things? This may surprise you. They were said to be guilty of incest. Guilty of incest. You know why? Because they called each other brother and sister. And then they married one another. And so the word spread to other people. These people are engaging in incest. You know what else they were called? They were called atheists. Right? You know why? Because they refused to bow to the pantheon of Roman gods. They would not say, those are actual gods and so, they were treated as atheists. By the time you get to the beginning of the second century, there are a number of Christians who were writing apologies, not asking for forgiveness, but giving reasoned defenses of their faith to say, these claims are false. Let us tell you what we're doing. When your women abandon their babies, we're going out, collecting the babies, and we're bringing them home. We're raising them as our own. We're not a threat to you, we're a blessing to you. Now let me give you an example of this. Oh, I said legal, let me, the next one is social. Again, Luke 6, 22, they will exclude you. Now turn with me to Acts chapter six and let me show you an example of this. This is the first martyr that we have recorded in the scriptures. Maybe there were others, but this is the first one we know about. And, of course, it is Stephen. Acts chapter 6, Stephen was a deacon in the church. He was also a powerful preacher of the word, and it is that powerful preaching that got him in trouble. So according to verse eight, Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, We've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council and they set up false witnesses. who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place, the temple, and the law. For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. By the way, is that true? The answer is, of course it's true. It's exactly what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse. It's coming. This place is going to be brought to rubble And so the Christians made the mistake of actually believing what he said and teaching and preaching it. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Well, he preaches this rambling sermon in chapter seven in which he kind of gives a summary history of all of Israel. And according to verse 54 in chapter seven, When they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. You know, Jesus says that hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. He's saying it is both emotionally, you're distraught, and therefore you're weeping, but you're also angry. To gnash your teeth, to grind your teeth, is because you are so angry. Just in case you thought hell was a kind of a reformatory, it's not. People remain bitterly angry at God. And that's what they're doing here. They're grinding their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. This is demonic. These people are whipped into this frenzy and if you don't think Satan and his demonic host are behind this, you're wrong. And they rush forward and they cast him out of the city and they stoned him. This is exactly what Jesus said would take place. So persecution isn't just physical, it's verbal, it's emotional, sometimes it's legal, it's social. Some of you faced it. Some of you, because you have been faithful to the Lord, have endured some of that. Well, why? Why? Why are Christians persecuted? Back again to Matthew chapter 5. Jesus tells us there are two reasons. In verse 10, he says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. And then in verse 11, he says the second reason is this, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. So the two reasons why you're going to potentially be persecuted is, number one, righteousness sake, and number two, because of the name of Jesus that you bear. Now, let me remind you that we are not to be persecuted for our own bad behavior. If you're engaging in bad behavior, if you're obnoxious, if you are breaking the law, when that law is not requiring you to disobey the Lord, then you are not being persecuted, you are being punished. And there is a difference. Here's what Peter says in 1 Peter 4.15. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Don't suffer for those reasons. The Lord himself in John chapter 15, verse 25, quotes Psalm 35, 15, and he says, they hated me without a cause. There was no legitimate reason that Jesus should have been hated, despised, arrested, put on a cross, and killed. He wasn't a murderer, he wasn't a thief, he wasn't an evildoer, and he wasn't meddling in other people's business. He was just pursuing righteousness. And he had the audacity to claim that he was indeed the son of God. And there he was in this vice grip between the values of the world and the values of his heavenly father. So Jesus says, while you're not supposed to be persecuted for your own bad behavior, persecution will come for two reasons. Number one, the sake of righteousness in verse 10. Now, keep in mind that he has just told us back in verse 6 that the members of his kingdom are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness. And we saw then that the righteousness that he's describing is not the imputed righteousness that God gives to all who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you become justified before God because of that. That's not the righteousness that he's talking about. He's not talking about people that are getting into the kingdom by hungering for that, but are already in the kingdom and are characterized by this. This is personal righteousness, personal holiness. The members of his kingdom hate the sin that they see in themselves and around them. And because of that, there is an inevitable clash with other people. If you hunger and thirst for personal righteousness, if you are grieved at the ungodliness that's in your own life and the lives of those that are around you, you are on a collision course with persecution. Because your life will become a rebuke to theirs. You don't intend it to be, hopefully. Hopefully you're not walking around like a self-righteous Pharisee, parading your righteousness at everybody else. Hopefully you're not that guy that kind of lifts his nose up and looks down at the sins that you see in everybody else and you're like the Pharisee in the temple saying, Lord, I thank you that you have made me the way I am and not like them. Hopefully that's not the case. But if you hunger and grieve over your own unrighteousness, if you hunger for righteousness and you grieve that you see it around you, you are putting yourself on a collision course with persecution. That's what the Lord is saying. I'll give you an example of this. It happens at the very beginning of human history. There are two brothers. Both of these brothers approach the Lord to make a sacrifice. Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. Abel brings a lamb, and we're explicitly told that it is without spot or blemish. It's the best of the flock. And he offers that before the Lord. And his sacrifice, offered in faith, is received. His brother Cain comes along, and we're not told that his sacrifice is the best of his produce. And the unspoken implication is that he does not offer this in faith. He offers it as a duty, and maybe it's the leftovers of his produce that he brings before the Lord. And the Lord doesn't accept it. Cain's angry. Why is Abel accepted and I'm not? That isn't fair. That's not just. And the Lord comes to Cain and says, I'm just going to give you a warning there, Sparky. Sin, like this ravenous animal, a lion, a tiger, it's crouching at the door. It's just waiting for you to open that door and it wants to pounce on you and destroy you. But you have to master that. And Cain doesn't listen to the warning. And he raises up in his anger and he kills his brother. And according to John, in 1 John chapter 3, this is an example of what Jesus is talking about here, of being persecuted for righteousness' sake. Listen as I read it to you. Verse 11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil. and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed from out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Abel isn't running around making life miserable for Cain. He just does what's right. And he's killed for it. Because his righteousness is a rebuke to Cain's unrighteousness. There's a second reason that Jesus gives us here in the Sermon on the Mount. It's found in verse 11. He says, not only will you be persecuted for righteousness sake, but he also says that they will persecute you on my account. Verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Christians bear the name of Christ. We try to be loyal to him, to obey him. to worship him, to love him. And in some circles, that will get you beaten, imprisoned, and maybe even killed. And the Lord, again, repeatedly tells the apostles and the disciples, get ready for this, it's coming. Here's what he says in the Upper Room Discourse, John 15, 20 through 21. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me." Now this was a real threat in the first century. as the Romans were perfectly flexible enough to allow the Christians to worship their god as long as they were prepared to accept the Roman pantheon of gods. And in time, as the imperial cult developed and Caesar became deified, it was expected that everyone would say, Caesar is lord. And there were two groups that refused to do that, the Jews and the Christians. And life got incredibly difficult for both of these groups because of that. This is what the Lord is saying. He's saying, if you will bear the name of Christ, if you will be true to me, you're going to face persecution. So you came to church today expecting a positive, uplifting sermon? Send you on your way this week so that you're ready to go? Well, I have good news for you. Because Jesus says, here's how we are to respond to persecution. First of all, by seeking peace. I said this last week. Let me remind you that the beatitude that immediately precedes this one is found in verse 9 for a reason. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. And the reason why he tells us that we are to be peacemakers is because he is about to tell us that we're not going to have a lot of peace in this world. In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So when persecution comes, you are to do everything in your power to make peace. Turn with me to Romans 12. I quoted this passage last week. I want to look at it in a little more detail this week. Romans chapter 12. Paul is writing, of course, to a church that is at the seat of the empire. These are people that are going to face great persecution coming up. And he's trying to prepare them for it. And what he says to them is especially appropriate for us to hear today. Look at verse 14. He's quoting Jesus here. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. They're cursing you. You don't return fire for fire. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil. So when evil is done to you, don't turn around and do evil to them. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible. So far as it depends on you. Live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If your enemy is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. I've said this several times in elders and deacons meetings, we talked about this. The day could come when we gather together in here on a Sunday and there's a group of angry people outside protesting us. Yelling all kinds of nasty things about you. It's possible. I hope it doesn't happen. Not predicting that it will happen, but it is a possibility. So if it does, here's what we're going to do. We're going to get some bottles of water. We're going to walk out there to them. We're going to smile. We're going to say, look, you might be thirsty. Take this bottle of water. We're going to overcome evil with good. We're not going to respond in kind. We're going to be generous and loving, and we're going to be kind. That's what we are called to do. you don't respond by seeking vengeance. Vengeance is the Lord's. He'll take care of that. Make no mistake about it. The book of Revelation tells us that there are saints that are under the altar of the Lord calling out to him continually, how long, oh Lord, until you will avenge our blood? And the book of Revelation says not long. Not long, it's going to happen. But our response is, when they hurl insults at us, we bless them. When they seek our worst, we seek their best. When they yell at us, we pray for them. This is the kind of counter-cultural call that Jesus is calling us to. We are not to be like the world. We are to be his followers. And when he was reviled, what did he do? He spoke not a word. Like a lamb who is led to its shearers, to the shearers by his others, he spoke not a word. Nothing came out of his mouth. So we are to respond to persecution, first of all, by seeking peace. Secondly, he says, to rejoice and be glad. Again, back to Matthew 5. He says, blessed are you. So verse 12, rejoice, be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In Luke 6, 23, he says, leap for joy. High five. Congratulate each other. Why? Two reasons. Number one, your reward is great in heaven. So the Lord sees what is being done to you. He doesn't miss it. He watches. He's carefully documenting all of the injustices that are taking place against his people. Make no mistake about it. And your reward will be great. This is why in the letters of the seven churches of Asia Minor that we find in Revelation 2 and 3, there is this call to persevere and this promise that there are these great rewards that are waiting for you if you just remain faithful. If you don't quit, don't turn your back. So rejoice, he says, because your reward is great in heaven. Here's the second reason. for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. See, your persecution is in this strange way an identity marker. You belong to the same class of the righteous as Abel, as Jeremiah, as all of these faithful men and women who went before you and suffered for the sake of God's purposes, the sake of Christ. And so now, if you're being persecuted, it's an identity marker that you belong to them. That's a cause for you to do a happy little jig. Click your heels together. Celebrate. This is why the Apostle Paul would say that it is a great privilege to suffer for the cause of Christ, to share in his sufferings. There's a reason to rejoice. So, now you're happy. Now you can leave this place today looking at one another and going, If those storm clouds that are on the horizon continue to grow, and if they get closer and closer and closer, and if some people in this church lose their job for the name of Jesus because they stand for righteousness, then we'll weep with them, but we'll also rejoice with them. And together, we'll gather around and we'll take care and we'll exhort each other, remain faithful. Don't quit. Don't stop. There is great reward waiting for us in heaven. Our Father, help us. Help us to remain faithful in the face of an increasingly hostile world. Cause us now, when we still have liberties and freedoms, to commit ourselves to a day that may be potentially coming where we have to stand firm. Remind us, Lord, that we are not some special class of Christians that are somehow exempted from the potential for persecution. just like our brothers and sisters in China, the ones that once existed behind the Iron Curtain, those that were faithful in Nazi Germany, those that endured periods of great persecution under a hostile papacy, under Roman rule, dear Lord, We're no different. So call us to be faithful. Let us realize that the good life is a life of persecution because it prepares us for a world without injustice. And we long for that world. Grant us the courage, the fortitude, to be true to the name of Jesus. For it is in his name that we pray this. Amen.