If you would, please join me in opening your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. We'll be looking at verses 10 through 12. That'll be on page 1029 if you're using the Pew Bible today. We will be continuing on through our way on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount today and wrapping up the section that's known as the Beatitudes. These Beatitudes are specifically related to the character of a disciple, and in the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, Jesus is describing what life is going to look like for a disciple living in his kingdom. So if you're there, please join me now in Matthew chapter 5, verses 10 through 12. This is God's word for us. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 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. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Amen. Praise God for his word to us. In opening, I ask you to consider the following quotes. My fellow Christians, we are living in dark times. We are now locked up by a malicious judicial system that is denying us our constitutional rights to religious freedom. Just kidding. We're totally fine. And anyone who says otherwise is a great big crybaby. So begins a 2015 article from Salon.com. Or how about Evangelicals say Christians are being persecuted. They are, but not in the United States. This comes from an article with the subtle title, Christians in the US are not being persecuted. It appeared in the Huffington Post just May of this year. From a somewhat different perspective, an article appearing on the relevant magazine blog, which is a Christian publication, states, We have privileges that millions of Christians and other groups living under oppression around the world don't have. Many of us will never know what true persecution looks like. What do you think? Are Christians in America facing persecution? Is that persecution real or is it imagined? What would Christians from other countries, places in the Middle East, places where people are losing their lives, what would they say? We may have multiple perspectives on this, even in this room. But before you answer that question, I'm gonna ask you to also consider these. From the Apostle Paul, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 3.12. Or the Apostle Peter, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far 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 the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 1 Peter 4, 12 to 14. Finally, from Jesus, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, 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, John 15, 18 through 20. So how should we think through this? It doesn't do any of us any good to just say, well, Jesus, Peter, and Paul are right. It's in the Bible. The others are wrong. Let's go home. These areas where faith meets life, where faith meets culture, are complicated. The disciple of Jesus is at one and the same time both a sinner and a saint, fallen and redeemed in the world but not of the world, at peace with God and yet at war with the remaining sin that is in their life. So not only are these issues complicated, But they're important ones for us to work through. And this issue of persecution is particularly important for us to work through because of the context that God has placed us in. We're going to touch on global issues today. But we're going to primarily look at this beatitude from an American context. As we've seen in previous messages, Jesus is making exclusive claims here. It is the merciful and only the merciful that will receive mercy. It is the peacemakers and only the peacemakers that will be called sons of God that would at least suggest to us that in this case, it is those persecuted for righteousness and only such ones that are to expect great reward in the kingdom of heaven. If no Christians in America are facing persecution, then that calls our status as disciples into serious question. This is important for us to think through. In order to do so, we have three points that we'll discuss, and then we're gonna wrap up with a challenge and some points of application. The points in order are, what is persecution? Does all opposition count? And third, cause for joy in the face of opposition. We start with the question of what is persecution. From the examples that I read earlier, we can see that people, even Christians, have different perspectives. They disagree on whether or not American Christians face persecution. What is the cause for that disagreement? I'd like to suggest that the issue is that people are working with different definitions of the word persecution. If you recall the quote from the relevant magazine article, he said, many of us will never know what true persecution looks like. You see, he made a qualification there, true persecution. But such a qualification is highly, highly subjective. Where does the line get drawn, and gets to draw it? Is physical torture the only true form of persecution? What about psychological torture, verbal abuse, property destruction? Or like 2014, Christians who wanted to stay behind in Mosul had to pay crippling fines, taxes, for being there. Do these things not count as persecution? If we just return to our text for today, We can see that Jesus doesn't define things quite so narrowly. You can see he included reviling and speaking all kinds of evil against you falsely. In the John 15 passage from earlier, we saw that he included hate, hatred because of him. First Peter included insults. So as far as this beatitude is concerned, as far as the New Testament seems to be concerned, persecution is not limited to physical attacks. In my estimation, the writer from that relevant magazine, what he did was he equated persecution with martyrdom. But these words are not synonymous. While all martyrs are persecuted, not all the persecuted end up being martyred. But before we throw that article aside, I think there's something valuable for us there. Nobody should say that what happens to Christians in America is the same as what happens to Christians in Mosul or North Korea or the Sudan. They're not the same. Being in prison for owning a Bible, having your house burnt down isn't the same as being insulted or even losing your job. We ought to recognize that whatever changes have taken place in our culture in the last several decades, most of us still have it pretty good most of the time. There are over 300,000 Protestant churches in our land. Compare that to only 13,000 Starbucks while they've been able to saturate our culture with their coffee. It's legal to be a Christian here. It's legal to convert to Christianity. It's legal for you to share your faith. I can stand here and preach this morning and not be afraid of being arrested on my way out. most Americans still at least identify as being Christians. So we don't want to over-inflate the difficulties that are faced by Christians in America and pretend that everyone is just out to get us. That's not the case. If we do that, it's going to cause us to misrepresent the blessings that we still have, the things that we have to be thankful for, and the things that we need to turn to God and praise him for. But at the same time, We don't want to minimize the increasing intolerance that Christians who are committed to living for righteousness, committed to the lordship of Jesus and the authority of the Bible are facing in this country. People have been fined, sued, excluded, bullied, insulted, ostracized, and slandered for their pursuit of righteousness, their belief in Jesus, and their belief in the authority of the Bible. We're right to be saddened by these things, to pray about these things, and to respond, so long as that response is both biblical and lawful. And one more item here. When you or other Christians do face opposition in this country, slander, other forms of persecution, Do not take to Facebook or other public forums to complain or gripe. By all means, post your daily Bible verses, share good content. That's good stuff. Check in on our church's Facebook page. Don't complain or gripe. Complaining is not listed in the Beatitudes. It's not in the fruit of the Spirit. The call of a disciple is to be a cross-carrier. And don't forget that Jesus promises blessing on those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The rejoice and be glad that are in verse 12 there are imperatives, they're commands. Public complaining can't fit with that. The laws of this land give you the freedom to publicly complain about anything and everything you want until you're blue in the face. But we're interested with the life of a disciple in the kingdom. The disciple is going to take a page from David in Psalm 13 and cry out to God, how long, oh Lord, rather than gripe. The remaining question that I posed earlier that we have not answered is what would Christians in other parts of the world think about this? Places where they're experiencing physical attacks and martyrdom. Does calling what we face here persecution minimize what they face or do some harm to them in some way? That was the perspective of that relevant magazine article. I'm sure many people have different ideas, but I just ask you to consider these statements. This comes from a Middle Eastern underground house church leader. Persecution is easier to understand when it's physical. Torture, death, imprisonment. American persecution is like an advanced stage of cancer. It eats away at you, yet you cannot feel it. This is the worst kind of persecution. and from a Syrian remaining in the region to assist Christians and Muslims. It wasn't only ISIS who laid waste to the church. Our cultural compromises with the government and our divisions against each other brewed for a long time. We are Damascus, the seat of Christianity. What happened to us can happen to you. Be careful. We have seen that persecution that Jesus is referencing in this beatitude is not restricted to physical attacks or martyrdom. It includes verbal attacks as well, the kinds of things that we will face. We've also taken a balanced view of things, looking at the situations of Christians in other parts of the world and balancing that with what we face here, and even hearing warnings from Christians in other parts of the world. For our purposes today, then, We can say that persecution is harmful opposition received for the sake of righteousness or on account of Jesus. With that definition, then we can say that these things most certainly do happen to American Christians. They're real, they're not imagined, and that's gonna lead to our second point. Does all opposition count? In a single word, no. But let's not move to the third point just yet. This beatitude does not say blessed are the persecuted. Full stop. This blessing and the promise of the kingdom does not apply to Muslims attacked by Buddhists, to Buddhists attacked by Muslims in Myanmar. And this doesn't mean that Jesus isn't concerned about, that he's not compassionate about, that Jesus' people are not compassionate towards all oppressed peoples. It's just that the beatitudes of the kingdom don't apply to these situations. The Beatitude says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness and on Jesus' account. For us, this means that Jesus is not pronouncing a blessing on those who face opposition for sinful practices. This also is not a blessing on those who face oppositions for defending biblical truth in thoughtless, compassionless, proud, and obnoxious ways. In 2012, there was a pastor in Arizona. He was jailed for 60 days and fined $12,000 for refusing to stop holding what he called a Bible study in his home. Sounds like persecution on the face of it. It turns out the Bible study was called Harvest Christian Fellowship Community Church, and that he was What he referred to as his home was a building that he constructed on the property that sat 100 people. Additionally, in filing for his construction permits, he told the city that he was constructing a private game room. And the issued permit that he received stated, any other occupancy or use, business, commercial, assembly, church, et cetera, is expressly prohibited. Step inside this game room and you find a stage, pulpit, PA system, church chairs, communion table, and large wooden cross in the center back. This man did not face opposition because he was a Christian. He faced it because he lied and he broke a content neutral city zoning ordinance. Not all opposition counts. Not all of it is the kind of persecution of you here. We will sometimes come to points in our lives as disciples where, in personal interactions, in social issues and the like, that your commitment to righteousness is going to put you at odds with the world. It's just going to happen. It's inevitable. It may be your refusal to engage in unjust business practices that you're being pressured into, and that leads to you losing an opportunity for a promotion or your job. It could be refusal to participate in the gossip that's taking place in your neighborhood, and so you are pushed to the margins and ostracized there. It could be your positions on gay marriage, gender issues, abortion, that lead to you being labeled a repressive bigot. Ultimately, If you are committed to righteousness, committed to the name of Jesus, there's not going to be much that you can do about this. Your righteousness will be convicting and condemning sin just by implication, just by you living among them. So people are either going to turn and be drawn towards Jesus through a supernatural work of his spirit, or they're going to be repulsed, repelled, They're going to move towards repentance and faith, or they're going to move towards rejection and persecution. But that raises a question, right? Because you have that kind neighbor who's not a Christian and is not persecuting you. I see a couple options for what's going on here. One, a scary one, your righteousness may in fact be under a bushel and not shining bright enough. to shine the light of righteousness in a lumen darkness that is present. This has happened to every one of us. And we'll come back to that. Second, these things don't necessarily take place instantaneously. People are moving towards one or the other, towards faith or towards rejection. Persecution may simply actually be held back just for the sake of prudence. You see this in the Pharisees, right, in the Gospels. They want to kill Jesus, but they stop for fear of the Jews. Maybe those kinds of things that are holding people back. And, Lord willing, they may be on their way to being born again. or they may be at war within themselves, despising your truth claims and yet inexplicably drawn towards your kindness and character. These are all options. Before we move on here though, I just want you to look at the text real quick in verse 11. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and other all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Make sure you see the word falsely there. While there are going to be situations that you simply cannot avoid the accusation, we must, as disciples, conduct ourselves in such ways that ensure that the accusations that come are false, that we miss the promotion for righteousness and not for laziness. that you are ostracized, that you are labeled for pursuing righteousness and for truth and not for hypocrisy, for hate, or being legitimately judgmental. In the first few centuries of the church, Christians faced persecution and martyrdom for daring to proclaim that Caesar is not Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. The essential difference between us and them is that we have different Caesars today. Instead of Nero and Domitian, we have materialism, nationalism, secular humanisms, and many, many, many other isms. These things are not Lord. Jesus is still Lord. It should not be a surprise for us to face opposition for these things, especially when we claim to be disciples of a suffering Christ. Jesus says those who suffer persecution for righteousness sake and on account of him ought to rejoice and be glad. And this is our third point, cause for joy in the face of opposition. In saying rejoice and be glad, Jesus does not mean that suffering is pleasant, it's not. No one wants to suffer persecution. But as disciples, we do want to be like Jesus, and in giving himself for us, he became the ultimate case of an innocent man suffering unjustly. Jesus didn't go around seeking persecution, and neither should we. But Jesus also doesn't water down his message in order to avoid persecution. I have three reasons here why those who are persecuted for Christ's sake ought to rejoice. First, you can see in verse 12 that it points us to the prophets who were persecuted in the same way. They also, like Jesus, did not water down their message. Though they faced opposition from people and kings, they didn't pull back from the culture around them. They stayed committed to proclaiming what God had given them to proclaim. Like them, we have been placed in a unique situation where our life is to be against the world for the world. It's against the sin the rebellion of the world shows towards God and yet we are for the souls of sinners. We are for our neighbors, for our communities. And being likened to the prophets, we have reason to rejoice in the face of opposition because it shows the genuineness of our faith. Avoiding persecution is fairly easy. Just don't ruffle any feathers. Don't agree with the morality of the world. Enjoy their entertainment. Just don't make any moral judgments and, for goodness sakes, don't share your faith. You can get by pretty easily, but a genuine faith will be persecuted. but we are able to rejoice in knowing that that faith is genuine, and that Christ is for us, and promised blessing for it. The second reason is that Christian character is refined through trial. We see this in Romans 5, three through five. It says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. This becoming Christ-like, this being refined, is part of the process of our salvation. It's called sanctification. It's part of us being made Christ-like. So if we share in his sufferings for a little while, then we also share in his glory, in the consummation of his kingdom. And this is the third reason to rejoice. Persecution is followed by great reward in heaven. The call to rejoice and be glad in persecution demands that we reevaluate our values. In directing us towards a future reward, Jesus is asking us to kind of detach our vision from this age and recalibrate our ideas about time, to look towards eternity. We should be reminding ourselves repeatedly, life is short. Eternity is long. Compare this life to eternity. This life is valuable, but it is so, so short. When life is good here for us, it's very easy for us to get engrossed in the temporal blessings of God and forget about his eternal blessings. I'm reminded of the hymn, Amazing Grace, It has the verse that says, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. 10,000 years, and we won't be a second closer to the end of eternity. 10 million years. The new heavens and the earth will not show the least sign of where. 10 billion years, and we will not have begun to exhaust the joy of beholding the face of God, the wonder of his majesty, or the unbelievable delight in the inheritance that he has stored up for us. What's 80 years, 90, 100 years compared to that? We endure high school, college, grad school, military training, job training, those kinds of things, 12 to 20 years of training, hard work, I say suffering, for a couple decades of material and professional success. What's that next to eternity? If you can set your eyes on eternity, then these few years in this life, even in extreme persecution, and for application, you can extend this to various forms of suffering, whether this is illness or those kinds of things. What is that next to eternity? If you are able to keep your eye on eternity, then even extreme suffering can be faced with an unassailable joy. This is what Hebrews 12 tells us Jesus did, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. It's why Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 4, for this light momentary affliction, which, just so we remember, that includes whippings, beatings, stoning, three shipwrecks, imprisonment, pursuit, and harassment from Jews and Gentiles, and martyrdom. It's light. Momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to things that are unseen. The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. That's why Paul says in Romans 8 that the sufferings of this present time aren't even worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Not a single one of us in this room has not known suffering, if not personally, within our family, whether that comes from illness, if that comes from addiction, broken relationships, keeping an eye to eternity. We can face those things with holy joy. But I need to challenge you also. The application point can extend to all forms of suffering, but our text is about persecution. Numerous commentators have stated this beatitude to be the most searching. So we need to ask ourselves, are you being persecuted? And if not, why not? I don't intend to say that every moment of your existence is going to be filled with people beating you and slandering you. That's not reality. But if you have never faced opposition, Is it because the way the gospel is lived out in your life is in such a way that causes no offense to the world around you, even when that world is in rebellion against the God of that gospel? Is it because you've been a peacekeeper, avoiding conflict, rather than a peacemaker, engaging conflict for the sake of gospel reconciliation? Is it because your light is hidden under a bushel rather than on a stand to shine the light of righteousness in the darkness. I must challenge you and me to lean into this life of a disciple that's being described here in the Beatitudes. It's a life which Jesus, Peter, and Paul have all said will face persecution. Now, I'm not asking you to seek persecution. And I'm not trying to beat down on you here. The reason for this challenge is because there's people who don't know Christ. It's because 10,000 years and we won't be closer to the end of eternity. 10 million years, the flames of hell will not have been extinguished. 10 billion years, the torment of being removed from the presence of God. The agony of not being able to behold his face and the anguish of a life of sin will not be one second closer to ending. Keeping quiet and living out a watered down gospel poses no offense to the world, but it is not loving anyone. It may give you an amicable relationship with your neighbor, but it is definitely not love for neighbor. That word go, that's over there on that wall. That's not to inflate our attendance numbers. It's not to raise our budget. It's because life is short, but eternity is long. It's there because all authority has been given to Jesus. He tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. It's there because that's the mission of God. To gather people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. And we want to reflect that. So what now? What do you do with this? One thing is to pray. Ask God to help you examine yourself. Ask him to give you the courage to live out your faith in genuine ways. In ways that if offense comes, it's because the gospel is offensive to sinners, not because you're offensive. Ask him in doing so to help you to always do it for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of righteousness, and for his kingdom, and not arrogance, or even some religio-political cause. Ask him to help you engage those around you, to draw people to himself. Pray for specific people in your life, and ask him for surprises, people he'll bring to you. to bring fruit through these encounters. Another thing you can do is pray some more. Pray for yourself. Pray for other Christians around the world who are facing persecution. I brought with me today, there's about 26 copies or so, this is from the Voice of the Martyrs. This has updates on issues of persecution around the world and stories of faith that will blow you away. This is encouragement to your faith. And it's an opportunity to pray. There's also these cards out there where you can sign up to get this, to commit to pray, and get more information. Pray for your brothers and sisters around the world. Pray for people in this country as well. Do it out of love. Third, remind yourself that life is short and eternity is long. Out of love for your neighbor, lean in to the life of a disciple. Disagreeing with someone is not persecution, oppression, or bigotry. Don't fear that someone's going to label you wrongly. If you're pointing them away from sin and to Christ, it's the most loving thing you can do. Fourth, in the face of oppression or persecution, turn to scripture. I referenced Psalm 13 before as coming from David. Turn to passages like that. Read Psalm 13. Read Isaiah 41.10. So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Turn to John 16.33. I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Take heart. I have overcome the world. Finally, if you are not a disciple, I point you also to the statement, life is short, eternity is long. I recognize that the sermon describing the inevitability of opposition for being a Christian is perhaps not the most inviting discussion that we could have today. Nevertheless, I'm sure that you have submitted yourself to trials and to hard facing suffering in some way, whether that's your job training or physical training, education, you did it for the reward that was at the end. This is the gospel message. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life. Though you, like everyone else here, or a sinner in rebellion against God, he was willing to offer his son to pay your debt. Jesus was willing to go to the cross to absorb the wrath of God that you deserved in order to give you the opportunity to turn to him in repentance and enjoy the reward. He did it because it was worth it. This call to come to Jesus, he doesn't promise you a carefree life in this world. It's not in the Bible. But he does promise you a reward that is worth rejoicing and being exceedingly glad over. And it is worth it. Talk to someone after the service. I'd be happy to be that person. Turn to Jesus. This is for all of us. Be a disciple. Let's pray. Almighty God, These are hard things for us to think through, hard things for us to go through. None of us wants suffering. And we know that Jesus has suffered to put an end to the suffering of your people. We pray that you would give us the courage, give us the strength to live for the sake of righteousness. We pray about the oppression, the persecution, that we and others around the world face. We pray, like Jesus, that if possible, this cup of suffering would pass from us. But your will be done. Only strengthen us. Fill us with your spirit. Send us out to do your will. It's in Jesus' name and for his glory we pray. Amen.