Matthew 5:1-12 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you
Introduction: The God who is worth suffering for
You have led a simple life, up until these last few years. You were a nondescript nobody minding your own business and no one bothered you. And never in your wildest dreams did you ever imagine you would end up in a situation like this. Seventy-one men seated in a semi-circle with all the intimidating regalia that goes along with such a high council. And there you stand, before the Israeli Supreme Court – the great Sanhedrin – on trial for your life. And as you look around at the angry faces of these men it brings back memories of the terrifying events of six weeks ago. These are the men who broke all their own laws to execute Jesus in their rabid, irrational, rage against Jesus a month and a half ago, and you can see that same crazed fury on their faces now. The hairs on your neck stand on end as you remember the horrors of what they did the Jesus.
And as the discussion goes on it quickly becomes obvious what the verdict is going to be. You are about to be put to death. But at the last moment Gamaliel stands up and persuades them to flog you instead. There is a flash of panic as images of Jesus’ flogging flash through your head, and your whole heart and soul cries out to God in a way you never have before. But as the guards tie you to the post and remove your clothing and prepare the whip, a sudden, inexplicable peace comes over you. And with it – courage. Your trembling stops, and suddenly your eyes are opened to what is really happening here. You are in the process of suffering the very sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on His behalf. You think of the great heroes of the faith you have admired all your life – Daniel, Moses, David – men who were found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Almighty. There have already been several lashes now, and yeah – it hurts, but somehow that hardly matters right now. The peace and courage in your heart now well up into full-blown joy. This is greater than what Moses or Daniel experienced. You are experiencing the fellowship of sharing the very sufferings of the Messiah Himself!
The rush of joy in your heart is so amazing you wonder if you have lost your mind. But then you look around at the rest of the Apostles and they are just as happy. I do not know if those are the exact thoughts that went through their minds, but I know for sure this much –
Acts 5:40 [The Sanhedrin] called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
It is a true story. Worthiness has to do with honor and disgrace means dishonor. The Apostles rejoiced over being honored with dishonor.
As strange as it may sound they were doing the exact thing Jesus had told them to do a year or two earlier when He said this in a sermon:
Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you
We have been studying the beatitudes and we come this morning to the last one. And of all the shocking things Jesus has said so far this one takes the cake. Blessed are the persecuted. Rejoice and be glad when they lie about you and slander and insult and persecute you.
The Meaning of Persecution: Mistreatment because of righteousness/Christ
But before we get into talking about the blessedness of persecution, let’s make sure we understand exactly what persecution is. In all the other beatitudes Jesus just gives a short, pithy statement and leaves it up to us to search the Scriptures to get a handle on the meaning. But He does not want to do that on this one. He makes sure to describe exactly what He means by persecution. In one sense you could say everyone is persecuted – for something. No one gets through life without ever being mistreated. The question really is not so much whether you are going to suffer. The question is, what is it you are going to suffer for? The most wicked people on the planet are willing to suffer for some things. Gang members who murder innocent people and commit every crime imaginable are willing to suffer all kinds of beatings, jail time, etc. for what they believe in. A child who knows full well he will get a hard spanking if he persists in some disobedience will many times be willing to suffer that spanking to pursue the impulses of his flesh. Everyone is willing to suffer for what they desire the most. And so Jesus was very clear - Blessed are the people who are persecuted for Righteousness.
That is what He says in verse 10, but then when He repeats the blessing in verse 11 in place of righteousness He puts Himself.
Matthew 5:10-11 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness … 11 "Blessed are you when people … persecute you … because of me.
So the phrases because of righteousness and because of Christ are parallel. That tells us three things.
It must be for Christ
First, it tells us that persecution is only blessed if it is for Christ’s sake. If the world mistreats you because you are just hard to get along with, or you are selfish or prideful or obnoxious – that is not persecution for Christ’s sake.
1 Peter 4:15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
It has to be because of Christ for it to receive this blessing.
All suffering for righteousness = suffering for Christ
Secondly, it tells us that all suffering because of righteousness is suffering for Christ’s sake. If you can remember our study in verse 6 we found that righteousness is good deeds that come from the inside out, done in obedience to Christ for the glory of God that enable us to be right with Him. So any time you do what Jesus wants you to do and you suffer for it, that is persecution for the sake of Christ. You do not have to be thrown in prison because of your profession of Christ as Lord for it to count as persecution. If your boss tells you to do something unethical and you refuse because of your love for Christ, and you get fired or suffer some consequence – that is persecution. All suffering for righteousness is suffering for Christ.
All suffering for Christ is suffering for righteousness
And the third thing this tells us is that in order for our suffering to qualify as suffering for righteousness, it must be for Christ. People who go around doing good deeds and suffering for it are not being persecuted for Christ unless their motive for doing those good deeds is love for the Lord Jesus Christ. If it is not done for Christ it is not righteousness.
Why would anyone persecute the righteous?
So this is how Jesus wraps up the beatitudes. And those people who were standing there listening must have scratched their heads at this point. The things we have seen in this study of the beatitudes are so wonderful – why would anyone persecute that? Most non-Christians acknowledge the beauty of Jesus’ ethics – at least on the surface. Why would anyone want to persecute humble, gentle, merciful, peacemakers?
A.W. Pink: "It is a strong proof of human depravity that men’s curses and Christ’s blessings should meet on the same persons.”
The fact that the very people Jesus thinks are most beautiful and desirable the world thinks are the ugliest and most worthy of death shows just how twisted this world is. Most people can see, at least a little bit, the beauty of this moral goodness. But they hate it anyway because it is moral goodness for the sake of Christ, and they hate Jesus Christ. For weeks and weeks there has been constant gossip and discussion about Tiger Woods and his sexual sins, and no matter what opinion is being expressed, no one lifts an eyebrow because everyone is entitled to their opinion in this culture. But let Brit Hume come on Fox News and suggest that Tiger should become a Christian and experience real forgiveness and redemption and people are outraged and demanding apologies. No one demanded any apologies for all the gossip or any of the opinions that were thrown out before that, because everyone is entitled to their opinion. But Brit Hume is pilloried because his opinion is out of bounds. His opinion is that redemption is found in Jesus Christ alone – and no one is entitled to that particular opinion in this world. You can have any belief you want – you can even believe in Christ if you want – just don’t believe that other people ought to believe in Christ. Make no mistake – all the positive vibes people have about Jesus and his ethics – all the nice things people say about Jesus – it is all focused on their twisted caricature of Jesus. The real Jesus they hate with a passion. The Jesus who said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” – they can’t stand that Jesus (Jn.14:6). The Jesus who said Whoever believes in [Me] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son – that Jesus was hated rejected and tortured and murdered back then, and He is just as unpopular today (Jn. 3:18).
They hate Him and they hate anyone who preaches His message and lives out His ethics.
John 3:19 Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
So the world will see that you are poor in spirit and they will mock you for your emptiness and dependence on God. They will laugh at you for needing a crutch. When you mourn and grieve over sin they will flaunt their enjoyment of sin in your face. When you hunger and thirst for righteousness they will do all they can to drag you away from the only thing that will satisfy your hunger and thirst, so they can feel better about their unrighteousness because they got you to join them in it. When you are meek and gentle they will use you as a doormat. When you are merciful they will take advantage of your mercy. When you are pure in heart with undivided loyalty to God they will mock you and mistreat you for not being devoted to their idols and the false gods they give their loyalty to (like sex and food and drink and leisure and money and fame and worldly success). When you strive to be a peacemaker and reconcile people to God, they will react and fight against you with everything that is in them.
Our righteousness is a rebuke to this world.
Caused by godliness serving as a rebuke – shining on their darkness
Proverbs 29:27 The righteous is an abomination to the wicked
When the people of Athens gathered for a vote on whether to banish a statesman who was known as Aristides the Righteous, there was a man in the crowd who cast his vote in favor of banishment. He was asked, “Why? – Aristides the Righteous as never done anything to you.” And the man replied, “Because I’m tired of hearing him called “the Righteous.”
Sometimes people in the world will say they hate a Christian because of his “holier than thou” attitude, but many times the guy does not have a holier than thou attitude at all – they are just offended because he really is holier than they. I remember hearing a story of one of the famous missionaries who was hated by one particular person for a long time, and when they asked that person, “Why do you hate him so much?” he would say, “Because I’m sick and tired of his constant condemnation of me all the time.” Then years later that man said, “The truth is he never said a word to me. I just felt the condemnation because his life was holy and mine was unholy.” The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not like it one bit.
Isn’t it amazing how much effort is expended in our world opposing Christ? Laws have been passed, police actions have been put in motion, lawsuits – who knows how much money our government has spent trying to suppress Christianity in schools? (I went to Fairview High School in Boulder, and the choir was not allowed to sing Silent Night at the Christmas concert.) Why does the world put forth such effort to oppose and suppress and fight against and try to stamp out the message of a single Jewish man who lived two thousand years ago and was one of thousands who was executed on a cross? Why such hatred for that one man? Nobody in the history of the world – not even Adolph Hitler, has been hated by more people than Jesus Christ. And many of these people who are fighting so hard against Jesus are trying to assure us that this man they are fighting so hard to oppose does not even exist.
Primarily Verbal
So, persecution is suffering hardship because of righteousness, which amounts to suffering for Christ because all true righteousness is done for Christ’s sake. But please notice that the persecution does not necessarily have to be physical. In fact Jesus gives the impression that it is primarily verbal. In some cases you might be whipped and beaten and thrown in prison, but most of the time it is just words.
Matthew 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
He lists three things – insults, persecution, and falsely saying all kinds of evil against you. Persecution is the overall category that would include any kind of mistreatment – everything from a scowl or cold shoulder to torture and death. So Jesus gives that general term and then two specifics, and both the specifics are verbal abuse.
When we were kids we used to say, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” But most of us were taught to say that because of the very fact that it is not true. Words do hurt. In fact many of you have known pain from words that has been so excruciating you would gladly have had broken bones rather than suffer the anguish you suffered from those words.
Insult
“You’re a stupid kid – I wish we had never had you.”
“I hate you – I should have never married you.”
A broken bone can heal up in a matter of months; the wounds from words like that can inflict pain for decades.
Slander
Those are insults; the other category is slander – when people falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Christ. This is suffering that can be especially severe because of how it can harm the ministry. Someone is lying about you and people are believing it. That is hard to take in any context, just because of the injustice of it. But when it happens because of your faith in Christ very often the outcome is that it not only hurts you, but it hinders the work of the kingdom.
William Carey suffered a great deal for the kingdom of God in many ways. As a teenager he taught himself Latin and Greek, and then went to the mission field and translated the Bible into over thirty languages. Some of those languages had never been in written form before, so he had to create a written language for that people group, teach the people to read it, then translate the Bible into that language. He lived in miserable circumstances, giving up the comforts of home for a very poor existence on the mission field, and the small amount of support he received from some folks in England went directly into the work. And while he was working on those translations some people in England began to criticize him. They said he wasn’t really doing any mission work, and that these languages did not even exist. He was just trying to get rich by raising support.
None of that was true, but no doubt some people believed it. And that hurts – not only because it always hurts to be lied about, but especially because those lies dried up funds that were needed for the work of the ministry. We had a family come to our church not long ago, and they were very enthusiastic about Agape, and were excited because they had not been able to find an expository preaching church in their area, and they were starting to get settled in – and then some folks who don’t like me got a hold of them and told them some lies about me, and that family decided not to come here. Falsely saying all kinds of evil about us is a form of persecution that can do a great deal of harm to the work of the ministry.
So Jesus focuses here on verbal persecution, rather than physical. And sometimes persecution is not physical or verbal – it is just emotional.
Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Sometimes persecution takes the form of the world just not liking you. Because of your righteousness you just don’t have very many friends. And they exclude you. You don’t get invited to their stuff. Your articles are just as scholarly as theirs, but they don’t get printed in their journals. They have a round table discussion on TV about how to solve our problems, but the Christian point of view is left out. All of that is persecution.
The Promise of Persecution
All believers are persecuted
Persecution is painful, and it is hard to take – but take it we must because it is the lot of every genuine believer in Christ. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven. If you are not persecuted you are not in the kingdom.
2 Timothy 3:12 everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
That is one of God’s great and precious promises – you will be persecuted. It is God’s will for your life. People are always struggling to discover God’s will – I cannot tell you every specific thing God has planned for your life, but I can tell you this: it is God’s will that you suffer for His name.
1 Peter 4:12-13 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ
Just this past week I spoke with a man who was discouraged because of his suffering. His wife left him, and his life is in a shambles right now. He said to me, “Darrell, I worked so hard in my marriage to do what is right. I had devotions with my wife every morning, and I prayed with my family and taught them and tried to serve them and lead them in the right way. I did everything I knew to do to follow the right way – and still it turned out to be a disaster.” That is a very common attitude – “Jesus, I don’t understand this! I’ve walked in righteousness, and I’ve followed Your way, and yet all I get is trouble and mistreatment and disaster.” And Peter’s message to us when that happens is, “Don’t think that’s strange. That’s the plan! That’s exactly how Jesus told us it would go.” The reward will come some day, but in this life the reaction to righteousness is persecution and suffering.
In Mark 10, when Jesus was talking to the Disciples about the sacrifices they had made to follow Him, He said this:
Mark 10:29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.
When you lose family to follow Christ, you gain a hundred times what you lose because you get the Church family. And according to Jesus, the Church family is one hundred times better than natural family. But along with that you also get persecutions. All Christians suffer persecution.
That is not to say, however, that we receive only persecution or that we receive constant persecution. Jesus says Blessed are you whenever people insult you and persecuted you… That word whenever shows us that it is not constant – it is something that happens from time to time. Not even Jesus received constant persecution. Sometimes He was popular. At one point He rode into Jerusalem while His followers sung praises and put palm branches before Him. Persecution is not constant.
And it varies in severity. Some people are whipped and beaten and thrown into prison. Others suffer in much smaller ways. Jesus is not restricting this to only the most severe forms. In fact, as we saw His focus here is mostly on the verbal kind. Anytime obeying Christ results in anyone mistreating you, that is persecution.
Avoidance of Persecution = unfaithfulness
And sometimes that happens more than other times. There are some times when God grants a time of favor in the eyes of men, and we are treated well. So if you are not suffering any persecution right now does that mean you are not a true Christian, or that you are not living a righteous life? Not necessarily – although it might. Sometimes we are sheltered from persecution because God grants a time of mercy, but sometimes we are sheltered from persecution because of our own lack of righteousness. We try to win the approval of the world, and that is a very serious problem.
Galatians 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
That is a strong statement.
I fear for the much of the Church today because of the effects of the church growth movement, which has very often taken the approach of trying to spread the gospel by winning the approval of unbelievers. The idea is that if we can just get them to like us, they will accept our message. And so the things that really bring scorn from them – we soft pedal or drop altogether. They won’t take our scholarship seriously if we cling to the belief that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible and Isaiah wrote the entire book of Isaiah. And so you have more and more Christian scholars embracing liberal views of Scripture so they can gain respectability in the scholarly world.
The world mocks us when we take Genesis one to refer to a literal seven-day week, so interpretations are adjusted so that we won’t be scorned. (I am not saying that is the motive of everyone who believes in an old earth, but in many cases that is the motive.)
If you believe in Biblical counseling instead of the doctrines of secular psychology the world won’t take you seriously as a counselor. You cannot get state certification, and you are given zero credibility in the eyes of the courts, so the Church embraces secular psychology.
And now we have pastors who are hanging out in bars and swearing in their sermons and showing R-rated video clips and making the worship music sound just like the world’s music and everything else they can do to convince the world that they are cool.
All that is being done, but in most cases I don’t think it really works very well. Even when we do compromise in all those areas the world still is not going to be banging down our doors to come hear our message – not until we take one more step. There is one more thing that is required to really gain their favor. You have to soften the gospel message. You have got to back off on talking about sin. You cannot make people feel bad for continuing in unrepentant sin. And you cannot point to Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation for all human beings everywhere in the world. Preaching against sin and pointing to Christ alone for salvation is the deal breaker. Churches that are desperate to get the world to come flooding in through their doors will compromise one thing after another after another, and in most cases those churches stay fairly small – until they finally start trimming the offensive edges off the gospel so that unbelievers can feel good in the church while still holding on to their unrepentant sin – and then the church explodes and then news articles start getting written about their amazing ministry.
If you are not being persecuted, maybe it is just because God is granting you a time of rest and favor. But it is also possible that it is because of compromise, and so we need to examine our lives. Listen to the parallel account of this beatitude in Luke’s gospel. In Luke’s account of the beatitudes Jesus gives a corresponding woe (curse) for each beatitude (blessing).
Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Now listen to the corresponding curse.
Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
If you are persecuted for righteousness you are in a category of the prophets. But if all men speak well of you, that puts you in the company of the false prophets – the men who told the unbelievers what their itching ears wanted to hear. And if we do that, we will be loved by the world, but we are cursed by Christ.
The Blessedness of Persecution – What’s so great about persecution?
So we understand the meaning of persecution and the promise of persecution, now we are ready to think through the blessedness of persecution. Now, one thing we know for sure – God would never tell us to rejoice over something that is not really worth rejoicing over. God is not going to command us to have inappropriate responses, so we know persecution really is an exceptionally wonderful thing. And that is obvious from the fact that God offers this reward. If you want a definition of what is good as opposed to what is evil, this is as good a definition as any. That which is good is that which is rewarded by God. God would never offer a reward for bad behavior.
And in this case it is not just reward, but great reward. When you think about how glorious just the average reward in heaven will be – far better than anything in this world – wonderful enough to delight us for all eternity – and that is just average reward; imagine what great reward is! So if something is good because God rewards it, then that for which God offers great reward must be exceedingly good.
It is an honor
According to the Apostles it is an honor.
Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him
It has been granted. In 1 Thessalonians 3:3 Paul says he was appointed by God to suffer for Christ. When you suffer persecution, according to Jesus, that places you in the company of the prophets of God.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
What could be a higher honor than to be classified with the prophets? It is a high privilege to suffer dishonor for Christ for a couple reasons.
Joining Christ in His suffering
First, because when we are persecuted we are bearing in our bodies the very wounds that are meant for the Lord Himself. When Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Church Jesus appeared to him:
Acts 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
Persecuting the Church equals persecuting the Lord Himself. That is why later, after Paul was converted and himself suffered persecution, he said:
Galatians 6:17 Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
That is a high honor. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church got so carried away with relics – thinking it was such a big deal if they had a splinter that supposedly came from Jesus cross, or a bone from John the Baptist’s body, or a piece of the cloth Jesus used to wash the Disciples feet. Those were called holy relics, and they used to practically worship them. They would build shrines around them and people would travel for miles to come kiss the ground in front of them.
There is nothing in the Bible that supports the idea that there is anything special in any holy relic. (Although, I have to admit, if I had some artifact that Jesus or some Bible character touched – if I had some wood from the cross or the pen that Paul used to write Romans, and I knew for sure it was authentic, I would think that was pretty cool. I wouldn’t worship it, but I would probably take pretty good care of it – I certainly wouldn’t leave it lying around on the floor.) But the Bible never says there is anything cool about the wood from the cross or any of those other things. What it does say is cool – what is of great, great worth, is not the wood from the cross or the thorns from His crown or the leather from the scourge – but rather the wounds themselves. If you are at a pawn shop and find a really good deal on one of the actual rods they used to beat Christ, there is no great value in buying that. But there is immense value in having that rod applied upside your head for the sake of Christ, so that you could bear in your body the very wounds of Christ.
That is the highest of honors because it is a participation in the suffering of Christ. And that participation is not just symbolic. It is an actual participation in the redemptive work of Christ! When you are persecuted you are literally involved in accomplish the redemptive work of the suffering of Christ through your suffering.
That is not to say our suffering pays for anyone’s sins. But it is to say that Jesus left some of His suffering unsuffered so that we could suffer it and participate in His work.
Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
In order for a soul to be redeemed, two rounds of suffering are required. First, Jesus Christ had to suffer on the cross to purchase that soul and pay for that person’s sin. But that by itself does not do the person any good if he never hears the gospel. And so someone has to go through the suffering involved in delivering the gospel to that person. And that suffering is the suffering Christ has granted to us.
Brings Him glory
So persecution is a high honor because when we suffer for Him we are joining Him in His suffering, and nothing in all the Universe is as important and glorious as the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one reason it is a high honor. Another reason it is a high honor is because it brings Him special glory. It shows Him to be worth suffering for. Think about that – we serve a God who is worth suffering for. There are other things in your life worth suffering for. Some people are willing to suffer the pain of exercise because being in shape is worth some suffering. For others – it is not worth it. And even for athletes – there is a limit to how much they would be willing to suffer. But there is no limit on this beatitude. Jesus did not say to rejoice when you are persecuted up to a certain limit. There is no limit. In fact, the greater the suffering the greater the honor. You can tell how important something is to a person by when they say, “OK, that’s enough – I’m not willing to endure any more pain for this thing (or person) – it’s just not worth it.” So the greater the persecution the more you show Christ’s worthiness to be loved.
Anyone can claim to love Jesus – and millions of people do. Mouthing the words, “I love Jesus” might honor Him a little bit, but not a whole lot – people say that about food and cars and movies and all kinds of things. But when you are willing to suffer for Him that shows Him to be far more worthy of love than movies or cars or even friends or family. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can claim to love Jesus, but only a select few are found worthy of suffering for Him.
It is Fellowship with Christ
So suffering for Christ is a high privilege because it is a way to show His supreme worthiness in a huge way. And beyond that, it is also a high privilege because it is a kind of fellowship with Christ. It brings you into a relational closeness and interaction with Jesus that is unique. It is a kind of fellowship that, once you have tasted it, you will long to experience it again no matter what the cost. Paul longed for it. With all the unbelievable suffering Paul went through – being beaten and stoned and abandoned and shipwrecked and beaten with rods – you would think he would come to a point of saying, “Enough! I need a break! I’m sick of this!” But that was not how he felt. When Paul got to talking about what he really, really wanted – here is what he said:
Philippians 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death
The fellowship with Christ that came from sharing in His sufferings was something Paul just craved – it was right up there with knowing Christ and experiencing the power of His resurrection.
That is why when you read about severe persecution you often read also about great joy. Rowland Taylor was to be burned at the stake and as he approached he kissed the stake upon which he was about to be burned. Obadiah Holmes received ninety lashes that turned his back to jelly and he turned and said to the magistrates, "You have struck me with roses.” Paul and Silas were singing in the stocks in prison, and the Apostles went out after being flogged rejoicing.
That is how powerful the presence of Jesus Christ is. The pleasures of this world seem so intense to us, and yet what worldly pleasure can compare to that? The most intense pleasure in this world – whatever it is for you – being famous with millions of screaming fans, being so rich you could never possibly spend all your money, having your favorite things, experiencing some sexual thrill – whatever the most intense pleasure is for you, what good would it be while they are ripping out your flesh with a flogging?
Psalm 36:8 [Those who find refuge in the shadow of your wings] feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
We have all experienced little drips and drops of that river of delights to varying degrees, but to those who experience the extremes of persecution for Christ out of love for Christ He very often opens the floodgates of that river on them.
Psalm 4:7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.
That is as happy as the world ever gets – when their earthly resources abound. But the presence of Christ can fill your heart with far greater joy than that. So there are some massive benefits that we receive in this life when we are persecuted. We get the amazing honor of joining Christ in His sufferings, and we get the joy of special fellowship with Christ. But that is not what Jesus draws our attention to in the beatitude. His main concern is the big reward – the reward in heaven. I believe the honor and the participation in Christ’s work are implied because of the comparison with the prophets, but the main focus is on heavenly reward. And so I do not want to under-emphasize the importance of that by giving it a few minutes at the end of the sermon, so we will plan on looking at that in detail next time.
Benediction: 1 Peter 5:10,11 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Summary
Christ is worthy of any amount of suffering. Persecution is mistreatment because of righteousness (which is always for Christ’s sake, therefore it is mistreatment for Christ). It is primarily verbal. All believers will be persecuted at times, but not even Jesus was constantly persecuted. So not suffering for a time is not proof of unfaithfulness, yet it may very well be because of unfaithfulness. Currying the world’s favor is unfaithfulness to Christ. Persecution is a high honor because it is a participation in the work of Christ, and it brings Him great honor. It also brings special fellowship with Christ, and great reward.
