I’ve
always been a convicted person. I’ve typically
always had the right motives in mind, but I’ve always been one of those people
who make a decision and stand behind it no matter what. It used to infuriate my parents when I was
younger. “Why can’t you just give a
little bit? Why do you have to be so stubborn?” Well, the good news for them is that about 10
years ago it became more of Amy’s problem; although they do still have to deal
with it from time-to-time. When I was a
kid I was out playing with some friends of mine with our bb guns, which as far as
we were concerned were high powered sniper rifles. We were in the woods behind one of my
friend’s house when we discovered an abandoned building. It was decided upon by the group that we were
going to start shooting our bb guns at various places on this old
building. All of a sudden, a cat came
walking out. One of my friends decided,
“Hey let’s shoot the cat.” Now, I don’t
know what it is with me, but I have this weird thing about killing
animals. I won’t bat an eye when it
comes to shooting a dove, turkey, deer, or any other animal as long as I’m
hunting it. However, if it’s an animal
that isn’t supposed to be hunted, then I don’t deal with death very well. My mom can probably still tell you about the
week-long mourning for my pet hamster, which ended in a 30 minutes funeral
service that I conducted when I was in elementary school. But getting back to my friends, I told them
that they needed to stop shooting the cat because it hadn’t done anything to
them. However, they had already gotten
used to trying to shoot a moving target, so guess where their crosshairs turned
to next? That’s right, I got real used
to dodging enemy fire that day. I’m just
glad none of them were good shots or had guns strong enough to shoot as far as
I ran.
Why
do I tell you this story? Well, as I was
running from my friends, I couldn’t help but think “This is not what I had in
mind when I spoke up. I was only doing
the right thing and this is what I get for it?”
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, I’ll admit that saving a cat may not be the most righteous of acts,
but you get the idea. Do you know what
the primary complaint that I hear from people who are struggling with their
faith is? I hear many folks say that
they didn’t know that it was going to be so hard to be a Christian in this
world. They didn’t expect persecution;
they didn’t expect hatred from the world around them. We mentioned last Sunday that the world many
times laughs at calling Christians peacemakers because Christians seem to be
the ones who don’t let peace happen. Also,
remember that peace, as far as we Christians are concerned, is much more than
simply the absence of conflict. Paul,
writing to the younger Timothy, encouraged him by reminding him on the presence
of persecution. Paul wrote to Timothy in
2 Timothy 3 saying, “You, however, have
followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my
love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at
Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them
all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who
desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil
people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being
deceived.”
Now,
I’m going to take some time next Sunday and go through some of the persecutions
and conflicts that we face in this life and in our society today, so I don’t
want to give everything away today.
However, I want you to either follow along in your Bibles or just listen
as I read these words from Matthew 10:16-25.
“Behold, I am sending you out as
sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over
to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before
governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious
how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be
given to you in that hour. For it is not
you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death,
and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them
put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be
saved. When they persecute you in one
town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through
all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a
servant above his master. It is enough
for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house
Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.”
You
see, anyone who doesn’t know that persecution is part of the Christian life,
part of this blessed life, simply hasn’t been paying attention. Numerous times throughout his earthly
ministry, most notably in the text that we just read, Jesus told his disciples
that persecution is going to happen. We’ve
already seen that it was part of the Apostle Paul’s teaching. We spent a great deal of time reading and
looking closely at the book of Acts a while back. We walked through the history of the
establishment of the early church. If
you will recall, during that look, persecution was the norm for what the
apostles faced. The second half of Acts
5 tells the story of the apostles being arrested and beaten (flogged) in front
of the crowds. They weren’t treated as
such because they opposed God, but because they were speaking and teaching and
preaching in the name of Jesus. You see,
it was because of the name of Jesus that the apostles faced hardships. I was because of the name of Jesus that
Stephen was put to death. It was because
of the name of Jesus that Paul was persecuted at almost every moment of his
life. It is because of the name of Jesus
that so many Christian martyrs are put to death each year. It is because of the name of Jesus that we
are under attack today. Folks are fine
with agreeing that there is some higher power out there who is over all
things. Some are even alright with attaching
the name God to this higher power.
However, it is when we bring Jesus, as the Son of God, into the equation
that things start to get a little uneasy.
It’s then when those folks start pointing to Christians and saying that
we are the divisive ones who just can’t get along or play well with others.
Look,
we all know that we go through hardships in life. They are a part of life whether we like it or
not. However, are you suffering just in
general or are you suffering for the name of Christ? Is your suffering an earthly one or are you
suffering for as Jesus called it “righteousness’ sake”? Is your suffering because of your faith? People get sick. People die.
Those are natural sufferings.
What I’m talking about is if you are suffering for the glorification of
God’s kingdom and the spread of his gospel.
I’ll be honest with y’all, I’ve lost a lot of friends over the past few
years of my life. If you’ve got any
unwanted friends in your life I know how to get rid of them. Tell them that you’re going to become a
pastor. Tell them that you have felt God
place a specific calling upon your life and that you will spend the rest of
your life leading God’s people however he calls you. Now, I know that not everyone is called into pastoral
ministry, but even if you tell someone that you have made a newer and deeper
commitment to Christ, some people will try and drop you like a bad habit. You see, we’re all called into ministry. Martin Luther referred to this as the
priesthood of all believers. “Whoever
comes out of the water of baptism can boast that he is already a consecrated priest,
bishop, and pope, although of course it is not seemly that just anybody should
exercise such office….There is no true, basic difference between laymen and
priests….except for the sake of office and work, but not for the sake of
status.”
I
talk to a lot of people throughout the week via social media, text messaging,
and email that have all known me for quite a while. They knew me prior to my call to ministry and
so they have seen the sort of two periods of my life, the pre-pastoral and
pastoral stages of my life. They often
share stories with me about friendships that get severed and lost because of
one growing in their faith and their love for the gospel while the other grows
more in their consumption of the world.
Like I said, I’m going to really get into the opposition that exists
between our culture and our faiths next Sunday, but I think this one example
will help us in clarifying what it means to suffer for righteousness’
sake. One of my friends confided in me
that he and someone who was in his wedding were no longer friends because of a
recent discovery that his friend had as to his being a homosexual. Nothing divisive happened between them, but
my friend just thought that for the sake of his relationship with the Lord that
he didn’t need to spend all that time around this non-repentant sinner. He would love to witness to him, to exemplify
that being a peacemaker that we saw last Sunday, but that’s not what his friend
wants. His friend wants to act like
nothing has changed except for instead of his being married to his wife; he’s
now divorced and dating men. My friend’s
stance, which he made clear to his friend, caused all the friendship to
stop. His newly realized homosexual
friend began to hurl insults at him and degrade him and call him everything
under the sun except a nice guy. Mutual
friends of theirs began to hate my friend for being so closed-minded that he
would turn his back on his friend because of what some book says. Obviously anyone who can look at Scripture as
just some book isn’t a heart that has heard the call of God and run to him
yet. But as my friend was telling me
this story, he said, “I was just trying to follow God’s commands. I was just trying to do the right
thing.” Immediately my mind went back to
that cat coming out of that abandoned building.
When
you stand for righteousness, when you stand for the gospel, how comfortable are
you? Or let me put it like this, are you
having rocks thrown at you or bb’s shot at you when you stand close to Jesus. Now, in our country today, these things
rarely literally happen, but you get what I mean. If you’re so comfortable in your faith that
you don’t feel persecuted, that you don’t feel even just the slightest bit at
odds with the world around you, then maybe you’re not as close to Jesus as you
think. Now, I’m not trying to tell
everyone that they’re wrong in their faiths.
What I’m trying to get across is that if you don’t feel persecution from
the outside world, then something isn’t right.
If you don’t feel like this broken, fallen, and sinful world is at odds
with what you believe in your heart to be right and true, then you have to ask
yourself if you truly understand the gospel.
Like I said, we’re going to get into the contrast between this blessed life
that we’ve spent the past two months looking at and the successful life as the
world defines it next Sunday. But in the
meantime, I want all of you to take this list of eight things and to think them
over. Do I mourn my sin? Do I long for Jesus above all other things? Do I extend mercy? Am I persecuted by a world that looks
different than me or am I just another part of the world? And I want you to bring those answers with
you next Sunday as we conclude this series on the Beatitudes. You see, a blessed life doesn’t necessarily
mean successful life in terms of wealth and fame. It doesn’t mean easy life. It can be those things, but it doesn’t have
to be. The Blessed life means a life
that is filled by God, and that is a life that puts us directly at odds with
all the sin of the world that surrounds us every day. But just know, that in that persecution, that
is where true blessedness lies. “Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.”
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