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Congratulations to the Hated
Introduction:
The Heart of the Disciple: Congratulations to the Hated! (Matthew 5:10-12)
Who Are “Those Who Are Persecuted”?
1 Peter 4:3-4 – For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you...
Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
2 Timothy 3:12 – Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…
Why Are We Congratulating Those Who Are Persecuted?
Acts 5:40-41 – And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
How Do I Respond to Being Persecuted?
Three Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution:
- Persecution Proves I Belong to Jesus!
1 Peter 1:6-7 – In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- I Have a Reward in Heaven!
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
- I'm in Good Company!
John 15:20 – 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. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5, as we are coming at the end of an eight-week-long congratulations
party as we look at the Beatitudes.
This is the introduction to the greatest sermon ever preached.
And every Beatitude begins with the word "blessed."
And the word "blessed" means congratulations.
If I asked you, "What is a Christian?"
We could probably go around the room and get dozens and dozens and dozens of different
responses to that.
What is a Christian?
What does a Christian do?
What does a Christian look like?
How does a Christian act?
As we go through the Beatitudes, understand from the mouth of our Lord, this is what
a Christian is.
So it really doesn't matter what I think a Christian is or what you think a follower
of Jesus is.
This is what Jesus said a follower of Him looks like.
This is what Christians are meant to be.
And as we've said through this whole series, there's a spiritually logical flow in the
Beatitudes.
Jesus wasn't just pulling out these random sayings.
There's a flow here.
It's like a staircase.
It's like steps on a ladder.
Let's look at them again.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in hearts, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven."
Look at this flow here.
What I want you to see here, the first three Beatitudes address our need.
We're poor in spirit, and we should mourn over that.
And we need to stop thinking of ourselves first and live a life of complete unselfishness.
That's meekness.
That's the need that we have.
And then the need is satisfied as we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
And then the next three Beatitudes show the result.
We become merciful.
We become pure in heart.
We become peacemakers.
Today, this last one, this is the outcome.
If you are sincerely following Jesus Christ, if Christ is alive in you and He is changing
you, I've got to tell you, this is kind of a shocking statement that Jesus says, "You
know you made it."
When people hate you.
Wow.
Before we dive into this, let's just pause for a moment.
I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's
Word, and at the same time I will pray for you to receive what it is the Lord wants to
tell us in His Word today.
All right?
Let's just take a moment.
Please pray for me.
Father in heaven, as we come to Your Word, this is a hard one.
But we're not cherry picking.
Just trying to cover the parts of Your Word that might be easier on our ears, Father.
We want to hear everything that You had to say.
This is a hard one.
I pray, Father, for all of us, You would open our hearts for a time of self-examination
and also a time of maybe a change of perspective.
To Your glory and honor, Father, let Your Word take root in our hearts.
To make us the people that You've called us to be, to make us the people that Jesus described,
as followers would be.
I pray these things in Jesus' name.
All of God's people said, Amen.
All right, we're in week 8 of the party.
Anybody else have like party fatigue?
You're like, "All right, you know what?
In any other party I would have gone home long before this."
But look, we've got one more week of party, all right?
So are you ready?
Today, we want to wish a hearty congratulations to the hated.
You ready?
Let's do it!
I get to tell you, it feels strange.
You're hated.
Congratulations!
I'm so happy for you.
You're hated?
Wow, that's awesome!
Like, man, you're going to have to explain that one.
Well, let's look at what our Lord says.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven."
So the first question we have to ask is, "Who are we congratulating here?
Who are the persecuted?"
Well the Greek word persecuted means pursue.
The word we would use in our day is harass.
This verb tense talks about somebody who continually allows themselves to be put in this position,
the persecuted.
You're like, "Well, persecuted like how?"
Well, Jesus tells us.
Look at verse 11.
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my accounts."
So you see this persecution, there's two sides of the coin here.
There's reviling.
That's face to face.
That's, I'm assaulting you with words in your face, or we would just call that insulting
you.
Right?
But then He says, "Uter evil falsely."
That's not in your face.
That's behind your back.
That's slandering you.
That's, I want to ruin your reputation.
I want people to think lesser of you.
So I'm going to say things about you behind your back.
And what I don't know, I'm just going to make up because I want people to think of you in
a negative light.
But you have to notice here, Jesus says persecuted.
Look, you've got to get this because if you miss this, there's somebody going to be walking
out of here strutting like a rooster because you missed it.
Jesus says it's for righteousness sake.
Verse 11, He says it's on account of Him.
And that's so important when we talk about persecution.
It's not persecution because you're obnoxious.
Okay?
It's not persecution because you're a jerk to everyone.
And you wear your religion like some kind of an honor badge that you think it's your
job to slap everybody in place.
People treat you negatively because you're a jerk.
That's called consequences.
That's called you're reaping what you're sowing there.
So He's not talking about that.
He's also not talking about putting on a show.
Right?
It's not trying to be as over the top, self-righteous as you can be so that you get people's attention
so that they say something about you so you can be like, "Oh, I'm so persecuted."
He's not talking about that either.
Look at Daniel.
Daniel quietly softed the Lord and He was persecuted.
Right?
Jesus isn't talking about getting a rise out of people on social media by trolling them.
You know exactly what to post, exactly what to comment, and you know it's going to get
a rise out of people and people are going to say things and you're going to be like,
"Oh, I'm so persecuted."
No, you're not.
You're being a jerk.
Okay?
That's not what Jesus is talking about at all.
He clarifies that twice here.
It's being hated, being persecuted because of Jesus.
It's because of His righteousness.
It's because you strive to be like Jesus.
Or in the context of this sermon, you're just striving to live out these Beatitudes that
He laid out.
You're just striving to be that kind of person.
And you're hated.
Isn't it sort of ironic?
What did Pastor Taylor preach about last week?
The previous Beatitude.
What was that one?
Okay, two of you were here.
There were more of you here than that.
What was the previous Beatitude?
Peacemakers.
Isn't that interesting?
Blessed are the peacemakers and then...
Blessed are the persecuted.
What's going on there?
Well, it is very simply this.
Christians strive for peace with all men, but all men don't return the favor.
And you're like, "Wait, hang on a second, man.
Why all the hatred, man?
Why the hatred?
Why can't we just live and let live, man?
You know what I'm saying?
Why do they hate?
Well, Peter tells us that.
Peter answers that very question.
Why do people hate you for trying to follow Jesus?
Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 3 through 4.
He says, "For the time that has passed to feces for doing what the Gentiles want to do."
And in this context, Gentiles is sort of a figure of speech for unbelievers.
He says, "Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and
lawless idolatry."
Do you see that Peter says, "Listen, Christians, we're done living life like it's one long
beer commercial."
All right?
He says, "With respect to this, they are surprised..."
The unbelievers are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery
and they malign you.
Do you see that?
He's saying that people are going to slander you, malign you, because you're different.
You live as a citizen of heaven.
You don't live a sinful lifestyle and lost people view that somehow as you condemning
their sin.
Lost people feel like when you try to follow Jesus.
And even if you don't say a word, they feel like you're calling them out.
"Oh, oh, oh, you think you're better than me?"
"Oh, you don't do that stuff, oh, oh, Mr. Holier than thou, huh?
Whatever happens to thou shall not judge, huh?"
And you're like, "Well, I'm not judging.
I just don't live that way because of my faith in Jesus Christ.
They're going to hate you for that."
And maybe you're like, "Well, you know what, though, Pastor Jeff, I wouldn't say anything
to anyone because I believe.
I believe in keep your religion to yourself."
And I would say, "I ain't good either."
According to Jesus.
In Luke 9.23, Jesus said, "For whoever is ashamed of me, oh, oh, look at the end of my words.
Of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, in the glory of the
Father and of the holy angels."
Do you see that?
End of my words.
It's not just ashamed of Jesus.
It's also being ashamed of what He said.
It's being ashamed of what He taught.
So what do we do?
We try to avoid persecution by making the gospel tolerable.
And we say things like, "Well, there's not just one way to heaven.
You know, we're all kind of on our path.
And as long as you're sincere, I think God sees that.
And there's not just one way to heaven.
I don't really think there's a hell.
You know, I know there's some Christians that believe that.
But I don't really think that's - I don't really think a loving God would send somebody to
hell.
And you know what, man?
Love is love, right?
And we're ashamed of what Jesus said when we talk like that.
When you're with your family, your unsafe family members specifically, when you're with your
unsafe friends, when you're at the workplace, the sort of just kind of hides your faith.
We're ashamed of Jesus' words.
It's a problem.
Try this.
Try saying things like, "I believe that marriage is for a man and a woman because that's what
God said."
Say things like, "I believe that the unborn are people who deserve to live."
Try that one.
Try, "I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven because He's the only one who died
for my sin and rose from the dead to promise eternal life."
He's the only one who did that.
So I believe He's the only way to heaven.
Say that.
People will hate you.
And you're going to be persecuted for righteousness' sake.
And you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, the world is rough, man.
The world's rough.
It's rough out there.
It's not just the world.
Some of the worst persecution of Christians happens in the church.
Think about this.
Jesus' ministry.
Who gave Jesus the most problems?
Was it the unsaved pagans?
It was the hardcore religious people, wasn't it?
And what about the book of Acts?
The book of Acts, the first four chapters, it's attacks from the outside, still from religious
people, but it was attacks outside the church.
And the church was standing strong.
And then what happened in Acts chapter 5 and chapter 6?
All the problems came from within the church.
And things really got hard then.
And church, I've got to tell you, the worst insults that I've ever received, the worst
slander about me that's ever been spoken, the worst accusations that I've ever experienced
have come from church people.
It shouldn't be that way.
That's how it is.
And maybe there are some people sitting here.
And if we're being honest, some of the ways that you're talking about people and the leadership
of the church, you're being divisive.
And maybe you're not the persecuted.
Maybe you're the persecutors.
You're like, well, why would church people do that?
Same reason.
You take a stand on what the Bible says.
You stand for righteousness.
Blushly, worldly-minded people in the church are going to attack you.
By the way, look at verse 11 again.
Jesus says, "Blessed are you when others revile you."
Notice He didn't say "if."
Like this is going to apply to some of my followers.
No, He didn't say that.
Listen, if you're a true follower of Jesus, it's when it's going to happen to you.
You are going to be persecuted in some way, shape, or form to some degree for your faith.
This is for all true disciples.
And if you're not getting any kind of backlash because of your faith in Jesus Christ, that's
actually a bigger problem than if you're facing persecution.
This is for all true followers.
Paul says this in 2 Timothy 3.12, in case it's unclear.
"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
So you think you're going to stand for Jesus and Satan's kids aren't going to hate you?
Let's not be so naive.
That's who the persecuted are.
You're like, "Wow, so why are we congratulating them?"
Well, let's look at the text.
First time, why would we congratulate people that are hated, persecuted for righteousness'
sake?
Well, look what Jesus says, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The kingdom of heaven.
We talked about this, didn't we?
It's the place where Jesus is ruling.
Like, where is the kingdom of heaven?
Right now, it's in the heart of every believer.
Hers is the kingdom of heaven.
The first and last Beatitudes are bookended by this statement.
That was the very first thing Jesus said.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
What Jesus is saying is the first thing, and the last thing you need to know is when you
receive Him, you get His kingdom.
Oh, and by the way, with all these Beatitudes, all of these results, all of these things
we've been congratulating people for, you realize every single promise, every congratulation
of every Beatitude are all facets of a diamond called salvation.
These are all just figures of speech describing salvation.
Receiving the kingdom of heaven, that's salvation.
Being comforted by God, that's from salvation.
Inheriting the earth, salvation.
Being satisfied, only in salvation.
Receiving mercy, that's salvation.
Being able to see God, that's salvation.
Being called a Son of God, that's adoption, which is, tell me, salvation, right?
Receiving the kingdom of God is salvation.
So why are we congratulating those hated because of Jesus?
Because it proves that Christ is in you.
Wait, wait, you mean people who would hate Jesus if He were here, hate you instead because
you remind them of Jesus?
That.
That is a high honor.
That is a really high honor.
And somebody right now is like, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't think we should
think that way."
And I would say, why not?
The early disciples did.
Acts chapter 5 says, "When the counsel had called in the apostles, they beat them and
charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go."
Now I would think the next statement would be, and the apostles left cursing them under
their breath, the apostles left crying, "Why God, why did this happen to me?"
That's what I would think the next line would be.
But you see what the next line is?
It says, "Then they left a presence of the counsel rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer dishonor for the name."
See that the early apostles, they weren't waiting for Harvest Bible Chapel to have our
little congratulations party before they started celebrating.
They were congratulating themselves.
What an honor to so act like Jesus that sinners treat you like Jesus.
That's an honor.
And that is why we're congratulating those who are persecuted.
So there's one more question that we have to answer today.
The third question on your outline.
How do I respond to being persecuted?
How do I respond to being persecuted?
You know, this beatitude is obviously very different than the rest.
The other beatitudes are about what happens in me.
But this beatitude is about what happens to me.
But you know another difference is this is the only beatitude that Jesus elaborates on
right here.
And you're like, "Wait a minute.
Is this the part of the sermon where you tell me how to be persecuted?"
No.
I don't need to tell you how to be persecuted.
You follow Jesus Christ, you will be.
That's the point.
You strive to live this kind of a life.
You will be.
The question that we need to answer is how do I respond to that?
That's the question.
And the answer is not retaliate.
"I'll get you for this."
It's not that.
It's not resenting people like, "I hate you for this."
It's not that.
And it's not even becoming depressed or sorrowful.
Like, "I hate this."
It's not that either.
Look at verse 12.
Because Jesus actually tells us how to react.
Look at this.
"Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Jesus says, "Here's how you react.
People hate you because you follow Him?"
Jesus says, "Rejoice."
And you're like, "Really?
Yeah.
Jesus actually doubles down on that, doesn't He?
He says, "Rejoice and be glad."
Why should I rejoice and be glad when people are against me because of Jesus?
Why would I do that?
How in the world is that an occasion for happiness?
Well Jesus tells us that too.
We don't have to guess.
But He tells us right here.
So the three reasons to rejoice in persecution, jot these down.
I'm going to go through these quickly.
These are the three reasons Jesus gives right here.
Number one, persecution proves, "I belong to Jesus."
We already touched on this briefly already.
But like the rest of the Beatitudes, there's a congratulations on what results.
He says, "Yours is the kingdom of heaven," meaning you belong to Jesus.
Do you want to know if your faith is real?
Or would you just rather stumble through life wondering, "Do I really believe?"
I mean, do I really believe in Jesus Christ?
Is my faith a real thing or is it just kind of in my head or have I deceived myself?
Is my faith real?
Well, your faith needs tested and there's only one way that happens.
See what Peter says again.
First Peter 1, he says, "In this year rejoice."
Oh, there's rejoice again.
For what Peter?
"Now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, persecution
being a big one, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that
perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Well, here's the point.
Anyone can say that they believe in Jesus Christ at a prayer meeting.
Or go to a small group and say, "I just want you to know I believe in Jesus Christ.
Do you think there's going to be any pushback there?"
No, there's not.
It's easy to say it there.
But do you still believe when it's not so popular?
Do you still believe when you're insulted for it?
When you're rejected for it?
When you're falsely accused because of it?
Do you still believe when your faith costs you something?
You see, when following Jesus is painful, but you refuse to walk away because His promises
are so glorious and His ways are so right?
When Jesus Himself is so worthy, you don't really prove to Jesus what your faith is made
out of.
As much as you've proven to yourself what your faith is made out of, because I've got
a feeling Jesus already knows.
That's reason to rejoice.
Resurrection proves I belong to Jesus.
Number two, I rejoice.
I have a reward in heaven.
Look at verse 12 again.
"Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven."
Be like, "Well, what's your reward?
What's your reward?"
Well, there's all kinds of rewards in heaven.
Actually, you could kind of look at heaven as one big reward, right?
And I mean, you've got this, "There's no sickness, and there's no war, there's no unhappiness."
Oh, how about the best thing in heaven?
Jesus Himself.
All of that's true.
And at the same time, the Bible says that each individual gets special individual rewards.
And how much of these you get is based on how you live now, including facing persecution
because of Jesus.
Saint Corinthians 5:10, Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether
good or evil, there's different levels of rewards based on your faithfulness now, based
on your faithfulness in the face of persecution."
Like, "All right, well, what are those rewards then?"
I don't know.
But here's something I do know.
Jesus says they're great.
And if Jesus says something is great, that's what I was thinking.
If Jesus says it's great, then it must be pretty great.
If God Himself refers to something as being great, then it must be spectacular.
So church, can we just believe Jesus and wait 15 minutes and find out what it is?
I'm going to tell you all the stupid insults and slander are going to look pretty petty
in light of whatever Jesus has for you.
And that's a reason to rejoice.
I have a reward in heaven.
Number three, third reason to rejoice.
And the face of persecution is, "I'm in good company.
I'm in good company."
Look again, verse 12.
Jesus says, "Your reward is great in heaven."
But then he taxed on this statement too.
He says, "For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Are you being persecuted for your faith to some degree in some way?
And if you follow Christ, you should be.
Well Jesus reminds us here, "You're in good company."
I mean, man, think of the people in the Old Testament.
Abel, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel.
You're in some pretty good company.
Oh, how about Jesus himself?
You know, Jesus spoke of this in John 15 when he said, "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.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours."
Okay, hang on.
How is this a motivation to rejoice?
How?
Okay, so you're saying I should be motivated by the fact that other people were persecuted
too?
Like, how is that a motivation?
You know, we love the name drop, don't we?
Oh, you say you don't.
You say you don't.
You run into somebody famous at the airport and keep your mouth shut.
You won't.
I ran into Jerome Bettis at the airport one time, literally ran into him.
Like physically, ran into him.
I knocked him back about five yards.
Okay, I made that part up.
I did make that part up.
We love the name drop.
I felt good telling that story.
Why do we do that?
Why do we name drop?
Because there's something in us that we're kind of proud of our associations.
You know what I mean?
There's something in us that we like that.
Four years ago, Aaron and I were at a church conference in Orlando.
And we were having breakfast.
It was this big dining room.
Aaron and I were having breakfast.
And this stranger comes and sits at our table.
He just sits there literally right beside me.
And dude was so weird.
Now listen, I am not criticizing.
I'm weird.
My wife married weird.
All right?
I'm not criticizing.
The dude was just strange.
He just sat down with us.
He had these giant like plastic rimmed glasses like really big.
And he had this enormous mustache.
He looked like a cartoon character.
And if you know me, I was like so fascinated by him.
I think people were so fascinating.
But when like this cartoon character sits down, he was so strange.
And he was going on and on and on about some exercise bike that he bought.
I'm like, they're still making exercise bikes?
Like people are still doing that?
You can buy a bike with two wheels and take it on the road.
Like he was so strange.
But he sat there and talked to Aaron and I the whole breakfast about his exercise bike.
And then he gets up and leaves.
And Aaron and I are like, who was that?
Well then we go into the auditorium for the conference.
And Aaron and I take our seats.
And there's a time of worship.
And then somebody gets up and announces.
They're like, we'd like to introduce our main speaker for the event.
Paul Tripp.
He came out on the stage and Aaron and I are like, that's him.
That's the guy we had breakfast with.
I walked around the rest of the conference like, I don't want to brag or anything.
But I had breakfast with Paul Tripp.
You know, it was just kind of a thing we do once.
Yeah.
Oh, it was great.
We were talking mustaches and exercise bikes.
Are you being persecuted because of your faith?
Do you realize that's the occasion for the ultimate name draw?
You're like, I get to be hated because of Jesus.
Do you realize what that means?
I'm in company with the Lord of the universe.
They can't get him so they come after me.
Isn't that awesome?
I'm with Jesus.
Way cooler than Paul Tripp, by the way.
When you feel like your faith has made you an outcast, hey, hey, that's just for now.
Someday you're going to be walking around heaven with the prophets who came before us
who were persecuted for their faith and you're going to look around these people in heaven
and say, you know what?
It was rough at times being insulted, being slandered, but now I see that I'm in good company.
That is a reason to rejoice.
So as our worship team makes their way back up to the platform here, I have to ask you,
has being a Christian resulted in people reviling you?
Has being a Christian resulted in people insulting you and lying about you?
Do people hate you just because you follow Jesus?
Well then, on behalf of the elders, the ministry team, and all of the nursery workers at Harvest
Bible Chapel, we would like to wish you a truly heartfelt congratulations.
Yours, yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:10-12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are different ways persecution is carried out? Have you ever personally been persecuted because of your faith, on some level? If not, why not?
Read 1 Peter 4:3-4. What exactly motivates nonbelievers to slander Christians who refuse to live a sinful lifestyle?
Why do you think Christians aren’t persecuted in America the way Christians are persecuted in other countries?
In your opinion, which of Jesus’ reasons for rejoicing in persecution is the most compelling / motivating? Proof of salvation, reward in heaven, or being in good company?
Breakout
Pray for one another.