Blessed Are The Persecuted 8/20/17 -Announcements: -CC,OFF, GIFT -Baptism at Oscar Scherer State Park at 530pm (Class 1 Hour Before) -Recognize All Fall Sports Athletes and Families. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -For those of you who are just joining us in church this Sunday, we ve been camped out in Matthew 5 for the last few weeks exploring Jesus most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. -Recap: -The first 12 verses in Matthew chapter 5 are called the Beatitudes from the Latin Beatitudo which means supreme happiness. -When we think about Supreme Happiness we think about external things: -Better job or more money or a better relationship or a better body -But, Jesus didn t talk about happiness like this. -He talked about deep, inward, lasting, satisfying happiness that wasn t based on the physical but the spiritual. -That isn t produced FROM you but is put INSIDE of you through a transformative relationship with Jesus. -Jesus is so passionate about this topic, we ve come to understand that Jesus doesn t just make this statement about happiness just once. -He repeats it over and over to His listeners. ------------------------------------------------------------- -Jesus makes a very puzzling statement to our Western ears in the last Beatitude. -Matthew 5:10-12 (NIV) 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. -Blessed are the persecuted? -Blessed are the insulted, persecuted, falsely accused, having all kind of evil things said about you? -Rejoice and be glad? --------------------------------------------------------- -Persecution is rarely talked about in the church or anywhere else for that matter. -Even though it is highly prevalent in the world today. -Between 2005 and 2015 an estimated 900,000 Christians were martyred worldwide an avg of 90,000 a year or 1 Christian every 5 or 6 minutes (According to the Center For The Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Seminary). -Open Doors USA (a Christian persecution watchdog organization) says that 2016 was the worst year of persecution on record.
-Persecution can come in all kinds of forms from having a door slammed in your face, being alienated from friends, being made fun of, being the butt of jokes at a party, being laughed at by the media, or in many countries, being fined, imprisoned, or even put to death. -Why does Jesus say there will be persecution? -It s not for UNrighteousness but for Righteousness. -It s not for doing bad things or living like the world. -It s not for Haughtiness or Hypocrisy or Judgment by the Church but for righteousness. -I believe some of the persecution the church has faced has been justified. -For believing they are now better than others -For telling people Before you come in you have to clean up -Or for preaching one message while living another. -Not everyone who says they are a Christian is a Christian. -There are many who name the name of Christ who do not know Him at all and their lives have never been invaded by Him and transformed by Him. -This is the reason for persecution that Jesus has in mind. -It s those who follow Christ and let His light shine brightly in them. -John 3:16-21 (NLT) For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. --------------------------------------------------------------- -Before we get to far into this, let me back up for a moment: -I ve made this statement since the very beginning of this series. -These are not just 8 random statements made by Jesus. -No, they are all linked together and tell about one subject: The Christian Life. -How to enter into a relationship with God and what that life will look like. -Let me review these and show you WHY persecution makes sense: -Matthew 5:3-5 (NIV) He said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
-Blessed are those who see themselves as spiritually poor and bankrupt before a Holy God. -Who understand by the revelation of God just how wicked and sinful they really are. -Notice what Jesus says about these: For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -In other words, This is entrance into eternal life. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. -Mourn over what? -Mourn over their sin. -When you see yourself for who you really are, you truly begin to weep in shame. -What s the promise? They will be comforted. -They will receive salvation as they cling to the hope of trusting in the righteousness of Christ. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. -Meekness is strength under control -What is the power that comes in and controls every Christ-follower? -The Holy Spirit -He indwells every believer upon belief. -Romans 8:9 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. -The rest of this list is characteristic of the Holy Spirit living in every true believer. -Notice what He does and the difference He makes. -Matthew 5:6-9 (NIV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. -He causes us to turn from hungering for UNrighteousness and now causes us to begin craving a righteous life. -This is not done on our own. -No. This is only done by God Himself coming to live on the inside of a giving them new desires. person s life and transforming them into a new person and 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. -Again, God takes us from being merciless to being people who love to show mercy especially to unmerciful people. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. -The Holy Spirit as He works in a believer s life, He points out everything that doesn t every way. process of look like Jesus and pulls it out and pushes toward being like Jesus in -On our own, we do not have pure hearts. -Through the power of the Holy Spirit, He begins the never-ending purification.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. -We said last week that Jesus didn t say peaceful or who love peace. -He said peace makers -What kind of peace making does Jesus have in mind? -2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (ESV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. -What s the inevitable response that a person is going to get by living a life of righteousness, going against the flow, ruining the fun of all those who want to live unrighteously, calling out to a sinful and darkened world Be reconciled to God by recognizing your sinfulness before God and run to the forgiveness and mercy of Christ. -Not in an attitude of judgment or hate but in a spirit of love and truth? -People don t like being referred to as sinners. -It implies that they are not good and that they are lacking in some way. -But, once you realize it and agree with God about it and what Jesus says about it in these Beatitudes, and know it s true, you experience the forgiveness and grace of God and IT S WONDERFUL! -Listen, those of us who have realized this, we would not trade it for the world. -A right relationship with God and eternal life! -But those who don t want to hear that message, it s offensive. -When Jesus declares in John 14 that He s the only way to God that s exclusive and offensive. -When the Bible says that there s no other way to receive salvation than by coming to Christ, that s offensive. -Unless you understand it to be true. Then it s life-giving. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -The word persecution is passive in the Greek, meaning that those being persecuted are giving permission to do so. -They are willingly allowing themselves to be persecuted, hated, chased, pursued, perhaps even jailed or killed because they identify with Christ. -Listen, that s only something the Holy Spirit can do in a person s life. -Do you know how the very disciples listening to this very Sermon on the Mount all died? -They were put to death with spears, stones, crucified right-side up and upside down. -Their heads were severed with a sword and their bodies were thrown to the wild animals.
violent -Look it up. It s one of the greatest arguments for the validation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. -They witnessed the resurrection, proclaimed it and went to their death because of it. -Listen, no one dies for a known lie. -Stories -Read about a pastor who visited the underground church in China (because the true church is not allowed to operate in Communist China and they will be dragged to jail) -Picked him up in a car, blindfolded him as they drove. -Got him out of the car, blindfolded. -Took him downstairs to a group of people gathered together to read and listen to God s Word. -He had no idea where he was but he knew he was in the right place. -They worshiped for hours with doing nothing but reading God s Word. -I ve been to Oxford, England and stood on an X marked in the street right outside of St. Mary s where Thomas Cranmer who had previously recanted his statements against the heresy that he saw in the church, instead took them back up again and was burned at the stake in the street because of them. He died in 1556. -I ve been in London and stood inside Bunhill Fields, a non-conformist cemetery that houses the graves of people like Daniel Defoe, William Blake, Susanna Wesley, Isaac Watts. -It s filled with the graves of pastors who faithfully preached the Word of God, most notably John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim s Progress. -He was put in prison for 12 years for preaching the Gospel. -When asked to stop, he would say, If you let me out, I will certainly preach again. -I m heading to a place in North Africa next month to visit one of our missionary partners where I can have no contact with the underground church for fear of exposing those people because it s illegal to be a Christian in that country. -I don t have time to tell you about the lives of Jim Elliot, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who died under the rule of Hitler), Polycarp the disciple of John the Baptist who was fed to the wild beasts, George Wisert of Scotland, Ann Askew in the 1500 s, Probius in the year 250AD, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania during the 1940 s, 50 s and 60 s, or stories from China of intense persecution where the believer s ask the church to pray, not that the persecution will stop but that they will have the strength to endure it. -North Korea right now is the most dangerous place in the world to profess Christ. -Trans World Radio broadcasts from Guam (the country that North Korea has its missiles aimed at) into North Korea.
I think it s kind of like one of our missionaries said: You know, the North Koreans may lob missiles at Guam, but we re going to lob hope back in response. -And they know there are listeners because they get responses back. -People actually take their lives in their hands to make a response, to get a letter out or some sort of message out of North Korea letting them know that they ve been listening. The stories we ve got is that people who have a radio (which is illegal to have in North Korea) keep it in a plastic bag and bury it during the daytime and then dig it up at night and listen to the broadcast. A lot of times, people listen in very small groups in homes. We know that there are groups of believers in North Korea and we know that the Church is alive and well and growing under persecution. (Trans World Radio) -It is persecution for Righteousness. --------------------------------------------------------------- -Did you notice the promise for these who profess Christ? -Matthew 5:10 (NIV) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -It s the same statement as the very first Beatitude. -Heaven belongs to these. -Not because of any other reason but that they truly know the Lord Jesus and want to proclaim Him to a darkened world. ---------------------------------------------------------------- -(Pad Music begins) (Those holding signs are to come up and line up in front of the stage at this time) -Fourteen former Muslims in Morocco made the decision to identify with Christ, their Lord. -After the baptism of these fourteen converts in a secret cove along the water s edge, suddenly an observer leaped into the water, tears in his eyes, and declared he, too, wanted to be a follower of Christ and be baptized. -The man a Muslim himself had been the interpreter for the training meetings that week. -Before being baptized, he had to answer publicly the questions the others had answered before they were immersed: Do you renounce Islam, the Koran, Ramadan, and other teachings of the Muslim faith? Have you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, and do you now believe in the Trinity that Christ is equally God? Are you willing to be imprisoned; to be thrown out of your home for Christ? -Upon his positive response, he was baptized a follower of Jesus Christ.
-Before you are signs bearing the names of the top 20 countries in the world where Christians are persecuted the most for believing in Christ and making Him known. -In most of these countries, it s illegal to be a Christian. -You can pray for these countries and the believer s in them that the Lord Jesus would shine brightly in them and that the church in these countries would be set aflame. -------------------------------------------------------------- -Ignatius: who was a student under the Apostle John and who was put to death by the Roman Empire by being devoured by wild animals in the Coliseum in the early 100 s AD wrote the following before His death. - My dear Jesus, my Savior is so deeply written in my heart that I feel confident that if my heart were to be cut open and chopped into pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece. (Jesus Freaks) ----------------------------------------------------------- -Bridge Group Questions: (1) What stood out to you about this week s message? (2) Have you ever experienced persecution because of following Jesus? (3) What did you think as you heard stories of Christians being burned at the stake or in hiding, meeting behind closed doors? (4) What would your life be like if you lived in one of the 20 countries represented on Sunday knowing that your life would be in danger every day? Would you openly tell others about Jesus? (5) Pray for the persecuted church.