Friday, March 11, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 50 of 50

TEXT: "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:12).

IDEA: It’s tough enough to undergo persecution, but it’s even harder to “rejoice” when it happens.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate why Christians can rejoice when they suffer persecution.

I. What do you make of the fact that the New Testament often calls us to rejoice when life seems to go wrong?

In Acts 5:41 we have the example of the apostles who rejoiced “because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”

James 1:1-12 reminds us that we are to “rejoice in all kinds of trials because they lead us to maturity.”

Fisrt Peter 1:6ff urges us to be glad when trials come because they demonstrate the genuineness of our faith and to increase its purity.

II. Do you think Jesus is being “flip” when he tells us to “rejoice” when we feel the pain of rejection and persecution? Jesus gives us two reasons for rejoicing in persecution:

We are in a great company. Many of the biblical prophets that we admire were despised and persecuted when they lived. Jesus said to the people of His day, “You build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers that killed them” (Luke 11:47).

2 Chronicles 36:16—“But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.”

Nehemiah 9:26—“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets who testified against them to turn them to Yourself.”

Jeremiah suffered much hardship. (Jeremiah 20:10; 26:10-19; 36-38, etc.)

Martin Luther King Jr. was hated while he lived and is honored today.

Abraham Lincoln was despised not only by people in the South but also by many in the North. We admire him today.

The blessing isn’t in suffering itself but in its promised outcome.

Our reward is great in heaven. We are convinced that our “light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). That God will reward us for the disadvantages now is explicit.

Far from being a depressive prospect, suffering for righteousness is great evidence that the kingdom is ours.