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The eighth step in discipleship-only the strong survive

Matthew 5:10-12

Proposition: When we are persecuted for the sake of Christ on our steps to
deeper discipleship, we are blessed.

Saints of God, would it be true if I said that most of us see persecution as a negative
thing. Most of us have the feeling that persecution and mistreatment in any way,
shape, or form is wrong. We feel that to endure mistreatment at anytime is a sin
against ourselves. In fact, we have such an aversion to being mishandled and
mistreated that we have elevated the ability to defend ourselves and fight back to a
virtue, and have demoted the endurance of wrongs to a sign of weakness. When we
see someone silently suffering and enduring persecution, we often shake our heads
and say , “I would never…” or “Somebody would be dead if….”, or the ever popular, “I
wouldn’t take that….”. We look at them and feel sorry for them because they are so
weak to us, but we secretly despise them because they remind us of our own
moments of weakness, when we did allow and we did take, and nobody died, or
even got cussed out. But why do we feel this way? Because the culture that we exist
in and the society that we live in teach us that to endure persecution, mistreatment
and abuse in any form is a sign of impotency and cowardice, and that the only way
to deal with persecution is diplomacy at best, force at worse, but never endurance.
Because of the influence of our culture, we don’t want anyone to assume that they
can do or say anything to us. But the truth of the matter is that often we are too
weak to handle any persecution, so we fight against all persecution.

Now saints, I’m not saying that you should be a doormat or that there are some
persecutions and mistreatments that are not sinful, there are and they must be
opposed. But the interesting this is that when we shy away from all suffering and
persecution, we actually miss out on persecution that is blessed, because of our
discipleship. Saints, it is a truth that if we are faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus, we
will be mistreated, taken advantage of, and persecuted. Brothers and sisters there is
a reason why the Apostle Paul describes his discipleship as an athletic event where
he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that those who
run in a race all run, but only one received the prize? Run in such a way that
you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in
all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an
imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a
way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so
that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:
24-27). It’s no accident that our Lord Jesus teaches us that, “You will be hated by
all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”
The fact that our Lord and the Apostle Paul bring up the element of endurance is an
indication that as disciples, we will go through issues and situations that may seem
like an affront to our sense of honor and will strike at the high opinions that we have
of ourselves. Saints, because of the endurance that is involved, discipleship is not
for the weak or the faint of heart. Not everyone can be a disciple, not because God
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don’t call everybody, but because not everybody is capable of doing what is
necessary and going through what comes with being a disciple of our Lord Jesus. To
be a disciple you have to be tough, but sensitive. You have to live to the fullest, but
do it for the Lord and not yourself. You have to be a person of steel with a soft heart.
Not everyone can do that, and that’s why most of us don’t try. In fact most of us
would rather be members of churches than disciples of the Lord Jesus, because
being a member of a church is safe, but being a disciple is a struggle. To be a
member of a church is to be a part of a community, but to be a disciple of the Lord is
to be at war with the world and the target of persecution and battle. But in these
verses our Lord Jesus tells us, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for
the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you
when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for you reward in heaven is
great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before
you.” In these verses, our Lord gives us the last beatitude and the last step in
discipleship, but in this step he shows us three things, 1) the reason for our
persecution, 2) the activity of our persecution, and 3) the remedy of our
persecution.

In v.10, our Lord teaches us, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for
the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. In this verse we
see that Jesus calls those disciples who are persecuted for righteousness blessed.
Saints, we remember that to be blessed in the eyes of God is to be on the right track
in establishing a right relationship with Him. To be on the right track means that
you have understood that you are poor without God and you mourn the time spent
doing everything else, but neglecting God. To be on the right track means that you
have allowed your realization of your spiritual poverty and your mourning to soften
your heart that has been calloused by selfishness. It means that you have begun to
hunger and thirst for that which only God can give. To be blessed means that you
have learned and started developing a heart of mercy and allowed the mercy that
you receive from God to purify your heart. It means that you have allowed God’s
peace to rule in your life, making you His child in the process.

Saints, once these things start to happen, you become a threat to the world. When
we become threats to the world, we become threats to the enemy who uses the
illusions of the world to ensnare and enslave us. We become threats because we
understand that only God and what He gives is not illusionary and because of this
understanding Satan seeks to put us to flight and pursues us. Because we are
threats to him, he will systematically harass us in an attempt to push us away from
Christ. Brothers and sisters, when we answer the call to be disciples, Satan pulls out
all the stops, and all hell breaks loose. When folks push to be disciples, all of a
sudden where there was understanding between people, divisions seem to pop up.
Your home becomes a source of chaos, when it seemed to be peaceful just yesterday.
Husbands and wives fight over nothing and children seem to lose their minds.
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When Satan has you in his sights, your job becomes a battleground and even church
folks start acting like a fool. But this hell aint caused for nothing. Everything seems
to be going wrong because you are headed in the right direction. Everything seems
to be chaotic because we have allowed the Spirit to mellow the chaos of our hearts.
Everything seems to go to hell in a hand basket, because we have turned to God
striving to be upright by doing right because we are in right relationship with the
Father. We are attacked because we strive to act in ways that are in line with the
teachings of our Lord Jesus, the movement of the Spirit, and the commandments of
God. Saints it is only for this reason that we should be persecuted, because to be
persecuted for any other reason is foolish and beneath a disciple of the Lord Jesus.
So saints if you are suffering, being mistreated or persecuted, you have to ask
yourself, “is this because I am a disciple or is this because I trusted in my own
wisdom, or my own desires” Why? Because we have to keep the words of the
Apostle Peter in our hearts at all times, “Make sure that none of you suffers as a
murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a
Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name”

II

We must always make sure that we suffer for the sake of Christ because if we bring
persecution on ourselves for any other reason, we do ourselves harm. To drive the
point home, our Lord gives us an immediate refresher in v.11, “Blessed are you
when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of Me. “ In this verse, our Lord repeats the blessed state of
disciples who are harassed for His sake, but He also lifts up the activity of the
harassment that we will receive. When we are attacked as disciples, those who
attack us will do it in two ways. They will attack who we are and what we are. When
they attach who we are, they will insult and denounce us. We will be treated as if we
are worthless and we will be declared to be nothing. We will be disgraced and
publically shamed, humiliated and run down. We will be maligned privately and
disregarded publically. We will be disrespected and no one will take any account for
us, because those of the world will not be able to look past themselves. Saints when
you strive to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, the very folks who cuss with you, whore
with you, joke with you, sleep with you and sin with you will be the first ones to call
you, “no good”, “foolish”. Those who supported you when you acted a fool will drop
you the minute you become a true disciple and they will do anything they can to tear
the image of God within you.

But they will also attack what you are. They will attempt to assassinate your
character. Its not enough that they don’t like you, but they got to lie on you so
others won’t like you either. Those who persecute you and harass you when you
become a disciple of the Lord Jesus will attempt to systematically deconstruct your
reputation. They will try to deceive others about who you are, and most of us will go
along with it, because most of us don’t want to do the hard work of building
relationship.
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But Jesus reminds us that its not because of ourselves that we are mistreated but
because of Him, if we suffer for His sake. When we suffer because we are disciples,
when we struggle because we are disciples, we will understand that we are insulted
because of the God in us. We are disgraced because of the Jesus in us. We are
reproached and lied on, because we seek to say like the Apostle Paul, “I have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…”
Saints we will be maligned as disciples, because we have accepted the Lord for who
He is. We accept Him as the Man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. We accept
Him as the one who created all, but had on place to lay His head. We accept Jesus as
the one whose beauty makes Him the lily of the valley and whose light in our
darkness, makes Him our bright and morning star. The one whose provision makes
Him bread in a starving land. Whose blood, shed on a hill called Calvary, makes Him
the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The one whose victory over
death makes Him the resurrection and the life.

When we are insulted, abused, misused, lied on, talked about, laughed at,
misunderstood, put out, thrown out and cast down because we have acquired a
single minded devotion to our Lord, our Lord calls this mistreatment and abuse
blessed. Why? Because what humanity disregards because of Jesus, God values.
What humanity throws away because of Jesus, God holds close. Because what
humans, seduced by satanic selfishness and pride, God loves and glorifies.

III

But our Lord not only teaches us the activity of our persecution because of our
discipleship, He also teaches us how to deal with our persecution. In v. 12, our Lord
tells us, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the
same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you” Our Lord
commands us to “Rejoice and be glad”. No pity parties or woe is me speeches, or
complaining, just rejoice and be glad. No calling Dr. Phil, but simply rejoice and be
glad. He don’t tell us to call up our sister girl circle. He don’t tell us to drown them
in a drink. He don’t tell us to send anonymous letters to Tony Scott, Tammie
Holland, or Michael Baisdon. Our Lord Jesus simply commands us to rejoice. This
word rejoice is interesting because in the Greek it means to enjoy ourselves as if we
were already living in a certain disposition. And with “be glad” in the Greek the
word means to experience Joy with the whole person, body and soul. So what is our
Lord telling us. He is telling us to rejoice and enjoy ourselves as if we are already
victorious and experience a joy that flows from the heart and fills the whole person
with warmth and hope. He is telling us to rejoice as if the storm is over, because if
He’s on deck the storm can’t win. He is telling us to have such a joy in our hearts
that it cause our very bodies to explode with hopeful anticipation.

So saints, rejoice in the midst of your mistreatment as a disciple, because through

Jesus we are more than conquers. Be glad with a joy in your heart that is expressed
through your hole body, Be glad with a joy that understands, “We are hard pressed
on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but
not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” Why? Because our reward, our wage,
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our pay back is great in heaven. Some folks may say that our reward is a simple
crown, but we will toss that when we bow before God. Some say that we will get a
new body, but whatever body it is it will look just like Christ, because when we
suffer for Christ we are glorified with Christ. Some say that we will have a mansion,
but we won’t be in it long because every day we will want to worship God.
Somebody else says that there will be streets of gold, but it must not be that
important if folks are walking on it. Somebody else may say that my reward is
seeing my mother, another my father, another my sister, brother, friends, uncles,
aunts, grandparents who left us. But my reward is to see the one who kept me, who
never left men, who held me, who taught me, whose blood washed me, who came on
a mission of mercy from a Father who loved us too much to see us destroyed. I want
to see my friend that sticketh closer than a brother; I got a savior that I want to see.
But a songwriter says it best.

As I Journey through this land, singing as I go. Pointing souls to

Calvary-to the crimson flow, many arrows pierce my soul from
without; within. But my Lord leads me on, through Him I must win.

Oh I want to see Him, look upon His face, there to sing forever of
His saving grace; on the streets of glory let me lift my voice, cares all
past, home at last, ever to rejoice