The Essentials Week 9

INTRO

Good morning Church

Im Jed Church  //  one of staff member

Welcome To New Anthem

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I am honored to be wrapping up our Essentials series for the year.

PREFACE

Pastors John and Jason have done an amazing job teaching us through this series.

Can we give it up for them this morning.

Well lets dive into the word then this morning.

Just like we have been doing let’s read the whole passage.

READ PRIMARY SCRIPTURE (Mathew 5:10-12)

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And the three verse we will be focusing on today.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Amen, will you pray with me this morning?

PRAY

PREFACE TO OUR TEXT

It is not on accident that this is the last of the beatitudes

following these beatitudes causes us to live a righteous and Godly life

it is only after we start living a living our lives with christ and ultimately start living out those first beatitudes that we start to face this persecution.

Persecution is something every christian will face and it is a hard and terrifying thing.

there is no way around that

i want to give you some statistics this morning

Open doors is an amazing organization that tracks persecution around the world

Here are their statistics for just the year so far.

5,898 Christians killed for their faith

5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked

4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned

and it is estimated that there are significantly more that that go un-reported.

So how are we supposed to respond with rejoicing and gladness

we can not respond in the manner Jesus describes here in verse 12 of being joyful in the midst of persecution unless your life is characterized by righteousness of the heart.

PERSONAL STORY

Do you ever go into a conversation with the wrong mindset?

like you think that person wants to talk to you about something bad or blame you for something, but in reality they have no intention of that?

I tend to do this constantly. I am a textbook over thinker so i immediately get defensive

MORE STORY HERE

I thought there was justification for my actions but in reality i had a false under standing of the situation.

And in the same we when we approach scripture we need to make sure wee have the right mindset and understanding.

If we try to apply scripture without the proper understanding of what its saying we wont apply it correctly

Which is a dangerous trap to fall in

CONTEXT FOR POINT ONE

VERESE 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Its important for us to see that it’s specified “persecuted for righteousness’ sake, “

Its not just anyone who is being persecuted

Don’t get this verse twisted.

Many people want to claim this blessing when in reality the persecution they are under is caused by their own evildoing

1 Peter 4:14-16

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Just like our verse in Mathew says, but it goes on

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

It is only a righteous persecution that God will bless if its for a Godly reason, AND in a God honoring way.

a massive emphasis on the AND

That means in order for God to Honor it it needs to be fulling honoring to him.

We have to remove all Pride, arrogance, obnoxiousness, rude and offensive words and behavior

EXAMPLES

There is no blessing for persecution that comes for those reasons, only for persecution that comes for righteousness sake.

hostile politics Other EXAMPLES

How often do we see both political parties stand for their beliefs in a hostile way.

Or try to spread rumors or deception about the other side.

we can not act in that way with our faith

God will not honor those types of actions as righteous.

So all of this means we need to remember this:

POINT ONE

1. That Opposition isn’t necessarily righteous persecution

I love how its put in first peter

1 Peter 2:19-21

19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Do you pick up on that, that passive aggressive question.

He’s like, yes its a gracious thing to endure suffering when you didn’t do anything wrong,

BUT when you sinned and its your fault, whats the good in that?

He is speaking to this fact that not every opposition we face in our lives in this righteous persecution.

So here is a good example of righteous persecution.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Let’s look at their story.

they worked for thee king, and when he made his decree that all must worship his God they obviously didn’t but they still did their job.

when they were brought to the king they didn’t speak badly of him or act out of anger or aggression, but simply said they wouldn’t bow down to any other Gods

Their persecution was righteous and blessed becuase their actions where righteous and Godly.

CONTEXT FOR POINT TWO

“Persecuted” = the greek word “Dee-Oh-Koh

MEANING: to pursue or hut with the intention of killing or causing harm to.

PERFECT PARTICIPLE: meaning its not just “Are” the are is added in English, it isn’t in the greek. Becuase this word for persecuted means has been, is, and will be.

Which means our goal cant be to find an end to our persecution. There is no end to the persecution.

We shouldn’t pursue an end to our persecution

Paul tell us in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Gods followers have been persecuted All throughout history starting in genesis 4 with Cain and Abel. It only took 4 chapters, and only 4 humans in existence before Gods followers to began to be persecuted. From that moment on we have seen it throughout the whole Bible and history

POINT TWO

2. We shouldn’t pursue an end to our persecution

2 Timothy 3:12

12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

John 15:20

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.

Persecution is awful and frightening

there is no denying that

But in one way or another we will always face it. so it is a waste of our time to try putting a definitive end to it.

But what we can do is love and pray for those who persecute us.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-48 “to love and pray for your enemies. “

So even if someone opposes god and hate you there is no room for us to respond with hate or aggression

thats not how Jesus lived in earth

Lets continue on

MATTHEW 5:11

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

“Revile” = Blame it Defame. — The Greek work loy-dor-eh’o

Persecution isn’t just physical, it can be verbal, economical, relational etc.

We looked at the open doors statistics earlier but even beyond those ways, there are so many types of persecution.

But as we are getting close to Christmas Have to.

Someone saying happy holidays isn’t persecution, you might not like it, you might not agree with the statement and that’s fine.

But it’s not persecution.

Now maybe your wondering why I keep making these distinctions and repeatedly bring up things that are not persecution.

That’s because there are so many Christian’s that claim those things to be their persecution.

You can look it up, both Christian and non-Christian organizations and reports show that in the present day Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world.

But when we act like these things that are not persecution are It belittles and discredits the real persecution and it makes fools of our selves.

I would wager that if you asked any non-Christian in America who the more persecuted religious group is they wouldn’t say Christians.

Because the only “persecution”they see or hear Christians talk about is things like this. So if you think you’re being persecuted for your hatred you need to repent.

The thing is most Christians don’t, most of us wouldn’t claim to the false persecutions, most don’t agree with the hatred the world claims we do.

While yes there is a small minority the world has as it says in verse 11 “””loy-dor-eh’o””” defamed us.

this is anything new

the church has been lieed about since the beginning.

It was said that Early Christians were canibals. Why? Because they ate Christs body and drank his blood.

In Rome. It was said they were haters of humanity. Why? Because the Christian’s wouldn’t go and get drunk at the party’s in the temple of Zues. And they wouldn’t attend the gladiator fights. So they must hate humanity.

Christian’s have been lied about and defamed since Christ was still on earth.

But do you know how the early church refuted and proved these lies wrong?

By living a godly and Christ like life We have to accept that we will be lied about, but prove them wrong with our righteous lives, and loving and praying for those whole lie about us.

Now maybe more than every it’s important to dig into your faith. To grow closer to God and start living more like Jesus.

CONTEXT FOR POINT THREE

What was Jesus and the early church persecuted for?

We need to make sure the things we are being persecuted for are the same things jesus was.

If i read off a list of the things jesus was persecuted for and a list we are, would they match?

Jesus spent times with the societal outcasts.

Jesus shared the gospel in the city streets

Jesus prayed over and healed people

I Yelled at someone who I disagreed with

I wrote an angsty facebook post

I refused to talk to people i didn’t enjoy being around

That’s been my list

Is anyone else honest enough to admit the same?

POINT THREE

Disclaimer this is easier said than done.

we can only do it with Christ

3. We need to rejoice when sharing in Christ’s persecution

Only by being persecuted for the same things Christ was will we find the joy and the reward from it.

Has anyone ever cut down and chopped up trees before?

One time when i worked on a farm some trees came down in storm

I had to cut them up

Hot, Humid, Flooded, Mosquitos, Heavy, Pants

It was not fun, it was awful, i was sore, itchy from all the mosquito bites, dehydrated and my hands and feet pruny from the water.

But at the end of they day even though i was suffering for hours I was proud of what i managed to do. and everytime i drove down the road again i was proud of my work and smiled thinking back on it.

The chopping of tees wasn’t for no reason

it served a purpose. As awful as it was in the moment i knew it needed to be done and tat it meant everyone would be able to travel down the road.

Knowing the purpose in the midst of it empowered me to dig deeper and work harder.

This persecution will come to an end once and for all in heaven

and once we are there there will be so much joy and celebration

So we can rejoice because we know what us coming

But we can also Rejoice in all the small victories that we experience in the mean time.

We don’t have to hiding or be cowering our of fear of persecution.

But we can stand tall , Be confident and bear it.

And beyond that we can thrive in it.

Becuaase Jesus did, andd he has given us eevery

TRANSITION TO CLOSE

CLOSING

Alter call?

Command and own the prayer at end

BENNEDICTION AT 11:15 ONLY

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Not hiding or cowering

But standing tall

Be confident and bear it

We can thrive in it

You have to go through the valley to get to the mountain top.

This persecution will end and the blessing will come

So we rejoice because we know what us coming

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SLIDES (ALL ESV)

Mathew 5:1-12

Mathew 5:10

Reference Daniel 3

1 Peter 4:14-16

Point 1: Opposition isn’t necessarily righteous persecution.

1 Peter 2:19-21

Point 2: We shouldn’t pursue an end to our persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12

John 15:20

Mathew 5:11-12

Point 3: Be persecuted for the Reasons they Persecuted Christ .