Rejoicing in Persecution

If you have your vinyls and you want to follow along, we'll be in Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5.

Acts 5 · chapter mention Acts 5 · chapter mention

I'm going to begin with verse 33. In the middle of the story,

I'll come back to the earlier portions we've read before.

Beginning with chapter 5, verse 33. Listen to this because this is the holy word of God.

When they had heard this, they were erased and wanted to kill them.

But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, the teacher of the law,

held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.

And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care of what you are about to do with these men.

For before these days Thedus rose up, claiming to be somebody.

And a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed,

and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away

some of the people after him.

He too bearish, and all who followed him were scattered.

So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.

For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail.

But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

You might even be opposing God. So they took his advice, and when they had called

in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not 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.

Every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching

and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. This is the word of the Lord.

Yes, it is God. Be seated.

I'm going to come on. Pray for your best.

Our God and our Father, we thank you, Lord, for your glory.

We thank you for your beauty, for your wonder, and the way it is for naturally

able to literally change our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do that this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

This morning's sermon is entitled, Rejoicing in the Persecution.

If you would think, if you thought that I was sitting around at Christmas thinking,

what a great topic after Christmas.

Persecution. It's not the way I do it.

In fact, as a teacher, the one thing about preaching through books of the Bible

is that it saves you sometimes from just talking about the things you would

normally want to talk about. And it helps you as well.

Excuse me. When we come to the Nancy test, someone asked me,

how do you choose what I preach? I said, the next.

What it is. So this morning, it's on persecution. I can also tell you that it's

not only not what I would normally want to preach on.

Personally, I am inclined not to want to be persecuted.

I hope you are too. I mean, I don't go around waking up in the morning thinking,

wow, how can I be persecuted today?

But it also tells me another thing in the sovereignty of God, this is what we need.

So it's good as a pastor sometimes, if I preach a sermon on anger and he can't

come to me and say, you're just thinking of me. I wasn't. God bless, though.

Because that's the next test. So I can only assume to get a psalm to God, we need this.

I think accent culturally in our times, we also need it as well.

Because persecution is not only coming, it is here among us.

And so rejoicing again in persecution, not only, as I said, do I not really

want it. I don't belong for it or any of you.

And not only am I not naturally inclined to sort of want it,

it's also not a need to rejoice in it naturally.

It's not a natural thing for us to get persecuted and say, oh, wow, praise the Lord.

But that's what we're called to do. You'll notice in our text,

it says, verse 41, then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that

they were coming worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

And every day, see how it excited them. There's a lot of irony to the topic of persecution.

By irony, I mean, things that you would expect to go one way,

and yet it turns around and goes another. And this is true, by the way,

of the expectation you have of your very life.

If you expect your life to be like vacation, it's not going to be happy when

life unfolds because life is not, you're not always on the beach.

I'm not always there. My ideal vacation is a Caribbean beach where you do that

and the guy's got a drink for you.

That's nice, but that's not life. If you expect life to be like that,

you'll be disappointed.

In our text this morning, we're told what we should expect in our lives as Christians,

and even the means by which we can rejoice in.

These guys were beaten, 39 lashes with something, a whip or a rod or something, and they rejoiced.

They praised the Lord for being worthy to suffer for the name.

There's a lot in that. Let's go to our story, and then we'll work our way and get to it.

We have them, whenever they were arrested, they were put in prison.

They go into prison, and like Jesus, they go into this dark cavern that's closed off.

And like Jesus, remember the temple guard, the guards went and looked at the

tomb, and there's no one there.

Same thing happens with the apostles. Remember, actually, the apostles are redoing

or recapitulating the life of Jesus in the ministry of the church because the

church in the church is the ongoing ministry of Jesus.

And the founders and the apostles are doing the same thing as Jesus did.

So it's as if they were resurrecting from the darkness of the prison,

the guards go there, they're still in there.

They're a bit disturbed. They tell the council, the council says,

go arrest these guys, but they're careful to do it because like most politicians,

they're worried about people, about what they think.

And then they bring them back to the council and stand on there.

And they want to kill them just as they had killed Jesus. Remember,

this is the very same council.

So they wanted to kill him. And then the main interest that we haven't seen

yet in the Book of Acts is Gamaliel.

Gamaliel, I'm sure you know that Gamaliel is the middle name of Warren Gene Hardy.

He's telling him this week. I didn't know that. Anyway, that's not the main focus.

Gamaliel, his name means the word of God.

He's actually a pretty pivotal figure here for the life of the Amnistotic Church

in the early part here, as well as in Paul's fantasy later.

Gamaliel was a well-known rabbi of the pharisaical sect. We haven't seen the

Pharisees yet. We've only seen the Sadducees.

These are two major groups in the Jewish theological tradition at the time.

The Pharisees are the ones who do believe in the Orthodox doctrine of angels and resurrection.

The Sadducees do not. So there's two sort of theological brookings in the San Diego.

And this man, Gamaliel, stands up. And he wouldn't have been able to stand up

and say, wait a minute, guys, listen to me, if he hadn't been a well-respected teacher.

So well respected that he was known as the most important rabbi in the world at this time.

Even when Paul was ramming off his credentials in Acts chapter 22,

Acts 22 · chapter mention

when he talks about himself, he says, I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Sicily,

Sicily, excuse me, brought under the city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel,

where he is the strict man on the wall of our.

Delosity model. When Paul said, I have Gamaliel as my teacher,

it's as if he would say, I'm a PhD from Harvard School of Theology,

Divinity School, or something along those lines.

This is the most credential that a rabbi could possibly be, to sit at the feet

of Gamaliel, and Paul knows it, and Paul has learned from it,

which makes Paul later will see a master rabbi in terms of being able to navigate

all the different Jewish controversies and all the different things.

Gamaliel was so well-respected that he makes his way into Talmud and Kishri.

Talmud is that book of Jewish tradition and writings to the rabbis where they

talk about ethics and philosophy and theology, and it's recorded,

and it really drives the Jewish tradition even to this day.

In fact, when he died, it says, the honor of the Torah, the law,

ceased, and purity and piety became extinct.

In other words, Gamaliel was so famous, so renowned, so well-respected across

the world in terms of the Jewish community that he was the man.

That is a tradition, and we see it in the book of Acts. So he stands up and

says something that nobody else could probably have gotten away with.

He says something, he says to witness against his counsel, by the way.

This is interesting because Paul, we'll see it later in Acts when Paul talks

about this, and we've also seen it all the way along the way so far.

And Mithril says something, and it's a terribly important theological address,

even though he may not have meant it as such.

In other words, what he basically says is, look, we've already had a couple

of guys who've come up, Thedas and Judas.

They've gotten a group of people together. They corralled people,

and they tried to overthrow the Sanhedrin before, but it came to nothing.

What he begins to say down towards the end of the speech is,

besides, guys, if this is from God, you can't stop it.

If this is from God, then you can't stop it.

He advised them of the futility of any struggle against God.

And we've already seen that.

When the apostles were first arrested, it says they recognized both Peter and

John and perceived them that they were uneducated. Remember, they were hicks.

They were idiots. It's the Greek word. They were untrained men.

And they marveled. and they realized they had done with Jesus.

So they made that distinction early on. They said, wait a minute,

these guys didn't go to Harvard. These guys didn't study under Gamaliel. Who are these guys?

And the question of authority comes up, and that's what they say.

What's the authority of Jesus?

And by the way, that's the name by which they're doing all these things. Jesus' name.

It's his authority. And throughout the text, and if it hasn't dawned on you yet, Jesus is God.

And this is his mission. And he has been raised from the dead.

And he will be victorious. And fighting against him is futile.

Maybe there's a personal application for you right there. Maybe you're there.

If you are here this morning.

Wait a second. I know you're here this morning. If this morning you are in a

position where you are fighting against God, you better think.

Even the Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel says, this is a futile effort.

You better give it up. And I would say give it up now.

Whatever you're fighting against with regard to God, if it's against God, he will win.

And that's one of the things. And increasingly, your guilt will be astounded

as well, just like the guilt of the Sanhedrin.

When he recognized Jesus is from God, he is God, and he is mission,

his great commission is going forward, and it will win. that will be victorious,

where guilt is also established as well.

This is something happening increasingly to the Sanhedrin. At first,

you might give them a little fast, like when they didn't really know who are

these guys, they're sorting down.

Increasingly, they associate with the apostle, with Jesus. Increasingly,

they associate Jesus with the authority of God.

Increasingly, they know Jesus is gone, and this is the mission gone.

And it's interesting. So he tells them this, basically. He says,

guys, if you're fighting against these people, you're fighting against them.

And guess what? They were.

They were. This is the clash. The nation of Israel, represented by the Sanhedrin,

is now in direct confrontation with God.

And so what happened? Well, these guys decided, well, we're just going to beat

them and give them a warning.

They took and made a little surprise, but they still beat them.

Kind of funny the way politicians were we're not going to give you the full

we're not going to kill you but we're going to beat you they literally gave

them what was probably 39 lashes with a whip or a rod and they beat them,

and the funny thing is at least for me and I think it should strike you for a normal person,

that it's a little odd to be rejoicing that you just got beat,

and I want to try to think about that because they're not exactly rejoicing

because they got beat I'm going to emphasize this a lot this isn't masochism

like yeah I really love that beat anyone more, right? It's not life at all.

They rejoice for being persecuted for the name of Jesus.

And there is a complicated world of difference between other kinds of persecution.

The power and importance of persecution occupies, at least from this point,

all the way through the New Testament, of how we're placed in the life of the

apostles and the life of the church and our lives.

This is where it overlaps. Sorry to say, like I said, I wouldn't,

I just wouldn't choose like, hey guys, free sermon and come have them persecution.

But then you look at what Jesus even said, look at the Beatitudes.

Even liberal scholars who don't believe anything about anything,

go to Beatitudes and say, this is real Christianity. This is the kernel.

Take away the host and you've got my kernel. When you do that,

you'll notice that persecution is in the list of the Beatitudes.

That always struck me as a mystery, partly because personality-wise,

you know, I didn't mind mourning for sin.

I needed work on weakness, you know, this and that. But when you got the persecution,

that's the first on the list, by the way, that's expanded.

None of the others are expanded because it's the last of the list as well.

So huge emphasis on the Beatitudes and persecution.

Luke 6, verse 22 says, Blessed are you when men exclude you,

Luke 6:22

and reviling when men cast out your name as evil.

That alone would be no fun at all. Period. What do you think about? Yay.

Exclusion. Hate. Reviling. Casting out your name. as devil.

But then it says, Come for the Savior, the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is reign in heaven.

For in the like manner they do to the prophets, this has always been going on.

We like it, we don't relish it, we sometimes try to push it aside and not think

about it. This has always been going on.

Matthew 5 says, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you. I think, again, the only Beatitude that is developed at any length.

It goes on. Listen to you when they will value you and persecute you and say

all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice in the exceeding and glad for praise you and glory in heaven.

They, these were men who look to heaven. By the way, they don't fit the phrase.

You've heard the phrase, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good.

These were men who were like always theologizing about heaven and hell and angels

and demons and the Trinity. They say, these were men who had their eyes on heaven,

and they had their eyes on heaven and Jesus Christ so much that they thunder through the earth.

The earth was quaking behind these apostles, but their eyes were always on them.

They were so heavenly minded that they did an ultimate earthly difference.

And this is something we should expect when we are really heavenly minded.

When we have our eyes set on Christ, when we have our goal, when we have our

heart and soul riveted on loving and serving Jesus Christ, there will be consequences.

2 Timothy 3.12 says this, yes, and all you who desire a godly life, do you?

You could say, amen. Do you desire to live a godly life? Amen.

Amen. Yeah, it should be for all of you.

Crap, it wasn't to lay you up. It says, all of you who desire to live a godly

life in Christ Jesus, and that's all of us, will suffer persecution.

Amazing. Why can't you just stop?

All of you who desire to live a godly life in Jesus Christ. Amen.

No, you will suffer persecution. Peter Bootham said, beloved, that's us.

Do not think it strange Concerning the fiery

trial Which is to try you As though some strange

thing Is happening to you But rejoice To

the extent that you partake Of Christ's sufferings That when

his glory is revealed There we are Eyes on heaven When his glory is revealed

May he be glad That they see you joy If you are reproaching In the name of Christ

Blessed are you For the spirit of the glory Of God bless upon you Of all of

the attitudes This is the most perplexing At least as I used to see it I mean

Blessed are those who mourn.

Most of us think about it like this. Blessed are those who mourn.

Okay, I should what? I should mourn, right? Therefore, I'll be comforted.

Blessed are the meek. Well, I better work on meekness, though.

I can hear it. You see, there's usually something in each one of the attitudes

that seems to have a response and consequence.

Right? Peacemaker. I need to stop fighting.

All the time. So there seems like there's something. But this is the oddest

one, because blessed are you when you are persecuted.

You don't seem to be doing anything.

There doesn't seem to be anything you're doing in terms of a consequence.

What do I do? Pray more? Read my Bible

more? The others seem to have that character. This one seems to be odd.

It says, blessed are you when you are persecuted. But why?

How are we? Why are we persecuted? It says, quote, righteous, and mistake.

When you will revile, blessed are you, Peter goes on to say,

for the spirit of the glory and of God rest upon you.

But let none of you, here's a good qualification.

We need to sit on this and think about this one for a while.

None of you want to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody.

I love that word, busybody.

Busybody and other people's affairs. Yeah, and if anyone suffers as a Christian,

let him not be. So there is a way you can suffer that's not godly.

There's a way you can provoke persecution that's also not wrong, and there's no glory.

In fact, Peter says, you shouldn't be persecuted. Shame on you.

If someone says, you're a liar.

If you lie, what are you going to say? Yep, you're right.

You don't say, well, I'm just going to do the righteousness sake.

Blessed are I. No, you lied.

If you're a murderer or a thief, you stole something. Oh, he's persecuting me

because he ain't known you. You stole something.

Right? so there's there's a way to be persecuted and

many of us we think we like to like to tweak

this one right well i'm persecuted because

i'm so godly maybe not basically maybe not in fact i've myself and others i've

seen that sometimes they come and i'm persecuted they hang me because i'm this

one is a big one too but i'm busy about what are you doing putting your nose

in other of people's affairs, I've just wanted to help.

I'm a doper, right? I'm persecuted because I didn't have a doer.

I will, Colin. Think about this for a while, because we often want to do this.

Of course, if you do something and you're an annoying person,

you've done something wrong, and people revile you, persecute you,

and say all manner of evil against you because of what you've done.

You have no place in this parable, in this beatitude. We're going to have a passage this morning.

It's not about you doing something wrong or you being an annoying person.

Maybe you talk too much. Maybe you don't talk.

All these things. Maybe you have a strange personality. You don't get to claim

persecution because of those things.

It's not even, by the way, national persecution, right?

If you're persecuted for the sake of your nation, maybe that's a good cause.

Maybe not. But it doesn't fit in our text.

It doesn't say, blessed are you when you're persecuted because you're American.

It doesn't say that. There's nothing about nationality. There's nothing.

All the wrong reasons we might want to put into the passage don't exist, right?

There's a reason you're going to be persecuted. There's a reason that you do

things that are silly and inane in the name of Jesus, right?

That's great. Do something wrong, tag on the name of Jesus, and then claim your

person. Some great words.

You're reviled, blessed are you, but don't let any of your somers and murder

and thief give a door to a busybody, and said, well, are wrong, easy.

We also shouldn't see this as an opportunity to go out of our way to seek persecution.

Like we think about today, how many ways I can go and do things that are annoying,

that I can provoke the persecution.

There are wrong reasons and there are ways to do things. Our reward is in heaven.

So there are heavenly reasons, heavenly goals, all set on Christ Jesus.

It's also not a twisted love of sacri.

As I said earlier, this is not about masochism.

There are some people who have

such twisted minds that they actually enjoy extracting pleasure from pain.

It seems to be that some people really like, oh, it's like their existence revolves

around someone hating them, someone being against them.

One theologian, T.A. Carson, says, it's not as if they say, go ahead,

get me again. I really love it.

Rather, in the pain that enjoys because they're kind of wounded to suffer for the name.

What's the rationale for this? Where does this aspect of Christian joy come

from? It comes from Christ himself.

Now, I think it's slightly different than suffering in general.

We could do another sermon on that. It's not in our text, so I won't.

But James says, can it all joy, my brothers, when them youth,

they strowel many kind. So did you know that the testing of your faith produces

steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you might become

mature and believe perfect, not like any idea.

Right? So James says we should find joy in suffering. I think it's slightly

different than the suffering and just that you should not pass it.

How so? Well, in James, it looks like we should find joy in God,

in Christ, as we suffer, and there seems to be no connection between our suffering

and anything we've done.

Sometimes you get cancer. It's different than persecution.

So there's a slight difference. Do you find joy in suffering? Yes, for sure.

We find that God in his sovereignty loves us, wants us to be sure,

wants us to be patient, wants us to be steadfast.

We find joy in trusting in him.

We don't exactly ever know why. Here we know why. And there's joy and rejoicing in the why.

What is it? Righteousness sake.

Righteousness sake. And by the way, this goes all the way back to the beginning.

This isn't just the prophets.

There's a little boy I heard the story of Cain and Abel. I remember thinking,

you know, when Cain killed Abel, I thought, that was pretty, pretty harsh.

Takes a stone and kills him. At least that's the way I heard it.

The son is called him. But why? Why did he kill Abel?

The Bible tells us. 1 John 3, chapter 12 says, and they ask that good question.

Why did he murder him? It's an answer.

Because his words were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Don't marvel, my brother, brethren, if the world hates you. Guess what?

Just like Cain and Abel, so knows the story of redemption.

John says that Abel was persecuted because of his righteousness.

And John 15, it says this, If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you.

This brings about a series of complex things, because we have this idea that

I do want to be loved by the world. I want to be loved by everyone.

I like it if everyone likes me. I'm sorry, I do. But the Bible says here,

some people won't like you, and the reason they won't like you,

they'll hate you, is because they hate God.

And that's an erasers deadline as we live our lives.

Some people will hate you for reasons other than God. There's no reason to rejoice in that.

But here it says, But I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I sent 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 would also keep yours.

But all these things they will do to you, for my name is saved,

because they do not know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin." Guess what?

There's something right there that you see.

When a righteous person lives a righteous life, guess what it does?

It exposes the sin of the wicked. And no one likes that.

Think people like to be shown that they're wicked by your righteous life?

This is the crazy thing about persecution.

You don't have to make anything delivered to any person. You don't have to do

something to this or that person.

All they have to do is see your righteous life, and if their life is wicked,

your righteous life exposes that wickedness, and they hate you for it.

They hate you for it, and that's a good thing for you if it's because of your righteous life.

Remember when we were first parents, we were younger, we were trying to raise

our children. We didn't know what we were doing, still now, maybe,

but we're trying and we're like, okay, we got to spank him.

And we had large numbers for our family to get to spank. So in spanking on children,

I mean beating, by the way, just for the record, I don't mean,

I don't mean much of them.

But we're saying, of course you should spank them. And I remember as we're,

I remember family members were angry at us.

What do you think of this boy? You can raise your children any way you want to raise them, right?

I don't care. It's okay. And then I remember once in the heat of the moment,

they said, why can't you spank them? I said, because I love them.

Who? I said, they don't.

And I remember at the turn, that was something I said I shouldn't have said.

Before that particular point, it was like, what are you doing for?

They're just trying to raise their children in peace.

We're not telling anybody else what to do or how to do it. We're just trying

to do the best we can, and people will hate them for it.

So it says, if I had not come and exposed their sin, it would happen to their

sin. But now that I have no excuse for their sin, he who hates me hates my father also.

If I had not done among them the works which no one else did,

they would have no sin, no exposure.

But now they've seen and also hated both man and my father. But this happened,

the word by being fulfilled was written.

They tainted me without cause. You see that?

The persecution for righteousness sake has a cause, but only insofar as you're

just living a righteous life.

And yet no cause specifically, nothing you've done wrong, nothing you've said,

nothing you're doing to them.

So there's a sense in which it's not about them or it's not about you personally.

No, come tip or tap. It's simply that you're living righteously.

And it's all throughout the history of redemption. Hain and Abel.

The end of the world grows against the righteous, not because the righteous

directly attack them, but because their deeds provoke rage among the wicked. Period.

And you've got to ask yourself the question all the time, am I,

do I provoke the rage of the wicked for good reasons, for righteous reasons?

If so, then for love and rejoice.

But it's a fine line. It's not easy. There's comments we make or arguments that

we have, and we kind of move into the now they hate me because I'm hateable.

Now they hate me because you're just annoying. I'm arrogant or whatever.

It's this side of for righteousness sake only.

Even techniques for you. Well, I had one, I'll pick on your homeschoolers.

Sorry, I knew you were all homeschoolers.

Mom said the same thing. Why don't you share a choice? Because I love them.

Wait a minute. But I agree, we almost pulled part of our kid,

but it's not the only way to do it, folks.

A technique or this or that, but that's different. Don't confuse a principle

with a policy or a practice.

And we do it all the time. We struggle with this a lot.

Why were we persecuted? Well, Abel was persecuted for righteousness sake.

Why was Moses persecuted?

Because he gave up the riches in glory of Egypt for God.

And the Egyptians hated him for. They exposed them as wicked,

exposed them as vapid and empty.

They didn't have anything to offer him that was better offered in God,

no city to which God was calling him.

Elijah was sought by Ahab and Jehoshaphat because he had a solemn commitment

to God-deep worship, and they hated him because they weren't.

See, it's on and on and on it goes.

Think of Jeremiah, think of Daniel, think of Nehemiah, think of almost everyone

who stands out in Scripture as simply trying to live a righteous life.

Think of Paul. We'll get to him later. When we go through that soon,

you're not going to be able to escape. It's not just a single sermon.

And it's going to go on and on and on.

I won't say the same thing at the time. But Paul, when he was talking,

I was lying. It's almost exhausting to read this list.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul sort of faintly boasting. He's saying,

if you want to boast, I could boast.

He said, I'll speak as a fool. Ask am I more. In later's War of London,

he said, listen to this list.

In stripes above measure. In prisons, more frequently.

In death, often. From the Jews, five times, obviously.

Forty stripes, by each one. Three times I was beaten with Woz.

Once I was stoned, three times on a shipwreck, a day and a night,

I have been in the deep, in journeys,

often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen,

in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness,

in perils of the sea, in perils of unfaltered brethren, in weariness,

and in toil, in sleeplessness, often in hunger, and thirst, and fastings,

and cold. It goes on, guys.

And even in the nakedness. Besides the other things, things that come upon me

daily. My deep concern for all the churches, it was weak, and I am not weak.

It was made so when I not burn indignation.

If I must boast, I will boast in things which can show my confinity.

That whole suffering, day after day after day, starving, beaten,

stoned, accused. It goes on and on.

Same thing happened after the apostles and the early church.

The early church was persecuted for righteousness sake.

Those who were part of the missionary in the 19th century were out and he's

pagan, heathen I love that praise, heathen when they became a missionary,

we weren't allowed to hear heathen is just so bad.

But they went among the heathens and they were killed for it and they suffered

through it and it is for righteous to say in many case we might hear of our

brothers and sisters in distance,

wagging, being tortured and killed for their faith, and in China and Muslim

nations all over the world Even in our own nation today, we're going to face

school people who hate you and hate this church simply because we love you, Lord.

And that's good. Yeah, so long as we keep it, that love for the Lord.

And of course, our Savior himself, the ultimate example, Jesus Christ suffered

all the time. They hated him.

As I 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.

Christ completely turns upside down the perspective of the world.

Those who seek their life, those who want to be at peace, never be persecuted,

never be disturbed, have never had any problems will lose their lives.

For those of you who want to gain your life, give it up, follow the circle,

or you will be persecuted.

And that persecution will confirm in your mission.

Persecution has a way of focusing. It is beloved.

I can recount. I won't, but I can recount times when in a short situation,

we were persecuted for simply doing the right thing.

The first of it, you're sort of bewildered. Wait, what? What's going on?

And then you're like, okay, we're over the target.

We're doing the right thing here. This is awesome. It's exciting,

and it's clarifying, and it's liberating.

It even gives people hate you for.

It's the way to live. That's where you rejoice. Thank God I was able to suffer in that situation.

Thank God I didn't lie or cheat or steal together.

Thank God that we stood where we stood. But when we stood against them,

they hated us, and they came against us. God triumphed, and God prevailed.

Again, don't look for this. Don't go out any day and pray like,

how can I go get it? How can I go get the need?

That's pretty weird, by the way, okay? Just for the record.

It's not a strong theological word. It's strange. It actually happened in the

early church where people said, wow, let's go turn ourselves in deliberately

to the woman official so we can be tortured and killed. And the church was like, time out.

If you have to, yes, but don't go looking for it. Don't go looking for it.

Those who give up the most for God while here on earth will receive the most in heaven for him.

This is heavenly mindedness that does great earthly good. In fact, it changes.

So we need to be looking for, not looking for ways to deliberately be cursing

good, but we need to be looking for ways to live righteously.

Know the time, know the time of the day, know where we are and go after and

find families that are worth fighting. It's what we're called to do.

The great Martin Luther said this, and it reminds me so often of the church

today that says, no, no, there's something more than that.

Don't be hated for that. That's too controversial.

And I just can't resist bringing up the great Charlie Kirk's recent murdering

and recent assassination.

I just love the way everyone said, he's very good.

Really? In Malaysia, like marriage between a man and a woman,

it's been around for more than 6,000 years. That's not controversial, George.

We need to stand and say, no, marriage is between one man and one woman,

and that's it. And if you're hating for that, praise God, right?

There's only two genders in Alan's email. Hello?

If you're pursuing it for that, praise the Lord, because that's the one's design.

It's not like you want to create a fight.

Like you want to. But Luther says this. He says, if I profess with the loudest

voice, a clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God,

except precisely at that point at which the world and the devil are at that

moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ.

That's awesome, right? Where the battle rages, right? That's when the loyalty of the soldier is moved.

And to study on all battlefields beside is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at the real fight.

Isn't that great? You put on a uniform. I'm a soldier. I'm in the Lord's arm.

Anyway, you must have not been in my southern school class. Put on the uniform and sing your songs.

If you run away from the fight, you're not a soldier anymore.

That's what we're facing today. People want to flee the battle and flee the

fight because they value peace, security, whatever it is, more than they value

the glory of Jesus Christ.

And the disruption to their lives that will most certainly come if you say things

like, there's only one Mary who's got a man and a woman, and they should be

committed for life, and that's it. That's it, period.

There's only two. And to the list could pull, unfortunately,

in our culture, the list is a long one of crazy, insane things that people don't

want to be persecuted for that one. They want to lose one job, after all.

I want to lose my job. At the point where the devil is most intensely attacking, we should not.

Again, we don't go around itching for a fight. We're the elders.

We're sitting around talking about what we're going to do this year.

We didn't think about what could be the most controversial and bad thing we

could do in our community to make everyone hate us. No.

We don't do that. We don't want to do that. But we do want to seek ways to minister

to this community. And if it means speaking truth in a way to provoke opposition,

so be it. and praise thee to God.

If it's done for righteousness sake, for the right thing, for the right reason,

and let the chips fall for the man.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up the cross and fall.

Do you want to be my disciple?

If you do this, as we learn, you will suffer persecution.

And if, beloved, if it's for righteousness sake, rejoice and be glad.

We will greatly be blessed in heaven. Amen? Amen. Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for your word, we thank you that in all the different subjects,

like that you may not even like, you bring it to our attention to the minds of the false, okay.

Lord, we're about to take the Lord's Supper, we remind of it,

then why Christ was persecuted as he was ever there.

He lived the perfect life, he died the perfect death, he was punished for nothing

he had done, nothing, because he loved his people so much.

Lord, may that love as you come to the table animate us to go forward with boldness

and strength and zealiness to face even persecution and in so far as we live

for righteousness faith give us the strength by the power of the Holy Spirit

to rejoice in the God in Jesus' name, Amen.