Matthew Beatitudes: Blessed are Those Who are Persecuted for Rightesouness' Sake | Guest Speaker: Rob Schoonover

All right.

Hello, uh my name is Rob Scoonover.

I'm the uh student ministry coordinator here at Christ Redeemer.

Um and just a little bit about me before I get started, I think that's a good way to start this.

Um I grew up in Marietta, went to Marietta High School, um, have always been in this area.

Um you want to find something to talk to me about afterwards, I have a very strong opinion on fast food restaurants.

So, like anything like that, I think we've all had fast food before, so we can all talk about that.

Um yeah, so uh um and I think actually that comment kind of makes me um reminds me of something.

I was uh about a year ago looking for a new church.

Um for really for the first time in my life I was looking for somewhere to go.

And uh I kind of stumbled in here, some friends invited me, and uh this community kind of took me in and really embraced me, and then I came on as a student ministry coordinator, and um I really feel like you guys have kind of embraced my quirkiness and my weirdness a little bit, and that's that's really cool.

I mean, I'm a 22-year-old who doesn't really like public speaking, and I'm not nervous about uh this thing right here, and I think that's a testament to you guys creating a calm environment.

So thank you for that.

Um so about in May, Russ asked me to teach, and I was like, yeah, I heard it's about the Beatitude, so that'll be a um that that'll be easy, that'll be a good thing to talk about.

You know, I get the one about being a peacemaker, I can get the one about being poor in spirit, and then I found out I was gonna get uh blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And if you're like me, persecution's a weird word.

Uh we live in a culture and in a country where we don't have to worry about a government coming in and shutting this whole thing down.

Um and we live, not only do we live in a country where that happens, we live in a region of this country that's pretty saturated in Christian values.

Um there's an author named Flenry O'Connor who calls the South kind of a the Christ-haunted um region, and that's kind of a good word, I think.

Um so let's just look at this text real quick.

Um Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.

All right.

Um I just kind of looked up the Greek words because I wanted to know some of the key words in this sentence or in this passage, and uh the first one, blessed.

Um I'm not gonna try to pronounce these Greek words because I don't know, and it's just not gonna go well.

So uh the first, the meaning of the first blessed, in the Greek word is like fortunate or well off, lucky is one way you could say it.

Uh persecuted is to be mistreated or harassed, and then righteousness, and I think this is the important one, um, state of him who is as he ought to be.

Uh so we use this word, I think Brian talked about it a few weeks ago when we were talking about imputation, um, that Christ has given us his righteousness, we're clothed in his righteousness, and so you could kind of retranslate this verse, I think, as blessed are you who are persecuted for my sake, because we're not righteous people, we're broken, we're flogged, but Christ is righteous and he is righteousness.

So we can kind of um since we're clothed in his righteousness, that's that's why we're persecuted, um, or that's why people are persecuted.

Um it's also worth noting that Jesus has laid out a whole other set of things before this.

So he's talked about being meek, he's talked about being a peacemaker.

Uh and I think it's safe to say that those are the kind of things that will get you into trouble uh if you're if you're living life.

I mean, Barry talked about last week being a peacemaker and how sometimes that gets you into situations that are a little bit messy, and maybe people turn your back, turn their back on you.

Um and I think that's that's really where where this comes down to.

So if you're like me, you think persecution, uh, you think of uh like secret police, or that anyone in high school have to read the book 1984, where they're like burning the books and like it's just all kind of sci-fi chaos.

Um or anyone that grew up in youth group, did you ever play the game Secret Church or Romans and Christians or something like that, where one team is like the secret police and the other team is the church, and then one person's the pastor, and you have to run around the church and like play this game, and it's kind of a bit weird, yeah.

Um but it was a game that I've played a few times and I always felt a little bit weird about.

Um and you know that that's but that's not the world we really live in, right?

Like we're not worried about um somebody coming in here and taking all the Bibles and having a book fire in the parking lot.

We're you know, we're pretty we're pretty secure.

Um and uh and I think but it before we get into what what we're facing here, what we go through here, I think it's important to talk about um kind of what's happened to the to the Christian church around the world and more or less safe areas.

So uh Open Doors USA in January, and Open Doors USA is kind of this advocacy group for uh persecuted Christians, um, reported that 2015 was the most violent year for Christianity in the modern era.

Um 7,100 people were murdered for their faith, which was up 3,000 from the previous year.

Um and I don't think that's something to be taken lightly or to um pass over as we're talking about this, but um that's that's not our struggle.

That's we're we're not facing that in here.

We're not facing murder or anything like that.

But some of us in here, maybe maybe you entered this this Christianity thing, you you started this faith journey, and maybe people in your family treat you a little bit differently, or maybe you have friends that just don't treat you the same, or um little passing comments about your faith, or uh I know I was watching a documentary about a group of guys, and they um they would always play in this in these tournaments, these card tournaments like blackjack, and uh somebody said, What are you guys, the church team?

And that's like that's kind of funny, but it's also that that's that can that can hurt us.

And and I think um if you've been here in the past few weeks and you've heard um we're not supposed to to minimize our suffering by looking somewhere else and going, well, people are being murdered in Syria, so my struggle I guess doesn't matter.

Um I think I think it does.

I think maybe the pain you felt from being in a relationship with Christ, I think it matters to God, and I think it matters um matters to us.

I think this is why we're in a community.

So um let's talk about it here real quick and then we'll um we'll kind of m go out a little bit.

Um so uh hold on.

Yeah, um after I graduated from high school, um I went and spent a year in missions.

Uh so the first part was in New York City in America, um, kind of spent some time on Long Island, spent some time in New York.

And uh New York is not the South where you think of like a Christian kind of center, but there are a lot of Christians in New York.

There's a lot of churches in New York, there's a lot of um just really interesting discussion going on.

In some ways, uh you can say it's a little bit more tolerable to talk about religion up there because people, there it's just a religious breeding ground, right?

So uh I had the experience there of kind of being around that and saw kind of what American resistance looks like.

I don't I'm antsy to use the word persecution, but resistance to the Christian faith.

Um and I think it's a it's a real thing because um six out of ten Americans, there just a couple weeks ago, uh the Brookings Institute, which is this big, I guess they they gather statistics, they said that six out of ten Americans feel like their faith is being threatened here.

Uh and it does, we can talk about if it is or if it isn't really, but people feel that.

They feel like they're on some level their faith is being resisted.

So um I saw a little bit of that, I saw a little bit of snide comments, nothing that I would call persecution.

I wasn't systemically mistreated, I wasn't not, you know, I didn't get my job taken away or anything like that, but you had you had passing comments.

Um and then uh after that, we uh we the group of us we went to Shanghai, China, which is obviously kind of on you think on the total other end of the spectrum in terms of persecution.

I think a lot of us think of China as kind of the place of uh the embodiment of like Christian persecution right now, or North Korea, or you know, uh something like that.

And so um I went over there and in Shanghai it's an interesting place because Shanghai, um compared to other cities in China, is pretty lax on their uh their treatment of Christians.

It's a very Western influenced city, so you have a lot of businessmen coming from Europe, you have a lot of businessmen coming from America that are Christians, and so the the government kind of tolerates it there, and so a lot of Chinese Christians will go to Shanghai as like a refuge.

So if they were in the countryside and they were mistreated, their family, maybe their family was mistreated in their village, maybe someone lost a job, they'll go to Shanghai to kind of get that refuge.

Um, and so going to church there, you hear a lot of stories about kind of where people came from, and it's a really interesting thing because nobody that was in Shanghai was really from Shanghai that I met.

Um they were always from the countryside or they were from Beijing or somewhere else.

And uh I think we can learn a few things from them here because a lot of what they they saw as struggle in their faith are things that we see here for for uh knowing the Lord.

I mean, uh a lot of them, you know, they they were like, yeah, I I I met the Lord, I met Christ, and then um my family just treated me different.

Well, I think we all know people that have that here.

Um or I didn't get the promotion of this job, or my I lost my job, and maybe you didn't lose your job, but maybe you feel like you're not you're not at a competitive advantage in your workplace because your faith isn't is stopping you from doing that.

And so they they have that there.

Uh and you know, so we hear these stories and we can we can kind of um I can we there's a lot we can learn from it.

So uh yeah, I learned the church in America may not be systemically persecuted, but I did learn that persecution and resistance happens here.

Uh and the kind of the three things that they taught me uh in there, and I say about three things or kind of three things because you can learn a lot from the church in China.

I I encourage you if you know anything about um what's going on over there, I think you should read.

Uh there's some good Chinese theologians, some good pastors over there that have really interesting things to offer.

So I'm only saying about three because there's a lot more we can say here.

These are not the final three things.

Uh and the first one is that grace, though it's a beautiful and attractive concept, can be offensive to people.

Uh, right?

Like being a peacemaker, being somebody that that shows grace in situations may make you some quote unquote enemies in your environment, right?

Like maybe somebody really mistreats a member of the community and you kind of show them grace or you show them affection, and then people don't look at you the same.

I mean, I think that that's a practical thing.

I think we see that.

Um and I'm in college, and on some level, that hasn't really changed.

There's still expectations for me to hang out with this group of people, to dress a certain way, to be in a certain group, and I I don't know this for a fact, but I think as I grow up, that's not really going to change very much.

Um, that there's always gonna be expectations for us to be a certain way, and in some ways, that's like okay, we don't show grace to this group of people, or we just treat this group of people differently.

Um and I think it can all be embodied, uh, again, I'm quoting Flannery O'Connor here, she's one of my favorite authors, but um, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you strange, uh, which is obviously a mis a reattribute you know, uh changing what Jesus said.

And uh I think that's that's true.

Like what we're talking about in the Beatitudes, that makes us a little bit different, doesn't it, from what we see outside.

These descriptions of us are not what you see in the world.

You see people that um try to have it together, they try to act like everything's in a row, and the beatitudes is just an acknowledgement that we don't uh and that we need that we need Christ.

Um so uh the persecution or resistance you face is the second thing, um, draws us into greater community.

Um and I I kind of a story to share with this.

Um I was over in China, we were kind of um we were there for two months, I was about a month and a half in, and you could say for the first time I was getting a little bit homesick.

Um I didn't have really contact on social media, I could FaceTime some people, but Facebook, YouTube, um, Google was blocked, a lot of things were just not there that I was accustomed to, and so these are all total first world problems, right?

But uh I I was I was starting to feel homesick, and uh we had just gone to church at a guy's apartment um in the city, and we were walking back, and I just heard a bunch of wrenching stories about this this persecution that I'm talking about, of just like my family's not treating me the same.

I I go to work and I'm the only Christian and I feel so lonely on this.

It just I hear these stories, and it it kind of bears on me.

This is the first time in my life I'm seeing a problem that's bigger than me.

Like I have no solution for this.

I have no um, and so I was feeling weary, and um I'm walking in the subway, and I just kind of feel this guy like fist.

I don't know if it was a fist bump, but he like punched my shoulder and I look over and it's the the pastor of the church.

Is I guess he's going back to his apartment.

And he saw us in the subway, recognized us, and said, What's up?

Now, he doesn't speak English.

Um in fact we didn't even speak directly through a translator, we spoke through a translator that spoke Korean and English, and then he spoke to a translator that spoke Korean and uh and Mandarin.

So uh, you know, we we were like way way off in our language translation, so probably a lot of things we were saying to each other in the church weren't really getting through, but he he knew he knew what we had in common, which was which was Christ.

And he knew that um he knows that every time he sees one of his guys in the subway station or in the city that he has to lift them up because they have that weary feeling.

And so the persecution or the or the resistance that we face draws us into greater community.

And then um another kind of just another story, I guess, that is more American is I have a friend who um is really into Ash Wednesday uh right before Lent starts.

And so um when she goes, walks around campus, she keeps the ashes on her forehead.

And I asked her why she did that, and she said, Well, when I see the other people that have the ashes, I know it's a it's a it's a symbol of unity that we know that we both of us need a savior, that we can both see that and go, I need a savior, and it's a daily reminder, it's that that one day where she can kind of know that and wear it on her shoulder and identify with uh with her brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so I thought that was awesome, and I think that really shows us how these kind of these struggles can bind us as a community.

And then the kind of the final thing and the the real thing here is the only logical response to persecution is Jesus, right?

Um He demonstrated grace, He demonstrated uh love, all of all of these characteristics of the Beatitudes, and he got persecuted and crucified for it.

Uh and so the good news here, and this is this is where the good news, they're kind of the rubber meets the road, is that uh blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Well, Jesus is the reward for any resistance or persecution that we face.

Uh that we don't have to, um we don't get a material worth, we get we get the thing that we're striving for.

Because we know Christ, we're resist we we face resistance or we face persecution, and then our reward is that thing.

And I think that's that's a beautiful truth and an awesome uh kind of idea to wrap our heads around.

So uh the only logical response is going back to him, and he's the only thing that can deliver us from that.

We're not gonna get there through political lobbying or through military force or through bullying our way through.

Because I think that's the other thing that worries me about talking about persecution, is I always took it when I was in high school as a license to kind of be um a jerk about my faith.

Like if I was not being persecuted enough, it's like, oh, I need to be persecuted more, so I need to be more outlandish with my faith, and then that means if I'm getting persecuted more, that means that I'm more of a Christian.

I don't know.

I I felt like that was a real cultural thing, and it's my that was my legalism talking, but um I think Jesus frees us from that, from that idea, like if if we're in a relationship with him, the just fact of the matter is at some point we're gonna face a little bit of resistance for that.

Um I don't think that's a I think we all have faced that.

If we're in a relationship if we know Jesus, I think that's a true thing.

So um I don't know where else to go with that.

I think the last thing is that uh because we see the reward in Jesus, it allows us to look at those who treat us differently or those who persecute us with grace.

Um like because I know who Christ is and because I've I read these stories in the Bible about Paul being an active persecutor of Christians, I can rejoice in the fact today that there are people persecuting Christians right now that are one day gonna have an experience where they they come to know the Lord and turn around and um accept him and enter in a relationship with him, right?

And so we don't have to hate our we don't have to hate these people, we don't have to uh treat them differently, we can respond with grace, it frees us up to do that.

Uh and they can have Paul-like experiences and we can rejoice in that.

And I think that's probably uh I hope that that josses with us a little bit, but I think that's something that we can all grab onto and really stack hands on.

So in closing, um just know that our faith won't be easy and the resistance, and and may the resistance you faith draw you into community and help you see the reward that is Christ Jesus.

Um let me pray for us.

Um Father, we're grateful that we can be here this morning uh and hear your word.

Um I just pray that we don't take this as uh we don't feel guilty for not being persecuted enough, or we don't feel guilty for not facing enough resistance.

But I pray that you um in your love show us that that you are the reward and that that the people that may treat us differently or the people that uh act act differently towards us or make snide comments, that God we respond with grace and love and show them your mercy.

And we pray uh for the church across the world right now where um a meeting like this is not as um easy and it is not as air conditioned.

Um and we pray that they find peace in you and in nothing else.

Um I ask all these things in Christ's name.

Amen.