Blessed Rejection - Luke 6:22-23

We are going to continue in our study of the Gospel of Luke,

specifically Luke chapter 6 in the section that is called the

Luke 6 · chapter mention

sermon on the plane. So as you turn there, let me

just give us some things to consider.

And, and as I do that, even as I, as I start this sermon, in

fact, as I start every sermon, part of the introduction is me

just kind of calming my own nerves to speak and to preach.

And it, it really never goes away for as long as I've been

preaching. I have to confess that every

Sunday morning I just have to give the Lord all of my just

worries and fears of, of standing before you and

preaching. And that may surprise some of

you because I do it every week and it's still here every week.

But it shouldn't surprise you because I'm a very normal human

being. And you probably have heard the

reporting or the, the, the public polls when people talk

about their biggest fears, by and large, the number one fear

that many of you can probably relate to right now that most

people would state as their greatest fear is the fear of

public speaking. And I, I feel it.

I feel it. In fact, you know, often times

you'll look at #2 and realize like in, in, in this case,

number 2 appears to be the fear of heights, that many people

would rather jump off a Cliff than stand in front of people

and, and share publicly. And I always find that

interesting. And sometimes I think why, you

know, and all of the times I've preached and all of the, the

public speaking opportunities I've ever done, it's never

turned into anything bad. No one's ever greeted me with

actual pitchforks or throwing literal tomatoes.

Occasionally people will stand up and leave and that hurts my

feelings a little bit, but it's not that big a deal.

And then I, I finished preaching, I move on.

And so the question is, what is it about this moment that all of

us realize is is kind of it weighs on our hearts And you

probably feel it outside of the call to preach and just your

everyday life when it's your moment for all eyes to be on

you. There the nerve set in for the

students among us in the moment where the professor's like, OK,

any questions, You're like, I have a question, but I'll never

ask because then people would look at me and what if I get it

wrong? You know, you, you, you think of

just in the modern day, what it's like to put your opinion

out there and have to read the comments section and all of us,

probably our own social media managers, like, would this

really help my public opinion? How would my opinion polls do

after this post? And there's, there's a reason

for that. I can tell you why you all

relate to the feeling that I'm expressing.

And it is because fundamentally in our heart of hearts, every

single one of us has a fear of rejection.

Nobody wants to stand before people and have the response be

we don't like you, we don't trust you, you're not good at

what you do, or we didn't like anything you said.

Because all of us have this thing that does not like when

others don't like us. And with that, I hope at the

surface of your mind, we now consider one of the surprising

blessings that Jesus is going to bless us with today that we are

working our way through in the Sermon of the Mount when he says

there is actually a blessed rejection, that even when your

biggest fear comes true, there is a way for it to turn into

another way that God can bless your life.

So today's sermon could simply be called blessed rejection.

And we find it as we left off in the Sermon on the Mount or

Sermon in the Plain, Luke chapter 6, verse 22.

Luke 6:22

He says blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude

you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of

man's sake. Welcome to church everyone.

If you brought a friend, you picked a great week to come and

hear the message of what it is and what it means to follow

Jesus. He says that it's a blessing and

in this a preview of where the blessing takes you, he says in

verse 23, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed

your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner their fathers

did to the prophets. So once again we are going to

look at something that Jesus gives us a lens for that is very

counterintuitive to what we would normally think is the

blessed or happy or peaceful, satisfied life.

And we'll do it with Jesus giving us a view of what's

beyond it. And so as we read that there,

there's actually a very simple flow to this promise, this

blessing. And and this is what we'll look

at today. First, we'll look at the reality

of rejection. It's going to happen if you're

doing this right. Second, very important second

piece to what Jesus says is there is a valid reason for your

rejection for those moments in life where you're hated because

you're a follower of Jesus. And then he gives us a tool in

the tool belt today, the response to rejection, when it

happens, why it happens, and what you do in response to it

happening to your life. And finally, as we do for all of

our our moments in the Sermon of the Mount, we look at the reward

that Jesus is pointing us to. So we start with the very simple

reality of rejection. He says blessed are you when men

hate you. This is one of those when not if

statements of the teaching of Jesus.

This is par for the course of following him.

It is something that you should expect as a byproduct of you

doing the will of God for your life and bearing the name of

Christ in your life. When not if we find this as a

promise in other areas of Scripture says in second Timothy

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. Yes, all who desire to live

godly in Christ will suffer persecution.

And this is a, a, a good thing for us to start with because we

live in two conflicting paradigms for this truth.

One is there is a Christian paradigm that says that if

you're doing it right, if you're actually following the will of

God for your life, right, and you have enough faith in his

word that there is a, a plan for your earthly life that just

avoids all suffering and you can have your best life now.

And, and, and that just completely misses the actual

words of Jesus. And the second tension that you

probably feel in reading this and trying to think of how to

apply it to your life is that right now we actually live in a

pretty blessed time to bear the name of Jesus in maybe the most

blessed region of the world to be a Christian, You know, we

live in a city where it's a badge of honor for businesses to

to let you know that their fellow believers put the put the

fish on the on the window and we can give each other business.

You know, I've heard the phrase Christian coffee shop and I've

come to the conclusion that every coffee shop in Boise is a

Christian coffee shop. I don't know if you've gone to

coffee lately and met up with someone, but you know, even this

week, as I was considering this word, I'm looking around at my

coffee dates and I'm like, there's a Bible study happening

right over there. We're talking about

discipleship. These people are asking about

which church to go to. The guys just moved here.

Just go to a coffee shop and you will see some Bible study break

out. It's it's what we do.

We love coffee in the Bible, but there's coming a day, the

horizon line of our country and culture.

There's coming today when when we will actually live this out

more clearly. We are on the heels of a post

Christian generation. We are on the heels of a a wave

of Bible illiteracy and people who have no reference point for

the things we'll take for granted today, like turn your

Bible to the gospel of Luke without any kind of back story

of of what any of that is. All of that's going to change.

And with that, the tides of Christian favor will also change

it it there's coming a day when it'll happen.

And this is now for you to know there's not AI.

Don't think there's a lot of great things to be excited about

for our culture shaking its fist at God and harden its heart to

the will of God. One of them is we're going to

find out in the coming years who the followers of Jesus are.

We're going to find out who the ones are are putting the

Christian fish on the business window and coming to church

because it's good for the social networking and the ones who

actually listen to this and they're ready to proceed.

Even right now. We, we I'm preaching to a mixed

bag by all, by all accounts, there's a mixed bag of your

devotion and your following to Jesus.

And one of the ways that you will be separated in the coming

years is those of you who hear this message with ears to hear

and you're looking at the reward and not the warning.

There is a cost to following Christ.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16, if anyone desires to come

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever

loses his life for my sake will not will find it.

What does it mean to lose your life?

We think of that in the practical terms.

You might, you know it, for the sake of Christ, make a little

less money, share more resources.

Part of that, if you look at the way of Jesus, it says that He

made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself.

The King of glory comes as a servant.

To follow Jesus is to be willing to lose some of that reputation

that all of us hold so dearly to be popular and well liked.

Reaction, rejection is a reality and Jesus says with this hatred,

it's not just an emotion or a feeling against one another.

This is going the the the screw is going to turn on what Jesus

is going to say will happen. It's not just hatred.

He says blessed are you when they hate you and when they

exclude you. There's actually practical

things that he's preparing his followers for that will happen

to their life because they follow him.

And isn't it interesting that Jesus includes the excluded in

the Sermon on the Mount? We've considered the poor and

we've considered the hungry. We've considered those who are

in a season of absolute weeping, and Jesus says you're all in and

all of those as we preach. It was like, not really great

things to be known for in this world, but in the Kingdom of

God, you're blessed. He includes the excluded.

And the world, conversely, excludes those who Jesus

includes. That's part of what will happen

when you actually stake your claim on anything that you're

bold for in this life, sports, politics, following someone's

teachings for your life, you will now be with them whether

people like it or not. Tim Keller says if you're not

being criticized or excluded at all for following Jesus, it may

mean you aren't following him very closely.

If if your devotion and faithfulness and desire to

submit to his perfect will for your life has cost you nothing,

it's cost you not one friend. It hasn't cost you one moment of

decreased popularity. 1 Unfollow on the socials.

It it's cost you no social advances, it might mean that you

aren't following him very closely.

To follow Him is to experience some exclusion volunteered by

the world. And I, I do find it interesting

that as our culture moves farther and farther away from

Christian doctrine, it it develops its own doctrine.

It's not that it's just becoming, you know, free for all

there is, you know, cultural flagships that you you'll hear

about all the time. And one of them is inclusion.

It's a word that you'll hear a lot about post Christian people

who leave the church and go into the culture and say, how should

I live now? They'll say, well, the, the

number one thing that you stake your life on now is just to

include everyone. And one of the ways that you

know, who is, you know, on the priority list of inclusion is to

just look, look for the root word preceding the word phobia.

So you've got all of these classes and if you hear phobia

after it, you know that they have to be in, otherwise you

will be called out in shame. So in the inclusion of the world

you have, you could be called homophobic if you're not

inclusive. You could be called transphobic

if you're not fully inclusive. You could be called xenophobic

if you're not fully bringing people in, Islamophobic if

you're not inclusive to everyone one, I'm sure you've never heard

no one's ever been accused of being Christian phobic.

It's never happened. They're like, really?

You don't like my ideas? You don't like my Lord, You

don't like my God. And, and, and, and it's not,

it's not a stripe on the flag. It is the one group that can be

excluded in the world of inclusion.

And why do I say that to you? It is not so that we all pat

ourselves on the back for standing up against the culture

war. It's the same reason Jesus says

it. He's given you a mark that you

know, you're actually with him, that you are excluded.

It's it's something that we're going to get to.

But he's saying this is a good sign.

It's because you're not actually in the world's tribe.

And, and I, and I know that I've already mentioned this is a

mixed bag of of devotion to Christ.

All of us probably waver, but many of you already know this

message. Many of you already know that

there is an absolute cost of exclusion to your social classes

if you're too Christian. It is why people prefer to be

what Jesus calls lukewarm. This is why people are like,

yeah, I'm a little Christian. They wouldn't say that This is

why people are like, I go to church, but I'm I'll never tell

anyone about it. I'm never going to offend my

coworkers. I'll never let my neighbors

know. And the fundamental reason for

that is because you know what Jesus is saying.

You know that if you actually picked up your cross and

followed him, regardless of what people thought, it would

actually cost you some social points.

And so this is I'm just confirming what you already

know, but the now the invitation is to say, now the real question

is not whether or not you'd lose friends or the approval of

neighbors is is it worth it? Is it actually worth it to do

what Jesus told his disciples would happen?

And as you ponder that question, let's consider a few more things

on the list. They'll hate you, they'll

exclude you, he says they'll revile you.

Revile is to insult, to speak abusively, to shame you

publicly. And so our our once again, not

can't celebrate much about our culture.

One of them is the comment section.

We get to see what reviling looks like.

Look at it, everyone. If you have the wrong opinion,

there's reviling, there's shame. There's someone who is who's

who's being called out as being of the wrong thought.

And it goes on to just publicly shame.

And he actually attaches to that cast out your name as evil.

It's your name on the line. They're going to call you by

your name and say, did you hear? And I get the experience of

going, you know, the point of the arrow on a lot of the

messages because I stand on the stage.

And so I get to I get to experience some of this in like

low hanging fruit kind of way. But, you know, I was not always

a preacher. I spent years being a normal

reveler of life. And I've heard the things people

say about Tucker Mail. Did you hear about Tucker Mail?

I heard he's a cult leader now, you know, sorry, guys, I guess

you know, that's on you, too. But did you hear about Tucker

Mail? He's like turned into a

religious fundamentalist. It's really strange.

I'm like, whatever, I don't care.

Sometimes I do care. But when the Holy Spirit is

working on my heart, I realized that that was a cost that I was

willing to pay to stand before people and preach the gospel and

admit that the real name is Tucker Mail.

And those who know me that think I'm crazy, I'm just going to

have to live with that. And so are you.

People are going to say things about you and they're going to

say your name, and it's going to hurt your fleshly feelings and

it's going to hurt not only because of a comment section,

but look what he says again. The Scrooge just keeps getting

tighter and tighter on what he's actually predicting his

followers will experience for bearing his name.

They're going to exclude you, revile you, cast you out and

cast out your name, and then he's going to say they're

actually going to call you evil. This is not just a matter of

religious opinion. This is not something that you

can say, well, this is just my world view and I understand your

world view. Your world view according to

Jesus, will be thought of as evil.

And we know that from the very beginning that Jesus gave this

message. The disciples would experience

this, the early church would experience this from every

single direction. The first church had to deal

with the the, the Roman Empire that they lived in and all of

the slander that was put on these strange people who talked

about eating the body and the blood of their leader.

And they called each other brother and sister.

Even if they were married, it seemed as this cannibalism and

incest and they didn't bow the knee to Caesar.

So they were anarchists and all of the things that people could

look in and say they're strange turns into evil and they had to

bear that. And it wasn't just from the

direction of the pagans, it was from the direction of the their

fellow Jewish people who are unbelieving.

Their fellow Jewish people thought they were heretics.

They thought they had abandoned the law and they followed A

cursed man who hung on a tree who was dead in his grave.

And they were all delusional. And the message has survived

such hatred and evil speak for 2000 years.

And it's not because the evil speaking went away, it's because

the Holy Spirit fills people to endure through what will happen

when you actually stake your life on the claims of Jesus and

you call him your Savior and your Lord and your Lord and you

say his teachings are real in my life.

And I can give you one verse that if you absolutely with with

abandoned put your faith and made your message to your

neighbors, friends and coworkers, you would experience

some of what Jesus is saying. It says in John chapter 14 verse

John 14:6

6 for all of you who sang praises to Jesus today, you

believe in this narrow gate. Jesus said I am the way the

truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through

me in that one verse. I have absolutely cut against

the grain of all of the cultural message, the way that that would

be called objective morality, that there is actually a design

that your life is meant to live by, that there are commandments

that are not optional. There are teachings of Jesus

that are not just good advice, good ideas.

This is the way to live your life.

And if you violate that way, then you're outside of God's

will for your life. Tell that to a relativistic

culture, that there's a way. There's a way for marriage,

there's the way for parenting. There's a the way for the way

that you handle your money, the way for your commandment to

forgive, to reconcile, to hope in the future, to engage with

the affairs of the world. There is a way that Jesus says

is the way, and you're going to cut against the grain of culture

to live under that message. He says it's the truth.

There is a moral objective and there is objective truth.

And once again, I'm equipping you to be very unpopular in your

day to listen to this message. And I'm not giving you a message

to, to, to unlock the secrets to financial success, to get more

friends, to have more business. I am helping you unlock a way to

find the narrow gate that's full of unpopularity, moral truth.

Our culture says, well, this is my truth.

That's your truth. Jesus says there is the truth,

it's Jesus, there is a truth. The truth is, is that we have

all fallen short of the glory of God.

Every single one of us are qualified sinners.

That's the truth. The truth is that not one single

person can save themselves. We are all in need of a savior.

And the truth is, is there's one Savior.

There is not many roads that lead to Rome, that lead to

heaven. There is one Savior, the Lord

Jesus Christ. The truth will set you free, but

first it'll make you really mad and you are people who are

following in the way and the truth.

And now Jesus says go make a bunch of disciples, take the

message to unreached people groups, to cultures that are

outside of your own, and the world will look at you and they

will say you are Christian colonizers and your message is

evil. But Jesus says no man comes to

the Father except by me. The message is a message of a

narrow gate, that the wrath of God is poured out against all

ungodliness. But the love of God is free for

all who repent and believe. That message will set you free,

and that message will cost you friends.

And this brings us to the reason for rejection.

Read with me verse 22. Blessed are you when men hate

you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your

name as evil. Why for the son of man's sake.

This is not a license for all of you to hook up the fire hose of

truth and blasted at anyone you want.

And when people respond with the the the hurt that would come

from that, you say, well, I'm under persecution now you can't

handle the truth. This is not a license for us to

be condemning and unloving and messengers with no regard for

the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

Jesus says in John chapter 15, if you were of the world, the

John 15 · chapter mention

world would love its own yet because you are not of the

world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world

hates you. Remember the word that I said to

you, A servant is not greater than the master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

The servant is not greater than the master.

This whole series is actually called the way of Jesus and what

we see in every blessing is Jesus perfecting them.

Jesus perfected the hatred of enemies and turned it into the

love of a Savior, and we are only blessed in the way that we

experience. The downstream from that is if

we are servants of the Master, meaning we represent His heart

and His character. We we consider the way that He

would approach the lost and dying sinners of our world, and

we do everything unto His honor and glory.

In other words, not every rejection is blessed, not every

way you were experienced. Conflict in this world can be

attributed to Christian persecution.

Peter actually gives this message to the church that he's

writing to, speaking in the same manner, the blessing of

suffering for the name of Christ.

But he says in verse 15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer

or a thief, an evildoer or a busy body and other people's

manner matters. If anyone suffers as a

Christian, let him not be ashamed.

So let him glorify God in that matter.

You see what he says? He says don't suffer For these

reasons. Don't suffer because you're

murdering people. You're stealing from people.

You're you're, you're, you're sowing seeds of evil in the

community that you live in and that you're a busy body and

other people's matters. So side note, seems like that

list is kind of all equal murderers and gossips.

It's like, watch out. And he says that's not a reason

to suffer. It's not a reason to say, man,

it's so hard to be a Christian. And this message is not for some

of the the trivial ways that we see the culture turning against

God. You know, if you're if you're

barista doesn't say Merry Christmas, but says happy

holidays, there's no reason to go off on that.

Just turn the other cheek. Keep walking.

Jesus still loves you. The world still hates you has

nothing to do with what your barista puts on your Starbucks

cup. And down the line, there's all

sorts of ways that we've been so used to the comfort of Christian

culture that as we lose a little bit of ground, we're like, Oh my

goodness, what's happening. What's happening is that we're

actually experienced the world as it usually is around the

world. And one of the reasons I think

it's so powerful to to pray for the underground church and to

send workers into that field is so they can give a report that

there are people connected to this corner of the Kingdom that

we get to pray with and and serve and and build up and and

and teach the commandments of God to that are going through

actual count the cost persecution in this world.

And they are blessed for it and they are receiving joy because

of it. There is a reason, and the only

reason is if we are radically in love with God and intimately

following Jesus. And that leads us now to the

response that Jesus gives all of us.

The response itself is a blessing, he says, in that when

that happens, when you actually experience your name so closely

associated with the person of Jesus that you have to

experience some of the world's hatred, he says rejoice in that

day and leap for joy. This is a great thing.

This is this is not likely to be on our list that we put in the

category of what makes us joyful and excited, leaping for joy.

But Jesus says there's something happening in your life when

you're so closely associated with him that you're willing to

suffer for him that will give you joy in your life with the

right perspective. And that's what he's going to

give us as as we as we consider the end of this.

But first let me just once again for my own heart and mind when

this happens. Let's just consider what he

doesn't say. He doesn't say to you know, get

angry and and fire back and Christian destroys atheists and

and and and be depressed or sad or or or at all surprised and in

all of the ways that the common reaction for for mean things

that happened to your life is to is to do one of those negative

responses. Jesus says don't do it.

Don't go there just rejoice be overjoyed and here's the why we

read the verse in first Peter. Peter actually gives some

clarity on why this is such a exciting thing to happen to your

life, says if your reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are

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

On their part he's blasphemed, but on your part he's being

glorified. Now I've already pointed this

out. There's coming a day when we'll

have a much clearer idea of who our fellow believers are in

Christ. And when that day comes, we are

going to get in our own lives an answer to a question that I hope

you all wrestle with at times in the culture of Christian

comfort. Do you ever wrestle with Lord?

Am I really with you? Am I really devoted at all costs

to following you if you ever wrestled with that question?

Well, if you do, one of the things that you can examine your

life by is the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the plane

in Luke chapter 6. It is not a sermon designed to

Luke 6 · chapter mention

tell you how to get into the Kingdom.

It is not a sermon that says, you know you're a Sinner, you

need to repent and there's the love of God that will give you

grace to newness of life and a preview of the cross and

resurrection. It's not a sermon of the

function of salvation. It's a sermon for you and for me

to have a vision of what a Christian looks like.

This is what it looks like. This is how you can examine your

life and say, I've experienced that.

I've seen that in my life. And that in itself is a blessing

for you to know that you're with Christ.

And that's why as we read in the very end of the of the the

Scripture we read, he says at the end of verse 23, rejoice and

leap for joy. Why?

For in like manner their fathers did it to the prophets.

You're being counted in the number of the people that God

uses. And this is usually what happens

when someone is used by God. Study the life of the prophets

and what you will find is people who had a message of God's love,

of God's warnings of the way to live.

And he says, and Jesus says, blessed are you because the

exact same things happened to you that happened to them last

year. This time we were in Hebrews.

Remember, we did the Hebrews Hall of Faith, Hebrews Chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11. Much of it is is just the heroes

of the faith that we think of is the big names.

And they'll have the longest lines of people wanting to talk

to them in heaven. I don't think that will actually

happen, but sometimes you're like, oh, I can't wait to see

Abraham. I can't wait to see Moses.

But he ends the. Hall of Faith, simply by saying

this is more of a category, and here's a mark of someone who's

really living by faith, said Still others had trials of

mockings and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sewn into, they were tempted, they

were slain with the sword. They wandered about in

sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,

of whom the world was not worthy.

Blessed are you that's. What they did to the Father, the

prophets before you, of whom the world was not worthy, you are

being separated by God, volunteered by the world.

For some other place. Than this one.

It's the story. Of God's people from the

beginning to the end when he's returning.

And so he gives 2 reasons that we can respond with joy. 1 You

just look back and see this is how God's people are greeted

when they have a message from God.

You're in great number. Rejoice that you've been counted

worthy of the sufferings of Christ.

Look back. But he also says look forward.

The sermon. Scripture this morning ends.

We'll look at the last part when he says rejoice in that day, for

indeed your reward is great in heaven.

And I will. Say this once again.

And I say once. Again, because the first time I

really. Brought the sermon.

On the mount to our church this year was during Easter.

You know, we went down the whole thought experiment.

If Christ didn't raise, what would the consequences be?

And Paul says if he didn't raise, the consequences would be

that you are the most to be pitied because you've staked

your life on teachings that only work if suffering is temporary

and they're far outweighed by an eternal glory.

None of. Your life in Christ works if

there is no heaven. None of it will.

Work. If you're continually measuring

your success and your blessings by how well your life is going

right now or for the next 80 years, the you have to have in

your mind that whatever you lose in following Christ, whatever

you have exchanged from this world, to follow Jesus with your

whole life. Will be followed with.

Indescribable joy of eternity, and that's why he says for great

is your reward in heaven, to suffer in this earth.

As a follower of. Jesus.

Only makes. Sense if you believe that your

greatest reward, your greatest treasure, your greatest honor,

we'll be meeting God face to face and having him say well

done. Enter into my joy.

And I'm so grateful. As we were singing, considering

all of this that we in in a preview of this message, the

chorus of our church was viewing.

A day you all said. And all the earth will shout his

praise, do you? Understand what you're saying.

That you made sense of this life by allowing your soul to

consider this coming day. It's not today.

The earth is not shouting His praise.

We're weird, but there's coming a day when all the earth will

shout His praise, and you will be counted in that number.

Leap for joy because the glory of God is upon you now, and

you're reminded of that as you're being separated from the

world for His glory for eternity.

Thanks for joining us. Today, if you would like to

watch the full service, check out the link in the description.

For next steps and to learn more, visit calvaryboise.com.