Blessed Are The Persecuted - Tim Conway

[Music] okay here we are at the end of the beatitudes now what we're going to do is after this we're going to launch out into the sermon on the mount but you all recognize that basically what we've had look this is very practical this is a composite picture this this is various qualities of what describes the christian man or the christian woman that's what the beatitudes are all about they reveal certain qualities about true christianity look christ is coming there has been a death on a cross look the reason that the reason that we have a message for the world and we even want to go downtown is because it's the only hope there is no other hope and what the salvation that christ gives that salvation the salvation that his father bestows upon humanity through christ this is it this is how it's described and we all have to come face to face with this this is the picture of those whose is the kingdom of heaven and the truth is that if we don't measure up to these standards then that that says something and here's the thing here we have another beatitude as god god is the one who creates the christian it's the spirit of god who regenerates it's the spirit of god that sanctifies and this growth is going on and he creates it's not just random it's not well you know he kind of does this work in one person yes our gifts our spiritual gifts may vary but these beatitudes don't vary there are certain qualities and certain characteristics that are going to be true in every single purse person that god saves he weaves this into the very fabric of who a christian is and so what do we have here you know we had pure in heart poor in spirit meek hungering and thirsting after righteousness merciful peacemaker you know we had these things what is that quality that he weaves into the christian fabric here in this last beatitude and and you know you might all be ready to say well yes of course we we see it's persecution i would say no it's not persecution that's that's not it the beautiful quality of the christian that's found in this last beatitude in these verses 10 through 12 is precisely this it is that we are so committed here's here's what god does in the life of lost people that he saves he causes them to be so committed for living for christ's sake and so committed to living for righteousness sake that the world sits up and takes notice you see the real quality here is not that we get persecuted that's a byproduct the real quality here you want six words to jump out of these three verses at you and it's namely this for righteousness sake that's in verse 10. and in verse 11 for my sake you want those to jump out at you you see the thing is what he's saying is this there's going to be such a righteousness in our life which a little bit later he says your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees otherwise no kingdom see our righteousness goes higher than just religious people it it is a type of righteousness that the world it somehow irritates them so that they persecute us and there's a devotion to christ there's a living for christ's sake that the world takes notice of i mean do you all see that that's that's really the nature here so one of the questions that i ask is how how would a person live who is not persecuted and i just thought about a picture my wife and i we went to tesco yesterday okay you can imagine this ruby and i did not get persecuted at tesco yesterday does that surprise anybody anybody get persecuted at tesco probably not because here's the thing put a mask on walk into tesco go get your leg of lamb or whatever you're there that's not what we got but i like lego lamb because tim bought one one time not at tesco but yeah you walk in there you get your stuff your loaf of bread you walk to the cashier and you smile at her through your mask and you pay for it you walk out with your bags you don't get persecuted well that doesn't surprise anybody why because there is a way to live in this world not to get persecuted but i'll tell you this if you work at tesco and you both by your life and the righteousness that comes from you and by your mouth how you speak and what you say you know this if you're on time all the time when certain other people aren't when you're a hard worker and the boss comes around the corner and you're never the one who all of a sudden jumps to get back to work because you weren't working when you're the guy that never exceeds your break times you speak truth you you won't lie people people can begin to recognize that and then you use your mouth you tell people you're a christian and you oh you tell people there is no other way to god except by the lord jesus christ and there is but one way and if you're working with muslims you tell them that way does not lead to life and you're working with atheists and you tell them they need to repent and believe the gospel i'll tell you what will happen you will get persecuted at tesco because that is the righteousness sake that is the christ's sake that we have here what did paul tell timothy about living godly yeah the reality is exactly that that all who desire to live godly in this world all who desire to live godly in christ jesus they will suffer persecution and listen there's a reason why we don't suffer persecution jesus came into the world there was never a right more righteous man than him and the world didn't leave him alone if anybody came into the world to love others see we could we could base you know the last one we looked at was peacemaker there almost seems to be attention here we're supposed to be peacemakers and yet the very lifestyle that we live and the very living for christ's sake living for righteousness sake evokes something from the world that doesn't end up in peace and i'll tell you this one of the things we can gather from this is we're never supposed to seek peace at the expense of righteousness or at the expense of christ we never want to deny him we want to live for him what our lord is teaching in this beatitude is that the look at it it's these people who he says theirs is the kingdom of heaven what he's teaching in this beatitude is that such people has possessed the kingdom and are heaven headed to heaven the blessed men and women of this world they have a quality about their lives in other words they live with such a dedication to christ and righteousness that it does provoke and evoke an evil response from the world that's that's clearly what he's saying here and here's the thing if the world doesn't realize this about you if the world just basically leaves you alone you recognize what that says you recognize what jesus is saying here the very way that you don't get persecuted when you go shopping for a loaf of bread at tesco is the very way that somebody just moving through life doesn't get persecuted we understand not getting persecuted at tesco unless of course we stopped and we started speaking to people we're just not there long enough for people to observe righteousness or not because we're not acting any different from the rest of the people i mean most of the people in there are not stealing most of the people in there are not swearing most of the people in there are just basically doing what you're doing and when you just basically do what the world does and you do it like they do it you don't get persecuted why because you're in the flow you're basically in the core you know we there was one time we followed the course of the world that's what it says in ephesians chapter two following the course of the world that's just the way the flow goes and we recognize there's many things that we do that don't differ a whole lot for i can go out and mow my lawn and if you were basically watching me and my neighbor do it you would recognize well there maybe isn't a whole lot of difference between the way i mow my lawn where he mows his lawn nothing's going to jump out that's going to make the lost guy think oh i need to go persecute that guy because look how he's mowing his lawn that isn't it we recognize what it is what is it that causes the world to be caustic to have this reaction well it's when it's when we have a sufficiently obvious devotion to christ and we mention his name and we we are seeking to live and honor him that the world really sits up and takes notice when it's visible when it's when it's in the in the fabric of our life sufficient enough for the world to take notice of it now listen to this verse jesus said if you were of the world the world would love its own yet because you are not of the world christian did you know that about yourself you're not of the world you're in the world but you're not of the world he says because you are not of the world where what are we of we're citizens of somewhere else you all recognize that yet because you were not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world anybody know how it ends the world hates the world hates you christians are not like everybody else which is like a little bit of religion thrown on top that's not it do you recognize you are not of the world and everybody else is this this is like i i mean we we recognize we've got polish guys here got some americans sprinkled in you got people from different places nigeria angola or by way of portugal or italy or holland switzerland we we know about people being transplanted people that well i'm not really born here i come from somewhere else but i became a resident we kind of but you know the thing about it is as we move through this life the reality is our citizenship is so our passports if we could pull out our spiritual passport those of us that are christians it doesn't it doesn't give you an address here this isn't your place and what you need to recognize about this is what do you call somebody who comes from somewhere else well we can maybe call it foreigner we call it different but you know one of the things we call it is a stranger you know sometimes we strange almost has a negative connotation to it but do you realize jesus christ was the stranger if anybody didn't fit it was him he was the ultimate stranger and you know what if we walk in his tracks so go we we are unworldly we are different we do you realize this we are essentially different the true christian has been made born again he is a new creation we are different kinds of people we are these new men that the scripture speaks about we are these strange new men thrown into an ocean of old men and it creates a chemical reaction that's what that that's precisely what this says there's a it's a volatile reaction and you know do you know over in luke chapter 6 where jesus gives he really gives luke's rendition of the beatitudes and he comes at these things in the negative yeah do you know what he says there woe to you when all men speak well of you so that's how they spoke about the false prophets i was very troubled when ravi zacharias went to salt lake city among all those mormons and he preached and they applauded him that's troubling nobody persecuted him in the heart of a false religion that should be see that right there is very telling about who he belongs to woe to you when all men speak well you know very often what's the popular idea i can tell you when i was lost what was the popular idea about a christian oh they're like my grandma my grandma richmond who was catholic now they're like that they're just kind of they're nice they're not offensive and they go do things at the nursing home sometimes they like mother teresa right gandhi but folks that isn't what we're getting here if this beatitude is true what it says is mark that man who gets along with everybody there's a problem and i'll tell you this christians that get along with everybody that's a problem that is a problem because jesus doesn't say that people that are religious that get along with everybody theirs is the kingdom of heaven that's not what he says he says that there are people in this world that are very specifically characterized by a persecution in their life it can be it can be mocking it can be people speaking evil it can be people not wanting to sit with you at lunch it can be people that avoid you it can be people that laugh at you they make jokes about you they they avoid you but there there is going to be a level of hostility and if there isn't it doesn't matter how religious it doesn't matter the names we claim to be that's the thing about these beatitudes if this doesn't have to do with name this has to do with the reality is the reality that we are sufficiently living righteously pursuing righteousness and living it because you know that's what jesus said he said he's going to say it just a little bit in the beatitudes that we need to show our good works in other words our righteousness and our good works we need to demonstrate it in front of the watching world not because we're self-righteous but because that's precisely what he wants that's what he saved us to do to be these lights in the world to be salt in the world to live these lives of basically calling out the you know what light does do you you know what light does it exposes darkness and when you shine the light you ever just you know pop into a dark place and turn on a flashlight real fast you might be outside and all of a sudden you see things on the ground things scurry this last beatitude you know what it's really a reflection of how they treated the lord jesus christ himself what they're saying is this false prophets they spoke well of them but you know what if they persecute you you're just like the prophets themselves and you're just like jesus the world did not praise jesus the world did not praise the prophets they praised the false prophets and it's been that way since the beginning what did cain and abel i mean you go back to the very beginning what was it about abel well abel was accepted by god abel was doing things in a righteous manner and cain didn't like it one of the things that we need to recognize is this what this beatitude does not say it does not say blessed are the persecuted it can be so easy to hear that it's those two prepositional phrases need to literally jump off the page and hit us right between the eyes those two prepositional phrases for righteousness sake for my sake now listen it's not for ethnicity's sake people get persecuted because they're a jew people get persecuted because they're black let's just be honest and the truth is that depending on the culture you find yourself in there is probably not a single one of us in this room there's not a place that we could go that we would not there is someplace on the earth any one of us could go and be persecuted for reasons that had nothing to do with righteousness sake or to do with christ's sake that's just a reality there are places where i would get persecuted there are places where you would get persecuted simply because of your ethnicity your skin color or whatever the language you spoke the country you're from that there is some place where there is hostility this is not saying that i'm blessed of the persecuted because you're obnoxious you know there are obnoxious people you talk about we go down to the city center and there are some people down there in the name of some religion there are people that bang drums there are people that carry signs and bark all these strange things and if you get persecuted for that that is not righteousness sake that is not christ's sake that's just you're being obnoxious listen some people like in school you get persecuted because you're just not socially right on you get people that are socially awkward people get persecuted because they're overweight i mean it's none of that or you just get somebody that's hard to get along with you ever get around somebody they're just proud they're they're haughty they're they're just difficult they're mean oh if people like that would get persecuted at different times that that's not what it's talking about and it doesn't say blessed are those who get persecuted for stupidity's sake and there are christians listen we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as dubs do you think if we went down to the city center after the service is over today with this agenda we are going to do nothing but speak against homosexuality you think we might even get thrown in jail perhaps you think that was wise you know you could go down to the city center and do nothing but say nasty things about allah and muhammad what do you think would happen have you ever noticed that paul did not preach against zeus you ever noticed that in fact what he did say was well you've got this altar to an unknown god let me tell you about him very very i mean when you listen to christ speak christ lived in the days of the roman empire i never hear of him mentioning one of the greek or roman gods ever do you because there was a wisdom there do you know something i i did not realize this but i read something that lloyd jones said he said is the simple truth to say that there were christian people in nazi germany who are not only ready to practice and live the christian faith but who preached it in the open air and were not molested now i didn't know that my mindset of hitler would have been if you were christian you were going to the gas chamber if you were christian you were going to end up in one of the concentration camps but you know what lloyd jones said who lived through that era he said no he says as a matter of fact you had christians in germany who were preaching the truth what do you think would have happened if they would have stood up and preached against the nazis concentration camp but see they got up and they preached christ i'll tell you this you mix your politics with your religion don't be surprised that you get persecuted no see this is for righteousness sake this is seeking to do what we're talking about among the men in the ethics class to figure out how to live so as to please god in in everything that we do this is living for christ this is this is all out devoted to him now let's look deeper at this why see i want to ask this question where does the per i mean where does that persecution come from now i don't know how you were when you were lost and what age different people got saved at i came from a pretty rebel crowd pagan crowd of guys our mindset towards religious people i remember in high school we had to do a class project and we made a movie and while we were making this movie we did uh you probably don't know patty hearst anyway this this is a woman that was abducted and we did the film with this and and i i remember i didn't even know who it was jehovah's witnesses or mormons or if they were even genuine christians showed up at the door of this abandoned it was some beat up old house that we were using as kind of the hideout and they showed up there and i mean we just let them have it and i don't know if you were like that but people that people that came across religious why does it happen why why does that happen why does the world love it when christians fail and fall listen to this this is one of the most extensive portions of our bible that deal with this subject matter jesus says 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 its own yet because you're 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 his master if they persecuted me they will also persecute you if they kept my word they will keep yours also but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake you see right there it is for my namesake because they do not know him who sent me if i had not come and spoken to them they would have no sin but now they 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 but now they have seen and also hated both me and my father but this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law they hated me without a cause now when scripture says they hated me without a cause what it means is without a righteous cause it doesn't mean that they had nothing producing the animosity the scripture's very plain about what produced the animosity jesus said you remember the time when they his brothers were going up to the feast and he said i'm not going yet then he went up later he said to them the world cannot hate you but it hates me because i testify of it that its works are evil that's it right there basically you know this is true i saw ray comfort he went into a maximum security prison on the east coast of the united states and he interviewed men who were murderers and rapists and armed robbers and he asked them this question are you a good person is amazing you've got these these convicted criminals and across the board the testimony was they thought that they they said i admit i have done some bad things but basically at heart i am a pretty good person that would sum up what all these people were saying there see here's here's the thing the world is proud people lost people are proud people lost people believe that they're good luck do you know why the vast majority of humanity is not hyper ventilating right now at the fact that death is coming christ is going to return and they're not ready do you know why well they they try to suppress the truth they they don't want to know about god but but at the at the even if you're an atheist you talk to these people and they basically think that they're good people do you know what christ did he came into this world and he said you are bad your your righteousness is filth you are in trouble and he said to those righteous spiritual leaders in that day it's only the sick and see he came to show men how sick they are he came to show men how ugly how diseased how backwards how broken how fallen and he says i testify that its works are evil that's in john 7. in john 3 it says this is the condemnation light has come into the world men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light unless this deed should be exposed and you see when i was lost yeah i thought it was a pretty good guy and if i would have worked in a place say it's tesco and there's and and you know what i regularly take 20-minute breaks when it's a 10-minute break but there's that guy over there he's always back to work he's back to work at at 9 minutes and 30 seconds he's back to work he always tells the truth and i when i was lost i would have easily stolen something i would easily lied i would have easily come in late or you know called one of the guys hey you know put my time card in and stamp it for me and that's what the world does and yet we all think we're pretty good people but then you get this this thorn in your side what's this guy over here i mean we tell a joke and he doesn't laugh and see what happens is it it condemns us because there's a there's a conscience in there and this thing is stirring it up what you need to recognize is this jesus did not come as simply a nice guy he was different and there was that about his life and there was that about his words that you know what it caused men to do it caused men to recognize that their own righteousness was pathetic it it caused them to recognize that they weren't so good as they thought they were and what happens we make the world feel uncomfortable we make we make them unhappy you know i i can remember after getting saved you go to a family reunion and it's all of a sudden or i'd go see my friends from my lost days and it's it's like they want you to do what they do and when you don't do what they do they don't like it they constantly want to get you to do maybe some of you have heard the the bob jennings story i mean he probably if you listen to i'll be honest you know that at that q a during one of the fellowship conferences he was talking about his friend that wanted him to just have a beer with him after he was first saved and he did and the guy the guy kept after him and kept after him and kept after him and kept after him and he kept saying no no no no and finally he broke and he had one in the moment he put it to his lips the guy was like there it is i knew it you know that's how the world is and isn't it amazing some professing christian to some scandal is all of a sudden discovered some failure some fall some some blemish on a christian's life and the media the press the world they're right there they're right there they're sounding all the alarms it's a big story but one of their own does the same exact thing yeah you don't even hear do you do you hear what is happening with with the governor of new york state if that happened to a christian if that happened to john mcarthur oh you know what would happen and it wouldn't be the same why well we shouldn't be surprised at it because this this is exactly the thing here this is exactly what we're talking about what we do is we make people feel uncomfortable we make people feel unhappy we're we're constantly a source of light and we're shining i remember not long after i was saved and there was a my mom and her sisters rented a house on lake michigan they want to do that here so hopefully you'll get to meet all the folks my aunts my mom and my my three aunts but we my grandparents were still alive we got it we got a house and so the whole family comes there and we're having a meal my one aunt is talking about how she went to a priest who can tell the future so she basically went and she was single at that time and she was wondering about her love life and she was wondering about the future and so basically this this guy is a fortune teller basically from the catholic church and he said some interesting things that were actually true and my uncle at that time he just he just wants to stir things up and so he asked me well tim what do you think i said it's demonic and uh of course you could just feel the tension in the place i mean you start speaking truth and there's just this tension here my aunt's thinking you know well this is a great thing i wouldn't had my you know my future told by it just you know it's the topic of interest but now all of a sudden i'm making it sound like well she's just dabbling in occultish things which that's exactly what she's doing but it just you all listen any of you that you ran with the crowd before and then god saves you you know exactly what i'm talking about there's all of a sudden there's this tension because why now you are convinced that one of the things you're convinced of is how lost they are and so you're wanting to show light here you want to give hope to them you know peter peter deals with just just the tension here he says in first peter 2 12 he have your conduct honorable among the gentiles that when they speak against you as evildoers now isn't that interesting peter just assumes the world is going to speak about christians as though we're evil doers even though look what he's saying let your conduct be honorable that when they speak against you as evildoers they they love to do that and i i remember working as an engineer i would talk to the guys i remember that i remember one electrical guy and it was just he and i in the office and i said dan if i'm right he wasn't he was a professed atheist he said well i suppose if you're right i'm in trouble see that was that was one of the few times i ever had with him alone typically when i would try to have these discussions in an office environment he was like the rabbi i mean he would he would lead the attack but getting him alone it was it was a bit more subdued but here's they speak against us as evildoers they that they may by your good works which they observe isn't that interesting see they're watching they are watching what we do they glorify god in the day of visitation now that may be the day of some judgment visitation they'll glorify god because they will admit that what they speak evil about was actually good deeds or it could be a day of revival and they'll glorify god in the sense that they'll have recognized the whole time this is real you just can't explain what's happening in this person's life as evil as i speak about them i know in my conscience that something is happening here peter also says this we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the gentiles when we walked in lewdness lust drunkenness revelries drinking parties and abominable idolatries in regard to these they think it's strange that you do not run with them you see they notice in the same flood of dissipation speaking evil of you and there it is again and in chapter four he's peter sees people speaking evil of us why even though well this because we don't run with them we don't do the same things that we used to do and see this is troubling to the world this is troubling to family this is troubling to friends because you know what my friends i ran with them i did what they did after i got saved i remember one of my friends he holds up a fifth of whiskey and he's like come on you used to drink this with me another one came over and he grabbed me by the throat and he said it's just like you're dead and see the the reality is that we walk we talk we live with the world and they're watching and we're like them some are a little worse some are a little better but we're like them and we're going along and suddenly christ comes in there's faith we look to him god radically saves us and now our lives are different and they recognize it and you know what it condemns them because think about what that means i mean do you realize this i basically was a black sheep in my family i think i mentioned that before i mean among my family i i was kind of out there now ruby tells me about her brother before he got saved i would not have done some of the things that he did because i was i guess i was a bit more shielded around family but i was considered black sheep and i thought when i got saved that they would be they would be happy they would be pleased and if that wasn't the case i began to recognize that they liked how i was before you know why because before as a black sheep you know what you make them look like you make them look better because you know when they can look at you and they can say well i'm better than them see when you're going through life and it's like well i'm better than them and i'm better than them and i'm better than them i mean you start feeling pretty good about yourself certainly it'll be okay in that day but see you get around somebody like jesus and it's like suddenly you're feeling smaller and smaller and you're shrinking and you're looking very pathetic well it even happens in his followers i mean why because our lives get so drastically changed and and see this is one of the things my friends had to deal with my friends tried to come up with reasons why this happened that did not have to do with christ and see what what and i said as much to them i said guys because i met with a bunch of these guys after like two decades i said you know what if if this would have been short term and three months later yeah i moved on to something else but i said guys it's been 25 years and i'm still following this and guys what you have to recognize is you know here we are in this pool of people and something has happened to me that has not happened to you and now if that has to happen to you to get to glory you guys are in trouble and see they know that the conscience tells them that this person is living at another at another level this person is living beyond where i am it condemns them they don't like it i can remember shortly after i got saved now see this is very interesting one of my friends he wasn't real close he lived next door to me when i was when i was in grade school he wasn't super close to me just simply because he was religious but he was he was in the group sort of this guy was catholic and he got his bachelor's degree and then he got his master's degree and then he got his doctorate degree and he was getting it in theology he is a jesuit priest today preaching at a major catholic university in the u.s well he is advancing in his studies towards his masters in theology so you can understand where he's at intellectually when it comes to theology i've only been saved just a few months i know next to nothing and i wasn't raised in the bible i was actually absolutely ignorant and so here we are christmas break he's back from school i'm already working as an engineer we're in a bar somewhere and i was spending time with my friends because i was i was preaching the gospel and i wanted to go there just i wanted to be around my buddies no matter what they were doing whether they were going to go to a restaurant or to to a bar to a pool hall wherever it was i wanted to be with these guys because i had a message for them and i thought they would all jump on board but i remember talking to dave dave's there he's he's the catholic he's i'm telling dave about these things and he just blew up conway you don't even know the first miracle that christ did i said dave you're right i don't i said but dave you know how my life was and it has been radically changed and jesus did it and he just was angry that is so interesting because you know among my friends this guy was the kind of guy that put rocks in his shoes when he was a little kid to earn merit that's the kind of guy he was and so see he saw himself at the top of the pile hanging around with guys like us i mean he if anybody was getting to heaven he was and i can remember two other friends guys i partied heavily with went went to a restaurant one friday night again same objective we sat down and we're talking again even among my friends i was somewhat of a black sheep and one of the guys that i had lived with in college he was he was the quarterback of a high school football team and he was a popular guy and he was a nice guy and i'm i'm telling him the gospel i'm telling him what christ has done for me he just says conway if if you're going to heaven i certainly am see it's just an aggravation and and see the thing the thing that they the transformed life it's just they can't get away from it if somebody just tags a little religion on that is entirely different than when suddenly there's a righteousness and they recognize it suddenly you're you're living for christ in a way that they they see this and it just strikes you know what it does it strikes at the self righteousness of man it it unmasks the pride listen to this this is your instruction christian have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them do you all remember leslie smith i was talking to leslie when he was in nursing home and the nurses two nurses were coming in i think he had just got done being bathed you know he's old and he needed to be bathed by the the nurses there and i was talking to him and he said that um when when they took him to the tub one of the ladies used the lord's name in vain and he was telling me how just he shined the light right on them oh you must you mustn't use the name of your creator that way i see when you're an old man you can kind of get away with it a little bit better craig who's now sort of taking my place back at grace craig told me that when he worked at a factory he went out to the tool crib in the factory where they loan out different tools and he went to the cage there the guys behind in a screened-in area and the guys the guy used the lord's name in vain and craig said craig just blurted out at him the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes he said that guy just exploded have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness rather expose them see how you're supposed to be light this is this and look if we're living this way it's shameful even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light whatever makes manifest is light light makes manifest you know what that means go in a dark room you can't hardly see things you can see silhouettes you can see you turn on the light now everything appears that's what you are you guys are light bulbs and see when light bulbs go into dark rooms all of a sudden the critters that like to hide out in dark you know one of the things when when i my friends and i when i we like the dark you like to party at night you like to do things where the light isn't bright so much you want to escape that kind of thing now listen to this it's for my sake blessed are you when you are reviled and persecute blessed are you when they revile and they just as they we know who they is blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name's sake and just think about that for my name's sake we can draw various conclusions from that very passage it tells us a great deal about our own ideas of christ think with me here how do you imagine jesus to be and one of the reasons that i just one of the reasons that certain christmas songs are not favorites of mine is because basically they want to create this picture of a harmless babe in a manger i like the one we sang today because the emphasis is just as much on the fact that he's lord because you know you you you basically create this picture do you know the world and it used to be this way a whole lot more in the uk than it is now obviously but people in droves flock into the church on easter on christmas and do you know what happens basically christ is set forth in a way that the world they're not offended at and what we can know is this jesus says the world hates me and if you're mine i've taken you out of the world the world hates you too and it's for my sake it's it's our identity with him and we can pretty much know whether we've got the right christ or not based on how the world responds to the christ if he's a little harmless babe do you think the world's going to be offended at that no if you simply say christ died for you you know the average guy well i'm a pretty good guy and of course he'd die for me i love me he loves me it all makes sense right the world is not shocked to hear that christ would die on a cross and of course in most places it's preached in a way well he died for everybody he died for you he died for you he died for you there's they don't really even hit on the gospel they don't hit on sin they don't hit they're not trying to bring men to see how sick they are this is this is this expression of love or or you you basically put put christ in a manger and he's this tiny little baby the jesus that's applauded and lauded all the time is it's not the true one have you ever noticed the effect that jesus had on his contemporaries i mean you ever notice when you're reading the four gospels and even what peter says in acts 3 when he's preaching about what happened in the gospels do you realize what they did to him do you realize what happened just follow the narrative and see how long it is what's he doing he's healing people he's feeding people he's curing leprosy he's delivering people from demons they hated him without a cause if you really look at him nobody loved mankind like he loved mankind and yet with the with the things that he did watch how fast they hated him watch how fast they persecuted him see they had their little traditions and their little thing see we've got our righteousness over here and we don't do these certain things on the sabbath day and here comes jesus and he's just blowing it out of the water and he's making them all look like fools which one of you has a has some animal you have a son that falls into a well you won't take him out he's just exposing them he exposes their hypocrisy he'd call them hypocrites he'd call them all he'd he'd say the truth but what did he do he came and he loved on men he loved people he helped people he healed people he offered salvation he called them to come to him that they might have life he came to bear witness to the truth he came to do men good and they hated him they i mean you think about this what did they do they threw stones at him they plotted to kill him they cried out in the crowd crucify him pilate was ready to let him go they spared a murderer and they killed him you realize what they did they killed the prince of peace see this is this is precisely the effect that the true christ has always had on the world and can i tell you something christ has not changed and man has not changed and if if we brought christ into this world right now they'd kill him they would crucify him in their whatever method they have you see he he would cause the same antagonism in this world today because man has not changed and the devil has not changed and the world is in the power of the evil one and you bring somebody not in that power somebody that's not of the world somebody that's the absolute stranger and you throw him in there he suddenly condemns people people feel condemned being around him and he said that he he exposed their deeds for what they were he showed men that their deeds are wicked he showed them you know what men's we deeds are wicked what he did was he came to bear witness to the truth and in seeing the truth if men would have ran to him they would have found salvation but they see men would rather go to hell but men would rather reject the only way possible of being saved he doesn't change man doesn't change and you can mark my words they did not praise our lord and they will never praise you if you bear his resemblance not at all blessed are they when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake my sake i just want you all to hear this as we're wrapping this my sake do you recognize this christianity is not a teaching christianity is about a person christianity is about us identifying with this historical person christ said my sake christianity is not about the advice i can give to the uk government about how to deal with covet it's we're not it's we start with this historical person that's where my sake jesus says my sake this is why people are going to persecute you because of me the lord jesus christ was clearly that which he assumes is going to be that which is going to create the antagonism in the world and it's going to create that antagonism because we're his witnesses i mean you recognize this now it's our task to do what he did what did he do he revealed their works as dark so that they might come to him and have life and now that's what that's our place now we're exposing people's deeds we point them to christ that's exactly what the early church did they weren't simply going forth to preach truths about christianity they went forth to preach christ we recognize we live for his sake we preach for his sake what we do with the rest of our day today is for his sake as we go out before the world it's because they're watching those early disciples they went to the people and they told them about this person i'll tell you funny last week sonny was out there preaching you know what the guy said why don't you go help the poor person over there in the doorway see shut your bible shut your mouth don't tell us about christ go help the poor guy oh yeah they're good with that yeah you can you can go visit the hospital you can go visit the nursing home they'll be okay with that you can go visit prisoners you start talking about christ you see it's for his sake start telling them about this christ start telling about the singularity of this christ there's no other name given among given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved you tell them that there's no way to the father he's the way the truth and the life nobody comes that that's it there's no rest you come unto me weary and heavy laden ones that you might have rest see the old rest has only found him peace the peace of his cross you start telling men this you see you know what it does it attacks people's idols it attacks their trust it attacks their traditions you just say to those muslims you can't get to heaven that way that way leads to hell their fangs are going to come out why because they have this love in there they have an animosity towards the true god they have an animosity towards christ oh yeah they got their their they got their christ but it's not the christ of the scriptures and that's what we need to recognize you know what people that have no problem with christ it's because they don't know christ they haven't seen him you listen there's a volatility between people in this world and the true christ and the only reason certain people in this world will speak well of christ like a muslim is because it's not the christ of scripture bank on it when it when he says you're going to be persecuted they're going to speak evil things for my sake it's for that real christ it's for the one that came and exposed men's deeds and if we follow in his path we'll do the same thing you're my witnesses you go bear witness to me right here in judea and samaria and right out there into the uttermost parts of the world and see as we take that message forth this it is difficult i mean you recognize the situation that he's put us in he's put us in this situation where he's told us right up front they're gonna hate you they're gonna hate you because they hated me we recognize that we're called to be the ones today to be the lights in the world we have this commission before us we're supposed to go out and make disciples but we recognize that the message that we're bringing to people creates hostility and they may kill us in fact jesus said they're going to think they do god a favor when they kill you but that's it it's it's his sake is that person christ that they hate but listen to this if you're one of those people who act enough like christ and bear enough of his name in this world to where it's obvious enough to be an irritation and draw forth the ire of the world around us you know what jesus says you're blessed he says it's good he says you should you see the text you should rejoice and be exceedingly glad you see this persecution for christ's sake is proof of who and what you are he says rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you do you recognize this by reviling you speaking evil of you whatever level of persecution the world is just telling you you don't belong to it you belong to another world it should remind you of who you are and where you're going and what's going to be there when you get there listen rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven you're like the prophets so they persecuted the prophets who were before you the non-christian does everything he possibly can not to think about death and not to think about eternity not to think what's out there you recognize you recognize what's happening here jesus is the one who said i go to prepare a place for you and so you could almost imagine it like this can you you can imagine climbing a hill you can imagine being over in the peak district and you're climbing a hill and you can imagine if you know you go with me and you out climb me to the top and i'm still coming up i'm about 400 yards behind you but you're up on the peak and you can see down on the other side and you're shouting back to me oh brother get up here this is a phenomenal view there's something like that do you recognize what's happening here jesus is up at the top of the mountain and he's looking down the other side now he created it that whole landscape on the other side is his doing but he's up there and he can see what's over there and you can't and he's turning back to he's looking and he's looking back at you and you can't see what he sees and he says ladies and gentlemen if you could see what i see you would come out of your seats right now you would rejoice and you would be exceedingly glad you would jump for joy for gladness at what i see you're gonna get and so if you're coming up the back side of this mountain and you're living for him and you're living for righteousness and people are persecuting you he's saying you know what you can thank them because they are telling you exactly that you're going to get what's on the other side of this mountain when you get over there that's that's the reality your destiny and mine are as certain as we are alive right at this moment that this beatitude describes us if we're living for christ and we're living for righteousness in a way that gets the attention of the world they actually prove to me persecution proves to me that i belong to him that i'm going to be with him and that i'm going to share in this eternal joy a few more rolling sons at most and so we don't want to back away from this i'll tell you this doesn't matter where you are we've got some of our young people in a school some of you are in different workplaces you just be to you'll be determined you're going to be a light in this world you're going to expose it's going to be uncomfortable sometimes yes he'll give you grace it is uncomfortable sometimes i know it is i feel it and we don't like to be disliked we don't like hostility we don't like to be avoided we don't like to be excluded we don't like that none of us have been in jail yet for it but that's actually happening in the world even in the west where we might have thought that it wouldn't happen in our lifetimes people are being put there but listen this is okay it's okay because it it's it's a witness to where you're headed and this is a reward you know there isn't there is another passage that does say leap for joy if if the spirit of god would somehow communicate to you right now the reality of this there would be cause for you to be jumping up and down it's like if i could take all of you to the top of that mountain and we could look over and then i'll come back here we'd we'd be we'd be stunned we'd be absolutely amazed and and my wife was asking as we were driving here today well what's it going to be like i mean does the bible tell us you know the bible is vague it's almost like the human words just can't capture it but isn't it enough this day you'll be with me in paradise who wants something better than paradise i mean just take that word paradise or an eternal weight of glory can you can you go higher than that can you go bigger broader deeper further an eternal weight of glory you see it's it's the wording in scripture is extremely brief and it for good reason because human language just wouldn't capture it and i've told you this before i reckon that whitfield in his diary he recounts the story of a woman on her death bed who went unconscious and she came back she said to her family i had just seen such things as would not be believed if told and she was gone and whitfield was so moved by that he put it in his journal father i pray that you would help us lord help us to live for righteousness sake give us the grace to live for christ's sake give us the grace to never deny his precious name though it costs us our lives and we don't have any guarantee that it won't but help us lord to be faithful even unto death to to be faithful no matter what it is that it costs us to be a christian help us lord give us grace i pray in christ's name amen you are dismissed

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 3,204

Rating: 4.8657718 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Conway, suffer, persecuted, hated, Christian, world, tolerated

Id: W3hBz24sSfY

Length: 66min 20sec (3980 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021