a major sports manufacturer of gear for sports called Shoot Sports, up until recently had on their website a disclaimer that they put on all of their football helmets. And football helmets are one of the main things that they make, so this is a large source of their income. And their warning reads this. No helmet system can prevent concussions or eliminate the risk of serious head or neck injuries while playing football. And then there's a list of symptoms of a concussion to give you those warning signs, and the warning ends like this. To avoid these risks of playing football, do not engage in the sport of football. Now that may seem obvious, right? If you don't wanna come into contact with the dangers of playing football, well then maybe you shouldn't play football. Isn't that the same for following Christ? Maybe the warning can read like this. To avoid the risk of discipleship, do not engage in following Jesus. You see, in our times until recently, Most of us have not understood experientially what that means. We've had very few times where we have actually felt that persecution. Very few times where we have actually felt our family take hits because of our faith. Now, I dare say that when that absence of persecution, that absence of slander, that absence of insult is the prominent theme of our life, maybe we are actually not engaged in a very stark form of discipleship. For when we follow Jesus, what have we already learned in Luke? We leave everything to follow him. Now, that doesn't mean every one of us have to walk away from house and home and wealth, but it does mean we have to be willing to do that, if that's what following Jesus means. I wonder if these warnings hit home with us. There's a missions agency in South Asia that used to ask their missionaries, I can't find out whether they still do this or not, predominantly sending church planting into Hindu nations, And they would ask new converts, they would ask their church planters this, and then they would ask their new converts this. Those people who said, yes, I wanna follow Jesus, and the missionaries who would go out to preach the gospel so that people would follow Jesus, they would ask these questions. Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father? Are you willing to lose your job? Are you willing to go to the village of those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them? Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord? Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith? Are you willing to go to prison? And finally, are you willing to die for Jesus? And those questions seem, Benign to us. Although all of us know all over the world, brothers and sisters in Christ are facing each one of these every day in multiple nations. The last survey that was done by an organization that tracks persecution showed the top 50 nations all in the red zone. Only the third or fourth times that had ever happened in 2023. All 50 nations in the red zone, the top 50 nations that persecute Christians had all risen in their persecution of Christians. And we sort of are starting to feel that post COVID, the shifting in our country, the shifting in the viewpoints and the moral standards and foundations of our country. But this is something that we will face. And this is something that our children will face. It is costly to follow Jesus and yet, That cost is worth every moment of suffering and persecution. That's what Jesus intends for us to understand. Jesus intends for us in this fourth beatitude in the gospel of Luke, this set of beatitudes and woes that kick off his sermon on the plain. Jesus intends for us to understand that following him will result in certain responses from those who hate him when we live for him. but that those things are easily endured by us, for there is a future reward, and that reward is so certain that even in this day, we can live joyfully in the midst of that persecution. So in some sense, the text before us is preparatory, and in some sense, the text before us is very prescient for the world that we live in. And so what we wanna do this morning is, first of all, I want you to evaluate your readiness to follow Christ, no matter what the cost of persecution is. I want you to evaluate your readiness to send your children out into the world and evaluate your readiness and how ready you think they are by the time they leave your home to go out into the world. And if God calls one of them to go to one of these mission fields that have to answer those seven questions before they go, Are you preparing them to follow Jesus in that world? Because the joys of our future inheritance are glorious. And even though we haven't completely received them yet, we are walking in this world and it should make us literally, according to our text today, leap for joy. It's no platitude here this morning before us. Turn to Luke chapter six if you're not already there. I'm gonna do as we have done all four weeks in these Beatitudes. We'll start reading in verse 20, if you'll stand. Luke 6, beginning in verse 20. And turning his gaze toward his disciples, he began to say, blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who cry now. for you shall laugh. I skipped a verse, I'm sorry. Blessed are those who hunger now for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who cry now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and exclude you and insult you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the son of man. be glad in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets but Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and cry. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things to the false prophets. The grass withers and the flower falls. You may be seated. I want you to take note of a couple of things in these verses as we begin. I'm gonna kind of do an overview of these verses and point out some things that we need to take note of beforehand, and then we'll dive in a little bit more into each of the sections. But I want you to notice three changes that we see. There are three changes that we're going to see in this fourth beatitude compared to the other beatitudes. The first is a change in condition. Remember that the first three beatitudes, those who are poor, those who are hungry, and those who cry, that's a condition. It is a state of being poor, hungry, or crying that will be reversed. But when we get to this fourth beatitude, this is brought to us as a fate Or that you're receiving things from other people. You're receiving things from people who do things to you. So the first thing that we see is a change in this condition. And the application for this is very broad. all the enemies of Christ and what they will do to Christians, but yet there's a specificity about this as well, isn't there? There's a specificity that the people who are doing this are identified as Jews in Jesus' day, because we're told that they are doing things like their fathers before them. So there is a specific application that we need to see first of all. But it also warns us that this could happen in the church. Just like Jesus came to his people and some received him and some rejected him, we have wheat and tares mixed together in the church. And there are people who engage in these kinds of activities that God uses to reveal that they are part of the tares and not part of his people. So we have multiple levels of application to look at. The second change is a change in form. Notice, blessed are the poor, blessed are those, blessed are those, and now we have blessed are you. So there's a shift here. There's a shift from the word those to the word you. It further delineates this change in this fourth beatitude, which sort of lets us see that this is a summary of all of these put together. A life that's lived in devotion to Christ will look a certain way in this world, and believers will respond a certain way to that. And also we see a change in form of the woe. The woe, look over, I have to turn my page, you may not have to turn yours, but look at verse 26. Woe to you when all men speak well of you. All the other ones have had four, and then there's the great reversal brought to us. You may have had this in this life, but in the age to come, you will have the negative side of that. And our last one doesn't have that. So there's a change in condition, there's a change in form, and there's also a change in fullness. The other Beatitudes are a half a verse. They're just one line. And this one is expanded. The things that we're experiencing as those who are devoted to Christ, and the way the woe is described, it's all an expansion. It's more words, it's more thought brought in there. So those three changes should grab us to wonder what's going on here. And I think what Jesus is doing is he's drawing our attention to the fact that life starts leading in a certain direction in this world. And we'll see even when we get to these four things that we receive from the people who hate us because we are following Jesus, we'll see that they tend to increase as well. There's a building up of what's happening here as we get to the end of the Beatitudes. Another thing I want you to notice, this isn't a change, but I want you to notice the end of verse 22. For the sake of the Son of Man, for the sake of, because of, on account of, for the sake of the Son of Man. Now let us not get too far into this without knowing and remembering all the way through that we are living because of Christ. We are living for the sake of the Son of Man. Remember, that's prominent in Luke for us, that idea of the Son of Man. So it's, his people, his followers live for his sake, live on account of him, live because of him. That is the circumstance that's going to be talked about in the verse preceding that phrase. The circumstance is, these things happen to you when You are living for the sake of the Son of Man. When you are living on the count of Jesus, you're devoted to Him. So this is a picture of a life of those who have taken on the name of Christ and are walking in that kind of discipleship, that when these things happen, you notice there's a little bit of a change there as well to shift us from the condition, the conditions that the first three Beatitudes has, to the fate, but it's when these things happen. It's going to happen, but it may not be happening all the time. But the key to us understanding this is this happens because we are devoted to Christ. This phrase, for the sake of, comes up a couple of times in Luke that helps us see Luke's focus. Luke 9, 24. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. Luke 18, 29. And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more at this time and in the age to come eternal life. chapter 21, verses 12 through 17. Before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors. For my name's sake, Jesus says, it will result in an opportunity for your testimony. So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. And listen, you will be hated by all because of my name. So Jesus makes this very clear and Luke brings it to us multiple times, follow Christ and this life could be more difficult for you when you are facing the world as you follow Christ. And why is that? Because people see Christ in us. Now, we don't want to be hated for wrong things. We don't want to be disliked because we're sinners. Listen to 1 Peter chapter 3. And he quotes Isaiah chapter 8. And do not fear their fear, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and fear, having a good conscience, so that the thing in which you are slandered Those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, Peter says, if God should will it, that you suffer for doing good rather for doing wrong. This is our life. And you notice that this is a very forward-facing life, isn't it? Always being ready to give an account of the hope that lies within us. Always being ready to talk about and tell people Jesus. always being ready with our life, pursuing the good works, the works that the Bible says are good works, through the power of the Spirit. That is what our life is, and we will be persecuted. But as Jesus tells us in Luke, if we get thrown before the magistrate, he's gonna give us even more words to give testimony to him. So living a life that is because of the Son of Man is going to lead to what we're going to learn here. And this needs to be something that we understand. Do not live your life so that people scorn you and insult you and exclude you because of your sin. Don't do that. Don't be the person who is so self-glorifying in the world and drawing all attention to yourself that people get tired of that and they scorn you because you're not living for Christ, because you're living for God. This all sets the stage for us, all within that little phrase at the end of verse 22, for the sake of the Son of Man. Now, let's look at our text a little closer. Those who live devoted to Christ will be blessed when men, because of Christ, remember, because of Christ, look at verse 22, blessed are you first when men hate you. So very personal here, a plural you through all of this verse. When men hate you, men as in people, not just males, but men as in people, when they hate you, you living because of Christ will bring times that men may hate you. And that's the language that's here. It's not a guarantee that you'll always face this, but it's the assumption that you probably will, and when you do, there are certain things that within you will happen, which we'll get to in the next verse. So when they hate you. We've already seen this idea. Remember Zacharias' song in Luke chapter 1? In Luke chapter one, Zechariah, giving praise to God, describes the salvation that comes in Christ by quoting Psalm 106.10. And he says, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. So even there in that great promise, there are going to be enemies and there are going to be people who hate us, but we have salvation from them in Christ. So even when people hate us, we have a future that they may not have. Now those people that hate us, remember the divine reversals that we see here in Luke chapter six in the Beatitudes go both ways, don't they? And we'll look at one in just a moment. But the divine reversals go the other way as well. There are people who are enemies of Christ, who God subdues by his spirit, and their reverse, their world is turned upside down, so that now they're the ones who are persecuted in this life, instead of doing the hating, instead of doing the persecuting. Isaiah 66.5 is probably alluded to here and in the next line, the exclusion, when they exclude you. Isaiah 66.5 says this, hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word, your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for my name's sake, They have said, let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your gladness, but they will be put to shame. A voice of rumbling from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of Yahweh who is paying recompenses to his enemies. So even in the Old Testament, God is using this kind of language for the sake of his name. His people will suffer at the hands of unjust men, but a day is coming, isn't it? A day is coming where God comes in the power of all His sovereign power, sending His Son back, that there would be a reckoning, there would be a recompense to the enemies of these people on earth. Keep your finger in Luke chapter 6, but turn to John chapter 15. John chapter 15, we're gonna start in verse 18. How do we know this is gonna be true? Because we're not better than our master. John 15, beginning in verse 18. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave 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. because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates the father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned, but now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well. But this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, they hated me without cause. This is what we should expect if we're living for the glory of God, that people will hate us, that people will turn their words against us, they will turn all the weapons that they have in this world against us. And that's okay because they hated Jesus as well. You know, our task when they hate us is to hate them right back, right? Just checking to see if you're listening. Is that what we're supposed to do? No, our task is to love them. Our task is to offer Christ to them. Our task is to come closer to those who hate us. If they kill us, so be it. But our task is not to hate them back. Now, how much do we actually fight the hate that's in our hearts? Because when we see the name of Christ drug through the mud like we do today, and not even just in the world, but even in some of the online conversations between Christians, when we see that, it makes us angry, and we are very tempted just to shut them out, hate them, and then follow that up with the next word in here, to exclude them. And as you can see, this accelerates as we go. The hatred, which can be seen, but it's seen in other ways, unless you just say, I hate you. The hatred is an internal thing that is worked up within you. It's against the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then when that starts working out, it works itself out in exclusion. And it works itself out in insulting other people and scorning their name. And it begins to increase in that way. So not only hating you, but also excluding you. excluding you, to separate, to isolate, to set apart. We also saw this in Isaiah 66, just in the last verse. They hate and exclude. This seems to be the way the people who are enemies with God tend to do with God and his people. It's what they do with God himself, is it not? It's what they do with his son. They have a hatred towards what is righteous because they are the king of their own life, and so what do they do? That Jesus is good for you, but I just don't need him. I'm glad Jesus is a comfort for you, but he's not going to be a comfort for me. They set themselves apart. They exclude themselves from Jesus. And at the end of the age, Matthew 13 tells us, the angels will come forth and take out, that is the same Greek word here for exclude, to take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We see that tied into some of the other woes that we've seen. And this happens. I read this week a story that I did not know about T.S. Eliot. He was a member of a group called the Bloomsbury Group, a group of people in the Bloomsbury District in central London. And there were poets and artists involved in this group. And T.S. Eliot, the poet, was among those. among those people that were in that group that met regularly, and so was Virginia Woolf. The writer of Virginia Woolf was part of it. T.S. Lewis gets saved. He comes to Christ, and his life begins to be changed, and this is what, now remember, this is a kind of intricate group of people that are all in the arts and and literature in London in the day. And they were partners in crime, so to speak, for the advancement of thought and art in the day. And here's what Virginia Woolf said about T.S. Eliot when he came to Christ. She wrote this in a letter to one of the other Bloomsbury group people. I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with dear Tom Eliot, who may be called dead to us from this day forward. He has become a believer in God and immortality, and he goes to church. I was shocked. A corpse would seem more credible than he is. I mean, there's something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God. Not nice words, is it? Full of insults, full of exclusion. He should be dead to us from this time forward. What did he do? He turned to Christ and believed the truth and God saved him. And yet that was the immediate reaction from the enemies of God. The immediate reaction from those who had no place to even think about a life that is devoted to Christ, the son of man. Now this can happen to us easy. Some of you have already experienced this in your life. You stand for righteous social issues. You stand against abortion. You stand for a biblical view of sexuality and gender. And your family, your extended family excludes you from that. Maybe you're still invited to the Thanksgiving dinner, but it's awful cold. And the next year, if you don't keep your mouth shut, you could very easily not be invited at all the next year. This happens all throughout the world today under the guise of politics, doesn't it, for believers? It's in the political realm, but it's actually enemies of Christ standing for what Satan stands for, and then we're gonna put the ones who agree with Satan on the far left, and those who don't agree with the left on the right, and we say it's a political divide, but what kind of divide is it? It's a righteous divide. Because if you stand in the political arena and you stand for life, that's not a political decision you're making. It is a biblical decision you're making. It is a moral decision you're making. It is a decision to follow the truth with the capital T that brings glory to God. It is a decision to live for the glory of Christ in the world. and that can be exclusion. I mean, what was the common cry for those who are against the last election? Don't go to Thanksgiving with those who voted for the other guy, right? People working themselves up in a tizzy. Now, most of the people who are standing against the most egregious things are doing so for biblical reasons, not all. But every Christian should be standing in that place. Should we not? We should be standing against abortion. We should be standing against the gender confusion. We should be standing against calling marriage something that God doesn't call marriage and many other things. They don't come from a political standpoint. They come from following Christ and being a disciple of Christ. And in this world, you will be hated and excluded for that stand. Are you taking it? Or are you silent in the public realm? because if you're taking it, you are getting that. Now, we're gonna get to the blessing in all of this, but this is the mark of someone who follows Christ. It is the mark of someone who is constantly living everything, doing everything in their life to follow Christ. Now, let me also tell you, the hatred leading to exclusion can come right from the body of Christ as well when God reveals tears among the wheat. Now, he may not reveal all the tares. Wheat and tares stay together until the day of judgment, right? God will do that. We just read that verse. He'll send his angels to the four corners and he will gather all of the tares and he will gather all of the wheat and do with them as he chooses. But in this life, he still decides to do that as well. And what happens when you take a stand when someone else is holding on to false doctrine or pursuing sin, obvious sin that is going to kill them in the long run, they refuse to repent, who do they start hating? the person who comes to talk to them, the person who comes to address them with love in the name of Christ with the gospel. And so the first thing that happens when they leave the church, what's the first thing they do? Exclude the people who love them enough to tell them the truth on social media, right? You're no longer my friend. And so when that happens, they think they can just have added and the person that they're angry with that they've excluded never knows what is said. This exclusion follows those, is the product of those who hate Christ. And we have them rise up within churches as well. But if we are diligent to live for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the son of man, then these are things we might experience. And we have to say, that's God's problem. It's not mine. Well, it increases. It's not just, if you'll look back at your text at verse 22, it's not just hate and exclusion, but it is also insults. They insult you. This happened to Jesus on the cross. It's the exact same word that is used when people are at the foot of the cross saying, well, he is the king of Israel. He's one who talks about God. Let God save him. Let him just come down from that cross. If he's God, let him come down from the cross. And the thieves on the cross, it says in Matthew, also insulted him in the same way. Well, here's Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, dying, the one who did not need to die, dying on behalf of the ones that he would save, and he is insulted while he does that. Well, I think if they insulted Jesus, I would expect me, if I live for Jesus, as a product of his work in me, I would expect those insults to come from me as well, come to me as well. Turn to 1 Peter chapter four. Keep your finger in Luke, 1 Peter chapter four, verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree you are sharing the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evildoer or a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be put to shame, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for the judgment to begin with the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? Therefore, those who will suffer according to the will of God must entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing good. You've seen this several times, that living for Christ, living according to the, for the sake of the Son of Man, means that we are pursuing good, we are pursuing righteous, we are pursuing what God calls good. We are not calling evil good, we're calling evil evil. And that is one of the things that the world sees in us. That's why we're to let our light shine before men. Why? So that we get glory? No, so they glorify our Father who is in heaven. So this is the mark, this is the walk of a believer, and it is the life of a believer, that there are times that those who are enemies of God will hate, leading to exclusion, leading to insults, and finally leading to scorning our name as evil. Look back at your text in verse 22 of Luke 6. This is the fourth level of hatred that we will experience at different times if we live for the sake of the Son of Man. Scorn your name as evil. Now, your translations may have something different there. It's literally, cast out your name as evil. And it's an idiom in the first century that means people speak your name. They cast it out into the world. They cast it out for the purpose of saying that it is evil. Now, there are some people that say that the name here is the name Christian. And we just saw that in the first Peter passage, that there's an idea of the name of us being Christian draws people against us because they're against Christ. But I think our context here is this is our character. This is our character, that they take our character, those who are enemies of God, and therefore they think that we are the enemies, and so they take our character and they slander it. They speak scornfully of it into the world. They speak in such a way that the world may look at us and then they would reproach us as well. One of the things I learned a long time ago in life is you cannot defend your own character when it's just floating out there in the ether. When somebody is talking against you, you can never chase down. You know that old phrase, I should have written this down to know it, but a lie will make it halfway around the world before the truth gets their feet on the floor in the morning. That's what happens. And I learned a long time ago, you can't defend your own character. Now if somebody comes and asks you about it, does the biblical thing and comes to talk to you, defend away. Listen to what they say, give them truth, stand on what you know to be true in a certain situation. But if you try to go sniff all that out of every place that that lie has made it, you'll spend the rest of your life in futility because you won't find all those places. God will do that. God will see fit to bring justice as He sees fit. As you live, now remember, I'm repeating this over and over and over because it is so important for us to remember, it's for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the Son of Man. If you are living for the sake of Christ and following His commands and loving Him more every single day and crucifying sin and loving your neighbor and preaching the gospel and things that the Bible tells us to do, then if there are people who slander us and to throw out our name as evil, then we have to just let that be God's issue and God will right the ship. It may not be until the day of judgment, amen, but that's okay because this is momentary light affliction. It's the next stage that we live without sin. It's the next stage that we get our reward. So there Our times, when we live for the sake of the Son of Man, we will be hated, we will be excluded, we will be insulted, and we will be scorned, our name and our character will be scorned as evil. But that's not the end of the story, is it? Luke just, Jesus doesn't stop and just say, yep, and that's your life, see you tomorrow. He gives us hope, doesn't he? Turn to the next verse, verse 23. Be glad. So in the midst of this, be hated, be insulted. Having people come against your name, having people insult you, you're to be glad. Now, don't mistake this as being some glib kind of Laughy, laughy, happy, clappy, gladness. This isn't just that you pretend it's not happening. You know it's happening, and you know it happened to your Lord Jesus, and if it's happening to you for doing right, for following Him, then you're glad. You're glad because He has counted you worthy to receive that kind of suffering. And if you look at your text, you have two things, be glad and leap for joy. Both of those are commands. The leap for joy is only here and when John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth's womb, when their mothers meet together and there's a leaping in the womb, that's mentioned twice there and it's mentioned here. So it's a unique word, but it's kind of picturesque for us, isn't it? When's the last time you leapt for joy? I mean physically left your feet for joy. I can't tell you the last time I did. I'd probably hurt myself if I did. But this is the command. You see how stark it is. It may get really crazy with the insults and people hating you and your character being derided out in public, but you're to be glad and you're to be so happy, you're leaping for joy. Both of them direct commands for us. Well, why? How can we do that? What is the foundation of our joy, of our gladness and our leaping for joy? Well, it's right in the text. He gives two reasons, doesn't he? We are to do this even though that we are excluded and insulted and slandered and hated. And the first reason is, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. Now, how many times have we seen, we saw it several times in Luke, we've already seen, or in Isaiah, and we've already seen it in Luke, the idea that our reward, our future reward, that is something that the Bible uses as motivation for our obedience. We've seen it over and over and over. And it's kind of counterintuitive for us, isn't it? Because the first thought is, well, then am I earning it? If I'm obedient, You know, on a good day, I'm nine out of 10. On a bad day, I'm seven out of 10. I hope that's enough, because I really want that reward. Well, maybe I need to be a little bit better. Well, that's not what's happening in the Scriptures, is it? The reward is ours in Christ. Remember, we're already tasting it. As we've seen so many times, we're already tasting it. We're seated in the heavenly places with Christ. We're in union with him. All of his spiritual blessings are ours, and they're ours now. They're not ours in there. fullness, but they are ours now. And just as we are receiving them now, and abiding in them, and having joy in them, it's almost unfathomable to think what it will be like when we get to the next stage, and we're in the new earth, and there is no more sin, death, or dying, and we have all of those blessings, that reward in full. And all of that reward is gonna be encapsulated in this. We'll be face to face with Jesus. I mean, what else could we possibly want? And when you're thinking in terms of these Beatitudes, all of these earthly things that have been talked about that are turned upside down in the heavenly eschatological blessings, what on earth do we want to pursue those for as if they're the end-all be-all? We get Jesus with no sin! That's our eternal destiny, and that reward is great. So how are we staying glad in the midst of this kind of persecution? How are we leaping for joy when it happens? We're doing that because our reward, what's the text say, is great in heaven. It's the eschatological fulfillment of all of those blessings. Let me return to one phrase. Look at your text at verse 23. Be glad in that day. Now, there are some commentators because often when we see that day, we're referring, the scriptures are referring to the final judgment, the day when Christ returns. And that could be here because we are talking about the rewards, but this seems to be so clearly connected with our current persecution that I think that day is the day that we are insulted. The day that we are excluded, the day that we have our character trashed, the day that we are those who are receiving insults beyond what we think we can bear, in that day, we are glad and leaping for joy because our reward is great in heaven. But there's also another reason. Four, see how they're connected with four? Be glad in that day and leap for joy. Four, behold, your reward is great in heaven. Four, their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets. So those who are insulting those followers for Jesus that he's speaking to, his disciples, remember he's amongst a large crowd of people, but he turned his gaze toward the disciples. Those who are living in Jesus's day are being persecuted predominantly by those who are of the Jewish faith, who are rejecting that Jesus is the Messiah. So in its immediate context, Jesus is giving great comfort to those people who are pulling away from all they've ever known, and all their fathers have ever known, and all their fathers' fathers, and their fathers' fathers' fathers, and back for generations and hundreds of years, all they've ever known is the old covenant way of living. And now Jesus is coming and saying, He is establishing a new kingdom. He is establishing something new. And they're completely rejected by those who are in their tribe, so to speak. Well, that's the same thing for us today, though. So we apply our dig and discover principles. We have to find out what the author and the speaker originally intended for the original audience, and then we figure out what that means for us. The last I knew, not many of us in here are under great persecution and insults. and scorning our reputation with those who are of the Jewish faith who have not yet received Christ as the Messiah. We don't experience that, but we do experience that from many other people who have not yet experienced Christ as their Messiah. So their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets. So why is this more food and fuel for our rejoicing and leaping and being glad? Because in the Old Testament, the prophets are scorned throughout the Old Testament. How many times do we know that the prophets were speaking the word of the Lord and rejected by the people? We could go to dozens of passages, I chose one. Aren't you happy? I'm only choosing one. at the end of 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 36, verses 15 and 16. And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by the hand of his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his habitation. But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy. You can also see summary statements like that in Jeremiah 9.26, or Nehemiah 9.26 and Jeremiah 2.30. Now that's a summary statement at the end of 2 Chronicles, and you can see they were doing exactly the same thing. When the prophets said something they didn't want to hear, which meant they were rejecting the word of God. When the prophets spoke, who was speaking to them? God was. And for what purpose according to that passage? He was showing compassion upon them. They were in their sin, but he wanted them to repent of their sin, so he sent the prophets to remind them that he was God and they were not, and reveal the sin that he was despising in them. And yet the scriptures say that they continually mocked the messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until God's wrath came upon them. So Jesus compares believers today with the Old Testament prophets who were devoted to and spoke for God even when they were scorned, even when they were killed. That's who we are, and that brings us encouragement. We're not leaping for joy that we're persecuted. We're leaping for joy that this is the mark of this sinful world. God loves people. He sends the messengers to preach the gospel. Some respond, some do not, and the ones who do not respond are going to hate the messenger. I mean, this has even come into our parlance today. Don't blame me, I'm only the messenger, right? That comes from the biblical standards of the prophets coming and the people rejecting it. And Jesus says, their fathers did the same to the prophets. And he ties that to being glad, and he ties that to leaping for joy. For, for, for those two reasons we are to do this. Now, This is one of those promises that we are tasting now, but we will completely understand it in full in the age to come. It's an already tasting, in the midst of this kind of persecution, we can be joyful and leap for joy, but there's coming a day where there will not be that persecution, there will be no more sin, and we live our life in that way, face-to-face with Jesus. Well, God is in the business of turning things around in his timing, in his plans, today, is he not? This happens. I read a fascinating story this week of a man named Ravan, who is a paid assailant for a Hindu nationalist organization in India called RSS. His father died when he was 15, and he was angry about it. So this organization came in, and as many cults will do, they swoop in when somebody is at their lowest, and they brought him on board, they gave him attention, and they trained him in their war against Christians in India. And they trained him to go in and identify farmers who were Christians, beat them, and then turn them over to the authorities. And in this, he found purpose. He found a meaning in his life, he said. He found a purpose for his life. but that's not what God had for him. God intended a divine rehearsal, a reversal in Robin's life. He intended everything to be flipped upside down. Whereas he tells the story, he says, when I was younger, my mom prayed for me all the time. He said, I would constantly tell her, mom, pray quieter. I'd have to put headphones on because all I heard was her praying for me. It drove me nuts. But then he had a near-fatal accident, and all of the people that recruited him for the RSS, they abandoned him. Nobody came to see him. Guess who was there for him at that time? His mama was there. And his mom kept praying, and his mom witnessed. And Ravon became a Christian. And when he became a Christian, everything changed for him. Those people that he was in partnership with, that being on their mission to beat up and turn over to the authorities, Christians, that mission for him, those people that he was in partnership with then began to persecute him. They began to try to kill him. They bad mouth him. They trashed his name. They insulted him. In a country that this kind of reputation would not be good for him. In business or in friendships or in organization with other people. And he trusted, and he was still trusting in Christ throughout the whole time of this persecution. And he said this, there's a lot of zeal within me, no matter what comes. We face a lot of persecution, but when I read the Bible and pray, I have experienced God speaking to me. I have learned that persecution is part of the Christian life, but I am determined to never turn back from my ministry. God gave me new life, so it doesn't matter even if I die. That's a summary of living for Jesus, right? He's given me life, so it doesn't matter if I die, because the life that He has given me is an eternal life. This life, where I was my own king, and I lived in my own kingdom, and I pursued my own glory, and I did what I wanted, and I sinned with impunity, and the only time I was ever stopped doing anything evil was when it was better for me to stop. That life is full of death and leads to death and that death will be eternal as well. And yet Jesus gave us life. So to live for him in this life and be full of zeal for his glory in this life, no matter what, that's the mission that we have now. Ravan's mission was changed and so is ours. Well, it doesn't just leave it there. Remember, the woes have been separated from the beatitudes. Look at verse 26. There is a woe here as well. So we saw the blessed one is the one who, when people spoke, it was bad speech, insult, scorn, slander. It was that kind of speech. But woe to you when all men, notice that, all men speak well of you. So if you're in a position that everyone speaks well of you, that is a problem. Because if you are standing on the word of God and you are public about it, there are going to be people who dislike what you say. We saw this throughout Christianity in and after COVID, did we not? How many people were well thought of by a lot of people? And then COVID happened, and God seemed to part the waters, didn't he? There were people within the Christian community who all of a sudden weren't spoken so well of. Some of those people were standing on biblical principles, and those who were in the old guard didn't like what they were saying, so they started excluding them. They started uninviting them to places. They started preaching against them when they had their public pulpits and their bully pulpits. God used the truth of his word to divide a lot of people in our own circles. So speaking well, everyone's speaking well of you. Now this seems like a dichotomy, doesn't it? What is the primary thing that an elder must be to be an elder? He must be above reproach. That kind of means everybody should think well of him, right? And yet we don't expect people to speak well of us when we're preaching the gospel if they hate Jesus. And yet there's a gentleness, even in our forceful speech against sin, there is a gentleness, there is a long suffering, there's a willingness to endure evil for the sake of the gospel that causes people to still think well of us while they hate what we speak. So there is a way that elders can be above reproach and still have people hate them for the truth that they speak. And in fact, I dare say there must be people who hate us for the truth that we speak. But we don't want them to hate us because we speak it in a way that marks us out as evil, that marks us out as not being long-suffering, that marks us out as people that are living for our own glory. So the woe is, if people are speaking well of you all the time, look back at your text. Who are these people? Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers were doing the same things to the false prophets. You see the symmetry with verse 23? Their fathers, verse 23, were doing the same things to the prophets. They were ignoring them, speaking against them. But now the woe is to those who speak well of you all the time, and to you if you receive it, if you're one who bask in all of the popularity of everyone liking you all the time. You see, I don't want that at all. I could care less if you like me. I want you to love Jesus. And if along the way we build a relationship and we have an affinity for each other, hallelujah. But why is that? It's because Jesus redeemed us. Jesus set us apart for his glory. Jesus united us in his family. We should love each other. We should have that deep relationship with each other, but we don't do it for our own glory, do we? Because what happens if we do it for our own glory? You know, I don't know if you know this, but there are sinners sitting in this room. Did you know that? Those who profess Christ, they will sin. And when they do, if your relationship is based for your glory, what's gonna happen when they sin against you? Exclusion. Because they didn't, they didn't pander to your ego. What your role as a Christian is to forgive them and to move on in love with them because you're both in Christ. So don't get me wrong. I don't live my life so that you don't like me. It hurts me when people don't like me, believe it or not. It does hurt me. But the point is, are we glorifying Christ? And are we doing it in such a way that we're standing so firm on the word of God that when people don't wanna stand firm on the word of God, we're all of a sudden in opposition to them. with the word, not with ourselves, but with the word. And if they flee from that and they prove themselves to be somebody who will not repent, we have to leave that to God. If they flee from that and leave the place and start talking about us after they leave, we have to leave that to the word of God and make sure that we are faithful to be those who live on account of Jesus for his glory and not for our own. So the woe is to those who bask in being liked by everyone because they never stand on truth. And the people that are giving them that, they're the same people that in the Old Testament, they spoke highly of the false prophets, the pseudo prophetes. It's a stark word. I want you to turn to a passage. I wasn't sure I was gonna read this, but we are going to read it. I want you to turn to 2 Kings 22. 2 Kings 22. No, that's not the right passage. 1 Kings 22. I was almost ready to concede that I'm not supposed to read this passage because the Spirit led me to another place. 1 Kings 22. I'm not gonna make a lot of comment on this. I just want us to look at this together and see the example and how much of what we've learned this morning is on display in this example. Verse two of 1 Kings 22. Now it happened in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. Then the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth-Gilead belongs to us, but we are sitting still so as not to take it out of the hand of the king of Aram? So he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Moreover, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire first for the word of Yahweh. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of Yahweh here that we may inquire of him? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah. But Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so, Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten to bring Micaiah, son of Imlah. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting each on his throne, clothed in their royal garments at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Canaan, made horns of iron for himself and said, thus says Yahweh, With these you will gore the Arameans until they are consumed. All the prophets were also prophesying, thus saying, Go up to Ramoth Gilead and succeed, and Yahweh will give it into the hand of the king. Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Now behold, the words of the prophets, as if from one mouth, are good toward the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good. But Micaiah said, as Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I shall speak. Then he came to the king and the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we refrain? And he said to him, go up and succeed and Yahweh will give it into the hand of the king. Then the king said to him, how many times must I make you swear that you will speak to me nothing but the truth of the name of Yahweh? So he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep which have no shepherd. And Yahweh said, these have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace. Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not say to you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil? Then Micaiah said, therefore, hear the word of Yahweh. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left. And Yahweh said, who will entice Ahab so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh and said, I will entice him. And Yahweh said to him, How? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then he said, You shall entice him and also prevail. Go out and do so. So now behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these, your prophets. But Yahweh has spoken calamity against you. Then Zedekiah, the son of Canaan, came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, How did the spirit of Yahweh pass from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, Behold, you will see on that day when you enter the inner room to hide Then the king of Israel said, take Micaiah and return him to Ammon, the commander of the city, and Joash, the king's son, and say, thus says the king, put this man in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I come back safely. And Micaiah said, if you indeed return safely, Yahweh is not spoken by me. And he said, listen, all you people. And you know what happens at the end of the story. At the end of the story, it's exactly as he prophesied. This idea of speaking good and tickling the ears of men is suicidal for the church today. And so we don't want to be people who are revered by men simply because we never speak the truth. We want them to see Christ in us. We want to see Christ's glory in us. Matthew 5, 16, which I referenced earlier, let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Let me bring this to a conclusion in this way. There's going to be a great exclusion on the day that Christ returns, you know that, right? In Matthew 25, we see the judgment of the sheep and the goats where Jesus comes and in his second coming, he separates people and he excludes one group of people because their works were vacant in their lives. He uses himself and said he was hungry and he was thirsty and he was naked and he was in prison and they didn't meet with him. And they said, well, when did we do that? When did we neglect to take care of that? We never saw you like that. And he said, what? You didn't do that to the least of these, my brothers. And those people go off into the everlasting darkness. Why? Because their works were not righteous. They were selfish and they were without Christ. Now, listen, there's an answer in this. There are blessings for those who endure the persecution and there are woes for those who are standing up for things that are not truth, but there is an answer. And that answer is Jesus Christ himself. That answer is Christ who came and lived and died so that we might have life. He came according to the Old Testament prophets. He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on a cross according to the Old Testament prophecies, and he was raised again from the dead, and he's now seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will return again. And when he returns, that judgment happens. And if you are excluded, On the side of exclusion from Him, it will be because you haven't given up your life and taken on Christ. You haven't repented of your sin and trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of that sin. That's the offer for you today if you are outside of Christ. I don't care if you're 6 or 600, the offer for you today is to turn to Christ. Yes, you may be hated. Yes, you may be insulted. Yes, your name may be drunk through the mud, your character drunk through the mud, but you will live forever with Jesus and it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Him. What it requires is for you to turn away from your sin and trust in Christ who died for the sin of all those who will believe. But if we are here today and we're professing Christ, then there's encouragement, isn't there? We sang so much encouragement this morning. Todd put together such great texts for us to sing, to be encouraged. And it's not encouraged in our own strength, it's encouraged in Christ's strength. It's encouraged, we are encouraged in what God is doing. 2 Corinthians 4 brings this to bear for us. Here's my parting, the parting words are the words of Paul to a persecuted person living in this world. We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. That's the motivation for us to live in spite of suffering in ways that were so much less than Christ suffered. In spite of the persecution we might face in this world, this is the motivation. This is momentary light affliction as we await for the eternal weight of glory. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the blessing of your word, the truth of your word. Thank you, Lord, that even in the hands of men that you have called to preach, you speak through your word to your people. So we are grateful for the truth of your word, the encouragement that it is, may it fall on hearts that are open. To the truth of your word, may you draw people unto yourself that need to come to you. May you strengthen your people who are walking in this world and about to face a greater persecution all for your glory and that we might live on this earth in this life through Christ and not in our own strength. We thank you for this in Jesus name. Amen.