Randy Bell | Rejoice in Persecution for Heaven's Reward

Learn about the importance of rejoicing in persecution for heaven's reward.

Understand that rejoicing comes from the strength of God and not from the persecution itself.

Recognize that God allows trials to come into our lives for a deeper purpose.

Be confident that God is in control and preparing us for rewards of character change.

Remember, our first command, read it out loud with me, will you guys? Speak it with me. Command number one, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4.17 The second command, remember, was last week we said, and let's quote it, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4.19 Now those two commands obviously are basically tied directly together to get anywhere. Repent means to change your mind, remember about your past and your sin, and turn away from it. And to turn to what? Well, He wants us to turn to Him and follow Him and become fishers of men. Now, a lot of people want to come to church, which is not the same as become fishers of men. You can come to church and not obey this second command, which means to be fishers of men. Even in the smallest way, you can be fishers of men. Even if it's just leaving a gospel track in a bathroom when you go at a grocery store. Anything you can do to become a fisher of men is important. Inviting people to church can be a fisher of men. To give them a gospel track is a fisher of men. To call them on the phone. To speak to them directly. All those types of things are becoming fishers of men. And that means you have to learn to be a fisherman. Because you need to work at it. It's not an easy thing. Because if it was, everybody would be in the church and nobody would be in the world. But it's not. It's hard. So we need to learn to become fishers of men. you need to make a choice here to follow this command to become a fisher of men. These two together lay the foundation for our third command. Say it with me. Rejoice when men shall say all evil against you falsely. This is Matthew 5, 10-12. That's just a piece of what that verse is, but the content is Matthew 5, 10-12. Now, the idea is there that then rejoice when you're having people that don't want to be caught. They don't want to be fished for Jesus, and they start to resist you. And we need to look at this and see the importance of rejoicing. Remember, here's how it's worded there. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. We're not talking about you being strong and rejoicing when you're being persecuted for being a jerk. if you're being nasty to people they're going to be nasty back God doesn't say rejoice for that you need to repent for that kind of action we're talking about being persecuted when you do that which is right when you're a fisher of men when you're attempting to do the will of God it says in that case then you are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and remember to be blessed means you're getting something from this. You're gaining. You're being blessed by God for being persecuted is what it really says. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you. Those two key words we want to look at deeper in a moment. Revile and persecute. What does that really mean? And it says, and it says all kinds of evil against you. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Be happy about it. That's crazy, doesn't it? Oh, I'm happy. But there's reasons to be happy because they also, this type of people, persecuted the prophets from the Old Testament. So godly men have always had this type of action against them. So number one, let's understand this on an overview idea then. Number one, rejoice means to have an excitement in your spirit. Remember, your spirit and your soul aren't the same, right? Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. But your spirit's different. That's in the depths where your conscience is. It's where joy comes from. It's there because the Holy Spirit enters into your spirit and releases His gifts into your heart. Love, joy, peace, those kind of things are coming from your spirit. And so rejoicing comes from that idea, from the strength of God. And so what we want you to rejoice about and be excited about is not for the persecution. We want you to be excited for what God is planning to do through the trials He allows to come into your life. God allows those on purpose. And that's what you need to think of. Think of Jesus. It says He faced the cross and He was excited about it. Not because He wasn't a sadist that wanted to bleed and die. It was because what was going to become of that trial? He was going to give us eternal life. The eternal purpose is what He was rejoicing over. Not the horrible road to get there. Right. See, that's what we're saying. Look bigger. Rejoice because you see a bigger picture. He allows these things to come in our lives, even if our souls are full of sorrow. Remember, Jesus, before He went to Calvary, it says He went to the garden, and it says He was filled with sorrow. And He said, you guys come and pray with me, remember? He was full of sorrow, but that didn't change the fact that He was not rejoicing. Right? Right? Rejoicing is in the Spirit, even though His emotions were sorrowful. You can be rejoicing at the same time you can feel sorry. See, emotions is a soul. Rejoicing comes from the Spirit. And Jesus rejoiced that He was going to the cross because He could give His life as a ransom for people to go to heaven. Yet, in His flesh, He was sorrowful because He was going to suffer great pain and death. So the two were there. It wasn't wrong, and it's never wrong to feel sorrow for being persecuted or suffering trials. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as you choose to seek the deeper level. That's why God says choose to rejoice because it's part of your spirit when you can look bigger and deeper and see that God is planning to do something larger through your trial. He's planning on doing something. number two rejoice means to be confident that god is in control even though you can't see it be that way and that's important because he's in control in everything in our lives isn't he even though we don't feel like he is you feel sometimes like he's forgotten you or he's let you go or whatever right but it's not true he will not allow anything to happen that would hinder our future rewards Think about the early church. Did they suffer persecution? Didn't the apostles get martyred? They were killed for Jesus. But did that take away their future reward? Not at all. None of those things stop them from receiving eternal reward. Think bigger. Look beyond those persecutions. As long as you're in fellowship with God and with the believers around you, you can definitely rejoice. Now, if you're in conflict with God or with believers, then don't rejoice. Repent. Go back to the beginning. There's something wrong is why God has allowed those persecutions or problems. Make sure that there's not because you are wrong in what you're doing. Does that make sense? But when you look and you cannot find and you've asked God to search your heart, you do not see evil, there's nothing to repent of, then don't get discouraged. Rejoice. Because that means that God's got a deeper plan than you understand. And it's okay, because nothing will happen that's outside of His sovereign grace and protection for you as a believer. Does that make sense? But it's easy to think, I know we can say it, but it's harder to do, isn't it? We've got to make sure we really see it here. Thirdly, rejoice means to be confident that when God takes us through trouble, He is preparing for us the rewards of character change. He's working to make us like Jesus. And most of the things that have to happen in our life to make us like Jesus don't come the easy way. They will come through the harder road. Remember, how do you get patience? Not by asking for it, but receiving trials and tribulations. That's what James says. Count it all joy. The same thing, rejoice. When you fall into all kinds of trials, because the working of your faith brings perseverance which is patience It makes you strong to be through those efforts It changes your character See preparing us with the rewards of character and achievement You know, you think about it. If the Super Bowl that happened just a couple weeks ago, if the New York Giants got out on the field and they said, no game, the other team forfeited. What reward or achievement was that? See, they had to go out there and battle through and win, and then they achieved and they received rewards. See what I'm saying? God is the same way. If you just got there and the devil surrenders, you haven't gained any achievement. You haven't gained any character. What makes you big and tough and strong is that no matter what the devil throws at you, you smile and grit your teeth and say, I rejoice. Even though you may not feel like it, you say, I rejoice. My God is with me. You lose. See that? Gritting your teeth and standing there. says, I'm achieving something. Forfeiting never gets you anywhere, does it? It's just like, oh, big deal. What a game that was. It wasn't. The contest really is behind a lot of the blessing. Now, let me go back and recoup just in two sentences. First sentence for the first command. Remember the first command being repent was given. This command tells us how to have fellowship with God. People want to have fellowship with God in America, but they don't want to repent. They will not have... I don't care how sincere they are. I don't care how many church services they go to. I don't care if they become preachers, deacons, and Sunday school teachers. No matter how much religion they do, if they do not repent, they have no fellowship with God. Does that make sense? And many people choose to do that. They skip it. They want God without the repentance. Remember, that's why we get a lot of odd cults and groups in America. They want to be a homosexual, but they don't want to repent of that, even though the Bible says so. So they start a religious church for homosexuals. They have not fellowship with God. They can start whatever groups they want. If they want a liar church and say, we want a church, but we like to lie, it doesn't matter how faithful, how many ceremonies and services and things they do, will they have any relationship with God? No, they will not. All they are are religious hypocrites. And it doesn't matter how much sincerity they have and how much they believe and how they'll yell at you and say, this is my opinion, you have your own, I have the right to my own opinion, and I know that God loves me. No. They're wrong, aren't they? See, and that's what you really have to understand here. The command one is the only pathway to fellowship with God, and it's the only qualifier to enter His kingdom. Remember, and that's so important to get in our minds. Nothing else matters. One of my friends called me last week and said, we're having a hard time understanding. Why would God allow 6 million Jews to be massacred? They're God's people during the Nazis. How could God allow that to happen? I thought God was a loving God. I said, remember now, how is the only way to go to heaven? Jesus, doesn't He say, repent and follow Me? Are those people that died, were they followers of Jesus? No, they didn't. They refused to, they want God's blessing. They want it because they claim a bloodline through the family, but they will not repent. I said, you've got to understand, they're not God's people then. You can't call them God's people now because Jesus said, anyone that wants to follow me must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. If you rejected Messiah, you're not God's people anymore. That's so hard for people to get. They kept saying, no, that doesn't make sense. I said, go back all the way to the Old Testament. Every time Israel rebelled against God, armies came and killed them. That was God letting go His protection because He wasn't protecting them. They wouldn't repent. He didn't care for them. The moment they repented, he came up with his hand and said, Don't touch my people. Bink, bink, bink, and knocked them away. But when they wouldn't repent, he didn't protect them. You are not protected outside of Jesus Christ. And you never will be. Boy, it's hard to get people to see this. You see what I'm saying? And so you need to really get this. Repentance is the first and only connection to God. Without this, there is nothing else that matters from now on what we speak. Because you're not connected to God. It has to start here in your life and everybody else's. Then number two command makes sense, doesn't it? Follow me. And the command says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. This command calls for a total change in your goals and your priorities. You must see that repentance is connected directly to follow me. You turn from something to what? Being a nice person? No, if you repent from sin, the point Jesus says is, follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. if you won't choose to be a fisherman you're still not following his life right? and there's a direct purpose in all he does from that point is to make you a good fisher of men and therefore like I said when I started to be a fisherman doesn't mean you have to be a preacher even if you get a track and put it in the bathroom leave them in the sinks leave them in phone booths leave them wherever or handing to people as you talk to them, at least inviting people to church, you are becoming a fisherman by actively working fishing. It's not an attitude, it's an action. He says, don't just think how nice you are because you think about being a fisherman. He says, be a fisherman. Until you each actively obey the command to become a fisherman on a regular basis, you're not being obedient to his life. Does that make sense? You have to make this choice here as much as possible. And the reason is that we go to the third command is think about it. Do people like to be fished for Jesus? Not really. So that's why the third commandment becomes so significant. You see, Satan will leave you alone until you become obedient to being a fisher of men. And when you're successful in advancing God's kingdom, guess what's going to happen? He's going to try to shut you down. That's why commandment 3 becomes so significant here. The moment you obey and you start to help people come to Jesus, Satan's going to put in a fit that you're doing that, and he's going to do everything then to stop you. This is why then commandment 3 is so important. The secrets of the kingdom are only for those who repent. Remember Jesus talked about it. I mentioned that a week or two ago. Jesus, when he started teaching parables, Remember, the reason He said He did it to all the crowd was because they wouldn't repent. And He clearly stated, so I'm going to give them stories that don't make sense to them because the secrets of the kingdom are only for His disciples who repented, is what He explains in Matthew 13, I think it is. So the secrets of the kingdom are the beginnings of the third command. These are the secrets of the kingdom. The first secret reveals how to become bright lights so that people will be attracted to our love and the all-powerful truth of God's Word. Now, remember what we talked about? How did the fishermen fish in Israel? Remember we talked about it. Casting nets. And when did they fish? And when? At night. Remember, they fished at night. Now, they didn't just go out there in a boat and throw a net and hope they hit something. How did they attract the fish? they took lamps out there they hung lamps over the dark water the fish attracted to the light and then they threw their nets over them remember? ok now this is exactly notice how careful Jesus says this because in the fourth command which we'll talk about more next week it says let your light shine but this one tells us how to become the light then he tells us to shine the light next week does that make sense? so let's look The first secret reveals how to become bright lights so that people will be attracted to our love and the all truth of God Word The secret of drawing people to Jesus is that we become the light of the world And like those fishermen, we have to draw the fish to the surface so the net can be caught on the people and bring them into the kingdom of God. Does it make sense? Now, let's think about why the promise and the blessing to rejoice when we're persecuted. Persecution basically means to pursue in a hostile manner, is the whole idea. Some people pursue in a non-hostile environment or reason. You know, guys chase girls for not hostility, but that's not what persecution is then, right? Persecution is pursuing in a hostile manner. Think of the paparazzi. They chase movie stars in a hostile manner. they want to be leeches upon them and make millions off them by catching them do something and they hound them and hurt them and they don't care about them. They persecute, actually, those rich people because they pursue in a hostile manner. See the difference? That is persecution. But in Scripture here, Jesus goes a little farther and explains to you about how that works. Persecutors use reviling to accomplish this goal. What's reviling? Okay, there you go. Revile means to defame somebody. A famous person becomes unfamous by the way you destroy them with your words. And to criticize and discredit people, that's what reviling means. So you see the paparazzi do that all the time on purpose for money's sake. They try to defame people. Now, in that case, that's not what we're interested in. Jesus is worried about you being reviled and persecuted because of his namesake. Because you're a fisher of men. The moment you become fishing for men and you start being successful and Satan starts to try to stop you, he's going to persecute you and revile you. Why? Mm-hmm. Exactly. Billy Graham, for example, would never. He made a choice when he was a young man as an evangelist. He would never get into an elevator by himself. Why? He was guarding himself against reviling. Because he knew even back then a door could open. They'd push a prostitute in the door. Boom! Then somebody could take a picture. Even though it was set up, it was designed to destroy his fame, to ruin the name of Jesus. and even back then he knew better so he protected the name of Jesus this is a common practice they do it to politicians and whoever they can get, don't they? anything they can destroy, they do because that's what enemies do and so this is what he's saying be aware that this is going to happen people are going to constantly try to revile defame, to criticize and discredit you because they want the message of Jesus to be stopped make sense? And so if you become successful, be aware, you will find that Satan's going to pull up some way to begin to attack and persecute you, to stop you. So here's the way it's worded here then in the Scripture. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world. What's the light according to this verse here? What light came into the world? The Gospel was the presentation, but Jesus. Jesus came in and said he was the light of the world. So it's saying here, this is the condemnation. The light has come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So the reason they didn't like Jesus coming to the world because his light exposed their evil deeds before God. Okay, then it says in verse 20, For everyone practicing evil hates the light. Now, why would the darkness persecute you then? Because they hate the light. Now think about that. If they hate Jesus, and you're trying to tell them about Jesus, what's going to happen? They're going to revile you. What are they going to do? They're going to try to make you as evil as they are. I think I went to school one time. They're going to try to knock you down a peg. That's why when you go to work or whatever, they try to find something wrong with you to knock you down so that you don't feel so lighted. And they don't feel guilty with your presence. You'll say, well, I didn't say anything to them. They found out I was a Christian. That's the point. They hate Jesus because their actions or their deeds are evil. They don't want to be exposed. Your presence, knowing you're a Christian, exposes them. And they have it even if they don't admit it with their own lips. so they're going to try to do anything again to pull you down so that your witness is silenced and they don't feel that guilt on their conscience anymore. Does that make sense? That's the reason why persecution will come. It says, Lest their deeds be exposed, but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. Christians come to be close to God. They want to be because He has already led them to repent their sins have been put to their past they already are following him therefore they enjoy the light no one else enjoys the light they hate the light be aware of that that's why you don't win them by trying to convince them of the blessings because remember they already hate God even if they won't admit it they hate Jesus he exposes their deeds what brings them to salvation is what? remember we talked about this a number of years ago what brings sinners to repentance the law does grace is using the law remember because grace puts in strong desire and conviction but what does God use he initially uses the law to press you that you are a sinner your conscience even gets more hurt and it breaks you down because God tries to get you to go to a place where you admit your sin feel bad about your sin and turn from your sin and repent. He's always working on the evil wicked to repent. That's the one thing He does in their life only. He doesn't answer their prayers, help them out. He only constantly works to cause them to repent. And they don't like that. So if you come along and you're a fisherman, they're not going to like you either. But that doesn't mean to stop. See, we keep hearing in our day, stop doing that then. But there's a reason we can do that if we do this one thing he's talking about here. We need to understand what it means to become bright lights. And that's what he's saying as we go through this portion that Jesus said. He says, now remember, they'll persecute you to keep from being exposed from that truth. They don't want their deeds to be exposed, so they're going to keep persecuting, reviling, and speaking against you even if you never confronted them. Now, the worst people that will persecute you, according to Scripture, are religious people. If you go through all the Scripture, the people who hounded Jesus the most were the most religious. The Pharisees never would leave Him alone. They tried to pick fights with Him every day. Tried to argue with Him. Every time He said something, they tried to contradict Him. They tried to pick it out in the public. They never would leave Him alone. They followed to persecute and revile Him. If He did something, they'd say, oh, that broke the law. You can't eat that stuff on the Sabbath. You can't heal on the Sabbath. You can't do this on the Sabbath. You can't do that. They spent their time determined to destroy him. Right? And his credibility. He felt their presence in their persecution every day. The same with, if you go to Revelation, when you read about the letters to the seven churches in chapter 2-3, it goes over again and says, I know you're going to be persecuted. I protect you and help you But persecution was a common practice And even there he said a lot of times the Jews were persecuting the Christians at first Because a lot of the Jews became Christians so they didn't like it that a lot of their people they knew became Christians. So they persecuted them. You find religious persecution be real common. Look at the way Paul talks about it. He says looking at problems and issues in life, he says three times I was beaten with rods. You know, that's a public punishment by government. That wasn't just people beating them up. Remember back a few years ago, one American got caught in Burma or whatever it was and they beat him with rods? That practice has gone on from the time of the Bible. That beats the daylights out of people. They come away with broken, bruised and ripped open skin. It's a horrible punishment. It's tough. He says, once I was stoned. When was Paul stoned? Do you remember when Paul got stoned? I'm not talking about drugs here, folks. I'm talking about rocks. When did Paul get stoned? Anybody remember in the book of Acts? He was stoned by the Jews. The religious Jews stoned him. You don't remember that? Okay, well, it was in there. But I wanted you to point it out that that was a religious persecution. Also, if you go down the list to the bottom, it says the different things he was in perils for. in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea. But notice even this one, in perils among false brethren. He was persecuted, even the Apostle Paul was persecuted by hypocritical Christians who wouldn't leave him alone. Think about it. We think of him as the great apostle that nobody would disrespect him. They hounded him, called him names, called him a hypocrite, called him a liar, and they tried to cut him out from churches and everything else. He suffered persecution from false Christians. So understand that this religious persecution is also a common issue that Jesus is talking about here. Now, why rejoice when you're persecuted, then, is the big question. Why would anybody in their right mind rejoice when they're persecuted? You would think that's crazy, but again, you look beyond the initial trial. Notice what Paul found out when he suffered through asking God to heal him three times for his eyes. He said he received a message back from God, no, he wasn't going to get healed. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. That key issue is explained in. He goes on to say, therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities. And look at the word, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Why would you rejoice when you're persecuted? So that the power of Christ rests upon you. Don't people want the power of Christ? Yeah, but again, they don't want it the way He says you get it. Christ says He gives it to you when you find that as you are suffering or feeling persecution, you get the power. We want God to just come down and touch on our heads and go, you've received the power of the Holy Ghost. Isn't that what we want? We don't want, but Jesus said, no, no, no. He made it clear to him through this experience to even Paul, the power of Christ comes upon you in your weakness, when you don't get the answers to your prayer, when you're suffering great pressures. He goes on to say, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities. He's a crazy man. He takes pleasure in reproaches. He takes pleasure in having needs. He takes pleasure in persecutions. Notice that. Why? For Christ's sake, because when I am weak, I am strong. Why? Because now is when the power of Christ rests upon you. When you are strong, God figures you're strong enough and lets you alone. When you are weak, he comes and gives you his power. Now, let's see if we can add that to our ideas here then. Why rejoice? Secondly, rejoice when persecuted because you're rewarded with the glory of God is the second great problem. Amazing. Now, what's the glory of God? Let's go to that real quick and make sure we understand. What's the glory of God? Remember, Moses came down from the mountain and the glory of God was on him. What did that mean? Yes, the glory means light. Exactly. We talk about God being glory. Remember when Jesus brought His three disciples on the mountain, and guess who came to see Him? Moses. And what did it say? A great light of glory shone. And what did the apostles, like Peter, want to do? He wanted to start three denominations. Let's start a Moses group, and we'll build a building for this guy and this guy. But the glory of God left when they left. But the glory is light. What we're saying, we're trying to get here to understand the third command, He wants you to be bright lights. So the next command, let your light shine so we'll be real. Here we're talking about the glory of God because you need to become bright lights. How are you going to be a bright light? Listen to how this bright light becomes in your life. Beloved, do not think it strange considering the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. In other words, if you think it's unusual to have a problem, trials, then you don't know what Christianity is all about is what Peter is saying. He says, But, and there we go, there's our word, Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceedingly joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. The glory of God rests upon you when you're approached for the name of Christ or you're persecuted and reviled. It says when you do that, you should rejoice because you are not only getting the power of Jesus, he's making you a bright light he's letting you glow for his kingdom now how does that glow or how does that glow real in a life how is it when you're persecuted let me change that let me ask a simple question what does someone normally do if you get somebody in your face or behind your back and they slander you they revile you how do most people react to that anger they revile back yeah they do it right back to the person to get even notice that will not get you a bright light what will that get you? yeah you become darkness you're just like them you're sinning since it's a sin to do that you are doing sin the only way to have true bright lightness where you can be like God wants you to be is instead to rejoice if you rejoice at this point because so they did to everybody else that followed God. They did it to the prophets for all those years. It's nothing new and unusual. Righteous people have been persecuted since the time they were righteous people and wicked people. It's never changed over the centuries. So he's saying, it's not unusual. So instead, just get it in your mind and rejoice because then you become blessed by God. So that's a road to blessing, and then there's a road to punishment. You don't want to take the road to punishment. You want to take the road to blessing. Stand up and shout it if you love my Lord

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