Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 sermons cite this verse
… people think. Jesus said it like this when he gave the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He said, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. He said, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. In other words, don't worry, be happy. Now, Paul explains why you can be happy no matter what. In verse 29 and 30 of Philippians chapter one, he says this, for you have been given, you Christians, you have been given, not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. Did you know that's part of being a Christian? The privilege of trusting Christ, the privilege of suffering for Christ. We are in this fight together, the Bible says. You have seen me suffer, Paul's talking. You have seen me suffer for him. Remember, he's in prison as he's writing these words. …
… for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted the prophets that were before you. If you want to be a happy person, you're gonna be a persecuted person. Let's put it all together. I see myself as I really am. I'm poor in spirit. I mourn over my condition. Blessed are they that mourn. It produces a new meekness in me and a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now I'm extending mercy to others. Now I'm a peacemaker talking about Jesus to others. People don't like that. and because of that, you're going to be persecuted. This is one of those promises of God we don't like to claim. We'll claim promises all day long about God's provision, God's blessing, but then, when's the last time you claim this promise? All that live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution. …
… Jesus said, blessed are you when men revile you. and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Have you ever had someone tell a lie about you? Have you ever been slandered before? Well, let them be lies. Because he lived such a godly life, they had to make stuff up. Here's another quality of Stephen. He looked for opportunities, and he sees them. So now he's brought before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was sort of like the Supreme Court of the day. But back in this culture, they had religious authority, but they also had secular authority. So they ruled in all kinds of affairs and issues of the day. These guys were the most influential people in the land. So here stands Stephen before this very distinguished group of individuals. and he's thinking this is an opportunity for the gospel. Now, if Stephen had played his cards right, he could have gone home for dinner. …
… Jesus said, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. rejoice and be exceedingly glad for so persecuted the prophets that were before you. But some people say, oh man, I didn't sign up for this. I don't want someone to make fun of me. I don't want to get canceled. I don't want to be isolated. So they walk away because of that. Now we come to the third category, infested hearts. Verse 14, the seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message. And all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and they never grow into maturity. So coming back to the soil, this is soil with weeds. Now weeds don't kill plants overnight. You don't plant a little seed, and it begins to grow. And the next day, the weed just bursts out of the ground, flexes its biceps, and starts choking your plant. No, it's ever so gradual. Just a little bit here, a little bit there. These are people that make a profession of faith, but slowly but surely other things become more important. Notice that it's not overt sinful things that choke the growth of the seed. There could be that, but it's other things that become more important than the most important things. It's been said more have been killed by food than by poison. It's also been said the second best is often the worst enemy of the best. …
… that he includes words like this. Blessed are you when people insult you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you for your reward in heaven is great. I don't know where you are, as I said earlier, but if you are being falsely accused, there's your promise. your reward will be great. Your reward someday will be great. But let me add, your misery for now will be enormous. You will find that frequently you are unable to sufficiently defend yourself. A mind made up is a hard thing to persuade. and people who are false accusers are awfully persuasive. Before I go any further, let me just add here, be awfully careful about what you say of other people. Be awfully careful, especially if it's negative. I was reading one of my favorite authors this week and he said that he has a friend who prays every day, Lord, help me not add to anyone else's burdens. Isn't that a good prayer? Help me not make life harder for anyone else. …
… enough, Jesus said his followers will also be rewarded in heaven. In Matthew chapter 5, for example, verse 11, Jesus said, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Verse 12, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Why? For great is your reward. Where? In heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This verse and others make it clear that there are going to be rewards in heaven. And these aren't going to be like the Grammy Awards or the K-Love fan awards where only one person or one band wins each of the categories. No, we can all be rewarded. We're not competing against each other. I love that. I'm not asking people to vote for me. You know, it's like these K-Love artists, they send out the emails, you gotta vote for me. I don't know, I'm not into it. There's that competition amongst the Christians. I'm not a fan of it. …
… and our blessedness as well. So again, if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 12, and in the sermon, I've entitled the sermon, The Pursuit of Happiness. And you, of course, recognize that phrase. we're going to celebrate the document that comes from this summer, July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And you remember that one phrase. Most people don't remember the 27 statements to King George of the things we were unhappy with. What we remember is that preamble. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are, join me, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So the pursuit of happiness. So what is happiness exactly? And how do we pursue it? And what we're going to find is that Jesus offers us a very different path to happiness and really defines it differently than what we find in the world. So the word happy in Greek is actually in Latin is beatus. And this is where we get the name beatitude from. Beatus is the Latin word for happy or fortunate or blessed. …
… And what does Jesus say? He says, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn. Now, I think sometimes we hear that word blessed and we think, oh, consecrated, we set apart. We don't know what it is to be blessed. It means to be set apart. It means to be consecrated. When Jesus actually says this word, it's the Greek word is makarios, which doesn't mean blessed. It doesn't mean set apart. It actually legitimately, it simply means happy. So Jesus is saying, no, actually happy, not just set apart, but you're genuinely happy. when? When you've spotted the counterfeits and you no longer spend real currency on counterfeit happiness. And the four counterfeits are what? The four counterfeits of happiness are wealth, power, pleasure, and fame. Because all those four things, wealth, power, pleasure, fame, they all promise to make us happy. Wealth promises this, you'll be happy if you have enough. power promises you'll be happy if you're in control pleasure promises you'll be happy if you can minimize pain and maximize feeling good and fame is you'll be happy if everyone knows you and here's the problem here's the problem with the counterfeit happiness is they actually all do that they all do make us happy the problem with counterfeit happiness is they actually work i mean honestly let's be honest get some money get happy. …
… What kind of ordering are we talking about here? In another place Jesus says, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Seriously, by suffering we're to think of ourselves as blessed? Finally, in a society in which we often think of ourselves as fully in charge of our lives, the Bible says, You are not your own. You were bought with a price. If you perceive these things to be strange and even difficult to believe, well, that's because they are. The kingdom over which Jesus Christ is King is a kingdom that is not of this world. It just works differently by what we perceive to be an illogical, upside-down, crooked sort of logic. The fact that the church celebrates this Sunday as the end of the church year also fits this same mold, it hits us as strange, foreign, nonsensical, and yes, even difficult to believe. One of the other ways the logic of Christ's kingdom is different is that coming to believe as Christians do, and claiming in fact that Christ is the King, is not a conclusion we can draw on the basis of evidence, arguments, or persuasion. …
Thank you to have a seat. So after this, after this, something will be different. After this, something will have changed. After this Mass, there is something that will never go back. By the end of this Mass, there is something that will never be the same. Right after this. even thinking about that after this after this life you know when it comes to after the afterlife when it comes to life after death there are so many questions and one of the questions people ask you know kids ask this all the time but some adults ask this they ask the question um will my will my pet be in heaven which is a good question i mean you love your pet you want to know if your pet will be in heaven and i think smart people wise people good people will say something along the lines of, well, if you need your pet to be happy in heaven, then you'll have your pet in heaven, which is a great answer. It's just such a good answer. And it's a good answer because the person offering the answer knows the truth. The truth is you won't need your pet to be happy in heaven. That here's the reality of that. But someone says, well, yeah, but like, will there be golf in heaven? Will my spouse be in heaven? Will my family be in heaven? Will my friends be in Who else will be in heaven? …
… preaching one word today you'll see in a minute i'm preaching one word and either you grab it or you don't but it's one word i'm gonna read a lot but i'm preaching one word today matthew chapter five verse one through twelve listen at the beatitudes these supreme blessings matthew chapter five verse one through twelve new revised standard version reads like this when jesus saw the crowds he went up to the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him then he began to speak and taught them saying read it with me verse three blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness but they will be filled blessed are the merciful but they will receive mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were message bible let's read let's read let's read message bible message bible message bible here we go let's read one two three read when jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds he climbed …
And I just want to arm you with the same type of thought. On the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verse 11, he says, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you Luke 6, 23. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. This is what Jesus says. He goes, look, rejoice when it happens. Not leave the church when it happens. No, rejoice when it happens. when the suffering comes, when the persecution comes, there's got to be this DNA in us that so believes in eternity. That so believes, man, this is great. Man, I was just persecuted for the gospel. And can you imagine the reward? Jesus promised that the reward would be great in heaven. …