Life Group Leaders’ Notes
Title: Blessed When You’re Persecuted
Key Text: Matthew 5:10
In 8 statements Jesus outlined keys to having a happy life, each of which seems strange to our normal way of thinking about what will bring us joy and fulfilment. Nowhere is this more true that in the statement of Jesus in Matthew 5:10 where he said: ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’
Jesus was very upfront that persecution from the kingdom of darkness is in some form inevitable when we are part of Christ’s kingdom of light. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus in Matthew 10 declares in detail to his disciples that would receive all kinds of persecution and opposition on account of following Him, saying in verse 22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Imagine that these religious leaders were so full of hate and jealousy that they actually wanted to murder Jesus. And it was at the hands of these religious rulers that Jesus was condemned to death. Yet even whilst experiencing such persecution from all sides, Jesus was faithful to His life’s mission to bring restoration between God and mankind.
Blessed because we are identified as followers of Jesus Blessed because we can have more understanding of Jesus Blessed because our persecution can be used by God to bring others to Jesus
Apply
Jesus Himself faced persecution and rejection from all sides during his ministry:
From His community
After teaching in the synagogue of His hometown, those listening were quick to criticize Jesus (Matthew 13:55-57)
From those He helped
After Jesus had healed some demon possessed men (Matthew 8:33-34 )
From His family
We see in Matthew 12 that when Jesus was teaching the crowds, His own mother and brothers wanted to call Him outside and stop Him. Yet Jesus would not be put off. Jesus also received persecution
From His disciples
Despite being with Jesus, seeing His goodness and all the miracles He so freely performed for those in need, it was Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples who betrayed Him and handed Him over to the Jewish leaders to be killed. And for sure Jesus experienced a great deal of opposition
- From religious rulers
Throughout His ministry Jesus received persecution from the ruling religious elite, even as they saw Him perform miracles (Mark 3:5-6)
The apostle Paul, formerly himself a notorious persecutor of Christians, taught his disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 that ‘everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’
Blessed because we are identified as followers of Jesus
We see throughout the New Testament how facing persecution was a normal part of life for the first followers of Jesus and for the early church, whether the persecution came from their aggressive fellow Jews, a nasty religious elite or the brutal Roman Empire. Yet, sustained by their personal relationship with Jesus, the disciples did not react in anger, depression or with fear. Nor did they deviate from their faithfulness to Jesus and their commitment to spread the good news of the gospel as far and wide as they could.
We read this remarkable statement in Acts 5:41-42. Why were they so happy after they had been violently flogged and then sternly warned not to say anything more about Jesus? It was because they considered it a joy and an honour for the disciples to be identified as followers of Jesus and to participate in His mission.
They were happy to speak up and stand up as followers of Jesus. They did not back down or shut up. No doubt they remembered the words of Jesus in (Matt 10:32-33)
The first century Christians clearly understood that they would face suffering and persecution. (1 Peter 4:12-14) Rejoicing in tough times is a sign that we really are Christians. Of course, we need to be clear that the blessings come when we are being persecuted for righteousness and not because of our own wrong or foolish actions or words such as fanatical or over-zealous behavior.
In his book ‘Persecuted for Righteousness' Sake: The Christian and Persecution’,
Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones explains ‘Being righteous, practicing righteousness, really means being like the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, they are blessed who are persecuted for being like Him.’[
Billy Graham wrote ’It’s a good practice to ask ourselves if we’ve been persecuted for sharing our faith in Christ. If not, we should re-examine our faith to see if it measures up to the One who said, “Blessed are you when [people] revile 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’.
In other words, are you so clearly identified as a Christian that there is enough reason to persecute you? or as has often been said; ‘if you were arrested for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?!’
Blessed because we can have more understanding of Jesus
The apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians from a Roman prison (a prison which he was in as a result of persecution for his faith). He said in Philippians 3:8 ‘I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’.
The Apostle Paul understood that knowing Christ better was linked to suffering (Philippians 3:10-11). In other words, we come into a new level of fellowship with Jesus when we suffer for righteousness. We appreciate at a new level what Christ went through because of His great love for us. We begin to understand more of what it means that God’s Son on earth when He ‘humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross.’
We have a new revelation of the agony that Christ went through in Gethsemane and at the cross so that we can be sustained in our trials. (Hebrews 12:3)
Persecution and trouble can not only bring us closer to Jesus and also make us more like Jesus.
We can learn to endure like Jesus. (James 1:2-4)
We can keep a Christ-like attitude no matter what we are facing (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:17-21)
We can be confident like Jesus (Luke 12:11-12)
Persecution which we may want to so avoid can actually turn out to be a blessing as we come to know Jesus at a level that we had not experienced before. Finally, we see that we can be…
Blessed because our persecution can be used by God to bring others to Jesus
It was Tertullian, one of the early Church fathers of the second century who coined the term, “the blood of the martyrs is seed for the church.”
Whilst the first Christians experienced great persecution, in reality this only resulted in spreading the gospel further afield as those being persecuted shared their faith wherever they fled to. Indeed, as a direct result of the persecution they faced, the gospel spread across Asia and further into Europe. It was the stoning of Stephen that made a mark on one of the church’s greatest persecutors, Saul later to become Paul, who was ‘present giving approval to his death.’
More locally, those who died for their faith in Windsor, touched the hearts of many. Just around the corner from the Theatre Royal in Windsor, by a fountain outside the walls of Windsor Castle is a blue plaque with the inscription: “Windsor Martyrs: Beyond this site, the following were martyred for their faith Henry Filmer, Anthony Pierson, Robert Testwood. Burnt at the stake 28th July 1543”
Around the time of their deaths, it is written that ‘many who saw their patient suffering confessed that they could have found in their hearts to have died with them.’n Keeping their faith to the end, was an example to many of true Christian character in the face of unjust persecution.
One of the most famous examples of God working through persecution is that of Jim Eliot and a small group of fellow missionaries to Ecuador’s Quechua Indians. As a result, many of the tribe became Christians.
As Jim famously said: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’ Jesus put it this way in (John 12:24)
So then here are three way that you can know blessing through persecution. You can rejoice that you are clearly identified as a faithful follower of Jesus. You can come to know Jesus with a new closeness of fellowship and God can use the persecution you are experiencing to bring others to Christ.
Today, like Jesus and so many others, maybe you too have experienced persecution at the hands of those around you, or those closest to you like your family, colleagues or friends. But don’t worry or be afraid. Whatever level of persecution you may experience, you can be sure that when you are persecuted for righteousness, ‘theirs (and yours) is the kingdom of Heaven.’
