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Lansing SDA Church

David Shin

Joy in Persecution

And our message today is entitled Joy in Persecution.

Joy in Persecution, and I'd like to invite you to follow along, this is a brief outline of today's presentation.

And I'd like to begin by going to the book of Revelation.

The Bible says, they follow the lamb wherever he goes.

Many times we use this symbol of a lamb, not recognizing that the lamb is going to the slaughter.

This is an aspect of Christianity that we do not like to dwell upon, but the Bible illustrates here that God's people in the end of time according to the book of Revelation are followers of the Lamb and the Lamb is going to a place of suffering.

This is not an aspect of Christianity that is popular nor is preached, but in John 15 verse 20 the Bible tells us, Remember the words I spoke to you, no servant is greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

Jesus is telling us that they persecuted the master, they will do so the same to the servant as well.

And in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, it says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall do what?

I don't know about you, but this is an aspect of Christianity that is not very comfortable for me to think about.

I don't know how many of you wake up in the morning and say, Lord, I want to suffer persecution today.

I would rather that God would withhold this aspect of the Christian experience, but this is a very real aspect that many times being followers of Jesus involves persecution.

I want to be very clear here at the beginning by saying that sometimes we are persecuted not because we are righteous but because we are unrighteous.

There are individuals that have a martyr's complex and they do certain actions and they are persecuted.

This is not what the Bible is talking about.

The Bible is talking about being persecuted for righteousness sake.

You can see in your study guide, I don't have it on the screen, but in Great Controversy, page 48, We're told, let there be a revival of faith and power of the early church and the spirit of persecution will be revived and the fires of persecution will be rekindled.

Which is telling us that if we live a godly life, it's just a matter of time that we'll see the persecution as witnessed by the early Christian church.

Desire of Ages 224, unto you is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." This next sentence really is a challenge for me as a pastor.

It says, of all the gifts that heaven can bestow, I can think of a lot of gifts, a lot of blessings, but listen to this.

Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His suffering is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.

This is telling us that of all the gifts that heaven can bestow, fellowship with Christ in His suffering is the highest honor that we can ask for.

I personally would say, Lord, please don't give me this highest honor, highest gift, but this is an aspect of the Christian experience that is a reality.

And our thesis question here this morning, How do you make it through difficult times?

How do you make it when life seems unbearable?

How many of you have been persecuted before?

I remember reading a book, seeing a title that says, what do you do when you're crucified by Christians?

How do you make it through challenging times?

And when we think of blessed, in actuality, it is the word happy.

It says, happy are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake.

This is not talking about an experience where you do something wrong.

This is an experience where you do something right.

It says, happy are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus goes on, happy are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely for my sake." Have you ever experienced a situation where someone is going around saying all kinds of evil against you falsely?

I had a situation like that not too long ago and I finally got to the place where I said, listen, I can't stand up for my reputation, I need to let my character speak for itself.

I can't be reactionary, constantly going around trying to dispel these false rumors.

Well, this is a reality for the Christian.

It says that happy or blessed are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." And notice the last verse here, it says, Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you I'd like to pick this apart very briefly Just notice the way that Jesus starts It says blessed are they This is in the third person.

It seems very palatable, doesn't it, when it's them.

We can say I sympathize with they or them or the other person as long as it's not me.

Jesus begins in an abstract them, they relationship because Jesus says very clearly, this is evidenced in the Greek, it says, "'Blessed are they which are persecuted "'for righteousness' sake." And here we have it again, "'For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'" all of us are sitting very comfortable here in church today because it's not me it's them but then Jesus gets personal in the next verse he says it's not just them but it says blessed are who are you and you're like me Jesus says yes you When men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you Jesus personalizes this verse Another part of this passage that is quite puzzling is that Jesus begins with the word happy.

I've never heard a testimony where someone gets up on Sabbath morning during Sabbath school and says, I want to testify today.

Why do you want to testify sister because this week I've been persecuted I've never heard a testimony like that because someone has gone around saying all kinds of nasty false things about me and I want to praise the Lord hallelujah we say that this person has has a problem that is not normal we usually say we need to pray for you sister, but Jesus here is using 2 words that we do not regularly associate.

And then Jesus goes on in the last part of this verse and says, Rejoice and be exceeding glad.

In other words, we're not just to be happy, we're not just to rejoice, but this is on a scale of 1 to 10, If you were to say sad, kind of moderately happy, and very, very, very happy, Jesus says, listen, you're not just to be moderately happy.

In other words, the person's supposed to say, praise the Lord.

We say that this person must be a masochist.

When they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the son of man.

He goes on, rejoice in that day, and what?

Remember in the 80s they used to have that Toyota commercial, and the person would jump up?

It says, Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.

This is something that you are ecstatic about because great is your reward in heaven for that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

Now, the source of our happiness, I want to be very clear, is not because we are persecuted.

We should not be praising the Lord for our persecution.

The Bible tells us that the source of our happiness is not being focused on our persecution, but I want you to notice something here.

Because people are saying all kinds of nasty things about us?

No, it says, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven.

For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Here's my thesis this morning.

Present agony, because that's what it is sometimes.

Present agony is made lighter by where our focus lies.

There are times when we go through life, when we're going through something very difficult and the only way that we're able to go through it is because of where our focus is.

In grad school, I had an intensive class.

It was a four-week summer class, and I had 2 of them when I was going through the seminary, and the professor for some reason gave us an assignment where on top of doing a paper and testing and so forth, we had to read an exorbitant amount of hours a week.

And being a pastor, they took us at our word because on the final examination they would have a place where it says I have read 90 hours in 3 weeks and you have to sign my name you know it defeats the purpose to lie going through seminary especially if you're going to be a pastor, amen?

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Joy in Persecution

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