8th step of discipleship-only the strong survive

8/9/2019 8th Step of Discipleship-Only the Strong Survive

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The eighth step in discipleship-only the strong survive

Matthew 5:10-12

Proposition: When we are persecuted for the sake of Christ on our steps todeeper discipleship, we are blessed.

Saints of God, would it be true if I said that most of us see persecution as a negative

thing. Most of us have the feeling that persecution and mistreatment in any way,

shape, or form is wrong. We feel that to endure mistreatment at anytime is a sin

against ourselves. In fact, we have such an aversion to being mishandled and

mistreated that we have elevated the ability to defend ourselves and fight back to a

virtue, and have demoted the endurance of wrongs to a sign of weakness. When wesee someone silently suffering and enduring persecution, we often shake our heads

and say , I would never or Somebody would be dead if., or the ever popular, Iwouldnt take that.. We look at them and feel sorry for them because they are so

weak to us, but we secretly despise them because they remind us of our own

moments of weakness, when we did allow and we did take, and nobody died, oreven got cussed out. But why do we feel this way? Because the culture that we exist

in and the society that we live in teach us that to endure persecution, mistreatment

and abuse in any form is a sign of impotency and cowardice, and that the only way

to deal with persecution is diplomacy at best, force at worse, but never endurance.

Because of the influence of our culture, we dont want anyone to assume that they

can do or say anything to us. But the truth of the matter is that often we are too

weak to handle any persecution, so we fight against all persecution.

Now saints, Im not saying that you should be a doormat or that there are some

persecutions and mistreatments that are not sinful, there are and they must be

opposed. But the interesting this is that when we shy away from all suffering andpersecution, we actually miss out on persecution that is blessed, because of our

discipleship. Saints, it is a truth that if we are faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus, we

will be mistreated, taken advantage of, and persecuted. Brothers and sisters there is

a reason why the Apostle Paul describes his discipleship as an athletic event where

he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, Do you not know that those whorun in a race all run, but only one received the prize? Run in such a way that

you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control inall things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an

imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a

way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so

that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified(1 Cor 9:24-27). Its no accident that our Lord Jesus teaches us that, You will be hated by

all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.The fact that our Lord and the Apostle Paul bring up the element of endurance is an

indication that as disciples, we will go through issues and situations that may seem

like an affront to our sense of honor and will strike at the high opinions that we have

of ourselves. Saints, because of the endurance that is involved, discipleship is not

for the weak or the faint of heart. Not everyone can be a disciple, not because God


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dont call everybody, but because not everybody is capable of doing what is

necessary and going through what comes with being a disciple of our Lord Jesus. To

be a disciple you have to be tough, but sensitive. You have to live to the fullest, but

do it for the Lord and not yourself. You have to be a person of steel with a soft heart.

Not everyone can do that, and thats why most of us dont try. In fact most of us

would rather be members of churches than disciples of the Lord Jesus, becausebeing a member of a church is safe, but being a disciple is a struggle. To be a

member of a church is to be a part of a community, but to be a disciple of the Lord is

to be at war with the world and the target of persecution and battle. But in these

verses our Lord Jesus tells us, Blessed are those who have been persecuted forthe sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you

when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evilagainst you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for you reward in heaven is

great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before

you. In these verses, our Lord gives us the last beatitude and the last step indiscipleship, but in this step he shows us three things, 1) the reason for our

persecution, 2) the activity of our persecution, and 3) the remedy of ourpersecution.

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In v.10, our Lord teaches us, Blessed are those who have been persecuted for

the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In this verse wesee that Jesus calls those disciples who are persecuted for righteousness blessed.

Saints, we remember that to be blessed in the eyes of God is to be on the right track

in establishing a right relationship with Him. To be on the right track means that

you have understood that you are poor without God and you mourn the time spent

doing everything else, but neglecting God. To be on the right track means that you

have allowed your realization of your spiritual poverty and your mourning to soften

your heart that has been calloused by selfishness. It means that you have begun to

hunger and thirst for that which only God can give. To be blessed means that youhave learned and started developing a heart of mercy and allowed the mercy that

you receive from God to purify your heart. It means that you have allowed Godspeace to rule in your life, making you His child in the process.

Saints, once these things start to happen, you become a threat to the world. Whenwe become threats to the world, we become threats to the enemy who uses the

illusions of the world to ensnare and enslave us. We become threats because we

understand that only God and what He gives is not illusionary and because of this

understanding Satan seeks to put us to flight and pursues us. Because we are

threats to him, he will systematically harass us in an attempt to push us away from

Christ. Brothers and sisters, when we answer the call to be disciples, Satan pulls out

all the stops, and all hell breaks loose. When folks push to be disciples, all of a

sudden where there was understanding between people, divisions seem to pop up.

Your home becomes a source of chaos, when it seemed to be peaceful just yesterday.

Husbands and wives fight over nothing and children seem to lose their minds.


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When Satan has you in his sights, your job becomes a battleground and even church

folks start acting like a fool. But this hell aint caused for nothing. Everything seems

to be going wrong because you are headed in the right direction. Everything seems

to be chaotic because we have allowed the Spirit to mellow the chaos of our hearts.

Everything seems to go to hell in a hand basket, because we have turned to God

striving to be upright by doing right because we are in right relationship with theFather. We are attacked because we strive to act in ways that are in line with the

teachings of our Lord Jesus, the movement of the Spirit, and the commandments of

God. Saints it is only for this reason that we should be persecuted, because to be

persecuted for any other reason is foolish and beneath a disciple of the Lord Jesus.So saints if you are suffering, being mistreated or persecuted, you have to ask

yourself, is this because I am a disciple or is this because I trusted in my own

wisdom, or my own desires Why? Because we have to keep the words of the

Apostle Peter in our hearts at all times, Make sure that none of you suffers as a

murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as aChristian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name

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We must always make sure that we suffer for the sake of Christ because if we bringpersecution on ourselves for any other reason, we do ourselves harm. To drive the

point home, our Lord gives us an immediate refresher in v.11 , Blessed are you

when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evilagainst you because of Me. In this verse, our Lord repeats the blessed state of

disciples who are harassed for His sake, but He also lifts up the activity of the

harassment that we will receive. When we are attacked as disciples, those who

attack us will do it in two ways. They will attack who we are and what we are. When

they attach who we are, they will insult and denounce us. We will be treated as if we

are worthless and we will be declared to be nothing. We will be disgraced and

publically shamed, humiliated and run down. We will be maligned privately and

disregarded publically. We will be disrespected and no one will take any account forus, because those of the world will not be able to look past themselves. Saints when

you strive to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, the very folks who cuss with you, whorewith you, joke with you, sleep with you and sin with you will be the first ones to call

you, no good, foolish. Those who supported you when you acted a fool will drop

you the minute you become a true disciple and they will do anything they can to tearthe image of God within you.

But they will also attack what you are. They will attempt to assassinate your

character. Its not enough that they dont like you, but they got to lie on you so

others wont like you either. Those who persecute you and harass you when you

become a disciple of the Lord Jesus will attempt to systematically deconstruct your

reputation. They will try to deceive others about who you are, and most of us will

go along with it, because most of us dont want to do the hard work of building

relationship.


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But Jesus reminds us that its not because of ourselves that we are mistreated but

because of Him, if we suffer for His sake. When we suffer because we are disciples,

when we struggle because we are disciples, we will understand that we are insulted

because of the God in us. We are disgraced because of the Jesus in us. We are

reproached and lied on, because we seek to say like the Apostle Paul, I have been

crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in meSaints we will be maligned as disciples, because we have accepted the Lord for who

He is. We accept Him as the Man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. We accept

Him as the one who created all, but had on place to lay His head. We accept Jesus as

the one whose beauty makes Him the lily of the valley and whose light in ourdarkness, makes Him our bright and morning star. The one whose provision makes

Him bread in a starving land. Whose blood, shed on a hill called Calvary, makes Him

the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The one whose victory over

death makes Him the resurrection and the life.

When we are insulted, abused, misused, lied on, talked about, laughed at,

misunderstood, put out, thrown out and cast down because we have acquired asingle minded devotion to our Lord, our Lord calls this mistreatment and abuse

blessed. Why? Because what humanity disregards because of Jesus, God values.

What humanity throws away because of Jesus, God holds close. Because whathumans, seduced by satanic selfishness and pride, God loves and glorifies.

III

But our Lord not only teaches us the activity of our persecution because of our

discipleship, He also teaches us how to deal with our persecution. In v. 12, our Lord

tells us, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the

same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you Our Lord

commands us to Rejoice and be glad. No pity parties or woe is me speeches, orcomplaining, just rejoice and be glad. No calling Dr. Phil, but simply rejoice and be

glad. He dont tell us to call up our sister girl circle. He dont tell us to drown themin a drink. He dont tell us to send anonymous letters to Tony Scott, Tammie

Holland, or Michael Baisdon. Our Lord Jesus simply commands us to rejoice. This

word rejoice is interesting because in the Greek it means to enjoy ourselves as if wewere already living in a certain disposition. And with be glad in the Greek the

word means to experience Joy with the whole person, body and soul. So what is ourLord telling us. He is telling us to rejoice and enjoy ourselves as if we are already

victorious and experience a joy that flows from the heart and fills the whole person

with warmth and hope. He is telling us to rejoice as if the storm is over, because if

Hes on deck the storm cant win. He is telling us to have such a joy in our hearts

that it cause our very bodies to explode with hopeful anticipation.

So saints, rejoice in the midst of your mistreatment as a disciple, because through

Jesus we are more than conquers. Be glad with a joy in your heart that is expressed

through your hole body, Be glad with a joy that understands, We are hard pressed

on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but

not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed Why? Because our reward, our wage,


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our pay back is great in heaven. Some folks may say that our reward is a simple

crown, but we will toss that when we bow before God. Some say that we will get a

new body, but whatever body it is it will look just like Christ, because when we

suffer for Christ we are glorified with Christ. Some say that we will have a mansion,

but we wont be in it long because every day we will want to worship God.

Somebody else says that there will be streets of gold, but it must not be thatimportant if folks are walking on it. Somebody else may say that my reward is

seeing my mother, another my father, another my sister, brother, friends, uncles,

aunts, grandparents who left us. But my reward is to see the one who kept me, who

never left men, who held me, who taught me, whose blood washed me, who came ona mission of mercy from a Father who loved us too much to see us destroyed. I want

to see my friend that sticketh closer than a brother; I got a savior that I want to see.

But a songwriter says it best.

As I Journey through this land, singing as I go. Pointing souls toCalvary-to the crimson flow, many arrows pierce my soul from

without; within. But my Lord leads me on, through Him I must win.

Oh I want to see Him, look upon His face, there to sing forever of

His saving grace; on the streets of glory let me lift my voice, cares allpast, home at last, ever to rejoice

8th step of discipleship-only the strong survive

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