The Beatittudes Pt. 5

As we prepare for the Days of the Love of Bread, the Passover, looking forward to the Feast of Pentecost, we'll often hear messages where we'll talk about what an amazing time it would have been to be alive during this time when these events actually took place. I mean, to actually know Jesus, he dies, and that he's resurrected. Maybe you're one of the hundreds that saw him. Everybody's excited about it.

The church starts. Hundreds and hundreds of people come along and begin to become part of the church. The Holy Spirit's poured out on Pentecost, which is a miracle. Everybody sees it. And if you read through the first part of Acts, you see there are miracle after miracle people were being healed. Three thousand people baptized in one day, and we rehearse a lot of those things between now and Pentecost. And as we do, it's like, wow, wouldn't that have been a great time to be alive? And it would have. But there was another issue that came along too with all that growth and notoriety, and that is that they began to be persecuted, which probably was a shock.

Now here you are in Jerusalem. You're part of this new church that went from a few to thousands of people. When you had in the children and other people that kept being baptized, who knows? There might have been 10,000 people in the church. It just kept growing. It was an amazing group of people. It was an amazing thing that was happening. And yet, you begin to be persecuted. In fact, the apostles were actually dragged before the Sanhedrin and told that they could no longer preach about Jesus Christ.

It was illegal for them to do so. So let's pick up the story in Acts 5. Acts 5. Of course, they didn't listen to them. So now the leaders of the Sanhedrin are even more angry because they won't listen to them, and they're out preaching about Jesus.

In verse 27 of Acts 5, it says, that when they, speaking of the religious leaders there, had brought them and set them before the council, and the high priest asked them. So now here they are before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest himself says to them, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. He says, all of Jerusalem's up excited about this. Of course, Jerusalem was a fairly large city for its day.

And he says, the whole city's excited about this, and you're trying to make it our fault that he was killed. Of course, it was their fault. I mean, they are the ones who brought him for the Roman governor, and the Romans killed them. I mean, so, you know, there's enough fault to pass around, but people are starting to realize, wait a minute, we're starting to believe Jesus was the Messiah, is the Messiah. He was resurrected. People saw him after he was resurrected. Therefore, our leaders, religious leaders, killed him.

And so, suddenly, there's not a lot of interest in following the religious leaders anymore. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And so, he says, we have to do this. We witnessed it. We know that he's alive. We have to tell people. We cannot back down. We must do this. So, what happens is the members of the Sanhedrin actually decided they could aspire with each other. We have to kill these men.

They actually wanted to kill them. So, how do we kill them? Do we have to drag them before the Romans? Do we have them assassinated? What are we going to do? But we have to stop this movement. And Gamaliel comes before them, and is one of the leaders of the day. He sees it famous in Judaism today. And Gamaliel says, wait, wait, wait. What if these men are from God? What if there's some truth to what they're saying?

Why don't we let God take care of this? Just like God take care of this. So, they decided not to kill them. So, verse 40, skipping down to verse 40, and they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Okay, we can't kill them. But, you know, there was a guard. There was a group of soldiers, especially trained soldiers, that served the Sanhedrin.

So, this isn't beat them. It probably wasn't the members of the Sanhedrin. It was probably their soldiers. So, they beat them up.

So, they departed. So, the apostles leave for the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. So, after getting beaten, they go up out into the temple where they could be seen. Members of the Sanhedrin are watching them. You know, there's soldiers there. They just continue to preach. Then they go from house to house as more and more people want to learn about, you know, who Jesus is as the Christ. And so, the movement is growing. But the phrase I want you to look at is in verse 41, "...rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." Now, some of you have experienced persecution at one level or another. Maybe a friend turned against you because of your beliefs. Maybe a family member hates you because of your beliefs. Maybe you lost a job one time over the Sabbath because you would work on the Sabbath. Maybe you've had co-workers that just decide that you're a crazy person and they always make it snippy little comments at you. Maybe someone has actually come along and tried to get you fired from a job or defame you among other people. So, we've all had minor cases. I mean, they're realists at the time. They're very difficult. But those are minor cases of persecution. I don't think any of us have had a group of soldiers beat us up because we preach Christ.

So, we look at our persecution that we've experienced at times and we think, boy, that was tough. It says they rejoiced.

How can you find some kind of happiness and the fact that you were just beaten up? I wasn't going to give this sermon this week. At the beginning of the week, I decided to do it because this is the last sermon in the Beatitudes. And there was a reason I didn't want to give this sermon because I don't like what this sermon says. I don't particularly feel comfortable what the Bible says about this. Let's go to Matthew 5. Matthew chapter 5.

And verse 10. This is the last of the blessings. Jesus says these are the blessings you really want to receive from God. And we've looked at all of them and they're not exactly how we would count blessings. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. But there's difficulty in these blessings. There's something uncomfortable in these blessings. And yet you receive a blessing from God in each one of these statements. And in verse 10, he says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He says, you want a real blessing from God? Be persecuted for righteousness. Now remember, we've already talked about what righteousness is. We've had to as we've gone through these. And righteousness is a right relationship with God that leads to faith and obedience in God. And righteousness also then defines how you treat other people. It's a right relationship with God that defines everything about your life, including how you treat other people. So blessed are you if you are hurt, made fun of, put down, mistreated, beat up, put in jail, because you have a right relationship with God.

Because God's going to give you the kingdom of heaven. Now, not only does He say that once, this is the only blessing that is said twice. Look at verse 11. Blessed are you when you are reviled and they persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Now, it's important for my sake, for Christ's sake. He's not saying, blessed are you when you're just rude. Blessed are you when you use your religion just to beat other people over the head and they don't like you. Blessed are you when you're obnoxious.

He says blessed are you when people talk badly about you, they persecute you, they say evil about you, they turn your friends against you. Blessed are you when people hate you for my sake.

There's a blessing in it. Verse 12 says, rejoice. So when we see an act, excuse me, where the apostles are rejoicing because they've just been beat up, he told them here, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Great is what God is going to give you if you are persecuted. Now you can see why I sort of wanted to wait. I thought maybe I even told Kim, maybe I won't even give the last blessing. It doesn't seem much of a blessing, but then I couldn't escape it.

All week long, I gotta go back. I gotta cover this.

Blessed are we when we are persecuted. Now fortunately for most of us here, any persecution we've experienced is actually very small. I've had family members.

Not like us. My, you know, one branch family not like another because of what we believe. I've had some job difficulties. I've had, but I've never really been, I've never been beat up, okay, for Christ's sake. I've been beat up for other things, but that's, that's another story. I've never been beat up for Christ's sake.

Never. I never had been put in jail. I've never been brought before a group of people who spit on me or threw things at me. I've never experienced that. Yet Jesus said in the Beatitudes, blessed are those who are persecuted. I didn't say you have to go seek persecution. We'll talk about that in a minute. But it is a blessing. How are we blessed? Now remember as we've gone through each one of these blessings, we see that there's a future blessing, but there's also an immediate blessing. Blessed are those who mourn, who suffer in this life from a sense of loss, because they shall be comforted. That's a future blessing and immediate blessing that God actually does something in your life to help you experience comfort. So we understand the blessing is a present tense and a future tense. What is it that persecution does?

Well, you'll find persecution mentioned throughout the New Testament because as the church grew and had all these good things happening, they became more and more persecuted. And it was real persecution. Members of the church were dragged out and stoned to death. Members of the church were killed. Well, the light went out. Oh, nope, there it went. It turned itself off.

I'm in persecuted. Let's go to 1 Peter 4 because Peter talks about it as because the church, and he writes a lot later in the century here, and he writes about persecution. 1 Peter 4.

Verse 12. The church was beginning to suffer systematic persecution as the century progressed onward in the Roma world and in the Jewish world.

So the Jews who had come out of Judaism were being persecuted, and the pagans were being persecuted who came out of paganism, which was a real new experience for them. Because pagans didn't tend to persecute each other. Because, well, you accept all the gods. Any time they persecuted each other when one army worshiped a certain god and another army worshiped another god, and then whoever won would say, see, our god's stronger than you. But in peacetime, everybody just, you know, freedom of religion to the extreme. 2 Peter 3. So there's this persecution happening. In verse 12, he says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, he's saying again, find some happiness here. Find actually some joy in what's happening to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. And now we go back. Of course, Peter would have been there when Jesus gave the instructions on the Sermon on the Mount. So there's almost a, you can see a similarity here. He says, rejoice because you're suffering for Christ's sake.

You're identifying with His suffering, and you will be rewarded when He returns. Being persecuted as identifying with the suffering of Jesus Christ is a fascinating concept.

If you truly understand, as we will be commemorating in a month, His sacrifice for us, if we truly understand that, are we willing to suffer for Him?

That's the issue that comes up here over and over as we look through this. If He suffered for us, and we follow in His footsteps, are we willing to suffer for Him? And He says, rejoice to the extent that you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that you'll receive this reward when He comes back.

That identifying with Jesus Christ when we're being persecuted, that we are united to Him. And also, persecution helps us focus in on what's really important in life, what is really, really important in life, what is it we stand for, what is it we're willing to pay a price for, and is it to be suffering with Christ? Notice the next verse. If you are reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. And their party is blasphemed, but in your party is glorified. Now, once again, it's very interesting, He brings out blessed, but you're blessed because why? As you are persecuted in the name of Jesus Christ, you recognize God's Spirit. It is God's Spirit that's motivating you. In other words, just like we looked at all the other blessings, it is the power of God that gives you the ability to endure persecution. Part of the blessing of enduring persecution is the ability God gives you to endure it so that you can receive the greater reward in the end. See, we don't think in life that way, but this is the way the beatitudes are. Blessed are you when, and then He gives us the whens, and when this happens, and this happens, and this happens. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for Christ's sake because now you are suffering with Him. He suffered with you, He suffered for you, and now you're suffering with Him, and you're suffering for Him. And there's a bond that's supposed to be there because of that. He says, let none of you, verse 15, suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evil doer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, let him glorify God in this matter. Can you imagine thanking God for being beaten up? That's what the apostles did. They went and thanked Him. Thank you for letting us be beat up for Christ.

See why I didn't want to talk about this? Thank you for letting us be beat up for Him. Now, not beat up because we're obnoxious, not beat up because we're just, you know, like to pick a fight. Beat up for Christ's sake. Thank you. We glorify. They thank God for just being even worthy to be beat up for the sake of Jesus Christ. This is a way of looking life that's so beyond normal. This can only come from God's Spirit. The only way we can understand this is through God's Spirit. He says that in verse 17, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? So he seems to be changing the subject here, but he's not. Because in verse 18, he says, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, what will be the ungodly and the sinners? Where will the ungodly and sinner appear? That's actually a quote. It's sort of a paraphrase of a verse in Proverbs. And I'm going to go there and read it. I'm going to read this from the Jewish Publication Society translation because it's a more of an exact Hebrew translation. And of course, Peter isn't saying it in Hebrew. He's paraphrasing it in Greek. Okay, so it's a little different. But let's look at this the way it is in Hebrew. If the righteous on earth get their desserts, how much more the wicked and the sinner? In other words, there are natural consequences. Those who are the righteous receive forgiveness for the eternal consequences of sin. In other words, salvation. But none of us receive entirely the erasing of the temporary consequences. You've heard me talk about that before many times. There are temporary consequences and eternal consequences. Every one of us here is suffering some kind of temporary consequences from a sin we've committed sometime in our lives. It's just there. That temporary consequence isn't taken away by God. It help reminds us. The eternal consequence is gone. That's what we're supposed to remember at the Passover. The eternal consequence is gone. And he says here, you know what? If we still have to suffer the consequences of our decisions in this life, how much more those who don't know God?

And he ties this in then to persecution. In other words, if the price we pay for that reward he promises us is persecution, then that's the price we pay. We understand that as part of the price. He says in verse 19, therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as a faithful creator. See, we endure this persecution, which like I said most of us haven't had at a great extent. We endure this because we know that God is creating in us the character of Jesus Christ so that we are his children. We understand why it's happening. We may be persecuted in order to be bonded with Christ. He suffered for us. We suffer for him. And that's our just desserts. I mean, if he suffered for us, how much are we willing to suffer for him? That's why he quotes that proverb. What's that have to do with what he's talking about? But it's what he's saying. If he suffered for us, what are we willing to do to suffer for him? And he says, remember, God's creating something in you. God's creating in you what you need to be, what I need to be, to be a child in his kingdom forever. And if that's done sometimes through persecution, then that's how it will be done. Oh, this seems so heavy, right? This is so tough. We will never face persecution with the ability to rejoice unless we understand this. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I do know before Christ comes back, persecution on the people of God will be the norm.

It will happen everywhere, all the time. That'll be the norm. We're told that.

Right now, no one usually cares about what we think or believe, do they? Eh, who cares? That will change. We already see it changing, even in our society, where if you believe certain things, you're an evil person.

If you don't believe in LGBTQ, you're an evil person. And if you use the Bible, that means you're just an antichrist.

That's already changed. It's amazing how much the world has changed in 10 years. I've never seen anything like what Christianity has gone through in the last 10 years, although it's taken 100 years to get there, is one of the fastest changes in all of history. All over the world. All over the world. Why? Why is it that persecution is told it's going to be so common, which it has been much more common throughout history than what we experience, why is it that it's going to happen? And why is it it may come to happen in our lives? Well, Jesus told us in John 15. John 15.

Now, this is what Jesus was telling his disciples on the night he was going to be persecuted. Because it was this night after he told them all these things, and he gave them the bread and the wine and instituted the new covenant. During this time, they came to get him right after this. The soldiers came, they dragged him off, he was beaten, he was punched, he was beaten with sticks, he was spit on, he was beaten with a whip to the point that you couldn't even recognize him as a human being, and he was hung up and crucified and died. Now, that's the cost Jesus Christ paid for you and me. We're going to celebrate that or not celebrate it, or commend it here, commemorate it in just a month. We commemorate that suffering for us, and the thing about persecution is, how much are we willing to suffer for him? Because that's a relationship issue. Because look what Jesus says, okay? Here's his words. John 15, verse 18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Eventually, all Christians face some kind of hatred for the world around them. It's just going to happen. Sometimes it's worse than others. I thank God. In my lifetime, my persecution has been really minor. You know, emails from people who watch Beyond Today and hope I go to hell and burn forever. Okay. Eh, it's pretty minor. There's no lost sleep over that. But you know, what if it's not always that way? Because blessed are those who are persecuted. So it is something that's going to happen to the lives of many Christians, not all.

He says, remember the word, verse 20, that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. You want to know why?

Because you're a follower of Jesus Christ, and he suffered for you. And he said, they'll come after you too, and then you'll suffer for me. That's why.

That's the way of the world that you and I live in. And blessed are those who suffer persecution.

Now, does this mean that you and I should go seek persecution? Well, remember when we talked about peacemakers as one of the beatitudes? And I read from Romans 12, where Paul said, if it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. If your neighbor is an atheist or a Hindu, you live peaceably as much as you can. That's what we're supposed to do as peacemakers. The problem is, there's always part of the world that's going to come after people who are truly following God. They just are. We're told they will. So we don't go seek it. It's a funny thing about persecution. When I gave the history of the early church as a series of Bible studies a couple years ago, I talked about this. But when the people of the second and third centuries, Christianity was very fragmented, very confused. And we do have some writings from people who were considered sort of the fathers of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church didn't exist yet, but they were the ones who would help form it. One of them was a man named Justin. Now, persecution at that time didn't matter what kind of Christian you were. You could be a Sunday keeper. You could be a Sabbath keeper. It didn't matter. They were all equally persecuted. All of them were equally persecuted by the Roman Empire in that second and third century and by the pagan world. And it became common enough, it began to affect the way people view life. Justin, we have a couple letters that were written by him where he would say, I look forward today. I pray for the day when I will stand in the arena and they will let loose the lions. And I will yell in God's name, come eat my flesh. And I will laugh as them as they rip me open and tear my arms off. He was really graphic. And he looked forward to that day. And sooner or later, that's what happened to him. And that's why in history, he's known as Justin Martyr. Martyr is not his last name. It's because he wanted to be martyred so much he did. Or Origen, who as a teenager wanted to be a martyr. He read the Bible. He was a very smart guy. So he could read the Bible even as a teenager. When in an age when not everybody was literate, but he came from a very literate family. He decided he wanted to be martyred. So anytime in his town where they'd be dragging out some Christian they caught to take him to jail, he would go out and pick a fight with the Roman soldiers.

I'm a Christian, too! He'd run up and hug people. He'd visit them in jail. Finally, the Roman soldiers just sort of beat him up. Threw him down on the ground. They thought he was crazy. And after years of trying, he couldn't get himself killed. He never was martyred. But he sure tried his teenagers to be killed. Because he wanted to be a martyr. Because what happened is, so many people were being thrown in jail or killed or beat up. That the consideration was, wow, I want to suffer for Christ, too. That was actually their motivation.

Now, that's not what we're supposed to be. Jesus didn't go out and seek to do certain things.

He didn't go out and punch a member of the Sanhedrin in the nose, right? But his teachings, and who he said he was, and his miracles, okay, those were from God. Those were what got him in trouble. So, what are we supposed to do then? I know. I know of a place where we can get prepper food real cheap. I know a guy that sells it. We can buy it in bulk, and we can all just get in a bunker and fill up our prepper food and wait for Christ to come back, right? Is that what we're supposed to do? I'm not saying it's not bad to have some extra food. I'm saying you can't prepare for the tribulation. There's no way to physically prepare for it.

Matthew 5. Go back here to the Sermon on the Mount, something Jesus said right after he finished the attitudes. Matthew 5.

Because we have to say, what are we supposed to do? Well, we don't go out and seek martyrdom. We don't seek persecution. Are we to hide from persecution? What do we do? Well, Jesus explains it. Verse 14. You are, these are the disciples of Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And he gives light to all who are in the house. If you've ever been in a room where you just can't see, or down in a cave where you just can't see, and someone lights a match, it's amazing what you can see off the light of a match.

A little bit of light in darkness can really be seen. But he says you are to be like a city on a hill. I've driven across the desert where you see way, way off in the distance, you know, some lights, or maybe a little higher ground. And then you come to the sign and it's like 60 miles away. Because it's at night, and it's really dark in the desert. And you look out and say, oh, that's a city out there, yeah, but it's 60 miles away. He says, let your light, now I want to say something about your light. When you try to shine your light, you end up in trouble. This is the light of God that is shining through us. It is God's light. I've seen people try to shine their light, and all they do is create trouble for themselves and don't help anybody.

It is God's light that shines through us. Notice 16. Let your light, so this is what we're supposed to do. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and what? Glorify your Father in heaven. Not glorify us, because we're to be reflections of Jesus Christ.

So we're to glorify God and Jesus Christ. This happens in a lifestyle in which you are living every day in every situation as a son of God, a daughter of God.

See, what we do sometimes is we try to be two people. We're one person every day in the real world, quote-unquote. Actually, that's the fake world. And then we come to church, or with church people, and we can be a different person. We have to stop being split people. We have to be the same person everywhere. Does that mean you have to go preach? No. Does it mean you have to go convert people? No. But if God, remember this light comes from God's Spirit. If God's Spirit is in you, working in you, shining through you, you can't hide it. It's just too honest. It's just too sincere. It's just too incorruptible. It's just too, as other people see you, it's just too stupid.

You can't hide it, because it's the light that comes out of you. And that's the point that Jesus makes here. The light is lit. What are you going to do?

Trying to walk around and pretend to be something else would be like putting on some kind of costume. I'm going to put a costume on, so nobody can see the light coming out of me. I just put a big rubber suit on. All they can see is my eyes and no light shining out at all.

No. We are a lamp that is lit by God that every place we go, we bring light into the darkness. Most people won't even notice that, by the way. They're so blinded by the darkness, they never see it. They just don't see it. Some will, and some will say, that's light. And some will say, put that out.

The persecutors are the ones who say, put that out.

Because most people actually don't even see it. But the light of God is to shine in us.

That means you're open to persecution. If you, wherever you go, if you act like a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, you will at some point open yourself up to somebody who's offended by you or mad at you or thinks you're stupid or whatever. You can't help it. And you know what God says? When that happens, rejoice.

Because you're shining me. They just don't get it. They just don't get it.

How would Jesus deal with things? Now we know that He got up in front of large groups and spoke. It was 5,000 at one time. We know He went into the synagogue and stood up and read from the scripture. You know, we say, oh, okay, that means that the people who let their light shine are ministers. Sorry. That's not what it says. All of us have the light in us. All of us are supposed to let that shine. That doesn't mean going like Jehovah Witnesses from door to door, paddling on the door and making everybody think you're a lunatic, right? By trying to get you to converge. Here's the Book of Mormon. Oh, no, that's the Mormons that do that. Jehovah Witnesses don't do that. Sorry.

But that doesn't mean what we do. It's just because both groups pound door to door. What we do is we're there. We're available for whatever God wants at whatever time, which means we don't hide.

It means we don't hide. And that's every one of us. Because when you read through—I mean, there are certain instructions given in the New Testament for pastors and for elders. No, the Sermon on the Mount is for everybody. It's for every disciple of Jesus Christ. Everybody.

Blessed are you if you're persecuted, simply because you're doing what's right before God. And other people are seeing it. What did Jesus do to individuals? Okay, we know what he did on the big scene. We're going to look at just three here. Situations where Jesus interacted with individuals that tells us something about how we can interact with people in certain circumstances and let our light shine. Luke 13. Luke 13.

So should I go down on the street corner and just start, you know, get me a sandwich board that says the end is near and walk up and down the street? What should I do?

This is—what do I want here? Luke 13.

See, that's not right. That's because I went to the wrong book. Luke 13. Verse 1. Now there were present at that season, someone told him—in other words, someone brought up and told Jesus about a situation that had happened about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices. You know, he not only killed some Jews, he did the ultimate insult. He took their blood, mixed it with the blood of sheep and goats and bulls and whatever—probably killed a pig just to make it even worse—and then sacrificed it to pagan gods. So their blood was sacrificed to pagan gods.

That'd be the ultimate insult. And the question is, does God punish those people because their blood was mingled and used in a pagan ceremony? And Jesus answered and said to them, "'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things?' I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Now, I'm not saying it's always wise to say, repent or you're going to die. Okay, that's not a good way to do that. Jesus could do that. It's sort of hard for us. It usually doesn't do any good for us to say. But the point made here is, it was a current event and people were struggling with it.

The opportunity sometimes when someone comes up and says, I don't understand the Jewish Palestinian arguments and battles and fights and what's going on over there. They've been killing each other for hundreds of years. And you can say, oh no, they've been doing it for thousands of years. It goes clear back in the Bible to the time of Abraham. And they might say, oh, okay. Or they might say, well, what's that mean? What do we want in Census? Let's call it some kind of light before Jesus gives that light. And you can tell them. A little bit. You can give them a little piece of light. Here's some light for you. Now you don't dump everything on them. Right. First of all, let me tell you about the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the cleaning on Chlametes, and why you don't have an immortal soul, and why the pope is pagan. Okay, let me tell you all that first, and then I'll get into that. And of course, that's like taking a spotlight. You ever get hit in the eye with a giant spotlight? You're blind, right? Yeah, you just put them in another form of darkness because they're blinded by the light. Sometimes it's a little one of those tiny flashlights. Let me show you a little light here. Let me just show you this.

They simply used a common thing that people were going through. When someone says, I'm so sick and tired of the news. Yeah, I am too. I find peace, though, when I remember Christ is coming back. Now they might say, wow, you're weird. Or they might say, yeah, sometimes I think that too. And you give them a little piece of light.

It shines through us. It's not our light.

And we give that just like he did. Do you think—come on, he says, do you think that these people are any worse than the rest of you? Repent, turn to God. Turn to God is the message that he brought out. That's what repent—that was such a powerful word. Turn to God.

Let God repair you, fix you, forgive you. Matthew 9, look at another place. Matthew 9, and verse 9. I just find it interesting. We could go through all these places where Jesus dealt with large numbers, and then there's just—there's also interspersed in here many stories about a person. Sometimes nobody else was even around, as he let the light of God shine on them. Matthew 9, verse 9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. So he arose and followed him.

As I mentioned before, tax collectors are the most despised people in Judaism at the time, because who did they work for? The Roman government. You know, the Jews paid first tithe and the temple tax and free will offerings to the temple all the time. That's part of their religion. That's what God commanded them to do.

The Roman taxes was—well, you mean we have to pay taxes so Caesar can have a bigger palace?

Yeah. Are we at the pay taxes? So we pay for the Roman soldiers that are in Caesarea? Yeah. And who collects them? Other Jews. Of course, the Romans didn't give you much choice. You know, when a Roman soldier came up and said, come here, you're going to be a tax collector, you didn't say, what are the benefits? Is there a union? Okay, those were questions. You didn't even get to deny the job. You had to do the job. So what they became famous for was skimming off the top. Okay, we're going to have to collect money. We hate it by everybody. We're going to get a little cut off of it. So we'll fudge the reports and some of it, you know. So tax collectors were always taking a little money. Not all of them. They were famous for that. His passing. The Romans didn't care if they just took a little. Just get us the money.

So he says, come to this tax collector. Okay, Matthew, we know that. Verse 10, though. Now what happened is Jesus sat at the table in the house. Now I don't know what house this is.

This is my speculation. I think this is Matthew's house because of what happens next. Now that's totally my speculation. In the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Because I don't think most people would be letting tax collectors and sinners. In other words, these are people who are known drunks. These are people who are known for their immoral lifestyles. These are sort of the outcast cast in Judaism, and they all show up and sit down, and he starts eating with them. He didn't call them eating. They just came.

So don't be surprised sometimes if your opportunity to shine God's light isn't on the people you necessarily want to associate with.

They're on the people that God wants a little light shown to. Because it says in verse 11, And when the disciples saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard that, He said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now there's a bit of sarcasm here, and there's a real hidden punch. I came to help the sinners. Oh, okay. But he says, Go learn this. This is what he tells to the Pharisees who are complaining about him. Here's what you need to learn. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. In other words, you got it wrong, folks. But I came for these people. And if you wouldn't have said that, they'd say, Oh, he didn't come for us. No, there's a hidden jab in here. It's like just a knife stabbing, you know, just quick in and out. I came for you too, but you don't get it. You need to go learn this, and then you'll know I'm here for you. You need to learn mercy.

You need to learn certain things you don't know.

It's fascinating. He came for everybody and shed light on anybody that the opportunity came to give it to him. Many weren't converted. We don't know how many of these tax collectors were in the church in the first chapter of Acts. Maybe none of them. Maybe there were a few.

Maybe Matthew saw some of his buddies there. We don't know what happened. We only know this is what he did. This is how he interacted with people, and it tells us how to let our light shine.

And then the last instances in John 5. John chapter 5. And the story here is about how Jesus healed a man, and there was a pool there that an angel would come, stir the waters, and if someone came into the pool, they would be healed. Now that sounds like mythology, but it actually happened, and it was something that God did. God had always interacted, even after the majority of Israel was lost and taken into captivity, the Jewish people that were there, he always interacted with them in one way or another.

And this was one way he did. And there's a man there who can't get to the pool because he's been lame for decades. And Jesus asks him about getting to the pool, and he says, I can't get there. Nobody will pick me up and take me there. I can't be healed. And Jesus said, rise up and walk. And suddenly the man was healed. He must have been all shriveled up, and suddenly his whole body changed, and he stood up.

He says, pick up your bed and walk. Now his bed wasn't a big bed. It's a little mat. He would pull that little mat to lay on. So he rolls up his mat, and he carries it off. He's been healed. This incredible miracle. And what's amazing is Jesus does not take time at that point to explain to him anything else. He's like, wow, what a perfect chance to preach.

This is wisdom here. He knew when to say something and when not. So verse 9 says, and immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked, and that day was the Sabbath. And the Jews therefore said to him, who was cured, it is the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed. And he says, well, but the man who healed me told me to carry my bed.

And they said, who was he? And he says, I don't know. He walked away. Now, isn't it interesting? Okay, this is going to cause a big fight, and this isn't a time and place for some big fight. There are other times he confronted people directly, and there's times he didn't. He knew when to and when not, and he just walked away. The man didn't know who did it.

He didn't know why he did it. He didn't know what the message was. Verse 14. And afterward, after the big hallelujah, where is he? Who was he? Well, you don't know. Nobody knows. Afterward, Jesus found him, the man who was crippled, in the temple and said to him, see, you've been made well. Sin no more, lest the worst thing come upon you. And then the man departed and told the Jews it was Jesus who made him well.

He said, I don't know. I didn't recognize him. Now, it's like, I know where he was. He came and talked to me afterwards. But what's interesting, he came back later and said to the man, now that God's healed you, you must turn to God. Because if you don't turn to God, your life will get worse. That was the message he wanted him to hear. But he avoided the battle because it was a meaningless battle at the time.

Like I said, there's other times he did not. When showing light, there's times for confrontation and there's times to avoid confrontation. There's a time when confrontation will produce nothing. And you can sometimes get somebody that they're just going to keep arguing with you and arguing with you and yelling at you. And there's, okay, there's a time to say, you believe what you believe.

And I believe what my belief. And just leave it alone. There's a time to do that. And there's a time where they get a piece of light and they ask you a question. They ask you a question. I think I told you this, that the national religious broadcasters, this woman sat beside me.

Eric Metaxas was speaking. He was giving his radio program. And she started asking me questions. And it sort of annoyed me. Why she asked me questions. She asked me a question. What are you? I'm a pastor. Oh, asked me a question. Another question. And pretty soon it's just question after question. Finally, the producer for Eric Metaxas kept turning around and looking at her like, why don't you be quiet? And I didn't realize later till later he knew her. So she's asked me a question, asked me a question. And finally she said, that's fascinating. I've often wondered about those questions and nobody's ever been able to give me an answer.

I am a blogger on this network. And of course, he's the big fish. I'm just a little fish in the network. But I would like now to interview you and ask you these questions on my podcast. Now, I thought I would just let a little light shine. I still haven't called her back. I'm not sure I'm going to go on her podcast. But it was interesting how she kept asking and asking. I kept wondering why. And it's because she questioned she had that she could not answer.

And in her interview, she never found anybody can answer. And she says, everything you sense makes absolutely sense. I understand this part of the Bible. This is right. I never understood that before. I just had a little light and I got a chance to give her a little light. Now, though I need to go out to all her people and try to convert them, no. Should I go on there and share some light? Maybe. I'll decide. But you understand what I'm saying. I didn't go looking for that. It came to me. And she asked. It was just sort of an odd thing.

People are looking for light out there. And you are a light bearer. That's who you are.

And they will find you if you live it. They will find you if you live it. And they will ask you. And you share what they need. You may have to come back later and say, by the way, you need to repent. Jesus did. There are ways you have to deal with it. And you don't dump everything. You just shine some light. And that's the job of everybody. But understand. That means you will be open for persecution. You can't help it. You'll be open for persecution. But remember what we just read. The last of the Beatitudes. The keys to perfect happiness. Blessed are you if you are persecuted for righteousness in an unrighteous world.

Because God will give you a reward when Christ comes back that's eternal. But there's a blessing now. He will make you stronger. You will grow in your relationship with Christ because just as He suffered for you, you will suffer for Him. I don't know if we realize how profound that is. It is brought up in the Scripture over and over again. He suffered for us. We suffer for Him. This is a relationship. That His suffering for us is so important. We will suffer for Him. The Passover should bring us to that.

God will take care of us. God doesn't promise to protect us from all persecution. He'll protect us sometimes. But understand there is no promise that will be protected from all persecution. We're only told blessed are you. If you happen to have to go through that, you're blessed by God.

You're not able to hide from persecution unless you hide your light.

You hide your light, then you'll suffer even worse.

And you're not supposed to seek it either.

Shine that light that God has given to you. Let other people see part of it as they ask you, as they interact with you, as they know somehow you're different.

Because who knows what God will do when you share light with somebody, what He'll do in their lives. You don't know. God may have a long-term plan for that person that's way beyond what you or I can even imagine. What He does is plan for a lot of people. Share your light. And remember, if you're ever persecuted for Christ's sake, for the sake of Jesus Christ, if you're ever persecuted, rejoice! It's hard. You don't like it. Rejoice that you're accounted worthy.

Rejoice that God gave you the privilege to be persecuted for Jesus Christ.