The transcript of the service is below
Psalm 119: 73-80
73 Your hands made me and formed me;give me understanding to learn Your commands.74 May those who fear You rejoice when they see me,for I have put my hope in Your word.75 I know, Lord, that Your laws are righteous,and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.76 May Your unfailing love be my comfort,according to Your promise to Your servant.77 Let Your compassion come to me that I may live,for Your law is my delight.78 May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause;but I will meditate on Your precepts.79 May those who fear You turn to me,those who understand Your statutes.80 May I wholeheartedly follow Your decrees,that I may not be put to shame.
Matthew 5:10-12
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Psalm 119:73-80; Matthew 5:10-12
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE COMMITMENT TO GOD LEADS TO PERSECUTION
Springford Baptist Church: October 25, 2020.
I heard this question posed and it has always stayed with me: “If being a Christian were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you”?
We live in a country where there is freedom of religion and we do not understand persecution for our faith in Jesus the way that some people in some places in our world do.
When Jesus maintains that there is blessing for those who are persecuted “because of righteousness” (Matthew 5:10), because of their commitment to God, we can feel the tone changing and a chill comes to the air.
Jesus is not like the salespeople who try to promote their product by telling you how wonderful and convenient it will be, solving all your problems and guaranteeing a life of pleasure and comfort. He does not pretend that this way will be easy. He experienced and suffered persecution and if we are going to follow His way, then we too can expect to be mistreated and misunderstood.
We might predict that when this part of the “sales pitch” for living a life committed to God is presented that people would turn and walk away. Who would be willing to follow a way that can be expected to be so difficult?
Listen to how the Message captures this teaching of Jesus from Matthew 5:10-12
10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. 11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!- for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
Jesus does not pretend that LEARNING THE WAY OF BLESSING will come without a cost. We can trust Someone who tells it like it is and reveals that although we would tend to want to avoid being put down or discredited for our faith, it can actually result in blessing. As described here, “The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.” (Matthew 5:10b)
Only those convinced of who Jesus is, will remain committed to Him when the living of their faith leads to persecution. And as a result, their commitment to God will grow deeper and stronger.
Looking more closely at Psalm 119:73-80 we see that this person had also discovered the way of blessing that comes from persecution for faith in God.
He begins this section by affirming His commitment to understanding and learning God’s commands and reveals that he knows that God’s laws are righteous:
73 Your hands made me and formed me;give me understanding to learn Your commands.74 May those who fear You rejoice when they see me,for I have put my hope in Your word.75 I know, Lord, that Your laws are righteous,and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
He recognizes that God’s hands have made and formed him. His life is a gift from God and even when he does not understand, he puts his hope in God and God’s word.
This is the pattern of those who do not give up on God when persecution and hardship comes their way. They stick it out to learn the way of blessing.
You know how when we could go to the theatre to see a play or performance, there is a lot that happens on the stage. If you leave the theatre before the end of the play, you miss seeing the whole story. Or if you are reading a book or watching a movie and call it quits before the conclusion, you miss learning how things turned out.
In a similar way, we are being invited to hold on to our faith in God and our commitment to Him to see how He works blessing even through a seemingly unredeemable situation that we could not imagine resulting in blessing.
76 May Your unfailing love be my comfort,according to Your promise to Your servant.77 Let Your compassion come to me that I may live,for Your law is my delight.78 May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause;but I will meditate on Your precepts.
The Psalm writer lives this truth of going deeper in His commitment to God when he is persecuted. He looks to God’s unfailing love to comfort him. He prays that God’s compassion will come to him so that he will be able to go on living. (verses 76,77)
And notice the strategy of the Psalmist for responding to the arrogant who have wronged him without cause. He leaves it with God to deal with those who have persecuted him. He chooses not to get caught up in defending himself or seeking revenge. Instead, he will meditate on God’s precepts. He will go deeper in his commitment to God.
Persecution in various forms could lead to bitterness and an obsession with getting even. This is not going to result in learning the way of blessing that comes from a renewed commitment to follow God and to seek God’s kingdom.
79 May those who fear You turn to me,those who understand Your statutes.80 May I wholeheartedly follow Your decrees,that I may not be put to shame.
The way has not been easy for him, but he is not alone. There are others who fear and live in holy awe of God. (vs. 79) They too understand God’s statutes and God’s ways and want to grow deeper in their commitment to God. He is praying for them to turn to him and to offer support. Our determination to remain committed to God is something we are meant to support each other in. We do not know what may be ahead for those who choose to remain wholeheartedly committed to God. This wholehearted following of God and God’s ways is the prayer that the writer of Psalm 119 prays for himself. (verse 80) There may be for us various forms of opposition and persecution, but that will not be the end of the story. Throughout our lifetimes and into eternity, there is reward and blessing for solid commitment to God no matter what! Yes, as unexpected as it seems, “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE COMMITMENT TO GOD LEADS TO PERSECUTION”.
Some of you will know the true life story of Corrie Ten Boom, who endured the horrors of a concentration camp in Germany in World War 2. She and her father and sister had been hiding Jewish people from the Nazis in their home and watchmakers’ shop in Holland. Her story of trusting God through this terrible chapter of history is captured in the book, The Hiding Place. The persecution that Corrie experienced did not diminish her faith, rather as Jesus teaches, her faith grew much deeper and stronger. Corrie Ten Boom had real credibility when she said, “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.”