We are going to continue in our study of the Gospel of Luke,
specifically Luke chapter 6 in the section that is called the
sermon on the plane. So as you turn there, let me
just give us some things to consider.
And, and as I do that, even as I, as I start this sermon, in
fact, as I start every sermon, part of the introduction is me
just kind of calming my own nerves to speak and to preach.
And it, it really never goes away for as long as I've been
preaching. I have to confess that every
Sunday morning I just have to give the Lord all of my just
worries and fears of, of standing before you and
preaching. And that may surprise some of
you because I do it every week and it's still here every week.
But it shouldn't surprise you because I'm a very normal human
being. And you probably have heard the
reporting or the, the, the public polls when people talk
about their biggest fears, by and large, the number one fear
that many of you can probably relate to right now that most
people would state as their greatest fear is the fear of
public speaking. And I, I feel it.
I feel it. In fact, you know, often times
you'll look at #2 and realize like in, in, in this case,
number 2 appears to be the fear of heights, that many people
would rather jump off a Cliff than stand in front of people
and, and share publicly. And I always find that
interesting. And sometimes I think why, you
know, and all of the times I've preached and all of the, the
public speaking opportunities I've ever done, it's never
turned into anything bad. No one's ever greeted me with
actual pitchforks or throwing literal tomatoes.
Occasionally people will stand up and leave and that hurts my
feelings a little bit, but it's not that big a deal.
And then I, I finished preaching, I move on.
And so the question is, what is it about this moment that all of
us realize is is kind of it weighs on our hearts And you
probably feel it outside of the call to preach and just your
everyday life when it's your moment for all eyes to be on
you. There the nerve set in for the
students among us in the moment where the professor's like, OK,
any questions, You're like, I have a question, but I'll never
ask because then people would look at me and what if I get it
wrong? You know, you, you, you think of
just in the modern day, what it's like to put your opinion
out there and have to read the comments section and all of us,
probably our own social media managers, like, would this
really help my public opinion? How would my opinion polls do
after this post? And there's, there's a reason
for that. I can tell you why you all
relate to the feeling that I'm expressing.
And it is because fundamentally in our heart of hearts, every
single one of us has a fear of rejection.
Nobody wants to stand before people and have the response be
we don't like you, we don't trust you, you're not good at
what you do, or we didn't like anything you said.
Because all of us have this thing that does not like when
others don't like us. And with that, I hope at the
surface of your mind, we now consider one of the surprising
blessings that Jesus is going to bless us with today that we are
working our way through in the Sermon of the Mount when he says
there is actually a blessed rejection, that even when your
biggest fear comes true, there is a way for it to turn into
another way that God can bless your life.
So today's sermon could simply be called blessed rejection.
And we find it as we left off in the Sermon on the Mount or
Sermon in the Plain, Luke chapter 6, verse 22.
He says blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude
you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of
man's sake. Welcome to church everyone.
If you brought a friend, you picked a great week to come and
hear the message of what it is and what it means to follow
Jesus. He says that it's a blessing and
in this a preview of where the blessing takes you, he says in
verse 23, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed
your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner their fathers
did to the prophets. So once again we are going to
look at something that Jesus gives us a lens for that is very
counterintuitive to what we would normally think is the
blessed or happy or peaceful, satisfied life.
And we'll do it with Jesus giving us a view of what's
beyond it. And so as we read that there,
there's actually a very simple flow to this promise, this
blessing. And and this is what we'll look
at today. First, we'll look at the reality
of rejection. It's going to happen if you're
doing this right. Second, very important second
piece to what Jesus says is there is a valid reason for your
rejection for those moments in life where you're hated because
you're a follower of Jesus. And then he gives us a tool in
the tool belt today, the response to rejection, when it
happens, why it happens, and what you do in response to it
happening to your life. And finally, as we do for all of
our our moments in the Sermon of the Mount, we look at the reward
that Jesus is pointing us to. So we start with the very simple
reality of rejection. He says blessed are you when men
hate you. This is one of those when not if
statements of the teaching of Jesus.
This is par for the course of following him.
It is something that you should expect as a byproduct of you
doing the will of God for your life and bearing the name of
Christ in your life. When not if we find this as a
promise in other areas of Scripture says in second Timothy
chapter 3. Yes, all who desire to live
godly in Christ will suffer persecution.
And this is a, a, a good thing for us to start with because we
live in two conflicting paradigms for this truth.
One is there is a Christian paradigm that says that if
you're doing it right, if you're actually following the will of
God for your life, right, and you have enough faith in his
word that there is a, a plan for your earthly life that just
avoids all suffering and you can have your best life now.
And, and, and that just completely misses the actual
words of Jesus. And the second tension that you
probably feel in reading this and trying to think of how to
apply it to your life is that right now we actually live in a
pretty blessed time to bear the name of Jesus in maybe the most
blessed region of the world to be a Christian, You know, we
live in a city where it's a badge of honor for businesses to
to let you know that their fellow believers put the put the
fish on the on the window and we can give each other business.
You know, I've heard the phrase Christian coffee shop and I've
come to the conclusion that every coffee shop in Boise is a
Christian coffee shop. I don't know if you've gone to
coffee lately and met up with someone, but you know, even this
week, as I was considering this word, I'm looking around at my
coffee dates and I'm like, there's a Bible study happening
right over there. We're talking about
discipleship. These people are asking about
which church to go to. The guys just moved here.
Just go to a coffee shop and you will see some Bible study break
out. It's it's what we do.
We love coffee in the Bible, but there's coming a day, the
horizon line of our country and culture.
There's coming today when when we will actually live this out
more clearly. We are on the heels of a post
Christian generation. We are on the heels of a a wave
of Bible illiteracy and people who have no reference point for
the things we'll take for granted today, like turn your
Bible to the gospel of Luke without any kind of back story
of of what any of that is. All of that's going to change.
And with that, the tides of Christian favor will also change
it it there's coming a day when it'll happen.
And this is now for you to know there's not AI.
Don't think there's a lot of great things to be excited about
for our culture shaking its fist at God and harden its heart to
the will of God. One of them is we're going to
find out in the coming years who the followers of Jesus are.
We're going to find out who the ones are are putting the
Christian fish on the business window and coming to church
because it's good for the social networking and the ones who
actually listen to this and they're ready to proceed.
Even right now. We, we I'm preaching to a mixed
bag by all, by all accounts, there's a mixed bag of your
devotion and your following to Jesus.
And one of the ways that you will be separated in the coming
years is those of you who hear this message with ears to hear
and you're looking at the reward and not the warning.
There is a cost to following Christ.
Jesus says in Matthew chapter 16, if anyone desires to come
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will not will find it.
What does it mean to lose your life?
We think of that in the practical terms.
You might, you know it, for the sake of Christ, make a little
less money, share more resources.
Part of that, if you look at the way of Jesus, it says that He
made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself.
The King of glory comes as a servant.
To follow Jesus is to be willing to lose some of that reputation
that all of us hold so dearly to be popular and well liked.
Reaction, rejection is a reality and Jesus says with this hatred,
it's not just an emotion or a feeling against one another.
This is going the the the screw is going to turn on what Jesus
is going to say will happen. It's not just hatred.
He says blessed are you when they hate you and when they
exclude you. There's actually practical
things that he's preparing his followers for that will happen
to their life because they follow him.
And isn't it interesting that Jesus includes the excluded in
the Sermon on the Mount? We've considered the poor and
we've considered the hungry. We've considered those who are
in a season of absolute weeping, and Jesus says you're all in and
all of those as we preach. It was like, not really great
things to be known for in this world, but in the Kingdom of
God, you're blessed. He includes the excluded.
And the world, conversely, excludes those who Jesus
includes. That's part of what will happen
when you actually stake your claim on anything that you're
bold for in this life, sports, politics, following someone's
teachings for your life, you will now be with them whether
people like it or not. Tim Keller says if you're not
being criticized or excluded at all for following Jesus, it may
mean you aren't following him very closely.
If if your devotion and faithfulness and desire to
submit to his perfect will for your life has cost you nothing,
it's cost you not one friend. It hasn't cost you one moment of
decreased popularity. 1 Unfollow on the socials.
It it's cost you no social advances, it might mean that you
aren't following him very closely.
To follow Him is to experience some exclusion volunteered by
the world. And I, I do find it interesting
that as our culture moves farther and farther away from
Christian doctrine, it it develops its own doctrine.
It's not that it's just becoming, you know, free for all
there is, you know, cultural flagships that you you'll hear
about all the time. And one of them is inclusion.
It's a word that you'll hear a lot about post Christian people
who leave the church and go into the culture and say, how should
I live now? They'll say, well, the, the
number one thing that you stake your life on now is just to
include everyone. And one of the ways that you
know, who is, you know, on the priority list of inclusion is to
just look, look for the root word preceding the word phobia.
So you've got all of these classes and if you hear phobia
after it, you know that they have to be in, otherwise you
will be called out in shame. So in the inclusion of the world
you have, you could be called homophobic if you're not
inclusive. You could be called transphobic
if you're not fully inclusive. You could be called xenophobic
if you're not fully bringing people in, Islamophobic if
you're not inclusive to everyone one, I'm sure you've never heard
no one's ever been accused of being Christian phobic.
It's never happened. They're like, really?
You don't like my ideas? You don't like my Lord, You
don't like my God. And, and, and, and it's not,
it's not a stripe on the flag. It is the one group that can be
excluded in the world of inclusion.
And why do I say that to you? It is not so that we all pat
ourselves on the back for standing up against the culture
war. It's the same reason Jesus says
it. He's given you a mark that you
know, you're actually with him, that you are excluded.
It's it's something that we're going to get to.
But he's saying this is a good sign.
It's because you're not actually in the world's tribe.
And, and I, and I know that I've already mentioned this is a
mixed bag of of devotion to Christ.
All of us probably waver, but many of you already know this
message. Many of you already know that
there is an absolute cost of exclusion to your social classes
if you're too Christian. It is why people prefer to be
what Jesus calls lukewarm. This is why people are like,
yeah, I'm a little Christian. They wouldn't say that This is
why people are like, I go to church, but I'm I'll never tell
anyone about it. I'm never going to offend my
coworkers. I'll never let my neighbors
know. And the fundamental reason for
that is because you know what Jesus is saying.
You know that if you actually picked up your cross and
followed him, regardless of what people thought, it would
actually cost you some social points.
And so this is I'm just confirming what you already
know, but the now the invitation is to say, now the real question
is not whether or not you'd lose friends or the approval of
neighbors is is it worth it? Is it actually worth it to do
what Jesus told his disciples would happen?
And as you ponder that question, let's consider a few more things
on the list. They'll hate you, they'll
exclude you, he says they'll revile you.
Revile is to insult, to speak abusively, to shame you
publicly. And so our our once again, not
can't celebrate much about our culture.
One of them is the comment section.
We get to see what reviling looks like.
Look at it, everyone. If you have the wrong opinion,
there's reviling, there's shame. There's someone who is who's
who's being called out as being of the wrong thought.
And it goes on to just publicly shame.
And he actually attaches to that cast out your name as evil.
It's your name on the line. They're going to call you by
your name and say, did you hear? And I get the experience of
going, you know, the point of the arrow on a lot of the
messages because I stand on the stage.
And so I get to I get to experience some of this in like
low hanging fruit kind of way. But, you know, I was not always
a preacher. I spent years being a normal
reveler of life. And I've heard the things people
say about Tucker Mail. Did you hear about Tucker Mail?
I heard he's a cult leader now, you know, sorry, guys, I guess
you know, that's on you, too. But did you hear about Tucker
Mail? He's like turned into a
religious fundamentalist. It's really strange.
I'm like, whatever, I don't care.
Sometimes I do care. But when the Holy Spirit is
working on my heart, I realized that that was a cost that I was
willing to pay to stand before people and preach the gospel and
admit that the real name is Tucker Mail.
And those who know me that think I'm crazy, I'm just going to
have to live with that. And so are you.
People are going to say things about you and they're going to
say your name, and it's going to hurt your fleshly feelings and
it's going to hurt not only because of a comment section,
but look what he says again. The Scrooge just keeps getting
tighter and tighter on what he's actually predicting his
followers will experience for bearing his name.
They're going to exclude you, revile you, cast you out and
cast out your name, and then he's going to say they're
actually going to call you evil. This is not just a matter of
religious opinion. This is not something that you
can say, well, this is just my world view and I understand your
world view. Your world view according to
Jesus, will be thought of as evil.
And we know that from the very beginning that Jesus gave this
message. The disciples would experience
this, the early church would experience this from every
single direction. The first church had to deal
with the the, the Roman Empire that they lived in and all of
the slander that was put on these strange people who talked
about eating the body and the blood of their leader.
And they called each other brother and sister.
Even if they were married, it seemed as this cannibalism and
incest and they didn't bow the knee to Caesar.
So they were anarchists and all of the things that people could
look in and say they're strange turns into evil and they had to
bear that. And it wasn't just from the
direction of the pagans, it was from the direction of the their
fellow Jewish people who are unbelieving.
Their fellow Jewish people thought they were heretics.
They thought they had abandoned the law and they followed A
cursed man who hung on a tree who was dead in his grave.
And they were all delusional. And the message has survived
such hatred and evil speak for 2000 years.
And it's not because the evil speaking went away, it's because
the Holy Spirit fills people to endure through what will happen
when you actually stake your life on the claims of Jesus and
you call him your Savior and your Lord and your Lord and you
say his teachings are real in my life.
And I can give you one verse that if you absolutely with with
abandoned put your faith and made your message to your
neighbors, friends and coworkers, you would experience
some of what Jesus is saying. It says in John chapter 14 verse
6 for all of you who sang praises to Jesus today, you
believe in this narrow gate. Jesus said I am the way the
truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through
me in that one verse. I have absolutely cut against
the grain of all of the cultural message, the way that that would
be called objective morality, that there is actually a design
that your life is meant to live by, that there are commandments
that are not optional. There are teachings of Jesus
that are not just good advice, good ideas.
This is the way to live your life.
And if you violate that way, then you're outside of God's
will for your life. Tell that to a relativistic
culture, that there's a way. There's a way for marriage,
there's the way for parenting. There's a the way for the way
that you handle your money, the way for your commandment to
forgive, to reconcile, to hope in the future, to engage with
the affairs of the world. There is a way that Jesus says
is the way, and you're going to cut against the grain of culture
to live under that message. He says it's the truth.
There is a moral objective and there is objective truth.
And once again, I'm equipping you to be very unpopular in your
day to listen to this message. And I'm not giving you a message
to, to, to unlock the secrets to financial success, to get more
friends, to have more business. I am helping you unlock a way to
find the narrow gate that's full of unpopularity, moral truth.
Our culture says, well, this is my truth.
That's your truth. Jesus says there is the truth,
it's Jesus, there is a truth. The truth is, is that we have
all fallen short of the glory of God.
Every single one of us are qualified sinners.
That's the truth. The truth is that not one single
person can save themselves. We are all in need of a savior.
And the truth is, is there's one Savior.
There is not many roads that lead to Rome, that lead to
heaven. There is one Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The truth will set you free, but
first it'll make you really mad and you are people who are
following in the way and the truth.
And now Jesus says go make a bunch of disciples, take the
message to unreached people groups, to cultures that are
outside of your own, and the world will look at you and they
will say you are Christian colonizers and your message is
evil. But Jesus says no man comes to
the Father except by me. The message is a message of a
narrow gate, that the wrath of God is poured out against all
ungodliness. But the love of God is free for
all who repent and believe. That message will set you free,
and that message will cost you friends.
And this brings us to the reason for rejection.
Read with me verse 22. Blessed are you when men hate
you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your
name as evil. Why for the son of man's sake.
This is not a license for all of you to hook up the fire hose of
truth and blasted at anyone you want.
And when people respond with the the the hurt that would come
from that, you say, well, I'm under persecution now you can't
handle the truth. This is not a license for us to
be condemning and unloving and messengers with no regard for
the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
Jesus says in John chapter 15, 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. Remember the word that I said to
you, A servant is not greater than the master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
The servant is not greater than the master.
This whole series is actually called the way of Jesus and what
we see in every blessing is Jesus perfecting them.
Jesus perfected the hatred of enemies and turned it into the
love of a Savior, and we are only blessed in the way that we
experience. The downstream from that is if
we are servants of the Master, meaning we represent His heart
and His character. We we consider the way that He
would approach the lost and dying sinners of our world, and
we do everything unto His honor and glory.
In other words, not every rejection is blessed, not every
way you were experienced. Conflict in this world can be
attributed to Christian persecution.
Peter actually gives this message to the church that he's
writing to, speaking in the same manner, the blessing of
suffering for the name of Christ.
But he says in verse 15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer
or a thief, an evildoer or a busy body and other people's
manner matters. If anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed.
So let him glorify God in that matter.
You see what he says? He says don't suffer For these
reasons. Don't suffer because you're
murdering people. You're stealing from people.
You're you're, you're, you're sowing seeds of evil in the
community that you live in and that you're a busy body and
other people's matters. So side note, seems like that
list is kind of all equal murderers and gossips.
It's like, watch out. And he says that's not a reason
to suffer. It's not a reason to say, man,
it's so hard to be a Christian. And this message is not for some
of the the trivial ways that we see the culture turning against
God. You know, if you're if you're
barista doesn't say Merry Christmas, but says happy
holidays, there's no reason to go off on that.
Just turn the other cheek. Keep walking.
Jesus still loves you. The world still hates you has
nothing to do with what your barista puts on your Starbucks
cup. And down the line, there's all
sorts of ways that we've been so used to the comfort of Christian
culture that as we lose a little bit of ground, we're like, Oh my
goodness, what's happening. What's happening is that we're
actually experienced the world as it usually is around the
world. And one of the reasons I think
it's so powerful to to pray for the underground church and to
send workers into that field is so they can give a report that
there are people connected to this corner of the Kingdom that
we get to pray with and and serve and and build up and and
and teach the commandments of God to that are going through
actual count the cost persecution in this world.
And they are blessed for it and they are receiving joy because
of it. There is a reason, and the only
reason is if we are radically in love with God and intimately
following Jesus. And that leads us now to the
response that Jesus gives all of us.
The response itself is a blessing, he says, in that when
that happens, when you actually experience your name so closely
associated with the person of Jesus that you have to
experience some of the world's hatred, he says rejoice in that
day and leap for joy. This is a great thing.
This is this is not likely to be on our list that we put in the
category of what makes us joyful and excited, leaping for joy.
But Jesus says there's something happening in your life when
you're so closely associated with him that you're willing to
suffer for him that will give you joy in your life with the
right perspective. And that's what he's going to
give us as as we as we consider the end of this.
But first let me just once again for my own heart and mind when
this happens. Let's just consider what he
doesn't say. He doesn't say to you know, get
angry and and fire back and Christian destroys atheists and
and and and be depressed or sad or or or at all surprised and in
all of the ways that the common reaction for for mean things
that happened to your life is to is to do one of those negative
responses. Jesus says don't do it.
Don't go there just rejoice be overjoyed and here's the why we
read the verse in first Peter. Peter actually gives some
clarity on why this is such a exciting thing to happen to your
life, says if your reproach for the name of Christ, blessed are
you for the spirit of glory and God rests upon you.
On their part he's blasphemed, but on your part he's being
glorified. Now I've already pointed this
out. There's coming a day when we'll
have a much clearer idea of who our fellow believers are in
Christ. And when that day comes, we are
going to get in our own lives an answer to a question that I hope
you all wrestle with at times in the culture of Christian
comfort. Do you ever wrestle with Lord?
Am I really with you? Am I really devoted at all costs
to following you if you ever wrestled with that question?
Well, if you do, one of the things that you can examine your
life by is the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the plane
in Luke chapter 6. It is not a sermon designed to
tell you how to get into the Kingdom.
It is not a sermon that says, you know you're a Sinner, you
need to repent and there's the love of God that will give you
grace to newness of life and a preview of the cross and
resurrection. It's not a sermon of the
function of salvation. It's a sermon for you and for me
to have a vision of what a Christian looks like.
This is what it looks like. This is how you can examine your
life and say, I've experienced that.
I've seen that in my life. And that in itself is a blessing
for you to know that you're with Christ.
And that's why as we read in the very end of the of the the
Scripture we read, he says at the end of verse 23, rejoice and
leap for joy. Why?
For in like manner their fathers did it to the prophets.
You're being counted in the number of the people that God
uses. And this is usually what happens
when someone is used by God. Study the life of the prophets
and what you will find is people who had a message of God's love,
of God's warnings of the way to live.
And he says, and Jesus says, blessed are you because the
exact same things happened to you that happened to them last
year. This time we were in Hebrews.
Remember, we did the Hebrews Hall of Faith, Hebrews Chapter
11. Much of it is is just the heroes
of the faith that we think of is the big names.
And they'll have the longest lines of people wanting to talk
to them in heaven. I don't think that will actually
happen, but sometimes you're like, oh, I can't wait to see
Abraham. I can't wait to see Moses.
But he ends the. Hall of Faith, simply by saying
this is more of a category, and here's a mark of someone who's
really living by faith, said Still others had trials of
mockings and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sewn into, they were tempted, they
were slain with the sword. They wandered about in
sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy.
Blessed are you that's. What they did to the Father, the
prophets before you, of whom the world was not worthy, you are
being separated by God, volunteered by the world.
For some other place. Than this one.
It's the story. Of God's people from the
beginning to the end when he's returning.
And so he gives 2 reasons that we can respond with joy. 1 You
just look back and see this is how God's people are greeted
when they have a message from God.
You're in great number. Rejoice that you've been counted
worthy of the sufferings of Christ.
Look back. But he also says look forward.
The sermon. Scripture this morning ends.
We'll look at the last part when he says rejoice in that day, for
indeed your reward is great in heaven.
And I will. Say this once again.
And I say once. Again, because the first time I
really. Brought the sermon.
On the mount to our church this year was during Easter.
You know, we went down the whole thought experiment.
If Christ didn't raise, what would the consequences be?
And Paul says if he didn't raise, the consequences would be
that you are the most to be pitied because you've staked
your life on teachings that only work if suffering is temporary
and they're far outweighed by an eternal glory.
None of. Your life in Christ works if
there is no heaven. None of it will.
Work. If you're continually measuring
your success and your blessings by how well your life is going
right now or for the next 80 years, the you have to have in
your mind that whatever you lose in following Christ, whatever
you have exchanged from this world, to follow Jesus with your
whole life. Will be followed with.
Indescribable joy of eternity, and that's why he says for great
is your reward in heaven, to suffer in this earth.
As a follower of. Jesus.
Only makes. Sense if you believe that your
greatest reward, your greatest treasure, your greatest honor,
we'll be meeting God face to face and having him say well
done. Enter into my joy.
And I'm so grateful. As we were singing, considering
all of this that we in in a preview of this message, the
chorus of our church was viewing.
A day you all said. And all the earth will shout his
praise, do you? Understand what you're saying.
That you made sense of this life by allowing your soul to
consider this coming day. It's not today.
The earth is not shouting His praise.
We're weird, but there's coming a day when all the earth will
shout His praise, and you will be counted in that number.
Leap for joy because the glory of God is upon you now, and
you're reminded of that as you're being separated from the
world for His glory for eternity.
Thanks for joining us. Today, if you would like to
watch the full service, check out the link in the description.
For next steps and to learn more, visit calvaryboise.com.