Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Present Blessings, Plus PersecutionsMark 10:29-30Theme: Wealth in Christ.This week’s lessons teach us about the rewards that are ours when we deny ourselves. Lesson
Theme: When Persecution Comes
This week’s lessons on the Beatitudes teach us that true happiness comes by living in a way that is contrary to the world and even to our natural way of thinking.
Scripture: Matthew 5
Yesterday we concluded by saying that because God has made peace with us, we must be peacemakers toward others. Among other things, we must be peacemakers in the home.
Theme: The LORD Is with Us
In this week’s lessons, we learn about God’s triumph for his people over persecutions.
Scripture: Psalm 129:1-8
Theme: Oppression from Israel’s Youth
In this week’s lessons, we learn about God’s triumph for his people over persecutions.
Scripture: Psalm 129:1-8
Theme: Imprecations on the Wicked
In this week’s lessons, we learn about God’s triumph for his people over persecutions.
Scripture: Psalm 129:1-8
What should we pray for in regard to those who persist in evil? That they should repent and be converted, of course. But if they do not? Surely we are not to pray that they might prosper!
Charles Spurgeon is excellent at this point. Here is what he says:
Theme: All Victory to Jesus
In this week’s lessons, we learn about God’s triumph for his people over persecutions.
Scripture: Psalm 129:1-8
Theme: Our Victory through Christ’s Victory
In this week’s lessons, we learn about God’s triumph for his people over persecutions.
Scripture: Psalm 129:1-8
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Persecution Inevitable
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: The Biblical Pattern
We said in yesterday’s study that the natural implication of the wording of this beatitude is that the one who reflects Christian character will be persecuted.
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: For Righteousness’ Sake
Thus, there is no promise of happiness for those who are persecuted for being a nuisance, for Christians who have shown themselves to be objectionable, difficult, foolish, and insulting to their non-Christian friends. This is not the thing about which Christ was speaking.
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Persecuted for Being Like Christ
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Happiness Through Persecution
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Knowledge
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Identity with Christ
In yesterday’s study, we concluded that in trying to respond rightly to persecution, you cannot trust your own feelings.
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Purification
The second part of a Christian knowledge that will help him to rejoice in persecution is the knowledge that God often uses persecution to perfect the believer. In the great wisdom of God persecution is often the means by which the Christian is helped along the road to practical holiness and thereby made a little more like Jesus.
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Radiant Christianity
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Rewards in Heaven
We have advanced far enough in our study of Acts to see Luke’s pattern in these chapters. His plan is simple. Luke alternates between a picture of the church by itself—a portrait of the believers alone in their fellowship, in which he talks about their life, witness, and joy—and a portrait of the church as it exists in its relationship to the world. This second portrait increasingly deals with persecution.
The third and major section of this chapter shows that the blessing described in verses 12-16 was accompanied by a time of renewed persecution (vv. 17-42). It begins, as the last chapter did, with the frustration of the Jewish leaders. Christianity was beginning to spread. Thousands were responding to the Gospel. Those who were in charge of the religious and political life of the nation were justifiably distressed at what was going on in the city and were afraid it might disrupt the stable social order they were enjoying and their place in it. Three things bothered them.
The leaders moved against the apostles again, only this time more forcefully than before. The first time they hauled them in and made threats. They said, “Don’t preach anymore. If you do, you’re going to get in trouble.” The disciples continued to preach about Jesus. The next thing they did was arrest them again and unleash a proceeding that eventually ended in the apostles being beaten. What else could they do? They had no options, only force. That is why a procedure like this almost always leads to an attempt to kill people who are not liked. If it were simply a matter of truth contending with falsehood, the result would be a free and open debate. That is not what was going on. This was hatred born of jealousy.
As we concluded yesterday’s study we saw the Sanhedrin had the disciples arrested again, despite the fact that they had already escaped prison. The leaders began their accusations again, although this time the accusations go a step further.
If you are on the side of the Sanhedrin, saying, “Well, that is kind of interesting, this religious business, but I certainly am not going to submit my life to Jesus of Nazareth,” let me say that there is a stronger case for the truth of Christianity today than there was then. Millions have believed on Jesus. His Gospel has spread throughout the world. Everywhere you go there are Christians who are bearing faithful witness to His name.
It is sometimes helpful to compare parallel accounts of Bible stories. This is because parallel accounts are generally not quite identical, and the variations usually throw light on one another or on the meaning of the passage in which each occurs. That is the case with the stories of Paul’s conversion. There are three of these accounts in Acts—in chapters 9, 22 and 26—and Luke, the author, makes different points in each one.
The new birth is a lot like physical birth, and physical birth is used in the Bible as an illustration of what the new birth is like. What happens in physical birth? First of all, new life is created within the womb of the mother. In physical terms, there is a combination of the sperm and the egg. Until that happens there is no life. But once that union takes place, life begins to grow. It grows for nine months. Then the moment of birth comes, the baby cries, and everyone is pleased with the cry because it is a sign of a healthy baby. It is the same spiritually.
Knowledge of spiritual things is based upon the identity of Jesus Christ as God. Why? Because if Jesus is the Son of God, then Jesus is God. God does not err; if Jesus is God, Jesus does not err. Everything Jesus tells us can be trusted. If He tells us God is a certain kind of God, we can believe it because he is God Himself and speaks truthfully. If He tells us, as He does, that the Bible can be trusted—that it comes from God, that heaven and earth will pass away but the Word of God, being divine in nature, will never pass away—then we can trust the Bible.
When Paul had returned from his time in Arabia, “the Jews conspired to kill him” (v. 23). He needed to leave the city, but his enemies were keeping a twenty-four-hour watch on the gates and a normal exit was impossible. Fortunately, the disciples in Damascus were resourceful. They knew of a place—perhaps it was a window in the home of one of them—where there was an opening in the wall. They put Saul in a basket and lowered him down. In this way he escaped by night and so foiled this first plot against his life.
God is never in a hurry. His ways are always perfect. So do not give up. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Learn all you can. And while you are waiting and learning, do not forget that Jesus is still the Son of God and the Messiah. Make sure you tell that to others.
When Paul knew that God was directing him to Europe, he responded at once by taking his small missionary party across the Hellespont from Asia into Macedonia. The party included the following people: Paul and Silas, who had started out together; Timothy, who had been added along the way; and Luke, who indicates his presence by use of the first-person plural pronoun “we.” This was the first entry of the Gospel into Europe. From this momentous crossing the Gospel spread across Europe and eventually reached ourselves.
The girl’s owners were upset when Paul cast out the girl’s demon, of course, because they had now lost their means of making money. They were so upset by it that they went to the authorities, saying, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (vv. 20-21). It is interesting that the accusation they made was not the real reason for their being upset. They were angry that the source of their income had been taken away, that Paul had damaged their business.
As Paul and Silas sang and praised God, the other prisoners who might have been complaining beforehand became quiet, just as the believing thief who was crucified on the cross next to Jesus did. In the quietness, as they listened, they began to learn something about the God who had sent Paul and Silas.
The man was asking about salvation, and the apostle replied directly: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Did the jailer understand what that meant? He must have understood some of it, because he believed and was baptized. Did he understand all of what it meant? Probably not. I am not sure we do, even with all the teaching we have received. But what he did know he believed, and Jesus saved him. Besides, not only was he converted. In the course of the evening his entire family was converted, too.
The story ends by saying that after they had been brought out of prison Paul and Silas went back to Lydia’s house where they met with the brothers “and encouraged them” (v. 40). We might think under those circumstances that Lydia and the others should have encouraged Paul and Silas, but it was the other way around. They were the leaders God had sent to Philippi. So they encouraged the little church they left behind.
My good friend Michael Scott Horton has written a book called Made in America, in which he examines the impact of American culture on Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity. The impact comes from a variety of cultural sources, he says, but one of these is our consumerism. In America everything is sold, from toothpaste to politicians. And the way it is sold is by appealing to the dreams and desires of the people. Nothing bad is ever faced. Disappointments are ruled out. This has its effect on Christianity.
Today we come upon the most radical teaching in Romans 12:14-16. Having spoken of the application of Christian doctrine to the way the individual is to think of himself and of the way he is to think of others within the fellowship of the church, Paul moves on to speak of those who are not yet Christians and of how we are to treat them. In fact, to put it even more radically, he moves from how we should treat those who love us (or should love us) to how we should treat those who hate us because of our relationship to Christ.
The fact of persecution is well established. If we are Christ’s and if we stand for Christ against the world, we will experience it. But now the question is: How we are to respond to persecution? In Romans 12:14 Paul tells us that we are to “bless” our persecutors. We are to “bless” and “not curse.” Again, this is a conscious reflection of Jesus’ common teaching.
Yesterday we talked about prayer as a means for blessing those who persecute us. But there are more ways than that of being a blessing, and Paul discusses these in verses 15 and 16. The way they are written, these verses could apply to Christians as well as to enemies. But since they are bracketed by references to those who persecute us, in verse 14 which comes before and verse 17 which comes after, Paul must be thinking of how Christians should relate to unbelievers.
We should bless our enemies by showing them empathy and getting along well with them. We should behave in humility, with a willingness to associate with those we think are lower than we are. The trouble with exhortations of this nature, practical as they may be, is that they seem very far beyond us and therefore discourage us if we start to take them seriously.
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