WEBVTT 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:01.679 All right. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.240 Hello, uh my name is Rob Scoonover. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:09.119 I'm the uh student ministry coordinator here at Christ Redeemer. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:13.599 Um and just a little bit about me before I get started, I think that's a good way to start this. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:18.559 Um I grew up in Marietta, went to Marietta High School, um, have always been in this area. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:24.239 Um you want to find something to talk to me about afterwards, I have a very strong opinion on fast food restaurants. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:28.960 So, like anything like that, I think we've all had fast food before, so we can all talk about that. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:37.759 Um yeah, so uh um and I think actually that comment kind of makes me um reminds me of something. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.719 I was uh about a year ago looking for a new church. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:44.000 Um for really for the first time in my life I was looking for somewhere to go. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:58.960 And uh I kind of stumbled in here, some friends invited me, and uh this community kind of took me in and really embraced me, and then I came on as a student ministry coordinator, and um I really feel like you guys have kind of embraced my quirkiness and my weirdness a little bit, and that's that's really cool. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:09.200 I mean, I'm a 22-year-old who doesn't really like public speaking, and I'm not nervous about uh this thing right here, and I think that's a testament to you guys creating a calm environment. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:10.560 So thank you for that. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:21.040 Um so about in May, Russ asked me to teach, and I was like, yeah, I heard it's about the Beatitude, so that'll be a um that that'll be easy, that'll be a good thing to talk about. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:32.560 You know, I get the one about being a peacemaker, I can get the one about being poor in spirit, and then I found out I was gonna get uh blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:35.680 And if you're like me, persecution's a weird word. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:43.040 Uh we live in a culture and in a country where we don't have to worry about a government coming in and shutting this whole thing down. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:50.400 Um and we live, not only do we live in a country where that happens, we live in a region of this country that's pretty saturated in Christian values. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:58.879 Um there's an author named Flenry O'Connor who calls the South kind of a the Christ-haunted um region, and that's kind of a good word, I think. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.680 Um so let's just look at this text real quick. 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.719 Um Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:07.519 All right. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:15.599 Um I just kind of looked up the Greek words because I wanted to know some of the key words in this sentence or in this passage, and uh the first one, blessed. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:19.919 Um I'm not gonna try to pronounce these Greek words because I don't know, and it's just not gonna go well. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:28.159 So uh the first, the meaning of the first blessed, in the Greek word is like fortunate or well off, lucky is one way you could say it. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:39.039 Uh persecuted is to be mistreated or harassed, and then righteousness, and I think this is the important one, um, state of him who is as he ought to be. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:03:01.520 Uh so we use this word, I think Brian talked about it a few weeks ago when we were talking about imputation, um, that Christ has given us his righteousness, we're clothed in his righteousness, and so you could kind of retranslate this verse, I think, as blessed are you who are persecuted for my sake, because we're not righteous people, we're broken, we're flogged, but Christ is righteous and he is righteousness. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:10.879 So we can kind of um since we're clothed in his righteousness, that's that's why we're persecuted, um, or that's why people are persecuted. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:16.479 Um it's also worth noting that Jesus has laid out a whole other set of things before this. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:19.919 So he's talked about being meek, he's talked about being a peacemaker. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:27.199 Uh and I think it's safe to say that those are the kind of things that will get you into trouble uh if you're if you're living life. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:37.840 I mean, Barry talked about last week being a peacemaker and how sometimes that gets you into situations that are a little bit messy, and maybe people turn your back, turn their back on you. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.919 Um and I think that's that's really where where this comes down to. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:56.560 So if you're like me, you think persecution, uh, you think of uh like secret police, or that anyone in high school have to read the book 1984, where they're like burning the books and like it's just all kind of sci-fi chaos. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:14.080 Um or anyone that grew up in youth group, did you ever play the game Secret Church or Romans and Christians or something like that, where one team is like the secret police and the other team is the church, and then one person's the pastor, and you have to run around the church and like play this game, and it's kind of a bit weird, yeah. 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:19.759 Um but it was a game that I've played a few times and I always felt a little bit weird about. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:24.319 Um and you know that that's but that's not the world we really live in, right? 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:30.000 Like we're not worried about um somebody coming in here and taking all the Bibles and having a book fire in the parking lot. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:32.560 We're you know, we're pretty we're pretty secure. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:46.000 Um and uh and I think but it before we get into what what we're facing here, what we go through here, I think it's important to talk about um kind of what's happened to the to the Christian church around the world and more or less safe areas. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:57.920 So uh Open Doors USA in January, and Open Doors USA is kind of this advocacy group for uh persecuted Christians, um, reported that 2015 was the most violent year for Christianity in the modern era. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.759 Um 7,100 people were murdered for their faith, which was up 3,000 from the previous year. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:12.800 Um and I don't think that's something to be taken lightly or to um pass over as we're talking about this, but um that's that's not our struggle. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.480 That's we're we're not facing that in here. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:18.399 We're not facing murder or anything like that. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:45.759 But some of us in here, maybe maybe you entered this this Christianity thing, you you started this faith journey, and maybe people in your family treat you a little bit differently, or maybe you have friends that just don't treat you the same, or um little passing comments about your faith, or uh I know I was watching a documentary about a group of guys, and they um they would always play in this in these tournaments, these card tournaments like blackjack, and uh somebody said, What are you guys, the church team? 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:50.079 And that's like that's kind of funny, but it's also that that's that can that can hurt us. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:06:02.399 And and I think um if you've been here in the past few weeks and you've heard um we're not supposed to to minimize our suffering by looking somewhere else and going, well, people are being murdered in Syria, so my struggle I guess doesn't matter. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:03.759 Um I think I think it does. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:10.879 I think maybe the pain you felt from being in a relationship with Christ, I think it matters to God, and I think it matters um matters to us. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:12.560 I think this is why we're in a community. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:20.480 So um let's talk about it here real quick and then we'll um we'll kind of m go out a little bit. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:23.759 Um so uh hold on. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:31.360 Yeah, um after I graduated from high school, um I went and spent a year in missions. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:38.000 Uh so the first part was in New York City in America, um, kind of spent some time on Long Island, spent some time in New York. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:45.519 And uh New York is not the South where you think of like a Christian kind of center, but there are a lot of Christians in New York. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:50.000 There's a lot of churches in New York, there's a lot of um just really interesting discussion going on. 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:57.360 In some ways, uh you can say it's a little bit more tolerable to talk about religion up there because people, there it's just a religious breeding ground, right? 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:05.199 So uh I had the experience there of kind of being around that and saw kind of what American resistance looks like. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:10.720 I don't I'm antsy to use the word persecution, but resistance to the Christian faith. 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:28.160 Um and I think it's a it's a real thing because um six out of ten Americans, there just a couple weeks ago, uh the Brookings Institute, which is this big, I guess they they gather statistics, they said that six out of ten Americans feel like their faith is being threatened here. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:32.560 Uh and it does, we can talk about if it is or if it isn't really, but people feel that. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.319 They feel like they're on some level their faith is being resisted. 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.360 So um I saw a little bit of that, I saw a little bit of snide comments, nothing that I would call persecution. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:48.720 I wasn't systemically mistreated, I wasn't not, you know, I didn't get my job taken away or anything like that, but you had you had passing comments. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:08:00.480 Um and then uh after that, we uh we the group of us we went to Shanghai, China, which is obviously kind of on you think on the total other end of the spectrum in terms of persecution. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:10.240 I think a lot of us think of China as kind of the place of uh the embodiment of like Christian persecution right now, or North Korea, or you know, uh something like that. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:22.879 And so um I went over there and in Shanghai it's an interesting place because Shanghai, um compared to other cities in China, is pretty lax on their uh their treatment of Christians. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:36.639 It's a very Western influenced city, so you have a lot of businessmen coming from Europe, you have a lot of businessmen coming from America that are Christians, and so the the government kind of tolerates it there, and so a lot of Chinese Christians will go to Shanghai as like a refuge. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:45.519 So if they were in the countryside and they were mistreated, their family, maybe their family was mistreated in their village, maybe someone lost a job, they'll go to Shanghai to kind of get that refuge. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:55.840 Um, and so going to church there, you hear a lot of stories about kind of where people came from, and it's a really interesting thing because nobody that was in Shanghai was really from Shanghai that I met. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:59.519 Um they were always from the countryside or they were from Beijing or somewhere else. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:11.840 And uh I think we can learn a few things from them here because a lot of what they they saw as struggle in their faith are things that we see here for for uh knowing the Lord. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:19.600 I mean, uh a lot of them, you know, they they were like, yeah, I I I met the Lord, I met Christ, and then um my family just treated me different. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.399 Well, I think we all know people that have that here. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:34.399 Um or I didn't get the promotion of this job, or my I lost my job, and maybe you didn't lose your job, but maybe you feel like you're not you're not at a competitive advantage in your workplace because your faith isn't is stopping you from doing that. 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:36.240 And so they they have that there. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:45.519 Uh and you know, so we hear these stories and we can we can kind of um I can we there's a lot we can learn from it. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:53.759 So uh yeah, I learned the church in America may not be systemically persecuted, but I did learn that persecution and resistance happens here. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:03.919 Uh and the kind of the three things that they taught me uh in there, and I say about three things or kind of three things because you can learn a lot from the church in China. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.879 I I encourage you if you know anything about um what's going on over there, I think you should read. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:13.200 Uh there's some good Chinese theologians, some good pastors over there that have really interesting things to offer. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.000 So I'm only saying about three because there's a lot more we can say here. 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:18.080 These are not the final three things. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:24.480 Uh and the first one is that grace, though it's a beautiful and attractive concept, can be offensive to people. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:25.200 Uh, right? 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:34.240 Like being a peacemaker, being somebody that that shows grace in situations may make you some quote unquote enemies in your environment, right? 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:41.519 Like maybe somebody really mistreats a member of the community and you kind of show them grace or you show them affection, and then people don't look at you the same. 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:43.679 I mean, I think that that's a practical thing. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:44.960 I think we see that. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:49.200 Um and I'm in college, and on some level, that hasn't really changed. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:59.759 There's still expectations for me to hang out with this group of people, to dress a certain way, to be in a certain group, and I I don't know this for a fact, but I think as I grow up, that's not really going to change very much. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:10.000 Um, that there's always gonna be expectations for us to be a certain way, and in some ways, that's like okay, we don't show grace to this group of people, or we just treat this group of people differently. 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:25.039 Um and I think it can all be embodied, uh, again, I'm quoting Flannery O'Connor here, she's one of my favorite authors, but um, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you strange, uh, which is obviously a mis a reattribute you know, uh changing what Jesus said. 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:27.279 And uh I think that's that's true. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:33.440 Like what we're talking about in the Beatitudes, that makes us a little bit different, doesn't it, from what we see outside. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:35.840 These descriptions of us are not what you see in the world. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:45.919 You see people that um try to have it together, they try to act like everything's in a row, and the beatitudes is just an acknowledgement that we don't uh and that we need that we need Christ. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:54.320 Um so uh the persecution or resistance you face is the second thing, um, draws us into greater community. 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:56.879 Um and I I kind of a story to share with this. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:07.360 Um I was over in China, we were kind of um we were there for two months, I was about a month and a half in, and you could say for the first time I was getting a little bit homesick. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:21.759 Um I didn't have really contact on social media, I could FaceTime some people, but Facebook, YouTube, um, Google was blocked, a lot of things were just not there that I was accustomed to, and so these are all total first world problems, right? 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:38.720 But uh I I was I was starting to feel homesick, and uh we had just gone to church at a guy's apartment um in the city, and we were walking back, and I just heard a bunch of wrenching stories about this this persecution that I'm talking about, of just like my family's not treating me the same. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.480 I I go to work and I'm the only Christian and I feel so lonely on this. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:46.080 It just I hear these stories, and it it kind of bears on me. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.200 This is the first time in my life I'm seeing a problem that's bigger than me. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:50.960 Like I have no solution for this. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:58.480 I have no um, and so I was feeling weary, and um I'm walking in the subway, and I just kind of feel this guy like fist. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:04.000 I don't know if it was a fist bump, but he like punched my shoulder and I look over and it's the the pastor of the church. 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.000 Is I guess he's going back to his apartment. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.879 And he saw us in the subway, recognized us, and said, What's up? 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:10.720 Now, he doesn't speak English. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:22.720 Um in fact we didn't even speak directly through a translator, we spoke through a translator that spoke Korean and English, and then he spoke to a translator that spoke Korean and uh and Mandarin. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:36.080 So uh, you know, we we were like way way off in our language translation, so probably a lot of things we were saying to each other in the church weren't really getting through, but he he knew he knew what we had in common, which was which was Christ. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:45.200 And he knew that um he knows that every time he sees one of his guys in the subway station or in the city that he has to lift them up because they have that weary feeling. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:51.039 And so the persecution or the or the resistance that we face draws us into greater community. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:14:01.919 And then um another kind of just another story, I guess, that is more American is I have a friend who um is really into Ash Wednesday uh right before Lent starts. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.799 And so um when she goes, walks around campus, she keeps the ashes on her forehead. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:29.440 And I asked her why she did that, and she said, Well, when I see the other people that have the ashes, I know it's a it's a it's a symbol of unity that we know that we both of us need a savior, that we can both see that and go, I need a savior, and it's a daily reminder, it's that that one day where she can kind of know that and wear it on her shoulder and identify with uh with her brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:36.960 And so I thought that was awesome, and I think that really shows us how these kind of these struggles can bind us as a community. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:44.399 And then the kind of the final thing and the the real thing here is the only logical response to persecution is Jesus, right? 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:54.000 Um He demonstrated grace, He demonstrated uh love, all of all of these characteristics of the Beatitudes, and he got persecuted and crucified for it. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:15:05.200 Uh and so the good news here, and this is this is where the good news, they're kind of the rubber meets the road, is that uh blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:09.759 Well, Jesus is the reward for any resistance or persecution that we face. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:15.360 Uh that we don't have to, um we don't get a material worth, we get we get the thing that we're striving for. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:22.240 Because we know Christ, we're resist we we face resistance or we face persecution, and then our reward is that thing. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:29.600 And I think that's that's a beautiful truth and an awesome uh kind of idea to wrap our heads around. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:36.480 So uh the only logical response is going back to him, and he's the only thing that can deliver us from that. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:43.200 We're not gonna get there through political lobbying or through military force or through bullying our way through. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:52.799 Because I think that's the other thing that worries me about talking about persecution, is I always took it when I was in high school as a license to kind of be um a jerk about my faith. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:16:04.559 Like if I was not being persecuted enough, it's like, oh, I need to be persecuted more, so I need to be more outlandish with my faith, and then that means if I'm getting persecuted more, that means that I'm more of a Christian. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:05.279 I don't know. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:22.720 I I felt like that was a real cultural thing, and it's my that was my legalism talking, but um I think Jesus frees us from that, from that idea, like if if we're in a relationship with him, the just fact of the matter is at some point we're gonna face a little bit of resistance for that. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.639 Um I don't think that's a I think we all have faced that. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.759 If we're in a relationship if we know Jesus, I think that's a true thing. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.960 So um I don't know where else to go with that. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:44.399 I think the last thing is that uh because we see the reward in Jesus, it allows us to look at those who treat us differently or those who persecute us with grace. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:17:03.919 Um like because I know who Christ is and because I've I read these stories in the Bible about Paul being an active persecutor of Christians, I can rejoice in the fact today that there are people persecuting Christians right now that are one day gonna have an experience where they they come to know the Lord and turn around and um accept him and enter in a relationship with him, right? 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:13.279 And so we don't have to hate our we don't have to hate these people, we don't have to uh treat them differently, we can respond with grace, it frees us up to do that. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:17.359 Uh and they can have Paul-like experiences and we can rejoice in that. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:25.839 And I think that's probably uh I hope that that josses with us a little bit, but I think that's something that we can all grab onto and really stack hands on. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:36.640 So in closing, um just know that our faith won't be easy and the resistance, and and may the resistance you faith draw you into community and help you see the reward that is Christ Jesus. 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:38.400 Um let me pray for us. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:43.839 Um Father, we're grateful that we can be here this morning uh and hear your word. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:53.119 Um I just pray that we don't take this as uh we don't feel guilty for not being persecuted enough, or we don't feel guilty for not facing enough resistance. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:08.480 But I pray that you um in your love show us that that you are the reward and that that the people that may treat us differently or the people that uh act act differently towards us or make snide comments, that God we respond with grace and love and show them your mercy. 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:18.640 And we pray uh for the church across the world right now where um a meeting like this is not as um easy and it is not as air conditioned. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:22.960 Um and we pray that they find peace in you and in nothing else. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:24.960 Um I ask all these things in Christ's name. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:25.680 Amen.