Matthew 5:11-12- “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What a bold statement from One who had not yet allowed Himself to be worshiped as God! To understand the boldness of this statement, we must look at it from the eyes and ears of those in the audience at the time rather than from the benefit of hindsight. You see, Christ was speaking this message during the sermon on the mount. He was preaching to His apostles and the public in His ministry but had not declared Himself explicitly and publicly as the Son of God. Let that sink in as you realize that, in seeming to the crowd to be just another teacher or rabbi (albeit a special one with healing powers), He was telling them that God would bless them if they were persecuted for HIS sake!

To consider this implication, we can compare it to a preacher today stating that God would show favor to anyone who would profess his name and be willing to be persecuted for that preacher’s sake. Most of us would call him a crackpot, charlatan, or false prophet. Yet Jesus boldly professed this to His listeners. This would have seemed incredible to those listening.

Christ expects the same boldness from us today. Our world is increasingly hostile to Christians and our world-view. There seems to be no place for our value-system as it stands in scripture in society today. It is often only accepted in a watered down or compromised form. Yet Christ tells us explicitly in today’s passage that we are blessed when we stand up to the ridicule of society and stand up for God and His will for us. We must be willing to stand up to the media, stand up to the government, stand up to the education system, and stand up for our faith!

Our Lord and Savior not only stood up, but gave everything, for US. He left heaven to become human. Corrected our misteachings. He suffered and died. He carried our burdens on HIS shoulders. He rose again for US. We owe it to God Almighty to take up our OWN crosses and bear our faith publically and without shame, taking the ridicule and persecution thrown our way because we know that we are blessed by God for it!

So what about you? Are you bold in your faith? Are you willing to proclaim yourself publically as unapologetically Christian?

~Pastor Brian Wattenbarger