Scripture Reference: Matthew 5:11-12
Sermon in a Sentence
The blessed and truly happy person is one who has wholly and totally embraced Christ and His righteousness, lives increasingly out of step with the world, and therefore finds him or herself on the receiving end of the world’s harassment and ill-treatment.
Sermon Outline
- The true Christ-follower will experience persecution because he or she lives a righteous life in the midst of a hostile world as one united spiritually with Christ.
- The persecution that a true Christ-follower will experience may take the form of physical violence, but it may also involve insults, ridicule, rejection, and slander.
- When persecuted, the true Christ-follower should respond with great joy because his or her hope is in the eternal rather than the temporal, and because he or she is among great company.