Matthew 5:10-12 CSB – Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A Surprising Beatitude

John 15:18-19 CSB – “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

Acts 1:8 CSB – …you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Matthew 5:11 CSB – Jesus said, You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

1 Peter 4:15 CSB – Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler.

3 Reasons Christians Rejoice when persecuted for Jesus’ Sake

1. When you suffer for Christ, be glad. You’re in good company

Matthew 5:12 CSB – Be glad and rejoice,… For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Hebrews 11:35-38 CSB – Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them.

2. Be encouraged. You never know how Jesus will bless you

Matthew 5:10 CSB – Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

3. Rejoice in Suffering: Great is Your Reward in heaven

2 Corinthians 4:7-11, 16-18 CSB – Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.

Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

James 4:4 CSB – You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

Matthew 5:12 CSB – Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven.