‭‭Matthew 5:11-12 CSB – 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.

“Blessed are the Insulted”?

Blessed are the Insulted. Rejoice, Trouble will come– Expect It!

Matthew 5:11-12 CSB – You are blessed when they insult you and persecute

James 1:2-4 CSB – Consider it a great joy…. whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Rejoice! Trouble will come.  God prepares you.

Matthew 6:34 CSB – Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Act 14:22 CSB – It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

1 Peter 4:12-13 CSB – Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ,….. If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Blessed are the Insulted. Rejoice, Troubles Fast-Track Maturity

1 Peter 1:6-7 CSB – You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 CSB – Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

1 Peter 1:6-7 CSB – You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Blessed are the Insulted. Rejoice, Trouble Clarifies Your First Team

Matthew 5:11-12 CSB – 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.

John 15:18ff 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. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

“We are tortured when we confess our guilt, we are set free if we deny it, for the battle is about a Name” – Tertullian

Matthew 5:11-12: You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

John 15:18 CSB – “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19-20, 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.

20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Hebrews 13:4 CSB – “Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

1 Samuel 16:7c CSB – humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”

Romans 2:11 CSB – For there is no favoritism with God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 CSB – Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, 10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. 11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Blessed are the Insulted. Rejoice, See The Opportunity To Witness

Matthew 5:11-12 CSB – 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.

Luke 21:12-13 CSB – But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to bear witness. 

Martyr = “witness”

Matthew 5:11-12 CSB – 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

Acts 7:51-53 CSB – “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”

Stephen, a man “ full of grace and power,”  (Acts 6:8)