Blessed - Reviled and Persecuted
for My Sake(Matthew 5:11-12)
Messiah EQUATES being PERSECUTED for RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE
(Matthew 5:10) with being PERSECUTED for MY SAKE (Matthew 5:11) because in Messiah's KINGDOM - ISRAEL will know Him as "the LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
Messiah encourages His disciples to COUNT themselves BLESSED
when being PERSECUTED for His sake (Matthew 5:11)
POSITIVELY, He encourages them to REMEMBER that the world
"HATED ME BEFORE IT HATED YOU" (John 15:18)
By way of EXPLANATION, He tells them that "if ye
were of the world, then the world would love his own, but I HAVE CHOSEN YOU OUT of the world, therefore the world
hateth you" (John 15:19)
The Sacred Record does indeed show His disciples "REJOICING
that they were COUNTED WORTHY to SUFFER SHAME for His Name" (Acts 5:41)
As long as the DEVIL, who is "a MURDERER from the
beginning, and abode NOT in the TRUTH" (John 8:44
cf.I John 3:12;II Corinthians 11:3) and is "the SPIRIT that now worketh in the children of DISOBEDIENCE"
(Ephesians 2:2) - it will be true that "ALL that will LIVE GODLY ... shall SUFFER
PERSECUTION" (II Timothy 3:12)
Messiah encourages His disciples to REJOICE in their PERSECUTION
by looking in FAITH to their "GREAT REWARD in heaven" (Matthew 5:12) for He says that when He returns "MY REWARD is with Me"
(Revelation 22:12)
As the "AUTHOR and FINISHER" of their FAITH,
Messiah "ENDURED the cross, despising the shame" for "the JOY that was set before Him" (Hebrews 12:2)
Messiah's PROMISED REWARD to ISRAEL'S FAITHFUL TRIBULATION
REMNANT is likened to Messiah's reward to be received from His Father (Revelation 2:26-27 cf.Revelation 20:4,6)
and to the REWARD CHIEFLY PROMISED to "the TWELVE" (Matthew 19:28)
The SAME PERSECUTION experienced by Messiah's disciples
at His FIRST COMING (John 9:20-23,35-38) will ALSO be experienced by Messiah's disciples at His SECOND COMING
(Isaiah 66:5)