This sermon takes us to the summit of the Beatitudes: we discover that those who follow Christ will be blessed by God and hated by the world. We tend to associate suffering with God’s displeasure but here in this final beatitude we see that the highest level of anointing is reserved for those who are persecuted for Christ. When you appreciate what the Bible has to say about persecution, you can rejoice when you are persecuted for the sake of Jesus because something will be yours on account of your suffering, that would not have been yours otherwise; this sermon tells you what that something is.