God’s Plan for Persecution, Part 1 | Finding Joy in Persecution

                        Luke 21:12-13

Well, we are back in Luke 21 today, and so you’ll want to turn in your Bibles to Luke 21, if you’re not already there. This fascinating teaching from our Lord on the End Times and in this section, that we’re gonna get into, or what we’ve been in really is our Lord speaking about events in history, and time, and really the future, that span, the time between his post resurrection, ascension into heaven, all the way to his glorious return at the Second Coming.

 There are many of you who are staying current with our Bible reading plan, our Bible reading program for our church and if so you’ve just finished reading Luke 21. But for, but for some of you maybe, it’s maybe you’re out of, kind of, a little bit behind, maybe it’s been a couple weeks since you’ve looked into this, so what I’d like to do is just begin by reading this whole section of Jesus’ answer starting at verse 5.

 Luke 21:5, I’ll start reading from there, “And while some were talking about the temple, that it had been adorned with beautiful stones and dedicated gifts, he said, ‘As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be one stone left upon another which will not be torn down.’ So they questioned him, saying, ‘Teacher, when, therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?’ And he said, ‘See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name saying, “I am He! And, “The time is at hand!” Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.’

“Then, he continued, saying to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will result in an opportunity for your testimony. So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

“‘But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your perseverance you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. And then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the countryside must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.

“‘Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath against this people, they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive,’” into the nations, “‘into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

 “‘And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectations of the things which are coming upon the world; For the POWERS OF THE HEAVENS will be shaken. And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

 “Then he told them a parable: ‘Behold the fig tree and all the trees: as soon as they put forth leaves, and you see it for yourselves,’ you, ‘know that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. But be on,’ your, ‘guard, so that your hearts will not be overcome with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who inhabit the face of all the earth.

“‘But keep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’” Now that is Jesus’ answer; all of that in response to the questions that his disciples asked him back in verse 7. “When, therefore, will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”

 As we’ve seen, as we’ve studied, and talked about these things, that term encompasses the future of Israel, its entire eschatology. It includes the Second Coming. It includes the end of the age. It’s speaking about the age of fulfillment, as God fulfills promises of restoration that he made to Israel. But before things get better, which is after the glorious return of Christ, things are going to get worse, a lot worse. There will be, in the future, this unprecedented time of tribulation on the earth, unlike anything the world has ever seen.

 Jesus begins there in verse 8, speaking about the events of the first half of the tribulation. They themselves are a prelude to the end, but not them, in and of themselves, signs of the end. It’s not yet the end. There will be false messiahs. There will be human conflict, war, social chaos. There will be the consequences that result from war, like famines and plagues. There will be geological disturbances like earthquakes, cosmic disturbances like terrors, and then great signs from heaven. And yet with all of this Jesus’ message to believing Israel is this first, it’s this: Do not be deceived. Do not be misled. Don’t be led astray by the audacious claims of those who come claiming to be Messiah.

 Don’t go after the many false Messiahs who rise up, who come in Jesus’ name, who claim to be the Christ, who claim to be the Second Coming of Christ himself, and that the end is upon them. Don’t follow them. And though they come, as they will, accompanied by false prophets and show great signs and wonders, according to Matthew 24:24, “they will mislead, if possible, even the elect.” So powerful, all, are all these signs, Jesus says, even so, even though many will be deceived and follow after them; you don’t do that.

 He also says, to believing Israel, don’t be terrified. A very strong word there for terror, with a very strong injunction. Don’t be terrified by conflicts, verses 9 and 10. Don’t be terrified by catastrophes, in the first part of verse 11. Don’t be terrified by any calamities, whether earthquakes, or terrors or great signs from heaven. To date, none of what Jesus has described in verses 8 through 11 has happened yet, in human history.

 Now it is true that there have been isolated instances of each and every one of these phenomenon. Even before the time of Christ, there were false Messiahs, there were wars, social chaos, earthquakes, famines, plagues. If we go back to the Exodus, we see terrors and signs from heaven. None of that has been on the scale that Jesus has predicted here. None of that has been with the frequency or with the intensity that Jesus has predicted here.

Nothing has engulfed the world such as to warrant this very strong language that Jesus uses and the strong injunctions that he gives his disciples. In verse 8, “See to it.” Be on the lookout so, “that you’re not deceived.” And then in verse 9, “Do not be terrified.” Do not cower in craven fear, like the rest of the world. Nothing has risen up like that to tempt even believers to this level of deception, or to this level of mass hysteria, and worldwide panic and terror.

If you need to be reminded of the level that Jesus is speaking of, just revisit the sixth chapter of Revelation as Jesus breaks the seals on the scroll and he unleashes the four horsemen of the apocalypse. We saw there, that one fourth of the earth’s population dies in a very short span of time; just within a few years. Nothing like that has ever happened in the world up, to this point. Not in the decades before Jesus; not in the decades between Jesus’ ascension in AD 33, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and not at any point since, in history, has anything like this, on this scale happened.

 But once they do start to happen, Jesus wants believing Israel to know, all believers to know that these things, according to Matthew 24:8 and Mark 13:8, they are merely the beginning of birth pains. But the end is not yet; all these things must take place by necessity of the divine plan, but the end does not follow after immediately. Now look at verse 12, because Jesus at this point, in his prediction, puts down the telescope and he picks up the binoculars. He turns from looking to the very far future, and now he shifts the focus to talk about the nearer future. For these disciples, it will be a future of coming persecution followed by Jerusalem’s destruction.

 Jesus is going to go back after talking about Jerusalem’s destruction in verses 20 to 24, he’s going to go back to the distant future, pick up the telescope again in verse 25; he’s going to return to the theme of signs from heaven, that he left off in verse 11, and that connects to the signs in verse 25,in sun and moon and stars, turbulence in the seas, celestial powers shaken to such a degree and extent that people faint from fear and dreaded anticipation all over the world.

 All those things are just a prelude to the final sign, which is the sign, the true sign of Christ’s return, verse 27, when all “will see the SON OF MAN COMNG IN A CLOUD with great power and great glory.” It’ll be just as lightning flashes from the east and to the West and everybody sees it. Nobody misses it, but there is a lot of history that needs to happen, first.

 Verse 12, if you’re taking notes, this is the outline that we’ll follow for this section, which we’ll cover this week and next week, and I hope not the weeks after, but we’ll see. We’ll see. But if you’re taking notes, here’s the outline we’re going to follow for this section from verses 12 to 19, and you just jot these points down and we’ll come back to them.

First of all, in verses 12 to 13: The purpose in persecution. The purpose in persecution, verses 12 and 13, “But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.” That’s the purpose in persecution, verses 12 and 13.

 Then secondly: The power in persecution. The power in persecution, verses 14 to 15, “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you an utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.” That’s the second point: The power in persecution. What’s the power? “I will give you.” It’s the power of God. The power of Christ. As we’ll see, it’s a Trinitarian power at work in persecution, to hold us fast, to cause us to endure, to cause us to accomplish God’s purposes in persecution to give an opportunity for our testimony to the Gospel.

 Number three, third in our outline: The pain in persecution. The pain in persecution, verses 16 and 17. The pain and persecution is not the persecution itself, but it is why the persecution is happening. Look at it there, “But you will be delivered up, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you’ll be hated by all on account of My name.” There’s no deeper pain is there then betrayal. Pain in your family as they hand you over and the loyalty and the love that you feel and the affection you feel for your family, when they don’t love your Lord and the Messiah and they hand you over, deliver you over to authorities. That is the pain in persecution. It’s to see the hand by which it comes.

But finally, the promise in persecution, number four, verses 18 to 19, “And yet in all of this not a hair of your head will perish and by your endurance you’ll gain your lives.” Now, it may, it may seem like a contradiction that some of you “will be put to death and yet not a hair of your head will perish.” We’ll get to that when we get to that. But understand that we’re talking about eternal salvation, “not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives.”

 So, the purpose, the power, the pain, and the promise in persecution that is the outline for verses 12 to 19, that we’re going to follow. It’s going to take us a couple of weeks to get through those verses, so just be patient. But before we jump into this outline and start to move forward, I want to make a few introductory remarks. Just stick with me. It’ll take just a few minutes. But this is kind of a, a, utility here and that I need to address at some point. So it might as well be now.

 I want to show you, first of all, the relationship of these verses to the other synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark. Let’s start by turning over to Mark’s Gospel, just to see the relationship of these verses, that we’ve just gone through in this outline, verses 12 to 19 in Luke 21. And to show how it connects with Mark 13 and the words there. Mark’s Gospel, turn to Mark 13 verse 9 and you can see how Mark parallels Luke.

 What we’ve covered in Luke, so far, as Jesus begins to answer his disciples, in Luke 21:8 through 11, as we’ve just read through about the beginning of the tribulation. This prediction of coming persecution, verses 12 to 19, in the near future, persecution of his disciples that they’re going to experience personally; we have that same order of events in Mark’s Gospel, in Mark 13:5 to 8, that parallels with Luke, 21:8 to 11.

 And then we read this starting in verse 9, which also parallels Luke, “but see to yourselves.” So he tells them about the events of the great tribulation, and he says, “but see to yourselves; for they will deliver you to the courts, you will be beaten in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness to them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. And when they lead you away, delivering you up, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child and children rise up against parents and have them put to death. And you’ll be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

The same pattern we read in Luke, isn’t it? Note here, once again, the involvement of Jewish authorities in the persecution, as well as, Gentile authorities. But notice the Jewish authorities, the reference to the synagogue. There will be universal hatred; a hatred that is as remote and far removed from you, as governing authorities, but also very close and intimate, as close as family members. You’ll be hated by all, and yet true faith endures. True faith finds salvation in the preserving of the soul before God. Same pattern in Mark and Luke. Right?

Now turn to Matthew’s Gospel. Go over to Matthew in chapter 24. Matthew sounds similar to Mark and Luke, but this section of Matthew, it is a bit different and I’ll show you that. Matthew 24:4 to 8, we see that Jesus begins his answer, and as Jesus begins his answer and talks about the end and the beginning of the tribulation, that’s parallel to Luke 21:8 to 11, parallel to Mark, 13:5 to 8; ground we’ve covered already. So far so good.

 When we come to Matthew 24:9, what seems at first glance to be much the same or similar, on closer inspection we find that it is different than Mark and Luke. Look at Matthew 24:9, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many.

“And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Notice that there is no mention of what Luke recorded of being delivered up to the synagogues. There’s no Jewish persecution talked about here. There’s no mention of what Mark recorded of being beaten up in the synagogues. Again, no Jewish authorities and Jewish persecution involved in Matthew’s section here.

 In Matthew, there is no Jew-on-Jew persecution. It’s all Gentile on Jew persecution. Nations against the Jew persecution. Betrayal, yeah, that’s gonna go on, treachery, lawlessness, love growing cold, that’s all there, but the hostility is coming from the nations and it’s coming against believing Jews.

So in Matthew’s account, he records Jesus’ predictions about the great tribulation from the start of his answer, in verse 4, all the way to the Second Coming, verses 29 to 31. The whole thing is talking about the great tribulation and, the just, so just before the son of man comes, verses 29 to 31. Believing Jews who will live through the tribulation period, their endurance and their testimony is going to result in the universal proclamation of the gospel and it’s a gospel, here noted, as the gospel of God’s kingdom, preaching that gospel of Psalm chapter 2, preaching that gospel to the whole world as a testimony to the nations.

In other words, these Jews living at that time in the tribulation are gonna proclaim to the entire Gentile world, listen, you had better repent. You had better bow the knee, because our Messiah is returning to set up his kingdom. So “kiss the Son,” now, Psalm 2, bow your knee before the King who’s coming, “lest he be angry with you.” Yes you. Lest you perish in your rebellion. You’d better put your eyes on him. Humble yourself before him.

That’s how Matthew differs from Luke and Mark. His entire record of the Olivet Discourse focuses on the great tribulation and the Second Coming. Mark tracks with Luke through the verses in this section, Luke 21:12 to 19, but, then it fat, then he fast forwards. Mark does, fast forwards past that tribulation and persecution section, fast forwards to the great tribulation and tracks with Matthew from then on. Luke differs from both Matthew and Mark, because he covers not only the persecution against believers, but also covers the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which is different than Matthew and Mark. Luke 21:20 to 24 is about the destruction of Jerusalem and then he moves ahead to the events surrounding the Second Coming from there.

But since you are in Matthew’s Gospel, turn back a few pages and let me show you something that is very familiar. Go to the tenth chapter of Matthew. Remember Matthew, remember Matthew, chapter 10 is when Jesus summons his twelve disciples; he names them there at the beginning of the chapter, and he gives them power and authority over unclean spirits to cast them out. He gives them power and authority to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

 And then he sends them out with instructions to visit not the Gentiles, not the Samaritans at this point, but stick to visiting the villages of Israel preaching this message: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he says this; look at Matthew 10, verses 16 and following, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues; and you,” you, “will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

 “But when they deliver you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” In Luke it was, “I will give you.” In Mark, it’s “the Holy Spirit who will speak through.” Here, it is “the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Trinitarian power in persecution.

Verse 21, “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one,” who has in, “who has endured to the end, who will be saved. Whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”

 All of a sudden, it’s turned into an eschatological passage; the coming of the son of man. Not only does that sound strikingly similar to what we read in Mark 13:9 to 13, and then our texts Luke 21:12 and 19, but notice that last statement, “You won’t finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.” That final statement there, in verse 23, that’s spoken two years or so before the Olivet Discourse. It’s spoken in the region of Galilee. Clearly, Jesus had been warning them about this coming persecution for a long time. This is material that he has been speaking, repeatedly, throughout his ministry to his disciples, comes up again in the Olivet Discourse; means he’s alluded to the tribulation before. He has spoken of his second coming as well, and yet, how slow of heart they are to believe, how dull they are to understand what Jesus has said and predicted.

 Now, with all this in mind, let’s go back to Luke 21. Luke 21 verse 12, let’s just give you two more introductory notes. I’ve talked to you about the relationship between the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and how all these things kind of, kind of play out in each of those contexts. But now I want to give you a note about the timing of verses 12 through 19, because clearly Jesus has said, “but before all these things.” So there is a, a timing issue and the timing that Jesus is warning his disciples about, the time of the coming persecution, this persecution is going to start soon after he ascends into heaven, soon after he sends the Holy Spirit to the church in Acts chapter 2.

 In fact, as we are going to see, a little later, the entire book of Acts, that’s the sequel to Luke’s Gospel, so it’s Luke Part 2. It portrays the beginning of the fulfillment of everything that we see in Luke 21:12 to 19 and trace it all the way through the book of Acts, and persecution of the Jerusalem authorities. And, by the way, in Jerusalem it was not just Jewish authorities that were there in Jerusalem, but Jew and Gentile. Jewish authority of the Sanhedrin, but also Gentile authority through the governor, the Roman governor in this case here, Pontius Pilate. But then there are other Roman governors beyond that.

All that persecution from authorities in Jerusalem, whether Jew or Gentile, all that came to an abrupt end when the Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem in AD 66, and then sacked the city and raised it to the ground in AD 70, and that’s what we’re going to see next, in Luke verses 20 to 24, the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s besieging. It’s being surrounded by Roman armies. It’s being destroyed, and sacked, and razed to the ground, that puts an end to Jerusalem authorities persecuting the Church.

 But even Jerusalem’s destruction, though it brought an end to temple worship, to temple sacrifice, the entire Jewish system of false worship that rejected its own Messiah, even though all that ended in AD 70, the persecution of Christians did not end in AD 70. Has it? We have a little book called, Fox’s Book of Martyrs. I don’t know if you’ve ever read from that, but you should. You should get yourself a, every, every home should have a copy of Fox’s Book of Martyrs and read from it from time to time.

But we can see that the Romans continued persecuting the Christians for the next two centuries and sometimes they did it systematically, sometimes as a part of their, their, campaign or their administration. But ever since then, even at the end of the official persecution of Christianity by the Romans in 313 by Emperor Constantine, ever since then, even after the decline of the Roman Empire, persecution has erupted in various places around the world, at various times in history, under various circumstances.

 We know persecution against Christians continues to this very day, in different parts of the world. So that’s important because what we study about persecution in this section, though it started with the Jerusalem church, this becomes a prototype for all churches and all Christians who will ever experience persecution. All throughout the church age, any Christian, any church that experiences persecution because of the sake of the name, because of the sake of Jesus’ name.

This is the prototype of how we endure, how we pass through, how we think about persecution. Not all churches are gonna face this level of persecution, at every church, and every place, and every time. Not all Christians are gonna face this level of persecution. But for any church, any church, any Christian that faces persecution; persecution that came upon the first century Jerusalem Church sets a prototype for all Christians throughout the church age, from the first to the twenty-first century, until Christ comes to rapture the church. Whenever that happens. When he takes us home to be with him, this is the paradigm.

 So Jesus’ words of comfort and encouragement, the way that he prepares his disciples to endure persecution, revealing God’s plan for persecution this prepares all his people, at all times, wherever they live in the world, whenever they live on the timeline of church history, however, they face that persecution, if and when it comes, they will face it knowing the plan. They’ll face it with courage. They’ll face it with confidence. They’ll face it with deep conviction.

One more introductory note to give you, just about the context, and this helps us see the purpose of this section. Why is it that Jesus pulled out the telescope at the beginning of his answer and looked to the very far future, and then put down the telescope, picked up the binoculars and talked about what was gonna happen next to them? Why did Jesus stop in his prediction about the birth pains and the tribulation before the end, prior to his Second Coming, and then turn and speak directly to his disciples about the coming persecution? Why? Because his disciples did not see any of this coming at all.

 It doesn’t matter how many times he predicted his own suffering, his rejection, his betrayal, his arrest, his, his death at the hands of the Romans. Doesn’t matter how many times he promised persecution would be coming to them and that they’d need the confidence and the power of the Holy Spirit to, to help them through this. Their operative eschatology was that the coming of Messiah meant, next stop glory for us.

 They believed, now that Jesus the Christ has come, and now that they have made their travel, their journey all the way up to Jerusalem, now that they’ve arrived in Jerusalem, and now that Jesus has taken over the temple, they think, man the king is, he’s just around the corner. He’s going to vanquish his enemies, he’s going to set up his kingdom, he’s going to restore Israel’s rightful place over the nations of the earth and Christ is going to reign on David’s throne and, by the way, there will be some thrones around him where we’ll sit.

 So the Lord is wanting them to understand, it’s gonna get worse. It’s gonna get way worse before it gets better. It’s gonna get worse for you. Not only has it been granted to them to believe, but also to suffer for the sake of his name. Philippians 1:29, it’s true for all of us, “the faith that has been granted to us by God.” In the same sentence that says, “the faith has been granted to us by God,” says, “the suffering that we share in Christ has also been granted to us as a gift.”

 These disciples are gonna share in their Lord’s suffering, and so Jesus needs, right now, to start strengthening them. He needs to prepare them for the suffering ahead. In fact, on the very next night, after the discourse on the Mount of Olives, on this particular occasion, the very next night, remember, Jesus brings the Twelve together in the upper room. That’s the night of his betrayal. And they’ll leave the upper room, go back to the Mount of Olives. And that’s where, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas brings the Roman cohort to arrest him. But he brings the Twelve together before that in the upper room, and he says to them, John 15:18, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you’re not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’” Listen, “‘if they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” It’s coming.

Beloved, those are words, the Church has lived by ever since the days of the apostles and as true today they are, as the day that Jesus gave them to the apostles in the upper room. This is how we live. This is what we expect from the world. It’s most painful, isn’t it? When this hatred from the world enters into our families, enters into our homes, separates parents from children, brothers from sisters, grandparents from grandchildren, grandchildren from grandparents, Right? This hatred is so hard to take, it’s so painful.

 These first disciples had to have their minds reoriented and renewed by Jesus’ prediction of this coming persecution. We too, we also need to have our minds reoriented, renewed, girded up by the truth, so that we can endure suffering in our time, so we can live faithfully in our time, and persevere in obedience to Jesus Christ. Naturally, we do not like being hated, do we? None of us likes that. We don’t like being hated by, every, anyone.

We really like to be liked, but we have to accept this fact that those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, those who reject the lordship of Christ over their lives, those who refuse to fear God and keep His commandments, and those who refuse to revere God’s word, if we stand for Christ, if we stand with Christ, they will hate us, and it will be your own flesh and blood that does it, that’s the most painful. As this passage shows us even family members will hate us. He said this on many occasions. This is not new. So this section that we’re gonna go through verses 12 to 19, particularly relevant, immediately applicable, to all of us as Christians in every single age.