First talk, Jesus goes on to say, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. So regional leaders will condemn Christians, culture will mock Christians, nations will outlaw Christianity. To this day, research organizations inform us, estimate that more than 100,000 Christians are martyred every single year.
Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Hearts. Have you ever considered what Jesus expects you to face in life? In Luke 21, Jesus outlines the reality for his followers, and it's not what you might expect. His list includes persecution, prosecution, and even betrayal.
Yet amidst these challenges, there's an opportunity to bear witness and the promise of ultimate victory. Join Stephen as he explores how these warnings are still relevant for you and how you can find strength in Christ. A few months ago, I read an article that had been published in the New York Times written by two journalists on the persecution of Christians in the Hindu-dominated country of India. While we tend to focus on the persecution of believers in the Middle East, and for good reason, it's easy to overlook the growing hostility in the last few years, persecution rising in places like in the country of India. Jeffrey Gettelman and Suhasini Raj wrote about a faithful pastor whose church had been shut down, some 400 members told to never meet again.
The pastor, Vinod Patel, was warned by Hindu authorities that if they caught him preaching, he would be executed. So the article went on to sort of record a typical day for this pastor who is now shepherding an underground church. The article reads, he leaves his house quietly, never in a group. He jumps on a small Honda motorbike, putters past little towns and scratchy wheat fields, his Bible hidden inside his jacket.
He constantly checks his mirrors to make sure he is not being followed. On this cold winter day, Pastor Patel arrives at a secret service in an unmarked farmhouse. He quickly stepped inside. On a dusty carpet that smelled like sheep, church members waited for him. As he stepped forward, a dog outside barked and a church member whispered in fear, what was that? Pastor Patel reassured them all that God was watching over them no matter what would happen.
He opened his well-worn Hindi language Bible and rested his fingers on Luke chapter 21 with his own voice trembling. He read, they will seize you and persecute you. They will put some of you to death.
Everyone will hate you because of me. I invite your attention to that text again, Luke chapter 21. It happens to be the prediction of the Lord for his followers and it has been a prediction of church history over the last 2,000 years.
Let me just say this as we reenter our study. The freedoms that we have as a church in this country today is unique. It is historically unusual. It's something to be grateful for but it is unusual in church history. Now here in Luke 21, the Lord is delivering this great prophetic message we call the Mount Olivet Discourse. Luke chapter 21 which Pastor Patel read to his congregation in the barn that night is where we find ourselves today. Now much of Luke 21 as we've learned already parallels Matthew 24 and 25 along with Mark's Gospel at chapter 13. Jesus is essentially describing the opening of the seals, the seven seals in the book of Revelation that takes place as the tribulation period begins. Everything that we might be seeing today intensifies in the tribulation. Now with that review, Jesus says and this is where we left off in Luke 21 and verse 12, but before all this and we stopped there. I asked you not to read ahead.
I'm afraid you probably did. Now you note that time stamp before all of this signifying then, well before the rapture which precedes the tribulation, the unfolding of God's wrath during the tribulation, before any of this takes place, here's what you can expect as a Christian living in these pre-rapture days. Jesus is now going to describe what believers can expect during their lifetime.
That includes you and me. This is what we can expect out of life. Let me tell you ahead of time what Jesus basically does here is simply describe, give us an overview of church history up to this very day. Now let me break down what he says into six characteristics for our study. We can call the first characteristic general persecution. Notice the opening line of verse 12 again, but before all this, what's going to happen? They will lay their hands on you and persecute you. This is to be your expectation. To lay hands on you is a reference to being arrested.
They're going to want you out of the way. They're going to want to silence your gospel witness. Dale Davis in his commentary on this published a couple of years ago wrote that the world occasionally smiles at Christians, but on the whole of history, Christians are the objects of raging anger, derision, mockery, ridicule, hatred, even though they may not understand fully why. Like Celsus, a philosopher who wrote about 50 years after Luke writes this, he called his book The True Word, which was a slanderous comment, so to speak, against the word of God. He wrote it and entitled it The True Word. His book is the first comprehensive attack published against Christianity.
He opened with this kind of vitriol and anger and mockery. He said this, and I quote, no one possessed of any culture or wisdom or judgment becomes a Christian. The Christian's aim is to convince only worthless idiots, slaves, poor women and children. These are the only ones whom they manage to turn into Christians. Jesus predicted this kind of anger and demonically inspired hatred. This is a spiritual battle of the truth against the darkness. General persecution is what Christians are to expect out of life.
Again, where we live in our country and with the freedoms we have, we don't understand this or experience it to the level that Christians do around the world. I was reading this past week, Haddon Robinson, homiletics professor from Dallas Seminary, said that he was touring with a group, some of the churches from the first century mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3 in Turkey. Their guide was a fluent bilingual, he was an Arab Muslim. Haddon Robinson said he was inquisitive and one night he and this guide stayed up early into the morning as this young man asked him question after question after question. Finally, after hours of discussion, Dr. Robinson said, look, for me to be faithful to the gospel, I need to ask you, would you be willing to accept Christ? This young man said to him, you don't understand what you're asking. If I say yes, my wife will divorce me, my family will disown me, my government will sanction me.
You have no idea what you're asking. General persecution is experienced now, it will be experienced by those who follow Christ in these pre-Rapture tribulation days. Secondly, we are to expect governmental prosecution. Notice the middle part of verse 12, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. Now this prediction would be more immediate for the early church which was primarily Jewish. These early Jewish believers would be arrested, handed over to the Jewish leaders. In these days, Jewish courts were held inside the local synagogues. You can imagine how painful it would be to have grown up in that synagogue as a child, a part of that Jewish community and the synagogue was the center of community life. But now you've chosen Christ and you're arrested and you're dragged in chains into that synagogue where you are judged and condemned to prison, if not worse.
But this courtroom scene extends beyond the local synagogue. Notice verse 12, Jesus goes on to say, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. So regional leaders will condemn Christians, culture will mock Christians, nations will outlaw Christianity. In fact, within a few decades of Jesus' prediction, here in Luke 21, the Roman emperor will be tying Christians to poles, covering them with tar and setting them on fire to light his outdoor garden parties. A hundred years after that, another Roman emperor will order all copies of scriptures to be burned, all churches to be burned to the ground, and every Christian who will not recant, burned to death. To this day, research organizations inform us, estimate that more than 100,000 Christians are martyred every single year. In fact, during this worship service, 12 Christians on average somewhere in the world will die.
If this assembly here represented the martyrs next week, none of us would be here. Governmental prosecution is alive and well today. China, North Korea, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Iran, India, all around the world today, there is governmental sanctions, governmental penalties, governmental prosecution, much of it leading to lifelong sentences and even death. I met not too long ago with a half a dozen pastors who were here on tourist visas from China and they told me over lunch, if any of us spend less than three years in prison, we have no credibility in the underground church. I fear that in this country, if pastors were brought forward for Christianity, they would get a good lawyer and try to sue the government.
I read of one event that took place in Afghanistan just this past year. An underground church was meeting one of the women in that congregation that was meeting in secret that night, telephoned a friend whose church had been praying for them. The last word she spoke to this friend were these, we feel your prayers for us because we all have this supernatural boldness that has come over us. We are singing in his spirit tonight. Even my children have said to me, Mom, we will not deny Jesus. And she said those words, soldiers burst into their meeting, gunshots were heard ending that conversation and every member of that church was martyred that night. Can you imagine describing that congregation as one being filled with boldness and joyful singing?
I couldn't help but wonder how bad do we think we have it. Let's make sure we look at the scriptures, not through the eyes of an American, but through the eyes of Jesus who said this is what you should expect out of life. And on the timeline of church history, anything other than general persecution, anything other than governmental prosecution is unusual.
It is not ours to demand otherwise. And what's interesting is that after such a prediction, you'd think Jesus would throw in an encouraging line like I'm really sorry you're going to have to go through this. Instead, he says in verse 13, and this will be your opportunity to bear witness.
Wait, what? This is going to be a great opportunity to give your testimony. General persecution plus governmental prosecution equals, here's the third characteristic, a great opportunity. The Lord is effectively saying, think about it, you're going to be standing before that judge or that king or that governor and they're going to be your captive audience.
They're not going to be able to get away. They're going to have to listen to you give your testimony of Christ. Don't miss the fact that Jesus is not promising them an opportunity to vindicate themselves. This has nothing to do with receiving justice on earth. This has everything to do with declaring your testimony about Jesus in heaven.
Here's the implication for the believer then. God has appointed us to difficulty. Difficulty opens the doorway of opportunity for the sake of the gospel of Christ. I encourage you to read biographies by the way, read the news from Christian sources as well that bring you up to date. It's always fascinating to me and very convicting to read these testimonies.
In fact, I just finished reading the newest biography of Corey 10 Boom, really the most extensive one published called The Watchmaker's Daughter. It's an in-depth look at their family business, the hiding of Jewish people, their eventual capture and deportation to concentration camps where Betsy and Corey's sisters would endure great suffering in those conditions. A couple of illustrations, their barracks is packed with hundreds of women infested with fleas, their barrack uniquely especially.
Corey complained. Betsy saw it as an opportunity as she told her sister that this is why the guards aren't bothering us at night. Because of that, they had been able to smuggle in a New Testament which is a story all itself and Betsy again saw the opportunity of their captive audience and it isn't long before they're holding four services a night with those women many would come in response to the Gospel.
Adversity opened the door to opportunity. Jesus anticipated his disciples responding with fear at the thought of standing before kings and governors. I mean, who's going to volunteer for that? They're wondering how are they going to handle that?
They're largely uneducated Galileans. And so Jesus offers a fourth characteristic of life we should expect for disciples. We're going to call this one God-inspired testimony. Verse 14. Settle it, he goes on to say, in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. In other words, the disciples don't need to memorize or rehearse some eloquent speech to help them wiggle out of these tight courtroom situations or wherever they might be called upon to give an answer. The Lord is promising them that at the right moment he will give them the right words to say. Now, by the way, this isn't an excuse for pastors to skip studying.
I've heard this used this way. This verse does not defend some preacher saying, you know, I don't need to study. I'm just going to depend on God and he's going to fill my mouth. God gets blamed for a lot of bad sermons. The promise from Jesus isn't a promise for preachers who don't study or Bible teachers who don't study and assume that, well, it's his responsibility to fill my mouth.
This isn't an excuse. This isn't a verse for, you know, if you lose your notes, it's going to be amazing. What Jesus is promising here is insight, not because you refuse to study and prepare, but for those moments when you couldn't prepare. It just happened. All of a sudden, that neighbor asks you a question and you got to answer. That professor asks you, so you're a Christian, huh? There you go. Spotlight's on. Somebody at work says, what do you think about this world crisis we're facing?
You know, in God, don't you believe God's in control? What do you think about that? And you can feel the spotlight. Come on. There you are. No time to prepare. Let me tell you what Jesus means. He means that when you don't have time to get ready, God has already been at work getting you ready. And you might leave thinking, oh, I wish I'd thought of this or I could have said that and it could have been better.
No, that was what you were to say. Jesus is saying that when you don't have time to prepare, you discover that God has been preparing you. Now keep in mind that Jesus is not promising here that because he gives you something to say, it's going to set you free. He's not promising that here. This isn't a free pass out of prison or perhaps even martyrdom. Jesus isn't promising to deliver us out. In fact, he goes on next to tell us we're going to be delivered up. And you won't believe by whom. Verse 16 reveals the fifth characteristic.
We'll call this one grievous betrayals. Notice verse 16. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends.
And some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. Perhaps you've experienced to some degree a fracture in your family because of your faith. Perhaps you've lost a close friendship. Maybe you've lost a relationship. Maybe you know good and well it's why you were passed over at work for a promotion. You didn't fit in. You're the odd man, the odd woman out.
Or maybe you've experienced hatred and it can only be explained in terms of what you believe and who you are. Jesus would say that's what I want you to expect out of life. With that the Lord concludes his description. He adds this, number six, guaranteed victory, verse 18. Notice but not a hair of your head will perish.
By your endurance you will gain your lives. Now Jesus isn't suggesting that you're gonna earn your way into heaven because you suffered. He's simply describing how suffering has a way of sifting genuine Christians from among those who are fair weather believers. There are a lot of people who say today they're following Christ, especially in this country where the stakes aren't so high or it might even get you a job.
It might even make you business contacts or friends. So there are a lot of people who might say they're following Christ but really it's only if he makes it worth it. Genuine Christians are following Jesus Christ because they believe no matter what he is worth it.
That's a big difference. Jesus is promising here a future inheritance in heaven. He's talking about the resurrection that will come when your body is glorified and reunited with your spirit which has been with Christ as soon as you died, if you died before the rapture. That reunion is gonna be amazing. That glorified body that you will have forever will mirror the body of Jesus. It'll be vibrant. It will be amazing. It'll be young.
Again, perfected. In fact, Jesus emphasizes that your perfected eternal body won't be missing one hair. Some of us are gonna get it all back.
It's gonna be great, isn't it? I like the way J.C. Raul put it when he wrote on this text 150 years ago, he said this, whatever a Christian suffers through, the best things cannot be injured. Our lives are hit with Christ. Our treasure in heaven cannot be taken away. Our soul is beyond the reach of harm. John Phillips puts it this way, no matter what you experienced or suffered, you will enter heaven in that glorified body as it were unscathed down to every little hair. This is especially encouraging and inspiring to those facing persecution, imprisonment, those 12 who this hour will be martyred in the name of Jesus.
This is the perspective, though, beloved, that Jesus wants us all to have. This ought to change our perspective about our own country, about our own disadvantages we may feel, about whatever we might see on the horizon. General persecution, expect it. Governmental prosecution, expect it. Great opportunities, expect them. God inspired testimonies on the spot at the moment, you can expect them. Grevious betrayals, expect them.
Guaranteed victory, yeah, expect it. As you navigate through life's challenges, remember Jesus' words from Luke 21. Persecution and trials may come, but they bring opportunities to testify of Christ's love and faithfulness. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. I invite you to sign up for Stephen's email list and receive additional insight to help you walk wisely through life. When you join what we call Friends of Wisdom, you'll receive an email from Stephen each week. When you sign up, you'll get immediate access to two of Stephen's most popular booklets. Sign up today at wisdomonline.org forward slash friends. Then come back here next time to discover more wisdom for the heart.
