Luke 21:10-19--Jesus Foretells Wars and Persecution

Luke 21:10-19
English Standard Version
​
Jesus Foretells Wars and Persecution
10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name's sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

---

Are we living in the end times?  This is question that the Church has been thinking about ever since Pentecost, and the answer according to the Bible is "Yes!."  The "Last Days" or "End Times" is a much longer period of time than most would imagine, but we know that as far as God's calendar goes, Jesus had to come back to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the Jews and the Gentiles (all mankind) before the end could come.  Jesus then promised that the Holy Spirit would come upon the Church before the end would come (that's already happened) and that in this passage Jesus also gives us some other signs that would be like the contractions that a woman has at the beginning of labor.  You know the baby is coming, and that you'd better get to the hospital right away, but you don't know how long you have before the baby comes.  You just know that contractions mean that there's no more time to prepare because, ready or not, the baby is coming.

It will be the same way in the end times.  For those who are looking and given eyes to see and ears to hear and minds to understand by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too will be able to understand the times and know that the time is close and that we are running out of time to make preparations to share the gospel with the entire world.  "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."  Well, that happens in every nation, but recently we've had two "world wars" and things honestly look pretty ripe for a third one right now.  Maybe nothing will happen, but it seems more and more like there is no such thing as a localized conflict anymore.  No more can a nation have conflict with another nation without the whole world inserting itself into that conflict and "super-powers" (those with nuclear weapons) taking sides with their friends and against their enemies, or at least trying to manipulate the outcome or the conflict for their own purposes.

The text tells us that there will also be natural disasters such as earthquakes, famines and pestilence (diseases that end up in mass epidemics and pandemics).  Every time we live through one of these natural disasters and lots of people get hurt or die (or even if God is gracious and all walk away unharmed), we wonder if that event is tied to this prophecy.  I certainly asked that question about the outbreak of all the recent viruses over the past 20 years or so, but going back even further, there have definitely been really bad viral outbreaks going back to around the same time as the world wars that Jesus may have been talking about in the first part of this prophecy.  It seems that we've been facing one war after another and one natural disaster after another for so long that we've becoming dulled and numb to it.  No longer are people perceiving this as a sign of God's coming judgment--they just invent new worldviews to say that we need to prevent "climate change" which is their excuse for why all these things are happening.

The text also talks about an increase in "terrors" (I assume this means a rise in what we call terrorism) and great signs from heaven.  I'm not exactly sure what the last one will be other than we know that God gave us the sun, moon and stars to tell us the times and the seasons, and the prophet Joel says that the moon will be turned to blood in the day of the LORD (Peter used this passage in Pentecost and said that it was being fulfilled in their midst because the spirit of the Lord was being poured out on all people).

Before this day comes though, there will be lost of opportunity given for the gospel to go forth to every corner of the earth, and God would make sure that some of His people would even get arrested and thrown in prison so they could share the gospel with the other prisoners, prison guards, wardens and the judges that they may stand before.  In Jesus' day, it was the job of the governors, kings, and emperors to hear cases like these, so people like Paul would stand before Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Caesar and would share the gospel with all of Caesar's household.  He would also hold a worship service in the jail in Philippi, and would write much of the New Testament from one prison cell or another.  The persecuted Church today still faces these same issues in closed countries in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Far East, and everywhere else in the world too where we didn't used to expect it.  Even in Canada we've seen the government abuse its power to arrest and persecute pastors for preaching the truth of God's Word and not preaching the government's version of truth when it comes to what God calls sin.  Christian radio and TV programs on certain topics are not permitted at all in Canada and there are pastors currently being held without bond or trial date for continuing to preach the gospel and hold church services (even outdoor church services) during the pandemic.  The United States of America doesn't seem to be that far behind on this either and I've also heard similar reports from the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and other nations that we assumed to be part of the "free world."  Be sure that this promised persecution is coming as Satan desires to stop the Lord's plan from taking place and knows that He intends to use His Church to fulfill The Great Commission so Satan is going to try to kill those he can, incarcerate as many as he is able, and discredit the rest so that the world will not listen to them.

Jesus said when that day comes and we are arrested and brought before the courts and the government officials to give an answer, we must have our minds already made up what we will say--that Jesus Christ is Lord and that there is salvation in no other name but Jesus, and that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and and every tongue confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  We must not waver or imagine that we will make up an answer in the moment, for the temptation will be great in that moment to say anything so that you live and make the excuse that in doing so you gave yourself more time to witness to others.  But you have no more witness at that point.  Jesus said that those who deny Him before men, He will deny them before his Father in heaven.  No man that has been truly saved can deny God, especially the Son of God, before men.  The Holy Spirit will help us to recall the Word of God in these moments, but we must study and memorize that Word so that it is available to us in the moment when we need it.

Our enemies and adversaries will not be able to defend themselves against the defense (the apologetic) that we give in that moment for our words and works with both testify to the truth of what we are saying.  We must have integrity to live in accordance with what we preach so that we cannot be easily dismissed as one who preaches a message that we ourselves appear to not believe since we don't live it out.  When they realize they cannot persuade us with logic they will try to intimidate us with fear--taking our families and friends captive and even putting them to death in front of us saying "You did this to them."  But we who have been faithful to share the gospel with our friends and family do not even fear this for these friends and family members have made their choice that we cannot make for them and God is the one who decides a man's days.  If this is how God decided they were to die, there is nothing we can do to stop that.  All we can do it preach the gospel to them so that they know the truth ahead of time.  We must have the boldness of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah from the book of Daniel to tell the king that we need not even give an answer on this matter, and we don't need to think about it.  We will not bow down to the idols of the kingdom of this world or the anti-Christ and that our God will deliver us either from the flames or through the flames or by the flames of the fiery furnace, but there is no situation in which we will bow down to save ourselves or our friends or our family members.

Jesus makes reference that fiery furnace event here when He says that not a hair on our heads will perish.  However, he promises that we will be hated, but by the way we endure this persecution and give glory to God through it all, we will bring many more people to Christ through our witness.  May we live that way now in these times as the end is definitely near.