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12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life. ~ Luke 21:12-19
In Luke 21 the Lord Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples, looking out over the city of Jerusalem. In that context, He was responding to their question about the future. He had told them in the previous verses the events associated with the coming of the end, including ethnic hatred, and countries clashing. Then, massive earthquakes, plagues, famines, and terrors in the sky. Then the end will come.
In v.12 we read, "But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name."
The theology of the disciples was shocked that the Lord's will included for them persecution and imprisonment. The disciples expected the Lord Jesus to conquer the Romans and establish His kingdom, immediately.
This underscores the teaching found in Isaiah 55:8-9 which reads, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Interestingly, the English word martyr comes from the Greek word martus, which means “witness.” This witness is possible because of our personal relationship with the One for whom we are honored to die for, for He died for us. And, you will remember our faith grows in the context of trials, because difficulty forces us to ask and entertain the right questions. Trials potentially pushes us closer to Him.
Now, at the end of v.12 we read, "on account of my name." The disciples would be persecuted and imprisoned "for His name’s sake." This was not only true for the first disciples, it is true for all disciples down through every age. We live in a world which is run by "the god of this word," Lucifer himself. All disciples of the Lord Jesus represent His gospel which Lucifer and his minions hate because it disturbs their kingdom.
In v.13 we read, "And so you will bear testimony to me." Persecution and imprisonment provides the opportunity for our testimony to be shared. And, as we go through trials, we get to know Him more intimately.And, it opens up the door for us to take the gospel everywhere. This fulfilled prophecy will be a big part of the promise of the Lord Jesus that before the end comes, the gospel will go to the end of the world. To the very end, the Lord Jesus will give people the chance to turn to Him and be rescued from this kingdom of darkness.
And so, in v.14 we read, "But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves." He is saying the believer will not have to prepare and rehearse a speech in advance because, as He promises in v.15, "I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict." This is about having a personal relationship with God and being used by Him to help others to come into personal relationship with Him, as well.
We see this in the book of Acts when the disciples were brought before the authorities and they said exactly the right thing, for which the authorities had no response. This will also be the experience of believers who are alive during the Tribulation.
In v.16-17 we read, "16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me."
On the Day of Pentecost, believers in the the Lord Jesus began to face the hostility of those trapped in darkness. The church started in Acts 2, and in Acts 3 Peter and John heal a man crippled from birth. In response to the healing, Peter preaches a powerful, evangelistic sermon in Acts 3.
Then we read in Acts 4, "The priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day for it was already evening." And this scenario happened throughout the book of Acts.
In Luke 21:18-19 we read, "18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life." The believer in Christ may die, but we're going to be OK. The worst that can happen to us is the best that can happen to us. No other religion has the history that Christianity has. In many places in the world today, believers continue to be hated, persecuted and killed.
In Revelation 6 we learn that persecution will reach its zenith. At this point in the narrative, the church had been raptured out of this world, but for those who become believers in the Lord Jesus after that, they will experience torture and death.
In Revelation 6:9 we read, "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained."
Back up in v.19 we read, "Stand firm and you will win life." The life that will be won is the eternal life of those who are convinced to believe in the Lord Jesus through those who will be persecuted at that time.
Then in Revelation 7:9 we read, "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands."
Here is a group of people from every tribe and tongue and nation gathered around the throne. They have been saved through the testimony of the believers they had observed. This proves Christianity is like a nail. The harder it is struck, the deeper it goes.
Then in Revelation 7:14 we read, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
These are the martyrs of the time of the tribulation, those who were slaughtered for their faith. God spreads His gospel through persecution. This happens because He gives testimony to the strength of saving faith and the glory of the gospel through martyrdom and through suffering.
I close with a quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon who once said, "Dream not that the people of this world will admire you, or that the more Christ-like you are, the more peaceably people will act towards you. They prized not the polished gem, how should they value the jewel in the rough?" We must be wise to recognize that our trouble may be the means by which someone is snatched out of the very fires of hell.
