Pastor Tim continues our series in Matthew 24-25, looking this week at persecution, its results and our hope in the midst of it.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
Well, good evening and welcome to Steadfast. I am so glad to be here with you again tonight as we delve into God’s Word and we think about a challenging topic, persecution. Think about our society. Think about our culture. We see polls and surveys and statistics that indicate that church attendance is going down dramatically. Certainly, here in the United States, even more so dramatically, more dramatically in many parts of the Western world. We see, in addition to that, and not surprisingly, that more and more people disagree with what the Bible teaches. We’re seeing examples increasingly of people who are opposed for biblical views. People who lose their job for biblical views. People who are censored for their biblical views. And so it feels like we’re starting to experience persecution and we look at God’s Word and we read about what the end is and we hear about persecution and tribulation and we think, are we on the cusp? Is this it? Is everything coming apart? God’s Word addresses those concerns and they’re concerns that aren’t just ours but are shared throughout the ages.
So let’s ask for God’s guidance tonight and then we’ll delve in and hear what Jesus told his disciples and what he tells us. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your goodness and your love. Thank you for your Word that you have given us because you love us. Lord, as we continue this series tonight in Matthew 24 and think about what our Savior has told us about persecution towards those who claim the name of Jesus, Lord, would you help us to keep our eyes on what’s most important? Would you give us confidence in your love? Would you give us boldness and power through your Spirit that we might do what you have called us to do? We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Where does this persecution and opposition come from? We feel like here we are. We had this society that was Christian. Why now are people opposing us? Don’t people see what the church does that’s good? That’s been a question that Christians could have asked from the very beginning because it was only a matter of moments after Jesus’ death, which incidentally happened because the world opposed him. His followers began to experience in full force the opposition of the world. Most of the disciples died, not of natural causes, but were put to death for their testimony towards the gospel, for standing up for Jesus. And so we see that throughout history, standing for the gospel leads to persecution. That’s what Jesus addresses as we go, starting with verse 9, back to Matthew 24.
Jesus says, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” What do we see there? Now, if you’re reading that and you run across that word tribulation, you may pause and think, okay, that refers to the very end because we hear many interpreters of the end times speak of the great tribulation and this idea that there’s a certain period of time that will be the tribulation at the end. And then we assume, well, maybe that’s what Jesus is talking about here.
What Jesus is describing instead is the experience of all those who live in the last days. In other words, the time period between his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the time that he returns. Throughout that entire period, that last segment in history where everything has changed because Jesus has taken on the punishment that we deserve and has sent his spirit into the world to enable us to proclaim his grace, that completely unique period, we find persecution over and over and over again. It’s pervasive. It’s everywhere. It’s really interesting if you notice in verse nine, it says that all nations will hate believers. Why? Because we’re called to proclaim the gospel.
And that’s what we see in verse 14. Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Now I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that the word Jesus uses in verse 14 is “all nations are going to hate believers,” those who proclaim the gospel. And that’s going to happen in the midst of the gospel going out to the entire world and everyone having the joy of hearing the good news of Jesus. And on the other hand, in verse nine, what does he say? He says that all nations are going to hate us. So we proclaim to all nations, he says in verse 14, verse nine, all nations hate us. It happens together.
When people hear the word, in some sense it’s a joyful thing, in some sense it’s a wonderful thing. Here is the news that even though we are in our sin, even though we can’t overcome it on our own, even though we’re hopelessly mired and deserve ultimate punishment for it, what does God do? He gives us his grace. That’s wonderful news. But it is news that demands that we see him as Lord, that we no longer focus primarily on ourselves, but we call Jesus the one whom we follow. That there are certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong, the world doesn’t want to hear that. We don’t really want to hear it when it impacts the things we want to do. So what happens when that’s proclaimed? Yes, there are some who respond and rejoice, but there are also those who oppose it.
If you look back in chapter 10 of Matthew, Jesus addresses the same subject, but specifically towards the Jews. Why? Initially, as the early disciples were going out and proclaiming while Jesus was still alive, being Jews, they go to other Jews. That’s exactly how it was planned to happen. And who opposes them? Well, the people that hear, the other Jews. Now the disciples are being sent out to the nations. All nations are going to hear about the good news of God’s kingdom. So what’s going to happen? All nations are going to oppose the believers, those who follow Jesus.
Now we might say, but this hasn’t always happened that way, has it? After all, we can think of the golden era. We might think of America just a few decades ago, and we think about when almost everyone went to church, almost everyone professed Jesus. And if you surveyed them, almost everyone would have had the biblical answers to whatever topics you might have asked. Maybe they wouldn’t have had a thorough knowledge of everything biblical, but they knew generally what Christians should say and believe.
What do we find? Well, all sorts of periods of time have happened throughout history in different parts of the world. It certainly happened here in the United States. It happened earlier at different points in Europe. It’s happened at different points in other parts of the world. Even many people don’t know about the expansion of the gospel in China about a millennia ago, but there was a period of time in which the Chinese Christians were actually in power in China. There have been lots of times where Christians have had large swaths of influence, and times then that therefore it didn’t seem like there was very much persecution.
What do we find, for example, if we rewind a few decades here in America or a few centuries in Europe? What do we find? We find a nice facade of Christendom. People know what to do and how they should live, but all too often they didn’t actually have a living faith. They just knew what to do. It’s often the times that we’ve stood least firm. If you think about where we are in the United States today, many of the foundations for that were laid by the very people who had the right answers just a few decades ago. Because what happens? So often when we have the right answers, what we have is the right answers that people will like us and we can have influence. We can have power.
We think about a few centuries before that, we actually remember people who faced this sort of situation and stood strong for the gospel in the pilgrims. Every Thanksgiving, we have pictures of pilgrims and maybe we dress up as pilgrims and we think about them coming to the United States. And maybe we think sort of just barely about how they came for religious freedom, but do we really wrestle with who they were and where they were coming from? They were coming from a Christian nation.
Why would they have to escape and flee persecution in a Christian nation? It wasn’t because the secularists had taken over and threw them out. It was because the people who professed Christ in England at the time were more concerned with their own power, with their own authority, than they were about actually doing what God’s word said. When these pilgrims stood up and said, we want to purify the church, we want to toss out the man-made traditions and hang on to what God has actually called us to do in our lives and in worship, they were persecuted.
And so often we see when we have these golden eras where it looks like Christendom is prospering and things are going well and everyone claims the name of Jesus, it’s actually, at least if not the majority, a significant portion of those people are only claiming the name of Jesus. They’re not actually living with Jesus as Lord. And so persecution sprouts up. It’s often when we’re the weakest. And so we shouldn’t necessarily see those times where persecution feels distant as the times when the church is strongest. Oftentimes it’s when the church is spiritually flabby and desperately needs to exercise. And what happens when it does, when it flexes its spiritual muscles and turns to God’s word? Persecution.
Now sometimes after that, we’ll see a time where there’s a revival and things are going really well, and then people will fall away and there’s persecution because there aren’t nearly as many people who claim Jesus’s name. But either way, what we see is that there’s going to be persecution when there are at least some people who are like the pilgrims, who are like many Christians throughout the world today who say, I’m actually going to do what the Bible says. I’m actually going to stand for God’s word.
And so Jesus warrants the disciples so they’re aware of this. But he doesn’t promise times of peace and prosperity where everything will be going well. What does he promise? He promises they’re going to be persecuted. They’re going to die. And what’s going to happen when they face that persecution? When they’re facing the trials and tribulations of the world? Well, what they’re actually called to do, their motives and their focus on what they’re supposed to be doing is going to get messed up. That’s what we see as we go on in verse 12.
He says, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.”
So what’s going to happen, Jesus says, over time, there will be periods of time where there’s lawlessness and persecution. And in that, what happens? He says that the love of the church will grow cold. And what does that mean? Commentators have wrestled with that and said, well, maybe is it love for God that grows cold or love for other believers? And I think the right answer is that Jesus leaves that ambiguous because it’s both. It’s our love for God and our love for our neighbors, and both grow cold in times of persecution, so much so that Jesus says that some will actually betray other Christians in the midst of the persecution. They’ll be looking out for themselves and so fearful of what could happen to them that they’ll betray each other.
Isn’t that what we see when we’re facing the pressure and the fear of a culture that no longer really cares for the things we have to say? Our temptation is to look out for ourselves and to justify that thinking that we’re looking out for Jesus. There was a church in early church history that faced this very problem and Jesus confronts them on it in Revelation chapter two. In the letter to Ephesus, Jesus says, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent, do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.”
Now, if we were to read the whole letter, we’d see this is a more challenging letter for us to wrestle with than we might first think. We might think, well, Jesus is saying they’re going to be rejected. They’ve lost their first love. They clearly aren’t teaching the right things. There’s the problem. Aha. We can solve this, but it isn’t actually that way.
What did Jesus say to the Ephesians before he confronts them on losing their first love? He says, “You’ve cast out the false teachers. You’ve stood firm for the truth, but you’ve lost your first love.” And I think that’s the challenge that we need to be really ready for today. Because as we find ourselves in cultures that increasingly don’t understand the gospel, that don’t even want to have a facade of being in agreement with the Bible, the challenge is we too can lose our first love, our love for God and our love for those around us, other believers and for our neighbors whom we’re supposed to be showing the testimony of God’s love to.
Listen to what Alan F. Jackson says. He says, “How many churches today stand at this same crossroads? Do we sense the importance to Christ of not only honoring his name by our true confession, but also reflecting his life by our loving relationship to others?” I think this is a really important challenge for us to wrestle with because Jesus warns us that in times of persecution, our love can grow cold. And he says that the sign of believers is that we’re going to show love to each other, that we’re going to love him and follow him. We’re hoping that the world is going to come to know Jesus.
How’s it going to happen? Well, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that power of the Holy Spirit, how does he reveal himself? How does he reveal the gospel to the world? He reveals it by showing God’s love. We need to make sure our love doesn’t grow cold.
We think, but, but I have to defend, I have to stand up for what is right. And there was this time and things seemed to be so much better in the past. But were they? Were we really standing firm in those times? Sure, there were many people who seemed to be expanding God’s kingdom even a few decades ago in the United States, and it felt like we were going out and being a beacon to the world. But so often, were we really being a beacon to the world for God’s kingdom or were we being a beacon to the world for our kingdom, for our nation? Were we expanding those who knew the freedom that we get in Christ or those who knew the freedom we get from political freedom?
Now don’t get me wrong, political freedom is a wonderful thing. Democracy and republics are a wonderful thing. So much of what made the United States is good, but we can’t reverse the order. We need to see the freedoms that we have enjoyed as blessings from God, but keep our focus on God. Otherwise, our love grows cold.
The Ephesians appeared to be so focused on fighting the false teachers like they were supposed to, they’d forgotten that they were supposed to love God and love their neighbor. And that’s our challenge today as we find ourselves wanting to get enmeshed in culture wars and somehow proving ourselves right and making sure to defend ourselves.
Are we really defending the honor of Jesus? Understanding that love is centered to honoring Jesus. It’s not a matter of compromising truth or compromising love. To stand up for the truth is to stand up for love. The two are inseparable.
You see, so often we think about when the going gets tough and it feels like it’s getting tough right now. The tough need to get going. The tough need to stand up. And that often ends up really meaning we stand up for ourselves. Whatever makes us comfortable. Whatever makes us happy. We grow weary and irritable. We start to become blind to our own failings and the failings of our churches and the failings of the Christian witness across our nation and across the world. We feel aggrieved. We feel victimized. Look at those people who are mean to us.
Beware of someone who’s always just talking about how other people are being mean to him or her and how they’re being valiant for God because they’re doing what? They’re turning the focus on themselves. Look at those who instead go out and fight the good fight, not because they want the spotlight on themselves, because they know the spotlight needs to be on Jesus. And they know that even if they suffer, even if they pay ultimately the ultimate price and die, they’re not really paying the ultimate price because Jesus has paid it for them.
Sometimes we overlook the things that are going wrong in our churches and in our communities and in our world because we think somehow we’re defending the greater good. We’re somehow defending a greater good of making sure we’re strong, that we can have our representation. What does Jesus call us to do? He calls us to hold on to our first love, which is to love God and to love our neighbor, to actually do as he has done, to follow him.
How do we make sense of this persecution? What is God doing? Why is he allowing it? He’s doing it to refine us. He’s allowing it to refine us. Because as I mentioned, those times where it often feels like everything’s going smoothly and it’s essentially a golden age, what do we often find? We do find that spiritual flabbiness, that weakness of the faith, where what it really is is that most people are simply going through the motions because it makes life easy. Going through the motions because it’s culturally acceptable.
What happens when it’s no longer a benefit to being in our culture to claim the name of Jesus? What happens for many Christians who live in areas where they actually could lose their lives today for claiming the name of Jesus? It separates out the waste, just like harvesting wheat and putting it on the threshing floor and getting rid of all the waste and only having the pure wheat that you actually want left.
John Calvin turned to that picture that we see over and over again in scripture and said, that is what happens in the midst of this persecution. I think he’s exactly right. When was he writing that? Was he writing that in 21st century America? No. He was writing that in 16th century Europe with the heart of Christendom all around him because he knew that persecution happened when you actually don’t just have the cultural signs but you stand for what is true. Those who continue in the midst of persecution are those who are truly faithful.
And yet we need to have this warning constantly in our heads so that even as those who are faithfully, if we claim the name of Jesus, that not only that we would remain because Jesus promises not to let us go, but that we’d be vigilant not to grow cold, not to be lukewarm, but to be instead those who point clearly every single day in the testimony of our lives to our Savior.
When does persecution happen? It often happens when we’re most fruitful. For example, take a look at this picture here. I’d like to introduce you to my little dogwood. The problem is you probably are struggling to even find the little dogwood in this picture because I planted this little dogwood and he started to sprout up and had all kinds of nice leaves. And what happened? Well, some creature came out of the woods and ate off all the leaves. And then this poor little dogwood, because this dogwood wants to be faithful, this dogwood wants to live, this dogwood wants to do what it was made to do, sprouted more leaves. And on Saturday I was so excited there were more leaves on this little twig that had been eaten down to almost the ground. And then what did I find yesterday? Those leaves were gone too.
Now if you’re just a dry stick, you’re not going to get eaten. You’re not of interest. When do the things in the woods come out, the animals, and they munch on a nice little dogwood? It’s when it has nice fresh sprouts that are tender and tasty. When do people persecute the church? It’s when we’re bearing fruit, when we’re actually doing what God calls us to do. Because when we’re doing what God calls us to do, it’s challenging the people around us, challenging them to confront the question of the gospel and whether it’s true and whether they actually need to follow Jesus too. And so persecution increases.
It’s no coincidence that faithfulness and persecution go hand in hand. Jesus is saying to us, discomfort isn’t a sign of the kingdom failing. We might think that. We might look at our society now and think, there’s more and more persecution. There’s more and more opposition. What’s happening? Is the church failing? Is Jesus going to get back in time? What are we going to do? How bad is it going to get? But instead, what we need to see is that when we face discomfort, and it’s not self-inflicted discomfort. It’s not us being nasty to other people, and so they’re nasty to us. But when we’re genuinely being persecuted for standing firm for the truth and showing God’s love in the midst of it, we need to hear what Jesus is saying. Discomfort isn’t a sign the kingdom is failing. Discomfort is a sign that the kingdom is thriving, is growing.
Because the greater God’s kingdom grows, the greater the kingdom of this world’s opposition to it is going to grow as well, until the day that Jesus finally puts that to rest. Our persecution in the midst of that is designed by Satan to wrest us away from faithfulness to Jesus. Just like false teaching leads us astray and draws us from God’s word, so too persecution draws us away because we think this is too difficult, this is too painful. But to stand for the truth, to stand for what God has called us to do, is going to involve suffering.
Listen to what Jesus says again. He says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed through the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” But listen to what he says over in the gospel of Mark as he expands on this. He says, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake, but the ones who endure to the end will be saved.” It’s that threshing, it’s that removal of the waste.
Yes, there’s going to be suffering as we testify to the truth, but the gospel is going to be heard. All nations will hear the gospel in the midst of that. In fact, the suffering is in some sense the sign that the gospel is being heard, and God will use that to help other people to hear.
What happened when the disciples went and suffered for the gospel? What happened when the disciples said, we can live comfortable lives doing what we always did before Jesus came, but instead we’re going to go and we’re going to oppose the most powerful empire in the world, not by trying to overthrow it and gain political fortune, but by proclaiming the name of the one who died at the hands of the empire, but rose again?
What were they doing? They’re saying, I’m okay with dying because I know there’s something more important at stake. I’m okay with dying. I’m not going to focus on advancing my cause. I’m going to focus on advancing God’s kingdom because I know that’s what really matters.
What happened when people saw that? When they saw the full power of the world turn against the disciples, people saw that and saw the Holy Spirit at work, saw the church expanding in the midst of that, and they wanted to know more about the Savior that would motivate people to do that.
Think about my little dogwood. And if you’ve ever had a plant that’s gone through animals eating it, and you’re trying to tend to it and protect it and somehow get it to survive, and you see it seemingly trying harder and harder to survive in the midst of that, what do you do? You probably pay closer attention to it.
When a plant’s growing well, it’s easy to forget about it. It’s easy to just take it for granted. But when you see that little seedling trying so hard, it means something. You want to see it go through. I planted a number of dogwood, but the one that I find myself paying attention to at the moment most is that little one that’s struggling.
When the world sees us struggle, when the world sees us oppose, but we stand firm because we believe what Jesus has said, they have to confront the question of who Jesus is and whether they should follow him too.
We have to ask ourselves a question. Why would I subject myself to suffering? Why wouldn’t I just answer that call from the kingdom of the world and have it easier? It’s because Jesus is going to return. There will be a reversal. This is not the final answer. Yes, there’s suffering in the moment. Yes, if the church is being faithful, it is going to be persecuted, but that’s not the last word.
Take a look at verse 29. Jesus says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
What do we see in that picture? We see several really important things for us to remember when we feel persecuted. And if things get tougher, and it would appear by all standards that we can judge at the moment that things will get tougher, God could cause a revival here, but if our society continues to move away, we will find ourselves, if we choose to hang on to God’s word, if we choose to confess the name of Jesus, that things will get tougher.
What do we see here that’s important to remember? First, worldly powers will fail, and they will fall. It’s no secret that Jesus picked the symbols that he did in describing when the end would come.
What did he do when he talked about the sun and the moon and the stars falling? He picked things that people in that society worshipped. Many of the Gentiles thought the gods were those things that he was describing, and they would fall because everything, whether it’s a spiritual force opposed to God or just an earthly force opposed to God, all of them will fall.
Jesus will be totally triumphant, and so the persecution of this moment is not the last word. What do we see described in this passage? There is mourning going on, but it’s not the mourning of the persecuted Christians facing the suffering that’s happening, but rather the mourning of those who have chosen not to follow, those who have rejected Jesus and ultimately fail.
So that’s our call tonight, as we ask that question, why should I endure suffering right now? Why would I want to suffer as he has suffered? Why follow a suffering savior? It’s because knowing the future, we know that that future is a future of his glory and our joy in the midst of that glory as we are in his presence.
And so if you have been following Jesus, let that be your encouragement tonight. If you feel discouraged, if you wonder what’s going on, Jesus will be totally, unquestionably victorious. He actually already is, but we will see the fruit of that.
And if you’re hearing this and thinking, well, I haven’t yet decided to follow Jesus as my Lord and why in the world would I want to? Yes, follow Jesus and suffer doesn’t sound like a very good motto.
What do we see? We see that he goes with us. We see that his spirit is with us. It’s not about us doing it in our own strength. It’s not about the tough getting going when the going gets tough. It’s about the weak turning to Jesus when the going gets tough, because that’s what we are. But he is not weak. He is strong. And he invites us into his presence tonight.
Would you join me in prayer? Father, it’s hard to be strong. In fact, if we really peer inside ourselves, realize that we are not strong. We are the weak. We are those who fall short. We are those who face persecution and just want to defend ourselves and circle the wagons and lash out, find a way to somehow protect ourselves, maybe flee our testimony entirely because it sounds easier.
We know in our own strength we cannot stand firm. And so indeed, many who do confess you will fall away, have fallen away when life gets tough because they’re trying to stand firm on their own power. Lord, let us not do that. Let us instead stand on your power. Let us not see us going out courageously into battle to show our strength, but rather us being those who are weak but somehow to show your love because you are strong, that yours is the battle and yours is the victory.
You invite us into it to be your family. Lord, I pray that each one of us tonight would know the peace and the joy that comes from knowing that. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Wow, that’s a hard topic, isn’t it? We need to be prepared. We need to be strengthened by God’s word that we can face these things. And so I hope you’ll join me again next week. Next week we’re going to be talking about preparedness, what that looks like. And I hope that you’ll be here for that.
It’s so important that we constantly are being prepared by God’s word. Please invite a friend, share this video if it’s been a help to you, give it a like. You can help us to get the word out. You can help us to be those who proclaim the love of God and help each other to be better prepared in all circumstances of life for what comes.
Is there any way I can be praying for you this week? Maybe you’re going through persecution right now. Maybe you feel like people are opposing you and you really need prayer. Or you’re just going through a hard time in life, an illness, whatever. Feel free to shoot me an email at the email address on screen or leave a prayer request in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you. If there’s any other way I can be a blessing to you this week, I’d love to hear from you as well.
So I hope you have a wonderful and blessed week and I look forward to seeing you again next week.
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