Divine Protection

The Persecution Foretold in Luke 21

Please turn to Luke chapter 21. That can be found on page 881. Luke 21, when you have that, go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word. I'll begin in verse 10.

Then he said to them,.

Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be great earthquakes.

And in various places famines and pestilences and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 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 namesake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore 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.

You'll be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you they will put to death. You'll be hated by all for my namesake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this preparation that you have given us that we might be able to endure all that is brought our way. We ask that we would hold tight to the promises you give.

Persecution as the Normal Christian Experience

That not one of our hairs will perish. We pray that we would be secure in Christ Jesus. Trusting him alone for our salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. So we continue this passage here. It is primarily about the persecution that believers will face.

Believers will face various persecutions as the world goes onward. Jesus telling his disciples what will take place before the end, both before the destruction of the temple as well as before his own return at the end of time.

And yet these are things that will go on at all times as we have said. These statements about earthquakes, wars, famines, pestilences, these are all things that take place at all times. Now while there will be great persecution immediately before the end, it's also the case that persecution is something that simply always characterizes the life of the believer.

Jesus said, blessed are the persecuted. In fact, there is no hope of blessing apart from persecution because the one who is united to Christ is not just united to him in his life but also united to him in his death.

And as we carry our cross, walking in his footsteps, suffering with him, not the wrath that he suffered from the Father, being perfectly spared that, but suffering the difficulties in this life, being united to our Savior, we will undergo much and we must be ready for it.

And Christ gives us these words in order to prepare us for such things. The text that we are looking at particularly today begins in verse 16. It says you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends and some of you they will put to death.

Describes all kinds of persecutions even from those who are closest to them. And that this will be all the way even to death. If my kids, Dorian and Wick, if you all could sit down, maybe please pay attention to them, thanks.

Sorry, they are without a mother at the moment. They will face this all the way even to death. And that is a difficult thing that they must be prepared for. It goes on and it says in verse 17, you will be hated by all for my namesake but not a hair of your head will perish.

By your endurance you will gain your lives. As we continue looking through the book of Acts and we see the various persecution the disciples face, the followers of Christ that they face, we see different kinds and different results.

Some people are spared death. You see Paul suffering for the sake of Christ, suffers shipwrecks and his life spared. He is stoned and left for dead and yet his life is spared. But then others you see go all the way to death.

Stephen committing his life into the hands of God as he goes into his final moments. Now some people have taken this passage and given interpretations that I do not think are very obvious but are trying to deal with some of the difficulties here.

They say things like, well this is just saying that most of the disciples will have their lives spared. Or that this is saying that the disciples will not face any more harm than God intends. I think that all of this misunderstands the comfort that is supposed to be provided here.

This is the case for every single disciple no matter how difficult the thing that they will face is. It's not merely saying that God will not allow them to suffer more than he intends. It is truly saying that they will not suffer any real, any ultimate harm.

He tells them in one breath that some of them will die yet none of them will die. And he means both things when he says it. So often in scripture people will see these paradoxical statements that are stated and come up with some kind of mediating truth when polar things are said.

But that's really never what is meant. Maybe someone could give me an example and I'd change the way I'd phrase that just then. But in all the examples I can think of, the poles are meant to be embraced at the same time.

Both some of them will die and none of them will die. And that is simply meant in two different senses. It's not the case that, oh really we're supposed to understand somewhere in between those two truths.

Both of those are true. They will, some of them will die yet not a hair of their head will perish. By their endurance they will gain their lives. God will care for the life of the believer even in death.

In fact, it is through that death that they will have their lives. It is through that death that you, as you live your life for Jesus Christ, if you are one who is truly trusted in him, will have your life.

Disciples of Christ will be hated by the world. Consider the way Christ phrased this statement here. You'll be hated by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. Now he could have just said relatives and friends, right?

Brothers and parents are already included there. But he spells this out into four parts to emphasize just how complete this hatred will be against the disciples. It's brothers, it's sisters, it's parents, it's fathers, it's mothers, et cetera.

All these will hate you. Friends even. Jesus has said this before in the Gospel of Luke. And he's stated this in such a way to let you know it's not just distant relatives, it's even close households that will be turned against each other.

And speaking of these households, he says in Luke 12, 53, they will be divided, father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

Now, Jesus says very directly at certain points that these will be homes turned against each other within. Yet notice what's being said there. I've been, there are several times that I've taught on this passage and I've been asked the question, why doesn't it talk about sons-in-laws, sons-in-law?

Why does it only talk about daughters-in-law? And we were recently going through this in family worship and I got the same question I've gotten a few other times. Well, think about the way households are structured, especially if you're structuring them traditionally or the way it's been through most of human history.

There is a movement, even though in Genesis, it describes the man leaving his father and mother to hold fast to his wife, there's this general trajectory of the man continuing in his father's house, maybe not particularly in his physical residence, the building, but being part of his general household or home, rather, right?

Jacob, when he is away from his father's house, he longs to be with his father's house. Christ goes to make a place in his father's house for his bride. You see in Psalm 45 that it describes the woman that she is supposed to forget her father's house and the king will adore her beauty, all those things.

And here, what it's describing is the typical household where it would not be sons-in-laws, it'd be daughters-in-law because the daughters are the ones who join with that house. So that phrase, if you've heard that phrase and thought it's just talking about general extended family, it's describing the picture of a household by omitting sons-in-law when it describes daughters-in-law.

And not sons-in-law.

It will be all kinds of the closest people to you. It will even be those who are ostensibly believers. In Matthew, the parallel passage there, Matthew says, and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

What does that talk about? Talking about when it says fall away, it's talking about apostasy, it's talking about falling away from the faith and betraying one another, turning against one another. This is something that you will face.

It's not just those who are out and out against Christ, it is those who are ostensibly for Christ. There are false churches out there, first of all, but even within true churches, there are false professors of Christ and they will turn against true professors of Christ.

And Jesus says that this will be all. He says, you will be hated by all for my name's sake. Now we know that in practice, there's a range of dispositions towards Christianity, but I do not think that this is an exaggeration to say that all will hate those who are followers of Christ.

1 John 3 .13 says, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. It is the world, everyone who is in the world lacks the love that is necessary to love the brothers. The whole reason that we have a capacity to love the brothers is because we are brothers.

Otherwise, there is no capacity for brotherly love and I would say even beyond that, no capacity for love in general. The lovelessness that the Bible describes of the one who does not truly know Christ is evident when 1 John 4 .8 says that God is love.

The whole point of that passage is that you can tell who true believers are by their love for one another because God himself is love, that he fills them with love. The one who does not know God, therefore, does not have love.

Now, you will find affection in the world. You will find an outward sort of affection, but the kind of love that is able to give of itself without a concern for self-preservation that does not have a fear of death in the truest form can only be found among believers because it is only believers who have been set free from that fear of death.

Now, once again, I acknowledge that you will see all sorts of shape of affection. You will even see people in a very outward sense laying down their lives for loved ones who do not know Christ. Yet, what the Bible says about love is that there is a love that runs deeper than this that can only be known by having the love of God as it is known in Jesus Christ.

And so, true believers will be hated by all. This is in part because there is a lawlessness that occasionally at different times and especially as we head toward the end increases. Now, I don't want to suggest to you that this is a constant increase throughout human history.

That's the way that many people describe it. You can look back at many points in human history that have been far more lawless than the times that we are experiencing right now. Yet, it is the case that as you get towards the very end before Christ returns that there will be much lawlessness.

And there are lots of ways that you can tell there is more lawlessness in at least certain ways than some previous generations have faced. Matthew 24, 12 says, and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Why does lawlessness lead to a lack of love? Well, you have to engage in self-protection when there is a lawlessness. It's about everything changes when there is lawlessness. You can't trust people and generally act with good intention, but because of lawlessness, you act primarily out of self-preservation.

I remember when I was in college, the first time I went to a gas station and I had to pay before I pumped the gas. Some of you are young enough, you don't remember this, but you used to be able to pump your gas and then go pay for it.

You can't do that anymore because lawlessness has increased. There's not that general sense of goodwill. I read recently that McDonald's is going to be stopping the self-serve drinks. It's the same thing.

Lawlessness increases. There's just not a general trust of one another and so there's going to be an increase of turning on one another as well, especially if there's not a loyalty to a higher king, to Jesus Christ.

Now, there's also not just an increased lawlessness that accomplishes this, but also an increased lovelessness among those who do not know Christ. I already mentioned that God is love. Titus 3 .3 says, "'For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, "'led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, "'passing our days in malice and envy, "'hated by others and hating one another.'".

One of the things that people find difficult about reading the Bible is believing the things it says about the heart. People want to read the outside, not believe what it says about the heart and you could even find some passages that you could use insincerely to justify such things.

You know, 1 Corinthians 13, love thinks the best. Therefore, how can we say of all these people that they are spending their days in envy and malice? But this is the case of every single person who does not know Jesus Christ, that apart from knowing him, they do not know true love.

Maybe you're one who does not know Christ and you would say, well, that doesn't, that's not how I would characterize myself. I think I'm a very loving person. There will always be a root of self-preservation if you need to be the one who is in charge of your life.

Consider this passage. Not one hair of their head will perish. If that is true of you, you are free to love others in a way that no other can love. If that's not true of you, if you have to be protecting your hairs, if you have to be protecting your own life, and you are responsible to, no one can abandon that duty, you will not be able to love.

But if that duty is taken care of for you, you can lay it down whenever you are called to, no problem. No problem for the one who is enabled by Jesus Christ. Then there is also an implicit judgment, an implicit condemnation that exists when unbelievers are around believers.

That because of the righteousness of believers, unbelievers clearly stand condemned. Why is it that those who are engaged in all kinds of worldly behavior do not like being around someone who is godly?

It is because they feel threatened. That person might not be doing anything to him, to them, but they feel threatened because they feel that sense of condemnation. They are able to live in the darkness, but a little bit of light comes around them, and they feel like a cockroach that has to flee because they feel that sense of condemnation as the light of God exposes their unrighteousness.

That's what John 3 .20 says. The darkness hates the light. It runs from the light. It flees from the light. Hebrews 11 .7 says that by faith, Noah condemned the world, that in his righteousness building the ark, that can also be described as condemning the world because in his act of building that ark, he's showing the world's wickedness.

In that act of righteousness, he's showing wickedness. And 1 John 3 makes this very evident. Right next to describing do not be surprised if the world hates you, it explains why Cain hated Abel. Why did he hate Abel?

It's because Abel's deeds were righteous and Cain's were wicked. That's very simple. The wicked will always hate the righteous. And that's true. The more wicked you are and the more righteous the one you're around is.

This is going to be the case in more in those extremes. When you see it in less in the extremes, it won't be as pronounced, but it is still there. You will be hated by all. And this is necessary because the servant is not greater than his master.

Jesus Christ faced all kinds of persecution. He was hated by the world. If you are going to be a servant of him, do not think that you could be greater than Jesus Christ. A lot of people are trying to live like that.

They're trying to live greater than Jesus Christ. It's interesting how many people, many spokespersons for Christianity and I can't see all their hearts, but many of them speak in such a way where they really want to be seen as reasonable by the world.

They do not just defend the faith showing the truth thereof, but they often speak in such a way where they will downplay Christian truths and even undersell them or say them in less clear ways so that they sound like they are very reasonable people.

What is that but an attitude that at least in a little part says maybe I'm greater than Jesus Christ and do not have to face the same kind of persecution. Just abandon that. You are not greater than him.

If he's faced persecution, then you should likewise face persecution. It's not something to run from, it's something to embrace. Now last week, one of the points that I covered was the fact that we are not permitted to run to persecution ourselves.

So on those occasions when God brings us persecution, it is to be embraced as an opportunity to bear witness. It's what Christ says in the previous passage. Believers will be hated. You will be hated by all.

And then the instrument that is used against believers is described as being primarily the government, ruling authorities. Who is it that has the most ability to kill, the most ability to do actual real physical harm?

The answer is the one who wields a sword. Who is the one who wields the sword? It is the government, ruling authorities. Now these are people who ought to be defending those who are righteous, and often do defend those who are righteous.

God has set up ruling authorities as his ministers of vengeance to avenge those who have had wrongs committed against them. And so that exists for that purpose, but it is perverted and will often be perverted in order to accomplish ill against God's people, in order that they would be persecuted.

When it talks about synagogues and prisons in verse 12, it's talking about all kinds of authorities, both religious and civil. But in particular, the primary kind of persecution that it has in mind is that that is civil, that where the sword is wielded before kings and governors.

As I said, the government is to protect, but often that privilege of bearing the sword will be perverted against God's people. Now a lot of times, Christians will have the misguided idea that the goal of the government should be to advance the faith.

It should be to protect the faith, but do not confuse that with advancing the faith. If the government advances the faith, that's something like Islam. In Islam, the government advances their faith. That is not how it works in Christianity.

In Christianity, the government has the job that they will not always rightly do, but the job of protecting the righteous and protecting the faith, but not advancing. And in as much as Christians push for the advancement of Christianity through the government, by the government itself being the instrument of that advancement, essentially they equip the government for more persecution, right?

So for example, a lot of Christians get very excited when the government has some kind of mandate like that prayer must be had in public schools or that the Ten Commandments must be posted in public schools.

I think it's great for the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools. I think it's great for there to be prayers in schools, but the more that the government considers it truly their job to be advancing the faith, the more it is that when someone else is in control and does not have the right kind of faith, it will be used for the wrong purposes.

There's a huge difference between protecting and advancing. Now, I am all for advancing the faith through the protection that the government provides, but that's different than the government doing that work of advancing directly.

So if you are to face the persecution that the government would bring. Okay, so if you are to face the persecution that the government would bring in any capacity and do not think that this is only apocalyptic in times things, we've seen it here before.

It wasn't that long ago that the government was shutting down a lot of churches during COVID. Okay, this kind of thing has happened. How do you get through that? Well, the answer is you have to recognize that you serve a king that is greater than any authority on the earth.

When that happens, it's very easy to stand before these who are infinitesimal compared to Jesus Christ and boldly say that you serve a higher master. It's not something that even needs the slightest bit of tremor if you recognize how much greater Christ is than the ruling authorities that are below him.

Samuel Rutherford, one of the authors of the Westminster Confession wrote a book called Lex Rex. In it, he argued against the belief known as Raspianism. Raspianism is the idea that the king gets his authority directly from God.

If the king gets his authority directly from God, no one can question him. Okay, there's a lot that the king can do. Rutherford was arguing that the king gets his authority from God but indirectly through the people, that it's through the consent of the governed that the king has his authority.

He was charged with treason and asked to show up before the king. Now, he would have done so but he was on his deathbed when the message arrived at him and the response he gave was that he had been summoned to a higher court and he needed to appear there first.

I think that's a great way of thinking about our duties. We will appear before a higher court. The courts on this earth mean very little in comparison. They mean nothing in comparison. In fact, our testimony in those lower courts, being faithful to God and not to any ruler on this earth as an authority that could contend with him will be the very evidence that is used in that court that Christ may be vindicated and his people may be vindicated before the angels in heaven, before unbelievers.

These are the very things that he will use. You serve a higher master. You will be called before a greater court than any of the courts on this earth. The other important thing to recognize here is that everyone who faces persecution, every disciple will have his life.

Of course, it is necessary to define what life is. If you think of life as simply that physical well-being that you're used to calling life, then you will not think that this is true. Jesus is on one hand saying that you could lose the very same thing that he's saying you will have.

This is not what Jesus is saying. He's saying it in different senses. Okay, this temporary, temporal life that you have on this earth, that will be lost, but you'll be resurrected. You will have both physical well-being and spiritual well-being on that final day.

Do not think that you will avoid difficulty in this life. Everybody, even unbelievers, will die, should the Lord tarry. Do not try to hold onto your physical well-being because the life that Christ is giving is one that's much more than that, okay?

It is a spiritual well-being that continues no matter what physical kind of condition you are in, through the grave, even in your death, and then even into the resurrection. This is the life that he is describing.

And this must characterize believers in every age. This is not something that is just for those who were there right before Jerusalem was sacked. It is not just there for those who faced persecution right before Christ returns.

It is for every single believer. Every single believer will face these difficulties and needs to think about life in this way. Luke 17 .33 says, "'Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, "'but whoever loses his life will keep it.'".

That was Luke 17 .33. These are things that Jesus has already covered at this point. And what this likewise demonstrates is God's care for his people. It would be easy to see that when his people are destroyed, when his people are defeated in outward ways, that he does not care about them in the same way.

That's one of the points that 2 Corinthians is making as we're going through it. Paul's being shipwrecked, he's being beaten. Maybe God isn't as interested in Paul as God isn't interested in the super apostles.

And Paul's point is, no, that's not how it works. God's care for his people extends beyond those outward conditions. If you are used to getting angry at God or questioning him when you face various trials in your life and you say, God, why is it that you would permit this to happen to me?

Don't you care about me? Or maybe you wouldn't say, don't you care about me? Because you know he does technically. But your whole attitude suggests that you doubt that truth. He cares about you, not one hair of your head.

And earlier in Luke 21, or excuse me, in Luke 12, in Luke 12, seven, it said, "'Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. "'Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.'". So when he talks about the hairs of their head not perishing, he's calling back to something that he said earlier, that every single hair of your head is numbered.

God cares about you. Now, of course, people lose their hair in this life. This is not talking about 100 physical, this earth reality. It is talking about physical reality in the next life. And it's talking about a spiritual reality now.

Your well-being, in the ways it actually matters, are kept perfectly, such that any experience that you have, where you would be tempted to say that this is a sign that God does not care, cannot be interpreted that way.

You are not interpreting his providence rightly if your heart is tugged towards complaint. Okay, anytime you grumble, anytime you complain, anytime you aren't joyfully going about the commands that God has given, or the calling in life that he has given you, it is because you have this idea in your heart that maybe it is the case that God does not care about you the way that he ought to.

But God is perfectly wise, and he's perfectly capable in all his providence, and he upholds his disciples perfectly so that they lack nothing, absolutely nothing in his provision. Psalm 116, verse 15 says, "'Precious in the sight of the Lord "'is the death of his saints.'".

He does not give up his people as though it's nothing. Okay, when his believers suffer in any capacity, whether it be their very life in suffering death, or whether it be simply torments and difficulties that they experience in his life, because they are his people, because they are his children, he does not take that lightly.

When you experience difficult things, that's not him failing to pay attention, and you kind of walked into that, and then he might fix it up after the fact. Every single one of those things, he cared about so much that he determined, this is the only way that what I need to accomplish in this person's life, and the way I want this person to be a brilliant light shining that they must face.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Do not be tempted to think otherwise. The suffering that you experience as one who trusts in Jesus Christ is not something that means very little to him.

It means a complete amount to him. You are valued, not because of your own inherent worth, but because you are united to Jesus Christ. How much does he care about his son? He does not lack any kind of love for his son.

He loves his son perfectly, and as he loves his son perfectly, so he loves you perfectly. When he sent his own son to die on the cross, that was not him lacking love for his son. When he permitted his son to undergo all kinds of persecutions, that was not him lacking any kind of care for his son or not being on watch.

Rather, he did all that so that every knee may bow, so that Christ would be exalted over all. When he permits you to undergo various trials, and especially persecutions, it's so that you, in being united to Christ, would have the appropriate exaltation.

You, if you suffer with him, also being glorified with him, being a co-heir with him, as it describes in Romans chapter eight. If Christ is perfectly loved by the Father and underwent all those things because of the Father's love, not in spite of the Father's love, but because of the Father's love for him, it is true of you as well, that you undergo those things, you who trust in Jesus Christ, you undergo those things not in spite of God's love, but because of his love, in order that you might experience the fullness of the joy he has prepared for you, which we don't even fully understand at this point.

But we know, at least, that involves union with Christ in his resurrection, suffering with him in order that we might also be resurrected with him. Now, this comes by endurance. This life comes by endurance.

Endurance, Grace, and the Purpose of Suffering

He says at the end of this, by your endurance, you will gain your lives. Now, many people really struggle to say things like this, because it is an important truth that our right standing with God comes on the basis of God's grace alone, through faith alone.

And so to say that by our endurance we'll gain our life, it may sound like you're saying that our right standing with God comes through our works. These are not at odds, these are both true, and we can say them both.

It is important to be able to say that by our endurance, that includes works that God has called us to, by our endurance we will gain our lives. Let me read a couple of verses, or a few passages. Hebrews 6, 11 through 12 says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Okay, so the author of Hebrews desires that they not be sluggish, desires that they would have the earnestness and the full assurance of hope until the end, that they would be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, right?

Through patience, patience is describing endurance. Hebrews 10, 35 to 39, therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

You have need of endurance. You have need of endurance. The call throughout the book of Hebrews is to endure. God calls us to endure, and it is by enduring that we gain our lives. Now, how can those be held at the same time?

First of all, consider what it's not saying. It's not saying that that endurance, that work that God has called us to in suffering for his sake is meritorious. It's not something where we're earning our place.

It's also not the righteousness by, it's not just a dis, it's not, it's also just not disproportionate, right? That's what a lot of people would think. It's, oh, it's a small righteousness that God is counting as a lot of righteousness, or maybe it's a non-righteousness that God is counting as righteousness.

That's not the idea either, because Christ is our righteousness. Okay, it's also not saying that this is something that we get from ourselves. Couple more verses. 1 Peter 1 .5, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So it's by God's power that we're being guarded. Jude 24 and 25, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, et cetera.

It's talking about God preserving us. Okay, so these things do not come from ourselves. So these can be held in unity because we're talking about different things here. We're not talking about a right standing with God.

We're talking about the means that God would use to have us ready for that final state. There is a holiness that is needed. There is a glory of him shining through us that is his intention in redeeming a people.

If he didn't have intentions for any of that, he wouldn't have redeemed a people or he at least wouldn't have put us in this, he wouldn't have permitted the fall to have happened such that we would need redemption, but his goal was to display his glory through redemption.

Right, he also could have just taken us away the second anyone believes. The second anyone believes, maybe he would make their life very short, but he has it otherwise. Usually people believe on the early end of their life in order that he might display his work through them and accomplish his purposes through them.

So yes, we have right standing with God through God's or by God's grace alone and all of this, even sanctification is by God's grace alone is through faith alone, but then everything else that we would experience, all those means necessary in order for us to stand before God in the way that he would have us to stand before him.

Him, Christ and his people being vindicated before the unbeliever requires a righteous activity. And so that is necessary for us to endure. Okay, so this is not for our right standing with him, but it is necessary in order for God's purposes in salvation to be accomplished.

Now, there are all kinds of reasons that he would have us pursue holiness before that final day. There's all kinds of reasons that we would suffer persecution before that final day, but the one that seems to be the most emphasized here is simply the glory of God, that this is necessary in order to show his glory, that our glory must be stripped away bare in order for his glory to be revealed.

That's Paul's point in second Corinthians. He is an earthen jar, so that God's glory shines forth most clearly, that he is the strongest when he is the weakest, et cetera. His glory being stripped away in order that God's glory might shine.