Hello Church,
I trust that you are well on this snowy Wednesday! I am continuing to pray for you and trust that we can all be back together soon:)
In this series entitled “What Happens Next?”, I have examined a number of end time signs that are mentioned in Scripture leading up to the return of Christ. We have spoken about “lawlessness”, “deception”, “false christs”, war, famines, pestilences and earthquakes.
This week, I am continuing the study of Matthew 24 by looking at verse 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
One of the signs that Jesus says will increase and intensify as we approach His return is a persecution of His followers. For the disciples that heard these words that day this was “old news” because Jesus had spoken many times about them being hated and persecuted by the world.
There are many opinions, because of unprecedented conditions/regulations that have affected the church relating to the virus, as to whether we are presently experiencing persecution. I did a word study of verse 9 above in order to discover the exact meaning of what this persecution detailed by Jesus was referring to. My rendition of the study looks like this: “You will be treacherously betrayed and given into the hands of authorities who will wear you down and crush your spirit with the intent of killing you; spiritually and physically. You will be pursued with hatred and detested by the unbelieving world because of your faith in Jesus Christ.”
I think you would agree that we are not presently experiencing that kind of persecution while many Christians in our world are. At the same time, we are beginning to experience some of the early warning signs of hostility towards our faith that Jesus says will bring us into full-blown persecution.
Which begs the question: Are we going to be able to stand when persecution comes? Will we be able to stand like Peter and the apostles did in Acts 5 when they were openly flogged and imprisoned for their faith?
Join us at church on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or go to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and click on livestream; for the ninth part of this series entitled: “Persecution and the Gospel”.
Take heart and be blessed!
Pastor Kevin