Today’s passage: Luke 21:10-28
Helpful thoughts:
- Being brought before kings in persecution is an opportunity.
- “For my name’s sake” is a reminder that when Christians are persecuted, the One the persecutors really hate is Christ.
- Those who truly believe in Jesus “will not perish, but have eternal life.” In the time of persecution, God will give us grace to persevere, to bear up under the load.
- The phrase, “Not a hair of your head will perish” should not be understood to mean that nothing bad will happen to us. Temporal bad things can and will. But our eternal life in Christ will only be expressed more beautifully in the face of persecution.
- Jesus is not going to return after everything gets good enough for Him to come back. They will get worse and worse, like increasing labor pains (Matthew 24:7-8).
- Jerusalem was “desolated” in A.D. 70 by the Romans.
- We are still in the “time of the Gentiles” and will be until Christ returns.
- There will be no mistaking when Christ truly returns. The glory that it will bring is worthy of our close attention and hopeful expectation.
Questions to consider:
- A desire for things to get “better” is completely natural. How do we sometimes err in our definition of “better”? When will things truly be better and who will bring that about?
- How does our faith in the return of Christ give us strength and hope to persevere/endure during the midst of hardship in this life?
- Why does the true Christian shine the light of Christ in persecution? What desires rule the hearts of true Christians, and non-Christians, that come to the surface in their actions during attack?