ARE YOU PREPARED TO SUFFER FOR CHRIST?

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“Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)

Paul understood up front at the start of his ministry that suffering came with the assignment.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (Philippians 3:10)

Now well into his ministry, Paul understood that there was a knowledge of God and intimacy with him that can only be obtained by, “participation in his sufferings.” It is difficult to comprehend, but true, that those who have not suffered with Yeshua are missing out on intimate knowledge of our Lord. Obviously, we don’t go out looking to suffer for Jesus, but it is obvious that we should not try and avoid suffering for Him, if we do, we will miss out on an intimacy with Yeshua that brings us closer to Him and makes us more like Him.

This understanding is crucial as we draw closer to the last seven years before Jesus return, the 70th week of Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy. It is a time of tribulation, escalating to great tribulation as Jesus opens the seven seals on The Scroll.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Matthew 24:9-10

Just as Jesus refines the Jewish remnant in the last days as described in Zechariah.

“And it shall come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, “This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ” Zechariah 13:8-9

Likewise, Jesus will use tribulation, even great tribulation in the last six years prior to The Rapture to produce a meek and humble people that will trust Him implicitly. Sadly, as shown there will be a great falling away in the church, apostasy, Jesus also says, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Matthew 24:24

With the trumpet blast at the seventh seal, The Rapture takes place and simultaneously when The Scroll is opened God’s Wrath is poured out on an unbelieving world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements.

JESUS SAYS, CHRISTIANS WILL EXPERIENCE END TIMES TRIBULATION

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Jesus tells us what the signs will be of His coming and the end of the age in the Olivet Discourse – Matthew 24:3–14.

“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

“And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:3-14

Jesus links the great tribulation, persecution of God’s people with the abomination of desolation in verse 15 – “Therefore [οὖν, oun] when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)”  and its ensuing ramifications of the great tribulation, the only possible referent of the great tribulation that is linked with the inference of oun in the previous immediate context would be found in v. 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.” The martyrdom realised in this verse is coupled with all the other trials that Jesus mentions.

It has perplexed interpreters why the end of the age is mentioned in v. 14 before the abomination of desolation event. Now they should know why, because of that short three-letter conjunction oun that is so significant!

The events portrayed in Matt 24:9–14 do not occur throughout church history. Rather, they are a variety of trials that Christians will experience during Antichrist’s great tribulation.

This naturally is followed by Jesus’s return to Rapture His saints. Note it is after the tribulation: 

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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 His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31