The Scriptures teach a simple prophetic framework that encourages us to fulfill the Great Commission: to make disciples of all nations in this age. We’re making incremental progress toward the goal of discovering that framework. Our starting point is the Olivet Discourse, where a simple, understandable conversation occurs. Jesus says that no stone in the temple would remain intact (Matt 24:1–2). In response, the disciples ask when this event would occur and the signs that would precede it.
The Lord answers the sign question first (Matt 24:4–31). I have divided his signs into three groups: (1) preliminary signs (Matt 24:4–14), (2) a later sign (Matt 24:15–26), and (3) immediate signs that pertain to the temple’s fall (Matt 24:27–31).
I call the first set of signs preliminary because Jesus said they would not mean the temple was about to fall, ending the Mosaic age. He said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6).
Jesus makes an obvious progression as he gives these preliminary signs, first listing four general signs. I discussed these signs here and here. Now Jesus turns from general signs that might characterize any period to those that would affect the disciples and their work before the temple’s fall. Jesus reminds the disciples that their transition-period ministry would be “a witness to all the nations” (Matt 24:14). The three signs he gives relate to that mission: (1) persecution, (2) widespread apostasy, and (3) an accomplishment that must precede the end of the Mosaic age.
I will discuss the first of these here.
Persecution
Jesus’ first ministry-related sign is empire-wide persecution: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matt 24:9).1
The Jews were the primary agents of this persecution, but the Gentiles also persecuted the disciples throughout the Roman Empire during the transition period. Luke’s account of this persecution sign shows these two agents: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the [Jewish] synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before [Gentile] kings and rulers for My name’s sake” (Luke 21:12).
The New Testament contains several references to the Jews persecuting the disciples. Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had sent the disciples “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” to tell them “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 10:5–7). Some received the disciples but most rejected the message and the messengers. The disciples had been like “sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt 10:16). Even at that early date, Jesus had warned the disciples: “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles” (Matt 10:18). And Jesus had told the disciples that they would “not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes (Gk. erchomai)” (Matt 10:23). The Jews opposed the gospel of the kingdom in Jesus’ lifetime; they would continue to do so until the temple fell.
Jesus emphasized this continuing persecution just hours before giving the Olivet Discourse.2 He had charged the scribes and Pharisees as the sons of those who had killed the Old Testament prophets. Their former sins had partially filled the bowl of God’s wrath; now, Jesus said, they would fill up that bowl by persecuting the disciples during the transition period. God would then judge Israel and leave their house (i.e., the temple) desolate (Matt 23:29–38). Jesus had this persecution in the age-transition period to the temple’s fall.
The New Testament shows the fulfillment of this persecution sign. The Jews had synagogues in almost every nation, and they opposed the disciples wherever they preached the fantastic news of the coming kingdom age. In Jerusalem, they put the disciples in prison (Acts 4:2–3; 12:5), beat them (Acts 5:40–41), stoned them (Acts 7:59), and killed them with swords (Acts 12:2). Later, when the disciples went to other parts of the empire, the Jews followed them. In Iconium, “the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren” (Acts 14:2). At Lystra, “Jews from Antioch and Iconium … persuaded the multitudes” to stone Paul (Acts 14:19).
The disciples wrote letters during the transition period that mention this Jewish persecution. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is one example:
You, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thess 2:14–16)
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus warned about these sufferings to prepare his disciples for what lay ahead. He wanted them to recognize that God intended to end the Mosaic age and establish the messianic age through their sufferings during the transition period. They learned the lesson; they understood that they “must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22) before the temple’s fall.
The Jews had persecuted the prophets and were about to kill the Lord Jesus; they would fill up the cup of God’s wrath against them by persecuting the disciples before the end of the Mosaic age (see Matt 23:32). That is why Paul says: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church” (Col 1:24). Christ’s atonement on the cross was not lacking anything; it accomplished all that God meant for it to achieve. Paul said the Mosaic-to-messianic age transition would not be complete until the Jews finished persecuting the disciples. Then, God would destroy the temple, leaving the church as the messianic-age temple where Jesus’ parousia (presence) lives. Paul knew the reason for his suffering as a minister of Christ.
Conclusion
Jesus linked his persecution sign to the temple’s fall, which was His subject in the Olivet Discourse; this sign has nothing to do with events at the end of history.
We should not think that persecution is an unchanging characteristic of the messianic age. After the church fulfills the Great Commission by making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18–20), persecution will be minimized. The nations that will serve God will not persecute His people (Psa 72:11).
Footnotes
- The image in this post is Christian Dirce by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843–1902). The file is here and is in the public domain (PD-US).
- Archibald Thomas Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ (New York: Harper, 1922), 169.
