“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”1 In the Olivet Discourse the “main thing” is the Temple’s destruction. Jesus foretold it (Mark 13:1–2). The disciples asked two questions about it: when would “these things” happen and what would be their sign (Mark 13:3–4)? Jesus answered the questions in reverse order. He gave the sign in Mark 13:5–27 and the when in Mark 13:28–37. This is the “main thing” in this passage.
In our series on Mark 13 we have come to Jesus’s second group of signs. He said:
But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. (Mark 13:9–13)
We have seen (here) that these signs would not show “the end” of the Temple. They belonged to the beginning of Israel’s birth pains (Mark 13:8 ESV). Those pains resulted in “great tribulation” and, after that, the Temple’s fall in AD 70.
The preliminary signs in our current passage have a unifying characteristic—they all involve the persecution of those who heard Jesus speak. This post will consider the cause and purposes of this persecution.2
Cause of Persecution
Jesus said gospel preaching would bring this sign. “The gospel must first be preached” (Mark 13:10). Persecution would follow.
The apostles knew this. Paul, for example, said, “Let a man so consider us, as … stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1). He said, “I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men” (1 Cor 4:9).
The New Testament shows the fulfillment of this sign. William Hendriksen says,
From … [Acts 22:19] we learn that Saul (=Paul) of Tarsus caused believers in Christ to receive this horrible punishment. After his conversion he himself was going to be similarly tortured. He was going to write, “From the Jews five times I received forty lashes less one” (2 Cor. 11:24). It was the servant of the synagogue (“the attendant,” Luke 4:20) who was charged with the responsibility of delivering the blows.
As to “governors,” think of such procurators as Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus; as to “kings,” of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1) and of Agrippa II (Acts 25:13, 24, 26). Even Herod Antipas, who technically was not a king, is also given that title at times (Matt. 14:9; Mark 6:14). It was Pontius Pilate who sentenced Jesus to die on the cross, after he had sent him to “king” Herod Antipas (Mark 15:15; Luke 23:6–12). It was King Herod Agrippa I who killed James (son of Zebedee, and brother of the apostle John). See Acts 12:1. From Acts 25:13 it appears that Paul was brought before King Agrippa II and the procurator Festus.…
[So] details concerning its subsequent fulfilment are recorded in the book of Acts and in the epistles. See also Rev. 1:9; 2:8–11; 6:9–11; 12:6, 13–17; etc.3
Jesus warned the disciples that their gospel preaching would produce these sufferings. These preliminary signs would appear before the Temple fell.
Purpose of Persecution: Israel
Jesus revealed this sign would serve as a testimony to two groups. First, persecution for gospel preaching would be a testimony to apostate Israel (Mark 13:9). John Gill said this was a prophecy of “how [the disciples] came into the hands of the persecuting Jews.”4
Paul later wrote from this perspective. He told the Colossians, “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).
Paul was not adding to Christ’s work of atonement for sins. He was suffering so Israel could “fill up … the measure of [their] fathers’ guilt” (Matt 23:32).
Apostate Israel persecuted the apostles for preaching the gospel. Paul said they were “forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.” This served “to fill up the measure of their sins.” As a result, “wrath has come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess 2:16).
The apostles’ preaching and suffering served as a testimony to Israel before God destroyed their Temple.
Purpose of Persecution: the Nations
Second, this suffering would serve as a testimony to the nations. “The gospel must first be preached to all the nations” (Mark 13:10). Not until then would the Temple fall.
Jesus did not mean the disciples would fulfill the Great Commission before the Temple’s demise. The aim there would be to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19). Here, in the Olivet Discourse, the objective is to “preach as a witness to all the nations” (Matt 24:14).
The apostles fulfilled this witness-preaching sign. Paul told the Colossians “the gospel … has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit.” He spoke of “the gospel which you heard … was preached to every creature under heaven” (Col 1:5–6, 23).
The Apostle told the Romans about this fulfillment. He said the Romans’ faith was “spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom 1:8). “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Rom 10:18). And, “the mystery kept secret since the world began” had been “made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations” (Rom 16:25–26).
Persecution followed the apostles as they preached the gospel. This preaching and persecution served “as a testimony to the nations” before the Temple fell.
Conclusion
This persecution sign pertained to the disciples who heard the Olivet Discourse. It belonged to the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. The Temple’s fall completed the transition from the Mosaic age to the messianic age. This age transition required the apostles’ testimony to apostate Israel and the nations. They fulfilled this preliminary sign through suffering persecution.
This preliminary sign fits well into inmillennialism, our prophetic model.
Footnotes
- Stephen R. Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (New York: Free Press, 2004), 160.
- The image in this post is Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio (1571–1610). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
- William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark, NTC (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 519.
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 9 vols. (1809–1810; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 6:475.
