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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:10-14
Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Mark 13:12-13
You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.
Luke 21:16-19
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
No one likes to be betrayed. At least no one I have ever met has.
Typically this disloyalty comes from someone close to the person victimized, someone close enough to be trusted. That’s what makes the unfaithful act so painful and hurtful. This is especially true when it comes within one’s own family.
Now, maybe you have never been stabbed in the back by someone who you considered trustworthy but as we see in today’s scriptures, widespread betrayal is going to break out just before the time of Jesus’ return. It will be a sign of His imminent return and we know it will happen because He told us so. Consider some of the betrayal scenes he paints and think about how you would feel if you were in the shoes of the one being betrayed:
In Mark’s Gospel, we learn that a brother will betray his own brother, even to the point of death. Luke adds sisters as well as other relatives. Both Mark and Luke tell us that even parents will get on the betrayal train and sell out their own children who will in turn model their parents bad behavior and rebel against them, even putting them to death. All this makes you wonder just who you will be able to trust, right?
But now move this beyond the family unit. Luke extends the betrayal possibilities to friends while Matthew is much less specific and just says that many will betray others. This speaks to the widespread nature of the treachery that will exist before Jesus comes back to earth.
It won’t be a pretty sight in regard to relationships and this would be terrible enough on its own to have to deal with but there will be more than just betrayal to worry about. We know this because Jesus shares one other major development that strikes at the very heart of how people will relate to one another.
For as we look back to the scriptures, we learn that there will be mass hatred between people as wickedness increases on the earth. The darkness of evil will sow seeds of extreme dislike between people and Jesus tells His followers that the “love of most will grow cold”. Let that sink in a minute and then imagine a world void of love, a world where hatred reigns supreme.
Is that a world you would want to live in?
I don’t know about you but I think it will just create an environment where Christians are going to be crying out for Jesus to return and make things new, something we know He will do because He said so and everything Jesus says He will do, He does.
So why will there be such widespread hatred?
Because the world will hate Jesus first and foremost, and therefore hate anyone who believes in Him.
Can you imagine such a scene?
I can because I think we’re starting to see signs already. More and more each year, it seems that little to no regard or respect is given to Christians, not to their right to worship, not to their right to believe in a Savior, not in their right to share the very Gospel Jesus commanded them to share. It’s seems tough now but trust me, Jesus assures us that it is going to get much worse before it gets better.
So what are Christ followers supposed to do with this as Jesus opens the window of the future to share a rather gloomy scene that will exist prior to His return?
Well, He answers that question for us. Look again at the exhortation He shares:
The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:13b-14
The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Mark 13:13
Not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life. Luke 21:18-19
Stand firm and do so to the end.
This is the command of Jesus for all His disciples. Don’t let betrayal or hatred deter you from the work at hand, the work of preaching the gospel to all the nations. For in the end, life wins and not just any life but everlasting life. In and through Christ, all those who place their trust in Him as Savior are saved and death no longer has any sting. In fact, death doesn’t even really happen. Rather, all Christ believers are simply made new and then gain a new residence within the new heaven and earth that will come to be after Jesus has returned.
It’s a classic good news, bad news story but Jesus wants us to remember that the good news will rule the day and this is because the gospel is the truest of all good news, a perfect good news grounded in complete and utter victory, life over death, everlasting life over the grave.
So yes, the signs leading up to Jesus’ second coming are harrowing and even scary. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, the hope they have in their Savior transcends and overcomes everything and anything that will happen.
Stay strong in Me, stay true to the calling I have given you, and trust in the deliverance that I have promised is coming.
This is what Jesus is telling us to do in the midst of circumstances that will be difficult. All we need to do is place our fullest confidence in the One who can do all things, the One through which all things are possible.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might
be blessed by it.
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