“And when you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be alarmed, because these things need to place first, but the end will not be immediately. Then he said Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences and there shall be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things shall take hold, and persecute you, and will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and ye shall be brought before kings and governors for My name’s sake. And this I will be an opportunity to bear witness “(Luke 21:9-13).

Lord, open our spiritual sense to be alert to the signs of your coming. Help us to see with your eyes, help us to communicate to as many as we can in the end times, and the urgency of your coming.

1. The persecution of the church is true today. In some places it’s disguised by actions and regulations of the authorities. In other is the lack of religious equality, in others it is some kind of public restrictions against Christianity. In some places open, overwhelming, murderous, aggressive, and fatal. In the past five years have been more martyrs for Christianity than in all the two thousand years earlier. Let’s open our eyes, Jesus warned us!

• “But before all these things shall take hold, and persecute you, and will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and ye shall be brought before kings and governors because of my name. And this I will be an opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12-13).
• “These things I have spoken to that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
• “Little children, ye are of God and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
  

2. The passage of 12-13 began by saying “But before all these things.” What you mentioned before in verses 9-11 is imminent reality today. Just listen to a newscast and make us aware that we are living today all this. Let’s open our eyes, Jesus warned us!

• “And when you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be alarmed, because these things need to place first, but the end will not be immediately. Then he said Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences and there shall be fearful sights and great signs from heaven “(Luke 21:9-11).
• “Who is he that condemns? Is Christ that died, more even, which has also risen, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation , or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all the time, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord “(Romans 8:34-39).

3. Given these two realities (persecution of the church and alarming developments worldwide) there is only one consequence: The church must witness! Time to get out of our churches, it is time to open our homes, it’s time to tell the world that has “ears to hear” the signals before the Second Coming of Jesus are being fulfilled. Let’s open our eyes to “the sign of His coming” (a single signal. Let’s open our mouth to proclaim Jesus, He asked us!

• “And this I will be an opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:9-13).
• “But you shall receive power when you come upon the Holy Spirit, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
• “And we are witnesses of these things, and also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32).
• “What you heard from me among many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be able to teach others also” (1 Timothy 2:2).

Blessings,

Christian Sarmiento