Beginning Of Pains (Persecution & Preaching) - Mark 13:9-13 Series

Mark 13:9 "You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Insight About Persecution

Last time we talked about using spiritual insight when we deal with false teachers and when we’re surrounded by disasters. Those are two of the three monsters that hinder our mission of preaching the gospel to the nations. But there’s a third monster threatening us, and Jesus calls us to use spiritual in-sight in dealing with that one as well.

9 You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the syna-gogues.

What does that mean—be on your guard? Is he saying, “Hide in the bushes so you don’t get ar-rested”? No. Jesus doesn’t say anything about avoiding it. He says you will be arrested, therefore be on your guard. So what does that mean? Get a really good lawyer? No. That whole phrase—you must be on your guard—is one word in the Greek. Blepo. When you’re arrested and put on trial, blepo. Read the situation with spiritual insight. When they slap the cuffs on you, don’t you dare just look at those cuffs with physical eyes. See them for what they are.

What are they? When you get arrested for preaching the gospel, and you look down at your hand-cuffs with spiritual eyes, what do you see? You see a golden opportunity to reach the power centers of this world with the gospel. It’s your ticket to preach the gospel to the system from within the system.

You’ve heard of speaking truth to power? The problem with speaking truth to power is usually power isn’t listening to you. I can go out in my front yard and say, “President Biden, you should take care of the border crisis and stop spending so much!” I might get a few things off my chest, but the President will never hear those words. The people in power don’t care what you have to say, they don’t know who you are, they aren’t interested in listening to you … until you appear before them in court. Then they ask you to speak.

When You Are Mistreated

I do believe that this portion of the sermon primarily has reference to the Apostles in the years leading up to 70 A.D.

9 You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the syna-gogues.

I’ve never been arrested or had a chance to present the gospel to governors and kings, and I’ve never been flogged in a synagogue. And only the tiniest percentage of Christians have. But the Apos-tles—that was their life. That’s basically the whole story of the book of Acts. Remember, Acts is the Holy Spirit’s history book on the period between Jesus and 70 A.D. So it tells us what’s important about that period, and Mark 13:9 is basically a 2-sentence summary of the book of Acts. The disciples being handed over to the local councils? That happens to Peter and John in ch.4 … and again in 5,6, 22,23, and 24. Flogged by the Jews? That happens in ch.5—and again in ch.16 and again in ch.22. Standing before the authorities and testifying to Christ—a constant theme in Acts. (More on that in a bit) Chapters 4,5,6,12,16,18,22,24, and 25 all show the Apostles being persecuted and preaching the gospel before governors and kings and bringing the gospel to the nations. What Jesus said would hap-pen is exactly what happened. And the Apostles did exactly what Jesus taught them to do.

I think that’s the main idea, but there’s still application for us. You probably won’t stand trial be-fore a king, but you might get called into your boss’s office. Or for that matter, you might just find yourself standing before a coworker, having to give an explanation for why you work so hard and make everyone else look bad, or why you never swear.

Preachers make a mistake when they say things like, “Living in America, none of us have any idea what persecution is about.” Then they go on to tell the most gruesome stories of torture in other coun-tries. That’s not how Jesus talked about persecution—like only the most extreme forms really count. When Jesus talked about persecution, he said things like, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” In Jesus’ mind, insults count as persecution. All true Christians will be persecuted, but most of us won’t be tortured and killed for our faith. For most Christians, it’s just insults and maybe some unfair treatment here and there. That counts as persecution, and everything the Bible says about persecution applies to those forms.