Luke 21:5-38
“And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls,” Luke 21:13-19.
In our last study, the concluding point that we made was:—
FROM IMMEDIATELY AFTER CHRIST’S ASCENSION UNTIL HIS RETURN, HIS PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED AT THE HANDS OF AN ANTAGONISTIC AND HOSTILE WORLD!
As is stated in verse 12, before the events of the later times of the Saviour’s absence from us, there will come persecution. “But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you . . .”
In truth, there never has been a time when the persecuting of the people of God was not taking place.
Yes, there have been times of comparative quiet, when God’s people were unmolested. But other times the flames of cruel hatred have raged hot.
Stephen
Stephen, the first martyr of the Gospel era, asked this question of the Sanhedrin, before which he had been summoned to give an answer to the charges laid against him by the “Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia,” Acts 6:9:
“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers,” Acts 7:52.
That question makes it clear that the message of God and His messengers have always been opposed, even unto death.
Here, in verse 12, the Saviour warns His disciples that such a spirit of antagonism will continue throughout the intervening years before His return in glory.
We come now to a new section – verses 13-19.
I. SUCH TIMES OF OPPRESSION BECOME OPPORTUNITIES TO WITNESS.
“And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”
The persecution of the saints of God has ever presented to them a platform which otherwise they would not have had!
Who would ever have heard of the ‘Two Margarets’, had they not been persecuted and cruelly drowned by wicked men.
‘On 11 May 1685, Margaret Wilson and Margaret MacLauchlan were drowned in the Solway Firth at Wigtown for attending conventicles and refusing to take the oath against James Renwick’s Apologetical Declaration. Growing up, Margaret Wilson (18), and her brother and sister had often had to hide from government troops because they wouldn’t go to hear the Episcopal ministers. One day, however, Margaret and her sister Agnes (13) were finally caught. Their father managed to get his younger daughter released, but he couldn’t save Margaret. She was to be drowned with an older woman, Margaret McLaughlin. The soldiers tied them both to wooden stakes in the water. The younger Margaret was tied nearer to the shore so would see the older woman die first and be persuaded to give up her beliefs – so she wouldn’t die as well. As the older woman was drowning, the soldiers asked the younger Margaret what she thought of her now. Margaret Wilson replied “I see Christ wrestling there”. Then, just when she herself was about to drown, the soldiers lifted up her head and asked her to pray for the king. She answered “God save him if he will, for it is his salvation I desire”. However when they asked her take the oath, she said “I will not, I am one of Christ’s children, let me go”. The soldiers then pushed her head down under the water again until she died. Just before she died, Margaret had sung from Psalm 25:
My sins and faults of youth do thou, O Lord, forget:
After thy mercy think on me, and for thy goodness great.
God good and upright is: the way he’ll sinners show.
The meek in judgment he will guide, and make his path to know.
The two Margarets are just two of many, many people who paid the ultimate price because of their love for the Lord Jesus Christ.’
The cost of loving Christ.
The outcome of the confrontation between Stephen and his Jewish accusers, mentioned earlier, is recorded in Acts 6:10.“And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.”
So it has ever been!
Paul
Paul was to be told by Ananias of the persecution he would encounter in his service for God. “But the Lord said unto him, (Ananias) Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake,” Acts 9:15-16.
This was in keeping with what the Saviour here in our study chapter foretold His servants (verse 12), that they would be “brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.”
Record
We still have Paul’s words of witness before such as the elders of Israel (Acts 22 – 23) Felix, governor of Judea (Acts 24) Festus, the successor of Felix as procurator of Judea (Acts 25) and also King Agrippa II (Acts 25:22), son of the evil Agrippa of Acts 12. Paul appealed to the ‘High Court’ of Augustus Caesar, in order to escape the perverted justice that awaited him in Jerusalem at the hands of the Sanhedrin (Acts 25:9-10).
We have no inspired record of his appearing before Caesar, but secular records indicate he did boldly witness before the Nero before he was martyred about AD 67.
Wise Boldness
The Free Presbyterian Church experienced something of that boldness in the times of blessing in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I well recall the joy and delight amongst us as we listened to the interviews given by Dr Paisley to the press, radio and television, in which he totally confounded his ecumenical critics.
The Protestant Reformation, and the times that followed, also evidenced God giving great wisdom to His servants the reformers their successors whereby the greatest expositions of Gospel theology since the days of the apostles, have come down to us in their writings. Those were unsurpassed times of theological exposition and few later writers ever matched those the learning and sageness of those tomes!
II. SUCH TIMES OF PERSECUTION SEE ALSO GRAVE BETRAYAL.
1. While grace in times of opposition to God and His Word, gives courage to His people, the same spirit of bitterness makes cowards and malefactors of those who should know and do what is right and not join the enemies of God!
“And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”
This hatred is but a repeat of the spirit of Calvary! Was there ever a denying and a forsaking of the Saviour by those nearest and dearest to Him like that which happened at the cross? “But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled,” Matthew 26:56.
But even worse, as the bearer of our sins, the Lord Jesus was forsaken of His Father!
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46.
That we shall never experience, Christian. We have the Saviour’s promise: “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5.
2. Here is a promise of an indomitable ability to answer our enemies. “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist,” Luke 21:15.
The apostolic days witness such confounding of the enemies.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus,” Acts 4:13.
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness,” Acts 4:31
3. Here is the explanation for the glorious writings of the Reformers the Puritans and the Covenanters. It was an intellectualism born of grace and not of any natural human intelligence. There was undoubtedly that evidenced amongst the leading enemies of the Gospel in those days, but their abilities and learning were clouded and darkened by man’s natural depravity.
Consequently, even the humblest and untutored of those brought before the courts of the persecutors were able to so speak as to confound the so-called ‘learned’ accusers.
As it was in the days of Christ, when “No man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions,” Matthew 22:46, so it was in those days of holy conflict.
I might add that I believe that it will be so again in the approaching days of Anti-Christian tribulation.
III. THE SAVIOUR PROCLAIMS A WONDERFUL PROMISE OF PROTECTION.
“But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.”
1. That is, without the permission of God, the enemy shall not be able to harm us. The ability of the Saviour to preserve us from the hatred of the chief of our adversaries, the devil, is seen in the book of Job.
“And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. . . And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life,” Job 1:12, 2:6.
2. This is echoed in the New Testament.
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,” Luke 22:31-32.
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,”
1 Corinthians 10:13.
3. That “way of escape” has not been made for all those tried and tested by the devil and his agents. Peter was rescued and restored that he might be a means of strengthening his brethren.
But many others have not been divinely delivered! No, it has pleased God in His infinite wisdom to permit the enemy to slay the saints.
That will be seen very much in the future troubles which are ever drawing on.
“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them,” Daniel 7:21.
Revelation 13 tells us that the Antichrist, prophesied by Daniel, will be permitted to act against the saints of God.
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations,” Revelation 13:5-7.
Please note the phrase: “there was given unto him . . .” That is, he was divinely permitted to so act!
We must never forget –
IV. ‘GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE!’
1. Furthermore, the death of the saints has ever advanced the Gospel cause. I believe it was Tertullian who said: ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!’ That is, the persecution and death of Christians actually strengthens and expands the Church, as their sacrifice inspires new believers and demonstrates the power of their faith.
We are still inspired and strengthened by the grace and courage shown by those martyrs in the times of ‘Bloody Mary’ for we have in many books, the record of their trials and testimony, even amongst the flames.
Who can forget the famous words spoken by the English Protestant martyr, Hugh Latimer, to his fellow martyr Nicholas Ridley just before they were burned at the stake on October 16, 1555, in Oxford, in the reign of Queen Mary I?
‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.’ These words symbolise the faith sparking and sustaining the Reformation in our land.
Perseverance
The Saviour’s exhortation: “In your patience possess ye your souls” is a persuasion to patient perseverance and continuance , a holding on to and a possessing of our belief in Christ’s word and doctrine in the certain hope that His cause will triumph in the end!
2. A great reward awaits such faithfulness. That is everywhere stated. No place more clearly than in the Saviour’s letter to the church in Smyrna
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” Revelation 2:10.
There is a crown placed upon the head of the faithful by the hand of Christ. It is there forever!
There is a saying from the writings of William Shakespeare, ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.’ A brief reading of the profusion of nauseous news reports about the intrigues, rumpuses, fall-outs and free-for-alls within the present Royal family, is evidence enough of the truth of the saying!
The crown will one day pass from Charles III’s head for earthy kingship is but a brief experience.
Not so royal and heavenly kingship! That is a reign which last for ever and ever!
The future for the overcoming Christian is gloriously bright!
With this we close this study.
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 22:1-5.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
3rd January 2026
To be continued.