Tribulation

The Way of the Cross

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To follow Jesus requires a lifetime of self-denial and sacrificial service for others and a willingness to lose everything for the Gospel.

When Jesus dispatched his disciples to announce the “Good News” to the “lost sheep of Israel,” he warned that they would find themselves as “sheep among wolves.” Hostile men would haul them before “councils and whip them in their synagogues,” and they would be hated “by all men for my sake.” That was the harsh reality Christ’s disciples discovered when they proclaimed his message to the world.

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Tribulation vs Wrath

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The terms “tribulation” and “wrath” are NOT synonymous in Paul’s letters or the Book of Revelation. “Tribulation” is what the disciples of Jesus endure for his sake. “Wrath” is the horrific fate that awaits the wicked at the final judgment. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes that God did not appoint them to “wrath.” Yet, in the same letter, he states that believers are appointed to “tribulation.”

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Disciples & Tribulation

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The New Testament exhorts followers of Jesus to expect tribulation because of their faith. While it may not be an everyday experience in the life of the church, neither is tribulation for the kingdom unexpected. And the chief cause of tribulation and persecution in the life of the disciple is his or her faithful witness of the life and teachings of Christ.

And this understanding is especially prominent in the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 7, for example, John saw countless followers of the “Lamb” exiting the “great tribulation” after persevering through it.

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THE FAITHFUL WITNESS

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Jesus is the Faithful Witness who summons his disciples to emulate his example by themselves bearing faithful witness in a hostile world.

Two themes are repeated in the book of Revelation – “witness” and “overcoming,” and they are closely related. Beginning with Jesus and his own witness in his death, his followers must persevere in his “testimony,” and in this way, they “overcome” and one day will emerge victorious in the city of “New Jerusalem.” They are called to “overcome, even as I overcame.”

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THE COMING STORM

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The New Testament warns of a future apostasy caused by deceivers that will precede the day of the Lord.

The New Testament warns repeatedly and consistently that before Jesus arrives at the end of the age the church will find itself under assault from within by deceivers. And before the “day of the Lord” comes, his disciples will be confronted by the “man of lawlessness,” a figure linked inextricably to the coming “apostasy.”

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