Power In Persecution; Luke 21:12-15

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 5/18/2025. As Jesus continues His "Discourse on the Things to Come", He sets His focus on the persecution His disciples (and thereby the church) will face in the Gospel Age. This will come both at the hands of the Jews and the Gentiles and continue until He returns. But after specifying some of the forms this persecution will take, He stuns His disciples by revealing that persecution in weakness will be one of their greatest opportunities to bear witness of Him, and that they need not even prepare for their defense. We will analyze what He means by "bear witness" and ponder why He would instruct His church to deny their primal instinct of self-preservation for His name's sake. We will find that true spiritual strength comes in our weakness, because when we are weak in ourselves, His power is manifest in us. And that even though it seems "upside down" the church will flourish and grow because of the power in persecution.