Watch Out! (Part 2)

Scripture Reading

Will you please open in your Bibles with me to the book of Mark. Mark chapter 13. As we turn to Mark chapter 13. By the way, that's on page 897. I have to confess to you that this morning, as I was going over my material and thinking about things, I told you last week this was going to be a four-part sermon, but I made no promises that it was going to stay that way. And for your sake, for the sake of the elect, and so that you wouldn't be punished too much, I cut the sermon in half. So we have five now, so next week we'll pick up. So this morning, we're gonna look at verses five through 13, but we're gonna read, sorry, five through, yeah, 13, but we're gonna read down to verse 23. Mark chapter 13. Hear now God's perfect word.

Then as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here? And Jesus answered and said to him, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now, as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? And Jesus, answering them, began to say, Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am He, and will deceive many.

But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled, for such things must happen. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. But watch out for yourselves, for they will devour you up to councils, or deliver you up to councils. And you will be beaten in the synagogues.

You will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

Prayer for Illumination

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we plead with you. Lord, we plead with you this morning that you would help us to understand. We need your Holy Spirit, Lord, to speak truth into our lives, to open our eyes and our ears. Lord, we pray most of all that you would help us, Lord. We need you at this hour, in Jesus' name, amen. This month, a Christian elder in China was put in jail. This month, a Christian in India was put into prison for his faith in Jesus Christ. This month, Boko Haram plotted against Christians in Nigeria. This month, the Lord's Church is under attack. And it was the month before that, and the month before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that. These words are true every generation.

Sermon

And so as we come to our passage this morning, Jesus is warning you, you need to watch out because this is not some esoteric knowledge about some future coming of Jesus that has no impact on your life today. We talked last time, we're going to go to school, and a little bit of review here, right? We talked last time that there's largely four different views of the Olivet Discourse. It's called the Olivet Discourse because Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, He's talking to His disciples, and there's four different interpretive views of this.

The first is a past tense view, right? A preterist view. Everything in here is just regarding the destruction of Jerusalem by 70 AD. The other view is a futurist view. This is everything here is somehow talking about things that will happen in the far distant when Jesus finally returns. And then there's another view that is some of this has happened and some of it is going to happen, so we need to take an exacto knife and figure out which ones are present and which ones are past and which ones are future. And then the fourth view is the both-and view.

That there's a double reference here, that it is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jesus says, not one stone shall not be thrown down, right? It's talking about Jerusalem, but it's also talking about Jesus coming again. I like to call that view, instead of both and, have your cake and eat it too. You're not going to find that in a commentary, that's Brian's notes.

But the main point of this passage, As we keep going through this, there are many people who want to come to the Olivet Discourse, and they want this to be all about apocalypse. They want it all to be about end times and the end of the world, and Jesus has things to say about that. But there's a key word that's repeated four different times. This is not an apocalypse, it's an exhortation to watch out.

Right now, almost every single, let's just say every translation so far that I've found, I can't find where they actually translate this the same way in each of these verses. But if you look at verse 5, it says, Jesus answered them and began to say, take heed. That's the word watch out, blepete, you all watch out. And then if you flip over to verse 9, But watch out for yourselves. So there they translate it that way. And then if we look down to verse 23 again, but take heed, that word take heed there is again, blephete, watch out. And then verse 33, take heed, watch out.

There it's mentioned twice. The exact same spelling, the exact same conjugation, the exact same verb, it's the exact same in each one of those four times it's mentioned. I don't know why translators want to translate the word one way, and then a different way, and then a different way, and then back to the first way. I don't know why they do that.

But what I need you to know is that every single time Jesus is telling his disciples, watch out, watch out, watch out, watch out. The end is going to come, but you all need to watch out. And so last time we got together, last week, we looked at the first watch out in verses 5 through 8. You need to watch out for false messiahs. They came before 70 A.D., they've come after 70 A.D., and false messiahs are going to come even in our day and into the future. You need to watch out because there's going to be wars, and there's going to be rumors of wars. This is not the end.

There was wars and rumors of wars before 70 A.D., after 70 A.D., and even now. By the way, 70 A.D. is when Jerusalem and the temple itself was finally torn down completely. Jesus told them, watch out, there's going to be earthquakes. There are records in the Roman writings of earthquakes before 70 A.D., but guess what there's also records of?

Earthquakes after 70 A.D. And I guarantee you somewhere in the world, I don't know if it's Japan or Asia or North America, somewhere in the next month there's going to be another earthquake. It happens all the time. It's not the end. He tells them, watch out, there are going to be famines and there are going to be troubles.

We talked about last time, at the destruction of Jerusalem, right? felt in a profound way. If you go read Josephus' War of the Jews, he talks about how Jerusalem is a walled city. Think of it largely as a square city, if you want. And the Romans surrounded that city with their troops. And for years, their practice of warfare was sieging. Which means cut off everything, getting in and going out of the city.

No food, no water, people drinking their own feces, killing their own babies and eating them for dinner. That's the type of famine that happened in 70 AD. But there have been famines since then. We don't have to think too hard in the distant past about famines that we've been alive through as you've seen pictures of starving children in Ethiopia. And there will be famines that will still come.

Jesus is very, very clear here, that when we hear these things, verse 7, do not be troubled, for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. It's not the end yet. These are signs, right? But they're not signs that the end is at hand, they're signs that the end isn't here. Many people will just gloss over that passage, that the end is not yet, and they'll interpret all of these, that the end is here.

You need to be careful of that. But as we come to our passage this morning, verse 9, Jesus gives us our second watch out. Verse 9. Watch out! for yourselves. And he goes on into three different parts of this watch out. Verses 9-13, they need to watch out because persecution is coming. And then in verses 14-20, he does warn them that Jerusalem is going to fall. And then finally in verses 21-23, he warns them again that there are going to be false Christs and false prophets. And so this morning, we're going to specifically look at verses 9 through 13 of that watching out for persecution.

Now, Calvin is really helpful as we jump into this passage, and we think about the disciples' question. We might not understand the Jewish thinking on this, but in verse 1, then as he went out of the temple, one of the disciples said to him, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here? And Jesus tells them, right?

I'm telling you, it's all going to be destroyed. That's what He says in verse 2. But then, four disciples, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, they come and they ask Him, tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? See, the disciples have one event in mind. The disciples think that if the temple is destroyed, then it must mean the end of the world.

Temple destroyed equals end of the age. Right? That's it. In a Jewish mindset, once the temple is there, if it's ever destroyed again, end of story. It must be the messianic age. So when Jesus says the temple will be destroyed, they think... Alright, into the world. Tell us when it's going to happen. We're ready for it, boss.

They think that this is when the reign of Christ is going to start. This in their mind is when they're finally going to be happy and when they're finally going to have triumph over all their enemies. So when Jesus is telling them the temple is going to end, in their mind it's a messianic age, we're going to have a ruler, we're going to be on top of the world. They want an immediate display of Christ's Kingdom, in which all the children of God are perfectly happy. When the world is instantly brought to order out of a state of confusion, they want an immediate reign of Christ.

They want the happiness and rest without the means of attaining that happiness and rest. They imagined victory without the pains of war, glory without the depths of suffering, salvation without the need for personal sacrifice. Calvin says they don't want to sow the seed but want to reap the harvest before the season even arrives. They're grasping for happiness which is laid up in heaven, which must be attained by faith and patience.

But they, in their mind, are saying, Jesus, we know it's now, so give it to us now. Tell us when the signs are going to be. And Jesus gives them a very unexpected answer. Here are the signs. There's going to be wars. It's not the end yet. There's going to be famines. But boys, it's not the end yet. There's going to be earthquake and suffering troubles. It's not yet. And when we get to verse 9, it's now, watch out. Because there's going to be persecution like you've never experienced. And even then, it's not yet come.

Who's Jesus talking to in this passage? When he says in verse 9, but watch out for yourselves, who is he talking to? Jesus is talking to the four disciples immediately in front of him. This is a discourse. There are real people who really ask Jesus this question. They're standing in front of him saying, tell us when these signs will be. And Jesus is looking at these four grown men and telling them what these signs are going to be. His initial audience is Peter, James, John, and Andrew. And what Jesus says in this passage, Every single one of them experienced.

They would be brought into the synagogues and publicly beaten and whipped. Open displays for disobedience and heresy. The disciples were brought before the Sanhedrin, both the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem as well as the Council of Elders in other cities. Jesus warns that they would appear on trial before rulers and kings to testify for Jesus' sake. Jesus told them that the gospel needed to be preached to all ethnoi.

We'll get to that in a minute. To all the nations is how it's translated here. I'm going to qualify that for a little bit. But they need not worry because the Holy Spirit would give them words to speak. Now, I need you to see that this did happen. We're going to take a little walk through the book of Acts. Turn with me to Acts chapter 4. Get your fingers ready, we got a lot of turning to do here. Acts chapter 4, verses 5 through 12.

And it came to pass on the next day that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in their midst, they asked, By what power and by what name have you done this? Peter and John have just told a man, Get up and walk. In the name of jesus and he did and here are the elders the high priests And they bring them into the midst of their meeting and they say by what name did you do this and notice what? verse 8 says then peter And it's like jesus knew what was going to happen then peter filled with the holy spirit said to them Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to this helpless man by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead by him this man stands before you whole they drag them into the midst of the Sanhedrin and They say by what name and power and authority are you doing this and they say oh you remember our Lord whom you crucified but God raised from the dead his name and his authority they get that they are testifying to the elders and Just turn over a page to Acts chapter 5 and we find it happening again.

Acts chapter 5 beginning at verse 17. Then the high priest rose up and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them into the common prison. They're handed over to the authorities. They're thrown into prison. Jesus had warned them about this.

They get out of prison. because the Lord is sovereign, and they go out and go keep preaching the gospel again. It's like Jesus knew what was going to happen. And then if we turn over to Acts chapter 8, it's like Jesus knew what was going to happen again. Acts chapter 8, beginning at verse 4.

Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Jesus knew that they needed to not just go to the Jewish people, but even go to the Samaritans. But then it's not just Samaritans.

Say in chapter 8 and go down to verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and went, and behold, who shows up? a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch. He hears the gospel and is saved and is baptized.

The gospel is going out to the nations. The reason why I said I want to put an asterisk next to nations is the word for nations in Greek is the word we get our word ethnicity from, ethnoi. So it's not just going to different nations, like go to Canada, go to the United States, go to Mexico, go to whatever country. No, it's people groups, language groups, ethnicities. And here now the Samaritans are believing, the Ethiopians are believing. But that doesn't mean it's going to go well. Acts chapter 9 beginning at verse 20. We find out that Jesus was right again. Immediately He preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

This is Paul, right? He's still referred to as Saul here. And how do the people respond? Are they happy? Then all who heard were amazed and said, that's not the one. Or is this not He who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that He might bring them bound to the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ." Now, after many days were passed, everybody loved Him, and they thought, this is great news. No, that's not what it says. The Jews plotted to kill Him. Why would that happen? Does that sound like the messianic age, like finally the triumph has come? No, it's the beginning of the messianic age. It's that the gospel is being preached. I'm not going to read all these passages to you, but you could go to Acts chapter 10 and you could find Cornelius. A Gentile of Gentiles believing in Jesus Christ and being saved, and them being filled with the Holy Spirit. You can go to Acts chapter 11, verses 19 through 25, and find the gospel being preached in Antioch, even though there would be persecution.

And then you can go over to Acts chapter 12, and the same James, who asked Jesus what these signs would be, and Jesus warned him that they would be handed over to death. Acts chapter 12 tells us that that James is killed by Herod himself. Acts chapter 12 verses 1 through 19. About that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

The Gospel would continue to go out. Acts chapter 13, 4-12, the Gospel takes sail and goes to Cyprus. And in Acts chapter 13, verses 4-12, we find something amazing happen there. They're sent by the Holy Spirit, they go to Cyprus, they preach the Word of God in the synagogue to the Jews. Now when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew named Bar-Jesus, who was with the pro-council Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.

This man called for Barnabas and Saul and brought to hear the word of God. Jesus has told them in Mark chapter 13, you're going to go and you're going to testify to governors and to kings. And here they are standing in front of the governor of the island, giving testimony of Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

It's like Jesus knew what was going to happen. You can just go through, I'd encourage you, if you've never just kind of read through the book of Acts before in one sitting, I'd encourage you, just read through the book of Acts in one time, and keep Mark chapter 13 in your mind, and see how Jesus fulfills a huge part of what He's saying is going to happen in Mark chapter 13, through the book of Acts. As we look at their lives, Through their missionary journeys, we find that the gospel is going to the nations by the apostles, and it's marked by the characteristics Jesus talks about.

Faith, persecution, and opportunities even to preach to those in power. Even King Agrippa would hear the gospel from Paul's mouth, and eventually Paul would testify, as the Church Fathers say, in Rome itself to Emperor Nero. Doesn't mean it always went well. Many of them were killed for that testimony.

Loyalty to Jesus, he makes it absolutely clear to them, is not going to be an easy road. Children will betray parents. Fathers will betray their children. Brothers and sisters, don't count on family loyalty. Jesus is absolutely clear that the gospel is going to be divisive.

And it's experienced by these four disciples in a powerful way in their lives. But then we've seen, even with the Apostle Paul, it's experienced by the other apostles. But we also know that Christians today and Christians in church history have experienced these same things. Stephen died preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.

Now, there's going to be those who are the preterists, who are the all-in-the-past type people who are going to say, well, if we go to some place like Colossians chapter 1, we're able to see that this has actually already happened. This is all past tense, we don't need to worry about this, right? There's certain people who will say that, and they'll point to places like Colossians chapter 1, verse 5.

I'm saying this to you because I want you to know there are people who say these things. And I need you to understand, people are going to say, look at this passage. Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, and has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. They'll pick up on that phrase, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world." And let's say, see, Paul thought he had preached the gospel to the whole world.

And so Mark 13 is all past tense. The problem is Jesus didn't say that in Mark 13. What did Jesus say? Let's look carefully. Mark 13, verse 10. And the gospel must first be preached to, does it say all the world? No. All the nations. To all the people groups. To everyone who might speak a different language and have a different culture, it has to go globally amongst everyone.

That's why Jesus gives them the commission in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, that they were to go and share the good news in Jerusalem, and then Judea, and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. It wasn't just going to be localized and past tense. It's interesting, I was...

Reading recently, there's a church father named Clement of Rome, and he's writing to the people in Corinth, and as he's writing to them in Corinth, he doesn't seem to have any indication that the end of the world has come. It's just not there. You can read through his letters, and he's writing in about 95 AD. So, after Jerusalem has fallen, and nowhere did they say, oh yeah, and Jesus already came back. There was a lightning from heaven, and the day of the Lord already appeared, and now we just live our lives. That's... No. No, the Great Commission goes beyond 70 AD. Jesus tells us to take the Gospel to all the people.

And so there is a historical persecution that happens in 70 AD. Christians really were hated in the first century. I mean, hated bad. Read the book of Acts, right? That's our primary source history. But then we don't have to move much further than 70 AD and we start finding that Christians are still hated. When we find the old man Polycarp brought before the Colosseum, And he's challenged to become disloyal to Jesus. And he says, my Lord has cared for me these eighty and five years, how now shall I turn my back on Him?

Polycarp didn't think that somehow the persecution would end. The Christians in 177 in Lyons definitely didn't believe the persecution was ending. When Emperor Decius came to power and the persecutions in the Roman Empire were still hot on the Christians' backs, they didn't think the day of the Lord had already come. When Valerian and Gallienus and especially Diocletian and their different persecutions in the 100s and 200s sought to try to stamp out the entire church, so much so that if you didn't make a sacrifice to the Emperor himself, And if any Roman centurion came to you and said, let me see your paperwork showing that you made this sacrifice. If you couldn't produce that paperwork, it meant that you were a traitor to the kingdom and you could be killed. None of those Christians thought that the end of the age had already come. Christians didn't believe that when the Muslim expansion happened, post 700 AD. Christians didn't believe that.

The Day of the Lord had already happened, when John Hus was burned at the stake, when William Tyndale was killed. Go down the list of the martyrs, when the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre happened in France, and French Protestants were tried to be wiped out, when our ancestors endured the killing times, were chased into the highlands of the hills of Scotland, and into the lowlands to go worship trying to escape the king's dragoons. They didn't think that somehow this persecution was unnormal, like the end of the world had already happened, and so this shouldn't be happening to them.

Every Christian in every century has understood, up until recently, that this is historical past and present now, and will be continuing in the future. Just go read Fox's book of martyrs. You can even pick up books today that are more easily readable. Go pick up DC Talk's Jesus Freaks and read about the persecution that happened in Soviet countries. It's barbaric. People put in cells, absolutely freezing cold. Put in Siberia for what? because the Marxists said that they believed in a fairy tale god.

I talk to international pastors quite regularly who get thrown into prison, mocked on the streets, spat in their face, run out of their hometowns, threaten that if you come back to this area we'll kill you. None of those pastors believe Jesus's words don't apply to them today. If you're a Christian in China now, it means that you're monitored, you can be evicted from your home, you can be fired from your job, you can be beaten, and you can be even expelled from your hometown. Christians in China don't look at this and go, oh, that must have happened in 70 AD.

It's an artificial reading of the passage. It was only partially fulfilled then as a shadow of what was going to come. Okay, I've been browbeating you a lot today. What does it mean for your life? What impact does this have for you today? But first, you need to watch out for easy Christianity. I need to warn you that there are forms of Christianity today that are the same type of things that the apostles were hoping Jesus would tell them. You could come to Jesus without suffering, You can believe in a God who doesn't demand holiness. You can serve a Lord who's not going to ever demand from you time or resources or put you in situations of persecution because God just wants the best for you.

He wants you to be healthy. He wants you to be happy. He wants you to be prosperous. It's a lie. You don't pick that up off the lips of Jesus from Mark chapter 13. You're going to be watching out for easy Christianity like that. Secondly, you need to be ready. Right, Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 3, I want to read that to you, and we're getting close to the end, so please don't fall asleep on me yet, but 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3, we get a commandment from the Lord. Beginning at verse 13.

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats nor trouble." Do you hear Jesus' words ringing in your ear? Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

And always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good, than for doing evil. You need to be ready for when this persecution might come, when people might defame you and say wicked and evil things about you. And you need to be ready to give a hope, a defense of the hope that you have in Jesus Christ.

I'm not talking about being so overly concerned. I remember talking to one guy, he was like, Brian, I just don't know the Bible that well. He was telling me, I can't share my faith with people because I don't have all the answers. That's exactly what Jesus is talking about here. You're not going to have all the answers. You're not supposed to have all the answers.

We live in a day and age where people think, like, you gotta have a stick, right? Like a gospel-tracked, kind of two-minute, you gotta be able to sell your elevator pitch on Jesus real fast. Guys, that's not how it works. Give a hope. Give a defense of the hope that you have with meekness and with gentleness. If you love Jesus Christ and you're put on the spot, you should be ready. to tell them of the one you love who has saved your soul. So know the good news and get the elevator pitch stuff out of your brain. Thirdly, what does this mean for you? Well, this is where I'm going to challenge some of you. Tell it to the nations.

If you're the type of person who's really, really worked up about end time stuff, and you're just like, man, I want to figure out when all this stuff is going to come, and I want to have all the millennium debates, and I want to do all of this, I would encourage you, if you really, really, really care about the millennium, go do a lot more evangelism than arguing. Because Jesus is the one who tells us that the kingdom will come when the nations are evangelized. I don't know which one of you has had your hearts tugged before about the idea of going on a missions trip or supporting the missionaries who are taking the gospel to the unreached people. There's a map on the back wall. There's a reason I put it up there with all the black countries on it. A huge portion of the world has never, ever heard the gospel, will never have a Bible in their hands, and they're dying without hope.

Maybe some of you, I don't know, maybe it's one of you children are going to be the next missionary who decides that you'll forsake mother and father, forsake what is good. I feel bad because for some of you kids, I need you to know that if you decide to go be a missionary, this might be your death warrant. It might be you saying, I'm willing to die for the kingdom.

But that's what Jesus has called us to here. I don't know, maybe one of you will be the day that you preach the gospel to the president or to a foreign king and bring revival in an entire country. Fourthly, this may be old hat and you might get bored of it week in and week out, but there's a reason we pray for the persecuted church. I'd encourage you, if you're one of those people who are on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, and you see the posts for the church that bring up, pray for the persecuted church. Some of those people are my friends, and they're all of our brothers and sisters, and they suffer as Jesus told them they're going to suffer. They need your prayers. Pray for the persecuted church.

And lastly, coming from verse 13, What does this mean for you? And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. By the way, just need to understand that doesn't mean you're gonna be hated because you're a jerk and obnoxious and people don't like you. Notice the key qualifier. By all for my name's sake. Persecution for Jesus is a lot different than persecuting because nobody likes to be around me. Make sure if it's a stumbling stone, the stumbling stone is Jesus. But here's the push for you.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Don't give up the faith. Endure with great patience the afflictions and trials in which you may endure. Do not deny Jesus Christ before men, but tell others of Jesus Christ. I want to be here today as this last word to just be your encourager. Many of you have been testifying of Jesus Christ for decades. Don't give up. Do not grow weary or tired, but walk firm and endure until the end. Don't give up. There is salvation. but we must be those who endure to the end to enjoy that kingdom.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have prepared us for hard truths in this life and in the kingdom. Father, we pray that we would be gospel ambassadors Lord, we pray that you would give us strength to endure and give us wisdom to speak. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to endure the persecution and to walk in contentment and confidence that you are our King and that you will come again. We pray these things in Jesus' name.