Some will die.

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.

Luke 21:16

Throw a fish symbol under these words and print it on a T-shirt! I’m sure it will be quite popular - NOT. Yes these are the red letter words of Jesus, as true as John 14:6. Imagine sitting among His disciples and the crowd gathered around Him at the temple and Jesus dropped the mic after delivering this truth bomb! I can just see the nervous glances around the crowd, and then hear the slight murmurs as one by one people slip quietly away from this uncomfortable sermon. Jesus painted a life vastly different than what they thought following this Rabbi would bring.

Jesus was right to issue this prophetic reality check. That same generation in that very moment with Jesus would eventually find that even family was not safe when it comes to who hates Jesus. And all the disciples gathered around Jesus at that moment in the temple would be persecuted before they died. They would all die hated men, despised for having been with Jesus and having the audacity to proclaim His gospel. No one would escape it. The world is not a safe place for kingdom gospel mercenaries! It never has been and never will be until Jesus judges all people.

I am not shocked that cultures in this world system actively oppose the gospel. Christians are born again with targets on their backs. Jesus said it would be this way, people! I am not shocked then that Christian faith is mocked, hated, and actively opposed. It will be. This is the fatal flaw of Christendom theology… the man-centered, program-oriented false teaching that Christians will infiltrate society and turn it godly by their own power. Jesus said the response of the world will be to kill us. And that is what we should expect. I marvel instead that Jesus saves and strengthens souls that once hated Him. Case in point: the apostle Paul! By the way, every convert to Christianity is someone who once actively opposed God. I rejoice that living for Him means death to self and a life so rewarding, so new, so clearly eternal in perspective that death now is nothing compared to the life that goes on in Jesus.

Throw a target under these words and print it on a T-shirt. And then live for Jesus and let it be known that He is Lord and Savior to a lost world.