The Christian life is a life of great tribulation.

You may be wondering, “Why would the whole Christian life be called that? Doesn’t persecution come and go, depending on what country you’re in and who’s running the government and whether there are protections for religious freedom and whether the culture upholds Christian values?”

No.

When the world rejected Christ–through the religious and political leaders and all the people putting Jesus to death on the cross—it was not because the world was confused or made a mistake or because there was a misunderstanding. The world is always hostile to the gospel. Christ was the first preacher of the gospel. The gospel is the message of who Christ is and what he does. Christ handed on the gospel message to his apostles, and then to us. Wherever that message is faithfully preached in this present age, the world will make sure that the one who preaches it will pay the price.  

“But wait!” you may be thinking. “Revelation 7 says that we are ‘sealed’! So that means we Christians are kept safe from trouble! The modern evangelist told me that God wants me to have a joyful and peaceful life!”

And indeed, beginning in the mid-19^th century, a man named John Darby began to teach that the Great Tribulation would happen at the end of history and last for 3 and a half years, and that Christians would get taken up to heaven before it happened. This is the idea of the “rapture”.  Darby’s ideas have become popular with some groups of Christians, because of course people want to believe that God will spare them from big suffering if they believe in Jesus!

But God doesn’t seal Christians in order to protect us from suffering. God seals Christians in order to protect us in the midst of suffering.

So what are we being protected from?

From denying our testimony of who Christ is and what he does. Because that’s what the world hates. Despite what you may have been taught, the world doesn’t hate Christians. The world doesn’t even hate “Christian values”. What the world hates—and has always hated, and will always hate is the gospel—the faithful testimony of who Christ is and what he does. And the world will do anything to silence that message.   

We can understand what faithful Christians always have to endure in every generation when we read Revelation 7:16-17. Here, as John is seeing the Christians after they have made it through the Great Tribulation, one of the elders says to him:

Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Notice it says “never again”, meaning “In this present age, Christians will face hunger; and will experience thirst; and will be scorched by the heat; and will thirst; and will certainly cry many tears.”

If you want to see a really good example of what it means for Christians to be “sealed”, look at the story of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:  

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth”…If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.

We are “sealed” in order to be able to accomplish our purpose of testifying faithfully to the hostile world. Nothing can stop us from making the testimony Christ has appointed us to make! But after our work is complete, we can expect to pay the price.

So you may be thinking, “Well, where is the good news in that?”

And if you have been following Jesus because you were told he could bring you a joyful and peaceful life in this world—a life of prosperity and freedom from suffering—then this is bad news indeed.

But if that’s why you have been following Jesus, then what you were taught wasn’t the gospel.  

The true Christian life is a life of great tribulation in this present age. From the moment we are sealed in baptism we are called to stand and testify to who Christ is and what he does. As we do this, Christ shakes the whole creation around us, as he opens seal after seal in order to bring the present age to an end.

And we get shaken along with the whole creation. Christ warns us that when we are sealed with his seal, we will face hunger, thirst, rejection, the division of our own families, and even our death. 

But that seal, which you received at your baptism, is his promise that although everything else will be shaken and ultimately destroyed (which it will—he promised that, too), we are bound to him. And because of that, we will be able to stand through the Great Tribulation.