In less than a year, the disciples would be the leaders of the church. This chapter is a briefing for the trainee apostles. It would not be an easy job, supported by everybody. Deceivers would come and pretend to be the Messiah, and many people would believe the lie. It would be Satan's tactic to divert people from believing in the Lord Jesus, undermining the gospel and discrediting the church – three of his evil major objectives.
 
Disturbance would be part of the environment for every new church. While deceivers would unsettle the church from outside, believers would be tempted into wrong interpretations of every threat of war or news of natural disasters. They might think that Jesus would return and rescue them, diverting them from proclaiming the gospel to the frightened people around them.
 
Jesus described the difficult, painful and confusing circumstances which lay ahead as being like the labour pains of a pregnant woman. The duration would be unknown and the amount of pain could not be determined in advance; but there would be the joy of a new life (eternal life in the presence of Jesus) at the end of it all. The Apostle Paul says the same in Romans 8:22-25. Even though the physical world and human society are both disordered, God wants to present the gospel of Jesus to the world through the church, during the hardest of experiences. The church will be God's agent in those times and so should have confidence in the gospel (Romans 1:16).
 
The church is not a playground: it is the parade-ground to prepare for the battle-ground. The world we live in is corrupted, and so are we. Yet God has chosen to put confidence into His church to proclaim the gospel until Jesus returns. Satan does not like it, the religious deceivers around us do not want anybody to be confident in Jesus, and worldly people would rather invent their own solutions to problems than welcome Jesus to be Lord of all. But Christ continues to strengthen His church in the truth and to demolish the strongholds of deceit (2 Corinthians 10:4). So whatever the circumstances, do not be deflected from telling the gospel to those you meet.