Jesus told his first century disciples, that as a result of the “beginning of birth pains” (the sufferings of the Messiah) they themselves would suffer “tribulation”. Jesus had already forewarned them that these tribulations would come, primarily at the hands of (and through the instigation of) the unfaithful of Old Covenant Israel, who had opposed the gospel of the kingdom (Mathew 23:29f). These sufferings served to separate the wheat from the tares, and to vindicate the righteous judgment of God upon the Old Covenant world in AD70 through the destruction of the city and nation.
The Institute Of Fulfilled Eschatology