Being flogged in the synagogues before the second coming? Matthew 10:17 speaks thus:

“Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.”

The context is Jesus’ commission to his disciples to go and proclaim the message. He tells them to stand fast even unto death and they will be saved, and those who do right by them will get their reward. Jesus claims that the Son of Man will come before they have even finished going around all the towns in the area.

Luke 21:12 seems to be similar. But here is where it gets strange for me. The same kind of context, but here the Son of Man is coming on the clouds of glory! There are signs and wonders and this is the second coming.

Here’s what’s strange to me. The one in Matthew is obviously talking about the situation at the time, when Christians were a small sect and Jews had power over them. But Luke is talking about something that seems to be at least 2000 years later. And there’s no way Christians are being beaten by Jews in synagogues. So how can it ever come true? What is it referring to, put all together? If the two accounts are of the same thing and Jesus would be coming in the Second Coming before the guys even finished going around all the towns then I guess it was expected the world would end in the lifetime of the listeners?
It really does depend on your eschatological view. Futurists/Dispensationalist want to place passages like Luke 21:12 in the future before the second coming of Christ. However, Partial Preterists/Covenantalists as well as some Amillennialists (like myself) see passages Luke 21, Matthew 24 and Mark 13 as Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD only (much qualification needed). It should also be noted that not all Amillennialists thinks this way. Many of them do see a typological fulfillment in 70 AD whereas the full and final fulfillment will be realized before the second coming of Christ in the future. Either way, a good book to read on the Partial Preterist/Amillennialist position is Sam Storms book called 'Kingdom Come'.

As far as the beating in synagogues thing, the apostles were actually beaten a few times in the book of Acts at 5:40 and 16:22-23 which in some sense can be seen as a regulatory fulfillment of Matthew 10:17 as well as Luke 21:12 even though they weren't always exactly in the synagogues themselves which is a detail I don't think has to be perfectly fulfilled. Jesus' point was that they were going to be persecuted for their devotion to Christ which is exactly what happen to them. I hope that helps. :)