John 15:20

John 15:20 says, Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.  If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.  Jesus reminded the disciples that the servant is not greater than the master. Though Jesus was speaking to those disciples with Him that day, the truth of what He said applies to all His followers for all time.  We know that Jesus was persecuted to the point of being crucified, and we are promised that we will be persecuted also.  Notice Jesus did not say they might, but they will persecute us.  I know we read of the persecution of the early church and seem to think that ended after that time, but that was not what Jesus was saying.  He was talking to His followers for all time until His return.  When we say that God doesn't want us unhappy and would never ask anything of us that would make us unhappy, remember our Lord went to the cross.  We are no greater than He is. Jesus also told His disciples that if people kept His sayings, they would keep the sayings of the disciples as well.  This does not mean that the disciples, then or now, are going to come up with some new gospel.  They, and we, are simply to be the ones who continue to spread the Gospel of Christ.  When we do this under the power of the Holy Spirit, the people of the world will listen.  That has always been the divider.  People will either persecute us for being His followers, or they will believe our testimony to Christ.  No where do we find a promise of prosperity in this world.  The blessing that God pours out on us is that we are content in Him, even if the world persecutes us.  If we are materially blessed, we need to realize that even if we give a tithe to the church, the rest still belongs to God.  We belong to Christ all the time, not just on Sunday and Wednesday night, and all that we are blessed with is to be used for His glory.  We are only promised persecution from the world, so we should not be surprised when it happens.  Still, we need to remember what else Jesus had just said, and that is that we are to reach out in love and not hatred.  Jesus is our example, and He reached out in love even from the cross.