Predicated Persecution - John 16-18

 John 16:2-4 (ESV)

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

Jesus is about to be crucified on the cross.  He came to die and to die in that manner.   Those who stood with Him, however, will also die like Him.   He is warning them of the struggle in persecution they will all experience because they would follow Him.  We might wonder if they even grasped, at this point, what He meant.  They certainly saw how the religious people treated them.   They certainly knew there was a plot to kill them.  They certainly had been told by Jesus that He was going to die and return, which was not clear to them until after He did so.   But that was all their fate.   Did they truly grasp their fate?  We, today, don’t grasp that we will be persecuted.  In other countries this is a daily occurrence.  The above words of Jesus are true in the lives of believers in many countries around the world DAILY!   He is telling the disciples these things (and us) so that when it happens we will remember He told us.  Despite being another verification of God’s truth and Jesus’ validity, we can take comfort that God knows these things and is watching over us.   Note, from John MacArthur’s commentary what actually happened to these first followers of Jesus:

(MacArthur New Testament Commentary Set (33 Vols.)

“The followers of Jesus Christ have always faced the world’s hostility (a point that was detailed in chapter 15 of this volume). From the inception of the church, the apostles and those closely associated with them endured intense persecution. They were ridiculed, scorned, denounced, hunted, arrested, beaten, and imprisoned. Many even paid the ultimate price, giving their lives as martyrs (a transliteration of the Greek word meaning “witnesses”) for the sake of their Savior. A brief survey of ancient Christian tradition reveals that Peter, Andrew, and James the son of Alphaeus were all crucified; Bartholomew was whipped to death and then crucified; James the son of Zebedee was beheaded, as was Paul; Thomas was stabbed with spears; Mark was dragged to death through the streets of Alexandria; and James the half brother of Jesus was stoned by order of the Sanhedrin. Philip was also stoned to death. Others, including Matthew, Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus, Timothy, and Stephen, were also killed for their unwavering commitment to the Lord. As Clement of Rome, a contemporary of the apostles who died around A.D. 100, observed, “Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the church] have been persecuted and put to death” (First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, 5).”