John 15:20 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.
I’ve lived on the Ranch with four generations of Rices, my grandparents, my parents, my wife, and my children. It has occurred to me that I have a little bit of an unusual experience in that I have been able to see four generations of my family. Many people don’t know their great-grandparents or their grandparents, but I have been able to see characteristics that abide in three generations of family.
I can see similarities between my grandmother, who went to Heaven after she was 101 years old, and my son that most people would probably not have even noticed. It is kind of amusing. The truth is that there are a lot of characteristics in your own life, some of which you are not even aware, that may have been handed down to you from people you don’t even know, your grandparents, for instance. While I am not saying you are a victim of your heredity, I do think there are things that you have in common with people who are in your family, some of whom lived long before you were born.
In John 14, we see a similarity between God the Father and God the Son. In fact, repeatedly Jesus essentially says, “I and my Father are one.” In John 14 He talks about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and in John 15 He talks about you, the believer. Something we can learn from John 14 and 15 is that the more like Jesus you become, the more of His experiences you can expect. I am talking specifically about the experiences you find in this passage here.
There are natural and supernatural things that you would experience as did Jesus. In John 15:20 Jesus 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.” I’m not suggesting that we need to worry and think that everyone who doesn’t like us is persecuting us. But I do think it is important to know that none of us is better than his Lord. If people persecuted Jesus, they will certainly persecute those who love Jesus. That is not odd or unusual. That is perfectly normal. It is a normal experience you can expect the more you become like Jesus.
Think about Jesus’ disciples. They were discouraged and were expecting persecution because of changing times. Jesus Himself was about to be crucified. Yet, there are some supernatural experiences that personify Jesus that can characterize us as well. The first of the supernatural experiences is peace. “Let not your heart be troubled,” Jesus said. And later He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” So, peace is not the absence of problems; it is the presence of Jesus. While persecution may be a normal result of being like Jesus, peace is a supernatural result of being like Jesus.
Another characteristic is joy. In John 15:11, Jesus says, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” This is joy that is independent of how well people are treating me, and it supernaturally comes to me by way of Jesus. It is an experience I can expect. It doesn’t mean I am always going to have easy times, but it means that joy is available when I obey Christ and depend upon Him for my daily life.
Then, there is love. John 15:9 says, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” “My love…my joy…my peace…” Jesus says, and they belong to those who belong to Jesus. I am to love Jesus’ disciples. I am not to love the world, but I am to love the people in the world because that is what Jesus does.
In short, what can you expect today as a follower of Jesus? Well, the more like Jesus you become, the more of His experiences you can expect, both natural and supernatural.