Jesus said in the world we will have trouble (John 16:33). Paul said we’d suffer affliction (1 Thess. 3:4) and that we enter the kingdom through much tribulation (Acts 14:22). He explains this battle more fully in Eph. 6:10-17.
Spiritual warfare, and the oppression that comes with it, is a reality of life, not a myth or a theoretical concept. In the words of Dr. Ed Murphy, in his Handbook for Spiritual Warfare, “…everything from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 that has occurred, is occurring, and will yet occur, occurs in the context of warfare between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil supernaturalism.”
Peter reminds us that we should not be surprised by spiritual or physical attack, as though it is a strange thing. (1 Peter 4:12-19) 1 Peter itself was written to a group of churches who were experiencing persecution. It would be good in these days of cultural and spiritual shifts to read 1 Peter as a whole, and be familiar with all of the persecutions noted in Acts.
The Bible clearly shows us that following the ways of the Lord, and especially doing ministry work, will result in trouble, whether we look at Moses, David, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Christ, Peter, Paul or John.