Jesus instructed his disciples to be wary of their religious leaders, and to endure when they are persecuted by people who refuse to accept the new message.

Matthew 10:16-25

16 “Take note: After I send you out, you will be as defenseless as sheep [MET] in the midst of people who are as dangerous as wolves. So you should wisely stay away from such people, like you stay away from poisonous snakes [SIM]. You should be as harmless as doves are [SIM]. 17 Also, be on guard against our religious leaders. They will arrest you and take you to the members of the religious councils to put you on trial and punish you because you are my disciples. You will be whipped {The local leaders will whip you} in their meeting places. 18 And because you teach about me, you will be taken {the religious leaders will take you} to governors and kings in order that they may put you on trial and punish you. As a result, you will testify to those rulers and to other non-Jews about what I have done. 19 When the religious leaders arrest you, do not be worried about what you will say to them, because at that very time the Holy Spirit will tell you the words that you should say. 20 It is not that you will decide what to say. Instead, you will say what the Spirit of your heavenly Father tells you to say. 21 You will be taken {People who do not believe in me will take you} to the authorities to be killed because you believe in me. For example, people will betray their brothers, and fathers will betray their children. Children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 22 Many people will hate you because you believe in me. Nevertheless, many people will keep on believing in me until they die. They are the people whom God will take to live with him. 23 When people in one town cause you to suffer, escape to another town and tell the people there about me. Note this: I, the one who came down from heaven, will certainly return to earth before you have finished going from one town to another town throughout Israel and telling people about me.

24 A disciple should not expect to be greater than his teacher, and servants are not superior to their master. 25 You do not expect that people will treat a disciple better than they treat his teacher, or that they will treat a servant better than they treat his master. Similarly, because I am your teacher and master, you can expect that people will mistreat you, because they have mistreated me. The most you can expect is that people will treat you like they treat me. I am like the ruler of a household [MET]. But people have insulted me by calling me Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. So they will certainly insult you more, you who are only like members of my household [MET]!”