Martyrdom of the disciples

There are a lot of reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The tomb was empty. His corpse was never found. Hundreds of people saw Jesus alive, believers and skeptics alike. But perhaps the most compelling reason, at least for me anyway, is the dramatic change that occurred in the lives of Jesus' disciples.

We've been studying through the gospel of Mark and again and again we've been reminded how slow the disciples have been to understand who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. At times Jesus seems exasperated with them. "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Why are you so dull? Don't you understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? Don't you get it? How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"

Jesus may not have had kids, but he did have twelve disciples and they were enough to keep him on his knees! These guys were by no means spiritual giants. If anything they were spiritually challenged. They just didn't get it. And they seemed to fail all along the way.

But their greatest failure, their lowest point came on the night Jesus was arrested and taken into custody just hours before his crucifixion. That night Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. And all the rest ran for cover like scared rabbits when Jesus was taken away in handcuffs.

And as much as they loved Jesus they were not ready to be seen with him, to be identified with him, to be arrested with him, and certainly not ready to go to a cross and die with him.

But by the end of their lives something dramatically changed in these men. Every one of the Twelve, except Judas of course, was willing to lay down their lives for Jesus. Everyone was willing to pay the ultimate price. There's a well known book that was written back in the 1500's by a man named John Foxe called Foxe's Book of Martyrs and in it he details the stories of how each one of the disciples died.

The first disciple to lose his life was James, the brother of John. He was a fisherman when Jesus called him, one of the Sons of Thunder. He was beheaded by King Herod about eleven years after the death of Christ and we can read about in Acts 12. He's the only disciple whose death is recorded in Scripture, the rest of our accounts come from church history.

Matthew the tax collector who wrote the book of Matthew later took the gospel to Africa where he was martyred in Ethiopia beheaded by a sword just like James.

Bartholomew also known as Nathanael was a missionary to Asia and started churches in what is now present-day Turkey. He was martyred in Armenia, flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece, tied there with ropes to prolong his agony. And as he was being led to the cross eyewitnesses reported that he saluted his executioners and said, "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it. The nearer I come to the cross, the nearer I come to God. The farther I am from the cross, the farther I remain from God." Andrew hung on that cross for two days preaching the good news of Jesus to all those who stood and watched.

Thomas whom we call the doubting Thomas, the skeptic who had to see for himself the nail prints in Jesus' hands and the wound in Jesus' side later took the gospel to India and started churches there. But eventually he was arrested, tortured, thrown into an oven, and then finished off with spears.

James the son of Alphaeus was taken up to the pinnacle of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the highest point on the roof over 100 feet above the ground, the same place that the devil took Jesus during his temptation, and was thrown off. And when his accusers realized that the fall didn't kill him they stoned him and when that didn't kill him they finally beat him to death.

History tells us that the apostle John was immersed in a huge vat of boiling oil in the city of Rome, but he miraculously survived. And when the Romans discovered they couldn't cook him to death they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. Later on he was released and served as a leader in a church in Turkey where he eventually died at an old age. John was the only disciple who wasn't killed for his faith, but he was willing to die for Christ.

Peter we're told was confined in the Mamertine prison in Rome for nine months, a place where many people died just from the filth and the fumes and the disease. It's said that he was chained to a pole in complete darkness standing in human waste up to his knees and during that time he led over 40 Roman guards to Christ. And when they took him out of the dungeon to Nero's Circus to be crucified he told the guards, "I'm not worthy to be crucified like my Lord. Crucify me upside down." And they did.

And I could on and on. Philip was stoned to death. Simon the Zealot was cut in two. Mark the writer of the gospel we've been studying died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged through the city streets for two days by a team of horses.