Not So Bad After All

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV). You may be thinking: “Easy for you to say.” The secret isn't in the "don't be afraid" part; the secret is in the part that says God is there. And if He's there, I don't have to be afraid. Whatever the outcome, He will not fail me nor forsake me. The early apostles provide an incredible example of this principle. Most of our information about the deaths of the apostles is derived from early church traditions. The Church historian Schumacher researched the lives of the apostles and recounted the history of their martyrdoms. Let me review them for you: • Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound. • Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead. • Luke was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost. • John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully. • Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross, according to church tradition because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died. • James the Just, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. • James the Greater was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian. • Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed to our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia when he was flayed to death by a whip. • Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired. • The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the subcontinent. • Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. • Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded. • The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Two things emerge for me. First, I don’t have near as much to fear in my life as these early disciples did. And, second, God was with each of them in their trial; He certainly will be with me! I really don’t have it so bad after all. God IS there!