After the martyrdom of Stephen, “a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).
The Apostles, “Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James” (Acts 1:13) and “Matthias” (Acts 1:26) remained in Jerusalem while many of the church’s other leaders and members fled. Fearlessly, they stayed to further the ministry of Jesus.
The Bible recorded some of Peter’s ministry and we have two of his epistles. Tradition says that Peter died at the hands of Nero’s executioners in the mid-sixties (A.D.).
John probably survived longer than any of the other Apostles. His ministry along-side Peter is recorded in the early chapters of Acts (3:1-26; 4:1-31; 8:14-25). He wrote the Gospel that bears his name, three epistles, and the sixty-sixth book, Revelation. As an old man, he likely perished while exiled on the “Island of Patmos” (Revelation 1:9), a tiny deserted and desolate Island in the southern Aegean Sea used by Rome as a prison.
Of the remaining ten Apostles, only one is mentioned after the first chapter of Acts. The Bible doesn’t record any of Matthew’s movements. Andrew isn’t mentioned again. Only James, the brother of John, the son of Zebedee is mentioned, and only once.
“King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword”(Acts 12:1-2).
So, James was the first Apostle to be put to death for following Jesus. Peter was probably martyred. John was imprisoned and died alone, guilty of preaching the Gospel (Revelation 1:9). Tradition suggests that the other nine also died martyr’s deaths… and they died with the message of Jesus, the Savior, the King of kings, the Resurrected Redeemer on their lips…
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
Comments