All of the apostles were mistreated by anti-Christian magistrates, rulers, and emperors. They were called to seal their confessions of faith with their blood, and nobly did they bear the trial.
The following was the fate of the apostles, according to tradition:
• Matthew was slain with a sword in a distant city of Ethiopia;
• Mark died at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city;
• Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in Greece;
• John was put in a cauldron of boiling oil but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterward exiled to Patmos;
• Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward;
• James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the Temple, then beaten to death with a club;
• Bartholomew (Nathanael) was flayed alive;
• Andrew was bound to a cross when he preached to his persecutors, until he died;
• Philip was tied up in a sack and cast into the sea (one tradition, says John MacArthur);
• Thomas was run through the body with a lance in the East Indies;
• Jude was shot to death with arrows;
• Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded;
• Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica;
• Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero.
In His message to the church at Smyrna, Jesus encouraged saints to “be faithful…unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev.2:10) There is no reason to think that this promise could not be claimed by the multiplied thousands of believers, past and present, who have suffered martyrdom because of their faith in Christ and their faithfulness unto death. Many of their stories have been told and are written eloquently in some of the history books; probably most of the stories of burning at the stake, and of violent deaths in the ultimate acts of persecutions, have never yet been told.
When Jesus was giving the eleven His intimate, last words in the Upper Room, he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known Him and seen Him.” John records that Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” and Jesus said: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip?” (John 14:6-9)
Commentators jump on this and chide Philip for such an apparently dumb request. But not many hours later, as Jesus was being led away from the garden by Roman soldiers in the early morning darkness, the gospel accounts say that all the disciples fled. It would seem that if they had really grasped the truth—that Jesus was God, and that “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”—they would have followed Christ all the way to Calvary. They did not. Some followed Him in what they thought was “incognito,” and some later came back. But their first impulse was to flee when Jesus was led away by force.
Then followed the crucifixion, resurrection and the post-resurrection ministry of the living Lord, and soon the day of Pentecost and the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit. From that day forward, their foggy understanding of the Trinity—and of the teachings of their Master in the Upper Room that dark and dreadful night—became unclouded and clear. These eleven men would turn the then-known world upside down and, with Christ as the Headstone of the corner, they would become the foundation of His Church. It stands undaunted today, and it will until Jesus returns to receive the Church unto Himself. Reliable tradition reports that, to a man, the apostles were faithful unto death, and all of them but the aged Apostle John died a martyr’s death.
We may not be called upon to die violently rather than deny our Lord and Savior. But if called upon to give our lives at the stake, we who have the indwelling Holy Spirit can be assured that the same dying grace God gave the apostles in their last living moments will also be ours. And, whether we suffer martyrdom or die in some “natural” way, we can know that, if we are faithful unto death, the crown of life awaits us. That will suffice.
Let us then covenant to live for Him and to die for Him, if it be our lot. Amen.
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8)
YOU and GOD 