Thought for the month
I have a friend who has had a very sad 2 years and now tells me that their faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone.
This made me stop and think…….Our Lord was prepared to give His life for us and so were the disciples. Most of which had horrible deaths. Peter was said to be crucified upside down in Rome, Paul was beheaded in Rome, James, son of Zebedee was beheaded, Andrew crucified on an X-shaped cross, Bartholomew was likely flayed alive, though some accounts say he was also beheaded, Matthew was killed by the sword, Thomas was Impaled, James, son of Alphaeus is said to have been stoned, although this is often debated, Philip is said to have been either crucified or stoned, Simon the Zealot was either crucified or sawn in half, Thaddaeus/Jude was either crucified or killed with an axe, John died of natural causes but there are accounts of him being thrown into a pot of boiling oil from which he survived
and of Judas Iscariot committed suicide by hanging himself.
Jesus did of course warn us that to follow Him would not be easy but when I think of the unshakable faith of the disciples, a faith which didn’t flinch when the sword was drawn or the cross was lifted. It makes me think of real men who walked with Jesus. They ate with Him, they watched Him die, and then of course they saw Him alive again
Think about this; Who dies for something they know is a lie?
If the resurrection was a hoax, these men had every reason to deny Him and go back to their former lives. Instead, they preached harder, travelled further, suffered more and as tradition has it, it cost them their lives.
This is what separates the apostle from every other religious leader, guru, or spiritual trend. They didn’t just believe the message – they experienced the resurrection with their own eyes (Acts 13) It rocked them so deeply that not even beatings, imprisonment, exile or death could stop them.
They weren’t superhumans, they were fishermen, tax collectors and former rebels. Some doubted, even denied but once they encountered the risen Jesus everything changed for them.
Christian apologist Chuck Colson once said:-
“People will die for something they believe to be true, even if they’re mistaken but they will never die for something they know is a lie”.
The apostles didn’t get rich from this. They didn’t gain political power, in fact, they were hunted, hated and killed because they wouldn’t stop preaching what they saw: a resurrected Jesus and a Kingdom that had come.
They had walked with Jesus, seen the miracles (which still happen today) witnessed the empty tomb and ate and drank with the risen Jesus, talked to Him and I suspect received more instruction from Him, that is why they were prepared to die in their quest to save the people of their time.
P2
As Jesus said, it is much harder for those of us who don’t have the insight that the disciples did, but I can assure any of you reading this, that when you put your faith in the teachings of Jesus, He will love you, bless you, protect you, provide for you, guide you and be with you in every crisis you face whilst you are on this planet and when it is your time to return home to live with Him, He will be there to greet you.
So, when you are feeling low, take a few moments to speak to Jesus and invite Him to help you overcome whatever is worrying you. He will never turn you away!