The Calling of The Apostles
Peter and Andrew.
It wasn't from among the
respected religious leaders in Jerusalem that Jesus called his Apostles but
from ordinary workers in remote Galilee.
THEY WERE NOT the kind of group you might have
expected Jesus to send forth on his mission to reach the world. There was nothing special or spectacular about them.
They were just ordinary working men. But
Jesus formed them into the backbone of the church and gave them the most
extraordinary task imaginable: calling the entire world, including the
mightiest empire ever known, to repentance and faith in the risen Christ. You
can be sure that any educated, first-century Roman citizen would have laughed
at any prediction that within three centuries the Christian faith would be the
official faith of the empire.
The New Testament tells of the fate of only two of
the apostles:
Judas, who betrayed
Jesus and then went out and hanged himself, and
James the son
of Zebedee, who was executed by Herod about 44 A.D. (Acts 12:2).
legend says they cast lots and divided up the world
to determine who would go where, so all could hear about Jesus. They suffered
greatly for their faith and in most cases met violent deaths on account of
their bold witness.
PETER and PAUL
were both martyred in Rome about 66 A.D., during the persecution under
Emperor Nero. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified, upside down at his
request, since he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as his
Lord.
ANDREW went to
the “land of the maneaters,” in what is now the Soviet Union. Christians there
claim him as the first to bring the gospel to their land. He also preached in
Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and in Greece, where he is said to have been
crucified.
Into All The World
Reports and legends abound and they are not always
reliable, but it is safe to say that the apostles went far and wide as heralds
of the message of the risen Christ. An early “Doubting” THOMAS was
probably most active in the area east of Syria. Tradition has him preaching as
far east as India, where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their
founder. They claim that he died there when pierced through with the spears of
four soldiers.
PHILIP possibly
had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor,
where he converted the wife of a Roman proconsul. In retaliation the proconsul
had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.
MATTHEW, the tax
collector and writer of a Gospel, ministered in Persia and Ethiopia. Some of
the oldest reports say he was not martyred, while others say he was stabbed to
death in Ethiopia.
BARTHOLOMEW had
widespread missionary travels attributed to him by tradition: to India with
Thomas, back to Armenia, and also to Ethiopia and Southern Arabia. There are
various accounts of how he met his death
as a martyr for the gospel.
JAMES, the son
of Alpheus, is one of at least three Jameses referred to in the New Testament.
There is some confusion as to which is which, but this James is reckoned to
have ministered in Syria. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that he was
stoned and then clubbed to death.
SIMON THE ZEALOT, so the
story goes, ministered in Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to
the sun god.
MATTHIAS was the
apostle chosen to replace Judas. Tradition sends him to Syria with Andrew and
to death by burning.
JOHN is the
only one of the company generally thought to have died a natural death from old
age. He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have
taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home. During Domitian’s
persecution in the middle 90’s, he was exiled to the island of Patmos. There he
is credited with writing the last book of the New Testament— the Revelation. An
early Latin tradition has him escaping unhurt after being cast into boiling oil
at Rome.
For Pete’s sake
The names of Jesus’ apostles have become the most
common names for males in the Western world. How many do you know
named John, Pete, Tom, Andy, Jim, Bart or Phil?
None of the apostles were called from the
priesthood or the “professional clergy” of Jesus day.
At least four of the apostles were fishermen. Can
this be part of the reason that one of the earliest and most prominent
Christian symbols was the fish? The Greek word for fish, ichthus, formed
an acrostic: Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter,
which means “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”
After the death of the apostles, we do not find
great misssionary figures of the stature of Paul. Yet the faith continued to
spread like wildfire—even though Christianity was declared an illegal religion.
Against All Odds
The Spread of the Early
Church
HOW did the early Christian church survive? Humanly
speaking, the odds were all stacked against it. It was unthinkable that a
small, despised movement from a corner of Palestine could move out to become
the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire, an empire steeped in fiercely
defended traditional pagan religions. The spread of the Christian church in its
earliest centuries is one of the most amazing phenomena in all of human
history. The church was considered a religio prava an illegal and
depraved religion. Wave after wave of persecution was unleashed to squash it.
At least two of the persecutions were empire-wide and intended to destroy the
church. So how did this young fledgling movement make it?
After the Apostle Paul, we do not run across many
“big names” as missionaries in the first few hundred years of Christian
history. Instead the faith spread through a multitude of humble, ordinary
believers whose names have been long forgotten.
N.B.: 1. This is only my notes on my study on Church
History in Christians Leaders Institute (CLI), a free
Bible study course. Please join the Course to study a highly esteemed lessons
on theology.
