At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus chose twelve disciples, who later served as His apostles. As history and tradition teaches us, likely all but one, John, died a violent death as a martyr for their faith. Theirs is the ultimate testimony. That is actually the origin of our word martyr; the Greek verb μαρτυρέω (“martureo”) means “to be a witness,” “to testify.”

Skeptics, however, will claim that people die daily for what they believe, either as innocent victims, as a result of persecutions or deliberately, like a fanatic Muslim homicide bomber. So dying for one’s faith does not prove anything about the truth of the resurrection.

Wait. Is that correct? What is the difference between an apostle of Christ who was martyred and a fanatic Muslim bomber of today? Yes, both died for their faith. One obvious difference is that Jesus’ apostle was killed by others whereas the suicide bomber took his own life. Also, the apostle acted out of love, while the suicide bomber was motivated by hate. There is one other difference, and this is of huge importance. Both died for what they believed, however, the suicide bomber based his convictions on what others told him to be true, but the apostle based his faith on what he himself had experienced, the resurrection of Jesus! He did not only believe the resurrection was true, he knew it was true.

Remember what happened when Jesus was captured in the Garden of Gethsemane ? “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matthew 26:54). They were overcome by fear and afraid they would be captured next. Likely, all ran the other way, racing out of Jerusalem in the direction of Bethany . After this initial cowardly reaction, apparently only Peter and John could muster enough courage to go back to Jerusalem to find out what was happening. When confronted, three times Peter denied any knowledge of Jesus (as foretold by Jesus and recorded in all four gospels). Only John was present at the site of the crucifixion (John 19:25-27).

When Jesus was captured, tried, and crucified, his followers were discouraged and depressed. They no longer were confident that Jesus had been sent by God (how could God allow his Son to be crucified?). They certainly did not anticipate a resurrection. So they hid and dispersed. Just as the Jews had planned, the original Jesus movement had died on the cross.

After only a short time a complete reversal of attitude occurred.  Something remarkable transformed these cowards into bold and brave men. We see them abandoning their professions, and re-grouping to commit themselves to spread a very specific message: Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah of God, who died on the cross, returned to life and was seen by them. They invested the remainder of their lives proclaiming this, with no payoff from a human point of view. They faced a life of hardship; often being without food, they slept exposed to the elements, were ridiculed and faced the constant threat of beatings and imprisonments.  Finally, most of them died a hideous death as martyrs.

This change of behavior can only be explained by the fact that they were convinced – beyond any doubt –they had seen Jesus alive from the dead. There is no other adequate explanation.

The Ultimate Testimony of the Apostles
Who	How did he die?	Source
Simon Peter	Crucified in Rome around 67 AD	Tradition, Clement of Rome [30]
James of Zebedee	Killed by Herod Agrippa around 44 AD	Acts 12:1-2
John of Zebedee	Died of old age in Ephesus around 100 AD	Tradition[31]
Andrew	Crucified on an X-shaped cross in Greece , around 69 AD	Tradition/legend[32]
Philip	Died or was martyred in Hierapolis , Turkey	Tradition/legend[33]
Bartholomew	Skinned alive and beheaded in Armenia in 68 AD	Tradition[34]
Matthew	Martyred by spear in Ethiopia in 60 AD?	Legends[35]
Thomas	Speared in India	Tradition/legend[36]
James of Alphaeus	Stoned in Jerusalem or crucified in Persia ?	Legends[37]
Jude Thaddaeus	Multiple legends about his martyrdom	Legends
Simon the Zealot	Crucified in Britain or killed in Persia ?	Tradition/legend[38]

Table 21- 4 : The Ultimate Testimony of the Apostles

They were the ones who met the living Jesus in person. They were unique.  These men knew the resurrection as fact – and not merely believed it by faith. They were not convinced by someone’s testimony, but they had shared time with the resurrected Jesus. Knowing the truth, they were willing to die for it. If they knew it was not true, it is extremely unlikely that all would stick to this deception and would be willing to die for a lie. Would you die for a lie?

The evidence from the changed lives of the apostles after they claimed to have met the resurrected Jesus is a solid historical fact. Their testimony is so sound and convincing, that even critical and non-believing scholars accept it: “The only thing we can certainly say to be historical is that there were resurrection appearances in Galilee (and in Jerusalem ) soon after Jesus’ death. These appearances cannot be denied.” [39]

Read on about : (9) Exhibit #10: The conversion of Saul to Paul

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