A.d. 110. Ignatius, Overseer Of The Church In ...

A.D. 110. Ignatius, overseer of the church in Antioch, was arrested and sent to Rome for preaching Christ. Facing martyrdom, he wrote this to the church at Rome.

“Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus.”

When he was sentenced to be fed to lions, and could even hear their roaring, he said, “I am the wheat of Christ; I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread.”

From Matthew Haynie’s Sermon: Called To Be A Bondservant