When A Prayer Meeting Becomes A Buisness Meeting Series

Philip evangelized a place called Phrygia where hostile Jews had him tortured and then crucified. Matthew, the tax collector, the author of the gospel of Matthew was beheaded at Nad-Davar.

Nathanael or Bartholomew whose name means “gift of God” was flayed or had the skin ripped off him and then he was crucified. James the Lesser was thrown down from the top of the temple and when he survived he was beaten to death with a club to the head.

Simon the Zealot proclaimed the good news in Egypt, Cyrene, Africa, Mauritania, Britain, Lybia, and Persia and then was crucified by a governor in Syria.

Judas Thaddeus preached in Mesopotamia and was beaten to death with sticks by a group of pagan priests.

Matthias who was the one who replaced Judas as the twelfth apostle was said to have preached in Ethiopia and died by the hands of barbarians and then another account says he went to Colchis and was crucified, while yet another says he was stoned and beheaded in Jerusalem and that his remains were eventually taken to Germany by Charlemagne’s mother Helena. So, we aren’t what happened but we know he died at the hand of unbelievers.

And then John is the only one of the twelve Apostles who died a natural death and although he didn’t die a martyr’s death, he certainly lived a martyr’s life. He was exiled to the Island of Patmos (which is nothing but rock) for preaching the gospel and it was there he wrote the book of Revelation. Some claimed he was thrown into a pot of boiling oil and lived but if that’s true he must have been scarred for the rest of his life.

And then there’s the apostle Paul who was an apostle to the gentiles but he wasn’t considered to be one of the twelve because he was neither a witness of the baptism, the ministry nor ascension of Jesus. Paul met his death at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero when he was beheaded in Rome.

So, as we see this draw for the position of apostle, we don’t have the impression that anybody won or lost anything but these were simply men who were seeking the will of God.

The term apostle literally means ‘one sent.’ I was somewhere with Jack Wyrtzen and he handed me a penny and he said, ‘Here’s an apostle. One cent.’

So, the term has taken on all kinds of religious meanings but it simply refers to men who were sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to be His personal witnesses to the world.

II And then we turn our attention to Judas – who is the notorious betrayer.

And the reason I called him notorious is because his name is synonymous with betrayal. We refer to someone as a Judas when we can’t think of anything worse to say. I’ve heard of people calling their dogs Judas and rock bands using the name Judas to appear repulsive but no one calls their kids this and yet, before the crucifixion, Judas was a common name. Judas means, ‘God is praised’ and it comes from the land of Judah. So, this was a good name.

And Peter basically, began by saying they had to replace Judas who had been chosen by Jesus but betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver (which was around $1900) and then he committed suicide. It’s interesting that in Matthew 27 we’re told Judas went out and hanged himself but in Acts 1:18 it says; ‘he fell and his body burst open.’ Personally, I don’t see a problem; because I think both happened. He hung himself and obviously he didn’t use very good rope because after he died, the rope broke, he fell and his body burst open.