Martyrdom

The great encourager in the New Testament is Barnabas.  After the beginning of his missionary journey with John Mark the Biblical record falls silent concerning him.

39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, Acts 15:39 (ESV)

The Bible does not tell us where he went after Cyprus or what happened to him in Cyprus, but chronologically this is the last mention of Barnabas in the NT.  Church tradition tells us that Barnabas never lived to leave Cyprus.

Martyrdom of Barnabas

Certain Jews came to Cyprus, where Barnabas was then preaching the gospel.  They were greatly distressed at his extraordinary success.  They ganged up on him as he was preaching and defending the Christian faith in the synagogue, dragged him out, and, after they tortured him, stoned him to death.

His cousin John Mark, watched all this happen, and buried his body in a cave, where it remained until the time of the Emperor Zeno.   A monastery was built in his name at Salamis, Cyprus.  A tomb reputed to hold his remains was found in 488.  He is the Patron Saint of Cyprus.

There Are Still Martyrs Today

Tertullian is credited with saying that, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”  Most of us hear these words and think of story’s such as the one I have related above about people from the history of the Church, but there are still martyrs today.  In fact on January 17, 2010 more than 100 Christians were killed in Jos, Nigeria, when riots between the Christian and Muslim erupted.

You can find out more about today’s martyrs at “The Voice of the Martyrs” website.

I once read of a group of Soviet soldiers who went into a church with their machine guns yelling they were there to kill all of the Christians.  The officer in charge said “Comrades I know that some of you really do not believe in this superstition, so I will give you to the count of ten to leave before I deal with these weak-minded traitors to our great revolution.”  As he counted to ten people jumped out of windows and ran as fast as they could out of the doors.  As soon as the commotion of those fleeing from the church had ended the Soviet officer looked at the few Christians who remained and said, “Brothers and Sisters in Christ now that all the hypocrites are gone let’s worship our Lord.”  Were such an incident to occur at your Church this Sunday what would your reaction be?

Please pray for God to protect the Christians in Nigeria!