Martyrs

Many of the first Christians to follow Jesus after His death and resurrection lost their lives because of their faith. They were the first martyrs of the Church. The Emperor of Rome during this time was Nero, who was a very cruel and selfish man. He blamed the Christians for all the bad things that happened in Rome and this made the citizens of Rome hate the Christians. They did horrible things to people who believed in Jesus and thought that it was fun to watch these Christians suffer. The Christians died happily for their faith because they knew that dying would only mean that they could be with Jesus in Heaven. The Emperor thought that if he was mean to the Christians, people would stop believing in Jesus out of fear. He was very wrong. The more Christians he killed because of their faith, the more people started to believe in Jesus because they saw how much the Christians loved Jesus – so much that they were willing to die for Him.