The Transformation of the Disciples

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Before Jesus' resurrection, His disciples were filled with fear and despair. 

Peter, the leader among them, denied Jesus three times (Luke 22:54-62), and after Jesus' death, the disciples hid behind locked doors in fear of the authorities (John 20:19). 

However, after encountering the risen Christ, they became fearless proclaimers of His resurrection, willing to suffer imprisonment, torture, and even death. 

Peter, who once cowered before a servant girl, later stood before thousands in Jerusalem and boldly declared, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it” (Acts 2:32). 

Most of the apostles were eventually martyred—Peter was crucified upside down, Thomas was speared in India, James was beheaded, and others suffered similar fates. People do not willingly die for what they know to be a lie. 

Charles Colson, involved in the Watergate scandal, pointed out that powerful men in the White House could not keep a lie for three weeks—how then could uneducated fishermen maintain a falsehood under the threat of death for decades?