Nero’s Judgment falls.   

Returning from his first Missionary Journey (AD 47-48) Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (Modern Turkey today). Luke joined the entourage of Paul in Acts 16, noticeable by the change of third person pronouns (they) to the first person “we.” (Acts 16:10). As they traveled, Luke simply adds that they exhorted “them to continue in the faith, saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22). Being a Christian in those days was perilous.

Reflect a moment on the social situation that is the context of the New Testament. At this time Claudius was the emperor. His current wife, Agrippina, was his fourth. She was the mother of the 13-year-old Nero, who was the son of her first husband. She convinced Claudius to adopt Nero which would make him heir to throne. He was the great, great Grandson of Emperor Augustus.

As the story unfolds Agrippina poisoned Claudius to enable Nero to take the throne. In AD 54 at the age of 16 Nero became emperor. However, Agrippina was in control. Nero eventually tired of that and had her murdered. Nero ruled from AD 54 – AD 68.

In AD 67, For the second time, Paul stood before this emperor. He could hope for little justice from the Caesar to whom he had appealed. Nero was more debased in morals, more frivolous in character, and at the same time capable of more atrocious cruelty, than any ruler who had preceded him. The worst of rulers, in his first year of reign,he  had poisoned his stepbrother – the true heir of the emperor Claudius. Nero had descended in vice and depravity, until he had murdered his own mother, and then his wife. There was no atrocity which he would not perpetrate, no vile act to which he would not stoop. In every noble mind he inspired only abhorrence and contempt. But he was acknowledged as the absolute ruler of the whole civilised world and was made the recipient of divine honours.

Paul’s condemnation before such a judge was certain. Paul committed his case to the one who had constantly in the past been his protector and provider.  Nero was rumoured to have caused the fire of Rome in AD 64 and he therefore, in an attempt to absolve himself, turned the accusation upon the Christians. Thousands of the followers of Christ—men, women, and children—were cruelly put to death.

In AD 67 Nero executed Paul. In AD 68 Peter was crucified by Nero’s decree. That same year, Nero travelled to Greece where he engaged in debasing frivolity. He then returned to Rome in pomp and glory, where he again engaged in revolting debauchery. During this frivolity a messenger arrived announcing General Galba was approaching Rome with his army. The Senate had already declared Nero an “enemy of the state” and the streets were full of an enraged mob crying “Death to the emperor.”

Nero did not have a compassionate and powerful God to rely on like Peter and Paul and he fled in fear. On the 9^th of June AD 68, at the age of 32, he committed suicide. This was only months after Peter’s death.

Their ensued a Battle for leadership from which Vespasian emerged victorious. It was his son Titus, the heir apparent, who sacked Jerusalem in AD 70.

Christians were often misunderstood, maligned, mistreated, and frequently reviled, but these great men and women pressed on in faith. How can we learn to do the same in discouraging circumstances?

In the year AD 68 Peter had written to the church the letter we know as Second Peter. Just months before his death we have Peter’s last recorded words! Take the time to read 2Pet.3:10 – 18.

Four years earlier he had written the letter we know as First Peter. This ‘book’ contains 10 explicit references to the suffering and death of Jesus. It has 4 references to His resurrection, 5 references to His second coming and 3 lengthy references to our own suffering. Suffering was the lot of a Christian in those days.

Both Paul and Peter used a phrase that is my philosophy for life; we are pilgrims and strangers in this land, exiles and sojourners in some translations. (C.f. 1 Pet,1:1,17, 2:11 with Hebrews 11:10, 13 – 16)

We are travelers always looking beyond. We are pilgrims, sojourners, and exiles. We do not belong here; we belong to what Jesus said He was going to prepare for us (John 14:1-3). In the last days before their deaths, Paul and Peter were not looking around. They were contemplating heaven and eternity. Ask yourself, where does all that fit into your plans?

Each of us has a distinct place in heaven, for heaven is like a symphony which takes a multitude of different instruments to make it function. You will never hear me sing solos in church, but in a group where I can’t hear myself sing, I don’t sound so bad. So, it will be when I join the angelic choir, with all the redeemed on the sea of glass (Revelation 4).

The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained the ultimate joy, or else that it was within your reach, and you have lost it forever. The price has been paid and the invitation comes across the centuries of human time: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.” Revelation 22:17.

The last words of Peter are the same as the last words of Revelation. They are the last words of scripture!   HOPE in the coming of the Lord!