S
elling is my life. I started selling as a young boy and have never stopped. You have to believe in the product to sell anything — from popcorn to new cars. Customers are not fools. They can spot a phony a mile away.
I believe in what I sell with a passion. My clients may not be able to tell, but when I get a “no” selling a special section, a little part of me is hurt. It’s hard for me to understand how they can’t see the benefits and needs of the product I am selling.
This goes for any product and any salesman. Can you imagine getting a manicure from someone with lousy-looking fingernails?
The next time you are in the market for a new car, see what the salesman is driving. If she is selling a Chevrolet and driving a Honda, don’t walk; run out the door. That salesperson does not believe in what they are trying to sell you.
That’s why you will never see a local businessman shopping at his competition.
The apostles that Jesus Christ recruited and trained were some of the greatest salesmen to ever walk the earth.
Over 2,000 years ago, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem assumed their problems would be over after they eliminated the leader of what they considered a dangerous sect inside Judaism.
They were wrong.
After his resurrection, Jesus sent the twelve apostles to spread his teachings to all the nations. It is called the Great Commission.
The apostles and Paul believed and taught three truths: Jesus Christ was the son of God, he rose from the dead, and the belief that during their recreation of the last supper, the bread and wine used for Communion become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
As with my example of the car salesperson, the apostles demonstrated their belief in what they were selling through their suffering and, in many cases, violent deaths.
Let’s start with Peter, the rock, the leader of the 12 disciples and the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Acts 12:1-17 is the story of King Herod persecuting the early church and sending Peter to prison and his escape with the help of an angel. After witnessing 33-34 years after the death of Christ, Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.
Peter, who died for Christ, was the same person who denied him three times. What changed him?
According to Acts 12:1-2, James, the son of Zebedee, was put to death in the year 44 for his faith in Jesus by Herod Agrippa I.
The apostle Andrew is reported to have been crucified at Patrae in Achaia.
Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, is believed to have died a martyr in Ethiopia.
Traditions say that a lance in Persia or India martyred the apostle Thomas.
James, son of Alpheus, according to tradition, the Pharisees had him thrown down from the temple and then stoned.
Jude is said to have spread the gospel in Armenia, Syria and Peria where he was martyred.
In 2 Corinthians 11:24-26, St. Paul describes his suffering: “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once, I was stoned. Three times, I was shipwrecked; a night and a day, I was adrift at sea.”
While he was imprisoned in Rome St. Paul wrote several of his epistles. It is believed that he was beheaded in Rome as part of the executions of Christians ordered by the Roman emperor Nero around the same time Peter was crucified.
The first martyr of the Christian faith was Stephen. He was stoned to death in the year 35.
None of these aforementioned men became wealthy by spreading the gospel of Christ. They didn’t gain power or fame. They received no earthly rewards.
All of these men would most likely have escaped persecution and martyrdom if they had just renounced their belief in Jesus Christ.
Today, many refuse to believe in the divinity of Jesus and that he rose from the dead. For evidence I look to the salesmen he trained. If they didn’t honestly believe, who among you think they would have suffered jail, torture, and violent death for spreading the gospel of Christ?
Obviously, the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) salesman award goes to Jesus Christ himself. His resurrection sold the apostles on his divinity.
Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
