While Emperor Nero was still alive, Peter was accepted as the leader of the apostles.  Our Lord, in Matthew 16:18, assigned Church leadership to Peter. Peter and the apostles were performing miracles and performing plenty of good deeds in addition to spreading the Gospels.  Jealousy from the Pharisees and Sadducees increased, and they were troubling the apostles and putting them in jail.  Amidst this persecution, the apostles had help from God through the angels.  Once, the angels even opened the doors of a prison to let them out (Acts 5:19).  I am sure they felt our Lord’s fidelity.  He kept His words then and He keeps His words always.  The apostolic message was at first primarily directed to the Jews, announcing that the old faith was not abolished but actually fulfilled in Jesus. The synagogues were places for teaching as well as worship, and the first Christians went there to find receptive audiences, inviting Jews not to deny their faith but to fulfill it. Christians claimed that they understood the Scripture better than the Jews did, because the prophets foretold the Christ.^[1]  But this inevitably provoked strong reaction from the religious authorities. Several of the Apostles were at various times arrested and kept in prison, and James was put to death by Herod Antipas. One of the early converts, a young man named Stephen became the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in the manner prescribed for blasphemers.^[2] I used the term “Christians” to identify followers of Jesus.  However, they were not called “Christians” until sometime later.