Our Lives For Their Souls - When Men Willingly Become Martyrs

Ministers of the Gospel Series - Part 5 

Ecuador, January 8, 1956 - Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Rodger Youderian were killed by the Hoaurani (or Auca) people during an attempt to reach them with the message of the gospel. The five men and their families had been ministering to two of the neighboring tribal groups, when, by air, they discovered that there was a Huaorani village in close proximity to their base. Eager to share the knowledge of God's salvation with these people, the missionaries quickly launched "Operation Auca". A project that began with weeks of language studies and flights on which they made contact with the Huaorani from the air. Finally, the five men landed on a nearby beach and prepared to meet the Huaorani in person. They were attacked and killed a few hours after. In the midst of this tragic story, I want to draw your attention to a bewildering fact: All of the missionaries had guns in their possession yet they were speared to death without firing a shot to defend themselves. Why?

These men understood four things about witnessing that played a crucial part in directing the last decision they would ever make. No matter where we are in the world, or what profession we work in, all Christians share in the common mission of making the gospel message known. Therefore, we are all called to be missionaries and can all make use of the wisdom these men had! In this series, we have already learned four lessons that equip us to 'go and make disciples of all nations'. Let's re-visit all of those points once again, this time allowing the story of  "Operation Auca" to take us one step deeper in understanding what it is to share the gospel.

Revisiting Part 1 - The Missionary's Purpose and Passion

As Edward Studd discovered, Christians have been given a clear purpose to live for. Yet though we have been told to live as missionaries of the gospel many of us struggle to make that the priority of our daily lives. Jim Elliot knew that to live with purpose a person must also have passion. He prayed,

"Lord, fill preachers and preaching with power. How long dare we go on without tears; without moral passions; hatred and love? Not long, I pray, Lord Jesus, not long…"

His passion came from an understanding of all that his Lord has done on his behalf and it equipped him with a desire to see others know that gift as well. His passion for winning souls was so great that every other goal and responsibility fell secondary to it. Jesus said, "if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Matthew xxviii. 16 -20) Jim Elliot had arranged his priorities -God and His work being primary in his heart. That affection made him ready to be a disciple, to obey the commission his God had given him and follow in the footsteps of his Lord. 

“God, I pray thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” - Jim Elliot

Long before he faced the Huaorani's spears, Jim was prepared for God to use him - however He should see fit. Jim held no expectations for his life besides that he might be used in the furtherance of the gospel. For that purpose he was ready to give all - even his life.

"If we are the sheep of His pasture, remember that sheep are headed for the altar." - Jim Elliot

Revisiting Part 2 - Undeterred in the Pursuit

Fear is possibly the greatest deterrent that any missionary has to face when sharing the gospel and, like the Waldensians, these five friends were no strangers to its voice. 

Each of them would leave behind wives and small children if they were killed on this mission - a possibility that they had taken into consideration. They did not go into "Operation Auca" blindly for the tribes that they were already ministering to had suffered many casualties at the hands of the Huaorani people and called them the "Auca", meaning "savages", for good reason. In addition to this it was well known that, just ten years before, four other missionaries had been killed while trying to make contact with the Huorani. 

They could have been paralysed with fear, but these men knew how to put fear aside. "Perfect love casts out all fear..." (1 John iv. 18). Because of Christ's love for them, the team of missionaries did not need to fear death. If they died it would mean only the loss of their physical bodies, for their souls were secure for eternity. God had given them an assurance of His love and faithfulness towards them and He also gave them His love for the unsaved. Though Jim Elliot and his colleagues knew that they could die in the pursuit of these people, they were more afraid that the Huaorani would die without the knowledge of salvation.

"Greater Love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John xv. 13)

As in the story of the Waldensians, they had every excuse to give way to fear. The dangers they faced were real, but so was the love that enabled the missionaries to overcome the fear of them!

Revisiting Part 3 - A Bold and Clear Message

It may surprise you to realize that "Operation Auca" did not fail. Though the men did not live to tell the Huaorani people of the work of the cross, they died demonstrating it to them. For almost two thousand years before the martyrdom of Elliot, Saint, Flemming, McCully, and Youderian a similar story had unfolded. In which a single person allowed himself to be killed, when he had the ability to save himself. It was to this story that their own pointed.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, slowly dying, the people mocked Him saying, "save Yourself and come down from the cross!" (Mark xv. 30) This He was perfectly able to do, for the cross was no match to the power of the God that it held. Yet He chose not to demonstrate His power by that means. He was not battling against the cross but using it as an instrument to accomplish His purpose. 

"And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you..." (Luke xxii. 19)

The cross broke the 'bread' of His body, giving it to save the souls of men - including those of the missionaries who stood on a secluded beach in Ecuador surrounded by apparent enemies. It was in following the example set by the One who had saved them, that the five men did not use the guns they held. If Jesus was going to save the souls of men He could not employ His power to save Himself, and likewise if the Huaorani people were to be saved the missionaries could not use the power they had to preserve their lives. They knew that the Huaorani weren't ready to die, so each life they took would have been a soul eternally lost. This is the realization that made the encounter, not a battle of guns verses spears but a question of the value of souls over bodies! Even when words weren't at their disposal, the men preached the gospel with boldness and clarity - demonstrating the work of salvation in action.

Revisiting Part 4 - One Part of a Greater Plan

We saw how God had sent Epimenides ahead of Paul to prepare the people of Athens to understand the message he would bring. God was writing a story in which Epimenides and Paul were simply two characters with supporting roles. God is the author and He has many characters to use in accomplishing His purposes. He uses each one perfectly in order to bring about the great end of the plot.

"...Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” (John iv. 32 -35)

A few years after their death, Jim Elliot's wife, Elisabeth, their little girl, Valerie, and Nate Saint's sister, Rachel, had the opportunity to go to the Huaorani people and teach them the gospel message. The sacrificial live of the martyrs became the illustration they used to help the Huaorani people, including the men who the missionaries had spared, to understand God's love! So the death of the missionaries was no mistake on God's part, it was simply a sacrifice that was necessary as the first step in reconciling the Huaorani to God.   

 In his journal, Jim Elliot had written,

"A man is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he can not lose."

So we see that the five men deliberately did not to use their guns - giving up their temporary lives to gain the souls of the Huaorani for all of eternity. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Flemming, Ed McCully and Rodger Youderian showcased the wisdom of heaven, leaving the Huaorani and all of us with a better understanding of the cost that the God of the universe paid for our souls!

"Christ came down to save us from a terrible hell, and any man who is cast down to hell from here must go in the full blaze of the gospel, and over the mangled body of the Son of God." - Dwight L. Moody

This is the message that we have been called to share - through words and through actions and though it may cost us all!

In Christ

quiana