Boldness on Display

Because we have been born again, we can be assured not only that we are saved, but that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, directing and strengthening us to do God's will. Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, having given His disciples the Great Commission to go into all the world, spoke to them one final time, according to Acts chapter 1, which says:
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me;
5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

When we feel weak and powerless, just as Paul wrote about in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, we can turn to God for the strength we need.  He gives us the love, devotion, and resources we need in order to live a life that pleases Him and to proclaim His truth. In faith, we can rely on God to show us what He wants us to do in fulfilling the mission He has for us. And, we can be confident that He will go with us to accomplish through us what He desires.

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We have been directed and empowered to display the presence of God in a world that so desperately needs to know Jesus. Psalm 96 states:
3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

Later in that Psalm, we can read:
10 Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously."
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord.

According to a review that I came across about a film that is premiering in a selected, very small, number of theaters today, a friend of a missionary who lost his life said, "My friend did something stupid and courageous and bold,” adding, “I wish I was that bold.”

The film is called, The Mission, which was produced in accordance with National Geographic Documentary Films.  Alyssa Wilkinson, who has taught at The King's College in New York and now reviews movies for Vox, integrated her own spiritual journey into the review of two faith-related films.  Regarding this missionary to whom I referred earlier, John Chau, she mentioned the inspiration of the late Jim Elliot, who lost his life attempting to win a group in South America to Christ, she wrote:

Imagination, as it happens, is where a lot of would-be missionaries find their origin story. The subject of The Mission, John Chau, found his inspiration in figures like Elliot, who died in 1956 alongside several white missionaries when they traveled to evangelize the Huaorani of Ecuador. At 26, Chau followed in Elliot’s footsteps, journeying illegally in 2018 to evangelize the Sentinelese people on a remote island off the Indian coast, then making global headlines when his body was found on the shore.

Wilkinson referred to The Mission as "an exemplary, thoughtful film," and notes, "Empathetic and non-reactionary, the film weaves together perspectives from people highly skeptical of missions and those who are still true believers."

Voice of the Martyrs has recognized the work of John Chau.  Its website states:

...in November 2018, news outlets around the world were running the story of a 26-year-old American man who had been killed trying to make contact with a remote tribe on North Sentinel Island, a tiny speck in the Bay of Bengal between India and Southeast Asia. Many news reports and opinion pieces implied that John had been foolish to contact a people group known to be violent toward outsiders. What they didn’t know was that John had prepared for years to reach the Sentinelese with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

John spent almost a decade preparing to take the gospel to the Sentinelese, one of the last uncontacted people groups. His journey began in 2008, the year he turned 17, when he became what he described as “an apprentice to Jesus.”

After taking his first missions trip the following year, he began to pray about spending his life serving as a missionary. “I know that God used that time to mark my life,” he said later. In his prayers, John asked God where He wanted him to go, echoing Isaiah’s affirmation — “Here I am! Send me.”

Soon after making that prayerful commitment, John found information online about the Sentinelese people, who live on an isolated island and have never heard the gospel. He sensed that God was calling him to go to North Sentinel Island to share God’s love with them. 

And, after his death at the hands of Sentinelese fishermen, according to VOM:

The story of John the “adventure bro” quickly turned to John the misguided missionary, the colonizer, the thoughtless disease spreader. The mocking memes on social media and criticism in a variety of media came in waves. Some comedians even used the story of John’s murder in their acts.

More concerning was the criticism from Christians who attacked John’s perceived lack of preparation and insensitivity to the culture. Some even questioned whether the Great Commission might be outdated in 2018; perhaps, they posed, it doesn’t apply to tribes that have no contact with the outside world.

“I would say for me the only ongoing pain that I have about [John’s mission and death] is actually how Christianity as a whole treated John so poorly after he was so willing to give his life for Jesus,” said Pam Arlund of All Nations. “He was willing to give his life for a people group that he never actually got a chance to meet. … I wish that, I will call it Christendom, would have been kinder to him.”

Last year, John Chau was "honored" by Voice of the Martyrs for the Day of the Christian Martyr. The ministry partnered with Phil Cooke and Cooke Media Group to produce a video about John's life. John ministered with the missions organization All Nations, and was an alumnus of the Covenant Journey program, which is a sister organization to Liberty Counsel and offers young people an opportunity to take a 10-day journey to Israel in order to strengthen their Christian faith.

Covenant Journey's website noted this honor granted to Chau on its website last year, and stated:

His final letter, written to his family, states in part: “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed – rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever He has called you to and I’ll see you again when you pass through the veil. “

John concluded by writing, “This is not a pointless thing—the eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can’t wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language as Revelation 7:9-10 states. I love you all and I pray none of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ.” He concluded with “Soli Deo Gloria,” and signed his name.

To outside observers, the story of John Chau may have seemed ill-informed, even reckless.  But, as Voice of the Martyrs has portrayed it, Chau was motivated by a desire to see members of this tribe won to Christ, much like the dedication of Jim Elliot, who was driven by the love of Christ to present His love to a remote tribe, the Aucas, in South America.  

You know, sometimes we have to go toward following and fulfilling God's will and away from the scoffers.  There will sometimes be those who don't understand, who don't really know what God is doing in someone's heart.  Through prayer, a devotion to God's Word, the leadership of the Spirit, and even the words of trusted counsel, we can ascertain the will of God and gain the strength to perform it. 

Jesus directs us in the Great Commission to "go."  Now, what that looks like will take different forms based on the individual instructions that the Lord has for us.  We should always be prepared to make good decisions, but what appears to be safe and even sane may not be the way we are being led by God.