Friday, November 21st

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Friday, November 21

Acts 7:54-60

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

In the mid-1950‘s 5 young men in their 20‘s committed their lives to sharing the gospel with the indigenous tribes of Ecuador.

Their names were Jim Elliott, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Nate Saint.

Most were graduates of Wheaton College, were married and had young children.

They committed themselves to reaching a tribe of nearly stone age people called the Huaorani. They knew the Huaorani had the reputation of being violent and extremely resistant to outsiders. So they spent several months dropping gifts from an airplane in an attempt to demonstrate good will and friendship. Finally, in January  of 1956, they decided to make contact on the ground. On the very day they landed their plane close to the Huaorani village all five men were speared to death. Later it was discovered that they had refused to use their guns to defend themselves as they were being attacked.

Their story has been told in books and film.

While in Ecuador last summer with one of our church’s student mission teams, we visited the “Nate Saint House” where the men would have gathered before flying into the jungle on the day they died. It was a very sobering experience to be so close to the powerful story of martyrdom for the cause of Christ.

The deaths of those 5 young men, leaving their wives and young children behind seemed so unnecessary; such a waste!

But because their widows and children forgave the Huaorani and continued to reach out to them with the gospel, today there is a thriving Huaorani church and all four of the surviving tribesmen who speared those missionaries are now elders in that church! Furthermore, just as Stephen’s death in the first century sparked the continued growth of the gospel, the deaths of these five young missionaries also sparked a new wave of Christian missions all over the world.

But how do we even begin to relate to martyrdom living where we do in North America?

A “martyr” is usually defined as one who is persecuted or put to death specifically for their religious beliefs.

How can we compare what we might experience to what Stephen experienced, or to what those five young men and their families experienced in Ecuador?

In some ways, of course, we can’t.

But, when I really think about it, I think there is a way we can relate to this story. Is it not true that we all give our lives to something?

Is it not true that every day, every hour, we each pour our lives out on some altar?

That altar might be our work, the quest for money or success; it might be education or even our families. But we all pour our lives out for something!

Most of the time we pour our lives out so gradually that we barely even notice we are doing it.

Some, like the 5 missionaries in Ecuador, like Stephen, pour their lives out in a moment of brilliant clarity; like an exploding water balloon. But most of us pour our lives out a drop at a time.

It occurs to me that we are all martyrs for something! We all give our lives to and for some purpose. 
When we look at this story we are tempted to focus on how Stephen died, and we should, because martyrdom has happened throughout the centuries and is happening around the world today.

But I think this story is here to also teach us how Stephen lived!

He was a man of grace.

He was a man of truth.

A man of courage; courage anchored in grace and truth.

It seems to me that Stephen teaches us that a martyr is one willing to die for what he or she is living for.

We may not all be called to die like Stephen, but we are all called to live like Stephen, because Stephen lived like Jesus!

Pastor Brian Coffey