And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:24

In recent days we received the news of an American missionary and Bible student, who in his commitment to preach Jesus’ message of love to a remote tribe in India was killed by the arrows they shot at him. (Gettleman, 2018)

The news, which has covered the whole world and has had an impact not only among Christian communities, has led many of us to reflect on the value of our witness of faith, on missionary work, and on the real state that the whole world finds itself in.

The case of John Chau is not the only case of missionaries who die because of evangelization among isolated tribes; in 1956 five other missionaries were killed by an isolated Amazonian tribe. (BBC News, 2017)

And there are hundreds of many more cases, some published, and some not, of men and women, even children, who have sown the Gospel message throughout their lives.

All these cases lead us to reflect not on missionary strategies, but on the true way of planting the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Did John Chau fail because he didn’t convert any of the tribe to the Gospel?

The Holy Spirit is revealing many men and women of God these days that the Gospel is not necessarily established over regions by words, and that the non-conversion of at least one of them means that the operation failed.

Sowing the Gospel of the Kingdom requires only the will to reach the sites. The presence in the places of a bearer of the Gospel Truth establishes the very presence of the Kingdom in such places. This is the revelation contained in the blessing decreed to Abraham:

… and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:3

An example that clearly illustrates the principle is the case of the apostle Paul when he received an invitation by dreams to go to Macedonia.^[1] The invitation emphasized the phrase, “Help us.”

However, the length of the apostle’s stay in the region was relatively short, not enough to plant churches as he did in other regions, even when months later he wanted to return to the region he could not do so because Satan prevented him.^[2] Did the apostle fail to complete the operation?

No, he did not fail; the purpose was fulfilled merely by his passing through the region. He crossed the region from north to south. The presence of the apostle dismantled the mystery of iniquity which was operating in the region, as he himself admits years later when he wrote to the Thessalonians.[3]

The Kingdom of Heaven is urging men and women of faith, to trust His Word, to understand the spiritual significance of what it means to be a bearer of Good News,^[4] a competent minister of a New Covenant,^[5] and an ambassador of Christ.^[6] Terms all used by the apostle not to adorn the writing but to reveal by the Holy Spirit the authority possessed by the one who has given his life to the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Did John Chau fail in his mission to preach the Gospel? No, he did not fail. He did what the Lord demanded of him, his very presence established the Kingdom Truth in North Sentinel Island off the coast of India; now his blood cries out from the earth, as it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews,

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Hebrews 11:4

His witness is shouting louder than the most eloquent preaching. His life has activated the work of the Holy Spirit upon its inhabitants,

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

And he has opened the way for others to reap what he has sown,

I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. John 4:38

Jesus gave his life for us; he doesn’t want us all to do the same thing. But there is one thing we can do, to walk where the Gospel has not yet been established, to walk through cursed regions, to walk through regions of sin; to cross regions, so that as people of faith, we may claim for the Kingdom the land of our pilgrimage.

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Genesis 17:8

All biblical quotations are taken from the King James Version.

Bibliography

BBC News. (2017, Feb 23). El brutal caso de los 5 misioneros estadounidenses que fueron asesinados por los Huaorani, una tribu aislada en la selva amazónica de Ecuador. Retrieved Dec 2, 2018, from bbc.com/mundo: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/media-39066298

Gettleman, J. (2018, Nov 30). John Chau Wanted to Change Life on North Sentinel Island. Was He Wrong? Retrieved Dec 2, 2018, from nytimes.com: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/sunday-review/sentinelese-people-isolated-tribes.html

Pastor Pedro Montoya

Twitter: @pastormontoya

https://earthenwarevessels.blog

[1] Acts 16:9

[2] 1st. Thessalonians 2:18

[3] 2nd. Thessalonians 2:7-12

[4] Isaiah 41:27

[5] 2nd. Corinthians 3:6

[6] 2nd. Corinthians 5:20