Go All In

On January 8, 1956, five missionaries were brutally murdered in a remote area of Ecuador by a primitive, isolated tribe who felt threatened by these newcomers.  All five had distinguished themselves in some way back home, and could have had promising careers.  Most left behind wives and children.  One man, Jim Elliot, had married his college sweetheart just two years earlier and left behind a 10-month-old infant daughter.  They had only had rudimentary interactions with the tribe, and hadn’t yet had the chance to communicate even the basics of the Gospel to the tribe.  It seemed like the mission was a complete failure, a tragic waste of lives, of talent.

But God had called them, and they had obeyed.  They didn’t go timidly, either.  They took their families into the jungle with them.  They went “all in.”  And so just as the mission was God’s, so would the fruit.  Back home, thanks to a cover story in Life magazine, America was suddenly captivated by Elliot’s story, and reminded the nation of the sacrifice and commitment of overseas missionaries.  The result was a whole new generation who made the difficult decision to leave home and share the Gospel, because Elliot and his wife and friends went all in.

Wherever you are, be all there.”
(Jim Elliot)

The story in Acts 5:17-21 is similar.  The church had put together an impressive string of “wins.” It was growing in numbers, and it exhibited a supernatural unity.  The Apostles were widely respected and did miraculous things that demonstrated that the power of God was with them and this new movement.  But new movements – Christian or otherwise – invariably run headlong into the established order, and this one was no different.

Israel under the Romans was a designated “temple state.”  In Israel’s case, this meant that most of the day-to-day governing authority was delegated to the Sanhedrin, the religious council that met in the Jerusalem temple.  So when Jesus challenged the status quo, He directly threatened that group’s authority.  When the Sanhedrin got the Romans to execute Jesus, they thought the problem would go away like so many others.  But now Peter and the Apostles refused to simply go away.  So the Sanhedrin threw them in prison, and would meet the next day to decide how to stamp out this stubborn little band.

And just like that, all the hope and joy that had characterized the first church must have dissolved into fear.  As the sun went down, it must have looked for all the Jewish world that that the Christian message was finally going to be snuffed out.

But this was God’s mission, not the Apostles’, and so He would be responsible for the results.  During the night, an angel sprung them from jail and instructed them to “go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life” (v. 20).  So – instead of going into hiding – the Apostles went right back into the most public place in Jerusalem and picked up right where they’d left off, boldly preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What has God called you to do?  It may not be to preach the Gospel to isolated stone-age tribes, just like it might not be as public or revolutionary as the Apostles in Jerusalem.  It may be as simple as modeling a Christlike attitude to your kids, coworkers or classmates.  It might be changing how you do your family finances, or how you spend your Friday nights with your friends.  Whatever it might be, two things are true: God has called you to do something, and if you do it, there will be people who are invested in the established order that will want you to stop.

What will it take to shut you up, to stop you from doing and being what God has asked of you?  Personally, I would much rather do the Acts 5:12-16 thing than the “spend the night in prison before potentially being executed the next day” thing.  I don’t like conflict.  But God has called you and me to do something, just like He called Jim Elliot and his friends, and just like He called the Apostles before them.  And simply obeying God’s call is how He makes us into the people He wants us to be.

If faith thus depends on hope for its life, then the sin of unbelief is manifestly grounded in hopelessness… Temptation then consists not so much in the titanic desire to be as God, but in weakness, timidity, weariness, not wanting to be what God requires of us.” (Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, p. 21)

It probably won’t play out like you think it will, and it may cost you everything – but go “all in” anyway and leave the results to God.  When you get to heaven, for example, you’ll meet quite a few Auca believers, thanks to the efforts of Elisabeth Elliot, Jim’s wife, who forgave her husband’s murderers and spent years showing them the love of Christ.  Remember, the story is ultimately about what God is doing, not you or me.  We’re just bit parts in a much bigger story.