Could we turn to Matthew's Gospel,
the last chapter - chapter 28?
And we'll read verses 18-20.
Matthew 28:18-20.
"And Jesus came up and spoke to them,
saying, 'All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations;
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit;
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age.'"
We rest on Thee,
and in Thy name we go.
That last hymn in 1956,
five men sang it together
and went out together to die.
I want to speak tonight
on the life and legacy of Jim Elliot,
the 20th century martyr and missionary
in Ecuador.
All that can really be learned about him
are in these three books,
and I want you to note them.
"Shadow of the Almighty,"
which is the biography -
the life of Jim Elliot by his wife Elisabeth,
published the first time 2 years after his death in 1958.
"The Journals of Jim Elliot,"
written by him over a period
of about seven years
from age 21 to 28.
And "Through Gates of Splendor,"
the account written a year after their death.
The account of the mission to the Auca Indians
and the death of those courageous men.
Elisabeth Elliot once said of her husband,
"At the age of 21,
Jim began an adventure that would require
the ultimate sacrifice.
That adventure was to follow Christ
to the mission field of Ecuador.
And ultimately, face death at the hands
of an unreached jungle tribe.
It was a year and a half ago approximately
that one of our pastors, Philip Neeley,
shared a summary of Jim Elliot's life
with the men in our church.
Philip had gone away for two days
of reading alone,
and he always takes a choice book with him
and it was the life of Jim Elliot.
And Philip described Jim to our men
as a man of purity,
a man of purpose,
a man of priorities,
a man of the past -
meaning he loved history,
he learned from the past,
and a man of power.
And I thought, in thinking of Jim Elliot,
I thought of Bunyan's character,
one of his characters in "Pilgrim's Progress."
Mr. Great-Heart.
That was Jim Elliot.
But then, here comes Mr. Valiant-For-Truth.
Well, that was Jim Elliot also.
And I feel sure among his friends
and his college classmates at Wheaton College
in the suburbs of Chicago,
and other Plymouth Brethren church leaders,
that he seemed at times larger than life.
But he was a real guy
who smiled and laughed and joked
and cried a lot;
who loved to cut up and tease others
too much at times,
and he would be rebuked for it
by his pious friends.
But he was preeminently a young man
that, from his youth,
was in a serious pursuit to know Christ.
So, I want us tonight to look
at Jim Elliot's life under five headings.
The making of the man.
The marriage. The mission.
The martyrdom.
And the meaning for us today -
his legacy.
So first, the making of the man.
What did God do;
what did God use to shape Jim Elliot
into who he became?
Now, there's many ingredients often
in a good recipe.
And God's recipe for Jim Elliot's life
included a lot.
His birth: Philip James Elliot
was born October 8th, 1927
in Portland, Oregon.
He died January 8th, 1956
in the Curaray River in eastern jungles
of Ecuador along with his four friends,
at the age of 28 years and 3 months to the day.
He was born into a godly Plymouth Brethren family,
to Fred and Clara Elliot.
Four children. Two older brothers, Bob and Burt.
And then Jim, the third,
and then a younger sister Jane.
And their home,
when you read the accounts,
their home exemplified godliness
and consistent Christianity
that was really lived out.
Daily, without exception, Jim's father
led the family in Bible reading and prayer.
Always after breakfast.
Elisabeth Elliot said later that quote,
"Jim's father was always showing his children
that the Bible was to be obeyed
and lived out,
and that the Christian life
was a happy and rewarding one."
So, Jim came to Christ in such a context
around the age of six years old,
and his future years proved
it to be a genuine conversion.
Now, toward the end of his college years,
he wrote Elisabeth Howard, his friend,
who was known to him always as "Betty."
He wrote Betty about his father.
He says, "I blush to think of the things I've said,
as if I really know something at all."
By the way, a sentiment I've had often.
"I blush to think of things I've said
in the past as if I really know
something of all the Bible teaches,
when I think I know nothing.
But my father... my father's faith
is a kind I've seen nowhere else.
It is so real and practical
that it shatters everything I've seen.
He knows God.
We've had some happy times together,
and I cannot estimate what enrichment
a few months with dad might do for me
both practically and spiritually."
Mr. Elliot said, "I pray regularly
for my children,
and I pray regularly with them."
Every Lord's Day, the family were all
in church Bible classes and corporate worship
at their Plymouth Brethren assembly
in Portland.
And every child was in all the services
by the time they were six weeks old.
Mrs. Elliot believed,
"It doesn't hurt children at all
to sit quietly through the church meetings.
It's good for their nerves."
Well, their childhood was happy and wholesome
at their country place on the eastern slope
of Mount Tabor in Portland.
Their home was one of those homes
that people loved to be in.
Have you ever been to one of those
Christian family's homes
and you say when you leave,
man, what a blessing to have been there.
That's the way it was at the Elliot home.
What a family!
How they love and enjoy one another.
I want to go back there again.
They were always having visitors -
missionaries, preachers,
friends from college.
And the children - the four Elliot children
love having people in their home.
Family times were special.
Sledding yearly near Mt. Hood,
day long picnics on the Oregon coast,
or trips to their grandparents' homestead
where they would work the produce
or tend the sheep.
Their local Brethren assembly
had church life that was real
and fellowship that was vital and wonderful.
In summary, Jim's life
was consistently on the path
to a remarkable Christian life
even as a young man.
By the age of 13 or 14,
he was choosing to discipline his life spiritually daily.
And he began telling his friends
about Christ and about salvation.
In 1941, he entered Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland,
and he excelled as a student.
He would write editorials for
the student newspaper.
He starred in several school plays.
He excelled in public speaking.
And he was so good at drawing,
he wanted to be an architect.
He was planning on being an architect.
He was so good at drawing,
that the teacher kept his drawings
as examples for future classes.
A classmate said of him,
"Jim carried a small Bible
that would sit on top of his textbooks
on his desk in class.
It would only take an audience of one or two
for him to open the Bible
and begin talking and sharing.
He always prayed before eating his lunch,
and he never missed a chance
to talk to me about Jesus Christ."
In his sophomore year of high school,
he began to write short letters,
at times to his brothers and sisters.
One note to his younger sister Jane.
Now, he's a 17 year old brother,
writing to a younger sister some advice.
"Jane, begin each day with private reading
of the Word and prayer.
John Bunyan said, 'sin will keep you from this book,
or this book will keep you from sin.'
Give out gospel tracts too
to those you meet on the way to school.
And make a bold start at the beginning of high school.
It's easier that way than later.
And memorize Scripture on your rides
to and from school.
Redeem the time, Jane.
Time is costly because it is so fleeting.
Do your best to present yourself to God
as one approved."
Now that's a 17 year old boy
pastoring his little sister.
By his senior year, his desire
for his future in architecture shifted
to the mission field.
He would set an alarm every night
so he would have plenty of time
for reading and prayer before school,
which became the priority of the rest of his life.
In the fall of 1945, he entered Wheaton College
in the western suburbs of Chicago,
which was a long way from Portland, Oregon.
Now with one goal he went there -
to prepare himself to take the gospel
to a foreign mission field.
He didn't know where yet,
but he was determined to prepare himself.
Like Paul, this one thing I do...
that was Jim Elliot.
He had no money for college,
and he didn't know where it was going to come from.
But God honored his faith,
and he always had it
through gifts of family friends,
through prayer,
through part-time work.
And as he got into his college years,
his activities increased.
He majored in Greek
for future Bible translation work.
He became president of the foreign missions
fellowship on campus.
He was a class representative
on the student council.
He was a writer of poetry.
And he was respected and admired
by faculty and fellow students
as a genuine, serious-minded,
joyful Christian.
All the while, in the busyness of college,
being very consistent with morning
Bible readings and private prayer.
And it became his practice in college
on Saturday's, he liked to do two things.
He liked to go the college football game in the afternoon.
But on Saturday night, he wouldn't go out.
He would stay in.
Because he wanted to prepare his heart
for Sunday worship
and the Plymouth Brethren practice
of the breaking of bread -
their weekly Lord's Supper meeting.
It was the highlight of his week.
At Wheaton, he began a personal habit
in his junior year
that continued until 8 days before he died.
A young British preacher,
Steven Olford,
spoke in the college chapel one day,
and that day suggested to Jim
that he begin a daily journal,
that would improve his private time
in his time with the Lord.
And, he began to do that.
That decision to keep a personal journal -
his thoughts, his prayers,
the events of the day,
what the Lord was teaching him -
would be a great spiritual discipline,
Olford told him.
Well, that decision, 30 years later
provided one of the most stirring books
in modern church history and modern missions.
He never probably thought
that it would be published,
proving that small, personal choices
yield huge dividends later
in our own lives and the lives of others.
At the end of his freshman year of college
he wrote his parents:
"It's been a profitable year
drawing close to the Savior,
and discovering gems in His Word.
How wonderful to know
that Christanity is more than
a padded church pew
or a church cathedral,
but that it is a real, living and daily experience
that goes from grace to grace."
Those formative maturing years
were essential for his future usefulness.
The tender heart.
A clear conscience.
A lifestyle of daily repentance.
Godly zeal. Real prayerfulness.
High standards.
Focused spiritual goals
that he let no one or nothing
deter him from.
An active consistent serving
of the Lord and others.
Jim Elliot became in the U.S.
what he was later in Ecuador.
Shaped into a solid, grounded man
of the Holy Spirit by his mid-twenties.
And that's mostly seen in his journals.
What stands out? He was always reading.
Always reading the Bible deeply,
meditating in it.
Taking notes.
Reading John Bunyan, the Puritans,
Plymouth Brethren writers,
Scottish pastors Andrew and Horatius Bonar,
and Spurgeon - always reading.
And he learned to draw from the deep wells.
He learned to draw deeply
because he wouldn't hurry himself.
This deepened his mind
and his heart devotionally.
David Brainerd who died at the same age as Jim,
his journal had great impact on Jim.
And Jim wrote,
"Lord, if I were honest,
my soul would be more in anguish
like Brainerd's.
How cold and careless I've become.
Let not my soul be cast away
from Your nearness."
He soon wrote, "I have enjoyed
much sweetness in reading Brainerd's life.
I spent the last two days
with tremendous profit to my soul,
entirely in reading 6 to 8 hours each day."
Another day, "I just finished
Amy Carmichael's 'Gold Cord.'
How can I express the effect it has had on me?
Oh, what a shame and sham I am!
No scars, have you?
No scars.
No tears? No tears.
Oh God of the thorny path,
please in Your mercy,
privilege me to walk in Your path."
In those college years,
in those summers,
he feasted on the lives
of Jonathan Goforth,
Hudson Taylor,
J.G. Paton,
the missionary to the South Seas island
among the cannibals.
And his reading led him
into such meditation
that he began to journal more and more.
An example one morning:
Romans 15.
He's reading.
He comes to verse 13, which says,
"Now may the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Jim stopped there and he began
to write and pray.
"Every hour I need Thee.
I claim this verse for these days.
My love is faint.
My warmth practically gone.
Oh, that I were not so empty-handed.
Joy and peace can only come
through believing God.
And that is all can I say to Him tonight.
Lord, I believe You.
I don't feel love.
I don't feel anything,
and I don't understand.
I now can only believe.
So bring my faith to fruition.
Produce in me, I pray."
And suddenly he writes,
"What is this, Lord Jesus,
that Thou should make an end
of all that I possess
and give Yourself to me?
So that there is nothing now
to call my own, save Thee?
Thyself alone, my Treasure.
Strange I say that suffering loss,
I have gained everything in getting a Friend
who bore a cross."
He wrote. He meditated.
On 2 Samuel, he meditated one morning
and then he wrote this:
"Uriah, Bathsheba's husband,
declined legitimate ease
because his fellow soldiers
were in tents in the open fields.
David's error.
When kings go out to battle,
he tarried in Jerusalem.
How often..." Jim said,
"is this the history of Christian failure.
It's time to march,
and some Christians are laying on beds
of self-interest.
At such times, Satan sees to it
that a Bathsheba is not far away.
David staying at ease in Jerusalem
meant Uriah's death in battle.
Lord, don't let me be so found
reluctant because of selfishness."
His famous words journaled
in October of 1949:
"He is no fool
who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose,"
actually were not his words originally.
He journaled them after reading them
in the writings of Philip and Matthew Henry,
who one of them said it
in the 17th or 18th century.
But he liked it.
He was gleaning, gleaning, gleaning.
Soaking it in. Taking it.
Passing it on to others.
Some other gleanings,
February 1948:
"Lord, show me the difference between
worship and service,
and how to press into Thy hand
the fresh juice of living worship.
Not the dead meat which is only in my head."
"Last night I was entirely too talkative,
dogmatic, and even argumentative
with Dave (his future brother-in-law at Wheaton).
Argumentative about Christians in politics.
I'm seeking peace on this subject, Lord.
I know I've grieved Your Spirit
and my thoughts were not established.
Possess my spirit, Lord, today."
While reading through Genesis one month
he wrote this, "Lord, whatever barriers
there are in my life
that keeps the water of life
from freely flowing,
I ask You to point it out
and give me power to cut it off.
I would not be like Rachel -
beautiful but barren.
Give me Leah's eyes, tender eyes,
that I might be sensitive
to Your light and Your truth."
And his father had written him
not long before along that line.
His father wrote, "Jim, I am jealous
of anything or any person
who would hinder your progress
to everlasting riches
and a life completely devoted
to that supreme and glorious Man
at God's right hand."
Jim became so consistent in gleaning
rich gems of truth from the Bible,
over and over,
some major thoughts, major truths
about the gospel - he wrote this:
"Psalm 51.
'I was shapen in iniquity.
In sin did my mother conceive me.'
From the beginning of my life,
my contact has been with the unclean.
How then can a man become pure?
The atonement blood
that cleansed my own mother
must avail for me.
Oh, Lamb of God,
what a sacrifice Thou art.
Whose blood can avail?
Goat's blood cannot cleanse.
My own blood cannot avail, for I am unclean.
Only Thy blood, O Lord,
could be effectual."
In his daily reading in Genesis,
he said this:
"I cannot fail to see Christ
in Joseph's life today.
He's a young man, 30 years old.
A Hebrew servant.
'Without Me you can do nothing,'
says our Savior.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph,
'without you shall no man
lift a hand or foot in Egypt.'
Only our heavenly Joseph can open
all the storehouse of God's wealth.
All must go to Him for blessing."
I've never gotten anything like that
from Joseph's life,
but he dug.
He meditated. He prayed.
And he wrote out of his mind and heart
what he saw.
John 13 he was reading.
You know, at the beginning it says,
Jesus realizing that the Father had given
all things into His hands -
Jim Elliot wrote this:
"Jesus, seeing that the Father
had given all things into His hands,
He then took those dirty feet of His loved men
into those hands and washed them."
Always praying intensly, real,
honest, passionate requests.
He prayed this,
"selfishness, Lord, in our love
for service to You is inexcusable.
I have known this, Lord.
I've been guilty, often, I confess.
I have at times had jealousy
like a jagged tooth that spoils my thoughts
when I've seen other young men
get more of Christ
and more of His power than I possess.
Teach me, Lord, to rejoice
in other men's growth."
Praying for true zeal, he said,
"It's a good day for stirring and heart-searching.
Oh, may God revive His work in our country.
I want to become pleasing to You, Lord.
I pray You would make me a minister
who's a flame of fire.
Oh, that Christ would be to me
as He was to Zinzendorf -
the master passion of life.
My heart pants after Thee,
not for results or power.
From henceforth, I would not seek
an experience or a sign.
For I have Christ as my object.
Occupied not with tongues of fire,
but with the great purpose of the Holy Spirit,
to exalt Christ.
Father, make me a crisis man.
Bring those I come into contact with
to a clear decision.
Make me not a signpost on the road,
but rather a fork in the road.
So that men turning one way or the other
when facing Christ in my life.
Motives. He said,
"I sense tonight that my desire to be great
will frustrate God's intent for good
to be done through me.
Lord, let me pray
with an honest, earnest heart.
I choose not to be great,
but only that You grant me
Your goodness."
Now, how would you respond
if someone said this to you?
A friend of Jim's - a close brother -
came to him in college and said,
"One of our sisters said to me,
'we know Jim's humble,
but we wish he would act like it more.'"
So the friend came and told him.
He didn't tell him who it was.
And how would you respond?
Jim's response -
her name was Ruth Stams
who later became a missionary to Pakistan.
Jim said, "Well, the first phrase -
'we know he is humble,'
How can they be so certain of that?
I know my proud heart is aware
of its self-exaltation,
but the last clause -
'we wish he would act like it more.'
That speaks to me in powerful tones.
Often this self-exertion comes out
and is most offensive.
This flesh of mine is constantly producing
something of itself.
All uncleanness.
Lord, put an end to my fleshly production.
Stop it, Lord.
Instead, flow though me,
that I'll be clean."
So, these are just examples
that his spiritual reality
and the pursuit for it was always engaged.
It was always exemplary.
He always seemed to be out front of others.
He seemed to be in second or third gear
when others were still in first.
He was not only running more consistently,
but he seemed to be running at a faster pace.
It was very hard to keep up with him.
He was out front - always a visionary.
Always an initiator.
He said to his brother Burt,
who went to Peru for 30 years
as a missionary,
and Jim had thought of going there first,
he wrote to his brother Burt a little note:
"I must get into God's book for a little defrosting.
May God make us love like the Tishbite.
John the Baptist bold."
So, whether in high school or college,
he was always out front.
He was a leader.
An example of this was when
President Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945.
Jim was a junior in high school.
And the principal on short notice
thought it would be good to have
a school assembly to address the students
about our president's death.
And so, on short notice,
who could give a suitable speech
to the entire school?
Jim was asked.
His coach said later,
"I've never heard a better speech
all these years."
At Wheaton, he went out for the wrestling team
because he thought it would
keep him in shape for the future.
The result was, he not only made the team,
but he became a champion college wrestler.
Always excelling;
pressing on to improve.
Some of the views on important things.
"The pattern of my personal conduct
and behavior..." listen to this, young people.
"The pattern of my personal conduct
and behavior is not based on
the activities of those around me.
Don't follow the examples of those
still in the world,
and not necessarily even those
in the church.
Rather, the Word of God
shall be my standard.
And as I see it, there are few examples
of that kind of living anywhere."
That was 1948.
(incomplete thought)
On sanctification
and the work of the Holy Spirit.
He said, "We should remember
that while knowledge may make one
look big, it's only love that makes him
grow into his full stature.
Whatever a man may know,
he still has a lot to learn,
but if he loves God, he is opening
his whole life to the Spirit of God."
He said, "We do not surrender
our entire life in one instant.
That which is lifelong
can only be surrendered in a lifetime.
Neither does surrender to God's will
always equal fullness of power.
Maturity is the accomplishment of years.
And I can only surrender
to the will of God as I know what that is.
So the fullness of the Spirit
is not just instantaneous,
but ultimately is progressive.
If men were truly filled with the Holy Spirit,
they would not write books about it,
but they would major on the Person
the Spirit has come to reveal.
Occupation with Christ is God's objective."
Later, he said this,
"I was moved last night to think
how very little we know
of trust in the Holy Spirit
and Spirit-directed ministry.
Oh Lord, restore Your people.
Rouse the elect in Portland.
It is time for Thee to work.
The Holy Spirit is the only source of power
for the believer's witness.
Even if we know apologetics,
if we lack the power of the Spirit,
we will be ineffective
and even detrimental as witness."
Jim was a pacifist.
(Those who do not believe
that Christians should support
or fight in a war
or actively take part in politics.)
And even in high school,
he was very clear in his belief about it.
In high school, he was a member
of the public speaking club.
In fact, he was the most influential one in it.
And one of the assignments
by the leader of the club
was everyone - it was the presidential election year -
and the assignment was to give
a political speech about the upcoming election
and which candidate you favored
and what your views were.
So the club president assigned
each member a speech
and Jim was called on in class,
and Jim said, "I have no speech."
Well, the president of the class began to worry
because Jim was the leader of the whole class.
"Jim, you know the rules.
I'll have to expel you if you don't give your speech.
(Expel you from the club).
Now, come on up here.
You don't need any preparation.
Just give a brief extemporaneous speech
on your favorite candidate."
Jim, looked right back at him and said,
"I have no favorite candidate
and I have no speech."
Well, in rising from his seat, he said,
"But I'll be happy to take three minutes
to tell you why."
Well, the club president,
suddenly remembering Jim's convictions,
quickly said, "That won't be necessary, Jim.
We understand your reasons.
I waive the rule and you're excused
from your speech."
So, he was acting on principle courageously
which equipped him year by year
to act on the same principles
about the gospel
and about the mission field
and about missionary principles
and what he could or could not do.
His views of the local church were solid.
The Plymouth Brethren always called
the church meeting "the assembly."
We're going to the assembly today.
And it was a vital part of his upbringing.
And at Wheaton, he quickly found
a Brethren assembly in Lombard, Illinois
near Wheaton.
And in December of that year,
he journaled this: "What a ragged
and shoddy thing organized Christianity
has become in honoring man,
places, and crowds.
How I long to see the simplicity
and powerful beauty of a New Testament fellowship
reproduced."
He loved real fellowship
with the brethren.
He said, "the love of Jonathan and David
I felt again today for Bill Cathers,
my friend, upon reading a letter from him
who is en route to China.
It makes me throb to read his soul's swagger
and what the Spirit is making Bill
the way He is.
How I long for another like him!
But kindred spirits are so few.
Lord, give me a David that I can know
as David knew Jonathan -
sweeter, swifter, stronger."
Well, he did have some wrong views;
some immature views.
One was marriage and the ministry
and how they would mesh;
how it went together.
When Jim and Elisabeth Elliot both knew
they loved each other
and wanted to be married,
Jim expressed his thoughts.
"I cannot express the yearning in my heart.
Oh, what a jumble,
cross-current passion I am in.
May Christ only satisfy my thirst.
But the possibility of seeing Betty,
again, brings wishful thoughts.
How I hate myself for such weakness!
Is not Christ enough, Jim (he said to himself)?
What need you more? A woman in His place?
No, God forbid!
I shall have Thee, Lord Jesus."
And all along his Bible had been saying to him,
it's not good for man to be alone.
I'll prepare a helpmeet for him.
Someone could have said to Jim,
"you knucklehead."
It's not Christ or her.
It's Christ and her.
Because God had been revealing
to both of them that she was prepared
by the Lord for Jim and him for her,
to complement and complete one another.
Elisabeth was always ready to marry him.
He was always holding back
because of the mission field.
Singleness - that's the best missionary's life.
He said finally, after they were
both in Ecuador and the team
heard of a certain tribe of Indians
that were opening to them,
that a single man couldn't go in
because of the setting.
They need a couple.
There was no couple available to go.
Jim suddenly said to Elisabeth,
"So how soon will you marry me?"
Some wrong views get corrected in all of us.
Well, she finally got him
and he may have gotten the better
part of the deal
when you see the life of Elisabeth Elliot.
He was growing and changing.
But more about their marriage in a moment.
So, what I've said are the ingredients
that shaped and made him the man he was.
A life of separation and pursuit of God;
of holiness; a true churchman;
who viewed the centrality of the local church properly;
and being a vital member and being sent out of the church;
consistent, deep Bible reading;
always reading great books - the best authors;
a self-denying real prayer life;
cultivating a lifestyle of repentance
and humility,
and real fellowship with godly brethren
who exhorted and encouraged one another daily.
And keeping a journal that matured him
in his faith.
That was the making of the man.
Secondly, the marriage.
Jim and Betty Elliot (or Elisabeth).
She was always called Betty
by family and close friends.
The marriage - he first met Elisabeth
at Wheaton.
Both were students.
She was a year ahead of him.
And then David Howard, her brother,
invited him home at Christmas
to their home,
and he was there for more time around Betty.
They studied Greek together
being in the same course at Wheaton.
And he wrote his parents about her.
And a real love developed
and a mutual devotion between them
independently of each other
to God's purpose as friends.
She was his equal spiritually,
intellectually.
And he really saw her
as being further along than him
in a lot of ways.
Her godliness, her maturity,
her refinement, her separation
stirred him, intimidated him,
drew him with cords of love.
They were meant for each other.
She saw it early and he did not.
And it's a wonder that she was so patient.
But she was.
Well, they realized it.
Finally, they took a walk one evening
discussing God's path for them.
They had one date, if you want to call it that.
It was to a missionary meeting in Chicago.
They had studied a lot.
They had a lot of conversation.
But neither outwardly acknowledged anything
about their feelings for the other
beyond friendship.
But that evening, they took a walk
and when they looked at each other,
they both knew it and acknowledged it
and said it - that they loved each other.
That night, Jim marked in his hymn book
the date and beside it these words:
"If Thou should call me to resign
what most I prize,
it ne'er was mine.
I only yield Thee what was Thine.
Thy will be done."
But she didn't impress Jim's family,
for some reason.
Too quiet, they said. Too distant.
She's kind of awkward.
She didn't seem to fit in the lively Elliot home.
But Jim knew, and he stood alone,
but he was also afraid.
What about my calling? The mission field?
How can both be right?
It was a big struggle for him.
He said, besides, I hate American weddings.
Now with radical John the Baptist tones
he thunders in his journal about weddings.
Now see if you think he was just
running from his own wedding.
What he said,
"Twentieth century weddings
are the vainest, most meaningless things.
There is no evidence of reality in them.
The wedding party dresses for a show
and the flesh is given first place.
The songs are absurd if anyone pays attention
to the words, but no one does.
They simply listen to how it's sung.
Candles are useless, expensive trifles.
Ushers help no one, but they appear very official.
And the ceremony is the most meaningless
hodgepodge of obsolete grammar
and phraseology I've ever seen.
And the stupid question of asking
who gives the bride to be married?
Everyone already knows it's her father
uncle, or some sweating pawn at the altar."
He said, "I'm sure the minor prophets
would have have found subject
for correction in this affair."
And then he closes the paragraph,
"I must read this to myself on my wedding day
if I have one."
Betty said later,
"I do not think he remembered to read it.
If he had, he would have smiled
at his imbalanced zeal,
for he had matured over the years."
But maturity had not given either of them
a heart for an outward show.
Neither of them wanted a conventional
big wedding.
She showed up in Ecuador
shortly after him as a single woman.
When they decided to get married
they didn't return back to the states.
It was a civil ceremony of 10 minutes
at the justice of the peace
in the capital city of Quito.
I'm sure it wasn't called the justice of the peace,
but same office.
They were married in a ten minute ceremony
with two couples with them.
After a two week honeymoon in Panama
and Costa Rica,
back to the jungles
to live for five months in a 16 foot tent.
Ladies, you ready for the mission field?
The point is singles who are waiting
on God's person in marriage
should not try to figure out and control
how God will give you a partner.
He is leading you.
He was leading Jim and Betty.
And He caused the time to be right
in the experience.
So the making of the man
and the marriage.
Thirdly, the mission.
Current mission statistics staggered
and haunted Jim.
1,700 languages have not one word of the Bible.
90% of mission volunteers
never make it to any foreign country.
64% of the world's population
have never heard of Christ.
5,000 people die every hour.
The total of India equals North America,
South America, and Africa combined.
In India, there's one missionary
for every 71,000 people.
One Christian worker for every 500 people in the U.S.
Missions were Jim's target since high school
He began to think of India,
Muslim countries, and Peru
where Burt was going.
But by his senior year,
he was burdened for South America.
So, after he graduated from college,
he went off to the University of Oklahoma
and did their linguistics program for 3 months
to study linguistics for language translation.
And it was while he was there
that he became clear that he was sure
he was to go to Ecuador.
He had been to the 1948 Urbana missions conference in Illinois
before that and he prayed specifically.
"This came to me as I prayed
regarding this conference.
What the Lord has purposed
for this conference will be accomplished
but what is His purpose?
Lord, show me Your intent for me."
Well, after Oklahoma,
and that summer, he was clear
that he was to go to Ecuador.
He took a first practical step.
He hitchhiked to Mexico with a buddy.
Children, don't try that today.
But in 1950, it was more popular.
He and Ron Harris hitchhiked there
to be with the Harris family
who were missionaries there.
And Jim journaled, "Mexico has stolen my heart.
We've been here two weeks,
and I've been invited to stay as long as I desire.
Right now, I wish it were for life."
Writing from Mexico, he said,
"The Lord has been good to me
in bringing me here
to see the field and hear the language.
Missionaries are simply a bunch of nobodies
trying to exalt Somebody."
He was there for six weeks.
As he hitchhiked back to the states,
he had no doubt where he was to go.
As Betty Elliot later wrote,
"His face was set toward those
who had never heard."
His brother Burt was already in Peru,
and would be there for 30 years.
Ecuador became the focus.
And after his home church assembly
along with other sister Brethren churches
commissioned him to go;
after a time at home,
he and his close friend Pete Fleming
departed by ship for Ecuador
in February of 1952.
Betty Elliot arrived two months later
than Jim and Pete - still single.
The work began.
A team of five couples developed together.
And the men were there
only three to four years.
Jim Elliot was in Ecuador three years
and 11 months.
So the work in those years
consisted of the following:
teaching the Quechua Indians
with language charts
to read their own language.
Translating the Bible in Quechua.
Building a mission station
and their own houses
at Shell Mara - the operations base
for Mission Aviation Fellowship.
Jim and Betty lived there
after they lived in their honeymoon tent
for five months.
Holding services finally
and preaching the Quechua language,
building a small airstrip,
and surveying villages by air
to see where tribes were;
Jim and the brothers
were only there a few short years.
On sailing away that day
in February of 1952,
Jim said, "We left the outer harbor dock
from San Pedro, California at 2:06 today.
Mom and dad stood together
watching on the pier.
As we slipped away, Psalm 60:12
came to mind and I called it back to them.
"Through God, we shall do valiantly."
They wept some.
I do not understand how God has made me.
I didn't feel like crying.
Only sheer joy and thanksgiving fills me.
The sheer joy of being in the will of God
is my general experience now.
The Lord is in our going now,
and if life were to end at this point,
I could say with Simeon,
'Lord, let Your servant depart in peace.'"
The first five months were language studies
in Quito, the capital city,
with a Dr. Tidmarsh, a veteran missionary
who was leaving the country
because of his wife's health.
So along with Jim and Betty Elliot,
Nate and Marjorie Saint,
Roger and Barbara Youderian,
Pete and Olive Fleming,
and Ed and MaryLou McCully -
a team of ten.
Five families.
Not one individual like David Brainerd.
That says something about the importance
of biblical missions.
Jim Elliot had a proper view of the local church
and being under authority
to be sent out.
They were a team.
They had to live as one another's church;
one another's body.
And so did the wives.
All of these are in their twenties -
young twenties, middle-aged twenties,
older twenties.
Twenty-year olds.
The mission target once they were all in Ecuador
became the most savage tribe
in the country.
The Auca Indians.
Operation Auca began February 1952.
The Auca's were the most savage group of killers
in all the eastern jungles of Ecuador.
The word "Auca" was given to this group
of Indians by the Quechua Indians,
and it means "savage."
Auca. Savage.
The savage Auca's.
Unreached by white men.
Except when business explorers
in previous decades
hunting rubber or minerals
came exploring their territory,
abusing the Auca's, killing them
to advance their own business ventures.
This caused any openness or curiosity
about the outside world to be destroyed.
They were totally closed off
from anyone but themselves.
Now, time doesn't allow the story here.
It's in the journals; it's in the books.
Especially "Through Gates of Splendor."
But those ten missionaries -
those five couples -
courageous, focused, sacrificial,
loving and big-hearted,
said, "In Thy name, we go."
It was the Auca's they targeted
and began their prayers
and the planned approach
to be the first ever white men
to become friends with the Auca's.
They made a first friendly contact.
Five white men
with three naked Auca Indians.
So the mission was clear
and was in gear.
Then, the martyrdom.
It was five men. Not just Jim Elliot.
As a young man through his twenties,
Jim was always for some reason
speaking, writing, and praying about death.
It's coming.
I want to be ready.
He was facing and thinking about it.
Prior to arriving in Ecuador,
we see his mind and his perspective
in his own words.
Age 20; 9 years before his death.
"If I would spare my life blood
and resist pouring it out as a sacrifice,
Father, take my life -
even my blood if You will
and consume it.
I would not save it,
for it is not mine to save.
Have it, Lord. Have it all.
Pour out my life as an offering
for the world."
A year later - age 21.
"Lord, light the idle sticks of my life.
Let me burn up for Thee.
Consume my life, O God, for it is Yours.
I seek not a long life, but a full one, like Yours,
Lord Jesus."
Age 21, "Father, if You will let me go
to South America to labor for You
and to die,
I pray You will let me go soon.
Nevertheless, not my will."
Next year, age 22.
"I must not think it strange
if God takes in youth,
those I would have kept on earth
till they were older."
"God is peopling eternity,
and I must not restrict Him
to older men and women."
He said, "I saw in reading David Brainerd's life,
was much encouraged to think of a life
of godliness in the light of an early death."
"Had thoughts of eternity today.
It will be a great eye-opener
and a great mouth-shutter,
and it will confirm the martyr's blood.
How few, how short the hours my heart beats.
Then on into the real world
where the unseen is important."
He described a coffin
as a swallowing up of life.
He said, "for this I am most anxious."
Now, he had closely read
the autobiography of John G. Paton,
missionary to the cannibals
in the South Seas in the 19th century.
He, like Paton, was opposed and criticized
by others about going to the remote
unreached tribes and the dangers.
Friends and church leaders
told Paton and Jim
they should stay at home.
They could do much good at home.
Influence your church here.
When John Paton was decided and firm,
one of his own church members said,
"The cannibals! You'll be eaten by cannibals!"
The memory of John Williams
who had gone from Scotland
only 19 years earlier
had been eaten by cannibals.
But to this Paton responded,
"Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now,
and you will be soon in the grave,
there to be eaten by worms.
So it will make no difference to me
whether I'm eaten by cannibals or worms.
In the great day, my resurrection body
will rise as fair as yours
in the likeness of Jesus."
This was Jim Elliot's perspective
on death and eternity.
So, they focus on the Auca's.
They had friendly fly-by's,
dropping gifts.
They landed on the beach.
They built little houses 35 feet up in the trees.
And they waited. They would go and they would come
and they would wait and come back.
And they finally had friendly contact.
First, a young woman
and then a few others.
And they then began to plan
a fresh fuller contact
and they left their wives for the last time
and were gone five days.
On the fifth day, the men were surprised
on the beach by killers
that they had hoped would be friendly.
They left for the beach five days before dying.
And Elisabeth Elliot tells it best.
Finally, the meaning for us here.
What does this mean to us?
His legacy to us?
What shall we say of this man's life
and his example to us?
We can't go back 68 years
to hear him preach or pray
or to talk to him.
We have the record.
We have the legacy.
What's our takeaway?
What's applicable to you and I this week?
This spring in 2018?
What are the lessons and the message for us?
A few things.
First of all,
we must have realistic and not romantic views
of our spiritual heroes.
Those who have inspired us,
have fed us and taught us,
have ministered the most to us
for the greatest help and blessing,
are never perfect Christians.
They're flawed; they have blind spots.
They have prejudices.
They have needs. They have struggles.
They have sins.
They're wrong in some areas.
They can fail you.
They will, at times, disappoint you.
And they don't have all the answers.
So, like Jim Elliot in his day,
he viewed his spiritual leaders
with realism.
He didn't idolize them.
We shouldn't idolize them
or romanticize them
or praise them wrongly.
Scripture says whose faith follow.
And so, we should have a realistic view
of those in history
and of those we follow today.
Secondly, a lesson we should learn from this is this:
A consistent and faithful life.
A consistent and faithful life
without martyrdom is as herioc
as a martyr's death.
Think about it.
Five men on that beach
surprised suddenly.
A spear attacks and it takes 2 minutes,
maybe, to die.
And it's over.
Does that somehow take superhuman power
more than living daily for Christ
for 70 years and running well to the end?
Both are heroic.
We know about David Brainerd only because
Jonathan Edwards published his private diary.
But do you know anything about John Brainerd?
David's younger brother.
No journal. No hero.
But he went and replaced David
among the Indians
and stayed 30 years.
Same caliber of man.
Same godliness.
He just never wrote about it.
Do you know anything about Burt Elliot,
Jim's brother?
Jim's there less than four years.
Burt's in Peru 30 years.
Of the four, Jim Elliot, Burt Elliot,
John Brainerd, who's more the hero?
We would know nothing about
the famous Brainerd or the famous Elliot
if four books had not been written.
No books - no heroism.
But it's heroic to faithfully live for Christ where you are,
keep serving,
obeying God's will for you,
year in and year out,
doing what God's called you to do.
Dying for Christ suddenly
is not more glorious
than living for Him for 50 years.
Living long term in faithful service
is what we're called to do.
God determines the names
and the numbers of the martyrs.
And He determines who is not one.
So, the McCheyne's, the William Borden's,
the Keith Green's, the Jim Elliot's
are few in number who die early.
They are so few.
The majority of Christians get the privilege
and heroism of living 30, 40, 50,
70 years walking with God.
The George Muller's... he was 90.
Leonard Ravenhill - he was 87.
Keith McCloud - late 70's.
Bill McCloud - 80.
Bob Jennings - in his sixties.
Conrad Murrell - 89.
It's the little things done
in persevering faithfulness
that are worthy of praise and notice.
A Belfast detective
in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
during the days of the bombings of the IRA
and the protestant conflict,
a Belfast detective read
Jim Elliot's life.
And he said I was afraid every day
to go into that battle zone.
I had fear every day.
Fear for my family.
But I read Jim Elliot's life,
and it transformed me.
He said if Jim Elliot can go in there
with courage for Christ, so can I.
That's a takeaway.
Faithfulness to Christ
in the small things is as great
of heroism as dying a martyr's death.
Thirdly, what does this mean for us?
More than ever, arise and go.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.
What are you pursuing?
You young men, are you as focused
in any degree as Jim Elliot was?
Are you wandering?
Are you just aimless?
Or what are you focusing on?
What is God's purpose for your life
in light of kingdom purposes?
Are you settling in?
You young couples,
middle-aged couples,
are we settling in?
Are you settling in for a good old U.S.A. lifestyle
of ease, fun, and comfort?
Have you ever been willing to go?
And have you truly surrendered
only wanting God's will?
If not, you need to start all over again
on your kingdom-first seeking
and deal with this.
You think about places right now.
Lebanon.
We have brethren there right now,
for the most part -
as far as long term - laboring alone.
Couples are needed.
Mature, godly, self-denying
single men are needed there right now.
Mexico.
Tim and Diego are going soon to Ecuador.
Many places God is opening doors
and working.
So where do you fit in the scheme
of God's purpose of serving Him?
If not you, who?
If not now, when?
If not you, why?
What are you holding on to?
What can or what will you
give your life to
that's more glorious or eternal
than what Jim Elliot lived for?
For the five young wives in their twenties,
MarLou McCully,
Olive Fleming,
Barbara Youderian,
Rachel Saint, and Betty Elliot -
the longing of their numb and mute hearts
after their husbands died
was echoed by words found
in Jim's diary written before he died
in Ecuador.
He wrote, "I walked out to the hill just now.
It is exalting and delicious
to stand embraced by the shadows
of a friendly tree with the wind
tugging at my coat.
And the heavens calling for my heart
to gaze in glory and give oneself
to God again.
What more could a man ask?
Oh, the fullness! The pleasure!
The sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!
I care not if I never raise my voice again for Him,
if only I may love and please Him.
Perhaps, in mercy, He may give me
a host of children that I may lead them
to explore His delicacies.
But if not,
if I may but see Him
and smile into His eyes,
oh, then... then, nothing will matter.
Only Him."
O church, arise.
Let's sing it together.
O church, arise.