Preaching Jesus, Going to Jail, Taking Risks

By Doug Williams
Doug Williams is pastor of preaching and teaching at Bullitt Lick Baptist Church and a PhD candidate at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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He was an extremely intelligent young man with big dreams of fame and honor.  Yet all of his aspirations changed when he was converted to Christ at the age of 20.  He began to live for one purpose, a purpose he described as “a plan to please the Lord.”  I am speaking of the man who is considered the father of Baptist missionaries—Adoniram Judson.  The Lord laid the nations on the heart of this man in the 1800s.  Inspired by men like William Carey, he desired to travel east toward India with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let me give you a glimpse of the radical passion for God’s glory to the nations that this man possessed.  Before asking Anne Hasseltine’s hand in marriage, Judson wrote her father seeking his permission to marry her.  The zeal of this young man to preach Jesus to those who had never heard is captured in this letter. 

I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world? Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life? Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair.

    
Some might say, “That guy’s crazy!”  Some might say, “That’s unnecessary!”  Others, “That’s just plum foolish!”  But Jesus says that it’s the gospel.  “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). 
        
Surprisingly, Anne’s father said yes.  Their lives would be filled with trials and suffering for the sake of the gospel.  They set sail for India in 1812, but because of the country’s restrictions ended up in Burma, known today as Myanmar.  What a risk! 

But what is a risk and should Christians take them?  A risk is doing something that you are unsure of the outcome, but you do it anyway because the gospel calls you to it.  

The apostles are classic examples of men who willingly risked their lives for the gospel.  For example, Acts 4 tells us that Peter and John were teaching and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead (v 2).  The religious leaders got wind of the commotion and arrest Peter and John (v 3).  Luke recounts that on the next day the religious leaders question Peter and John and eventually demand that they speak no more in the name of Jesus.  The two apostles answered the demands of their captors, saying, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (vv 19-20).

Today we have two apparent options as Christians: (1) We can sit back in our cozy, comfortable, lazy-boy Christianity where there are no risks for the gospel and all is safe and easy, or (2) We can with those like the apostles and Judson, give our lives for the sake of the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Peter did.  John did.  Judson did.  What about us?

I believe as Christians that our only true option is the latter option.  We must give ourselves to this one cause, the cause of spreading the fame and honor and glory and majesty and beauty and greatness of our sovereign and holy God to the nations through the gift of His Son.

Peter and John understand this calling.  They lived their lives for this calling.  They gave their lives for this calling.  Acts is a book about this calling.  “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  After all, no matter the consequences, they could not stop speaking about what they had seen and heard?  Will you?

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