Martyrdom

Jimmy Donaldson, also known online as MrBeast, has become a benevolent YouTube star for his provocative brand of philanthropy. He’s given away homes, cars, a private island, and lots and lots of cash. Usually, it comes with a dark twist: Once, he offered a man $10,000 a day for each day he was willing to live in a grocery store without leaving. In his most popular video, “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!” 456 people competed in a game show inspired by the dystopian Netflix drama “Squid Game.” (In the Netflix show, down-and-out contestants play deadly versions of children’s games to win $38 million.)

In March of 2024 MrBeast announced “Beast Games,” and thousands of people jumped at the chance, posting on Reddit threads about the application process and waiting hopefully to be accepted. The prize: $5 million.

Familiar with MrBeast’s content and with the lengths to which those who appear in his videos must go in order to win, many expected outlandish and even potentially risky challenges.

During an intake process this year, several contestants told The New York Times that they had been asked whether they would be willing to be buried alive or travel to outer space. One contestant recalled being asked if she would be able to swim to shore if thrown overboard from a boat. “I understand that such activities may cause me death, illness, or serious bodily injury, including, but not limited to exhaustion, dehydration, overexertion, burns, and heat stroke,” read a line in a contract that applicants were required to sign. (Such language is commonplace in reality television contracts.)

In screenshots from a group chat, some of the contestants appeared unbothered by the experience. They had signed a contract that they were willing to die for this.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Martyrdom; Money, love of; Risk – Throughout history, many people have given their lives for causes they felt were noble and worthy. Others have risked their lives for personal gain or glory. The question is, what are you willing to give your life for?

From boyhood, Davy Lloyd dreamed of nothing else but dedicating his life to the orphanage his parents had operated in Haiti since 2000.

He had grown up in Haiti, spoke Creole before English and had helped his parents run their mission, which had grown into a bustling operation that educated 450 children, with 50 living on the compound in Lizon just north of Port-au-Prince.

“He had said from the time he was little that someday he was going to be a missionary in Haiti,” his father, David Lloyd Jr., recounted in a phone interview from Oklahoma. “He just knew that that’s where he was supposed to be his whole life, trying to make a difference in some people’s lives who needed a lot of help.”

So, when Davy and Natalie Lloyd, then Natalie Baker, married in June 2022, they decided to make a life together in Haiti—even as the country of 11 million was descending further into political dysfunction and gang violence. … That notion was shattered in May of 2024, when two gangs breached the compound in succession, killing the young couple, along with the Haitian director of the group, Jude Montis.

Davy Lloyd’s father said, “We felt that in our hearts that’s where we were supposed to be and what we were supposed to be doing with our lives. I just kind of felt that with us being there it gave the community some hope because we hadn’t cut and run.”

Before he met Jesus, Ravan worked as a paid assailant for the RSS, a Hindu nationalist organization in India. For seven years, Ravan relished his role as a hired thug. After the death of his father when Ravan was 15-years-old, he was ripe for the RSS’ recruitment to persecute Christians. The RSS trained him to find Christian farmers, beat them, and hand them over to police. Ravan says he felt powerful and happy for the sense of purpose, national pride, and camaraderie.

But the Lord was preparing his heart for a much deeper purpose. His mother, who had become a Christian years earlier, earnestly prayed for her son to meet Jesus. Ravan said, “Ever since I was small, I used to tell her to pray quietly. Sometimes I would wear headphones to drown out the sound of her praying.” But after a near-fatal motorcycle accident, his RSS friends abandoned him. His mother was the only person who stood by him. When his mother invited him to church, he balked, especially considering the suffering he had caused the Christian community. But the pastor surprised Ravan with gentleness and love.

Ravan soon trusted in Jesus, married a Christian woman, and together they planted a church. He said, “I saw how I had been in my old life and how I lived now. I felt a burden within me to do something in return for God.” Six months after his newfound faith in Christ, his former RSS friends started persecuting him.

Ravan expects more persecution in the future, but he also says,

There’s a lot of zeal within me that no matter what comes. We face a lot of persecution, but when I read the Bible and pray, I have experienced God speak to me. I have learned that persecution is a part of the Christian faith. But I am determined to never turn back from my ministry. God gave me new life, so it doesn’t matter even if I die.

Michael Nnadi was a Nigerian, whose face projected a nearly supernatural joy. Michael was one of 270 students studying at the Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna State. On the evening of January 8, 2020, his world was upended when an armed gang, disguised in military fatigues, breached the gate of the school. They snagged four seminarians, including Michael, and made their escape.

By the end of the month, three of the four boys had been freed, but not Michael. A few days later he was found dead, his body dumped on the side of a road, massacred by his kidnappers. Michael’s twin brother, Raphael, spoke to the Nigerian press the week he and his brother would have turned 19. He saluted the path of faith and service that his brother had selected. “Michael was so much committed and loved the things of God. … My consolation is that he did not die in vain, pursuing things of the world, but rather he died in the service to God, training for the [ministry].”

It remained a mystery why Michael had been killed while the others had been freed. The same negotiators had been working on behalf of all four abductees. Some Nigerians, as well as local and international authorities, thought that he may have been disposed of as a negotiating tool to increase the ransom for the others, but no one knew for sure—until April 30, 2020.

That’s the day the murderer, Mustapha Mohammed, was interviewed in prison by Nigeria’s newspaper. So why did Mustapha kill Michael? He openly and even brazenly told the press, “He did not allow me any peace; he just kept preaching to me his gospel. I did not like the confidence he displayed [in his faith], and I decided to send him to an early grave.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a sobering story about persecution. Sometimes Christians are persecuted because they have not acted very Christlike. But Jesus also said that we would be hated for his name’s sake. In other words, we would be persecuted for our very Christlikeness.

In the film Of Gods and Men, director Xavier Beauvois tells the story of a small group of mostly French monks living in Algeria during a time of civil unrest. These monks live a life of quiet fidelity dedicated to prayer and work in the rural part of the country near a small village. As part of their work, the monks run a small health clinic and also provide necessary physical supplies like clothing and shoes to the people in the village.

Early in the film, word reaches the monks that a group of Muslim radicals is on the move and will soon be in the town adjacent to the monastery. The monks will be in danger as soon as the radicals take the town. However, they are given a choice. Because the radicals have not yet arrived, there is time for the monks to leave the monastery and move to a more secure place.

In a pivotal scene, the monks speak with the members of the village, most of whom are Muslim, about the decision. One monk says that they are all like birds on the branch of a tree, uncertain whether or not to fly away or stay. A woman from the village corrects him. “You are the tree. We are the birds. If you leave, we will lose our footing.”

The monks make the brave decision to stay. The monks were later kidnapped and beheaded; their bodies were never found.

Philip Yancey writes about a 2019 visit to Beirut, Lebanon:

Christianity had its beginnings in this part of the world, and biblical reminders abound. Solomon purchased cedars of Lebanon to build his temple. To visit the refugee camps, we drove along the “Damascus Road,” near the site of the apostle Paul’s conversion.

Christians who work in Muslim countries speak of “MBBs” (Muslim Background Believers), their abbreviation for people raised Muslim who decide to become followers of Jesus. Some keep their new identity secret, continuing to faithfully attend the mosque. Others declare their new allegiance, which often leads to family shunning and sometimes violence. Local pastors tell of murder threats against converts. Or, a woman may have her children taken away, and be held in a kind of detention, forbidden to leave her house.

In one city, I visit a church service that includes many MBBs. The pastor says, “Please don’t take pictures. The danger to Muslim converts is real.” I ask, “Why do they take such a risk, if it’s so dangerous?”

The pastor replies, “There are two main reasons why they become Christians. Many have visions or dreams of a man in white beckoning them, and they then discover the man is Jesus. I hear this story over and over from converts. The second reason is simply love. Not so long ago this city was besieged by the Syrian army, bombed every day. Six thousand died, with many more injured. You can understand why not many volunteered to help at the Syrian camps right away.”

He leads me downstairs, to an underground parking lot:

“Once our church got to know the refugees, though, we felt compassion for them. They have lost everything, and live in a kind of limbo, people without a country. So we converted this indoor parking lot into a school that now educates 650 kids. Not all our neighbors approve—we’ve been to court many times. But Jesus' love wins.”

Recently Pastor Ronnie Floyd shared the moving story of Missionary Howard Borden on Fox News:

In the early 1900s, 16-year-old William Whiting Borden graduated from The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania—a prestigious boarding school known for sending its alumni to Princeton University. He was an heir to the Borden family mining fortune, and had a clear path to wealth and success set before him.

But before Borden began his Ivy League education at Yale University, his parents sent him on a yearlong trip around the world as a graduation present. Earlier in his life, Borden had come to Christ, and while traveling the world, something happened that no one expected: he was moved by the spiritual and physical needs of people around the world.

Borden wrote a letter to his parents and informed them he wanted to spend his life as a missionary. One of his friends remarked that becoming a missionary would be tantamount to throwing one's life away.

Upon his return, Borden went on to Yale and graduated. He then studied and graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary. When his ministry preparation was completed, he boarded a ship to Asia to serve among Muslims in China's Gansu province. Along the way, he stopped in Cairo to learn Arabic and study Islam. In Egypt, Borden contracted spinal meningitis. Less than a month later, he was dead. He was only 25 years old.

Borden had walked away from his fortune to take the gospel of Jesus to the nations of the world. Most regarded his death as a tragedy; however, God took the tragedy and did something far greater than Borden could ever do himself. When young men and women read Borden's story in the newspapers of America, it inspired them to leave all they had and give their lives to reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's rumored that at key points in his life, Borden wrote a series of phrases in his Bible. While he struggled with his desire to become a missionary against his father's heavy disapproval, he wrote: "No Reserves." Toward the end of his time in Yale, where he had started a Bible study attended by three-quarters of the school's student population, he wrote: "No retreats." And as he lay dying of spinal meningitis in Cairo, he wrote: "No regrets."

Possible Preaching Angles: At a surface level, his life and death may seem like an unfortunate mistake—some may even consider it a waste. But God had other plans. God used Borden's life and death to call thousands and thousands of young men and women to leave all they had and give their lives to reach the nations with the Gospel. God did greater things through Borden's story than he may have ever done with his life in China.

Mark Batterson tells of a modern day martyr in his book Chase the Lion:

With his hands tied behind his back, missionary J. W. Tucker was beaten and then with sixty of his Christian compatriots he was thrown into the crocodile-infested Bomokande River. It wasn't ISIS or Al-Qaeda who claimed responsibility. The attack took place on November 24, 1964, at the hands of Congolese rebels.

Our natural instinct is to feel sorry for Tucker, whose earthly life was seemingly cut short. But life can't be cut short when it lasts for all eternity. A holy empathy for his wife and children, who survived the terrorist attack, is biblically mandated. But heaven gained a hero, a hero in a long line of heroes who trace their genealogy back to the first Christian martyr, Stephen.

In the grand scheme of God's good, pleasing, and perfect will, eternal gain infinitely offsets earthly pain. God doesn't promise us happily ever after. He promises so much more than that—happily forever after.

It was that eternal perspective that inspired J. W. Tucker to risk his earthly life for the gospel. Tucker didn't fear death because he had already died to self. It wasn't an uncalculated risk that led J. W. Tucker into the Congo during a civil war. He counted the cost with his missionary friend Morris Plotts. Plotts tried to convince his friend not to go. "If you go in," he prophetically pleaded, "you won't come out." To which Tucker responded, "God didn't tell me I had to come out. He only told me I had to go in."

It's not every day you hear a story starting with "when I died," but that's how 22-year-old Amber Moloney remembers February 6th. Moloney, a university senior studying exercise science, was one of three fitness interns at Hilton Head Health this semester. And just like every other day the interns (Moloney, Audra Weis, and Shane Wilson) went through their daily routine, leading fitness classes before working out together before dinner.

But on this day, something went wrong. In the middle of their workout, Weis, noticed Moloney in the opposite corner "moving weird," she said. Moloney collapsed "face down in a pile of dumbbells," Wilson recalled. He immediately turned Moloney over, exposing her "bright blue face" and moving her away from the equipment.

As Wilson quickly began performing CPR, Weis dialed 911. Moloney began coughing and spitting up foam but remained unresponsive, so Wilson continued his compressions. When the EMTs arrived in less than six minutes, Moloney had a heartbeat. But, moments later, Moloney's heart stopped again, so they used a defibrillator and shocked her about four times. The next thing Moloney remembers is waking up on the fitness room floor with about four EMTs towering over her.

The ambulance then rushed Moloney to the hospital. After a week Moloney had surgery to have a defibrillator implanted to prevent similar cardiac arrests in the future. Aside from a three-inch scar near her heart, you would not guess by looking at her that Moloney went into sudden cardiac arrest less than three months ago.

A few weeks after her "when I died" experience, Moloney attended the inaugural South Carolina Resuscitation Conference on Hilton Head Island, where she shared her story as a cardiac arrest survivor.

Possible Preaching Angles: Amber Moloney unexpectedly died one day in February but was brought back to life by her friends. Believers died the day we came to faith in Christ (Romans 6:1-4) and we continue to die every day as we pick up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23)

Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, once referenced what he called the "counter-intuitive phenomena of Jewish history"—a phenomena that applies to Christians as well. "When it was hard to be a Jew," Sacks wrote, "people stayed Jewish. When it was easy to be a Jew, people stopped being Jewish. Globally, this is the major Jewish problem of our time."

Geologist Dr. James Clark recounts visiting the Soviet Union a few years after Communism dissolved. He was asked to preach at a small Russian Baptist church that lived through a long season of persecution. Some in the congregation had been in prison because of their testimony in Christ. Others had husbands or relatives that had suffered or had even been killed for their faith. Dr. Clark decided to use the following geological illustration:

Clay is actually composed of many microscopic clay mineral crystals, which not even a light microscope can see. But under pressure the clay minerals are not crushed or made smaller. Rather, they grow larger. The minerals change into new larger biotype grains forming slate, found on many homes. With even more pressure, the minerals become even larger. And some are transformed into garnets, which are semi-precious gems.

Clark said:

I explained to the congregation that this geological process illustrates how pressure and suffering can be used to refine, purify, and mold a person into a more beautiful soul. I will never forget what I saw when I looked at the congregation. It seemed like the whole congregation was sparkling. The babushkas' (old women) eyes were gleaming bright with tears recalling past suffering. What makes a gem so attractive? It's the reflection. And these dear women and men were reflecting God's glory through the suffering they had endured.

The metamorphic rock story doesn't end there. With even more pressure applied, a new mineral forms called staurolite. The name is from two Greek words meaning "stone cross." The twin variety forms deep under high mountains in the shape of a cross. A reminder of Christ's ultimate suffering for us all.

Near the end of World War II, a plane carrying 24 members of the U.S. military, crashed into the New Guinea jungle during a sightseeing excursion. The three survivors, suffering from gangrene and hunger, were stranded deep in a jungle valley notorious for its cannibalistic tribes. The army tapped a special battalion of 66 jump-qualified members of "1st Recon" led by C. Earl Walter Jr. This battalion's daring motto was Bahala na!, a phrase from the Philippines that can be translated as "Come what may." There was only one way to rescue the survivors: recruit ten volunteers, including two medics, to parachute into the dense jungle and extract the survivors.

It was a dangerous plan. Walter stood before his men as he gave the potential volunteers four warnings. First, Walter told them, the area they'd be jumping into was marked "unknown" on maps, so they'd have nothing but their wits and their compasses to guide them. Second, the jungle was so thick it would be what Walter called "the worst possible drop zone." Third, if they survived the jumps, their band of men would confront "a very good possibility that the natives would prove hostile."

But Walter saved the worst for last. No one had a plan, even a rough one, to get them out of the valley. They might have to hike some 150 miles to either the north or south coast of New Guinea, through some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth, with crash survivors who might be hurt and unable to walk on their own. Complicating matters, if they hiked north they'd go through an area "known to be the domain of headhunters and cannibals." If they hiked south, they'd pass through jungles and swamps occupied by perhaps ten thousand Japanese troops. Death seemed a strong possibility either way.

When Walter finished his litany of warnings, he waited a beat, then asked for volunteers. Every member of the parachute unit raised his hand. Then each one took a step forward, as several of the men yelled Bahala na. "Come what may."

Editor’s Note: C. Earl Walter Jr. survived the mission and lived until Feb. 10, 2014.

Kayla Mueller, 26 years old, was captured by ISIS, and on February 10, 2015 U.S. officials confirmed that Muslim extremists had murdered her while in captivity. In the spring of 2014 as a captor she wrote to her family. The letter begins with Kayla's assurance that she has been treated well, and is "in a safe location, completely unharmed + healthy." The 26-year-old aid worker goes on to apologize touchingly to her family for the suffering that she has put them through because of her captivity. Then comes her central proposition: "I remember mom always telling me that all in all in the end the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator b/c literally there was no else."

Kayla, who was involved in the campus ministry at Northern Arizona University, goes on to relate how "by God + by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall." She adds: "I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it."

She concluded, "Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I. By God's will we will be together soon. All my everything, Kayla"

In 1967, a student named Libby attended with her boyfriend, Tom. During the final commitment evening, both submitted their lives to the Lord. For 30 years, Tom and Libby Little served in Afghanistan, providing vision care to the people of Kabul throughout seemingly endless wars and conflict.

In August 2010, shortly after conducting a two-week medical camp in a remote valley of northwestern Afghanistan, Tom and his medical team were ambushed and killed. Upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her husband, Libby said, "Although Tom was killed in 2010, he had already surrendered his life to God's good purposes way back in 1967." For four decades, Tom had submitted himself to his divine master. So in one sense, Tom Little had already died in Christ prior to 1967, and he would always live through Christ even though he was ambushed and killed in Afghanistan.

Congressman Frank Wolf, a committed Christian from Virginia, has been an outspoken advocate for international human rights for the past 30 years. After visiting hotspots for persecution and human rights abuses from around the world, he was asked if America—especially the churches in America—were failing the oppressed peoples of the world. Wolf replied:

I meet many people [from around the world] who are baffled and concerned that the West doesn't seem to be that interested in their plight. Three nuns from Iraq just came to my office. They said they feel abandoned. Half the Christian community in Iraq is now living in ghettos in Damascus, Lebanon, and Jordan.

I was in Egypt last month. The United States has given the Egyptian government over $50 billion [since the late 1970s]. And yet the Coptic Christians have been persecuted during that time. If you're a Coptic Christian in Egypt, you can't get a government job, and you can't be in the military. They wonder why the church in the West hasn't spoken out.

In China, you have roughly 30 Catholic bishops who have been arrested. You have hundreds of Protestant pastors and house church leaders being imprisoned and persecuted.

The church in Sudan has suffered persecution. In southern Sudan, 2.1 million people have died—mainly Christians, but also some Muslims and some animists. I had one woman tell me, "The West seems more interested in the whales than in us."

In 2011 there was a gathering of world Christian leaders from 200 countries. One of the speakers was the Anglican archbishop of Jos, Nigeria. His name is Benjamin Kwashi, and he shared a story that was horrific and inspiring at the same time. Jos, this city in Nigeria, has been rocked by sectarian violence for years now, primarily between Christians and Muslims. There have been endless cycles of violence and vengeance and hundreds of people killed. In March of 2009, a gang of people broke into the bishop's house to kill him. He wasn't home, but his wife was. They did unspeakable things to her, and they beat her and left her for dead. He found her, and she was still alive, but she spent most of the following year in recovery. A year to the day after this gang beat her, in March of 2010, they came back. They broke into his home again, and this time they did find Benjamin. They dragged him out of his house, and they were about to kill him. They had machetes and clubs. Benjamin asked for just a moment to pray before they began. So he knelt there on the dirt and began to pray.

A moment later he felt someone holding his hand. He looked up, and it was his wife. I still can't believe the courage of that woman. She could have run, but instead she broke through this line of the same people who had attacked her a year ago and knelt with her husband to pray with him, knowing that her life was over as well. And then a moment later, he felt someone holding his other hand. He looked, and it was his teenage son. Benjamin begged his son to leave so that he wouldn't be killed as well. And his son said, "Father, they've all left. They're all gone."

Why did they leave? Benjamin said he has no idea. And he knows they'll be back. Perhaps the reason they left is that when this bishop and his wife were kneeling in the dirt in prayer, the manifold wisdom of God was put on display before the powers and authorities in the heavenly realm. There was wisdom and power there that these people could not comprehend, and they became afraid and they fled.

The movie The End of the Spear tells the true story of five missionaries who gave their lives to reach the violent Waodoni tribe in the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950s. Led by Nate Saint, the missionaries were eager to reach the Waodoni people before they all died off from their intertribal warfare and vicious revenge killings.

As Nate prepares for his adventure, his family gathers around him on the dirt airstrip in front of their house. As he kisses his wife goodbye, his son, Steve, looks at the gear in the plane and notices a rifle. Obviously worried, he turns to his father and asks, "If the Waodoni attack, will you use your guns? Will you defend yourselves?"

Nate looks his boy dead in the eye and responds, "Son, we can't shoot the Waodoni. They're not ready for heaven. We are."

Elapsed time 00:32:30—00:33:48

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence