{"id":39663,"date":"2017-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/missionary-shares-why-he-risked-his-life\/"},"modified":"2017-09-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T00:00:00","slug":"missionary-shares-why-he-risked-his-life","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/missionary-shares-why-he-risked-his-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Missionary Shares Why He Risked His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Batterson tells of a modern day martyr in his book <em class=\"citation\">Chase the Lion<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>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&#39;t ISIS or Al-Qaeda who claimed responsibility. The attack took place on November 24, 1964, at the hands of Congolese rebels.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Our natural instinct is to feel sorry for Tucker, whose earthly life was seemingly cut short. But life can&#39;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.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In the grand scheme of God&#39;s good, pleasing, and perfect will, eternal gain infinitely offsets earthly pain. God doesn&#39;t promise us happily ever after. He promises so much more than that&mdash;happily <em>forever<\/em> after.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It was that eternal perspective that inspired J. W. Tucker to risk his earthly life for the gospel. Tucker didn&#39;t fear death because he had already died to self. It wasn&#39;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. &quot;If you go in,&quot; he prophetically pleaded, &quot;you won&#39;t come out.&quot; To which Tucker responded, &quot;God didn&#39;t tell me I had to come out. He only told me I had to go in.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3640,3676,3749,3833,4060,4430,4431,4477,4480,4828,4869,4914,4931],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39663","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-consequences","tax_ctp_tags-dedication","tax_ctp_tags-dying-to-self","tax_ctp_tags-global-missions","tax_ctp_tags-martyrdom","tax_ctp_tags-martyrs","tax_ctp_tags-mission-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-missionary","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-self-denial","tax_ctp_tags-self-sacrifice"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Missionary Shares Why He Risked His Life - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/missionary-shares-why-he-risked-his-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missionary Shares Why He Risked His Life - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Batterson tells of a modern day martyr in his book Chase the Lion: With his hands tied behind his back, missionary J. 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