Ten Who Changed the World

Dr. Daniel L. Akin

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781433673078
• eBook ISBN: 9781433677359
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Ten Who Changed the World is seminary president Daniel Akin's powerful tribute to the transformational work done by some truly inspiring Christian missionaries. With each profile, he journeys into the heart of that gospel servant's mission-minded story and makes a compelling connection to a similar account from the Bible. David Brainerd (1718-1747; missionary to Native Americans) reminds Akin of Paul's missionary life in 2 Timothy. The faithful ministry of George Leile (1750-1820; missionary to Jamaica) is aligned with Galatians 6. William Carey (1761-1834; missionary to India) lives out the Great Commission of Matthew 28. There are parallels between Adoniram Judson (1788-1850; missionary to Burma) and Romans 8. Lottie Moon (1840-1912; missionary to China) displays the power of a consecrated life described in Romans 12. The work of James Fraser (1886-1938; missionary to China) illustrates Revelation 5. Eric Liddell (1902-1945; missionary to China), his life documented in the film Chariots of Fire, illuminates Hebrews 12.Together, John (1907-1934) and Betty Stam (1906-1934; missionaries to China) embodied Psalm 67. William Wallace (1908-1951; missionary to China) was a shining example of Philippians 1. Jim Elliot (1927-1956; missionary to Ecuador) is a bold reminder of Psalm 96.

CHAPTER 1

The Great Commission and William Carey: A Passionate Global Vision

Matthew 28:16–20

William Carey may have been the greatest missionary since the time of the apostles. He rightly deserves the honor of being known as “the father of the modern missions movement.” Carey was born in 1761, and he left England in 1793 as a missionary to India. He would never return home again, instead dying in 1834 among the people he had given his life to save.

William Carey was poor, with only a grammar school education, and yet he would translate the Bible into dozens of languages and dialects. He established schools and mission stations all over India. Timothy George (dean of Beeson Divinity School) described Carey as a “lone, little man. His resume would have read: Education—minimal. Degrees— none. Savings–depleted. Political influence—nil. References—a band of country preachers half a world away. What were Carey’s resources? Weapon—love. Desire—to bring the light of God into the darkness. Strategy—to proclaim by life, lips, and letters the unsearchable riches of Christ.”1

William Carey understood Matthew 28:16–20. It was his farewell text to his church at Harvey Lane before departing to India. Though he had been rebuked earlier by the respected minister John Ryland Sr., Carey was undeterred. Ryland had told him, with his now infamous words, “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do without your aid or mine.”2 Despite this he would powerfully proclaim, “Expect great things. Attempt great things.” (Later tradition would add “from God” and “for God,” though this is undoubtedly what he meant.)3

He would publish his famous An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.4 Here he would pen searing words for the church of his day as well as our own. Commenting on the Great Commission text, found in Matthew 28:16–20, Carey wrote:

This commission was as extensive as possible, and laid them under obligation to disperse themselves into every country to the habitable globe, and preach to all the inhabitants, without exception, or limitation. They accordingly went forth in obedience to the command, and the power of God evidently wrought with them. Many attempts of the same kind have been made since their day, and which have been attended with various success; but the work has not been taken up, or prosecuted of late years (except by a few individuals) with that zeal and perseverance with which the primitive Christians went about it. It seems as if many thought the commission was sufficiently put in execution by what the apostles and others have done; that we have enough to do to attend to the salvation of our own countrymen; and that, if God intends the salvation of the heathen, he will some way or other bring them to the gospel, or the gospel to them. It is thus that multitudes sit at ease, and give themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow sinners, who to this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry.5

Carey would later add, “I question whether all are justified in staying here, while so many are perishing without means of grace in other lands.”6

The words found in Matthew 28 constitute the last words of Jesus in this Gospel. They are intended to be lasting words and the final marching orders for Christ’s followers until he returns. I once heard Adrian Rogers in a sermon say that in this passage we find “the heartbeat of the Son of God.” Here we are told that “we are all to bring all men by all means to Jesus by any cost.”

Acknowledge He Has All Power (Matt. 28:16–18)

The eleven disciples minus Judas go north to Galilee “to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go” (v. 16 niv). The scene is reminiscent of the setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1). It is interesting to note that the climatic temptation (Matt 4:8–11), the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1), the Olivet Discourse prophecy (Matt. 24–25), and now the Great Commission of the Great King all took place on a mountain.

Suddenly they see the resurrected, risen Lord. What transpires is instructive for our careful consideration and response.

Worship Him (Matt. 28:17)

Seeing him the people worship. Amazingly though, some still doubt. Did they have doubts as to whether or not they should worship this man? Perhaps. Were their doubts in confusion about the whole thing? Perhaps. Did the people doubt because they did not know how to respond given their past failures and track record? Almost certainly.

Even in the midst of their doubts, worship is the wise and right thing to do. Even when I may not understand all he is doing in my life, worship. If I am confused, unsure and hesitating, worship. When I am sorrowful, heartbroken, and crushed, worship. Am I discouraged, depressed, and in utter despair? Worship. Even when I am at death’s door? Worship!

On his deathbed, Carey breathed to the Scottish missionary Alexander Duff, “When I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey. Speak about Dr. Carey’s Savior.”7 Jesus is the Savior so worship him.

Hear Him (Matt. 28:18)

Jesus said, “All authority is mine, in heaven and on earth.” Satan offered Jesus an earthly kingdom, but His Father planned so much more (Matt. 4:8–11). The words echo the great Son of Man text where the Bible declares of this heavenly, divine Man, “Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14 nkjv). John Piper gets to the heart of these words and says:

Here we see the peak of power. Notice verse 18. Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” If you gathered all the authority of all the governments and armies of the world and put them on the scales with the authority of the risen Christ, they would go up in the balance like air. All authority on earth has been given to the risen Christ. All of it! The risen Christ has the right to tell every man, woman, and child on this planet today what they should do and think and feel. He has absolute and total authority over your life and over cities and states and nations. The risen Christ is great—greater than you have ever imagined.

Here is our witness to the world: The risen Christ is your king and has absolute, unlimited authority over your life. If you do not bow and worship him and trust him and obey him, you commit high treason against Christ the King, who is God over all. The resurrection is God’s open declaration that he lays claim on every person and tribe and tongue and nation . . . “All authority on earth is mine.” Your sex life is his to rule; your business is his to rule; your career is his to rule; your home is his; your children are his; your vacation is his; your body is his. He is God! So if you resist his claim, feel no admiration for his infinite power and authority, and turn finally to seek satisfaction from thrills that allow you to be your own master, then you will be executed for treason in the last day. And it will appear so reasonable and so right that you should be executed for your disloyalty to your Maker and Redeemer that there will be no appeals and no objections. Your life of indifference to the risen Christ and of halfhearted attention now and then to a few of his commandments will appear on that day as supremely blameworthy and infinitely foolish, and you will . . . weep that you did not change.”8

Obey His Authoritative Plan (Matt. 28:19–20)

Commenting on Matthew 28:19, John Calvin wrote, “Now the wall is pulled down and the Lord orders the ministers of the gospel to go far out to scatter the teaching of salvation throughout all the regions of the earth.”9 Tragically many in Carey’s day, as well as our own, have imbibed the spirit of the eighteenth-century antimissions hymn: Go into all the world, the Lord of old did say. But now where He has planted thee, there thou shouldst stay.10

Carey would have no part of this spiritually bankrupt and impotent thinking. Rather, having his heart gripped by the words of our Savior, he said:“I care not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I awoke the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was i...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Foreword by David Platt
• Foreword by Bruce Ashford
• Chapter 1 The Great Commission & William Carey: A Passionate Global Vision
• Chapter 2 Marked for Death, Messengers of Life: Adoniram and Ann Judson
• Chapter 3 Jesus Is Everything to Me: Glorious Truth in the Life and Death of Bill Wallace
• Chapter 4 The Power of a Consecrated Life: The Ministry of Lottie Moon
• Chapter 5 Let All the Nations Give God Glory: A Passion in the Life and Martyrdom of Jim Elliot
• Chapter 6 The Cross and Faithful Ministry As Seen in the Pastoral and Missionary Ministry of George Leile: First Baptist Missionary to the Nations
• Chapter 7 The Pattern of Paul’s Missionary Life Revealed in the Ministry of David Brainerd for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the Nations
• Chapter 8 God’s Chariot of Fire: The Life of Missionary Eric Liddell and the Race He Ran
• Chapter 9 The Missionary Psalm: Beautifully Obeyed in the Life and Martyrdom of John and Betty Stam
• Chapter 10 The Vision of the Exalted Lamb Realized in the Life of Missionary James Fraser among the Lisu People of China
• Notes