Sermon Illustrations
Two Brothers Give Their Lives to Bring the Gospel
Benjamin Kwashi, a Christian leader from Jos, Nigeria, tells the following story of how the gospel came to his part of the country:
Missionaries came to my home area of Nigeria in 1907. One of them was a man named Reverend Fox. Reverend Fox was a professor at Cambridge University, and when he arrived his walk with Christ was so deep that he led many people to Christ. He founded a church and moved about 10 kilometers away to Amper, my own hometown, and founded the church there too. How a first-class person from the University of Cambridge was communicating to illiterates, I don't know, but God suddenly gave him favor and people were turning to Jesus Christ. So many people came to Christ that he wrote to his younger brother, who was a physician also in Cambridge, and asked him to come and help him because medical practice was needed. As his brother started the journey from England, Reverend Fox fell ill and died. Soon after his brother arrived, he also fell ill and died.
The Church Mission Society wrote to their father, who was also a pastor. When they told him he had lost two sons, he and his wife cried, but then they did something astounding. They sold their land and property, took the proceeds to the mission society, and said, "As much as we grieve the death of our two sons, we will only be consoled if the purpose for which they died continues." They gave that money and walked away.
Recently I looked through the profile of those two missionaries who came to my hometown. They both had first-class educations and degrees from the best schools. They died as young men—the oldest was only 32. They gave up everything to serve Jesus and bring the gospel to my country. Were they crazy? No, they had heard what Jesus had said, they believed it, and they were willing to stake their whole lives on the truth of Jesus' words. These men wanted to end their lives well. No matter how long or short their life, it wasn't going to be wasted, but they would invest it for eternity.