A Titanic Mission & A Re-ignition Of The Great Commission

A few weeks ago, my mate Andy, an elder in one of our church plants in North Wales, was telling me about a book he read about a fella called John Harper.

I came home, and as I read more I was blown away. I mean…wow…what a guy!

Harper was a 39-year-old Scottish Baptist pastor, a widower and father to six-year-old Annie Jessie, known as Nana. In April 1912, he boarded the Titanic with Nana and Jessie Leitch, who helped care for her. They were travelling to Chicago, where he had been invited to preach.

On the night of 14 April, the Titanic struck an iceberg. What he did next is a remarkable example of devotion to Christ.

When the Ship Was Going Down

Jessie Leitch’s account, published days after the disaster, says that Harper woke them, helped them into lifejackets and carried Nana to the deck. He then followed Jessie up a vertical iron ladder with his daughter still in his arms.

Nana and Jessie entered lifeboat 11. There was no grand speech or proper goodbye.

The lifeboat pulled into the darkness, carrying Harper’s daughter to safety. He remained on the deck of a ship that was dying beneath his feet.

Some eyewitness statements were recorded years later, so should be handled with care, but Harper’s story needs no embellishment. A newspaper tribute eight days later said his “sole aim was the winning of souls”.

As those around him faced death by drowning in the grim blackness of the icy oven, later account describes Harper leaning against the rail, pleading with a young man to come to Christ. He moved among terrified passengers, urging them to believe while there was still time. One account tells of how Harper gave his lifejacket to a man whose soul was not saved, saying“you need it more than me”.

Think about that.

The deck was tilting. Lifeboats were disappearing into the blackness. The unsinkable ship was going down and everyone still aboard was running out of time.

Harper had every reason to think about himself. Instead, he thought about those around him. They were approaching eternity. Soon they would stand before God, and his single-minded concern was that they should know Christ.

He spent what might have been his final breaths pleading with people to be reconciled to God.

A Voice in the Water

Then the Titanic disappeared beneath the Atlantic and Harper entered the freezing sea.

The best-known account appeared in 1926. A survivor is described clinging to wreckage when Harper drifted near him through the darkness.

“Man,” Harper called, “are you saved?”

The man said that he was not.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

The waves carried Harper away, then brought him close again. Harper repeated the question and the words of Acts 16:31. Soon afterwards, he disappeared beneath the water.

The survivor later testified that, in the moment, alone in the night with two miles of water beneath him, he believed. He called himself John Harper’s last convert.

What kind of fire burns in a man so fiercely that even the freezing vastness of the Atlantic cannot put it out?

When Only Eternity Mattered

The Titanic did not create Harper’s passion. It revealed it.

When every comfort and promise of tomorrow was torn away, what remained was a man who loved Jesus and burned for others to know him. His conviction that Christ is Lord, eternity is real, judgement is coming and the gospel saves.

Harper was not careless with life. He got his daughter to safety. But with his hope anchored in Christ, self-preservation was no longer his highest concern. “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

That is what has lodged itself in me since reading Johns story.

I have the unusual blessing that every living member of my family knows Jesus. Yet it breaks my heart that so many live & die without him. They are people made in God’s image, loved by him and moving towards eternity.

Hebrews says people are “destined to die once, and after that to face judgement” (Hebrews 9:27). It is not fashionable, but it is loving to remember. If judgement is real and the gospel saves, silence cannot always be mistaken for kindness.

The atheist entertainer Penn Jillette put it bluntly:

“How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”

I have always found that perspective deeply challenging (largely because it’s a fair hit on those of us who are often too slow to share the gospel). But Harpers actions demonstrate his true love, he knew the One who gives eternal life. Surrounded by people moments from a watery death surrounding him, every lesser concern fell away.

The Fire We Keep Losing

Many of us believe the Great Commission but lose sight of it beneath work, tiredness and distractions. We open YouTube with the intentions of watching one useful video and emerge 45 minutes later having bathed our minds in a stream of viral nonsense. The temporary becomes enormous while eternity fades.

Every year I serve at NewDay Festival, where 12,000 young people worship Jesus at Norfolk Show-ground for a week. I see hundreds respond to the gospel, hear of healings and watch young people encounter God every summer.

Physically it’s exhausting, it takes me two weeks to recover every year. Apparently, heat, 16 hour days and thousands of teenagers is not this middle-aged man’s idea of a spa break .

Spiritually, though, I come home ablaze.

The Great Commission becomes real again. I watch those dead in sin receive life in Christ. Every salvation is a resurrection. Jesus said, “The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). We do not want impressive statistics. We want the lost rescued from their graves.

I wish I could say I stayed ablaze, but ordinary life quickly piles its damp washing on the fire. I need God to ignite my heart again.

Not Imitation, but Ignition

Harper’s story does not ask us to copy him. This is not a guilt-driven demand to tick another church box.

It is a call to see Jesus again.

The Great Commission begins with Christ declaring, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Mission begins with the risen King. We go because he is worthy and speak because he saves. The dead can live again.

I do not want John Harpers experience. But I do want to know Christ so deeply, to believe the gospel so completely and see eternity so clearly that something of Harper’s fire burns in me.

We need the Holy Spirit to show us Jesus, renew our love, restore our confidence in the gospel and place the lost upon our hearts again. I want a re-ignition for the great commission!

The activity will follow the fire.

Lord, Set Us Ablaze Again

More than a century later, Harper’s voice still carries across the water. The Great Commission is not a growth strategy. It is the rescue mission of the risen King, and its called a co-mission for a reason…we are supposed to be on that mission with Him.

We probably have more time than Harper did, but none of us knows how much. The question is not whether we could preach from a sinking ship, but whether the risen Christ who held Harper’s heart has captured ours.

Lord Jesus, forgive us for making eternal things small and temporary things enormous. Lift our eyes. Restore our confidence in the gospel and give us your heart for the lost. Reignite the Great Commission within your church. Set us ablaze with love for you until those still in their graves hear your voice and live. Amen.