Sermon Illustrations on China — page 2

Stirring Sounds

Psalms 19

Through the years of traveling throughout the world defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ at times in hostile environments, Ravi Zacharias notes that he has drawn much comfort from an essay written by the English writer F.W. Boreham. The essay is titled “The Candle and the Bird.” In it Boreham explains that God's presence corresponds more with a bird than it does a candle. When a candle is extinguished, the light goes out. But when a bird is driven away, it only leaves to sing its song on another branch. With this metaphor in mind Boreham traces the mighty moving of God throughout history and leaves his readers with the blessed reminder that God is near to those who call on Him.

Today, China is one of the many places where we can hear the stirring song of God at work among a nation crying out to Him. After fifty years of repression and suffering, the Chinese church is thriving. In an interview with Christianity Today, international director of Asia Outreach, David Wang stated, “The church is still exploding. Growing is too tame a word.” When asked what is the greatest challenge for the church in China today, one Chinese pastor replied with a smile beaming across his face, “Too many believers.” [1]

What is it about the rumors of God's glory steadily humming throughout land and time that stirs and comforts the soul? As the name of Christ is vehemently silenced in the name of tolerance, the sounds of God at work remind us that we have a reason to sing even in the darkness. The light is not overcome!

We hear of God's moving among the persecuted church of China, among hearts and nations throughout history; we see his hand in unlikely places and the message being preached to the ends of the earth. We see and hear that God has a plan weaving throughout nations and individuals, history and the present. We hear whispering of a purpose and a hope that embraces not only the possibilities of the present but also the sufferings of the past and the expectations of the future. We see astounding evidence for the Christian hope in the whole story; a story, in the words of the psalmist, reviving the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, and enduring forever (Psalm 19).

In a world where most people live as if they have to achieve the final fulfillment and satisfaction of their human lives before they die, the Christian message sounds as bold today as it did to those who first heard it. Yet all around us is the murmuring that there is something different about this good teacher; He speaks as one with authority. And his influence echoes a promise that has not been forsaken: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Since the creation of man, the beautiful sounds of God at work can be heard in lives and nations unto the ends of the earth. May it be heard in our lives too. His nearness is our good.

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1. David Neff, “Chinese Puzzle,” Christianity Today (7 March 2003), www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/003/21.9.html.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #13139]

At Christmas, Jesus Comes To Dark and Lonely Places

Luke 2:10

The world sometimes seems very dark to those in dark places. Even spiritual giants.

“I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been,” legendary Southern Baptist pioneer Lottie Moon wrote not long before she died on Christmas Eve 1912 -- exhausted and discouraged after 40 tumultuous years in China.

How alone must Bill Wallace have felt on Christmas Eve 39 years later, as he lay in a jail cell in Wuzhou, China? Arrested on false charges of spying by local communists, the great missionary doctor was driven to despair and the edge of insanity by constant interrogations, harassment and torture before dying in his cell less than two months later.

“Go back and take care of the hospital,” he told co-workers when he was still in his right mind. “I am ready to give my life if necessary.”

Did the Christ child come to Wallace in that lonely cell on his last Christmas? The Savior was already there, in the missionary's heart -- which Wallace's tormenters could never touch.

Jesus still comes to lonely places on Christmas.

In Israel, where the Savior was born, Jews who decide to follow Jesus as Messiah often feel they are the “only one.” A 16-year-old came to faith in Jesus through reading the New Testament. He thought he was the only person in Israel who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, until he overheard another young student talking about his faith. Now the 16-year-old is being discipled by his new friend.

Last Christmas morning, “Jill,” a young woman in China, was very much on the minds and hearts of a couple who had shared the Gospel with her a few months earlier. Though she had told them she didn't need God, they wanted to invite her to their Christmas open house. As they prepared to call her, their phone rang. Jill was on the line. She visited later that day and told them that since their last conversation, her husband had left her for another woman. She had returned to live with her parents and admitted she “wanted to die.”

They told her once again about Christ -- and she accepted Him as Lord and Savior. Less than a year later, she has emerged as a leader in her house church, guided many people to Christ and trained them to evangelize others.

On a recent Saturday, missionary Gail Davis and her family drove to a grim, hungry township in South Africa to help give a Christmas party for the children of the area.

“My children had passed by the townships, but had never been in them,” Davis wrote. “They were aghast at the 'houses' that people live in, the roads they walk upon and the fact that they had to share metal sheds for toilets. They saw many people lined up at one water spigot getting water for the day. This was a real eye-opener for them. Yet, amidst all this, my 3-year-old saw potential for this very impoverished place. As we drove down the road, he saw a cemetery and said he would like to go play in that playground. When I explained that is where dead people go, he asked, 'Is that heaven?'

“How many of us can even think about heaven when our senses are so overwhelmed with the negativeness of life and the fear for one's own safety? My question to myself then became: What would it take to reach these people that God so loves so that they could finally reach heaven? What would you do to bring the Gospel of truth, love and hope to these people dying in masses and being buried in anonymity?”

“Esther,” a Christian teacher in China, found herself in front of a college class last year that knew little English. A student asked her to talk about American culture, so Esther described Thanksgiving and Christmas. When she mentioned Christmas songs, another student asked her sing for them.

She thought about her total lack of singing ability, but launched into teaching the students to sing “Joy to the World” using impromptu hand motions to help them remember the words.

Only one of the 30 students had ever heard the name of Jesus.

“I knew most of them didn't understand the words they were singing, much less understand who Jesus was,” Esther said. “But as I listened to them sing about the Savior of the world, I prayed they would soon be able to understand -- and truly sing for joy.”

On the first Christmas, the angel told the fearful shepherds: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

A great many people in dark and lonely places still haven't heard that wonderful news. But they will -- if we tell them.

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Erich Bridges is a senior writer at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

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The Shantung Revival

The revival in Shantung, China, in the early 1930's had a great impact on the worship in church. C. L. Culpepper describes it this way:

One result of the revival [Shantung, China, 1932-33] was a continual singing of the people. They put songs and other scriptures to music. Old people who could not read or write memorized the songs and sang with their eyes closed, their bodies swaying to the rhythm of the melody and tears of joy running down their cheeks. God had taken away their sorrow and given them a new song. I saw that many old women who could not carry a tune were filled with the Spirit, singing a melody that seemed to come from an angel of heaven.

One of the greatest personal blessings which I received from the revival was the wonderful spirit in the worship services. Entire congregations bowed in silent meditation for several minutes. The atmosphere became charged with spiritual power. Suddenly someone would begin to pray and praise God. As long as an hour would pass before the speaker would speak. Conviction became so evident that the preacher would simply give an opportunity for anyone who wished to accept Christ to come forward. There was always some response, often in large groups. I knew it was the natural result of a spirit of worship and adoration which followed revival.

I Can't Criticize Christ

The narrow lane led deep into the heart of Canton, China. As Fergus Bordewich picked his way through the jam of pedestrians he finally found the right address. Climbing two flights of steps, he entered a room packed with handmade pews. There were racks of Bibles and piles of hymnals. Twenty or more students, businessmen, and elderly women were kneeling on the concrete floor. Their voices swelled, and old Christian hymns echoed through the room. This was the Chinese underground church.

According to a Reader’s Digest article by Bordewich, everyone in the attic church knew the gathering was illegal. Police might burst in at any time to beat them and drag away their pastor, Lin Xiangao. Years before, Xiangao had been asked to denounce Christ. He refused, saying, “Even if you prolong my sentence or kill me, I can’t criticize Christ.”

2 Christians killed, others tortured in Chinese government crackdown

Two Christians have been killed in the Chinese government's crackdown on pastor Gong Shengliang and his South China Church in central Hubei Province, according to a letter from members of the underground church revealing graphic details and new information about the persecution.

Gong was sentenced to death Dec. 5 on charges of operating an "evil cult" and on the seemingly trumped-up charges of rape and assault. The month-long period for deciding his appeal was extended Jan. 5 by a Hubei court following sharp international protest.

The letter, written by two underground Christian women, Li Ailian and Wang Yue, reports that in efforts to find and apprehend Gong and suppress the South China Church, police arrested and severely beat at least 25 Christians, killing two of them, while torturing others with electric prods.

The letter was dated Dec. 31 and smuggled to the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. It was released Jan. 11 by Freedom House in Washington.

The two victims who reportedly died were:

-- Yu Zhongju, a young mother from Zhongxiang who was arrested May 27 in a private house connected with Gong's congregation. She died in police custody in late July, allegedly as a result of torture. According to her family, police informed them of Yu's death July 20, after her body had begun to decompose. The police paid the family, warning them not to raise the matter further. There has been no official investigation of the case.

-- Gu Xuegui, a Christian man also connected with Gong's church, who disappeared while in police custody, probably sometime in October. A congregant from Puyang City in Henan Province last saw Gu in a prison vehicle with his face showing signs of beatings. His family later received information that he had died under severe torture.

The letter also provides details about two women, Li Tongjin and Chi Tongyuan, from Shayang, who were arrested and tortured by police with electric prods, resulting in blisters and burns all over their bodies. The torture was reported to have been used to force them to testify that they had sexual relations with Gong. One woman was later able to telephone her brother and report her situation, saying, "... be ready to come to pick up my body. I might either be beaten to death or sentenced to death."

The letter reports numerous other cases from May through December of brutal police beatings of the congregants. It states that Gong himself was apprehended by police on Aug. 8 and was kicked and beaten by government security forces.

In a separate communication from the South China Church, Freedom House obtained the names of 63 men and women of the church who were arrested between May and December in Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Sichuan provinces.

The South China Church is known within the Chinese underground Christian community and to churches in the United States. Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong resident, was also recently issued an "evil cult" indictment, possibly carrying the death penalty, by a Fujian court, for smuggling 33,000 bibles into China.

The names of the detainees from the South China Church congregation and the Dec. 31 letter are available on the Center for Religious Freedom website at: www.freedomhouse.org.

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A Counter-revolutionary Documents Persecution of Christians

Mark 10:30

Li Shi-xiong was born in 1953 and grew up in a labor camp in Red China. His father had been a counter-revolutionary. Li was beat up every day. His mother was forced to apologize to the bullies. A deep bitterness and a violent temper gripped him by the time he was released from the camp after 20 years. He had almost no formal education and no money.

In 1989 Li was a committed anti-communist and supported the demonstrations in Tiananmen square. The police knocked on his door and told him he could expect to be arrested any time. The government forced Li into bankruptcy while he made the arrangements to move to America.

Once he got to America he made it his mission to help others get out. He began to notice that many of these Chinese were Christians and had terrible stories of persecution. Li was reminded of an old farmer at the labor camp who had been jailed with his father. The old farmer had told him about God and had loved him better than his parents had.

Li knew of Christians in China but had not really known how much they had suffered. He started to collect their stories and supporting evidence. This year the archive was turned over to the United States government. It contains 22,000 testimonies of persecution against Christians and the stack is 10 feet high. Many of the testimonies contain photos of their wounds from torture.

While he worked with these Christians, they shared their faith with him. A Christian aunt from Taiwan wrote to him about Christ and how she was praying every day for him. Eventually the atheist counter-revolutionary asked Jesus to be his personal Savior.

Shutting Down Gospel Noodles

Mark 10:30

A few weeks ago there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the government is trying to stop Su Xueling from telling others about Christ.

Ms. Su was the daughter of a communist, and knew nothing of Christ until she was in her 30s. When her husband was dying of cancer fifteen years ago, a nurse suggested that she might find solace in Christianity. Struggling with grief and debt — trying to make a living selling noodles door to door — Ms. Su visited a church. One thing led to another, and Ms. Su became a Christian.

Through friends, she began to raise money for a noodle factory. When she opened it, she named her business Gospel Foodstuffs, Ltd., and printed “Gospel Noodles” boldly on the packages. Her business prospered, and a friend challenged her to donate money to start a seminary. The seminary prospered and grew until it was serving 200 students. Refusing to bend to a law forbidding evangelizing, the seminary even taught Arabic in the hope of sending missionaries to the Middle East.

But then the government shut down the school and Ms. Su’s noodle business. Later, they backed down, in part because Ms. Su was popular — they couldn’t afford to treat her roughly. Ms. Su doesn’t plan to restart her noodle business, but she does plan to start a private school, and is raising money for that purpose.

Jesus says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

This is a call to be brave disciples – brave servants – brave witnesses for Christ.

God's Double Agent: the Dramatic Story of Bob Fu

Acts 12:9

Let me warn you, if you pick up Bob Fu’s amazing story of his defiance of the Chinese government and his escape from China, you won’t be putting it down.

Every day, millions of Chinese Christians are willing to face poverty, prison, separation from loved ones, even death for the sake of Jesus.

One of those Christians is a man named Bob Fu, who now lives in the United States. His new book, “God’s Double Agent,” tells the inspiring story of how he stood up to Chinese Communist leaders, was thrown into prison, and escaped to America.

Bob grew up desperately poor during Mao’s so-called “Great Leap Forward.” His teachers recognized his intelligence and leadership skills — skills that led to trouble when Bob began criticizing the widespread corruption in the Chinese government.

In college, Bob led fellow students to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. He escaped the June 4 massacre unharmed only because his fiancé had become so sick that he left the square to take her to a hospital.

Knowing Bob’s leadership role in the demonstrations, the government forced him to write so-called “confessions.”

Former friends were afraid to associate with him — even worse, some denounced him. At a low point, as Bob considered suicide, a classmate slipped him a little book — a biography of a Chinese intellectual who had embraced Christianity through the influence of British missionaries.

Bob writes that the story seemed to be “whispering deep truths to me with each new page.” He joyfully accepted Christ and promptly began evangelizing others. After college he went to work teaching English. But as God’s double agent, he opened a secret school to train up ministers of the gospel.

Bob himself was about to receive the education of a lifetime. Christian dissident Alan Yuan had once told him, “If you want to be a faithful minister and follower of Jesus Christ, you should learn prison theology.” Prison, he explained, was where “you find out more about God and his faithfulness than anywhere else.” My friend Chuck Colson would certainly have agreed with that.

And when government officials discovered the illegal seminary, they threw Bob and his wife into prison. Despite harsh conditions, Bob witnessed to his fellow inmates, leading many to Christ.

After their release two months later, the unrepentant Fus added to their so-called “crimes” by purposely conceiving a child without government permission. But now they had to make a fearful choice: Stay in China where they would be forced to undergo an abortion, or attempt to escape the country. If they were caught, they faced long prison terms.

With the help of the underground church, the two fled to Hong Kong. But their troubles were not over. Britain was preparing to hand over control of Hong Kong to the Chinese. And that’s when the Fus found out that the U.S. Consulate did not recognize religious refugees — only political ones.

Thanks to constant prayer, a miracle or two, and some determined American religious and political leaders, the Fus escaped on the last working day before the Chinese takeover. Talk about cutting it close!

Llet me ask you a question: Are you also willing to be faithful to Christ no matter what it costs — your job, your savings, your freedom?

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China vs. the Cross

John 19:17

Communist authorities are attempting to remove the cross from China. But Chinese Christians are responding in dramatic ways.

The cross is, of course, the universal symbol of Christianity, and it speaks powerfully to God’s justice, mercy, power, and love. The late John Stott once said, “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in,” he said, “is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”

How indeed?

The cross has undeniable power to draw us to the Savior. In China, by some estimates, more than 130 million people have embraced the cross and become Christians. Journalist David Aikman, in his book “Jesus in Beijing,” predicts that as many as one-third of China’s population may become Christian within the next 30 years.

Perhaps that’s why the cross is under attack in eastern China right now. For the last two years, the government in the province of Zhejiang has torn down or otherwise destroyed at least 1,200 giant red crosses from church buildings. The city of Wenzhou is at the epicenter of the action. Wenzhou is known as “China’s Jerusalem” and it’s no exaggeration. The city is home to a million Protestants and more than 300,000 Catholics. And so the visibility of the city’s nearly ubiquitous crosses, no doubt, has been a huge embarrassment to Communist Party rulers.

So it’s no surprise that they’re attempting to remove them. According to The Guardian, “Towering red church crosses — visible for miles around — once dotted the city’s skyline but many of the most prominent [have] been forcibly removed since the campaign began. In some cases, entire churches have been reduced to rubble.”

One anonymous church leader told the British newspaper that authorities were attempting to transform Christianity “into a tool that serves the [Communist] Party,” adding, “What they are doing feels like something from the Cultural Revolution era.”

But Christians in China aren’t taking it lying down. Many are writing letters of protest; some have begun engaging in civil disobedience. Christianity Today reports that members of one church where the cross was removed staged a sit-in, holding banners with the words “lift up the cross” and “protect religious freedom.” Last month, 20 priests protested outside government offices, unfurling a banner that said, “Maintaining religious dignity and opposing the forced removal of crosses.”

Others are noticing, too.

Mervyn Thomas of Christian Solidarity Worldwide said, “The ongoing campaign to forcibly remove crosses and demolish churches in Zhejiang has had a profoundly negative effect on Catholic and Protestant churches in the province ... Many church leaders,” he continues, “have patiently and repeatedly tried to negotiate and enter into dialogue with the local authorities; the protests and petitions ... are a sign that their concerns have not been addressed.”

That’s not all. Christianity Today also reports: “Now Chinese Protestants and Catholics are joining together to put red crosses — albeit much smaller ones — back in the public eye. ... In an online campaign, church leaders in ... Zhejiang have called on Christians to craft hundreds of small wooden crosses, paint them red, and display them at home or on their cars.” One church leader told The Guardian, “Each time they take a cross down, we will put more up. We are even considering making flags and clothes with cross patterns. We will make the cross flourish throughout China.”

But doing this is risky. Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that more than 100 people were detained or arrested in connection with cross removals last year, and another 38 were beaten or injured during protests. When Chinese Christians say they’re going to take up their crosses, they really mean it.

So what about us? The Bible tells us that when one member of Christ’s body suffers, we all do. We can stand with our brave brothers and sisters in China by praying, and urging our elected leaders to make an issue of religious freedom in all of their dealings with China. Chinese Christians are willing to take a stand for the cross. The question is, are we?

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A similar source:

"China’s city of churches brought to heel," by Carrie Gracie, BBC China editor, May 4, 2014.

Wenzhou people are as competitive on Sunday as every other day of the week.

This city on the south-east coast is famous in China as a hardworking hive of capitalism.

But it is also home to perhaps a million Christians. Many of them are private entrepreneurs who’ve grown rich turning Wenzhou from a fishing port into a global manufacturing hub.

Comfortable to compete in the marketplace, they take the same spirit to church-building, each congregation challenging its neighbour to build bigger and better.

It is this exuberance which has brought them into conflict with the communist authorities.

In most other Chinese cities the dominant buildings belong to the Communist Party, but in Wenzhou it’s the churches which command attention; many of them as big as cathedrals, adorned with extravagant domes, turrets and spires and each topped by a red cross etched against the encircling mountains.

Some government officials even encouraged them to proselytise, observing that Wenzhou Christians make good citizens because they abide by the law and pay their taxes.

The root of their misfortune, they believe, is a disconnect between local and provincial government. They say provincial party officials visited Wenzhou recently and were affronted to find Christian crosses so prominently displayed.

I Can't Criticize Christ

The narrow lane led deep into the heart of Canton, China. As Fergus Bordewich picked his way through the jam of pedestrians he finally found the right address. Climbing two flights of steps, he entered a room packed with handmade pews. There were racks of Bibles and piles of hymnals. Twenty or more students, businessmen, and elderly women were kneeling on the concrete floor. Their voices swelled, and old Christian hymns echoed through the room. This was the Chinese underground church.

According to a Reader’s Digest article by Bordewich, everyone in the attic church knew the gathering was illegal. Police might burst in at any time to beat them and drag away their pastor, Lin Xiangao. Years before, Xiangao had been asked to denounce Christ. He refused, saying, “Even if you prolong my sentence or kill me, I can’t criticize Christ.”

"Shaped By the Master"

John 21:22

Story of a Chinese Christian who learned from adversity.

We cannot dispute God’s decisions. He alone knows who requires rougher treatment in his quarry. After Jesus’ resurrection, he told Peter that his death would involve persecution. Looking at John, Peter pouted, “Lord, what about him?” In other words, “If I have to suffer, shouldn’t he, too?” Jesus answered him bluntly: “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (Jn 21:22).

Harry Lee painfully re-lived that truth. Born into a well-to-do, well-educated Chinese family, Harry seemed to have a comfortable future assured. Then his father died when Harry was still a boy. As the family’s wealth evaporated, Harry, the oldest son, was left with the responsibility for his mother and siblings.

From his teenage years Harry had loved and served the Lord. He felt called to the ministry and for 12 frustrating years sought to leave China to attend seminary. His close friends got out and established themselves in free lands. The woman he wanted to marry also left China. But Harry stayed while the government brought increasing pressure to close the church he led.

Then his brother, whom he’d led to Christ, died in prison. Harry was arrested while trying to escape China and was given 11 years imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Finally on his way to seminary at the age of 56, he wondered, “Did I require chastisement? Why did I have to suffer all that?” Then, considering the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God, he concluded, “Maybe God wanted me in another school first, before seminary. Maybe because I began as such a sheltered, privileged person, he had to get me ready for something more...to teach me faith, trust, peace, unaffected by circumstances.”

Wrenching Good Out of Evil: the Story of Nien Cheng

On the evening of August 30, 1966, Nien Cheng sat alone in her Shanghai home, reading. Toward midnight, she heard a truck stop in front of her house. Moments later a gang of Red Guards burst through her front door. The leader stepped up. “We are the Red Guards. We have come to take revolutionary action against you!” he said.

The gang proceeded to ransack Cheng's home. Cheng — a wealthy woman with ties to England — was thrown in prison; her daughter was also taken from her. She was accused by the Communist government of spying for the British. The charge was false — but powerful people were about to make her a sacrificial lamb, somebody who would discredit Chairman Mao's opponents.

At a kangaroo court, the prosecutor demanded that Cheng confess. She was outraged. “I have never done anything against the Chinese people and governments,” she declared.

Cheng was taken back to prison. It was the beginning of seven years of torture, illness, and endless efforts to make her confess. But Cheng resolved never to make a false confession. Although raised Buddhist, she had become a Christian as a teenager. During her years behind bars, she later wrote, “I was not afraid. I believed in a just and merciful God, and I thought he would lead me out of the abyss.”

As I note in my new book, The Good Life, Cheng's captors were astounded at her ability to resist. Here she was, the poster child of the decadent capitalists; they were certain that someone who enjoyed her privileges would crumble once the material props of her old life were removed.

But the measure of Cheng's life was not found in what she owned. During her suffering, one thing kept her sane: her belief in the truth. Through committing herself to the truth, she never lost her humanity — and she remained unaffected by the appalling changes in her circumstances.

Cheng's embrace of the truth also allowed her to envision that justice would eventually prevail, and that good could come out of this evil. In this, Cheng was fortified, of course, by her Christian faith. Alone among the world's great religions, Christianity gives value and meaning to evil and suffering. British novelist Dorothy Sayers captured the essence of this. Christianity, she wrote “affirms ... that perfection is attained through the active and positive effort to wrench a real good out of a real evil.” This is the essence of what Christians call redemption, and it underscores another truth: We have to understand the evil in ourselves before we can truly embrace the good in life.

In 1973, Cheng was finally released and later immigrated to America. I had the privilege of hosting a dinner that Prison Fellowship gave in her honor in 1987.

Cheng's life perfectly illustrates the fact that the good life is not conferred by wealth or possessions. Just as important, it cannot be denied even in the midst of horrific adversity. In fact, as I discovered in my life, we often find true meaning and purpose in deprivation, when all the distractions of modern life are stripped away.

The good life, you see, is realized in our ability to hold fast to the truth — and the human dignity that rests upon it.