Welcome to From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons for modern preachers,
too.
This week we have The Cross in China,
a Chinese revival story.
In China, the story of the cross once
seemed as strange and as far away as
the other side of the universe.
But today, its message is here, right in
our midst.
During the Boxer Rebellion, 236 Western missionaries and
23,000 Chinese Christians were killed.
In the following 50 years, more Western missionaries
came to China.
They established 19 universities, over 6,000 elementary
schools and high schools, and more than 900
hospitals.
The number of Chinese Christians grew to 700
,000.
The Chinese Communist Party believed this success was
the result of imperialist cultural invasion.
They expelled all Western missionaries, forced Chinese missionaries
to renounce their religion, and mandated a secular
education for all Chinese.
Fifty more years have passed, and today there
are approximately 70 million Christians in China, an
increase of 100-fold.
Three missionary leaders were born around the time
the blood of Christian martyrs was shed in
the Boxer Rebellion.
Mingdao Wang, Zhang Song, and Wajima Ami.
Mingdao Wang was born in Beijing in 1900.
At age 20 he began his work as
an evangelist.
At 27 he established Spiritual Food Quarterly.
In 1955, he was imprisoned for refusing to
renounce his faith.
While in prison, weakened by intense interrogation and
torture, he was forced to sign a statement
renouncing his faith.
After his release, Mingdao Wang could not find
inner peace.
He gave himself up to the authorities and
went back to jail with his wife.
This time for life.
Twenty years later, in 1977, Mrs. Wang was
released.
Mingdao Wang would rather die than accept his
release.
But two years later the government tricked him
into leaving.
Mingdao Wang and his wife passed away in
1991 and 1992.
Zhang Song was born in 1901.
In 1926 he studied in America and received
his Ph.D. in chemistry.
And then went on to the Union Theological
Seminary of New York.
The president of the seminary thought Zhang Song
was crazy.
He was locked up for 193 days.
In the asylum Zhang Song read the Bible
40 times.
Later on his way back to China, Zhang
Song threw a golden key into the Pacific
Ocean.
It was the symbol of his Ph.D.
In the following 17 years Zhang Song, known
as Crazy Song, spread the gospel-like wildfire
across China and Southeast Asia.
In 1944, when he was 43 years old,
Zhang Song passed away.
Watchman Ni was born in 1902.
From the time he was 28 he wrote
a great deal both in Chinese and English.
In Shanghai he established a church known as
the Local Small Group Church.
And soon this form of church spread across
the country.
In 1952, he was convicted of counter-revolutionary
activities and was imprisoned in Baimaoling Jail.
He died suddenly in 1972, just before the
end of his prison term.
All these men who were born during the
Boxer Rebellion later became founders of Chinese Christian
churches.
During the late 20th century, no matter how
fiercely the storms of persecution raged, Christianity could
no longer be uprooted from China as it
was in the Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Instead the faith flourished and had grown too
strong to be suppressed.
From Matteo Ricci, Robert Morrison and Hudson Taylor
to the Boxer Martyrs of 1900, the seeds
planted by the life and blood of thousands
of Western missionaries finally had sent down deep
roots into this harsh and ancient land.
The People's Government of China The People's Government
of Xinjiang Today is the day of victory!
The Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist
Party members who took control of mainland China
in 1949 were diehard atheists.
Although the constitution acknowledges freedom of religion, the
Communist Party's covert goal is to limit, transform
and eventually eliminate religions.
From 1949 to 1953, at least several thousand
Christians were killed, tens of thousands were imprisoned.
While these horrors were happening, Premier Zhou Enlai
invited Wu Yaozong to a number of meetings.
They launched the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
It urged Christians to join the government-controlled
Three-Self Church, which advocated self-governance, self
-support and self-propagation.
Its aim was to put Christians under the
complete control of the Communist Party.
I was imprisoned because I refused to join
the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
I love my country very much.
My students are the best pianists in China.
Some even went aboard to perform, and they
were well-received everywhere.
I didn't break any laws.
But the government wanted to denounce me anyway.
The real reason was that I spread the
gospel and refused to join the Three-Self
Church.
I was a good friend of Wu Yaozong,
the leader of the Three-Self Movement.
But I was surprised when he asked me
to be part of the leadership.
I refused, even though I knew my refusal
would lead me to prison and labor camp.
I considered all the consequences.
Sure enough, on the evening of May 28,
1956, people from the police and public security
came to take me away.
On September 14, 1955, I was sent to
prison for the first time.
Sixteen months I spent there.
In 1958, I was sentenced to 20 years.
I wasn't released until 1978.
The first time I was sent to jail
was in 1960.
The main charge was my refusal to join
the Three-Self Movement.
Why would these evangelists rather be imprisoned than
join the government-controlled Three-Self Church?
We believe that Jesus is the head of
the church, not any person or organization.
Politics and religion should be separate.
When you try to integrate them, the church
deteriorates and can become a political tool.
They also had serious questions about the faith
of Wu Yaozong and other leaders of the
Three-Self Churches.
One day during a dinner conversation, I asked
Wu Yaozong what he thought about the miracles
performed by Jesus.
He said he had rejected those long ago.
Wu Yaozong and Ding Guangxun, they both belonged
to a faction which we called the Non
-Believers Group.
We refused to join them because we felt
they didn't have faith.
Within 10 years, almost all the evangelists who
refused to join the Three-Self Church were
imprisoned or put into labor camps.
Madam Yang Xinfei was one of them.
She graduated from the Shanghai Music Academy in
1957 and was 27 when arrested.
She spent 20 years in jail.
The night she was arrested, her father was
very ill.
My dad was already in bed.
I went to say goodbye to him.
I also asked for my mother.
We always prayed before leaving home.
There was one policeman standing guard beside her
and another one beside me.
My mother prayed to the Lord, begging Him
to take care of me.
Have mercy on my daughter.
Let her live peacefully and bring her back
safe and sound.
May the Lord be with her.
Then I left home and went to the
labor camp.
During this harsh winter of faith, the land
was frozen and bleak.
But the wheat did not die.
Underneath the ice and snow, seeds were struggling
to take root, waiting for spring to come.
I was in jail for 21 years and
8 months in Heilongjiang Province, near the former
Soviet Union.
It was extremely cold there and a lot
of people died.
But you know, all those years, I never
got sick.
Not only did I survive, I wasn't sick
a single day.
So I know God still has work for
me to do.
The hardest part was that all the women
criminals were locked up in one room.
And it was too noisy to sleep.
I also needed to pray every day or
I can't sleep.
So I waited until they all fell asleep
and I crept up out of bed and
knelt and prayed to God.
Every night was like this until I left
the labor camp.
I had to pull the blankets over my
head and pray.
There was no Bible.
But a hymn stayed with me.
You know the one?
The old rugged cross.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till
my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross
and exchange it someday for a crown.
I sang it over and over to keep
my spirits up.
The path of the cross was paved with
humiliation and suffering.
For those who chose to walk this path,
every step was taken with blood and tears.
I was in jail for 23 years.
If they had told me that it would
last 23 years, I don't think I would
have made it.
When they held a public meeting to criticize
and denounce me, they asked, Do you still
believe in God?
Do you still believe in Jesus?
They pulled my hair and my ears.
They punched me, knocked me to the ground
and kicked me.
And they jerked my handcuffs and asked, Do
you believe?
Do you still believe?
The handcuffs had made deep gouges in my
flesh, which had started to fester.
They hauled me away like this, back and
forth, back and forth.
But I prayed to the Lord, I have
followed you as far as I can.
Surely you're not glorified when they denounce and
torture me each day.
I'm your servant and your child.
Are you glorified in heaven when I'm suffering
like this?
In prayer, I entrusted my whole family to
the Lord.
Then I was ready to kill myself.
But how could I do it with handcuffs
on?
When the two guards went for lunch, I
jumped onto the bed and unscrewed the light
bulb.
I planned to kill myself with an electric
shock.
But the electricity wasn't strong enough.
Later people told me it was because I
had handcuffs on.
The handcuffs diverted the electricity and saved me.
While I was in the middle of doing
this, people from outside noticed and shouted, Moses
Shea wants to kill himself.
The government officials called me out and lectured
me.
You want to threaten the government?
You want to make the government look bad
by killing yourself?
At night, I confessed to God.
I said, Heavenly Father, I have fallen short
of your glory.
I have made it through 12 years of
labor camp and endured a lot of suffering.
Why couldn't I rely on you till the
very end?
I'm not worthy of your glory.
Please forgive me, O Lord.
Then I heard the Lord speak to me.
Dear child, my grace is sufficient for you.
And the third time he spoke so very
gently.
My grace is sufficient for you.
The Lord comforted me and by his grace
I survived.
While thousands of Christians severed in prison for
the sake of the cross, the storm outside
the jails grew even stronger.
After 1958, the government closed down many churches
in the name of unifying them.
Of the 66 churches in Beijing, only 4
remained open.
In Shanghai, 8 of 204 were left open.
And in Guangzhou, only one of the original
52 was left.
All of a sudden it seems that the
Chinese church was weathering.
In 1966, when the Cultural Revolution started, the
Chinese Christian church faced extermination.
Priests were denounced.
Churches were destroyed.
Believers' homes were confiscated.
And Bibles were burned.
Even the three self-churches did not escape.
Chairman Mao's wife claimed that Chinese Christianity was
finished and belonged in the History Museum.
Everywhere you went, there were Red Guards.
Everywhere you went, there were armed radicals.
Everywhere they interrogated you.
Many faithful believers shed tears in secret while
they waited and waited for light to come.
I remember clearly on June 16, 1966, the
largest poster they put out read, Down with
the imperialist running dog.
Missionary Zhang Yupei.
I said, I cannot change my belief in
Jesus.
They replied, you stubborn idiot.
Go see your God.
All the students came to the meeting, criticized
and denounced me.
From then on, they locked me in a
cow shed.
I remember watching a Christian standing on a
platform.
They denounced him and called him a ringleader
of superstitious people.
There was an elderly sister in our area.
And when she got on the platform, she
called out, Believe in Jesus.
Do not fear death.
I was convicted of counter-revolutionary activities because
of my faith in Jesus.
I was forced to parade through the streets.
They often held public meetings to denounce me.
My whole family suffered the same thing, just
because they were related to me.
Many churches were shut down.
Missionaries were arrested or forced to wear tall
dunce caps.
Their hands were painted black.
And they were forced to parade through the
streets.
Church life was completely destroyed.
At the same time, an idol landed on
God's altar.
When Mao Zedong stood overlooking Tiananmen Square and
waved to the fanatic masses below, it seems
that he had captured the heart and soul
of everyone in China.
Mao Zedong!
Dear Chairman Mao, We promise you we will
be the successors of the working class revolutionary
mission.
We will follow you and carry out revolution
all our lives.
We will smash the old world and build
a new world for the working class.
The imperialists and revisionists hoped in vain to
transform us and future generations peacefully.
But that will never happen.
We will take the great thoughts of Mao
Zedong and carry them to the next generation
and spread them all over China and the
world.
But underneath the overpowering waves stirred up by
this mighty hurricane, real Christians remained clear-minded
and held on to their faith.
Chairman Mao's portrait was larger than life.
We were forced to kneel and confess before
it.
I refused to kneel and stood there, wobbling
from one side to the other one.
People shouted and the dog kept barking and
biting us.
Officials brought out scissors and cut off my
hair.
I lay on the ground but did not
kneel before them.
Whether we studied current affairs or the quotations
of Chairman Mao, I kept silent.
I refused to sing revolutionary songs, not a
single line.
I refused to salute long-lived Chairman Mao.
I refused to raise my fist to show
my loyalty.
I refused to write statements that promised obedience.
They interrogated me, most ashamed.
Answer this question.
Can Chairman Mao go to heaven?
This was a tough question.
If I said Chairman Mao couldn't go to
heaven, they would beat me to death on
the spot.
It was a life or death moment.
During that time, I had been praying day
and night.
I spent all my time in prayer and
got very little sleep.
So I stood up, handcuffed, and said, The
door to heaven is wide open.
Everyone can enter as long as he acknowledges
that Jesus is the Son of God, was
crucified on the cross, that his blood can
cleanse all our sins, and admits he is
a sinner and is willing to receive Jesus
as Savior.
Then he can enter the gates of heaven.
The gate of grace is wide open.
Now is the time for salvation.
I am only too anxious to see you
all repent and receive Jesus and his grace.
The government commissar stepped down from the platform
and hit me angrily.
Moses Hsieh, you are preaching again.
I said, you all asked me to speak.
Could I have refused to answer your question?
This elderly man, Mr. Tsai, was put in
jail during the Cultural Revolution.
He was accused of opposing Chairman Mao.
I didn't put up Chairman Mao posters because
at the time, Chinese people worshipped Mao as
their God, and I believed Jesus is the
only true God.
The government held a public meeting.
About 10,000 people were gathered to denounce
me.
When they asked me to confess, the first
words out of my mouth were, For God
so loved the world.
The first words were, For God so loved
the world.
With the death of Chairman Mao in 1976,
the nationwide movement to deify him, which had
been disastrous for the Chinese nation, finally came
to an end.
In 1977, house church services conducted in the
homes of the faithful started to spring up
in cities and throughout the countryside.
The mute is no longer listening to the
call.
Let's get up and start walking.
Every day, people used to gather in this
empty square in Shanghai People's Park to pray
together.
Soon, a number of three self-churches also
opened up.
People quickly discovered that Christianity had not died
in China.
In fact, even during those traumatic times, faith
in Christ had been spreading in miraculous ways.
Liu Yuan Po was a village teacher from
Hunan province, and as a young man traveled
to Beijing to attend Chairman Mao's review of
Red Guards.
Those of us who went to Beijing were
excellent students.
After returning home from Beijing, I was appointed
Red Guard commander.
During that time, we were so ignorant.
All we wanted was to live and die
for Chairman Mao.
Until the day I die, I'll never forget
what happened when an old missionary was denounced.
In fact, I was directly involved in organizing
the public meeting and scheming how to accuse
and punish her.
But when the Red Guards beat her up,
she responded kindly, Oh God, forgive these children,
for they don't know what they're doing.
In 1978, I repented, and my wife and
I started a house church in our home.
At first, only a few old ladies attended.
Now we have over 3,000 believers.
The first training school began at my house.
Today, there are between 40 and 50 training
schools like this.
We are the children of God, but they
say we are the descendants of dragon.
Wang Xinsai, who is now a house church
leader, was once a Red Guard commander.
In order to show his loyalty to Chairman
Mao, he persecuted his own mother because of
her belief in Jesus.
Because I was an activist in the Cultural
Revolution, I put up a big poster to
criticize my mother publicly.
I didn't want to have anything to do
with her, especially politically.
It didn't matter that she was my mother.
In spite of what I did, she prayed
for me and fasted for 20 days.
This made me think, if something were definitely
bad for them, a mother would not want
her children to have anything to do with
it.
Why did she pray and fast for 20
days for my salvation?
I had to think about that.
She would risk her own life so that
her child might come to believe in Jesus,
while the same Jesus was denounced, convicted, and
labeled as evil by our country.
I was wondering, but couldn't figure out why.
One day, my second sister came home and
asked me if I'd like to read a
book.
Yes, I said.
In those days, I welcomed any books.
Later, she gave me a book that had
no cover and no back.
It was worn out all the way to
the 7th chapter of Matthew.
The moment I started reading it, I felt
a great sense of relief.
I was moved.
In chapter 7, it said, Do not judge,
or you will be judged.
Whatever measure you use to give to others,
the same measure will be given to you.
This is so true, I thought.
When I asked my sister who wrote it
and told her it was so well written,
she thought I had already accepted Jesus.
She said they were Jesus's words.
I was furious.
I threw the book out into the yard.
That hurt my sister so much, worse than
a wound.
She rushed outside and picked up the Bible.
Then she told me that a sister in
Christ had died during the Cultural Revolution in
order to save this Bible.
Wang Xinsai's sister brought a Christian to see
him.
Later, this brother died in jail.
I invited him into my room.
When he saw all the books on my
desk, he asked me if I had read
them all.
I said that I had.
Then he said, You must be a seeker
of truth.
I said yes.
He told me that I wouldn't be able
to find truth on earth.
Real truth comes from above.
He gave me an example.
There was an apricot tree laden with ripe
yellow fruit that fell to the ground.
A pig came by and ate the apricot.
Afterwards, the pig dug at the earth with
his snout to try to find more.
He didn't know to look up and see
that the apricot had come from above.
I thought the story was very philosophical.
He didn't mention Jesus at all or anything
about the Bible.
Later on, I felt an explosive force within
me and said, I believe.
After I said that, I felt my face
turn red.
The blush was hotter than being caught stealing.
After becoming a believer, Wang Xinsai was eager
to find the Bible he had thrown away,
and he did manage to track down the
Bible's owner.
I said I'd like to trade my bicycle
for your old Bible.
I offered my new pigeon brand bicycle, but
he said no.
In those years, a brand new bicycle cost
as much as a car does today.
However, a Bible was an invaluable treasure for
a Christian.
The church was shut down, and from 1958
on, there were no gatherings.
But an elderly sister fasted, prayed, and cried
out to the Lord every day.
She cried for the future of the Chinese
church.
During the Cultural Revolution, they found the Bible
in her house and took her away.
They beat her and broke one of her
feet.
There was only one torn apart Bible that
survived the Cultural Revolution within 50 miles of
our home.
It had the New Testament, but only from
Romans chapter 12 to Revelation chapter 11.
We wanted to study it, but the owners
wouldn't lend it out.
It was their treasure.
So we had to go over there to
copy it.
Every week, we had to make two or
three trips.
The first Bible I received was from a
sister.
Someone from Hong Kong had given it to
her.
During our meeting, we passed it around so
that everyone could touch and feel it for
a while.
Everybody held it to their cheeks and kissed
it.
After being kissed by 30 people, the Bible
was soaked with tears, and the red color
became faded.
During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Christians risked their
lives to preserve a few Bibles.
But toward the end, a lot of hand
-copied Bibles became available, and overseas believers began
to smuggle Bibles to house churches across the
country.
It was not until 1985, sponsored by a
Western foundation, that Bibles were printed in China
in large quantities.
But even today, public distribution is not permitted.
People who want to own a Bible must
buy one at a three-self church.
Mountains cannot stop rivers that flow to the
ocean.
Today, the Bible has entered millions of Chinese
families.
It is a stream in the desert moistening
every thirsty soul.
By the end of the 1970s, Christians began
to be released from jail.
I was so anxious to go home.
I wasted no time and took the express
train.
It was after 11 o'clock at night
when the train arrived in Beijing.
Our eldest daughter and her husband, our third
son and I, the four of us, quickly
ate some porridge, then hurried to the train
station.
The light was red and dim.
You could hardly see anything.
Our eyes got very tired.
The four of us were spread out along
the platform.
We couldn't see each other.
We kept looking around the train station until
no one was left.
We didn't find him.
I'd been gone over 20 years and I
was wearing a black cotton padded jacket and
pants and a big fur hat and a
pair of boots.
They couldn't see me.
Alan Yuan took the bus to Baitasa, to
the home he had left, but he couldn't
find his home.
I looked here and there.
Where should I go?
I started to call my wife's name, Lily
Liang.
I didn't know where she had moved.
In 1958, we were at Huiancheng, their new
address.
I had no idea.
My third daughter-in-law answered my call.
Lily Liang went to the train station to
pick someone up.
I replied that it was me.
Remember, I had never met any of these
daughters-in-law.
My oldest son was only 17 when I
left.
Mrs. Yuan, along with her children, came back
from the train station and was very disappointed.
I saw a light in my room.
Was it possible?
I hurried up the steps and opened the
door.
There he was washing his feet.
His head was shaven and he was quite
happy.
I was speechless.
He told me they gave him 60 yuan
for traveling.
I still couldn't say a word.
He was so thin.
I didn't know what to say.
Yet I was full of joy and gratitude.
Usually, if it was a life sentence, you
could never go home.
People who don't believe in Jesus said a
strong fate must have helped me return home.
It wasn't my fate.
I am God's child.
The first thing we did was to thank
God.
It was beyond every hope I ever had
that he might come home.
It turned out that prison was a safe
place to be during the Cultural Revolution.
Otherwise, he would have been beaten to death.
I was so full of gratitude when I
thought of this.
After he washed his feet, he didn't eat.
He went right to sleep.
I cleaned up and got ready to go
to work the next day.
Twenty years of imprisonment were over, but Alan
Yuan knew that his wife had had a
harder life outside prison during those long years.
All those twenty years, when I was gone,
my wife suffered a lot while she raised
our children.
After he left, we had eight people in
the family, my mother-in-law and six
children.
I had no job.
Later, when I got a job, I made
80 cents a day, which is 24 yuan,
U.S. $3 a month.
After the three yuan tied, I had 21
yuan left.
How could the eight of us live on
so little money?
All I could do was pray, Lord, yes,
this is from you, so I won't say
anything about it.
I just want to ask you to protect
my children and me from dishonoring you.
None of my six children complained.
I often told them that their father went
to jail not because of any crime, but
my children did suffer a lot.
One of my sons, he was nicknamed Cornbread
Head because that was the lunch he brought
to school every day.
He said, Mother, could you buy me a
wheat roll just once to shut it up?
I said I couldn't.
If I just bought one roll, it was
not fair for the other kids, and I
couldn't afford to buy six.
One day, this family of eight hit rock
bottom.
There was absolutely nothing left to eat.
It was late, about 11 o'clock, and
I prayed, O Lord, we have nothing for
tomorrow, no rice, no flour, no money.
Lord, if you don't provide, all we have
is water.
But early the next morning, someone knocked on
the door.
I had just finished my prayers, so I
opened the door right away.
It was an elderly woman in her sixties.
I didn't know her, so I asked her
name.
She said, Please don't ask my name.
The Holy Spirit brought me here.
She said, Here is something for you.
It was a package.
I opened it.
After she left, it was 50 yuan, which
was a lot of money then.
So I was able to buy flour, coal,
and food.
One day, a girl came to the Yuan
family with three packages.
She said, The big bag you can send
to Uncle Yuan, the middle-sized bag is
for you to give to others in need,
and the little bag is to be used
for your expenses.
My child, what is your name?
I asked.
She said, Please don't ask.
Mother didn't want me to tell you.
During those difficult 20 years, it was this
great love that came from above and from
those around her that sustains this gentle woman
and her family in body and heart.
It was amazing.
Each time the money came in the mail
with a code name, 1078 or 1056.
I will write back.
I have received the money and hope to
meet you soon.
I don't know you, but thank you for
your gift of love.
Two days later, my letter was returned.
The post office noted that there was no
such person.
Money was sent every month for over 20
years.
Some people, like my neighbors, said, How come
you are still joyful after going through so
much suffering?
They don't understand, but I do.
In 1978, Pastor Samuel Lam was released from
prison.
When I got out of jail, I found
out that my wife had died two years
earlier.
My father died seven years earlier.
When I returned from labor camp, I had
nothing left.
They didn't return any of my assets or
my house.
They came to our home three times to
confiscate things.
Finally, they kicked us out.
We had to live in a little dark
room, about seven square meters.
There was no daylight, no fresh air.
Perhaps they didn't anticipate that the pressures that
they had to face after leaving jail hadn't
changed.
They still had to register to join the
Three-Self Church.
But the government also had an unanticipated situation
to deal with.
The answers from all these Christians remained the
same as before.
I refused to register.
That's what I said.
Go ahead and arrest me again.
I was 75 in 1999.
I am an old man.
I'm used to jail.
The first time I was in prison for
16 months.
The second time, 20 years.
I'm used to it.
When I returned home in October 1979, people
came to my house every day.
Some came to read the Bible.
Some came to pray.
Later we started the house church service and
we continue to this day.
My faith is more important than everything else.
If the laws of the government are against
my faith, I will never submit to man.
I submit to God.
I was not against the government.
The government misunderstood me.
According to the Bible, we submit to the
authorities.
But in terms of faith, I submit to
God, not man.
That's all.
They continue holding on to their faith and
continue to carry their own cross.
Between October 10, 1985 to January 10, 1986,
they locked me up for three months.
And again between April 24 and July 23,
1992, they put me behind bars for three
months, accusing me of spreading the gospel outside
of pre-assigned area.
The plainclothes policeman came on Sunday and declared
there was no service on that day.
They claimed Yuan was sick.
In the middle of the gathering, seven public
security personnel entered in uniform.
Three of them went upstairs and stood at
the stairway.
One of them interrupted our preaching and asked,
who reported to the police that there had
been a suicide?
One of the brothers said, no one had
reported any suicides.
We didn't have any suicides here.
Then we started to sing.
The cross, the cross.
We were singing as they left.
Shizhijia, Shizhijia.
I sang this song.
They left.
Shizhijia, Shizhijia.
I sang this song.
These elderly men who had been deprived of
their youth, who were even considered strange in
the modern world, showed neither bitterness nor regret.
The first time they asked me if I
was going to appeal, I said no.
I thought to myself, why appeal to men?
All I need is to pray to God.
We shouldn't resent anybody because nothing happened that
came from man.
God allowed us to suffer this way.
Jesus suffered as well, but was not resentful.
He prayed for his persecutors.
After I was released, I didn't appeal.
The policeman said, we're not going to redress
your case because you will keep doing the
same thing.
Of course I will keep doing the same
thing.
I've been put on this earth to witness
for the Lord.
What else is important?
Didn't the Lord tell me from the beginning
to give up everything and carry the cross
to follow Him?
This is the Lord's way.
I'm following Him on the same path.
Why should I be upset?
Why should I complain?
This is my biggest blessing.
The court
cheated
me and changed my situation from non-repentant
to repentant.
In order to release me.
I protested in two ways.
First, I refused to leave the jail.
Then after I was released, I chose to
live as a life sentence prisoner in a
place just outside of the gates.
Not only did he live next to the
jail, Epiphras insisted on fasting five days a
week.
If I keep on fasting like this, they
will know I have not repented, that I
don't accept their accusations in the first place.
If I continue to fast like this until
I die, it will mean that I refuse
repentance even until death.
After 15 years of fasting, Epiphras came to
the end of his 78 years on this
earth and rested in the Lord.
Some churches in Yinchuan wanted to have some
of his ashes, but they were quietly spread
on the Yellow River.
In his last letter to his relatives, Epiphras
wrote, I died as an unrepentant criminal, just
like my Lord Jesus.
For many years, I have believed in Jesus
and followed him.
The Lord Jesus has always listened to my
prayers.
He has been with me wherever I go.
I will never deny him.
I will never
deny him.
The way of the cross surpasses all human
understanding.
The way of the cross is the way
of humiliation and glory, the way of suffering
and joy.
It is the way of sacrifice and victory.
In Xiamen, Madam Yan Xingfei leads a house
church that consists mainly of college students.
She also preaches in the nearby cities and
villages.
In Shanghai and Beijing, Pastor Moses Shi devotes
his advanced years to reaching out to the
increasing number of younger people who have thirsty
souls.
In Guangzhou, Pastor Samuel Lam and his Damajian
House Church stand firm and with grace in
all their trials and hardships.
Before I went to jail, we had 400
people.
After I came back, we had 900.
They confiscated the house in 1990.
After that, we grew to 2,000.
The third floor was not big enough, so
we had to use closed-circuit TV on
the second floor.
Finally, we had to use the basement as
well.
The more they persecuted, the more blessed we
became.
Today, the church has moved to Wengui, where
every day is like a holiday and groups
of Christians gather together in joy.
In Beijing, Pastor Alan Yuan's house church is
like a lighthouse beaming out the hope of
Chinese Christians into the dark night.
Every summer, Alan Yuan, who is now 90,
baptizes hundreds of people.
God called me to spread the gospel and
serve the Lord.
In my heart, I accept the vision from
above.
Even though we are limited in many ways,
the devil will never conquer the church.
Battles like this raged in the past.
Today, the Lord's work marches forward in China,
just like the time of Acts.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermon series.
This week, you heard the cross in China,
a Chinese revival story.
Tune in next week to hear another fantastic
message on From the Pulpit in Classic Sermon.
From the Pulpit in Classic Sermon.