Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

A Witness to the Chinese

Dr. Rev. Stephen Oliver

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

How good it is to be here, especially to thank you because you have sent me out as a missionary. Gloria Dei has been supporting me to be a missionary professor teaching New Testament at China Lutheran Seminary for these last seven to ten years and I really thank God for this opportunity to share God’s word with you, to share about the challenge of being a witness to Chinese.

We are not independent and alone as Christians today and your church is not independent and alone but we are part of a vast movement over these 2,000 years since Jesus rose from the dead, the work of the Holy Spirit working through the people of God to bring that message of salvation to the ends of the earth before Jesus comes again.

And so for at least 1,400 years, Christians have been trying to share the gospel and bring the gospel to people all around the world, especially to China, but it’s interesting that Christians have never spent more money, more lives and more effort spreading the gospel to a place with the least results than China, than to Chinese, until the last 30 years.

Some people feel that Thomas, the disciple, brought the gospel to China. We can’t verify this. We have no evidence of this. We do know that Thomas went as far as India. We do have evidence of that and people feel that he was buried in India but we can’t be sure that he went to China. But the first evidence that we have that the gospel went into China happened in about the year 600 in the Tong Dynasty when the Nestorian Christians from Syria went to China and spread the gospel. We have a stone, a big stone, that’s in the town of Ch’ang-an today. I’ve seen it and it’s carved in very beautiful Chinese calligraphy. It tells about what these missionaries preached, the trinity and the gospel and it records their experience that, at that time, in 600 to about 650 A.D. in China, about 3,000, more than 3,000 people believed. But then when the dynasty changed, the Tong Dynasty changed to the next dynasty, they just completely disappeared. No trace at all of them. The only evidence we have is this one stone that we still have today.

The second time the gospel went into China was during the Nguyên Dynasty. Genghis Khan was a famous conqueror of China from north of China from Mongolia. And that dynasty, although it lasted a short time, it was very powerful. That was the time that Marco Polo went to China, about the year 1300. And Marco Polo found that in the court of the emperor, the emperor’s wife and a lot of other people in his court worshiped in a way very similar to the Europeans, Christian worship. There were Christians there. Very similar, in a way, to the previous Tong Dynasty Nestorian Christians. So this was the second time the gospel was in China. And actually, at that time, they made plans to send 100 pastors from Europe to spread the gospel in China and just spread Christianity but the dynasty very quickly changed. It was a very short-lived dynasty and then there was no evidence or record of them surviving, the Christians surviving. So at two times, the gospel had entered China and then completely disappeared.

But a third time the gospel went into China right after the Reformation about the year 1600 during the Ming Dynasty, the Jesuit missionaries, like Mateo Richie, spread the gospel into China. And a lot of people became believers but 100 years later in about the year 1721, the emperor made Christianity illegal. The third time the gospel had entered China and then been repressed or disappeared and actually, at that time, it didn’t completely disappear. There were still a few Christians who remained and continue to remain but they were forced underground and actually persecuted. So it was hard going spreading the gospel in China.

The fourth time the gospel went into China, the Christian world is large but, oh no, this fourth time the gospel again will go into China and then be persecuted and repressed and disappear. This was about the year 1800 and the last dynasty, the Ching Dynasty, was when the great Protestant missionary movement happened. And we were involved in that. Our Missouri Synod sent missionaries starting in about the year 1912 and we have had over 100 missionaries in China. But in this Protestant missionary movement, the most famous of the Chinese missionaries was Hudson Taylor. I think you’ve all probably heard his name and they spread the gospel throughout all of China. Many people believed but then, once again, when Mao Zedong became the leader of China in 1949, China became communist. He started forcing the missionaries out, including our own missionaries. We had a number of missionaries who were put in jail and hurt, persecuted and finally, by 1952, all of the missionaries were sent out of China by Mao Zedong in the communist regime.

Not only that, but in 1965, some of you may remember the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong in which he closed all the churches. Every single church was closed. The pastors and evangelists of the churches were put in jail and died in jail or were killed and, once again, the Christian world said, “Look at this. We have spent so much effort and so many lives spreading the gospel to Chinese and now, it’s the fourth time in the history of Christianity that the gospel has gone into China, been repressed and will disappear.”

The Cultural Revolution lasted about ten years into 1976 when Mao Zedong died. But an amazing thing happened, the work of the Holy Spirit. Because the church was kept alive in China among Chinese through poor Christians who just simply continued meeting at the threat of their lives in their homes and they say that in 1980, there were about 1 million Christians in China. But then in the ‘80’s, Dung Xio Ping once again allowed the churches to be open. I think Marxes had found out they could not completely repress people’s faith. But I think really, in my opinion, what they’re trying to do in these repressive governments around the world today is do the second best so they try to control it. So even as we missionaries, when we go into mainland China, we still find that it’s very restricted. There’s a lot of control.

Some of you have been there to teach. I stayed last night with Marv and Norma Rohn and they had gone in the year 2000 to teach as English teachers in China for about five weeks. They spoke about how they were very restricted about they could say and do. Today it’s still the same. Just last week, I was turned down for a Visa to go into China. I wanted to have a one-year long multiple entry Visa into China and the agency who was trying to help me get the Visa, they faxed back my application and they circled the fact that I had put where my school is, China Lutheran Seminary. They said “seminary” is a red flag to them.

But nevertheless, we can still get those one‑time entry Visas. This year, I went in January to teach in the southern part of China to teach at a bible school where the teachers are preparing for the province of Unan, the southern province, they are preparing the leaders for their churches. And another missionary and I were able to go and teach these teachers about Lutheran theology, the heart of Christianity, the heart of our theology and their response was just amazing.

But we are still able to get those one-time entry Visas. It’s a little bit more trouble and we’re still finding a lot of restrictions. In some places, the church is really persecuted in China. In some places, it’s more open. We can’t just make a blanket statement about all of China and say it’s all persecuted or all open. China is very big and there are a lot of different places and the government in each place is a little bit different. But nevertheless, we still find the repression of man, the restrictions of man and the gospel of God. And we still have the same spirit of Peter and John when, in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin told them, “Do not preach in the name of Jesus.” They said, “You decide whether we should obey God or man.” And they obeyed God and continued to preach and suffered for it.

But what has happened now in the Chinese world, the whole Chinese world as far as Christianity in the last 30 years since 1980? When the churches were reopened in China in 1980, there were 1 million Christians. Ten years later, there were 10 million Christians. Never before in the Chinese world have we seen that fruit and now, 30 years later, they say there are about 100 million Chinese Christians. That’s amazing.

In Europe now, there are more people worshiping in mosques than in churches. That place that used to be the heart of missionary sending, Europe, now it’s declining. Christianity is declining. And in China, it’s growing and reviving. After 1,400 years of spreading the gospel in China and it continually being rejected, God did not give up on the people He loves. God did not give up on us. He did not give up on Chinese. And now the fruit is being born in our lifetime. And you are a part of this. I’m a part of this movement. We’re a part of this, spreading the gospel and seeing and reaping the fruit of the seed that others have sown. And we need to push forward in this.

Recently, I was in Mission Central in Mapleton, Iowa. I don’t know if you know that name and Gary Thies. Do you know about Gary Thies? He’s the director of Mission Central for Iowa. It’s just an amazing thing that’s happened. The Missouri Synod told Gary Thies, “Okay, we’ll call you to be a mission developer and, in western Iowa, if you can raise as much as $400,000 for missions in one year, just be thankful that may be the highest you could ever raise.” But now, these last two years and even through the recession, that is one mission organization that did not go down. That is Mission Central. Now it didn’t go up a lot in these last two years but it continued to climb and now there are over 4 million. He is the largest mission-raising support group in the Missouri Synod and I think the largest of probably any denomination now. It’s just amazing what’s happening in western Iowa. I never thought this could happen.

I was a pastor in Carlisle, Iowa. I remember when you dedicated the stained glass windows here. It was just about the time I was ordained and I remember it vividly because Pastor Parsch had to be here for dedicating the stained glass windows and he couldn’t be at my ordination. So that was back in 1987. And so I was familiar a little bit with western Iowa and I just am really amazed at this work of God through Mission Central, through you and through Gary Thies and when I told him when I was going to be here to preach, he said, “Wow, Gloria Dei is really doing a lot. They are really doing a lot for missions.” And he said also, “God has blessed them. They can do more. They can do more.” You see that spirit of faith that he has that pushes us forward? And now we need to push forward.

My wife is a Chinese woman. I got married late, at 46 years old, four years ago. And now we’ve already had two sons. Our first son’s name is Isaac. That’s what old guys, when they have a son, name them, like Abraham. They name them Isaac. But it means laugh. The word means laugh. To us, it reminds us of the story of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah both laughed at God when He said they would have a son in their old age but then when they had that son, they laughed with joy and they remembered that God can do the impossible. God can do the things that man cannot do, can accomplish what we cannot accomplish. And He uses us to do that.

And He’s used you. You’re an amazing treasure in the eyes of God. You’re an amazing influence in the world of mission and Christianity today. Thank God for that.

Our text, John 8, points to a problem that the Jews had which is why the Chinese also continue to reject the gospel. Jesus said that those who follow His word will never see death. They will have eternal life. We Christians know that. Now you say, “Oh, but we must die. Our bodies must die.” That’s true but do you know that the moment that you die, that moment that your body stops, for those who believe in Jesus, that second is a second of immense joy. Those left behind just see the suffering and they see the end of your life. You will experience immediate joy that moment so that’s what Jesus is talking about, that you will not taste death. You will not see what death really is, that is, separation from God and complete darkness, if you believe in Jesus. That’s an amazing thing so that we look forward to being with Christ with great joy. And although we’re scared of some aspects of death and suffering, nevertheless, Christians have joy in looking forward to what is in the next life. It’s secure for us. Jesus has prepared a place for us.

But because of this desire to have a good place in the next life and to have a good place for our loved ones, humans are seen by anthropologists and archeologists to be different than animals because we care about those who have gone before us, just like these Jews. When Jesus said, “If you follow my word, you will not see death,” the Jews said to Him, “What? Are you greater than our ancestor, Abraham? He died and the prophets died, too.” And Jesus basically said to them in John 8, “Yes, I’m greater.” He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” By saying that, He was saying, “I am the God who spoke to Moses” in Exodus 3, the first reading that we had today. Because when Moses said, “What is your name? What shall I tell the Israelites?” God said, “I am. That is my name.” And if we look at it in the Hebrew and the Greek, that word means, “I am the one who exists.” He is the one who exists eternally. So God is the eternally existing one. That’s His name and that’s what Jesus told the Jews at this time. “I am that one, the eternally living one, the eternally existing one.” And so they picked up stones to stone Him. They said, “This is blasphemy because you’re a man and you’re making yourself to be God.” So that stumbling block of Jesus being the Savior, the way to not taste death, the way to have a good life in the next life, the one who was God, eternal God, this is the stumbling block to people because we all have our idols. We all have those in which we trust, like the Jews trusting in their ancestor, Abraham and the prophets.

The Chinese are the same way. They’ve trusted in their idols, their ancestors and their culture. And they have felt that their culture was good enough. They don’t need this outside gospel, so they continually rejected the gospel until these last, I feel, in these last 150 to 200 years, they have experienced a lot of humbling, a lot of defeats, this great culture and now, their hearts have been prepared to receive the gospel. They’ve experienced the scourge of Mao Zedong and communism and have been humbled by these things and been conquered by Japan and other countries. And so now in the last 30 years, their hearts have been open to receive the gospel and they continue to be open to receive the gospel.

My wife is the only Christian in her whole family. She became a Christian in America by coming here to study and seeing the love that Americans have and Christians have. She went to a church and, although she didn’t understand what he was saying, she saw the love in the pastor as he was preaching the gospel and she saw the love in the Christians. So she called her Taiwan friends in Houston, Texas and said, “Take me to a church where I can understand Chinese, understand Mandarin preaching and really learn what this gospel is all about.” And so in that church, she became a Christian. And her mother warned her and said, “Don’t be baptized. If you become a Christian, you’re no longer my daughter.” So she realized she better quickly be baptized in America before she goes back to Taiwan because if she goes back, she would probably be restricted by her mother and will have a hard time being baptized. So two days before she left America, she was baptized and went back. And although she’s had a hard struggle with her mother, like many Chinese Christians even today, they still get a lot of trouble from their families and maybe their own parents but, nevertheless, God has made them firm in their faith. He’s made my wife firm in her faith and we continue to pray for her whole family that they will become Christians. We pray with boldness because we see what God is doing that, through 1,400 years of spreading the gospel in China and being rejected and now, right at this special time, the gospel is being accepted by Chinese. And they are accepting that baton of the gospel, to spread the gospel to the rest of the world.

I think Chinese will be able to spread the gospel into the Moslem world much better than we in the west with all of our conflicts through the crusades even to now with terrorism. Although we Americans have sent the most missionaries now, we are still the most sending of missionaries country in the world and we have far more missionaries in the Moslem world than people know, even in our own Missouri Synod missionaries. It’s all kept very quiet. We can’t put it on the website because it would endanger their lives but I think, in the future, maybe later this century or next century, Chinese will be the one that will be able to spread the gospel into that most hard-to-reach Moslem world. They are right next to it. There are a lot of Moslems in China, in western China, and Chinese don’t have that historical background that we do, the conflicts with the Moslem world.

So let’s push forward in this and, as we do, let’s remember that gospel is the gospel that gives us hope in our life. It gives us confidence to face every challenge, including the biggest one, the challenge of death. As Jesus said, “Those who follow His word will not taste death, will experience eternal life.” Let us care for those who we love by sharing the gospel with them so they also will have the best situation, life with God in the next life. Amen.