TREASURY OF SERMONS
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The Revival Ministry of John the Baptist in China
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30 am service, 7 May 2000 )
Text: Matt 3:1-12; Jn 1:29-34
The revival ministry of John the Baptist is his preaching the Gospel of Repentance. Hundreds and thousands who came to hear him confessed their sins while the Baptist turned their eyes to "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The mighty deeds of John the Baptist are recorded in all the four Gospels.
John was declared the greatest prophet because God had planned that he should be born six months before Christ. He was the greatest because he heralded the coming of our Lord. He brought many to the Saviour. For three hundred years after Malachi, there was no prophet until he came on the scene. There is a divine timetable in God's Saving Plan.
In studying the revival history of the Chinese Church I have discovered that there was also a timing of the coming of three great Revivalists, one after the other in quick succession, during a period of 40 years.
The Gospel entered China through Robert Morrison the first missionary in 1807. For nearly a hundred years it crawled at a snail's pace. In order to quicken its pace, God used three mighty servants. First was Dora Yu, a young woman, from 1898. The second, Ting Li Mei, a Presbyterian minister from 1908, and third, a doctor of science and son of a Methodist pastor, John Sung from 1928.
Eight(8) is a favourite number with the Chinese, so you should more easily recall their quick succession decade by decade, 1898, 1908, 1928.
What is the essence of the ministry of these three servants of God? It is the same as the revival ministry of John the Baptist, who called on their hearers to repentance and confession of sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Each one had felt the call of God, though under different circumstances.
I.
Dora Yu, a brilliant young woman was the first to be sent to Great Britain to study medicine. But while she was on the high seas God spoke to her. God wanted her to preach His Word. When the ship had passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean , she made up her mind. She told the Captain to whom she was entrusted. The Captain thought she was out of her mind, but upon her insistence he put her on another ship sailing out of Marseilles back to Shanghai .
When Dora set foot on her own soil again, she was coolly received by her loved ones. But they could not dispute God was with her. Soon we see Dora on the Gospel trail. She shook North China and Korea . Then she turned to the South, to Foochow where 18-year-old Watchman Nee heard her and was soundly converted.
She came to Swatow my home town and my mother was born again through her ministry, as well as my father who was greatly blessed. Dora Yu had a winning personality and a modest demeanour, but when she preached her listeners were cut to the heart. Crowds began to pray together and trembled under the conviction of sin, some writhing in agony, others falling prostrate to the ground. After sins were confessed and forgiven those who were down leaped to their feet, praising the Lord for deliverance. But there was no tongues-speaking. This record by English missionaries is confirmed by Evangelist Lim Puay Hian in his memoirs of what also happened in his pastor-father's Church outside of Swatow .
A lesson for us to learn is that God is no respecter of persons. There is neither male nor female in Christ (Gal 3:28 ). While it is true that Paul forbids a woman to teach, let those who say this note there are exceptions. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (peach). . .And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17 -18).
Alongside her Revival Ministry, Dora founded a seminary known as China Bible Seminary in Shanghai , where Watchman Nee took a year of study. This seminary I visited to great profit when I went to China for study in 1947. And remember Dora Yu was the first Revivalist God raised up to turn China to himself—a woman!
II.
The second Revivalist raised of God appeared ten years after. He is Ting Li Mei, a Presbyterian pastor, graduate from North China Theological Seminary of the American Presbyterian Mission. While Dora Yu came on the scene in 1898 two years before the Boxer Rebellion, Rev Ting arose in 1908, one decade after her. This was after his imprisonment by the Manchu Governor in the Box Uprising. As gold tried by fire Rev Ting emerged from his sufferings a flaming soul for God. He left his pastorate and hit the road as an evangelist.
From the beginning of his ministry Rev Ting was mightily used of God. In his native Province of Shantung the Lord blessed him with a thousand souls in a single campaign! This gave him the breakthrough into the Church world overnight, so that invitations began to pour in from all parts of China .
After a successful interval in Manchuria , he received an invitation to conduct a seven-day campaign at the Methodist Church in Peking . As the Spirit fell on the hearers almost all were laid prostrate on the ground, writhing in agony and bitter tears for their sins.
In one of Rev Ting's meetings with that Methodist Church it lasted from 9 o'clock in the morning until 2 o'clock after mid-night. For that campaign 2,000 were gloriously saved. There was no speaking in tongues. Those who rose up spontaneously to testify of their new-found salvation could neither be contained nor numbered. (This eye-witness account was given Mr Ching Fu-yin, his co-labourer in the Gospel in the Chinese Commemorative Book compiled by N.Z. Zia, 1939 — 60,000 copies).
Having made such inroads into a dead Church, Rev Ting swept on in his conquests for Christ in the national capital and took by storm the National University , Peking Union Medical College and Peking Theological Seminary. Enroute to these places the students gave him a resounding welcome with a brass band, swelled by a crowd of a thousand awe-struck on-lookers. When the Spirit worked, there was no need of spending a year and a million dollars to lay the groundwork for a city-wide campaign as it was done for Billy Graham in Singapore 1978.
The name of Ting Li Mei now was upon every lip so that he began to be called "The Moody of China," "The Evangelist winning a thousand converts a month." D L Moody, hearing of Ting's exploits, said of him, "During the last few decades of Asian Church annals, there is no one like Ting Li Mei who has moved so many students to consecrate their lives to pastor the Churches. No one like Ting."
Rev Ting himself went through every one of the 18 Provinces of China, even riding a pony into wild Yunnan . He called for 1,000 student volunteers to serve Christ full-time. One of them who responded was my old Pastor, Rev Heng Teck Im of Prinsep Street Life Church . He served 60 years.
III.
As to the third Revivalist after John the Baptist he is none other than John Sung. He arose in 1928 and served the Lord for 15 years until his death in 1944. When he visited Singapore in 1935 he was at the peak of his ministry. He preached against sin and the need of repentance and restitution. 2,000 were soundly converted in tears and born again, including me. 100 Preaching Bands were formed who promised the Lord to go out for evangelism every Lord's Day afternoon. 100 consecrated to serve the Lord full-time. Among them were myself, my brother Dr S H Tow, Rev C T Hsu and Rev Quek Kiok Chiang.
The Church at Telok Ayer became a powerhouse for corporate prayer according to age group and a constant praise service, singing with melody and devotion to the Lord. But there was no speaking in tongues.
There was only one afternoon, the second last day of the two-week campaign, given to healing, after 40 two-hour long messages were preached.
At the end of the campaign one dozen Gospel stations were opened including one instant Church. Miss Leona Wu, interpreter for John Sung and his successor established a Bible School , the Chin Lien Bible Seminary, which continues to this day, having graduated over 300.
China is such a vast country with the biggest population in the world. One revival was not enough, so God had to send a succession of three, from 1898 to 1908 to 1928. The converts from these campaigns became the good seed sown among the people. In 1949 when Mao took over China there were only one million Protestants. Today China watchers report 80 million.
Although there is no mighty Revival in Singapore as in John Sung's day, the message on the need of repentance from sins and confession and restitution is the same. Just coming to Church is not enough. Have you repented from your old sinful ways? Do you know that your sins are washed away by the Blood of Christ? Do you experience the joy of being forgiven? Are you born again? If not, you can receive that joy I have described by receiving Him into your heart today. Amen.
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