<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Warrenton SDA Church

Mark Finley

From Tragedy to Triumph

And I pray thee that as we do, that your spirit would touch us.

Come with your mighty power amongst us today and do something special here in this place.

3 weeks ago, I was preaching at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.

And during that sermon, I invited our Chinese pastors, 3 of them, to participate with me and tell their stories.

He was a communist and believed that Christianity was for mindless, ignorant peasants.

He thought nobody that has any brain could possibly be a Christian.

In 1991, 92, and 93, a mighty revival swept through Northeastern China in the Seventh-day Admonished Church.

And 1 local congregation began to pray and seek God.

And the spirit was poured out in an unusual way and they began to baptize in that 1 church 2 to 3, 000 people every year.

The pastor baptized people for a week in the baptismal waters.

The pastor entered into the waters about 8.30, 9 o'clock in the morning and baptized people all day for 1 week.

These people were thoroughly indoctrinated.

They were coming to church for about a year and at the end of the year they'd have the baptismal services.

In 3 years they baptized in that 1 congregation between 8 and 9, 000 people.

The Holy Spirit was poured out in a mighty way.

Chen's wife came to those meetings at that great revival and she was baptized unbeknown to him because he was off in the Red Army.

His brother was baptized, his father and mother was baptized.

Chen came back to home, he was absolutely astounded and angry.

He said, what in the world is my wife doing?

Joining this sect, becoming 1 of these ignoramus Christians, I've got to straighten her out.

But as hard as he tried, she was firm to her convictions.

He ranted, he raved, he threatened to beat her, but she was faithful to her convictions.

Chen would come into the local Adventist church and break up the services, disrupt it.

But his wife was faithful to the call of Christ.

On 1 occasion, he came to the outside of the church and smashed all the windows out with rocks, but his wife was faithful to her convictions.

He was impressed with her faithfulness, but threatened to leave her.

At about this same time, she developed a very strange eye disease and needed to go into the hospital.

As she went into the hospital, she had a serious operation on her eye and a very large patch on that 1 eye.

The doctor told her not to do any more reading.

Her husband sat by her hospital bed day after day, week after week.

But he noticed that she was picking up the Bible and with the patch on the 1 eye, holding her Bible out and reading it.

He said, look darling, you're gonna go totally blind and not only will I have a wife that's a Christian, I'll have a blind wife." He said, let me read to you.

She handed him her Bible and she said, read the book of Job.

He began to read the book of Job and on 1 Sabbath afternoon they read the entire book of Job together.

He was absolutely stunned with this man who had gone through trial, gone through difficulty, gone through challenges.

This man that had family problems, this man that had lost his possessions, but this Job that was so faithful to God.

And he saw God working in Job's life in remarkable ways.

Chen came to the end of the book of Job, he read passages like this, and if you have your Bible, please take it, and turn to the last chapter of the book of Job.

Chen could not believe his eyes as he read these passages, because God had turned Job's sorrow into joy.

Take your Bible and look at Job chapter 42 verse 10.

And The Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.

Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Let your eyes drop down to verse 12, Job 42, verse 12.

Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning.

And this Job lived 140 years and saw his children and grandchildren for 4 generations.

Chen was absolutely amazed at a God that was that powerful, a God that was that incredible, a God that was that amazing, a God that could take the tears and bring joy, the tragedy and bring triumph.

Chen continued reading the Bible secretly.

When his wife would go out for treatment, Mr.

Chen would take the Bible out of the drawer and secretly read it.

When she would have doctor's appointment, he would read it.

Chen knelt by that bed and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.

Today, he is a pastor in that very city where that revival took place.

And they have 400 churches and 20, 000 members.

You know, throughout the Bible, there are numerous examples of God leading people from tragedy to triumph.

He goes from the pit to the prison to the palace, from tragedy to triumph.

He's faithful to God, lives through Babylonian captivity, goes into captivity when he's 17 years old, but eventually becomes the prime minister of Babylon.

He goes from, Daniel goes from tragedy to triumph.

Or think of Esther, She's a slave girl, but she becomes the queen, goes from tragedy to triumph.

Now the greatest example, of course, is Christ himself.

The Friday of Jesus' crucifixion did not look hopeful at all.

If there ever was a dark day, it was that 1.

I'd like you to take your Bible and turn to Matthew, the 26th chapter, because let's try to look at what's taking place around the crucifixion, The attitudes that are taking place that day, it sure does not look hopeful at all for Jesus.

And if you didn't know anything else except the crucifixion story, if you didn't know any of the prophecies that led up to it, or if you didn't know the story of the resurrection following it, you would say this is 1 of the most depressing stories that I've ever read.

If all you knew was the tragedy of the cross, If that's all you saw, you would think to yourself, this is a devastating blow for Christianity.

Here, the leader of the Christian faith hangs on a cruel cross with a crown of thorns upon his head, with blood running down his face, with nails through his hands, with his side pierced, crying out, it is finished.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

If that's all you knew, You knew nothing leading up to the cross, nothing following the cross, you would say, what a tragedy.

If all you read were the reactions of people to Jesus dying on the cross, you would say, what a tragedy.

The first reaction is the reaction of the disciples.

You find that in Matthew chapter 26, and you're looking there in Matthew 26 and verse 56.

But all this was done that the scripture of the prophets might be fulfilled, verse 56.

Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.

Back to Menu

From Tragedy to Triumph

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Elijah, Jesus and End Time People

59m

Jesus An Unsurpassed Leader

45m

Revelation’s Victorious Christ

47m

Making Healthy Choices

53m

Preparing for the Overwhelming Surprise

57m

ISIS, Armageddon, Earth’s Last Battle and You

56m

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Revelation 1-11 Chapter Review

51m

ASI 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

Effective Personal Evangelism

1h 22m

Total Member Involvement

6. Moving The Ship

1h

New Light for Laodiceans

39m

Plenary

Amish/Adventist

1h 37m

Sound Doctrine