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October 22, 2013

Study the Bible

“For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10)
My name is Daniel Rhee from South Africa. I feel so much honored to deliver a lecture in front of great servants of God.
It is the late Dr. Samuel Lee's 82nd birthday. Today we are holding a memorial worship service for him at his tomb, which makes me miss him all the more. In particular, the last legacy which he left for us, "Back to the Bible!" seems to be more close to me here. Today I would like to remember Dr. Lee and think about why his last will is important, especially on the basis of Ezra 7:10.

1. EZRA‘S DEVOTION TO BIBLE STUDY
The Israelites returned to Jerusalem after 70 years in exile in Babylon. Despite the surrounding enemies’ oppression, they rebuilt the temple and installed priests and Levites for the temple service, according to God's law(6:16-8). They were filled with joy and excitement. And now, God sent Ezra to Israel. According to verse 6,12 Ezra was a good teacher of the laws of God. He was well versed in every law from Exodus to Deuteronomy. He was well aware of how to serve God and how to apply the laws in specific situations. In addition, through the laws, he had deep insights of what God is like, what human beings are like, and what God’s ultimate will is.
Then why did God send Ezra to Israel at this point? The Israelites were overjoyed when they rebuilt the temple and restored the temple worship service. After 40 years, however, the emotional effect didn’t work anymore. Even if their joy remained in their hearts, God did not want his people to be swayed by such sentiment. God wanted them to act according to God’s word. Though the temple worship was restored, it didn’t mean anything unless they had a personal relationship with God based on God’s word. God wanted them to worship in spirit and in truth. What could enable the Israelites to live was not the temple worship but God’s word. Jesus also said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."(John 6:63)
Because of the importance of God’s word, God sent Ezra, who was well aware of God’s word, to Israel. Ezra knew God’s will well. Let’s look at Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” Because he knew God's will clearly, he dedicated himself to studying the word of God. He also devoted himself to obeying and teaching the word of God. At this moment I would like to focus on Ezra’s dedication to studying the word of God. Ezra devoted himself to studying the word of God. In short, God's word is the object of our studies. As we do in other studies, we need to analyze and integrate God’s word repeatedly until clear message rises in our hearts.
In my high school years, when I used to walk around Daein-dong, Kwang-ju, in Korea, I saw the ‘University Bible Study’ sign which was the former name of UBF. Dr. Lee was very conscious of the problem that the pastors’ sermons were not always faithful to the Bible. During announcements, Dr. Lee emphasized the importance of Bible study, saying that we should study the Bible diligently even more than medical students study medicine. He also explained a profoundly unique chemistry hidden behind the Bible, encouraging us to study it diligently until we grasp the basic chemistry of the Bible.
We have our own conventional ways of Bible study. The first is to study with 'the author's perspective'. During message training, Dr. Lee often rebuked staff shepherds saying, "There is a message, but no word of God." "The contents are good, but there is neither Jesus nor God's heart." In this way, he emphasized 'the author's perspective.' The second is the 4 step process of ‘observe, interpret, develop and apply’ which we call inductive Bible Study method. Going through these steps, we tried to develop our message based on the Bible exposition. In those days, many people did not trust in the pastors' sermons because they just spoke their own words, using the Bible. People felt burdened by their moral lessons. But because we dug out the word of God objectively according to the author’s perspective and inductive Bible study method and presented the word as it is, they could trust our messages. Thus, UBF was recognized as a ministry with 'the word of God', not just 'sermons.' More and more college students who were yearning for the truth gathered.
We came to taste the sweetness of the word, to have a healthy and independent life of faith. Those who tasted the sweetness of the word could teach their friends through one to one. These students often became layman Bible teachers who built up the power source of campus ministry and world mission.
Also, we realized that if we are Jesus' disciples then we should study God’s word even though we are not theologians. Dr. Lee always stressed that we should raise up many excellent Bible teachers, scholars, and specialists. He also said that if we are UBF members, each person should master at least one out of sixty six books of the Bible and become a world famous expert of the book.
Dr. Lee was a Bible scholar, teacher, and most of all, a Bible student. As a Bible student, he had a great learning mind. He learned the Bible from anyone, especially from Mother Barry. Once he said, “As a campus worker, I am the most blessed man, for I learn everything from everyone.” Dr. Lee was a great learner and a great Bible student.
At that time, laymen were not supposed to study and teach the Bible. We were often blamed and criticized, "By what qualifications do you teach the Bible?" “By what authority do you teach the Bible?” However, now the laymen Bible teaching movement has been dominant among all churches. In that sense, our ministry has played a pioneering role in church history.

2. EZRA AND A NATIONAL REVIVAL
Ezra dedicated himself to studying, obeying and teaching the laws of God. When the Israelites had heard the word of God, they were moved deeply and repented of their sins. Their hearts were refreshed, and the whole country changed into a new nation. For example, in Nehemiah chapter 8, the Israelites got together at the square, which was in front of the Water Gate. They invited Ezra and learned from him the laws of God. They wept, as they were happy to listen to the word of God. They also wept because of their sin. Due to their tears, that place became ‘the water gate’. God’s word demonstrated its power to move their hearts, which revived their nation.
From Ezra chapters 9-10, we see that many Israelites were married to Gentile women, a more severe problem with their leaders. Ezra tore his clothes and pulled hair from his head and beard and sat down appalled. But even for Ezra, it was hard to tell them to send their Gentile wives back to their countries since many of their leaders married Gentile women. It could have caused another problem of resistance and division among the people. However, the Israelites found 18 priests, 10 Levites, and 86 individuals, a total of 114people, and sent all their foreign wives back to their own people. We see the detailed list of them in 10:18-44. So the people were revived as God's people through repentance. Their relationship with God was restored and they were united as one. How were such great works possible? The word of God empowered them to repent and leave the life of sin. It was possible since they had God’s servant Ezra, who devoted himself to studying, obeying and teaching the word of God.
Dr. Lee laid the UBF foundation on the word of God. God used servants who devoted themselves to studying, obeying, and teaching the word of God to build up the UBF ministry.
When he came to America, Dr. Lee had a hard time because young students were selfish, which came from their sin-sickness. Through Matthew's Gospel study, he was deeply touched by Jesus who wholeheartedly loved Levi, a selfish tax collector. He was deeply moved by Jesus who bore all the labor of love toward him until he was healed and changed into a great sacrificial servant of God. Then God’s hope burned in him that American students could also be healed of their selfishness and transformed like Saint Matthew, changing America into Saint Matthews' nation. Regarding this, he wrote to Korean shepherds, "Thanks to this hope, I was able to restore my spirit, and I began to pour out my love on American students. Then all the more, handsome and lovely American students came to the Chicago UBF center.”
From the pioneering stage, American UBF had to engage in a war against deprogrammers. Dr. Lee fought them for 19 years. Some parents of Bible students who wanted to live by faith thought their children were brainwashed by UBF. So they confined their children with paid psychologists to deprogram them to give up their faith. Some of them left UBF. Not only that, they blamed UBF and hindered the ministry viciously. It was at times a discouraging battle when seemingly growing disciples were taken away and became enemies.
How did he go through this harsh trial? He studied the Bible. Instead of wrestling with the deprogrammers, he wrestled with the Bible. In the mid-1980’s, Dr. Lee wrote his yearly key verses on his Daily Bread notes 500 times to overcome his despair. These verses were Mark 11:22-24, “‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
For 19 years, Dr. Lee passed through many hardships, trials and persecutions. In adversities, he did not engage in human battles, but fought a spiritual battle through intensive Bible study until God turned it into fruitful victory. During this period, many jewel-like Bible lectures were produced from many books of the Bible, such as Exodus, Joshua, Daniel, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1-2Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Hebrews, 1Peter and 1John. He wrote eight different versions of Luke’s Gospel to learn God’s history. Among them, he put so much effort for the 1985 version which was published last year as a first book of Dr. Lee’s Bible study materials.
Through deep Bible study, Dr. Lee grasped a flow of the Bible and he found God’s great hope for his chosen people, Israel who were enslaved for 430 years. It was for them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Dr. Lee believed that God had the same hope for America. One day Dr. Lee looked very bright and excited at the Monday Leader's meeting. People thought something must have happened to him. Dr. Joseph Chung expected that he would buy chicken for everyone. However, Dr. Lee opened his mouth and said, "For the last twenty years I have devoted myself to prayer and Bible study. Now I finally found a prayer topic for America." It was from Exodus 19:5-6: "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." With this hope, Dr. Lee dedicated himself to raising disciples of Jesus one by one as future leaders. And, God raised numerous disciples as the spiritual leaders, and laid a firm foundation for North America to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Whenever Dr. Lee delivered a Sunday message, he summarized it into one word and planted it in the hearts of attendants through his announcements. We know his announcements were legendary. Someone once said he missed Dr. Lee mainly for his announcements. They included various subjects, including current news, history, philosophy, health, music, and especially Bible study. Through his announcements he touched the personal problems of his coworkers around, sometimes with encouragement, sometimes with rebuking. And his announcements were so funny and humorous that American students really liked them. Most importantly, it included one word of God. They showed clear prayer topics of each person and our ministry with a national direction and world mission vision. Dr. Lee could plant one word because he had struggled with his Sunday message throughout the whole week until one word of God came to him, like the morning star rising in his heart (2Pe1:19).
We know the spiritual legacy that Dr. Lee left very well: manger spirit, five loaves and two fish, giving spirit, testimony-writing, one to one Bible study, disciple-raising, world mission, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and ‘Go back to the Bible.’ These are all from the Bible, and we do not have enough time to talk about the significance of each legacy.
Lastly, In John 15:5 Jesus said, "Everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." Jesus always listened to God and then taught his disciples about what he learned from him. Jesus also struggled to obey the word of God, even sweating in prayer like drops of blood falling to the ground. Jesus even laid down his life on the cross. Our Lord Jesus was really the servant of God's word.
In conclusion, there are lots of worries and concerns about our ministry. Our ministry is in the transitional period. At this crucial moment, we learn Ezra’s devotion to Bible study. It was a source of a national revival. May God bless us to accept Ezra’s devotion to Bible study as the clear direction of our ministry. As we hold Dr. Lee's Memorial Worship Service today, I earnestly pray that we may learn the devotion of Ezra who dedicated himself to studying, obeying, and teaching the word of God.