News > North America

Devote Yourself to Preaching and to Teaching

“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:15-16)

Preaching and Teaching the Word

This year, we have studied a number of books like Hebrews, Acts, Pentateuch, 1 Samuel, 2 Corinthians, and Luke. The word of truth we believe and study is the real power for strength, excitement, vitality in life and for obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. The Sunday sermon in a sense is the most effective and significant tool to study and learn the word of truth.

As a preacher, studying and understanding what the words really say is the primary thing to do. It is also true and equally important for the preacher to experience the power of God’s words and put it into practice by faith in the midst of struggles and pressures.

Our home church had Sunday services, extended Easter and Christmas services with a family in Erie, Pa, and participated in the regional conference and the year-end Wells conference. We also visited Korea during the summer break and had body life together with brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reaching out to the community at large, our ministry regularly held a couple of bible study groups with a few local Christians and worked together with other campus Christian ministries. Responding to the preaching invitation by a local Korean church, I served three Sunday messages. At the Great Lakes regional conference, I gave a lecture on the Pentateuch.

Jesus the High Priest

The second part of Hebrews taught us how much God wanted to establish a new covenant through the Son Jesus Christ in order to give us life, the very life which God intended man to live even before the creation of the world. For this, the Son became the victim of sacrifice and the high priest at the same time on the cross and entered into the holy of holies behind the curtain, the throne of grace once for all.

The Hebrews study taught that we have a high priest who is able to empathize with our weaknesses because He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). This high priest is Jesus Christ in the order of Melchizedek. He entered into the holy of holies with His own blood as the pioneer and perfecter of faith, so shall we fix our eyes upon Him.

The unfailing love of God has been fulfilled in the Son Jesus Christ that He will not leave us nor forsake us in any circumstance because He indwells within us eternally by means of the Spirit. It is true that He continually disciplines and molds us out of His unfailing and consistent love to be mature men and women whom God intended men and women to be.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)

The Holy Spirit in Action

We picked up what we left off the study of Acts last year, starting with the call of Apostle Paul up to his first missionary journey. It taught us how the Holy Spirit powerfully and microscopically led every step of apostle, delivering and preaching the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to all kinds of people from nobles, officials, men, women, young and old, Greeks, and Jews.

Paul was invited to the Antioch Church when he was in his hometown Tarsus. The Holy Spirit moved Barnabas to call Paul of Tarsus to preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. It had been more than a decade after the dramatic Damascus experience that a great light had flashed around him.

He was prepared and called to bring the good tidings of Christ far away to the Gentiles. When he tried to reach out to the Jews by means of powerful debate, proving that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they wanted to kill him.

So, the people sent him off to Tarsus and the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened (Acts 9:31). God couldn’t use Moses when he killed an Egyptian, thinking that he would be accepted by the people of Israel if he did. Rather, he was rejected and fled to the Median wilderness forty years.

This is the evidence that God has always been in action to advance the gospel of Christ Jesus and hence to save the world. Evangelization of the world is God’s program designed and operated by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Designer and Operator of the divine program. Paul and apostles were the instruments of advancing the divine program of God. So are we!

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

The measurement of gospel ministry shall never be taken by numbers or glittering programs but by the fact that the Spirit is the sole player and resource for all the events and activities of church. The Spirit set apart for Him Paul and Barnabas for the work to which He had called them.

The Patten of God’s Work

The first five books of the Scripture are called Moses’ Pentateuch or Torah. It teaches the pattern of God’s work in individual and a nation. Going through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we could see the infallible redemption plan of God which is so graphically illustrated for us to understand.

Genesis tells us that man is in need, a desperate need which is the restoration and salvation from the fall. Abraham was in need of the supply of God, Isaac in need of the prod of God, Jacob in need of protection, and Joseph in need of deliverance. This book ends with the coffin of Joseph which tells a truth that man lives within the premise of death.

Exodus is the book of God’s response to the man’s need by offering the redeeming grace through the blood of Jesus Christ. The Passover and the crossing the Red Sea are the picture of God’s unfailing redeeming grace and mercy by relying on the work of another, Christ Jesus. God gave the Ten Commandments to His people as the standard of living.

Leviticus is the book of the way to God who offers love, joy, and peace to those who come forward to Him through the sacrificial animals. Moses built the Tabernacle, a tent of meeting where the people brought sacrifice offerings to God. The Tabernacle was the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ through whom they could have access to the holy God.

Numbers is the book of barrenness and desolateness and of murmuring and complaining in the wilderness forty years due to their unbelieving choice of not entering into the promised land of Canaan. Although it isn’t necessary to take, almost all Christians inevitably experience the barrenness of wilderness like emptiness, meaninglessness, despair, shame, guilt, and unfruitfulness. That’s what the book of Numbers is telling about.

Deuteronomy is the book of obedience. All people except Joshua and Caleb had perished in the wilderness. Moses preached the sermons to the completely new generation who obeyed to enter the land of promise. God allowed the new generation to enter into the Promised Land led by Joshua because they obeyed the promise of God. The book of Joshua tells the victorious entry into the land of Canaan after walking through the Jordan River on foot.

In addition, 1 Samuel taught us the truth that God is in control of history. No matter what humans plan, even kings, if God does not authorize it, it is useless.

New Covenant

Through the testimony of Apostle Paul written in the Epistle of 2 Corinthians, we learned one of the most significant truths in Christianity, a new covenant. “Everything is coming from God and nothing coming from us.” The Epistle is the bibliography of Apostle Paul.

In this person letter, he reveals the most significant truth of all that every Christian in Jesus is always in Christ’s triumphal procession regardless of current circumstance and situation. He was mistreated and rejected by the Corinthian saints who were poisoned by the false teachers. So, he sent a letter which was not persevered, rebuking them harshly and pleading for repentance.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)

They repented and Paul forgave them even the one who vehemently opposed him. His competence of the triumphal procession was not merely from the repentance of the saints in Corinth but from the power of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant.

“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

Jesus Came

The Gospel of Luke opens our eyes to pay attention to our Lord Jesus Christ what He said and how He moved on His ministry. Jesus came and shined the true light unto the people in darkness. Whosoever accepted the light was healed and saved and they were given a new life in Christ Jesus. The coming of Jesus Christ changes and transforms either individual or a nation without fail.

Jesus came, healed the sick, and drove out demons. But most importantly He preached the good news of the kingdom of heaven where man could enter through repentance. The gospel of Christ Jesus can heal both bodily and spiritually. The kingdom of heaven is within and invisible as our God is invisible but it’s real more than anything visible.

When Jesus came into an individual or a nation, there was wonderful and remarkable release and freedom demonstrated from the bondage of darkness like diseases, sicknesses, torments, and demon-possessions. All power in heaven and on earth is subjected to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why the coming of Jesus Christ is such a sensational and revolutionary event to anybody who accepted Him as Lord and Master.

One notable thing the Gospel of Luke taught us is that Jesus Christ heals us in three-fold: body, soul, and spirit. To focus too much on physical healing is not what our Lord Jesus wanted at all. Rather, our Lord wanted to be healed and purified spiritually as well as physically. The coming of Jesus settles down all problems in heaven and earth because He is stronger than the prince of darkness.

Body Life in Korea

Visited Korea and had opportunities to share the word of God with brothers and sisters in Christ. The survey of the Scripture, the Pentateuch, the Gospels, and the Epistles were presented in a couple of UBF churches.  God also blessed to have a number of opportunities to preach the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ in a local church near my hometown. Reaching out my families who are no yet in Christ Jesus, we made several visits to one family in countryside and had a wonderful time to be acquainted each other.

Be Diligent to Preaching and to Teaching

We will continue to study the word diligently and faithfully, the Gospel of Luke, Romans, and possibly among Acts, Isaiah, Thessalonians, and Colossians. For the Scripture says:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Reporting by David Lee