Listen to Repent
Key verse 29
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
It is my great privilege to speak to our Russian missionaries. My name is Sam Lee and I am from Champaign, IL USA, home of the world-renowned University of Illinois. By God's grace, I am a missionary to the University of Illinois. The University is located in the middle of two cities: Urbana and Champaign. Urbana and Champaign are two small towns (about 100,000 people) which contain 40,000 students. These two towns are located about 100 miles south of Chicago.
This is my first time in Russia, but Russia seems familiar. My father loved this country and I grew up eating hard Russian bread and hearing Dr. Jim's "Moscow Nights."
By God's grace I am here. I want to briefly look at Luke 11:29-32 and share what I learned from this passage and from my father.
The sign of Jonah (29-30)
Jesus describes this generation as a wicked generation. Why did he say so? Because we ask for miraculous signs all the time.
The Christian History of Russia is very long. Far longer than that of Korea or that of America. Despite the rich history, the question remains: “Why do young Russian students have a very difficult time to believe in God? Why do they ask for a sign from God all the time? (I do not speak from the Russian students' perspective. I have met only one personally - Abe Song. But I am speaking from the U of I students perspective. Still I know that this is very universal according to Jesus. It is not a Russian or an American problem but our generation's problem.)
Students insist that they want to have a clear sign or conviction to believe in Jesus. Is this argument valid? No. Jesus calls those who ask for a sign in order to believe as wicked.
Paul Toh, a third year student at the U of I explained why sign-seeking faith is so wicked:
A father tells his son he loves Him, the son says prove it. The Father says when the son is hurting, “I will heal you, but it’s going to take a little time.” The son says, “How do I know you will heal me? Give me a sign.”
I agree with him. If we ask for a sign from whom we love, we are breaking the love relationship. What kind of relationship can we have? So in asking for a sign from our Heavenly Father who loves us, we are actually breaking our love relationship with him. In this way, we became wicked. We do not hear God's word but instead we want some sign. We want a sign but we do not want to see God's heart.
Jesus said, "None will be given it except the sign of Jonah." The sign of Jonah is Jesus' cross and his resurrection. Jesus spoke this when he was on the way to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51) Jesus is the greatest sign God gives us of his love and mercy and of his real presence. We need to remember the gospel of Jesus, this is our salvation.
When I was a child, I asked my father to make enough money so that he could buy me a car. I demanded some sign from him that he loved me. Likewise, I asked God for a sign even though he placed me in a godly family and taught the Gospel to me from an early age.
I did not value the gospel of Jesus. So I became wicked and did not know the gospel. But somehow many servants of God taught me the Bible (Sarah Kim of Korea, Dr. Mark Yoon, Sarah B., David Choi, Joshua Choo, Mother Barry and missionary Sam Zun, Wesley Jun, Sarah Jun, Joshua Hong, my father and my mother to name a few) until I could value the gospel of Jesus.
I accepted one word of God in 1 Tim 1:15. "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst."
When I look at the cross of Jesus, I can say confidently that I am an incorrigible sinner. There is no question about this. You can ask my two sisters if you do not believe me. But Jesus loved me and gave his precious blood for me. I have hidden sins and willful sins. (Psalm 19) But on the cross, I am forgiven and I find my hope in God. God will restore me to the original image of God.
Lessons learned from my father (31-32)
I want to ask you what is life? Can you define what life is? Someone might say life consists of many blobs such as cells. Someone might say, "Chemistry is my life". Someone might say there is no meaning in life. We are here by chance. What does the Bible say about life? Why are we here? Why do I live as a missionary? I want to share what I have learned from the Bible and my father.
I had a great privilege to be near him and to observe my father at home as his son. In his office, and in his leisure such as watching boxing matches on TV, I observed carefully how he interacted with my mother and with his children.
Look at verse 31.
31The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and
First, life is all about listening to the word of God.
I want to say a few words about my father at this time. He loved the Bible. He read his Bible night and day. He loved the word of God. To me, my father had nothing in his appearance that really stood out. Nothing in his appearance that really impresses anyone. He was short, shorter than my mother. He grew up in a poor country. His mother passed away when he was a baby. And his education credentials were not that impressive.
What made him great? Many wanted to find out. What is it? How can I describe his life? Let me share the inside story, from the son's perspective. My father's English was cheesier than mine. But he loved God and heard God's calling. He taught his son to love his Bible. He loved Psalm 1. The Blessed Man is he who meditates on the law day and night. He taught his son to seek God first as of first importance. (Matt 6:33)
When I studied chemistry, he always asked me: “What is the chemistry of the Bible?” He was not happy to see only part of the Bible. He asked me to see the flow and how each part is connected to make a big story. He encouraged me to find the Salvation history of God. He emphasized that we came from God and we are going back to God.
I studied hard for chemistry. But he studied the Bible more intensely than any chemistry grad students I’ve ever met. We competed against each other. He attacked his Bible and underlined and underlined with his red pen until his Bible was bloody red. He wanted to see Jesus, the sign of Jonah when he read the Bible. He was happy to see Jesus in the Bible, specifically the cross of Jesus. He loved the bleeding Jesus. The cross of Jesus was not theoretical but he saw the bloody Jesus and messy Jesus and found his salvation.
He taught his son to read the Bible from his heart and until one word of God moved his heart. When things got tough and difficult, my father found his strength from the Bible. He turned to his Bible. He read more and more. By observing how much he read the Bible, I could guess how much suffering he was having. I can say confidently that he listened to the word of God. His delight was the word of God in season and out of season. (2 Tim 4:2)
He wanted to know God's wisdom shown at the cross of Jesus. He struggled to listen to the word of God daily and had much joy whenever he found Jesus in the Bible.
Look at 32.
32The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and now one greater than Jonah is here
Second, life is all about repenting our sins.
Jonah was a reluctant preacher. He wished that the Ninevites would not accept the message and perish. But he converted more than 100,000 people at once. They listened to the word of Jonah and repented.
But Jesus is greater than Jonah. His preaching is far superior to Jonah’s. Jesus died for us so that we would not receive God's condemnation. Jonah only saved 100,000 people but Jesus' preaching saved so many Korean students as well as so many Russian students. Many American students are coming to Jesus.
My father loved to sing the Lord's Prayer. Specifically, he prayed for the forgiveness of sins.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us (Luke 11:4)
I heard him singing the Lord's Prayer at least once a day. At the end of his life, he was suffering from difficulty in breathing but he sang the Lord's Prayer day and night.
He reminded me from time to time the basic Biblical truth that:
He (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
He personally experienced the forgiveness of sins by looking at the sign of Jonah. He sang the Lord's Prayer so that he could ask God to forgive his sins first and then for his critics and those who maligned him.
To the end of his life, he asked God's forgiveness of sins and repented of his sins and forgave everyone who sinned against him. He made himself ready to meet Jesus his Lord.
Summary: What is life?
Here is what I learned from my father. Here is my summary and definition:
Please let me know if this is Biblical or not. (Acts 17:11)
As a chief sinner from the U of I, I can only thank God for my father who taught me the value of looking at the cross of Jesus through my Bible reading and repent of my sins daily.
When I look at my Bible, I sometimes see my father's red underlined Bible pages. I am not like him. I am still so gentle with my Bible. My father valued the blood of Jesus dripping down from each page of his Bible.
From reading the Bible, I learn that I am more sinful than I have ever imagined! But I am so happy that God accepts me as his precious child when I look at the cross of Jesus and God's word. When I see God's delight in me through his Son, I can have much delight in God and this compels me to know him more and more in my reading of the Bible. I have hope that he will raise me from the dead as God raised Jesus from the dead.
We are here in Russia and in Champaign, IL, USA. What should we do? I think about what to give to my three sons and my Bible students.
What should I pray for my son Sammy who is a first year student at the U of I? Should I pray for my son Sammy's Calculus grade so that he can get an A? That would be nice. No. I want to give him the best. I must pray for him so that he can have joy and delight in the word of God. I want him to meet Jesus personally. I pray for Andrew and Peter as well to have the same joy. I pray that the U of I students can come to God and repent of their sins and listen to the Son of God who is wiser than Solomon and whose preaching is far better than Jonah
Thank you for your prayer support. Please continue to pray for us so that we can always look at the sign of Jonah daily.
Let's look at the key verse 29.
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
Part 2.
A man and his Bible
My father's Bible
My father attacked the Bible and destroyed at least one Bible a year with his red pen. Here is one sample.
There are many things I can show you about my father but I will show you his most precious possession.
What is your most favorite thing?
Where do you spend your most time?
I can say that it was his Bible.
My father said that when you look at someone's Bible and how he treats the Bible, you can know a lot about him or her.
Recently several Korean missionaries came to the U of I but forgot to bring the Bible. They brought a lot of stuff but somehow they forgot the most important thing. I was shocked and cried all night. I almost asked them to go back to Korea. That kind of attitude would not be tolerated by my father. They forgot to bring the most potent weapon to fight the spiritual warfare at the U of I. You cannot imagine a soldier without a gun. In the war time, their death would be certain.
They must be happy because I am so gentle, not like my father. Anyway, they all repented of their sins and they are learning to read the Bible which they should have learned in Korea before they came here.
This is a brief tour of my father's Bible.
1. the Cover
The cover was custom hand made by missionary Jackie Lee. Later shep. Teddy learned to make covers. The price of the Bible was about $3 but making his cover, I guess he spent about $50 to 100 if you count for labor and materials. He valued what is inside of the cover.
2. The first page
He was very proud that this was his Bible. Note how neatly he wrote his name -Samuel Lee.
3. Reading every word with intensity
He did not skip even one word from his Bible. No one reads the preface but he was determined to read every word.
4. Psalm 1
He loved to read Psalm 1. He prayed to have delight in the word of God. He asked me to read the Bible with joy.
5. John's Gospel
Eph 2:10 was his life key verse. He believed that he was God's workmanship created to do good works for Jesus.
7. Revelation
- a father
- a full time shepherd for Chicago UBF
- a docile husband
- a Bible teacher and Bible student
- a preacher of God's word. He confided to me that his shepherd life would be easy if his writing message was not there. He gave his heart to the message preparation each week. He edited, edited, edited, edited and edited his message and then edited more.. After delivering the message, he edited and edited. He was a meticulous editor. He was not easily satisfied with his message.
- General director of the UBF
- Giving announcements on Monday and Friday meetings
- Learning American culture and language
- Eating one Big Mac a day
- Checking up on his son only once a day. This was our agreement.
- Checking up on little Sarah Lee (now changed her last name due to her marriage to Little Sarah Kim. She is no longer Lee but Kim) many times a day. She was a high maintenance daughter. You could tell who were the trouble makers by observing how much my father spent and interacted with a particular person.
- Respecting the oldest daughter. She was the most trouble free daughter
- Reading American history and world history at night. His favorite author was Paul Johnson
- Reading books that he received from his son. I gave him several books from time to time. Somehow he read them all. He wanted to find out what I was reading.
- Taking care of the orchestra leader and members
- Interacting with staff shepherds
- Interacting with Korean missionaries
- Interacting with mother Barry who was an American missionary to Korea
- Raising American student disciples both male and female
- Watching Box matches with passion when it was on TV
- Having lunch on Sunday with guests at Mother Barry's house
- Organizing the international conferences
- Attending only Russia conference once a year. He made a choice to concentrate to the Russia mission. He believe that Russia is the key to the world mission and Russia can send out many missionaries.
- Attending Dr. Toh's fellowship every week at UIC
- Writing letters to missionaries and editing the UBF newsletters with missionary Paul Choi
- Working on the remodeling and construction projects
- Fixing and repairing other people's Bible
I do not know how he could read his Bible while he had much to do but reading the Bible was impressed on his heart by God like brushing his teeth every day.
As I got older, I began to appreciate him more and more. He taught me to do the most important thing first. When his position pulled him to many directions, he found time to read his Bible. His priority was to read the Bible and know God's heart.
His leadership came from his love for God and his word. This was his secret based on Psalm 1.
8. Hymn attached to his Bible
next to the last page :Ivory Palace. He knew his destination: Kingdom of God.
List of my father's favorite hymns
210 Wonderful Savior
213 Grace greater than our sins
207 Turn your eyes upon Jesus
497 Jesus loves me this I know
486 The Lord my shepherd
257 When we see Jesus
252 When we all get to heaven
408 He restores me
298 Give me a love that knows no evil
98
251 I am coming, Lord
252 When we all get to heaven
246
He prayed for the Russian mission before its gate was opened. This was their first honeymoon trip. I do not know if they had their honeymoon trip after their marriage. I am pretty sure that this Russian trip was very romantic. He learned to appreciate the song, "Moscow Night" after the trip.
11. My picture with my father on my wedding day
This is the picture which was taken on the morning of my wedding day. He shared my joy. Why was I smiling? If you are interested, please ask me.
12. His son, Sam Lee's Bible
This is my Bible. I love this Bible (Large print and thin)
(Champaign, IL USA, Nov 2008)
My style of reading the Bible is somewhat different from my father but I am learning to read with passion and delight. (Psalm 1, John 5:39-40) I pray to see Jesus whose blood is dripping from every page like my father and put my trust in the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
Please pray for me and for all of U of I students to love the Bible.
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