About

The name of the blog, “Seek, Do, Teach,” is inspired by the practice of Ezra the scribe, described in Ezra 7:10. This verse serves as my paradigm for ministry and the purpose of this blog.

Set-Seek-Delight

• Ezra 7:10 – For Ezra had set his heart to study [or: seek] the Law of the LORD…
• Psalm 119:14-16 – In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

The description of Ezra the scribe in Ezra 7:10 provides the most perfect and imitable paradigm and pattern for a minister of the word: to seek, to do, and to teach—to “learn it, live it, and let it out.”[1] Before Ezra could apply the law personally and teach others, he had to study in order to understand God’s law. The verse begins by telling us that Ezra set/fixed his heart (הֵכִ֣ין לְבָבֹ֔ו). To set/fix (הֵכִ֣ין) denotes a firm resolve, an unwavering steadfastness, and fixed intention. But this resolve was not simply intellectual, for the passage tells us that Ezra set his heart. The word heart (לְבָבֹ֔) in the Old Testament often refers to the totality of a person: one’s thoughts, will, mind, emotions, desires, and affections. Thus, Ezra was a man who was consumed by one Book, pouring the “whole spectrum of his inner life” into the study of the Scriptures.[2] Thus for a minister of the word, he must likewise be a man consumed by one Book, pouring all energy and exertion into the study of the Scriptures, to engage all the powers of thought to know God as fully as possible in order to treasure him for all he is worth.[3] He must, as Johann Albrecht Bengel, the 18^th century Lutheran scholar, once wrote, “Apply himself wholly to the text.”

Personal Practice

• Ezra 7:10 – For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD and to do it…
• Psalm 86:11 – Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

Ezra studied the law of the Lord, not for the purpose of simply obtaining raw information but for transformation, not simply for principles but also for personal practice, for, learning is for the purpose of living. To read the Scriptures but to neglect putting them into personal practice is disobedience; to command others to keep, practice, and do the commandments while not doing it oneself is hypocrisy. Thus, a minister of the word must not only “apply himself wholly to the text,” but he must also “apply the text wholly to himself.” In approaching the word, a minister of the word must not only delight in the law of the Lord, he must also place himself under the authority of the word, exercising expedience in applying and putting the words of the Lord into practice.

Proclaim-Teach-With Full Conviction and Passion

• Ezra 7:10 – For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
• 1 Thessalonians 1:5 – …our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Only after Ezra had studied the law of the Lord and put it into personal practice, did he then teach and instruct the people of Israel to do likewise. Thus, a minister of the gospel must set an example in both his doctrine and life for others to follow and imitate (Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12, 16; Heb. 13:7). Once Ezra had learned and lived out the law of God personally, then he “let it out” through proclamation, teaching, and instruction (e.g. Neh. 8). A minister of the word is called to “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). He is to proclaim and herald the word of God with full conviction, passion, and power in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5). That is, after all, the sense of the word κηρύσσω in the New Testament: to proclaim aloud, announce, and herald, as 1^st century messengers did when announcing a message from the king. Thus, a minister who is dull or boring has no business behind the sacred desk. Richard Baxter writes, “Nothing is more indecent than a dead preacher speaking to dead sinners the living truth of the living God.”[4] Lloyd-Jones remarks, “What is preaching then? Preaching is logic on fire! Eloquent reason!…It is theology on fire…Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire.”[5] Bridges likewise writes, “The Minister, that does not manifestly put his heart into his sermon, will never put his sermon into the hearts of his people.”[6] Therefore, preaching is not a time for a cozy, comfortable, fireside chit-chat or conversation, rather preaching is to be a passionate, bold proclamation of the word of God that brings the hearers into direct confrontation with the Living God.

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[1] Steven J. Lawson, Famine in the Land: A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003), 84.

[2] Ibid., 86.

[3] John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 90.

[4] As quoted in Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: with An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency (London: Banner of Truth, 1967), 318.

[5] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 93.

[6] Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry: with An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency, 320.