Jesus Calls On Us To Repent

Today we are looking at the Christian foundational topic of repentance, and what it means for us.

First of all, if we look at the beginning of the Book of Mark we see John baptising in the River Jordan. Mark records the events, at Mark 1:4, by saying, "And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." A few verses on, we see John the Baptist is put into prison and Jesus begins His ministry. In Mark 1:14-15, we read the following "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!". So from 1 chapter of the Book of Mark, we see the subject of repentance was raised by both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. The very first thing Jesus said at the beginning of His ministry was that the people should repent. He was calling the ordinary person where he was in Galilee to repent.

So first of what does repent mean? If we look at the New Testament Greek, we see that the word is "metanoia". This word is transliterated to mean a change of mind. So when John was baptising as a demonstration that their sins were being forgiven, he also called on them to change their mind. Repentance, or changing the mind was a central theme for John. When Jesus called on the Galileeans to repent, he also called them to change their mind. The very first thing Jesus said at the beginning of His ministry was that the people had to change their minds. And so for you and me today, God calls us to repent, he is calling on us to change our minds.

Let us look right back to the beginning of the bible at the time of the fall. In Gen 3:6, we read "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." What was in her mind? She was thinking that the fruit was good for food, it looked very appealing and when she ate it she would gain wisdom. That was in her mind. But literally 2 seconds beforehand she had told Satan that "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" But God's warning had been cast aside, she ignored what God had said and now all that she was focused on was the piece of fruit that was in her hand. For Eve to repent she had to change her mind and remember what God had said, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." But she didn't change her mind, she saw this lovely, good looking piece of fruit and proceeded to act on what she saw. It was her actions that were sinful. She disobeyed God when she turned her thoughts in her mind into actions. Today, the Christian battle is a battle in our mind. It's not a physical battle. Our battle with sin, with disobeying God is lost or won in our mind. If we allow Satan to tempt us then we have lost the battle of our mind, and we will fall, but if we win the battle of our mind, we will not sin and we will obey God.

To reinforce matters we see that David said to us in Ps119:9-11, "How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." David knew the truth. He knew that he could stay on the path of righteousness if he lived by God's word, and we see that clearly with Eve. Eve knew what God had said, but she decided to ignore God. If she acted in accordance with God's words then she wouldn't have fallen. But David goes on and then says "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." This is the key to our Christian walk. We read the bible, and we begin to memorise what the bible says. The result is that we will have hidden God's word in our hearts, and when the time of testing comes, and it does come, we will be like Eve and have a choice. We can either listen to God speaking to us and do what he says, or we can cast God's words out of our mind, and ignore Him. But because we have hidden God's word in our hearts, it will always be there nudging us to do the right thing. And this is why we have a midweek bible study. This is why the midweek bible study is so important for all of us. The midweek bible study allows us to learn God's word. It allows us to understand God's word. It gives us the ability to say "no" to Satan, and "yes" to God. The midweek bible study is a foundation stone for our lives. In the Old Testament, we see in Josh 1:8, "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. " Do you want to be a successful Christian? Then hide God's word in your heart? Memorise God's word.