Who has been to Port Arthur (Tasmania, Australia)?
Port Arthur is one of those special places to visit
Not just because of its beauty,
But because of its history
A history which indicates how the early settlers dealt with sin
Port Arthur was chosen as a convict settlement because of its remoteness
By land there was only one narrow way in and out.
And the seas around Port Arthur are difficult for small boats
This made it easier to secure
Over 12000 people served time as convicts at Port Arthur, but very few escaped
Even today when you drive to Port Arthur, there is only one road that takes you in and out
So, to leave Port Arthur, every map will tell you that you must turn around
And at birth each of us arrives in the town of sin
Sin is all around us
The only way out is to turn around
And be foccussed on God,
Heading towards God’s way of life
This is what the bible calls repentance
But on our own we can’t do it by ourself
And in today’s reading on two occasions Jesus makes the following statement
In verse 3 and 5
We hear Jesus say to us
“I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Something to be aware of when you are reading your bibles
Whenever something is repeated close together like this
It means listen up, sit up and take notice of it, it is important!!!
A bit like my wife saying to me numerous times
‘Don’t forget that we have guests coming over tonight, don’t be late.”
Or
As I leave home saying “Can you please pick up some milk on the way home’
Then later in the day she sends me a text message saying the same thing.
A repeated message is important
In other words we all must repent, otherwise we will perish
Repentance is essential for every Christian to gain eternal life
But the question is what is repentance?
What does it mean?
What does it involve?
When you hear the term repentance what pops into your head?
A starting point for many is to simply to say sorry?
But repentance involves far more than that
First we need the reason or reasons to repent
And secondly when need to know what we should be repenting for and from
To get to the point of saying sorry
God needs to be at work in us and through us
In the scriptures God prompts us with the promise
that in being focussed on Him our future will be far superior
Listen to Acts 3:21
19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
God promises that our lives will be restored and we will be refreshed
And as we delve deeper into scripture we see that God wants our relationship with him to be restored
So we can benefit from the gifts of heaven
And secondly, we need God to do even the simpliest task of clearly showing us where our flaws in life are
Left to ourselves we can easily come up with excuses of why we do or do not do somethings
Left to ourselves can not fully know how God requires us to live
So a good starting point for each of us
Is to listen to the words of Jesus in the New Testament from Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus replied: ”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ a 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ b 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In other words Jesus was saying that all the commandments from God
Focus the Christian on loving God and loving our neighbour as ourself.
This is a good thing to reflect on at the end of each day before you spend time in prayer with God.
Where have I love God and others…thank God for the strength He gave you to do so
Where have I failed to love God and others…ask God for forgiveness
The statement to love God and to love others as yourself is fairly broad
And that is probably good
Because God is an inclusive God
But because of who we are
We begin asking questions like
What does this mean?
What can I get away with?
Who do I really have to show love to?
Rather than how can I love God more?
How can I show love to others more?
This is nothing new,
When Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind….and love your neighbour as yourself
He was responding to people who were trying to work out how they could do the least to please God,
To focus on what they thought was important
But being broad also creates problems for us
We need help to see God’s will more clearly for us
So if Jesus’ commandment to love the Lord with all your heart and to love others as ourself was a summary of God’s commandments
We can begin to get a clearer picture of how God sees us in showing such love by exploring the Ten Commandments, These can be discovered in
Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 to 17 and Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 6 to 21.
They are a good starting point for repentance
They give us some tangible examples of what it means to love God
and to love others as ourself.
When we read and study each of the commandments
God’s spirit has the opportunity to work in us
Showing us where we have let God down
And therefore leading us to repentance
And when we study the scriptures in greater detail,
We see that God’s commandments are not just limited to the words of the Ten Commandments
Martin Luther also discovered in studying scripture
That God’s way of life
Of loving God and loving others as ourselves is far broader than the ten commandments
For instance in looking at the fifth commandment
You shall not murder
Luther said that the bible says the following
Not only should we not do anything to hurt or injure other people
But we should also help them whenever they need it
And two parts of scripture that reveal this to us are Proverbs 25:21-22 and Romans 12:20, where it says
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.
Luther’s explanations in the small and large catechism have this broader picture for each of the commandments
So as we prepare now to repent confessing our sins
Let us reflect on the Ten Commandments asking God to show us our sin
Show us those aspects of our lives where we need to repent.
(The following confession and absolution was used…
REFLECTION, CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Leader: God, you keep your promises.
You are trustworthy and filled with mercy.
Because we know you are merciful,
we bring our prayers of confession to you.
All: We confess that we have turned away from you and your intentions for us.
You are compassionate; forgive us.
We sin in what we think, say, and do.
You are merciful; forgive us.
We sin in what we have done and what we have left undone. You love us; forgive our sin.
Hear our prayers as we confess our sin before you in silence.
Silence for personal confession of our sins
As we reflect on the ten commandments
Do not have any other Gods.
Honour love and trust God above all things
Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God
We should also use God’s name to ask for help in any troubles and to praise and thank Him
Remember God’s special day and keep it holy
We should also recognise God’s Word is holy, and be glad to hear and learn it
Respect your father and mother
We should also not look down on our parents, but love, serve, help and respect them
Do not murder
We should also give people help whenever they need it
Do not commit adultery
We should also love and respect our partners
Do not steal
Also we should help people to keep and improve what they have
Do not tell lies about anyone
Also we should speak up for people, say good things about them, protect their reputation and explain their actions in the kindest way.
Do not want anyone’s house
Also we should help people keep what belongs to them
Do not want anyone’s partner, servants, animals or possessions
Also we should encourage people to be faithful and loyal
RECEIVE GOD’S FORGIVENESS
Leader: Receive the Good News
God is so filled with mercy
that he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to live, die, and rise in order that we might turn back to God
and receive abundant life now and in eternity.
It is with great joy that I announce to you, as a repentant sinner that because of Jesus Christ, your sin is forgiven.
ALL: Praise God
There is a story of two brothers who on completing their apprenticeship decide to set up their own butcher shop. One day one of their customers invite the older brother to church. Some time later he asks for forgiveness for all his sins, and commits his life to following God. He continues working in the butcher shop, working hard to serve his customers honestly and with joy. For the next two years he pesters his younger brother to come to church or at least attend the bible study or even some time with his Christian mates…his brother constantly declines. Fed up with being asked, his younger brother replies ‘Look if I were to go to church and be a committed Christian like you, tell me who is going to weigh the meat?”
Repentance is not just limited to us being shown we are sinners and that we need God’s forgiveness
In verse nine we get a hint that repentance will produce fruit in our lives
Interestingly in the Gospel reading from today, what was the fig tree’s sin?
Look at verse 6 and 7
It did nothing,
It did nothing with the gift of life it had been given, with what it had been placed before it
Now in this area we need to be careful
As individuals we are not called to judge others as whether fruit is being produced in someone’s life as evidence of repentance
Jesus purpose for highlighting the disasters in today’s Gospel reading, and what we can gain from disasters in the news like Garuda air crash, September 11th or any other disaster in our life is that Life is fragile
Life can go like that (snap fingers)
And so Jesus is saying we should not delay in examining our lives and repenting
We should seek forgiveness now,
As Jesus says in Mark 13, verse 32
32 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Matthew 3:8-10, we are told to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
But what does this mean?
Gordon Liddy who for most of his life ignored God, was once one of the highest ranking public servants in the US government and spent 21 years in jail for his role in the watergate phone tapping affair says the following
Now the hardest thing I have to do every single day is try to decide what is God’s will, rather than what is my will. What does Jesus want, not what does Gordon want. And so the prayer that I say most frequently is, ’God, first of all, please tell me what you want - continue the communication. And second, give me the strength to do what I know you want, what your will is, rather than my own.’
What Gordon recognises is that being repentant means relying on God not only for forgiveness,
but also for the strength to do God’s will rather than our own
And this is something we all need
When we repent we are not just saying sorry…we are saying God we need you help in stopping this sin
We need your help to do good works
We all need God’s strength
Because although there is only one road away from sin, repentance
We are frequently lead into side streets and courts that take us off the path of focussing on God, to focussing on ourselves
Yet God is constantly giving us the opportunity to repent
To produce the fruits of repentance
Not only this, He will help us
Did you notice in today’s reading that not only was the fig tree given one more chance
It was also given help to produce fruit
God will nurture us with His strength
And God’s strength can only be obtained by regularly engaging with God and His word and His community, commonly known as the church
Through frequent bible study, regular worship, prayer, daily devotions and interacting with other Christians regarding His word we gain access to God’s strength.
God fertilisers our life
When we do this, the Holy Spirit is active and begins to work in our lives, helping us live as people:
• who are forgiven and who forgive
• who are not focussed on the past, but the future hope that God offers
• who are prepared to proclaim that Jesus is our rescuer and boss without fear in all situations
• who are valuable to God, yet always dependant on Him
• who are dearly loved by God and who love God…
And always keep in mind that the goal of repentance is for God to restore our relationship with Him, where He is clearly our loving father and we are his loving children
Let us pray that we rely on God to lead us and help us to repent. AMEN
