Title: From the Wilderness to the Mission Field
Text: Matthew 4:12-17
Date: 3/11/07
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
Introduction: Last week we looked at the temptations that Jesus faced in the Wilderness and discovered that we as Christians do not have to experience the “Agony of Defeat” when it comes to Temptation. Instead, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of each one of us, He can and will give us the strength to overcome the Temptations that Satan throws at us.
This week I want us to find out what Jesus did next. According to the book of Luke, when Jesus left the Wilderness He went to his hometown of Nazareth. While there He taught in the Synagogue and even though they were amazed at his knowledge and understanding of the Scripture they rejected Him and even tried to kill him. So He left Nazareth and went to Capernaum and began preaching and ministering to the people there.
I want you to think about the Sermons that Jesus preached and the lessons he taught for a couple of minutes. Jesus said some incredible things during His earthly ministry. In fact, the Bible clearly tells us that the people were amazed at his teachings, because he “taught as one who had authority.”
Jesus said things like:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13 (NIV)
or
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43 (NIV)
or
“Seek first His Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be give to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
All of those quotes come from The Sermon on the Mount, but that wasn’t the first sermon Jesus preached when he left the wilderness. Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 4:12-17, and lets find out what was.
When I was a Senior in college at Murray State University a self proclaimed street preacher came to campus and caused quite a stir. He would stand in the Commons area between the dorms and preach to the students as they walked by. Although I’m not sure you could really call what He did preaching. In fact from what I remember he was very crude, rude, and obnoxious. He insulted people and told them they were going to die and go to Hell if they didn’t repent. I don’t remember him sharing the plan of salvation or even reading the Bible. He simply said, “Repent before it’s too late.”
I imagine there were some people who thought Jesus was just another ‘nut case’ like John the Baptist who had been put in prison for telling the people to Repent of their sins.
Let’s face it people don’t like to be told that they are sinners or that they need to repent. They didn’t like it in the Old Testament, They didn’t like it in the 1st Century and they don’t like it today.
Which reminds me of something I heard about a famous preacher by the name of Peter Cartwright, who by the way, was converted during a camp meeting in Logan County in 1801. He surrendered to the ministry in 1802 and became one of the leaders of what we now refer to as the 2nd Great Awakening. Cartwright personally baptized over 12,000 people during his ministry.
He was a Methodist Circuit rider and spent most of his ministry in Kentucky and Tennessee. Peter Cartwright was what we would refer to as a “Hellfire and Brimstone” type of Preacher. He didn’t beat around the bush and was famous for telling it like it was. Around 1830 Cartwright was preaching a Revival near Washington D.C. The Pastor and some of the other leaders in the church found out that President Andrew Jackson was going to attend one of the Revival services. Of course they were excited about the President’s visit, and didn’t want to offend him in any way. So they pulled Mr. Cartwright aside and said, "Listen Peter, the President is going to be here on Sunday and we know that sometimes you can get kind of offensive, so would you mind toning it down just a little. We wouldn’t want to upset the President."
Sure enough, the President attended the service that Sunday morning. When Peter Cartwright stepped up to the Pulpit this is what he said, "I understand that the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson is with us this morning. I have been asked to be guarded in my remarks. But the truth is, Andrew Jackson will go to Hell is he doesn’t repent." The Pastor and other church leaders were appalled, but when the service was over Andrew Jackson grabbed Mr. Cartwright’s hand, shook it and said, "Sir, if I had an army of men like you I could whip the world."
Peter Cartwright was a great man of God, and like John the Baptist, and Jesus himself, it didn’t matter who was in the audience, He preached about repentance.
As I mentioned a couple of Sunday’s ago, most people who are in church this morning are there to hear a message that will make them feel good about themselves. They don’t want to hear the truth of the gospel, they just want to have their ears ticked. But the Truth is, all of us here this morning are filthy, rotten sinners who deserve to die and go to Hell.
Which is why it is so important for us to repent of our sins, because as we read in our text this morning, the Kingdom of God is at Hand.”
This morning I want to spend a few minutes talking to you about Repentance.
To begin with I want to clarify what Repentance actually is. Let’s look at a couple of definitions.
American Heritage Dictionary defines Repentance as - “to feel such regret for past conduct as to change one’s mind regarding it.”
Vines defines it as – “A change of mind that involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God.” Thus it has both a negative and positive aspect. So repentance is simply "a change of mind" in which a person makes a conscious decision to "turn away from their sin and turn to God"
As I mentioned before Repentance was a Key aspect of Jesus’ ministry.
Mark writes, “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 is near. Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:14-15)
In the Gospel of Luke 5:32 Jesus explained his Mission and purpose by saying, “I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Later in the book of Luke Jesus warned a group of Galileans about the consequences of refusing to repent of their sins. In Luke 13:3 He said, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
So I think it is safe to say that Jesus’ gospel was all about repentance! Like I mentioned earlier, John the Baptist had also been preaching about repentance.
Matthew 3:1-2 says, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
The people of Judea flocked to hear John preach. John’s ministry was to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. Essentially he said, "The messiah is soon to appear in your midst — so, you’d better get ready to meet him! You may feel excited that he’s coming. But I’m telling you, your hearts are not prepared — because you’re still holding onto your sins! "On the outside you appear clean and holy. But inside, you’re full of dead men’s bones! You’re a generation of vipers, snakes, with absolutely no fear of God. Yet you have no concept that you’re even sinners. I warn you — you must deal with your sin before you can believe on the savior and follow him. So, repent, turn from your sin -- and live in a way that reflects genuine change!"
After Jesus’ death and resurrection the Apostles also stressed the importance of Repentance. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit used the Apostle Peter to deliver a powerful sermon. The Book of Acts tells us that when the people heard his sermon they responded by saying, “Brothers what shall we do? Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”
In the same way, during his sermon on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul told the people of Athens that in the past God overlooked ignorance, “But now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30 (NIV)
So as you can see repentance was a common theme throughout the New Testament.
I want to take just a few minutes to distinguish between two types of Repentance. The first could be called “Worldy Repentance.”
I am not a Greek Scholar by any stretch of the imagination. From what I have read there are two or possibly three different Greek words that can be translated repentance. Worldly repentance is translated from the Greek word ‘metamelomai’ which literally means to have remorse for one’s actions.
The Bible gives us An example of Worldly Repentance – in the life of Judas Iscariot. Matthew 27:3 says, “When Judas, who betrayed him saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.” Of course they laughed at him, and he threw the money at their feet and went out and hanged himself.
So you see, the product of worldly repentance is not a changed life, but defeat and destruction. Worldly repentance is not a change of heart, it is nothing more than remorse and regret for the consequences of our actions. It has no redeeming qualities. It does not turn us toward God, but instead it drives us away from God. We feel unworthy of God’s mercy because we are not looking at God or His word; but instead are looking at our actions and our guilt. Guilt can never bring us to true repentance. Only the light of God’s word can produce true repentance.
True repentance or godly repentance comes from the Greek word ‘Metanoia’, which means to change one’s mind and purpose – to turn from our purpose and toward God’s purposes. A good example of Godly repentance is found in 2 Corinthians 7:10. The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth when He says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
Worldly sorrow is when someone sees their sins and chooses to pay the penalty or punishment for those sins themselves.
True repentance is when we see our sins and failures and lay them down in exchange for God’s forgiveness, holiness and righteousness. True repentance is when I compare my path – the direction that I am going – to the path God has created for me to walk in and choose to change.
Next, I want you to understand that Godly Repentance is not just a one-time act, instead it is a lifestyle choice.
Some people mistakenly believe that repentance is something that you only have to do when you accept Christ. But the truth is, even though we are Christians we continue to sin, thus we need to continue to repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness. So Godly repentance is a continuous evaluation that we make as we compare our lives to God’s word and seek to conform our lives to the image of Christ. As I see areas that are drawing my focus away from God’s plan, I reset my focus on Christ and align my life with His will. Godly repentance is to recognize that God’s plan is good and my path has no lasting benefit. A lifestyle of repentance is the most valuable aspect of the Christian life. If I am not evaluating my position compared to God’s word, I have no way of knowing that I am drifting away. A slight change of focus will eventually set you far off course unless there is something in your life that provides correction. That is why the Bible tells us to renew our minds daily. The farther off course we get, the harder it is to make changes and the easier it is to get discouraged.
Jesus began his earthly ministry with the words, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Following His resurrection he reminded His disciples of the importance of preaching repentance to all the nations. In Luke 24:45-46 we read these words, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘this is what is written; the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Conclusion: Several years ago C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled “The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape was a Master Demon who wrote a series of letters to his nephew Wormwood, who was a Demon in training.
I came something this week that someone who had obviously read Lewis’ book had written. It is another letter. This one written by a Demon named Twisttape to his young apprentice Harshwood. I made a few changes to it, and want to share it with you in closing today. The letter begins:
Dear Harshwood,
I understand that you are about to graduate with honors and begin your work on earth. I’m Glad that your training went so well.
I would like to give you one piece of advice, one bit of devilish wisdom that I feel will be very useful to you as you begin your tour of duty on Earth. One of the most important things I learned about humans during my tour of duty was that they think very highly of themselves. For the most part they consider themselves to be good, moral and upstanding people. The faults, the shortcomings and even the sins of others are very obvious to them. But when they look at themselves all they see is what they want to see, which of course are their good points.
My advice to you my dear Harshwood, is to encourage that kind of thinking. Encourage it for all its worth.
Our Enemy wants them to see their sins as He sees them, so they will turn back to Him. But that’s the last thing we want. I encourage you to blind their eyes, their hearts, and their souls to that revelation. Encourage them to think only of their good points and you, my dear friend Harshwood, will succeed in damning thousands of human beings to the fires of Hell.
When Pastors and Evangelists preach about repentance convince them that there is no need for them to repent, that the pastor is really talking about the person sitting in the balcony or on the other side of the church. Convince them that they are in pretty good shape, that there is no need for them to repent, and then you’ll have them.
For you see my dear Harshwood, when human beings start thinking about how good they are, they get filled with pride, and when that happens they are as good as ours.
Good luck on your tour of duty, my heart goes out to you as you use every trick, every scheme, every evil desire, every good intention, every proud thought to win souls for the god of this world, our lord and Master, Satan himself.
Signed
Your Devoted Teacher, Twisttape
Don’t let Satan convince you this morning that I’m not talking about you, because you know good and well that I am. Every last one of us here this morning has something that we need to repent of. And that’s what I am going to encourage you to do, because according to our Text, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”
We are closer today to the 2nd Coming of the Lord than we have ever been before. Jesus was talking about this with His Disciples one day when He said,
“So you also must be ready because the Son of man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
The Apostle Paul said it like this; “Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night.”
If Jesus returns today are you ready to meet Him? If not then you need to Repent of your sins, and put your faith and trust in Him. “For Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
