Except Ye Repent
Luke 13:1-5
There is a forgotten word in the preaching of today. It is the word REPENTANCE.
Pulpits and preachers are strangely silent today regarding the message of repentance. Repentance is the subject of our text this morning.
Jesus was the finest teacher who ever lived. In the passage that we read this morning, He seems to clip two tragic stories from the local Jerusalem newspaper to drivee home an important truth that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.
Now no other historian but Luke records the two events Jesus alluded to. Josephus the great Jewish historian does not mention them.
Let us begin with the temple calamity. This would have been headlines in the Jerusalem Gazette. It is very likely that this event took place during the Passover, and these Galilean Jews had come down to offer their sacrifices. Apparently Pilate sends his soldiers to find some Galileans and slaughters them while they are offering sacrifices. We don’t know any of the details. But there they were, offering their sacrifices. Pilate comes, not personally, but his soldiers and finds them there and slices them up so that in a very gruesome way, a gory way, it describes their blood as being mingled with the blood of the sacrifices.
This raises the question about this calamity. These people aren’t pagan; they’re worshiping, they’re doing what the Old Testament says. They’re worshiping God, they’re confessing their sins, they’re bringing their offering. How can such a bad thing happen to good people?
And so in verse 2 Jesus responds to the intention of their bringing this incidnet up. “Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?” Jesus calls their conventional theology into question. Now do you think that the reason this happened to them was because they are the greatest sinners in Galilee? Is that what you think? Do you suppose that?
Jesus said in response, “Nay.” The Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate were not greater sinners than others.
Let’s go to the second issue before we come back to the second half of verse 3. The first was the temple calamity. The second is the tower calamity.
Jesus brings up another issue from the front page. “Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?”
Jesus again says “Nay.”
Now let’s come to the third point, the temple calamity, the tower calamity, the true calamity. The true calamity, go back to verse 3, “Except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish.” Verse 5, “Except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish.” That’s the true calamity.
The real calamity is not that you were killed in the temple or that the tower fell on you or that you died by any other means. The real calamity is that if you don’t repent, when death comes you will perish.
True calamity is that you die and experience the judgment of God because you have not repented.
The issue is not how people die or when they die or by what cause they die. The issue is that they die without repenting.
Jesus is saying, “Look, don’t assume anything. You’re going to likewise perish except you repent.”
Everybody’s headed for death if the Lord tarries His coming. You had better repent before you get there. You better settle your case before you get to court.
Just because Pilate’s soldiers ran by you to get to those Galileans, says nothing about your righteousness. Just because the tower fell and you had just left a few minutes before doesn’t mean you’re more righteous than the ones who were crushed.
What it does mean is God is showing you more mercy, more patience, giving you more opportunity to repent.
This was such a bitter pill for the the Jews tow swallow. Repent? We’re the righteous. We’re the godly. We’re the spiritual. We’re the chosen. We’re the blessed. What are You talking about repent? They hated His talk of repentance. They hated it with John the Baptist. They hated it with Jesus.
It was because He called them to repentance that they plotted to murder Him and eventually did. They refused to see themselves as sinners. They refused to see themselves as headed for judgment. It infuriated them to be diagnosed that way.
I want us to focus on three words in our message. They are "all," "repent," and "perish,"
I. REPENT is an inclusive word
"All" need to repent.
What Jesus teaches, then, is that all of us are extremely sinful. There are no innocent human beings. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10). What should amaze us in our sin is not that some are taken in calamity, but that we are spared and given another day to repent. The really amazing thing in this universe is not that guilty sinners perish, but that God is so slow to anger that you and I can sit here this morning and have another chance to repent.
A. There is no escape from it
Repent or perish; all must face it. Acts 17:30 informs us that God "commandeth all men every where to repent." The desire of God is for all men to come to repentance (II Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise....").
God does not give us an option in the matter of repentance, He commands all men to repent.
Repentance is not arbitrary, it is absolute.
It is either / or.
B. There is no excuse from it
Either your repent or perish. It is that simple.
Unless you repent you will PERISH.
The clerk will perish if she does not repent. Your children will perish, you parents will perish, your neighbors will perish, your colleagues will perish if they do not repent.
REPENT OR PERISH!
There is no escape for perishing except through repentance.
Perish is something more than simply die a physical death. Jesus is referring to something beyond death. Those Galileans were taken unawares and experienced a horrible end; however, unless you repent, you too will be taken unawares and experience a horrible end—the judgment of God beyond the grave.
The word perish often refers to this terrible judgment in the New Testament. For example in John 3:16 perishing is seen as the alternative to having everlasting life. The same thing turns up in John 10:28.
It is significant that Jesus taught repeatedly about Hell. To portray it He often drew upon the horrors of the Vale of Hinnom, the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Into it were thrown the filth of the city along with the bodies of dead animals and the unclaimed bodies of executed criminals. Maggots infested the nauseous mass, consuming fires burned constantly, and wild dogs howled and gnashed their teeth over edible portions of the garbage. Jesus said that this was a symbol of hell, and the reality is always greater that the symbol.
It is in the word “repent” that your hope lies to escape Hell.
Without repentance and a fleeing to Christ there is fire in your future.
II. REPENT is a decisive word
"Repent" is a crucial word. "Repent" is a critical word. Repent is an absolute necessity. This is borne out in the following things:
A. It was in found in the preaching of the Son
Jesus preached the message of repentance as our text shows. Jesus began His ministry preaching repentance (Mark 1:15), and before He ascended back to Heaven His final words were specific instructions to preach repentance (Luke 24:47). He commenced his ministry, continued His ministry, and concluded His earthly ministry preaching repentance.
If I am going to model my preaching after His, then I also must preach repentance.
B. It is in found in the proclamation from the Sovereign
Acts 17:30 informs us that God "commandeth all men every where to repent."
C. In is found in the petitions of the suffering (Luke 16:30)
If preachers today do not preach repentance, then Hell will enlarge itself with multitudes that will plunge into the regions of the damned.
Repentance was the message of John the Baptist.
Repentance was the message of the apostles - "They went out, and preached that men should repent," (Mark 6:12).
Repentance was the message of Simon Peter on the day of Pentecost when three thousand souls were saved.
Repentance was the message of the Apostle Paul.
Some would say, “Now, wait a minute, there has to be another way. Certainly, repentance is not the only way to avert the wrath of God.” Repentance is not just the way. It is the only way!
Jesus said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
REPENTANCE is a necessity. It is decisive. Now, repentance itself will not save you, yet
you cannot be saved without it. You cannot get the salvation of God unless there is repentance, but you do not get the salvation of God because of repentance.
Repentance is just as necessary as faith is, and the faith that has no repentance going with it will have to be repented of. Repentance will never save a soul by its merits; but it lays the needful foundation for faith in the heart.
In its relation to salvation, does repentance
precede faith or does faith precede repentance?
The truth of the Scripture is that repentance and faith are different sides of the same coin. C. H. Spurgeon said, "Repentance and faith are born at the same time; they are Siamese twins. If one is sick the other cannot be well, for they live but one life."
See Acts 20:21 - joined together indicating they are inseparable. There has never been anyone who repented of their sin who was not forgiven, and there has never been anyone who has been forgiven who has not repented of his sin.
Repentance in the New Testament always includes faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior. You can
talk about repentance in its narrow sense, the sense that it is turning from sin, but in its New Testament gospel usage, it always embraces faith in Christ. It is a turning 180 degrees, so it’s turning from sin to something and the something or someone is always Christ. The repentance that leads to eternal life is that repentance which embraces Christ. Repentance looks within, while faith looks above.
“Ye repented NOT … that ye might believe Him”
(Mt. 21:32). A sinner cannot truly believe until he repents.
III. REPENT is a productive word
Repentance generate s some things. Repentance is an inward work that has outward fruit. Drastic change results from repentance. Repentance involves changing one’s mind in a way that affects some change in the person. Repentance alters your life.
With repentance, you can’t stay the way you are.
With repentance, you can’t keep going where you were going.
With repentance, you can’t keep talking the way you were talking.
With repentance, you can’t keep thinking the way you’ve been thinking.
With repentance, you can’t keep doing the things you’ve been doing.
With repentance, you can’t keep acting the way you’ve been acting.
Repentance is a change of mind about self, sin and the Savior. This change always results always in a change for the better. It is a change that results in change of conduct. It involves a turning from sin and a turning to the Savior. It implies a change in direction and a change in deportment.
John the Baptist demanded that the Pharisees and religious people demonstrate "fruits meet for repentance" before they were baptized (Matthew 3:8). What John called fruits the apostle Paul calls "works meet for repentance" in Acts 26:20. The works or fruits are suitable to repentance. They give evidence of repentance. As a tree is known by its fruit, so repentance is known by its good works. There are some things that give evidence of the reality of repentance. Repentance and faith produce good works.
If repentance has done its work in the heart, the fruit of repentance will manifest itself in the life.
Repentance will produce a measure of good work. The Phillippian jailer gave evidence of his repentance when he ministered to Paul and Silas following his conversion.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”
This verse tells us that the evidence of repentance is to turn from sin to God.
Repentance results in a change of CONDUCT. This is illustrated in the conversion of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10); Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-6).
A. Repentance prepares the way for faith that will TAKE YOU TO HEAVEN
Let me again say Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.
B. Repentance prepares the way for faith that will TAKE YOU INTO HOLINESS
One mark of true repentance unto salvation is a drastically changed life.
Repentance is to leave
The sins I loved before;
And show that I in earnest grieve
By doing so no more.
C. Repentance prepares the way for faith that will TAKE YOU INTO THE HARVEST
Sharing the Gospel is a mark of genuine repentance and faith in Christ.
D. Repentance prepares the way for faith that will TAKE YOU TO THE HOUSE OF GOD
“Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.”
Conclusion
You have the opportunity to repent now. You don’t know what the future has. You don’t know what calamity awaits you.
REPENT OR PERISH. Death could come suddenly, unexpectedly, and if you have not repented and trusted Christ, then eternal judgment awaits your forever.
What a horrific thought. While there is time, while there is opportunity, repent today.
