Repentance
A Sermon by CH(CPT) Keith J. Andrews
All scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
Jesus says:
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5, ESV)
Jesus calls us to repentance.
The prophet Jeremiah says;
4 You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, 5 saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’(Jeremiah 25:4-6, ESV)
The prophet Ezekiel says
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. (Ezekiel 14:6, ESV)
The Prophet Joel says
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12-3, ESV)
We are to repent.
Jesus says
"I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32, ESV)
The Apostle Peter said:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38, ESV)
Then in Revelation 2:5 Jesus says to the church at Ephesus:
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Rev 2:5, ESV)
Jesus says:
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5, ESV)
We are to repent.
You and I are sinners, and Jesus calls us to repentance. We are to repent.
1. What is Repentance?
We live in a world that teaches us to live the way we want to live—we can make our own life style choices—whether it is in the abomination of homosexuality or the depravity of adultery. The Bible says that we are to repent.
We like to categorize our sin in big and little sins, but the Bible says:
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (Jas 2:10, ESV)
Repentance is turning from our sin. It is as simple as going one way and turning toward another.
I like to run. Last Sunday, I ran the road around most of the FOB—when I got to the far side of the FOB I heard dogs barking. I thought they were working dogs, until I saw a pack of dogs running along the top of the HESCOs. I was ready to repent—I was ready to stop my workout and run from a guard tower, I was going to change direction.
We need to change direction in our lives. For many of us, we are going down the wrong road. We are going down a road that is leading us toward destruction. We need to change directions. We need to repent.
What do we need to repent from? What do we need to turn from? We need to turn from our sin. We are sinners, by our very nature and by our own choices. We must turn for this sin.
Sin is those things in our lives that make God unhappy. Our own thoughts, our own actions, our own words are sinful. Have you read the Ten Commandments lately? They still apply and we still continually break them. We are sinners—we need to turn from our sin. We need to repent.
But what do we turn to?
We Turn to God.
We turn to God because he commands us to.
The prophet Hosea tells the people of Israel;
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
the vows of our lips. (Hosea 14:1-2, ESV)
We are to turn back to God, because he is God. And it only makes sense. The purpose of repentance is to turn back to God—for all of the benefits that that will bring. He commands us to return to him—we need to repent.
We turn to God because it is God who has brought us salvation. When we sin, we have violated God’s holy law. It is God’s law that we need to return to. It is God who graciously and lovingly sent his son to die to pay the penalty for that sin, and we must return to him. In his classic book on repentance, Dr. Harry Ironside says;
"When our Lord looked on to the day of manifestation He declared: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." Could He have made it clearer that grace is for the repentant soul, and there can only be judgment without mercy for him who persists in hardening his heart against the Spirit’s pleading?" (Ironside, Harry, Except Ye Repent, p11)
We return to God upon the realization of his grace and his faithfulness-we need to repent.
We turn to God because, he promises to be with us.
The book of Amos reads;
Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:14-15, ESV).
He is the God of the universe the God of All-and he promises to be with us if we would simply turn back to him—we need to repent.
We need to repent to escape the judgment and restore the fellowship.
Jesus is very clear when he says;
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5, ESV)
How clear was he? Well, he said it twice. If you look at the very beginning of Luke Chapter 13—you will se the entire story.
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5, ESV)
Now, what exactly is going on in this passage?
A.T. Robertson writes;
"These Galileans at a feast in Jerusalem may have been involved in some insurrection against the Roman government, the leaders of whom Pilate had slain right in the temple courts where the sacrifices were going on. Jesus comments on the incident, but not as the reporters had expected. Instead of denunciation of Pilate he turned it into a parable for their own conduct in the uncertainty of life.” (Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.V c1932, Vol.VI c1933 by Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Lk 13:1). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.)
There was a massacre to take place in the temple during the sacrifices. We hear of suicide bombers and massacres today on CNN, occasionally we have some one come to us and tell us. My mind recalls the picture of George W. Bush as he was told about 9-11.
It almost seems to me that these people were arriving to tell Jesus what had happened, to give Jesus an opportunity to make a statement. We are all to familiar with these carefully drafted statements that politicians make—to impress the people that they are in control and compassionate and to portray a good impression of themselves.
Jesus takes another approach he says;
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5, ESV)
This is a classic example of Jesus, staying in his lane. Let the politicians make statements—he says repent.
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.Mt18:11, ESV)
He says. He focuses on the lost—and their need for repentance.
But, what does he mean by "you will all likewise perish"
They Greek word for perish--ap•ol•loo•mee ,
“translates as “perish” 33 times,
“destroy” 26 times,
“lose” 22 times,
“be lost” five times,
“lost” four times,
and translated miscellaneously twice.”
(Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible:(electronic ed.)(G622). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.)
This is the same word used by Jesus, in Luke 17:26-29:
26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed (or perished) them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed (or perished) them all— (Lk 17:26-29,ESV statements added for emphasis)
And Jesus says;
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5, ESV)
We need to repent—we need to turn for our sin and turn to God—or we will all likewise perish.
Heaven rejoices when we repent.
Jesus tells us the story of the Woman and the Lost Coin
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Lk 15:8-10, ESV)
Heaven rejoices when someone repents, because it restores the relationship with the father. Jesus continues by telling the story of the Periodical Son who squandered all of the father’s money and became poor.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish (there’s that word again) here with hunger! (Lk 15:17, ESV)
So he returned to the father who saw him walking from miles away
22 But the father said to his servants,4 ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Lk 15:22-24, ESV)
He welcomed him with open arms. In the same way, God rejoices when we repent.
John Newton once was a slave trader, until the night of a Great Storm that tossed his slave ship in the high waters. Newton began to pray and to study.
It was there that Newton repented of his sin and saw the Amazing Grace of God.
Newton turned from his sin of the slave trade and began to walk a life of service to God.
This morning, you as well have an opportunity to turn from your sin and turn to God—to repent.
Examine your life today, see what needs to be dropped.
Is there a sin that you need to shed?
Are there words that you need to never again repeat?
Are there thoughts that a prevailing in your life that need to be cut?
Today, you have the opportunity to repent of your sin and turn to God.
You do this by acknowledging your dependence on Christ to save you.
All of us are sinners in need of a Savior. Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Our responsibility is to accept this payment as our payment—and our sin is paid for.
This is the basics of repentance. We acknowledge that we can not do it on our own and we seek him.
You can do that today. Repent of your sin and trust Christ.
Let us pray.
