31. Who is Jesus?
April 03rd, 2010
Repent or Perish
Luke 13:1. Jesus has been hitting some hard points as teaches these crowds who have gathered around Him. He has brought up one of the more controversial ideas in Scripture: hell. So let’s talk about hell for a minute. We have some whacky ideas about it. Most people seem to think that hell is for bad people and heaven is for good people. So when a good person dies we ask: is loving God really going to send a good person to hell? No. God does not send any good people to hell. Hell is not a place for bad people. Heaven is not a place for good people. The afterlife is not eternal karma. Hell is for people who reject Jesus. Heaven is for people who lived their lives for Jesus and followed after Him to the best of their ability. Hell will be full of bad people. Heaven will be full of bad people. The difference is one set accepted Jesus in their lives and fought against their own sinful nature and they accepted His offer of grace through His death on the cross. In the history of the world only one good person ever lived and the rest of us nailed Him to a cross.
As uncomfortable as it may be, hell is real place. Jesus talks to us about it so that we can understand the cost of not following Him. Jesus warns us about hell because Jesus loves us and doesn’t want to see anyone go there. Religion uses the fear of hell to force people into obedience: do what we say, follow our rules, or we will condemn you to the fire of hell. The real reason we should discuss hell is because we love people and we don’t want them to go there.
If your child was running towards oncoming traffic would you say: oh, its ok that works for them, it is their choice. No! You would cry out for them to stop and to change their ways, to go in another direction. It is not because you are narrow minded or intolerant it is because you love them and want them to be safe.
Lk 13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Lk 13:2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? Lk 13:3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Lk 13:4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? Lk 13:5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Luke refers to a massacre that we really don’t know much about. What we do know is that Pilate was the governor of Judea. Pilate was known as a cruel and violent man and Judea was very rebellious area which creates a nice powder keg; ready to go off. It’s like sticking Mary Stewart and Oscar the grouch together, it is going to get ugly.
So as best we can tell we have some Galileans who were travelling to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices to God. These guys were believers. They were going to the temple of God to worship of Him. They probably traveled for several days carrying their sacrifices. They would have gone through ritual purification, walked up to the temple, confessed their sins, made an offering, and they were making a sacrifice to God to atone for their sins when they were murdered. These guys were obeying God, they were trying to do the right thing and they died. How is that right? How is that fair?
When people die we ask why. We don’t really like death. We try to ignore it, avoid it, and pretend it doesn’t happen. The Jews blamed death on punishment from God against sinners. So when God honoring people died they got confused. We are not that different. When someone dies we ask God why? Why did they die? Why did you take them away? The Jews said: well they must have been bad people. That is stupid.
What we say: it’s all part of God’s plan. God has a reason. God took them, it was His decision but it’s ok, you don’t have to feel bad about the tragic loss of your loved ones because God has a reason. That is equally stupid. I’ve heard people say to mothers who lost their children, God just wanted another angel in heaven. Not true. God does not kill people. Sin kills people. Without sin there would be no death. Don’t blame tragedy on God, He’s not the one who ate the apple. Tragedy is a natural consequence of living in a fallen world. We are bad. We do bad things, so bad things happen to people. Could God stop that? Yes. Does He have the power to prevent us from doing evil? Yes. So when evil happens does that mean that God doesn’t care? No.
If God were to take away negatives consequences of our bad choices He would be taking away our freedom. If you cannot choose to do something that is wrong then you do not have a choice. Without choice there can be no love. So because God is loving and God desires for us to love Him He gives us the choice not to. All evil is a result of our choosing to not love God. If God put an impenetrable force field around the forbidden fruit and then Adam and Eve would not have had a choice. God hates tragedy just as much as we do. The things that make you cry make God cry too. But for Him to prevent bad things from happening would destroy love, of grace, and forgiveness. You don’t have to like it, but sin is the reality we chose for ourselves.
We want life to be fair. We want bad things to happen to bad people. We want good things to happen to good people and we don’t ever want those two worlds to collide. So naturally when something bad happens we start thinking: what did I do wrong, what am I being punished for, why is this happening to me. Bad things don’t happen because you are bad, bad things happen because sin is bad and sin is everywhere. Good things don’t always happen because you are good. God is good and God is everywhere so sometimes good things happen because God is constantly redeeming the bad things we have done and making them good.
There is one thing that the world is not: fair. One thing we should never ever want the world to be: is fair. If life was fair you would all be dead and we would all burn in hell for eternity. That is fair. Is that what you want? No. But, I just want things to be good, I want to be happy, I want a perfect, pleasant, joy filled life. Get in line and bring something to do while you wait. We chose the fruit so life is not going to be perfect. Thank God that life isn’t fair because that means we have a chance to get something we don’t deserve. In a fair world we are doomed to hell. God is gracious enough to keep things from being fair. The fact that good things ever happen is an indication of how much God loves us.
Think about it: if good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people what do we do with Jesus? Jesus was rejected by His own people. He was betrayed by one of His closest friends. He was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. He was spat on, mocked, beaten, flogged, and nailed to a cross. Jesus had a lot of bad things happen to Him. So if bad things only happen to bad people then Jesus was a pretty bad dude. Jesus is the greatest person who ever lived and He suffered the worse fate imaginable. Sort of discredits the whole argument doesn’t it?
When bad things happen we tend to ask the wrong questions. Why God? Why do bad things happen? Aren’t you good? Why are you doing this to me? Tragedy should not be followed by the question why but by who. Who are you going to turn to in this time? What are you going to do differently? People die and that is a tragedy. The bigger tragedy is that people die without repenting. When tragedy strikes we need to learn to ask the right question. It is not about the justice of God. You live because God has graciously spared your life for another day. He has given you one more chance to get it right and to be ready for Jesus return. Your life has been about you. You have selfish, sinful, and evil in your life. God gives you another day to live so you can have one more chance to live for Him. Every tragedy should remind us where the focus of our life should be. The reality is we are all going to die, but are you ready to die? Are you ready to face Jesus? Don’t waste your time asking why, start fixing the things in your life that are not ready. You don’t know when you will die, so don’t get ready later, be ready now.
Lk 13:6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. Lk 13:7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ Lk 13:8 “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. Lk 13:9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”
So we have a farmer who owns a vineyard. Among his crops of grapes he planted some fruit trees. He waited patiently for the trees to grow. The watered them, fertilized them, and took care of them. One of his fig trees grew, it matured, and yet it did not produce fruit. He waited a year, no fruit. He waited another year, still no fruit. This tree was a waste. It did not produce fruit so the farmer says cut it down.
The problem with the tree was not the ground. It was placed in good soil. The problem wasn’t that the tree wasn’t care for, the tree had been nourished and provided for. It was given time to grow and to produce fruit, but it didn’t. God puts all that work into us, when we don’t produce fruit, what good are we? The farmer waited beyond what was reasonable giving his tree every chance to change. The tree didn’t. The farmer’s hired hand had worked hard to grow this tree and didn’t want to see his work go to waste so He pleads for one more chance, one more year for the tree to produce fruit. He asks the farmer for one more chance. The farmer agrees. If that tree still doesn’t produce fruit, it will get the ax and be tossed in the fire.
God’s patience is not eternal. He will not wait for us to produce fruit forever. A Christian without fruit is like a fig tree with no figs, useless. When these people bring up Pilate Jesus says the problem is not Pilate it is you. You need to stop worrying about the justice of the world and getting even. You need to fix your life because if you don’t change, if you don’t repent and follow Jesus and produce fruit you will be cut down.
Tree’s produce fruit. God’s people produce fruit. We are not saved by our fruit, we are the fruit. When Jesus lives in us He lives through us and we produce fruit. What Jesus is saying here is: your life counts. How you live, what you do, and why you do it matters is important. In the church we get this idea that if we accept Jesus and we call on His name we will be saved. The mentality of the church is get ‘em in and get ‘em saved. What happens after that? I cant imagine that Jesus ultimate goal in dying on the cross was for us to soak a bunch of people in ‘holy water,’ if it was Christians should spend more time at the public pool dunking sinners into salvation.
Jesus offers us a relationship without condition but not without expectation. What we have done in recent years is try to wash away the natural expectations of a relationship with Jesus. You don’t have give up sin, you don’t have to change, you don’t have to be transformed, you don’t have to die to yourself you just need to call on the name of the Lord. What a terrible crime it is to reduce a connection to the almighty God to little more than a spiritual name dropping to get you into club heaven. Jesus is the Son of God not a password to eternity. He says if you want life, you need to repent.
Repentance is turning away from your sin. It is letting go of sin. For some of us repentance starts with learning to admit our sin without trying to excuse it. We need to learn to admit that we sin and that our sin hurts people. Jesus died for your sin, because of your sin. So don’t hold on to it, don’t justify it, don’t excuse it. There is no excuse for sin. You are guilty , so own up to it. Recognize, admit, and acknowledge that you sin.
Repentance means you change your mind to agree with God. He is right, you are wrong so you change your mind. Repentance means you change your heart. You stop listening to the world, acting like the world, desiring the same things the world and you change your heart to fit with the heart of God. If the greatest desire of your life is that new Ipad then you have a problem. Repentance means changing your heart to care for, to value, and to love the things God loves. Where the greatest desire of your heart becomes glorifying Him by sharing His love with the world. Repentance means you change your life. You stop living for yourself, doing what you want, investing in what you like and you dedicate your life to Jesus. You serve Him, you follow Him, you live for Him. Not just in what you say but in what you do every single day. In Jesus we die to sin. That is the meaning of repentance. It means we turn from sin to God and we live for Him producing fruit in His Kingdom.
