Real Repentance

It’s a great privilege, being a minister of God’s Word. Yet preaching is a difficult job. What makes it hard is not really the years of study beforehand. It’s not the many hours spent every week writing sermons. It’s not even getting over the fear of public speaking. Preaching is difficult because of what that Word means. It’s a serious word, a word of great consequence. A minister has the privilege of bringing the Word of salvation—but that very same message is also a word of judgment.

In the Bible, those two always go together: salvation and judgment. They’re inseparable. Because if I tell you that salvation is available through faith in Christ, then the opposite is also true: those who don’t believe will miss out on this gift, and are under God’s holy wrath forever.

Even if we don’t say it exactly like that every Sunday, that’s always the implication. If you don’t accept this gospel, there’s no life or redemption, only death. For if the text has been faithfully explained, if Christ has been preached, then the minister’s words must be received for what they actually are: the Word of the living God.

Many receive the Word with faith—we thank the LORD for this grace! But sadly, other people, maybe even some who are here today, reject it. They don’t care for the gospel. They haven’t believed in Christ or really repented from their sins.

This makes preaching hard. You wish you could be more convincing, more persuasive—that you could cause everyone to respond in the right way. But in the end, one who brings the Word knows that it’s not his own. It’s God’s Word. And that means that God takes care of the results. Almighty God works all the change that’s needed.

These are the truths that John the Baptist surely held onto. For him too, being a “minister of the Word” wasn’t easy. He preached to all who would listen, calling them to repentance and faith. But even as he did, some turned away. And some others didn’t care. But this was God’s Word—a word of salvation and judgment—so he’d continue to bring it boldly. That’s our theme,

John preaches: ‘Repent, for Christ is on his way!’

1) the time is urgent

2) some are complacent

3) the repentance must be real

1) the time is urgent: Something big is about to happen in the gospel of Luke. It happens in verse 2, “The word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” This is the same kind of language used to describe the Old Testament prophets: “The word of God came to Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, or whomever.” And whenever the word of God comes, his messengers must speak.

So John begins. He goes into the region of the Jordan, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (v 3). When we hear “baptism,” we probably picture our nice baptismal font. We see an infant presented by her parents, and that solemn ceremony of sprinkled water. We’re used to baptism.

And the Jews knew something about ceremonies of washing. There was lots of this in the law, as a part of being cleansed from impurity. There were also some fringe groups in Israel who had a ritual something like baptism. And if there were Gentiles who wanted to join God’s people, but they didn’t want to undergo the pain of being circumcised, they’d be “baptized.”

People knew about different kinds of “baptism,” washings with water. But John’s message was something new. For he stood at the edge of the Jordan, and called people to come into the water. Baptism was for everyone, for everyone who saw the need to change their ways.

The Word of God came to John in the wilderness, who said that now is the time for repentance. Now—and not later—is the time for you to begin a different way of life. What makes his call so urgent? Why does he preach with such conviction? Well, think of what John’s main task was: to prepare for the coming Christ. Jesus was on his way, coming to deal with human sin, once and for all. He was going to take away guilt and shame and make possible a new relationship with the LORD.

“When He comes, He’ll open up God’s grace to you in a new way,” John said to everyone gathered. “When Christ comes, He’ll bring salvation with Him. But to receive him, you’ve got something to do. You need to confess your sins. To be ready, you need to repent.”

The same call comes with the preaching of the gospel, every Sunday. We hear the Word of salvation, and we have to believe: accept it with a heart of faith and trust. But we must also repent! What does that mean? The Greek word here for “repentance” is literally “a change of mind.” It means we change our minds about ourselves. We change our minds about our sin. We change our minds about God.