BY JIM BISCAN
Well, I’d like to begin by having us turn to Jude verse 3. I’d just like to start out by establishing a principle that there are things that we all have in common as Christians. And three things right off the bat this Bible speaks about directly telling us that we have them in common. And Jude verse 3 is one of them. We’ll start with verse 1 where it says
Jude 1. Jude, a servant of
Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God
the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2) Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3) Beloved, while I was very diligent to
write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to
you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints.
And so, it’s just to start out that we do have a salvation that we have in common. This is something we all experience either now or at some point in the future ultimately when we are changed at the resurrection.
Let’s turn over to Titus 1 verse 4. We’ll see something else that we are told we have in common. Paul here mentions our common faith. Titus 1 verse 1, it says
Titus 1:1. Paul, a servant
of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
And then we’ll skip down to verse 4. He’s writing
Titus 1:4. To Titus, [my]
true son in our common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
So once again, we are told that we have this in common as well, a common faith.
Let’s go over to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11. And again, we’re just trying to set the principle that there are indeed things we have in common, common salvation, common faith. And here Paul talks about how there is a temptation or a putting to the test that we also have in common. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11, he says
1 Corinthians 10:11. Now all
these things happened to them as examples,
And you can go back and read about what these things were, verses 1 through 10, how where Israel was wandering in the wilderness and God was not happy how they disrespected Him and His law and how they were idolaters. They lusted after evil things as it says. They were sexually immoral. They murmured. And God ended up punishing them, disciplining them, chastising them in order to get them back on track.
And Paul is saying in verse 11, “These things were examples and don’t think God won’t do the same for us to keep us on track.”
1 Corinthians 10:11. Now all
these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12) Therefore let him who thinks he stands
take heed lest he fall. 13) No
temptation has over[come] you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to
be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape [or a way out], that you may be able to [endure] it.
And so there is a temptation that is common to all of us. And this word “temptation” means a putting to the proof. It comes from a word meaning to test, to scrutinize, to determine if the substance really is what it’s claimed to be. So the specific way in which we are put to the test varies from individual to individual depending on your background and all the experiences that make up who you are. But the fact that we are put through a test, a putting to the proof, that is what is common to all of us. And he says that it’s common to man. That just doesn’t mean the male of the species, but “man” comes from the Greek anthropos which means mankind or human being.
So three things, common salvation, common faith, and a common temptation that we all go through.
And there are other things that we could talk about that we all share and experience. There are trials and tribulations. There are many other things that the Bible lists. Drawing up together as the temple of the Lord, we all share in that. The same inheritance, the same citizenship, the same glory that is waiting for us. We are all members of the same body. We heard about that in the sermonette today. We all have access to the same Spirit. We all partake of the one bread. We heard about that this morning as well.
Well my purpose today is not to go over these three things that I went through or these lists of things that I just mentioned, these things we have in common, but what I would like to talk about is something else that we have in common. And this something else is a thing that each of us will have to experience—and in that way we will all have them in common—if we ever hope to see God’s Kingdom. And that something is repentance. That’s what I want to spend the hour talking about today, repentance and repentance and repenting, turning from our old way of living, turning to a new and better way of living as spelled out in this Book. It’s acknowledging our sins. It is confessing our sins, making the effort to stay on track with God. It’s something that happens in our lives when we first turn to God and eventually make that commitment of baptism that we also heard about. We need it to turn to God at that time, but repentance is also something that we need from time to time. It acts as a course correction as we go throughout our lives. And I think we’ll see that as we go through this that repentance is one of those other things that we all have in common. Or if we don’t have it in common now, we will have it in common at some point in the future because at some point we have to go through that experience. We have to go through repentance if we ever hope to see God’s Kingdom and be in His Family whether we are firstfruits in this age now or for people that will repent and come to God in the great harvest, the great fall harvest that we keep this coming September and October.
But repentance it is basic to the Christian life. Without it a large part of God’s message, God’s good news, is lost. And without repentance there is no turning from your old way to a new way when we first come to God and ultimately make that commitment in baptism. And without repentance we will not stay on track. And when we will not stay on the path of salvation, we will lose out on using that course correction that God offers us.
And so I call this message today, The Importance Of Repentance. And basically we’re going to be going through three parts. First, we’re going to see just how much importance was placed on repentance as part of the good news message. That’ll be one thing. And then secondly, we’re going to see how repentance is necessary when we first turn to God that leads up to that commitment we make in baptism. And then third, we will see that we do need repentance from time to time, again as that course correction, in order to stay on that path to salvation.
So for the first part, let’s start by going over to Matthew chapter 9 please. Matthew 9 and verse 9. We’re going to see just how much repentance is a big part of that message of good news. And we’re going to start off with Jesus’ own words. Matthew 9 and verse 9. Matthew writes this
Matthew 9:9. [Then] As Jesus
passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
office. And He said to him, “Follow
Me.” So he arose and followed Him. 10) Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the
table in the house, that behold, many
tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11) And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why
does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And that was a question that was on their mind. The tax collectors were not looked favorably upon by their fellow Jews. The tax collectors were local people that the Romans used in order to do their dirty work of collecting the taxes. The Romans were smart. When they went in and occupied a land, they knew there was going to be enough resentment from that alone. Well that makes sense. So what they would do is get local people to do some of their dirty work in collecting the taxes that had to be collected. And the incentive for the local people to do that was that the Romans would look the other way if there was a little graft or a little skimming off the top by the people who were collecting these taxes. So that was their incentive to do the Romans’ work for them. Well the result, their fellow countrymen despised these tax collectors. They saw them as turncoats.
And yet, of all things, Jesus Christ calls one of these men who is from this despised occupation to be one of His disciples, to be one of the twelve. His name is Matthew as it’s given here. He goes by Levi in the other accounts. And of all things, Jesus calls someone from this despised occupation. Now I’ve got to believe that that made some hard feelings for some of the other disciples. I mean here this was an occupation that was looked down upon to begin with and here the Master is calling someone from this occupation to be one of His very own disciples. That may have been hard to take for some of them. But it was God’s will that Matthew from this despised occupation be just as much a disciple of His as someone from “a good occupation” of being a fisherman, like Peter, James, and John were. And what made that possible was this thing that they had in common of repentance. Matthew could repent just as well as Peter could repent of his mistakes no matter what occupation they were coming from. So tax collectors and sinners. The sinners were those whose daily occupations put them in contact with people that made them ceremonially unclean. And so they were looked down upon by the Pharisees for that.
Matthew 9:11b. “Why does
your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12) [But] When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are
well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13) “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners, to repentance.”
He came to call sinners to repentance. And so right away we see that repentance is part of Christ’s teaching. And right away we get a clue that repentance is something that we will all have to go through. And why is that? Well because in other places it says that we are all sinners. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” And if Christ came to call sinners to repentance, then at some point we will all have to go through that experience in order to answer that call and to respond to Jesus’ calling no matter what our occupation is. We will all have to share in that experience. So that’s one thing that Jesus brings out right away.
And another part of Matthew’s account here in this same chapter is that Jesus Christ not only calls us to repentance but He also has the power to make that happen. He has the power to forgive our sins. So He has the ability to start the process and He also has the ability to finish the process in forgiving our sins. And we’re going to see that in the first few verses of chapter 9. Verse 1 where it says that Jesus
Matthew 9:1b. got into a
boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.
Which was
Verse 2.
Matthew 9:2. Then behold,
they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.
When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good
cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
He says, “Your sins are forgiven you.” So this may mean that this person’s condition
was the direct result of his own sins.
And there were many Jews at that time who believed that was always the
case. Jesus showed in other places that
that was not always the case that a person’s condition wasn’t always a direct
result of his sins. But given the fact
that Jesus Himself said these words directly to this man seems to indicate that
in this case, they were. So who knows
what this man did? Maybe he—
Verse 3.
Matthew 9:3. And at once
some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
And they said that because they knew only a god, only God could forgive sins and here was this human being taking on a privilege, a right that only God could have. And so they did not think well of what He was saying.
Matthew 9:4. But Jesus,
knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5) “For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say,
‘Arise and walk’?
And let’s stop for a minute and think about that. Jesus asked a question. So which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or “Arise and walk”? Well it is easier to say the words, “Your sins are forgiven you,” because how are you going to disprove it? If a shyster comes by and says to you, “Your sins are forgiven you,” and you say, “Well, prove it.” And what’s he going to say? “Well, it’s all internal. We really can’t see it. You have to take my word for it.” So how do you know? How would an outsider know if that really took place just by him saying those words? But the same shyster comes by and says, “Arise and walk,” you’re going to know right away whether or not he’s got the power to do that because you’re either going to get up and walk or you’re not. So you’ll know. There’s a way to disprove it. So it’s easier just to say the words, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” but Jesus is about to prove that He’s got the power to do both. He can heal and He can also forgive your sins.
Verse 6.
Matthew 9:6. “But that you
may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,”—then He said
to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7) And he arose and departed to his
house. 8) Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who
had given such power to men.
And His point is that just as they could now believe and see that Jesus had the power to heal someone, they could also put that full confidence and trust that He had that same power to forgive people’s sins. In essence, what He was telling the leadership was that He was indeed God. He was one of those Beings who can forgive sins and He showed it here. And the point is that He calls us to repentance. He calls sinners to repentance but He also has the means to relieve us of those sins as well. He can start and continue and complete the process.
We can see that one of Christ’s reasons for coming to this earth is to save sinners. And let’s go over to see that in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. And speaking of sinners, this is an account written by Paul who by his own admission called himself “chief among sinners” because of all that he had done to the Church in his former life. 1 Timothy 1 verse 12, it says this
1 Timothy 1:12. And I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry, 13) Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a
persecutor, and an insolent man;
Or a violently arrogant man as it can be translated. And you can go back and read the account in
Acts to see that. He was a
persecutor. He went and pursued those
who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and he sought them out to do them
harm. And he actually had some put to
death. And I’m not sure if he actually
murdered them himself or these people died just at his order. Someone else did the dirty work. But how would you like to have that on your
conscience? Where as a result of his own
actions, people died and their lives were snuffed out. And then years later, after conversion, Paul,
Saul, has to go back to
So you can see why it was always in God’s plan to make Saul an apostle to the Gentiles to get him out of Judea where in Judea, his ministry would have been hampered by his past, but in other places, he would have been free from that. And then, of all things, God makes Saul an apostle to the Gentiles. Saul, again, by his own admission was a Pharisee. And you know how Pharisees what they thought of their own countrymen who became tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees really thought poorly of people who were the Gentiles. They didn’t look favorably on them as well. And so now here is Saul of a strict sect of the Pharisees and now he has to rub elbows with people who are ceremonially unclean. But again, God had a purpose for his life and one of the lessons was that he was not to despise those whom God would see fit to call to repentance.
He was a persecutor and an insolent man. Verse 13.
1 Timothy 1:13b. but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. 14) And the grace of our Lord
was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 15) This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners,
Which is my point on this section.
1 Timothy 1:15b. of whom I
am chief. 16) However, for this reason I
obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as
a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
And maybe what Paul is saying in verse 16 is that “if God can show mercy to someone like me who did all these things in the past, then surely He can show mercy to another person and put them on the path to salvation as well.”
So Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Let’s see that also in Matthew 1 verse 18. Matthew 1:18, this is an account where an angel gives some information about Jesus Christ before His birth and the point here is that the fact that He came to save sinners is wrapped up in the very meaning of His name. Mary is found to be with child in verse 18, by means of the Holy Spirit. Verse 19, Joseph is considering getting a divorce. He thought that she had cheated on him. Verse 20.
Matthew 1:20. But while he
thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21) “And she will bring forth a Son, and you
shall call His name Jesus, for He
will save His people from their sins.”
And again, one of the reasons for Christ’s existence was to save people from their sins. It’s part of His very reason for coming here. And that is wrapped up in the meaning of His name. Jesus is the anglicized form of the Greek which in turn comes from a Hebrew name Jehoshua which itself is from two Hebrew names which means “Yahweh saves.” So the very meaning of His name, Yahweh saves, for He will save people from their sins, so yes, we are sinners. Yes, we are called to repentance. Jesus has the power to call us. He has the power to forgive our sins. It’s in the very meaning of His name. And it says in another place “there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.” That’s in Acts 4 verse 12. It’s one of the basic teachings of Christianity. And repentance and forgiving of sins is also a big part of the Christian message.
Let’s turn over to Luke 24 verse 44. Jeff read Christ’s commission in Matthew. This is the commission as stated by, recorded by Luke. Luke 24 verse 44, again this is after Christ’s death and resurrection. And He has reappeared to His disciples at this point and He gives them instruction. Verse 44.
Luke 24:44. Then He said to
them, “These are the words which I
spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms concerning
Me.” 45) And He opened their
understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46) Then He said to them, “Thus it is
written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from
the dead the third day, 47) “And that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,
beginning at
And my point is that repentance and forgiveness of sins are
two of the things that are near the top of what Jesus Christ wanted
preached. I mean of all the things He
could have listed, He felt it was important enough to include these two
things. And we might wonder well why is
that? Well, again without it, without
repentance and forgiveness of sins, we cannot hope to see the
Let’s go over to Acts chapter 5 verse 25. We’re going to read a few more passages about how important the message was that Jesus Christ wanted preached. And they’re all in Acts. Acts 5 starting in verse 25. Here the apostles—and it doesn’t say how many or which ones—have been thrown in prison by the Jewish authorities for working all sorts of signs and wonders. Well, an angel frees them that night, tells them to continue preaching in the temple and then the next day the authorities are wondering “What’s happened? Where are these men at that were in prison?” Verse 25.
Acts
And here it is at the forefront of their message, repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Let’s turn over to Acts 10 verse 39 and see another example. Acts 10 verse 39. Again, these two things, this thing of repentance is important enough in the message that when it came time for God to open up the door of salvation officially to the Gentiles, this was part of the message. And so there’s a gathering at Cornelius’ house. Peter has come to address the people that are there. And when the door of salvation is opened to them, it is accompanied with spectacular miracles. Now there were Gentile individuals before this who accepted and received near the words of life but this is where it went to the Gentiles starting in an official capacity. Verse 39, Peter is saying
Acts
And what else?
Acts
And it was after these words, after these words about forgiveness of sin that the spectacular miracle happened where the Gentiles received God’s Spirit and they began speaking in other languages. It almost seems like this happened in order to emphasize this point of how important repentance and forgiveness of sins was to this process. It was backed up by the miracle that happened just after he said these words. And part of that message was belief and forgiveness of sins.
And again, why should that take such a prominent role in the
message? Well, we can turn right here to
chapter 11 verses 17 and 18. Peter and
the others, they go back to the home Church in
Acts
And to me that is a key statement. Why is this emphasized so much in the early teachings? It’s because repentance leads to life. And that is why it is important to us as well. At some point, if we have any hope of attaining to eternal life, we must go through repentance as well. Initially at a time in our lives when we turn to God for our first time which leads to our commitment at baptism but also we’ll see that repentance is necessary in order to keep us on track.
In Deuteronomy the Lord
God told
So one or two more. Let’s go over to Acts 13 just a couple pages over and we’re going to see what Paul has to say, verses 36 through 39. Beginning in Acts 13, Paul begins to take the dominant place in terms of teaching and preaching. But we’re going to see that just as Jesus wanted this preached, Peter followed through and taught it. We’re going to see that Paul follows through as well. That the message is consistent. Acts 13 verse 36, he is talking to people who are assembled at the synagogue. So, on the surface it’s a Jewish audience, but Gentiles are mentioned later on as well. And Paul says this
Acts
In other words, Jesus Christ did not decay.
Acts
And so the point is that the message is consistent. Jesus, Peter, and here Paul are teaching the same things. The process begins with Christ. It includes the forgiveness of sins. And all three of them were teaching that.
Okay so let’s go to one more reference on this first part and then we’re going to move on to the second part. But turn over to Acts 26 verses 17 through 20. Paul is recounting his conversion in front of the king, King Agrippa, and Festus who was governor at the time. And he’s telling them what Jesus Himself told him to do and to preach. And no surprise, it includes forgiveness of sins and repentance. And Paul in this account tells about how he had been struck down and then Jesus Christ tells him to stand on his feet. And then verse 17, Jesus tells him this
Acts 26:17. ‘I [Jesus] will
deliver you from the Jewish people,
as well as from the Gentiles, to whom
I now send you, 18) ‘To open their eyes,
in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified [or set apart] by
faith in Me.’
And to me this is the essence of what repentance is. We turn to God. We turn from darkness to light. We turn from the power of Satan to that of God. And there is a time when we may turn to Him for the first time which again leads to our baptismal commitment, but there are times when we return to Him a second time, a third time, as necessary in order to stay on course with God. We show evidence of a changed life as well.
And with that we’re going to wrap up this first point and move on from there to the second point. I’m a little bit disconnected from my notes at this point. So let’s go over to Acts 2 verse 37. We are going to start the second point in that repentance is very necessary for that time when we turn to God for the first time. Jeff read this in the sermonette. Acts 2 verses 37 and 38, well known verse. Here is an account of where people do turn to God for the first time in their lives and begin to see themselves for what they really are and they make a real change in their attitude and their approach to things.
This is at the Feast of Pentecost in 31 AD. It’s also known as The Feast of Weeks. Feast of Weeks was the name given to it in the Old Testament where we are to count off seven weeks beginning with the Sabbath that occurs in the Days of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost is the Greek name for the same festival. It’s just another way of counting the time. The name “Pentecost” means fiftieth. So instead of counting weeks, we’re counting days, fifty days, but it’s the same festival.
Here these Jews had assembled for this Feast of Weeks, Feast of Pentecost. And God begins to open their eyes. And here we’re going to see an account, again, as when people first turn to God. Peter has been talking about this Jesus of Nazareth. He has been talking about a prophecy that was written in the Psalms about the resurrection. He then connects Jesus to that prophecy. He reminds these people that they’re responsible for putting Him to death. He was crucified at their hands and maybe not literally but maybe it was the case that some of these people that were in his audience at that day were also the ones making some of the decisions which ended up putting Jesus Christ to death. And he reminds them of that situation. And then his words get to them and verse 37, it says this
Acts
And so here people are turning to God for the first time in their lives. Repentance is a part of the process and this ultimately led to their baptism. The process we see begins with a calling from God. “As many as the Lord our God will call.” But it begins also with a change in their heart, in our hearts and minds as well. It says that, verse 37, that “they were cut to the heart.” And we saw in other places that it needs a change in actions as well, that we are to do works befitting of repentance.
In John’s ministry—you can go back sometime and look in Matthew chapter 3—John told his people to show fruits worthy of repentance. And James talks about how if we see someone in need, it’s not enough just to say, “Well, go in peace and be warmed and filled.” We should supply those things they need to get by. And so there are actions as well that is part of this way of life that we live. So it’s a change of heart and it’s a change of action.
And here we see that this change of heart and attitude is signified by this sign of going through water baptism. Complete immersion where the old man, the old woman, is buried, left behind, left for dead, and we come out starting a new way of life. And baptism itself is not this thing that forgives our sins. That’s just an outward sign of our commitment to a new way of life. But the forgiveness of sins comes through the belief in Jesus Christ and His ability to do that. We saw that in other places as well. Christ has the power to forgive our sins. We saw that in Matthew chapter 9. In Acts 10, we saw that whoever believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins. Acts 13, Jesus said, “Everyone who believes is justified,” something the law could not do. In Acts 26, Christ calls people and He does that so that they may receive the forgiveness of sins among those who are set apart by faith in Him. So forgiveness comes by faith in that sacrifice being applied to our situation.
And to me it’s interesting that those being worked with here in Acts 2 verse 37, they were Jews. They were converts from the religion of Judaism. And so in one sense, these are people that already knew something about God’s way of life. They already had a certain amount of instruction as to how God wanted His people to live. But it’s interesting to me that still given all that, they still had things to repent of. They still had things to change and turn from and to make changes in their lives.
In the first century Church you were always reading about how there were these two main groups, the Jewish Christians, the converts from Judaism, and then the Gentile Christians, those who were converted from outside of the body of knowledge that was extant in Israel at that time. And the thing is that both groups were required to repent. Both groups had things to repent of, the Jews, the Gentiles, not to mention the smattering of other groups, the heathens, the pagans, the infidels that it talks about.
It’s the same way today. We all need to repent whether we are Jews or Gentiles to use words from the first century. God calls people today who grow up in God’s Church, in His Church. In a sense, we might say that those are akin to the Jewish Christians of Paul’s day. And so people here already have a leg up on certain teachings. They know about which day to keep, the Sabbath day, Saturday not Sunday. People know about which Holy Days are the ones to keep, Unleavened Bread, and Weeks, and Tabernacles, not Christmas, not Easter. We heard something about Easter in last week’s message. Certain things about the nature of God that God is a Family composed of two individuals right now and it’s a Family ready to expand. So people growing up into the Church already have certain knowledge and information under their belt. And yet, just like the people in Peter’s day, they had certain knowledge of God’s way, they still had things to repent of. And it’s the same way today. Someone growing up in the Church may have a leg up on these certain teachings but they have as much need of repentance as these people did. And as anyone, like myself, who came into the Church from outside, and I grew up in the Catholic. And so I had to turn from many of its teachings to what God wanted taught and wanted us to believe from His Word, turning from a day of worship on Sunday to Saturday, turning from a belief in a God that was three in one to the true nature, turning away from Christmas and Easter to the Holy Days. And that’s part of repentance as well. But those in the Church growing up already have certain knowledge under their belt but they still have things to repent of. And maybe it is like some of these people coming to accept who and what Jesus Christ really is. Maybe they’re attitudes of mind. I don’t know—stinginess of heart. We can go back and read Ephesians. Ephesians talks about a number of things that we are to be working on, thefts, murders, adulteries, fornications, idolatries, and if not in the letter of the law, then in the spirit of the law. But whether we are called to repentance while in the Church, having grown up in the Church, whether we are called to repentance coming outside the Church, man, woman, Jew, Gentile, it doesn’t matter because in Christ’s eyes we are all in need of repentance.
And if you haven’t yet experienced real repentance and a real change of heart, there’s a major benefit that you will experience at that time. Let’s go over to Acts chapter 3, just the next page, verses 17 through 21. There’s a real benefit that comes from having those sins forgiven. It’s like a weight being lifted from your shoulders. In this account, Peter has done another major miracle and it has gotten people’s attention. And he again uses it to teach people as he often does. He also brings up this all important part of repenting but there’s also something he talks about that comes with it. Acts 3 verse 17.
Acts
In putting Christ to death.
Acts
And what I wanted us to notice was the sequence in verse 19. We are instructed to repent, to be converted that our sins may be blotted out and he adds, so that these “times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” And so, we are instructed to repent in order that we may experience these times of refreshing. And when we turn to God for the first time in our lives and make those real changes that lead to our commitment, really there are times of refreshing that come upon you. You get a breather from having the burden of those sins removed from your past. And so there are real times of refreshing that come from God’s presence. It’s one of the benefits of having our sins blotted out. It gives us a chance to start anew.
And so when you experience that and turn to God, another thing happens to us as well. Let’s see that in Acts chapter 9 verse 17 because when we turn to God and walk with Him for real, it’s also like having your eyes opened. And we’re going to read this in the account, part of Saul’s conversion. Again, this is the man who later acknowledged that he is chief among sinners for what he did to the Church. And here he’s been stopped cold in his tracks by Jesus Christ appearing to him. He was blinded by the light of God’s presence. And having gone three days without sight, a man named Ananias is told to go and heal Saul and restore to him his eyesight. And that’s where we pick it up in verse 17.
Acts
And so here during his conversion, Saul’s eyes are opened. And that literally happened. And then, more than that, there was something like scales, as it says, that fell from his eyes in order for him to be able to see again. And symbolically that was done in order to show us that something like that has to happen to each of us when we turn to God for the first time and change, really change in our attitude and our heart. We begin to see clearly for the first time things we did not see clearly before.
Now for Saul, he came to see clearly who this person was
that he had been persecuting. I mean all
of his life he was a member of Judaism.
He was a Pharisee. And in his
zeal in going after these followers of Jesus Christ, he was convinced that he
was serving his God, the Lord God
of
And maybe it is like Saul where we begin to see certain
truths about who and what God is. Maybe
it’s like the experience of Job that we’ve heard about from time to time where
we begin to see ourselves for who and what we really are. Maybe we begin to realize for the first time
that what the Bible teaches isn’t found in the Catholic or
Our repentance doesn’t begin in these spectacular ways with visions and being struck down like Saul was. That was reserved for people who were called to a special mission, special purpose. So then, how does our repentance begin to happen in our lives if we don’t experience these visions and spectacular encounters one on one with Jesus Christ? Well, there’s three things. We’re just going to go through these quickly. Three things that are necessary. One, we have to hear God’s words preached. Two, we have to read it for ourselves. And three, very important, is that God’s Spirit has to work on our minds.
We’re just going to turn to one reference. Go over to Romans 10 verse 13, just to see how important hearing God’s Word is to this process. Hearing God’s Word, reading God’s Word, and then having the Spirit of God work on our minds in what we hear and what we read. Romans 10 verse 13, we’re breaking into a thought here but Paul is saying that we need to hear God’s Word in order to have a chance at responding to His call. In verse 13, he says—he quotes this verse
Romans 10:13. For “whoever
calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.” 14) How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? 15) And how shall they preach
unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who
preach the [good news] of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” 16) But they have not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has
believed our report?” 17) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
So one thing we have to have is we have to hear God’s Word taught in order for it to have a chance to work on us, in order for us to have a chance at responding to God’s call.
Secondly, we’re not going to turn there but we need to read God’s Word to have it work on our minds and hearts. Jesus asked the question of the Pharisees on a number of occasions in Matthew. When they didn’t understand something, He asked the question, “Well, have you not read? Haven’t you read what it says in the Scriptures?” And so, He wanted His disciples, He wanted people to read what He had preserved in His Word.
You can go back and read how the Bereans were commended for going back and searching the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. And so reading and searching the Scriptures, it takes that to have God’s Word to be able to start working on our conscience. It can’t work on our conscience if we don’t read about these things and have these things rolling around in our minds. We have to have them in our minds in order for these things to act on us.
And then thirdly, it takes the Spirit of God to act on what we hear and what we read in order to convict us and convince us of certain things. I’m a big proponent of reading this Book. I think we need to do this more and more. But in the end we can hear all the sermons through broadcasts, tapes, and messages we want. We can read all the chapters and articles that we want but unless God’s Spirit is acting on that information we just won’t be convicted of certain teachings that the Bible brings out.
And one that came to mind in preparing for this message, Mr. Coulter talked about Easter last week and how it is not a Biblically sanctioned holiday. And you know there are people who can read the same Book, the same Bible. They can go and read the same historical articles that we do about Easter and Christmas and their questionable origins and they come to a different conclusion. They don’t see that it matters. And they say, “So what? What difference does it make if these days had questionable origins?” And so there comes a point in having your eyes opened where you can’t do this point-counterpoint going back and forth anymore. There comes a point where you either believe something is true or you don’t.
And there was a man last Sunday night on his radio show who was going into this subject and he said these very words. He said, “So what? So what if these holidays do have non-Christian origins? What difference does it make?” And he has a large audience from his radio show and he will never be convinced of the truth that it does matter to God how and with what days we worship Him. In this age, he’s just never going to come to that point. And the difference is the Spirit of Truth that Jesus Christ promised would be with His followers. In John chapter 14, John chapter 15 and 16, He promised that He would send the Spirit of Truth which would teach us all things and enlighten us and bring us to understand certain things. And that’s what it also takes in order for repentance to start happening in our minds, that we are convicted of certain truths that we would not otherwise believe. We are convicted of certain truths that mainstream says are not what they say.
But that’s what it comes down to. Yes, hearing is important. Yes, reading is so important. But it takes the Spirit of God working on our minds to get these things to click and to make us to see why on certain things it does matter how we worship God and with what days and things of that sort.
Okay, I’m running long on the second part, this part about how repentance is necessary when we first turn to God in our lives. There were several other things I wanted to cover. I’ll just mention them. One is that coming to repentance is by God’s goodness. Let’s not forget that. That’s in Romans 2 verse 4. Another item I was going to cover was repentance is to God directly and not through any human being. And you can read Peter’s encounter with Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8. And then finally, repentance it must be genuine. It must lead to a change in our actions and our heart, not just being sorry in our hearts but leads to a change in our action. And that’s in 2 Corinthians 7.
And I think we’ll move on from there to the last part of my message today. And that is that repentance is a necessary part of us staying on track on the path to salvation. We can think of it as a course corrector. We’re just going to turn to one reference. Let’s go to 2 Timothy 2 and we’ll begin with verse 19. But Paul here, 2 Timothy 2 verse 19, he is giving Timothy advice on how to look after those in his care in Timothy’s church. And Paul tells Timothy. He says, ‘Look, people are going to be turning aside. But they don’t have to stay that way. They can come back through repenting.” So 2 Timothy2 verse 19.
2 Timothy 2:19. Nevertheless
the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let
everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 20) But in a great house there are not only
vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some
for dishonor. 21) Therefore if anyone
cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and
useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
And what he is saying is that in a house as big as the Church is, there are bound to be both good people, vessels of gold and silver as he says, but also some bad people, vessels of wood and clay. But he encourages us in that the vessels of dishonor, to use his words, can be cleansed and made useful as vessels of honor again. And he says that this can happen because they cleanse themselves. And so we see that we have some say in how clean or how filthy we are where he says that “if anyone cleanses himself from the latter,” we can be useful again as a vessel of honor.
Well how then do we cleanse ourselves? It’s through repentance. Let’s jump down to verse 24.
2 Timothy 2:24. And a
servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach,
patient, 25) In humility correcting
those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that
they may know the truth, 26) And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having
been taken captive by him to do his
will.
And so we see that repentance is a key about getting back on track and staying on the path to salvation. And I see these verses talking about repentance not applying that situation where we first turned to God leading to baptism but as the case where we’ve strayed. We’ve gone off course and we’re able to correct ourselves and come back, God granting that we may have repentance. There’s still a chance we can come to our senses and escape the snare of the devil. And this lesson shouldn’t be lost on us that God wants us to come to our senses when necessary and repent and escape the snare of the devil. It’s a partnership. It’s God working with us and through us. He starts the process. He finishes the process. He calls us to repent and He gives us a mind and a heart to do so but we have some say in it as well. We have some say in how much we hear, what we read, how much we let the Spirit work on our minds and our hearts. But we have a part in this process as well.
We can go and look at the book of Revelation—if we had time—where God, in the seven messages to the Churches, seven times He says, “Hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” So we have a part in listening to what that Spirit when it pricks our conscience about certain things and we begin to think about certain things and we begin to change and take actions. And so, the encouragement and the instruction is there for us to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
And we can think of repentance as a course corrector that we need from time to time in our lives. We can look around in this world and see all sorts of examples where course corrections are needed. The space shuttle just returned from another mission. Well, when that shuttle goes up and it’s in its orbit, the pilot once in a while has to make a course correction to put it in a little bit higher orbit to keep it on path because if it doesn’t and it gets too low in its orbit, gravity and then friction from the atmosphere tends to degrade that orbit and eventually that ship is going to burn up in the atmosphere. It needs to be corrected in order to stay in its proper orbit.
And the same thing when they send these unmanned ships to planets like Mars, they have to make these course corrections now and again in order to keep it on track, in order to keep it on its right path because if they wait too long, then the ship is so far off course it cannot recover and there goes a three hundred million dollar space craft lost in space.
Now we are a lot more valuable to God than a three hundred million dollar space craft. And so He wants us from time to time, as necessary, come to our senses and change our ways and repent. And we need to do that on a regular basis.
And then lastly, just remember that it takes effort to stay on top of those things that tend to drag us down. Just like the shuttle pilot has to make adjustments because his space ship is being dragged down, so we have to be on top of things as well. Paul in Corinthians 9 verse 27 said he disciplined his body in order to make sure that he kept on top of things so that after he preached to others that he himself would not be disqualified. Hebrews encourages us to lay aside every weight that can drag us down and we can do that through repentance. It takes effort to do that. That’s true.
And the Church talks about being balanced. And to me repentance helps keep us in balance from moving too far to the left or right and toppling over. And I’ve got a little demonstration to show that. I think I’ve got just enough time to try this. But here is a carton of eggs. Now I just need one egg to do this demonstration so I’ve smartly kept these others up here with me just in case this doesn’t go well and some of you get tired of waiting for it to happen. [Laughter.] But an egg, as we know, is by nature, it’s off balance. If you try and set it up, it’s just going to fall over. And I better be careful because if I’m not we’re going to need a clean-up on aisle seven from one of the deacons here. But if you have the right surface you can easily balance this object which is otherwise naturally off balance. Right? With the right surface it will just sit right up here and you can just set it there and go on your way and it will stay all day. So by nature an egg isn’t that balanced.
But I don’t know if you knew this but there are certain times of the year when even with an object like this, you can balance this even on a flat surface such as what we have here. And this is what I want to try to demonstrate in an effort to show how much effort and concentration and focus it takes to try to keep something in balance. Balance just doesn’t happen naturally. Balance just doesn’t happen easily in many cases. But even with an object like this, it can be done. And if you don’t like the shape of an egg, well don’t blame me. I didn’t make the rules of physiology. Most people today, the man is shaped like the apple. Right, if he gets overweight? And the woman is shaped like a pear if she gets overweight. [Laughter.] So if you don’t like this shape as relating to us, it could be worse. We could be an apple or a pear. So let’s take what we can get.
But the point is I tried and I was able to get this to work this morning at home. But what I forgot to mention is that it’s during the equinoxes when supposedly you can do this and balance an egg on its end on a flat surface. There’s something about being at the equinox that makes it easier to do this. And now I know it’s not going to work. I mean we’re like eight or nine days from the Spring Equinox. But notice the focus I have to have as I try to do this. As this thing starts to tilt from one side to the other, I have to apply pressure. There are all sorts of spiritual lessons that you can learn from trying to keep something like this in balance. And I can see it’s not working here but it’s just as well that Ed Durbin isn’t here because if he saw this, he’d probably say I was in league with the devil if I could make it happen. [Laughter.] And then secondly, I noticed in this last Scripture we were reading chapter 3, 2 Timothy. It talks about Jannes and Jambres who use their own miracles to withstand Moses, so he might think that’s what was happening here if I got this to happen.
But I’m not able to get it to work with this one. But you can see it takes concentration. It takes effort in order to try to get this to work. So I was afraid this would happen. Maybe it’s me just shaking so much. I don’t want to take up too much time. I know we’re running to the end. But, ooh, I almost had it. But it’s almost like this thing it almost stands up on its own when balance is reached. But again the point is it takes effort in order to try to make this happen and focus. It just doesn’t happen on its own. I can’t get it to work here so I’m going to have to just use the fallback position and with the right surface you can get an object that is otherwise unbalanceable to stay put. And again that has spiritual implications as well.
It says in 1 Peter 5 and verse 10 that God can “perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle” us. So even if we can’t balance ourselves at the right time of the year—which by the way has some spiritual significance as well—Spring Equinox, those in the firstfruits’ harvest, we are more likely to be balanced. The Spring Holy Days come near the Spring Equinox. Firstfruits are walking with God. We heard about that in the sermonette. That happens around the springtime. The Fall Holy Days, the Fall Equinox, when this supposedly can be done, and people can also be in balance through the plan of God at that time when they come to know Christ and come in balance. So there’s certain times of the year when this can work better than others.
But if we can’t get that, if we can’t cleanse ourselves, we can always and we should turn to our God who can perfect, establish, strengthen and settle us. And in order for that to happen, the surface has to conform. You notice the egg is making the surface conform to its shape. I know you can’t see it. So Colossians 2 and verse 7 says we are to be “rooted and built up in” Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is our basis for how we live.
The thing is the analogy kind of falls apart because in order for this to work the egg makes the surface conform to it. We do not make Jesus Christ conform to us. As we know, it’s the other way around. We conform to His standards and to His way of living. Now you read about how Jesus Christ is the Rock. Well, how can we conform to a hard surface like a rock? Well, it’s because in 1 Peter it talks about how Jesus Himself is a stone that is alive, a living stone. And we also are living stones as well. So where on the surface it may seem like we can’t change to fit a hard surface, indeed we can. And Jesus Christ gives us the ability to do that.
So with that, that’s all the time there is for today’s message. And the point was that repentance carries a lot of weight in the Christian life. It has importance. It’s one of the things that all of us at one time or another are going to have to have in common. We’re going to have to share that with each other because we need that in order to see God’s Kingdom. It’s a big part of the good news message. Jesus, Peter, and Paul all preached it. It is a necessary part when we first turn to God and make the change that leads to baptism. And it’s necessary in our lives when we need those course corrections in order to stay on track with God. It takes effort. There’s no doubt about it. It takes effort to balance the shape like this but it’s worth it. And why is it worth it? Let us always remember the words in this Bible. It’s because repentance leads to life.
Transcribed by kb