REPENTANCE
I tell you the Lord has been working on me lately and I truly believe He is preparing this church for something new.
First we talked about the love of Jesus, that lead to the fruits of the spirit and then to the power that is Jesus in our life.
The one thing we did not talk about is a crucial part of this entire plan.
REPENTANCE
The definition of repentance is a heartfelt conviction of sin, a remorsefulness over the offense to God, a turning away from the sinful way of life, and turning towards a God-honoring way of life.
The principles of sin are:
We have to recognize our sins; we have to admit to ourselves we have sinned. We also must have heartfelt sorrow for our sins.
Billy Graham said “The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance”
Jesus said in Matthew 4:17 “ Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Luke 13:5 “No I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Luke 15:10 “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
So, we think the term repentance means “a turn from sin.” The Bible tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions.
Luke3:8-14
8 'Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”
11 He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”
12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”
14 Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”'
Paul said in Acts 26:20 I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deed
We carry our sinful ways and hang on to those hidden sins rather than feel the freedom that comes from true repentance.
Really truly let God have our entire heart and repent so He can give us peace in these tough times of life.
I love along these lines Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
But instead, we want to stand in the darkness that is sin and wither away instead of letting God refresh us and lead us out of that darkness.
I have been thinking a lot about John the Baptist. He was a prophet specifically sent by God to prepare for Jesus’s ministry on earth,
John preached repentance
Matthew 3:1-3
1 'In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord ; Make His paths straight.’ ”'
John preached one central message to the Israelites in this verse.
The word “repent” is metanoete (met a note) in Greek and it means “to change one’s heart and mind”.
It means to stop going the wrong way and start going the right way. It means an active change in our life.
Now my question is if John was preparing for Jesus to come the first time; why don’t we as Christians preach repentance to help people prepare for Jesus’s return.
The only answer I can come up with is we are afraid of offending people and being controversial. We are afraid of being called old fashioned and judgmental!
We are caught up in the Jesus knows my heart mindset and don’t want to admit sin is real and so is hell!!!!!
In Mark 1:15 Jesus said as He was beginning His ministry and after John the Baptist was put in Jail;
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
If we believe that the word of God is true, then are we not called to preach the same as John did?
Jesus is coming back folks and if people are not told the need for repentance, then we are leaving them in the wilderness!
We have to share what true repentance is, so they are prepared to meet Him.
Repentance requires us to recognize that we thought wrong and having a change of heart for the life we formally embraced.
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. How can you have faith without first admitting to your sin and accepting who Jesus is and what He did for you.
2nd Corinthians 5:17
'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
He has made you a new creation but without true heartfelt repentance that can’t happen!
II Corinthians 5:14-15
'For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.'
As Paul was preaching in Athens he ended his sermon with this and I think it is a good place to end what we are talking about today.
Acts 17:30-31
30 'Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”'