A New Kind of Life - Part 2 - Turning Around

Good Morning Church. Good morning to those of you who are joining us via the live stream. We are in the second installment of a series we started last week that we are calling “Journey to a New Kind of Life” where I am attempting to paint a picture of what living the life Christ has made available to us might look like.

Last week we teased down three threads of this new kind of life into the nitty gritty of our lives as they are today, in an effort to see how they might change the way we are currently living. It has been my observation that many, if not most Christians are living lives that are really no different than those of anyone else. Many Christians are still struggling with lives lived in fear, issues of anxiety and stress, broken or breaking relationships with others, burnout, family dysfunction....and the list goes on. And what I want us all to see is it doesn’t have to be that way. There is another way to live. A new kind of life is available to anyone who is in Christ where we can experience love and peace and abundance and fulfilling relationships with each other and with Our King Jesus.

So last week, the three threads we looked t were...

A life of real friendship, deep friendship, intimate friendship with the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A shared life with other people. Especially those who are different than us.

And a life in which we are gradually and deeply transformed from the inside out.

And I asked you to consider which of these three threads, caught your attention and why that one. How many gave that some thought?

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This morning, we are going to talk about changing direction and how that fits into and helps us to transition to this new kind of life that we can have in Jesus Christ. I want to start with a funny story.

There was a young man who had spent about six years preparing for ordained ministry and eventually the great day arrived when he could celebrate communion for the first time and preach.  The church was full and he belonged to a liturgical tradition and you know what it's like with them.  Often the minister will say to the congregation.  “may the peace of the Lord be with you” and the congregation responds “and also with you”.

So this young man went to the front to begin his very first service and he thought that he would just check his microphone and it wasn't working.  So, he indicated to the guys at the back at the sound desk, “There's something wrong with this mic.”  And all the people responded, “And also with you”

Its a funny story but I think it illustrates how very often, those of us within the Christian faith, we kind of look at the world and we say there's something wrong with you and, very often those outside the faith look at us and say, “And also with you”  And that's the tragic crisis of credibility in which the Christian church finds itself in the day and age in which we live.

As I mentioned earlier, it has been said that there is very little difference, when it comes to dealing with the crises of life, there's very little difference between those who profess faith and those who don't.  I find that kind of conclusion very challenging in my own life. I think it was Nietzsche, the famous atheistic philosopher who once said of the Christians in his own day and age, he said, “I might believe in the redeemer if His followers looked more redeemed.”

Now it's against that backdrop that I want to explore with you the theme “Changing Direction”.  If we are really going to seek the life that Christ makes available, if we really are going to seek the life that God wants to to give us, we need to be willing to change direction.

Let me take you back again to that curtain opening moment in Jesus life, recorded for us in Mark Chapter 1, when he comes into Galilee he announces the good news of God and he says, if you can remember from last week,

Mark 1:15 “15 ... “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;

Another kind of life is available.  A life of of intimate friendship with the trinity.  A shared life with others.  A life in which we really begin to experience a profound inner transformation of heart and mind. This life is available it doesn't have to be this way anymore.  The kingdom of God is at hand. And then there's another sentence,

“repent and believe in the gospel.”

Some translations say, “Repent and believe the good news”

Just hold that for a moment.

When people hear the word “repentance,” they often associate it with guilt, shame, or fear. They hear that word as a threat, :Repent or else...”

But Jesus introduces repentance not as a threat but as an invitation—an open door to something greater.

Repentance supported by trust, is the critical part we play in the salvation drama.  So what I want to do again just very simply, is I want to tease out some threads of this experience of repentance and I’m praying obviously as I do this that, somehow that God will draw us more deeply into this experience of repentance ourselves today. 

Today, we will explore repentance as a doorway, as a pathway, and as an experience of overwhelming joy.

The first thing that I want to say is this. Repentance is the doorway into the life that Christ makes available.  It's the doorway. It is the entrance into this new kind of life. When Jesus, and I really want to stress this, when Jesus invites us into repentance, he is not issuing a threat.  For a long time I saw Jesus’s words about repentance as a threat. “Turn or Burn!”, you know.

I always had this image, if anyone mentioned repentance, I had an image of a guy usually dressed in the long overcoat standing on the corner with a signboard that said “repent for the end is nigh”.  Beloved, that simply is not the gospel, that's not what Jesus said.  He said something very different than that.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Another kind of life is available.  Repent.

So Jesus begins His ministry with a call to repentance, not to push people away, but to invite them into something new.

Illustration: Imagine you’re lost in a dark forest, stumbling over roots and unable to find your way. Suddenly, you see a well-lit path leading to safety. Would you hesitate to step onto it? Well some of you might if you tend to be skeptical. But most of us would admit that if we were stumbling around in the dark and someone turned on a light, That is a welcome relief. Repentance is that doorway—it is stepping out of darkness into the light.

I mentioned that wonderful passage in Luke 15 last week that says Luke 15:20 “20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

The Prodigal Son, when he realized his need to return home, finds his father waiting with open arms. Repentance leads to restoration and embrace, not rejection.

Repentance is not a punishment; it is an invitation to step into the presence of God and His kingdom.

Repent is a is a beautiful wonderful invitation.  It's almost like me saying, “If you go down the hall, the banquet hall is on the right.  Just turn into it.  That's repentance.   Not a threat.  That is a wonderful invitation.

Dallas Willard would often say that repentance is rethinking our lives in the light of the availability of another kind of life.  It's rethinking the direction of our lives in the light of the availability, of another kind of life.

So that’s the first thing I want to say about repentance, it's a doorway. 

The second thing I want to say is that repentance is not only the doorway, it is also the pathway that we as Christians travel for the rest of our lives.  Repentance is not a one off thing.  It's not a box that we tick once converted. To say someone is “Fully converted” is a very deceptive thing to say.

Illustration: Think of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. The transformation is gradual but leads to beauty and freedom. Just like that, repentance is a continual turning towards God, shedding what holds us back and stepping into new life.

Paul instructs us in Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

True repentance changes the way we think and it changes the way we live.

Think about Peter. Peter went from denying Jesus to boldly proclaiming Him at Pentecost. Peter’s transformation shows that repentance is not just about avoiding sin, but it’s about becoming who we are meant to be in Christ.

The pathway of repentance is one of grace, growth, and renewal.

We are constantly traveling down the road of repentance and the reason for that is I think pretty straight forward. 

Our consciousness has many different layers and we are constantly discovering new layers in our own lives of un-surrendered self, of willfulness, of self-centeredness, of self-interest, of apathy. We're constantly discovering new levels of that within our own lives and so we are constantly turning again to the one who wants to offer us another kind of life. 

Gerard Hughes once wrote these two sentences that have really stuck with me ever since I first read them.

He wrote these words.  He said, “Sin is the refusal to let God be God. Repentance is letting God be God.”

I don't know about you, but almost every day I can see symptoms of my own refusal to let God be God in my life.  Almost every day, irritation when the traffic is not working like I want it to work. My anger when what I want done is not done.  My irritation when someone doesn't meet my needs like I want them to meet my needs.  My tendency to play God in the life of my loved ones, and those I don’t love so much.  Again and again and again, I see symptoms of my refusal to let God be God,  To trust God with ALL the outcomes.

Trevor Hudson tells a story about a time he was invited to speak at a breakfast for civic leaders in his hometown.  And before the breakfast, he got kinda seized up with a terrible nervousness and anxiety.  He was walking around the lounge pacing around and around and around when his host walked in and obviously he picked up on the preacher’s nervousness, so he said to him, come outside.  And at that moment the sun was coming up over the edge of the ocean and he said to young pastor, “Look Trevor, the sun is coming up without you.”

We need to learn to let God be God.  My friend Ben is always saying we need to learn to let God take care of us.  I think he is onto something there. Sin is the refusal to let God be God.  Repentance is letting God be God and we walk on that pathway, as we let God be God in our lives at ever deeper levels.

The last thing that I want to say about repentance. When it becomes the  doorway and the pathway of our lives, it is an experience of overwhelming joy. 

Repentance is often thought of as sorrowful, but in Scripture, it is accompanied by joy.

Joy at two levels.  On the one hand, as I go through the doorway of repentance, as I walk along the pathway of repentance, I know the joy of a love that is not letting me go.  I know the joy of deep forgiveness.  It's a wonderful joy.  I know the joy of burdens, and self-condemnation and guilt being lifted from me.  I know the joy of a new beginning and a fresh start. 

It's a really joyful experience.  It's the joy of knowing that while we are yet sinners Christ died for us.  Incredible joy.

And there's a another joy.  It's the joy that God experiences.  I don't know what you think, but I think that God is really joyful when we turn in a god-ward direction.  Think of the joy of the shepherd just finding the lost sheep.  The joy of the woman discovering the lost coin.  The joy of the father running down the road to greet the son coming home.  And as I enter into the experience of repentance, I enter into the overwhelming joy of God which begins to rub off on me.  These are the threads of repentance.  It's a doorway.

It's a pathway.  It's an experience of overwhelming joy.

Luke 15:7 – “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Apparently, Heaven celebrates repentance!

Example: Zacchaeus in Luke 19—

Luk 19:1-10 ESV - 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus repentance leads to joyful generosity. True repentance is marked by joy, not despair. Repentance is not about loss; it is about gaining something infinitely better—God Himself.

Ignatius had an experience of repentance. Last week I shared with you what happened when he was recovering at Loyola and as a result of that experience when he was grasped by the vision of another kind of life.  He set off. He wanted to be a pilgrim in Jerusalem and the first stage of his journey was that he walked alone and on foot from Loyola to Montserrat. About 400 miles. There is a beautiful abbey in the mountains of Montserrat just outside Barcelona.  And there he entered into his first real experience of repentance. 

He did two things.  First of all, he came clean about his past.  He wrote out a confession.  It took him three days.  He shared it with a priest who was the channel as it were, of God's forgiveness in his life, to mark the new beginning that he was making and then he also did something symbolic.  He took off his fine attire as a soldier and he gave it away and then he hung up his weapon of violence, his dagger, symbolic of his own new beginnings.

I think that as we seek the life that God wants to give us, we all need Montserrat moments.  Moments when we come clean.  Moments when we face the truth of our lives with God.  Sometimes with another person. This is so critical in our searching and our seeking, and then maybe to do something Symbolic.  Write a letter to Jesus expressing our desire to really follow him. Maybe writing out all the stuff that we need to get off our chest and then burn it.  Maybe going public and sharing with a close friend our decision to begin to follow Christ in a new way.

I'm hoping that we can have a Montserrat moment right here this morning as we observe the Lord’s Supper together.  And that in a very deep way, we might experience in our own lives, a change of direction.  Those who genuinely seek God change direction.  They turn and they keep turning until they turn right round.

Mark 1:15 is not a threat—it is the most gracious invitation ever given. Repentance is the doorway into God’s kingdom, the pathway of transformation, and the experience of unspeakable joy.

Maybe when you hear that word “repentance” it conjures up some fear in you.  Maybe, all you have ever heard is you had to repent or run the risk of going to hell.  That you had better keep short accounts with God or else. I hope you know now, that’s not it.

Lord’s Supper

The Apostle Paul was dealing with a group of people in the city of Corinth that were really missing the doorway into this new kind of life. That had gotten off on a wrong path and were certainly not experiencing the joy-filled life that Christ had made possible for them.

When they gathered, there were divisions among them and there was some inconsiderate behavior going on during the meal ans some were even getting drunk. It didn’t have to be that way. And Paul reminds them of that.

On the very night before He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus shared a meal with His closest friends, one of whom was about to betray Him. Another was about to deny that he even knew Jesus. These were just two examples of why Jesus went to the cross.

It was the traditional passover meal, but Jesus infused the meal with new significance tied to His impending death on the cross. In just a few hours, Jesus was going to do something that would make it possible for anyone who chose to walk through the doorway and step onto the path of repentance, to experience a new kind of life.

So as we observe the Lord’s Supper this morning I am going to ask you to do a few things.

Step through the doorway: Leave behind what holds you back and step into God’s grace by confessing the things that are dragging you down and if you have never done so, acknowledge Jesus Christ, not only as your Savior, but as your Lord. And if you make that decision, tell somebody. A trusted Christian friend, myself, or one of the other Elders, so we can pray with you and walk alongside you on your new journey of joy.

Next, commit to

Walk the pathway of repentance: Continue growing and being transformed as you go with Jesus and begin or renew your apprenticeship to him.

And third,...Rejoice.

Rejoice in the experience: Repentance is not the end; it is the beginning of a life filled with joy.

Let’s observe the Lord’s Supper together this morning with hearts of confession and repentance. I am going to give you a few moments to get with the Lord and step through that doorway of repentance, or to renew the path you are on with confession and repentance.

Matthew 26:26-29 - Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Jesus is calling. The Kingdom is at hand. A new kind of life is available to all of us. it doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s Pray.

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, We thank You for Your invitation to repentance—not as a burden, but as a gift of grace. Thank You for opening the doorway to Your kingdom, for leading us on the pathway of transformation, and for filling our hearts with the joy of Your presence. Lord, help us to turn away from anything that keeps us from You. Renew our hearts and minds so that we may walk closely with You each day. May our lives reflect the joy of repentance and the beauty of Your grace. We surrender ourselves to You and rejoice in the love You have poured out upon us. I pray all this in the strong name of Jesus Amen.