The Marks of Repentance

Book Context: Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke. He wrote these things to make sure that we might be certain about the things that have been written about Jesus.

Prior Context: Luke’s introduction gives Theophilus and us a great certainty that the things we will read are true and sought for carefully.

M.O.T: Evangelistic

C.I.T: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is worthy for our repentance and faith in Him.

Thesis: We must see our desperate need for Jesus in order to see him as the Savior the Son of God.

“The Marks of Repentance”

Read

Introduction:

1. We live our life by marks, don’t we? How many of you for the most part don’t know the roads and use landmarks to figure out where you’re at? That is me, I can live in places for years and still only know my way around by landmarks. I constantly use my GPS so I don’t get lost, and when it gets me to the point where I know where I am because of something I recognize, I will turn it off. This is how we live; we can identify something based off of its characteristics. Example, I need a volunteer. Close your eyes and I am going to hand you something, tell me what is. (Hershey’s Kiss, Apple, paper, … ) There are some things that I could have used that would have been more difficult to identify, but for everyday things most of us could name them out without seeing them. This is possible because there are certain characteristics and details that are constant to certain things. The Hershey’s kiss has that aluminum wrapping and the little ponytail on top, the shape is very distinct. An apple has that glossy feel to it, again a unique shape with a stem on top. And paper is paper, so it’s easy. How do you identify salvation? What are the marks of a person who has experienced salvation, someone who has repented and put their trust in Jesus to be saved?

Mark #1 Laying down of Pride

1. At this point in the book of Luke Jesus is 12 years old, he is close to becoming a man and being a teenager like you. Remember Jesus grew just like you, he got sick, he fell down, he was short once and then got taller, he went through puberty, he was a real man. To summarize the ending of chapter 2 so we can get to chapter 3, Jesus went to Jerusalem to practice the Passover with his family and many other Jews. What is the Passover? Can anyone tell me? The Passover was when the God freed his people from their slavery in Egypt by killing the firstborn of everything in the land of Egypt. If you had the blood of a lamb on the door posts though, the death angel would Passover you and you would be spared. That was a shadow picture if Jesus Christ the savior of the world. And Jesus is going to this Passover festival! As a 12-year-old boy walking into town seeing all those animals, knowing that he was going to be the ultimate one who would die for their sins. What an incredible picture. He ends up being left behind and his parents come back to find him and he is in the Temple, his Father’s house studying the scriptures and talking to the temple priests (pastors). He then leaves with his parents and obeys them; Jesus obeyed his parents. And He was the one who made them, that means you and I ought to obey and respect our parents.

2. Fast forward and we see John the Baptist now, he has started his ministry of preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. What does this mean? This means that he was preaching repent, turn from your sins, and trust in the Messiah to be saved! He was preaching the Gospel that we preach every Sunday. Telling people to turn and trust in this Messiah that is coming. Notice who shows up while he is preaching and baptizing, crowds of people. He sees the crowds show up and calls them broods of vipers! How do you think that would work if every visitor that walked in, we called them this? Probably not so well. I tend to think that the priests and Levites along with crowds were the ones he was talking to. We know this from the book of John in chapter one, it says they were sent by the pharisees. Now the Pharisees are the self-righteous religious leaders right, these are the guys that pray out loud in public so that people can see how Holy they are. And they send these guys as spies to figure out what John is doing and what he is teaching and who he is. John sees them and says you “broods of vipers”. He said who warned you of the coming wrath? In other words, who told you that sinners would be punished? Who told you that you were a sinner? Who told you that there is a Messiah that must rescue you and provide forgiveness, who shared this with you? This is where we get our first Mark of repentance, he tells them “don’t start saying we have Abraham as our Father”. How many of you have gotten in trouble with your parents before? Have any of them ever said, “don’t even start with me”? This is what John is saying, he has heard it all before. He probably tried to witness to these people before and they would say something like, “we don’t need this Messiah we are descendants from Abraham. People would use that as if it that is the prerequisite to enter into Heaven. As a matter of fact, this happened to Jesus himself in the book of John chapter 8. Jesus is telling the crowd of Jews that he can set them free from their sin and save them, and their response in verse 33 was, “We are descendants of Abraham. . . and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say you will become free?” So, John is saying a Mark of Repentance is a laying down of your pride to be willing to say I have no hope! I was born in sin, I am a sinner, and I need a savior and his name is Jesus. These people had pride before, they would say something like “how can say that I am a sinner and need a savior, I am a descendant of Abraham! How dare you tell me I am lost and enslaved to sin”. This would be the same person today who would say something like this when you ask them about their salvation and the Gospel. “My relationship with God is between me and God”! I am a pretty good person and how dare you say that I am not. I don’t go to Church, but I know I will go to heaven. How dare you tell me I am going to Hell, you’re intolerant and hateful. A Mark of Repentance is when a person lays down their pride and admits they desperate need for Jesus. You can’t get saved unless you lay down your pride and see yourself as a broke lost sinner who needs forgiveness through Jesus. This Mark continues as well, as will all of these points. This person continues throughout life to praise God and admit how wicked they were and still can be but offers praise to God that Jesus would die and be raised for a person like me.

Mark #2 Change in the Will

1. Notice in verse 10 the crowds ask him an interesting question, “what then should we do”. John had just said the axe is at the root of the tree, that means it is getting ready to be cut down. I lived on a little bit of land and we cut down trees by just an axe, you know the cool way. And when we finished one, we would lay the axe down at the next tree and then take a break, but we knew that tree would be next because that’s where we left our axe. The tree represents Israel here, but is also represents me and you as individual people. The picture is that as sinners we are trees that do not produce good fruit, and the fruit we do produce is rotten and worthless, this is our sin. We are all bad trees who cannot do anything good, and like a good farmer, who God is, he will cut down all the bad trees and use them as firewood. You getting the picture here? If we don’t turn from our sin and trust in Jesus, God is going to pick up the Axe and cut us down, then throw us into the eternal fire called Hell. It’s not because God is mean it is because God is just and must punish sinners like us. The people understood that, and clearly, they don’t want to be cut down so they ask, “well then what can we do”? John tells them, repent. You need to understand this next part because it is important. John tells the person who has two shirts to give up one to a person who has none. Does this mean if I give a homeless person my shirt then I will go to heaven? No! John is teaching a heart issue, telling them to turn from their pride and greediness and stop sinning. What happens at salvation is someone recognizes their need for Jesus, they turn from their sin meaning they don’t want to sin anymore, and they call out to Jesus in faith for salvation. All of this happens in a moment, snap! And their will changes from wanting to serve self, to serve God. John is not saying if you just act better and work harder at being a good person then you’ll be saved. No, he is saying produce fruit consistent with repentance, what does that mean? It means to reflect outwardly what has already happened inwardly. Show me proof that you have repented and trusted in Jesus by the way you live! Example: Imagine I am driving you to Florida, we’re supposed to go to Disney world as a youth group and so I am supposed to be driving south to Florida. About an hour into the trip you see a sign that says Canada 150 Miles ahead. You lean to me and say hey I think we’re going to Canada; I reply and say no we’re on the right path. You shrug your shoulders and keep hanging out with your friends. One Hour later and you see a sign again that says “Canada 80 Miles ahead”. You think to yourself now I know we are headed to Canada. So, you tell me, “Noah you’re going the wrong way Florida is the opposite way! You show me all the signs and I finally agree with you that I am going the wrong way. What would you want me to do at this point? You would want me to apologize, admit I was wrong, and then turn around right? That would be repentance! And the fruit of repentance would be me getting on exit ramp to turnaround and go north towards Florida. Repentance and faith is understanding I am going the wrong way I am lost, crying out to God for salvation! That would be the instant moment you turn on your blinker to get off the wrong highway boom salvation, and the fruit would be you going the right way. It is a reflection of an inward change. Let’s say I agree with you that I am going the wrong way and keep on driving towards Canada, I wouldn’t have repented. This is what it means to repent and trust in Jesus, you must understand repentance is not a work! Repentance is not something that you do to earn forgiveness, it is granted by God, so he gets the credit. Repentance and trust in Jesus is salvation. You can’t do one without the other, if you have repented then you have trusted in Jesus. If you place your faith in Jesus it means you have repented, they are two sides of the same coin. There are two other examples, tax collectors and soldiers. What is the message for both of them, stop sinning! Quit stealing, quit being ungrateful, quit lying, quit sinning! A Mark of repentance is a change in will, you begin to live differently than you did before, you begin to live and obey God’s Word.

Mark #3 See Jesus as Worthy

1. In verse 15 the people are waiting for John to say he is the Messiah, because he has been talking about putting your trust in this messiah to come, so they want to know. But John answers what they are thinking in verse 16-17 and he says some important things. First, this Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. The Holy Spirit would be those who repent and trust in Jesus, he gives them the Holy Spirit to dwell within them to help them live the Christian life now. Fire represents the Judgement that he will bring on those who reject him. You see John could only baptize with water as a symbol for a change inwardly. Because if someone rejected the message John preached John couldn’t do anything about it, John could punish someone, John couldn’t save someone. But Jesus he is both the savior and the judge, he will either save you through faith in him, or punish you for rejected him, he will bring both the spirit and fire.

2. Second, he is gathering the wheat and the chaff. The wheat represents true believers, a ripe harvest, he gathers them and allows them into his barn which is heaven with him forever. But the chaff is what is worthless, he will throw that away to be burned, this represents unbelievers.

3. This caused John to see himself as unworthy to Jesus. Look back a little in verse 16 he said I am not worthy to untie his sandal straps. Untying sandal straps was a job for slaves and peasants. It was for the lowers of the low. And John says I am not worthy enough to untie his shoes. A Mark of repentance is seeing Jesus as worthy, that He is the Son of God, God himself wrapped in human flesh and seeing yourself as unworthy. John sees Jesus as worthy; he sees him as the Son of God, he is worthy to give us the spirit, he is worthy and will judge the world, he is worthy to be thrown in jail for in verse 20, he is worthy! John say the spirit of God descend on Jesus, and John’s response is he is worthy, this Jesus is worthy. When you repent and trust in Jesus you will have a mark, a characteristic of seeing Jesus as worthy of all things. Have you had that change in your life where Jesus wasn’t precious, and he wasn’t worthy of your time or effort? But after repenting and trusting in him you see him as worthy. That is a mark of repentance. He once wasn’t worthy enough for you to miss sports, but now he is worthy for that. He once wasn’t worthy enough for you to tell others about him but now you see him as worthy to tell others. He once wasn’t worthy to read your bible but now you see him as worthy and you read it. He once wasn’t worthy to pray to God but now you see him as worthy. He once wasn’t worthy enough to give up your sin like your tv shows, internet, cussing, blaspheming using his name as a cuss word, sexual immorality, but now you see him as worthy to give those things up because he died for you.

4. Think about this, John rebuked Herod the Tetrarch, this was the king (governor) essentially of that region where John was in. Herod had taken his brother’s wife, historically we know that he desired his brother’s wife and took her from where she lived to be his own. John would see Herod maybe riding on his chariot with his brother’s wife and call out to Herod and say, “it is not lawful for you to have her”. It is not right; it is sinful, and you need to repent of your sins and call out to God for mercy! Herod could have him killed in an instant, but John saw Jesus as worthy and preached the truth according to God’s Word. A mark of repentance and salvation is viewing Jesus as worthy and actually living as if you see him as worthy. Don’t tell me that you see Jesus as worthy even though you disrespect your parents all the time, don’t tell me he is worthy even though you look at pornography all the time, or life is all about you. Do you see this mark of repentance in your life, is Jesus worthy to you? Some of you God may be calling into full time ministry, is he worthy enough to you to go into the mission field overseas and leave everything you know behind including your family? Is He worthy for you to be a pastor, or youth pastor, or counselor, or deacon, or evangelist going from town to town preaching?

5. Last thing, if you’re lost here today would you repent of your sins, and trust in Jesus today? Would you be willing to turn from your sinful living and call out to Jesus for mercy today? John preached about the Messiah that would bleed and be punished for our sins, Jesus was punished by God for your sins and my sins. He died so you could be forgiven, don’t leave without calling out to Jesus today to save you. You can do it right where you are sitting. And Christian if you’re are a believer here tonight, you are saved, and you have things in your life sin and barriers in your way of serving God and being consistent with your salvation. Will you ask God for forgiveness tonight and repent of your sins, I am not telling you to get resaved, once saved always saved. But even believers we need to apologize to God, turn from our sin whatever the cost, and begin to live for him. Thank God we get a clean slate every day through Jesus. What are the marks of repentance we see here, laying down of pride, seeing yourself as not worthy and in desperate need of Jesus for salvation? 2 a change of will, if you have repented then your life will reflect that and you will begin to live for God and get rid of sins. And 3, a mark of repentance is seeing Jesus as worthy of your entire life, surrendering it all to him for him to use. Have you done that? Let’s pray.