"Repent!"
The pastor nodded his head thoughtfully and with a twinkle in his eye, he put his arm around the painter’s shoulder and said to him, “My son, repaint, repaint, and thin no more!”
The topic of our Sunday and of our text is: “Repent, because the kingdom of God is near.” As we pointed out last Sunday, we have now entered into a new church year. We call this time of the year the Advent Season. Advent comes from a Latin word that means, “the coming or arrival (of someone).” And what we’re talking about throughout this month is that Christ is coming very soon, both at Christmas and at the end of the world. So not only are we getting ready to bow before our God as He is laid in a manger, but we are looking forward to that second coming of Christ who will come on the Last Day and take us to heaven. Then “every knee will bow…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (NIV Philippians 2:11).
So how does a child of God get ready for God’s arrival? Our text tells us so plainly, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near!” As God comes closer and closer to us, as God prepares His highway right into our hearts, the response you and I should have is: to repent.
What does it mean to repent? We did an article on this topic not too long ago in our church’s newsletter On the Mark. The word repent is one of those words that is becoming difficult for most Americans to understand. That’s because the word repent is rarely or never used outside the literature of the Christian Church. Yet the word both in the original Greek and Hebrew of the Bible was a common, ordinary word and was well understood by anyone who spoke Greek or Hebrew. The problem with the word repent in English is that this word no longer adequately translates what the Greek and Hebrew words mean. So in our God’s Word translation of the Bible, our text is translated, “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”[1]
So repent involves two basic actions: (1) turning to God, and (2) changing the way we think and act. And what our text tells us is that this is how you and I get ready for the arrival of our God—ALL THE TIME. “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, BECAUSE THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NEAR.”
The words of our text, then, were the very first words that John the Baptizer used in beginning His ministry. And they are words we hear again at the beginning of our new church year. And by the way, that message of repentance apparently was the only topic in John’s ministry: The voice of one crying in the desert with a message “Prepare the way for the Lord!” So His ministry was rather repetitive and yet, simple, “Repent! The Lord is coming! Repent! The Lord is coming! Repent! The Lord is coming!”
Now, what I find absolutely ironic is: You want to know what was the very first message that Jesus preached when He began His ministry? Exactly the same words of His cousin John, ““Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” In other words, very simply, “Repent! The Lord is coming!”
And you want to know what was the very topic that caused the Lutheran Church to be founded? ALL 95 Theses of Dr. Martin Luther dealt with the topic of repentance. In fact, his first thesis says that the entire life of a Christian should be one of repentance. So it seems clear to me that based on our text, based on the emphasis in John’s ministry, and based on the fact that these words were the opening words of Jesus’ ministry—repentance, turning to God and changing the way we think and act, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our life as a child of God as He continues to come to us. So Luther wasn’t wrong when he wrote that the entire life of a Christian should be one of repentance.
In fact, I would argue that more than anything else in all the world: You want to know who is a Christian or not? Don’t look for splashy, obvious good works, like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable who stood in the middle of the Temple and boasted loudly of all the good works that he did. Rather, as Jesus points out in Luke 18:9-14, you want to know who is a Christian? He’s like the tax collector, who stood at a distance from the crowd, who wouldn’t even look up to heaven, who beat his chest (showed that he was very upset) and said (probably not very loud), “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus concludes, “I can guarantee that this tax collector went home with God’s approval, but the Pharisee didn’t.”
Now, there are two more things we need to say about this word repent so that we don’t give anyone the wrong impression. First of all, repentance is God’s work. I can’t make anyone repent, not even myself. Why was John’s message of repentance preached down at the Jordan River? That’s because if you look in Mark and Luke’s version of this passage, John’s message of repentance was tied to baptism. Both Mark and John report that John came “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3 NIV). People came to John. They were baptized in the Jordan River, and that baptism brought about the very repentance for the forgiveness of sins that John had been preaching about.
Now open your hymnals, and turn to page 303. Let’s look at the Sacrament of Baptism, but only at Part IV,
What does such baptizing with water indicate?
It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glow of the Father, we too may live a new life.” [Rom. 6:4][2]
In other words, just as John the Baptizer used baptism as a means of bringing God’s power into the hearts of people so that they repented, we find here in our catechism that ALL our life we can use our baptism as a way of living DAILY in contrition and repentance. So our baptism connects us with the very source and power to bring about a daily life of repentance.
I’ve told you the story before, but it’s still a good illustration, about Eustice in CS Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustice was a mean boy who turned into a dragon. He wanted to become a little boy again. He met Aslan the Lion who told him he was going to have to go jump in a special lake in order for that to happen. Eustice did as Aslan told him. When Eustice the Dragon got out of the water, he noticed that his skin started to itch. He scratched it, and clumps of flesh started to fall off. But it was painful. It was then that Aslan pounced on Eustice and helped him rip off larger and larger chunks of dragon flesh until finally Eustice was once more a boy.
That’s what it’s like in our baptism. By daily contrition and repentance, because we’ve jumped into that special lake of baptism, we tear off the old man, the old dragon flesh. But we need Jesus to do that. And He does.
The second thing that I wanted us to notice about the word repent is that not only is there this turning to God, but VERY importantly—and this is also brought out in our text—there is a change in the way we think and act. And by the way, this is also the work of God through our baptism as we just heard. But this is precisely the point that John was making when the religious leaders came to him to get baptized. We read in verse 7 of our text, “You poisonous snakes! Who showed you how to flee from God’s coming anger? 8 Do those things that prove you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act.” In other words, true repentance means that we not only are sorry for our sin, but we want to change, we want to do it differently the next time—with the help of God. So someone cursed at us, we cursed back. Repentance means, not only am I sorry that I cursed, the next time someone curses at me, I will bless him or her instead or say nothing at all. And this can be applied to absolutely every sin. So if you’re living together as husband and wife and you’re not married, a Christian not only is sorry for this sin, but also will make an effort to do something about it. Or if a person stole something, not only are they sorry for what they did, but they will make every effort to restore the stolen amount, even if it means working off the debt.
Now, again, this is God’s work, God working through His word not only to convince you that what you’ve done is wrong, but giving you the strength of will to make a change in your life.
Will this ever be perfect? No. Will this always be a struggle? Yes. That’s why John’s ministry began, and Jesus’ ministry began with the words, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near!”
So our God comes to you in me in the desert of our lives—so spiritually poor and parched. And He smashes down the mountains of our pride and fills in the pits of our sins, and builds His highway right into our hearts. This is why Jesus came, to take your and my sin on Himself, to live the life we could never live, die the death we deserved. And in our baptism we are united with Christ so that we have the power to turn to God and change the way we think and act. Listen to Jesus as He comes to you now in His word and in His supper. Listen to John who cries in the desert of our lives, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near!”
Amen! And the peace of God which goes beyond our capacity for thinking shall hold back our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen!
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Theme: “Repent!”
Date: December 6, 1998
Day: 2nd Sunday in Advent
The text for our consideration today is taken from the Gospel read earlier. We call your devout Christian attention to these words of God:
1 Later, John the Baptizer appeared in the desert of Judea. His message was, 2 “Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”[3]This is our text.
Dear Friends in Christ: I bring you greetings from God our Father who is so kind to you and who gives you peace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The story is told of a church that wanted to repaint all the walls inside the church. Since this was such a big undertaking, they decided to contract the work out. The Board of Trustees received several bids for the job, and as usual, gave the job to the contractor with the lowest bid. The painter, himself, was a Christian, and he prided himself in the fact that he did a lot of work for various churches. He was reliable, and above all, he was honest. He promised the congregation that there would be no hidden costs, no surprises, that would cause the congregation to suffer financially. What was agreed on in his contract is what he would stick to. This really pleased the congregation: Not only did they get a painter who had the lowest bid for the job, but they also had gotten a painter who really wanted to be honest and up-front with them.
So the painter began his work. Not long into the job, he realized that he had terribly underestimated the amount of paint he was going to need to use. There was just no way that the amount of paint he estimated would cover all the walls. So while he was painting in the sanctuary, he decided to see if he couldn’t make the paint stretch and go further. Well, it looked really bad. But here he had so boldly spoken to the congregation about being so honest and not having any hidden costs and that he was going to stick to the agreed price for the whole job because he didn’t believe in changing any contracts. But this was a painter who was proud of his work: painting. And what he was doing looked just terrible!
So just as he was mulling over in his mind what to do, the pastor walked into the sanctuary to see how the paint job was going. It was very obvious to the pastor, too, that something wasn’t right. The paint at the front of the church looked very good. But as the paint spread to the middle and back of the church, it got thinner and thinner, so that it was clear to even the untrained eye that the paint job was going to need a second coat. As the pastor was looking this all over, the painter climbed down from his scaffolding and said to him, “Pastor, I’m so terribly sorry. I really underestimated how much paint I was going to need. I wanted to do the best with what I had, and I was really trying to make the paint go further, but as you can see, it just doesn’t seem to be working. What do you think? Do you think the congregation would be willing to reimburse me for the extra paint I’ll need to make this look right? I won’t charge them any more for the labor. I’m really sorry.”
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[1]God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society, (Grand Rapids, MI: World Publishing) 1997.
[2]Luther, Martin, Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House) 1998 c1986.
[3]God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society, (Grand Rapids, MI: World Publishing) 1997.