3rd Sunday after Epiphany 1/22/06 Text: Jonah 3:1-5 Title: Just what is repenatance?
3rd Sunday after Epiphany
1/22/06
Text: Jonah 3:1-5
Title: What Is Repentance?
Let us pray. Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
I want to speak to you today about repentance, what it is and how a person comes to repentance. We will start our study by first taking a look at our Old Testament reading for today. It is part of the well known story of Jonah and his reluctant ministry to the people of Nineveh. The Ninevites were not well liked; in fact I can safely say that they were hated, by the Jewish people, and that is why Jonah had refused God’s call for him to minister to them. At least, until he was thrown into the sea, swallowed whole by a giant fish, spent three days inside it and then was regurgitated up on the shore. Now that would change your mind. It would make a believer out of you, but it sure didn’t help Jonah except for him to realize that he had no choice but to go to Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyria. It represented the pride, power, and brutality of the world’s kingdoms at their worst. Isaiah described the arrogance of the Assyrians in Isaiah chapter 10, and Nahum in his entire book tells us of the feeling of dread which the Assyrians instilled in the people that knew of them.
Listen once more to what God told Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh. "Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" God’s Word does not tell us, but from just what we know of Jonah, I am sure that once he got started proclaiming the coming judgment on Nineveh he really got into it. He just knew they were not going to repent. It was just a waste of time, for they were just too evil, and besides that they did not deserve God’s forgiveness.
Those evil Ninevites were going to get their just rewards. God was going to punish them, and I would bet, if I were a betting man, that Jonah, deep down in his little black heart, was glad.
That is what he believed, but when we look at the last verse of our Old Testament reading you will see that just the opposite happened. God did not punish them. It is not in our reading for today, but we are told in chapter four that Jonah was not happy about God not punishing them, so he went off into the desert and sulked. A classic example of someone that has not repented, that is, until God straightened him out.
The Ninevites repented after hearing the condemnation of God come down on them. Their only hope was that God, the God who said he was going to destroy them might relent if he saw their repentance.
The only way they knew to show their repentance was for them to physically show God that they were repentant. They fasted, they wore sackcloth. They sat in the dust. They even put sackcloth on their animals. They did everything they could think of to show Jonah’s God that they were repentant.
God did not destroy them. He did not do it because of what they did; he did it because he had mercy on them. He saw that they had repented of their evil ways and thrown themselves on his mercy.
That brings up an interesting question. Just what is it that brings a person to repentance? Is it the wrath of God, as spoken in the Law? Or is it the forgiveness of God, as spoken of in the Gospel? It is my prayer that by the time I am through this morning you will have a better understanding of the role God’s Law and Gospel plays in repentance.
Moving on to our New Testament reading for today we see that it is also about repentance, for we read that Jesus is preaching repentance, as he tells all who would listen to him, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good News!"
But, before I go any further, I want you to take a look at the response of those Jesus called to follow him. See what they did, they left what they were doing, what they were comfortable with, and followed him. They did not hesitate, but immediately responded to Jesus’ call. There was no looking back, and in doing so they give us a wonderful illustration of what it means to be truly repentant.
You see, when you repent of your past sinful life you cannot hold onto the past. There is no looking back. True repentance does not allow you to just turn partway toward Jesus. You cannot even turn just 179 degrees toward him. True repentance means that you have turned 180 degrees from your past life. You are now going in the opposite direction as you follow the lead of Jesus.
Earlier I asked the question, “Just what brings a person to repentance, the wrath of God or the forgiveness of God?” Law by itself can not bring about repentance, just like the Gospel by itself cannot bring about repentance. Where there is only law there is no hope, only condemnation. Where there is only Gospel there is false hope, a false hope that lures people into being lax in their spiritual life.
You need both law and Gospel to bring about repentance. First, the law of God makes you aware of your inability to please God. Then that same law of God strikes your conscience in such a way that you are driven to search for relief. This relief, or for some people despair, can only be relieved by the Gospel message, although people try to find relief in drugs, alcohol, illicit affairs, goodies, all types of things, including trying to find the goodness in themselves, the goodness that God must find pleasing. But it is to no avail, for the Gospel is the only thing that can offer forgiveness, comfort, and give you the strength to live a more godly life.
That reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow pastor this past week. He has a son that is just having a tough time growing up. He makes a lot of bad decisions. Drinks too much, runs around too much, is failing most of his college courses, and seems to be unable to hold a job for very long.
His dad told me that he is always sorry for what he has done, or not done. He truly wants to change, but spends more time apologizing than anything else. His dad was so frustrated that he told him one day, “Son I don’t want you to be an expert at apologizing. I want you to change your ways.”
When he told me what he said, I thought, isn’t that what God wants us to do as Christians? How many of us, are like that young man, spending all our time repenting before God, apologizing for what we have done, but not changing our ways? Now that is not to say that we shouldn’t repent as often as we need to, for we need to do that. But what I am saying is that when you have truly repented you will live a more godly life.
As your pastor, I have been placed here by God to care for your souls, to proclaim God’s law to you, so that everyone that hears me speak, will know that there is nothing, absolutely nothing in them that makes them worthy of God’s forgiveness. But of equal importance, actually more importance, I am to also make perfectly clear to all who have repented of the sin in their lives, that God has forgiven them, so that they can know without a doubt that they are free of the punishment that they deserve. Free, not because of any merit on their part, but because Jesus took the punishment in their place.
That is what I am to do, and I take that responsibility seriously, for the souls and bodies of those I am to minister to depend on it. I say souls and bodies, for on that final judgment day, when God raises up all that have died out of their graves, bodies and souls will be reunited to spend eternity.
I take it seriously, but I also rest easy in knowing that the power to change, to be repentant, is not dependent on me, just like it was not dependent on Jonah. For you see the power to bring a person to repentance lies in God’s Words, his Law which shows us our sin, his Gospel, the words of everlasting life, the words that comfort and heal, the words that enable each on of us to get through this life of pain and sorrow.
Sometimes life is the pits. Sometimes life is filled with laughter and joy. Sometimes life is just plain boring. But no matter what type of life you might be living right now, let me assure you that when you have truly repented of your sin, whatever it might be, you will know the joy and comfort of God’s forgiveness, for his forgiveness enables you up to live your life as God wants you to live it, glorifying him as you serve your neighbor, and that is a good thing. Amen
1/22/06
Text: Jonah 3:1-5
Title: What Is Repentance?
Let us pray. Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
I want to speak to you today about repentance, what it is and how a person comes to repentance. We will start our study by first taking a look at our Old Testament reading for today. It is part of the well known story of Jonah and his reluctant ministry to the people of Nineveh. The Ninevites were not well liked; in fact I can safely say that they were hated, by the Jewish people, and that is why Jonah had refused God’s call for him to minister to them. At least, until he was thrown into the sea, swallowed whole by a giant fish, spent three days inside it and then was regurgitated up on the shore. Now that would change your mind. It would make a believer out of you, but it sure didn’t help Jonah except for him to realize that he had no choice but to go to Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyria. It represented the pride, power, and brutality of the world’s kingdoms at their worst. Isaiah described the arrogance of the Assyrians in Isaiah chapter 10, and Nahum in his entire book tells us of the feeling of dread which the Assyrians instilled in the people that knew of them.
Listen once more to what God told Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh. "Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" God’s Word does not tell us, but from just what we know of Jonah, I am sure that once he got started proclaiming the coming judgment on Nineveh he really got into it. He just knew they were not going to repent. It was just a waste of time, for they were just too evil, and besides that they did not deserve God’s forgiveness.
Those evil Ninevites were going to get their just rewards. God was going to punish them, and I would bet, if I were a betting man, that Jonah, deep down in his little black heart, was glad.
That is what he believed, but when we look at the last verse of our Old Testament reading you will see that just the opposite happened. God did not punish them. It is not in our reading for today, but we are told in chapter four that Jonah was not happy about God not punishing them, so he went off into the desert and sulked. A classic example of someone that has not repented, that is, until God straightened him out.
The Ninevites repented after hearing the condemnation of God come down on them. Their only hope was that God, the God who said he was going to destroy them might relent if he saw their repentance.
The only way they knew to show their repentance was for them to physically show God that they were repentant. They fasted, they wore sackcloth. They sat in the dust. They even put sackcloth on their animals. They did everything they could think of to show Jonah’s God that they were repentant.
God did not destroy them. He did not do it because of what they did; he did it because he had mercy on them. He saw that they had repented of their evil ways and thrown themselves on his mercy.
That brings up an interesting question. Just what is it that brings a person to repentance? Is it the wrath of God, as spoken in the Law? Or is it the forgiveness of God, as spoken of in the Gospel? It is my prayer that by the time I am through this morning you will have a better understanding of the role God’s Law and Gospel plays in repentance.
Moving on to our New Testament reading for today we see that it is also about repentance, for we read that Jesus is preaching repentance, as he tells all who would listen to him, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Good News!"
But, before I go any further, I want you to take a look at the response of those Jesus called to follow him. See what they did, they left what they were doing, what they were comfortable with, and followed him. They did not hesitate, but immediately responded to Jesus’ call. There was no looking back, and in doing so they give us a wonderful illustration of what it means to be truly repentant.
You see, when you repent of your past sinful life you cannot hold onto the past. There is no looking back. True repentance does not allow you to just turn partway toward Jesus. You cannot even turn just 179 degrees toward him. True repentance means that you have turned 180 degrees from your past life. You are now going in the opposite direction as you follow the lead of Jesus.
Earlier I asked the question, “Just what brings a person to repentance, the wrath of God or the forgiveness of God?” Law by itself can not bring about repentance, just like the Gospel by itself cannot bring about repentance. Where there is only law there is no hope, only condemnation. Where there is only Gospel there is false hope, a false hope that lures people into being lax in their spiritual life.
You need both law and Gospel to bring about repentance. First, the law of God makes you aware of your inability to please God. Then that same law of God strikes your conscience in such a way that you are driven to search for relief. This relief, or for some people despair, can only be relieved by the Gospel message, although people try to find relief in drugs, alcohol, illicit affairs, goodies, all types of things, including trying to find the goodness in themselves, the goodness that God must find pleasing. But it is to no avail, for the Gospel is the only thing that can offer forgiveness, comfort, and give you the strength to live a more godly life.
That reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow pastor this past week. He has a son that is just having a tough time growing up. He makes a lot of bad decisions. Drinks too much, runs around too much, is failing most of his college courses, and seems to be unable to hold a job for very long.
His dad told me that he is always sorry for what he has done, or not done. He truly wants to change, but spends more time apologizing than anything else. His dad was so frustrated that he told him one day, “Son I don’t want you to be an expert at apologizing. I want you to change your ways.”
When he told me what he said, I thought, isn’t that what God wants us to do as Christians? How many of us, are like that young man, spending all our time repenting before God, apologizing for what we have done, but not changing our ways? Now that is not to say that we shouldn’t repent as often as we need to, for we need to do that. But what I am saying is that when you have truly repented you will live a more godly life.
As your pastor, I have been placed here by God to care for your souls, to proclaim God’s law to you, so that everyone that hears me speak, will know that there is nothing, absolutely nothing in them that makes them worthy of God’s forgiveness. But of equal importance, actually more importance, I am to also make perfectly clear to all who have repented of the sin in their lives, that God has forgiven them, so that they can know without a doubt that they are free of the punishment that they deserve. Free, not because of any merit on their part, but because Jesus took the punishment in their place.
That is what I am to do, and I take that responsibility seriously, for the souls and bodies of those I am to minister to depend on it. I say souls and bodies, for on that final judgment day, when God raises up all that have died out of their graves, bodies and souls will be reunited to spend eternity.
I take it seriously, but I also rest easy in knowing that the power to change, to be repentant, is not dependent on me, just like it was not dependent on Jonah. For you see the power to bring a person to repentance lies in God’s Words, his Law which shows us our sin, his Gospel, the words of everlasting life, the words that comfort and heal, the words that enable each on of us to get through this life of pain and sorrow.
Sometimes life is the pits. Sometimes life is filled with laughter and joy. Sometimes life is just plain boring. But no matter what type of life you might be living right now, let me assure you that when you have truly repented of your sin, whatever it might be, you will know the joy and comfort of God’s forgiveness, for his forgiveness enables you up to live your life as God wants you to live it, glorifying him as you serve your neighbor, and that is a good thing. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 2:57 PM
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