Pastor's Corner - June 2011
The basic message proclaimed in the Gospels is “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:2 NKJV) When a group of Pharisees and Sadducees came to the Jordan where John was preaching he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” (Matt. 3:7-9 NIV)
John spoke of the ministry of the Messiah when he proclaimed, “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. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I.... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt. 3:10-12 NKJV)
And indeed; “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ He said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14, 15 NIV)
After Jesus trained his disciples, he sent them out to the Jewish nation to prepare the way before Him. “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:12,13 NIV)
In the days of Christ, the Jews believed that if tragedy struck it was a judgment of God. Luke shares Jesus’ response to this belief in Luke 13:1-5; He ends with another call to repentance.
The Lord Jesus repeated His plea for repentance in Matthew 11. Hear the urging in His words and imagine the agony with which He must have spoken them; “Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.’
“At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.... Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’” (Matthew 11:20-30 NKJV)
The apostles continued this message of repentance. At the Feast of Pentecost, Peter declared, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 NIV)
A few days later Peter and John encountered a lame man begging at the Gate Beautiful at the temple and after healing him the people were amazed. To them Peter spoke a message of repentance. “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets.” (Acts 3:17-21 NKJV)
All these messages of repentance were given to God’s people of Israel, that they should confess their sins to God and turn away from them before their time of probation ended in fulfillment of the 490-year prophecy of Daniel 9.
After Israel’s probationary time ended at the stoning of Stephen, Paul preached before Herod Agrippa a message of repentance. (Acts 26:19-21) (Remember, the Herods were Edomites, descendants of Esau who was a grandson of Abraham.)
Now here we are today, some two thousand years since the gospel was given to the Gentiles. Our time of probation is coming to a close; everywhere you looks you can see that it is not too far in the future. Today, if you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart, won’t you confess and repent of your sins and seek the cleansing He so desires to give you?
I have shared the following statement from the book Christian Service, pp. 41 and 42, in the past several sermons. It is God’s plea to the church today.
“It is a solemn statement that I make to the church, that not one in 20 whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner. They are professedly serving God, but they are more earnestly serving mammon. This half-and-half work is a constant denying of Christ, rather than a confessing of Christ.
“So many have brought into the church their own unsubdued spirit, unrefined; their spiritual taste is perverted by their own immoral, debasing corruptions, symbolizing the world in spirit, in heart, in purpose, confirming themselves in lustful practices, and are full of deception through and through in their professed Christian life. Living as sinners, claiming to be Christians! Those who claim to be Christians and will confess Christ should come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing, and be separate.... I lay down my pen and lift up my soul in prayer, that the Lord would breathe upon His backslidden people, who are as dry bones, that they may live. The end is near, stealing upon us so stealthily, so imperceptibly, so noiselessly, like the muffled tread of the thief in the night, to surprise the sleepers off guard and unready. May the Lord grant to bring His Holy Spirit upon hearts that are now at ease, that they may no longer sleep as do others, but watch and be sober.”
I believe Paul’s words spoken in Athens, Greece summarize the whole discussion well; “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30 KJV).