Repentance
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "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. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call."
Repentance is a call to return to God and live according to his word. From the beginning God created man to follow him and learn his ways, but man went his own way, following the ways of the world and chasing the desires of the flesh.
The Old Testament Hebrew word for repent means to “turn back” (from a direction you have been going). The New Testament Greek word for repent means to “think differently” or afterwards
Passover; the Feast of unleavened bread was a shadow of our deliverance and a call to repentance. Unleavened bread represents the pure, undefiled teachings of God we find in scripture as handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Yeast, or Leaven, represents sin or, missing the mark, from the intended word of God.
The chosen people of God went to Egypt to escape a famine. What began as a place of refuge turned into a place of oppression. While in Egypt they learned the ways of the Egyptians. They learned to worship a Golden calf and followed many pagan practices. As God delivered his people, they would learn what it means to leave Egypt and its ways behind.
Ex 12:17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
We are called to be Holy people, set apart from the world. God is a Holy God and has “envisioned” his followers to live holy and undefiled lives without sin. He gave the first born Israel the house rules, the commands in Torah, to live by. God’s word is the narrow gate that Jesus talks about. David called Gods word a lamp unto his feet. David stumbled because he was temporarily distracted from Gods path, but his heart was all in.
Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.
The Apostle Paul reiterates those words for the church today.
Rom 7:12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
To follow God gave us a privilege to be called the children of the father, the creator of heaven and earth, whether you’re the first born of Israel, or as the adopted child. We reside together in his household, under his guidance, protection and care.
We all come from our own version of Egypt, as life happens. Many are raised learning to follow and become one with those we live among; often following a path that goes contrary from Gods ways.
We become self seeking people gratifying the desires of the flesh. We learn hate, prejudice, arrogance, lust, and greed. We are filled with pride, lacking integrity, manipulating people for our own benefit.
This is not the way God wants us to live, and will require change in our thinking.
Gal 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Whatever path you may have gone down, there is something that draws us to this Christian faith. We hear about a ‘God of love and compassion’, healing for the broken, and eternal life. We believe there is something bigger and better than what we see around us. If God and this Christian faith are real, we want it.
Matt 18:3 "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
To become a child of the father means to repent, to be born again, to become a new creation by the spirit. It’s realizing we need to change the way we think. It’s recognizing the things we learned from the world that separated us from the father. It’s changing our path to follow him and leave our Egypt behind.
1 Cor 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
God wants us to live holy lives, but he understands the sinful nature of man. Those who struggle understand what that means. When we turn to God we’re called to live Holy lives and be a light to a dark world. The word of God will convict us and will challenge our thinking. From there it is up to us to respond. In our effort to change we will find ourselves going back to our old ways. That is the sinful nature that Paul painfully understands and himself struggled with.
Rom 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
That’s why God gave Israel a Priest to intercede for them, to provide a sin offering on behalf of the people when they turned aside from Gods commands. That’s why today, he gives us a Priest who intercedes for us and has once and for all, provided a sin offering on our behalf. This is when we learn about the grace of God, the love of a father who desires a relationship with those who seek him.
The story of the prodigal son is referring to people who followed God, got distracted and turned away to followed the ways of the nations around them. It was much more exciting.
Luke 15:17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
It hurts the father when we turn away and follow distractions (shiny rocks) that steer us away from God. Next thing we know we have traveled a path that left us empty and broken, wondering how we got there. When we come to our senses, our heart convicts us and we turn back to return to the father. King David had a prodigal moment.
2 Cor 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret,
God looks at the heart and knows those who are His. God longs for those who will turn to him and follow his ways, and leave our Egypt behind. He will take care of the rest.
Mark 4:20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop — thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."
Repentance doesn’t mean perfection and it doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes. We all change differently. As the proverbial saying goes, God is not in the cookie cutting business. One person comes to faith focused; diligently study the word with a heart to honor the father. These are our future Teachers and Pastors. There are many who come with a lot of luggage, weak, broken and looking for healing.
We all struggle with the sinful nature, living by faith, like sheep that need a shepherd. It’s not for us to judge our neighbor, to require change according to our expectations, but to leave room for God to do his work in a person’s life.
Luke 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner."
40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.
41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much.
Isa 55:6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
Jer 3:11 The Lord said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
"'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the Lord, 'I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt — you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,'" declares the Lord.
Jer 3:12 'Return, backsliding Israel,' says the Lord; NKJV
Return: OT:7725 shuwb (shoob); a primitive root; to turn back (hence, away)
Faithless: OT:4878 meshuwbah (mesh-oo-baw'); from OT:7725; apostasy:
