Restoring The Message of Repentance - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Father, we thank you for this family. We thank you for this church. We thank you for every disciple that has named the name of Christ. And, Lord, as we open your word, we pray that your presence would be with us, and we call upon the holy spirit to unctionize this message. Lord, that it may bring down strongholds.

It may grant clarity and more importantly that it may change us. Lord, may there be no confusion. May there be a confidence as a result of this message. We are weak. We need your help, and we know that you give us your strength and weakness.

And so we, in faith, lean on you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. The title of this message this morning is restoring the message of repentance. Restoring the message of repentance.

What happened to the message of repentance in our day? Where did it go? What has become of it? It's a word that we rarely hear in settings like this, especially in the West, repentance. By and large, we can't say this of everyone everywhere, but by and large, generally speaking, repentance is something that has been either totally ignored or even by some, it is now being attacked even by those that claim to believe this book.

There are many who mock it. There are some who are redefining it. And there are the masses who are willfully turning a blind eye to it, though it is a cry, a common cry both in the old and new testament. And this message this morning is not a case to make repentance the message of every single Sunday morning message, but it is a concern that repentance is even a message at all. And I think it would help for us to understand what the word repentance means before we move on.

Repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia, and it simply means to change one's mind. And so it is a command that concerns the way a person thinks. And in relation to this word, it is a command that urges people to change their perspective and to alter it and to submit their thinking to God's truths concerning who he is, what Christ has done on the cross, and who we are in light of our sin and our need for a savior. It's a cry for this to change, to change the way you think. But the truth about repentance in light of the scriptures is that if a person chooses to repent, that shift of a perspective will lead to definitely a redirection in life.

In other words, the call to repentance will cause a person to renounce sin and self and receive Jesus Christ as Lord. One of the most unfortunate trends of this day is that there are people that are proclaiming, and there are people that are being convinced that there is no such thing as repentance as a response to the good news of Jesus Christ. And one of the strongest appeal to that argument is that people will go to John twenty thirty one, which is John's thesis. It is John's purpose of why he wrote the book of John by stating this. This is what John wrote in John twenty thirty one.

These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And by believing, that by believing, you may have life in His name. Beautiful. Praise God. But that verse will be followed up with this argument.

The book of John is written for you to believe. Is it not? To see that Jesus is the Christ and that you would receive him. Yes. Repentance is not mentioned once in the book of John.

You can't find that word once in that gospel account. Therefore, it is not necessary to call people to repent in the call to salvation. And perhaps you're thinking right now as you're hearing that, but I I know there are three other gospel accounts, and I have read of Jesus and his followers calling people to repent. And you're right. You have read that.

But if you bring that up to this argument, it would be followed by this. Well, the Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which means to change one's mind. It has nothing to do with you changing the way you see sin and and renouncing self or renouncing iniquity. No. Repentance, because of its original meaning, is synonymous with faith.

It's just another way of saying faith. And perhaps you in this moment, like I was at one moment, hearing this and reading of this, are thinking, I need clarity. I need certainty. I need assurance because if there's one thing that we don't wanna mess with, if there's one thing that we can be, you know, disagreeing on, it's the idea of secondary doctrinal issues, but let's not mess with salvation. And thank God that there is a verse that speaks on that very concern.

If you have your bibles, the book of Luke chapter one beginning in verse three. Luke chapter one beginning in verse three. Now we know what John's thesis is for the book of John, that by reading of Jesus, by seeing what he's done, you may believe, and by believing, you may have life. And this is Luke's thesis. Now Luke is the author of both both this gospel account and the book of Acts, a two volume work.

And this is the purpose. Verse three. It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, verse four, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Ah, this is what we need this morning. We need certainty.

We need assurance. We need confidence. And what you and I will realize throughout the book of Luke and the book of Acts is that there is a call to repentance. And that call comes from John the Baptist. That call comes from the lips of the Son of God himself, and it was the message of the early church.

And this is gonna be a different kind of message this morning. Instead of us focusing on one text and breaking it down, we're gonna scan through Luke and Acts and touch on these verses simply for us to have certainty and to have assurance that truly the gospel has a call, and that call is repentance. And what we're gonna see very quickly as we touch these things is that there is a baton being passed down from the forerunner to the savior to the early church, and I'm wondering today why that baton is not being taken up by our generation. John the Baptist, if you turn to Luke one verse 76, his father Zechariah, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, prophesies of what his ministry, his son's ministry would look like, what the substance of it is. And it says here in verse 76, a new child will be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.

Now pay attention to verse 77. To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ. He prepared the way for the Lord. Now for John to come on the scene, he did not just come and ruffle some feathers.

He did not come to just startle some people. It says right here very clearly that John's message would reveal what salvation is and how one can receive forgiveness of sins. That's a very powerful ministry. This is not talking about a political salvation. Zechariah says here early on about what political salvation looks like.

This is talking about spiritual deliverance. Now we all know here what was the main cry of John the Baptist. Luke chapter three verse three. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Verse seven.

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Who's his audience? The Jews. What is he doing? He is rebuking the people of Israel for falsely grounding their confidence in the elective nature of their racial heritage because they are children of Abraham, and he says, wrong.

For you to put your confidence in that is wrong. What does true reconciliation to the Lord your God looks like? Verse eight. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

In other words, that this change of mind, which what repentance means, will produce some kind of fruit. That this change of mind does not just stay in the mind, this call to change your perspective will ultimately result in a change of lifestyle. We're gonna realize here that what Jesus, John, and the apostles, when they preach repentance, they had it totally in mind that that change of your mindset would change the way you relate to sin. And just in case anybody's confused, look at verse 10. And the crowds ask them, what then shall we do?

And notice, John doesn't say, just have a different intellectual understanding of who Jesus is. Just have a different opinion about yourself. Think rightly about God. What then shall we do? And he goes on to say, from 11 down, practical responses to the message.

In other words, stop sinning. And the soldiers asked, and the common people asked, and the tax collectors asked. And he said, do this, do this, do this. Now what do we take out of this? That we're saved by works?

That there's something I must do to receive forgiveness of sins? No. But this does show the appropriate response to understanding salvation and grace. That when a man does repent, when a man does want to respond by changing their mindset, it will result in a person relating differently to certain things in life. And we see here that the baton is passed down to Jesus Christ in Luke five.

Luke five thirty one, and Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. You know that Luke is a physician when he writes something like that and records something like that. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. So even when Jesus sat down with these prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners, he had it in mind that he would call them to repentance. What?

So that they can remain sinners? And if anyone is confused about what Jesus Christ meant when he called people to repent and believe the gospel, you must go to Luke 11. Luke 11. Again, we're just kissing these verses. We're not going deep into them.

Luke 11 verse 32. Look how Jesus understood repentance. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. He uses the word repentance. And he says here that the people of Nineveh repented to the preaching of Jonah, and they will stand at the judgment and condemn you because someone greater than Jonah is here and you refuse to repent.

Now this is how we make the connection. The people of Nineveh in Jonah's day repented. What did that look like? Was it just, thank you. Now I think differently about God.

Go to Jonah and see. Jonah chapter two verse six as a response to the message that Jonah preached. Verse six. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands? Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

Jesus said that the people of Nineveh repented, and we have the description of what repentance looks like. And we see here that Jesus's message of repentance continues in Luke chapter 13 from one to five. There were some present in Luke chapter 13 at that very time who told them about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No.

I tell you. But unless you repent, you all likewise perish. Or those 18 at whom the Tower Of South in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all others who lived in Jerusalem? No. I tell you, but unless you repent, you all likewise perish.

That's some good apologetics there. I just find it fascinating that when there was an opportunity for Jesus to philosophically and apologetically explain why certain people suffered, He doesn't even go that in-depth with it. Now this is not a a a statement to dismiss apologetics and to answer tough questions. I believe that's vitally important. But Jesus here takes advantage of this, and he makes it into a message of repentance.

He's not saying here and explaining why this thing happened to these people and not others. He's saying, listen. You don't know when your time is gonna come. Get right with God while you still have the chance. Get right with God.

And the baton did not just end with Jesus Christ and his ministry on the earth. It was the very call for the great commission at the end of this book. In Luke 24. Luke 24 verse 46, and he said to them, his disciples, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. John the Baptist preached repentance.

The baton was passed down to Jesus Christ. He preached repentance. And the early church faithfully obeyed the marching orders of their commander in chief because it was the very message of the first Christian sermon ever preached. Acts two thirty eight. Repent.

Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. In the name of who? Jesus Christ. Acts three nineteen. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.

That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Acts seventeen thirty. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Acts twenty twenty one, the one out of the two times where the apostle Paul describes what his ministry was about, and it included this, testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance towards God and a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where he gets even more detailed.

And all this is showing, Luke inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that as the baton is being passed down, it's really just echoing what started in the beginning. That they're all in sync. The message is all the same. No matter what culture says, no matter what's going on around them, repent. Repent.

Repent. And we come to Acts twenty six twenty. This is a crucial text. When the apostle Paul stood before king Agrippa, look what he says concerning his ministry in verse 20 of Acts 26. But declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds and keeping with their repentance.

It can't get any more clear than that. This was what he did when he went to the gentiles, when he went to his own people, that he declared a repented message. And what did they have in mind when they said change the way you think, that by altering this, it would cause you to renounce something else? In other words, you cannot grab the hand of the savior if you're not willing to let go of the hand of sin. And just in case, again, anybody might be thinking, well, I don't know about that.

Two verses right before this, the savior who commissioned this chief apostle, the same apostle that wrote the book of Romans, justification by faith, that same apostle was commissioned by the lord Jesus Christ himself in letters of red In verse 18 of Acts 26, Paul, I'm sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. I'm telling you to go preach this message of repentance and forgiveness of sins. I'm telling you to go preach this gospel. And by preaching this gospel, the result of it is that people would turn. Turn from darkness to light.

Do you know what the problem is today in our day? Is that we're commanding people to repeat and not repent. Repeat. You want Jesus Christ in your heart? Yes?

Okay. And a lot of people are repeating, and not a lot of people are repenting. And I wonder if that's the reason why the condition of the North American church is the way she is. And if you're familiar with the book of acts, you may be concerned because there are other occurrences where the call to receive salvation is simply belief. We see that in Acts 16 verse 30 when Paul and Silas were in that prison, and God came in, and that jailer was ready to kill himself, and they stopped him.

And he asked, sirs, what must we do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Do we have a contradictory gospel call here? Or does the Bible understand something about faith and repentance that we don't? Simply this, faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.

They are married. They are inseparable. You cannot have faith in Christ without repenting, and you can't repent without putting your faith in Christ. The call is in the same. And And if you wanna define it in this way, you can, that we have a repented faith.

It's a negative turning and a positive turning. The call to salvation is this, turn from sin and turn to Christ and receive salvation by grace. So what happens? We see here that up to this point in the scriptures that repentance is clearly a cry. A cry, yes, by definition to change your mind.

But again, we're just staying in Luke and Acts. We can go through the epistles if we need to. That even the apostle Paul himself in Philippians two five to 11, that great description about the humility of Christ and how Paul gives that example of how Christ has come down and humbled himself so that the fellow believers may, in that example, humble themselves and become servants to one another. He says this in Philippians two five, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Do you really believe that Paul, when he said have this mind among yourselves, he just said, think rightly about humility.

Or did he desire that the faculty, the commanding center of who we are, would change and it would result in something else? Have this mind. Repent. Change your mind. With a desired result from the Lord that there would be a renouncing and a receiving of Jesus.

Now does this call to repentance start at the Christian faith and is never to be seen again throughout our journey and our walk with the Lord? What does repentance have to do with you and I as believers walking with Jesus? Would you be amazed to know that one of the last messages to the church was repent? From who? From Jesus.

One of the last messages that Jesus gave to the church was repent. And we put ourselves in great danger, not only if we eliminate repentance from our gospel preaching, but if we eliminate repentance from our sanctifying work and message. Quickly, as we close, turn to Revelations chapter two. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Repentance concerning the Christian, concerning the church, was a means by which the church could maintain and remain as a burning lampstand, an effective witness, a shining light to the community. Repentance was the means for that to be sustained. The church in Pergamum of verse 16 of Revelation two, therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Repentance was the means by which the church could avoid the severe discipline of the Lord and know his favor.

Repentance. Revelation two twenty two, the church of Thyatira. Behold, I will throw her, Jezebel, unto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. Repentance was a means for the church to avoid dangerous consequences relating to their sin. Repentance.

The church of Laodicea chapter three verse 19 of Revelation. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Do you wanna know how God loves you? It's not just John three sixteen. It's that he will reprove you and me.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, this is not an evangelistic text. This is not Jesus knocking on the door of the sinner's heart. This is Jesus knocking on the door of a church.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Repentance was the means by which the church and the believers within could know and restore and revive an intimate relationship with the savior. Repentance. And this is the argument that we must make. If we remove repentance from our preaching, if we remove repentance from our ministries, if we remove repentance as a response even as believers, we will miss out on all those things that were just described.

Repentance was a means. Repentance is a means. I thank God for repentance. I was driving the other day, don't condemn me for this, but I realized I was going the wrong way to where I was trying to go. My GPS led me astray.

And I was, as I was driving, I realized that I was on a street where it was very busy and I couldn't make U turns. That was frustrating. Every time I would come up to a light, I would see that no U-turn sign. Means I have to go another few clicks so that I can get to the next one. There it is again, no U turns.

And finally, I came to a place where I saw that U-turn sign, you can turn back. And I was so glad to know that I don't have to stay this way. I don't have to keep going down this road. Repentance is never about condemnation. It is always an invitation.

We hear that word and it sounds so rough. We hear that word and it sounds so sharp, but you know what it is? It's a cry. It's a cry to come back to where God wants you to be. Can you imagine if we did not have repentance?

Can you imagine if you know that you're going down a road and there is no u-turn available? Just gotta stick there. Gotta keep going down the wrong direction. Repentance is a gift. Repentance is another opportunity.

Repentance is the Lord saying, come back. Repentance is stop going on this road and turn around and come towards me. I know it's not the popular message, but you know what? It was popular in this book. And perhaps you and I will not be found amongst those who are the majority, who redefine, exclude, dismiss repentance.

I don't know about you, but I wanna be found amongst John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. Is there a need for repentance in your heart today? Is there something in your life where you hear the Lord saying, make that u-turn Christian? You can do it right here, right now. And I pray that we would hold on to this message of repentance as a church by the grace of God.

Oh, it's as simple as this. Let go of your hand from this world and put your hand in Jesus. What's so terrifying about that? What's so scary about that? Open your hand and receive the baton and let us move forward faithfully in Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the message of repentance. We thank you for this glorious opportunity to respond to this glorious gospel. Repent and believe in the gospel. Lord, in a day of age where it is something that is scorned, mocked, and even some would deem as heresy, Help us stay close to the word of God.

Help us be faithful with your message. Help us realize, as Acts eleven eighteen says, that repentance leads to life. Lord, we give you praise and glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.