Repentance and the Kingdom of God

Having recently returned from speaking at a Teen Camp for a week, it made me consider again the key components of the Gospel.  Paul summed them up well the implications of the Gospel in his address before Festus, King Agrippa, and Bernice in Acts 26:20 when he said Jew and Gentile "...should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance."  Though Paul does not speak of the salvation we have by only grace through faith in Jesus, this emphasis on repentance should be no surprise to the converted.  It is interesting to me how Paul did not emphasise common themes camped on today like God's love, forgiveness, or grace.

Perhaps repentance is not a major theme in too many presentations of the Gospel today because it is confronting for both the speaker and the audience, yet without it none shall be saved.  When John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, Matthew 3:1-2 describes repentance as the primary thrust of his discourses:  "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"  Once the kingdom of God was manifested among them with the coming of the KING OF KINGS Jesus, the message did not change.  After John was thrown in prison Matthew 4:17 says, "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Jesus was crucified and rose from the grave and guess what?  The message to be preached in the name of Jesus was not to change.  Our risen LORD said to His disciples in Luke 24:46-47, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

Repentance involves changing our minds and making future choices which align with God's righteousness.  We must turn from sin, then we must turn to God and do the things which please Him.  This is not a call to return to Law but to walk in obedience to God according to His Word.  Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, "It has been written...but I say unto you...".  Jesus fulfilled the Law, and those who repent and trust in Him are filled with the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth.  He conveys to us all Jesus says, and this Spirit-filled life transcends that of ordinances and traditions of men.  Jesus calls us to live on a plane higher than that of Law, and repentance and remission of sins is to mark our practices and preaching as we go on with God.  If we desire to enter God's kingdom, we must do so God's Way.

Don't Wrestle Alone

As a kid I always enjoyed wrestling with my dad and brother.  I remember once at a family gathering my uncle Rocky pounced on my brother and I and pinned us both on top of each other.  We loved it.  In high school my brother joined the wrestling team at school and quickly became a far more talented and capable wrestler than I ever was.  But over the years we enjoyed many a good-natured roughhouse together.  Well, most of the time it was good-natured. :)

Wrestling is an activity which one cannot really practice well or even compete in alone.  A person can watch take-downs, holds, and how to ride a leg all day long, but until he grapples with an actual opponent he knows nothing of the fatigue, reversals, and surprises a human opponent brings.  Competitive wrestling always requires another person to have a proper match.  The struggle, strain, and sweat of a good wrestle is only known to those who actively engage with others.

And it is on this point we must be watchful and wary concerning our own struggles and wrestlings.  As children of God, He has made us to be part of His Body, the church.  In this day of increased independence we can be duped to attempt to wrestle through personal struggles alone.  If we chose to wrestle alone we do not do well.  How much better it is to include select brothers and sisters to bat ideas around, to confess our confusion over evidence, and to work together to grow stronger and more equipped for future conflict!  That is the beauty of wrestling a teammate:  you can both improve and grow at the same time.  This is genuine discipleship.  Being on the same team your aim in wrestling is not to defeat each other but to train one another for the purpose of winning as a team.

Brothers and sisters, don't wrestle alone.  There may be times we might (an unadvisedly) wrestle against God as Jacob did, but as our Father He is able to bless us.  We are mistaken to think we can wrestle against principalities, powers, or even flesh and blood or arguments by ourselves, for we need the power of the Holy Spirit to stand strong under attack.  It must be incredibly rare indeed when anything we wrestle with would not be more easily overcome with the support, love, and aid from others in the church. We have responsibilities before God we are held accountable to, and one of these is to help each other - and this includes training others to walk righteously and live victoriously.  Galatians 6:2-5 reads, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵ For each one shall bear his own load."

Finding Where We Fit

One of the themes I spoke on recently at a teen camp is the subtlety of sin, and it has an uncanny ability to appeal to our personal desires.  This is why examining our motives in light of God's truth is so important.  Thoughts and feelings are able to undercut biblical morality with ease and conceive sin before we even realise it.  A primary way this can happen is in relationships.  We all deal with insecurities on fundamental levels, and it is only when we find our identity in Christ and worth in His love of us where we can avoid being drawn away after sinful desires.

In an address titled "The Inner Ring," C.S. Lewis masterfully describes the subtle draw we all face in seeking to please people - and how elusive the belonging we desire can be.  He makes the point we are all parts of inner rings or circles, yet there are others we long to be a part of.  People are often willing to make concessions or compromise to be accepted, yet even when they achieve their end (having been further corrupted by the process) it cannot satisfy.  There is great risk of corruption of character in all those who aim to please men by "fitting in" instead of seeking to please God.  Here is an excerpt of this address as written in the book, "The Weight of Glory":

There must be in this room the makings of at least that number (two or three) of unscrupulous, treacherous, ruthless egotists.  The choice is still before you, and I hope you will not take my hard words about your possible future characters as a token of disrespect to your present characters.  And the prophecy I make is this.  To nine out of ten of you the choice which could lead to scoundrelism will come, when it does come, in no very dramatic colours.  Obviously bad men, obviously threatening or bribing, will almost certainly not appear.  Over a drink or a cup of coffee, disguised as a triviality and sandwiched between two jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting to know rather better and whom you hope to know better still - just at the moment when you are most anxious not to appear crude, or naif or a prig - the hint will come.  It will be the hint of something which is not quite in accordance with the technical rules of fair play; something which the public, the ignorant, romantic public, would never understand; something which even the outsiders in your own profession are apt to make a fuss about, but something, says your new friend, which "we" - and at the word "we" you try not to blush for mere pleasure - something "we always do".  And you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in, not by desire for gain or ease, but simply because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world.  It would be so terrible to see the other man's face - that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face - turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected.  And then, if you are drawn in, next week it will be something a little further from the rules, and next year something further still, but all in the jolliest, friendliest spirit.  It may end in a crash, a scandal, and penal servitude; it may end in millions, a peerage, and giving the prizes at your old school.  But you will be a scoundrel.

That is my first reason.  Of all passions the passion for the Inner Ring is most skilful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.

My second reason is this.  The torture allotted to the Danaids in the classical underworld, that of attempting to fill sieves with water, is the symbol not of one vice but of all vices.  It is the very mark of a perverse desire that it seeks what is not to be had.  The desire to be inside the invisible line illustrates this rule.  As long as you are governed by that desire you will never get what you want.  You are trying to peel an onion; if you succeed there will be nothing left.  Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.

This is surely very clear when you come to think of it.  If you want to be made free of a certain circle for some wholesome reason - if, say, you want to join a musical society because you really like music - then there is a possibility of satisfaction.  You may find yourself playing in a quartet and you may enjoy it.  But if all you want is to be in the know, your pleasure will be short-lived.  The circle cannot have from within the charm it had from outside.  By the very act of admitting you it has lost its magic.  Once the first novelty is worn off, the members of this circle will be no more interesting than your old friends.  Why should thy be?  You were not looking for virtue or kindness or loyalty or humour or learning or wit or any of the things that can be really enjoyed.  You merely wanted to be "in".  And that is a pleasure that cannot last.  As soon as your new associates have been staled to you by custom, you will be looking for another Ring.  The rainbow's end will still be ahead of you.  The old Ring will now be only the drab background for your endeavour to enter the new one.

And you will always find them hard to enter, for a reason you very well know.  You yourself, once you are in, want to make it hard for the next entrant, just as those who are already in made it hard for you.  Naturally.  In any wholesome group of people which holds together for a good purpose, the exclusions are in a sense accidental.  Three or four people who are together for the sake of some piece of work exclude others because there is work only for so many or because the others can't in fact do it.  Your little musical group limits its numbers because the rooms they meet in are only so big.  But your genuine Inner Ring exists for exclusion.  There'd be no fun if there were no outsiders.  The invisible line would have no meaning unless most people were on the wrong side of it.  Exclusion is no accident; it is the essence.

The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it. (Lewis, C. S. The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. William Collins, 2013. pages 152-156)

I have grown out of many clothes and shoes by now, and as a grown man I am struck by all the things grown people do not and cannot grow out of by the passage of time alone.  The childish and adolescent desire for Inner Rings does not pass like a pubescent season of acne or a cracking voice but persists until it is done away with at the foot of Calvary through repentance.  How good it is to be loved and accepted by God, and only His acceptance buoys us in conflicts and heals the painful wounds of rejection.  Jesus knows what it is to be rejected.  He could never rise above the "carpenter's son" for some, and the religious elite viewed Him as a demon-possessed deceiver.  Yet Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah!  Jesus did not lose hope because He never placed His heart in the hands of men.  His satisfaction or pleasure was not sought in the accolades or praise of people but in doing the will of the Father.  Praise Jesus for His example, and that we can walk with Him every step of the way.  In Jesus I have found a perfect fit.

Worry-Free Rest

"Unless the LORD builds the house, they labour in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city,  the watchman stays awake in vain. ² It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep."

Psalm 127:1-2

Have you ever lost sleep due to pressing worries or cares?  I typically sleep well, but there have been occasions when I struggled to sleep because my mind was working overtime on some problem out of my control.  If you can identify with this, you likely also can identify with this rationale:  "I just can't help it."  It is natural for all people - even followers of Jesus - to worry or fret over difficult or seemingly impossible situations.  There are a lot of things we naturally do which are sinful, and worrying is one of them.

I was blessed to read Psalm 127 this morning and have my mind renewed by God's changeless truth.  Recently we have been dealing with a drought in NSW, and God this past week has brought rain.  Worrying about dry creek beds and catchments cannot bring rain to fill them, but God is able to do so abundantly.  Worry wears us out, and we are best served seeking the God who does great works beyond number.  Psalm 127:1-2 reminds us our best efforts and labours are fruitless without divine aid.  God is almighty and sovereign, and without Him we can do nothing.

How awful it would be to work to exhaustion in building a house but in the end it proved to be all in vain!  I can imagine a tired watchman doing everything in his power to remain awake, but even if he does so it pointless unless God guards the city.  Seeing the advancing enemy does not mean you have the power to defeat the invaders.  Builders need supplies and strength from God to accomplish their task, and no amount of watchmen can prevent a city from ruin God has determined will fall.  It is good for us to realise the completion or preservation of God's work does not depend solely upon our efforts.  The watchmen of Jericho could not prevent its collapse, and we cannot do a constructive thing for God's glory without His help.

God gives His beloved sleep, and it is a shame for us to be robbed of such a gracious gift by our worrying.  Let us not miss the fact God's people are "His beloved."  The Good Shepherd knows it when a single sheep is missing or walking with a limp; He knows when the sheep of His flock are diseased and distressed.  He is the One who makes us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside the still waters.  God is faithful to establish His people on a firm foundation and guards our souls from harm.  Sorrow may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning from the One who has promised fullness of joy and peace which passes understanding.  Those who seek Jesus and find rest for their souls are benefited by sleep without interruption due to worry.