Repentance

 

Repentance is a concept that is talked about in both the Old and New Testaments. So, what is repentance and is it really important?

 

First, is repentance really that important?

 

Matthew 3:2

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

Repentance was at the heart of John the Baptist’s message.

 

Matthew 4:17

From that time on Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

Repentance was at the heart of Jesus’ message.

 

Mark 6:12

So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.

 

When Jesus sent the Twelve out, the heart of their message was repentance.

 

Acts 2:38

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

 

In Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost, he tells the people to repent so they can receive forgiveness of their sins and so they can receive the Holy Spirit.

 

Acts 17:30

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.

 

Paul preaching in Athens says that all people everywhere are to repent.

 

The message of Jesus and the early church had at its heart the concept of repentance.

 

So, is repentance really that important? The answer is a huge YES!

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about seeing repentance as a very important concept in our relationship and walk with Jesus.

 

So, what is repentance?

 

The dictionary definition is a feeling of sincere regret expressed in remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.

 

But that is not the biblical concept of repentance. Repentance from a biblical viewpoint is the act of changing one’s mind that goes beyond regret or remorse or feeling sorry that you got caught in your sin or sorry over the consequences of your sin. It is a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection of the future.

 

There are three words in the New Testament that give us a picture of true biblical repentance.

 

•A change of mind that produces real sorrow over the sin

•A change of one’s mind and purpose

•A change of one’s direction in life

 

There are four truths that come from these words that show us what true biblical repentance is.

 

An awareness of one’s own personal sinfulness and helplessness

A taking hold of the grace of God

A change of attitude toward sin in which one hates sin

A radical and persistent pursuit of holy living being expressed in complete obedience to God

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing and expressing true biblical repentance.

 

There are seven results that come from repentance.

 

•Acts 3:19-20: Sins blotted out, times of refreshing from the Lord, experiencing Jesus’ presence in our lives

 

•Matthew 3:8: Godly spiritual fruit being produced in our lives

 

•2 Corinthians 7:10: Salvation that does away with guilt and shame

 

•2 Timothy 2:25: A knowledge of the truth

 

•Hebrews 6:1: Getting rid of dead works and experiencing real faith in God

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about repenting and experiencing the results of true repentance.

 

How are we brought to repentance? In Romans 2:4 Paul says it is through God’s kindness.  

 

In summary, repentance is a complete and irreversible change of mind, heart, and actions. Repentance recognizes that our sin is offensive to God. Repentance means to do an about about-face which is heart-directed. Repentance is to turn away from self to God, from the past to a future ruled by God’s commands. Repentance is acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and that He reigns supreme over all of one’s existence.

 

In Humble Repentance Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                              Joe

The Kingdom of God

 

In Mark 1:14-15 it says, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

 

When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He came proclaiming the kingdom of God.

 

So, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the rule of Jesus in people’s lives. It is acknowledging and living out in our everyday lives the reality that Jesus is Lord.

 

The term kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven is used over 70 times in the New Testament and most of those are from the words that Jesus spoke.

 

Luke 4:43 says, “But He said to them, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for that purpose.’”

 

Jesus says that He must preach the good new of the kingdom of God. It was not an option for Jesus Walls is about making the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom of God the purpose of our lives.

 

Luke 8:1 says, “Soon afterward He went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him.”

 

Jesus taught the twelve apostles to make the priority of their lives the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom of God by watching Him do it.

 

Jesus did not just teach the twelve good theology, but He showed the reality of the kingdom of God by proclaiming it and so they could see the power of the kingdom of God at work in people’s lives.

 

1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.”

 

The kingdom of God is not just knowledge of God or knowing the right words and terms. It is about the power of God to transforms sinners to saints, the lost to the found, and making us who were enemies of God into His children.   

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing the presence and power of Jesus in our lives every day.

 

Luke 9:1-2 says, “And He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”

 

Jesus gives the twelve the power and authority to cast out demons and to heal people so that they could proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus makes the priority of the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God and He gives them the power and authority over demons and the power and authority to verify the truth of their message by doing miracles of healing.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about trusting in the power and authority God has given us as His disciples so we can proclaim the kingdom of God.

 

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

Jesus makes it very clear here that above anything or anybody we as His disciples are to seek His kingdom. First here does not mean first in a list. It means first above all else. Our list is seeking the kingdom and nothing else.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about seeking the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God’s kingdom above anything else.

 

Acts 1:3 says, “He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

 

Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection Jesus continues to proclaim the kingdom of God.

 

 

Notice Jesus does not come proclaiming the kingdom of Israel. Jesus does not come proclaiming how we can be better people. Jesus does not come proclaiming how we can be more religious.

 

Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God. Jesus came proclaiming how we can we become new people. Jesus came proclaiming a righteous relationship with God.

 

We need to be careful that we proclaim the kingdom of God and not a kingdom of America. We need to be careful that we proclaim how people can become new creations in Jesus and not how to have a better life. We need to be careful that we proclaim a righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus, not the law.

 

The kingdom of God is about a transformation of people’s hearts and lives. Our weapon for brining about change is the good news of the kingdom of God, and not political change or trying to force people to live morally. When a person surrenders their life to Jesus and enters the kingdom of God then and only then will they be able to live as God commands us to live.

 

Building the Kingdom of God by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                 Joe

Jesus in the Simple Things

Jesus is Risen

 

Today we celebrate the greatest event in all of history. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  The hope of the world is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

A man has just joined a church I was pastoring and at a Wednesday meal he made the statement that our church was a Jesus church. I agreed that it was and told him that every church was a Jesus church. He assured me that was not true of all churches. My reply was that if it was not true, then it was not a church.

 

In Acts 4:18 the Jewish ruling council tells Peter and John that they were not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

 

Peter and John reply in Acts 4:19-20 by saying, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

 

That must be our answer to the world when it tells us that we have to stay in “our place” and not talk about Jesus. We simply respond by saying that we can only speak of what we have experienced personally.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about speaking Jesus with our lives.

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

 

We must continue to proclaim the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins. It seems foolish to the world that the death of a man could bring life to others. In human kingdoms life leads to death, but in Jesus’ kingdom death leads to life. We die to our old self, our sinful nature, and come alive to our new life in Jesus. We are new creations through the blood of Jesus shed for our sin on the cross.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about proclaiming that, through Jesus’ death on the cross, God’s power was released to forgive us of our sin.

 

In 1 Peter 1:3, Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

 

We must proclaim the resurrection of Jesus to the world. Good Friday is good because Sunday happened. If Jesus had just died and not resurrected, then it would have been heroic but it would not have given us victory over death and sin and Satan. But because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus defeated death because He rose from the dead; sin, because sin is what brought death into the world; Satan, because he is the one who tempts us to sin.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 

 

The world views our faith in Jesus as God and as the Savior through His death on the cross and as Lord through His resurrection as stupid and foolish and, for some, they are fearful of that truth. We don’t get angry. We don’t demand that they believe. We don’t try to force them to believe. We show the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection as we are filled with the Holy Spirit and manifest the risen life of Jesus through our lives.

 

Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed!

 

Through the Resurrected Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                      Joe

Accepted and Accepting

 

Recently someone asked me a great question. Now, I get plenty of questions but many of them, to be honest, are not really good questions. The great question that I was asked was, “Are we to accept others?” This question was asked in the middle of a discussion about people who did not believe what we believed or people who do not accept our values.

 

What does the Bible say about accepting?

 

In Mark 4:20 and in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and in James 1:21 we are told to accept God’s Word.

 

We are to accept God’s Word as God’s Word, not the word or opinion of humans

We are to accept that God’s Word is true and has no error in it.

We are to accept that God’s Word is to be the authority by which we live our lives.

 

In 1 Timothy 1:15 we are told to accept the truth that Jesus came to save sinners.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting God’s Word as the truth and authority for our lives and that the central truth of God’s Word is that Jesus came to save sinners.

 

Paul addresses accepting others in Romans.

 

In Romans 15:7 Paul writes “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

 

We are to accept other believers in the way that Jesus accepts us and in doing that we bring praise to God. Even when we disagree with other believers they are still to be accepted as our brothers and sisters.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting other believers just as Jesus has accepted us.

 

Then in Romans 14:1 Paul writes, “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.”

 

We are to accept other believers who may not have the same depth of faith we have or who do not agree with us in every area. We are to not quarrel over those areas. When we make ourselves the standard, then we want others to conform to our model and God’s Word clearly teaches us that Jesus is our model of faith.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting our brothers and sisters whose faith is not as strong as ours.

 

The Greek word for accept means to take to one’s self, to receive into one’s home, to grant access to one’s heart, to take into relationship, or to receive one as a son. It does not mean that we have to agree with or like what they have done or are doing. It certainly does not mean to condone their actions or their lifestyle.

 

The model for this is found in Luke 15 in the parable of the prodigal son.

 

In verse 12 the younger son demands from his father his inheritance. Now, any inheritance that was due the son was not due until after the death of his father. So, the son is basically saying to the father, “I wish you were dead.”

 

In verse 13 we are told that the younger son went to a far country. He went as far from the father as he could. He then squandered all his inheritance in reckless living.

 

In verses 14 through 16 a famine hit the land and the younger son was broke and he hired himself out to feed pigs. This Jewish young man went to a country that was a pagan country and fed pigs (and lived among the pigs). He even began to look at the pigs’ food and want to eat it because he was so hungry.

 

Then in verses 17 and 18 the younger son realizes he could possibly go home and be a hired servant with food and a place to live.

 

In verses 20 through 24 we see the father’s response.

 

The father runs to meet the son.

The father hugs the son (remember the younger son had been with pigs and had not showered).

The father puts the best robe on the younger son (it would have been father’s robe).

The father puts a ringer on the younger son’s finger (a ring with the family crest).

The father puts shoes on the younger son’s feet (only slaves went barefoot).

The father has a fatted calf butchered and they celebrate.

 

The father did all this without asking the younger son to apologize or come back as anything but a son.

 

As a son, I was accepted even when I disobeyed and disappointed my parents.

As a father I accepted my son when he disobeyed and disappointed me.

 

God’s acceptance of me is based on His grace and that is the way that I am to extend acceptance to others - by grace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being accepted by grace and accepting others by grace.

 

In the Grace of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                               Joe