Dwell - The Curious Case for Regular Repentance - December 14, 2025

And sort of the surprise, we know it's coming and someone in

my house in June announced 6 months till Christmas and I was

like, oh, panic in my soul right here.

It comes and it comes every year.

But but one of the things and the reasons why Advent is so

important is that it actually causes us to slow down and to

consider the hard messages to which Christmas is an answer,

the hard messages, the hard truths to which Christmas is an

answer. And so we're invited in the

season of Advent, and Advent actually the beginning of the

Christian calendar. So if you had a Christian

calendar that was put up on your refrigerator or your bulletin

board, it would actually begin with December or even in

November, in the first week of Advent.

And that's the beginning of the Christian calendar.

And so today's message again is on the dark side of Christmas

and that it introduces us to one of the most essential elements

of our lives, one of the essential invitations of God to

living well and to being at home with him.

And that is the curious case for repentance, not just as

something we do once and then, oh, I'm saved and now I'm

baptized, but something that we do every day and any occasion

that the Lord moves in our lives, we can repent.

That may sound like a really strange religious word, but

hopefully by the end of today's message, you will like, I know

that I think I'm going to repent.

Our text is a traditional Christmas text.

It's the story of John the Baptist.

And so we're going to start with his birth announcement that came

by the mouth of Zechariah. It's actually a birth song, so

none of you would remember if your parents sang when you were

born. Maybe you don't want to remember

such a thing, but Zechariah's song When John the Baptist Was

Born and Being Named 7 or 8 Days Later is recorded here in the

scripture. And we're going to start with

his song to help us look at John the Baptist, his assignment to

prepare people for Jesus and to call them to repentance.

So let's start with the text in Luke chapter 1, beginning in

Luke 1 · chapter mention

verse 57. When it was time for Elizabeth

to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.

Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown

her great mercy and they shared her joy.

On the 8th day they came to circumcise the child and they

were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother

spoke up and said no, he is to be called John.

And they said to her there is no one among your relatives that

has that name. They made signs to his father to

find out what he would like to name the child and he asked for

a writing tablet and to everyone's astonishment he wrote

his name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened

and his tongue set free and he began to speak, praising God.

All the neighbors were filled with awe and throughout the Hill

Country of Judea people were talking about all these things.

Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking what then is

this child going to be for? The Lord's hand was with him.

His father Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and

prophesied. Praise be to the Lord the God of

Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the House of

His servant David, as He said through His holy prophets of

long ago. Salvation from our enemies and

from the hand of all who hate us.

To show mercy to our ancestors and to remember His holy

covenant, The oath He swore to our Father Abraham, to rescue us

from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him

without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our

days. And you, my child, speaking to

John the baby, you will be called a prophet of the Most

High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for

Him. To give His people the knowledge

of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun

will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in

darkness and in the shadow of death.

To guide our feet into the path of peace.

What an extraordinary excitement to a child.

And then notice the way he grew up.

The child grew up and became strong in spirit, and he lived

in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

He was a wild child. This John the Baptist was a

fierce and strong person, and God had given him a special

assignment. Prepare the way for Jesus.

Prepare the way for the Lord. John and Jesus were actually

cousins, separated by about three months, and John just

ahead of him had a task and assignment from God where

Zechariah reaches all the way back to the Isaiah prophecy,

where Isaiah prophesized that there will be one who prepares

the way of the Lord. It became so notable that when

Matthew wanted to describe John's ministry and what he did,

he also referred to the text. Notice what Matthew says.

This is still Luke talking. We'll get to Matthew.

Here we go. So Luke describes the beginning

of the ministry of John. He says in the 15th year of the

reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of

Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip,

tetrarch of Etruria and Trachonitus, and Lysanius

tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of

Anas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John, son of

Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country

around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the

forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words

of Isaiah the prophet. A voice of one calling in the

wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord,

Make straight paths for him. Every valley be filled in, every

mountain and hill made low. The crooked Rd. shall become

straight, the rough way smooth, and all people will see God's

salvation. Now Zacharias had envisioned a

people changed by the one to whom John would point that when

John pointed to Jesus and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world. Zacharias had envisioned that

John's life would have an impact on a people who would get to

know the Messiah. Look at these five things that

he said would be true about these people.

These people would have a knowledge of salvation through

the forgiveness of sins, that this would be something they

know not just that they know about, but they would know it in

the very interior life of their heart and world.

They would know experientially that God had forgiven them a

sin, that they would experience the tender mercy of our God.

Now this is such a contrast. John is a wild child who becomes

a wilderness man, a survivalist if you will, who knew how to

live off the land, live in the wilderness, but also had a

fierce message calling them. But even though John's message

was fierce, Zachariah says these people are going to experience

the tender mercy of God. Imagine that you see a child

running into the street. What are you going to do?

Wow, what are you going to do? You're going to stop him?

What if he's too far away? What are you going to do?

Stop. No, you're going to shout.

Any parent who's had this moment knows that there's this

immediate move to shout. Shouting is reserved for an

emergency stop. And so John, he sounds harsh,

but what he's actually inviting them into is the tender mercy of

God, the embrace of our Father who loves them, that they would

have an encounter of the rising sun from heaven.

I don't know about you, but I love those mornings when I see

even by 8 O clock now, a little glimmer of sun on the horizon.

I'm like, ah, there's the light of day, There's the light for us

today. And that light then reveals

something in our lives, but it also casts something away.

He says they're delivered from the shadow of death.

The shadow of death would keep you in fear.

The fear of death will cause a fear of living.

And he says that the light of Christ, the Messiah to whom John

would point, would bring about a confidence of a people who don't

live in fear of the shadow of death.

In fact, he says, their whole life trajectory is different

because they're guided into paths of peace.

Wow, a people who are known for walking in the path of peace.

Their heart is at peace. Their way is to create peace.

Their way is to know the ways of a God of peace.

And John was pointing to the one preparing them who could give

them this. When we this little line, the

path of peace also quotes from Isaiah.

We read that long text in Isaiah 59 today which seems so stark

and dark about the presence of sin.

And it says of this people who were caught in a trajectory of

sin, they do not know the ways of peace, which indicates that

all their relationships become conflictual.

They're an argument waiting for a place to happen.

They do not know the ways of peace.

What an extraordinary picture from from John and Zacharias you

see intertwined in preparing a people for Jesus is this matter

of repentance. To prepare for Jesus, to prepare

for God to do something extraordinary in their lives and

hearts, they would have to repent and turn.

The word repent basically means turn, turn around, turn away,

turn toward something, turn away from something, turn to the

other to prepare for Jesus. Then how did John go about his

message? I've alluded to it.

Let's see how he did it. John said to the crowds that

were coming out to be baptized by him.

You brood of Vipers, you bunch of snakes, you're in House

Slytherin. Basically, that's what he's

saying. Who warned you to flee the

coming wrath? It's almost as if he's lifting a

phrase right out of Isaiah 59. It might have resonated with

some of them to go what? He's calling us a bunch of

sinners. He's calling us a bunch of

snakes. It's right out of Isaiah 59 that

we read earlier, and he lifts it out, seemingly with a pointing

finger. Who warned you to flee the

coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with

repentance. And do not begin to say to

yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

In other words, we have a legacy that keeps us safe with God.

We have a heritage that keeps us safe with God.

Our ancestors keep us safe with God, he says.

Don't say that, for I tell you that out of these stones God can

raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root

of the trees, and every tree that did not, does not produce

good fruit, will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

This sounds so stressful. He's not the kind of preacher

you want to go see at Christmas. I'm sorry, but here he is.

Few years ago, quite a few now, we had a plum tree that was in

the back of the yard. It had produced no plums.

I was ready to cut it down. In fact, the axe was at the root

of the tree almost. And Ellen said wait, don't cut

it down yet, give it a chance. Give it a chance.

They say sometimes you have to stress a tree.

So I I took the axe of the saw actually, and I turned it around

and I whacked it against the tree.

I gave it a warning. I said your days are numbered if

you don't produce fruit. You know what happened the next

year? There was fruit.

That tree was stressed. Do you see?

I, I don't understand someone's why the Spirit of God has to

bring some stress in our lives, some conviction in our lives,

some sense of, oh, they're supposed to be a different kind

of fruit in my life. It feels a little bit painful,

but there is a call and opportunity for repentance for

turning, even when that comes because we're envisioning and

we're seeing a future that we don't like or a future that we

love. And we're like, I want to turn

towards that future. I want to turn towards the

person of that future. And so this is John's

invitation. There is one coming.

Who is for you? Why do we resist repentance when

we've been given a vision of what could be good in our life

if we leave something behind? Why do we resist changing?

Why do we resist the repentance of even adding something good

into our life? There's so many amazing pictures

from the Old Testament about resisting repentance.

One is hardness of heart. It's the most common to have a

hard heart towards God. Another one is to be stiff

necked. That means you don't turn very

well. You're not limber.

It's Speaking of an animal that won't be turned.

A horse that won't respond to the bit but is so set on going

forward. How many of you have ever had a

Crick in your neck? You know it's terrible.

You can't turn your neck. It's so painful, that stiff neck

and so somewhat over here speaks to you.

So you go and but he's saying you never turn to listen when

God calls out an uncircumcised heart.

You have no sensitivity towards God turning the shoulder, where

instead, as you get up, having heard the voice of God, you just

turn the shoulder. You know, have you ever given

someone a cold shoulder? Maybe you've been in the car,

someone was driving and you were mad at them, so you just turned

away and looked out the window. That's the cold shoulder.

And this is the description of resisting repentance, of saying

I've just turned my shoulder and act like God's not there,

stopping up the ears. La, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Don't talk to me. I'm not listening.

I can't hear you. La La, La, La, La, La, straying

and wandering like a sheep. This one's actually very kind

and forgiving because it just says it's part of our nature to

resist the good way we wander off.

And then here's my favorite backsliding.

Have you ever gone sledding at Queen Elizabeth Park?

And at the end of the day, the snow is some so compact.

And I see you don't need a sled. All you need is your back and

you can flop down on your back and you will race down that

hill. And here's the description of a

non repentant person is that they used to be at the peak with

God, but now they're just sliding backwards, losing all

the ground they had received, refusing to return, grieving and

quenching the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls, and you

grieve the Spirit with that resistance, and then here's a

great one kicking against the goads.

Anybody know what this is? Who was this said to?

This was said to the apostle Paul, who we know as Saul, who

was out to murder the church. And Jesus appears to him, and

Paul says, Who are you, Lord? Who are you?

And says the Lord whom you are persecuting, why are you kicking

so against the goads? OK, so this is the description.

You're a horse and there's a stick.

It's the goat and the stick is being used to prod you.

Or you're a donkey and the stick is being used to prod you

towards the way to go and instead you kick against it.

Active resistance to God. I want you to think about

yourself for a moment in your life with God.

Which one of these describes you?

Keep it to yourself. Which one of these describes

part of your life in the past? Which of these describes your

current way with God today? Being at home with God requires

repentance. It requires a shift and it must

be conscious. I do believe that the Spirit of

God, when we're close to the Spirit of God and we've been

walking with Jesus, it can become reflexive to repent

quickly, to confess quickly, to agree with God quickly.

God provokes us with something in his word in the morning and

we're like, yes, Lord, you're right.

Yes, Lord, you're right. I agree with you.

And it sets our feet on a step of being at home with God,

continuing to be at home with him.

But repentance is required. Jesus said it himself.

Notice what Jesus does. When Jesus heard that John,

that's John the Baptizer, had been put in prison, he withdrew

to Galilee, leaving Nazareth. He went and lived in Capernaum.

And from that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, for the

Kingdom of heaven has come near. In other words, the Kingdom of

heaven is so close that the Kingdom of God wants to be at

home with you right here. And for this Kingdom to be at

home with you, and for you to be at home in the Kingdom of God,

you must repent. This verse was quoted by Martin

Luther when he nailed A thesis to the door of Wittenberg in

1571. Can you imagine making a long

list of 95 statements, taking it to a door and nailing it?

That's sort of the mythology of Martin Luther, that he did this.

We know he printed lots of pamphlets with it, and what he

was trying to do was to argue against the idea that you only

needed to repent once, or that you could get situated in life

by paying a little bit of money or by doing a little thing that

would situate in life so that no repentance was required.

You could be a mafia Christian. A mafia Christian comes to

church, listens to the word of God, says it rolls off like

water on a duck's back, and then they go and murder whoever they

want, does whatever bad deed they want.

That's a mafia Christian and Martin Luther was resisting that

and he says this in his first thesis.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he willed

the entire life of believers to be 1 of repentance.

That's the best translation from English.

That life is repentance. I'll take that thought on for a

moment. Life is repentance.

Here's some helpful pairings that I have found in trying to

bring me more aware of the discrepancies or hypocrisy that

could reside in my own heart and life in regards to repentance.

And the first is to pair attitudes and actions.

The scripture says, watch yourselves and make yourselves

clean. Come cease to do evil.

Learn to do good. Have you ever gotten in at the

end of the day? And one of your parents said,

what's that? You need to go take a bath?

You need to take a shower. You've been out playing all day

long. You've been sweating in the gym.

Go take a shower. And you said no, don't, no, no,

don't. Don't need that.

The stink is good. And so you resist.

The stink is good. There's an attitude shift that

says, oh, the stink's not so good.

I think I'll go take a bath. I think I'll be cleansed of

this. And then not only that, think

I'm going to cease. And sometimes in relation to sin

in our lives, there's got to be both attitudes and actions that

are paired together. Sometimes we have right actions,

but our attitudes stink. In fact, Paul said if you do all

kinds of good things and don't have love, it's awful.

It's like death beliefs and behaviors.

Sometimes I need to change my beliefs as well as my behaviors.

The Kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

Jesus is saying hey, there is an announcement that must be

believed that the Kingdom of God is here.

Not just some out there future age, but here and now and over

and over. I found that there's beliefs in

my life about me, about God, about my future, about the stuff

of earth, about other people that must be changed so that my

behavior can actually change too.

Belief and behavior, and then motives and missions.

This suggests that we really do want sincerity of heart and

alignment of our motives and what we're doing, that it lines

up with the mission of God. But this also tells me I can

have a shadow mission. I can have a shadow mission

that's always lurking in the background, sort of informing

what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

And shadow missions fuel a life of deception, dishonesty,

hiding, despair and destruction. And so if I'm to be at home,

then repentance may start at the surface but continually goes

deeper. That's the invitation.

And here's the beauty of this is that the way we start the

Christian life is the way we continue it.

We are meant to start the Christian life by faith, by

grace. And we continue even in

repentance by faith, by grace, when Paul wanted to address the

fact that some people were saying, Hey, Paul, you seem to

have two messages, go ahead, a message for the Gentiles and a

message for the Jews. And he's like, no, there's,

there's one message. They must turn to God in

repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the message. This is what it is to be

Christian, to have repentance towards God and faith in Jesus.

We start with faith, we start with repentance, we start with

faith and both continue on in our lives.

The way you live as a Christian today is by repentance and by

faith. And so I want to ask you again,

what have you heard in the last month, the last week today where

God is prodding you towards repentance?

It's a little a little move that in the long time will change

your life. We call this the Kairos moment,

that this moment where you know that something has happened in

your life. There's stress, there's pain,

maybe you've seen it before and here it is again.

And So what is God saying to you and how will you respond if God

is speaking to you? Will you repent, change your

mind, your attitudes and actions, beliefs and behaviors,

motives and missions? And then what do you do in

response? That doing may be just a two

degree shift, but all of you know studying vectors, that 2° /

a long course of time is a trajectory of great change.

And that's the invitation of God day in and day out as a disciple

to let him shift and change you. This is why Advent matters.

Back to Zechariah. Which of these do you long for?

Which of these are you longing for?

Which of these do you need? One of the favorite you can just

leave it there. One of our favorite Christmas

movies is or stories is A Christmas Carol right by Dickens

going to invite the worship team to come on up And in that story,

Ebenezer Scrooge what does? What is Ebenezer Scrooge's

famous line? Bah humbug, right?

Bah humbug. He hated Christmas.

Bah, humbug. And yet there were people around

him who with less and who had struggles in their lives, who

loved Christmas and actually their motives and lives seem so

pure. Tiny Tim, you know, he, he says,

oh, God bless them all, every one of them.

But Ebenezer Scrooge refuses until Marley's warning when his

former Co laborer, former boss appears.

And Warren Scrooge, you're going to suffer a terrible thing if

you don't turn. He didn't say the word repent,

but he could have. Did you know that A Christmas

Carol is a story of repentance? It's an invitation for cultural

repentance, individual repentance, the ghost of

Christmas pass. So Scrooge, his humble

beginnings, his lonely childhood, but also his joyful

apprenticeship that there were people in his life showing him a

different way and he could have chosen it.

There was the picture of Christmas present, of people who

were living in poverty and quiet, but also living with

warmth and goodwill, and who seemed so at home with

themselves and with God. And then there's the Christmas

yet to come. And Scrooge has shown a grim and

desolate future where no one cares that he died and that his

possessions were stolen. And then he was forced to

confront his isolation and he wakes up.

The invitation to repentance seemed tough.

Now, what was Scrooge going to do?

What was he going to do? And he woke up and became a

changed man. He embraced Christmas.

He changed his life. And then his name became one

filled with irony, Right? Ebenezer Scrooge.

What's a Scrooge? Tight fisted, wretched, greedy

person who holds on to everything.

But what's a person whose name is Ebenezer?

Does anybody know what Ebenezer means?

It's right out of the scripture. It means hit her.

By your help. I've come.

It points to the Lord and says all the good that I have in my

life today has come because of you.

And so there's Ebenezer who couldn't formally acknowledge

all the good things that had come in his life ultimately

because God showed him some kind of grace and he was being tight

fisted. But then the new Ebenezer, he

could have done away with the name Scrooge.

He became a generous person at home with God and at home with

others. His pathway there is through the

narrow door of repentance. Our pathway there is through the

narrow door of repentance with Christ Jesus.

And it's possible because Jesus himself entered that door and

showed us the way. He opened it up for us with His

own body and with His blood, with His very life, by coming to

dwell with us. One of the questions that

sometimes accompanies the Lord's Supper is an examination

question to say, Have I been obedient to the last thing I

heard from the Lord? Only you can answer that

question. Let's stand together.