Advent: Grace, Repentance, and How We Change

Well, good morning.

Merry Christmas.

We're glad you're here with us.

Have you been watching your Christmas movies?

Are you watching your Christmas movies?

Last night I we watched, we were just kind of vegging out at our house, and we were watching we watched The Grinch, the animation one, and then we followed it with Santa Claus 2.

The Tim Allen series, you know, one, two, and three.

We like two particularly.

Is anybody's favorite?

It's a Wonderful Life.

Very traditional people, you know, very traditionalists.

Remember, George Bailey is in despair.

He's thinking about taking his own life.

He's immersed in his mistakes.

He's wondering if his life has any meaning.

And then the angel Clarence shows up and begins to show him how much his life actually has meant to the people around him.

And so, in that, a great shift occurs in George's life, right?

We get that shift in the movie where he goes from sorrow to joy.

And we get that end scene where he's family and all the people in town start coming in, right?

That shift has occurred.

And finally, George concludes that he, in fact, is the richest man in town.

George shifts from sorrow to joy.

Today we experience that same shift in our Advent weeks.

We're in week three, Sunday number three.

Advent week number one was about facing our darkness.

Advent week number two was about repenting of that darkness.

And now Advent week number three is about this shift from sorrow to joy.

We move into joy in the midst of all of our imperfection and our mess because we're sort of like George Bailey in that we realize we are loved in our real, actual selves.

We continue in Luke chapter 3.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

We're picking up where we left off last week.

Luke is reporting John the Baptist message.

John is this wild man preacher out in the wilderness, and he is preparing the way for Jesus.

He's repenting, he's preaching a message of repentance of the heart, not just of religious duty.

And so this is where John's message comes in.

Here's how Luke writes it, Luke 3, 7 through 9.

He said, so that's John, 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.

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able to from these stones raise up children for Abraham.

In other words, he's saying, hey, don't think your heritage or your Jewish legacy or your religious resume is what's going to create a right relationship with God.

He's saying there's something much more profound that God is doing.

Verse 9, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

So John calls his audience a root of vipers.

He's calling them towards fruits worthy of repentance.

These words are filled with urgency.

These words can feel a bit daunting when you read them or you hear them.

But as we dig in and we put it in the context of where John is taking us, where is John pointing?

Well, everything John is doing is taking us and pointing us to Jesus.

In that context, what we find is that this message is much more constructive and comforting than it is condemning.

And point number one is this our fruit as a Christian is always inside of and empowered by God's grace.

Fruits worthy of repentance.

Those are fruits as a response of God's grace and as a response of our repentance, right?

Every time we see the word fruit, right away, we are having a message sent to us.

Fruit is always a response to a root.

Listen to how 1 John writes this.

1 John 5.3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

Okay, so if we're going to love God, there's this alignment of how we live, our hearts, and our actions toward how God wants us to live.

And 1 John 5.3 is saying, hey, that's the love of God.

Love of God is paired with action.

But we don't get 1 John 5.3 until we have read through 1 John 4.19.

We love because he first loved us.

Okay, so the only way we love him is because he loved us.

Because he loved us, we can love him, and out of our love for him begins a life that wants to honor him.

So that life that wants to honor him, that fruit, is still rooted back in his love for us.

Now back to Luke 3.10.

The crowds asked him, What then shall we do?

Okay, what do we do?

What should our life be like?

Point number two is this our life of repentance is sorrow for mistakes and a concern for faithful action.

So this question, what should we do, is actually throughout Luke's writings in the book of Luke and also in the book of Acts.

And it reflects a repentant heart's new desire, a new concern that is birthed inside of us.

That is our life aligned with God's purposes.

See, for Luke, repentance is a feeling, sorrow for our mistakes, and it's paired with concrete acts of change.

So John the Baptist answers the question: what should we do?

John the Baptist answers in verses 11 through 14.

Here's what he says He says, To the crowds, he says, share your clothing and food, which is the message of generosity.

To the tax collectors, he says, collect taxes justly, a message of justice.

To the soldiers, he says, be content without extortion, a message of contentment.

So we go, oh, that's amazing.

Right?

That's amazing.

A life of generosity and justice and contentment.

Like who does all of us would be like, yeah, that's what I want.

I would love a life of generosity, justice, and contentment.

That sounds like an amazing life.

That's wonderful.

My problem with this is me.

Right?

My problem is I am not always generous or just or content.

So how do you change?

How do you grow in godliness when you're not always the thing you've been asked to be?

Verses 15 through 18.

As the people were in expectation, all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming.

The strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

Verse 18, point number three, the good news of and life with Jesus is for all people, poor and rich, powerless and powerful.

The generalization of tax collectors and soldiers and all the other gospels is these are hard-hearted, greedy people.

But Luke consistently is different.

Luke consistently writes differently about tax collectors and soldiers.

He shows them responding to the gospel.

So Luke is saying the gospel's for all of us, poor and rich, powerless and powerful.

Which means just because you have money or influence or some sort of status or some sort of power, or your boss does, or your neighbor does, or your cousin does, your dad does, it doesn't mean their hearts do not also become weary and burdened and guilty and ashamed and need Jesus.

Now back to verse 17.

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn.

But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

This is a fear-inducing verse for sure, verse 17, and yet there's joy in it because it's a promise that he is gathering the wheat into his barn.

And if you're a Christian, you've surrendered to Christ, and you're in Christ, you are the wheat.

The promise here is that Jesus came to took the threshing and the unquenchable fire, so we might become the stalks of wheat that bear fruit.

By his grace, we grow in this, we bear fruit, and we grow in godliness.

This week I saw Time magazine's photos of 2024.

This is an image in Taiwan back in April.

A 7.4 earthquake hit Taiwan.

This was an image taken.

Rescue workers are preparing to enter the falling building.

Now, if you're in that building, maybe you're strong enough or smart enough to get out of that building.

But nobody's strong enough or smart enough to fix the building by themselves.

Not one person can lift that building or even tear it down and rebuild it.

At some point, outside help is needed.

So they bring in a crane and a crew and probably more cranes and more crews.

It doesn't matter how smart or strong they are, or we are.

Sometimes we just need outside help.

Most likely you have some building falling over in your life or in your heart.

Something you can't control.

Something that's just leaning over a bit more than you want it to.

And you just wish the thing would straighten back out.

You can't seem to get over it, but you also can't let go of it.

You're stuck.

And what if?

What if the gospel is true, which says there's a one-way love to you in Jesus, and that God actually loves you in your exact place of helplessness.

There's a lot of life where smart and strong work.

And we're pretty good at that.

But there's some things we just simply need outside help.

And the pain isn't forgotten when you receive love in your exact place of helplessness.

The difficulty doesn't go away, the disappointment doesn't disappear, but somehow something changes.

Somehow you're not stuck anymore.

Fleming Rutledge reminds us how repentance relates to us growing, how we get unstuck.

If I am told over and over to repent, to change, to orient my life to God, nothing will ever happen.

I will cling to the Gucci luggage, not that I could afford it, and the earthly status symbols more desperately than ever.

I don't need to hear exhortations to repent.

I need power from outside myself to make me different.

A power from outside is coming, a power that is able to make a new creation out of people like us, stones like us, people who have no capacity of ourselves to save ourselves.

The power that is coming is not our power.

Not the power of our deeds or our inner strength or our spiritual discipline or our faith or even our repentance.

It is God's power that gives good deeds and inner strength and spiritual discipline and faith and repentance.

Is your Christian faith in your own Christian faith?

Or is your Christian faith in Jesus?

Paul, toward the end of his life, he'd been a Christian for a while when he writes Romans.

And he writes this passage in Romans 7.

You've probably heard it before.

It feels like a diagnosis of what it feels like to be a Christian.

We've been a Christian a while.

See if this feels like you.

This is the message translation of Romans 7, 17 through 25.

But I need something more.

For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help.

I realize that I don't have what it takes.

I can will it, but I can't do it.

I decide to do good, but I don't really do it.

I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions.

Something has gone wrong deeply within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it's predictable.

The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.

I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.

Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I've tried everything, and nothing helps.

I'm at the end of my rope.

Is there no one who can do anything for me?

Isn't that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.

He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions, where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

And here's the point, point number four, our transforming life is a fruit, not a cause.

It's a fruit of resting and walking with Jesus.

You became a Christian, you've been a Christian for a month or five years or 50 years, but you haven't changed as much as you thought.

Or you changed a lot, like really quick, and then you discover this whole other part of yourself is not as good as you thought it was.

Or you're worn out trying.

Or you're pretty good, but man, you became really judgmental along the way or self-righteous.

Church, we do not pursue a changed life.

What we pursue is greater and greater gaze on Christ who forgives and heals and declares us righteous.

See, we live to rest in and walk with Jesus, and thus the fruit of that is a changed life.

Well, what does that mean for you?

Well, it means that you can have a life of rooting the core of who you are, your inner self, in a stable, secure love that's more profound than this world.

And it is one way toward you in your helplessness.

For all the forgiveness you need, all the righteousness you need, and all the identity you need.

There's a story in the Old Testament where King Manasseh, he has led Judah into idolatry.

Then his son, Amon, becomes king.

Two years after becoming king, Amon gets assassinated.

So then the kingship goes to his son, Josiah, who's eight years old.

Eight-year-old king.

Josiah's king for about eight years.

He turns 16.

He's in the temple one day.

He finds a scroll of the law, how these people should be living.

And these people have been living in rebellion for years, not aligned to the ways and the purposes of God.

Now, during that time, Zephaniah is a prophet.

He's been speaking to the people.

So their lives are amass, Jerusalem's about to fall, and this prophet first declares judgment over these people.

And he declares judgment as to declare a word of grace.

And that's the climax of the book.

The reason we rejoice today is rejoicing Sunday.

Zephaniah 3, 16 and 17.

This is the new living translation.

On that day, the new the announcement to Jerusalem will be cheer up, Zion, don't be afraid.

For the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Our last point is this our sin and fears are quieted by God's loving regard to us in our helplessness.

The ESV takes this idea, verse 17, changes the words around a bit.

And the New Living Translation, Calm Your Fears, is translated, He will quiet you by His love.

Does anybody else have a part of themselves that needs to be quieted or loved?

One of the coming of age classic movies.

1999, Ten Things I Hate About You.

Does anybody love that movie?

It's great.

Kat is the smart, independent high school girl.

And one boy gets like the rebel boy in the school to pretend like he likes Kat.

And then in the course of that, Kat starts to like that boy, and sure enough, that boy actually does begin to like Kat.

And then, of course, you can figure out what would happen.

Kat figures out the initial motive of the boy, but now the boy really does like her, and she likes him, but she's hurt, and she's cold, and she's resistant, she's turned off.

So, what does he do to win her over?

How does anyone turn a cold, resistant heart?

So we get this scene near the end of the movie.

It's about two minutes long.

You're just too good to be true.

And take my out of you.

You do not have a too.

I wanna hold it so much.

I don't want to get to the end.

By the way, does that look like your high school?

I mean, it's very very similar to Marietta High School.

It's very similar.

But did you hear those lyrics?

He's wooing her.

He's pouring love over her one way as she is resistant to him.

Right?

I love you, baby.

Let me love you.

Like this is this is the message of Christ.

I love you.

Let me love you.

I love you.

Let me love you.

Now listen again to Zephaniah 3.

Listen to this passage again.

Cheer up, Zion.

Don't be afraid.

For the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

And he will rejoice over you with joyful song.

What if it's true?

What if in the place of your helplessness, your sin, your mess-ups, your failure, that building that's tipping over?

What if you're actually loved there?

And that it's not based on your merits, based on Christ's work for you?

What if all the forgiveness you ever needed is in Jesus?

And what if all the righteousness you could ever need is in Jesus?

And what if all the identity that we're looking for all over the place we could actually have secure identities, God's daughters and God's sons.

Because of Jesus' love for us and our helplessness.

Well, the Heavenly Father delights and rejoices over you.

And for that, we have rejoicing Sunday.

Perhaps you're here and you have a question about something, something about that, or some other spiritual question, and I'll be down front afterward in love to speak with you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you loved us even while we did not love you, and you love us now, even while at times we do not love you.

And we thank you that your love is one way and sufficient.

It is unconditioned.

And that we know it in Jesus objectively in history on the cross.

As we move toward Christmas, we celebrate that you come into our mess to pursue us in our sin and pursue us in our chaos.

God, would we trust you even more?

Would we love you?

And would our lives on you.

We pray that we gaze all the more on Jesus and our lives to be a fruit of such delight.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.