Advent: Repentance Inside of God's Kindness

Well, we're in our second week of Advent, so we have this passage in Luke chapter 3, and this passage that says that we need a baptism of repentance, and this baptism of repentance is how we'll see salvation, is how we will see how to be right with God and how to be whole with God.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

So maybe one time you went to a U2 concert or a James Taylor concert, or maybe you went to the Atlanta game like championship game we won last night, in case you didn't know.

Maybe you went to that game and you went in the game and you had a great time and we won, and everything's wonderful.

You had such a great time, and on your way out back to your car, there's a man standing on the curb and he has a sign and he has a big old megahorn and he is angry and he's yelling, and you know what he's yelling because you've heard him before, and he is yelling, uh, you're a sinner.

Okay, true, got it.

Uh, and you're going to hell.

Um, that part you didn't know because you thought you were right with God uh via your relationship with Jesus, but apparently he might know something uh that you didn't know, but he's yelling it at you, and he's saying, repent and be saved, right?

Anyone had this situation?

Maybe if you're at some other game or some other concert, and you always think to yourself, uh, is he yelling at me?

Is he yelling at somebody else?

And and I think slowly over time we can become a little bit maybe um jaded with this word repent or repentance.

Um, some of us have other experiences with this word of repentance because maybe you had a moment of repentance, like of confession plus a turning of like, like, I don't want to do that anymore.

God, I'm you know, I'm sorry, and it was so true, and I'm so sorry, and you know, I don't want to do that anymore, so destructive, you know, I want to turn away from that.

And you had this moment of repentance, and then you you went back to doing the same thing.

And you have to think to yourself, like, why didn't it work?

Like, why didn't that take?

So maybe you've been in some sort of cycle of repenting at some point about some thought or behavior, and you do that thought or behavior, and then you turn around and the next morning, the next day, you repent again, God, I don't want to be like that, I wanna do that, and then you turn back around and you do it again, and at some point you sort of go like, like, okay, what is this?

What is this repentance?

Why is it not taking?

What is this word that a lot of us, a lot of us, not everybody, but a lot of us have some baggage with or some experience with?

And then how could this word, how could this word be good news?

Like, how could this, how could this actually be really good for us?

Like, is it possible, the angry man on the curb, who does seem too angry, I'll just be honest, that's my issue.

Uh, he seems too angry.

Is it possible he has taken a really good thing from us?

Repentance.

All right, so a few thoughts to lead us this morning.

The first is is point number one, repentance changes the temperature.

Repentance changes the temperature.

So say it's a chilly December night, say it was like last night, and it's kind of cold out, but say you're kind of a tightwad, and and so uh it's bedtime, and right before you go to bed, uh your wife's already headed to bed, or maybe you're the tightwad and you're the wife, and your husband's not the Taiwan, but let's just pretend the husband's a tightwad for stereotype purposes.

And so the wife has already gone to bed, and your wife's already gone to bed, and you cruise by the thermostat and you turn that thing down just a little bit further than you know she wants you to, right?

Because you're a little bit of a Taiwan and you get into bed and you're under one sheet and you look over, she gets five blankets, and the next morning you wake up and you go back along the hallway and you turn the thermostat back up, right?

You turn it back up because the temperature in the house is so cold and something is needed.

And you're not gonna be able to generate enough heat on your own, and your kids aren't gonna be able to generate enough heat, or your roommate, or your uh your spouse, and so you adjust the temperature.

This is what repentance does.

Repentance has this power to adjust the temperature.

Now that's not technical, that's abstract, but it's still true.

Repentance divinely adjusts the temperature inside of you and those around you.

So let's just pretend you have a sweet somebody and things aren't quite right.

Things are cold.

Okay?

The temperature needs to be adjusted.

You're not connecting, you're you're distant.

And only one thing is needed, right, in these situations.

If you've ever in the past been in a romance, or maybe in the future, maybe presently are, and it's things are cold.

Only one thing is needed.

We know what it is.

Now, sometimes we label it groveling.

It's not really groveling, it's repentance.

Babe, I've been a moron.

I've been distant, I did this, I've been paying attention, you know.

I'm sorry, I love you, I'm gonna do better, I wanna be different.

And all of a sudden, if it's sincere, the temperature changes.

It just in the recognition to her or to him or to your kids, to your parents, to your friend, your roommate, everything changes, the temperature changes.

Mark Gallia, editor at Christianity Today, in his article, Whatever Came of Repentance, he wrote this.

And thus it, repentance, and thus repentance is also the means by which we can change the temperature of the angry debates in church, online, and in our culture.

What if instead of stubbornly entrenching ourselves deeper in argument or accusation, we paused and we said sincerely, I'm sorry to say that I've contributed to this problem and I have a lot to repent of?

Like, like what if we did that?

What if we actually admitted before other people, before God, ultimately this passage about that, we'll get there, that we were wrong?

What if our starting point wasn't defense, but it was humility?

Like, what would that mean for that romance or for parenting or family or for friendship?

What would that mean for that?

And then the question becomes like, so how in the world, how in the world do we become the kinds of people that would risk honesty about ourselves in front of God?

And then also in front of other people.

So I think that begins with another question, and that other question would be what do you think would happen if God physically showed up in your life?

So say you're at the quick drip and you're buying a couple corn dogs.

It's Monday, you're grabbing lunch, you filled up your car, a couple corn dogs at the quick trip, and there buying corn dogs is God Himself buying corn dogs with you.

Pretend with me in this situation.

Now, how would he treat you?

Would you be anxious about this moment?

And say he he just jumped in the car with you and you're running errands, with God in your car, physically in your car, all up in your business for the day, and he's still God, so he still knows all of you, all your thoughts, all your wounds, all the things you've done, all your motives, all of it.

And he's with you, and he sees everything and he knows everything.

And is that a terrifying thought for you?

Is that a little like uh uh-oh, uh-oh, is there an uh-oh?

Or would that be the most wonderful day to you?

And my hope is that we can grow in saying, well, God is love, and in Jesus, he holds no condemnation toward me.

And he knows everything about me.

All of it, all the mess.

And because of Jesus, that would be a great day.

That would be a really, really good day.

And then what would that mean?

So if we get there, then what would that mean for uh honesty in life, honesty about yourself, honesty with other people, honesty in relationships, honesty about your motives?

What would that mean for confession?

What would that mean for repentance before God?

All of a sudden, repentance starts to feel a little bit different if our view of God and his regard to us is in that starting place of goodness and kindness in Jesus.

Author, Pastor Tim Keller, he has a great article called All of Life is Repentance.

And he he kind of summarizes and he talks about religious repentance and he talks about gospel repentance.

So this is our point two and point three.

Point number two, religious repentance begins in fear.

See, religion makes uh repentance self-centered.

We're sorry, but we're just trying to escape punishment with nothing more than fear as our motive.

So we're not truly sorry for the sin.

We're only sorry that we think we might get in trouble.

So we're only sorry for the pain that it might cause us, or we're only truly sorry for the possible consequence.

So we're not sorry for the sin itself.

We're not truly repentant.

We're just selfish.

We're selfishly sorry for what might happen to us.

So of course you're religiously repentant, but of course there's no change.

Or maybe you're thinking, okay, I'll just beat myself up enough, right?

Like it takes its form in self-pity, like a religious self-pity.

I'll beat myself up enough, and then I'll I'll be forgiven and free.

It's still self-absorbed.

It's still fear-based.

And that's religion.

Man, is that religion?

That is a religious repentance.

It makes it on you.

Even turning repentance into your discipline, all about you, out of fear, and it's not connected to God's absolution of you and forgiveness and acceptance of you.

It has no connection to what later in the New Testament we learn, God's kindness.

God's kindness leads us to repentance.

So then it's really hard to actually face, if this is the kind of repentance we know, this religious repentance, it'd be really hard to face some real questions.

Like, have I looked down on anyone this week?

Like, what's my motive in life?

Why why do I seek other people's approval so much?

Am I and judgment on people of other races and classes?

And then why do I even do that?

Have I been wise in my decisions and with my money and my time?

Why do I keep yelling at my kids?

Why am I afraid to die?

Why can't I love my spouse like I don't want to?

See, it's really hard to face those kinds of questions out of a religious repentance because you're constantly just managing fear.

If your worth and your standing with God is up to you, eventually you just end up being a pretender or a performer because you have to pretend all that mess isn't there.

Or you have to perform in your repentance.

Your repentance just becomes a performance.

I'll never do that again, right?

Like we're like very performing in it.

And it's all out of a fear.

That you're not right with God, even though if you are in Jesus, you're already right with God.

A fear something bad might happen to you because of something you did, which is not true.

A fear that you aren't who you really thought you were, which isn't really true because your value and worth and identity is based in Jesus, not in what you do.

Well, the good news is there's another way.

And this is this gospel repentance.

That's point number three.

Gospel repentance begins in love.

Romans 2, 4, Paul expands our thoughts on repentance, and he says, God's kindness leads us to repentance.

So there's nothing to fear here, that the repentance is actually inside of God's kindness.

Jack Miller, who is a professor and a pastor, he's a mentor, many, many pastors, and he said this.

He said, repentance is our ongoing calling to collapse on Jesus, acknowledging our need and receiving his supply.

So it's a turning.

Repentance is a turning, but the turning is not about us and our effort.

The turning is about our death.

Our death into God's provision of righteousness for us, and our death into God's empowerment inside of us in his spirit.

So imagine John the Baptist in this situation in Luke 3, in this very religious situation.

He's in a renewal movement at the time.

He's a radical in the Jewish world.

He's preaching, he's sort of a bush hog, right?

Like he goes into the brush and he's just plowing through little trees and bushes and just plowing it open, like preparing a way, making a trail for Jesus to come into.

And John is here, he's preaching a high moral need, but he's also preaching this repentance.

He becomes popular, his crowd.

And what he says is he says, Hey, you need a baptism of repentance.

Now, this would be loaded language at the time.

Because a lot of these religious people, before they'd come up onto the Temple Mount to enter the presence of God, their understanding of the presence of God at the time, they would cleanse themselves in these pools of water, these baptism pools.

And this is how you cleansed yourself.

You cleansed yourself by you getting in the water.

And this is how you cleanse yourself.

And he says, ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, he comes into this ritualistic mindset and he says, No, no, no, no, no, no.

You don't, you don't need any immersion of all that ritual.

You you you need an immersion of repentance.

So not you doing something as to earn forgiveness, but you admitting you can't do something or all those some things.

But he knows all of you.

And in his kindness, he's in his kindness, he's leading you into that thinking, that acknowledgement, that feeling, that place where you understand you're you're broken and you can confess that because it's inside of God's kindness.

And in Jesus, you are forgiven and free.

Let's pretend Christy checks our online banking.

And let's pretend uh a week before she checks it, uh, we had this little conversation, and we, oh, we have, you know, we we need to dial back spending, right?

Every once in a while you have this conversation.

You know, your spending's fine, and then you like you eek eek eek, and then it's like, uh uh oh, and like look, pull it back in.

And so we had just had this conversation, we're gonna pull it back in, but I have a lunch down in Buckhead, and so I swing into the Orvis shop.

And there's not many shops for me where self-control goes out the window, but this is a shop where all of a sudden anything happens.

And let's say I walk by the fishing rod section, they have this little sales section, and I buy three new rods.

You couldn't return them, let's pretend you can't return them, it's one time only.

I mean, and this was such a deal because I was waiting for a saltwater rod, and I was waiting for, you know, and so I buy these three rods, and I get in the car and I'm driving home, and then I remember that conversation.

Oh no, like, oh, what did I do?

But I'm excited about the rods at the same time.

Let's not let's be honest about that.

And so I'm driving back and I decide, well, I just won't, I just won't tell her.

I just won't tell her.

This is how I'll this is how I'll get by with this.

I won't tell her.

Or I'll let enough time go by that when I tell her, it will sort of have passed.

But she checks online.

Let's pretend.

This is a pretend scenario, mind you.

Let's pretend she checks, it really is a pretend.

I'm not saying that it really is.

So let's pretend she checks online and she sees it, and she's like, what is that?

He went to Orvis again.

And so I get home and she says, Hey, babe.

I saw, I was looking online, I was checking some stuff, and uh I saw you went to Orvis.

Like right then, right?

The light's on me, right?

Right then.

I'm caught.

Now if she's approaching me in judgment and is accusatory, and I know a hammer is coming, maybe I get defensive.

I probably can't deny it at this point.

So maybe I just get defensive.

I I I start telling her all the money she wastes, right?

But let's say I'm pretty confident that she's just being loving.

Like she's just for us.

She's just for our family and us not being in debt.

And she's for me.

And she's just curious.

Like, hey, what was that?

Well, all of a sudden, sort of my reaction changes, doesn't it?

I come clean.

See, this is gospel repentance because the love comes first.

God's kindness leads us to repentance.

We're already secure in that in Jesus our sin was taken from us, his righteousness is given to us, we are fully beloved.

We are, we are, we are that.

Therefore, when when it comes to repentance, when it comes to repentance, it is inside of God's kindness.

Even that initial repentance you you you had when you gave your life to the Lord, that is inside of God's kindness.

That was God being kind to you.

That's how you become secure enough to say, look at my life, God.

I'm a mess.

And we said it once, right?

Like as you become a Christian, you say it, but you then you end up you end up saying it again, like I'm still a mess.

I know I'm yours, but I'm I'm still a mess.

I'm still a process.

And we can repent because we know we know God loves us in Jesus.

And all of a sudden, repentance is suddenly good news.

It's not depressing.

In that article, Tim Keller's article, All of Life is Repentance, he says this our hope, our hope is in Christ's righteousness, not our own.

So it is not traumatic to admit our weaknesses and lapses.

In religion, we repent less and less often.

But the more accepted and loved in the gospel we feel, the more and more often we will be repenting.

And then I think a question comes at some point, at least for me, it's like, okay, well, but is my repentance enough?

Like, was that enough repentance?

Or like, did I feel it enough?

Right?

Like, like, okay, I repented, but was there enough, uh, was there enough in me up like in it?

Like, did I really mean it?

Or was it like fifty- was I at like 50% on that repentance level?

You remember the story of the prodigal son, right?

Like the son, he gets his dad's uh inheritance, he runs off, he squanders it, he wastes all the money.

Before long, he's he's he's longing for food that pigs are eating, and he wonders, maybe I'll go home to dad.

And on the way home, he prays this little speech, he prepares a speech, like the speech of repentance.

I've sinned before you, I've sinned before God.

And as he returns home, and in this act of repentance, can you imagine this moment?

He's wondering, what am I gonna get from dad?

We're sort of wondering it, if we're reading the story for the first time, we're wondering what are you gonna get from dad because this character, the father, is for us in the story, this is the symbol of God.

And the emphasis is not on the son, and the emphasis is not on how genuinely he believes.

Although he does believe, because he's there.

The emphasis is on the love of the father, and that the father receives him in love.

And it's not because the son has the right measure of being contrite.

It's because the son is there and is contrite.

And the father's love takes over from there.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you live in the immersion of God's kindness to you that leads you to repentance, and may you live in great repentance.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that repentance is such a gift.

Forgive us for the ways that we have allowed it to be fear-based, that we have made it into something that is depressing rather than something that is freeing.

Help us to see that honesty, confession, collapsing on Jesus, for you to be our provision and receiving you for the empowerment by which we understand ourselves and live our lives, that there's nothing greater.

For so many of us, we need to reframe our thinking on repentance.

We need to allow our hearts to come around the idea of repentance in a new way.

That when we have light shined on us by your Holy Spirit, that we would not run, we would know that it is your kindness, that it is a kind light, that your kindness leads us to repentance.

Help us to trust greater in Jesus' righteous record for us.

Help us to trust greater in his sufficiency on the cross for us, that we might be more and more secure as your children, and we might repent more and more as we walk the walk of faith.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.