Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : March 14, 2004
It Is Time to Repent
Lent 3
Last week when I was on vacation, I was lazily paddling down the river soaking in the sunlight on a bright, warm, 80-degree day. The birds were singing, there was a slight breeze so it wasn't too hot—everything was perfect. Until I began to hear something that filled my heart with dread -— the rushing of water. Suddenly I realized that I had lost track of time, and now I was heading right toward a 100-foot waterfall. I started to paddle furiously upstream against the strong current, but to no avail. I was frantic. I looked for anything or anyone that could save me, but there was nothing; no one could hear my cry for help. Then, just as I was about to go over the 100-foot waterfall to my certain death, I woke up in bed. It didn't bother me that I wasn't on vacation anymore. It didn't bother me that it was 20 degrees outside with snow still visible under some of the evergreens. I was alive, and that's all that mattered.
For many people, though, it isn't a dream. They aren't floating down a river to a deadly waterfall; they are floating through this world without knowing Jesus and his forgiveness, which is worse by far, because if they aren't woken up, they will die eternally.
Jesus tells us in our text for today that it's time to repent. Whether we have known Jesus for sixty years or for sixty seconds, or if we don't know Jesus at all, it is time to repent because we don't know when our time to die will come. It's time to repent because death comes to all sinners, but it's also time to repent because saved sinners produce the fruit of repentance.
We find Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. There he knew he would lay down his life for the sins of the world. But you and I don't have the benefit of being God himself, so we don't know when our death will come. The same was true of course for the people at Jesus' time. Two incidents in the words before us tell us that.
The first is an incident that shows us the ruthlessness of the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, before whom Jesus would soon stand. Apparently, Pilate had decided that whatever some Galileans had done was intolerable. The result —- Pilate attacked these Galileans in the temple at Jerusalem and killed them as they were offering sacrifices to God. So the blood of the Galileans was mixed with the blood of the sacrifices they were making. Obviously this was a very violent and unexpected death. We aren't told what the Galileans did, if anything, to deserve such a death. But Jesus tells us why they died. "Jesus answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.' " Jesus tells us that they died because they sinned, plain and simple.
Maybe you know someone who has had to deal with a similar tragedy. Someone breaks into a home and senselessly murders a family. We are at first horrified at what has happened. But horror gives way to hatred. We want that murderer brought to justice, and rightfully so. God says that whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. But then we might start thinking about how this happened in the first place. Did the victims do something horrible to deserve such a death? Then we might start to think how God could allow such a thing to happen. And you can think of any tragedy that has happened to people you know, or maybe even to you yourself. But Jesus says that people don't die horrible deaths because they've committed some particularly horrible sin. People die horrible deaths because they are horrible sinners, and "the wages of sin is death." You and I are included.
Jesus then gives another example to drive the point home. He speaks this time of an accidental death where some people were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eighteen people died in a freak accident when one of the towers of the wall that surrounded Jerusalem fell on them. Both of the horrible situations Jesus brings up reminds us of what happened 2 1/2 years ago in New York City. Thousands of people were senselessly, brutally murdered —- they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, they didn't die because of some particularly terrible sin they had done. They died because sin is terrible. Everyone who died in New York was guilty of horrible crimes —- not against humanity, but against God. That's how horrible sin is.
You and I will die a horrible death. How do I know that? Because any death is horrible, whether it's a senseless murder or a person being in the wrong place at the wrong time, whether it's a child and mother who are killed by a drunk driver, leaving more children behind to pick up the pieces of a shattered life, or whether it's a 95-year-old who dies in his sleep. All death is horrible because God never created death. It was never a part of his perfect creation. Some people even start to blame God for some death in their family. They blame God for allowing someone to die. But God is not to blame —- that person is to blame, because they were a sinner. If they weren't a sinner they wouldn't have died. But death is a part of life now because, as Paul says, "Death came to all men because all sinned." That is why Jesus tells us twice very plainly, "Unless you repent, you too will all perish."
Are you harboring some sin that you haven't repented of? Are you involved is a particular lifestyle that God forbids in his word? Listen to what God says in 1 Corinthians 5:11 -- "You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." Are we sexually immoral? Are we greedy? Do we destroy someone's good name by what we say? Do we get trashed on a regular basis, thinking we can come to church on Sunday and everything will be fine? If we do, God tells us that Christians shouldn't be seen with us, so it doesn't look like believers tolerate sinful actions. Why does God say this is so serious? Listen to what he says a few verses later: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) We might not be guilty of that whole list, but we sure are guilty of a good number of those sins. And if we are, then we won't be going to heaven.
Did that get your attention? It got my attention. Whenever a person dies in this world, it is a tragedy. Sometimes we might point our finger at the person and say it was because of some terrible sin, not remembering that every sin is terrible because it separates a person from God, including us. Sometimes we might point a finger at God and demand an answer, maybe even blaming him for what happened.
But we are the ones who are in the wrong. We are the sinners. We deserve nothing but eternal death for ours sins. We need to repent. When we do so, we will see what God did to rescue us from sin and death.
Jesus showed vividly what our God has done for us sinners in a parable.
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' "
Who is the owner of the vineyard? God himself. Every sinner is planted in his vineyard -— the world. When God looked at us, all he saw was people who wanted nothing to do with God, people who could only sin against God. For three years the owner looked for fruit on his fig tree, but didn't find any -— each year he is disappointed. What would you do if you bought a sapling and planted it in your yard and it didn't show any signs of life for three years? You'd cut it down and get a new one because obviously the tree is dead. We are that fig tree by nature -— dead as old stumps, dead in our sins, unable to produce any fruit that pleases God. So God is disappointed.
Disappointed. That's one of the worst things a parent can tell a child. If we do something bad, and we know we're going to get it when we get home, we are prepared for whatever punishment they dole out on us because we've earned it. But the worst thing a parent can say, after looking at us for a few moments, is: "I'm just disappointed," and then walk away. Then we know we've done something really bad. And that's what God says to us when he looks at us, expecting good from us because he created our parents Adam and Eve perfect. He looks at us and says, "I'm disappointed." But he doesn't walk away.
God didn't want us to die in our sins. As Paul said to the Ephesians, "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -— it is by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:4-5) How was God able to do that? Because of the work of the man who took care of the vineyard. Who is he? Jesus, God's Son. Notice the care and love he has for these dead trees when he talks to the owner of the vineyard: " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it.' " In other words, that man would take every step necessary to make sure that tree would grow and produce fruit that would please the owner of the vineyard. In the same way, Jesus would take every step necessary to make sure that all of our sins that cause our death would be taken away and paid for completely. Instead of our sins causing us to die, our sins would be placed on Jesus, and they would cause him to suffer and die in our place. So, instead of being disappointed with us, God looked at his own Son Jesus, who took all our sins on himself, and said to him, "I'm disappointed." And he walked away from his Son when he abandoned him on the cross. That's where Jesus paid the debt of hell for all of our sins.
But that's not all. Jesus gives us his perfection, his perfect fruit, hangs it on our dead branches. Now, instead of God being disappointed with us, he sees us doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing, he sees perfect fruit on our dead branches, because we have Jesus righteous fruit on us.
But at the same time another amazing thing happens. We are made alive in Christ. Recall what Paul said to the Ephesians: "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -— it is by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:4,5) Do you remember that list of sins that keeps people out of heaven? We have all committed some of those sins and should be excluded from eternal life. But then Jesus enters the picture. Listen to what Paul says happens as a result: "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11)
We are now able to produce fruit ourselves that is pleasing to God. These fruits don't get us into heaven, but they show God how much we love him for giving us heaven through Jesus, though the forgiveness Jesus earned for us.
Everyone is in the same boat. We are all headed to that waterfall and certain death. We could do nothing to prevent it. And it's no dream. But Jesus paddled up alongside of us, grabbed hold of us and placed us in his boat that goes against the current upstream to heaven. And he takes our place in our boat as it goes over the falls to the death we deserved. But Jesus lives. He rose from the dead. He ascended to heaven. He is waiting for us there. He'll help us out of the boat he gave us when we get to heaven.
So what do we do in the meantime? We are headed to heaven through faith in Jesus. But look at all the boats that are still filled with people who don't know and believe in Jesus. They are going toward the falls, toward eternal death. They will go there...unless we reach out to them and pull them into our boat by telling them, "It's time to repent," and then point them to Jesus who took away their sins, gave them his perfect fruit, and gave them heaven. Amen.
