Repentance

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 16th of March, 2025, the second Sunday in Lent.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

We are now in the second week of our season of Lent, our time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to look deep within ourselves to see if we are living the way God wants us to live.  And if we see something we know is not pleasing to God, if the Holy Spirit convicts us of some bad behavior, or even some bad feelings, we need to repent of that sin.  We need to stop dwelling on whatever it is that takes our focus away from God and the things of heaven.

Turning our mindset away from the world and worldly things and solely toward God is not easy.  We live in the world and deal with the world every day.  But we must not let the world mold us into its image, for we were created in the image of God in His three persons.  True repentance allows us to keep that image intact.

Now being stubborn and unrepentant can carry a risk of dire consequences.  Our bible has a number of examples of what might happen if we fail, and especially if we refuse, to repent of our disobedience to God.

I’m sure you remember the story of Jonah.  God told him to go to Nineveh and warn the people there that He – God – would destroy them if they did not turn from their evil ways.  Well, as it turns out, Jonah hated the Ninevites.  He hated them so much that he wanted God to destroy them all.  So rather than go warn them to repent, he went in the opposite direction, trying to get away from doing what God commanded.

We know that God knows all and sees all, and He saw Jonah’s heart.  So to give Jonah time to cool down and think over his rebellious nature, God had him swallowed up by a huge fish, where he sat for three days.

Let’s let Jonah finish the story.  Please listen and follow along to a part we sometimes overlook, the effects of his work in Nineveh, as told by the reluctant prophet himself in the 3rd chapter of the book bearing his name, and I’ll be reading from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1-2 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again: “Go to that great city, Nineveh,” he said, “and warn them of their doom, as I told you to before!”

3 So Jonah obeyed and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city with many villages around it — so large that it would take three days to walk through it.

4-5 But the very first day when Jonah entered the city and began to preach, the people repented. Jonah shouted to the crowds that gathered around him, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” And they believed him and declared a fast; from the king on down, everyone put on sackcloth — the rough, coarse garments worn at times of mourning.

6 For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, laid aside his royal robes, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And the king and his nobles sent this message throughout the city: “Let no one, not even the animals, eat anything at all, nor even drink any water. 8 Everyone must wear sackcloth and cry mightily to God, and let everyone turn from his evil ways, from his violence and robbing. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will decide to let us live and will hold back His fierce anger from destroying us.”

10 And when God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, He abandoned His plan to destroy them and didn’t carry it through.

--Jonah 3 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the time and opportunity to consider our disobedient ways and turn from them, giving You our focus.  Thank You for the many opportunities You give us to repent.  And thank You so much for all the examples warning us if we become too set in our ways, to comfortable in our sin to repent.  Sometimes, Father, we do find it too easy to just do what the world wants us to do, ignoring Your many blessings, depending more on ourselves than on You and the guidance of Your Spirit within us.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  Strengthen us to turn away from the ways of the world and back fully to You.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying time.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Someone once stated that, "If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in."  This makes sense when we consider that all of us are sinners, all of us have something to repent of.  And some sins are easier to turn from than others.  A gentleman by the name of Josh Billings wisely noted that, "It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit."  And then there's the unknown wit who remarked that, "Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways."  Thread can be easily broken, just as our resolve to be a better person can be easily broken.

This is why we need this season of Lent, to reflect on what we are doing wrong in God’s eyes, and to strengthen our resolve to do better.  We don’t have to put on sackcloth and sit in ashes.  We just need to stop doing whatever the Spirit convicts us of, and start doing more of what God commands.

In our scripture reading, Jonah finally relented and carried out God’s will, for himself and the Ninevites.  I bet being in the belly of a fish for three days would help cure any of us of our stubbornness.  You might even say that he was resurrected after his time in the fish, his three day period of reflection.  So he set about carrying God’s warning to the people, that in forty days they would be utterly destroyed.

Now, pay attention to those numbers.  Jonah was released from the fish on the third day, just as Jesus left the tomb on the third day.  In numerology, three is the number of God – God in His three persons.  When we see three mentioned, we know it is a divine event, something done according to God’s will.  Four is the number associated with man – the physical creation of God.  God gave Nineveh forty days – ten times four – to get their act together.  Nineveh was a large city, so large it would take three days to walk all around it.  Three and four again.

But as it turns our, the people of Nineveh didn’t need God’s three days to heed His servant’s message.  They began repenting on the very first day of Jonah shouting out God’s warning.  Even the king humbled himself before God and repented of his disobedience.  So God stayed His hand and the people of Nineveh were spared.

But the story of Jonah didn’t end there in the Old Testament pages of history.  Jesus reminded the people of His day of the miraculous event causing Jonah to repent, and of the prophet’s impact on the people of Nineveh.

On one of those occasions after ridding a man possessed of an evil spirit, a mute demon, some in the crowd accused Him of working under the power and authority of the devil while some praised Him.  Listen to the response Jesus gave them, as reported by the Apostle Luke in the 11th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 29 through 32…

29-30 As the crowd pressed in upon Him, He preached them this sermon: "These are evil times, with evil people. They keep asking for some strange happening in the skies to prove I am the Messiah, but the only proof I will give them is a miracle like that of Jonah, whose experiences proved to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. My similar experience will prove that God has sent Me to these people.

31 "And at the Judgment Day the queen of Sheba shall arise and point her finger at this generation, condemning it, for she went on a long, hard journey to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; but one far greater than Solomon is here and few pay any attention.

32 "The men of Nineveh, too, shall arise and condemn this nation, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and someone far greater than Jonah is here, but this nation won’t listen."

--Luke 11:29-32 (TLB)

Just as God showed He had sent Jonah as His messenger by first having him swallowed up and then released from the big fish, so God showed He had sent Jesus as His Messiah by all the signs and wonders He did, including freeing this man from a demon’s grasp.  Those who condemned Jesus for this will themselves be condemned by the people Jonah helped save – the Ninevites.

The Ninevites were spared destruction because they repented.  And we will be spared destruction – eternal destruction – if we too turn from our sin and turn fully to God.  This is the power of repentance, and the reward for turning from our evil ways and disobedience.  This is the warning of Jonah and the promise of Jesus.  Oh, and this is also the warning Jesus gave, echoing the words of John the Baptist when He commanded us to, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Family, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the earth’s day of reckoning is nearing closer and closer.  Lent is the perfect and appropriate time for us to repent, to turn from our sinful ways, to stop disobeying God and Jesus, to rid ourselves of hateful thoughts and cruel deeds, and turn our full attention to pleasing God.  Let us repent now, while there is still time, before we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to do it in.  In the precious name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who will come again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for forgiving us of our sin through the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus.  Thank You for this great and wholly undeserved gift.  But Father, we struggle to completely turn from our sinful, worldly ways.  We have those sins that we’re just too comfortable with, that we can’t seem to shake loose.  Too often we let the world tell us what to do, dictate to us how we should live.  Please, loving Father, forgive us for our unrepentant, stubborn attitude.  Please help us set the worldly ways aside and turn fully toward You and the things of heaven.

Strengthen us, Father, to reach out to others and show them Your love by giving of ourselves in their service, in Your service, just as Jesus did.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  Help us pave the way for Your Spirit to do His work on them.

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You reminded us of how the stubborn, disobedient Ninevites repented of their evil ways and were spared God’s destruction.  And You warned us to follow their example, and not that of those who refuse to listen and repent.  But Jesus, we know that we don’t always behave in a way that pleases God.  We know we too can be stubborn.  We can easily get too hung up on how the world acts and reacts, not living as God wills us to live.  Please forgive us our failures, Lord.  Keep reminding us that we need repentance to freshen our spirits and our souls.  Help us please our heavenly Father.

Holy Spirit, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing God’s love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to bring more followers to Jesus.

And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.