Repent and Believe

Can you imagine what it would be like to receive news that you had a life-threatening disease?  Maybe you, a close family member, or a friend has been in an accident or has gotten news that they had a terminal illness.  Hearing that bad news would make our hearts sink with hopelessness.  What if at some point after this news you got news that there was treatment or there was the possibility of a cure?  Hearing that good news would make our hearts leap with joy!  What if you or someone you loved were in an accident or had a life-threatening disease and there was treatment or a cure, but no one told you about it?  That would be unimaginably cruel.  If someone had treatment or a cure in a life-threatening situation, they would do anything to make sure the one who needed it heard the news.  And that is exactly why Jesus came . . .

READ:  Luke 4:42-44

Jesus came to preach the GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom!  The reason Jesus Christ was sent to the earth was to proclaim the “good news of the Kingdom of God”.  Good news about Himself, good news about who He was, and good news about what He came to do!  Good news for anyone and everyone who would respond to His message.  How are we to respond to the good news of the Kingdom?

The Kingdom is good news we respond to with REPENTANCE (Mk. 1:15; Mt. 4:17) – Have you ever changed your mind about something?  Changing our mind is hard.  Changing our mind requires admitting that we were wrong.  REPENTANCE is a complete change of MIND or ATTITUDE about something.  I thought A before, but now I think B.  What I think and feel now is different from what I thought and felt before.  In Luke 5:32 Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” In order to be a part of the Kingdom we must make a radical change of mind about our sin.  We must agree that sin is a spiritually life-threatening disease (Rom. 6:23).  We must agree with the God’s standard of what is sin.  We must agree to turn away from sin in the future (Rom. 6:11).  Repentance is more than feeling sorry, it is a decision to turn from our sinful rebellion and turn toward God’s complete rule and reign in our lives.  When we do Jesus said in Luke 15:7, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

The Kingdom is good news we respond to with BELIEF (Mk. 1:15) – There are a lot of truths that I am 100% convinced of.  I believe that the sky is blue.  I believe that the sun is hot.  I believe that gravity keeps me from floating off into space.  BELIEF is CONFIDENT TRUST (being convinced) that something is TRUE.  In order to be a part of the Kingdom we must confidently trust in who Jesus Christ is and what He has done.  One of the oldest statements of Christian belief is the “Old Roman Creed”, in use in the 2nd century, which says, “I believe in Christ Jesus (God’s) only Son, our Lord, who was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.”  Jesus said in John 3:36 that, “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.”  It’s that simple, we must be genuinely convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and that His death on the cross was payment for our sins.  We will never experience the Kingdom unless we are confident that this is true.

CONCLUSION
If you had a life-threatening disease and someone shared the cure with you, would you reject it?  I don’t think so.  In order to become a member of the Kingdom of God we must respond by receiving it with REPENTANCE and BELIEF!  We need to change our minds about our sin and confidently trust that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.  This message is the good news!  This message is the purpose for which Jesus came.  Our response to this message results in forgiveness and salvation.  Repentance and belief are not one time decisions, but attitudes and beliefs people of the Kingdom are to live by each and every day.  Have you repented of your sin and are you completely trusting in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for you?

Forgiving King

Creditors want to settle accounts.  I recently had some work done on our house that cost $600.  It had only been about 2 weeks since the work was done, but on Monday I got a call from the company and they politely reminded me of the debt I owed.  I payed the bill, but if I had waited 30 days, or 60 days, or if it had been an amount that I was unable to pay, they would have eventually turned me in to a collection agency and required me to pay them what I owed.  Those who do work or lend money, expect to be repaid and settle accounts with their customers.  How does God handle His account with us?

READ:  Matthew 18:21-35

The currency that we relate to God with is our love and obedience.  When we are obedient (righteous), our relational account balance with God is positive.  When we are disobedient (sinful), our relational account balance with God is negative.  According to Romans 3:10-12, we are all constantly making withdrawls from our account with God, “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no on seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” From the day we are born, we are accumulating an immense debt of sin toward God.  And yet, God the King has limitless FORGIVENESS toward sinners who ask for MERCY!  To what extent does God mercifully forgive us of our sin?

God mercifully forgives us of a DEBT we could NEVER repay (Mt. 18:24-27) – A single talent in this time was valued at 6,000 drachmas, the equivalent of about 20 years wages.  In modern terms, if a laborer earns $15 per hour, at 2,000 hours per year he would earn $30,000 per year, a single talent would equal $600,000.   Therefore, “ten thousand talents” represents an incalculable debt of approximately $6 billion dollars!  The debt of sin we owe to God is astronomical and not anything we should ever imagine being able to pay back.   

God mercifully forgives us of MORE than we even know to ask for (Mt. 18:26) – In spite of the servant’s unpayable debt, he does not ask for forgiveness, he asks for “patience”.  He mistakenly thought what he needed was more time to “pay everything” he owed to the king.  The king knew that being repaid was impossible, so instead of giving him patience, he “released” and “forgave” him of the debt.  If we could really understand the amount of debt our sin creates between us and God we would be shocked.  It is foolishness to think that we could ever repay our debt of sin to God.  To think that we could ever do enough to make up for our sin against God is absurd.  We are at the mercy of a great King, and the good news is that He mercifully forgives!

Our willingness to extend MERCY and FORGIVENESS to OTHERS reveals whether or not we have truly received God’s merciful forgiveness in our own lives (Mt. 18:21-22, 32-35) – A hundred denarii in this time was equivalent to 100 days wages.  In modern terms about $12,000.  This is still a large amount, but miniscule compared to the debt the servant owed the king.  In the sermon on the mount in Mt. 6:14-15 Jesus says, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Being released and forgiven of such a large debt by God should create within us the ability to release and forgive others of the tiny offenses done to us by others.  If we find it impossible or difficult to release or forgive others of sin against us, we may need to ask ourselves whether or not we have truly experienced the merciful forgiveness that God offers to all those who ask for it.

CONCLUSION

Forgiveness of sin is the greatest part of being in God’s Kingdom. Colossians 2:13-14 says, “(we) who were dead in (our) trespasses and the uncircumcision of (our) flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside by nailing it to the cross.”  God has done more than just release and forgive us of what we owe, Jesus Christ paid our debt with His own life!  Have you experienced the cancellation of the record of your debt of sin by believing in Jesus’ death on the cross for you?

Generous King

What am I going to get paid?  I’m sure that’s a question that I asked a lot as a kid.  Whether it’s mowing the lawn, cleaning our room, or getting a babysitting job, we want to know the wage we are going to get paid for our labor.   Before we put in time or energy into work, we negotiate what we feel is fair to receive in return.  We may get to a point where we are mature enough not to ask the question out loud, but that does not hide the fact that the question is still going through our mind.  We selfishly want to receive what we deserve for the work that we do!

READ:  Matthew 20:1-16

A denarius in this time was the common amount of one day’s wage.  The typical work day was 6:00am (zero hour) to 6:00pm (twelfth hour).  In this parable, the master hired laborers for his vineyard in 3 hour intervals.  Those hired at 6:00am worked for 12 hours and those hired at 5:00pm worked for 1 hour.  The controversial element in the parable is that each worker received the same wage for the day.  And not unlike any of us, those who worked the longest and the hardest “grumbled” at unfairness of their wage.

What is controversial to those who are comparing themselves to others is good news to those who are simply glad to do the work.  Whether we realize it or not, it is good news that God does not give us what we deserve.  If God gave us what we deserve, none of us would want to receive the wage we have earned!  The wage we receive for laboring in God’s Kingdom is a pure gift of His goodness and grace.  In fact, when we labor for the Kingdom, God gives us much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  Those who WORK in the Kingdom without expectation of what they will receive in return will be GENEROUSLY rewarded by God the King!  How does God determine the wages for our labor in His Kingdom?

God generously gives to each and every one of us what is RIGHT (Mt. 20:4) – Being a part of God’s Kingdom involves work.  When we put faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, God “hires” us to labor on behalf of His Kingdom.  We are laboring as fishers’ of men to make disciples.  Our labor for the Kingdom is not just a “side job”, it is to be our life’s work.  We can be confident that the reward we will receive for our work will be sufficient.  We will not be lacking.  We can fully trust God that He will give us what is “right” for any amount time and effort we invest in His Kingdom.  By selfishly demanding what we think we deserve for our time and effort we miss out on the tremendous wage God wants to give.

God CHOOSES to give, not based on what we DESERVE, but on His GENEROSITY (Mt. 20:14-15) – God determines wages for His laborers very differently from anything we could ever understand.  God does not measure our contribution to the kingdom by comparing it with the accomplishments or sacrifices of anyone else.  The wages God gives to His laborers is based solely on His gracious “choice” to be “generous”!  We need to realize how amazing it is that God does not choose to pay us a wage based on what we deserve.  In fact, the good news for us is that God chooses to give us so much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  We should be careful not to compare our labor for God’s Kingdom to someone else.  Comparing ourselves to others will cause us to grumble about what we receive, and worse, to falsely believe that God has wronged us somehow.  This selfish labor will earn us last place in God’s Kingdom.  In contrast, we should selflessly labor for God knowing that He will graciously give us above and beyond anything we could ever earn or deserve.

CONCLUSION
Do you call yourself a Christian or are you laboring in God’s Kingdom with any motive of what you will receive in return?  Colossians 3:23-24 says, “whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord and not for men, know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”  Knowing the generous character of God we are free to serve Him with everything we’ve got and without comparison because we know God will  generously give us what is right, which is much more than we deserve!