Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Repentance Really Is | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 3.1-14

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. One thing every Christian knows about themselves is that they are sinners. Yes, they trust in Christ. Yes, they want to follow Jesus. But every Christian knows that they continue to sin and that they are guilty of their own sin.

Starting point is 00:00:34 So how do we process our own sin? How do we think about it? How do we deal with it? Do we just ignore it? Kind of flip it over? Like when I was a kid, if I spilled something on a seat cushion in the living room, what I would do is I would flip it over so that maybe no one would see it. Is that how we're supposed to deal with sin is we just kind of hide it from other people, from ourselves, and hope that God won't see it? I don't think that's what God has in mind. The Bible calls us to repent of our sin. Now, when we hear the word repent, we sometimes imagine that we're supposed to feel guilty or naughty for our sin. But that's not what repent means. Repent means to change direction.

Starting point is 00:01:23 In order to change direction, you've got to kind of own your sin, take it to God, and ask him to change you. Let me tell you what repentance isn't. And let me do that in a brief story about a guy named Jim Baker. Jim and Tammy Fay Baker were a married couple who started a television ministry that kind of became this big empire. It was well known on Christian television stations, but also they developed a big theme park. It was a big deal. There's a guy in our church, John Wigger, who has written a book about them that I can't can't recommend highly enough. It's called PtL, as in praise the Lord, PtL, the rise and fall of Jim

Starting point is 00:02:06 and Tammy Faye Baker's Evangelical Empire. Super interesting, well-written book. I'd encourage you to check it out if you want to know more about them. But back to the story, one of the things that got Jim Baker in trouble, not the only one, but one of them is that he had an affair. He committed adultery on his wife. And when that all came to light and it was going to be made public He issued an apology, a statement repenting, if you will, from his sins. Let me just read it. It's just a few lines, but let me just read it and see if you can spot any problems with it. Here it goes.

Starting point is 00:02:42 I sorrowfully acknowledged that seven years ago, in an isolated incident, I was wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends and then colleagues who victimized me with the aid of a female Confederate. They conspired to betray me into a sexual encounter at a time. of great stress in my marital life. Vulnerable as I was at the time, I was set up as part of a scheme to co-op me and obtained some advantage for themselves over me in connection with their hope for position in the ministry. Wow. Wow. I mean, if that's anything, it's not repentance. I mean, it's just kind of obvious that what he's doing is blaming other people. He's a victim. He's sort of blaming his wife for their marital stress. He's for sure blaming other people for setting him up.

Starting point is 00:03:32 He was just this innocent guy who got taken advantage of because other people were trying to climb in a position in the ministry, trying to gain power. And, you know, it was a long time ago. It was seven years ago. It was isolated. There's really nothing to see here. Keep going. That's the impression you get from that quote, unquote, repentance of Jim Baker. Now, I don't think John the Baptist would be impressed with Jim Baker's repentance. John the Baptist is the person we find in Luke chapter 3. If you know the story of the Bible, you know that the Old Testament prophets that said, there would be one who came before Jesus, kind of preparing the way for Jesus.

Starting point is 00:04:18 And that person is John the Baptist. And he goes out and speaks to a crowd of people and listen to what he says, to them. When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, you brood of snakes, who warned you to flee the coming wrath? So immediately we see that John is not very seeker sensitive. He doesn't pull many punches. He goes on to say, prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. There's so much in that statement. But let me just say it again, real quick. Prove by the way you live, that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. So that tells us a little bit about what repentance is. It's not feeling guilty or naughty. It is turning from our sin and turning

Starting point is 00:05:09 toward God. If sin is running away from God, repentance is stopping and turning back toward God. And he says that we are going to prove that by the way we live. In other words, repentance may be something that starts in our heart, but it always bubbles up into our life. It starts with our heart, but is always evidenced in how we live. And then he says that we are to prove it, prove by the way you live. In other words, there's a certain kind of repentance out there that could be labeled false repentance, and so we prove our repentance is true or genuine by the change that comes in our life. So the crowds hear this. and they ask, what should we do? And John replies in verse 11, if you have two shirts, give one to the

Starting point is 00:06:00 poor, if you have food, share it with those that were hungry. Then tax collectors say, well, what should we do? And he says to them, collect no more taxes than the government requires. And then some soldiers come along and they ask, what should we do? And he says, don't extort money or make false accusations, and be content with your pay. So a couple quick things to notice, first is that These are actions. He's talking about the way repentance will be revealed in our life. We will start obeying God. And listen to how we obey him. Well, we obey him by being kind to those who are hungrier in need. Or when it comes to the tax collector and the soldier, our repentance is shown by the way we do our job. So I think these are real life specific examples for these people in Luke 3.

Starting point is 00:06:52 but of course there's a principle that we can apply to our life, and that is that when we repent, we want to turn from our sin, turn to God, and that will be demonstrated in our words or actions or thoughts, how we live our life. See, the reality is that we are all a little bit like Jim Baker. And all I mean by that is that we have a tendency to minimize our sin. We have a tendency to be more sorry that we got. caught than grieved over our sin. More sorry that we're embarrassed or there are negative consequences

Starting point is 00:07:27 for our sin than really being grieved that we've dishonored God and hurt ourselves and maybe even damaged some other people. So we tend to minimize our sin. We tend to excuse our sin. We say things like, well, that's just my personality. You know, I can't help, but I'm wired that way. I was having a really bad day. The kids didn't get much sleep last night. My allergies were bad. It was a stressful day at work. or we try to blame the other person for taking it the wrong way. Hey, can't you tell I was just joking? Like, why do you make such a big deal out of things? Our tendency is to minimize and hide and blame others and cast ourselves somehow as a victim

Starting point is 00:08:10 instead of just owning it and saying, I blew it, I sinned, I was wrong, and I want to turn from it. I want to turn from my sin and back toward God. Proverbs 2813 says this. Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. See, my tendency is to conceal my sin because I think that that is what will make me happy. But Proverbs 2813 says, no, those who conceal sin, they don't prosper. The one who confesses and renounces them?

Starting point is 00:08:47 Well, that's the person who finds mercy. turn from your sin and turn to God. And what you find when you do that is that God is there in love and mercy and kindness and forgiveness and grace. God always has his arms open. He always invites you back toward him. And if you want to turn from your sin and turn to God, he will never reject you. Maybe where you are right now or maybe the night before you go to bed, what if you just ask God?

Starting point is 00:09:15 What if you just ask him, Lord, shine your spotlight. into my heart and expose anything in my life that you want me to deal with today. And then whatever God brings to your mind, own it, admit it. Don't blame anyone else. Say, yes, Father, I've sinned against you. I've sinned against others. Whatever the case may be, forgive me, God. I want to repent of that sin. I want to turn from it and turn to you. Give me the grace to do that. Help me, Jesus. to follow you, to obey you. Thank you that you forgive sinners like me.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Amen. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Repentance Really Is | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 3.1-14

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.