The Cross and Repentance

The Cross and Repentance

(Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-9; Luke 13:1-5)

10:30 am, Lent 3, Sunday, March 3, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

I carried a cross yesterday. It was this one, behind me. I was looking for the bigger one, but I found the two smaller ones, so I thought this one would do. One more cross to attract our attention in these weeks before Good Friday and Easter.

The Cross is to be what I bring out for you all the time, in my ministry. Pastors preach “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” if we follow Paul's lead, in 1 Corinthians 2. This is what we mean by “the Cross.” The Cross is the event, an action: the execution of Jesus. We don't mean the actual wooden implement of torture and death. “The Cross” stands for Jesus' sacrifice that day.

Our songs of faith, old and new, declare the cross event as the centre of what God does for us. From 300 years ago, this lyric:

When I survey the wondrous Cross,

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride. (Isaac Watts)

From ten years ago:

Wonderful, so wonderful, is Your unfailing love.

Your cross has spoken mercy over me. (Tim Hughes)

Today we consider one thing that can happen when we survey the wondrous cross: we humans repent. What Jesus does for us calls for a response. Part of our response is to repent.

The Bible does not actually use the word “cross” very often. One bit that does, and speaks of our repentance is 1 Peter 2: 24-25. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. Repentance is a turnaround. When I repent, I change direction; I turn from one thing towards something else. It usually requires action. It involves the mind, the heart, and the will to act. We confess, and we make things right.

The Peanuts comic strip often has had Lucy and Charlie Brown practicing football. Every time Lucy had ever held the ball for Charlie, he would approach the ball and kick with all his might. At the precise moment of the point of no return, Lucy would pick up the ball and Charlie would fall flat on his back.

One strip opened with Lucy holding the ball, but Charlie Brown would not kick the ball. Lucy begged him to kick the ball. But Charlie Brown said, "Every time I try to kick the ball you remove it and I fall on my back."

They went back and forth for the longest time and finally Lucy broke down in tears and admitted, "Charlie Brown I have been so terrible to you over the years, picking up the football like I have. I have played so many cruel tricks on you, but I’ve seen the error of my ways! I’ve seen the hurt look in your eyes when I’ve deceived you. I’ve been wrong, so wrong. Won’t you give a poor penitent girl another chance?"

Charlie Brown was moved by her display of grief and responded to her, "Of course, I’ll give you another chance." He stepped back as she held the ball, and he ran. At the last moment, Lucy picked up the ball and Charlie Brown fell flat on his back.

Lucy’s last words were, "Recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown!"

To repent in the face of what Jesus has done at the Cross is a change of our ways, not just a recognition of our fault. Jesus once said: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

The repentance called for by prophets and preachers is a turn from being our own god, and turning toward following a new god, The God. Isaiah and others called for repentance. Today we heard Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD... To forsake your way, and return to the Lord. Jesus called for repentance. Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

If Christ appeared in the flesh in Windsor this weekend, and was invited to be our guest preacher, what might He say today? WWJD: What Would Jesus Declare? I think it would still be “Repent, my Kingdom is at hand.”

There are many moments when repentance is needed. There is, of course, the repentance of one who is not yet “in Christ,” one who needs to join Jesus for the first time by being cleansed and saved. Accepting the power of the Cross to free us and make us new is a choice we have. Jesus makes the offer, as he bears our sins in his body on the cross, and we each respond.

The good news about how repentance works is spelled out in the words of Isaiah 55, which first were proclaimed long before that Cross on the hill called Calvary. The same God works the same way throughout history.

The Lord God is freely available. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! (1) Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near... (6) Jesus came and claimed the Kingdom had come near! And His beatitudes, the start of His Sermon on the Mount, may proclaim that this is available to everyone – every one. Everyone in every life situation can be truly blessed, by being in God's Kingdom.

Isaiah 55 teaches us that the wicked may forsake their way, and the unrighteous can forsake their thoughts. (7) Turning away from what's wrong on the outside, and the inside, are both possible, with our God.

People can return to God, says Isaiah 55(7). Let them return to the LORD... When sin and evil separate us from the Lord, when intellectual disbelief about God separates us, when sadness and trouble and injustice keep God far away – there can still be a return. When making peace with God seems impossible to a human, it is still possible for the Lord. The Cross of Jesus shows the ultimate distance God's willing to go to bring us back to Him.

God will have mercy and pardon. This is God's heart.

Did you hear? Pardons are running out!? Online there are adverts saying this about pardons for your criminal record: Sign up now and we can guarantee your pardon will not be affected by the deadline. The deadline to get a pardon is fast approaching so you’d better get started. I just need your credit card number.

Not true. Not true about legal pardons in Canada, and not true about pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the cancellation of the relevant penalty, according to Wikipedia. Theologically, this is also true.

So, God's mercy and pardon are not running out. God's ways are so BIG and beyond us. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. (8)

As the Cross of Christ draws the attention of our souls, we who are saved, redeemed believers know our continuing need to repent. There is repentance for those who are already “in Christ” and part of His “Body,” the Church. Turning our life over to Jesus keeps going, week by week, year by year.

We are learning about this already in 2013.

Repent: turn from being a fan of Jesus; be a follower of Jesus! I gave a sermon about two years ago, asking if Jesus was a celebrity for us, or a Saviour? “Not a Fan” is the same theme.

Repent: turn from a gospel of sin management, to the gospel that saves the whole person, to discipleship in all of life.

Repent of being first in your own life, number one, and say “I am second.” If you are second, who is number one?

We must keep asking this when we are together, when we are a church, such is this one that we are: Windsor Baptist. Do we not need to turn from some of our usual ways, to better ways that Christ would lead us in today? Repentance is a matter of the fellowship, not just Christians one by one.

Lesslie Newbigin, missionary (Mission in Christ’s Way):

I remember once visiting a village in the Madras diocese. There was no road into the village; you reached it by crossing a river, and you could do this either on the south side of the village or on the north. The congregation had decided that I would come by the southern route, and they had prepared a welcome such as only an Indian village can prepare. There was music and fireworks and garlands and fruit and a ceremonial martial arts display ready (silumbum)—everything you can imagine. Unfortunately I entered the village at the north end and found only a few goats and chickens. Crisis! I had to disappear while word was sent to the assembled congregation, and the entire village did a sort of U-turn so as to face the other way. Then I duly reappeared.

I like this story of a physical turnaround of a whole village. Indeed, the repentance of a group is what the Lord sometimes needs from us.

A few of you may know the story of Matt Redman's 1999 song, Heart of Worship. His home congregation in England was struggling, in the midst of the revival of worship going on they'd been part of. The church Pastor called for a break: no sound system, no band and singers, no instruments. Worship without it. From out of that time, Redman wrote that song...

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You, It's all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You, It's all about You, Jesus.

Is worship our God? For some of us this replaces God. It happens to me! When what we like in music and teaching interests us more than Christ Himself, we need to make a turnaround... repent.

Or, is prayer for those who are ill our God? It can become so. We build a faith upon getting that healing power flowing to those on our list. Do we long to know the Lord more than we want healing in people's bodies here on earth? We may need to find how to turn to Almighty God. He is the Healer, yes, but He is bigger than the healing that goes on.

Many other examples we might ponder, as we remember and get in touch the with Cross of Jesus. He was lifted up to draw all people to Him. That is the fist and final thing. To be with Him. On our own, and together, there are ways for us to repent, to turn afresh to Jesus.

Hear again those phrases from 1 Peter 2:24&25

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

AMEN.