Repentance

28 January 2015

Opening Prayer/Worship

Hymn: I Am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy Voice

Theme: The Body of Christ

Topic: Repentance

Reading: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ²‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ ³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. ⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ ⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Introduction

Repentance implies self-criticism followed by tangible change in the areas we fall short.  For the Christian, it is brought out about through hearing the Word of God and responding to conviction of the Holy Spirit to make amends.  God makes it clear in His Word that He does not desire for any to perish, but rather that we should all come to the knowledge of His love for us in Christ Jesus.  In the story of Jonah, it was not only the people of Nineveh that needed repentance, but also God’s prophet, Jonah.  Similarly, we can get complacent with areas in our lives that need to be changed.  It may even be that like Jonah, we need to change our view of ‘sinners’.  The Scripture says that no one is perfect before God except through Christ.  Before the Cross of Christ, we are all the same.  The sinner who prayed a prayer of repentance went home more justified than the Pharisee that sang his own praises.  As we bring our failures, weaknesses, fears, and sins before the Lord in repentance, He will forgive us and enable us love and live for Him.   

Questions/Discussion

1. What is repentance?

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Psalm 51:1-19

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions. 
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin. 

³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me. 
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
   and blameless when you pass judgement. 
⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me. 

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being;
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities. 

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right spirit within me. 
¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
   and do not take your holy spirit from me. 
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and sustain in me a willing spirit. 

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you. 
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
   O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare your praise. 
¹⁶ For you have no delight in sacrifice;
   if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased. 
¹⁷ The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
   rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 
¹⁹ then you will delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

1 John 1:5-10

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2. What are the lessons for us in Mark 1:14-20 regarding repentance?

Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ ¹⁶ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen.¹⁷And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, ³⁰and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, ³¹and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

3. Discuss some of the challenges to repentance.  How do we overcome them?

Psalm 62:6-14

Refrain: Take refuge in God, all you people.

For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken. R In God is my safety and my honour; God is my strong rock and my refuge. Put your trust in him always, O people, pour out your hearts before him, for God is our refuge. R Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath, even those of low estate cannot be trusted. On the scales they are lighter than a breath, all of them together. R Put no trust in extortion; in robbery take no empty pride; though wealth increase, set not your heart upon it. R God has spoken once, twice have I heard it, that power belongs to God. Steadfast love is yours, O Lord, for you repay everyone according to his deeds. R

Luke 18:9-14

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector.¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” ¹³But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Hebrews 3:7-19, 4:1-3

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today, if you hear his voice, 
⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
   as on the day of testing in the wilderness, 
⁹ where your ancestors put me to the test,
   though they had seen my works ¹⁰for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
   and they have not known my ways.” 
¹¹ As in my anger I swore,
   “They will not enter my rest.” ’ 
¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.¹⁵As it is said,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ 
¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? ¹⁷But with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

^4:1-3 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.

Intercession/Worship

Conclusion

As we bring our failures, weaknesses, fears, and sins before the Lord in repentance, He will forgive us and enable us love and live for Him.

Closing Prayer (Collect for Third Sunday after the Epiphany)

Almighty God, your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ is the light of the world. May your people, illumined by your word and sacraments, shine with the radiance of his glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.