What is Repentance? | Matthew 13:1-17
Series: All!
Scripture: Matthew 13:1-17, Acts 2:37-38, 3:19, 8:22, 20:21, 26:20
Title: What is Repentance?
Heavy credit: David Platt and Douglas Sean O’Donnell (See below for bibliography)
Summary of chapter: “John the Baptist begins his ministry and baptizes Jesus. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and God declares that he is pleased with his Son.” (Outline Bible)
Bottom Line: Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of living. Entering the Kingdom of God requires repentance of sins.
Story: CWP letter, finger prints and my trip to the Goose Creek police department on a Friday afternoon. (3:58)
“Lord, keep me close and keep me clean.” -Dr. Bill Bennett, pastor and professor
Discussion questions for group and personal study:
Note: We encourage you to use our sermons and discussion questions to gather with some friends and talk about the passage together. Pray and ask God to guide you. He is faithful. Questions? Email us at info@GraceToday.net
Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast
Goal: The goal isn’t to ask every question. The goal is to encourage people to engage the scriptures together.
1. Why is it significant that John's first command had to do with repentance?
2. What is the difference between regretful confession and true repentance?
3. How are some church attenders similar to the Jews who counted on family heritage for salvation?
4. How would you counsel someone who professes Christ but shows no marks of repentance?
5. How did the arrival of the kingdom point to the nearness of both salvation and damnation?
6. How would you explain to a non-Christian that a
"hellfire and damnation" sermon expresses love?
7. Explain why John's baptism and Christian baptism appear to exclude infants.
8. How are all three members of the Trinity present in Matthew 3:15-17?
9. Why was Jesus baptized if He had no sin?
10. What is the difference between resolving to be good before salvation In resolving to be obey God after salvation?
Scripture:
“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”” Matthew 3:1-7, 9-17 NIV https://matthew.bible/matthew-3-17
Opening:
"…Additionally, the ancestry was important to demonstrate that Matthew's Gospel did not pertain to a mythical character or hero. To the Jew, the ancestry testified to historical reality.
Several years ago a friend of mine, a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators, worked among a people who had never heard the gospel in their language. The people could not write or read, so all their communication was oral. The missionary's first task was to learn the language of the tribe. Then she had to change that oral language into written form and teach the people to read and write it. It was a laborious task that took many years. Only after all that was accomplished could she undertake the task of translating the Bible into this language. She began with the Gospel of Matthew. To expedite the project she skipped the genealogy to get to the meat and substance of the story of Christ, and then she sent her translation work off to be printed by a publisher in a distant city. She waited months for the first copies of Matthew to arrive at the compound, and when the trucks came in with the Bibles, or, at least, the Gospel of Matthew, the people were much more interested in the trucks than they were in the translation. After having spent ten years on the project, she was crushed when she saw that the people didn't care at all.
Nevertheless, she persevered in her task, and in the second edition of Matthew she included the genealogy. When that arrived the missionary explained the genealogy to the tribal chief, and he said, "Are you trying to say that this Jesus you've been telling us about for ten years was a real person?" She replied, "Yes, of course." He said, "I thought you were telling us a story about some mythical character."
Once he understood that this Christ was real in space and time, the chief came to Christ, and shortly thereafter the whole tribe came to Christ.”
—Douglas Sean O’Donnell
Outline based largely on David Platt and Douglas Sean O’Donnell
I. The ministry of the Baptist: Prepare the Way (aka Tell the World)
A. The man
Prophesying boldly
Living simply
Baptizing openly
Serving humbly
B. The message (What we do and Why)
Repent…How?
What is repentance?
It is changing your mind in such a way that you change your actions; 180 degree about-face
It’s necessary to believe and follow Jesus Christ and enter into his Kingdom
Repentance involves confession (admission of sin)
Repentance involves contrition (sorry over sin)
Repentance involves conversion (turn from sin)
…for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near (which means that the King has come near as well)
Repentance is for everyone
See Acts for other sermons and thoughts on repentance including:
Acts 2:37-38 “They were cut to the heart…what shall we do? Repent and be baptized”
Acts 3:19 “Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out”
Acts 8:22 “Repent of this wickedness and pray…that he may forgive you”
Acts 20:21 “they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Acts 26:20 “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance but heir deeds”
See the 7 churches of Revelation 2-3 as well
C. The method
The baptism of Jews
Renounce your dependence on self
Rely on mercy of God
The baptism of Jesus
The Son obeys
The Spirit anoints
The Father speaks
II. The ministry of the Church today: Tell the World
A. Repent and be baptized.
B. Resolve to proclaim this good news yourself. (Bearing fruit…leading others)
Conclusion
This is what we want to be known for. Loving our neighbors so well we’re willing to risk rejection to show and tell them about the mercy and grace of God found in and through Jesus Christ.
Let’s do this and lead others to do the same!
Pray
Other notes:
Why do people get baptized?
Because the Bible says to.
Because they see others who trust Christ do this.
To go public with their faith.
To testify to what Jesus Christ did for us
To testify to what Jesus Christ did in them
In our country, this is no big deal. They will likely not be threatened or abandoned because of this.
In other countries, they would do this a great personal threat to their literal lives.
Why do it then? Because they have come and seen who Jesus is and what he’s done. God has opened their eyes to see clearly. And they have believed what they have seen as more evidence that all God has said is trustworthy.
What about you?
What do I want you to know? The gospel
What do I want you to do? Believe and receive the gospel and live accordingly. It’s more than a game-changer. It’s true life-change. Transformational.
At the end I will invite you to do what many in this room have already done. To consider who Jesus is and what he’s done and then responding as you see fit.
My hope is that by believing you’ll find true and abundant life in his name. At the very least, I hope it will lead to more conversations about this for you in the near future.
We’re going to look at this through the eyes of a couple of women who witness stuff before anyone else does. Just walking through these 10 verses as if we were these ladies. They are not telling us what they believe happened. They are telling us what they saw and heard. We have it recorded reliably in the thousands of biblical texts/transcripts. Over 25,000 partial and/or complete. Overwhelming evidence.
References/Bibliography:
“Preaching the Word” Commentary, Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Edited by Kent Hughes
“Matthew” by RC Sproul
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“the Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
“Exalting Jesus in Matthew” by David Platt (CCE)
Outline Bible, D Willmington
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB)
ESV Study Bible
ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (GTB)