Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: In a very simple way, Jesus gave a comprehensive statement about his teaching. Matthew 4:17 says, "And then on, Jesus began to preach: Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near."

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "Read the Red." Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of Matthew 1:4 through 7.

JP Jones: We're beginning a new series that's really going to take us all the way through the rest of this year. Last year, we spent much of our time studying the book of Romans, and this year, we're going to be spending a lot of time in the Gospels, looking at the teachings of Jesus, the greatest teachings by the greatest teacher. I'm calling this series "Read the Red" because if you have a red letter edition of the Bible, the words of Jesus are highlighted in red.

If you were just to look at those words, you would gain an understanding of what was upon the heart of Jesus Christ in his teachings and what was recorded by eyewitnesses and the followers of Christ. They were included in Scripture so that we could understand God's will and God's direction for our lives. Now, there are some major teaching discourses in the Gospels, and then there are some private conversations, and then there are very short words of Jesus.

I'm going to begin with really the first teaching that Jesus gave us in Matthew 4:17. He repeats this concept in many places, but in a very simple way, Jesus gave a comprehensive statement about his teaching. Matthew 4:17 says, "And then on, Jesus began to preach: Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near." Repentance is a good word. Repentance is a gospel word. Repentance is a Jesus word.

In fact, repentance is a word for everyone. It's not just a word for those folks who are outside of a relationship with God, people who are lost and need salvation. And repentance isn't just a word for prodigals, people who are wandering and confused and have become compromised in their relationship with God. Repentance is a word for obedient disciples. The Christian life is a life of repentance.

Jesus Christ, in his teaching, in his first public preaching, and in setting the tone for his preaching ministry, begins with the command to repent. In Luke 5, it says Jesus replied to them, "The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." In Luke 13, it says at that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

He responded to them, "Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. Or those eighteen that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you think they were more sinful than all the people who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will also perish."

And he told them this parable: "A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, 'Listen, for three years I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it even waste the soil?' But he replied to them, 'Sir, leave it this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Matthew 11: "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her actions." Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

Luke chapter 15: "And tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' So he told them this parable: 'What man among you who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in an open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?' When he's found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need repentance. Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her women friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me because I found the silver coin I lost.' I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents."

In the Great Commission passage in Luke 24, Jesus said, "This is what's written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name in all the nations beginning in Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things." Everyone here is on some kind of a spiritual journey, and everyone here needs to repent, and your pastor is included in that.

Repentance is a gospel word, repentance is a grace word, repentance is a Jesus word, and Jesus commanded us and taught us to repent. Now, in our launching text in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." And so I want to unpack a little bit about Jesus's teaching on repentance and what does it mean and what does it mean for us. Here's my first observation: Repentance involves hearing the word of God.

Jesus is preaching the word of God. In fact, the term that Matthew uses here for Jesus's preaching is the Greek verb *kerysso*. It's used 32 times in the synoptic Gospels, and in most of those times, it's referring to Jesus preaching. A few times, it's John the Baptist preaching, and a few times, it's Jesus instructing his apostles to preach. But in every one of those occasions, whether it's John the Baptist or the apostles or Jesus himself, what they are preaching is the word of God.

This term preaching, *kerysso*, isn't a term used for social communication or talking about politics or the communication between a husband and wife or parents and kids or neighbors. It is a gospel term that implies preaching, communicating the word of God. So Jesus is preaching the word of God, and what he says is, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." Now, if you had a concordance or if you had some kind of Bible software and you were to look up words and their frequencies in the Bible, you could take what you thought might be the top ten topics that Jesus taught on.

We could do some kind of brainstorming and figure those out—maybe love or forgiveness or money or heaven or hell. Throw these words out and you look them all up in the concordance and see how many times they're found in the synoptic Gospels, so you'd figure out how many times Jesus said something about those particular words or those particular topics. You could take number two to number ten and total them up, and they wouldn't appear the number of times that the number one word appears, which is "kingdom."

Jesus taught more about the kingdom than anything else. So what's the first thing Jesus says? He says something about the kingdom. Well, what is the kingdom? The kingdom of God, in its essence, is the rule of God, the reign of God, the kingship of God, the lordship of God over everything. There are dimensions of the kingdom that are universal; it's God's kingship from eternity to eternity. There's a sense of the kingdom of God reigning in the human heart; it's the kingship of God over our lives.

There's a sense of God's rulership on earth, a theocratic kingdom, God's kingly rule on earth. But the essential idea of the kingdom is the rule of God. So Jesus is preaching the word of God—that is, the kingdom—and then he tells us something that we are to do in light of the kingdom. And what he tells us that we're to do is repent. In light of God's rule, what we need to do is repent.

That's why I said repentance is a word for everybody. It's a word for lost people, it's a word for prodigals, and it's a word for obedient disciples. Because if we were to look at the word of God and see everything it says about the rule of God, the kingdom of God, how God's absolute rule is to be a part of every area of our lives, if we were to search, we would find something in our lives that isn't under the rule of God.

And for some of us, we wouldn't have to search very long. In fact, right now, I am sure that some of us sitting right here, right now, without even thinking about it, we are aware there's a part of my life that's not under God's rule. Maybe it's my marriage, maybe it's the way I parent my kids, maybe it's what I do with my finances, maybe it's my thought life, maybe it's my prayer life, maybe it's my loving my neighbor, maybe it's my love for God, maybe it's the fact that I don't even have a relationship with God.

But even for those of us who maybe right now don't have an immediate awareness, if we just thought about it, reflected on it a little bit, and read the scriptures, we would find something in our life that's not under the absolute rule of God. And whatever it is that we find that's not under the absolute rule of God, you know what Jesus says we need to do in that area? Repent. I need to repent, you need to repent, we all need to—all God's children need to repent.

It's a good word, it's a gospel word, it's a Jesus word. That's why the first thing Jesus says as he begins his teaching ministry is the kingdom is at hand; repent. And what it begins with, repentance, is hearing the word of God. It begins with hearing the word of God. And so wherever we hear the word of God, a response to that, a biblical response, a humble response, a gospel response, is repentance.

That's why in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, it says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness, that the person of God might be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Well, teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness—that's repentance. There's the teaching, that's the word of God; the rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness—that's repentance. So anytime you have a quiet time, anytime you're in a Bible study, anytime you're in a sermon where you hear the word of God, a godly response, a humble response, a gracious response, a gospel response, is repentance.

Whenever you obey what God says, in a sense, what you are doing is repenting because you're changing from where you were to where God wants you to be. That's repentance. But it begins with hearing the word of God. Secondly, repentance involves seeing where we fall short of God's standard. Jesus says repent, and he uses the Greek word *metanoia*. Literally, *meta* is a preposition that means change; *noia* is a word that means thought. So *metanoia* is change your thoughts.

Repentance, from a purely dictionary definition, is a change of thought. But every time repentance is used, the expectation is a change of behavior. So repentance is a change of thought that produces a change of behavior. And as we're going to see in a little while, since we are fully integrated personalities, a change of thought becoming a change of behavior also involves a change of heart. So here's a full idea: Repentance is a change of thought which leads to a change of heart, which produces a change of action or a change of behavior.

And that is all a response to the word of God. The word of God is a standard. It lays out God's desire, God's expectation, God's will, God's command. And we hear that word and we measure ourselves by that standard. We see the standard and then we evaluate where we are in light of that standard, and we see where we fall short. And wherever it is that we fall short, that's where we need to repent.

Let me tell you about classes that I teach and have been doing so for 22 years now. Every one of us here at some point, we either were or we still are students taking classes. It used to be in school that professors used to grade exams largely on what's called the curve, where students are actually compared with other students. Exams are given, exams are graded, and then students are put in a bell curve where the ones who did the best get an A, and the next group get a B, the next group get a C, and the next group get a D, and the next group get an F.

But the standard is one another. There's another way of grading, which is an objective standard, which is on a percentage basis. And that's the way I, when I give exams, that's the way I give them. So an exam is given—I give a theology exam to my students—and the standard by which every student is compared isn't to one another, but to the objective 100%, getting them all right. And so if a student got a 95 out of 100, that's an A, but they're able to see that the standard was 100% and they got a 95%; they fell short by 5%.

If another student got an 87, that's a B. The standard is 100%; they got an 87%; they fell short by 13%. If another student got a 53%, that's an F. Well, the standard's 100%; they got a 53 out of 100; they fell short by 47%. You see, their grade indicates where they fall short of the absolute standard, 100%. God reveals his word to us. Maybe it's a word about loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Maybe it's a word about forgive your brother not just seven times, but 70 times seven. Maybe it's a word to go and make disciples of all the nations. Maybe it's a word to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision to the flesh in regard to its lusts. Maybe it's a word to husbands: Love your wives as Christ loved the church. See, whatever the word is, that's the standard. We measure ourselves by that standard, we see where we fall short, and wherever it is we fall short, you know what we need to do? Repent.

And that's why everybody needs to repent. The lost person who has no relationship with Christ needs to repent that they've been living in darkness and come into the light of God's forgiveness and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The prodigal who's been compromising their walk with Christ by living in the world, they need to repent and come back to the loving forgiveness of the Father. The obedient disciple who's actively seeking after God discovers areas of their life that still need to be brought under his lordship, and they need to repent.

Everybody needs to repent. Repentance begins with hearing the word of God. Repentance is then measuring ourselves by the word of God, seeing where we fall short of what the word of God says. And wherever it is that we fall short, that's where we need to repent. And Jesus in Matthew 4:17 says the kingdom is near. That's every area of our lives. Just pick an area. Whatever area you pick, you're going to find something in that area where you need to repent.

If it's your marriage, you're going to find an area you need to be more humble, you need to be more Christ-like, you need to be more forgiving, you need to be more loving, you need to be more grace-giving, you need to be more truth-telling. You need to repent. Is it your prayer life? You need to be more faithful, you need to be more devoted, you need to be more expectant. You need to repent. How you handle your finances?

You need to be storing up your treasures in heaven, not on earth. You need to be giving generously and graciously and hilariously. You need to repent. Being a witness for Christ? You need to be bold, you need to be gracious, you need to be praying for your lost friends, you need to speak up, you need to start living like a Christian. You need to repent. You see, at whatever area of our lives, we hear the word of God in that area, we see where we fall short, that's where we need to repent.

Here's a third thing about repentance: Repentance involves owning our sin. The word *metanoia*, as I mentioned, means literally, dictionary definition, a change of thought. But it's a change of thought that produces a change of behavior. A change of thought that produces a change of behavior because it's not just a change of thought; it's also a change of heart, a change of disposition. So we hear the word of God, we understand the word of God, we see where it applies to us, and we own it personally.

So in this regard, that there must be in some measure a grieving of our sin. Now, I understand that there are two audiences who just heard what I said. This is First JP, so take it for that. But my experience is that the population tends to break down into two categories: those of us who always feel bad about ourselves. And we're always telling ourselves negative messages, and we never feel like we measure up, and we never feel like we can experience grace and forgiveness because we feel like we've got to work and earn it, and we never can work and earn it enough. So we're constantly putting ourselves down.

And then there's another group of us who feel like we're God's gift to the church, and you can decide which one you think your pastor fits into those of those two groups.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250.

For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in this new series called "Read the Red." It's all about the teachings of Jesus Christ. We're looking at the four Gospels and putting together what did Jesus actually teach. There are major teaching discourses in the Gospels, the very words of Jesus, and in many of our Bibles, they're highlighted in red, so the title of this series is "Read the Red." And we're beginning at the very beginning of Jesus's teaching.

And what Jesus said at the very beginning of his teaching was this: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repentance is a great word. It's a gospel word, it's a grace-filled word, it's a truth-filled word. Repentance is all about changing our minds, which leads to a changing of our actions. When Jesus said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he was calling people to turn from themselves and turn to God, turn from their sins and turn to God's forgiveness, turn and believe in him as the Messiah, the Lord, the only way to salvation.

I've discovered that basically human nature can be divided into two groups. There are those of us who struggle with our self-image, who deal with guilt, who feel like we've fallen short, who feel like we never measure up. And then there are those of us who have a very high view of ourselves and feel like we're God's gift to humanity, or God's gift to the church, or God's gift to the school, or God's gift to the family, or whatever social network we're in, we feel like we're God's gift to it.

Basically, Jesus says repent wherever you come from and whatever your identity is. We are to turn from ourselves. You see, whether you think lowly of yourself or you think highly of yourself, the problem is you're thinking of yourself. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is to turn from self to God. It's to cast ourselves upon the mercies of God, it's to believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him.

Repentance is that great conduit that leads to salvation and leads to transformation in our lives. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, God's word to you is to repent, to turn from yourself, to turn from your circumstances, to turn from your short-sighted way of view, and turn to God. When we repent, we experience salvation and the new life that Jesus Christ came to give us. If that's what you'd like to do right now, I invite you to pray with me.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you're the Lord and the Savior, and thank you that you give me the opportunity to repent. And I turn from myself, I turn from my sin, I turn to you. Thank you that you died on the cross for my sin. Thank you that you were raised from the dead. Thank you that you give me the gift of salvation. In repentance, I turn to you and receive your forgiveness and your new life. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.