The Urgency of OUR Repentance

I want you to look today to Luke chapter 13 verses 1 through 5. You can also read 6 through 9 when you get on. It really ties together with 1 through 5, but we're just going to stick with 1 through 5 today. I've entitled this sermon, The Urgency of... and in big of our repentance. So let's look at Luke 13, 1 through 5. Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

Boy, you talk about an abomination. Pilate murders these guys and then mixes their blood with their sacrificial blood. That is just an abomination. And he answered and said to them, do you not suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? Jesus said, I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you all will likewise perish. Verse 4, or do you suppose that these 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them were world's worst culprits than all the men who lived in Jerusalem? Jesus added another story.

It must have been a story that was running through the community that they knew. I tell you, no, but unless you repent. I like the way he puts that but in there. We'll try to explain that here in a little bit. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. That's a tough passage, isn't it? There's some common threads that run through this passage and I hope you caught them.

Tragedy, no, you heard that word, didn't you? No, and repent, don't perish. You will see this as we walk through this sermon this morning in two reports, two preaching points, and two admonitions. Some of these may overlap and interlock. They may seem to be repetitious but it is as it should be because Jesus is pressing the urgency of our repentance. We can think back to last week and remember how I stressed his urgency to complete his mission. You can back up and read that in the verses before this.

Jesus was on a mission. He talked about how fire would be cast down and we focus primarily on how Jesus accepted that fire of judgment on him before he judged anybody. He himself was judged and the fire came down on him. He accepted the judgment of God, the wrath of God on the cross for us. And he had an urgency about getting to that cross so we could begin our journey to turning to him. And so I want us to look at these points today. Two reports, two reports.

Verse 1, it's the crowd's report. Now on the occasion there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. That's the crowd's report.

They bring this to Jesus. Now Jesus adds a report. Jesus said, or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them? So there's two reports here, one from the crowd and one from Jesus. Now the common thread in both reports is tragedy. So let's talk about tragedy for just a minute. Where did it begin?

Now a case could be made that it began when Satan and his angels rebelled against God and were thrown down to the earth. And that's what I'd tag the heavenly tragedy. But I want us to just look at the human side today. From my biblical training, it began in the Garden of Eden. It started the very moment Eve and Adam chose to disobey God. It's what theologians call the fall of man.

Y'all all heard of that. Listening to the serpent, choosing to obey the command of the serpent, sharing their choice to disobey God. In that moment, tragedy befell the human race, just right there.

Cut it down. They were embarrassed, they were naked for the first time, they were ashamed, and the Bible says, thus they covered themselves. They hid themselves from each other, but more especially from God. They were fearful and afraid of God. That had never been in their experience up until now. They now channeled any questions from God through the framework of blame. Go read the story.

Personal responsibility was dismissed. They blamed each other and ultimately God for their breakdown.

Isn't that true? They were set outside the garden to work by the sweat of their brow, to till the very earth from which Adam had been formed. Their sentence was now that they would return to the dust when they physically died because they had spiritually died. They knew the feeling of being separated from their Creator. They were at enmity with each other. There was strife between themselves, between each other, and it even carried through to their two sons. And listen to me, murder entered the world.

Now you hear that? Murder. Cain kills Abel because of jealousy and envy and hatred. Now does that describe tragedy? There's a whole table of tragedy there, isn't there?

Guys, listen to me. The Bible is a story about tragedy, the continuation of tragedy. But take this to the bank. Ultimately, it is a story about the correction of tragedy. You hear that statement? John 16, 33, Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulations, troubles, tragedies. Now I'm going to tell you, a lot of don't want to talk about these kind of things.

But it's right there in Scripture. In the world, you will have tribulation, troubles, tragedies. But take courage. I have overcome the world. You see where I'm headed? And I can remember back when we were in Groover, and I've hit on this story a little bit with you guys, but we had just learned that Kelsey had cerebral palsy. And I was going to try to share that with the church at Groover on Sunday morning, that they had made that diagnosis in her life, and I was just shell-shocked.

I was devastated. I'm going to tell you, I was crumbling. And I mulled over within my own spirit, Kurt had severe asthma, Cassie had growth hormone deficiency, and now Kelsey has cerebral palsy. When I got up in the pulpit that morning to try to share with that congregation that diagnosis, this preacher broke down and cried. That's all I could do. I tried to tell them, and then I just broke down and cried. And three men gathered around me from the choir.

They were in the choir, these three men, and they prayed for me. Carly Knight, Buddy Murrell, and Delano Cluck. I'll never forget those three guys. They came right out of that choir, right up into that pulpit, and they gathered around me, and they began to pray for their preacher. They prayed for me. And in that moment, their prayers gave me courage to put on the shield of faith. Bottom line, Kim and I decided these troubling events were not going to define us, nor our family.

We would never yield to that. Now guys, tragedy is a fact of life. It began in the Garden of Eden, and its consequences track us like a roaring, prowling lion seeking to devour us. But it does not have to define us. Have you had some tragedy in your life? It doesn't have to define you. Romans 8, 18, the Apostle Paul said, for I considered that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is revealed to us.

I want to tell you, tragedy does not stop the injection of glory of the Holy Spirit in my life. If you stand in Christ, today, if you are a believer today, you guys listen to me down here on the front because you all have encountered tragedy before. If you stand in Jesus today, the overcomer of the world stands in you. And you become an overcomer. Not in your own strength, but in the strength of Jesus. Tragedy is a fact, but it does not define us believers. And it never will when we walk in the Spirit of God.

Two preaching points. Verses two and three. And Jesus answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans? Now these were faithful Jews that had come to give sacrifices at the altar of God. And they were murdered, it says, than other Galileans because they suffered this fate. And Jesus said, I tell you, no. Get that thinking out of your mind.

Verses four and five. Jesus said about the eighteen that the tower had fell on. He says, Or do you suppose these eighteen were worse culprits, sinners, than all the men who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. The common thread of both preaching points. Jesus really refocuses the message here. He doesn't just talk about the sin problem and the why of sin.

He refocuses it into a common setting in misunderstanding of their day. The common thread in both points is, did being a greater sinner create these horrific tragedies? And Jesus emphatically says, no, no, no.

That's the Greek. Go look at it. It's emphatic. If you didn't hear me once, hear me again. No. Example. Kim and I, when we consider the tragedies that had befallen us in our three kids and the struggles that we knew that we would encounter years to come.

We used to get this Christmas card every Christmas. And Kim would say, we got the perfect family Christmas card today. And there is a family we deeply love. But every Christmas we'd get their Christmas card. And there'd be inside it an entire page about their kids and their successes and their health and their academic qualities. And on and on and on it would go. And we'd read it and we'd look at each other and we'd go, wow, we just must be awful sinners.

And then we'd look at each other and we'd remember Jesus' words and say, we rebuke that in the name of Jesus. No. This will not define us. In Jesus' day and even before his day, it was common thought that tragic events fell with more intensity on really bad and evil people. Disease, mental illness, poverty were dished out according to the levels of their evilness. You remember the story in John 9, 1 through 2. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a blind man from birth. And his disciples asked him, they had this thinking too, asked him saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?

And Jesus answered, this talks about very important stuff. It was neither that man sinned nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. I've noticed that this misguided kind of thinking produces two types of people. You've probably seen it too. First type is what I call self-righteous people. They think themselves better than others simply because their lives have had less trouble. They pat themselves on the back because they, unlike others, are totally blind to their own sin problem.

The Pharisees' problem, wasn't it? And we have Pharisees sitting in churches. I can guarantee you that. They're always patting themselves on the back. Bill goes, we've been there, all of us. Number two, self-loathing people. They think themselves, and I want you to hear this, there's a lot of churches here.

They think themselves as unworthy and deserving of trouble because they have been terribly bad. They deem themselves as outside the redeeming grace of God.

You see that? Both are wrong. Both ideas, both types of thinking are wrong. Look at the first story. These people were not murdered because they were worse sinners. They were murdered because Pontius Pilate was a bloodthirsty evil man. Perhaps he thought the Galileans were insurrectionists and wanted to overthrow him.

So he panicked and he killed them. We know through other historical accounts that Pilate was constantly being evaluated by Caesar and being constantly rebuked for being overzealous in killing Jews. That's why he was probably easier on Jesus in hoping just to flog him than kill him. But he finally surrendered to the will of the people, the hateful crowd, and consented to Jesus' crucifixion. Just a side note, you may not have known this. Four years after Jesus' death, Pilate was called back to Caesar. To Rome because of his cruelty.

And there he committed suicide. Did you know that?

Just like Judas Iscariot. He committed suicide. Now, I want to tell you just a side note. Take Jesus pretty seriously. If you dismiss him like these people did, that's where your life may be headed. If not physically, spiritually, it will be spiritual suicide for you. You know, you can look, I thought about this is talking about Jews here.

I thought about kind of the history of the Jews and you could go and read all the history of the Jews time and time and time and time again. The Jews have been abused and crucified and murdered in this world from the very beginning. In 70 AD, Jerusalem was burned. Hundreds of Jewish cities were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. That's when they scattered all across the globe and there has been no blood sacrifice in the temple since that time.

Did you know that? Think about the Holocaust. We're acquainted to hearing about that, aren't we? Six million Jews murdered. What about most recently? Hamas. Marching in, attacking and killing innocent, unarmed Jews at will.

If there's any nation that's been beat up on, it's the Jews. But was it because they were worse sinners? That's the tragedy of the fall.

Look at the second story. It's a story not about an evil attack of tragedy. It's a story about accidental tragedy.

18 people were killed when the tower fell on them. Salome ought to bring a visible image to you. There was the pool of Salome there where people would go and get healed. Remember how the lame man wanted to get in there and Jesus healed him. Jesus healed him. Go wash yourself. Jesus healed him.

That's where this tragedy took place. 18. A tower fell on 18 people and killed them. You know, guys, it made me think of the floods in Central Texas and the drowning of all those people. And those precious children at that Christian camp that drowned. Well, that's tragic, isn't it? This week, elementary kids sitting in a sanctuary praying and an evil person on the outside unloads guns on them. That's tragedy.

And let me say a side note to that. You'll know where I'm at on this.

I prayed for them. And there's been a lot of ridicule about, oh, it's prayer. Let me tell you, in that pulpit that day, those guys that prayed for me made a change in my life. We believe in prayer in America. Now, we believe in action, too. But our prayers count. Your prayers praying for those suffering families count.

And people that dismiss prayer are dismissing God. And they better watch out.

They better watch out. Do you think God just decided to slap down those? Jews at that Gaza Strip or the people in Central Texas because they were worse sinners than anybody else? Or do you think those who escaped were more righteous than those who perished? Guys, we live in a fallen world. We bear the consequences of the fall. We are sinners.

Romans 5 12 says, Therefore, just as though one man through one man's sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned. Y'all, we are all sinners. We all share in the consequences of our sins. The point Jesus is making, this is what I want you to hear, is whether the tragedy is intentional or accidental, we all need a Savior. That's the point Jesus is making here when he says, no, no, no. We're all sinners. There's not levels of sin, we're sinners.

And we all need a Savior. And Jesus was saying that. Two admonitions. Verse 3, Jesus said, after he tells them no, unless you repent, you will perish. Verse 3. Verse 5, Jesus said, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. The common thread in both admonitions, I call it a not more, it's more than an admonition, it's a commandment.

That we are all sinners, and the only escape from repentance. You know, I kind of jumped across some of my favorite scriptures on repentance, Revelation 3.19. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Second Corinthians 7.10, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation. You know, part of repentance is being sorrowful. I can remember when I was in college, a guy named Jeff Walters started really studying about the fear of God.

And for a whole month, he could hardly talk to anybody because he has certainly come to grips with the horror of his own sin, and there was a deep brokenness and sorrowfulness that he was going through. I said, Jeff, are you alright? He said, right now I'm just in a state of sorrow. I finally have recognized the depth of my sin and what Jesus took on the cross for me. And there's just a depth of sorrow. Now it's bringing me to repentance, and it's leading me on to salvation, but right now I'm in sorrow. Romans 2.4, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience?

Not knowing that the kindness of God leads to repentance. I want to tell you, he could pull the trigger on us right now, and they've come back already. He could come back right now, but he is forbearing. He is patient. 2 Peter 3.9, the Lord is not slow to his promise. That's talking about his second coming. As some count slowness, but is patient towards you.

How many of you need somebody to be patient with you? He is He does not want anyone to be separated from him, but for all to come to repentance. You know, I thought about, how do you conclude this sermon? Tragedy? No? Repent? Don't perish?

And I had a big, long scripture. In fact, it's the scriptures that follow this up that I told Kim. Print it, and then the Lord said, no, don't do that. Just trust me with the conclusion. Don't try to orchestrate that. Early this morning, when he got me up, he brought one more scripture to me that simply said this. Bear fruit of your repentance.

It's in Matthew's Gospel. Bear fruit of your repentance. That's where cheap grace falls away. We just don't get saved and jump with joy and then go on living like hell. We bear fruit of our repentance. Repent, or you shall all likewise perish. When we were in Groover, we had a guy, J.

Allen Peterson, come. Peterson used to open up for all the biggies at these church conferences. All the biggies. And we were able, we had enough money in Groover to bring him to Groover to do a family life conference.

It was amazing. But I'll never forget J. Allen saying one day, God is not so much concerned about your actions as He is your reactions. Now that's where the fruit of repentance is. I can act pretty good, but when tragedy befalls me, troubles befall me, hard times come down on me, things aren't going my way. Boy, do I butt my head sometimes.

That make sense to y'all? That relate? Repent and be baptized and you shall be saved. I was saved, but I am being saved.

And I will be saved. That word saved there is the whole process. It's not that one time moment, but it's getting up and walking in Jesus.

You guys hear that? It's bearing fruit. And you're not too young and you're not too old to walk in Jesus. And Gianna, you're right in between. Amen. So, here's my invitation to you today. Have you began that journey of repentance?

Have you started saying, Lord, I am sorry, I am sorry, I'm sorry. I turn to you. That's what repentance means to turn around, turn to Him, turn around and go His direction. I turn to you. In my turning, come into my heart because I cannot turn and walk on my own strength. Come into my heart. Rebirth me and fill me and baptize me with your Holy Spirit.

That I might bear fruit of this repentance and commitment to you. I think that's where we're at at Prodigal Church. I think that's what Winfield was talking about earlier. We're at the place of repentance and that's not a bad thing. It's a very positive thing. Churches that don't get on their knees and repent are churches that are dead, I'm going to tell you. Churches need to stay on their knees constantly repenting in order to bear fruit.

That's where we're at and God's gonna start growing fruit here. Brian Kuby, he's not here today, but he told me, he said, Kerry, get ready. In the next year we're going to see fruit. He said, I know it. God confirmed it to me through scripture, through visions, through dreams, we're going to see fruit.

I said, really? He said, I promise you, it's fixing to happen. It's fixing to happen. I said, brother, I'll take that to the bank. I'll take that to the bank. Let's bow together in prayer. Lord, I thank you for your word, for the empowerment of that word in our lives.

Lord, help us yield our hardness. Maybe our hearts are just shallow. Maybe they're just weedy. Lord, help us yield our hearts to you in repentance, that we might be good soil that bears fruit through perseverance.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.