Acts 17:30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
Why do all people have to repent?
When God created man, he placed man in a garden, eastward in Eden. In the midst of the garden were two trees; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
These trees represent two different ways of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents living independently of God choosing for yourself what you think is good and evil.
The way of the tree of life, is allowing God to govern your life by entering into a personal relationship with Him where you hear His voice, and obey Him.
We are either living to please ourselves, or living to please God. We all start out living to please ourselves and we have to repent if we want to enter into eternal life.
What is repentance?
There are two main languages of the Bible, Greek and Hebrew and each of those languages has a specific word for repent but only if we put the two languages together do we get the full meaning of repentance.
The Greek word means to change your mind to change the way you think. So first of all repentance is changing your mind about the way you been living. I have been living to please myself, to do my own thing; from now on I’m going to live to please my heavenly Father.
Repentance is a decision, it is not an emotion. You can repent without any obvious emotion but you cannot repent without a change of your will.
The Hebrew word for repent means to literally turn around, you been facing one way, the wrong way with your back to God. You have to make a U-turn 180° and turn your face toward God and say God here I am, tell me what to do and I’ll do it.
At least 50% of the problems of professing Christians or real Christian are due to one fact, they have never truly repented. They’ve never really made a decision, to repent. They’ve never really surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus over their lives.
They are still thinking about decisions from this point of view- now if I do this what will it do for me and if I do that what will it do for me. When you’ve repented that’s not the way you think.
You think if I do this will it glorify Jesus. If I do that will it glorify Jesus? And so we have multitudes of people in the church who are double minded.
You cannot be double-minded unless your spirit is alive to God. If you spirit was not alive to God you would not think twice about the way that you are living.
And the Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways, he doesn’t have a solid foundation, because he has not built his house upon the rock, the revelation of the Lordship of Jesus.
I invite you just where you are right now quietly to reflect for a few moments and ask yourself have I ever really truly repented or am I still double minded.
On Sunday my aim is to please Jesus. And on Monday my aim is to please myself. Your spirit desires one thing and your flesh another. Because you’re a double minded person you’re a split personality.
But when we learn how to walk in the Spirit it is impossible to fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is because we are living on a higher level, our intimacy with the Lord is so intoxicating, that if we yield to the flesh, it quenches our spirit, and we lose the joy of the Lord.
But most Christians do not have a walk with the Lord, and that is alright, they will still go to heaven and live in Paradise, the lowest level, because their spirit is alive to God, but they will not fulfill their destiny, the reason why they came to live on the earth.
There is one parable which Jesus told that is a perfect illustration of true repentance. It is the parable of the loving Father, what we call the prodigal son in Luke 15.
The second son of a wealthy family decided to get all his inheritance from his father right now and then when off to a distant country and lived it up. He probably did all sorts of sinful things and then when he spent his whole inheritance, a famine came and the only job he could get was feeding pigs.
Remember he was Jewish so for him to feed pigs was just as low as he could come. so here he is in rags feeding the pig’s and hungry wishing he could fill his stomach with the husks the pigs are eating and then this is what happens .Luke 17:15 he came to his senses.
When he came to his senses he said. We have to come to our senses, the moment of truth. You have to see yourself as you really are.
When he came to himself, he said, how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, father I’ve sinned against heaven and before you. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants.
Now in this parable we can see the two essentials of repentance. He changed his mind and he arose and went to his father.
He made a decision and he turned around. That’s repentance, making a decision and carrying out your decision. Going back to the father whom you have offended, saying I made a mess of my life.
I can’t run my own life, I need to hear your voice and obey you, and will you take me back. He didn’t even get to say what he planned to say to his father, make me as one of your hired servants.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him. His father was watching for him.
This is how God is; when we begin to turn he’s watching for us and waiting. The father saw him a long way off and ran to meet him, that’s how God is, that’s how he meets us.
His father said bring out the best robe, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet and kill the fatted calf. That’s the results of true repentance. It’s worth repenting, to be welcomed like that by God.
He came to his senses. He said to himself, I made a mess of my life; I wasted everything my father gave me. But I’m going to make a decision, I am going to turn around and then go back to my father and say I’m sorry and he turned and went.
That is true repentance, repentance in action. Now there can be a false repentance which we in English today called remorse.
Judas experienced that – Matthew 27:3 then Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, seeing that Jesus had been condemned was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. and they said what is that to us. then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself .
Judas had remorse but he never changed. In fact I believe he passed the point where he could change, and to me this is a solemn thought. People can in this life, can pass the point where it’s possible for them to change.
I think the most significant moment in any human life, is the moment when God begins to deal with you about repentance and if you shrug your shoulders and say well I’m not interested, maybe later, there’s no guarantee that God will ever deal with you like that again.