Advent: Penitence

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.

The Gifts of Christmas.

It’s Advent time in the Church -- a time when we remember the coming of Jesus Christ -- and this period culminates in Christmas.

Traditionally, it has been a time of penitence.

Now that might seem a little hard to understand at first, because we’ve come to know it as a time of joy and gift-giving -- but to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, you need penitence. Without penitence, you cannot receive Him as your Saviour.

In past centuries, there was a far greater emphasis on how the Saviour is welcomed and received, while today the emphasis has shifted towards -- the fact that God sent His only Son.

The apostle John said, “The true light that gives light to every man came into the world ... [And] to all who received Him -- to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12).

And that is why, in past centuries, there was a great emphasis on penitence at Advent time.

Just this past week, I wrote up my testimony, for our book of testimony that we are preparing -- and I was reminded that I received Christ through penitence. In fact I experienced a deep conviction of sin -- so much so that I had a sense of dread before God. It was an experience beyond the normal range of human experience.

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Now this morning I would like to look at just four of the things that God has given us through Jesus Christ -- four things that He gave us through sending His Son the Saviour.

In fact Jesus Christ Himself tells us in many Bible verses just why He came into the world. So I’d like to focus this morning on the things that Christ Himself says about why He came. Then we can understand the meaning of Christmas through the words of our Lord Himself.

So let’s look at four things -- Jesus in fact makes seven or eight statements in the gospel as to why He came -- but I’ll stick to four this morning.

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Firstly -- and this picks up on the very first thing I said, a moment ago -- Jesus Christ came into this world to call sinners to repentance. (Matthew 9:13). Jesus said, "I have come -- not to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance."

Repentance -- penitence. Jesus came into the world, so that there should be this response of penitence.

Now there are all sorts of words we associate with repentance -- sin, and shame, and judgement, and many words besides. But I’d like to highlight a very different word this morning that is related to repentance -- it is a biblical word -- and that is gift. Repentance is a gift.

The Bible tells us: “God exalted Jesus to His own right hand, as Prince and Saviour, that He might give repentance ...” (Acts 5:31). Another Bible version says, “that He might give Israel [this] gift ...” And when the Gentiles first believed, the apostles said: “So then, God had granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18).

Now we might not normally think of it in this way, but repentance or penitence is a beautiful gift. I myself have seen true wonders in people's lives as they have found repentance -- as theit hearts have been softened by the Holy Spirit -- as they have been humbled before God as they came under genuine conviction of sin. I have seen hearts change, I have seen relationships change in a wonderful way. Even recently, I have seen it.

When God gives repentance, He also gives the sense that He is an awesome God -- and there are no excuses with such a God. The only appropriate response is to yield and surrender, and ask for mercy through Jesus Christ.

There are so many people in this world who simply don't know repentance. Often there is something stiff-necked about them. They have a pride that will not bend. They have an egotism and arrogance. They have not discovered humility of spirit. And that does so much harm in this world -- sometimes in big ways -- sometimes in more subtle ways.

I have said before that what really characterises Sea Point is a spirit of unrepentance. It is filled with unrepentant people -- and they are missing so much.

Christ came, in His own words, to give us this gift of repentance. It is a beautiful gift in a person's life. It is the finest thing that anyone can know. And in the eyes of God, it is the most joyful thing that can happen in anyone’s life. Jesus tells us: “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

In fact, this is one of the main tasks of the Holy Spirit on earth -- it is to convict the world.

So this is a gift -- namely repentance, or penitence -- which you should seek with all your heart.

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Secondly, Jesus says that He came into the world to kindle a fire. (Luke 12:49). He said, "I have come to bring fire on the earth."

Now virtually all theologians agree that this refers to the fire of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to light the fire of His Holy Spirit in this world. He came so that God’s Holy Spirit may enter into people’s lives and spread out across the world.

John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptize people with fire. (Luke 3:16). And of course when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He came in the form of fire.

Now let’s picture what Jesus is saying when He says that He will bring fire on earth. The picture is one of a fire -- taking dry branches and setting them alight, and running through all the branches.

And this reminds us also of something I said last Sunday. If we reckon with the Holy Spirit in our lives, then we reckon with more than we would ever see in our lives from a human point of view. That means that if there’s any place in your life where you say, “That can’t be done. That can’t happen in my life,” then that is where we enter into the realm of the Spirit -- because the Holy Spirit is a supernatural power in the life of the Christian.

Branches that burn are dead branches. They can’t do anything except lie there and be dead. But if you touch them with fire, something completely new happens to them. Something of a different order happens to them.

So as soon as we have turned to God in repentance and penitence, God's Holy Spirit comes to live within us. We begin to live our lives by the power of God within us. It is a turnaround in the way that life works for us -- it is a turnaround in the way that we think.

Instead of continuing to live by our own power, and by our own struggles, we live instead by the power and blessing and freedom of the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of man is the spirit of control. That is one of the things that characterises the man or woman without God. We not only try to keep control of today -- keep control of my life -- keep control of my clients, my time, my husband or my wife -- and so on -- but we also try to think of how we can keep control of tomorrow -- how we can be secure, and how we can deal with the challenges that lie there.

And so we lose our freedom. We become narrow people -- we become fearful, and clinging, and burdened. And people are not designed for that. We were never designed to keep control of anything. It is a burden we were not designed to bear -- and it is no wonder therefore that this so often crushes people.

One of the wonderful gifts of Jesus Christ is His Holy Spirit, who takes over our lives -- who gives us what the Bible calls the freedom of the Spirit -- “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Jesus Christ came to bring fire on earth -- so that we should be blessed with the fire of the Holy Spirit running through the dead branches and setting them alight.

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Thirdly, Jesus came into the world to fulfil the law. (Matthew 5:17). Jesus said, "I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them."

Now the first thing we need to know about the law -- God’s law -- is that it is not there to limit our lives in a negative way, but God gave this law for our blessing. That’s the law that we find in the Ten Commandments. It is summarised in the Ten Commandments -- Love the Lord -- don’t put anything before Him -- lift His Name up high -- respect His Holy Day -- and so on.

These Ten Commandments are also greatly expanded upon throughout the Scriptures. They are expanded into 700 or 800 commandments.

God's law is a blessing. He gave it to us to bless us as fully as it is possible to bless us. I see in our own Church that when members are living by God's law, it is a blessing upon their lives -- and it is a blessing upon the whole Church -- and there is love and there is peace.

If you don't keep the law -- or if you can't keep the law, as is perhaps more often the case -- life begins to fall apart -- life begins to degrade. And often people think, “Why should I keep the law of God? I don’t see it.” But at the end of the day, we always discover that God’s law is right.

The Bible says, “Your laws are right ... Your statutes are forever right. ... They are wonderful -- therefore I obey them.” (Psalm 119:137,144).

Now the trouble with God’s law is that we are sinners, and we do not have the power or the will to obey them. Or we might obey them only as the Pharisees did, and completely miss the spirit of the law.

Jesus Christ came to fulfil the law in our lives. And this is one of the things that His Holy Spirit does in our hearts -- He gives us an indwelling obedience to God. The Bible tells us, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Galatians 5:16). You will not.

In other words, if you are walking by the Spirit -- if you can get that right -- you will fulfil the law -- it will be a guaranteed result -- and with that, you will receive all the blessings of the law.

The Bible tells us: “The righteous requirements of the law are met in us, who live ... according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4).

Do you want to live a victorious life? Do you want your life to be in order? Do you want to be a blessing to those around you? Do you want to live to the glory of God? Then walk by the Spirit. Live according to the Spirit.

Somebody called this a deep healing of sin. Rather than putting a Band-Aid or an Elastoplast over sin in our lives, Jesus Christ came to give us a way to deeply heal sin. He came to fulfil the law in our lives.

And this means that when people really come to know the Lord, their lives change. The Bible says that if their lives don't change, they haven't come to know the Lord. They can't have come to know the Lord -- because knowing the Lord is something that has to change you.

And incidentally, as Bible-believing Christians, we don’t believe only that God’s law is some kind of mechanism -- you obey this law, you get these results. Rather we believe that keeping the law leads to God’s personal blessing upon our lives -- it leads to His good favour. He is the God of all power, and therefore He will personally bless the person who honours Him.

That is why Christians don't try to grab blessings -- grab an advantage by cheating or by lying -- or grab an advantage by walking over somebody else. That isn't the way to God's blessing, and the Bible makes that clear. In fact that leads to God's displeasure.

All over this nation, people are trying to grab blessing for their lives. But the Bible makes it clear -- blessing comes through God’s good favour -- there is no other way to obtain it.

The wonderful thing is that Jesus came into this world so that we would be able to obey God's law gladly and freely -- without needing to think about the effort. It is a gift. That is why the Bible says that Christ fulfilled the law. It is a gift that we receive when we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

We receive the gift of a changed life. One could also say, we receive the gift of a changing life. There are some things we all still struggle with, but God is changing us -- because He is fulfilling the law within us.

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Fourthly, and lastly this morning, Jesus came to give us light. (John 12:46). Jesus said, "I have come into the world to be a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."

Now I took a look through Scripture to see what it means that Jesus is a light -- and I found that light has various meanings. Here are two of them.

Firstly, the light of Jesus Christ shines into the darkness of sin. The Old Testament prophesied -- it was talking about Jesus Christ -- that a great light would dawn on those sitting in darkness. (Luke 1:79). This is speaking of the darkness of sin. The darkness of sin would be dispelled -- would be chased away through the blood of Christ.

In a similar way, the Bible tells us that when we have the light, our lives are out in the open -- there is nothing we need to hide. We gain a freedom and strength through a right relationship with the Lord.

Secondly, when we have light, we don’t need to stumble around in darkness. Jesus said, “A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles.” (John 11:9). And another Bible version says: “He can’t see where he is going.”

This is a dark world -- and when you come to think about it, without God there is nothing in this world to give us real light and real hope. Everything is ultimately futile, and everything ends in death. Look around you -- you won't find real hope and real light in anything in this world. This world just goes round and round in meaningless circles.

There are so many people who really just go round in circles -- there are so many people who fill their lives with meaningless things -- and there are so many people who just keep their eyes in front of them.

I have a book on my shelf at home, by a great modern philosopher, Thomas Nagel. The book is titled, “What Does It All Mean?” And on the last two pages of this book, Nagel says the following: “The trick is -- to keep your eyes on what’s in front of you ... What’s the point of being alive at all? ... There’s no point. It wouldn’t matter if I didn’t exist at all, or if I didn’t care about anything. But I do.” That’s a statement of hopelessness.

We were made to worship and serve God. He loved us, and wanted us to have light on our lives. The reason why Christ came was to give us the gift of light.

Perhaps you remember that hit single many years ago: "You light up my life, you give me hope to carry on ..." That was in fact written by a young Christian, and she was singing about Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ came to give us the gift of light in our lives.

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In summary -- these are four reasons why Christ came. This is why He came -- in His own words.

He came to give us these four great blessings -- and in fact several more besides, which we didn’t have the time to look into this morning. They are among the greatest blessings available to humankind. I can think of no greater gifts than those we have looked at this morning.

If you would like to receive Jesus as your Saviour this morning, I’m going to close with the famous Sinner’s Prayer -- and I invite you to say it with me, to receive Jesus as your Saviour.

Let us pray.

AMEN.