Skip to main content

173. Repent or Perish


Luke 13:1-5
Key verse: "Unless you repent, you will all perish."
Luke 13:3

Job's friends would have benefited from the reading today. It's not just two-year-olds who ask the question, "WHY?" Built into all of us is a strong desire to understand, especially when what we are experiencing doesn't make sense.

Why did so and so get cancer? Why did my car break down, especially when I don't have the money to pay for it? Why divorce? Why am I suffering? We tend to think that if we are good Christians, walking in God's will, bad things won't happen to us because, God has promised to protect us. Right?

When the inevitable happens, we almost immediately look for a cause. I must have sinned somehow. God must be displeased with me for some reason. The whole book of Job is based on this type of thinking. Job has lost everything and his, "friends," set about accusing him of every kind of sin under the sun to break Job down and force him to confess, so that he can save his life by getting right with God.

Evidently, Jesus' contemporaries had the same mind set. Those Galileans who had their own blood mixed with their sacrifice, contaminating it, must have done something really bad. The men who died in the construction accident must have also been evil since they weren't blessed with the privilege of dying in their own beds at an old age.

Jesus says to His audience, as God said in the book of Job, "NO! They are no different than you, and if you do not repent, you too will perish."

Death is the great equalizer. None of us will escape its grasp. It is the natural consequence of our sinful nature. There is only one way to triumph over this enemy of us all and that is through Jesus.

Again, as with the rich fool from yesterday; none of us know our future. We may grow old, we may die young. We may have a peaceful end, we may suffer intense misery, but death will meet us all in the end.

It's not our job to point a finger at anyone to affix blame to them.  We are all guilty. The understanding is that simple. We suffer because we live in a fallen, sinful world. We are all equal in the guilt of sin. What we experience as individuals may look different on the surface, but our end is the same, in the physical world anyway. The only way out is to repent, to choose to give up a life of sin, to claim Jesus as Lord of your life and hold on to His victory over death itself. Then, with Him as Lord, no matter what you face in this life, He will never leave you and at the point of death, He will take you to Himself to live with Him in glory. Because of Him, you can face it all and be victorious in the end. This doesn't mean that any particular circumstance is easy, but it does mean that you are not alone.

Hymn: "Because He Lives"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

211. The Sons of Thunder's Request

Matthew 20:20-28 , Mark 10:35-45 , Key verse: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43B-44 In our readings for yesterday, in which Jesus outlined what was about to happen to Him, for His disciples, the passage in Luke ends: "The disciples did not understand any of this. It's meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about." ( Luke 18:34 ) Now, we see just how truly clueless they were. Jesus had laid out a plan before them of pain and suffering and death and now James and John are focused on a promotion. The disconnect is so obvious. It's really not important to know whether James and john came up with this request on their own or if their mother put them up to it. The request was made and James and John thought that they could handle the responsibility that would come with it. What is that saying, "Fools rush in where angels fe...
Post a Comment
Read more

These Boots are Made for Walking

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-15 These Boots are Made for Walking. Of course, I picked that title because it has a reference to popular culture, and it connects with our text today about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” I was tempted to play the video of that song, but it’s really not amenable to worship. If you remember that old song, it was quite confrontational. The singer had a righteous complaint against a boyfriend or spouse who was cheating on her. She’s not going to put up with that, and the song goes on to say, “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!” And that “take a stand” bravado made her a hero! It was a #1 hit in 1966. I mention it because it has one interesting parallel and one major contrast with the message of grace and forgiveness. That parallel is this. God has a righteous complaint against the entire human race for cheating Him out of the loving relationship He desires with us. As the God who created us, he h...
Post a Comment
Read more

201. All for God's Glory

John 9 & 2 Corinthians 12:7-12 Key Verse: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." John 9:3 In this event John records my personal favorite from all four gospels. I love it for its detail. I love it because it demonstrates so much of our human frailty. It shows us how powerful our fears can be in the midst of God's amazing grace and glory. First, we have the disciples who are suffering under the misconception that sickness and unfortunate circumstances are the result of sin only. They are thinking like Job and his friends. If you obey you will always be blessed and if you sin, God will punish you for it. They couldn't imagine that God could have possibly designed this man, blind, for His own glorious purposes. Then we have the neighbors who are all amazed, but then what? What do you do when the mold has been broken? This man was blind and now he...
Post a Comment
Read more