Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Guides his Church into True Repentance October 11, 2020 Do Your Father’s Will Matthew 21:28-32 1) Begin with True Repentance 2) Surpass the Two Sons
As the younger of two sons, I was supposed to have learned from my older brother what my parents were ultimately looking for whenever they asked something of us. When they told us to clean our rooms or wash the dishes, you were supposed to actually do it. It wasn’t enough to move things around your room or hide them under your bed to clean your room. Nor was it enough to simply pass the dishes under running water to wash them. While my brother, the responsible one, did these things correctly, I usually spent far more effort trying to find an alternative way. I learned, time and time again, that what truly counted in my parents’ eyes was doing the action they asked, not simply talking about it. I’m sure you would agree with me that when we ask for something, it’s the actions that we’re ultimately looking for, not the mere words. This is the lesson that Jesus teaches us today as we see how he guides his church into true repentance. As he did in the temple courts long ago with a parable about two sons, he needed to spell out the obvious to a group of people who should have known better, to the Jewish religious leaders who should have known that doing the Father’s will is not measured in mere words or superficial obedience. Rather, to do the Father’s will begins with true repentance just as they had heard from the John the Baptist and Jesus himself. But repentance consists of more than the words we say. It continues with heart-driven actions that also encourage us to do our Father’s will in ways that surpass the two sons from Jesus’ parable in Matthew chapter 21. 1) Begin with True Repentance If you’ve ever walked in on the middle of a conversation and wondered what was said beforehand, you might have felt the same when you first heard these verses. This is the second half of Jesus’ conversation with the Jewish religious leaders in the temple courts where people from all around were present because of the Passover Festival. And the religious leaders are not happy to see Jesus there, let alone teaching others God’s Word. After some diplomatic questions, Jesus effectively quiets the religious leaders so he can continue teaching in the temple courts. But Jesus wants to do something else for these religious leaders. He also 1
Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Guides his Church into True Repentance October 11, 2020 wants to guide them to repentance so that they may do the will of their Father in heaven. Before we see how Jesus does this with his parable, I first want to review what exactly repentance is because we’re going to be talking about it a lot. Repentance can be understood as a U-turn arrow. You start off in one direction leading towards sin and then you do a complete 180 away from sin. Typically there are three steps to this: first you genuinely confess your sins, second you trust in God’s promise of forgiveness, and third you live a life free from those same sins. Looking at it as a whole, repentance is essentially a twofold turn – a turn away from sin and a turn towards God. If either one is missing, then you probably don’t have true repentance. It is this true repentance that our God guides us into because that is the foundational step in doing his will. We heard how strongly God desires this true repentance in our 1st Lesson where he said in Ezekiel chapter 18(:31b-32), “Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!” The last thing God wants is for a person to remain in unrepentant sin. Because if a person refuses to repent of their sins, then they’ve effectively separated themselves from their Father in heaven. They have no chance of doing his will in any way, shape, or form. That’s the problem that the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day had although they didn’t know it. So Jesus tells them a parable about two sons as yet another call for them to repent. It’s a short parable, but it describes two common ways that the people of Israel responded to God’s call for repentance. As Jesus spells out, the first son is like those tax collectors and prostitutes who at first are not willing to live by God’s Word but later change their minds and repent as God willed. It’s very likely their unwillingness to repent stemmed from their livelihoods. Prostitutes, with no excuse to their clients, had a life that was entirely built on sin. While you didn’t have to sin in order to be a 1st century tax collector, they commonly misrepresented the taxes due so they could skim off the top. In order for either person to stop sinning, they would have to be willing to give up a major source of income. Yet, thankfully, there were a number who were. They heard the call to repentance that John the Baptist preached in his way of righteousness and did that U-turn away from sin so that they could enter into the kingdom of God. The Jewish religious leaders, on the other hand, were like that second son. They heard God’s call to repentance and said they were willing to do so! But their 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Guides his Church into True Repentance October 11, 2020 actions didn’t follow suit. In fact, their actions were the complete opposite as they continued to perform pious actions with empty hearts and pile on their false sense of worth. And if that wasn’t enough, there was the gospel-driven changed lives of these repentant tax collectors and prostitutes! They were proof positive that John the Baptist wasn’t some crazed yahoo or subversive element. Rather, he was walking and talking the way of righteousness as he urged people to repent so they would be prepared for the Son’s coming. Despite their continued behavior, God still wanted the Jewish religious leaders to repent just as he had for the apostate house of Israel in Ezekiel’s day. Yet tragically, these Jewish religious leaders did not and had only themselves to blame for it. Our theme for our worship service this morning is “God Guides his Church into True Repentance.” This Church is not just the body of believers in Bible times. It’s the body of believers in all times, including our own. God guides us into repentance because we have great need of it. Like that first son, we are not always willing to repent of our sins. Sometimes it’s because our sinful nature enjoys them too much. Other times it’s simply easier to sin. After all, why do something the long, difficult way when the short, sinful way will work? Or maybe, like the tax collectors and prostitutes, we’ve come to depend on these sins for our daily living and we can’t imagine giving them up so easily. Or maybe our struggle to repent is like that of the second son. We make hypocrites of ourselves because we say one thing but do another. We’ve all made promises that we didn’t keep for one reason or another. Those of us who are confirmed members of Grace or another Wisconsin Lutheran church have promised to remain true to God’s Word as we’ll hear later on in our new member reception. Yet we haven’t always remained faithful to those promises through the years. Like the Jewish religious leaders, we are reluctant to admit such personal failings in repentance. No matter what the hang up might be, it is our Father in heaven’s will that we still practice true repentance because that is where everything starts. To do that complete 180 U-turn as we turn away from sin while also turning to our God. True repentance is not easy nor is it fun. It requires us to take an honest look at ourselves and come to the sobering conclusion that what we have been doing isn’t right and we shouldn’t continue on with it. But true repentance is joyfully beneficial because it results in our complete forgiveness. We know this forgiveness is indeed a real thing because it is assured to us by our Savior’s death on the cross. When Jesus died, he died for all sins. 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Guides his Church into True Repentance October 11, 2020 When he paid the price for our sins, he paid it in full. His sacrifice was truly oncefor-all, a forgiveness that covers all sins. While all sins are equal in God’s sight, humanly speaking we recognize that there are some sins that are more severe than others and some people who have committed more than others. Yet no matter how severe or many we may think the sins may be, God’s forgiveness wipes them all away. And to see how that is true, look back to the tax collectors and prostitutes who began to do their Father’s will with true repentance. It was these, not the Jewish religious leaders, that Jesus said this, “Amen I tell you: The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. However, the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him.” (Matthew 21:31b-32) It is this true repentance resulting in complete forgiveness that God guides us into. We know that Jesus’ death 2,000 some years ago is still in effect today. For the person who calls Jesus Christ their Savior from sin, it’s as simple as a twofold turn to receive that complete forgiveness. To turn away from sin as they start that U-turn arrow when they genuinely confess their wrongs against God. Then, to turn towards God as they finish the U-turn when they trust in God’s promise to forgive. Whatever sins you had credited against before are no more, even if they’re as severe or many as a prostitute or as a 1st century tax collector likely had. And what you end up with from such true repentance is a place in the kingdom of God. 2) Surpass the Two Sons There’s still more to learn from our U-turn arrow than a 180 degree turn. There’s also the continued direction it points you in. It’s the same with God’s will for our repentance. After we make that twofold turn away from sin and to our God, we continue onwards in a life that is driven by a repentant heart. And we can expect to see that in our words and actions. To help us see what these might be, let’s look back to Jesus’ parable of the two sons and challenge ourselves to surpass them. While the first son is the better of the two because he ends up doing the will of his father, he could have done better if he had spoken willing words from the get go. When it comes to having a heart that genuinely wants and enjoys what God wills, we have to start by looking at the cross. To consider God’s great love as shown to us in the sacrificial death of his Son. To count the physical and emotional hurt our Savior endured so that we wouldn’t be punished for the wrongs we do. To appreciate our Father’s will for all to repent so that the some who do may have forgiveness and life in his name. It is the gospel alone, as seen best in Christ, that 4
Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Guides his Church into True Repentance October 11, 2020 can change our hearts so that we no longer view sin as a forbidden, delectable fruit but as a blatant, horrible abomination. When we have such a negative view of sin, it is then we can honestly say that we’ll willingly do what our Father desires. Unlike the second son who started off so good and ended so poorly, let us surpass him with actions that follow our words. When we repent of a particular sin, let us strive to live free from it forevermore. When we later review the confirmation promises many of us have made, let us hold fast to God’s Word as we vowed to do. And while this isn’t the purpose for living godly lives, it certainly would be an honor to be held up as an example of repentance-driven living as Jesus help up the tax collectors and prostitutes to the Jewish religious leaders. They say that every illustration limps at some point. That’s also true with the U-turn arrow for repentance. While the U-turn arrow doesn’t have an end, you know that eventually you’ll stop driving. And if you’re driving like me in an unfamiliar place, you’ll probably need to do a number of U-turns until you get to your destination. But when it comes to doing the will of our Father in heaven, it doesn’t end after a little bit. It continues on for all time. And when we trip ourselves up again because of the sinful nature that we can’t get rid of, we again go back to our Lord in true repentance as we turn away from sin and turn toward God in that familiar U-turn like fashion. As the younger of two sons, I was supposed to have learned from my older brother that it’s actions that speak louder than words in the end. I’ll let others determine how well I learned that lesson as a kid. But it was clear that the Jewish religious leaders had not learned that lesson. Although they knew God’s Word and heard John the Baptist’s call to repentance, they did no more than talk about it. It’s because of their lack of repentance that Jesus spoke this short parable of the two sons to show them how to do the Father’s will. It begins with true repentance that confesses one’s sins and trusts in God’s promise of forgiveness. While it’s not easy or fun, such actions are necessary if a person is going to make that U-turn where they turn away from sin and turn towards God. As a U-turn arrow keeps on going, so we expect our repentant heart to show itself in our words and actions in the future. And if you’re looking for a way to direct your energies, challenge yourself to surpass the parable’s two sons. Speak willing words that come from a gospelchanged heart. Make sure your actions follow your words so that you keep what you promised you would. And don’t be afraid to come back to this true repentance time and time again so that you may continue doing your Father’s will. Amen.
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