Repentance Necessary

Text: Acts 17:30; 20:21

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. State why repentance is always "toward God" (Acts 20:21) — even when the sin was committed against another person.
2. Define what repentance is not — distinguish it from godly sorrow alone, from gloomy despair (Judas), and from merely quitting a sin.
3. Explain why the opportunity to repent is itself a blessing, and identify two biblical cases where the opportunity was taken away.
4. State what pride, social standing, and money do to the prospect of repentance, and explain from Rom. 2:4 why refusing to repent reflects on God's goodness.
5. Explain why repentance is strictly personal — why no one can repent for another.

Thesis

The call to repent is not a single appeal at the beginning of the Christian life — it is the fundamental note of the entire gospel, sounded by every prophet, by John, by Christ, by the apostles, and by the Risen Lord writing to seven churches. Repentance is always toward God, is more than sorrow, is a blessing when available, and is the one condition that no proxy can fulfill.

Burden

Ever since man sinned, God has been calling upon him to repent. The sermon's burden is to clear away the misunderstandings that allow the hearer to satisfy themselves with less than repentance — with sorrow that does not change, with stopping that does not turn, with covering that does not confess — and to press home the one condition that the gospel has always required.

Introduction

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent" (Acts 17:30). The command is universal — "all people everywhere" — and it is present tense: the declaration is ongoing. "Solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Paul's summary of his entire Ephesian ministry reduces to two things: repentance toward God and faith in Christ. The fundamental note he sounded to Jew and Gentile in every city was not a doctrinal lecture — it was a call.

John in Revelation, writing to the seven churches, calls upon five of them to repent (Rev. 2:5, 16, 21; 3:3, 19). The call is not reserved for outsiders; it is addressed to people already inside the church who have departed from their first love, tolerated false teaching, or grown lukewarm. Repentance is not the threshold that one crosses once at conversion and leaves behind — it is the ongoing orientation of the person who takes their sin seriously.

I. Repentance Is Always Toward God (Acts 20:21)

The directional specification is important: repentance is toward God, not toward the person sinned against, not toward the church, not toward oneself.

All sin is against God. Even a sin against self, against a fellow person, or against Christ is against God — the author of all law transgressed. When David committed adultery and murder, he said to Nathan: "I have sinned against the Lord" (II Sam. 12:13). The same acknowledgment appears in the far country: "I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight'" (Luke 15:18). "Against heaven" — which is to say, against God. The proximate victim of sin is the person sinned against; the ultimate victim is the God whose law the sin violated. Therefore the repentance is always, ultimately, toward God. (Num. 32:23: "be sure your sin will find you out.")

Faith is in Christ. Paul's pair in Acts 20:21 is deliberate: repentance is directed toward God; faith is directed toward Christ. The two are complementary and inseparable — repentance without faith does not arrive at forgiveness; faith without repentance does not take sin seriously. Both are required; neither replaces the other.

II. What Is Repentance?

The definition must be established before the call can land accurately. Three common confusions must be cleared away.

It is not just godly sorrow (II Cor. 7:10). "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." Paul is not saying sorrow is irrelevant — he is distinguishing two kinds: godly sorrow, which produces repentance; and worldly sorrow, which is grief without the turn. Godly sorrow is the cause; repentance is the effect. The person who experiences sorrow over their sin but never turns has experienced the cause without the effect. The sorrow, however real, has not yet become repentance.

It is not gloomy despair — Judas. "Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders... And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:3-5). Judas felt remorse (metamelomai — to regret); he did not repent (metanoeō — to change the mind and turn). The distinction between regret and repentance is the difference between being sorry about where you are and actually going somewhere else.

Just to quit a sin does not help one — it must be repented of. The person who stops drinking without repentance has changed a behavior without changing the orientation that produced it. The sin must be repented of — turned from at the level of the will and the desire, not merely suppressed at the level of the action.

To cover the sin will not do. David tried that, but God exposed his sin (Num. 32:23: "be sure your sin will find you out"). God published it to the world (Luke 12:2: "nothing is covered up that will not be revealed"). We know of it today. The illustration: like covering up spilled corn to hide it — it comes up and exposes you. Sin buried in concealment does not decompose; it grows.

David prayed after his sin (Ps. 51). "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions" (Ps. 51:1). David did not suppress; he confessed. He did not cover; he opened. And the prayer of Psalm 51 is the model of repentance that goes all the way to the root: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Ps. 51:10).

His sin was against God. David says: "Against You, You only, I have sinned" (Ps. 51:4). Bathsheba was wronged; Uriah was murdered; the court was corrupted — but the confession goes to the one against whom all sin is ultimately committed.

III. The Opportunity to Repent Is a Great Blessing (Acts 11:18; Rev. 2:21)

Repentance is a condition, but the opportunity to meet it is a gift.

"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (II Pet. 3:9). The patience of God is not indifference to sin — it is the extension of the window within which repentance is possible. Every day of that window is a grace.

It is bad to sin, but it is worse to sin and not repent. The sin alone leaves a person guilty; the refusal to repent compounds the guilt and removes the remedy. The person who has sinned and will not repent is in a worse condition than the person who has sinned and has repented — not because the sin is worse but because the response has made the remedy unavailable.

It may be taken from those who will not repent. Thyatira (Rev. 2:21): "I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality." The time was given; it was not used; the judgment followed. Esau (Heb. 12:17): "For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears." The opportunity for repentance had passed; tears did not recover it. Hosea 13:14 in its judgment context: the withdrawal of compassion from those who have repeatedly refused it.

When God shut the gate of paradise against Adam, He opened the door to repentance. The expulsion from the garden was not the end — it was the beginning of the long mercy: the plan through which what was lost could be recovered, through which the person who had sinned could be restored. The call to repent is evidence of God's continued interest in the person who sinned against him.

IV. Must Repent or Perish (Luke 13:3, 5)

"Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The Lord does not qualify this: it is not "unless you repent and have sufficient sorrow" or "unless you repent when the conditions are right." It is repent or perish, with no middle category.

Pride, social condition, money, and worldly honor keep one from repentance. Pride resists the admission of wrong that repentance requires. Social standing calculates the cost of being seen to change — the relationships that might be lost, the opinions that might shift. Money creates the illusion that one can afford the consequences of sin. Worldly honor depends on a public image of having been right all along, and repentance is the public admission that the image was wrong.

"You reflect on the goodness of God when you say you cannot" (Rom. 2:4). "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" The person who says they cannot repent — that the conditions are wrong, the feelings are not present, the moment is not right — is judging God's patience as insufficient, God's kindness as inadequate, God's call as unreasonable.

Better cut off any member of the body or even life here than be lost. The Lord's hyperbole in Matthew 5:29-30 expresses the same logic: the temporary cost of repentance, however painful, is less than the permanent cost of the alternative.

The story of a murderer trying to keep his secret: a man who committed murder and spent years suppressing the knowledge, until the weight of concealment became heavier than the prospect of prison. Prison, even death, was sweeter to him, he said. The haunted conscience is not life; it is a condition worse than some of the consequences that repentance might bring.

It is a personal matter — no one can repent for another. The faith of parents, the prayers of friends, the tears of a spouse — none of these constitute repentance for the person who has not repented. The call is addressed to the individual; the response must come from the individual. "So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12).

Application

Three questions for self-examination:

What have you been covering? The corn that is buried comes up. The strategy of concealment is not protection — it is a delay of exposure. The person who has been concealing sin is not in a safer position than the person who has confessed it; they are in a more dangerous one.

Have you confused sorrow with repentance? The person who grieves over their sin — who feels genuinely bad about what they have done — may have mistaken the cause for the effect. Godly sorrow produces repentance; it does not replace it. The production must be allowed to happen.

What is preventing the turn? Pride, social calculation, money, honor — name the specific obstacle. These are the things that keep one from repentance; naming them is the first step toward removing them.

Conclusion

"God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent" (Acts 17:30). The declaration has not been withdrawn. The window that God's patience has held open remains open. Repentance is not beyond the reach of the person sitting in this room — it requires no unusual resources, no specific emotional state, no social conditions that must first be arranged. It requires the turn. The turn is the thing God has been calling for since the moment man first sinned.

Invitation

"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). The call of Acts 2:38 is the call that fulfills Acts 17:30. To repent is to turn toward God; to be baptized is to submit to the burial and resurrection that the gospel announces. Both are required; neither is optional; both are available.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 136. Primary texts: Acts 17:30; 20:21 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "INTRODUCTI ON" → "INTRODUCTION"; "lll." → "III."; "lV." → "IV." Doctrinal audit: repentance developed as a genuine volitional turn, not merely emotional sorrow — the II Cor. 7:10 distinction (godly sorrow produces repentance) fully preserved; the universality of the command (Acts 17:30) affirmed without Calvinist qualification; the personal nature of repentance (no proxy) affirmed; the opportunity to repent treated as a revocable grace (Rev. 2:21; Heb. 12:17) without fatalism — the door closes because the person refuses, not because God pre-determined to close it; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).