Repent!

[AI translation] This short message and call that I have just read was the very first word of Jesus Christ to this world. It was the beginning of his teaching on earth. It was his very first sermon and the condensed content of all his subsequent teachings. What is the kingdom of God? Well, in this Word Jesus Christ says one thing about it, "Repent." And indeed the very first problem of the kingdom of God is what we call repentance. Without that, it remains a theoretical question that can be explained as a concept... I too have often fallen into the error of explaining it as a doctrine. Jesus does not explain, but simply calls: repent! And indeed, as long as one is a stranger to conversion, the kingdom of God is a complete stranger to him, and to the extent that he takes conversion seriously, the many beauties and riches of the kingdom of God are revealed to him. That is why I would like to begin by saying to you too: repent!Today, the edge of this call is very blunted before us, we simply do not take it seriously, we often have perhaps unarticulated objections to conversion. Let me expose two of these lurking, unconscious excuses! One might sound like this, if someone were to voice it: why should I convert, it will not make the world a better place! Behold, for two thousand years the gospel has been preached, two thousand years since the kingdom of God came, and where is it, what is it that is seen in the world? Men are as selfish, vain, cruel, evil as they were before, and the world is being shaken by ever greater disasters... Is it worth being converted?
I read somewhere the other day that a street preacher once preached the gospel of the kingdom of God in a city. Among the crowds gathered around him was a very dirty-looking tramp, who listened to the Word for a while, but then he shouted, "Stop it! After all, we've been Christians for 2,000 years, and how much has it moved the world forward?" The street preacher suddenly answered the interjection, saying, "But there has been pure water in the world for more than 2,000 years, and yet your clothes are dirty!" I won't say it was a very subtle answer, but there is truth in it. To those who feel that the reason why the call to repentance should not be taken seriously is because the whole thing is not moving the world forward much, I have two things to say. The first is that what the Lord Jesus says here, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, is true even if one wants to ignore it. There is much more of the kingdom of God in this world than we know, much more of Jesus Christ than we have put into it. Jesus Christ has blessed and advanced the lives of all of us far more than most people think. The connection between the world's most progressive aspirations and Jesus Christ is much closer than it seems today. At its deepest foundations, democratic thinking is in fact a child, or unfortunately a stepchild, of Christian faith and Christian mercy. The status of women, care for the sick, protection of the elderly, help for the poor, the fundamental equality of all human beings, their interdependence and responsibility for one another: all these are ideas that have their roots in the kingdom of God.
Such and similar good things, social achievements, are now enjoyed by the world as ready fruits, without searching for the roots from which they grew. "The kingdom of God is at hand," says Jesus. The powers of the kingdom of God are therefore at work in the world without us, God in Jesus Christ has entered the tangle of earthly history, has confronted evil, and has even won a decisive victory over it. Many of the gifts, blessings and 'new things' of the kingdom of God in Christ are now a matter of course in the world. Nor do I mean to say for the sake of the world - and that is another thing - that we can be satisfied with ourselves: 'Well, how much Christianity has contributed to the progress of the world! No! There is no doubt that there ought to be much, much more of the beauty of the kingdom of God in our families, in our societies, in the whole world, than there seems to be. Well, the very reason why so little of the reality of the kingdom of God has been manifested in our hearts and in our homes and in our work and in our whole world is precisely because we resist the call to repentance of Jesus Christ. And it is a very simple truth that the best medicine is useless if the patient does not take it. We have had clean water for over 2000 years, but what is it worth to those who do not wash and refresh themselves with it?! For almost 2,000 years the call of God's love in the flesh has been sounded, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand! For the very reason why the beneficial effects of 2,000 years of Christianity are not sufficiently visible is that we, young and old, old and young, believers and non-believers, Christians of all kinds, do not want to take this first and fundamental call of Jesus Christ seriously! You are opposed to the redemptive powers of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ being more infused into society, into international politics! That is why Jesus says to repent! That is why this call is timely!
But there is another objection to taking conversion seriously. I hear it very often here in this congregation. Perhaps it could be put like this: 'I don't want to convert because I see how those who say they are converted are.' Yes: I know very well that converts, so-called believers, are a hindrance to many people's conversion and coming to faith. Believers, people who are zealous about Christ, have very often blocked the way to Jesus Christ for others. All this is true, unfortunately! It is also true what they say, that believers, converts, are so arrogant, so unloving, so hateful, so pompous, so conceited, so Pharisaical, so Judaism, so repulsive, that if that is what believers are, God save them! It is true! Brethren, you cannot tell me anything so bad about the converts that I cannot say more and more bad about them, for I consider myself one, and therefore I know how ugly and repulsive a believer can be! It is true! But note that this does not exempt you from the obligation to repent, nor does it justify you not to repent! If a believing family member or friend or acquaintance stands in your way of taking conversion seriously: that believer will answer for this stumbling block in the judgment, but do not think that this will be an excuse for you! You will not be able to say at the great conviction, "Lord, I have not repented because X and Y have represented the converted and believing life very badly on earth beside me!
Converts are not angels, they are human beings! The very first followers of Jesus Christ were also human beings, who were such weak believers that, for example, they once wanted to drive little children away from the Lord Jesus, and at another time they wanted to destroy a whole village in Samaria with heavenly fire in their overzealousness, and then they ran around saving their own miserable skins, falling asleep when they should have been on guard... If anyone had then looked out for them, they would have had just as much reason to hate the converted man! Am I to be converted to be like Peter, who boasted before Paul, or Paul, who quarreled with Barnabas, or like X or Y here in the church, who so needlessly exaggerates his faithfulness...? Should I be like that?
Well Brother, no! Don't be like Peter, or Paul, or X or Y! The Lord Jesus never told you to be like that. Jesus Christ said: Be perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect. Be like Jesus Christ! You repent because some around you are setting such a bad example of a repentant life! You show us what true conversion is! Look, maybe it is precisely because of all the human obstacles that you are facing that you are finding out if you really want to follow Jesus Christ! Perhaps you have to be struck by the weaknesses of so-called believers in order to find out how earnest your desire is for the person of the Lord Jesus Himself.
There is a story in the Bible about a woman who had been ill for 12 years and wanted to come to Jesus Christ, but could not because she was surrounded by so many people. Zacchaeus also wanted to see the Lord Jesus, but he was a small man and could not see over the heads of those standing in front of him. And yet they both got what they wanted: because they really wanted it! There will always be people who make it harder to get close to Jesus Christ, but brother, don't let people discourage you from Jesus Christ! Anyone who says how hateful believers are, is only showing that he does not really want to be converted, that the kingdom of God is not a serious matter for him! It happened in Berlin that a simple believing woman distributed evangelistic leaflets to drunkards. She was particularly concerned about a drunk driver. Why? - Because if I read any more, I will have to change, and I don't want to change!
The Lord Jesus says: "Repent ye therefore, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This word, "draw near", literally means that the kingdom of God, the rule of God, the love of God, the heavenly power of God has come within reach. He has come within our reach, God himself has been brought within our reach by Jesus Christ! I know that for many people the person of the Lord Jesus is still a stumbling block. Well, let me give you an analogy. If I were to put high voltage electricity into the motor of my vacuum cleaner, it would destroy the motor, it would burn out the motor. You have to transform the current: you have to put a transformer between the high voltage and the motor, so that the current does no harm, but essentially runs the motor... God is inaccessible, intangible, untouchable to us sinful earthly men. His holiness would destroy us, His righteousness would destroy us, His glory would blind us forever. We must be transformed by His heavenly excellency. That is why Jesus Christ came. In Him, God's untouchable righteousness is transformed into forgiveness of sin, His holiness into redeeming mercy, His glory into renewing life-force, into victory over sin.... This is how, through Jesus Christ, the almighty God, the kingdom of God, came into tangible, touchable nearness.
Believe the Gospel, says Jesus Christ, that is, believe the majestic miracle that in the person, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, new life has been given to everyone, over whom sin, death and Satan no longer reign, but only God! Believe in the kingdom of God: the blessed, liberating reign of God in and through Jesus Christ, to which all can submit. That is why he says repent, as if to say: Submit yourselves to the rule of God! Repentance is not a little amendment, but repentance: a complete change of lordship, surrender, capitulation, total surrender. Therefore, conversion: an eternal programme, not to be settled once and for all in one turn. It begins by recognising in Jesus Christ the heavenly transformer: the God who bends towards me, confessing to Him and laying down my sins before Him, and continues by submitting myself more and more fully to Him for a lifetime, placing myself and all I have under His dominion!
That is why the Lord Jesus came! That is why He suffered! That is why he died! That is why He rose again! So that you too may enter, enter, be converted into the kingdom of God, so that by giving your heart, your two hands, your work, yourself, you too may contribute to making the reign of God more visible in this world, there, around you! What a joy it would be in heaven now if we could all sing with a true, sincere heart:
Fill my heart with ,
The power of your grace
With fervour!
You died for me;
Give me my heart and my life
May my life burn for thee
With a hot flame!
(Song 466, verse 2)
Amen
Date: 11 January 1959.