Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Joshua 1-5
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 4:17
Jesus: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
The beginning of verse Matthew 4:17 tells us preaching became a part of Jesus’ work after Herod imprisoned His cousin John for reproaching him for marrying his current wife. The theme of Jesus’ messages were the same as John’s. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But what did it mean for those who heard the message and for us as we hear His words?
If you look up the word repent in the dictionary, you’ll find two definitions, as you will with many words that come to us through scripture. As I’ve mentioned every day this year, Satan likes to twist and turn God’s word to meet his purposes rather than God’s so it shouldn’t be a surprise that we have twisted the definitions of words to make them mean something other than what the writers intended as they penned the words originally.
So, let’s start with that word repent. The two definitions are: 1. to feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite for past conduct; regret or be conscience-stricken about a past action, attitude, etc. (often followed by of):
He repented after his thoughtless act. And: 2. to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better; be penitent.
It’s the second definition that God’s message encompasses. Repentance doesn’t stop at feeling sorry or contrite for past conduct. It includes turning around and walking the other way. It means going the opposite direction. It means turning away from evil and walking toward good. It means letting go of selfish ways and grabbing hold of God’s ways. Repentance means so much more than just being sorry, regretting or conscience-stricken about the past. It’s about change.
John’s message, the message from the prophets, Jesus’ message as He walked alongside us, all pointed us to the same thing. Turn from your wicked ways. Stop in your tracks, do an about-face on the path you are taking and walk the other way. Walk toward God, not away from Him. See, there are only two directions you can go in life. You can walk toward God or you can walk away from Him. Repentance means feeling such sorrow over your past actions that you do something about it. You ask forgiveness of those things and then change!
Jesus’ message includes the why of repentance as well. We have always been this way, but it seems like we get a little worse with each passing generation. We all want to know the answer to the question, Why? We don’t want to blindly follow orders. We want to know what’s in it for us before we launch out on some new quest. We want to know why we should step out and make the investment or change our pattern of life before we do that about-face.
Jesus and those preachers before Him give us the answer. “…the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Maybe that doesn’t mean much to you today with all the sci-fi spectaculars that try to reduce the place of God in our minds. Movies try to diminish the role and our concept of God to some creature that planted us here from another galaxy as an experiment or an effort to save their race from extinction or some other movie plot a playwriter dreams up.
But for those Jesus spoke to who grew up around the temple and heard the words of God from His priests and prophets, they understood what it meant for the kingdom of heaven to be at hand. It meant judgment. It meant rewards for the righteous and punishment for the unrighteous. And those labels are determined not by man’s courts, but by God. Those definitions don’t change when we decide to change a definition to better suit what we think is fair or just. The definitions of righteous and unrighteous are determined by the Master of the kingdom of heaven. He alone will judge each person according to his or her deeds.
And the truth is found in Romans 3:23. All of us have sinned and failed in our futile attempts to reach God in His glory. We all fail the test. None of us are good enough to make it into the kingdom of heaven. But because of His love for us, He decided to use His power to put some of our DNA in Him and create Himself in human form and live alongside us for a while. He gave Himself up as a perfect sacrifice for our sins and paid the penalty for our sins so that we can approach Him in His glory.
None of us are good enough. But He is. None of us can do enough. But He did. None of us can offer the perfect sacrifice. But He is the perfect sacrifice. And His message to us is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There’s not much time. Do it now.
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