Luke 1:13-17
1:13 But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
1:14 "And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
1:15 "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
1:16 "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lordtheir God.
1:17 "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, `to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
John the Baptist had testimonies in his life like the candlestick with 7 shining lamps as follows;
Ad. 6. He made people repent.
To repent means to stop doing sin and return to God, to turn from journey to hell to journey to Heaven.
Why do we have torepent?
The solution from God is as follows:
Romans2:4
2:4Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance??
God always leadsus to repentance (not leading to sin)through the preacing of True God’s Word (the True Teaching Word).
The tools to repent are as follows:
The conclusionis there is no reason to not repent, it depends on us to repent or not to repent.
Romans2:5
2:5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
People with hard heart (not repenting) are people who are treasuring up wrath until one day they surely receive His wrath and perish forever.
THE PROCESS OF REPENTING IS AS FOLLOWS:
THE RESULT OF REPENTANCEis the love of God is poured in our life, so we can have the love of God.
Proverbs28:13
28:13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes [them] will have mercy.
The usefulless of His Loveor Mercy is as follows:
Zephaniah3:16-18
3:16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak.
3:17 The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet [you] with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."
3:18 "I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, Who are among you, [To whom] its reproach [is] a burden.
God blesses us.
1:13 But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
1:14 "And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
1:15 "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
1:16 "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lordtheir God.
1:17 "He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, `to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
John the Baptist had testimonies in his life like the candlestick with 7 shining lamps as follows;
- Verse 13: He got his name from God.
- Verse 14: He brought joy and gladness from Heaven.
- Verse 15a: He was great in the sight of Lord.
- Verse 15b: He became a Nazirite of God (people who lived in holiness).
- Verse 15c: He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Verse 16: He made people repent.
- Verse 17: He became a pioneer/precursor.
Ad. 6. He made people repent.
To repent means to stop doing sin and return to God, to turn from journey to hell to journey to Heaven.
Why do we have torepent?
- Isaiah 59:1-3
59:1. Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear;
59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden [His] face from you, So that He will not hear.
59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
That is the sin that has separated us from God.
The effect is that God can not stretch out His hand to help us, so we keep living in troubles that never end, living in dryness up to being dead spiritually.
The signs of dryness/ being dead spiritually or separated from God are as follows- To start feeling bored, being sleepy, talking, not listening up to not being able to understand the Word when it is preached.
- Being unfaithful and not fervent in spirit ini service and ministry anymore.
- Being unsatisfied, unhappy, empty, so they are looking for other satisfaction in the world and falling deeper in sin.
- Suffering and living in fear.
- To start feeling bored, being sleepy, talking, not listening up to not being able to understand the Word when it is preached.
- Psalm 1:5
1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Because the sin is a separator between us and neighbor.
The sinful people surely shall not in the congregation of the righteous.
The effect is they are unhappy and in suffering. - Romans6:23a
6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death;
Becausethe wages of sins is deathor perdition forever in hell.
The solution from God is as follows:
Romans2:4
2:4Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance??
God always leadsus to repentance (not leading to sin)through the preacing of True God’s Word (the True Teaching Word).
The tools to repent are as follows:
- His goodnes, that is we still have physical body so we are still able to repent.
Jesus redeems the human from sin in form of the body, the blood, and the flesh (God was borne to be human). That’s why only physical human who still having the pysical body can repent. - His forbearance,that is:
God is willing to forgive any kinds of sin, so we can repent. - His longsuffering, that is:
II Peter 3:9
3:9. The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.- God has not come yet for the second time.
- God still gives an extended life to us.
So, our main purpose in lifeis to repent, that is to stop doing sin and return to God.
His longsuffering is as rubber that can be pulled longer = we, sinful people, have not been punished yet.
But if we keep living in sin, His longsuffering will be at His limit (just like rubber that keeps being pulled until it is broken) and we will be punished. - God has not come yet for the second time.
The conclusionis there is no reason to not repent, it depends on us to repent or not to repent.
Romans2:5
2:5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
People with hard heart (not repenting) are people who are treasuring up wrath until one day they surely receive His wrath and perish forever.
THE PROCESS OF REPENTING IS AS FOLLOWS:
- IJohn 1:7, 9
1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confessing sin sincerely to God (vertically) and to neighbor (horizontally) means our sins are nailed on the cross.
Then, at that time the blood of Jesus is active as follows:- To forgive all our sins = to cover all our sins until there is no mark of sin anymore, just like we never sins. So we are not punished.
But if we do the sin again, the forgiveness is canceled and the punishment remains.
That’s why the blood of Jesus works doubly. - To purify us from all unrighteousness = to pull out of the root of sin so it cannot grow up anymore and we do not do the sin, but we can repent.
- To forgive all our sins = to cover all our sins until there is no mark of sin anymore, just like we never sins. So we are not punished.
- Forgiving the sin of others who have already confessed to us, and forgettingit.
Matthew6:14-15
6:14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
6:15 "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
If we do not forgive others, our sin will not be forgiven by God the Heavenly Father.
THE RESULT OF REPENTANCEis the love of God is poured in our life, so we can have the love of God.
Proverbs28:13
28:13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes [them] will have mercy.
The usefulless of His Loveor Mercy is as follows:
Zephaniah3:16-18
3:16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak.
3:17 The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet [you] with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."
3:18 "I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly, Who are among you, [To whom] its reproach [is] a burden.
- The love of God wipes all fear, worry, sadness, et cetera, so wearesatisfied by the love of God (happiness and peace from Heaven).
- Our hands can be lifted up to God = we become faithful and fervent in service and ministry and we like to worship God to have a good relationship with God.
- Satan the trinity is defeated, so we can live in righteousness and holinessin His merciful hands.
If sins are finished, all problems will also be solved, all failures will be restored to be successful/ good/ beautiful in His time. - His merciful hands purify and renew us from physical human to spiritual one like Jesus.
The renewal is began from no more liebut honesty ;let your “Yes” be “Yes”, and your “No”, “No”. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
We are renewed continually little by little until we become perfect like Jesus, and we can be together with God forever.
God blesses us.