Here and NowSample

A Call to Repentance

In Acts 17:29-31, Paul told the Athenians that God is not a statue that we can design on our own; in other words, the way they had been worshipping up to that point was wrong. He said that God had overlooked such ignorance in them, but now he required more of them. Now that they had heard the truth, they had a choice to make. Paul had been right where they were before. Earlier in Acts, he had been confronted with the truth about God and he faced the same choice — continue on as before or make a different decision and follow God.

Each of us is faced with that same choice at some point in our life. We have each spent too much time trying to satisfy ourselves with lesser things. Paul tells us that God overlooks these times. He does not wipe us out. He does not hate us and reject us but patiently waits.

But the times of ignorance, as some versions of Scripture call it, end when we hear the Good News that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Our actions, beginning with Adam and Eve’s disobedience and ending with our own, have created a chasm between us and God, one that we cannot close on our own, no matter how hard we try. But because God loves us, he sent Jesus to live among us, to die for us, and to conquer fear, superstition, anxiety, and death. All so that we could have a relationship with God -—now and for eternity.

Once we hear that truth, we have a choice to make.

We must decide to change our minds and our actions because of Jesus. That is what repentance means — a change of mind followed by a change in direction. Each person is responsible to change his or her mind and embrace what God has provided in Jesus Christ.

In Acts 17:31, Paul gives three facts emphasizing the importance of repentance:

1. God has fixed a day when he will judge the world. There is coming a day when every life will be evaluated. We cannot change it and we cannot escape it.
2. Jesus is the judge. The one who will do the evaluating will not be one of the many fake gods found in Athens or any of the people or things that distract us now but will be one who has lived right here with us, who knows what human life is like.
3. God raised Jesus from the dead. That is the guarantee that all God says will happen.

When people hear the Good News about Jesus and understand that this message means they don’t have to live in fear and darkness, they will respond. And just as the Athenians responded to Paul, some will mock, others will procrastinate, but many will believe.

Let’s finish our study by praying Acts 17:24-29, acknowledging who God is, that he has placed us in this time and place, and praying that we will take every opportunity to share truth with those around us.

Almighty God, we worship you because you are the one and only God, the one who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. You are not served by human hands, as if you needed anything. Rather, you give everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man you made all the nations, that we should inhabit the whole earth; and you marked out our appointed times in history and the boundaries of our lands. We believe you did this so we would seek you and perhaps reach out to you. You are not far from any one of us. In you, we live and move and have our being.

Amen