Something Needs to Change by David PlattSample

Day 1: Repentance

Something Needs to Change follows Pastor David Platt on a journey through remote Himalayan villages. Of an estimated nine million people in the region where the videos for this Bible study were filmed, there are only one hundred followers of Jesus. Most people in this region have never heard the name of Jesus. The hope of this Bible study is to make us aware of urgent physical and spiritual needs around the world and our call to meet them with gospel-driven compassion and resolve. 

God made the world and everything in it, and in His grace, He uses the church to meet those needs. Yet many of us are content to see needs and move on. If that’s us, we need to do the hard but necessary work of repentance. 

John the Baptist proclaimed a message of repentance (see v. 3). John prepared the way for Jesus by calling people to repent of their sin. Repentance is different from religious activity, which simply changes our behavior. Repentance results in a transformed heart, which changes our thoughts, motivations, and actions. John was calling the crowds to respond to God’s grace with true, life-changing repentance (see vv. 11-14). Likewise, when confronted with needs, we can’t do nothing. 

Look at verses 9 and 17. The images of judgment in these passages are stark and visceral. John's metaphors highlight what's at stake in our mission to the world. The nine million people around the Himalayas and billions around the globe will one day stand before God as Judge. And the only way they can be saved on that day is through faith in Jesus, for through Jesus, the call to repent is also a message of hope. 

Before John painted a picture of judgment, he offered promises of coming grace. In verses 4-6 we see a total reversal of the order of the world. The Lord is preparing a path for all people to know Him. As obstacles are removed, “everyone will see the salvation of God" (v. 6). As the gospel moves forward, the world changes, across the street and around the world.