Our message today is entitled “What Does Repentance Mean?” Repentance is one of the most important words in the Bible. Why is repentance so important? Without repentance a person cannot be saved. Hell is populated with people who have not repented. Repentance is not just something that you do once is life. Repentance is meant to be practiced daily, that’s what believers do.
So, what does repentance mean? In the Greek language, the word for repent is metanoew, which means to change one’s thinking, to turn around. John the Baptist’s ministry was a call to repentance. Jesus’ ministry is summarized in …
Mark 1:15 (ESV) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
So, in Jesus’ call, one must repent, turn away from sin and believe in the gospel of Jesus. Let’s look more closely at what it means to repent. The Bible teaches that everyone worships something or someone. There are no exceptions. God’s Word tells us that God has revealed Himself to everyone on the planet.
Romans 1:21-23 (ESV) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
You see, there are only two options to worship. You can worship the one and only true God, the creator. Or you can worship created things, images, people, pleasure, power, money, etc. The Bible calls anything you worship other than God an idol and all idols are empowered by demons.
Let’s define what it means to worship someone or something. To worship is to bow down to, to follow, to submit to, to put first, to love. You cannot worship God and idols at the same time, you must worship God alone. To repent is to change what your worship, to turn away from worshipping idols and choose to worship God alone. You put God first in your life. Every sin is an act of worship to an idol, that’s why it’s sin.
Every day, Jesus taught us to repent and ask for forgiveness. Let’s make clear what true repentance is not. True repentance is not admitting or confessing you’ve sinned and then continuing in that sin. True repentance is not saying, sorry, forgive me, but I’m going to keep on sinning. True repentance is changing your mind about your sin. True repentance means that if you had a do over in the situation in which you sinned, you would not sin again. That’s what repentance means.