Repentance is a change of mind that involves turning away from idols in the heart and making a complete change of direction (180° turn) toward God. Ezekiel 14:6 says, "Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations." When a personchanges his mind about sin, a change in behavior will naturally result. For example, those who repented of their sins in the Old Testament often showed outward evidence by tearing down idolatrous statues (see II Kings 11:18). In the New Testament, signs of repentance included water baptism, restitution for theft, and the burning of occultic possessions (see Matthew 11:20-21; Mark 1:4; Luke 19:8; Acts 19:19). Such deeds are called "fruits meet for repentance" (Matthew 3:8).

What Does it Mean to Repent?

Jesus came preaching the Gospel of theKingdom of God. What were the first words in His message? Matthew 4:17 tells us: "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus was not suggesting repentance here, He was commanding it. Indeed, God commands all people everywhere to repent (see Acts 17:30) because repentance is a prerequisite to seeing and entering the Kingdom of God.Those who don't repent cannot be saved; they will perish in their sins. "I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3)

Whatever happened to repentance? You rarely hear repentance mentioned in most churches today — even in Baptist, Pentecostal or evangelical circles. Pastors nowadays seldom call for their congregations to sorrow over sin — to mourn and grieve over wounding Christ by their wickedness....Instead, the message we hear from many pulpits today is, "Just believe, accept Christ, say a little prayer and you'll be saved."

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John preached it, Jesus preaches it, it must be important. So what does this word “Repent” mean? The Greek word here is “Metanoeite,” and it carries with it the idea of “Change your mind,” “Change your whole way of thinking.” Think again, rethink this thing. You need a whole new mind. The way you’ve been going is wrong. Turn around and redirect your life in the way that God is showing you. That’s what Jesus is saying when he says, “Repent.”

And notice, Jesus preaches this message of repentance to Israelites, Jews, God’s people. He’s speaking to church members, if you will. Zebulun, Naphtali, Capernaum, Galilee--these are Jewish places. To be sure, this preaching of repentance and the light of the gospel will go out to Gentiles, too. There were plenty of Gentiles nearby, such that Galilee can even be called “Galilee of the Gentiles.” But initially, this call to repentance went out to what was essentially the church.

And this was, to some extent, a sticking point. A lot of the Jews didn’t think they needed to repent. They were already God’s people. “So why us?” they thought. “Gentiles, sure. Gross sinners like the tax collectors and prostitutes, yeah. But not us good church members! Don’t preach to us and tell us to repent!”

But this is what we need to hear. This is what we need to do, is to repent. For the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh are constantly pulling at us, trying to draw us back into the darkness. And that would be disaster.

Voices all around us, and within us. The devil is saying, so subtly, whispering so appealingly in our ear, “Hey, don’t you want to be your own God? Wouldn’t that be fun? Make your own decisions about right and wrong. Do what feels right. Besides, God is holding out on you! Take matters into your own hands. Who’s going to know?”

Then there’s the world, putting different values before our eyes and in our heads. The siren song comes at us from screens and speakers every day, telling us how to think. Our schools, our coworkers, our friends and neighbors--our entire culture is coming at us with values much different than God would have us hold. The influence is perverse, and it is pervasive.

And if the devil and the world were not enough, we’ve got our own sinful flesh to contend with. The enemy inside us, you could say. “I want what I want, and I’ll find a way to justify it.” Pleasing self is whole agenda of the flesh. Pride, self-centeredness, praise from others, pleasure above all--this is the sinful tendency from within.

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