Mat 4:17; Finally, You Can Really Turn Your Life Around.

Class Outline:

Wednesday March 6, 2024

MAT 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

 

“Fron then on, Jesus started to herald His message and to say, ‘Turn your lives around, because here comes the kingdom of the heavens.’” [Bruner]

 

Matthew emphasizes in his Gospel the long discourses of Jesus. One can actually organize his Gospel around the five major discourses. The Sermon on the Mount is the first of these.

 

Notice the set up by Matthew: Three stories as the narrative introduction to the Sermon on the Mount.

 

The call to repentance (4:17).

The call to discipleship (4:18-22).

The call to healing (4:23-25).

 

These help us understand the calls and their relationship to the call to the life that is the foundation of all members of the kingdom.

 

As we often see, it will not do to have a partial picture of Christ or His way (the way of the kingdom).

 

Jesus’ message is not one whit different from John the Baptist’s (3:2).

 

Repentance and kingdom are familiar terms to Jewish ears at the time. Therefore, Israel must have been expected to understand, and their understanding can only come from the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh).

 

Metanoeo - repent, turn around, convert, or change.

It does not tell what to turn from specifically.

 

First we should note that Matthew is writing his Gospel for a Jewish audience. His theme is that Jesus is the King and the kingdom of heaven has been postponed and the church has entered a mystery age (Mat 13).

 

MAR 1:14-15

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

 

Obviously Jesus’ message, His heralding with authority, included “believe in the Gospel,” but Matthew leaves that out for his own reasons. And I think, obvious reasons.

 

Calls to repent are calls to change their lives:

JER 4:1-2.

HOS 14:1-2.

 

When Christ returns, Israel will repent and long for Him. 

HOS 3:1-5.

 

Repentance in the Babylonian captivity.

EZE 18:21; 33:10-11.

God will change their hearts in fulfillment of the New Covenant.

EZE 36:25-28.

 

The use of “repentance” is the turning of Israel to God and accepting His King.

 

Not, “I believe in Him and I’m going to continue to worship idols.”

 

There is a repentance of the unbeliever = faith in Christ / gospel (MAR 1:15).

Believer = rebellion to obedience (2CO 7:9-11).

 

Would we think that God is allowing us a conversion with no responsibility, an allowance to continue in dark idol worship, because we are in the age of grace?

 

For the believer, repentance for us is change or turning from disobedience to obedience. It is interesting to note that the Epistles do not often use the word for repentance very often, but uses other words that say the same thing, for instance, “no longer …” (EPH 4:14, 17, 28). “Lay aside,” or “put aside:” EPH 4:22; COL 3:5-8.

 

“When Jesus deals with moral evil and goodness, He does not begin by theorizing. … He takes this concrete approach because His aim is to enable people to be good, not just talk about it.” [Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy]

 

Willard references MAT 5:21-44, “You have heard it said, … but I say to you.” That phrasing is itself a change or turning from the old to the new. The new are the heavenly kingdom ways of love, devotion in love, devotion to God, devotion in forgiveness, and devotion in love of all mankind.

 

This is the will of the Lord. What some have done is cut off the will of the Lord at salvation and created a false Lord of life. This is not biblical.

 

Some have gone so far as to say that if Jesus is not Lord of your life, then you are not saved. This is their opinion, but it is not biblical.

 

Repentance is not merely a change of mind or regret, it is a complete change of life direction, enabled by the Word of the invading kingdom.

 

MAT 4:17-25.

 

Repentance is followed by the call of the fishermen: to whom repentance means, by the power of Jesus’ calling Word, to leave the valued familiar in order to live the excitingly unfamiliar life of following Jesus. It is the prodigal returning home, the sheep returning to the fold, the rejoicing from the returning coin (Luk 15).

 

Repentance is also followed by healing. If we were left the way that we were, a change of life would be more than impossible, it would be cruel to demand it of us. But we, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, are completely healed. It would be odd for a healed leper to continue to live in the leper colony; or the one healed of demon possession to continue living in the graveyard and foaming at the mouth; or the healed paralytic to continue to lay on the floor. If you were blind your whole life and then healed, would you keep your eyes closed? If you were lame for decades and then healed, would you not want to walk?

 

The idea that salvation would have no effect on your desire is just as odd.

 

 MAT 18:1-6.

 

You have been changed by Christ and the baptism of the Holy Spirit if you are a believer in Christ. God demands that you embrace that change.

 

What will you lose if you do not?