Repent and Believe the Gospel
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:15)
As Jesus began His public ministry, Mark summarizes His early message as Repent and Believe. This is one message but with two parts. The first part without the second part is not the Gospel. The second part without the first is not the message of Jesus, either. Today, some say that this message was for the Jews. They claim there is no requirement to repent in our day. Interesting. What is repentance?
I was speaking at a church in Brazil. After my message the pastor said it was now repentance time. Apparently, this was a regularly scheduled part of their worship service. Nearly everyone went to the front, got on their knees, and wailed as loudly as possible. I saw one young man – no exaggeration - cry a pool of snot on the tile floor 3 feet in diameter! I have never seen anything like it. After a few minutes the pastor said that repentance time was over. Everyone went back to their seat. My eyes were wide open staring at the puddle. The pastor then had me come back up front to close the meeting in prayer. All I could think about was I'm going to step in it! Perhaps interestingly, the title of my message that morning was Who For The Joy Set Before Him.
Repentance is not tears and promises, necessarily. While those may be present, repentance is a change of opinion. We are going our own way. By the Spirit's enlightenment we are made aware what the destination is that is at the end of the road we are on. We turn around, with God's enabling of course. We change our mind. We become of the opposite opinion. We stop going our own way. That is repentance. Jesus said Repent and believe the message about Christ.
One Message – 2 Parts
What would happen if a lawn mower had wheels so it could move along the ground but it had no spinning blade to cut the grass? What if it had a cutting blade but no wheels to move along the ground?
In Acts 19 Paul is in the city of Ephesus and encounters a group of 12 men who were obviously some kind of followers of some teacher. Paul notices something odd about these people so he asks them if they had received the Holy Spirit (v. 2). They do not know what he is talking about. Paul then asks them who their teacher is, or in other words, what name have the been initiated into (v. 3). When they answer that they have been baptized as disciples of John the Baptizer, Paul thinks this is extra strange.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. (v. 4)
This would be rather unusual in our day, a group of people embracing the idea of repentance without believing in Jesus. What is not unusual in our day is belief without repentance.
In Acts 8 Philip goes to Samaria and preaches the Gospel to them. A magician named Simon is among them.
Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, … (v. 13)
The apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John when they had heard of the Samaritan revival. When Simon saw that the apostles laying hands upon people resulted in dramatic reactions, he offered them money if he could also have this ability to wow people. Peter seems to bring an unreasonably brutal response to Simon:
But Peter said to him, “To hell with you and your money! How dare you think you could buy the gift of God! You can have no share or place in this ministry, for your heart is not honest before God. All you can do now is to repent of this wickedness of yours and pray earnestly to God that the evil intention of your heart may be forgiven. For I can see inside you, and I see a man bitter with jealousy and bound with his own sin!” (v. 20-23 Phillips)
Simon was shocked and frightened. The Scriptures tell us that Simon truly believed the message about Christ. He believed to the point of following the Lord in the first step of Christian obedience, water baptism. Yet Peter discerned that Simon's heart was still concerned with making himself a man of great reputation among the people. That does not seem so unusual to us in our day, does it? However, Peter tore into him like a doberman saying he was filled with a wicked heart along with bitterness and jealousy.
It is not recorded that Philip preached repentance but it is just understood that if you want to be saved from sin, you must repent, that is, stop following your own way. If you want to be saved from your sin that means that you want to be rescued from your sin (not with it).
Someone might say Well, that's Samaria. That's sort of Jewish. We Gentiles are not required to be concerned with repentance. In Acts 20 Paul is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus (in modern day Turkiye). He said,
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (v. 21)
Paul had one message to both Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus - just like Jesus did at the beginning of His public ministry. Even Peter said
But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we (the Jews) shall be saved, even as they (the Gentiles). (Acts 15:11)
In Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, he added
... the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (v. 24)
Paul called this integrated two-part message “The Gospel of the Grace of God”. How can we improve upon that?
May 3, 2025