Well, we have come to the end of the first section of Acts, and I say that, and what I mean by that is that when I look at the book of Acts, I see a basic program being carried out, and that program is in Acts 1.8. And there we find that the gospel is going to go to Jerusalem and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And when we round out chapter five, what we find is we find that the gospel has certainly made inroads in Jerusalem. And there's a certain sense in which when we talk about inroads, we talk about it as if it were a seed and the seed has been planted in the soil and it dies and it comes to life and it actually emerges apart from It's birthplace, it's soil of rest and of course that's Judaism. We see Christianity emerging as it were from the seed of Judaism and so it's a beautiful picture and yet it's a difficult picture because it comes out of persecution. Now, we've been thinking about that, and that's the, I guess, the biblical theological way of thinking about it, seeing how Christianity births from Judaism, but there's something else that I want you to notice, and I just wanna say it, and it's going to be the reason why we're going to be looking at the text we're looking at today, and that is this. We cannot afford to look at the development of the gospel and Christianity and its spread and so on, and forget about the gospel itself. The gospel itself is that Christ came to save sinners. There is no other name by which men and women and children must be saved except the Lord Jesus Christ. People are being saved in this text. Saved from what? Saved from hell, of course. and what is hell but the wrath and curse of God himself? But the question is, the question is how are people saved? And it's that question that I want us to focus on today as we look at the text and as we consider just one element of that. And so I want us to turn back to chapter five, I want us to look at verse 27, and we'll just read through verse 32. Let me... invite you to hear the word of the living God, his infallible, inerrant, and authoritative word. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. Well, today I want us to just focus on verse 31. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. I want us to think today about repentance. Repentance is foundational when you think about conversion. When you think about conversion, you think about basically two things. You think about faith and repentance. And in one sense, those are two things that just are inseparable. You can't separate them. You can distinguish between the two, but it's hard to separate them and who would want to. Let me give you an example of what I mean by that. Someone who turns to God in faith has turned away from sin in repentance. The two are distinguishable and yet inseparable. And so they interface. But today I want us to focus on repentance because that's what's in our text. And I think that we need to think about it a little while so that we understand this aspect of conversion. Why? I think in some ways it's probably a more neglected aspect of conversion than is faith. I think today we hear a lot about faith, a lot about believing the truth claims of the gospel. And yet I think maybe repentance has suffered to some extent. So I want us to think about repentance. And so let's just start, let's start with the basics. Let's start with etymology. Let's start with the word itself. The Greek word is metanoia. Now, when you think about that word, it's really two words. It's a preposition, and in this case, it's the verb form of the noun put together. And that noia is the verb form of the noun, and it basically is from the noun nous, which means mind. Now, you put that together with the preposition that's prefixed to it, meta, and it can mean anything from with, after, beside, but in this case, after is the most appropriate meaning. And so when you think about metanoia, you think about something like an afterthought or a mind after. And so the idea is that it's a mind changed. And so we talk about metanoia or repentance as a change of mind. Now that's rather simplistic. It's in keeping with the word itself, but there's a sense in which the mind doesn't simply change, but the whole person changes. That is to say, when the mind changes, it directs the will and the affections certainly follow. sense in which the whole person is reoriented away from sin and to God, and that's in keeping with the idea of repentance. Now, I want us to think about repentance today, and I want us to think about it in keeping with what we find in the text. I want us to make some inferences. The first point will be something of an inference based on something that is said in the text, but I want us to think about repentance as it arises from the text, and certainly as it applies to our lives. So first of all, I want us to think about repentance or a change of mind as a summons. I want us to think about a change of mind as a summons. Secondly, I want us to think about a change of mind about sin, a change of mind about sin. Thirdly, I want us to think about a change of mind about the son as regards to the son. So a change of mind pertaining to a summons, a change of mind pertaining to sin, a change of mind pertaining to the son, and a change of mind pertaining to the self. And so a change of mind for those. Let's first of all look at a change of mind as a summons. We should not lose sight of the fact that repentance is a command from Almighty God. It's a summons. It's a summons of the highest order. And we already saw it. It was in Acts chapter 2 and verse 39. And there we find the Peter, standing up amidst the people, said, And here again, in chapter 3 and verse 19, we find, And so it's in our text. We've been watching it, keeping our eye on it, observing it, but it's not just in our text, it's in the Gospels. So for instance, if you were to turn, and I'm not having you turn here, you can jot this down, but Mark chapter one and verse 14 and 15, this is what Jesus says as he preaches. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Luke says the same thing. Repent or you will likewise perish. Repentance is our response. Repentance is something that we do. It's not something that God does. God is not the one sinning who turns from sin. We are the ones who are sinning and who are called to turn from it to God in faith. Repentance is something that we do and there's no escaping it. However, when you look at the text before us, one of the things that you discover is that repentance is actually a gift. Repentance is something that's given. I mean, take a look at our text again. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior, listen to this, to give repentance. To give repentance. Now that ought to raise a question. If repentance is my response, if it's something that I offer, If it's something that I need to do, that is turn away from sin so that I can exercise faith and turn toward God. How is it a gift? How is it a gift? And the answer to that, the answer to that is in order to exercise that gift, I need to have an operation. Now, what's my problem if I need to have an operation? Well, I love the way scripture puts it. It puts it in general terms. It talks to us about the heart condition that we all have. And I want you to think about it. You go to a doctor and you tell the doctor, in fact, today, if you tell the doctor you have a chest pain or if you have a little pain right here, he says, we need to put you in the hospital. And if it's too late in the day and they don't suspect anything traumatic, then in the morning you have a stress test. But if it is traumatic, you might have some kind of a scope that evening. But then the doctor comes back to you and says, well, we found a problem and we need to operate. I want you to think about that with regard to the heart. The Bible says that you have a heart condition. What is that heart condition that you have? Well, Jeremiah 17, nine summarizes it well. He says that the heart is desperately deceitful, wicked. In fact, he goes on to say that it's desperately sick. We have a diseased heart. And that disease is the disease of sin. It affects everything that we do. We are sinful in our mind, in our affections. We're sinful in our choices. We're disoriented. Sometimes we know the good that we ought to do, and like Paul, we long for the thing that we want, and we're caught in the middle, and it's a war of will. The Bible also calls this an uncircumcised heart. Do you ever wonder what that is? An uncircumcised heart is a hard heart. It's a heart that's closed off to God. It doesn't respond to Him, nor does it want to respond to Him. You know, that's very true, but it's often the case that people perhaps grow up in the church all their lives, and they'll say things like this. They'll say, I love God. They'll say, I go to church. I'm a Christian. But the fact of the matter is, fruit is identifiable. Expressions are understood. And there is an indifference in the life of a person who doesn't practice a life of faith and repentance. In other words, you know, for instance, if someone turns from their sin and turns to God in faith, you know it. I'll never forget Dr. Gamble telling me once that one of his daughter's musician teachers told him that if you fail to practice for a couple of days, you will notice. But if you fail to practice for a week, your colleagues will notice. But if you fail to practice for several weeks, everybody will notice. Now, I want you to know something. That's true, not just of a musician, but it's true of a Christian. The Christian who does not repent of sin and turn to God in faith for a couple of days may notice it themselves, but if you continue in that sort of vein, other people will notice. It will come out of you in ways that you don't know it comes out of you. There will be an indifference to God that will mark your life and that will reveal something about you that is distressing to those who are around. And so what is to be done? Well, we're talking here about the person who needs conversion. What is to be done? Well, the answer is the Holy Spirit needs to operate. And that operation is described in a variety of different ways in the scriptures. In John chapter three, it's described as a new birth. In fact, the religious elite, they don't understand why it is that Jesus would say that a person needs to be born again. Or in Ephesians 2, it's described as a resurrection, being made alive in Jesus Christ. In other places, it's described as a circumcision of the heart. Now, here is the striking thing about this work of the Holy Spirit, this operation. It happens at a subconscious level. In other words, you don't realize it's happening to you, which I think is one of the most wonderful things in the world. Why? Because when you invite someone to church, they think that they are coming to critique what's happening. You know, that unbeliever that you're trying to get to church and you've been inviting forever, and they finally come as if they will sit in judgment, but they don't realize that God is the one who sits in judgment over them. And what they don't realize is that God, is able to get within them and actually do a surgery upon them without them even knowing it. He's able to circumcise their heart without them being aware of it. Isn't that delicious? I just absolutely love that every time I think about that. And that's what happens, God operates at this subconscious level, and then what happens is this, they're driving in their car a couple of days later, and they begin to think happily and positively about something that they hated or disdained before, and it catches them up short, and they can't believe that that's a thought they just had. And all of a sudden, they are conscious of the change. You know, I don't know if you've ever talked to someone who has just emerged from surgery, and they'll say this, they'll say, for instance, a person who comes out of back surgery, they'll say something like this, they'll say, you know, I hurt from the surgery, but I don't have the pain anymore. Right, the doctor has done something while they are asleep, and now that they're awake, they feel the effect. That's the idea. That's the idea. The person who has had their heart circumcised understands the difference. And then what happens is this. What happens is they hear the summons, they hear the summons, repent and believe the gospel. And all of a sudden, they want to repent. They hear the summons and they know that they must repent. It's a God-enabled summons. And when God enables that summons, you see the fruit of conversion, which is faith and repentance. You see it. And you don't just see it once, but you see it in a believing life. Luther said that we ought to live lives of repentance and faith continually, and I agree with him. In other words, the fruit of regeneration ought to be visible in our lives regularly. And so when Peter says God is able to grant it, the reciprocal point is we will embrace it and others will see it. And the question is what will be seen? What will be seen? And the answer is that people will see a change in mind about sin. I want you to think about our text. I mentioned this to you a couple of times before, and I said to you, in order to understand what's going on here, you actually need to understand the Old Testament context. The Old Testament context is that of the sacrificial system, and the sacrificial system, I want you to understand, was for believers. It wasn't for unbelievers. I mean, unbelievers were summoned into it, of course, but the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was for Old Testament believers. Now, one of the ways that you understand that is you understand that by how the sacrificial system is described. It's described in a way that I don't think that we have a tendency to reflect on accurately. For instance, I think that sometimes we have a tendency to think that the Old Testament sacrificial system operated like some kind of medieval Catholicism. That is, you could live like you went to Mardi Gras, throughout the week and then come to church and participate in the ceremonial sacrifices and be forgiven. And so it was just for any old sin all the time. And you could just come and be forgiven. And yet that's not the Old Testament system. If you were to just thumb through some of the early sacrifices that you find in Leviticus, you'll find a common refrain, and that common refrain is that if anyone sins unintentionally, if anyone sins in ignorance, if someone realizes their guilt, if someone doesn't know what they did, and so on and so on and so on. In other words, a believing life, even in the Old Testament, assumed a changed life. It's as simple as that. It didn't assume a sinless life, but it certainly assumed a changed life and an ever-changing life, a growing life. I mean, that's why we look back to the Old Testament and we find people that we admire. I mean, how can you not turn to Daniel or somebody like that and look back on their life and say, boy, I'll tell you what, Daniel is a model. And it's not just Daniel, there are many others. Even David in his fallen condition and in his repentant condition still looks like a giant in comparison to many today. And why? because that Old Testament sacrificial system instructed them not only in forgiveness, but also in righteousness, because those lambs that had to be slain were not just to bear guilt, but they were perfect to remember. And so the sinner not only understood that his sins were forgiven in the one to come, but also that the one to come would be righteous, and that's the life he was seeking to emulate. That's the idea. It was an instructive life. Now, I want you to think about that when you come to this text. When you look at the controversy that broke out between the Jews and these early Christians, one of the things that you notice is that these early Christians were dealing charitably and biblically with the religious leaders. If you go back to chapter three in verse 17, what do they say? They say this, and now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance. I know that this was unintentional. I know that once we explain to you that the Messiah has come, you will realize your guilt and you will sorrow for your sin. That's the idea. Now, a lot of water has gone under the bridge by the time you get from chapter three to chapter five. And by the time you get to chapter five, they've been in prison and there's a rejection of the faith and there's hostility and so on. And so when you get to chapter five, notice how they address the religious elite. You killed him. There's no more of this unintentional stuff. You killed him. God exalted him, you put him to death. That's the idea. And this is high-handed rebellion. Now, high-handed rebellion was a sin forgiven in the Old Testament. In fact, if you were to go back to Leviticus chapter 16 to the Day of Atonement, you would find there that high-handed sins were forgiven. But this wasn't the way one lived, right? This is the exception to the rule, not the rule. But for instance, if you were to look in chapter 16, and you don't have to, you can jot this down, In verse 21, we find that there's a confession of sin, and not just of iniquities, but of all their transgressions. And that word transgression is the word for that rebellious, high-handed sin. We also see that in Numbers chapter 15, verse 30 and 31. In other words, when you understand it this way, the disciples have moved in their understanding of where the religious elite are. They're now rebellious against the Messiah. But you see, that's the very point, isn't it? These disciples are recognizing a condition in the religious elite that not even the religious elite can recognize in themselves. In other words, they recognize that there is sin, deep sin. in these people that needs to be forgiven and that can only be forgiven if Christ extends forgiveness to them. But they don't recognize it themselves. And it's this recognition of sin and the sorrow it causes that leads to repentance. Did you ever read 1 Corinthians 7, 1 through 11? It's a beautiful contrast. It's a contrast between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow does not lead to repentance. Godly sorrow does. I want you to think for a minute about worldly sorrow. What's it look like? Well, worldly sorrow looks a lot like, at least in the beginning, it looks a lot like godly sorrow. Because one of the things that it begins with is embarrassment. Shame. But the interesting thing is that this shame or this embarrassment will lead to a loss of self-esteem, a loss of confidence. And then it's at this point that we begin to see the change, the departure from what might look like godly sorrow to actually worldly sorrow. Because worldly sorrow, the embarrassment that comes, the shame that comes, the loss of confidence and a self-esteem that comes, leads to anger, and jealousy, and bitterness, and rage. And those kinds of things, those kinds of things will lead a person to self-justify, become very angry, and need everyone else to know, right? All of a sudden, the embarrassment gives way to self-justification. And self-justification will eventually lead to estrangement. That's worldly sorrow. And it's a terrible cycle to watch someone descend into, because it doesn't lead to repentance, it leads away from repentance, it leads away from Christ. It never turns about on its own into faith, though it may be said to. Someone may claim, I'm looking to God. No, you're looking to something other than God. And the reason for that is that worldly sorrow will drive us ever inward to self, a self that seeks self-justification. But that's not godly sorrow. What is godly sorrow? I want you to think about godly sorrow. Godly sorrow is when it recognizes that I'm embarrassed or ashamed of something that I've done, but it also recognizes simultaneously that there's no good thing in me to begin with. And you see the assumption of guilt when you stand in that position is pretty easy. Now I'm not saying it's easy to stand under shame or embarrassment. I'm not saying it's easy. What is easy is to recognize that if there is no good thing in me, that I'm probably at fault for this. And so I'm humbled. And then what begins to happen? In my humility, I begin to hate the thing that has estranged me from others. I hate the sin. And like 1 Corinthians 7 says, I seek to justify myself in this way, in this way, in a way that goes to that person that I've wronged and says, I am sorry, I'm guilty for this. I repent of this and I need forgiveness. That's the idea. And all the while, all the while, this person from beginning to end of the whole repenting process looks to God in faith. Now, I want you to think about the Jews for a minute. Think about what's going on with the Jews. What do they look like? Well, they're embarrassed, aren't they? You have filled Jerusalem with this teaching. They feel guilt. You intend to bring this man's blood on our heads, but then you begin to see the difference. What's the difference? Verse 33, they were enraged, bitter, angry, so much so they beat them, charged them, speak no more in this name. You know, you look at it and you say to yourself, this is not godly sorrow. You know, here again, we're looking at the text, and I think it's valuable to look at the text in this light, but let me just meddle. What kind of sorrow do you sorrow when you sin? You know, that's really the question, isn't it? We're gonna talk a little bit more about that, but that's really the question that we have to ask, because I'll tell you why. Because the idea of sin is a diminishing concept. In our world, in our culture, the idea that I would have sinned is something abstract and remote from me. And sometimes I think in evangelical circles, I won't say reform circles, because I think there's still a preservation against this kind of thinking, though it is there, the encroachment of it is there. I think that sometimes we get the idea that the only and the worst sin is ultimate rejection of Christ, but it has to take the form in somebody like Hitler. But if you followed along with the Ezekiel passage, you started to read about about sins that were not just sins of rejection, but these people embraced, or would have said they embraced God, but did sinful things, and God said, these are things for which you are going to die if you don't repent. And I don't think that we take sin seriously enough. I think our default is to say, you know what, the gospel of grace is bigger than any sin, and it is. But if you are persisting in sin, you have to ask yourself a far different question. You have to ask yourself, has the immense grace of God actually touched my life? Because if it has, then I will want to forsake that sin in repentance and turn to God in faith. You see, that's the challenging thing that we need to hear. Because when we talk theologically, we talk about a two-fold grace of God found in Jesus Christ, and that is, I'm forgiven of my sins, but my life will be renovated as a result of that. Those things can't be separated. They can be distinguished in our benefits of saving faith, but they can't be separated. So if you find someone, someone oftentimes, when you're early in your believing life, you'll hear somebody say this, and you can't quite figure it out in the moment, because you're early in that believing life, but somebody will say, I've been justified. I just haven't been given that second gift of sanctification yet. I'm waiting for it, but my, you know, that's why I do the things I do. And now, you know, as you get older in the faith, you can say, you know, that's terrible theology. Doesn't reflect the Bible at all. Can we talk about that? You know, that sort of thing, right? because it doesn't reflect the scriptures, not at all, not at all. Well, let's think about a change of mind about the son, and we'll make that our last point, a change of mind about the son. I want you to notice that he's described in two ways, two ways. He's described as the archegos, that is the leader, and he is described as the savior. Now the interesting thing is, if you go back to chapter 3 and verse 15, you find that same word, archegos. You killed the author of life. You killed the archegos of life. And you know, when you think about our text, and it says that they, God exalted him at his right hand, leader and savior. The archegos and savior, you're missing a genitive there and so it's not, you can't strictly translate it author or source of salvation or author of salvation, you can't strictly do that. But that's the sense that you might get from it if you think about it as it mirrors 315. But I'll tell you what, no matter what, whether you see it as the author of salvation or you see it as leader or prince or savior or any number of other ways that you might translate that word all legitimately so, one of the things that you have to ask yourself is this, you have to ask yourself, What do I think about him? Because this changes, this ought to change my view of the Savior. The Jews needed to embrace that change in view. Jesus was the Messiah, is the Messiah, and they rejected that. And in fact, that's the whole point of chapters three and four and ultimately five. They reject Jesus as Messiah. But the question is, what's your view? We understand their view. We've been through it. We've walked through it. What's your view? You know, there are a variety of ways to deny him messiahship. And in reformed and evangelical circles, we don't outright deny him. That's not what we do. We don't say, oh, Jesus isn't a messiah, because we know that that puts us outside of the camp automatically. But I'll tell you what we do do. About two or three years ago, I met a person who was able to articulate well the gospel in simple form, but articulate it well. And we got to talking a little bit after they articulated the gospel. They got to talking with me a little bit about some of their beliefs, and they were trying to communicate a particular point to me, and my ears began to perk up, and I started to realize that what they were saying was this, that certain sins that I believe need to be forgiven they don't see as sins at all. And I started to realize that's what's happening here. In effect, no savior is necessary for certain behaviors that the Bible calls sin, but our culture doesn't. Now, I want you to understand something. In order to repent, we need to understand that sin, even the smallest of sins, separates us from God. Now, somebody might say something like this, well, wait a second, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. A denial of a certain thing being sinful is not as bad as denying Jesus is the Messiah. It's not as bad as that, is it? I want you to know something in reality to deny our need for the Savior's atoning work. Think about his work. If you deny his work on the cross for sins, in other words, if you're willing to segment out a particular sin to say, I don't think Jesus needed to die for that, it's like denying him. You know, theologians talk about the person and work of Jesus, and all the best ones say you can't divide them. You can't divide those things. It's impossible to divide the person from the work of Jesus, and I wanna tell you something. To deny that there is sin that needs atonement is to deny Him. Now listen. To recognize your need, you need to recognize His greatness. You need to recognize his ability to meet that need, because he's the only savior. That's been made clear, but something else, let me ask you this. And here's the real, I think this is one of the most crucial questions of the day, and that is, if God would exalt him, why would you diminish him? So that leaves only one thing to do, and that is repent. Repent. Whether you're hearing the gospel for the first time and you have ears to hear and God has granted you the gift or this is 30, 40 years down the road in your walk, repent for God gladly gives the gift of repentance that we might rejoice in the gift that he's given. Not only repentance but that of his son who provides it. and praise be to God for him. Father, thank you for this day and for the blessing of life in Christ. We ask now that you will strengthen our understanding of what you did for us in your son, and gladly so. Help us, Lord, to live in light of that faith and repentance that we have, that conversion that we've enjoyed, not only in our earliest days, but also now as we anticipate the great consummation that is to come. So we pray in Jesus' blessed name, amen.