Luke 13.1-9     Lent 3     Hymns: 383, 302, 313, 394

You may know someone who has ruined his/her life, or someone who is dealing with a horrible tragedy...the kinds of tragedies you read about in the newspaper every day: someone is killed in a car wreck on the LBJ Freeway, someone’s house burns down, a child is hit with a rare, life-ending disease. You identity with the tragedy you’re reading about and think to yourself, "There, but for the grace of God, go I?" What you mean by that is, "The same thing could happen to me. It’s only by the grace of God that it hasn’t; he’s been protecting me from. No one knows for certain where that expression comes from. A pious preacher, John Bradford, supposedly said it back in the mid 1500s.

But that meaning of the phrase sounds very similar to something the Apostle Paul said (1 Cor 15.9,10), For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. God rescued Saul from being a hater of Christ and persecutor of Christians and changed him into an apostle of Christ and the voice of Christianity. This was a good thing.

But not everyone’s life story turns out the way Paul’s did. I get emails and phone calls from people asking for money to pay utility bills or buy food or pay rent or mortgage...they need help because they are sick or dying or they are about to lose their home or have lost their home because they have no income, no job, no one to help. So they turn to God! Well, not really to God but to the church, to people who are connected with God. If things had turned out differently in life, any one of us could be one of those poor people begging for help...if it were not for the grace of God, for giving you a good work ethic, a good upbringing, a good education, a good and faithful spouse...all kinds of good things that helped to shape you and support you in these difficult times.

And there’s something else. BY THE GRACE OF GOD YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO REPENT.
 

The word ‘repent’ means to acknowledge that you have done something wrong. It’s saying, "I’m sorry," to God. Jesus tells some people in our text (v 5). This is very serious. If you do not repent, if you are not say you’re sorry to God, and mean it, you will perish in hell and not go to heaven. Unless you acknowledge to God that you know are a sinful human being and need him to forgive you, unless you acknowledge to God the specific sins that you are aware of and need him to forgive, you will not go to heaven when you die because where there is no repent-ance, there is no forgiveness of sins.

By the grace of God you know what it means to repent. Peter preached in a sermon (Read Acts 3:19). To repent means to turn away from sin, to say ‘no’ to sin and to turn to God both for his forgiveness and as your expression of determination not to allow sin to rule your heart. Speaking about unbelievers, John writes (read Rev 9:21). You are an unbeliever if you hate someone and don’t repent, if you take what isn’t yours and don’t repent, if you engage in sexual sins, be they heterosexual or homosexual...and don’t repent, you are an unbeliever. If you refuse to acknowledge those sins, ask God to forgive and help you to put away those sins. They are sins for which Jesus died. If you refuse to repent of them, it means that Jesus’ death means nothing to you, you have no sorrow in your heart because Jesus died for you. Where there is no repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins because it means there is no faith. By the grace of God you know that...you know what it means to repent.

The people to whom Jesus was speaking in our text knew that Pilate had sent his soldiers into a temple where priests were preparing animals for sacrifice, and the soldiers killed them for no apparent reason. They just killed them because Pilate told them to. Jesus asked the question (v 2).

Jesus also reminded them of a tragic accident where a tower fell on a crowd of people and killed 18 of them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus asked (v4b).

Remember Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans and some people said that God was punishing the city, Sin City, because of the immorality and corruption that goes on there. Might someone have said that of the earthquake that hit Haiti...God punished them because of the witchcraft and voodoo worship there, or the earthquake that hit Chile...God punished the people because of great sins that are going on in that city.

Have you ever thought that about someone you know? Do you know someone who is not a good person and their home burned down or they had an accident or something bad happened to their family and you thought, "God is punishing that person because he/she deserves it...he’s not a kind person, she’s not a person you can trust, so God is punishing him/her.

Or have you thought that about yourself...that God is punishing you when something bad happens to you: a loved one dies, you’re stuck in a job you don’t like, you wish you had a job you don’t like. Is God punishing you? The answer Jesus gave in our text is the same for you (v 3). No, just because something bad happens that does not mean that God is punishing. It can but we don’t know that unless God tells us specifically as when he took the life of King David’s son as punishment for David’s adultery and murder, or when God punished the Jews for their unbelief by sending them into the Babylonian captivity for 70 years. And in the year 70 when God punished the Jews again for their unbelief by using the Roman General Titus to destroy the city of Jerusalem. We know when something bad is sent by God to punish someone only when God clearly tells us in Scripture. Other-wise we cannot say that.

What Jesus does tell us is this: if you see something bad happen-ing to someone, count your blessings, remind yourself, "There but for the grace of God, go I," and thank God for keeping harm from coming your way. And then, like a healthy fig tree, let there be evidence, let there be fruits of faith in your life that show that you know what it means to repent. You know that Jesus paid for your sins when he died on a cross; he took away your guilt, he suffered your pain and your punishment so that you are forgiven. To repent means to say you’re sorry to Jesus for your sins and for his suffering and that you want his help to show him your love and your thanks in your life.