DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK OF REPENTANCE!

THE FAILURE OF THE CHURCH TO OBEY CHRIST'S COMMAND!

In the forty days following the Resurrection of Jesus, the Bible says He taught His Apostles (no longer mere disciples) what they were to do while He was waiting in heaven for the time of His return.  Luke wrote:

Acts 1:1-9 - The former treatise (account - the Gospel of Luke) have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom He had chosen:  to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion (His suffering) by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:  and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me.  For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.  When they therefore were come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?  And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power.  But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (unto all nations - See Lk. 24:47 below).  And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

One of the commands Jesus taught them during the time between His Resurrection and His Ascension, is found in Luke's Gospel account; he wrote:

Luke 24:44-51 - And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me.  Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:  and that REPENTANCE  AND REMISSION OF SINS should be preached in His name among ALL NATIONS, beginning at Jerusalem.  And you are witnesses of these things.  And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you:  but tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.  And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.  And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

The Church has never had a problem teaching the remission of sins (Mt. 26:28; Acts 2:38; 10:43; Rom. 3:25; etc.); after all, it is stated in the Gospel message, which the Apostle Paul said was the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).  He declared the Gospel in his first epistle to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 - Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you are saved . . . For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:  and that He was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve:  after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

As for the preaching of repentance, that is a totally different story.  While different forms of the word "repent" appear sixty-six times in the King James Version of the New Testament, with thirty-seven of them from the Book of Acts to the Book of Revelation, the conservative believers have been focused so heavily on salvation by grace, that they have literally declared repentance as a form of works.  I believe that their reluctance to consider repentance as a legitimate factor in salvation is based in ignorance.  Let me explain.

Repentance is not something one chooses to do; it is the result of a person responding to new information.  For instance, the Apostle Paul and the Philippian jailer both held the teachings of the Church as false.  But when they were confronted by the miraculous work of the Lord, both had the same response; they desired to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord (Acts 9:6; 16:30)!  

Another example is the man born blind in John Nine.  As more information about Jesus was revealed, the response to Him by the healed man was altered; he had a change of mind (the very definition of repentance as it is presented in the Greek metanoia) about who Jesus is.  In verse 11, he identifies Jesus as "a man"; in verse 17, he declares Jesus is a prophet; but when he is informed that Jesus is "the Son of God" (verses 35-37), the man "worshipped Him!"  Notice that none of these examples did anything; they just believed; they had a change of mind; they had repented of their old way of seeing Jesus, and turned to Him in faith!

REMISSION OF OUR SINS IS WHAT JESUS DID;

WHEN WE BELIEVE IT, WE THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HIM!

WE REPENT OF OUR OLD WAY OF THINKING;

AND WE TURN FROM DOUBT TO TRUST!