7-7-2016

 Good Morning All!!          

         Matthew 27: 4-5; “(Judas) saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.”

    Have you ever felt sorry for doing something?  Did it help or did you feel just as bad?  We often realize that we have done something wrong and then we feel bad.  We have a hard time getting over it and often we don’t.  We continue to feel guilty with little, if any, sense of relieve or respite.

     Which brings up a question, if feeling sorry for your sins doesn’t make you feel better; then what does?  Many will tell you that repentance means to feel sorry for your sins.  That is only a small part of the story.  This is also why, when we feel sorry for our sins, that we still feel empty of forgiveness and still burdened by sin.

    It is always interesting to me that Judas felt sorry for his sins.  After he betrayed Jesus and saw that Jesus was soon to die; Judas felt tremendous remorse.  He went to the Temple and threw the money back to the Scribes.  “I have betrayed innocent blood!!”  The regret and the remorse which he felt were incredible; yet he went out and hung himself.  He felt bad; he felt terrible; he felt the greatest sense of remorse and yet he received nothing from it. 

    So how does repentance work?  It is more than feeling sorry; it is the knowledge that God has forgiven our sins.  When we repent we look to God for forgiveness and then we have faith in his promise to forgive.  You see, Judas real problem was he went to the wrong priest.  He should have gone to Jesus, our true high priest.  He should have gone to Jesus trusting in His promise to forgive our sins.  Remorse is only part of repentance and it really doesn’t matter if you are sorry because you are afraid of punishment or sad because you feel guilty about your sin; the critical part is that you truly believe that your sins are forgiven.

    Our comfort doesn’t come from feeling sorry; our comfort comes from knowing that God has mercifully forgiven us of all our sins.  Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, our debt for our sins has been paid.  We don’t do anything to “re do” this; once was sufficient.  We only benefit from his gracious gift.  We receive this wondrous gift by faith alone; that desire to trust and to believe in God’s promise.  Our comfort doesn’t come because we feel bad.  Our comfort comes from what God has done: He forgives our sins; that is our comfort.  It is not about sadness or our guilt rather it is always about God’s grace.

Dear Father, to you alone belong the glory.  We come to you as a broken people; we are broken by sin and its guilt.  Yet through all of our failures, you forgive us because of your love for us.  We pray for those in our community who have watched loved ones return to you.  Be with them and give them your comforting Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret