John the Baptist’s message was a warning of God’s coming wrath against sins.  The Lord God is warning us today…His wrath will come!

  John the Baptist’s message was heard by tax collectors (Jews in the pay of Rome to collect their countrymen’s taxes).  They could charge any amount they chose and became rich in the process.  They were hated by their fellow Jews.  They probably were outcasts from ‘polite society’ and considered ‘sinners’.  (See Luke 19:1-7 & Matthew 11:19)

Tax collectors repented and they wanted to change the way they lived.
(NASB) Luke 3:12 “And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’”

They were sincere, they wanted to have a clear-cut answer and John did just that:
(NASB) Luke 3:13 “And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.’”

The tax collectors were to collect legitimate taxes required by Rome, nothing more.  There was a cost to repenting but they would then be living pleasing to God.

Repentance demands a change…otherwise repentance means nothing more than remorse.  Remorse is not repentance.  What attitude and/or choices need to be changed today in you?

What words and actions reflect your thoughts and choices which you make?  There is no one else responsible for how you act or think.  Not your parents, nor your siblings, no one else is responsible!

 

Do your actions and words prove that you have repented or only shown remorse?