”Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:1-5
REPENT is an inclusive word
"All" need to repent.
What Jesus teaches, then, is that all of us are extremely sinful. There are no innocent human beings. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10). What should amaze us in our sin is not that some are taken in calamity, but that we are spared and given another day to repent. The really amazing thing in this universe is not that guilty sinners perish, but that God is so slow to anger that you and I can sit here this morning and have another chance to repent.
A. There is no escape from it
Repent or perish; all must face it. Acts 17:30 informs us that God "commandeth all men every where to repent." The desire of God is for all men to come to repentance (II Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise....").
God does not give us an option in the matter of repentance, He commands all men to repent.
Repentance is not arbitrary, it is absolute.
It is an either / or - either repent or perish.
B. There is no excuse from it
Either you repent or perish. It is that simple.
Unless you repent you will PERISH.
The clerk will perish if she does not repent. Your children will perish, you parents will perish, your neighbors will perish, your colleagues will perish if they do not repent.
REPENT OR PERISH! Face it now or regret it later.
There is no escape for perishing except through repentance.
Perish is something more than simply die a physical death. Jesus is referring to something beyond death. Those Galileans were taken unawares and experienced a horrible end; however, unless you repent, you too will be taken unawares and experience a horrible end—the judgment of God beyond the grave.
The word perish often refers to this terrible judgment in the New Testament. For example in John 3:16 perishing is seen as the alternative to having everlasting life. The same thing turns up in John 10:28.
It is significant that Jesus taught repeatedly about Hell. To portray it He often drew upon the horrors of the Vale of Hinnom, the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Into it were thrown the filth of the city along with the bodies of dead animals and the unclaimed bodies of executed criminals. Maggots infested the nauseous mass, consuming fires burned constantly, and wild dogs howled and gnashed their teeth over edible portions of the garbage. Jesus said that this was a symbol of hell, and the reality is always greater that the symbol.
Without repenting and fleeing to Christ there is fire in your future.
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