The previous pastor of this church, used to quote a popular song all the time in this pulpit, it was Frank Sinatra’s My Way. Quoting My Way in a pulpit has probably become a bit of a cliché by now!
But it is such a clear example of sin! My Way by Frank Sinatra is the anthem of a proud individual who says, “I don’t need God; I lived my life the way I want to life it—my way.”
But I was listening to Bono recently and he was talking about that song, and he said he had a copy of a re-recorded version that Frank Sinatra had sung twenty years later, just before he died. And Bono says— ‘The original version, it’s a boast. [but the re-record] It’s just Frank singing. Twenty years after he’d sung My Way as a boast, [it’s in the] same key, same text, same arrangement… and now it’s an apology.’
We all need to—as it were—re-sing a My Way apology-song.
Because even though we weren’t there in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, we too have rejected God in our own lives. We too have said, in our hearts and actions, “I want to live my way, not God’s.” That same rejection is what led to Jesus being crucified.
What to do is there in Acts 2:38 — “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
This is the answer. It’s in this quite old-fashioned word repentance: they needed to repent.
It’s basically a word which means turn around, means change your mind, means leave behind your sin, admit that you are wrong. But it’s not just turning over a new leaf. Repentance refers to turning around and going towards Jesus.
So, another way of understanding repentance is by saying: trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; lean on him; fall into him; put your life in his hands. To go back to the Frank Sinatra illustration, it’s singing a new song, which is, “I’ll do it His way, God; I’ll do it Your way.”
