Commentaries:
Christ links repentance with the Kingdom of God and believing the gospel. Once one hears the true gospel and believes it, he begins to change the way he thinks. Peter ties repentance with forgiveness of past sins and God's giving of His Spirit. Once the Ethiopian eunuch heard Philip's explanation of the Bible, he changed his thinking (repented) and was baptized. Initial repentance includes recognition, acceptance, and belief of the true gospel and making changes in one's life to conform to the new way.
Martin G. Collins
Basic Doctrines: Repentance
Is it not clear that Jesus Christ came preaching the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:17-23; 9:35; 10:7; 24:14; Luke 4:43; 8:1; 9:2, 60; Luke 16:16)? Does this not suggest that this was what He wanted to be preached at all times? It certainly seems that way! It was His only focus! He says He had to go and preach to other cities the Kingdom of God, and He sent His disciples out, saying, "You preach the Kingdom of God too."
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Itching Ears
Why is this directive to repent His first public command? Because in the work His Father sent Jesus to do, He is focused on preparing a people for the Kingdom of God. That was His job. Along with coming to pay for our sins with His own blood, He was to raise up a church, a body of believers. They would not only spread the gospel but also develop spiritually, putting on the New Man, preparing for their roles under Christ in the age to come.
The first thing those He is preparing must recognize is that they are full of sin and need to repent. To perform this cleansing properly, they must have the attitude of grieving the reality of so much sin dwelling in them. They must recognize and acknowledge that their job to rid themselves of it is beyond them; their sinfulness is impossible to overcome by themselves.
Repenting is changing the mind (metanoia). Converts must arrive at the point where they are not careless about sin. They have to change their minds to the point that they are broken up, grieved, over their sinfulness. This is the attitude of mourning Jesus encourages in the Beatitude (Matthew 5:4).
Before God's calling, we were not all that careful about sin. It did not make an impression on us as it does once God opens our eyes to the fact that we have so much of it and need to get rid of it post-haste. So, it becomes a matter of great grief to us that it exists in us in such extreme quantities and takes such a long time and so much effort to remove.
Thus, the believer's first step along the road to the Kingdom of God is to repent of his or her sins with the aid of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Those Who Mourn
It was in the Gentile area of Galilee—not in Jewish Jerusalem to the south—where Christ began His ministry of light. In Romans 11:11, Paul asserts that "salvation has come to the Gentiles." Peter, in citing Joel in his first sermon, understands the Gentiles to be spiritually "in the region and shadow of death," in deep darkness, with clouds obscuring their vision of God's salvation. He relates Joel to Pentecost because, on that day, God spread apart those clouds to allow the light of His salvation to reach the Gentiles, dispelling their gloom. What happened in Acts 2 gave the Gentiles the hope that they could build a relationship with the God of salvation. The hope of the Gentilesbecomes the theme of the book of Acts, as seen, for example,
» in the preaching by Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8);
» in the work by Peter with Cornelius and his family (Acts 10); and
» in Paul's ministry to the Gentiles in every city he visited. God called Paul "to bear My name before Gentiles" (Acts 9:15). Chapters 11 through 28 of Acts relates how Paul did that.
Charles Whitaker
Peter's Trumpets Message—on Pentecost
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Matthew 4:17:
Matthew 4:17
Matthew 4:23
Matthew 9:35
Matthew 10:7
Luke 4:43
Luke 8:1
Luke 9:2
Luke 9:60
Luke 16:16