Restored

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

RESTORED

Acts 3:17-23

17 "Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'  

NIV

As we already looked at repenting and turning to God, we certainly could spend more time on the refreshing that comes from the Lord. To be refreshed, to be cooled, and to recover breathe comes from the Lord. All that we in our own strength attempt to do in order to obtain refreshing, perhaps found in a refreshment, is nothing compared to the refreshing of our spirits which comes from the Lord. When we get tired in the body we refresh ourselves with something, but when we get tired in the spirit there is no human form of refreshing that will do, but only that which comes from the Lord. We also should turn our attention to the fact Jesus must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything. The implication here is that restoring to something good, which indicates there was something bad which requires restoration. We could see this as the whole of creation, all of mankind, which has deviated from the original intent of God to have his creation to fellowship with. Mankind has left God and turned to their own evil ways and the world has become a place in need of restoration. The kingdom of God is the good that needs to be restored and as we know it will indeed be done. But we also can see this in a personal internal way. Each of us at one point in our life is in need of God restoring everything within our lives. We were deaf to his words, we did not listen to what he said and we lived completely to fulfill our own desires and pleasures. We ignored the words of his prophet Jesus. We ignored the fact we needed to repent and turn to God for the forgiveness of our sin. We did not even acknowledge that we had sin. But praise God somehow he was able to get through to us and we turned and repented and received a restoration, a refreshing unlike anything we had ever experienced before. But a fate is waiting those who will not listen to the words of Jesus, A fate of being completely cut off from among mankind. The Greek word used here for completely cut off means extirpate which is defined as completely destroyed, wipe out, to pull up by the root, to cut out by surgery, to take every legal measure possible to root out the evil from the land. This is the fate of those who do not listen to Jesus when he says that in order for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven he must be born again. Those who do not accept Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, the sacrifice for their sin, and repent and turn to God will be completely cut off, destroyed, perish as John wrote about when he was inspired to write that God so the loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. This kind of restoration in each of us, frees us from perishing, from being cut off, completely destroyed and gives us eternal life. A restoration of everything as we are the “everything” of God. Yet there is also a day coming when he will restore the new city of Jerusalem on a new earth with a new heaven, and we who have listened to the words of Jesus will live forever in the restored place of God. But the blessing for us is that we have been restored.