Christ the Restorer of All Things

Christ the Restorer of All Things

Christmas Eve 2015:  Christ the Restorer of All Things

 

Introduction

Humpty Dumpty sat….on….a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had…a… great fall.

All the….king’s horses

And all the… king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty…together again

Poor Mr. Dumpty.   Broken.  And irreparable.  

 

Sometimes it seems to me that this world is a bit like Mr. Dumpty.  Broken.  And it seems it can’t be fixed.

Something is very wrong with our world..  Even you optimists can see this.  We long for things to be made right. 

 

 In the news two weeks ago, I saw a video of a courtroom scene where a murderer was at his sentence hearing.  The father of the murder victim spoke to the convicted murderer.  (I’ll translate his words into a PG rating.)  With great anger, he said something like, “I hope you rot in a dark place forever.

Understandably the father longs for justice.

And he longs to have his son back.

 

In another vein, my mom is 79 and suffering from severe scoliosis.  Curvature of the spine.  For many months she has been in almost constant severe pain.  Usually between 8 and 10 on the pain scale.  And so far, there has been no remedy.   She and my dad are longing for wholeness of her body.

 

This is not to say that everything is bad or wrong.  Or as bad as it could be.  But something is wrong with our world.  

 

So it’s Christmas Eve……… and I’m a Scrooge.   I should be thinking happy thoughts, right?  

 

Well, don’t fear.  I am thinking happy thoughts.  Especially I’m thinking of a future day.  Of a day when all things—all things— will be made right.

A day when Justice will be accomplished perfectly.

A day when broken bodies will be made whole.

A day when harmony will reign.

A day when broken things will be put back together.

 

 

The Day

 

When is that day?

Well, that day  is NOT Tuesday, November 8, 2016.    Election Day.

Rather, it’s the day when Jesus Christ returns and establishes his eternal kingdom on earth.

 

Christmas is about the First Coming of Christ.  And his First Coming involves his birth, of course.  But also his death and resurrection, and his ascension into heaven.

 

It was just moments after his Ascension into heaven, that his disciples were told, “He’s coming again.”

Two angels spoke to the disciples:

Acts 1:11 NIV “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 

 

Jesus Christ came once.  And he has promised to come again.   When he does, he will restore all things that are broken.

 

First Coming

 

Before we look at this Day of Restoration, the SECOND Coming, let’s look at the First Coming.

Why did he come the First Time?  There is a clear purpose.

 

It’s far more than simply a story of a baby in a cattle stall.

An angel spoke to Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus:

Matthew 1:21 ESV  “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 

The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, or “YESHUA”, which means, Jehovah is salvation.

Just from his name, we have a glimpse into the purpose of his First Coming.  Not merely to be a good teacher or a good example or a prophet.  He came to save people from their sins.  To bring forgiveness.

And forgiveness implies that something is wrong.  Something is broken in our relationship with God.  And it needs to be fixed.

 

Jesus came the first time to fix our Sin Problem and our need for Forgiveness.  

 

30 years later, when Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman at a well, he said to her,

John 4:13–14 ESV  “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

The woman is thinking of physical water and physical thirst.  But Jesus is thinking of something much greater.

 

Jesus is calling this sinful woman to himself.  And he calls us to himself.  He doesn’t call us to mere religious activity or religious conformity.  No, He calls us to drink of himself.  To repent of our sins and find forgiveness and wholeness that brings us eternal life.

 

His purpose is to sort of put all of us Humpty Dumptys back together again.

 

This was something I had to discover years ago while I was in college at Iowa State.  I had gone to church while growing up in Sioux City, but I really had no interest in God.  I simply didn’t want to need God.  I didn’t want to acknowledge God.  I had a “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” attitude.

 

But one summer I was confronted with Scriptures like these in Matthew and John.  I resisted it for months.  But eventually I couldn’t deny that God was calling me.  He was pointing out my sin.  He was revealing my need for him.  He was calling me to repentance and to faith in his Son.

 

Essentially, God was calling me to forgiveness and eternal life.  He was calling me to DRINK of his Son and have this deep SOUL THIRST quenched unto eternal life.

 

God is so passionate about restoring us Humpty Dumptys that he sent his Son to die in our place so that THEN and ONLY THEN can our deep soul need and our soul thirst be met.

 

Summary of his First Coming:  Something is wrong—badly wrong—with this world.   BUT Jesus came to begin the Restoration Process, becoming the Eternal Thirst Quencher.

 

 

Second Coming

 

Christ died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, promising to come a second time.

WHY?  Why is he coming again??

 

One reason is to bring eternal life.

Hebrews 9:28 NIV “…Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many;  and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” 

Those who have believed in him….who have drunk of him…he will save forever.  The day of choosing to drink or not to drink will be over.

 

A SECOND REASON he is coming again is to bring judgment on all who refused to drink of him.  And the earth will MOURN because of it.

Matthew 24:27–30 ESV  “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man… Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” 

He will come with force and finality to establish his kingdom in both heaven and earth once for all.  All will answer to him, the King of kings.   All who have refused to DRINK of him will be condemned for their sins.

 

There is a THIRD Reason Christ is coming again.  He will make everything new.

 

Every morning I read the Bible, a habit I’ve been in for more than 30 years.  The past couple weeks, I’ve been reading in Revelation.  Some chapters are difficult to understand.  But the last couple, in my opinion, are quite clear.

 

The Apostle John has a divine vision of the end of the age:

Revelation 21:1–5 ESV  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

He will make all broken things whole.  The Deep soul thirst of all who have drunk of Christ will be eternally quenched.

The salvation of those who have believed in him will be complete and full and glorious.  Completely whole.  Completely free from guilt.  Completely new.

 

What a glorious DAY that will be!  All of us who know Christ should LONG for that day.

 

Then virtually the last words in the Bible.  

Revelation 22:17 NIV  The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” 

“Let the one who is thirsty come;  and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” 

The Holy Spirit and the Bride of Christ, the people who belong to him, pray that Christ would come again.

 

One more and now final invitation.  “Let the one who is thirsty come…take of the gift of Christ.  The gift of the water of life to refresh and restore and satisfy our souls by bringing FORGIVENESS… a full restoration of relationship with God.  No payment of works or of religious activity is needed for this gift.  It is a gift.  God invites us in our thirst to drink of the gift of his Son and find the water of life that satisfies into eternity.

 

 

Decision Point for Us

 

The day is coming.  The Day when Christ returns.  All hinges on Christ.

 

The question for us is this:  What have we done with Jesus?

 

Eternal and glorious life forever in the presence of God is ours, if we have responded to Christ.  Have we drunk of Christ?

 

Noted Christian author and philosopher, C.S. Lewis, said this:  

“All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness.  The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.”  C.S. Lewis, The Problem with Pain

 

Whether we have attained or lost this eternal ecstasy, this heavenly water that satisfies our soul to the point of eternal life…. …..It all hinges on Christ.  He is the Great Restorer.  He alone can make us whole, and can restore a relationship with a holy God.