Restoration!

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Categories: Pastors Blog

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Dear Pastors

Restoration!

Over the Easter break I dived into a few chapters of Isaiah. I was once again grabbed by the chapters on Israel’s Restoration. I focused my study on Chapters 49:8-53:12.

Here are four things that stood out for me. I’m hoping they may be a blessing to you.

  1. Restoration means ‘renewal of something to it’s former state’ or ‘a return to the way things were intended’.
  2. Isaiah says ‘listen’ three times in 7 verses (51:1, 4, 7). In other words, “hey you guys, stop what you are doing and listen carefully…..listen to understand not just hear. What I am about to say is very important actually it is life changing.
  3. Isaiah says ‘wake up’ two times in 7 verses (51:17, 52:1). In other words, “hey you guys, wake up from your apathy, rise from the dust (51:2) because your deliverance and restoration is on the way. So get ready!
  4. 51:1 says “Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined” (NLT). OR “You should look to Abraham your Father. He is the rock you were cut from” (ERV). In other words, just like rock or quarried stone represents strength, muscle and power so Zion’s pride lies in the mighty foundation stones of their forefather and mother, Abraham and Sarah. He goes on, don’t lose hope but remember that just as Abraham received God’s undeserved grace and became a great nation, so it will be with Abraham’s descendants when Yahweh makes the “ruins” and “wastelands” of Zion/Jerusalem “like Eden” (v. 3, cf. Gen 2:8–14). Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they (God’s people) will be filled with joy and gladness(51:11). Now that is an amazing picture of restoration, isn’t it?

In so many ways our country feels like a moral wasteland, desolate, godless and plundered. Every social statistic is going ‘up and to the north’. Here we go……..poverty, domestic violence, P and other synthetic drug addictions, incarceration rates, suicides, gender fluidity, ‘de-facto’ marriages, family breakdown and on and on we could go. But Isaiah’s words penetrate this present darkness.

This is what the LORD says:

At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you.
I will protect you and give you to the people as my covenant with them.
Through you I will re-establish the land of Israel and assign it to its own people again.
I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out in freedom,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’
They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on hills that were previously bare.
They will neither hunger nor thirst. The searing sun will not reach them anymore.
For the LORD in his mercy will lead them; he will lead them beside cool waters.
And I will make my mountains into level paths for them. The highways will be raised above the valleys.
See, my people will return from far away, from lands to the north and west, and from as far south as Egypt
”. 49:8-12

This is surely God’s Restoration for all those who call on His name. Perhaps even Revival?

As I was thinking about all this I remembered perhaps the most famous use of the word ‘rock’ in the New Testament this time talking about Peter rather than Abraham. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (NLT). The Message says it this way, “Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out”.

Now this is very Good News. It breathes hope into all of us who are leading a local church. The Church in NZ though marginalised, declining and apathetic in this present time - WILL prevail and not even a structure (force) as strong as the ‘gates of hell’ will be able to keep it out. The Bride of Christ will be restored to her intended ‘glory’ one day. Hallelujah!

Blessings
Alan

Mark This Date
Catch The Kids’ is a half day children’s Ministry training day in Hamilton on Saturday 19th June, 9.00am – 1.00pm. Keynote speaker is Lois Rodler from Pirimai Baptist Church in Napier. Mark Holmen from Faith at Home will also Zoom in.

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