The Restoration - HOPE 3 - David Mitts

"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.(Act 3:19-21 NASB) 

Click here to listen to "The Restoration" 

We have been sharing for a couple of sessions about the power of hope.  We spoke about how Yeshua is the same yesterday today and forever. 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8 NASB) 

This can mean many things, but I want to think of it as possibly meaning that Jesus affects us in three different aspects of our life experience, our past, yesterday, our present, today, and our future, forever. 

When I say affects us, I am really saying He transforms us, literally alters who we have been, who we are today and who we will be eternally.  Because He is of the eternal realm, called the Kingdom of Heaven, He brings us into alignment with that reality. Alignment with the Kingdom is transformative and empowering: 

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Mat 6:33-34 NASB) 

The Kingdom as the realm of empowerment brings about His will, which is also called His righteousness.  That empowerment transforms our past through our redemption and healing, brings love to our present and hope to our future.  These are eternal gateways into the realms of Glory! 

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Co 13:13 NASB) 

The key word in this verse is the word “abide”. This is a secret key which is telling us to see the Kingdom in these powerful words, faith, hope, and love 

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (Joh 15:4-5 NASB) 

So, faith, love, and hope are “modes” or keys to abiding.  We abide by our faith. We abide through His love and His hope is the anchor for our soul to abide. Today I want to continue our focus on hope. Look with me at Hebrews 6:17-20 

In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,( a covenant) so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Heb 6:17-20 NASB) 

When the writer of Hebrews states that there is for us, the “heirs”, an unchangeableness to His purpose, he is describing true hope.  This purpose, or plan of God, is made sure with an oath.  The oath is the new covenant made certain with the blood of Jesus. Like Jesus, who is of eternity, hope is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is unchangeable. It operates like a tractor beam to pull us into our destiny as His heirs. In that place, it becomes our refuge, a stronghold that we live out of. Hope draws us into the place of abiding for our future, what is called the promise, the hope, an anchor to our soul which enters within the veil, the place of abiding. 

Yeshua is a forerunner who enters as an example to the rest of the runners, us, according to the order of Melchizedek.  Melchizedek is the high priest who existed in covenant with God, before Abraham. Read this description in Hebrews 7:1-3 

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. (Heb 7:1-3 NASB) 

Decoding this scripture, we see that Yeshua enters where Melchizedek always is, perpetually. Now obviously Yeshua is already there as well, in the place of abiding.  But He is making a way through His blood for our abiding in the place where Melchizedek represents the eternal abiding priesthood.  Don’t get lost here! Just let the scripture saturate your being with hope, with promise, with God’s oath, His covenant. Abraham tithes and is blessed by Melchizedek, confirmed by the covenant which makes Abraham the father of the world, in the world.  He is the channel of blessing which is the power which activates hope. 

Remember hope is the promise, the unchangeable purpose.  When Yeshua enters the veil, the Holy of Holies, the place of abiding, He takes us with Him as our forerunner.  Thus, we abide in Him and He abides with us in God.  In this place Melchizedek is activated. What I mean by that is righteousness is activated as Melchizedek, is the King of Righteousness, which is the restoration of our true purpose and destiny, which is what righteousness truly means which is the anchor of our soul.  We can talk a lot more about what significance Melchizedek is in our destiny, but let’s do that another day. For now, just receive that righteousness, and the authority needed to bless you into your righteousness is available through hope. 

As we stated before, faith transforms our past.  It takes our past and redeems it by becoming born again.  Being born again is a statement of Kingdom Citizenship.  We are born citizens of the world, and are born again into the citizenship of the Kingdom.  This is the realm of faith.  It is the place of healing of our memories and traumas to our soul. 

Love is power of now.  It is the eternal power that makes our present full of eternity. It is the place of I love you, not I loved you or I will love you. No! Love only matters in the moment and it transforms our present by filling it with Him who is love. 

Hope is the power of the future. It pulls us into a destiny that is our inheritance in Him.  What does the future that hope promises?  It is the promise of restoration. 

"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.(Act 3:19-21 NASB) 

What is a restoration?  Well think of a painting, a masterpiece that has been ravaged by misuse and abusive handling.  The art restorer knows the original intention of the artist and uses their skill and materials to restore the picture to its original intended beauty.  

In a similar way, we are like the painting.  There was an original image that we were created in the sight of.  We are in the process of being restored to that image, this is our hope.  Yeshua is in heaven, received as the process of restoration is happening in your life and in the lives of all of His children, the heirs of promise. 

Most believers are not actively engaged in their restoration.  This is in part because the emphasis has been on the departure to heaven.  Yet Yeshua taught that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming to earth! 

"And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'(Mat 10:7 NASB) 

He wasn’t just talking about Him being at hand but that the kingdom itself is at hand. 

In other words Yeshua was telling us that the kingdom was calling us into a kingdom future, a hope here in our lives!  That’s why what we call the Lord’s prayer states: 

"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 'And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]'(Mat 6:9-13 NASB). 

Notice He declares that the Kingdom comes, now.  What does it come to do? His will. What is His will? The Restoration of all things. 

This is what Paul is referring to in Romans 12:1-2: 

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.(Rom 12:1-2 NASB) 

The renewing of our minds, our souls, tied to His will.  This is a picture of the restoration of all things. We are being restored, or renewed. 

This is our hope. In this way, hope is the wind of the Holy Spirit which blows us into the future that God has planned for us.  This hope is a restoration of all the things that God has in store for us. Look at Romans 8:28 in this view: 

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.(Rom 8:28-30 NASB) 

The things in our lives are part of the restoration, what He calls “for good”.  This restoration is into the image of His son.  This is the restoration.  

Activation: 

Picture a treasure chest. 

Not a small box that might hold jewelry on a girl’s nightstand—a large treasure chest, larger than any suitcase you own, larger than any suitcase you’ve ever seen. 

Picture a massive oak treasure chest, like pirates might have used, with large iron hinges and a huge clasp. The size and age and strength of this strongbox say it was made for the most valuable things. 

Inside this chest are all of the things you wish could somehow be restored to you. Everything you have lost, everything you know you will lose. 

What fills your treasure chest?