Restoration

Read: Matthew 9:18-26
Listen: Matthew 9

After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. Matthew 9:25

Jesus is the restorer. It’s a key theme of the section of Matthew’s gospel we’ve been studying in the series Is Jesus Worth Following? Jesus restores a woman to health, a daughter to her father, sight to the blind and a man’s ability to speak. Matthew shows that Jesus is on a mission of restoration. It’s a picture of the ultimate restoration Jesus will bring when he comes again to make all things new (Revelation 21:4-5).

We can rely on Jesus’s promise to make the world right. Our world is broken, including our souls. The world doesn’t work the way it should. We feel the effects of this brokenness on a regular basis, both inside and outside of us. If the world is broken, understanding what can make it right is a significant part of life, something we should make sure we pay attention to. Throughout this series, we’ve been asking whether Jesus is worth following. If Jesus is the only one who can make things right, then this means Jesus is worth following. He’s the one who can restore, and we can trust him. We see previews of this restoration in the gospels and can count on God’s promise in Revelation that he will restore everything.

TODAY: Thank God for Jesus being the one who can restore. Thank God for how you’ve found restoration in your life and for how you’ve seen him work to restore the world around you. Ask God to continue to restore your soul. Offer yourself for God to use you to bring restoration to your relationships and the world.

JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:

Read Ezekiel 39-40. Highlight anything that points to Jesus. Consider the vision of the new temple and how Jesus points to himself as the temple (John 2:19-22).