What Will Jesus Restore When He Returns?

Well, as Eric mentioned in the sermon at the Paul Holy Days, we'll be here. There'll be here in just a few weeks, a few days.

They'll begin, and then ultimately by the time we get to the end of September, they're almost over.

The very last day is the first day of October.

And of course, that's always a wonderful time of rejoicing before God. It's a time of learning to fear God.

Those are the stated things to learn or things that we are to grow in each year.

And, of course, the Feast of Tabernacles, being a time that we are away from being here locally.

We're here locally on Trumpets and Atonement, but on the Feast of Tabernacles and the 8th Day, we are usually in some other location.

And we have to prepare for that all year as we're saving our festival tithe or saving money in order to prepare and go to the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, it's important to be reminded that God's appointed Feast Days provide a very valuable lesson for all of us in our spiritual development and growth.

They actually provide a blueprint, you can say. I think we've described it that way in the past.

A blueprint giving us a vision into God's plan for mankind.

Now, that, of course, includes all of the Holy Days in the spring and summer and in the fall.

The fall being the concluding Holy Days of the particular year.

I want us to look at Acts 2.

Acts 2 is, as I'm sure almost all of you know, is about the Day of Pentecost.

And it's after the coming of the Holy Spirit to begin the New Testament Church.

And Peter gave in what you could only say is an inspired sermon.

He was given the Spirit of God. He tried to explain whenever there was confusion about what's going on.

Well, you know, these men are not drunk. It's very early in the morning. They're not drunk now.

But the Spirit of God is working in their lives. And a miracle has occurred where people not only speak, but others hear. A miracle of hearing was occurring.

And so people from all over, different parts of the world who had come there, could understand what it was that was being spoken.

But starting here in verse 22, Peter said, you that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power and wonders and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know.

See, Peter was going to teach about Jesus Christ. He wanted them to understand who he was.

Now, Peter had been in training for several years. He had grown in some of his understanding of who Christ was.

But he was now telling the others, mostly a Jewish population, but others who had come from outside the area.

He said, this man handed over to you according to the definite plan, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.

He told them, you just killed the Son of God. Now, you didn't directly do that. You indirectly did that.

But you did that through the Roman system, those who were outside the law. That's who he's referring to.

But what he says here in verse 23 is that this happened according to God's design.

It happened according to the plan. The definite purpose that God is working out.

And in verse 24, he says, even though that happened, God raised him up, having freedom from death, because it was impossible for him to be held by its power.

See, he just told them the fact that it happened, not only had they put Christ to death, he had been in the grave for three days and three nights, and God had raised him from the death.

He now lived at the right hand of God or anywhere else. He happened to want to be.

If he wanted to appear to the disciples, which he had over those last 40, 50 days, he could do it.

And yet, Peter wanted to emphasize that this was done according to God's design.

This had come about according to the purpose of God.

And actually, over here in chapter 4, I want us to turn over to chapter 4, because here in chapter 4, as the church has now begun, and as they are beginning to do their work, although they're finding they're running into some opposition.

Actually, Peter and John had been put into jail. In verse 23, they were released. They went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said.

When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, "'The sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you, who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor, David, your servants, why do the heathen rage?' And down in verse 27, he says, "'For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.'" See, again, here he's mentioning, you know, God is working out a plan.

He's working out a purpose here on earth. He has a design, and he is including us in understanding that, in comprehending it. He goes on in this prayer, verse 28, "'to do whatever your hand and plan had predestined to take place, and now, Lord, look at the threats that are against us, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness.'" And at that point, you see God provided signs and wonders and a great deal of help.

There were healings. There were a lot of things that God provided in support of the Church at that time. But my purpose in reading those verses is that it refers to the plan of God. It refers to what God has prepared, what He is going to bring to pass. Now, I want to back up to chapter 3, because in between these two incidents that we just read, Peter and John had been walking in the area of the temple, and a man who needed to be healed came up to them and asked them for money. And Peter said, well, I don't have money to give you, but what I have I'll give to you.

Verse 6, "'I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.' And of course he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and jumping up. He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God." Now, clearly this was something that not only Peter and John saw, but everybody else saw.

And they said, we've seen this man here many, many years. We know who he is. He can't walk. He's not able to do that, but by and in the name of Jesus Christ, he is able. He is able by the power of God to be healed. And so over in verse 11, Peter continues to have a discussion.

While this man in verse 11 clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them, and the portico called Solomon's portico utterly astonished. And when Peter saw it, he addressed them and said, Israelites, why do you wonder at this? Why do you stare at us as though by our own power or by our own piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.

But you, in verse 14, you rejected the holy and righteous one, and you asked to have a murderer released to you, and you, in verse 15, killed the author of life. Peter was speaking extremely boldly in this case because, you know, he was addressing individuals who had opposed Jesus, who had tried to negate the impact of what he could do. Actually, they wanted to negate who he was. They didn't want to acknowledge that he was the Messiah.

Well, what I want to get to here is in verse 17, and now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers. In this way, God fulfilled what he had foretold through the prophets that his Messiah, the Christ, would suffer. And so, in verse 19, Peter's directive to them was, repent. Repent, therefore, and turn to God. Be converted. And so, his message was one of repentance. Repent of your sins. Turn from that. Turn to God, so your sins may be forgiven, wiped out. So that, in verse 20, that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may sin, the Messiah appointed for you, that is Jesus, verse 21, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration, until the time of the restoring, the restitution of all things, the time when that restoration will take place that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. See, now, here in verse 19 and 20 and 21, those are verses that, in some ways, we probably encouraged to be memorized before, because they really do describe a part of the plan of God. He wants people to come to repentance. He wants them to recognize their need for Jesus Christ. He wants us to know that we need to be forgiven, but he also wants us to know that there is coming a time, that he calls a time of refreshing, a time of the restitution of all things. Now, I want us to think about those descriptions.

What is it that needs to be restored? What is it that needs to be restored in God's plan for man?

What is it that's been lost and even needs to be restored?

See, as students of the Bible, we should know.

What will Jesus restore when he comes back?

See, again, I think in many ways we all know the answer to that, but it's important that we really understand the answer to that because, see, Jesus proclaimed, what? The kingdom of God. He proclaimed what needed to be restored to earth, and he also explained how that that rule from God had been removed and lost, and how that he had come as a Redeemer, and yet he is, at this time, awaiting in heaven to be given the nod to come back and to restore the kingdom, the rule, and the government of God on earth. See, it's very, very important that we comprehend that big picture item, that Jesus is not ushering into something that is somewhat ethereal. He is ushering in a real, live government, a kingdom that he is going to rule in and that he wants us to be his servants in that kingdom as well. So what needs to be restored? What was lost? Well, we can easily say Adam and Eve rejected God's rule. They rejected God's instruction, God's word. They rejected it. The plan that God made, maybe even explains some to them. And then, of course, he tells us that a time of restitution is going to bring about the restitution of that kingdom, that government from God. So that's what Jesus is going to restore when he comes back. Let's go back to Genesis 1 and 2. Actually, Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 are foundational chapters, foundational chapters where we see some very unique things about God working with men. Now, we're not going through things that preceded this, things that we mostly read about in other parts of the Bible, where the angelic rebellion had taken place and where Lucifer had chosen to defy God and resist God and actually introduce sin into God's creation. But here, this is dealing with men, dealing with mankind. Here in chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1, we're, I think, familiar with some of these verses a great deal, but it's important for us to have this as a foundation. This is when the rule of God was lost. This is when it was stolen. It was taken captive by the God of this world. Here in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, Lord God said, let us make mankind in our image according to our likeness. Verse 27, so God created man in his image. In the image of God, he created the male and female created he then. This was, in a sense, a pinnacle of the creation that God was going to place on the earth through that week. He was going to shape and fashion and reform the earth for man after it had become chaotic and turbulent with the rebellion of Lucifer. And yet now he's placing a physical man, a temporary, very limited man here on the earth.

Actually, what we read about here in chapter 2 is how it is that he talked to Adam. He had fashioned Adam out of the dust of the ground in chapter 2. Let's see. Verse 7, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living soul. He became a living being. See, that's where all of us are from. We're from the dirt and as we will read a little later, you know, when we die we return to the dirt. We return to dust. But here in talking about Adam it says God breathed into Adam the breath of life.

Now you don't really see that, that type of description, that type of elaborate and complex description in designing the cows or the dogs or the cats or the grasshoppers or the bugs or any other kind of living creature. It just says God created them. They were created. But in dealing with men who was in the image and likeness of God, it says God breathed into that man the breath of life. And God began. We see as we add other things together from other parts of the Bible, we see that this is what gives man the ability to have the dimensions of knowing the things of a man. To know, to be able to think, to reason, to make decisions, to make choices. That's what the things of a man are. And we can know a lot of other things or a lot of physical things, things that, you know, every one of us work at in one way or another, wherever we might work. Whatever we're doing, those are all physical things that we, you know, we can learn about, we can know a lot about.

Maybe, you know, we even get consumed with that. But it's important to know about what God was doing whenever he fashioned and shaped this man. And with incredible plans, with incredible purpose, he would give this man an ability to make decisions and to make use, to be able to learn knowledge, to be given knowledge from God. Actually, he gave him some knowledge here. Verse 8, The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east. He put the man whom he had formed out of the ground the Lord God made to grow the tree that is pleasant in the sight and good for food, the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So this is God's design, God's creation around Adam. And it talks about some rivers that I'm not going to go through in verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to till it and to keep it, and the Lord God commanded. So there's was, this was a directive. This wasn't a suggestion from the Creator about what you should do. This was just giving the man correct instruction about how you could live a gloriously wonderful life. The Lord God commanded the man, you may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. God gave him a very clear instruction.

And in verse 18, the Lord God said, it's not good that men should be alone.

I will make you a helper as your partner. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every animal, a field, every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called them, that was his name. So I guess we owe to Adam the crazy names we have for the armadillos and the possums and all the different types of turtles and fish and cattle and creeping things. But what we see in this relationship with Adam and God is that, in a sense, man had been created in a state of innocence, a state of cooperation and peace with God. He wasn't resisting God at this point. He was following the instruction of God or the command of God. He was clearly able to receive that. It says, man gave names to the cattle and to the birds and to every animal in the field, but for the man there was not found a helper, and so the Lord created sleep to fall upon the man. He slept and took out one of his ribs, closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And then Adam said, this is at last his bone of my bones and flesh in my flesh. This one shall be called woman, for out of man this one was taken, and therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed. Fear again was a state of innocence, a state of cooperation with God.

You know, maybe you could say, well, it doesn't seem like a very long existence before things go bad, and that's what it would appear from this writing. But, you know, we don't know a lot more than what the Bible tells us.

But clearly, you know, they were subject to God. They were subject to his rule. They were subject to his direction. They were subject to his law in their life. Now, did they know everything about all that we know today? Well, no, I think God explained some of that as he went along, but they surely knew that, you know, God's our creator. You know, we need to be mindful of him.

They were clearly under the rule of God in a peaceful manner.

But of course, we all know in chapter 3, the serpent comes along, lies to them, and deceives them.

And in essence, they reject God's government. They reject God's rule. They reject his structure that he wanted them to function under.

See, as we read, you know, God had given them the trees in the garden. He didn't given them the tree of life. I mean, it was there, and we don't know any more than that. We see later that he would guard the way back to the tree of life. And so we don't know for sure anything more about that, except they were in conformity with God until the deceiver came and resisted God. They rejected God's rule, his authority over his created beings, following a way of sin, which they would choose, and that would lead to death.

The serpent talking to Eve, asking some tricky questions. He's always very subtle, very crafty, very manipulative. See, that's the way Satan does. That's the way he is. We have a lot of people who are really crafty. You know, they don't realize that's not to be emulated. That's not to be followed. But he asks questions and Eve tries to answer. The woman said, we can eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. Nor say you touch it or you'll die. Now, I don't know about the touching part. That seems to be embellishing a little. At least we didn't read that in chapter 2. But what the devil told her, of course, the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. Actually, God is keeping something back from you. He doesn't want you to have all of the blessings of obedience and of responsiveness and of being under his direction in supervision. He doesn't want that for you. He's really holding back. He's trying to keep you from having something. It says God knows that when you eat of that tree, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eye and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate and she gave to her husband and he ate and sure enough, the eyes of them were open and they weren't now like God. They now noticed that we're naked. They now noticed that there was a level of guilt and shame and fear that had enveloped them because even as God, they heard the sound of God in verse 8 walking the garden, at the time of the evening breeze and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. And God called out and said, where are you? And Adam, I'm sure rather sheepishly said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked.

Now this is starting to get odd. Just before, not very long before, you are walking before your creator and in peace, in harmony, in contentment, in joy, having the creator provide a helper compatible with the man and God had even instituted a marriage, a divine institution of marriage for men and women to have that institution. But now everything was different. They had rejected the kingdom and government of God. They had rejected the rule of God in their life. They had entered into a time of sin. And of course, we all know, as we read other parts of the Bible, that's where it began. That's where resisting God began. It all seems rather simple.

But see, this very much has to do with the restitution of all things. It very much has to do with what needs to be restored. It very much has to do with what are the answers that men need. Well, those answers are wrapped up in the kingdom and government of God.

What we find in this description, and I'm not going to take time to go through.

It's fascinating to go through. I'll read through a part of it.

God in this chapter talks to the devil. He talks to Eve. He tells Adam, because of his bad choice, because of this rejecting the rule of God in your life, well, then you are going to have problems.

Problems. The Satan will certainly have problems. The woman will have problems. The man will have problems. Things that might have otherwise grown rather easily are going to be a lot harder.

Thorns and thistles will appear in verse 18, verse 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken you were dust and to dust you shall return. He had created Adam and Eve out of the dust to the ground. He had provided them instruction, instruction that we will later see is going to be extended and taught out of Zion.

Most of us are aware of what I'm referring to there. Verse 20, the man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living and the Lord God made garments of skin for the man and his wife clothed them and he said, see the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil and now so he had taken to himself the prerogative to decide what's right what's wrong instead of listening to God and saying that's right I want to obey what you say I want to honor you I want to be under your rule no I'm going to be my own ruler I'm going to be I'm going to see I don't think they comprehended the spirit realm that was affecting them the demon spirits that were affecting the beginning of man and then later on the entirety of mankind see the man has become verse 22 like one of us knowing good and evil and now he he might reach out in his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever so I'm going to prevent that I'm not going to allow him to take of the tree of life and represented a relationship with God that was sound the represented the spirit of God that would allow a unity with God and so therefore the Lord set sent him from the garden of Eden to till the ground from where it was taken he drove out the man at the east of the garden he placed caribim a flaming sword and turned turning to guard the way to the tree of life so he was going to offer that as he then chose as he would decide who am I going to call who am I going to work with and ultimately this ties into what Peter was saying at the very beginning of the expansion of the offering of a tree of life of the holy spirit to men to be a part of the church of God he says we're awaiting a time when the kingdom and rule of Christ will restore all things to the earth that's what we're looking forward to and in the meantime we need to be developing toward being servants in that kingdom but what we read here in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 was that there became a broken relationship with our heavenly father it was not it was not a blessed relationship it was one that had become corrupted even as we read about not too long ago about Lucifer in his sin he had been given wisdom from God but his wisdom was corrupted in this way mankind was corrupted now I want us to go back to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 the book of Ephesians is of course written by Paul and directed to the people in Ephesus this was a major congregation of the time Ephesus was a sizable city I would assume it may have had a sizable congregation of the church of God and yet here in Ephesus or in Ephesians we see the instruction that Paul wrote and I'm just going to break into this because it does have to do you know with learning to be ruled learning to be in subjection to God as we come into the church of God as we come into a relationship with God that begins with repentance a recognition of our need to be forgiven and then is extended through a receipt of the gift of the Holy Spirit that it actually begins a healed relationship with God a relationship with our heavenly Father you see Paul giving instruction regarding a Christian household of a husband and a wife and he says and I'm only going to mention this or go through this because of what he says in verse 32 he says this is a great mystery and I'm applying it to Christ and the church and so directly in connection with the church of God the church that God rules in see there is rule and there is government in the church and so he says I'm applying this to Christ and the church but to back up his instruction is talking about husbands and wives and how they are to relate to one another and he points out how it is that the Christ the the husband Christ relates to the church his wife in a very unique way here in verse 22 wives be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord and so he gives that pretty clear statement that if we're going to be in the Lord if we are going to be a part of the church of God well then we are in subjection to the head we're in in subjection whether we're male or female we're in some subjection to the head of the church Jesus Christ so he says wives be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church the body of which he is the Savior and so here he points out a little more about the husband and the husband's responsibility and the responsibility that every husband has to truly love and to truly serve and to truly nurture and care for his wife because that's what Christ does for the church he is very concerned about us he's concerned about you he's concerned about each one of us as future children of God and he says just as well let me back up to verse 23 for the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church the body of which he is the Savior and just as the church is subject to Christ so off also wives ought to be in everything to their husband so he gives explanation about being in subjection and yet he also gives explanation in verse 25 to husbands about being in subjection to the rule of Christ in their lives husbands you must love your wives just as Christ loved the church and he loved it so much he gave himself up for her he is willing to die he has been willing to die for his church he's been willing to offer himself as a sacrifice as the Lamb of God he's been willing to provide everything that his wife needed love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word so as to present the church to himself and splendor without a spot or wrinkle or any of the thing of the kind yes so that she may be holy and without blemish and in the same way in the same way that Christ serves the church as he loves the church as he looks after you know the description of washing of water by the word see how wonderful it is to be bathed in the word of God for all of us you know we don't often look at it that way but that is the case it is a fact that if we need help then if we bathe ourselves in the word of God then we are going to be lifted up we are going to be nurtured we are going to be cared for according to the head of the church in verse 28 in the same way husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies he loves his wife loves himself for no one hates his own body but he nurtures and tenderly cares for it that's what a husband is required by God to nurture and tenderly care for his wife and yet again as Paul said this is actually explaining a mystery about Christ in the church how it is that those that God brings into the church of God that he calls that he brings to a relationship with him well then they have a blessing but they are actually beginning with a subjection to the head of the church i'm not going to read more of that but i hope that that is i that is in my thinking a very beneficial section of scripture to not just read and not just be aware of but to absolutely to apply because it is a requirement for husbands and for wives and we can back up a page here in my bible to chapter 2 chapter 2 he says in verse 19 so there you are no longer strangers and foreigners you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God and so he's talking about the body that he was talking to the people who made up the congregation and of course those of us who make up the body of Christ today he says you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone say who is the foundation who is the head of the church because in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple and the Lord in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God and so you could really ask you know am I really a dwelling place for God or do I resist and do I refuse and do I not think about that because we need to think about that I am a dwelling place for God these verses here in Ephesians are I think incredibly powerful but they do tie in tie into what is it that needs to be restored well we're in the process of learning to be under the supervision of God under in subjection to God and in subjection to his rule to his government that he's going to bring in a massive worldwide way whenever he sends Christ back to the earth there are several verses here that I want to read to you I'll go over to John chapter 7 now because this talks about Jesus Christ and I think it's fascinating you know we're thinking about the fall holy days and how it is that as the fulfillment of these days occur the coming of Christ the binding of Satan the establishment of the restoration of all things the restoring of the rule of God on earth that was banned banished or vanquished way back in the first pages of the book of Genesis see that needs to be restored I should yearn for that I want to pray for that but it's fascinating to see that as the son of God Jesus Christ was here on the earth it's amazing to see the record that he left I won't go to John 7 quite yet I want to look at Luke 2 because this is when Jesus was much smaller much younger actually this is when he was 12 years old Luke 2 verse 41 every year of parents his parents Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover and when he was 12 years old they went up as usual to the festival and when the festival was ended and they started to return the boy Jesus stayed behind and parents didn't know it and assuming he was with others of the group of travelers they went a day's journey and when they looked for him they didn't find him when they couldn't find him they returned to Jerusalem to search for him and after three days they found him in the temple and now to to a degree that sounds a little unusual you know they couldn't find you for three days three or four days you know that would have been a scandal in this world today at that time and you know it wasn't a fearful thing apparently to them and yet after three days he found him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him the doctors of the law who were there at the temple the rabbis and the scholars who were there all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers and so it appears not only was he listening not only was he asking questions he must have also answered some questions for them and i'm not going to go through the rest of it you can easily read that but the point i want to make is the fact that this was around the time of the past this was right after the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread he and his parents had been there and they were observing that festival in the spring holy days and then he goes to the temple and is conversing with the teachers of the law and he must have been extremely impressive because of what it says here in verse 47 everyone who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers but it says he was asking him questions what kind of questions do you think Jesus would ask it doesn't say so we don't know i'm going to conjecture i don't do a lot of that but i like to think about that because he was there observing the Passover he was there observing the days of Unleavened Bread he knew all about that maybe he asked the doctors of the law now tell me a little more about this lamb whose blood was slain and rescued the Israelites i wonder what they had to say they could say some things surely they would know from the book of exodus but he could ask some other things too tell me about this Unleavened Bread what did that mean did that was there significance to that and then if they answer he might bring up another question that they couldn't answer because he he knew he knew a considerable amount because he had been with the father and he had come to the earth as the Lamb of God and yet again it doesn't say i'm just asking you know why was it so impressive that whatever he said whatever he did displayed a unity with the father now did Luke excuse me john seven all of us know this chapter to be the chapter that it shows us that Jesus was keeping the Feast of Tabernacles and it says in verse two now the Jewish Feast of Booths or Tabernacles were near and so his brothers they kind of chided him why don't you go up there and show off you know they they wanted you know anybody wants to be known you know you don't do it about here in hiding you go where all the people are they didn't believe him verse five and then not even his brothers believed in him they were jealous of him they didn't have at this point belief later a couple of them James and Jude were going to become quite prominent supporters of Jesus Christ they were going to write books of the Bible but at this point they didn't believe him but Jesus said well my time has not yet come in verse seven the world cannot hate you but it does hate me so i want you in verse eight to go to the festival yourself i'm not yet going up to the festival for my time has not yet come and after that he stayed there in Galilee but in verse 10 after his brothers had gone to the festival then he also went not publicly but in secret and so he didn't go to with them because that would have been pretty easy to identify you know the family group be able to be found too easily so he did go to the feast even though he did that in a kind of a secret way he didn't go publicly and sure enough in verse 11 the Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying where is he and there was considerable complaining about him because some said he was a good man another said he was a deceiver yet no one would openly speak about him for fear of the Jews and in verse 14 you actually see two different revelations here in john 7 you see Jesus in verse 14 in the middle of the feast go up into the temple and begin to teach and you see Jesus over here in verse 37 on the last day of the festival the great day while Jesus was standing there he cried out let everyone who has is thirsty come to me and let the one who believes in me drink as the scriptures have said out of the believers art shall flow rivers of living water and now he said this about the spirit which believers in him were to receive for as yet there was no spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified see now in this latter verse in verse 37 and 38 and 39 we see that Jesus was talking about he was explaining in his teaching about a time when the river of living water would flow forth from believers because of the receipt and the blessing of the holy spirit of God and of course he was applying that to a time yet in the future and even it says here you know he was talking about living water in John 4 he said I'm the source of living water and yet what he was quoting was out of Jeremiah he's quoting Jeremiah to say you know my people have forsaken the source of living water that's what they need they need that but over here in verse 14 it's not quite as clear what he might have during the Feast of Tabernacles been teaching them you know I'm going to again conjecture he might have been teaching them about what the Feast of Tabernacles means he might have been teaching them something because here it says he began to teach and the Jews were astonished how does this man have such learning when he's never been taught by us that's what that's what they were saying well how does he come up with this stuff because we didn't teach him that even as when he was 12 he baffled them even then maybe it was about the plan of God and the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread and the purpose of human life where did he get this when he's never been taught verse 16 he said my teaching my doctrine is not mine but it is his who sent him who sent me anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own those who speak on their own seek their own glory but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent is true and there is nothing false in him here he says you know what I'm teaching you is not just what I'm making up even though you know he was the son of God he says I'm teaching you what the father told me to teach you don't believe that but that's the case and I again wonder if he's teaching out of the Old Testament Isaiah chapter 2 or Isaiah chapter 11 or Isaiah chapter 35 or Isaiah chapter 9 all of those have to do with the millennial rule of Jesus Christ on earth now it doesn't say what he was teaching but he was teaching what God wanted him to teach and so I think you know whenever you look at the possibilities here that clearly teaching what he knew from the beginning teaching what he knew even as the disciples or not the disciples the initial man and woman rejected the rule of God over them and they became deceived in the world is a world that is given over the god of this world see that is what needs to be restored that needs to be replaced we read chapters in Daniel talking about the kingdoms of this world going to be overrun by the kingdom of God see that's what needs to be restored that's what needs to be restored to the earth and of course as as I said if we if we go back to Isaiah 2 you know this is what really needs to be restored because it's talking about we always apply this and see I haven't even gotten to revelation 20 which I'm not going to go there because you know there is so much that would be later written that Jesus would have already known he would know what we're going to do what the plan and purpose of God is he knew that and he would have John write it down 60 70 years later but for all of us it's in the book and so we get all the information or much of it if we understand it but here in Isaiah 2 what if Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles there when he went into the temple to teach what if he taught about the time when the restoration of the rule and kingdom of God will be restored to the earth a time described in verse 2 of Isaiah 2 in days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills and all the nations shall stream to it and many people shall come and say come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord of the house of God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he will judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many people they shall beat their swords into plow shears their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn more anymore see brethren that's what needs to be restored that's what needs to be replacing the kingdoms of this world and the rulership of the god of this world that needs to be rejected and replaced and that's why whenever we read the scriptures as we go to the feast as we observe these fall holy days that's why they're exciting and that's why you know it's wonderful to consider just what it is that god has determined is going to happen what he is going to bring about in his plan revelation 20 does talk about the thousand years where christ will reign on earth and how the saints at that time will have been trained to be in subjection to the rule of god and they will be given opportunity to teach and to be priests and kings and rulers and that's what we're preparing for but certainly i want us to understand what is it that needs to be restored and that is simply the government and the rule and the kingdom of god that christ is going to install see he announced when he was here earlier he announced the kingdom of god he's going to install it as what's going to restore the whole earth restore you know the healing of the earth the healing of the lands the healing of of the animal kingdom that is in conflict with each other he's gonna that's what we teach about and preach about regarding the world to come but that's why our message today is the gospel of jesus christ but it's the gospel of the kingdom of god a gospel and kingdom that we want to embrace so that's when god is going to restore man's broken relationship with his creator and that's why all of us should pray that he would hasten the day when his kingdom will come to the earth