‘To restore’ means ‘to return (someone or something) to a former condition, place, or position’ and is often used in the building trade to describe projects which return a house to its former glory. In effect, this is what God does to us; He restores us to relationship with Him, to fellowship with Him, bringing about reconciliation through the sacrificial death of His Son. As Aaron Shust puts it, ‘all that’s lost can be reclaimed.’ (‘You Redeem’) The plans of the enemy to take as many people with him away from God are ‘ruined, undone.’ We can enter into everything that God has for us; we can resume our identity as children of God and can know that we are now heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17) Peter says that being restored makes us ‘strong, firm and steadfast’ (1 Pet 5:10); in other words, it becomes the foundation of our lives, the thing which enables us to stand and prevail, no matter what comes against us.

God Restores Our Souls (Ps 23:3)

The soul is the innermost part of a person, the ‘real us’, so to speak. It comprises our emotions and feelings and will; it’s intangible and invisible but an essential part of what it means to be human. Many years ago, there was an advert for Heineken beer which said, ‘Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.’ Jesus is better than Heineken! He reaches the parts no one and nothing else can reach. We often think money, relationships, possessions, careers will satisfy us, but ultimately, only God can satisfy our souls. He provides the rest we need (spiritual rest or peace), the refreshment we need (promising us a banqueting feast like no other) and the replenishment that comes from His provision. (Phil 4:13)

God Restores Our Joy (Ps 51:12)

We can lose joy for many reasons. Sometimes (as in this case with David), it’s because of sin. Sometimes it’s because we have lost our spiritual perspective and are only looking at life from a human point of view, being weighed down by injustice, misery, hopelessness and fear. God’s joy, however, can be known in all circumstances and is the source of our strength. (Neh 8:10) We need to learn from children who can find joy in simple things (like rolling down a hill or writing a capital B!) Joy is the fuel which keeps us going and God is able to fill us with His joy.

God Restores Our Wasted Years (Joel 2:25)

In the middle of a passage about God’s judgment, seen through the ravages and famine caused by locusts, God promises restoration and hope, telling His people that ‘you will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you.’ (Joel 2:26) God is able to use everything in our lives for good (Rom 8:28)/ No matter what shameful secrets we have in our past, no matter what we have done or has been done to us, God can restore the wasted years, the failures, the mistakes, the sins. Justification means it’s ‘just as if we had never sinned.’ We have robes of righteousness to put on; though our sins were as scarlet, now we are washed white as snow. (Is 1:18)

Today we gave out Easter gift bags to almost 70 families in Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe & Bolton-on-Dearne.

It’s been good to see some of the artwork done by children already:

Holy Week:

The journey from adulation to resurrection via the ugliness of betrayal, denial and death.

It starts with a ‘triumphal entry’,

Cries of ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ and a green carpet of palm fronds and cloaks,

Crowds singing the praises of a king.

We should have known something was awry by the arrival on a donkey, however.

No noble steed, no purple robes,

Just the quietness and humility of prophecy fulfilled.

A week of teaching, prayer, anointing and eating,

Crammed into just a few days,

With simmering resentment, naked hatred and bungling bluster from ignorant disciples

The backdrop to the tumultuous events that would change the world.

Jesus washing his disciples’ feet,

Underlining yet again the radical nature of a kingdom which didn’t measure up to the zealots’ idea of revolution.

He walks with steadfast purpose and anguish of heart towards the cross,

While his followers bicker and quarrel and fall asleep in the garden,

Naïve confidence soon scattered by the shock of betrayal from within and the presence of Roman soldiers.

Fleeing, running, bewildered and afraid,

They watch from afar,

Squirming in panicked fear as recognition dawns in the eyes of the servants,

Outright denial coupled with oaths, shattered by the crowing of the cockerel.

In the middle of this hustled chaos,

Jesus remains silent,

Dignified in the midst of ridicule and scorn.

Injustice screams from every trial,

But he remains silent,

The innocent lamb about to be sacrificed even as the Passover lambs are slaughtered.

This is what they all foreshadowed,

But none realise the significance of what is going on.

Another rabble-rouser about to get his comeuppance,

That’s all they saw.

Anguish, agony, abandonment

Form the backdrop of that Friday.

Mother and women watch in heartbroken silence.

How can this be happening?

Why isn’t God stepping in?

The cry of dereliction from the dying man’s lips echoes the misery of the hour,

Then the final words ‘It is finished’ and ‘Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.’

Death has arrived.

It’s all over.

Except death leaves behind a plethora of jobs still to be done,

Anointing, burial, official paperwork to be filled in.

Joseph and Nicodemus sort that out,

The body is sealed in a tomb.

The women, loyal to the end, ponder how they can fulfil their last anointings with a stone blocking the tomb’s entrance,

The numb bewilderment that follows death swallowed up in necessary activity that leaves no comfort.

The misery of death forces us to pause here before moving on.

Lazarus was left days before resuscitation, but no one seems to have thought of miracles anymore.

The Miracle Maker was gone

And with him, hope and joy were also absent.

Then, into the dark of the early morning,

Light bursts forth.

Angels dazzling in their brightness bring news of an empty tomb,

The stone rolled away to display burial clothes but no body.

What was going on?

Where was the body?

What malign plan of the Romans was this, to rob their friend of dignity in death?

A risen Saviour, mistaken for a gardener, concludes this most bewildering of weeks,

And starts the next chapter all at the same time.

Jesus, no longer dead,

But alive, and alive forever more!

We see hope resurrected,

Mingling with ongoing confusion and bewilderment,

Finally giving way to joy that bubbles up and cannot be stilled.

Holy Week:

A reminder that beginnings don’t always determine endings,

That it’s not wise to close the book until the final chapter,

That the journey has its twists and turns, its heartaches and its joys,

But God is in them all,

God with us, Immanuel.

Stephen spoke tonight from Matt 21:7-9, looking at two aspects of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This event is recorded in all four gospels, and is therefore of importance to us in our understanding of the events leading up to Jesus’s death and resurrection.

The crowds lay down their garments and palm branches in homage to a king. They recognised Jesus as king (perhaps not understanding the heavenly nature of that role, but still seeing in Him the embodiment of a ruler.) We know with hindsight the eternal nature of Jesus’s kingdom and need to come before Him laying down our whole lives before Him. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and the appropriate response is thankfulness, reverence and awe. (Heb 12:28) Our offering is not clothes or palm branches, but God asks us to offer our bodies, our whole selves, to Him. (Rom 12:1) True worship means giving ourselves to God, who is looking for responsive and humble hearts. (2 Chron 34:27)

The crowds also shouted ‘Hosanna!’, a shout of praise and acclamation which means ‘save’ or ‘rescue’. We may feel frustrated by current restrictions on us in church services which limit shouting and singing, but Christ sees our hearts and knows the cry of every heart, even if it is unspoken. Our king is before us, coming towards us, mighty to save.

Rev 7:9-12 gives us a glimpse into the future, a glimpse into heaven, as we see people holding palm branches and crying out that salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Here, we see the fulfilment of the ‘Hosanna!’ we first heard on Palm Sunday, a crying out in praise from the masses who fell down on their faces in worship and awe. This must be our response too, asking God to take us just as we are and calling on Him to save us.

Holy Week is an important time in the Christian calendar, as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

Our Lent readings from Matthew’s Gospel will continue every day this week on Facebook live, starting on Monday 29th March at 6 p.m. It’s good to read the Easter story each day so that our hearts take in afresh the enormity of all that happened.

Our Easter services in church (and on Zoom and Facebook live) will be on Maundy Thursday (1st April) at 7:30 p.m., Good Friday (2nd April) at 6.00 p.m. and on Easter Sunday (4th April) at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

We will also be giving out Easter gift bags from Market Street on Wednesday 31st March along with Dearne Churches Together. Please pray as we distribute Easter crafts, booklets, puzzles and chocolate to 88 families in total.

Finally, we will be giving out the hearts collected as part of the ‘Whispers of Love’ project to residents and staff in care homes and distributing these in Thurnscoe, Goldthorpe and Bolton-on-Dearne as part of our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting on Saturday 3rd April from 10 a.m. Please join us to pray and then scatter to distribute these hearts as symbols of God’s love for our communities.