Why doesn’t Jesus restore everything right now?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons or other questions you have about the Bible. As you probably know, we’ve been going through the book of John, looking at the miracles recorded in that book. And we’ve said each week that miracles give us a small window into the complete redemption that Jesus will eventually bring across the earth.

This last week, we saw that Jesus can heal with just a word from far away. We compared that to the rest of Scripture, where God’s word, just his word alone, creates goodness or demolishes darkness, ceases whatever needs to be ceased. Just his word. It’s effortless for Jesus to heal. It will be effortless when he comes back to restore all things. It’s his word that ends all the evil and suffering in the world. And it’s his word that creates goodness. So simple for him to do that.

So the question this week is, if it is so easy for Jesus to do, why hasn’t he come back to restore all things already? If it’s effortless, what’s he waiting for? Let’s go ahead and get this done. Enter into eternity together with a redeemed earth and with redeemed bodies and with redeemed society, and to end all suffering. Let’s go ahead and do it.

Well, we’re given some clues in Scripture of what he’s waiting for, why this full restoration hasn’t happened yet. And we’ll walk through some of those clues together. First, in 2 Peter, Peter is addressing some people who have said, well, he’s never really going to come back. It’s been so long.

And this is Peter writing in the first century, and they’re already complaining it’s been too long before Jesus has come back. But Peter, addressing these people, says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” In other words, it seems like he’s waiting for more people to repent, to come to him, to be redeemed. Not everybody who will be redeemed has been redeemed yet. And he wants to bring everybody in before the end comes.

But Peter continues, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire.” And so he warns us: live holy and godly lives. So he says the end will come, but it hasn’t yet because God is being patient with us.

Similarly, in Romans 11:25, Paul explains, “I don’t want you to be unaware of this mystery, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of Gentiles has come in.” This is similar, right? God’s waiting for more Gentile believers to become believers, waiting for more people to be redeemed before the end will come.

And then lastly, similarly, in Matthew 24:14, Jesus says, “The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” He’s waiting for the gospel to go out everywhere, to every corner of the globe. Why? Because we’re waiting for the full number of Gentiles to come in, right? He’s waiting. He’s giving us time to repent, for more people to become redeemed. But eventually, the full number will be in. And when the full number is in, then he will come and restore all things.

It’s already been a couple thousand years. We don’t know how many more people he knows will be redeemed, but that day will come. It will come like a thief. The heavens will be removed, the earth will be redeemed, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. He’s not slow in keeping his promise. It will happen.

We hope that’s helpful, and we’ll see you next time.