Acts 3:21

Acts 3:19 , Acts 3:21

The Restitution of All Things will be:

I. A clearing away of suffering. Earth shall be restored to its original beauty; its face shall be wiped from tears; its scarred and stained countenance shall be radiant again with a more than Eden loveliness: for it is one of those "all things" which must receive restitution when the heaven which has received Him shall send Jesus back.

II. We pass to a thought not less bright, and far more practical, when we say that man, his soul and body, his very being and life, is among these "all things" which are awaiting a restoration. Who that has seriously tried the struggle to be holy, the warfare under Christ's banner with indwelling, obstinate, inveterate sin, has not found himself vexed and irritated, if not reduced to despair, by perpetual failure; has not felt times without number that without a promise he would surrender, he would capitulate on the instant, and that the promise which keeps him fighting is not more that of "strength as his day," than that of victory in the end? If there be a restoration of all things at the Advent, and amongst these "all things" I am, then I will arise, if need be, from a thousand falls in one day, cast down, but not destroyed.

III. That restitution of all things which thus affects earth and the man, has an aspect, finally, towards God. It is one of the express revelations of the times of refreshing, that then the conscious presence, the spiritual Shechinah, the Divine companionship, will be restored. In the light of that sun all lesser luminaries will pale, if not vanish. That only can live there which can bear the light of God. Sin will be destroyed, and all that is of it; selfish affection, creature worship, idolatrous love. All that then survives will have fallen into its place by instinct; all other love will shine in the love of God; stronger, more intense than ever, yet entirely pure, entirely devout, absolutely sinless and selfless. In the prospect of that admission into the very presence of God, let us be willing to endure now the difficulty of the pursuit and the delay of the attainment. If we give up the search, we must abandon the hope, if we will only seek on, we shall surely find.

C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons,p. 66.

References: Acts 3:19. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 35; Homilist,1st series, vol. v., p. 260; T. L. Cuyler, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 352; J. Keble, Sermons for Lent and Passiontide,p. 318; C. J. Vaughan, Church of the First Days,vol. i., p. 111.Acts 3:20. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 368. Acts 3:21. S. Martin, Pulpit,vol. iii., No. 1625.Acts 3:22. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 217. Acts 3:22. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 36.