Inheritance Restored - Benedict Allmand-Smith

Date: 19th October

Location: Trinity Baptist Church Charlesworth

Title: Inheritance Restored

Text: 2 Kings 8:1-6

Please listen to the audio of Benedict's sermon below:

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/102025131074364

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Inheritance Restored: What Christians Receive in Jesus Christ

When God Restores, He Does So Abundantly

Introduction

To restore means either to give back or to re-establish, renew, rebuild. Picture a child having a toy taken away and then returned, or an old painting worn through time being renewed (restored) to its original condition. Both images – giving back and renewing – are at work in 2 Kings 8:1-6, where we see God’s hand in restoration, both temporal and eternal.

1. The Appeal for Restoration of Inheritance

In verse 2, we find a woman sojourning in the land of the Philistines. She was escaping famine and never settling. Her sojourning represents the Christian’s life: passing through this world and not rooted in it. But upon her return, she comes back to Israel, the land of promise – God’s inheritance for His people (see Numbers 33:54).

Hebrews 11:13-16 speaks of God’s people as strangers and exiles, seeking a better country – the heavenly one. This woman’s return, then, is a picture of the Christian entering God’s eternal rest – no more wandering, no more famine. She appeals to the king for her inheritance, symbolising the moment we each must consider. Ask yourself: do I have a heavenly inheritance to appeal for?

2. Restoration of All She Lost in Obeying Elisha

Verse 6 tells us she had everything restored to her. In obeying Elisha, she lost little and gained much – and even the little she lost was returned. So it is for those who obey Christ.

We may lose relationships, job opportunities, financial comforts, or life experiences because we follow Jesus. Yet, Romans 8:18 reminds us that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed to us/in us.

God sees every sacrifice. What we’ve lost for His sake will be restored in His perfect kingdom – better, fuller, eternal. You will not miss out. He will restore relationships, not the exact relationships we lost, but more perfect relationships; he will grant meaningful work, whatever that may look like in the eternal rest; and he will grant us experiences unmarred by sin greater than any of this life.

3. Restoration of the Inheritance Adam Lost

This restoration points back to Eden. Adam forfeited God’s promised land, but in Christ, we gain something far greater – the New Heavens and Earth. In Revelation 21–22, which describes the New Heavens and Earth, the Tree of Life reappears, harkening the reader to the fact that all shall be perfect as it was in Eden. God’s people shall dwell with Him in unbroken joy.

We will regain all that was lost in Adam: perfect communion with God, a world without pain, and the presence of Christ Himself. Can you imagine it? Endless joy, complete contentment, and most precious of all, eternal worship of the Lamb unfettered by sin.

4. The Basis for the Restoration of this Inheritance

Twice the text says this woman’s son was “restored to life.” This is the key: her inheritance was restored because her son lived. So it is with us. We have new life because a Son was given – Jesus Christ, and he was raised from the dead. His resurrection is proof that all He did was accepted by God (1 Cor. 15:20-23).

Those who are in Christ have the Spirit dwelling in them – He is the guarantee of our inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). Do you have this life? Have you asked for it?

But to the Christian – rejoice! Your inheritance is secure. It cannot be revoked. God Himself guarantees it. One day He will say: “Restore all that is theirs in Christ.” Not that we deserve it, but that Christ has merited it on our behalf.

What love, what a God!