(1) Last week I shared a quote from Rueben Job that began, ‘Most of us do not wait well.’ He went on to say, ‘Jesus asked the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promised power to meet all that lay ahead of them as well as an advocate to teach them all that they needed to know.’
He then made a very important observation, ‘It must have been hard to wait. They were under suspicion by the authorities; they wanted to get on with their lives; how did they know that waiting would make any difference? The disciples were obedient to the command of Jesus, though, and their obedience was rewarded with power and a companion.’
10 days have passed since Jesus returned to heaven under the remaining disciple’s overwhelmed and amazed gaze. That’s nearly a week and a half of waiting. It had been 50 days, nearly two months, since the Resurrection had taken place. But they waited in Jerusalem as Jesus had commanded them to do as we read in Acts chapter 1. And because they waited they experienced the power of God in their lives like never before.
What is hard for you to wait on? What tests your patience more than anything else?
Is faith worth waiting on and for? Is forgiveness worth waiting on and for? Is hope worth waiting on and for? Is love worth waiting on and for? Is God worth waiting on and for? I believe that they are! As impatient as I am at times, God and all that He offers me is worth waiting on and for.
We don’t know how hard it was for those gathered together to wait although Job makes a very salient point that they were under suspicion and that they wanted to get on with their lives. Waiting then is often a pressure cooker experience.
I remember waiting for my wedding ceremony to begin and I expected that it would start promptly at 6 PM because that was the time it said on the invitation. I was told that you wait for all the guests to be seated before you start. I didn’t care! It was their fault they were late! We were going to start at 6 PM! Well, everyone did get seated on time and we began on time. (I have photographic proof that we started at 6 PM!)
I also remember another time of waiting due to a less, very much less, pleasant experience. It came during middle school when I became the target of the neighborhood bully who loved to give me a daily kick in the seat of the pants.
I dreaded the wait getting on and off of the bus. He was bigger and stronger than I was and I did not want to get into a tangle with him. I don’t remember how long this went on, it seemed forever, but it was probably a couple of weeks, but all of that changed one day when he smarted off on the bus to the biggest kid on the bus who got off at our stop and expressed his displeasure.
I was never bothered again by him. (Maybe it was because I picked up his glasses and gave them to him after everyone had left. But I don’t know.) Sometimes we have waited for things that we dread to hear or experience.
(2) One of my favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 40:31, ’But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.’ I believe this to be true. I have experienced it in my life and I have seen it happen in the lives of others. I have also experienced the results of impatient waiting and have found that it often creates a bigger mess than patient waiting.
I think of Abraham whose fear of being killed caused him to not wait for God to help but instead put him and his wife in an embarrassing situation as we read in Genesis 12. Gordon MacDonald suggests that Abraham (then called Abram) should have waited on God to provide for them instead of going to Egypt to wait out the famine and getting himself, and his wife, in trouble.
Fear, greed, lust, anger, impatience, you name it, a whole host of things can cause us to lose our place in line forcing us to go to the back. The ‘grass is greener’ myth can also force us to understand why waiting is hard to do.
But the disciples did what Jesus ask them to do, they waited, and waited, and waited… so that they would be empowered to become witnesses filled with a power and an ability not of their own making. Anthony de Mello has written, (3) ‘The Holy Spirit is given to those who watch and pray and wait patiently, those who have the courage to get away from everything and come to grips with themselves and with God in solitude and silence.’
I believe that the disciples came to grips with themselves and with God in those 10 days of waiting. I also believe that there was a reason for those 10 days of waiting.
We find the reason as we go deeper into the Biblical background and discover that the Day of Pentecost took place during the Jewish Festival of Harvest. It was one of the three major festivals celebrated in the Jewish faith and it was celebrated in Jerusalem that would swell in population as Jews from other nations came there to celebrate the festival. Verse 5 in Acts 2 confirms this, ‘Godly Jews from many nations were living in Jerusalem at that time.’
So God, in His great wisdom, sends the Holy Spirit at a time when a great number of people are present at the place where God the Son told the disciples to remain. (Isn’t God smart?)
The results of this strategy are that a large number of people from many nations hear the gospel in their own languages right now! Waiting pays off!
How long might it have taken for the gospel to be told if the disciples had been sent to various locations to learn the language first? God jump starts the birth of the church and the Christian faith in one moment of action because key people in His plan, waited…
(4) This past week we have mourned and remembered a young man who gave his life for his country in Iraq. Waiting has been difficult for his family, his friends, and those who knew him here. Waiting for his body to be returned. Waiting for the caring greeting of family and friends. Waiting for the funeral and the burial. Waiting for the grief and silence which comes afterward.
We not only remember Nick Hartege but we also remember others in other times and places who gave of their lives as well. Their faces are still very vivid to those who went into battle along side them and the memories of war and death remain ever strong today.
(5) As we move toward communion, we also remember another night of waiting: We remember the disciple’s anxious waiting as they are confronted by Jesus with the statement ‘one of you will betray me’ and the uneasy wrestling they had with their conscience. We also remember Jesus’ waiting… in the garden as He wrestled with the Father’s will and what lied ahead for Him… in the courtyards and before Pilate and Herod as they passed their judgment (or non judgment) on Him… in the midst of the Roman soldiers who beat him with lead tip whips into an unrecognizable condition, waiting for the next blow, and the next, and the next to fall on Him. (6)We remember the waiting that takes place at Calvary when Jesus hangs from the cross as His mother looks on…
I have been reading an interesting conversation between a Christian and an atheist as they discuss the question, ‘Is Christianity Good for the World?’ One of the statements that caught my attention as I read it with this day and this weekend in mind was uttered by the Christian named Douglas Wilson, ‘it is good for the world because Jesus died for the life of the world.’
We are the beneficiaries of waiting and the sacrifice of waiting… both politically and spiritually because the sacrifice of others on our behalf, including a living sacrifice, has made it possible as we stand here today because God sent Jesus to die for our sins and wrongs and because young men and women have died in places far away so that we don’t have to over here. Are you grateful for this? I am.
(7)And as we prepare for communion I would suggest to each of us today that one of the ways that we honor both those who have sacrificed for our country and our faith is we make the sacrifice of faith and commitment for those who come after us so that both political freedom (as well as responsibility) and spiritual freedom in Christ (as well as the responsibility that is there) is offered and enjoyed by the generations that are to come. May all who come behind us find us faithful and may we also wait on the Lord and experience the strength and power of the Holy Spirit as we do so. Amen.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘052707slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
