God's Waiting Room
I. TEXT: Luke 2:1-38 (NRSV)
KEY VERSES: Luke 2:25-38 (NRSV)
II. Introduction:
Waiting room: a room provided for the use of people waiting to be seen by a doctor or dentist or waiting in a station for a bus or train.
Doctors' waiting rooms are often filled with sick people - -people hoping for an excellent report from the physician about their tests. Poor crying children who would rather be anywhere else. There are all the old magazines on the end tables that you can browse through or the reruns of old soap operas on the small screen. Waiting rooms.
Then there are the private waiting rooms that we sit in waiting to see the doctor after the nurse has taken our vitals and weighed us. These waiting rooms can be cold, and sometimes depending on what they require us to wear there, they can be freezing.
We sit and wait to see the therapist and the attorney. Waiting rooms.
There are also large waiting rooms that we sit in as we wait to enter a flight or even those we stand around before we go in to see a play. There are all kinds of emotions in the airport waiting area. Someone waiting to go on a trip they have saved for for a long time. There may be newlyweds heading on their honeymoon. Others may be heading home from a business trip. Some are anxious about getting on the flight. And yet, no matter what, they have one thing in common, they are in the waiting area. Waiting rooms.
Those who play some online games spend time in waiting areas as other players arrive. We discovered during the pandemic that there are even waiting rooms for our Zoom conference calls.
When you entered this building this morning, you entered the foyer that serves as a kind of waiting room before you entered the sanctuary.
We spend much of our lives waiting on one thing or another. We wait for time to go to work and time to go home from work. We wait for the packages to arrive that we have ordered. We wait for Christmas. We wait for children to be born. Life is filled with waiting rooms. We wait with fear. We wait with joy. We wait with anticipation. We wait with dread. We wait wondering what will be next. We have this in common with everyone around us; we wait...
And God even has a waiting room. God rarely does things on our timeline. As one of my friends often says, "God is never on time, but He is always timely." Always.
The Advent/Christmas season is a season in which we wait. We wait for December 25, when we will celebrate the birth of JESUS by celebrating with one another. It has become popular to read the Gospel of Luke during December because you can read a chapter a day and complete the Gospel the day before Christmas. Luke has 24 chapters. It's not too late to catch up.
As we anticipate Christmas and remember that JESUS is coming again, I want to share a thought with you about God's Waiting Room.
III. Movement 1: Waiters
The first two chapters of Luke are filled with waiters. Not waiters who serve customers at restaurant tables, but those who wait for a time, event, or opportunity. They were waiting on multiple things but found themselves in the same waiting room, God's.
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were waiters. They had waited so long that they had long since given up on the hope that they would have a son. Then one day, as Zechariah was just doing what he was supposed to be doing, he received a heavenly message that, past the time, God was fulfilling His promise. They were going to have a child who would be the forerunner of the Messiah - John the Baptist.
Mary waited as an espoused young virgin. She was waiting on her wedding day. Waiting to become a mother one day. She was just doing what she was supposed to do. Then she received a heavenly announcement that, ahead of time, God was fulfilling His promise. She was going to have a Child before she could through the Power of the HOLY SPIRIT - JESUS CHRIST.
It doesn't matter if the window of opportunity is closed or has never been opened; when we wait on God, HE can do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us!
I'm sure the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night were waiting on their paychecks. They were waiting on the morning, and, like all of Israel, they were waiting on the Messiah to come and set things right. They longed for justice and freedom from the oppression of the Roman government. They were longing for economic wholeness. They were, like David, just taking care of the sheep... Just doing what they were supposed to do, they suddenly received a heavenly message that told them where the Messiah would be born and sent them on a mission to see Him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger!
We can see the truth that good things come to those who wait. But there is more to being a successful waiter than that. Abraham Lincoln said, "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle." When the opportunity arises, and God begins to fulfill His promises to us, we must walk into them.
Mary and Joseph did not understand everything happening as they waited for what God had next, but they continued to walk toward what God had for them. Their obedience to God's leading, whether by the SPIRIT or through the written Word of God, led them into a convergence of people and events in God's Waiting Room that propelled God's purpose for them and the world forward!
God is calling each of us here today to wait upon Him for the fulfillment of His promises and to be among those who walk while we wait.
IV. Movement 2: Who You Meet In the Waiting Room
Our text introduces us to two final waiters waiting in God's waiting room. The only things we know about Simeon and Anna are in Luke 2:25-38.
They were both in Jerusalem at the temple. Luke takes great pains to describe both of them as excellent waiters. Simeon was righteous and devout. Not "self-righteous." He was a person who loved mercy and justice and wanted things to be right for everyone. His relationship with God was a priority. In our present world, he would be among those who go to church consistently because it is a priority. He was the type of person we would want to be on their prayer list. He knew God.
He was among those "looking forward to the consolation of Israel." At the end of our text, Anna almost repeats this when she tells "all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" about the Child JESUS.
Simeon was a person on whom it is said that "the Holy Spirit rested on him." Later, at JESUS's baptism, the HOLY SPIRIT descends upon Him and rests upon Him. JESUS begins His ministry with the words, "The SPIRIT of the Lord is upon me." When we are good waiters as we wait in God's waiting room, God's SPIRIT will hover over our lives until the Word He speaks is fulfilled. There is a blessing in waiting upon the Lord.
Simeon and Anna were both older people who had seen a lot in life. They had lived through Roman governors, changes in high priests, political unrest, and difficult economic moments, but they stayed in God's waiting room! And so God stayed with them.
Don't rush out of where God has you presently because of difficulty. One of the realities of the spiritual life is that some people never grow up Spiritually because they never wait long enough for God to finish what He is doing in their lives. We miss times, seasons, and opportunities when we rush...
The Lord had revealed to Simeon "by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah." He was in God's waiting room.
As the text progresses, Simeon is "guided by the Spirit... into the temple..." This is the third reference in Simeon's life to the SPIRIT. The SPIRIT was upon him. The SPIRIT revealed hidden things to him. And finally, the SPIRIT led him directly into what God had promised.
Mary and Joseph walked into the temple in obedience to the Word of God, bringing "the child Jesus to do for him what was customary under the law." As they do, they bump into Simeon, who the SPIRIT leads to the same moment and place in time. There is a convergence of waiters!
Whether you are just being obedient to what is written or following the SPIRIT's leading, if you remain in God's waiting room, God will lead you to the people He wants to bless through you and who He wants to bless you!
God was orchestrating the lives of the waiters! He is orchestrating your life and wants to make connections in your life that you may not realize.
V. Movement 3: How You Encourage in the Waiting Room
"Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
When we show up where God sends us and wait, we will realize that there are some other waiters there, too, and God intends to bless us all through one another.
Simeon, like others in Luke-Acts is inspired by the SPIRIT and offers a prophetic utterance! His words are a prayer that looks back at what God said to him when he entered the waiting room of life, a release from the burden of waiting anymore, a present thanksgiving for the way God has kept his promise, and a forward look to what God is going to do.
When we are in God's waiting room long enough, we can see in multiple directions. When we do see the promise fulfilled, everything else begins to make sense!
Simeon uses Master-servant language. He knows who the Boss is in His life. Oh, one of the greatest characteristics of all the waiters in the Gospel of Luke is they recognize the Lordship of their God! We can wait because He gives us strength! The joy of the LORD is our strength! I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength! They that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint! When we wait on the LORD we are moving toward a convergence of His Will and purpose. Sometimes we are flying! Sometimes we are running! Sometimes we walk!
Oh, we may be crawling! Or, having done all to stand, we stand in the strength of the Lord and the power of His might! Lord, we are waiting on you!
We wait for you in the middle of shifts and changes in world governments! We wait on you as the economy changes and health issues arise! We are waiting on You...
We believe we will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!
God will keep you as you wait, and when the time comes, there will be a transfer. Simeon is not necessarily saying that he is about to die. He just knows that the vigil of waiting for the Messiah is over. He has been faithful!
He sees God's purpose in welcoming nations other than Israel into the kingdom. When we wait in the way God intends for us to, our fellowship table gets bigger. It is a glory to you when you can welcome others into the Presence of God! God never meant it to be "us-four-and-no-more." His kingdom table is big enough for all!
"And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them (words of encouragement and prophetic grace) and said to his mother, Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Simeon has a blessing for the other waiters. When you wait, you can bless others. Mary and Joseph had a long road ahead of them. Sometimes the road of obedience to God will take us into some difficult areas that we did not anticipate. Simeon says, "No worries, I got you!" As they stand there with their mouths open in awe, Simeon invites them into the waiting room!
He tells them that the Messiah's life may not look like they anticipated it looking, but wait on God.
Everything may not play out like you think, but wait on God.
Some people are going to be offended when JESUS grows up and starts welcoming sinners to the table of the kingdom but wait on God.
Mary, you will one day witness the pangs of biological separation as JESUS gives His life to the work of the kingdom and one day He will be crucified and die on a Roman cross, but wait on God!
When you wait on God, the story never ends! There is always another chapter and another page! Wait on God. There may be a death, but there will be a resurrection!
"There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child..."
There were more people in the waiting room than Luke even tells us about; Anna, probably about 105 years old, had been praying and fasting for years in the temple. She was one of those church mothers who you want to be on their prayer list. OHHHH, just a few days ago, I had someone call me to say that I know knows how to pray, and she mothered me a little bit. It's going to be okay. Anna walks around in the temple after seeing JESUS and tells "all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" He is here. It's going to be alright.
I want to tell somebody here this morning that JESUS has just entered the waiting room, and we showed up together today, whether by the SPIRIT or by just plain ole' obedience to the admonition of the Bible to go to church.
For somebody today, the wait is over. God is about to come through with the answer! For someone else here today, God wants you to know that He is waiting with you, and He does not want you to be weary in well-doing, for in due time, you will reap if you faint not!
We are all waiting in one way or another, but we are here together, and JESUS is in the middle!
VI. Conclusion:
Proverbs 13:12 (HCSB) "Delayed hope makes the heart sick, but fulfilled desire is a tree of life."
Let's worship while we wait! JESUS is coming!
