Today is the first Sunday in the season of the Christian year called Advent. The word "Advent" simply means arrival, or coming, and so during the next four weeks we will be celebrating the arrival of Christ. During Advent, we look back at the time when God became an infant child, born in a stable in Bethlehem, the son of Mary and Joseph. Complete deity and full humanity, combined in one person, Jesus. Actually, we’re both celebrating and anticipating. Because Advent is also a time to look forward, to the second coming of Christ. That future day when those who have followed Christ will be united with Him, never again to be separated. The day when our transformation will be complete, and we will become like Christ, immortal and without sin. The day when all of our hopes and dreams will finally be realized, all of our deepest longings fulfilled. And so Advent is not only a time of remembrance, but a time of hope and promise. It reminds us that, just as the Scriptures foretold the first coming of Christ, they also proclaim that He will return a second time. And that day will be wonderful beyond imagining. In the words of Jesus himself:
"There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am." "Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again." – John 14:2-3, 28, NLT
Words cannot fully convey what will happen on that day, when God’s glory and power and holiness will be revealed. But we know that we will be radically changed. As Paul tells us,
". . . We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. " – 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, NLT
And so that’s what we’re celebrating today. Not only the first coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, but also his return. The two are inseparably linked, because both have the same purpose – redeeming God’s people from sin and death. And that purpose will surely be accomplished.
This morning, however, I want to focus, not on the fulfillment of God’s promises, but on the time between promise and fulfillment – otherwise known as "waiting". When you think about it, there has to be a delay between promise and fulfillment. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a promise; there would simply be an announcement – "Here it is!" Every promise implies a fulfillment, sometime in the future. Now, we all like promises; but we don’t always like the wait. And so my goal this morning is to examine this pattern of promise and fulfillment in God’s dealings with His people, so that when we do find ourselves waiting on God, we can respond in a way that pleases Him.
The first thing to realize is that, throughout history, God’s people have spent a lot of time waiting. In fact, this is the rule rather than the exception. There is usually a gap between the time God says He will do something and the time He actually does it. For example, the first advent was prophesied by Isaiah, seven centuries before Christ’s birth.
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." – Isaiah 7:14, KJV
Going back even further, the arrival of Christ was predicted in ancient times by David, and by Moses. The promise of a victorious Savior even goes back to the third chapter of Genesis, when God told Adam and Eve that one of their offspring would someday "bruise the head" of the serpent, Satan. And so, from the very beginning, God’s people have looked forward with eager anticipation to the coming of the Son of God; every morning hoping that this would be the day of His arrival. Yet, the world had to wait thousands of years for Christ to be born. As the author of Hebrews reminds us:
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance." – Hebrews 11:13, NLT
In other words, generation after generation was born, lived, and died, each generation hoping that they would be the ones to see the arrival of the Messiah. But none of them did. Until finally, the day came when Mary and Joseph brought their newborn child into the temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord. And when that happened, the Scriptures tell us, someone was waiting:
". . . there was a man named Simeon who lived in Jerusalem. He was a righteous man and very devout. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he eagerly expected the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah . . . So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, "Lord, now I can die in peace! As you promised me, I have seen the Savior you have given to all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!" – Luke 2:25-32, NLT
Consider also Christ’s second coming. It’s been two thousand years so far, and he hasn’t returned. It’s been so long that many people scoff at the idea that he’s coming back. As Peter predicted,
"They will say, "Where is this ’coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." – 2 Peter 3:4
Since the first century – ever since the time of Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heaven – millions of Christians have been eagerly anticipating his return. But so far, he hasn’t come. And apparently, God is fine with that. The long gap between promise and fulfillment doesn’t bother him in the least. Why? Because the waiting isn’t an interruption in His plan. It’s a part of his plan.
Let’s take another example. Do you know how long the ancient Israelites were slaves in Egypt, before Moses led them out? Four hundred years. Four hundred years of abuse and suffering. God promised that he would set them free. But they had to wait four centuries for that time of liberation to come. Do you think they ever wondered if God was going to do what He said?
I could cite dozens of examples. God told Abraham that he would give him a son, but Isaac wasn’t born until fourteen years later. "Good news, Abraham! Good news, Sarah! You thought you would never have children. You thought you were too old. But I am going to give you a son in your old age!" How they must have rejoiced! They probably called their friends to tell them the joyous news. “God has promised to give us a son!” But the next month, nothing happened. And nothing happened the month after that, or the month after that. And so they waited. And waited. And waited. And as the months passed and the years rolled by, and still no baby, I wonder – what must have been going through their minds? Doubts? Fears? Wondering if perhaps God had forgotten His promise?
Now, I don’t know why it was necessary that Abraham and Sarah wait fourteen years for a son. I don’t know why the Israelites had to wait four hundred years for their freedom, or why Christ hasn’t returned yet. My point is just that, according to the consistent witness of the Scriptures, waiting is a basic component of the life of faith. We see it over and over in God’s dealings with his people. It’s not something unusual or out of the ordinary. And although we may not like it, it’s not a bad thing. It’s how our wise, and good, and loving Father works with us to accomplish His purposes in our lives.
Having said that, I want us to remember a couple of things about God. First, from God’s perspective, there is no “delay”. There is no wait. Nothing hinders Him from acting whenever and however he pleases. Nothing holds Him back. He doesn’t get behind. He doesn’t act slowly – or quickly, for that matter. He simply acts, at exactly the right time, because He is soverign. As Peter states,
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness." – 2 Peter 3:9, NIV
And so, when God seems to delay in answering our prayers, or in coming to our assistance, or in fulfilling his promises, it isn’t because he is unwilling or unable to help us. It’s not because he’s being delayed, or slowed down for some reason. It’s simply because the time isn’t yet right. And God, in His wisdom, is the one who knows best when the time is right. For example, Paul tells us that,
". . . at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." – Romans 5:6, NIV
God always acts "at just the right time." No sooner, and no later. It may not always seem like the right time to us – usually, we would like God to work more quickly than he does – but it always is the right time. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we have these kernels of wisdom:
"There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild.
A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak up.
A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace." – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a time for everything. There was a time for Christ to be born, a time for him to be killed, a time for him to be raised from the dead; and there will a time for Him to return. In our lives, there will be times of grief and loss, as well as laughter and joy. And God knows, better than we do, when each of those things needs to come. The question for us is: will we trust in his wisdom, and his love, and his timing?
The second thing to remember is that God is always active. He is continually working to carry out his plans and purposes. As Jesus said, ". . . ’My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’" – John 5:17 (NIV)
And so, if God isn’t acting in your life as quickly as you would like, it’s not because he’s on vacation, or taking a break. He is always at work, even if you can’t sense it. He is working right now to accomplish his purposes, even if you can’t see any evidence of it. God is active in your life, right now, in ways you don’t understand. You may be waiting, but God is not. What feels like waiting to you is just God acting in ways you don’t perceive.
But even if we understand and believe these things, waiting is still very difficult. I’m not minimizing that, at all. I understand all too well how hard it can be to wait. Personally, I like to be in control of my environment. I don’t like it when I’m in a situation that’s painful, or stressful, or confusing, or threatening, and I can’t see the way through. Can’t come up with a plan. Don’t know how it’s going to end, or even if it’s going to end. None of us enjoys that. And I understand that what we’re talking about here are basic, gut issues. Things like a wife wanting desperately for her husband to come to faith, longing to see a change in his heart, and yet watching him push God away, time after time. Or desiring intensely that your financial situation would improve, doing everything you can think of to get your head above water, and yet still struggling to pay the bills. Being stuck in a job you hate, year after year. Wanting to be married, to find someone you can share your life with. Dealing with medical problems that have no foreseeable end. Wanting God to root out the sin in your life, but feeling that the progress you’re making is agonizingly slow. And just when you think you have things pretty together spiritually, you stumble and fall and have to start all over again. You can fill in the blank. It’s hard to be patient and trust in God’s timing. You know it, and I know it.
All right. So what do we do? Well, I know what we want to do. What we want to do is take matters into our own hands. That’s the temptation. Just do something, anything, to change the situation. To relieve our suffering. To obtain what we desire. But be careful. Because change is not always good, especially when it comes out of desperation or self-will instead of faith. Consider this example from the Old Testament. I spoke earlier of the Israelite’s long wait for freedom. Well, now it’s happened. They’ve made it out of Egypt. They’re on their way to the Promised Land. And as they’re traveling, God invites Moses to come up on the mountain for a private conference.
"So Moses and his assistant Joshua climbed up the mountain of God. Moses told the other leaders, "Stay here and wait for us until we come back. If there are any problems while I am gone, consult with Aaron and Hur, who are here with you." – Exodus 24:13-14, NLT
So far, so good. But – Moses didn’t tell the people how long he would be gone, because he didn’t know. All he said was, “wait for us until we come back.” And so, as the days and weeks go by, and Moses doesn’t return, the people start to get worried. Their leader, their prophet, their only connection with God, has disappeared! What could have happened to him? They begin to think – maybe Moses and Joshua are dead. Maybe God has abandoned us. Maybe we’re on our own now. Scary thought. They’re stuck out in the wilderness. They can’t go back to Egypt. They can’t stay where they are; they have no food or water, or pasture for their livestock. And they are surrounded by hostile nations in every direction. In effect, this is a group of several million homeless people. As far as they can see, they have no leader, no God, and no home. They’re worried, confused, afraid. They have to do something! They need a god to follow; a god to protect them and provide for them. And so they go to the second in command, Aaron, and they ask him to make them a new god.
"When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. This man Moses, who brought us here from Egypt, has disappeared. We don’t know what has happened to him." – Exodus 32:1, NLT
Incredibly, Aaron agrees to their plan. Not exactly a profile in courage. The people bring him their gold, and he makes an idol for them to worship, the famous "golden calf". Big mistake. Up on the mountain, God sees what’s going on, and He is not pleased. His first reaction is simply to wipe them all out and start over. “Stand aside, Moses, I’m going to kill them all.” Only when Moses intercedes for them, and begs for their lives, does God relent. But there are still some serious consequences. When Moses returns to the camp, he orders three thousand of the people executed, and then God strikes them with a plague for good measure.
What was the problem here? Simply that, over time, the people lost confidence in God’s goodness, and His wisdom, and His love. They failed to persevere in faith. When they could no longer see clear evidence of God’s presence, they began to doubt His promise. Now, why do you think that story is in the Bible? So that we can read it, and feel superior, and shake our heads at how foolish those ancient Israelites were? No. Just the opposite. God put this story in the Bible as a warning to us, because you and I are going to be tempted to do the very same thing. Oh, we all start out well. Just like they started well. We’re trusting in God; we’re holding onto His promises, we’re walking by faith. But as time goes on, and the situation we’re struggling with doesn’t improve, our faith falters. We get tired. Waiting is hard. Life is hard. We get weary and discouraged. And eventually, we discover something unexpected; that there is an implicit time limit to our faith. All along, we had a preconceived idea in the back of our minds, of how long we were expecting to wait on God.
Now, you don’t know in advance what your time limit is. In fact, you probably don’t even realize it’s there. But when you hit that limit, when you start to feel that “something should have changed by now,” when you’re beginning to think that "if God was going to do something, He certainly would have done it by this time" – that’s when the real test of faith comes. Not at first, when you’re just starting to deal with the issue, but after some time has passed. And then you’re faced with a very difficult choice – keep trusting, keep believing, keep persevering in faith, or bail out. Perhaps that’s where some of you are right now. You’ve been believing that God is at work in your life; believing that God has a good plan for your life; believing that everything you’re going through has a purpose. You’ve been waiting patiently for God to act. But now it’s been a long time, longer than you expected, longer than you were prepared for. And you’re tempted to give up. Not that you would renounce the faith, or deny Christ. But the temptation is there to stop believing in God’s goodness, and His wisdom, and His love. Or at least, to stop relying on them, and to start relying on something else instead.
If you yield to the temptation to give up, if you allow yourself to think that God has abandoned you, that He doesn’t care about you, that He doesn’t know what He’s doing, then here’s what will happen. You’ll take things into your own hands, just like the Israelites did. You’ll take shortcuts; do things you know you shouldn’t be doing. And you’ll find a way to rationalize it: “Yes, I know God said . . . but God isn’t doing anything, and I can’t wait any longer, so now I have to do it my way.” If you do that, you may get the results you want in the short term. Things may seem to change for the better. After all, the Israelites got the golden calf they wanted, and for a while everything was great. The Bible says that they, quote, "celebrated with feasting and drinking, and indulged themselves in pagan revelry." "Woo-hoo! Party time! This shiny new god of ours is going to lead us to the promised land!" But their rejoicing was short-lived. Instead of salvation, their disobedience brought death. Why? Not because they were fearful, but because they listened to their fear, and let it direct them. Instead of remembering God’s promises, they allowed their fear to lead them into idolatry.
How do we keep from doing the same thing? By remembering that God is there, and that He is working, even if we can’t see it. By trusting that His knowledge and wisdom are greater than ours. And also by understanding that waiting time is not wasted time. It’s not just “filler,” just empty pages in the story of our life. On the contrary, it has value and purpose. God will use it in our lives, if we cooperate, to build us up spiritually and transform our character. He will use it to draw us close to Himself. And that’s what will bring us the greatest joy and satisfaction in the long run.
You see, one of the primary reasons God makes us wait is to expose the idols in our hearts. An idol is anything we think we can’t be happy without. Aything, other than God, that we feel we must have in order for our life to be meaningful and fulfilling. Now, the insidious thing about idols is that they are usually well-hidden, well disguised. They conceal themselves in the nooks and crannies of our heart. But waiting is a very effective idol-exposer. Here’s how it works. Let’s say that your idol is an idealized view of a happy home. Now, there’s nothing wrong with desiring domestic bliss. As long as we don’t view it as an entitlement, or as something that God owes us. As long as we are willing not to have it. But if we feel that we must have a happy marriage and family; that we cannot be content without them, then we have made those things into an idol. And waiting exposes that idol. Why? Because even if things aren’t going so well at home, we can tell ourselves that change is coming. "Someday, my circumstances will change. It’s only a matter of time before God works in my husband’s heart, or my wife’s heart, and then I’ll have the happy home I long for." But as more and more time passes, and things don’t change, it becomes more and more difficult to hold onto that confidence. And eventually, after enough time has passed, you are forced to acknowledge the possibility that you will never have what you desire. And that’s when the idol suddenly rears its ugly head, producing anger, and bitterness, and despair. Up to that point, you were able to be content, you were able to trust in God – as long as you could persuade yourself that your desire would someday be met. But the passing of time chips away at that false confidence, until finally, you have to confront the idol directly. You have to answer the question: What if this desire is never met? Am I willing to trust and follow Christ then? Or will I abandon my faith in order to get what I want? In other words, is my devotion and obedience to God conditional on Him delivering what I want; if not right away, then at least someday? If your faith is conditional, then whatever it’s conditional on is an idol. And time spent waiting will bring it to the surface.
So how can we grow and mature through thimes of waiting, instead of allowing them to undermine our faith and turn us aside from the path? By asking God to teach us contentment. Paul said, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11, NIV) And who did he learn it from? God. It didn’t come from within himself, because patience is not natural. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. If you want your time of waiting to be spiritually profitable, you must seek patience and contentment from God. If you do that, then you will be able to say with the Psalmist:
"I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. – Psalm 40:1-3a
Let God use your time of waiting to expose and destroy your idols. So that you can know Him, and enjoy Him, and receive all that He has for you. When that happens, you may come to realize that, all the time when you thought you were waiting on God, He was really waiting on you.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
