James 5:7-12
Patiently waiting for Christ’s Return
What are you going to do when Spring finally comes? – tell your neighbour
What are you going to do when Christ finally comes? – tell your neighbour
Revelation 21
The New Jerusalem
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To those who are thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who overcome will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. …
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Sound good?
There are times that we can get impatient for this time of the true new world order.
As we watch the news and see the build up for war in Iraq, an think that more problems may be caused by this war than are solved, as we watch the escalating troubles in Israel, as we see millions dying in the AIDS crisis in Africa, as we read about violence on our own streets, and immorality in the media, there can be a longing for the day when Christ will return, and the trumpet will sound and all will be made right.
There are times when we ache for Jesus to return and give us the new world the way that it was designed to be, where there is no need for guns, and weapons of mass destruction, where there is no need for pharmaceuticals because there are no diseases to cure.
Often times we get impatient for ourselves – as our bodies breakdown, as disease takes over, as we watch a loved one suffer because of disease or disability, the idea of having a new body right now sounds awfully good.
As we see our own shortcomings, our struggle with sin, our inability to get over past hurts, our inability to show the grace of God to the extent that we would like, we get impatient and want Jesus to return right now and transform us into the people that we should be! It may not be peace in the middle east that we are so concerned about as much as peace in our home or in our place of work, or even in our own minds.
Our desire for the immediate return of Christ can be the Christian equivalent of “stop the world, I want to get off!”
As we earnestly desire to see Christ’s return, James writes to us…
7Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
12Above all, my brothers, do not swear--not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.
Last week we looked at how we are to involve God with all our decisions and ethics in work and business. The second paragraph that we looked at (5:1-6) was a prophetic rant against those wealthy people who abused their workers, didn’t pay them on time or enough, but instead massed up wealth for themselves. In this section that we look at today, it would appear that the people that James is writing to are not the wealthy oppressors, but the poor Christians that they are oppressing. The Christians that James wrote to were not the middle class Christians who read it now in North America, but the poor, and oppressed.
Like most poor and oppressed Christians, these people were desperate for rescue from their situation by the return of Christ to lead them into Heaven. You can see this same hope in many of the songs that Black slaves sang in America – death seemed much better than their life, and Heaven was far better. We might not be in the same situation as the 1st century Christians that James was writing to, or the slaves that sang of pie in the sky by and by, but we too can be desperate for Christ’s return, or at least the coming of the Kingdom – that if he didn’t come in the flesh, that he would at least send his Spirit to come ands fix the situation – to fix our brothers and sisters, to fix us!
James says “be patient”
He gives three examples that we should follow:
The Farmer
See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.
In a day and age when we can buy almost any vegetable or fruit in the market regardless of the season – the most we have to be patient for is the succulent good Ontario Strawberries instead of the styrofoam imported ones – we might not grab the idea of patiently waiting for the harvest – when you still have to eat last year’s crop as you wait for this rears even in the warm weather.
The point is that the harvest will come – except for calamity, the rains will come, and there will be a harvest to rejoice in. When we know, as the farmer does that there will be an end to the difficulties that we endure there will come a day when we will see him face to face and there will be peace, the waiting is meaningful, not useless.
Paul writes it this way in Romans 8, he uses the image of pregnancy instead of harvest:
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[9] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
All of creation groans in anticipation for the redemption that encompasses all of creation – with much deeper groanings than even Canadians groaning for spring, and we groan inwardly for the time when we will be made perfect, when we will no longer do things we hate, when our closest people no longer do things, that bring a yearning for a better way. Even Jesus groaned about the people he taught:
"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? - Mark 9:19
We, like the farmer, need to remember that our hope is sure – that Christ will come, and all will be whole once again, that God will not leave us as we are, but as Paul says to the Philippians, “(I am) confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”
The Prophet
Very few of the prophets in the Old Testament lived to see the end of their prophesies. If they did it was usually the difficult prophesies. But things like the coming of the Messiah, they had to wait for.
Peter writes in 1 Peter 1
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Jesus says to his disciples, Matthew 13:17
For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
I remember as we studied Isaiah in Seminary, and wondered why, in the same chapter, Isaiah would speak of things that would happen in his lifetime, then things that would not happen for hundreds of years, and then things that have still not happened. Our professor explained that God seemed to show Isaiah and the other prophets a vision of the future by showing them the tops of the mountains, so they would see the peaks without knowing how long the valleys would be.
In the midst of all this hope differed, most, if not all of them experienced terrible persecution – they were hated for the words the brought.
Matthew 5
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 23:37
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing
We must see them as examples – people who suffered for the hope that they had, but patiently waited to see it come, even through suffering. The prophets were able to endure suffering, persecution and ridicule because they had an eternal view. No matter what the king wanted to do to them, they knew what God was going to do – that in the end, God would prevail, and the words that they had spoken would come to be. It was what gave them the power to continue on.
We might experience what they experienced on a smaller, personal level. Graham Cooke talks about how often if we receive a personal prophesy about the great things that God is going in us and through us, instead of great victory, the first thing we experience is trials. Graham says it is like God gives us this word and sets us on cloud nine, and then he ties us up throws us in a dark room and beats us up! The first thing we think is “false prophet!” But what Graham says is that God shows us the mountain that he is going to take us to, but we can’t get there from where we are – we have to go down into the valley first, and then we get on top of the mountain. We have to trust in the word of God, not in the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
A young man, a Christian, went to an older believer to ask for prayer. "Will you please pray that I may be more patient?" he asked. The aged saint agreed. They knelt together and the man began to pray, "Lord, send this young man tribulation in the morning; send this young man tribulation in the afternoon; send this young man...." At that point the young Christian blurted out, "No, no, I didn’t ask you to pray for tribulation. I wanted you to pray for patience." "Ah," responded the wise Christian, "it’s through tribulation that we learn patience."
Contributed by: Phil Mellar
Job
If we think that we’ve got it bad – Job got caught in the midst of a spiritual battle that he didn’t even know was going on.
Job was a righteous man who had been greatly blessed by God with earthly possessions and family. Within days, the Lord allowed Satan to take it all away from him including his health. Job’s wife continually calls on him to curse God and die. But Job, even though he speaks out his anger with God, never curses God and turns his back on him.
I have known people for whom the spiritual battle is extremely intense – when temptation to say “I can’t take it anymore!” and when going back to the old way of life looks like a holiday in comparison with what they are going through is so strong that they do give up and give up their faith.
Even Mother Teresa said, “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
James says that we need to take Job as an example, even when things we so bad that most of us would have gladly done as his wife said and cursed God and died, even though he never really understood why he went through what he did, he never turned his back on God.
Don’t grumble
Verse 9 reminds us that not only should we not turn against God in our trials and in our waiting for the coming kingdom, we should also not turn against those who are closest to us.
9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
It is easy to do, isn’t it. Life is going bad, we are feeling the groaning for the redemption of all things, we are frustrated in the wait – we hope that our boss is the first to be redeemed, or worse, but since there is nothing that we can do about it, we take it out on our wives, kids, brothers and sisters, our church, our pastor…
It might even be their unredeemed behavior that we are frustrated with.
In the same way that we need to have an Eternal vision, to endure through what ever we are going through – just as the prophets did, we also need to take an eternal vision on those we are closest to.
- When we were teenagers and upset about something or other, my Dad (A wise man) would always ask, “What will it mater in 10 years?” We need to ask the same question when we are tempted to grumble about our brothers and sisters in the midst of the wait, we need to also ask, “What will it matter when Christ returns?”
Active waiting
We need to persevere in our waiting for the Kingdom to come – whether it is Christ’s ultimate return, or just a bit of heaven touching down in the form of healing, victory over sin, justice given, or redemption found. But we also need to remember that the wait is not a passive one.
Jesus says in Mark 13:32-37
32"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Be on guard! Be alert[6] ! You do not know when that time will come. 34It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37What I say to you, I say to everyone: ’Watch!’ "
We are to be actively seeking the Kingdom, not just waiting for it to show up. James Thwaites, who I have been learning a great deal from, and who will be speaking at the Church Shift conference in May writes this story in one of his books:
I spoke with a lady who held quite a high position in a transnational corporation, asking her what she thought would turn her workplace around for God. Her response was fairly common for someone in her particular tradition.
She said that it is only as we set a platform for worship, via our holiness and devotion to purity, prayer and praise that the manifest presence of God would come into the world. When this happens supernatural displays of power and healing would become a commonplace occurrence in response to the prayers of Christians. Then the world would be convinced of the reality of the Jesus we preach and people would flood into the church. The challenge for this lady is that she had spent the last fifteen to twenty years of her life waiting for that event to occur. Meanwhile all of life, work and creation were and are before her. She was of course doing much good, taking opportunity as it arose. However, imagine how much more could arise if she knew that the work before her was the beating heart of the divine purpose? Will she spend another fifteen years waiting for reality to come from the realm that her church and its ministries have special access to, or will she draw up the well of good and Spirit-filled desire within and be the church as fullness in the spheres of creation she daily engages? This is far from an academic question. It is a matter of one person’s entire life.
Far too many lives have gone into a holding pattern, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come and accomplish the divine purpose. When in his mercy God does move in a season of refreshing or even revival, immediately the church culture grasps onto the move for dear life, attaches it to its local church programme and tries to ride it towards what it sees as the finale of God’s purposes for the ages. In a few years the water runs out and the fires burn low. When this happens, rather than rethinking their strategy and structure, church leaders and their followers again return to another build-up phase. They return to more of the Word, more holiness, more giving, more worship, more hoping that God will turn up and do what we as saints have been trained and taught not to do. In this holding pattern the very things given by God to empower us, now dislodged from their creation purpose and attached to the agenda of the local church, progressively lose their identity and power in the life of the image bearer. The platonic agenda works to ensure that the people of God are made passive and rendered dependent on the very things that were given to empower them for life. The ramifications of this outcome are many and varied. It impacts adversely on saints, creation, angels and the gathering. Let’s now look at the kind of church construct that the divided life gives rise to.
We must actively seek the kingdom in all aspects of our live, and not just wait around for it to come!
Conclusion
Do you ache for the kingdom to come some days – do you find yourself saying “there has got to be a better way!” There is – and it is coming – the day when the fight is over and we live in victory, health and peace. But it is not here yet.
For now, we are called to wait patiently, knowing that God is in control, and he will have his day – his eternity!
For now we are called to wait actively – actively seek that which we desire – the coming of the kingdom, in our lives, and in the world.
