When Jesus Says Wait Series

WHEN JESUS SAYS WAIT

Acts 1:4-5

(Antioch Baptist Church – Sunday February 9th, 2025)

Some of you may remember the old J.G Wentworth commercials where people who qualified to receive certain structured settlements would yell “It’s my money and I need it now!” If we are honest, there are many times in life when we feel that we are entitled to receive something and we have the mindset that “It is mine and I want it now!”

Concerning your secular life, you may be saying “I deserve a raise and I want it now!”; or “I deserve a promotion and I want it now!”. Maybe you are currently unemployed and you feel like screaming “I need that job and I want it now!”. Others may have a good paying job but there is some material possession that you are desperately craving; as a result you may be saying “I want that car now, or I want that house now”. Some of you young ladies may be saying “I want that engagement ring now!” We all have certain needs, ambitions, and desires and we do not want to wait for them to come to fruition.

Many of us have a similar mindset in our spiritual lives and our service to the Lord. There are things that we want, and even things that we feel that we deserve and sometimes we do not feel like waiting on the Lord to move. We feel as if the Lord owes us something, or maybe we are even convinced that we deserve to experience the blessings of God.

I have no doubt that there are several Christian servants in this assembly today who have been faithful in their service for an extended period of time and you are tired, weary, discouraged, and defeated. You may be at a point where you would give anything just to see some visible fruits from your labor. I have been there and I know what it is like to say “Lord, I need a blessing and I need it now!”

Genesis tells of an occasion when God confronted Jacob and after wrestling with Him until daybreak Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:26) Perhaps you are tempted to demand a certain “blessing” from God. If so, let me remind you that it was God who confronted Jacob. Furthermore, Jacob had to wrestle the Lord all night and when it was over he limped away from the battle and then for the rest of his life. The blessing was received but a Jacob paid a price. Moreover, He did not receive that blessing until the Lord decided that it was time.

Many of us have talents, abilities, desires, and even God given callings. We know the work that needs to be accomplished, and we know how to do it and where it is to be done. These are all essential aspects concerning the work of the ministry. However, there are two more factors that will determine our ministry success. I am referring to the Lord’s perfect timing and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus informed the Apostles about the great work that He would use them to accomplish. He said, “you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (v8). But before this would be accomplished, Jesus “commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me”. Jesus didn’t simply suggest that they wait in Jerusalem, He “commanded them not to depart” and He commanded them to “wait for the Promise of the Father”. Church history would have been much different if these men had not waited on the Lord.

In the future, the miracles that they had seen Jesus perform; they would perform themselves. Through the ministry of the Lord’s Apostles the sick would be healed, demons would be cast out, and the dead would be raised to life. Even greater than these physical miracles was the fact that God used these men to spread the Gospel and advance His Kingdom. However, before these marvelous things would happen, the Lord prescribed a time of waiting. Waiting may not have been easy for the Apostles, but it was necessary.

- I would like for us to examine this period of waiting that the Apostles endured and consider the thought “When Jesus Says Wait”.

These men knew what needed to be done and they had been told where to do it. The followers of Christ had everything they needed to be fruitful in their ministry for the Lord; everything that is, except for receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was essential to the establishment and the growth of Christ’s Church. For this reason, Jesus commanded His people to wait until the Holy Spirit arrived.