Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you feel we live in a world that is to always rushing and individualistic?

Do you feel the

We live in a society that is always in a rush.

People just don’t want to wait for anything anymore.

We have fast food, fast check out lines, Fast internet speeds.

With everything moving along with such speeds it makes it difficult for people to wait.

We have all been there, we walk into Walmart and we are there for a few items and you walk passed the check out and see the lines are going through apparel and you turn around and leave the store.

“I don’t want to wait in that line.”

Waiting is a hard thing to do.

This translates well to the life of the believer also.

You watch the news and see all of the violence around the world that is if you can find a news program that is even provide the truth these days.

Tv shows, commercials all glorify sin and you watch this and think, how much longer do we have to wait Lord.

Waiting as the song goes, “is the hardest part.”

So what do we do when we have to wait.

How do we handle waiting whether it is with fast food, or with something even greater then that, waiting on the Lord’s return.

We are going to see this morning the key to waiting as we take a look at the disciples and what they did when they were told specifically to stay and wait.

Jesus has told His apostles to do on of the most difficult things anyone can do, wait.

They are to wait on the promise from the Father of the coming Holy Spirit.

It is hard to wait on something and it makes it even more difficult when God has promised He will do something without giving a definitive time.

So what do you do when you have to stay and wait.

We don’t receive direct promises like this from God anymore but we do have some in Scripture that may not be direct but are there.

One of them we looked at last week, Jesus’ return.

It will happen.

Another promise is eternal life which will happen while we wait on His Return.

We are also promised peace and joy.

We don’t always see this promises and sometimes it seems as though they will never come right.

We look at this world and we watch the news or pick up the news paper and all we see is politicians being politicians, journalism is dead and everyone wants to excuse sin as being normal and morality as being dead, and antiquated.

Yet we have to live in this world and we have to wait on Jesus’ return and the consummation of all things so how do we do this?

How can we live in a world that is fighting us every step of the way.

Well it is easier said then done but as we look at our text this morning we will learn a very powerful lesson in Patience, We will see we must ‘Patiently Persevere with the Priority of Prayer’

Patiently Persevering with the Priority of Prayer

Let’s look at this lesson as we look at the disciples ‘Waiting of the Promise’ in Acts 1:12-14;

The first element I want us to look at here is the fact that these men ‘Patient for God’s Plan’

Patient for God’s Plan

This is very obvious in verse 12 Luke writes, ‘Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.’

Jesus has ascended to take His throne at the right hand of the Father.

The men in white have told the apostles to stop standing around starring at the sky.

This was a sign for the men to listen and obey Jesus’ instructions, go to Jerusalem and stay and wait.

So here we have these men following Jesus’ instruction, they returned to Jerusalem.

This was not a somber return it was a joyous return.

Remember Luke 24:52-53;

So here we have the account of Luke and after Jesus’ ascension the apostles went happily skipping back to Jerusalem with deep joy in their hearts and a song of praise on their lips.Now as Luke provides this account for us in Acts we even find the distance they were from Jerusalem, it was a Sabbath’s day journey.

This is about two miles.

This is not necessarily prescribed in the Hebrew Scriptures it is one of those laws which was imposed on the Israelites by the religious leaders.

They derive this length from the distance of the farthest tents of the Israelites from the tabernacle while they were wondering in the wilderness for forty years prior to entering the promised land.

In Israelite culture this became a demarcation of a specific distance of about two miles as it is here.

It doesn’t mean Jesus ascended on the Sabbath day it only means this is the distance they walked or as I said before probably with a serious skip in their steps.

So we have these men return to Jerusalem and then Luke tells us where they go and their names.

Look at verse 13, “When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.”

So during the day these men and as we will see in the next verse women also, went to the temple by day to praise and worship God, it was public praise and worship.

Then at night they went to the upper room.

There is debate on whether or not this is the same upper room where Jesus enjoyed the Last Supper with His twelve or another upper room.

In the long run it doesn’t really matter, it really doesn’t even make a difference if it is or not.

It just adds some cool commonalities if it were.

Either way one thing is agreed upon is this is the room were Jesus came and appeared to the disciples after His resurrection.

This is where they are staying at night.

It is a typical ancient Israelite home with a large room on top of a flat roof with a separate set of stairs running up along the outside of the house.

This is were they would eat together and spend the night together.

Luke also makes sure to provide the names of the eleven apostles for us here.

This is the same list Luke provided for us in Luke 6:14-16 but with two minor differences.

First of course is Judas Iscariot’s name is stricken from this record and second is the order of the first three names.

Peter was first in the original list also but after Peter came his brother Andrew who is numbered fourth in this list.

The second name is John and the third is James.

It is believed these three held the most prominence through the Acts letter.

These are the only ones we hear of in the rest of this letter and the reason for placing John as second is because it is believed Peter and John had become very good friends.

They are even together in Acts 3.

So these men are the prominent figures throughout the first half of this letter.

And Luke is sure to name them all.

So here we have these men who have been with Jesus for three and a half years.

They have recieved some very powerful first hand instructions from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords I mean there really isn’t any better school then this.

It is better then any seminary we have today.

So these guys after three and a half years of being at the feet of Jesus are ready to go right.

No they aren’t they have to stay and wait.

They can’t just go out and be Jesus’ witnesses even though they have seen Him heal people, heard His teaching, witnessed His holes in His hands and feet and side.

They need to still wait.

They have to be patient on God’s plan.

They can’t just rush headlong into telling people all that they have seen and heard.

Although they were no longer in hiding they still were not ready to share the gospel, they had to be patient because Jesus even though He told them they would receive power from on High He didn’t say when it was going to come just a range, ‘not many days from now.’

This isn’t a definitive date.

Still they have to stay and wait and they obey Jesus.

They were told to stay and wait and that is exactly what they did.

I am sure it wasn’t easy for these guys to go back.

When we ended the gospel of Luke we said they went back and they were publically praising God.

This couldn’t have been easy for them to do knowing these were the men who killed Jesus.

Who knows they might even had encountered some ridicule and possibly from time to time felt their lives were in danger.

So to go back to Jerusalem and for them to stay and wait was really a big deal.

It demonstrates trust in God and patience in His timing of all things.

These men were being patient.

The psalmist understood what it means to wait on the Lord look at Psalm 40:1-3

See this the Psalmist was going through something very difficult, this psalm is attributed to David so this could be any of the times he was being cased down by Saul or one of his other enemies.

Still, look at how he sees the difficulties he went through he waited on the Lord, patiently or intently.

David had faith God would see him through.

Then there is the prophet Isaiah as he is encouraging the Israelites.

Look at this in Isaiah 40:27-31

Notice what asks them, why do you say, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escaped the notice of my God?”

Many of speak the same way today, oh it seems like God is not there, all these wicked and evil people seem to be getting away with everything.

Well listen to what Isaiah says to them and what in turn Christians can apply to their own lives.

Even when things look tough and it looks like the world is against us, which quite frankly if you know Jesus as Lord and Savior the world is against you, that’s actually a good thing.

We need to patiently wait on the Lord.

It is never easy to be patient especially in the midst of a storm or a difficulty in life.