What to do while waiting?
Notes
Transcript
We have been in an interesting season of time since the middle of March.
We have been doing something that we do every day, but on a larger scale.
It is something that all of us will spend at least an hour doing every day and I mean every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In fact, we will spend 5 years of our lifetime doing nothing but this. It is universally above everything else the one thing everybody hates to do. In fact, there is nothing that we do that is more frustrating, aggravating, irritating and feels like more of a waste of time than doing this.
Can you guess what it is?
It’s waiting. An hour every day we wait on something. We are put on hold, we wait in the doctor’s office, we wait at a red light, we wait at a checkout counter. An hour a day, in 5 years of our life we will spend 6 months of our lives just waiting at a red light. I don't care how patient you are; we all hate to wait. Ask anybody, “What do you like to do for rest and relaxation?” They’ll never tell you, “I just like to wait.” There are a lot of weird people that have a lot of weird hobbies, but nobody makes a hobby out of waiting.
That’s never been more true in the quick fix, real time culture that we live in today. Between the Internet, the computer, the smart phone, and twitter, we’re always in the know and we’re always in the now. We’ll do almost anything and pay almost any price to keep from waiting. (James Merritt)
We’ve been waiting for the state to open back up. We’ve been waiting to be able to go back to work. We’ve been waiting to go out to a restaurant and sit down and enjoy a meal. We’ve been waiting to go to Walmart and buy toilet paper. We’ve been waiting.
Waiting is usually never easy.
The disciples were familiar with waiting.
Some of them were fishermen by trade. They knew what it meant to wait for the right conditions for them to catch fish.
They were all Jews, they had been waiting on the Messiah for years. They had waited for the Messiah to come and restore Israel.
And now Jesus was with them, Jesus the Messiah had come.
After Jesus was crucified and buried, they waited to see what would happen next. They fully expected to be arrested and killed just like Jesus. They waited and heard the knock on the door with Mary and some of the other women telling them that Jesus was alive. It was unbelievable. Peter and John went to see for themselves and found the empty tomb.
The disciples in that upper room waited to see what was next when suddenly Jesus appears in their midst.
So for the next 40 days they spent it with Jesus. Jesus spent those 40 days teaching the apostles.
Jesus spent that time teaching them about God’s kingdom. The kingdom of God should be the focus of our lives if we call ourselves Christians. Recall Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mounty
33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
As a Christian, your first priority is God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. Once you have that right, then all the things that you need will be given to you. You see, once the Lord reigns supremely in your life, you have an entirely new agenda.
Jesus is to have first priority in our life. If we do not give him first place in our life, then we are not giving him anyplace at all.
If we do not give Jesus first place in our lives then we have given no place in our lives and we are not even a Christian.
On that 40th day Jesus tells them to “wait for what the Father had promised.”
Wait some more? He must be crazy. We are tired of waiting.
Sounds like kids doesn’t it? Big kids and little kids do not like to wait. We live in a culture of instant gratification.
When the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff immigrated to the United States he said that the thing he loved the most about this country were the grocery stores. Here’s why he said, “I’ll never forget walking down one of the aisles and seeing powdered milk; just add water and you get milk. Right next to it was powdered orange juice; just add water and you get orange juice. Then I saw baby powder and I thought to myself, “What a country!” (James Merritt)
Do you remember the saying “Good things come to those who wait?” Have you ever used that one? It is sometimes true that good things come to those who wait.
This thing that Jesus is talking about is not a thing, it is the answer from a promise that God the Father promised. Jesus said there in verse 5
5 John baptized with water, but in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
John’s baptism was for repentance. Jesus experience John’s baptism even though he had nothing to repent from. Some of the disciples had undoubtedly experience John’s baptism.
Lord willing, I have some boys that have asked to be baptized and we will do that next Sunday. Water baptism is an outward sign that God has done something within us.
Baptism by the Holy Spirit is entirely different. That was the promise of the Father. Adam Clarke in his commentary wrote:
The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts 4. The Lord’s Promise (1:4b, 5)
Christ baptizes with the Holy Ghost, for the destruction of sin, the illumination of the mind, and the consolation of the heart.… Christ’s baptism established and maintained the kingdom
In Matthew where he describes the preaching of John the Baptist, Matthew records John saying to the pharisees:
You children of snakes.
That was an insult as well as an indication of who he perceived them to be. He goes on in verse 8 to tell them
8 Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.
Repentance should be demonstrated by how we live. John said to “produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.” Repentance should show up in our hearts and lives, meaning internally and externally. You see, John was saying to the Pharisees and the Sadducees who had come that their lives needed to demonstrate their repentance.
I am very troubled by people who claim to be a Christian yet their lives do not demonstrate it. I will state it flat out that if you are calling yourself a Christian but live just like the rest of the world then you are not a Christian and you need to repent and “produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.”
John talks some more about his baptism but then he moves to talk about the one who is coming after him, meaning Jesus and he goes on to say:
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
I stumbled across a passage of Scripture while preparing for today that I know I’ve probably read before but it never stuck with me. Jesus talked about this fire in Luke chapter 12, listen to what Jesus said:
49 “I came to cast fire upon the earth. How I wish that it was already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism I must experience. How I am distressed until it’s completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I have come instead to bring division.
I really appreciate the wording in the Message paraphrase
49 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! 50 I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! 51 Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront!
The baptism that Jesus was speaking about was his suffering and death. That had to happen first. Jesus had to die on the cross and rise again in order to defeat sin and death. Remember those grand words that Paul quoted in his first letter to the Corinthians
55 Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death? 56 Death’s sting is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.) 57 Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Jesus said
49 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now!
For the disciples, that fire is about to start.
The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts 4. The Lord’s Promise (1:4b, 5)
His baptism is now past and He is about to cast Himself upon earth in the unrestrained and unlimited fiery baptism of His disciples by the Holy Spirit.
Are you getting what Luke is writing about? Something really awesome is about to happen. The disciples can not even begin to imagine what is going to happen to them in 10 short days.
An Jesus tells them to wait. He “ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised.”
Jesus was telling them to go back to Jerusalem. The city where Jesus had been arrested and brutally treated and then murdered on a Roman cross.
The coming of the Holy Spirit would take place in that very city where all those horrors had occured. This was the most dangerous place in the world for the disciples to go back to. The city that was the home to God’s temple, the city that rejected God when they crucified Jesus would be the city to first feel that fire from the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
If you were asked to skip the celebration of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, or Pentecost, which one would you choose to skip? Which one of them seems least critical?
Many Christians would say that we have to celebrate the first three. We would say that because of cultural influence. We’ve always celebrated them. Some would say that they could skip Pentecost.
That is the wrong answer because without Pentecost the other three would not be celebrated. Dr. Lloyd Olgilvie wrote:
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 28: Acts The Strategy of the Holy Spirit
Just as the resurrection vindicated Jesus’ death on the Cross, so too His indwelling in His followers gave them the power to believe what He had done and tell the world about it. Actually, there could not have been Good Friday without the advent of Christ we celebrate at Christmas, and Good Friday would have been a meaningless martyrdom without the victory of Easter. But Pentecost engenders the gift of faith by which we can know that Christ’s birth, death, and Resurrection were for us! Christ was not finished when He arose from the dead, or ascended to be glorified with reigning power. He came back to give the greatest gift of all—His own Spirit to live in us
Jesus tells the disciples to remain in Jerusalem, to not leave but to wait. The were to waiting on the promised gift of from the Father, the Holy Spirit of God.
They really were not getting it. They were tired of waiting. It seemed like all they did was wait. They wanted to know about the restoration of Israel.
I really like Jesus response. He basically tells them it is none of their business.
Have you ever thought about the fact that we do not need to know all the answers? There are things that are none of our business. Our mission is to be obedient to what He has called us to do.
Look what Jesus said to them in verse 8 after he had told them its none of your business.
8 Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
They are to wait so that they will receive power. But they had to wait to receive that power.
The word translated power is dúnamis. We get the word dynamite from that. This power that they were to wait for was explosive power. It was the fire that Jesus was going to send down to set the world on fire.
This power would sweep around the world beginning in Jerusalem.
Why do we need this kind of power?
Jesus said in
12 I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. 14 When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.
That is power and it can only happen through that power of the Holy Spirit working through us.
Luke next records that Jesus ascends to heaven. Guess what, he is going to come again just like they saw him go up, he is coming again!
What did the disciples do during this period of waiting?
They prayed.
14 all were united in their devotion to prayer, along with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
They were not united before this. There were some that were in competition with others. There had to have been some bad feelings between some of them. In verse 15 we read that there was about 120 people gathered. Among that crowd had to have been people who were healed by Jesus. Maybe Lazarus was there talking about what it was like to die and come back to life. The woman who was caught in adultery, was she there talking about forgiveness. Was that Samaritan women that Jesus had talked to at the well? I wonder if Nicodemus was there.
The hope and promise that Jesus would return was the one thing that I think brought them together in unity. Jesus told them to wait so they began praying. There was 10 days between Jesus ascending to Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
For 10 days they were united in their devotion to prayer. That word united is used 10 times in the book of Acts and it expresses oneness of heart and mind. They were united.
Disunity will always kill the work of the Holy Spirit. Prayer brings unity. We can’t possible seek God for very long without recognizing the needs of and our relationships with the others we pray with.
What is the one thing that the Church needs most today?
Revival! Revival is needed in the Church, in our church, in your life and my life.
How is that revival going to start?
Prayer
The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Acts United, Persistent Prayer (1:12–14)
The Fulton Street prayer meeting that sparked a revival in America in 1858 began with six people. Within six months there were ten thousand businessmen gathering daily for prayer in New York City, and within two years one million converts were added to the American church (Orr 1953:13). A. T. Pierson said, “There has never been a revival in any country that has not begun in united prayer, and no revival has ever continued beyond the duration of those prayer meetings” (quoted in Orr 1937:47). We must prepare for any fresh outpouring of the Spirit by united, persistent prayer.
What is the least attended service of the Church?
Prayer meeting. Actually it is our Sunday Morning prayer time. Not to make you feel guilty or anything but there are generally 15 or so people in the building at 9:11 when we are fully open. There are generally on 2 here at the altar praying. Where is everyone else?
Why is that? Are we comfortable with where we are? Are we satisfied that our needs are being met?
When the board adopted a our mission and vision we purposefully placed prayer as the top priority.
If we are to experience this Heaven sent gift of the Holy Spirit we need, we must spend time waiting and praying. There is no other way.
If we are going to reach these in our treasure chest of love we have to wait and pray so that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Go back to what Jesus said in John 14.
12 I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. 14 When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.
That is a promise for us today. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are filled with God himself. Of course we will be able to the works that Jesus did. That really is not a promise, it is a statement of fact.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 28: Acts Two Things We Can Do to Be Ready for Pentecost
So often we are reluctant to assume responsibility for our preparation for Pentecost. The Lord wants to bless us with His Spirit. Prayer and reconciled relationships with ourselves and the people of our lives are the place to begin and then begin again and again all through our Christian adventure.
How are you spending your time waiting?
Are you even waiting on God to do something? God forbid!
We are living in a very unique time in history. God has opened all sorts of doors for us beyond the walls of the building. This building as wonderful as it is, is not the church. We are the church.
Won’t you join me in this waiting time, this time of waiting for Jesus to return to begin a new prayer movement with this church?
Won’t you join me in this waiting time to pray for a revival to sweep through our lives and out into the world around us?