What's in the Waiting - Christmas Message by Eden Jersak

What’s in the Waiting? by Eden Jersak

Introduction

            Do you remember having to wait as a kid for Christmas?  Oh my!  The sheer torture of the endless days and weeks leading up to that most amazing morning with gifts and goodies, and toys and games! As a young child, my brother and I shared a room, and between the two of us, we could hardly bare the time after being tucked into bed on Christmas Eve and waking up on Christmas morning.  I was an early riser anyway, quite often the first one up in the house, even on a school day, but on Christmas, it was impossible to wait until 6:00.

            I would get out of my bed, make my bed (just to cover all the bases), then I would shake my brother awake, just so I had an accomplice, and we would tip toe down the hallway to peak into the livingroom, where the tree was alight, and the presents galore.  I remember one Christmas being amazed at the sheer volume of gifts under the tree.  I thought my mom must have bought gifts for the whole neighbourhood.  I couldn’t wait for everyone to get up and start in on the fun!

            I knew I had to wait, I had to wait for the right time, and for everyone to get up, so I would sit on the couch and watch the lights on the tree, count the presents under the tree, and eat some candies from the brown Christmas bag of peanuts and candy we had received at the Christmas Eve program the night before.

            One Christmas morning, I got up too early, I’m not sure I had actually got out of bed yet, but my brother and I were talking and psyching each other up to go to the livingroom.  I guess it was WAY too early, because my mom came and gave us a spanking and told us to stay in bed.  I learned to tell time after that, and those measures were never needed twice!

“But honestly! Why do we have to wait?”

            Why do we ever have to ask for anything twice?  Why are there line-ups? Why are there traffic jams?  Why do we need appointments?  Why is life on earth just a series of situations that leave us waiting for what we’re longing for?

            What if our world were completely instant?  What would our lives look like?

            Pregnancy would not be 9 months long!  Babies would be born walking, talking, and feeding themselves.  Schooling would be a download, and kids would graduate after kindergarten.  There would be no need for dating and engagements, pull the name out of the hat and head to the altar.  Of course you’d probably be about 15 years old. 

            Cars would be obsolete—they take way too long to get somewhere!  “How much longer?”  Meals would be a pill—can’t wait while a meal is being prepared.  Sleep would be instant and insomnia unheard of.  Answering machines and voicemail?  Instant messaging only!  There would be no age of consent, no legal age for anything!  There would be no illness without an instant, immediate, already administered cure.  No slow painful death, just a quick switch.  There would be no Longing, Waiting, Anticipation, and Expectation.  No need to Tarry, Prevail, Hope, And Trust, to be Patient, or Steadfast.  All of that would be needless.

            What was God thinking when he made this world?  Why is there this strong element of waiting and longing for what is to come?  And it’s not like humans are the only ones subject to it.  God enters into a waiting and longing too.  Why would he choose to do that?

            Let’s look at the story of Simeon in Luke 2.  Here was someone who knew how to wait!

Luke 2

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss [d] your servant in peace. 
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 
 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

I.    The Fullness of Time

            Simeon, also known as “Simeon the God Receiver”, knew all about waiting.  How long he’d been waiting for this day, there’s no record, but he was most definitely acquainted with the state of waiting. 

            In the midst of his waiting, The Spirit was on him, The Spirit revealed things to him, and The Spirit moved him. 

            The state or place of waiting, is not a passive state!  The Spirit is on us as we wait, the Spirit is waiting with us!  The Spirit is revealing things, showing us what we need to see, know, be, recognize.  The Spirit is moving in and around us, positioning us for the fullness of time!

            What has been revealed during our collective time of waiting as the body of Christ?           

            We’ve discovered that trying to keep rules by religious laws, gets us nowhere! And we make laws because we think it’s easier than waiting!  The Law is all about us trying to make something happen, namely working our way into God’s good books, when what we’re longing for comes when we wait in faith for God to complete his promise.

Gal 3 (The Law’s) purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise.

             We want a plan, because if there’s a plan, maybe we won’t have to wait so long.  That’s why we go back to the Law, we think it’s a plan.  But there is a much better plan, and an element in the plan is our needing to wait.  But as we wait we have been supplied with everything we are going to need.

Eph 1  He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.  11-12 It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.  This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us.

As we have waited, we have lived in our freedom, we have experienced Christ’s abundant provision for our lives, we have begun to discover who we are, and what we’re living for.  We have watched his glorious plans worked out in our lives and those around us.  And all of this, gives us the courage to wait for the fulfillment, the summing up of all things in Christ.

II.   We Are Not Diminished!

            Simeon in all his waiting was not lessened, it doesn’t sound like he came into the temple spiritually emaciated.  He came in filled with the Spirit, moved and speaking what the Spirit had revealed.  Waiting doesn’t diminish us, it enlarges us!!  It doesn’t weaken us, in strengthens us!

Eph 3 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.

Col 1 You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted.

* We were small in our sin, in our rebellion.  Our plans were weak and utterly useless.  But in our waiting on the Lord, we have been made whole, complete, and Christ is within us!  If I could be any age, I would be me today!  Because I don’t want to go back to who I was, I want to enjoy who I’ve become, and continue to anticipate who I am yet to be.  The amount of time I have spent waiting for change in my life, has all been worth it, and I’m not done!

Rom 8  All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

*We are experiencing a measure of deliverance all the time, but we still yearn for full deliverance. Waiting is the fertile ground for growth, it’s where we make more room for God,  it’s when we are most tuned into God.  Waiting is when we face him, we look to him, we recognize our weaknesses, and lean on his strength!  It’s when we anticipate what is to come, just like a pregnant mother.

Rom 8  It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

*Which do you think is larger?  Your body with your spirit in it, or your body with God’s Spirit in it?  Which is more powerful to change your life, your will, or God living and breathing in you, doing the same thing in you as he did in Jesus?  What the Father did in Christ, he is doing in us, as we wait, as we enlarge.

III.  The Deepening of Anticipation.

            Simeon, on recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, and receiving Him as the completion of a promise, was filled with an even deeper anticipation.  After all, he was only looking at a baby, only 40 days old, and absolutely nothing had changed for the Jews.  The Romans were still in charge, they were still under the Law, and their culture was crippled by a religious regime.  An yet, Simeon speaks out and says, “My own eyes have seen your salvation; it’s now open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel.”  How could he see that?  How could he know that, except that in his waiting on the Lord, his moving with the Spirit, and his willingness to be led by the Spirit, it was revealed.  He was ready to die with the revelation of Jesus, but Simeon’s expectation had only grown and his anticipation deepened.

            Waiting is an active ingredient in the fulfillment of God’s promises to us.  As we wait, the anticipation of healing and wholeness, of our full deliverance and freedom deepens, matures, and produces fruit in us, that cannot be formed any other way.  That’s because our longing is not coming from ourselves.

Rom 8 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within.

*Joy is meant to grow in this yearning, it is meant to enlarge our expectancy.  And all of this “pregnant expectation” comes from the Spirit of God within us!

*And as our anticipation deepens, so does our relationship with God. 

Roms 8 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"

*If you start asking the Father questions, beware, he is more than willing to share his answers.  And being in a posture of waiting, will actually help with your ability to listen for that answer.

IV.  What we don’t have to wait for!

            There is something that you do not have to wait for.  Even in our waiting, even in our longing, there is something that is immediate for us to experience.

Eph 3  And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

*Christ’s love for us is not a dangling carrot, that alludes us, or has us jumping to try and achieve it.  Christ’s love is for all to be embraced by.  His love is extravagant, His love is a fact, already determined, and already given!  Enjoy his love as you wait, as you anticipate, as you long for the fullness of all things. 

And you can know this too, in your waiting, there is nothing that can rob you of His love!

Rom 8 Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even waiting!

*Christ’s love for us, is now, and nothing can get in the way of it!

Conclusion and Activation:

            So let’s take “wait” off the 4 letter word list!  Can we agree to see waiting as an active ingredient in our faith, instead of a passive state where we read old magazines until our name gets called?  Can we let waiting be that expectant adventure that God meant it to be, where we keep asking him, “What’s next?” instead of “How much longer?”

            Can our waiting be encased in the love of Christ, with the understanding that waiting was never meant to be a form of torture, but a deepening of relationship and understanding of who God is, and who we are in Him?

            Can our waiting allow us to see more than our eyes do?  Instead of a little baby, can we see a Savior, instead of a helpless babe, can we see a Light of Revelation, the Glory of Israel?

            In our waiting, can we allow God’s Spirit, his Holy Spirit, to move us, to be on us, and to reveal His wonderful plans for us and those around us?  Can we look for the fruit that our waiting will produce, those things completely unnecessary when everything is instant.

            In your waiting take courage, be steadfast, prevail, have patience, tarry, trust, stay and hope!  Be enlarged in your waiting.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Helen Roberts]

Thanks Eden for a really inspiring message. I think I've just hit that bit of January when I'm inclined to wobble, and think 'What am I doing with my life? What am I waiting for?' I love what you say about waiting being an active adventure: asking 'What's next?', not 'How much longer?' Thank you for waiting long enough to let God birth this message in you.