A woman's car stalled in traffic. She looked in vain under the hood to identify the cause, while the driver behind her leaned relentlessly on his horn. Finally she had enough. She walked back to his car and offered sweetly, "I don't know what the matter is with my car. But if you want to go look under the hood, I'll be glad to stay here and honk for you." Patience and waiting are becoming rare commodity in the modern world. Waiting is hard to do, especially on the highways. We all learned a lesson or two about patience and waiting during the last year or more since the pandemic hit the world.
In Acts 1, we see that the resurrected Christ appears to the disciples and asks them to wait. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but stay in the city and wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about and until you have been clothed with power from on high.” That is the last place they would want to be due to the events of the previous weeks that ended in the torture and killing of their master, Jesus. The Gospel of Luke finishes in Chapter 24, with the resurrected Jesus appearing to the disciples and explaining them on the promises of the scripture. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised;
Although the author is not named in the book we can gather from external evidences and from inferences of the book itself that Luke was the author. Luke, a physician is considered to be a gentile who had excellent training in Greek, knew the art of rhetoric, had superb research and compositional skills, and was familiar with historic writings of Hellenistic tradition. When Luke recorded the birth of Jesus, the Christ, he was careful to set that in a historical perspective - embedded within the Roman Empire historical account - and now, we find Luke, in recording the Ascension of Jesus, the Christ, doing the same thing - placing this actual awesome event in its proper historical setting.
In a world of microwaves and superfast data communications, waiting is an old fashioned word. We live in a world of frozen dinners, instant coffee, powdered orange juice, instant cameras, express lanes, cell phones, pagers, and beepers. But we all must wait on many things in our daily lives; some of them we like and some we don't like. We don't like the wait in the doctors offices, emergency rooms, traffic, in car pool lines, in airports, in planes for take off, in grocery stores for checking out and in churches for the sermon to be over. Then we have some long waits that we don't mind, like patiently waiting for the graduation day, for honeymoon trip, for a baby to be born, for retirement and the like. Waiting’ is a spiritual virtue designed by God in our lives.
By staying in Jerusalem Jesus forces them to confront their fears. The power of the Holy Spirit came in the form of fire and wind and empowered them to face the future.
By waiting, there is a promise for the future in the making. All great and good promises in life requires a wait. Any mother can tell you that waiting over 9 months to give birth is an experience that builds patience. But for poor mother elephant, it takes about 22 months for an unborn elephant to mature to birth! The shark known as the spiny dogfish has a pregnancy duration of 22-24 months. And at elevations above 4,600 feet, the Alpine salamander endures a gestational period of up to 38 months! Abraham waited 25 years for a son, he was promised. In the Bible we read about Abraham. He had to wait 25 years from the time of the initial promise for Isaac to be born (Gen 17:1,17). Remember, God is busy working in our lives while we are waiting. He works in us to develop the spiritual virtues of humility, kindness, and patience.
We are all waiting for the promise of his second coming. During His ascension to heaven, the angels assured the disciples looking up in deep agony, that the same Jesus you see ascended up to heaven will come again. Just like resurrection is one of the cornerstones of our faith, the hope of His second coming is also the foundation of our faith. We believe in the second coming of Christ from heaven to earth in a visible and glorious way which we constantly wait and pray for. Nobody knows the day or time, but we are asked to be ready always.
Paul calls it the enduring hope and commended the Thessalonians for their faithfulness, citing their “work produced by faith,” “labor prompted by love,” and “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Despite harsh opposition, they left their old ways “to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven” (vv. 9–10).
Jesus Christ is surely coming again. This is not a minor part of the Bible. It is a major part of the Bible. It is not incidental; it is fundamental in the Christian faith. The Bible refers to His coming to this earth more than baptism or communion. You know, baptism is mentioned twenty times in the Bible. And repentance is mentioned seventy times and the new birth is mentioned nine times, but the second coming of Christ is mentioned three hundred eighteen times in the New Testament alone.
Engaged couples often spend hours searching over travel brochures and vacation sites looking for just the right honeymoon spot. They can hardly wait for their romantic getaway. But it’s not so much about the place; it’s about being with the person they love. Just like that, the people of God wait for a reunion with the person they love. The last Book Revelation closes with the prayer: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." Rev 22:20
The waiting on God is waiting with God for receiving power for a greater mission.
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