Waiting: Christ Will Come into the World

We are entering into the Advent season. Advent celebrates Christ’s entrance into the world.

It is the reminder that God had to come close. That God entered into our darkness. That He entered into our mess.

Over the next few weeks we will look at some of the proclamations of the Advent

story

is different than an announcement. An announcement says that something will happen. A proclamation says that things will be different because something has happened so in Christ is proclaimed in the world. It is not just to say that something has happened, it is to say that everything is now different because that thing has happened

Where we hear the Scriptures announcing that God will come near.

And that when God comes near, things start to happen.

Advent is the continual reminder that Christ came to us. We did not have to find

Him. He found us.

When I was a kid I caddied on the weekends. I would go to a nearby fancy country

club and I would carry member’s golf bags for $20 for four hours. For a 12 year old kid

in the 90s it was pretty great.

It took most of the morning and we weren’t assured that there was going to be

work. We only worked if there were enough golfers who wanted caddies. The drive

was about 30 minutes from my house and so my dad would drop me off in the morn-

ing and then it wasn’t certain when he would have to pick me up. It could be 11, noon,

1pm. Because he wasn’t sure, and because it was the days before cell phones we set

up a plan. When I was done I would call collect. I went to the payphone and I dialed

his number collect. And there is a certain point in calling collect where you have to

record saying your name. Instead of saying my name I would say, Dad pick me up! So

he would hear, will you accept a call from Dad pick me up!

And that is how he knew when to come.

But that started the clock on waiting. I can’t tell you how many times I just had to

sit there and wait. Every weekend I collect called and waited.

And it was hard work waiting. I was tired and hungry and all I wanted to do was go

home. But I couldn’t. Because I was entirely dependent on my dad. He had to show up before anything could happen.

and well, we sometimes feel like we wait in that mess, not always knowing what to do, we are reminded that we are entirely dependent upon God to do anything about our situation.

This morning we are going to look at an OT text in the prophet Isaiah. This may be a familiar text. It is one of the primary advent texts where we see a picture of a Savior coming into the world.

It is a prophecy, a forth telling of what the Messiah would be like.

They didn’t know who or what or when.

they needed something different

They just knew that they were in darkness. They were waiting. They were tired,

they were warring, they were a mangled heap. And their solutions were not working.

They were waiting but they forgot what it meant to wait.

We live in a world set in darkness. And if we forget how to wait, if we forget who is coming and who has already entered into our lives, it is easy to let darkness mask over us.

But Hope has been created. We are reminded that Christ has come and will come again. And we need to be reminded of what changes when Christ shows up. Advent shows us that we are waiting but that we are waiting for something. The challenge for use this season is to be reminded that there is something greater we are waiting for.

That is why Christmas is important. It is the reminder that there is always light. That we have “seen a great light.”

We will be reminded this morning that we still are called to wait. But this time we

know who is coming. We know what He has done. We still wait, but not in darkness.

We wait in the light.

We are going to look at two things waiting does and then why waiting is a posture for the Christian to witness to what God has proclaimed.

Waiting is unfinished.

As long as we are waiting we are unfinished.

Isaiah 9:2–3 ESV

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

In the text this morning

There is darkness and deep darkness

There is the yoke of burden

And the rod of an oppressor

There is a tramping warrior in battle tumult

And garments in blood used for fuel

This is part of the text. The passage relates what is happening in the moment. This

is the context of judgment. It is the allowance of the consequence of not following

God in the world. Nations rush in, it is all war and bloodshed.

This darkness and this judgment is a reality, but its s not the only reality. You see

another reality poking its head in through the understanding of the prophet.

There is light in darkness

There is joy in the burden

Because someone would be coming who would fulfill all hope.

When we wait we are experiencing both what is currently a reality and the fulfill-

ment of what it is we are waiting for

That is why it is unfinished.

This is the good news of Jesus. Our waiting is always unfinished.

If we are a people who are waiting then we are a people who never need to settle

on less that. In any darkness we can wait because darkness is unfinished, light can enter in

In war or uncertainty, we can wait because war and conflict is unfinished. Peace in anything unfinished can enter in.

of you probably feel like you’re waiting in darkness. Or that there are some uncertain thing that you can’t escape from. waiting is unfinished. It is incomplete. That is good news because if you’re waiting right now on something difficult, there’s always opportunity for Hope. There’s always opportunity for joy. Advent reminds us that God came into the world not because it was perfect, but because it needed fixing in attending to. You’re waiting in darkness right now is a reminder that Godtends to things in darkness to bring light. the darkness cannot stay dark for long.

We see that light peeks through in this passage.

Isaiah 9:4 ESV

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

see this incredible intermingling of unfinished waiting

In this passage there is a reminder of the Exodus. God does a new thing through a

giant through line. What God has always done He renews in Jesus.

waiting is unfinished, then waiting is searching for something

We don’t just stand around, we are waiting for something. Every line is waiting for

something about any line you’ve ever been in, you’re not just in a line to be in a line, you’re in a line for something. You are in a line to receive something or get something. In a sense you are searching for the thing you’re in line for

Sometimes we want to wait. We want that high-end Christmas item.

Sometimes we have to wait. we’re waiting in line for sorts for a procedure or for news. That’s never easy.

Waiting can feel like it never ends because waiting is never the fulfillment, it is al-

ways unfinished.

I called the RMV once and I literally heard this line.

Please note there are 0 calls

before you in the queue. Your estimated

wait time is 20 minutes.

That’s what waiting can feel like.

Sometimes waiting just feels like holding on. But that is because we forget what

we are waiting for.

And we get tired. I think the general emotion of many people today are they are tired. exhausted. They have been waiting, for what? Hoping, for what?

Advent is a reminder that waiting for the right thing is not a waste. Advent is searching, it is not just holding out.

To wait in Advent is not just to wait. It is to search. It is expecting.

is what proclamation is. That we may have to wait and search, but we know that what it is we’re waiting and searching for has been proclaimed to make all things different.

How we wait matters because it shows us what we are waiting for

Instead of darkness, light

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Look at God’s answer to bloodshed and to war and to darkness.

It is not just more bloodshed and war and darkness.

He responds through bringing a child. God didn’t send an army to defeat another

army.

And that makes sense right? Imagine that you have a neighbor that like loud mu-

sic. Every Friday night they crank up the music and play Led Zepplins entire canon.

They are re-living the classic rock days.

And you become angry. And you want quiet. You want the music to stop. So you

do the most reasonable thing necessary. You blast Art Blakey’s greatest hits. But you

play it louder.

The next week, the neighbor who had had played the music pretty loudly, starts

even louder, anticipating your music.

Then you raise the volume to counteract their volume.

There is always a system that can go to 11. There is always a louder speaker. Al-

ways a stronger army.

So look at what God did. He sent a child. He brings deliverance through a child.

Through vulnerability.

God’s truths must be incarnated. They must be embodied. God restores through relationship. God is not bringing better ideas or better resources. He is coming Himself. God embodies what He promises

which means we are witnesses of His incarnation. Our waiting points to Christ who upholds us in Hos promise

The witness of waiting. Waiting is unfinished but is final in Christ.

Waiting is given meaning in the Advent.

It is the witness that God has entered time.

That is why this passage in Isaiah is so incredible.

It says that our old ways of doing things will exhaust themselves.

And that God would enter our lives. He will enter time.

No one ever waits around for nothing. We wait for something.

Advent reveals that God has entered our world. And He gave us everything we

would need to understand who He is and who we are.

God in time reminds us that He is interacting with us.

And is everything complete? No. But is there enough for now? Absolutely.

And so we wait. Not for nothing, not even for something.

We don’t enter into any line for any reason.

We wait for the God who has made promises, who has made good on those

promises.

We celebrate that in His arrival.

That God became man,

And He came as wonderful Counselor,

6Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This season is not like every other season, because it is worthwhile waiting for the

specific God who came into time.

That is why our worship matters. Because it is both waiting and hope.

that is why serving matter. It is both waiting and hope

the way you live your life and interact with others tells people what kind of line you are in. It tells people what you are waiting for. and for the church. Our posture is to do that together.

that is why we give to the local food pantry and to abundant hope. That’s why we care for each other. That’s why we proclaim that God has entered into our world .

At the Starbucks outdoor deck when Obama‘s motorcade drove through. We all

stood, no one argued. No one resisted. No one even discussed. We were a mile away

And we all stood. We didn’t talk. We just watched.

All of our attention was on the object of the motorcade.

5If someone who was inside that Starbucks at the time they would have looked at

us standing all, together, all facing the same direction, and without any other under-

standing would have turned to look in that direction.

That is the church.

We wait all the time for things that are not yet in front of us.

That is why there is witness. That is why there’s quality in what we do, even if we

wait for the God to enter into our scope.

Because as we look and understand that God has given us life and it’s good and

it’s enough to wait, we still know there is more, so we hold space and wait.

Your waiting is unfinished. That means it is filled with hope. Let’s spend this Advent season posturing our lives in a way that reflects that hope.