Hurry Up and Wait
We in the Military have a fondness for the “Hurry up and wait.” Who here hasn’t had large doses of it? It all started that first day in MEPS when the processing folks not so kindly and very directly told us to wait over there and don’t get in the way and do it as fast as you can and three hours later we were still waiting. And we are still waiting as quickly as we can. Why do we have to do that? Why do we have to wait with Style? Finness? Pinashe? Why does the military want us to be so focused in waiting? It seems to me that the standing theory has to be that it is to make us a little more uncomfortable.
So we get to the book of Acts. Acts is a book that is about power and excitement. Luke’s pen virtually flies as it details the exploits of the new church and the spread of the gospel. It is a book of kings and Armies, intrigue and shipwrecks. It is a book of miracles, the dead being raised, sermons so long that they killed people, trials, stonings, persecutions, snake bites, and Prison Breaks.
Acts would seem to be about just about anything but waiting, but in the first two chapters. Luke picks up where he left off with his Gospel. He has told the story of Jesus up to his death and resurrection. Just as the opening verses of Luke address a man named Theopholis-So he commends to Theopholis his second work.
Luke writes to Theo-before you get a mind picture of the Cosby show, we can speculate a couple of things about him. He was either an important Roman in power or he had paid Luke to write these works. We know this by his title, “Most Excellent.” Luke picks up where his story has left off, almost as if the two books were one work with a break in the middle of the story.
Jesus has performed all of these works, he has suffered, and continued to appear to them for forty days. He has one thing to talk about-the kingdom of God. The Kingdom was the number one teaching of Jesus during his life. It looked to the end. It looked ahead to the hope of the resurrection, to the new kingdom of God over the powers of this earth, and also it looks to the now. It looks to the work that God has done in our lives starting with the person of Jesus. It looks for the power of God over the circumstance of today and beyond to His reign over tomorrow.
4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,’ he said, “is what you have heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So Jesus tells the disciples what any good recruiter could tell you-hurry up and wait. Wait for the next installment of the kingdom. Its coming-with power. There was a baptism where the disciples made a visible decision made to be washed clean. There was a place by a river where the disciples chose to follow Jesus and to turn away from their old lives. But there was another baptism coming. There was a baptism coming that would endue them with something more-God had something more waiting for them down the road-what else does God got for you?
The disciples responded just like you or I might have-with our own limited picture of God. Jesus has been talking about the kingdom-this is our chance to sound smart-So Jesus-are you going to restore the kingdom now? Are you bringing down the thunder? Is your kingdom gonna rule? It was a reasonable question, with a Jesus answer-You aren’t supposed to know when that is going to happen. People get all hung up about the how and the when that Jesus is going to bring down the new kingdom but Jesus gives us the answer we don’t want to hear-you will have to wait for the answer to that. BUT-
- \\ 8 But 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 ends of the earth.”*
That is an important “but” That is a big thing to pay attention to. Jesus told them not to worry about the when of the Kingdom, and to look ahead to the now of real power and promise. Yes there are good things coming with the kingdom, but there are awesome things coming right now. God had something more to give them. He had power he wanted to drop.
He wanted to equip this misfit band of fishermen, tax collectors, and rebels with the power that would launch their witness to the city streets. All of Jerusalem would hear and this would go out to the province of Judah and then on to the neighbors in Samaria and from there-from there they would go forth to the very ends of the earth with the message of Jesus Christ. This is the nature of the promise that God had waiting for them. It was one of power. This is the purpose-it was one of witness. It was not a private power promised for a better life, but a public power that would transform the world. This is a prophetic message for the disciples-God was about to give them something more.
9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
The way that Jesus is taken up is like the Old Testament prophet Elijah who was taken to the sky while his disciple was watching and it was because his protégé was there to see it that he received a double portion of the prophet’s power with which to follow after God. Just like Jesus was about to move on His disciples with power.
10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Two angels-just like the ones at the tomb appear out of nowhere just as soon as Jesus goes up to heaven and say-what are you waiting for? Jesus will come just the same way he left-it will be a surprise. Wait for what God is ready to do right now! The Kingdom is gonna come in its own time-What does God have for you right now?
So they came down from the mountain. A place called Olivet which was a Sabbath day’s journey away. A Jew was only allowed to travel so far on a Sabbath or it would have been considered work-1/2 of a mile which was a Sabbath’s days journey. Some Jews still live within ½ mile of a synagogue to keep this law. Mt Olivet was where they used to sleep when visiting the city. The came down from that place to an upper room where they had been hiding out since the arrest and crucifixion. To hurry up and wait for what God had next.
The Eleven who were left that is: Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
And something had changed about Peter. He had a sense of the calling and authority that only God can give. God had breathed something into him in his restoration. And he stood up and he spoke. He told the story of Judas-the one that got away. Judas was the one that didn’t stay the course. He didn’t come back. Judas got so caught in his sin and the devastation of it-that he took his blood money, bought a field and fell upon the rocks there where he burst open in the middle-which back then was called being “hung.”
Judas was the one that got away. He didn’t live out his calling. He chose to live for himself rather than to be the message of hope. Judas is a name that comes from “Judah.” Judah too, had missed the real blessing. Abraham had been promised a blessing that in turn he would become a blessing-but his descendents-Judah had forgotten. So the ones who heard the message-waited for the new promise. The promise of power to witness Jesus to the world.
20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it’; and ‘Let another take his position of overseer.’
Psalm 69:25
Psalms had given precedence to this situation. Judas sat in the number of the 12. He and the other eleven represented a new Israel and a new promise. They were a new hope and a new blessing to the world. They were the message. They would have the power. They would give hope to a world without Jesus. If they would simply wait, pray, and be what God called them to be. God had something more for them.
There were others too, who had been with Jesus from the beginning. They had heard his messages, seen his resurrection. But they had not been chosen. Wouldn’t that have been difficult to follow after Jesus with your whole life and not be recognized? Why would you do it? Because when the time comes for greatness-then you are ready to be called. The military calls us to be ready-and then to wait-so that we can answer with excellence when called. So it was for one of those, up till now, unknown disciples.
23 So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
24 Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen
25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
[1]
The lot fell to Matthias-God chose him. God picked him-just some guy with a name that was even unremarkable. At least Joseph had a name-he was Barsabbas-son of the Sabbath called “the just one.” He had a lot of names, but the lot didn’t fall on him. It fell on Mathias-a disciple who had been ready and waiting from the start for God’s something more. God had something more for those who waited on Him to answer.
Are you ready for God’s next big thing in your life. When the call comes will you answer? Will you let God use you as he sees fit, rather than the way you think God should use you? Are you willing to wait on what God wants to do in you today rather than focus on the big things that wait down the road?
God has something waiting for you-Are you ready?
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[1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996, c1989.