The Comfort of God's Promises
Notes
Transcript
If ever there was a generation not accustomed or suited to waiting it is ours. Culture has pumped the drug of instant gratification into us until we are addicted. We cannot wait for anything. How many of you have ever had to wait at a stop sign and think, “This traffic is ridiculous”, even though we live in a small rural town? Do you get irate when you’re not the first one at the checkout counter at the supermarket? Or does it get to you when you wait in line with several in front of you and the person checking out has an item that has to be price checked? Is your computer or smart phone fast enough for you? Do you feel yourself loosing patience because your web page or video won’t load as fast you think it should?
Speaking of smart phones, I was talking with someone recently about them. They asked me if I thought it would be wise to upgrade to a new cell phone. I’m ashamed to admit it, but my answer was, “Yes, it will be faster.” Instead of having to wait a half a second for something to come up on the screen you will only have to wait a quarter of second. Really? Is this what we have come to that we will spend hundreds of dollars for a quarter second faster load time?
We really don’t like to wait. We want to hurry up and have patience; that’s how bad it’s become. We would rather God give us patience instantly, than undergo the process of waiting and learning to be patient. The truth is we don’t want to learn to be patient.
I don’t know any other way to tell you that if you are going to walk with God and not get ahead of Him, you will need to be patient. Remember, He doesn’t mark time like we do. We say, “I don’t have a lifetime to wait. I need to move on.” The Lord replies, “Oh yes, you do have a lifetime to wait. I’ll see to it.” At that point, He puts everything into slow motion and we creatures of faster, easier, quicker, sooner are forced to hurry up and wait or reject God’s timing and do our own thing.
In the Scripture we are looking at today, we see a very patient woman who was trusting in God’s promises and found comfort in the fulfillment of them.
Waiting - A Life of Rest in God’s Promises
Waiting - A Life of Rest in God’s Promises
Like I said, we are not all that thrilled about waiting for anything. However, today the light is placed upon a woman, who has waited a very long time… for something that she knew she already had.
I’ll get to that last part in a minute. First, let’s talk about Anna.
A few things of note here...
Luke describes her in a few different ways. First, she is a prophetess. That is significant in the way that there have only been a handful of women classified as such. The title, though is a bit deceiving. Many of us on seeing the world “prophet” in any context we think of Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah… all of the iah’s.
Typically, the people who would speak futuristic things of God. However, that is not the case with Anna. In fact, the original Greek word leads us to see more of a preacher than an Old Testament prophet. She spoke the words of God… the already revealed words of God.
We also know that she has been doing it for a long time. How long, depends on how you interpret the wording, but Luke does tell us she was married for 7 years and then widowed for either 84 more years or up to the time of this encounter when she was 84. Either way doesn’t matter, because Luke tells us all we need to know, “She was advanced in years.”
We also know that Anna was of the tribe of Asher. This was one of the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” which were part of the northern kingdom and taken into captivity by Assyria. However, the truth is that these tribes were not “lost”. From 2 Chronicles 30:11 we read, “some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.” The descendants would be among those who were carried away in Babylonia and returning with Ezra and Nehemiah.
However, the most important part of all of this description of Anna is in what she did… more than who she is. In verse 37 we read,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
Anna devoted her life to God. Anna did not depart from the temple and spent her days in worship, fasting and prayer.
What does that mean?
Anna was waiting and trusting in something she already knew she had because it was promised through the Scriptures. Remember, Anna is a prophetess… that means that she spoke the truth of God’s Word to those who were around her in the temple.
Anna believed and was waiting on God because she knew it was already done… therefore...
Waiting before God is Resting in the Comfort of His Promises
Everything that Anna did.... all that she was… was tied up in the truth of God’s Word. She worshipped daily… prayed continually, fasted of the things of this world in complete reliance upon God’s nourishment and providence. She has a faith that John Calvin would describe…
Christian Quotations Waiting
There is no place for faith if we expect God to fulfil immediately what he promises.
John Calvin
Meaning, that since God has promised it… it is already available, but not manifest in physical form. However, spiritually… according to God’s omnipresence… we know He has already provided it. We are waiting for the manifestation of it.
Listen to Romans 8:25
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Leave it to the Apostle Paul to give us a realistic, but utterly un-American approach to faith. As I stated at the beginning of this message, we don’t like to wait. Patience is akin to having your wisdom teeth pulled without any novacane or laughing gas.
But.... Paul reveals to us what Anna is doing. She was hoping (not a wishy-washy wishful thinking, but a deep conviction in God’s promises) for what she could not see… but she knew… and waited with patience for the time when she would see it.
Or Psalm 130:5-6
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
The Psalmist here takes us directly to the heart of what waiting is all about. Waiting goes much deeper than watching a clock and checking the date. It is an action of the soul. It is both the looking for the promise in the future, but being assured of it now. It is faith in action, faith being daily exercised, faith being proclaimed from the deepest regions of the soul. It is faith as small as a mustard seed, but yet still more powerful than any “gift” from this world. Resting in the promises of God, with full assurance of future things - because of what God has already done - is exactly what Anna is doing.
I love what Charles Spurgeon wrote about this in his “Daily Help” devotional. In an entry for Oct. 15, with Psalm 25:5 in mind, he writes;
IT is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David manifests; it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial. “On thee do I wait all the day.”
Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust, all the days of our life.
Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.
The question before us is this; “Are you waiting patiently in the promises of God? Are you comforted today by what you know God will do tomorrow? Are you resting in the hope you have in Jesus?
Because if so…
Waiting Is Not Passive
Waiting Is Not Passive
You should be working it out for all to see.
Let’s look at verse 38
Luke 2:38
And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
One thing we need to make clear immediately is the phrase, “and coming up that very hour...” Remember, previous to this is the telling of Simeon seeing the child promised to him by the Spirit as Joseph and Mary entered the temple. He was there at the right time. Now, we see that the event continues with another participant… Anna. It was when Simeon was singing his praise to God that Anna arrived. At the right time. After all the years of waiting… after all of the faithful times of worship, prayer and fasting… after all the years of doing so alone… she saw with her physical eyes what her eyes of faith had already seen.
The important aspect in all of this though is that Anna was not just sitting idly by waiting for God to do what God does. She was active in her journey of faith. She not only strengthened her faithful waiting through worship, prayer and fasting, but she was immediately active at the right moment… when the son was to be seen… when the prayer was answered.
There is little doubt that the year 2020 will go down in many of our memories as one we would like to forget. We don’t know what 2021 has in store for us… or the years afterward.
But, there is one thing that every single believer in Christ should be eternally assured and convicted of; Every single day is in the sovereignty of God, governed by His will, sustained by His hand, and provided for within His unlimited power.
Because of that belief, every born again christian has a supernatural happening within their heart. They desire to be active while they wait. Not active for the sake of being busy, but a directed, dedicated and demonstrable action that is indicative of your waiting posture.
A waiting that is built on the sovereign providence of God. Question 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which was finalized in 1563.
Question: What do you understand by the providence of God?
Answer: The almighty, everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
This is directly in line with Scripture when it says in Job 42:2, “I know you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
Or Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him.”
Or Isaiah 25:8-9, ““He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
As Anna sat in that temple everyday for at least 84 years, she was actively waiting for the truth she already knew. And in that truth she would worship, pray and fast. And it is any wonder then… that the sovereign God who preordained the work of salvation before the earth was created… the almighty creator who spoke forth everything that is ever made… the merciful Father who spoke through the mouths of prophets of old of the savior who would redeem His people… it is any wonder then that Anna, stirred by the Spirit at the right time… was blessed in gazing upon the child she had already trusted in?
Friends, that is what waiting is all about.
It is active. It is restful at the same time. It is moving forward even when the storms of life assail. It is believing in what has not come to pass physically, because you know that in the will of the omnipresent God - who is in all places at all times and in all times - He has already made it a reality.
The salvation in which Jesus paid the price, through His life sacrificed upon a cross, is sufficient for eternal salvation for all who believe. And in belief, this world no longer has a hold on you… it’s been defeated. So… wait. Wait on the Lord day and night.
In English the Olympic motto reads: “Swifter, higher, stronger.” Interestingly, the Bible also has an Olympic text.
Isaiah 40:31
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Friends, this story about Anna is more than just two verses at the end of the Christmas story. It is a powerful look at the believer who has spent a lifetime believing and waiting. A lifetime of actively worshipping, praying and fasting.
Can I ask you something?
Are you consistent in your worship? Do you pray with expectancy and belief? Do you fast? I don’t mean skipping meals (although, that can be part of it) - I mean do you take time away from worldly pursuits that take the place of God?
Are you actively pursuing God? Are you desiring more of Him in our life? Do you give to Him all of your weaknesses, failures, hurts, and angers? Do you submit before Him and want to obey His word? Do you love others as you love yourself?
Are you actively resting in the profound hope that is only found in the righteous son and savior? Are you like Anna?