DURING THE WAIT

Introduction

-{John 21}

-If you have ever flown any on a plane, you might be familiar with the concept of a holding pattern. A holding pattern is a continuous, circular flight pattern over an airport while the plane awaits clearance to land.

~The airport might not let an airplane land because the runways are busy or weather issues or one of a million other things. Generally, it’s not problematic, but you have to land eventually because you don’t have enough fuel to go in circles forever.

~I remember one time flying in late to Memphis (when we lived in that area) and we just kept circling around Memphis for what seemed to be an hour. Come to find out there were strong winds that made it unsafe to land. Of course, we found that out when we finally got to land because the plane still did a whole lot of rocking back and forth while landing.

-There’s a lot of times when we ourselves experience holding patterns in life, and that includes with following what God’s plan is for our lives and ministries. Sometimes God places us on holding patterns, and sometimes we get anxious wanting to do something, but God seems to want us to wait a while.

~Not many humans are good at waiting, especially in or day and age. I mean, if a web page doesn’t immediately come up on our browser, we start yelling at the computer (WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW YOU STUPID COMPUTER)

-But for reasons that are known only to Him, according to His foreknowledge and wisdom and sovereign choice, God puts us on hold, which means we wait and we wait and we wait some more.

~And I want us to consider today how we wait—our manner of waiting. Obviously there could be a lot said about this with regard to pandemics and things like that—all of our ideas and plans have been put on hold in some form or fashion.

~However, this is also for the times God places us on holding patterns even when life is normalish.

-So, what I want us to consider today is that while we wait on God to move us to the next part of His plan, we need to be cautious what we do during that time of waiting.

READ John 21:1-14

John 21:1–14 ESV

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

-I just want to quickly put the passage into context:

~Jesus was arrested, tried, crucified, died, buried, but then He rose from the dead. The disciples were hiding out in Jerusalem in a room with the doors bolted shut, and at first they didn’t believe Jesus was really alive until Jesus presented Himself to them in the flesh.

~The disciples were instructed to go to Galilee. And so they did. And what did they do? They waited, and waited, and waited some more. Those were the only instructions they were given.

~They were still reeling from the emotional roller coaster that they had been on. They saw Jesus die, and now Jesus is alive again. It was pretty overwhelming, and now they had to wait.

~They didn’t know when or if Jesus would appear to them again. But now He does.

-What the disciples went through in this time of waiting I think can give us three warnings and two exhortations that will hopefully be a blessing while we are waiting for things to get back to normal and waiting in our personal lives.

~First, the three warnings:

1) Beware of settling in the comfortable

-It would seem that Peter led the other disciples to his home village of Bethsaida (since that would be where his fishing equipment would be). So, sitting around in his house, while they were waiting and waiting and waiting on Jesus, Peter decides that he would return to what he knew best—fishing. And some others follow him.

~Peter may have remembered Jesus saying something about fishing for men early on in the ministry, but now Peter wasn’t overly sure what was going on or what the future held. So, he decides to return to what he knew best—fishing for fish.

-Fishing for fish was his comfort zone. Fishing for fish was familiar to him. Fishing for fish was his wheelhouse. While waiting with uncertainty, he went back to what felt right—what he had always done.

-That is the natural human tendency. We long for security and find it in our comfort zones. That being the case, it is very easy to merely slip back into old patterns and then want to stay there because we feel safe and secure there.

~We may be waiting on God to move us to wherever His plans decide to move us, but that comes with a lot of uncertainty, and maybe a little instability. We think:

~I don’t know what God has in store, and that makes me a little anxious. So, to ease the anxiety, I’m going to slip back into the familiar, into what’s comfortable to me, and who knows, maybe I’ll just end up staying there a while.

-That’s the reality of it, when I get back into my comfort zone, it is very hard to get back out. My willpower is weak in my comfort zone; so, if God wants to call me out of it, I’m not so sure that I want to go.

~While waiting on God, you plop yourself down into old habits and old ways of doing things—you put yourself within the familiar—it might be a little difficult to get back out when God calls you to move forward with His plan.

-There’s nothing wrong with going back to some familiar areas of life per se (as long as they’re not sinful), but we have to be careful not to settle there and sort of make up our minds that we like it there better than following God’s call wherever it may lead.

~Peter could have easily gotten back into the groove of fishing for fish and forgotten all about the call to fish for men. Thankfully, Jesus wouldn’t let him settle in the familiar. Jesus made sure he didn’t find success, which leads to the next warning:

2) Beware of relying on the self

-Late night, early morning seemed to be the best time for fishing, but they were having no luck. They spent hours upon hours casting their nets only to come up empty every single time.

~They went out to do the familiar and to do it in their own power, using their own wisdom and resources and found that they came up short. You might say that they found that doing things in their own time in the energy of the flesh produced empty nets.

-Here is another temptation we face while waiting on the Lord. We get sick and tired of waiting and so we decide to take matters into our own hands and do things our own way in our time in our own power. And every time we attempt to do that we come up with empty nets. We have nothing to show for our efforts, and we actually find we are opposing God rather than helping Him along like we think we’re doing. We’re being disobedient doing things our way instead of waiting as the Lord desires.

-It reminds me of the story of King Saul in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 10, the prophet Samuel had anointed Saul as king, and now the two men discussed the great war that Israel faced against the Philistines. Samuel commanded Saul to wait for him for seven days before moving into battle. All the people were to gather at Gilgal to seek the Lord for direction, and Samuel would return then with a specific word of direction from the Lord. He told Saul, “Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”

~But things got started sooner than Saul expected, and the Israelite army was in a panic, so Saul thought he knew better than Samuel and God, and on the seventh day he took matters into his own hands, sinfully acted as a priest making sacrifice (even though he was no priest) and making plans without God. But then the prophet arrived and lambasted Saul for His disobedience.

-Here the fishermen were doing things their way in their power according to their wisdom. Jesus shows up on the shore, although they didn’t know it was Him at the time. The way that the question is actually structured, He really said: YOU DIDN’T CATCH ANY FISH, DID YOU? And they gave the disappointing answer, NO.

-They failed to remember, as we often fail to remember, that Jesus says in John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 ESV)

-In our impatience of waiting, we might think we can just move ahead in the power of our flesh and do things our way in our time to help move things along (like God actually needs our help or input), but apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Jesus proved that to the fishermen as He told them to go to the other side of the boat, and they caught so many fish they couldn’t even haul it into the boat.

~Our third warning:

3) Beware of missing sweet fellowship

-Our time of waiting isn’t fruitless. There is purpose behind the waiting. Sometimes it is to learn spiritual lessons. But it is also a time to just commune and fellowship with Christ. Sometimes Christ wants us to still ourselves, away from the distractions of the constant movement of life, so we can just sit at His feet and learn of Him and from Him.

-The disciples realize that it is Jesus and they come back to the shore and they find that Jesus had a charcoal fire going, and some fish frying and some bread baking, ready to sit down and have a meal with them. For the Jewish culture, meals weren’t just about eating but they were times of relationship and fellowship. The Risen Lord wanted to spend some quality time with His disciples, away from the distractions of ministry, knowing the stress of the past couple of weeks that had taken their toll on them.

-Our time to wait isn’t just nothingness—it can be sweet fellowship with the Lord. If we are in such a rush for action, we will miss out on the quiet times with the Lord that He has prepared for our good.

-It makes me think of Mary and Martha, and even though you’re familiar with the story, let me read that short passage:

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38–42 ESV)

-It’s difficult to be a Mary in a Martha world where we seem to be all but programmed to do and do and do instead of sit and learn and fellowship. And yet, in our anxious flurry to be active we may miss out on sweet times with Jesus learning at His feet.

-But there are also two quick exhortations to give from this passage.

4) Be in position to move when called

-According to Matthew 26:32, 28:7, the disciples had received instructions to go to Galilee and wait upon the Lord. It would have been very easy for them to ignore that command out of fear or stubbornness or disbelief. They could have decided to remain in Jerusalem behind the bolted doors of their little safehouse. But they didn’t. Instead, they obeyed and put themselves in place and they were in position, ready to move when they would be so called.

-Just because God has our lives in some sort of holding pattern does not mean that we allow ourselves to become spiritual couch potatoes (so to speak). We don’t give our spiritual lives time to atrophy—to waste away from not being used.

-We still are able to position ourselves in obedience and spiritual aptitude so that when the Lord calls us to move, we are ready to move—we are ready to act.

-We can position ourselves spiritually and mentally so that when the time of action arrives, we are ready.

~We may be on hold, but we still pray. We may be on hold, but we still study. We may be on hold, but we seek the fellowship of the believers. We may be on hold, but we soak in the teachings of sound doctrine.

-It made me think of our military. In our history, we have not always been at war or in conflict. But during those short but sweet times of peace, our military did not just lounge around waiting for the call to action. They didn’t just let all their equipment rust and rot away. They didn’t just let our soldiers sit and grow fat. Even during times of peace, they trained. Even during times of waiting, they maintained their equipment, so that when the day came when they were called upon or if someone would dare attack, they were ready for action. They may be waiting, but they were in a position of readiness for when they would be called upon.

-We may be on a holding pattern…we may be waiting, but that doesn’t mean idleness. We don’t act before we are called upon, but we can be spiritually prepared for when the Lord finally does call us to move on His plan. We can place ourselves in a position of readiness for when the call to action comes.

5) Be eager to be with Jesus above all else

-You just have to love Peter. Peter doesn’t do anything half-heartedly. If Peter is going to put his foot in his mouth, he just goes whole hog and says something completely outlandish. But the knife cuts the other way too—if Peter is going to do something great for the Lord, he is all in. There is no falsehood to Peter. What you see is what you get. And he doesn’t go halfway, he goes all the way.

-And he can be a great example to us. It was Peter that stepped out of the boat in faith. And here, we see an eagerness that our hearts ought to hold onto.

~John declares that it was the Lord conversing with them from the shore. When Peter finds out it is the Lord, he doesn’t wait for them to get the boat back to shore. Peter just jumps in the water and swims all the way to Jesus.

-This is especially amazing because Peter is still reeling from his failure in denying the Lord. And yet, it does not temper his eagerness to be with Jesus.

-Oh, that we would so desire to be with Jesus. I mean, during these times of waiting, being on a holding pattern, what more important thing do we have to do.

~We can just pray: LORD, I may not know why I’m waiting or what I’m waiting for, but I do know this, I want you above all else. So, during this time of waiting, may I know you more.

~And we run toward Jesus with wild abandon.

-As the song says:

And when I am alone

Oh, and when I am alone

And when I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus

You can have all this world

But give me Jesus

Conclusion

-One pastor used this picture or metaphor about our wait:

So here I sit in the waiting room. The receptionist took my name, recorded my insurance data, and gestured a chair. “Please have a seat. We will call you when the doctor is ready.” I look around. A mother holds a sleepy baby. A fellow dressed in a suit thumbs through Time Magazine. A woman with a newspaper looks at her watch, sighs, and continues the task of the hour: waiting.

The waiting room. Not the examination room, That’s down the hall. Not the consultation room, That’s on the other side of the wall. Not the treatment room. Exams, consultations, and treatments all come later.

The task at hand is the name of the room: the waiting room. We in the waiting room understand our assignment: to wait. We don’t treat each other. I don’t ask the nurse for a stethoscope or blood pressure cuff. I don’t pull a chair next to the woman with the newspaper and say, “Tell me what prescriptions you are taking.” That’s the job of the nurse. My job is to wait. So I do. Can’t say I like it. Time moves like an Alaskan glacier. The clock ticks every five minutes, not every second. Someone presses the pause button. Life in slo-mo.

-But while we wait on the Lord, we can wait in the right way; in the right manner. We don’t settle back into comfortable habits or rely on the self or miss out on the fellowship available during the wait. We put ourselves in position to move when called upon, always eager to spend our time waiting with Jesus.

-Christian, maybe you are waiting; maybe you want to come to the altar and ask God to give you a little perspective on your wait…

-But for those who have never trusted in Christ, you don’t have to wait to be saved…