[Acts 1:6-11] When they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, & to the ends of the earth." After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven."

Hurry up and wait! Doesn't it seem that we spend half our lives waiting? When we were little, we couldn’t wait until we were older. Now that we’re older, we still have to wait. We wait at stop lights. We wait in lines at grocery stores. We wait for visits from friends and relatives. We wait for weekends after a busy week. We wait for summer after a dreary winter. Waiting is never easy. It’s even harder when what we’re waiting for is something very special. And even harder still when we don't know how long we must wait for that something special.

Just before Jesus had said 'So Long' to His disciples at His Ascension and returned home to heaven, He commanded them to go back to Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Spirit. They had no idea how long they would have to wait. They just knew that the Lord had told them to wait. So they waited. Even though they didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for, they obediently returned to Jerusalem and waited for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit.

There are times when we, too, must wait on the Lord. We may be waiting on the Lord to answer a particular prayer. Maybe we're waiting for His guidance in making a big decision or solving a personal problem or a family issue. We may be waiting for Him to heal a prolonged illness. Or maybe we’re just one of millions of faithful Christians waiting for the Lord to return to destroy this rotting planet and to bring on Judgment Day so we can all go home.

Mostly, waiting on the Lord is not easy. Sure, we realize that His timetable is not the same as ours. We realize, too, that He sees the whole picture, and we see only a tiny portion of it. We know that He knows best. We know that He will do the right thing at the right time. We know all those things to be accurate and true, but sometimes we grow a bit impatient. Waiting on the Lord can be very difficult. This morning, we will examine how the disciples waited on the Lord. Hopefully, we can pick up some pointers while we wait for Him to come back:

Waiting on the Lord

1. Wait Confidently

Remember the last words the disciples spoke to Jesus? “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" We shake our heads at how numbskulled and thickheaded they must have been to ask that question. Here, they had sat at Jesus' feet for the better part of three years, and they still missed the point and purpose of what Jesus had come to do. They still thought that He would set up shop here on earth.

And yet, in those words, we still can find something positive. Those words showed they had a profound trust and confidence in Jesus. They were sure Jesus had the power and authority to establish His kingdom whenever and wherever He wanted. They trusted that Jesus had everything fully under control. When they said: "Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel," they displayed inexcusable ignorance, but they also displayed absolute trust in the Lord Jesus.

Wouldn't it be nice to have that same absolute trust in Jesus in our own lives? Sadly, it’s not always there. Sometimes, our confidence in the Lord falters and fails. Sometimes, we seem to wait and wait and wait, and the Lord just doesn't seem up to the task that we have set before Him. We don't think He has acted quickly enough or dramatically enough. That opens the door for Satan to stroll in and whisper in our ears: 'See, the Lord doesn't care. The Lord doesn't have the desire or the power to help you. You are on your own. I told you so!'

Sometimes we fall for that lie of Satan, don't we? From time to time, we’ve had less than full confidence in Jesus' power and love. Instead we have looked to others and come up empty. We have looked within ourselves and come up even emptier if that were possible. Thank God that through Jesus' sinless life and bitter agony on the cross, we have forgiveness for our failure to trust Him implicitly. May His Holy Spirit strengthen us so that in our future waiting, we will be more like the disciples, who remained confident and trusted in their Lord's power and love. The disciples didn’t just wait confidently, they…

2. Wait Patiently

Their lives had been anything but boring or dull since they had met Jesus. The events of six weeks earlier -- the crucifixion and the resurrection -- had shown those simple fishermen more excitement than they had ever dreamed of seeing. Now, they were wondering what would happen next. Anxious to know how everything would come out, they asked, "Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel." Where was this going to end? Was the kingdom of God going to come on the earth in all its glory and fullness? Was it time for the end of the world?

Jesus plainly told them: "It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set." So as curious as they were, as much as they wanted to know when the end of the world would be, they had to resign themselves to waiting patiently for it. They accepted it as something they were not meant to know. Not only did they not badger and hound Jesus for more information, but they returned to Jerusalem as He had instructed. They waited patiently until the Holy Spirit came ten days later on Pentecost. That is the kind of patience we need as we Wait On The Lord. We are so often tempted to lose our patience. We just can't understand why the Lord seems to drag His feet.

With all the crime, suffering, and sin in our dying world, many people cannot comprehend why the Lord continues to postpone Judgment Day. Why doesn't He just come now and put an end to all the sin and shame that wreak havoc in this world? Peter answers that question in his second letter: "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise [to return], as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

The Lord is putting off Judgment Day to give unbelievers more time to repent and come to faith. He doesn’t want to see any of them perish. Good reason, wouldn't you say? And just as He has a good reason for making us wait for His return, we can also be sure that He has good reasons for the other times when we are forced to wait on Him. He is not playing games with us. If He withholds anything from us, it is for our own ultimate good. At just the right time, He will enter our lives with every blessing we need.

Thank God that through Jesus, we have forgiveness for our loss of patience with God! Our holy God in heaven would not tolerate our impatience if the blood Jesus shed for you and me had not washed our sins of impatience away. Today, Saints, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us be more like the disciples who waited patiently for the Lord. As the disciples waited confidently and patiently, they also…

3. Wait Prayerfully

After they returned to Jerusalem “they all joined together constantly in prayer." Among the many things that Jesus had taught His disciples in the three years they were together was the value and power of prayer. Through the explicit teaching of the Lord's Prayer and the example He set for them in His own prayer life, the disciples learned that prayer was one of our most precious privileges as God's beloved children.

They valued prayer so much that it became essential to their waiting. They didn't just pray occasionally but "constantly." Now, of course, the word "constantly" doesn't mean that they prayed continually for ten days straight. However, the Greek word does contain the idea that they were "strong" or "steadfast" in prayer. In other words, those ten days of waiting were filled with prayer -- day and night.

Do we wait prayerfully as the disciples did? Does the privilege of prayer mean that much to us? Certainly, our Waiting on the Lord would be less burdensome if we shared that burden with God in prayer. Yet here, too, so often we fall short. How often is our prayer life ignored or forgotten because of the daily hustle and bustle of our lives? Our lives are going in a dozen different directions at once, all at breakneck speed. It is so easy to forget or postpone spending time with God in prayer. If we were honest, we would have to confess that our prayer life is not what it could or should be, right?

Again, thank God that our sin of careless and even neglected prayer is covered completely by Jesus' innocent suffering and death! This morning, let us ask the Holy Spirit to motivate us to make fuller use of our privilege of prayer. Our burdens will be lighter as we share them with the Lord, and our joys will be greater as we wait more prayerfully for Him.

We have seen how the disciples waited for the Lord. We understand that we are all waiting for the Lord to return, and some of us are waiting for answers to specific prayers. As we wait, Saints, let’s thank God that, in Jesus, we have forgiveness for all the times when our waiting has fallen far short of what it should have been. Let’s ask God to strengthen us so that in the future, our waiting will be more confident, more patient, and more prayerful. So hurry up and wait. Wait for the Lord. It's worth the wait! Amen.

Rev. Timothy A. Unke, Campus Pastor

Crean Lutheran High School

campuspastor@creanlutheran.org