Waiting for Jesus
Due to internet issues the service was not able to be recorded. See sermon manuscript below.
Waiting for Jesus
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 148
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40
One of the most difficult things that can be asked of a child is for them to wait. It does not matter what it is that they must wait for. Waiting is just not something enjoyable nor a part of their being. They would prefer this word to be out of our vocabulary. It never fails that during bed time one of the children will ask for something to drink. Mind you I have already spent about a half hour just trying to get them all ready for bed and then going through the bedtime routine to get them settled and then I am just about to leave the room and shut the door and the question comes for a drink of water or cold tea. At this point I do not want neither of them to leave the room or the bed because I know that it is going to be a process once again to get them back into the bed. So, I tell them to wait there and I will bring it. Do you think they are able to do so? Of course not. The 30 seconds that it took me to walk from their bedroom and too the kitchen is just too long to wait. By the time I pull the drink out of the refrigerator they are right behind me, ignoring everything I asked them to do. They just cannot wait.
There are those whom we read about in the Bible who were experts at waiting. Luke 2:22-40 tells us the events after Jesus’ birth. 8 days later Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and presented before the Lord according to the Law of Moses. You may ask, why 8 days? Why is this so significant? I thought seven was the perfect number. Why not the day after he was born. With modern science we now know that we need Vitamin K to aide in coagulation of blood. We also know that on the 8th day after birth babies have now enough vitamin K naturally in their system to aid in blood coagulation therefore it is safe for circumcision. It is for this reason that we now give babies a vitamin K shot as soon as they are born. It helps to speed up the process. However, since God created us and knows all things it is for this reason that God gave the command for the 8th day for circumcision.
Back to Mary and Joseph, they take him to the temple and do everything as they should according to the law. We are told that there was a man named Simeon who was in the temple at the time of when Mary and Joseph came to present Jesus. We are told that this man was righteous and devout. We are not told if he is a priest or what his position is in the temple if he even has one. However, we are told that he was full of the Holy Spirit and that it was revealed to him that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Messiah. We are told that he had been waiting for the Lord’s Consolation of Israel. The question then is how long was he waiting? The Bible does not really tell us, nor does it tell us how old he was other than he was elderly. Orthodox tradition tells us that he was possibly one of the 70 scholars that translated the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek Septuagint. It is said that he translated “Isaiah 7:14 into saying that ‘a young woman’ would conceive rather that ‘a virgin’ due to his disbelief.” It is said that because of his disbelief a divine being told him that he would live to see the fulfillment of this prophecy that he translated. If this were all true then this would place Simeon to be roughly 360 years old by the time he sees the messiah with his own eyes. This would then mean that Simeon could have been waiting for nearly 300 years Jesus. We have no proof that this is all true but what we do know that Simeon was waiting for a long time for Jesus as he knew could not peacefully be put to rest until he laid his eyes on the Son of God. He is overjoyed when he see’s Jesus. He knows that this is him because the Holy Spirit living within him reveals this to him.
There was another person in the temple who was also waiting for Jesus. There was a prophetess named Anna. We are given a little more history about Anna. We are told that she too is rather elderly. She was married for 7 years in her youth and then was widowed until she was 84 years old. It is likely that she was a widow for about 60 years if she married at a young age. We are told that she too was very devout and spent these 60 years at the temple. We are told that she never left and spent her time fasting and praying day and night. 60 years she waits in that temple for her purpose to be revealed. She announces this child as the one whom Israel was looking forward to for the redemption of Jerusalem. This was a devout woman purposely spending her time in waiting for what God would reveal. I think to her and Simeon, waiting for Jesus was well worth the wait.
Our passage in Isaiah this morning ends with a promise. A promise for a new name for Zion. A name that brings salvation. Galatians 4 reveals that Jesus is the salvation that we have been waiting for, that he brings the new name of Zion. He is the consolation of Israel that Simeon was waiting for. He brings salvation not just to Israel but he brings salvation to the entire world. Now we are in a time of waiting again. It is not a wait for salvation because that is already here and obtainable. However, we are waiting again for Jesus to return. He will return to bring an end to all evil and all sin in the world. Our bodies will be restored and our spirits will return to our bodies and we will live in a new heaven and earth. Until that time, we are here once again waiting for Jesus.
It is my hope and prayer that we will not be like little children who do not know how to wait. Often children find themselves causing trouble due to their inability to wait. For example, my children will get tired of waiting for a drink and try to take matters into their own hands and then end up making a mess. The same can be said about some people who are waiting on Jesus. We can get so impatient that we try to taker matters into our own hands by taking actions that we think that will make Jesus return sooner. Generally, such actions are actually sinful and evil. However, as Galatians tells us, we are children of God and we should act as though we are His children. Jesus is patient and he waits up until the point that everyone has the chance to be saved. He will come in his time and it will be the right time. Therefore, what are we to do until he returns. We are to preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; teaching them everything that Jesus has taught and commanded. This is our role and our job while wait for Jesus.