Study in theActs of theApostles

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Waiting Upon God

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IntroductionThe athlete’s feet are in the blocks. The tension on the running track is palpable as the starting pistol is raised. ‘On your marks, Get set....’ but first one athlete and then another break ranks before their time. They want a flying start. It’s not easy to learn to wait. The final command of the risen Jesus to his followers was to ‘wait for the promise of the Father’ i.e. the outpouring of his Spirit upon his church.

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IntroductionWhenever, God has made a major advance, in the lives of individuals or in congregations, it has invariably been preceded by a period of waiting on him. Often we cannot see the purpose in waiting, or understand how it can possibly advance God’s plans. We are aware of real needs around us and think, ‘it makes no sense to wait’.

However, failing to learn the lesson of waiting can complicate God’s plans.

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What Does Waiting Mean?What do we understand by waiting upon God? It doesn’t mean sitting still. Its not an encouragement to idleness. Its not waiting in the vain hope that ‘something will turn up’. In Beckett’s famous play, ‘Waiting for Godot’, the human race is represented by two tramps who spend all their time on stage waiting for someone very important to turn up and tell them why they are there. Godot never arrives! The play closes with the two tramps still waiting.

The playwright is saying, many people go through their lives believing that if they just wait a bit longer something will turn up. That kind of waiting is fruitless, aimless and miles removed from the ‘waiting’ that Jesus had in mind.

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What Does Waiting Mean?For the disciples waiting meant coming before God in prayer. They awaited the promise of God’s Spirit. God’s promises do not make prayer unnecessary. On the contrary, his promises give us warrant to pray with confidence that he will hear and answer us. This was a conviction of all who gathered together. The place of prayer is the safest place to be when God’s power is about to be released upon men. The prayer meeting is the powerhouse of the church. Let the world ridicule and despise it but it was from a prayer meeting that men and women were to emerge who would shake the mighty Roman Empire.

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What Does Waiting Mean?When the people of God meet together and continue in earnest prayer the work of God cannot fail to progress. It is God’s principal method of church growth. What might happen in your local church fellowship if you were to take corporate prayer more seriously? It is pointless bemoaning the decline of a local church fellowship if we are not prepared to employ N.T. principles for church growth.

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Waiting God’s TimingGod’s blessing is not always immediate as our passage makes clear. Timing is important to God’s strategy. God waited until Jerusalem was at its busiest - full of pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire, come to celebrate an important Jewish festival. God’s timing meant not only that the disciples would have a large congregation to preach to but their new converts would then take the message of the gospel to the furthest outposts of the empire when they returned to their homes.

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Waiting God’s TimingWe do not always understand God’s timing in dealing with us personally. We ask, “When will I marry, have a family, find the right job, a suitable opening in Christian service….etc”

Remember that Elizabeth and Zechariah spent years praying for a child. As time passed their perplexity increased. Had God forgotten? And then John the Baptist’s birth was promised. He arrived at exactly the right time to fulfil the work which God had earmarked for him - to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus. God’s timing is never late!

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Waiting God’s TimingAs we wait for God to fulfil his promises, he can use that time to prepare us for the blessing he wants to give. This is seen in our passage. The disciples spent their time meditating upon the O.T. scriptures which pointed to Christ and spoke of his unique life, death and resurrection. And so when the Holy Spirit came, he was able to work through their growing understanding of scripture! As we wait upon God, he begins to equip us for service. God sometimes keeps us waiting because there are things that he wants to do in us, before he can fulfil his promise to us.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterTemperamentally, some people find it harder than others to wait. e.g. The activist, is often fearful of losing some advantage through inactivity. Surely Peter belonged to this category. It is clear that he wanted a quick decision on a replacement for Judas - “We need a twelfth apostle now”.

Now if this matter was so urgent , why had Jesus not made the appointment during the 40 days before his ascension? Later, we discover that the risen Jesus chose ‘another apostle’, when he set aside Paul as apostle to the Gentiles.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterIn this incident, do we find Peter substituting human arrangements for divine direction? Someone may object that the disciples sought God’s direction in their appointment of Judas’ replacement, for the lot fell on Matthias. But they limited ‘divine guidance’ to one of only two men whom they put forward. The method of choice used - the casting of lots made it inevitable that one of the two men would be chosen.

In a similar manner we can narrow down the field of choice when seeking God’s guidance: “Heads and God wants me to buy an Aston Martin tails and it’s a Rolls Royce!”

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterWe often leave God with little room to manoeuvre because our minds are almost made up. A young man believed that God had a plan for his life including his marriage partner and his prayer for guidance went something like this,

‘Lord here are two girls whom I have vetted pretty closely and they both seem O.K. to me. You know that I let you make all the big decisions in my life so tell me which one of these two girls you want me to marry’.

That is not a prayer for guidance but a request for God’s approval of choices already made.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterWhat of the method of guidance that the disciples used? They cast lots, it was just like drawing straws! Now this is the last time we read of this practice in scripture because with the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the lives of God’s people this O.T. practice became obsolete. If the disciples had waited patiently for the coming of God’s Spirit, then the decision of Matthias might never have been made. Having said that, in the age of God’s Spirit there are no guarantees that his people will always rightly discern what he wants.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterI have read of people, who have experienced inner urges to do some of the stupidest things. These inner promptings then attributed to God and the guidance of his Spirit. The story is told of a well known minister who was confronted on his doorstep by a middle aged spinster. She said, “God has made it very clear to me that you are the man that I man to marry and I thought I should come and tell you the news right away”.

The somewhat surprised minister replied, “Madam, I assure you that God has not shared this news with me and until he does so I bid you good day”.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterNow while there is such a thing as the prompting of the Holy Spirit we must not confuse that with the prompting of wishful thinking, or the prompting of a morbid conscience, not to mention the prompting of the tempter in his guise as an ‘angel of light’.

For this reason, we need to test any ‘promptings’ that presses us to take a particular course of action. And the first thing we need to ask is, “Do they contradict or are they in accord with the clear teaching of scripture”. Clearly, the Holy Spirit who inspired the scriptures will not contradict himself, by suggesting that we do something that is contrary to them.

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Waiting Was Difficult For PeterSecondly, the Holy Spirit guides Christian men and women by helping them to think biblically. It is with this in mind that Paul urges the Ephesians to ‘understand what the will of the Lord is’ Eph.5v17. It is when our minds are steeped in scripture and our hearts indwelt by and open to the Spirit of God that we are able to arrive at a clearer understanding of the choices that God wants us to make.

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ConclusionWe can unnecessarily complicate our lives by running ahead of God. God promised David he would be king over Israel. David defeated Goliath, led Israel in a succession of victories, grew in popularity and King Saul driven by jealousy saw David as a threat and so he outlawed him and tried to kill him. David too had opportunities to take Saul’s life but refused. His followers were baffled. Had not God promised him the throne? Why not take it, why wait?

In this situation David wrote:“I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord”.Psalm 27.13

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ConclusionA great many people long for this or that blessing from God. God often says,

‘wait!’ ‘Wait on me, wait in expectant faith, believe in my perfect timing, believe that even now I can be setting the stage for your blessing and that during this time of waiting, I am at work in your life. Yield to my influence.’

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