Hurry up and wait!

Luke 24:49

“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

“Hurry up and Wait!”  That is a curious American expression.  People usually use it when they are frustrated.  Someone has rushed them to some event, insisting that they absolutely had to be there on time or they would miss everything.  So they rush around, going out of the way to get where they are going on time.  Yet when they get there everyone else is late or they have to wait in a long line or their host is running behind.  No one else seems to have put in the effort that they did.  After hurrying to get there they have no choice but to sit and wait for everyone else – Hence the phrase – “Hurry up and wait!”

In another sense, that is exactly what Jesus instructs His disciples to do at His Ascension.   Before He left He laid out God’s plan.  “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day… Then He gives them and to us a mission… a huge mission to undertake. Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in My name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”  Then just in case the disciples or you or I might be wondering where to start Jesus laid that out too.  “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  That’s right!  That’s the first step in God’s plan – Hurry up and wait!    That just doesn’t seem right, does it?    If there is a bunch to be done, I want something to do.  I want to get moving.  Sitting around and waiting drives me nuts.  On busy days the first activity to get dropped is quiet time and devotions.  I want to spring into action. Yet here Jesus says it, The first thing you do is “Stay in the city!” 

There are three very good reasons why this is where our part in God’s work always begins.  First, since it’s God’s work, it needs to be done God’s way.  Many Bible stories come to mind but I will share just one..  Its about Paul when he wanted to go further into Asia to proclaim the Gospel. The Spirit wouldn’t allow him.  He wanted to do God’s work.  How could that not be what God wanted?  But then Paul had a dream of a Macedonian Man inviting them to come to Greece.  They went.  There in Philippi a woman came to faith. This woman named Lydia was from the region God had stopped Paul from entering.  She would be God’s instrument in carrying the Gospel to that part of Asia.  That’s why you hurry up and wait.  God’s work needs to be done God’s way.

Second, God’s work needs to be done in God’s time.  God’s timing is always better than ours.  We see this no where more clearly than in the life of Jesus.  It wasn’t until all the prophecies were in place… until world history had come to the time of the Romans with peace, with good roads and one language – all of which would make for the easy spreading of the Gospel… it wasn’t until “the fullness of time” that God sent forth His Son.   In His life Jesus kept saying that “His hour had not yet come.”  It wasn’t until all was ready, his work done, his disciples trained that Jesus went to Jerusalem to be crucified for our sins and be raised the third day.  We saw this at Lamb of God.  For a long time we couldn’t figure out why God kept putting up roadblocks to moving forward with building the Community Life Center. But then the economy tanked.  God knew what we didn’t.  Three years later it was time and the building went up without a hitch.  God’s work needs to be done in God’s time.  There’s a reason why Jesus told them to stay in the city.  

Third, God’s work needs to be done in God’s power.  We tend to be like a plan.  We are attracted to a process.   Give me 7 principles of a healthy marriage… or ten steps for sharing my faith my neighbor… or 5 keys to make our church grow.  Those things may indeed be helpful… but by themselves they are simply instruments of the law… They tell us what we should be doing yet have no power to help us do them.  Give us a process and we think, “I can do it…”  But we can’t.  You and I can’t bring someone to faith. We can’t change a heart.  Only God’s Spirit can do it.  That’s the way it was even with Jesus.  Look how He saved the world.  He set aside His power.    He surrendered to His enemies.  He refused to call for those 12 legions of angels.  He let them lie about him at His trial.  He refused to fight back.  It was when He did nothing except hang on a cross and die that He conquered sin. It was when His father raised Him from the dead that He conquered death.  He put Himself in His Father’s hands… lived by faith in His Father’s love… counted on His Father’s power.  That’s how God’s mission is accomplished – by faith… by His power… by His Spirit.. 

That’s the first step in the mission God calls us… as we seek His will for our life… as we make decisions is to Hurry up and Wait on Him.  Look to Him.  Pray. Then pray again.  Then pray some more.  “Stay in the City until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  No need to worry.  No need to hurry.  Just wait.  God has promised, ‘God’s Work done God’s way in God’s time by God’s power will never fail!”  Amen!