A Witness in Waiting
One of the most
common traits among Christians is a certain eagerness to serve God. In
fact, most of us are so eager to do God’s work that we often overlook the first
step in serving God: spending time in pray and waiting for God to empower us to
serve his will.
Particularly
among us Christians in
Within a proper perspective such attitudes and behaviors are helpful in regard to our discipleship. Indeed, to accomplish God’s will we must be willing to act, to take risks, to get involved, to build things. However, given our cultural view that action is almost always preferable to inaction , and then mix in the high degree of value we place on measuring success by tangible results, and we become quite susceptible to the belief that busyness is equivalent to faithfulness in God’s eyes.
The net result of our cultural
expectations is that we often feel compelled to act before we are really
prepared to act. We can see this cultural attitude even in very young children.
For example, I can still remember when both Jessica and Emily were trying to
learn to walk. In each case, both of them were so very eager to walk. As the
time drew near for them to learn to walk, they would spend their days crawling
around the house looking for things they could pull themselves up on. Even
before their sense of balance was fully developed, and long before their leg
muscles were really strong enough and coordinated enough to master the task of
walking, there they were pulling themselves up and trying to walk.
Now, I’ll confess, I don’t know if
that was Leslie and I’s fault, maybe we inadvertently encouraged them before
they were ready, or maybe it was something in Jessica and Emily that was
driving them to try walking before they were truly ready. In any case, this
example points to our proclivity, our eagerness really, to act before we are
truly prepared, truly empowered to act.
We see a similar trait in the
disciples question to our resurrected Lord here in the first chapter of Acts.
In verse 6 the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord is this the time when you will
restore the
The disciples, you see, were eager
to act. They wanted to do something. Now that God had revealed his power over
death through the resurrection, now that God had definitively shown that there
was no equal to his power in all the universe, now the disciples want to act.
Indeed, given the resurrection of
Jesus, everything had changed. The world the disciples thought they knew was
gone and a whole new world had been revealed; a world in which the power of God
was unmatched. Therefore, they were eager to bring in the kingdom. Moreover,
they were ready to restore the Davidic monarchy. In all likelihood, behind the
disciples question about the kingdom of Israel lay a longing to establish a
genuine theocracy; a political kingdom with God at the center.
However, Jesus immediately dampened
their enthusiasm. They were not yet ready to act, they had not yet been
empowered. In the following verse, verse 7, he responded to them, “It is
not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own
authority.” To paraphrase, Jesus is saying, hold up, slow down,
remember God is in control - not you!
After reminding the disciples of
who was calling the shots, Jesus gave the disciples a task they could in fact
do - to wait. In verse 8 he said, “But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in
In these few short verses which
open the book of Acts a fundamental process of Christian discipleship is
revealed. It is a process which is quite foreign to those of us with a “can do”
approach to life deeply instilled in us by the culture we live in. As Jesus
appeared to the disciples just prior to his ascension into heaven, his word to
them was not a pep talk, it was not a locker room type speech designed to
motivate the team, it was not an encouraging word to get out there on the
battlefield of souls and whip the devil. Rather it was a word that in many ways
was harder for the disciples, and in turn for us today, to hear - TO WAIT!
It is important not to confuse this
waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to be given with idleness. As he
encouraged the disciples to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus was not
telling his disciples to waste their time simply doing nothing. They understood
that to receive this power of the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised, they would
in fact have to be doing something; and that something was PRAYER!
Our passage this morning concludes
with verse 14. It reads, “All these were devoting themselves to PRAYER,
together with certain women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as
his brothers.” Before they could receive the power they needed to
do God’s work through the gift of the Holy Spirit the disciples needed to be in
prayer. Waiting patiently for God to instruct them, and to empower them, for
the tasks ahead.
To summarize this basic approach to
discipleship presented here in Acts 1:6-14 we can say that there are (3) broad
steps or movements.
(1) First, it is necessary to
personally appropriate the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. “Do I believe that
Jesus was truly dead and in the tomb, and then, through God’s gracious power
was given a new body and a new life?” Once we accept this basic truth it
fundamentally changes how see the world. It frees us to truly live because we
no longer need fear death.
(2) The next movement is to spend
time in prayer as we seek to serve this marvelous truth we have accepted.
Moreover, this is not a one time event, but is in fact a process that we go
through each day, over and over again. As we spend time in prayer, we open
ourselves to allow God to mold our hearts and shape our thoughts.
(3) The third movement, and it is
important to remember that this is where the disciples wanted to start, is to
act with the power of the Holy Spirit. As we receive the power of the Holy
Spirit, then God calls us out into the public realm to act. As we are prepared
and empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer we in fact become
as Christ promised, his witnesses in
How do we know when we are
empowered by the Holy Spirit? There is no set answer to that question, but we
can confidently say this much: When we have a clarity of vision for what God
wants us to do, and when we feel within us the drive to commit ourselves to
that vision, then we can trust that God is leading us and has empowered us.
It is impossible to overstate the
importance of prayer as we seek to serve God. Let me tell you a little story
about just how important prayer is as we live our daily lives.
A six year old little boy and his
family went out to eat one night. Sitting at the table the little boy asked his
parents if he could say grace. As the family bowed their heads the little boy
began to pray:
God is good, God is great.
Thank you for the food, and I would thank you even more if Mom let’s us get ice
cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all!
Along with the laughter from others
nearby, the father heard a woman remark, “That’s what’s wrong with this
country. Kids don’t even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream. Why, I
never!” Hearing this the little boy burst into tears and asked his father, “Did
I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?”
As the father tried to reassure his
son that God was not mad at him and that his prayer was just fine, an elderly
man approached the table. He winked at the crying little boy and said, “I
happen to know that God really liked that prayer.” “Really” said the little
boy.
“Cross my heart”, said the man.
Then in a theatrical whisper as he motioned to the woman whose remark had upset
the little boy, “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream
is good for the soul sometimes.”
Of course, the parents bought the
little boy a sundae for dessert that night. As the waiter sat the sundae down
in front of the little boy, he stared at it for a long moment, then he picked
it up, stood up from the table. And without a word walked over to the woman
whose words had cut so sharply and sat the sundae in front of her.
With a big smile on his face he
told her, “Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.”
Now, there are several elements of
discipleship present in this story. Let me point out just one thing. As the
little boy prayed the table grace, he certainly was not praying for God to use
him in any special way. Nonetheless, through a series of unexpected
actions loosed by the act of prayer, God did in fact use the little boy to
spread his good news to a person who obviously needed it.
The point is simple, when we pray,
we are opening ourselves to God’s power. When we pray, we become witnesses in
waiting. When we pray, we allow ourselves to become as Jesus instructed us to
be, his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth - and Trinity Presbyterian right here in Travelers Rest SC is certainly
included in that list.
Let us move forward as we seek to
grow and expand our ministry, and at each step of the way let serve as
witnesses in waiting, turning to our God in prayer. So may it be for us.
Reverend Marc V. Mason
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Travelers Rest, SC