Waiting for the Promise

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. We are in a series called Passover to Pentecost where Pastor Robert has been sharing how the days after Jesus's resurrection changed the world. Today Pastor Robert is talking about waiting for a promise.

I'm sure there are many of you who have waited for a promise, and Pastor Robert has some incredible things to share on this, so let's join him now. We are in a series called Passover to Pentecost, 50 days that changed the world. And those 50 days are divided into two sections, 40 days and 10 days. 40 days Jesus was on the earth after his resurrection. 10 days they were waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. That's the 50 days. So the title of this message is called Waiting for the Promise. So we're going to talk about these 10 days, and I'm going to tell you what the last words of Jesus were before he ascended.

40 days he's on the earth. And then right before he ascends, he tells his disciples to do something. But most people get it wrong. Most people quote Matthew and Mark, the Great Commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel. So they say the last words of Jesus begins with the word go.

Not true. Luke and Acts 1, last chapter of Luke, 24, Acts 1, record the last words of Jesus right before he is taken up. His last words were not go. His last words were stay and wait until you're endued with power from on high. Because if you go before you get the power, nothing's going to happen. Let me read these to you. Luke 24, 49, and behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. Acts 1, 4, being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait.

Wait, that's that word we all love, for the promise of the Father. OK, so let me just admit something to you. I don't like to wait.

Actually, that's not true. I hate to wait. You know what I hate more than waiting? Hurrying up to wait. Hurry, our reservation is at six.

Hurry, hurry, hurry. Then when we get there, why are we waiting? Why are we waiting? Did you call? Did you make the reservation?

It's 605. Why are we waiting? I'd like to go up to the manager and say, why are we waiting?

But I can't do it because the whole restaurant is saying, hey, Pastor Robert. I'm full of the joy of the Lord right now. I hate to wait.

Anyone feel that way? But we all wait. So I'm going to answer the question in this message of why does God make us wait? Why couldn't Jesus have stayed 50 days?

Why did he stay 40 and make them wait 10 days? I'm also going to answer a couple other questions that you might not have ever even thought about. Where did they wait and how did they wait? In other words, if you're waiting on a promise from God, where should you wait and how should you wait? And then we're going to talk about why do you wait?

So here's part number one. Where did they wait? Now, don't answer it because you'll get it partially right. You'll get it partially right.

I asked a few people this question this week. They got it partially right. Where did they wait? They all said the upper room.

That's partially right. By the way, the upper room was not the same room they had the Last Supper in. That was an upper room, not the same one, because this upper room held 120 people. There were 120 there on the day of Pentecost. There were the 11. They nominated another one.

They got 12 then. And then they had the 70 others. And then it makes very specific mention. It mentioned the ladies who were there as well. As well as it mentions Mary, the mother of Jesus. It's the last time she's mentioned in Scripture. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there for the birth of Christ and for the birth of the church. Because the church was birthed in Acts chapter 2. So Acts 1, 12, and 13 says, They returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, that's right after he ascends, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey.

I'll just explain it for those of you who want to know what that means in a moment. And when they entered, they went into the upper room where they were staying. That's why people think they were in the upper room for 10 days. Ten days they were there. They never left the upper room. And they sent out for Chinese, you know, during the 10 days. They never left that room.

I'll show you they did. A Sabbath day journey. It was not the Sabbath. It was the day before the Sabbath when they were waiting. But it wasn't the Sabbath. And when they went into the upper room, the Sabbath day journey simply means about three quarters of a mile.

But they didn't say it that way. It was either 2,000 cubits or a thousand steps, man steps. A cubit is from the tip of your finger into your elbow. That's 18 inches. So that'd be 2,000.

A half of that, a thousand of those would be 36 inches, which is about a man's gait, okay? So that's all it was. It was a made-up law that on the Sabbath, you could only walk 2,000 cubits or a thousand steps. And so it's just simply saying they went about a Sabbath day journey.

It's all the same, okay? Now, so, upper room. But that's not where they were the whole time during the 10 days.

Because Luke, again, records this. Luke 24, verse 52. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

Amen. In the temple. Upper room. Now, this word continually, by the way, I don't want to get too far into it. I told you about the cubit and all that stuff. I know I can get too far into details. But they were continually in the temple, not continuously.

Now, I'm glad the teacher stood up because they'll know the difference. Continuously means 24 hours a day never left, never ceases, no breaks. Continually means frequently, often. You know, if you say you continually talk about that, you frequently talk.

But you can't say you continuously. Okay, never mind. All right, so now everyone understand the difference. And I'd really like for you to use the correct word if you're around me, okay?

So, all right. So they were most of the time in the temple and they were in the upper room. The church began in the temple and in the house. It has continued in the temple and in the house. If you only have church in the temple and for the other six days of the week, you don't have church in your house, you're missing something. But even though we're coming out of this season of COVID, and I do believe we're coming out, if you only have church in the house and never get back to the temple, you're missing something too. Because it's good to come together.

So we need it both. Let me show you some scriptures, Acts 2, 46. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

Acts 5, 42. And daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Okay, so this is all through scripture, in the temple and from house to house. Paul said about five times, but I didn't want to take the time to read all the scriptures, greet so-and-so, Aquila and Priscilla, and greet the church that is in their house. So they met in the temple and they met in houses. But is there a deeper principle?

Yes. The deeper principle is when they ask Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? He said, oh, that's easy. The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

But the second, he said, is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Let me sum up those two for you. Relationship with God and relationship with godly people. So I'm answering the question, where did they wait? I'm answering the question, where should you wait if you're waiting on a promise from God? And all of us are waiting for a promise in our marriage, our business, our health with one of our kids. We're all waiting for a promise. Where should you wait?

Here it is. I'm not saying just in the temple and from house to house. I'm using the principle. The principle is you need to wait in relationship with God and in relationship with God's people. That's where you need to wait. You need to maintain, if you are waiting for a promise, you need to maintain your relationship with God and your relationship with God's people.

That's very, very important. Or you might not keep waiting for the promise. So where do you wait? You wait in relationship with God and God's people.

So here's number two. How do you wait? How did they wait? Acts 1 14, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. Now let me just let you know what prayer means to ask. Supplication means to intensely ask. To ask fervently.

To ask passionately. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. So that's what supplication means. But I want you to understand prayer is a huge part of the church. And it's not this I have to do it, I need to pray.

It's communicating with God, presenting your petitions, talking to Him. And when you talk to Him, you can release the burden that's on you. And if you don't pray, you will still have the burden.

And you will continue to carry the burden until you give it to Him. The farther we get from prayer, the farther we get from receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit. And when I say receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit, let me just say it's almost like it's like a one-time thing. Yes, we receive Jesus as our initial Savior. But there is a continual receiving Jesus every day as Lord.

Not for salvation, but for whatever we're going through right then. There is an initial receiving the Holy Spirit. But there is an initial, I mean there is a continual receiving the Holy Spirit in every situation we're going through in life. But He comes through prayer.

Watch this. You want to see how the Holy Spirit comes through prayer? Let me just show you again in Jesus' life and in the church. Luke 3 21, when all the people were baptized, it came past that Jesus also was baptized. And while He prayed, most people miss those three words. While He prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like the devil upon Him.

The Holy Spirit came when Jesus prayed. It's all through Scripture that heaven is waiting for one person on earth to agree with heaven so that heaven can rend the heavens and the Lord can step down. They're waiting. God's waiting on us. So where did they pray?

They stayed in relationship in the temple and from house to house. And how did they wait? They waited in prayer.

Here's number three. Why did they wait? This is the big question. Why did Jesus stay only 40 days? Why did He make them wait 10 days? And by the way, they didn't know it was going to be 10 days. He didn't tell them, wait for Pentecost. And by the way, there were no Pentecostal churches at the time. So they didn't know.

Pentecost means the day the Holy Spirit comes. They didn't know. They didn't know how long they'd be waiting. But He said, wait. But why? Why did He make them wait? Why does God make people wait? Here's the other thing.

You can take this word why and ask God a whole bunch of questions. Why did I lose my job? Why did this happen and why didn't this happen? Here's a tough one. Why did my wife get sick?

Here's another tough one. I never bring these up to bring up a bad memory, but I'm just trying to let us know we have these thoughts. Why did my husband die? Where were you, God? Why did this happen? Why did you allow this to happen?

Why? So why does God make us wait? Well, it's a tough question, but it's an easy answer. You might not like the answer until I explain it, but sometimes He makes you wait because He's God. And here's what I mean by that. Because He knows more than you know. He is all knowing.

But here's the good part. Not only is He all knowing, He's all loving. So His decision to make you wait is because He loves you. He's doing it for your good.

He's doing it because He loves you. And He's also making you wait to build your faith. But you need to understand something about faith because I'm going to take it a step further with you that maybe you've never thought about. First of all, we've got to understand faith.

Well, Hebrews 11 and 1, famous definition of faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Notice the word hope.

The evidence of things not seen. So hope and not seen. Faith is hope that you can't see.

Romans puts it this way, Romans 8 and 24. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Notice the word hope and wait in the same verse. Here's another verse. Lamentations 3, 26. It is good, it is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Why is that good? And by the way, if you already have everything you want, then you actually have no hope. People who have everything don't hope for anything.

That's why you hear of a lot of people that have a lot committing suicide. Because they've lost all hope. If you have everything, you hope for nothing.

You have no hope. So why do we hope? Why does God make us hope? He's building our faith. But here's the key. He's actually building your relationship with him. That's how he builds your faith. This is very, very, very, very important. Please, boy, this is my burden for the whole message.

If you catch this, you catch it all. God's given you a promise, but you can't handle the promise yet. He's building his relationship with you and your relationship with him so that when the promise comes, you can handle it. Remember, the promise was the power and the person of the Holy Spirit. The person came with great power. The reason God doesn't give you the power before you're ready is because it would destroy you. The reason God made the disciples wait 10 days was so they would go deeper in their relationship with God through prayer.

And they would get deep enough that when the power of the Holy Spirit came, they'd be able to handle it. Abraham and Sarah. God made them wait 25 years for the promise. You want to know why?

I got two reasons, but first one is this. They wouldn't have been able to handle the promise until they waited 25 years. And we know that because 11 years into it, Sarah gives her maid to Abraham to sleep with her maid to try to accomplish the promise on their own. And Abraham agrees. They are not ready to handle the promise.

I want you to catch this. When we say God's building your faith, we even say that all the time. We say things like, God's building my faith. He's building my faith.

Let me say it a different way. He's building your relationship with Him. He's putting a depth in your life so that when the promise comes, you have enough faith in Him, you can handle the promise. You won't fail because of the promise. And let's just say it's a business thing where you know God's going to bless you financially one day.

But if He gives you the financial blessing before you're mature enough to handle it, it will ruin you. He knows that. So He's making you wait. Now, here's the question. If He wasn't going to give the promise to Abraham and Sarah for 25 years, here's a question. Good question. Why did He tell them 25 years before?

It seems a little mean to me. I mean, God, if you're not going to give us this child for 25 more years, tell us in 24. And God's thinking, no, it's going to take you 25 years of knowing and waiting and hoping to have enough maturity to handle this. So that's one reason God waits.

The second reason is because even though He doesn't own a watch, His timing is always perfect. So Abraham and Sarah's child was named Isaac, right? One day, Abraham sends his servant to his brother's household to find a wife for his son, Isaac. On the exact day that he sends his servant, on the exact day his servant gets to a well and Rebekah comes to the well on that day. If Rebekah had come to the well, if Isaac had been born 25 years before, Rebekah probably was not even born. So Abraham has Isaac at the exact right time so Isaac can meet Rebekah, and Isaac and Rebekah have Jacob at the exact right time so Jacob can meet Rachel. And God does not open Rachel's womb until it's exactly the right time for her to have Joseph. And this continues all the way to a virgin named Mary. And here's the good news.

It's still continuing to this day with your children and your grandchildren. God is determining the days of their lives. God's doing it.

It's perfect. And God had Mary born at a certain time so the angel could come to her at a certain time. Scholars believe between the ages of 13 and 16, she was very young, so that Jesus could be born on a certain day so he could begin his ministry at 30.

And so at 33, he could die on Passover so that 50 days later, the Holy Spirit could come on Pentecost on the exact day. And it started with Abraham and Sarah having to wait 25 years for the promise. I know you're waiting for a promise. But where you need to wait is in relationship with God and relationship with his people. How you need to wait is in prayer.

And why you need to pray is because God's doing it for your good. I want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We hope today's message was encouraging. Next time, Pastor Robert is concluding this series with a message about how the Holy Spirit brings life. Have a nice day.