Wait on the Lord. So they didn t know how the war was going how long they would be there when they would return home to what kind of home / etc.

Transcription

1 Wait on the Lord James 5:7-12 Introduction Langdon Gilkey was one of around 1500 foreigners living / working near Peking China when the outbreak of WW II disrupted their lives. The Japanese military that came to power in the area herded the foreign civilians into an internment camp in The internees were made up of British businessmen, American missionaries, Catholic priests, teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc. Anyone who was from a country fighting against Japan in the war had to go live in this internment camp. In fact, the famed British Olympian Eric Liddell was sent to this camp as he had been serving as a missionary in China and died there from a medical condition. As this was an internment camp their treatment was light compared to POW camps but the barbed wire fencing and locked gates reminded them they were not free to leave. They were allowed to bring into the camp only what they could carry or ship ahead. Their sleeping quarters were cramped with 18 inches between beds. Their food rations began adequate enough but became smaller and smaller as the war drug on. When a shipment of care parcels arrived from the Red Cross it produced a major crisis in the camp as to who would get what. One of the biggest struggles for the internees was the fact that they got so little outside information about the war much of what they heard was simply thru the Japanese propaganda machine. So they didn t know how the war was going how long they would be there when they would return home to what kind of home / etc. But one sunny day in August, 1945 an American plane flew overhead and dropped several paratroopers into the region who then took over the camp declared that the war was over and said that arrangements would be made for the internees to return home. Over the next several weeks life changed dramatically massive shipments of provisions were dropped by air there was no more scarcity of food plenty for all. Gilkey commented on the enormity of the news: How completely certain kinds of news... that a war has begun, or that a war is over can stop one world and begin another! Nothing one is doing today will, because of it, be relevant or possible tomorrow... the minute I heard the news, the whole camp looked, felt and even smelled different. That is how James wants us to view the return of Christ All of this is going to change someday radically We don t know when Jesus is going to return when our spiritual battles will be over but there is coming a day when such will be the case For now we share some similarities with internees at a camp. We are not citizens of this world Paul said that our citizenship is in heaven. 1

2 Phil. 3:20, 21 for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory... The Christian is someone who by His very definition is waiting for a transformative event that something is the return of Christ When Christ returns this all will change James point is: just wait Jesus Christ changes everything and when he returns life s trials / hardships / burdens will seem utterly irrelevant when we see Christ. I. Be Patient! vv. 7-9 As we come to this section of James it flows naturally from what preceded Specifically James argued that the wicked were destined for a day of judgment [5:1-6] That the inequities / injustices / acts of evil committed in this world will someday be met with the just retribution of God In a sense James moves now from addressing the persecutors to addressing the persecuted He says, be patient trouble doesn t last forever if you belong to Jesus If you know Christ this world is as bad as it gets for you If you don t know Christ this world is as good as it gets James s readers were experiencing trial and difficulty James 1:2, 3 James reminded them of how trials are used of God to mold character / refine faith / etc. Trials remind us: this world is not our home they are God s way of saying: Don t get too comfortable here Trials keep us hungry for heaven Now James comes full circle and returns to their troubles and says, Be patient wait until the coming of the Lord. Why? Because when Christ comes everything changes 2

3 Everything bad / horrible / evil will be done away with Our trouble here is temporary! All 9 of the NT authors teach the 2 nd Coming of Christ I John 3:2, 3 Christ is going to appear we will be changed James was probably on hand at the ascension in Acts 1 One of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ was to James specifically I Cor. 15:7 Acts 1:9-11 By fixing our focus upon Christ and His return we are better equipped to live the way God calls us to whether that means suffering for the sake of righteousness [as many prophets / apostles did] or resisting the temptations and lies of the world / or enduring trials [as Job did] This is sort of a divine: Hang in there troubles don t last forever He brings an analogy from farming The farmer waits for the fruition of His crop We await the consummation the return of Christ which comes at God s appointed time It is coming but we have to wait for it that is ok The whole idea of waiting / being patient is a prominent theme in Scripture Isaiah 40:31 Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength Ps. 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. The idea of waiting upon God carries the idea of trust and surrender to the will and purpose of God in our lives The person who waits on God waits for God to act for God to deliver for God to lead for God to fulfill His Word / His promise 3

4 Sometimes we don t always wait very well When Abraham and Sarah were waiting upon God to fulfill His promise to give them a child they grew tired of waiting after several years - and came up with an alternate plan not of God s devising Sarah told Abraham to take Hagar [her servant] and have a child thru her Ishmael was born but that was clearly not the fulfillment of God s promise It was several years later that Sarah herself became pregnant with Isaac the long awaited fulfillment of God s promise Simeon in the temple waited a long time to see God s Messiah it was on his bucket list! It had been revealed to him that he would not see death until he had seen the Savior Luke 2:25-32 The OT saints had to wait for the 1 st coming of Christ prophecies pointing to Christ s 1 st coming had been in circulation for several thousand years going back to Eve NT saints now await the 2 nd coming God Himself is patient in His purposes When He told Abraham that he would make of him a great nation He added your people will be enslaved for 400 years! [Gen. 15:13] That s a long time from our perspective Why? [it gave Israel time to grow into a people of 2 million] One reason given the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete The Canaanites had to ripen in their wickedness so that when Israel came and carried out the judgment of God in taking their land such an act was justified [Gen. 15:16] *** God is a patient God He is patient with the wicked giving them time to repent / trust in the Savior People say, well it s been 2000 years since Jesus left this earth why should I still expect that to happen? II Peter 3:3-9 4

5 Why should you still expect Jesus to return? Because God is faithful to His promises / He cannot lie [Titus 1:2] Because time is not an issue with the eternal God Consider an example: Mayflies are an insect that live for 24 hours that s it Imagine a mayfly witnessing a tadpole in a pond - coming out of its egg and he is told that someday in the future that tadpole will become a frog and hop around on legs [which takes several months to occur] For the mayfly that prediction seems pretty far fetched all he sees and all he is ever going to see is a tadpole because his little life lasts for 24 hours Expand the picture a little suppose this mayfly comes at the end of 60 generations of mayflies all that were told someday that tadpole becomes a frog This mayfly could argue nope it hasn t happened for 60 generations it won t happen But then that day the grand event occurs under his watch His perspective is limited because he is a finite creature of time and so are we God the eternal God does not limit himself by our short time perspective he operates and fulfills promises over thousands of years The 1 st promise of the 1 st coming of Christ was made roughly 4000 years before Mary ever rode a donkey down to Bethlehem But God fulfilled it and every other 1 st coming prophecy to the letter even the city of birth / the method of death / the resurrection He will fulfill the 2 nd Coming promises as well The only question is are you and I living in light of that return? II Peter 3:10-13 What sort of people ought we to be? [knowing what is to come] We should conduct ourselves in holiness / obedience / faithfulness We should be keeping the faith like Job did during his period of trial 5

6 I Cor. 15:58 We should be abounding in the work of the Lord keep serving When you quit serving Jesus it means you ve stopped living in light of His return We should be living out God s Word in our lives declaring the excellencies of His grace the power of the gospel to a world that needs a Savior II. Waiting Well vv James gives us examples of those who have done what he is calling for: waiting well The prophets endured such things Daniel was obedient to God tossed in the lion s den Jeremiah given the old mud pit treatment Isaiah tradition says that he was sawn in two Why were they suffering? Did they do something wrong? No they did something right This is nothing new among God s people suffering in the world at the hands of sinners / etc. Matt. 5:10-12 Sam Allberry: It is possible for Western Christians especially to feel as though comfort and life going well are normal and that hardship is abnormal or even a sign that something must be wrong in our Christian lives. But the Bible nowhere leads us to have such an expectation; indeed it is full of examples to the contrary. Suffering of one kind or another is normal for the people of God. It is not the sign that things have gone wrong, but that they ve gone normal. James mentions Job Job lost his health / his possession / most of his family And Job did not know why but he kept his faith in God Job s trials were a test of his faith how genuine it was Your faith is being tested by the things you encounter in this life The grand question in Job: Will he keep the faith or curse God and die? Without knowing it Job was demonstrating authentic faith in God before the spiritual realm 6

7 Thru it all Job never turned against God or blamed God - -- but rather waited for God to vindicate him James says to remember God is full of compassion Conclusion Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands... That is God s care for His people We are to remind ourselves we are not caught up in the uncaring / unknowing hands of fate. Rather we are children loved by God being led by His hand There was a missionary couple that adopted a child in the area where they were serving. This young boy had come from an abusive home and never had experienced a stable home life. One day he took his adoptive father s comb and had put it in his pocket. Later he was asked if he took the comb and he denied it but was later found to have the comb. When he got caught he ran and hid under the bed thinking that they would toss him out for his behavior. But the mom crawled underneath the bed with him and took his head in her hands and said look you didn t do anything to get yourself into this family and nothing you do will cause you to no longer be part of this family. That is our God He is gracious and compassionate While we may not understand what is going on at times in our lives we are to wait upon the Lord and we ll find that He is compassionate and full of mercy 7