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October 20, 2024

The Church in Waiting

Pastor: Rev. Mark Kuiper Series: The Beauty of the Church Verse: Luke 2:1–7

 This morning we're continuing our study in the beauty of the church. This morning's message, the church in waiting. And this morning will be a kind of a broad overview of what that means to be the church in waiting. If you look in your bulletin, you'll see a picture of the hammer beam.

And as you know, in, in our Trinity Hall, those beams will talk about different stories. And there's a progression. And so last week we had the hammer beam that had the wall and the temple inside when the, they were, they returned from exile and they fixed the wall but then you have 400 years of silence.

And in our new building, that 400 years of silence is where the kitchen is. So, it's going to get us through, right? But then the very next beam, we start with the New Testament story. And that's the beam that you'll see printed in your bulletin. It has the manger and the ox and the lamb laying down and the scene of Christ's birth.

So, this morning, the church in waiting. I'm going to tell you a story about a lady named Beverly. Beverly's not a real name. I chose the name Beverly because I don't know a Beverly. So no one will think I'm talking about them. And Beverly probably wouldn't even remember because I'm terrifically old and she, who knows.

This happened 20 some years ago. Tammy and I were on a date. And I was an assistant pastor, the very first pastor. Um, and we had a whole bunch of youth volunteers, about 20 or so youth volunteers because the University of Virginia had a lot of students that came, so we used a lot of those students, we used, we invited a lot of those students to disciple our students.

One son's girl, Beverly was sitting at a restaurant that Tammy and I went to for a date. And I walk in, big, happy, clueless Mark. Hi, Beverly. She was all dressed nicely. I'm like, wow, you're all dressed up. You waiting for somebody? Yes. Tammy gives me a nudge. Like, uh, Mark, you're, uh, just, you know, read the room.

Who you waiting for? Somebody? Tammy's like, she's, she's on a date. I'm like, oh, good, good. Who you waiting for?

She didn't want to tell me. We went and sat and and she's sitting there dressed up and ready at the table waiting. We have our dinner 45 minutes into our dinner. I look over and I see Beverly still sitting by herself. I see a tear in her eye. She gets up in shame. and leaves. I was so mad. It's like I wish I knew that guy.

I wish I could just tell him about Jesus.

Waiting. Waiting is a difficult thing. It's a pain that we can feel in waiting when it doesn't happen in the way or the timing. That we had hoped. The greater our hope in the object or the event, then the greater our anxiety in waiting. For her there was this sense, I know, that I'm not worth a phone call.

I'm not worth a date. I'm not worth getting to know better. I'm alone. Uh, feeling like a fool, unwanted and unvalued. Tammy and I are in the process of waiting right now for grandson number two. Grandson number two, we have pictures and an ultrasound and they're working on a name and we are waiting for grandson number two with great anticipation.

In some cultures. The son and the grandson is your retirement plan. You know, there was years with my two boys that I was really, really glad that wasn't our culture. I wasn't sure if we might be left out in the yard for a few days and rust, right? But for some, the waiting of a, of a child or of a person is nothing greater than that.

But also, we've experienced no greater pain than losing a child that we were waiting for. The joy, the anticipation, the hope, the pictures, the thoughts of what that's going to be, dashed to pieces. And so as we think about the church in waiting, as we look today at Luke chapter two, verses one to seven, the birth narrative of Luke to realize that this happens in a season of waiting, right?

This happens in a season of waiting for all of Israel. And that season of waiting starts all the way back in Genesis chapter three. Now that season of waiting for humanity as the scriptures tell us in the heavenly realms that the angels had longed to look for it. There were these observers from the cosmos looking and saying, when is this going to happen?

When is this amazing incarnation going to happen? When are we going to start to see the wrong being turned to right? The stain and the curse of sin being turned. How is, how is God Almighty, the God of angels and human beings, how is he gonna write this? And longing and looking. And that's the chapter that we have this morning.

That's what I want you to think about when we take our children and our grandchildren and our friends through Trinity Hall and we walk and we look at these beams. Why was this one chosen? Why was this one chosen? What does this represent? Again, on that side of Trinity Hall, you're gonna have the waiting that is answered, and yet the end leads in another waiting for our king to return yet a second time.

This morning, what did it mean for him to come in an answer to our waiting? Four hundred years of silence from Malachi to Luke. The Jews waited. I, uh, I wondered, we had a lot of Jewish neighbors where we lived in St. Louis and across the street I, I looked up just to be sure, are they still waiting? And like evangelicals, there's lots of different views, right, uh, a lot of different summaries of what it means, the, the humanist.

Rabbi Peter Schweitzer from New York City said years ago the evangelicals had a bumper sticker that read, I found it. So, any of you remember that? I found it. We even had little buttons we wore. I found it. The Jewish version would read, I'm still looking for it. In contrast to Christians who assert the Messiah has come, Jews would never be satisfied with any applicant for the job.

Messianic claimants have all fallen short in the past and will in the future. Waiting around for the messianic redemption is therefore a distraction from life's immediate challenges. Our focus should be on bringing redemption in our own lifetime and with our own two hands. Oh no. The idea of Messiah, he says, supports a top down model of power that invests far too much influence and responsibility on one solitary supermench who will single handedly save the day.

Thank you. The conservative view teaches that there'll be a leader, an individual who'll bring about redemption. This rabbi from Pasadena says, In some ways, I'd like to imagine that this is true, at a bris or a baby naming. Imagine with many ways the bundle of love will influence and change the world. It seems easy to sit back and hope that a Messiah will come, although I have no idea whether or not most Jews are expecting a Messiah.

I'm certain that most Jews recognize there is much suffering and great sadness in our world. Speaking for myself only, I'm not waiting for a personal Messiah who will bring kingdom of God on earth. I prefer a more active approach. I believe that each of us is created in the divine image. We increase holiness when we accept personal responsibility for bringing out a messianic age.

That's Rabbi Amy Walk. The ultra Orthodox have 13 principles that are incumbent upon every Jew to believe, and number 12 for them is, I believe with complete faith in the coming Messiah. And even though He may delay, nevertheless, I anticipate every day that He will come. The Reform Jews, Rabbi Laura Novak, says every year at Passover, they set an extra cup of wine at the Seder table for the proposed Elijah.

Baby Naming and Bride Ceremonies. We set a seat of honor for Elijah. Each Saturday night, as Shabbat comes to a close with Havdalah, we sing about Elijah. Who's Elijah? We meet him in the Bible, Kings 1 and 2. He's the prophet, like many others, speaks to the people of Israel. Listen to this, imploring them to cleave to their Israelite ways.

Later in the book of Malachi, Elijah is understood to be the harbinger of the Messiah. Who is Elijah? We are Elijah. They're still waiting. Church, we wait for a Messiah to return who has been here. And we read about his birth in Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 7. If you're able, please stand.

In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. This is the word of God.

You may be seated. Is it worth the wait? As I put a sermon and a sentence together this week, I said, it's going to be very simple. Jesus was and is worth waiting for. And Tammy, my wife, said, you can't end a sentence with a preposition. I said, watch me in. Jesus was worth waiting for. And Jesus is worth waiting for church.

Children, adults, creation. He was worth waiting for. The promised Messiah, we read about him in Micah, didn't we? In such great detail. The prophets told us what to expect, what it would look like, and in Micah even talks about being slapped in the face. And being born in Bethlehem. And the text we read, it's similar to what we looked at last week with Ezra, right?

These kings of the earth, they think they're ruling and they think they're autonomous and they're doing these things. And we know, because the prophets have foretold, we get to see all of this unfolding in the heavenly realms that, this movement, this census, it was because God had said, He's going to be born here.

And from out of here, he will come. And so Jesus comes as Messiah to fulfill every single promise and every bit of hope. Is he worth the wait? Oh, he is so worth the wait. What do we wait for in Messiah? I'm going to just break it down in, in his three offices. And again, I'm doing this in a different order than we normally get it.

Normally we talk about Jesus's three offices as prophet, priest, and king in that order. And so this morning as we work through it, I suspect this is not new for many of you, but it helps us understand God promised a Messiah and Messiah would fill these roles and he would fill them perfectly. Because humanity needs all of these roles in order for humanity to flourish, in order for us to be made right, declared right, and to be presented to God.

We need all of these three roles to be working in perfection. Luke starts actually in chapter 1 with this prophetic promise as well. They believed because of Malachi that Elijah would come first, right? Elijah would come first. And so, Luke talks about the birth of John the Baptist. And then later on in Matthew 17, after the transfiguration Jesus comes down and they say, wait, we thought Elijah was supposed to come first.

If you're the son of man, if you're the Messiah, wasn't Elijah supposed to come first? And Jesus says, yeah, you're right. Elijah was supposed to come first. And Elijah has come and they didn't accept him. And then in Matthew 17, it says, Oh, then the disciples knew they understood he was talking about John the Baptist.

Jesus is the Messiah. He is. He was worth waiting for. What are you waiting for?

Most of human life has some sense of waiting, doesn't it?

I'm looking forward to a trip that I'm going to take with my wife. It's on a certain date. I've imagined in my mind what it's going to look like, what we're going to get to do, what we're going to get to read. I'm waiting. Kids are waiting for their next break, or their next competition, or their next ball game.

Human life is about waiting. I kind of drive my wife nuts because after breakfast, I start thinking about lunch. Like, hey, what are we having for dinner tonight? Because I've never spoiled my dinner. I, I guess that's a thing for some people. I've never done that. I'm not sure what it means. But, but I, I, I, I'm not satisfied.

I'm, I'm waiting. All of humanity is waiting for a prophet, priest, and king. Not just Christian people. We're about to go into this election process. And, and all of the U. S. is considering what will our prophet, priest, and king do. What will he or she do? What will they bring about? Will they solve these problems?

Jesus comes as Messiah, as a prophet, priest, and king, but I want to go through the order in which we feel that need. I want to go through the order in which we accept that need. And the first is king. Jesus comes as a king. Now, this idea and role of king and reign and rule, it's very common. Right? It's very common in just about every fantasy series that you'll read.

There's a special birth. There's a situation. There's an evil warlord. There's a culture that needs to be transformed. There are people that need to be saved. And there is a Savior that is necessary to rally. The Savior is usually tested and tried. sought after fleas for his or her life. It's a common theme.

We want a king. In our notes, I've listed three things here. The first thing we want a king to do is to reign, to rule. Again, in Micah, talks about how the evil one has come, and he's ruined the judges. He's killed the judges. The judges stand, again, as a picture of what a king would do. And as men we've been studying the book of Judges and we see this cycle, a judge comes as a type of a Messiah, never perfect, very flawed, but the people in such anguish and turmoil they flee to this Messiah, they flee to this judge, there's reform, religious reform, the enemies are defeated, and then in peace you read about it, they had peace for 20 years, they had peace for 40 years.

And then they fell back in and they needed saving once again. We want a king to rule. We almost always think that a proper rule is always in our favor. Maybe it's not a king. Maybe we just want a new teacher. Maybe we want just a new boss, a new spouse. But regardless, we inherently know that humanity needs authoritative structures to reign.

Leadership abhors this vacuum. Jesus comes to reign. Jesus the Messiah is the King. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He controls and sustains everything. As Hebrews says, by the word of his power. Jesus comes and proves that he has authority over every realm, over creation. Disciples, who is this?

Who is this? They say. Even the wind and the waves obey him. He feeds the crowds. He curses the fig tree. He tells the future. He rules everything. He walks on water. Jesus, the Messiah, the King, he came to reign. Secondly, he came to defeat our enemies. Israel cried out, we need a king. Who's going to go out to war for us?

Who is going to lead us to victory? Who will release us from our enemies? A king comes to defeat our enemies. And folks, as we go through this, I want you to know that we are the church in waiting for that king to return, right? But we have a greater hope than even these folks had, right? We have a greater hope.

We have the incarnate Christ. And so when we talk about him reigning, even at his crucifixion, when Pilate says, don't you know I have the authority? What does Jesus say? That's what he says. In Aramaic, it's pshh. You have no authority except what was given to you. I can call a host of angels. He reigns. He defeats our enemy.

He locks the strong man. In Hebrews 2, the writer going on about the sufficiency of Christ in all of these roles says in verse 8, he has left everything under his feet. And he makes this interesting phrase, he says, Yet at present, we don't see it. And I love that he's put that in, Yet at present, we don't see it.

He came, he reigns, he rules, he's defeated the evil one. Yet at present, he says, we don't see it. But who do we see? We see Jesus. He goes on to say, Who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned in glory. He might taste death for everyone, we're getting ahead of ourselves, that's the priestly role.

But he came to reign, to defeat, and to represent us. To represent us to the world and to the Father. We need a king to go before us. He is our head, our leader, the greatest object of our worship. He represents us. He is our figurehead. Goliath, remember, was the world's champion. Right, he stood as the head of an evil empire, humanity in all of its strength and arrogance.

Right, he utters profanities about the armies of Israel. That doesn't bother David nearly as much as when he belittles the God of Israel. And the son of David comes to defeat and to represent Israel. What does he say? Do you have anyone who can represent you? Is there anyone? Go back and hide in your caves.

Go back. There's no one to represent you. And then David stands up again as a picture, as a forerunner of Christ. He stands up and what does he say? I come to you in the name of the living God. And he represents the people of Israel. The body politic wanted a king and God sent us the Messiah, Messiah that serves as a king is pretty great.

And we're hoping right as a nation, we're hoping that whoever leads our country was going to be great. We probably first think about ourselves, will it be good for me? Will it help me? But will it be good for the world? Will it be some person or some leader that we can stand behind and honor?

And so I think that's easy for us. I think that's easy. We, we, we would like a king, especially one like Jesus, right? Who would not want Jesus to be their king, right? Who, who would not when they read the story say, okay, even if he's not the son of God, man, what he did, he would be a great candidate. He was wonderful to the widows and the orphans.

Oh, he put the proud and the haughty people in their place, encouraged love and peace and harmony, generosity, but a prophet, well, I don't know if I need a prophet, do I need a prophet? It's good to have an amazing, honest, generous, powerful King on our side, but do I need a prophet? You know what the prophets would do is they would give these short term predictions.

And Jesus did it, and it was the prophetic way before the Word was written. God provided the prophets, these short term prophecies. This is going to happen. So that we would believe and trust their long term prophecies. So we have to look at this with Jesus. Jesus is this answer to God's prophecies, and all that he does answers God's prophecies, so that as prophet, all that he says can for sure be trusted.

In fact, it was so important that the prophets spoke the truth in Deuteronomy 13 and 18, we're given rules for prophets. As the people enter the land, God tells Moses, you need to tell the people because there's going to be false prophets. They're going to say things in my name. And if they do, and they're false, kill them.

Kill them. Don't mute the channel. Don't go to a different synagogue, he says. Kill them. Why? Because what could be more important for the people of God than to hear the Word of God? And what could be worse than thinking you're hearing the Word of God and hearing lies and deception? We need a prophet. We need a prophet, and three things I've put down here.

We need a prophet to tell us what to believe, All right, in, in summary, what are we to believe? You need a prophet to tell you what to believe. I we take great pride in our mental ability and our our ability to judge right and wrong and, and to filter all the things that are coming in.

But oh Christian, we need a prophet to tell us, this is right, this is true, this is good. What to believe. Jesus says, believe in me. We need a prophet to tell us what is coming. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. You had a prophet from God, speaking God's word, knowing that his word was not original.

Right? The prophet would use this formula, right? Thus says the Lord. And sometimes we would add to it, Thus says the Lord who formed you, O Jacob. Thus says the Lord who created heaven and earth. Thus says the Lord who caused the rain and the storms. Thus says the Lord, the prophet was saying, It is not me speaking, it is God speaking.

Therefore you must believe what I tell you. This is what is coming. We need a prophet to tell us how to prepare for the coming of the Lord. I find it's interesting that most people that I talk to, who are nominal Christian, maybe, maybe not Christian, they will say things like, I believe there's a God.

And I'll say, are you worried about meeting Him? Are you worried about meeting Him? And they'll respond, no, no, I'm not worried at all. Because they've tried to be a good person. And they'll say this, too. This is frequent. And I haven't killed anyone. I'm not as bad as those other folks. And, yeah. I'm not afraid of meeting Him.

I'm like, well, you've been listening to the wrong prophet. For if you're not in Jesus, you should fear meeting the living God. You've been listening to the wrong prophet. You've been listening to a filtered gospel.

The prophet will tell us how to prepare what we must do, how our sins must be forgiven, how our sins must be atoned for. O Christian, who operates as the prophet in your life?

We have a promised Messiah that came and fulfilled every bit of our sin. of the Word of God. He is the one who is to direct our beliefs, our theology. He is the great Messiah prophet. A few years ago, before my dad passed, someone had told him that at 80, you don't have to pay taxes anymore.

And people would come visit him and it was something he would perseverate on. He would say, you know what's great about our country? I'm like, here it comes, here it comes. When you turn 80, you don't have to pay taxes anymore. And I'm like, Dad, that's just not true. He's like, yeah, it is. Somebody told me that.

I'm like, they were wrong. I'd go online, I'd pull up an article, and I'd say, maybe they were addressing this, if you had income below this, you don't have to file. I said, but, but, but being 80 doesn't mean you don't have to pay taxes anymore. And of course, you know, I was the baby, and so dad quit paying taxes.

Came to their house one day, and I opened up this bill, and their property was about to get auctioned for delinquent taxes. My dad, you're going to lose your home. He's like, well, they don't know I'm 80.

Dad, uh, who do I have to talk to to get you to pay your property tax? You see, in a perfect, wonderful world, we would have a king that would protect him, right? Even from their own foolishness, ignorance, frailty, right? And the problem was, Dad listened to the wrong financial prophet. He listened to someone that he really, really liked that message.

He liked it so much that he was spreading that message. His falsehoods were being spread abroad among the retired community. The wonders of not having to pay taxes. He needed a prophet that would tell him the truth. We want a king. We need a prophet. And if we heed the prophet. Then we rush to the priest.

The king rules, the prophet speaks, and the priest has this job of cleansing. The priest. And we have things that operate as priests in our lives. A priest will clean. When you feel dirty, spiritually or emotionally, What will wash away that? What washes away your iniquity, your sins, the sins you've committed and the sins of omission that the prophet has exposed?

We need the priest to come and clean us, the priest to prescribe the proper sacrifice. Again, this is all throughout Israel's history. God laid it out. If, if you steal someone's item, you pay that item back plus 20%. If you steal a human being the prophet says, if you steal a human being, you're caught trafficking a human being, you're to be put to death.

If two men are fighting and they, they, they hit a woman and the child dies, the man is to be put to death, right? The priest says, here's the law, here's what it says. I'm sorry, the prophet says that. And we go to the priest and we're like, I've, I've committed these sins. And do you know that we do this all in our liturgy every Sunday?

Right. We, we come to worship the King. We come to worship the Messiah to give him reign over our lives. We say things pre written from his word. These things are true. We hear the prophetic voice of the Lord God in our confession of sins, in our songs, in our readings of scripture, and we come to the priestly role in a few moments where Christ the Messiah washes us clean with his own blood.

The priest is to clean and the priest is to present. All the items in the temple, anything used for God's glory were sprinkled with blood as they were sanctified, as they were made holy, as they were set apart. And the priest does that. He cleans and he presents. This is our Messiah that was born to Mary and Joseph.

In all these roles, it's good for you, and you'll see it in your notes, to ask yourself, what operates in this space for me? What operates as my king? What operates as my prophet? What operates as my priest? Maybe even to ask yourself, what are you waiting for? Beverly was waiting for a young man, and she had put hope in him.

Probably not too much hope, but to get dressed up like she was and to put herself out, she had a sense of hope. This might be the right person for me. So Christian, we wait, we wait with hope, we see the hammer beam and we say, all those who waited before Christ was born, their hope was realized in the birth of the Messiah.

And our hope is in that Messiah returning. And in the midst of his first advent and his second coming, we go to this Messiah as our king, as our prophet, and as our priest. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you can be trusted. Amen. And, and Lord, you are better than any King we could ever hope for any that we've ever experienced.

Every example we have in your word falls short until we come to Christ. May your reign, Father, be fulfilled in us. May we submit ourselves to your reign in all things. May your prophetic word have the power to speak truth over our feelings, over the culture, over our families. May your prophetic word ring true and may we say that you are true and all men may be a liar, but we will trust in the word of our God and our Savior.

And now, O priest. We thank you that you are the better sacrifice, the lasting one, ending the needless sacrifice of animals and bulls and goats. For in you is complete cleansing of sin and being robed in righteousness. Father, we pray that we would receive Christ, as our Messiah, once again afresh today.

May that empower and direct us to live lives in great waiting and hope and anticipation. When, as Hebrews says, not yet do we see it, he speaks that one day we will see it. You returning, may we wait patiently. And may we wait, Father, really not, not anxious because You are bringing souls to Yourself. And we long for more and more souls, maybe souls yet to be created, to worship You in the great wedding supper of the Lamb.

Help us, we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

other sermons in this series

Nov 3

2024

Oct 13

2024

The Church Renewed

Pastor: Rev. Mark Kuiper Verse: Ezra 1:1–4 Series: The Beauty of the Church