What Are You Waiting For?

Last Sunday after Pentecost

November 22, 2015

Mark 13:32-37

What Are You Waiting For?

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

What are you waiting for?

A birthday? A raise? A baby? A tooth? The end of winter? Retirement?

We are waiting for a lot of things.

Just three days before Jesus was crucified, one of His disciples was waiting. He was waiting for Jesus to be impressed. He was walking with Jesus near the Temple and was impressed with the architecture; he wanted Jesus to be impressed, too.

As He was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” (Mark 13:1-4)

And Jesus went on to tell them about the signs of the end of the world.

The world has seen many lying preachers, men pretending to be the real Jesus, wars, rumors of wars, famine, earthquakes. The Gospel has been preached to ends of the earth and the world certainly hates Christ and those who follow Him.

All these signs have happened and will continue to happen until Jesus comes back.

And so today, the question is: are you waiting for Him to come back? Jesus declared:

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'” (Mark 13:32-37)

For believers who trust that Jesus is coming back, the better question is: how you are waiting?

Jesus' answer is clear: Be alert and be on watch because you don't know when He will come back. And while we wait for Him, He has assigned tasks to us.

Our tasks that He has called us to do are many and varied: teaching kids, medical care, building things, fixing things, adjusting spines, making music, encouraging people, and much more.

But our most important job is tell people about Jesus. And we want to make sure we do this in the right order.

First, we need to clear up a key point: Are you people? Are you a person? You are and that means that Jesus is for you. This means that, first and foremost, we tell ourselves about Jesus through daily prayer. Finding a designated place in our home for our Bible and designating time every day to read a portion quietly aloud to ourselves. Law and Gospel isn't just for unbelievers; it's for us, too.

Second, we speak Him to our family by reading the Bible together, singing hymns together, praying together, and coming to church together and staying to study what Jesus says with our church family.

And finally, we confess Christ to people who don't know or don't know well. An important way we do this is to spend our money to support our pastors as they go out and speak to strangers about Jesus. This happens here and overseas. A good example of this is our missionaries sent out to places like Russia, Malawi, and Antigua.

Another important job Jesus has given us to do is to live a life that refuses to accommodate to the culture around us. When our strange beliefs cause others to take notice and perhaps to be upset with us, we will respond with Christ. The suffering and crucified Christ who won victory over death and Satan for all people; the Christ who lives again and is coming back.

A God who is coming back is scary for those who don't believe. That our building and our nation and our world won't be around for long is scary for unbelievers. But as we speak Christ to them, we pray that the Spirit will create trust in their hearts that will turn their fear of His return into watchful waiting with us.

These are the jobs that Jesus has left us here to do while He is away. But He is coming back, probably today. If not, maybe tomorrow. But whenever He does, He will find us at work, not working for ourselves, but by His mercy and receiving His Supper, working for Him.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners―of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!