[5] In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. [6] And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. [7] But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Luke 1:5-7

Waiting

A large part of our existence is waiting.

I had a car break down in Eutaw, Alabama

It was cold and dark and I waited over an hour in the kitchen of Jerry’s Motel

We hung out, talked the motel business and Jesus waiting for the tow truck

Waiting is defined by whatever you consider the main event to be

Maybe I was supposed to talk to them about Jesus

Then my drive was just waiting for the car to break down so I would know

who I was supposed to talk to (I just didn’t know it)

We don’t take waiting very well

We wait in lines, in traffic, the doctor’s office, on hold with the help line

We wait for kids to come home late at night, the results of medical tests,

We also wait for inevitable things: as kids, we wait for Christmas, we wait until

we are older, we wait until we get our

real job, we wait for the right person (who’s going to fulfill us) we wait until

we’re married, we wait for our children to leave home & then wait until we retire.

We often wait for something undefinable, "I waiting for something, I don’t know

what it is, but I’ll know when it comes."

"The world of "Waiting for Godot" is one without any meaningful pattern, which symbolizes chaos as the dominating force in the world. There is no orderly sequence of events. A tree which was barren one day is covered with leaves the next. The two tramps return to the same place every day to wait for Godot. No one can remember exactly what happened the day before. Night falls instantly, and Godot never comes. The entire setting of the play is meant to demonstrate that time is based on chance, and therefore human life is based on chance." Michael Sinclair www.samuel-beckett.net

Waiting on God

The people of Israel were waiting on God

The people had been waiting for God to speak for almost 450 years

440 years ago, the land was the exclusive domain of Native Americans

1567 Elizabeth I was Queen of England, Germany was collection of duchys, Mexico was being plundered of her silver by Spain while her people lived under tyranny

God spoke through Malachi – The people had another Temple, but nothing

One day the Persians were gone, then the Greeks

One Nation and then another. Independence, but their rulers became corrupt dictators – then Rome and a foreign usurper

A group of people called Zealots – tried to force God’s hand by direct revolution

Simon the Zealot, Luke 6:15

There are some Christians who do this, try to use the weapons of this

A group called Essenes pulled out of this world and waited for God in the desert

These were the group that collected the DSS

There are Christians who do that as well, spend as much time trying to get

out of the world as possible

Only hang with other Xtians, homeschool, live in a compound

The kingdom of God is breaking into this world

A group called Sadducees gave up on the world to come and took everything from

Most people who call themselves Christians today are functionally

We believe, in theory, in the things in Scripture, but we live, in reality, for this world. If a faith demand is placed on us which threatens our arrangements in this world, we get pretty upset. [The Greg and Joyce situation with Course in Miracles and Gary’s reaction]

Matthew 22:23 No resurrection

Religion needs to stay in its place, because we’re not really waiting for God, we’re trying to get as much as we can out of this world

Don’t want to be thought a fanatic

Don’t want to hurt my standard of living

Don’t want to appear ignorant or foolish

And then we have an old priest and his wife

For two weeks a year he comes to serve at the Temple from the country

There are 24 of these divisions (kind of like Ntnl Guard for priests)

Zechariah is of the division of Abijah and his wife, Elizabeth, is also from priestly family (two ministry families)

They are completely unimportant and not powerful

They weren’t religious hypocrites, but righteous before God

People of faith, God hadn’t spoken for 440 yrs, but still believed

They lived according to their belief

They kept all the ceremonies as their worship

They lived according to the moral law

This old priest and his wife didn’t have any children

Elizabeth was barren, she could not have children

Their childbearing years were past

Last of children was a great stigma

Many people would wonder if they had been cursed by God

Did not the law say that you will be cursed if you break covenant?

Deut 28:15-19

The one thing they would have traded anything for, wasn’t theirs.

Their waiting for God to appear and speak to his people

They’re waiting for God to deliver them from the Romans and leaders.

They’re waiting for a child. Without a son, their line will end.

They might seem pretty foolish

They’re keeping the commandments of a God hasn’t shown up

He’s participating in worship controlled by a corrupt aristocracy

Waiting for Godot. They’re waiting. Is God going to show up?

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 ***Memory Verse***

They have an assurance that what they are waiting upon will come

They have a conviction that it is real, even though it is not there yet

They can live as if it is a sure thing. Why? Blind leap of faith?

Hopefulness or wishful thinking?

The person who made the promise is reliable

What are you waiting for?

Are you placing all of your hopes in the things of this world?

Sadducee

Religion is just a trapping in your life

Your faith is pious legend or a moral code

Test: Your predominant thought is about things which end with this world

Your predominant efforts are for things which end with this world

Have you quit waiting upon God and are taking matters in your own hands?

Paul Hill is extreme example

We can go from participating in politics to being consumed by them

You don’t see the apostles condoning homosexuality but you don’t see

them working to pass legislation either

Have you tried to withdraw and carve out some kingdom now?

We try to withdraw to avoid the pain of living in the world

It never works, the world breaks in, we take the world with us

We can’t tolerated waiting on the Lord

What are we supposed to do?

Love God

Trust God

Keep his commandments