Life brings all kinds of interruptions to our plans. And those interruptions come from all kinds of different sources. But sometimes they come from nothing. What I mean is that sometimes our lives get interrupted when what we expected to happen, what we expected God to do, doesn’t happen. We find ourselves facing downtime when we thought we were going to be actively doing something…anything. As we continue in the second-to-last part of our teaching series, we are talking today about what to do when we face the interruption of waiting.

Waiting Is the Hardest Part

So, the other day, I had told somebody that I would show up to help them do something at a certain time. I’m the kind of person who would rather be ten minutes early than two minutes late. So, true to form, I showed up about fifteen minutes before I said I would be there. That gave me time to make sure everything was ready when they arrived. As I was pulling in, though, I got a text: “Running a bit behind.” Given who was meeting me, I wasn’t all that surprised. I went inside and started doing the things I knew I needed to do. By the planned meeting time, all of that was done. So, I twiddled my thumbs for a bit. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Then fifteen. I expected a little late, but not that much. So, I started doing some other things I hadn’t planned on doing. Then I got those done too. The waiting wasn’t what I planned, but it turned out more useful than I expected. 

Have you ever had to wait on someone or something? A little bit of waiting isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, a little bit of waiting can be a great way to build up healthy anticipation for something. The couple waiting on their wedding day finds the waiting just nearly unbearable, but also finds that it only serves to grow their excitement for the journey that lies ahead of them. We’re just a couple of weeks from the start of the season of Advent. There are few things as exciting for kids as waiting for Christmas morning to arrive. Would that we as adult followers of Jesus were that excited for His arrival, yes? 

But sometimes waiting isn’t such a fun thing. If you don’t believe me, I can prove it to you with three letters. Any guesses as to what they are? D. M. V. Enough said! Sometimes, though, like I experienced the other day, we find ourselves in a time of waiting not because the time or date for the thing we are waiting on hasn’t arrived yet, but for precisely the opposite reason. The time has arrived, but the thing hasn’t. In this situation, waiting can actually become an interruption. The interruption of waiting can be one of the hardest, or one of the best interruptions we can face. Which it is depends on our response. 

This morning, we are in the fifth part of our series, When Life Gets in the Way. For the last several weeks we have been talking about times when life itself gets in the way of our plans. This typically comes in the form of various interruptions to the path we were planning to take, or were in fact already taking. Along the way so far we have talked about four different kinds of interruptions and how we should respond to them. With the help of four different stories in the Scriptures where these various kinds of interruptions were featured, we have gained some pretty helpful wisdom when it comes to handling these unexpected pauses to our plans. 

Today, I want to talk about the time when we aren’t interrupted by anything. That is, we are interrupted in what we were planning to do, but there’s nothing and no one to blame for it. Instead, the interruption itself comes in the form of nothing. The thing we are preparing to do doesn’t happen when we expected, and instead we are left sitting there twiddling our thumbs, wondering what we are supposed to do now. 

We actually find several instances of this in the Scriptures. This is because, as we have talked about before, God doesn’t operate on our timetable. He operates on the scale of human history, and simply invites us to join Him on the journey. Sometimes these instances in the Scriptures go really badly like when the Israelites were waiting for Moses to return from the top of Mount Sinai, got bored and tired of waiting, and goaded Aaron into making them an idol that could represent a new god who would lead them on to the Promised Land since Moses’ God had obviously forgotten about them. 

Other times, the waiting went much better. If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you this morning, find your way with me to Acts 1, and let’s take a look at a bit more positive of an example of an unexpected season of waiting. Acts was written by Luke; the same Luke who wrote the Gospel that bears his name. It is actually the sequel to Luke’s Gospel, and tells about the rise and spread of the church throughout the world. The two documents put together tell the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, and the growth of His movement through the church, all centered on His resurrection from the dead. 

We know that Jesus’ resurrection is the hinge on which the whole of human history swings, but for the disciples in those earliest days, it just meant their Lord was back. He was back, and He was going to finally be able to claim the kingdom they had all firmly believed He was there to bring before His death seemed to call a full stop on the advance of His movement. Now that He was alive again, they were going to follow Him directly into glory. And by “directly into glory” they meant conquering Rome and leading Israel back to its glory days like the nation experienced under the leadership of King David. They were excited. They were excited to be on the winning side for sure. They were excited for Jesus to do everything they imagined He would do. They were just going to have to wait a bit longer for it to all get started. 

Look at this in Acts 1:4: “While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. ‘Which,’ he said, ‘you have heard me speak about; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.’” Jesus had already taught them some things about the Holy Spirit. He was going to do so much in Jesus’ physical absence, Jesus said, but that was before the crucifixion, and surely that’s what He was talking about then. He wouldn’t leave them again, would He? That would just be silly. He was supposed to lead them to victory.  

“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?’” Talk about a gigantic exercise in missing the point. They still didn’t get it. They still didn’t understand the nature of the kingdom He had been proclaiming. They didn’t understand the kind of power He was going to be using. It was one of those moments that had to leave Jesus wanting to do a great big facepalm. How could they not get it at this point? The answer to that is actually pretty easy: They didn’t have the Holy Spirit yet to give them all the wisdom they were going to need to make sense of it all. 

For His part, Jesus was patient with them. Instead of scolding them for being so painfully obtuse about…well…everything, He simply gave them their final marching orders. “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.’” In other words, cool it on that stuff. Instead, focus on what I’m telling you to do. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

Once Jesus had laid this out for them—that they were to wait for the Spirit’s arrival in a few days, and that once He had come, they were to be His witnesses everywhere—He hit the road…or, rather, the skies…leaving the disciples utterly clueless as to how they were supposed to do any of this. They were so clueless, in fact, that it took an angelic visit to get them to get their acts together. “After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.’” 

As it turned out, Jesus was right. When they were willing to do what He said, they were able to experience the thing He told them they would experience. Jump forward with me to the beginning of Acts 2: “When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.” Immediately following this wild scene, the apostles went out and began proclaiming the Gospel to great effect, and the church exploded into existence. When Jesus tells us something is going to happen, and that He has prepared for us to do it, that thing is going to happen. We can count on that. 

As fun and exciting as it is to see and even to think about Jesus’ fulfilling of His promises to us, though, I want us to consider this for a minute: What were the disciples doing between these two bookends? From Jesus’ ascension to the day of Pentecost, what was filling their time? What did they do with this unexpected interruption of downtime? Well, as it turns out, we don’t have to wonder. Luke tells us about some of it. Come back in the text with me to Acts 1:12. 

“Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a Sabbath day’s journey away.” In other words, they did what Jesus told them to do. They went back to Jerusalem to get ready to go to work for Jesus when the Spirit came in a few days. “When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying [the same room where Jesus miraculously appeared on the day of the resurrection]: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.” 

So then, the whole group was gathered together, along with all the other disciples. Now what? Jesus had said it would be a few days, so they were set to wait for a little while. But you can’t imagine they were set to wait for very long. After a day or two, they were probably starting to get pretty anxious to get started. They had a message to share, and they wanted to share it. But the Spirit didn’t seem like He had come. Nothing was changing. What was there to do? This was starting to transform from a brief interlude to a more serious interruption of the Gospel-proclaiming work Jesus had given them to do. 

Again, Luke tells us. Let’s keep rolling in the text here at v. 14: “They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters—the number of people who were together was about a hundred and twenty—and said: ‘Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David foretold about Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was one of our number and shared in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages. He fell headfirst, his body burst open and his intestines spilled out. [I’m not sure why Peter felt the need to give quite so much detail about how Judas died, but there it is.] This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field is called Hakeldama (that is, Field of Blood). For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his dwelling become desolate; let no one live in it;’ and ‘Let someone else take his position.’ Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us—from among these, it is necessary that one become a witness with us of his resurrection.’ So they proposed two: Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, ‘You, Lord, know everyone’s hearts; show which of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.’ Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles.” 

Okay, so, what is all of this? They prayed, Peter gave a little sermon, and they filled Judas’ vacant spot among the twelve by essentially rolling dice. Why these things? Because they were preparing. They were preparing for what Jesus said they would soon be doing. They didn’t know for sure what it would be. Yes, Jesus had said they would be His witnesses, but how that was going to happen they didn’t know. They didn’t know when it would be. Jesus had said a few days, but a “few days” for God and a few days for us aren’t necessarily the same thing. In spite of those two facts, though, they were at least sure that it would be. Jesus had told them this thing was going to happen, and when a guy predicts and pulls off His own death and resurrection, you trust that when He says something is going to happen that it really is going to happen. Putting a point on all of this, the disciples used this unexpected downtime to prepare for what was coming next. Friends, that’s a principle we can apply pretty directly to our own lives. When we find ourselves in an unexpected season of waiting—waiting when we were all set for the action we know is coming to begin—we can use that gift of time, that interruption from what we had planned, to make sure we are as ready as we can be for what is coming next. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next. 

And while there are perhaps a number of things we could do to prepare for what’s next when we find ourselves facing an interruption of waiting, there are two things Jesus’ disciples did here that I want to specifically draw our attention to this morning. The first is actually a trio of things that we talk about a lot around here. When the angels woke them out of their dumbfounded stupor and sent them back to Jerusalem, the whole group of Jesus followers, about a hundred and twenty in all—which, incidentally, is about as many people as we have here today; if that group could change the world by their faithfulness to the message and mission of Jesus, I don’t see why we couldn’t do the same—got together and stayed together. 

Luke emphasizes their commitment to community by repeatedly pointing to the things they did. “Then they returned to Jerusalem.” “When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying.” “They were all continually united in prayer.” The original group of now eleven disciples was gathered together “along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” “In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters—the number of people who were together was about a hundred and twenty.” “So they proposed two.” “Then they prayed.” “Then they cast lots.” Over and over again we see the group living and breathing as a community, as the body of Christ. 

In addition to simply being together, they also prayed together. Did you catch that? Luke said they were continually united in prayer. They didn’t just pray once and move on. Prayer was the lifeblood of their fellowship. It was everything. There wasn’t very much they could do that was active during this interruption, but what they were doing was the most important thing they could have been doing. They sought God constantly. They sought Him as a united body. They prayed. 

There’s one more thing—and if you’ve been around here for a little while, I’ll bet you can already guess what it is. When Peter stood up to address the group about replacing Judas, what did he say? “Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled.” He then goes on to quote from Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. The group was faithfully gathered together, they were united in prayer, and they were committed to the Scriptures. 

There’s our full faith-growing trio. I’ve been preaching this message to you for years now. If you want to grow your faith, you’ve got to be committed to the Scriptures, to prayer, and to the church. You’ve got to have all three. One or even two isn’t necessarily bad, but it won’t grow you. The only way to grow is to have all three firmly in place. Jesus’ followers were committed to building their faith. They were committed when the time for that was obvious and active. They were committed when they were in the in between times facing the unexpected interruption of waiting. They were committed no matter what. And as a result, they grew. If we want to be prepared for what God has for us next, being committed to growing in our faith by actively engaging in the Scriptures, in prayer, and in the church body is essential. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next. And the best way to do that is to commit to growing in your faith just like Jesus’ followers did while they were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. 

As important as that is, though, it doesn’t always feel very active. And, yes, a season of waiting is not typically going to feel very active, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to be active. Too much downtime and our minds and hearts will start to wander. It’s hard to sustain basic blocking and tackling for long without something more tangible and concrete to be doing. We need to be able to put those basic skills we are honing together to use. But what are we supposed to do to put those skills to use when the thing God is preparing us for hasn’t arrived yet? We can use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next, but beyond staying in a growth loop of prayer, Scripture, and community, what else can we do? The same thing the disciples did: the next right thing. 

The time for going out and proclaiming the resurrection to all the world starting in Jerusalem was not yet. They were to wait there until the Spirit came. Then they could get to work. While waiting for the Spirit to come then, there wasn’t a lot for them to do. So, they did the next right thing they could do. Jesus had originally called twelve men to be in His inner circle and who would take the lead in continuing His work, and they were down to eleven after Judas committed suicide in his grief over betraying Jesus to His enemies. They needed to get the group back to twelve. So, they called everybody together, prayed over the process, set some parameters for who they were going to consider for the position, and cast lots for who it would be. 

Now, we’re pretty well with them until that last part. The whole casting lots thing seems weird to us. It should. We don’t do that anymore. Now that the Holy Spirit has come, we rely on His direction. Before then—that is, where the disciples were as they waited for Him to come—casting lots was a practice God had given the Israelites to use to determine His will. They believed as Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” They applied Moses’ instructions and Solomon’s wisdom to their situation, submitting themselves and the whole process to the Lord, and by that determined who Judas’ replacement would be. 

Let’s be honest enough to acknowledge that this episode doesn’t strike us as much of a big deal. Matthias doesn’t get mentioned ever again in the Scriptures. He had apparently been there since the very beginning—before even some of the main guys had been following Jesus—but this is the only time we encounter him. We should mentally include him in our minds when the apostles get mentioned from this point forward in Acts, but that’s about it. 

Why does this matter, then? It matters because it points us toward what we do when we find ourselves facing an unexpected interruption of waiting. We do the next right thing. We take the wisdom of these early followers of Jesus and of Anna in Frozen 2 in the most theologically correct song Disney has perhaps ever produced and do the next right thing. Okay, but how do we know what the next right thing is? That’s obviously a more open question, but the love of Jesus can be our guide here. In fact, here’s a silly rhyme to help you remember this: When you don’t know what to do, do what love requires of you. Rather than just sitting on your hands when you find yourself facing unexpected downtime, use it to advance God’s kingdom in the ways that you can. This will leave you more ready to keep doing that when the time comes to get active again. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next. 

Who is someone around you that you could show the love of Christ to in a meaningful way? It could be a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, a complete stranger. It could be anybody. When the thing God is preparing you for hasn’t officially started yet, focus on growing your personal faith, and showing His love to the people around you right where you are. This could be simply serving someone in the church. It could be filling a ministry gap in the church that no one else wants to do. It could be sharing the Gospel with a neighbor. It could be taking an intentional interest in discipling a believer who is growing in their faith. There are basic things that have to be done in order to advance God’s kingdom. While you are waiting for God to move and open the doors to the next big thing He has for you, start doing some of these. This may turn out to be the onramp God uses to get you ready for the next thing. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next. 

Waiting isn’t easy. It isn’t easy when we expect to do it and are excited about what’s coming. It isn’t easy when we expect to do it and aren’t excited about what’s coming. It’s really not easy when we don’t expect it and God seems to be running late, completely interrupting our flow. But just because the thing He has prepared for us hasn’t come just yet doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next. Invest in the Scriptures. Invest in prayer. Invest in the church. And do the next right thing. Exercise the love of Jesus toward everyone around you. If God has said the thing is coming, it will come. And it will be right on time. If you aren’t ready, you just may miss out on God’s invitation. So stay ready. Use unexpected downtime to prepare for what’s next.