patience

Imagine a waiting room at a doctor’s office.  What do you usually do in the waiting room?  Well, you “wait.”  When you are in the waiting room, waiting, you probably feel like you are doing nothing.  Waiting in the waiting room doesn’t seem very productive.  It just seems like you are doing nothing.  And you probably are.

In verse 43, it says that this Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God.  What does it mean to wait for something, in a Biblical sense?  I’d like to think today about “waiting.”  Waiting on God.  Waiting for him to act, in your life, and in this world.  Waiting for him to keep all his good promises.  But I hope to show us that waiting in the Biblical sense isn’t just about inaction.  I think it’s far too common that we think waiting is only about inaction.  That when we are waiting for something, that it’s just like the waiting room at the doctor’s office.  We wait, and just sit around doing nothing.  But Biblical waiting is not about inaction.  Biblical waiting is closely related to patience.  But patient waiting isn’t the same as inaction.

Passage: Mark 15:42-47
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/29/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: Waiting for the Kingdom of God

Podcast: Play in new window | Download