The Expectant Christian

It is always interesting to listen to what foreigners think about Americans. One observation I have heard several times is that we are shallow. By this they mean that we are so rich and content in our “stuff” that we care little about things that really matter to the rest of the world – things involving relationships. I think there is some truth to this. In most of the rest of the world, when you become friends with someone, you become friends for life. This is true whether you remain living in the same area or not.

My grandmother, who lived her first 37 years in Germany, wrote letters to about a dozen people until her health began to fail in her late 80s. And letter writing for her doesn’t even begin to compare to what we call letter writing. For many Americans, letter writing means you send a Christmas card or perhaps a photocopied letter once a year. If it is personalized at all, the personalization consists of signing your name. We are guilty of this, ourselves. We have some “professional” contacts we send letters to every year, and we have some former friends that we only hear from once a year with the letter. But my grandmother wrote out full letters to each of her friends, and they wrote back. She sent at least one to each person every month, often twice a month. And these were long letters, giving details of what was going on in their lives.

Today, making phone calls and sending email are essentially free, and instant messaging and other techniques make it easier than ever to stay in touch with people, but even there, we as Americans tend to do this in a shallow way. Our friends come and go, and we often never get beyond trivial conversations with our friends.

Unfortunately, this shallowness can all too easily translate into our relationship with God. There is something special about writing letters, and this goes for writing letters to God as well. By doing this, one can really pour out his or her heart to God, not holding things back. Such letters can make relationships far from shallow, but instead, reaching the “depths.” Listen to Psalm 130, a letter written to God.

Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption. He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. – Psalm 130

My message today is called The Expectant Christian. The writer of Psalm 130 is certainly expectant. He waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. What do watchmen do? They watch. What do they see? 99.9% of the time, nothing at all. Do you see how the watchmen wait for the morning? They can’t wait! Time seems to drag on forever, yet they know that with the morning, they can be relieved of their duty and do something else (probably go to bed). This is how this letter writer feels about waiting for God – he can’t wait! The world is a dreary place until the Lord comes. There is prophetic hope in this Psalm – the “full redemption” described here did not exist until Jesus came.

There is a theme of expectancy running through the entire Old Testament. The Israelites waited expectantly for their deliverer to redeem them from slavery. Later, the next generation of Israelites waited expectantly for 40 years in the desert for their long-awaited chance to go to the Promised Land. In the time of Judges, people waited expectantly again and again for a judge, or leader, who would lead in righteousness and who God would use to restore them. Later, the people of Israel waited expectantly for a king, and when Saul did not work out, they waited expectantly for a better king – for David. When the Jews were exiled into foreign lands, they waited expectantly for a leader to help them become able to return. And in the centuries before the birth of Christ, this expectancy came to a climax as prophet after prophet predicted a Messiah who would come, someone who would be everything that every other redeemer, deliver, and king had been but yet still much more than that.

As these prophets talked to God, they were anything but shallow. Listen to Isaiah:

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You! For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on Your name or strives to lay hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are all the work of Your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all Your people. – Isaiah 64:1-9

He uses such powerful words! Rend, tear to shreds the very heavens and burst through, God! Shake the mountains; come like a roaring fire! But then he says, “We have sinned! Our righteousness is, literally, like menstrual rags. You have turned from us, because we have deserved it.” But then Isaiah becomes expectant. “Yet” is the all-important word. “Yet You are our Father. We are the clay and You are the Potter.” He is saying, “Be the potter. Mold us! Change us! Shape us into Your image. We are Yours.”

And listen to the author of Lamentations, probably the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a personal witness of the Babylonians destroying Jerusalem. Solomon’s glorious Temple, the temple which had been the resting place of the very Spirit of God, had been burned to the ground. Can you even begin to imagine what it was like to witness this? To see the laughing, taunting, rejoicing Babylonians rounding up some Jews and killing others, completely destroying everything in sight?

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, He has turned His hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; He has made my paths crooked. Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew His bow and made me the target for His arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord." I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. – Lamentations 3:1-26

After this vivid, gut-wrenching imagery, the author of Lamentations again uses the word “Yet.” He too is expectant of something different in the future. “Yet I know this and it gives me hope: The Lord has great love and His compassions never fail. He is, You are,” as he shifts into prayer, “You are faithful!” He is expectant of salvation, the salvation of the Lord. He knows God is good to those who are expectant and hopeful, and so he hopes and waits quietly.

Micah lived in the southern kingdom of Judah and watched the destruction of this kingdom by Assyrians. He also paints a vivid picture:

What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies are the members of his own household. But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against Him, I will bear the Lord's wrath, until He pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see His righteousness. Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets. – Micah 7:1-10

Micah describes the land as like a barren vineyard, no clusters are left at all, only a few small or damaged grapes here and there. So it is with the godly people – none are left. The description of the government reminds me of countless places in the world today. Even family members betray each other, presumably for money or power. But then he says, “But as for me.” This phrase is used many other places in Scripture. This is the turning point, the “yet” of this passage. He acknowledges that he has sinned and will spend time under the Lord’s discipline, but he says that a time will come when he too is redeemed. He waits expectantly for that day.

As I said, this theme of waiting expectantly on God for salvation, deliverance, redemption, peace, and restoration runs throughout the Old Testament. And as the time came closer and closer to the prophesied birth of the Messiah, expectancy grew to a feverish pitch.

Matthew 2 recounts how after Jesus’ birth, news of these prophecies came to King Herod via Magi “from the east.” Herod’s official title was “King of the Jews,” named this by Rome. From other historical sources, it appears that Herod was the second son of Antipater the Idumeaen, a high-ranking official, and was appointed governor of Galilee by his father around 48 BC. About 5 years later, his father was poisoned because he had offered support to Caesar’s murderers. A year later, Herod managed to convince Mark Antony and Octavian that his father had been forced to do this, and so he was named Tetrarch of Galilee. In 40 BC, Antigonus took his throne by force, and Herod fled to Rome to plead his case. It was here Herod was elected “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate. In 37 BC the Romans secured Judea and executed Antigonus and Herod became the sole ruler of Judea.

Herod was not well-liked by the Jews because he had a history of brutality and because he wasn’t considered Jewish by most people – the Idumeaens, successors of the Edomites, were relatively recent converts, and converts mostly for political reasons. Herod was the ultimate politician, respecting the Roman gods as well as the Jewish God. Herod was very sensitive about his title, in part because of the lack of acceptance or love the Jews had for him. No doubt this led to him undertaking a massive expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He also built a palace in Jerusalem as well as a fortress in Judea he called “Herodium.” A picture of Herodium is shown at the top of this blog entry. Two pictures of Herod's expansion of the Temple are shown below:




In Matthew we read:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. – Matthew 2:1-3

You can bet he was disturbed! Someone was usurping his title! But it is ironic to think that a little baby could be a threat to the most powerful man in the entire Jewish territory, the “King of the Jews!” We know that he felt so threatened that he ultimately did the following:

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. – Matthew 2:16

The sense of expectancy did not end when Jesus was born. Indeed, it continued. Throughout Jesus’ ministry people were asking questions about whether Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. His trial was over this very issue. Recall the sign that they put over Him when He was crucified. What did it say? King of the Jews! Here it was done in mockery, but the mockery was done because of the expectancy that had swirled around Jesus’ life.

And then the real King of the Jews, Jesus Christ, died. And three days later he was resurrected. And after a period of appearing to His disciples and others, He ascended into heaven, and on Pentecost, the modern age of the church began as the sound of a violent, the tongues of fire, and the speaking in other languages set the entire Roman world upside down.

So what about expectancy today? We are in the age of the church. God is building His kingdom. Jesus’ work on the cross is finished. Eternal life is available to all who believe in Him. There is nothing to be expectant about anymore, right?

Wrong! Listen to Paul, in Romans 8:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. – Romans 8:18-21

There are a number of points I want to make from this passage. First, we presently suffer. We know this! We are not supposed to just pretend that we don’t suffer. We get sick, we have serious physical problems, and we die. We suffer emotionally – from rejection, persecution, and from battling our own sin natures. Even here in America, we who are accused of being so shallow, we do suffer, although generally not for physical wants the way much of the rest of the world does. People who are not Christians deal with the pain by seeking escapes in entertainment, drugs and alcohol, and even shallow friendships. Anything to distract us or numb the pain. But the pain is real.

But second, Paul says whatever our suffering is, from emotional pain to cancer, our sufferings don’t compare with the glory to be revealed. What glory? The next verse says that we will be revealed as sons of God. Us! There is a change coming. Not a new leader or judge or king in our land, but a new king of our hearts. We will no longer be a barren wasteland, or a land of iniquity, but we will be restored into what we were always meant by God to be. Sons of God! Like Him! Restored, freed, resurrected, at peace. This is certainly something to feel expectancy about! And third, this passage says that these changes won’t just stop with our hearts – liberation will spread to all of creation. All of it! And all of it waits expectantly for the day this will happen. Continuing on with the verse:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. – Romans 8:22-25

Can you remember the very best moments of your life as a Christian? Times where you just felt overfilled with the Holy Spirit, where you were filled with the joy of your salvation, where you were overcome with tears of joy to Jesus? These are just the “firstfruits of the Spirit.” In other words, we haven’t seen anything yet. We will be truly adopted as sons, not just “positionally,” but relationally. Jesus Himself is going to meet with each one of us and call us son or daughter. We will have eternity to get to know Him a million times better than we presently know anyone, even ourselves. Some of us have had wonderful relationships with our parents, and others not so wonderful. But even in the best cases, this will be a million times better than that. The relationship we will have with Christ will be so deep that every other relationship we have had will look so shallow that shallow isn’t even the right word. The thickness of our past relationships will look subatomic in comparison. I believe this is why the Bible says that we won’t have marriages per se in heaven. Even the best marriage will have the weight of a puff of dust in comparison to the relationship we will have with God.

And not just our relationships will be totally transformed, but also our bodies. Bodies that don’t wear out, that don’t get tired, that don’t get sick. Bodies that don’t fight with us, waging war against our hearts. And brains that don’t fall into temptation, that don’t look for sin, brains that love what God loves and hate what He hates. And yet we will still be us. For in this hope, Paul says, we were saved.

In the meantime, what do we do? We wait. We wait expectantly. And we wait patiently. What does it mean to wait patiently? The Greek word is hypomone (hupomonay) which, even more than patience, refers to steadfastness and perseverance. The opposite of hypomone is not being impatient; it is giving up. In other words, the opposite of hypomone is to lose your expectancy, to become absorbed in life in the “real world,” to become consumed by the day-to-day things, the business of life.

This should be our heartbeat. We should be no less passionate about this than those Old Testament prophets. We should be ever-expectant Christians. Again and again, the New Testament exhorts us to maintain this expectancy. Consider Jesus’ own words:

You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life. – Luke 21:16-19

Standing firm is hypomone. By waiting expectantly, steadfastly, you will gain life.

May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. – 2 Thess. 3:5

Once again, I really love how this is put in The Message:

May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God's love and Christ's endurance. – 2 Thess. 3:5 (The Message)

Even our steadfast expectancy is not something we try to do in our own strength – it is something we seek from Christ so that we can do it in Christ.

Be patient [expectant], then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient [expectant] and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. – James 5:7-8