Acts 1:14
[0:00] I would encourage you to open up your Bibles, if you would please, to Acts chapter 1.!
[0:30] Everywhere Jesus seemed to go, there were crowds that were in tow.
[0:41] This excitement, this movement that was taking place. And so when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, that final week of His public ministry before the cross, the disciples and everyone there who was present in seeing Christ's ministry teaching daily in the temple, day by day He was there, and the crowds were hanging on every word, there was this expectation that this was the moment.
[1:07] Certainly this is what God had promised through the prophets so long ago. The Messiah was here, and the evidence of that seemed to be so prominent in front of them.
[1:21] And yet, now we turn the page to Acts chapter 1, and we see now what was such electric crowds and momentum that seemed to be taking place.
[1:31] The energy of Christ in the movement that was happening now seems to be a distant memory. It's a reminder to us this morning that most of life's changing moments don't start in stadiums.
[1:50] They begin in waiting rooms. Stadiums feel powerful. They feel full of energy. There's momentum. There's excitement. There's something happening.
[2:02] But in Jesus' ministry, people, while they were everywhere, were going to see that now was a moment, a moment that was taking place when God would begin to change the hearts of people, but He would do it in a way that was silent.
[2:18] God was about to do something that would change everything. And He often does that through times of quietness and solitude.
[2:28] Things that were ordinary. Away from the action. Away from the noise. Think of Noah and 120 years of waiting for the flood.
[2:40] Think of Abraham and the 25 years that he waited and patiently waiting for God to give him the promise of a son. Think of Moses in the 40 years of waiting in the backside of a desert in Midian, waiting for God to accomplish His purposes in delivering His people.
[3:01] Or think of David and his patient waiting from the time that he had been anointed king to the time that God finally brought him out into the forefront and established him as king over Israel.
[3:13] You see, the waiting room is the time, I believe, God delights most in accomplishing or beginning, initiating His purposes in the hearts of His people.
[3:25] And so that's where we find this work beginning. In Acts chapter 1, verse 4, Jesus ordered His disciples, remember, He remembers that He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait, to wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Spirit to come.
[3:44] Here we are in Acts. We're back in the waiting room. Waiting rooms are strange places, aren't they? They're a mix or a mingle of joy and sometimes a mix of sorrow.
[4:00] Waiting rooms aren't always the place where you would expect to be or even hope to be. My guess is that most of you have been in a waiting room at some point or the other. On six occasions through the years, my wife and I have been in a waiting room as we waited expectantly for the birth of a child, a son or a daughter.
[4:22] Those joyous occasions, excitement, maybe even worship and praise to the Lord for His provision for you. There may be trembling, there may be pain, but it's all followed by delight as in that waiting room you get to see and hold that precious little child.
[4:44] In all of this, there's this real, even unspoken, understanding and awareness that I can't control this. I can't speed this up.
[4:55] I can't determine the outcome. I can only wait and trust and pray. That's what God wants to accomplish in the waiting rooms to drive us to a place of dependence on Him.
[5:09] Well, many of you know this has also been a year of waiting rooms for our family. A different kind of waiting, as it were, as I've kind of gone through the waiting rooms of a heart surgery and the waiting room of an eye surgery and the waiting room of a stroke and trying to decide or figure out what was taking place.
[5:31] It was a different kind of waiting room, but accomplished and was oriented towards the same kind of purpose. I can't control this. I can't determine the outcome of this.
[5:43] I can't speed this up. I can't slow this down. I can only wait and trust and pray. You see, waiting rooms strip away the illusion of control, don't they?
[5:58] And they strip away the illusion of strength and they seek to push us into dependence on God where confidence alone can come.
[6:10] They teach us dependence. They confront our limitations. And in their own way, they invite us back to simple posture of faith.
[6:21] Lord, if you don't act, nothing will happen. Now imagine, here we are in Acts chapter 1, verse 14, another waiting room. A waiting room that God delights in driving home those messages of his power and the dependence of his people that they need to be on him.
[6:43] The crowds are gone. Jesus has ascended. The mission in front of these disciples is massive. Go to the uttermost parts of the world.
[6:54] How will they accomplish this? Will they accomplish this in the waiting room? That's where it will begin. They need to unite under the banner of God's power in his plan in order to enjoy the benefits of God's work in their life.
[7:09] We saw that last week that there was obedience, simple obedience to the instructions of God that would begin to activate God's purposes in their life.
[7:20] Simple, clear instructions. Go back to Jerusalem. Wait to the coming of the Holy Spirit. I think all of us could do that and yet we see this mission in front of us and we think, how are we going to accomplish the mission?
[7:35] Well, we simply need to obey the instructions that are in front of us and let God accomplish his purposes, his mission. What if God loves to start his greatest work in the waiting room?
[7:50] As you're waiting for him to initiate his plan. As you're coupling your heart to the unity and purpose that he has set before you.
[8:04] As you are learning to depend upon the Spirit for his power. What if the most powerful thing a church can do is not to rush ahead but is to wait to gather and to pray?
[8:19] What if the Spirit's power is not released through hype and hoopla, through energy, through movements, great movements but it's unleashed to us through the simple, unified, humble expectancy?
[8:34] That's what we're going to see this morning as we unpack Acts chapter 1 verse 14 and we see how God begins to do this in hearts. The hearts of 120, this meager group, this small gathering, the thousands that had been there are now reduced to 120.
[8:54] Here they are. And we find through this that God does his greatest work through a unified people. That's our first point this morning. God does his greatest work through a unified people.
[9:10] Notice this, Acts chapter 1 verses 12 to 14 says this, Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount Colt Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
[9:21] And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James.
[9:36] And here it is. All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
[9:48] God does his greatest work through a unified people. And here we see, first of all, the picture of their oneness. Notice their oneness. It's represented for us in a number of different ways here.
[10:00] In this short verse, the picture of their oneness is captured for us in the words of Luke. We move through this book and we see one of the central realities of a church that will enjoy the benefits of the Lord and that is this, this predominance of unity.
[10:19] We'll see it time and time and time again as we work our way through this little book. It's the preeminent feature of this gathering. They're gathering and they're unified.
[10:31] Notice the words that Luke uses in these verses. They returned. They entered. They went up. They were staying.
[10:42] All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
[10:53] Luke labors in these short verses to draw out and emphasize the oneness in the community of this gathering.
[11:05] How many times does he have to emphasize the togetherness? You see, he begins with all these with one accord.
[11:16] What a beautiful word this little word all is. Simple and beautiful. Every, it really is the simple meaning, every, describing the totality and the wholeness of this group.
[11:31] No one was missing. It's especially important given the fact that this was such a meager group, such a small group. Given the enormity of the massive size of the crowds and Luke begins with all.
[11:49] All are together. As with the disciples, this group is here in the upper room. And a movement that had consistently numbered in the thousands was now reduced to 120.
[12:02] But Luke wants us to know they're all here. The group is complete, at least for now. And God's purposes have not failed.
[12:14] Everyone that God needs to activate his purposes is present for this work. No one is missing. There's a group that God is going to use to launch the church age and they're all present and accounted for.
[12:30] Notice they gather with one accord and this also signifies this unified heart. They belong together. They're not fractured. This Greek word is a compound word which essentially means one and the same, is the first piece, and thumos which is temperament or mind.
[12:46] They all had the same spirit, the same mind, the same purpose. They all had the same heart. One of the prevailing features of this movement, this one accord, purpose that is seen throughout the book of Acts.
[13:05] This heavy emphasis, 11 times this word one accord is used throughout the New Testament and ten of those times find their way in the book of Acts. We see it here in Acts chapter 1 verse 14.
[13:18] We see it in Acts chapter 2 verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all in one accord in one place. In chapter 2 verse 46 it says, So continuing daily with one accord in the temple breaking bread.
[13:33] In chapter 4 verse 24, So when they heard, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said. In chapter 5 verse 12, And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord on Solomon's porch.
[13:49] The togetherness, the unity, the one heart, one spirit, one mind, one purpose, propelling them as a collective group into the mission that God had called them to be.
[14:02] They're also together. Notice that word, this simple Greek word which is the word sun, which is the word with. With or together. A group of incredible diversity, men and women, undoubtedly young and old, fishermen and zealots, wealthy and poor, different experiences, different backgrounds, different economic status, and here they are, all together, all represented.
[14:32] Next we see the purpose of their oneness. The purpose of their oneness. You see, Christ had given the eleven apostles some very clear commands, and he had told them precisely what they were meant to do when they went back to Jerusalem.
[14:46] Acts 1, 1 and 2, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all the things that Jesus began to teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
[15:00] Notice, commands to the eleven apostles. What were they to do? Well, verses 4 and 5, we've already read this a couple of times. They're to wait in Jerusalem until they receive power.
[15:12] That's what they were to do. And they were given a clear promise in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
[15:26] You will be witnesses. You will receive power. In this chapter, the apostles are promised power. They're promised to be witnesses.
[15:38] And as we kind of look back for a moment to the gospel records, even in the time right after the resurrection to the time of the ascension, those same kinds of commands were given to the eleven.
[15:53] In Matthew chapter 28, verse 16, now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had directed them, and what comes next is this great commission promise.
[16:03] You're going to be witnesses. Go, make disciples of all nations. I'm going to give you power. My power is going to go before you. I'm going to give you all authority because I'm going to be with you.
[16:16] In Luke chapter 24, verses 44 to 49, this is the moment in the upper room. Again, Jesus is just with the eleven. 24, verses 48 and 49. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
[16:37] In John's account, it's much the same thing. John chapter 21, verses 19 to 22. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, this is the time of the resurrection, the doors were locked, the disciples gather, and Jesus says, peace be with you.
[16:52] Verse 20, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and the disciples were glad. Verse 21, he says to them again, peace be with you.
[17:03] As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Spirit. This was a symbolic gesture.
[17:14] This is something that was coming. This is something they could expect. In John chapter 14, 26, Jesus helps the disciples to understand that the Spirit is going to come.
[17:27] The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.
[17:39] Not as the world gives to you do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let them be afraid. And so, here we are again in the upper room and Jesus says, peace be to you. It would have been a flash of recollection of what had happened just a couple of days before where Jesus is seeing them on the night before he's crucified.
[17:58] This promise of the Spirit. It's striking that in every example that we find, these direct promises of God's power coming on the people is to the eleven.
[18:13] So why are the hundred and twenty here? Why are they gathered? The promises are to the apostles. Well, there have been indications that God's power would be given to them as well.
[18:27] In the ministry of John the Baptist, in Luke chapter 3, verse 16, John says, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And then in Luke, as Jesus is talking about the need for the eleven apostles to pray, he says, ask and I, or excuse me, I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.
[18:48] Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?
[19:00] Ask. Again, another indication that when we pray and ask that a benefit of that will be the blessing of the Spirit. And of course, this new covenant community, this new covenant expectation in Ezekiel 36 about the Spirit who's coming.
[19:19] But while there are indications of a larger work, the specific command that Jesus has given in the time of his resurrection and the time of his ascension are specifically given to the apostles.
[19:34] So why are the 120 here? I think this is really significant. Because I think the disciples, the apostles, knew the promise.
[19:46] But they believed that that promise was going to be carried out to the apostles alone. So why are they here? Well, they're here because they knew that God is about to do something and they're supporting the work of God even though as far as they're concerned they're not going to be immediate beneficiaries.
[20:05] They knew that God in some way would send power on the apostles and that this work would break forth and it would break into the uttermost parts of the earth. But I'm inclined to think that as they gathered, they did not understand the extent of God's promise to the apostles.
[20:24] They had no idea that they also would be beneficiaries. Because this gathering was not about what's in it for me but what is God about to do?
[20:35] I want to support the work of God, whatever that work is. So what was God doing? Well, as they prayed, as a unified people, they begin to understand that God's gift was so much bigger than their expectations.
[20:53] God's grace blew away their categories. We're going to see this in a couple of weeks. That God would exceed their expectations.
[21:05] They were faithful. They expected and knew that God would work. But God happened to have something in mind that they would also be able to participate in experiencing the power of God working through them as well and not just through the apostles.
[21:19] You know, what if obedience comes before clarity? It's so easy as we look at the scriptures. We kind of look at it with a hindsight.
[21:30] We don't expect or even anticipate that sometimes these things that God will do wasn't necessarily what the people at the time expected.
[21:40] And yet our obedience to the Lord needs to be obedience because we believe his purposes are best, whether or not I am a personal specific beneficiary.
[21:54] That God's glory is in view. That God's purposes are my highest goal. And so we see that happening here with this group of 120.
[22:05] Then we also see the priority of their oneness. The priority of their oneness. This unity of this body was a clear priority for the Lord.
[22:17] As we work through the gospel of John, we see this upper room, all of these commands that God gives to these disciples in this upper room to strengthen and secure and help to fan into flame the unity that they would have.
[22:35] John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another.
[22:46] By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. John 15, verse 12. This is still this upper room discourse.
[22:57] Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15, 17. These things I command you so that you will love one another.
[23:09] And then the high priestly prayer, John 17, 11. I'm no longer in the world but they are in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one.
[23:25] And then in John 17, 20 to 23. I do not ask for these only but I ask for those who will believe in me through their word that they may be one just as you Father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
[23:41] The glory that you have given me I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one so the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
[24:01] You get the sense that Jesus cares a little bit about unity? You get the sense that Jesus cares a lot about God's people demonstrating not just lip service to love but true authentic loyalty to God and devotion to him by loving the people that God has put them in community with.
[24:21] As a priority God has gifted the church with leaders and those leaders are to strengthen and reinforce that unity. We see that in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 13.
[24:35] It says, And he gave the apostles and prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to the mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
[24:55] Here is how important unity is. That God has gifted the church with leaders, pastors, teachers to strengthen, reinforce, and cultivate unity among his people.
[25:11] He cares about the unity of this church. He cares about the unity of this congregation. And notice this is not the unity of the world.
[25:22] The unity of the world which is to rally around a common cause or to fight a common enemy or to demand conformity by silencing dissent in some way or to stay peaceful by avoiding conflict.
[25:37] This is not a unity at the expense of truth. This is unity that comes because of truth. Notice. God has gifted the church with leaders and what do they do?
[25:49] They not just strengthen it, they teach it. They are there to equip the saints for ministry and it happens as they're attaining the unity of the faith.
[26:00] There is a theological doctrinal source for their unity. This unifying teaching that's happening by the pastors and teachers that God has gifted a congregation.
[26:16] They're strengthened. They grow. They grow in doctrine. They grow in knowledge and they grow in likeness to Christ but they don't do it in isolation. They don't do it independently.
[26:27] They do it because of the gifting of God to strengthen unity among his people through the gift of pastors and teachers.
[26:37] leaders. It's not an independent venture but a collaborative journey. We're all moving together because we're committed to the truth of God's word together not independently.
[26:50] Now we see that God not just works through a unified people but God does his greatest work through a praying people. You see that here too. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.
[27:04] Devoting themselves to prayer. We see this picture of their dependence here in verse 14. They're waiting in Jerusalem.
[27:15] It did not mean inactivity. It did not mean boredom. It did not mean passivity. They're not just waiting and twiddling their thumbs. They're waiting purposefully.
[27:26] They're waiting prayerfully. They're worshiping. They're seeking God. They're pursuing. They're praying. Waiting. This word for devoting is a present active participle and all that really means is that it was a current reality in their life that was a consistent theme as long as they were there in Jerusalem.
[27:49] Waiting. Devoting. This word devoting occurs ten times throughout the New Testament and six of those times happen here in the book of Acts.
[28:01] This was a serious group. A devoted group. An expectant group. Time and time again we see that as a quality of their personhood.
[28:14] This unified group devoting themselves to prayer here in verse 14. We also see the pattern of their dependence. Acts chapter 1 verse 14 again devoting themselves to prayer.
[28:28] They were a group that had learned the lesson the disciples had missed. When Jesus says men ought always to pray and not lose heart. Remember that Jesus in the night of his crucifixion before he's taken away he's encouraging the disciples watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.
[28:49] And here we find a pattern of dependence that is coming through this group of individuals. And a number of times throughout the book of Acts where prayer becomes this constant this constant pattern of life.
[29:03] I've put a number of those examples in your in your outlines. You see it in Acts chapter 1 verse 24 and they prayed for wisdom concerning leadership.
[29:14] In chapter 2 verse 42 devoting themselves to teaching and prayer and time and time again. This posture of prayer is a pattern for this church.
[29:25] There's no wonder why God used them mightily because they anchored their hopes. They anchored their purposes. They anchored their activity in the power of God and not in human effort.
[29:37] They trusted in him from start to finish. This word for prayer is a general term that helps us recognize the significance of their posture before the Lord.
[29:50] It was prayer that activated God's promises. It was prayer that would be the ongoing mark of their dependence on the Lord. And finally, we find the purpose of their dependence.
[30:04] The purpose of their dependence. Why do they depend on the Lord through prayer? What amplified this? What motivated this? What prompted this?
[30:15] Well again, if we look back at the example of our Lord Jesus and the way that he encouraged his disciples and he emphasized the significance of prayer the night before he was crucified, well, maybe we'll begin to understand how important this would become to this new group of individuals who were meeting together in Acts chapter 1.
[30:38] On four occasions, Jesus, in this short span of this upper room supper that they were having, emphasizes the significance of prayer.
[30:49] In John chapter 14, verse 13, Jesus says this, Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
[31:04] Are you listening? Okay, if you're not listening, disciples, let me say it again. John 15, verse 7, If you abide with me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you.
[31:19] By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. Are you listening? Is it clear? Let me say it again.
[31:30] John 15, 16, You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.
[31:45] Are you listening? Did you get the message? That's three times. How about one more? John 16, verse 23, In that day you will ask nothing of me.
[31:56] Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name.
[32:06] Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. Is there any wonder why these disciples now in returning to Jerusalem are praying? Shouldn't be any wonder at all.
[32:19] Jesus not only set the example of His confidence in the Father through prayer, He helped the disciples to understand time and time again the exact same night. Pray to the Lord for His work to happen.
[32:32] So what are they praying? We understand the purpose. They're praying because they've been instructed to pray. But what is helping to amplify and fuel and guide their prayer?
[32:45] And again, we could go and spend a lot of time working through this upper room discourse. And I have there in your notes, I think there are ten different things that Jesus wants and says He wants to accomplish in them.
[33:01] and this would then be the fuel that they would use to know this is what He wants. This is His will. Then this is what we need to pray. For example, humility.
[33:12] John chapter 13, verse 14. If then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
[33:24] Be men and women of humility and service. So, O Lord, help us to be humble. Lord, help us to be willing to wash the feet, the dirty, stinky feet of the people around us.
[33:39] May we follow your lead. May we walk after your example. May we exemplify the humility of our Savior. O Lord, please make us humble. Or since your love.
[33:51] John 13, 34. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You are to love one another. By this we'll all know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
[34:02] O Lord, please help me love this way. O God, help me to recognize the significance of the community that you have put together. Your work in their life because of the beauty and the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus who has made us one.
[34:20] O God, please help us to be unified and full of love for our brothers and sisters. Or, we pray for the Father to be glorified.
[34:31] John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. Why? That the Father may be glorified in the Son. O God, I want the glory of God, the glory of the Father to shine forth, to be so clear, to be so evident in this world.
[34:50] O God, may you make your Son glorified in this world. How about the coming of the Spirit? John 14, 16-17.
[35:01] I will ask the Father, He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. O Lord, thank you for your Holy Spirit.
[35:13] Thank you for the promise that you have given that everyone who comes to faith in you receives the gift of the Spirit. You indwell me and you empower me and you activate in my life the ability to then serve others.
[35:27] O Lord, may the fruit of your Spirit be so evident in my life. O God, may your Spirit have His way in my life. How about for revelation of truth?
[35:40] John 14, 26. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
[35:52] Lord, thank you for your truth. Thank you for your Spirit that makes your truth so real in me that illuminates my heart and mind, that makes it clear. And when your Word is clear, O God, may I do what your Word says.
[36:07] Inform my heart of the truth that you've given. Help me in the power of your Spirit to work that out. Or peace. John 14, 27. Peace I leave with you.
[36:18] My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let them be afraid. O Lord, I'm so inclined to fear.
[36:30] I'm so timid and afraid. I'm not courageous as I should be. I'm not bold as I should be. I'm anxious about many things. O Lord, may your Spirit help me to enjoy peace.
[36:43] Peace and courage. Or fruitfulness. John 15, 4 and 5. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
[36:58] I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. O Lord, please make me fruitful.
[37:12] Whatever it takes. Understand that in order to enjoy fruitfulness, I need to be connected to you. Connected to the vine. And everything and anything that would sever that connection.
[37:26] Strengthen my grip on you and help me to obliterate those things, those patterns, those sins from my life so I can enjoy the harvest, the fruitfulness in my life personally and super abounding for the people that you put me in community with.
[37:43] On and on we could go for boldness in John 15, 26. When the Spirit comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.
[38:03] O God, may the witness and the testimony that is so real in my own heart, may it not be silent, a silent witness. May it be a public, bold proclamation of who you are and what you have done.
[38:18] The goodness of the Lord. Finally, unity. As we read in John 17, 20 and 21, I do not ask for these only but for those who will believe in me through their word that they may be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they also may be in us so the world may believe that you have sent me.
[38:39] O God, so many things are in my way keeping me from unity with others. There's bitterness in my life there's unforgiveness in my life, there's hurt in my life, there are people who have injured me.
[38:54] O God, I pray that you would help me to blow those away, to lay those at your feet, to help you do this work in my life so I can enjoy the unity that you have obtained on my behalf because of the work of Christ.
[39:08] You have made unity possible. help me not to be so foolish as to push it away. Help me to embrace it, help me to pursue it, help me to strengthen unity for the sake of witness.
[39:25] Notice this unity in verse 21, they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they may be one so that the world may believe that you sent me.
[39:38] Do you understand the significance of unity there? Our unity strengthens our witness and confirms that the gospel is true.
[39:52] This is a sketch perhaps of things that they prayed for. I imagine there were other things too but this was on the Savior's heart the night before he was crucified.
[40:02] This was what sent him to the cross. This was his mission to accomplish for the people that he was standing in front of and the people he would be crucified for.
[40:15] Jesus has a heart for this. Do we have a heart for it as well? I appreciate what E.M. Bounds says. He says, prayer does not fit us for the greater work.
[40:29] Prayer is the greater work. Are we people who have committed ourselves to prayer? You know, I imagine that there are many of you even now that are in the waiting room.
[40:42] And if you're anything like me, you don't like it. Waiting rooms are not the place that I like to hang out. I don't want to be in a place of having to wait for things to happen.
[40:55] I want to be the one making things happen. But that's not how God designed it. That's not how it's supposed to work. That God has made the waiting room for the purpose of helping to reinforce and to push right out in the front, forefront.
[41:11] You cannot do it. It does not depend on you. It depends on me. Praise the Lord for the waiting room. In whatever waiting room you are in right now, whatever thing that you are seeking for God to accomplish, whatever challenges you face, even whatever joys that you are anticipating, instead of pushing that forward, instead of forcing your way, instead of getting it done, is there a response of your heart to say, Lord, I'm waiting for your timing.
[41:46] I'm waiting for your best. And in the process of waiting, I'm going to pray that you will accomplish your purposes in me and through me for others. What a blessing it is to be in the waiting room.
[42:00] Let's pray. Father, we understand the waiting room is hard sometimes, but you do your greatest work there because it drives us to dependence.
[42:18] It drives us to rest, not to striving, not to working, not to get things done, not to strategies, not to performance, but to dependence on you.
[42:31] Oh, Lord, I pray that we would learn this lesson, that you delight in waiting rooms. And instead of us trying to hurry things along, may we learn in the process to trust you with others in prayer.
[42:45] In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. Have a great week. God bless you.