Prepare the way of the Lord and the Lord comes, and we hear about John a little bit more and he comes to a grisly end where his head is taken off but then we prepare the way of the Lord and the disciples and Jesus comes. Then right near the end of Jesus’s ministry in Matthew 28 what does Jesus say to his disciples go into all the world proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ,  (I’m paraphrasing a bit) making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Now he was saying this to his disciples and orthodoxy, our Christian faith, says this is a commission that Jesus has given to all of us isn’t it.  To all of us.  So now what is our role as followers of Jesus? Sometimes I think we wait for the next John the Baptist to come, because at the end of the passage that I’m going to read to you this morning in Acts 11 we see Jesus starts to ascend.  Acts 1 verses 1 to 11. 

So Jesus is coming back and so we have Easter.  This event that we celebrated last year so we celebrate with joy, we celebrate with gratitude, we probably celebrate with a sense of grief as well and a sense of sadness. But all those emotions at Easter, Jesus came and he died for us. And those of us who have received Jesus and we follow Jesus are called.  We are called by Jesus not only to do a task, but we’re called into his kingdom, the kingdom of God. We are called, you have a role. So we are called, now what then happens is we start to look around what calling means and we tend to define it in our worldly way.  I am called to be a pastor, Ross is called to be a pastor. I am called to be a father, I am called to be a husband to Jocelyn and we start to define this calling.  I am called to be a grandfather. I’m called but I wonder if those things as important as they are, help us to not stop and think about a greater calling, and that greater calling is whatever God wants us to be, whoever God wants us to live life with. Whatever task he gives us the greatest calling we have. We’re called to prepare the way of the Lord. There is probably not going to be another John the Baptist. It’s us.  We are the ones that are called to prepare the way and if we’re a student, if we’re a pastor, if we’re an engineer. if we’re a tradesperson  or whatever we do, we are called to prepare the way.  

You see following Jesus is not a passive exercise.  We have pews in our church and we sit in rows and you could get away with thinking, well, maybe following Jesus is about sitting down and listening to someone. Yeah it is and that’s really important, but it’s an action, it’s an activity, it’s a movement, it’s a step forward that we are to do and I think this is what Jesus was trying to tell the disciples at this time.

There was this really important word in Acts 1 verse 4 and it says wait.  Wait.  He set the disciples up to prepare the way.  He set the disciples up to be called and he gives them the commission to go into all the world, making disciples.  Go into all the world and make disciples.  But he says wait. I’d love to know what Jesus talked about from his resurrection to his ascension (the 40 days that Jesus met with the disciples). I’d love to do that like every meal was the last meal, every discussion was the last discussion, for what the disciples would do. I’m not sure about what they were preparing themselves and how Jesus prepared them but they were amazed and perplexed later on when the Holy Spirit came upon them they listened to Jesus.  They watched and he ascended to heaven for the second time.  They saw Jesus depart from them and all they were doing from what we can understand was holding on to a promise that the Holy Spirit will come and be an advocate and help them and be of comfort.  They were holding on at the end that Jesus would return and of course those of you who have done some deep kind of theological study, there was a belief that Jesus was going to come back sooner rather than later.  That the disciples would still be alive and would see would see this happen but now Jesus had gone, taken away again with a message of the Holy Spirit coming.  But you are to wait.  “Why do you stand looking into the sky this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven why do you stand looking into the sky.”  It’s a question of kind of bewilderment.  I wonder who those two people were.  I wonder if one of them was John the Baptist it would be pretty cool wouldn’t it.   Why do you stand looking into the sky?  Why do you,  what are you hoping for, what are you waiting for.  What is it that you want to know more about Jesus for you to prepare the way?  What else do you need to know?  What else do you need to learn?  What other Bible passage do you need to understand?  What do you need to unpack that would stop you from standing and looking into the sky but actually saying I am called and my calling is to prepare the way of the Lord. 

Now how do I do that.  The instruction that Jesus said was wait.  Who enjoys the word wait?  I don’t!  I don’t like the word wait.  I hate having to wait.  I’m not a good waiter.  I’ve never worked as a waiter but in the active sense of the word I’m not a good waiter.  I struggle with this.  I’ve got to wait for birthdays,  I’ve got to wait for Christmas,  I got to wait for payday,  I got to wait for my children to grow up and they’re 32 I’m still waiting for them to grow up,  I have to wait for people.  I’m impatient when it comes to seeing people come into the kingdom,  sharing with my friends.  I know “why Lord do I have to wait so long for my friends to commit to the Lord”,  “why can’t people keep to my timeline honestly ‘, why can’t they, life is short and there’s so much that needs to be done, why wait.  I see for me it’s a bit of a character flaw.  I don’t like being told to wait and it’s annoying.  Red lights, queues in supermarkets, shopping malls, they’re not helpful things.  Often when I drive home from Hamilton in my role, I look at my watch and if I’m leaving Hamilton at 3:30pm, I’ll always go to Whakatane via Rotorua. If I’m leaving Hamilton at 3:30pm,  I will always add 10 minutes to my trip at Tauriko going into Tauranga.  I know I’ll be waiting in a queue but unfortunately or fortunately it’s a lesson that God teaches us all the time is to wait.   I don’t know whether Ross is happy with me telling you to wait,  because he probably wants you all to get out there and share the gospel and I do too, but in 1 Corinthians: 1-7 it says this “so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  What do we wait for?  We wait for the Lord to come, and as we look through the biblical pages you will see waiting happening all the time.  Moses 40 years in the wilderness, David having to wait before he became king,  Paul, he had to train for three years in isolation and training and he was a pretty well-trained Pharisee, and now the disciples.  Jesus says to them in the last words “go to Jerusalem and wait a helper will come to you, wait and something will happen.”  I think Peter probably struggled with this.  I don’t think Peter was much of a waiter.  He wanted things done then and there.  Let’s cut off the ear of the guy and that’ll sort it out, let’s tell Jesus that he’s wrong and that’ll sort it all out, and all that sort of stuff.  He was ready to go\. He had just spent this wonderful time with Jesus on the beach where Jesus had commissioned him to go and love his people,  go and shepherd his people.  Peter feed my sheep, he was ready to go upon this rock I will build my church.  Let’s get it done and now Jesus says wait for one more thing.   So Jesus commissioned him, Jesus calls him.  He doesn’t say Peter you’re now preparing the way but in fact he was giving Peter the commission to prepare the way for the Lord to return and Jesus says wait for one more thing.  

I would like to add to the scripture and say I reckon Jesus got us to wait for two more things,  but let me tell you what the one main thing is.  The important thing that the Bible says is this, I’m sending back up,  here is your mission, wait for backup, the promise of the Holy Spirit. I am giving you the mission but also I’m giving you the power to achieve it through the constant presence of my Holy Spirit.  You know we don’t need to invite the Holy Spirit here this morning.  He’s here.  You don’t need to invite the Holy Spirit into your workplace, he’s there. Those of you who made a Christian commitment at Easter time this year, that’s just such good news, you have the Holy Spirit with you.  He is with you,  he is there.  You may not understand, you may not know quite what that means right now, but he is there and he’s ready to bring you into your calling.  That calling is simple but yet profound, you are to prepare the way for my return, you are to prepare the way for my return.  

One of the issues though is the second point that I think we have with the Holy Spirit.   We have individualized the Holy Spirit.  We will say things like the Holy Spirit’s in me but man it’s not yet in you and you need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit to be full of the Holy Spirit.  I’m not going against that, I think there’s always a place for a recommitment or an acknowledgement of God’s presence in our heart and in our life, be it called a prayer baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t know what it is but all I know is that the Holy Spirit is always with us but we’ve individualized it, but the interesting thing is how did they wait.  They waited together, they didn’t disperse to their own homes, they didn’t run away.  There’s something about the fact that they waited together and they acknowledged as they were together that the mission of God had not just been given to one but had been given to many.  We even see later on on that day or the next day when they’re meeting together they decided there wasn’t enough people in that room and so Peter out of his impatience decides to have an election and they appoint Matthias as the twelve because they believed we need twelve to do this task because that’s what Jesus set up.  Now I’m not sure whether it was the right move or the correct move.  Probably in God’s economy he probably went ah well, they had something to do so they did it.  We don’t hear much about Matthias afterwards but the cool thing about it is they wanted more people involved,  they wanted to do this together, that the Holy Spirit is not just for them by themselves.  

Man, being a follower of Jesus by yourself is tough yards,  I mean I remember being a follower of Jesus at school that was not really exciting, then when I played a lot of squash and I was a follower of Jesus playing a lot of squash and doing interclub and all that I got to the point where I thought there was only one Christian in the whole world who played squash and I think it was me.  You get like that sometimes. Why can’t God bring other people around because you realize that we just can’t do it on our own so the waiting consolidated this group of people, put in the Holy Spirit that had Easter and they’re suddenly realizing what Easter is all about.  God has commissioned them to call and to go out in the world.  The ultimate thing is wait.  The Lord is coming back, go prepare the way and now I’m going to give you the Holy Spirit,  but even more than that I’m going to give you each other and what came out of Pentecost was the church.  

We’re all set up. What’s our role now?  Prepare the way of the Lord in every situation we find ourselves.  Our task is simply to prepare the way of the Lord.  What does that mean?  Well it means empowered by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is always there.  We come together as Fairfield Baptist Church and we do life together empowered by the Holy Spirit being ready to prepare the way of the Lord on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.  We have backup, we’re not alone.  We do it together.  That’s what they do.  They have the power of the Holy Spirit together.  Pentecost was about being together.  What happened was 3,000 people became followers of Jesus.

I have no doubt you’ll mention Pentecost in a few weeks time.  We live in this time of waiting and when Pentecost comes the power of the Holy Spirit empowers a group of people to go and prepare the way.  Are you ready for that time? We make everything possible so that people that are in our sphere of influence can hear about Jesus.

Let me try and bring a whole pile of thoughts together. Prepare the way of the Lord and that’s the call that you have on your life.  Yes you might be called to do a specific job, a specific role in the church or outside the church but basically your role is to prepare the way. Never doubt that you have the Holy Spirit, never doubt.  If you are now in a moment where you are struggling with God’s faithfulness or struggling with being a follower of Jesus in the place that you find yourself, please know this, the Holy Spirit is with you.  God is good and you may not hear this every Sunday in the life of the church but it is no doubt here that you have the backing of this group of people.  You have the backing of this group of people because they know that you back them as well and there are people here that will pray for you.  We’ve prayed in the church service today that you’re not alone.  You’re not alone at university, you’re not alone at high school, you’re not alone in the office, the Holy Spirit is with you.  He has called you to prepare the way, so in all that you do keep that at the forefront of your mind.  How can I do that with grace, with mercy, with humility, with generosity and in doing that you are helping to prepare the hearts of those people who have not yet heard.