When is a Church Plant Now a Fully Established Church?
September 7, 2023
Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn about waiting on the Lord that we can learn comes from a group of people that we can most relate to, Christians in the church of Jesus Christ still struggling on this earth. In the context of Hebrews 9, Christ is compared to the high priest who would enter the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the sins of his people.
The Israelites would watch their high priest go behind the sacred curtain and if he appeared again, everyone knew that the sacrifice had been accepted by God. This meant that atonement was made, and forgiveness and blessing in God had been secured. So also we eagerly await the reappearing of Christ which indicates that salvation’s plan is complete, and the sacrifice has been accepted. Hebrews 9:28 gives us an obvious conclusion that the greatest key to waiting on the Lord is to wait for the Lord. Here are seven practical ways to eagerly wait for His appearing.
The greatest key to waiting on the Lord is to wait for the Lord.
One-third of the Bible is prophecy, and it is meant to be read to create anticipation. (Zech. 14:9; Isa. 9:6-7).
While you are waiting on the Lord for some resolution, it is tempting to put your own holiness and sanctification on the back-burner. In actuality, while you wait on the Lord by waiting for the Lord, we are to wait by striving for Christ-likeness. We are to pursue and practice humble obedience.
Recall the double blessing given in Revelation, one at the beginning and one at the end. Blessed is the one who reads aloud and keeps the prophecy. (Rev. 1:3, 22:7). Revelation contains the revealing of Christ in much more glory than He’s ever revealed in the gospels.
The Bible is the revelation of God about His kingdom program, not a series of unrelated verses to be cherry-picked for devotional use for whatever purpose fits your life circumstances for the day. If you read the Bible with this story constantly in mind, there is a flow, direction, hope, and yearning for this coming kingdom.
Engage in fruitful labor now for the sake of Christ and cultivate your desire and yearning to depart and be with Christ. (Phil. 1:21-23).
The one who is seated at the right hand of God in intercession for your sin stands to receive His own as they come home. Let that vision be on your mind daily.
Both the New and Old Testament have significant amounts of material related to the final days of this earth in detail. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 give details about the rapture and the resurrection. What does Paul tell us to do with these tremendous and exciting details? In verse 18 he says, “Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”
As we wait on the Lord, we can relate to the writer of Psalm 102, an afflicted man who was suffering greatly and feeling abandoned by God, when he said, “I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places.” (v.6) However, as the sun is setting in the desert and darkness closes over the waste places, that desert owl bows and sways as it sings in perfect contentment. Even in the desert, even in the darkness, you can be the desert owl who, as it were, sings and sways in contentment. Be content in the waste places and the desert because you have a God who is already there in victory! Psalm 68:4 exhorts, “Sing to God, sing praises to His name; lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts; His name is the Lord; exult before Him!”
Dr. Swartz serves as Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Bakersfield, California and is a guest instructor at John MacArthur’s Grace Advance Academy, a church-planting training program. Dr. Swartz is the author of numerous books, including Strength in the River, Joyful Generosity, Shattered Shepherds, and The Essential Church.
