Waiting for God in Christ
I. Wait for Christ, for we are privileged to do so; wait for Him, wait at the outer gate, though the gate may be fast closed, and we can see nothing of the glory within; yet wait, for so Christ bids you. Within that gate is your home, if you will not turn your backs upon it; wait, and it will one day be opened. But we grow tired of waiting. Seven days we wait, and He who alone can sacrifice for us, comes not to us sensibly; nay, He seems to linger beyond His promised time; we pray, and He has not seemed to hear; we are bound, and He has not yet delivered us. And then we are tired of waiting, and we try to offer our own sacrifice; in some way or other the ways are infinitely various we try to help ourselves. This is the one great lesson to press upon you, "Wait for Christ." Wait patiently; if your prayers are cold, if your faith is weak, if your sins are many, still wait and watch; pray still, believe amidst unbelief; watch your lives, and struggle with your sins, amidst your constant defeats. This is the state of him who through much tribulation enters into the kingdom of God.
II. And can any tongue adequately describe the joy, when those who so watch behold the dawn? Not the Sun He is not yet risen but the gracious dawn. Most touching is the natural dawn, when the forms of things first, and then their colours, begin to appear to us, and there is a stillness over everything, a freshness, yet a calmness inexpressible, the preparation, as it were, for the brightness of the full day. It is a true image of the spiritual dawn to them who have been long waiting. That is the dawn when prayer becomes welcome, when God begins to be realised to our minds, when we think of Him as our loving Father, and so begin to feel towards Him as His children. This is the dawn; not the day, for that may still be distant; the sun arises, when the beasts of the field get them away together, and lay them down in their dens; when evil haunts us no more, and Christ is seen face to face. But the dawn brightening more and more unto the perfect day that is the Christian's course when he is truly Christ's, when he waits and is not weary.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. v., p. 321.
References: John 14:19; John 14:20. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 208. John 14:20. Ibid.,vol. iii., p. 289. John 14:21. J. W. Colenso, Village Sermons,p. 89; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xvii., p. 312; Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 159; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 133; G. G. Findlay, Expositor,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 30. John 14:21-23. H. W. Beecher, Forty-eight Sermons,vol. i., p. 279. John 14:21-26. W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 91. Joh 14:22. T. Gasquoine, Ibid.,p. 83; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. i., No. 29; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 326; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 175; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints Days,p. 406; Plain Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times,"vol. vi., p. 181; Church of England Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 1 3 John 1:14 :22, John 14:23. J. C. Gallaway, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 298; H. W. Beecher, Sermons,4th series, p. 236.