Imagine a waiting room at a doctor’s office.  What do you usually do in the waiting room?  Well, you “wait.”  When you are in the waiting room, waiting, you probably feel like you are doing nothing.  Waiting in the waiting room doesn’t seem very productive.  It just seems like you are doing nothing.  And you probably are.

In verse 43, it says that this Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God.  What does it mean to wait for something, in a Biblical sense?  I’d like to think today about “waiting.”  Waiting on God.  Waiting for him to act, in your life, and in this world.  Waiting for him to keep all his good promises.  But I hope to show us that waiting in the Biblical sense isn’t just about inaction.  I think it’s far too common that we think waiting is only about inaction.  That when we are waiting for something, that it’s just like the waiting room at the doctor’s office.  We wait, and just sit around doing nothing.  But Biblical waiting is not about inaction.  Biblical waiting is closely related to patience.  But patient waiting isn’t the same as inaction.

Passage: Mark 15:42-47
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/29/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: Waiting for the Kingdom of God

 

 Waiting for the Kingdom of God [36:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (99)

Topic: Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 91-93
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Adult Sunday School at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/29/2009 in Novato, CA.

 

 Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 91-93 [40:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (75)

Who do you want Jesus to be?  Of course, who you want Jesus to be, is quite different than who he really is.  Yet it is a common temptation for us to want to tell Jesus who he is supposed to be.  Or what he is supposed to do for us, or for our life.  Mark, however, has been presenting us with the Biblical Jesus.

Throughout the book, Mark has been asking the question, “Who is Jesus?”  And so as we look at this climactic passage in the book of Mark, I want to remind us of this question Mark has been asking.  I want us to look again today at who Jesus is.  I want us to look again at what it means for him to be the Christ and what it means for him to be the Son of God.  It’s quite fitting that Mark drives home this message with the story of the cross.

Passage: Mark 15:33-41
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/22/2009 in Novato, CA.

Manuscript: Darkness Over the Whole Land

 

 Darkness Over the Whole Land [35:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (85)

Topic: Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 90, continued
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Adult Sunday School at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/22/2009 in Novato, CA.

 

 Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 90, continued [24:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (95)