12-14-2025

“WAITING WITHOUT WONDERING”

Text: Matthew 11:2-15 – Advent 3

Sunday December 14, 2025

Trinity - Creston

Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our text for this 3RD Sunday in Advent is the Gospel Lesson from Matthew 11 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that as we wait for your final coming, we do wait without wondering how our life ends or worry about what will happen between now and then.  We are your redeemed and loved by you.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Waiting takes on many forms. There’s the kind of limited but agonizing waiting that you do at the post office or the DMV or license office. It may be less than an hour, but it feels like an eternity. 

Then there’s the waiting that comes with the end of the semester or a marital engagement or a pregnancy. The end is scheduled and will certainly come, but it’s still so far away with so much to do in between. 

Or there’s the sort of waiting we do when we expect something but can’t control it, like waiting for a package, phone call, or email. 

And there’s the very different kind of waiting for an idea that will solve a problem, or an inspiration that will create a work of art, or an insight that will end a crisis. 

That waiting is frustrating and nerve-racking because there’s no guarantee a solution will ever come. 

There are many kinds of waiting, some easier than others.

Waiting is not inherently bad, but it can cause some real difficulties—and sometimes it can lead to big problems, like wondering what exactly it is that you’re even waiting for. 

Fortunately, the most important thing we’re waiting for—and we do know what it is—has actually already come.

Jesus Has Already Brought the Kingdom,
So We Don’t Wonder While We Wait.

I. Waiting can lead to second-guessing.

A. This seems to have been a problem facing John the Baptizer.

1. Having baptized God’s Messiah, he now waits for release in Herod’s dungeon (v 2).

2. It appears that as he waited he began to wonder: Is Jesus really the fulfillment of God’s plan? Is Jesus what my whole life has been all about? John was wondering if perhaps there might be someone else and if he and his followers should get back to the work of waiting (v 3).

B. While we’re not imprisoned, our circumstances can also lead us to second-guess Jesus’ place in our lives.

1. We face personal challenges with our health, financial security, relationships. 

2. We contend with a culture that is increasingly at odds with Christian confession. 

3. It doesn’t always feel like the kingdom has come.

4. Some Christians begin to wonder: Is Jesus the real deal? They may even begin to explore other options, and not just other religions, but even other philosophies of life—the certainty of science, the fellowship of human oneness, the spirituality of the earth.

II. We conquer uncertainty and doubts when we see and hear what God says and does.

A. Jesus’ only answer to John was his life and ministry.

1. All that Jesus did—healing, cleansing, forgiving, raising, teaching—proved that he was the Messiah John had been waiting for (vv 4–5).

2. John could be sure God was at work, and God’s kingdom had come (v 6). He need do nothing to achieve it or make it more certain (v 12).

B. Jesus’ answer to our struggles and doubts is the sure work we see and hear him do among us right now.

1. He gives us our identity and destiny in Baptism; he speaks his forgiveness to us in the Absolution and in preaching; he comes to heal us in the Lord’s Supper; he proclaims the Gospel of restoration into our ears.

2. He does all the work; we don’t make it happen (v 12). We simply rejoice in what he gives and what he does.

3. We can be sure that Jesus is the answer to every challenge, doubt, or question that afflicts us in our waiting. 

4. We don’t wait and wonder, because Jesus has already come and the kingdom is already here (vv 11, 13). The promise has been fulfilled. The old is gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). 

Through Jesus’ perfect work done at the cross and through the empty tomb and now delivered to us in the means of grace, the kingdom has come. 

Yes, there is still more to come—and it will be extraordinary—but while we wait for that, we never have to second-guess Jesus or his promises. Jesus has already brought the kingdom, so we don’t wonder while we wait.

Conclusion: Tailgaters at a football game. Though you wouldn’t know it to look at them, they’re waiting. They’re waiting for a kickoff. But there’s nothing even close to negative or even uncomfortable or unpleasant about their waiting. 

They know the kickoff is coming; that’s why they’re there. They can’t make it happen or hasten its arrival; it comes when it’s time. 

But in the meantime, while they wait, they’re making the most of the time, not killing it, but exploiting and enriching it.

Christians wait for Jesus’ return like that; we know he’s coming, and his kingdom is already here at work among us. 

So we have reason to celebrate with confidence, and we make the most of the time. 

What’s coming is the best of all, but while we wait, we delight in the reality of God’s work in and through us for the sake of his creation even now. Amen.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.