How do I display a div/layer "window" when a button is pressed?

I'm using a page that runs a database query on a second page. Right now, I am using hidden spans to hide a message, which is shown when the submit button is pressed. This function does two things:

1) It disables the buttons so that the query can not be qued up more than once
2) It displays the message and animation

I want the message and animation to be displayed in a div/layer "window" instead. I have no experience using any of the div/layer stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated!