Simeon & Anna
Advent 2023 - The Characters of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Has there ever been a time in your life when you learned someone famous (athlete, musician, etc.) was going to be at a local store giving autographs and you decided to go? Let me tell you a story, about such an event which took place.
First started to listen to Petra when I was a teenager. My parents listened to country and southern gospel which I did as well. I believe the first time I started to listen to them was my sisters CD that she had. I always loved their music. When I was a youth leader I had a chance to see part of them live. They had stopped touring and The lead singer and guitar player where doing stuff called “two guys from Petra”. They were coming to Millar Youth Edge to do the worship for the weekend and I really wanted to take the youth group. They wanted to go to a bigger named youth event at Briercrest. My plans where spoiled. Many of you know I found out they where going to tour and coming to a city not to far from here. So I bought tickets. We didnt get to meet the band but we got to see them live, which was amazing to be a part of. Now I hear rumors they may be coming to Saskatoon next year.
My goal throughout this series has been to give us a perspective of Christmas through the key characters that God uses when his Son is born.
We often think about the obvious ones: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Wise Men. I have included two characters that I believe are also important to the story and serve as a natural introduction and conclusion to this series.
Something happens to us when we learn high-profile people will be in our town. We buy tickets or make plans to catch a glimpse of the person in real life. As we will learn in this final story, Simeon was a guy who was promised to see not just any person, but the Son of God. One only wonders what excitement and anticipation filled his heart.
Jesus coming to earth means we are able to find contentment doing the will of God, that we can look forward to the salvation of God, that we can serve God at all times and should change the way that we live our lives.
Context
Context
As usual a bit of context to what we are going to go through is important. Jesus had just turned 8 days old, which meant it was time for His parents to take Him to the temple to be circumcised according to Jewish Law.
Women where ceremonially unclean according to Jewish law after giving birth. After the 8th day, when the child was named and circumcised the mother was unclean for 33 days for a male and 66 for a female. I am not sure why the difference in days. According to OT law when this was done, the firstborn male was to be consecrated to the Lord. Then a sacrifice was to be made. A lamb and a pigeon or turtledove, or if the family could not afford this, then they could just bring two doves or two pigeons. this can be found in Lev 12:1-5.
It tells us in this passage in Luke that Mary and Joseph offered two birds. They where a poor family as can be seen by the sacrifice they gave,
Jesus was born into a humble, poor family we can surmise by the context of this passage. The second this tells us is that Jesus was raised following the OT law. Though when He began His ministry he began to change things. He was the fulfillment of the law, and it was one of the things that angered the religious leaders so much.
Why does this matter? Paul tells us in the book of Galatians 4:4-5 that
4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As we have gone through already, Jesus was born under the law, to fulfill the law. That means Jesus and His disciples would have followed the OT cobvenant. But Jesus also ushered in a new Covenant as well.
He did This so that we may be adopted as sons and daughters. It seems strange that Jesus was presented to God.
Not once did they think that they where above the law, they did not waver from what was required of them. But what we learn is that salvation has come, once for all people. The New covenant between God and man is here, which says that you to can be adopted as sons and daughters of God. This is the good news that we share.
Simeon
Simeon
This where we meet Simeon. following the will of God, content in doing the will of God. People assume Simeon was an old man, but there is nothing here to say how old He was. But we do get a glimpse into his life.
25 There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
Simeon was righteous and devout. That meant that He to followed the Law of God. This kind of compact Character reference is common it seems in the book of Luke. Not only was He righteous he looked forward to the consolaton of Israel. You may be thinking the same thing that I did, what on earth is Israel’s consolation?
It is something that Israel was supposed to be doing, something that had been prophesied since the beginning of tim. Looking forward to Israel’s consolation is the hope for safety from the oppressors around them. The prophecy from old that a messiah was going to come was where this came from. There was great hope that they would one day be saved.
But the problem is that it was taking forever, generations of people where taught of it yet the consolation had not come. put yourself in their place for a second. We have the promise of the second coming of the messiah. We look forward to then when we as followers of Jesus will reign with Him. And people have been saying for almost 2000 years that it is going to happen soon but it hasn't. But yet we still hope.
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
comfort is a prophecy a waiting hope. and simeon was faithfully serving the Lord, doing the will of the Lord knowing he had the hope of the coming messiah.
Simeon personified the faithful and expectant Israel. This is the way that they where told that they where supposed to live their lives.
His Promise
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.
But he had it pretty good, it was revealed to Him that He would not die till He saw the messiah. So it would have been a bit easier to wait. I wonder though, sometimes I think knowing what is going to happen to us ion the future may not be a good thing, at least that is what all of the movies tell us.
But like Israel was supposed to be, He was looking forward in faithful anticipation of the coming of the messiah. Like we are as well, as we faithfully serve we can look forward to the promise of the coming of the messiah.
He was a man of the spirit.
He was filled with the HS, this was before the promise of the HS filling all believers. AND GUIDED BY THE hs HE ENTERED THE TEMPLE. The temple is not the important part of this, the temple was the center of the presence of God with His people. But rather it is the meeting between God and man. Right away Simeon knew the messiah.
27 Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said,
His Praise
With arms raised Simeon praised God and prophesied of things to come. I find the first line interesting.
29 Now, Master, you can dismiss your servant in peace, as you promised.
I found it interesting that the CSB used the word Master here for God.
Doing a translation comparison every other version uses the word Lord, or sovereign Lord. The actual word here is defined as master, in reference to our Lord God. The idea behind it is that God is master and we as humans are His servants to be use for His glory. Submission to God is what we are called to do.
What this is also telling us is that salvation has come, that As servants of the Lord God only in Him can we find salvation. Salvation is here!
I start with a question that has to do with what we are going through here. As we anticipate the birth and second coming of Jesus, what are your goals? Or at least what should they be?
Simeon’s goal in life, to meet the messiah. He had been told at some point that he would see the messiah, and now that it had happened He could die in peace. Our goal as well should be the messiah, to live for Jesus.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation. 31 You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.
promise and fulfillment. The promise of seeing the coming messiah and that being fulfilled.
I asked earlier what are your goals? This is something that we see commonly around this time of year. Lets make a goal to excersize more, read more books, whatever the case may be. Our goal must be to see Jesus, to live our lives for Him in contented excitement. Even after this warning that we get.
33 His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, “Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed—
35 and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Imagine being told that as parents. Your child is special, but people are going to hate Him and it something that will happen will pierce your soul. Sounds like fun where do I sign up.
Though our goal is to know Jesus more, it is in the midst of what the bible tells us is a hostile world. How do we live in contented excitement now knowing this, that the world opposes Jesus and what He has done. Put your life in perspective. Even amidst the persecution coming our way, Our goal needs to be Jesus, to be found in Him. For He is the only goal worth pursuing.
The sword piercing the soul is also a reference to the death of Jesus. We must always remember that Jesus birth and His death go together. Eve as a baby there are signs pointing to Jesus having to die. And I am sure it would have become clear to Mary once it happened.
Anna
One more example, that seemed to happen at the same time as Simeon. We have the prophetess Anna. She was old it says.
36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
37 and was a widow for eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.
The wording is kind of tricky. She was either married for 7 years and a widow for 84 which would make her around 105. Or she was 84 years old. Either way works, either way she was getting up there in years. As a widow for that long, it would have been a feat in itself at that she would reach that age at a time when women had a hard time doing that.
38 At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
What where her goals? She went through a hard time for sure losing her husband so eartly on in marriage. But instead of spending the time she had getting angry at God she was able to do something, she served God. And since she had the time she used all of it to pray and fast in the temple looking forward to the redemption of her people.
So What?
So What?
Jesus is not a celebrity, he is the Son of God—our Savior and redeemer. Unless you are close to a celebrity in some fashion, chances are you will never have a relationship with a celebrity or even personally see one, but you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and we are promised to one day see him face-to-face because he lives!
Each character we looked at through this series experienced and obeyed a unique call from God. Each was given specific instruction relative to his or her role or was simply invited to see the Savior.
What Are your Goals
What Are your Goals
Simeon and Anna’s attitude stands in contrast to a lot we see in the world today. We see people make resolutions this time of year to make more money, lose weight, stop a bad habit etc. But rather in this season of anticipation our goal needs to be in serving God and knowing Him more. Of spreading this message of salvation to the world around us. To know God is best, we need to strive to live for Him in all that we do. Simeon’s goal was to see the messiah, and He did and with that He knew He would be happy going to see Jesus.
Are we content doing the will of God
Are we content doing the will of God
If our goal is to know Jesus more, as we anticipate Him are we content doing what God has called us to do? We can find contentment in the will of God as we learn what it means to follow Hoim, as we live our lives for Him as we reflect on How we can best minister to Him. God has given you what you need to follow Him, He has given you all that you need to follow Him. Stop searching elsewhere for contentment, you will find it only In God.
Are you at peace knowing you are a follower of Jesus and all else fails in comparison? Are you content knowing you are following the will of God?
Has witnessing the salvation of God in your life given you a different perspective
Has witnessing the salvation of God in your life given you a different perspective
Let this put your life into perspective. Witnessing the salvation of God and being content where He has led you should change the way that you look at life. For example look at ANna. Who was old and still serving God. Retirement years should be a misnomer for believers. if you are following this, what Jesus birth, death and second coming means is that we need to be using all the time we have for Him. Being retired could also mean that you are free to pursue ministry in a way that you never could before.
Our goal is to see Jesus, we anticipate His coming again but in the mean time how can we spend our time for him, content in His will, pursuing Him with everything we are.