Luke 2:22-38
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
Forgive the buzz on this one. I had a cold and my voice was way down.
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
Forgive the buzz on this one. I had a cold and my voice was way down.
One of the odd little quirky things that Kathy and I like to do from time to
time is walk through old cemeteries and read the tombstones. Sometimes there
are interesting little tidbits of information or a verse of Scripture that give
a hint to what kind of person lies beneath our feet. Often, however, there is
just the name, the date born and the date of death with just a dash between. The
dash represents the whole life lived between the two dates, so it would contain
most of the interesting information, but it is hidden from us.
All we can do is pick up little clues that can be gleaned from the names, dates and from the other tombstones around the one we are looking at. If there are a cluster of stones all containing the same last name, then we may be able to figure out the family relationships; who was the parent, who was married to whom, who was the child. Sometimes, when the dates on either side of the dash are chronologically close together, indicating a short life, we can tell that an infant or child lies beneath, leaving a sad story. Others obviously died in old age and full of years, but what we don’t know is, were those years full of suffering or joy?
Here in Luke, in three short verses, we have a lush, filled in dash, containing more information about Anna, than can be found about anybody in most cemeteries. We know that she suffered tragedy at a young age when she lost her husband after only seven years. We know that her response to her suffering was to surrender her life to be wholly devoted to God. We know that she took her faith seriously, fasting and praying and living in the temple night and day. We know that her relationship with God was deep and strong. We know that God rewarded her devotion to Him by giving back. We know this because she was called a Prophetess, no small reward, for it showed that God revealed things to her and that what she said was reliable because she had God’s ear and He shared His thoughts with her.
We know that her father’s name was Penuel and that she came from the tribe of Asher. What this tells us is that, probably, she came from a family that was historically devoted to God for many generations. So many of the people of the northern tribes of Israel, such as Asher, had lost their heritages. Lost because they fell into idolatry or had been destroyed during the Syrian invasion 700 years earlier. There was a small remnant of the people from the northern tribes who migrated to Jerusalem to continue worshiping God in the temple. Anna’s ancestors must have been among them because they preserved their heritage. So, knowing that she was from the tribe of Asher is pretty significant. Obviously, she carried on the family tradition by remaining faithful to God as well. That whole family must have been faithful through the ages to keep track of their genealogy and for Anna to end up at the temple.
In spite of that heritage of faithfulness, her own life experiences could have easily led her into bitterness and discontent with the life God had dealt her. In that culture she probably had married as a young teen. But she had only enjoyed her marriage for seven years before she became a widow. She was deprived of the joy of children. She had no son to care for her, no grand children to play with in her old age. Yet, instead of bitterness, she turned to God and He rewarded her with Himself. She had been deprived of so many of the things that bring us joy, but she obviously found all her needs met in God Himself. How can we know this? Well, would you stick with something for more than 60 years to find peace if you got nothing out of it? Yet, she turned to God after experiencing what we would consider a hard life, and faithful through her ages, she never left it. God met her in her sorrow. He was faithful to her too. And they walked together through life.
She probably knew Simeon well. They were both old and they both spent much time in the temple, perhaps even together. Their paths probably crossed frequently, at least. Who knows, they may have even discussed together the coming of the hoped for Messiah. Maybe they had even shared together the revelations from God that they had received individually. Imagine how it might have been. Simeon may have shared with Anna about what the Lord had told him about seeing the Messiah before he died.
She may have noticed Simeon when he approached this couple with the infant. She could see how excited he was, and hear him sing the song of praise when God lead him to the boy and revealed that God had fulfilled his promise to Simeon. His prayers had been answered so that now he could depart in peace. So perhaps she waited her turn, as a friend would, marveling at Simeon’s joy. Maybe she understood, in a motherly way, that this couple would need all the encouragement they could find, especially after Simeon has told this young mother that a sword would pierce her heart. That isn’t the kind of thing you normally say over a young mother cradling her first born, waiting to dedicate him to the Lord’s service.
I can remember when our son, Matthew, was a new born. Kathy was carrying him in one of those snuggle packs that allow you to carry the baby in front, but have your hands free. One day, we happened to be walking through a store and an elderly man that we knew from one of the local churches approached us, laid his hand on Matt’s head and pronounced a blessing over him. It was a wonderful moment. I don’t’ know how it would have felt if the man had continued to also issue a warning about the pain that would also be ahead. I think we would have definitely found it deflating, and wearisome, to say the least.
So now, with Simeon’s moment being over, Anna steps up to bless the couple and give encouragement. Perhaps she simply believed Simeon’s announcement. Or maybe, as with Simeon, God had revealed to her also that this indeed was the one that she had been waiting for. Anna knew that she could trust God’s nudgings. A life spent devoted to God, in close relationship, can do that. She had probably seen many infants come through the gates. It was the law after all that each first born son was to be dedicated to God. This one, however, was different from all the rest. God had told her so. Her friend had never let her down, so she knew that it must be true.
Walking up to the young mother and child, she gave thanks to her friend, God, for hearing the prayers of His people. Their redemption was near at hand. This infant is who they had been waiting for. Those who had been faithful through the ages were still waiting for Messiah, and now he had arrived, all that remained was for him to grow into manhood and fulfill God’s purposes for all of Israel through the power and glory of this one man.
But Simeon and Anna were so old. I doubt they lasted another 30 years to see exactly how Jesus’ ministry took shape or to see him hang on the cross for their sins. In fact, it is likely that they didn’t last even twelve years. There is no mention of them at the temple when Jesus stayed there impressing all the teachers of the Law while his parents started home not realizing he wasn’t with them.
The significance of this in our story is that Simeon and Anna were faithful in the same way as many of the heroes mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning at verse 36, “Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
I do not mean that Simeon and Anna suffered physically as badly as some of the heroes of faith as they are spoken of in Hebrews. But like those others who remained faithful through the ages even though they hadn’t received what was promised, Simeon and Anna also passed from this earth, having seen the Messiah, and still having faith, without seeing the fulfillment and triumph of his ministry on the cross and risen from dead. Jesus had come. There he was on the scene right before their eyes, but also way before his time had fully come.
And we today also live in a time of already but not yet. Jesus has come. His ministry has been witnessed. We who have believed the testimony of this gospel now wait in joyful expectation for the second coming, the final fulfillment of all the promises of God that Jesus shall reign over the all the earth, the prince of peace, the everlasting king.
This text we are considering today made me think of and appreciate all the other faithful believers before Simeon and Anna, who believed Messiah would come one day and waited with great expectation, but did not even get to see the baby as Simeon and Anna did. Similarly, it makes me mindful of and grateful for all the faithful followers of Christ, who have been faithful through the ages after Jesus’ death and resurrection, to build the church and keep the faith alive for you and I to be blessed with the same gospel that saved their souls.
It challenges me to make sure that I will also be faithful through the ages. Even if I also must be counted among those who pass away before Jesus comes again, I want to make sure that I remain faithful through all my ages so that even as an old man, if Jesus has not yet come again I am still joyfully and confidently proclaiming this same gospel message, so that those who come after me, even if that is to be many more ages, will also have the message, the gospel and also remain faithful through all their ages, until he finally comes again.
Most of you already share this vision of the gospel and our mission to keep it going, faithful through the ages. But many others simply believe in Jesus for their own salvation and do little to bless others or support the ministry. Next year we will begin with a series of sermons that explores our responsibilities to be as fruitful as we can be. And there are still others who attend church and think they are being good Christians, even though they don’t really believe the gospel. They are too focused on the moral teaching and think that good behavior is all that counts, so they don’t spend much time in God’s Word or with God in prayer. Or else they believe the gospel means they are saved just because they profess to believe in Jesus and do not care whether or not they spend much time in God’s Word or with God in prayer to know him better and better. They miss being filled with the Spirit as true believers. They do not hear or respond to God’s gentle nudges to lovingly and graciously serve him in ways that go beyond merely minding one’s own business and staying out of trouble.
I am ending this then with an invitation. Please believe the gospel if you haven’t yet. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that by his grace and mercy you may be saved, not by your own efforts, but through the forgiveness of your sins, and then commit to growing deeply in a relationship with the one true God so that you respond to his call to carry on your ministry, or take a part in his one. According the Spiritual gifts you are given through faith in Jesus, join us, in the great commission that is given to all true believers, so that others may be saved. Let us go together to make more disciples teaching them also to obey Jesus’ teachings and remain, faithful through the ages.
All we can do is pick up little clues that can be gleaned from the names, dates and from the other tombstones around the one we are looking at. If there are a cluster of stones all containing the same last name, then we may be able to figure out the family relationships; who was the parent, who was married to whom, who was the child. Sometimes, when the dates on either side of the dash are chronologically close together, indicating a short life, we can tell that an infant or child lies beneath, leaving a sad story. Others obviously died in old age and full of years, but what we don’t know is, were those years full of suffering or joy?
Here in Luke, in three short verses, we have a lush, filled in dash, containing more information about Anna, than can be found about anybody in most cemeteries. We know that she suffered tragedy at a young age when she lost her husband after only seven years. We know that her response to her suffering was to surrender her life to be wholly devoted to God. We know that she took her faith seriously, fasting and praying and living in the temple night and day. We know that her relationship with God was deep and strong. We know that God rewarded her devotion to Him by giving back. We know this because she was called a Prophetess, no small reward, for it showed that God revealed things to her and that what she said was reliable because she had God’s ear and He shared His thoughts with her.
We know that her father’s name was Penuel and that she came from the tribe of Asher. What this tells us is that, probably, she came from a family that was historically devoted to God for many generations. So many of the people of the northern tribes of Israel, such as Asher, had lost their heritages. Lost because they fell into idolatry or had been destroyed during the Syrian invasion 700 years earlier. There was a small remnant of the people from the northern tribes who migrated to Jerusalem to continue worshiping God in the temple. Anna’s ancestors must have been among them because they preserved their heritage. So, knowing that she was from the tribe of Asher is pretty significant. Obviously, she carried on the family tradition by remaining faithful to God as well. That whole family must have been faithful through the ages to keep track of their genealogy and for Anna to end up at the temple.
In spite of that heritage of faithfulness, her own life experiences could have easily led her into bitterness and discontent with the life God had dealt her. In that culture she probably had married as a young teen. But she had only enjoyed her marriage for seven years before she became a widow. She was deprived of the joy of children. She had no son to care for her, no grand children to play with in her old age. Yet, instead of bitterness, she turned to God and He rewarded her with Himself. She had been deprived of so many of the things that bring us joy, but she obviously found all her needs met in God Himself. How can we know this? Well, would you stick with something for more than 60 years to find peace if you got nothing out of it? Yet, she turned to God after experiencing what we would consider a hard life, and faithful through her ages, she never left it. God met her in her sorrow. He was faithful to her too. And they walked together through life.
She probably knew Simeon well. They were both old and they both spent much time in the temple, perhaps even together. Their paths probably crossed frequently, at least. Who knows, they may have even discussed together the coming of the hoped for Messiah. Maybe they had even shared together the revelations from God that they had received individually. Imagine how it might have been. Simeon may have shared with Anna about what the Lord had told him about seeing the Messiah before he died.
She may have noticed Simeon when he approached this couple with the infant. She could see how excited he was, and hear him sing the song of praise when God lead him to the boy and revealed that God had fulfilled his promise to Simeon. His prayers had been answered so that now he could depart in peace. So perhaps she waited her turn, as a friend would, marveling at Simeon’s joy. Maybe she understood, in a motherly way, that this couple would need all the encouragement they could find, especially after Simeon has told this young mother that a sword would pierce her heart. That isn’t the kind of thing you normally say over a young mother cradling her first born, waiting to dedicate him to the Lord’s service.
I can remember when our son, Matthew, was a new born. Kathy was carrying him in one of those snuggle packs that allow you to carry the baby in front, but have your hands free. One day, we happened to be walking through a store and an elderly man that we knew from one of the local churches approached us, laid his hand on Matt’s head and pronounced a blessing over him. It was a wonderful moment. I don’t’ know how it would have felt if the man had continued to also issue a warning about the pain that would also be ahead. I think we would have definitely found it deflating, and wearisome, to say the least.
So now, with Simeon’s moment being over, Anna steps up to bless the couple and give encouragement. Perhaps she simply believed Simeon’s announcement. Or maybe, as with Simeon, God had revealed to her also that this indeed was the one that she had been waiting for. Anna knew that she could trust God’s nudgings. A life spent devoted to God, in close relationship, can do that. She had probably seen many infants come through the gates. It was the law after all that each first born son was to be dedicated to God. This one, however, was different from all the rest. God had told her so. Her friend had never let her down, so she knew that it must be true.
Walking up to the young mother and child, she gave thanks to her friend, God, for hearing the prayers of His people. Their redemption was near at hand. This infant is who they had been waiting for. Those who had been faithful through the ages were still waiting for Messiah, and now he had arrived, all that remained was for him to grow into manhood and fulfill God’s purposes for all of Israel through the power and glory of this one man.
But Simeon and Anna were so old. I doubt they lasted another 30 years to see exactly how Jesus’ ministry took shape or to see him hang on the cross for their sins. In fact, it is likely that they didn’t last even twelve years. There is no mention of them at the temple when Jesus stayed there impressing all the teachers of the Law while his parents started home not realizing he wasn’t with them.
The significance of this in our story is that Simeon and Anna were faithful in the same way as many of the heroes mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning at verse 36, “Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
I do not mean that Simeon and Anna suffered physically as badly as some of the heroes of faith as they are spoken of in Hebrews. But like those others who remained faithful through the ages even though they hadn’t received what was promised, Simeon and Anna also passed from this earth, having seen the Messiah, and still having faith, without seeing the fulfillment and triumph of his ministry on the cross and risen from dead. Jesus had come. There he was on the scene right before their eyes, but also way before his time had fully come.
And we today also live in a time of already but not yet. Jesus has come. His ministry has been witnessed. We who have believed the testimony of this gospel now wait in joyful expectation for the second coming, the final fulfillment of all the promises of God that Jesus shall reign over the all the earth, the prince of peace, the everlasting king.
This text we are considering today made me think of and appreciate all the other faithful believers before Simeon and Anna, who believed Messiah would come one day and waited with great expectation, but did not even get to see the baby as Simeon and Anna did. Similarly, it makes me mindful of and grateful for all the faithful followers of Christ, who have been faithful through the ages after Jesus’ death and resurrection, to build the church and keep the faith alive for you and I to be blessed with the same gospel that saved their souls.
It challenges me to make sure that I will also be faithful through the ages. Even if I also must be counted among those who pass away before Jesus comes again, I want to make sure that I remain faithful through all my ages so that even as an old man, if Jesus has not yet come again I am still joyfully and confidently proclaiming this same gospel message, so that those who come after me, even if that is to be many more ages, will also have the message, the gospel and also remain faithful through all their ages, until he finally comes again.
Most of you already share this vision of the gospel and our mission to keep it going, faithful through the ages. But many others simply believe in Jesus for their own salvation and do little to bless others or support the ministry. Next year we will begin with a series of sermons that explores our responsibilities to be as fruitful as we can be. And there are still others who attend church and think they are being good Christians, even though they don’t really believe the gospel. They are too focused on the moral teaching and think that good behavior is all that counts, so they don’t spend much time in God’s Word or with God in prayer. Or else they believe the gospel means they are saved just because they profess to believe in Jesus and do not care whether or not they spend much time in God’s Word or with God in prayer to know him better and better. They miss being filled with the Spirit as true believers. They do not hear or respond to God’s gentle nudges to lovingly and graciously serve him in ways that go beyond merely minding one’s own business and staying out of trouble.
I am ending this then with an invitation. Please believe the gospel if you haven’t yet. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that by his grace and mercy you may be saved, not by your own efforts, but through the forgiveness of your sins, and then commit to growing deeply in a relationship with the one true God so that you respond to his call to carry on your ministry, or take a part in his one. According the Spiritual gifts you are given through faith in Jesus, join us, in the great commission that is given to all true believers, so that others may be saved. Let us go together to make more disciples teaching them also to obey Jesus’ teachings and remain, faithful through the ages.
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