Power in the Pulpit | Luke 2:21–38

Intro: Happy New Year. I am excited to get to preach to you again this morning. Matthew and I have been planning on me preaching today for a while. He and Kristen always leave the day after Christmas to go to Mississippi and see family and celebrate Christmas. The plan was for him to preach on Christmas and then leave the next day. But then he got sick so you are stuck with me for a second straight week. Before we start, I want to say thank you for your generosity in giving to our church. This week we took the youth to Move Conference at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA. It is a great idea. They have the largest youth conference in the state at an amusement park. So the students got to experience great praise and worship, great preaching and ride roller coasters in their freetime. This would not be possible without the money that you give in your offering. That is for two reasons. We were able to help supplement the trip and make it affordable with money in our budget Second, the conference was put on by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. A percentage of all of our offerings go to the Cooperative Program. Half of that money goes to the State Convention, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, and half goes to the National Convention, the Southern Baptist Convention. The Georgia Baptist Mission Board would not have been able to make this conference affordable without Cooperative Program funds.

Now, let’s turn to today’s text. You know, you can find out a lot about what somebody believes or thinks by the way they act. Take sports fans for example. If you ever watch any football game with a Falcons fan such as myself, you can tell that we don’t have very much faith in the Falcons. Even if the Falcons are winning, you can see fans just waiting for them to find a way to mess the whole thing up somehow. But if you were to watch a football game with a fan of a team that did not have a history of heartbreak, you wouldn’t see that. We can tell how much faith a Georgia fan has in their team based on how normal they think it is to bark at other human beings. Did that offend anybody?We can tell how much faith somebody has in a chair based on how willing they are to sit in it. We can tell how much faith or trust somebody has in a car based on how far they are willing to drive in it. When we look at today’s text we will see the same things. The account we are looking at today took place a little over a month after Jesus was born. And we are going to see based on the actions of those we read about that if we have an understanding of who God is, it will lead to faithfulness in the present and hopefulness for the future. We will see this demonstrated in the obedience and faithfulness of Mary and Joseph, the faith of Simeon,

Luke 2:21-24. The obedience and faithfulness of Mary and Joseph

Exposition: If you look in your Bibles, verse 21 is probably a part of a different section than the rest of the passage. But it’s important we remember that these paragraphs and breaks were not a part of the Greek text. I think verse 21 and verses 22-24 are of great relation. What we see is that Mary and Joseph are fulfilling their scriptural obligation as parents. In Leviticus 12 lays out what is expected from the parents, particularly the mother, after the birth of a child. When a male child was born, he was to be circumcised on the 8th day after his birth. Then 33 days after that, they were to go to the temple to make sacrifices. We see here, that is what Mary and Joseph did. They had Jesus circumcised on the 8th day and then when it was time, went to the temple to offer the sacrifices they were to offer. We see that Mary and Joseph were committed to be faithful to the commands found in God’s word. It might have been easy for them to think that maybe because they had been given this special purpose by God that they were exempt from doing things exactly the way God had commanded in scripture for them to be done. But no, they remained faithful. We see that they still believed completely in God’s authority and that His authority was carries over into His Word.

Application: I’m not sure how much the child Jesus understood about who He was. That’s something we will never know on this side of heaven. But what we do know is that when he looked at his mother and earthly father, he saw two people who believed whole heartedly in their God and who were faithful to His word. Parents, when our kids look at us, can they see that. Can our parents look at us and see us acting in faith. Can they tell by the things we talk about and the way we live our lives that we have a reverence for scripture. Do they see that God’s word has a special place in our lives? One of the things that I hear a lot is that the reason our society has gone the way it has is because we don’t have prayer in schools or bible reading in schools anymore? I actually disagree with that. I think it is because God’s word is not found at the center of families. Parents, our children need to see that we take the time to study God’s word on our own. But they also need to see that as a family, you are going to honor God’s word together. This is not an area that if I am being honest I have done well in. But as a family, God’s word and obedience to His word should be seen as important. This also means that we don’t make light of sin. It means we don’t have a do as I say not as I do mentality. It means we don’t explain to our kids why this certain thing we do or say actually isn’t that bad for us to do. It means that when our kids look at our lives, they see parents that are committed to honoring and obeying God’s word. Because if we are not willing to do this, what does that mean we must think of God? We must not really respect Him? But on the flip side of that, what does a life of obedience express to our children who we believe God is.

Exposition: Another thing we see in this text is that Mary and Joseph were of modest means. In the passage in Leviticus 12 I was referencing. It said that parents were suppose to sacrifice a lamb and a turtledove or pigeon, but if they could not afford to buy a lamb, they could sacrifice two turtledoves or pigeons. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph sacrificed two birds. This shows that they were probably not able to afford the lamb.

Application: We learn several things from this revelation. First, we see that poverty or falling on hard times is not a sin. It is not always a punishment for sin. We know this because Jesus was sinless. We know that Mary and Joseph had found favor with God. Now can punishment happen because of bad decisions. Of course. But this does not have to be the case. So if that’s you today. Maybe you are looking at the bank account and looking at the bills and wondering what you did to deserve this current state, please know that it may just be a season that does not mean you have done anything wrong. But there is a flip side to this as well. Poverty or hard times are not an excuse for disobedience. Mary and Joseph could have made excuses. They were already living away from their home of Nazareth. They could have said they just did not have the money to walk to Jerusalem, giving up a day of work most likely, and go and pay the money for the animals to make the sacrifice. No, they were still obedient to God. Our circumstances are never an excuse for disobedience. Because if it were, then we would worship a small God. This would mean that how deserving God is of glory and honor is based on our circumstances. That would make him smaller than our circumstances. This cannot be. So we must trust that God is good. We must trust that he is in control and worthy of our honor and obedience, even when things are not the way we want them to be.

Transition: The faith and obedience of Mary and Joseph makes sense based on what they had both separately been visited by and Angel and told that Mary would conceive by way of the Holy Spirit. That had seen the shepherds come and tell them about the angels that had appeared to them. But what about normal people. What about people who had just been faithful to God while they waited on their salvation. We see the also show us an example of faith and obedience, in the earthly cost of obedience, and Anna’s trust in God’s goodness. As we do here at Maynard Baptist Church, please stand as we honor the reading of God’s word.

Luke 2:25-32 The Faith of Simeon

Exposition: So next we find Simeon. Simeon seems to be an older man. Verse 25 says he was waiting on the consolation of Israel. This word can mean encouragement or comfort. Remember, the people of God had been under the rule of foreign governments for centuries with the exception of a small time before the Romans took over. They had been ruled harshly by Pagans whose state religion was much different than what the Jews believed. And as we talked about last week, they were waiting on the king that had been promised to them. So when he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, he was waiting on this. We see in verses 26 and 27 that God has revealed many things to him already. And it was the urging of the Holy Spirit that led him to the temple that day. So he goes into the temple, sees Jesus with his parents Mary and Joseph. He then goes and takes the child in his arms and says in verse 29, “Luke 2:29 ““Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;”

Explanation: Simeon had to have a lot of trust in what was going to happen to him when he died in order to say what he said. Think about it, knowing that he was going to die shortly after seeing this child, if he was not certain of what was going to happen to him in eternity, he would not have shown this much excitement. If he had not been certain of what was going to happen to him he probably would have seen him and thought, “oh boy. This is not good.”

Application: Our trust in God cannot be for this life only. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15:19 “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Our hope in Christ should go beyond what we see in this world because Christ did not die to just give us a purpose until the day we die. No, Christ came to give us eternal life. Our gaze is fixed on where we are going. And this hope impacts the way we live. If we are certain of our eternity, we can handle the bad diagnosis the doctor gives us because we know what lies on the other side. We can take big risks and follow God obediently to hard places because we know that the most that can be taken from us is temporary anyway. If we don’t live with this hope. Maybe you have been in church your whole life. Maybe you even walked an aisle and were baptized. But when it comes to the thought of death, you are not really sure of what you believe will happen to you when you die. This could be a sign that you have not placed your trust in Jesus.

Exposition: Simeon goes on to say in verse 20 Luke 2:30 “for my eyes have seen your salvation” The word translated salvation is a little confusing. It’s technically an adjective and not a noun. It’s probably best translated your bringing salvation or pertaining to salvation. Simeon is closely relating the person of Jesus Christ. He did not say the one that is going to reveal the way of salvation. He is either saying he has seen God bring salvation, or all that God ordains pertaining to salvation.. Either way, he is saying that salvation is from Jesus. There is no other name by which we can be saved. There is nothing we can do on our own to save ourselves. It must come from Christ. But he has brought him to earth to be amongst all peoples. But he goes even further. He says in verse 32 that he is a light for revelation to the Gentiles.

Explanation: Think about how big of a statement this is. There was no place that demonstrated the separation between Jew and Gentile like the temple did. Gentiles, or non-Jews, were only allowed to walk within the outer walls of the temple mount. This was called the court of the gentiles. Simeon is standing at the temple saying this long-awaited messiah was going to be a light to the gentiles. He is saying that this messiah that the Jewish people had been waiting on for centuries was not just coming for them, but for the nations as well. This echos what God said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 49:6 “he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”” Simeon was saying that, God’s plan and his goodness was bigger than just the Jewish people, it was for the entire world.

Application: Right now God is doing incredible things at Maynard Baptist Church. We Baptized three people last week, two of them being students. We have a student that wants to talk more about Baptism. We had one student that made a commitment to missions at Move Conference. That’s just the youth ministry. Talk to Sandy about what God is doing in the children’s ministry. Talk to any of our Wednesday night leaders about what God is doing in their ministries. Talk to Leighton about how well the choir did. Talk to any of our discipleship group leaders. God is doing great things here. But he is not doing them so that we can talk to people about how God is blessing Maynard Baptist Church and we can use that to tell people about our church. No, God is using Maynard Baptist Church as part of the plan of building His kingdom. Just like Simeon was telling Mary and Joseph that God’s plan went much further than just the Jewish people, God’s plan goes much further than just Maynard Baptist Church. We are a part of something that includes us but also believers all across the world. We must not make Maynard Baptist Church the focus of our ministry. The Kingdom of God must be the focus of our ministry.

Exposition: But Simeon says that God has not only prepared the light to the Gentiles, but also glory for his people Israel.

Illustration: Here is how he prepared glory for his people Israel. Think about the pride, and not a bad pride necessarily, but how proud you are when you find out somebody from your hometown is getting famous. If it came out that the world’s most famous chello player was from Monroe County, as soon as the middle schoolers and high schoolers figured out what a chello was, they would all be wanting to take chello lessons. Think about how you act when you are talking to people from somewhere else and they mention somebody famous that you have that connection with. You are right away telling them with pride that you are from that same town. Well, God was bringing savior of the world from the Jewish people. The savior of the world was a descendant of Abraham, just like them. This would bring a sense of satisfaction to them. But God did this despite the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people that we read about all in the Old Testament. When Simeon is speaking this, he is not bragging about his people. But bragging about the faithfulness of God.

Transition: So we see that Simeon gives a very rosy picture of what will come because of this baby. But he also gives a realistic picture of what is to come to Mary. You see, we like to think that obedience to God will always lead to earthly comfort and blessing. We like to think that God will always reward us for obedience. But this world is broken due to sin. For this reason, there can be real costs to obedience as Mary was going to find out.

Luke 2:33-35. The earthly cost of obedience

Exposition: We read in verse 33 Luke 2:33 “And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.” This probably made Mary and Joseph feel great about what was going to happen, right? There was probably the pride that any parent feels when somebody says something great about their child. They were probably impressed that God had given them this opportunity to raise his messiah. But then the tone of what Simeon is telling them quickly changes. He starts in verse 34 and goes through verse 35, Luke 2:34-35 “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

Explanation: Simeon had already talked about how this child was bringing salvation. So we know that he would lead to the rising. But not all would be happy about this messiah. We see throughout the gospels that there were many that were opposed to him. Their hearts would be revealed because they would be seen opposing God Himself. But Jesus wouldn’t just be rejected. He would be put through a sham trial. flogged, and placed on a cross. And according to the gospel of John, Mary would be there to watch all of it. She would see her son humiliated and killed in the most violent and excruciating way. Can you imagine what that would feel like as a parent? To see nails driven through your child’s hands and then watch him bloody and beaten die on a cross. Mary wouldn’t have to imagine because it’s what happened to her. And Simeon warned it would feel like a sword through her heart.

Application: Mary didn’t deserve that. She had been faithful to God. She had probably dealt with all that came with being pregnant out of wedlock during this time. She had responded in obedience when the angel told her what was going to happen. And now the result was going to be that she had to endure the pain of watching her child suffer. But it had to happen. Somebody had to die for the sins of the world. And there was no other way for this to happen. Sometimes our life is not going to be fair. Sometimes we will suffer due to our obedience in Christ. Sometimes doing what God calls us to means we make sacrifices or endure the pain that comes when we go against the grain of a broken world. But if we believe God is who we think he is, He will see us through it. He will walk with us through that pain and we will know that it is worth it. And we know, like Simeon knew, that one day God will restore everything back to the way it is suppose to be.

Transition: Lastly, we see something similar to Mary. We see the faith of a woman named Anna.

Luke 2:36-39. Anna’s trust in God’s goodness

Exposition: Luke 2:36-39 “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” This lady Anna was probably a part of an order of widows that served in the Temple. As a young lady she had been married for seven years before her husband died. Then she either had been widowed for 84 years or was now 84 years old. Either way, she had lived a long time unmarried since her husband died. Some of you in here have walked through that dark time which is the loss of a spouse. I don’t think it matters how long it is. That pain is something that never truly goes away. I imagine Anna still missed her husband greatly after all those years. But she had devoted her life to serving in the temple and was constantly giving praise to God. How? How could somebody who lost their husband young and then lived widowed the rest of her life without children to take care of her still give praise? It’s because she trusted in the goodness of God.

Illustration: John Mark McMillan is a Christian recording artist. He wrote the famous song “How He Loves.” The song is all about How much God loves us. But his version of the song has a last verse that nobody else uses. He wrote the song after his friend Stephen died in an accident. He wrote the song in the midst of his grief. And the last verse says this, “I thought about You the day Stephen died And you met me between my breaking I know that I still love you God Despite the agony See people they want to tell me you’re cruel But if Stephen could sing He’d say it’s not true Cause you’re good. He loves us how oh how he loves us. Oh how he loves us. How He loves us so. Even in the midst of his pain, McMillan trusted in the goodness of God. He knew that God was good. How do we respond in times of suffering. Even when life is hard and we don’t understand it, do we trust in the goodness of God. Like McMillan, it doesn’t mean we don’t acknowledge the pain. But what it does mean is that we can look at all God has done and we can look at his plan and know that He is good.

Lastly, Anna went and told the message. She went and told everyone who was waiting on the redemption of Israel. There would have been very few people that weren’t waiting on this. They wanted the Messiah to come. Anna had good news that she knew she had to share with others. She knew salvation had come and she wanted all to know.

Application: We know that this world is broken. And we know that the only way for people to fill the God sized hole in their life is through a belief and a relationship in Jesus Christ. But they will not know this unless somebody tells them. If we truly believe that Jesus is the answer like we say we do, then we have an obligation to share with those who don’t know Him. We have an obligation to those across the street, those across the world, and everyone in between that does not know Jesus to tell them who He is. If we believe that Christ is so great, then others need to know as well.

Conclusion: As we close today, I want to ask you what you believe about Jesus. Do you believe in your heart that he is the promised messiah that came to bring salvation to all of the world? Maybe you believe, but are you demonstrating it with your actions? Are you looking for reasons to not have to be obedient? Maybe you find yourself just apathetic and not truly recognizing the goodness of who God is. Maybe sorrow has led to a place of complacency. Whatever it is, if God is working in your heart this morning, don’t let this moment pass without responding. The alter will be open if you need to come pray. If you are ready to pray to talk more about salvation, I will be down here to pray with you. Just don’t let this moment pass.