Constant Worship

Recap: Simeon

Luke 2:22–38 ESV

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 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.” 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.

We discussed Simeon, now let us examine Anna.

Luke 2:36 ESV

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,

She was a prophetess. Not many prophetesses are listed in scripture. She joins the likes of Miriam, the sister of Aaron, who led the women in a chorus celebrating the Lord’s triumph over Egypt at the Red Sea. As well as Deborah and some others who were noted in scripture.

Note that Luke includes some further identification for Anna. We considered last week that Simeon may have been so well known that no further description was needed, beyond that he was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. We guessed at who his Father and grandfather may have been, but Luke did not record this information for us. However, for Anna, he did.

Luke tells us that Anna was the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. And I will mention briefly that Asher was one of the ten so-called “lost tribes” of Israel. However, there remained a remnant of them who remembered their lineage and kept record of it.

From time to time it is good to remind ourselves of some principles of reading and studying and understanding the bible. There are several basic rules to do a proper job of study, and I will not give the entire course at this time, but let me remind you of a couple things to keep in mind. First, when reading scripture, we must never take an interpretation the original author did not intend. This is very important, because since all of us have a sin nature as a result of the fall, we tend towards selfishness.

A result of this selfishness is sometimes manifested in our insistence to pull the text of scripture immediately into an application that applies to us. We want to understand it in our own context, and right now. Some may think to themselves, “Don’ waste my time telling me about what Israel was like at that time, or about who the author was and who he was writing to. I don’t care about all that, I just want to know what it has to do with me.

And many preachers, aware of this desire, in order to please their listeners, will skip over some important parts of study and moving immediately to application, which has the result of pleasing some people, but at the same time leaving them with an incomplete understanding of the scriptures. I don’t think anyone who preaches regularly is not tempted to do this at time. They want to make their congregation happy. Well, good news for you!

I don’t want to make you happy. I want to deliver to you the Word of God in a wholesome and complete way. We need a well-balanced diet, and when it comes to God’s Word, we need to not only consume calories that give us energy for the moment, we need the protein and vitamins and minerals that will build our whole spiritual selves so that we can move forward in spiritual health. Besides, I love you too much to simply make everything easy to swallow for you.

So we study scripture, and we must never take an interpretation the original author did not intend. And along with that, we also must not take a meaning that the original readers or hearers of this passage could have taken. Now, in this case, Luke is simply recording an event. And while we will draw some lessons from this, it will not be a lesson that one reading this at the time Luke wrote it would not also have been able to glean.

So Anna is a prophetess, and the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. We must assumed, then, since Luke took the time to add these identifying descriptors, that this is not an allegory, or a nice story that became a legend. When these very specific details are given, if we do put ourselves in the shoes, or sandals, of those original readers, we can see that someone who wanted to try and refute Luke’s gospel would have a more difficult task since it would not be very hard work for someone to disprove this if it were a lie.

He says specifically many details. She was a prophetess who was from a certain family and a certain tribe, and she was advanced in years. She had been married for seven years as a young lady, and her husband had died, and she never remarried. So she lived the rest of her life as a widow.

Luke 2:37 ESV

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.

Some translations say something like she lived another 84 years after her husband dies. Which would mean she was well over a hundred years old. It seems more likely that she was 84 years old, not well over a hundred, and the reasons have a lot to do with how translators have wrestled with this, but the general consensus is that she was 84. We should keep in mind that 84 is a good old age even today, but in that day and time, average life expectancy was much lower than today.

If you made it through childhood, you could expect to get a good 40-50 years. Anna surpassed that by quite a long shot, whether she was actually 84 or much older. Either way, Luke rightly points out that she was advanced in years.

And she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. Now, we do not need to take this literally, Luke is not saying she literally never left the temple. Obviously, she had personal needs like we all do, so she would have to leave to take care of those needs. What Luke is driving at is not an absolute statement that she never left the temple, but something more like, “she never missed a worship service or prayer meeting”. In our context today, this would be the true church lady.

If you went to the temple, you would see Anna there. When you did see her, she was probably on her knees. And just as Luke could not have meant she never left the temple literally, he also did not mean she fasted without ever eating or drinking. There is no implication she was somehow supernaturally fed and sustained in that way. However, spiritually, she was sustained, and she did this work in her service to God. Her work, her occupation, her calling was to pray.

Luke 2:38 ESV

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.

Giving thanks to God was part of Anna’s routine. A devout person like her surely knew how to pray the Psalms, which include Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. In her prayers she, like Simeon, prayed for the consolation of Israel, that is, for the Christ, the Messiah, to come. Likely Simeon and Anna knew each other.

It is a beautiful thing to note that in Luke’s gospel, he is sure to make note of many women who were involved in the story. To Luke, the gospel is for everyone, so naturally, he wants it to be known that in all of this, the story of Jesus, women were ever present and played a vital role. Now, hopefully we have understood somewhat how the author, Luke, intended his first readers to view these narratives. Let us now look to see what we can glean from this.

Anna, after being married only 7 years, was left a widow. Certainly she could have, at that age, remarried. But she chose not to do this. We do not know the exact reason. We also do not know what she did for the middle period of her life. We only know for certain what the scripture tells us, and anything else is a guess on our part; even an educated guess is still a guess.

We do know that in these later years, she was a devout servant of God at his temple. She worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day. And without overtly saying so, Luke is commending her devout service to God. She is an example of piety, which simply means a reverent person. Someone who lives out a life that is devout and dedicated to honoring God.

However, this example is not given in the way as to say this is the best way for everyone to worship. This is something to be cautious of, and perhaps even more so for new Christians. We can look at those before us who seem to be very devout, and feel inadequate. Someone who does secular work may feel inferior to the one whose career is in some sort of ministry, and yet God has not called all to the exact same thing.

His purposes for us as individuals and the church are for His glory, and so he has given to us a variety of gifting and talents. It is easy for us to look to that great example of Anna, and think we could never make it, then, compared to her. Who else can even spend this much time in prayer and service and worship? Each needs to follow their own calling, and to serve God with their whole heart, and give their talents up for service to God. But let us be careful that we do not measure our own service compared to what someone else is doing.

On the one hand, we could look to Anna, and say, “I am a failure, I do not do enough”. From the other side of it, we could see someone in the church who really isn’t doing much for the Lord at all, and we can think to ourselves, “Compared to that person, I am doing more than my share.” And we can quickly become puffed up, the very thing scripture warns us not to do.

Now, let us talk about Anna as a widow for a moment. Paul wrote to Timothy a whole paragraph or two on how the church should help widows. Interestingly, he makes clear that the church is to honor widows, “who are truly widows” (1 Tim 5:2). This may seem at first glance to be a strange thing to say. Is a widow a true widow or not? It seems there is only one qualification for widows in our minds. A woman whose husband has died is a widow. But Paul makes this clarification, not at all to diminish one woman’s loss of her husband compared to another, but her need for help. So let’s look at how Paul qualifies those who are truly widows.

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

So the first qualification, of course, is a woman whose husband has died, but now Paul says that there is a distinction. If she has family members to take care of her, they should. Paul is not just making this up off the top of his head, he is drawing from his Jewish understanding of what it really means to honor one’s parents and grandparents.

However, Paul also understands that some widows do not have extended family to care for them. In some cases, a woman moved to live with her husband, or her own family was small. Sometimes, the family refused to care for her. There were no food stamps, no HUD, nothing to help her in those days except for the charity of her family or others. In the church, then, Paul wanted it to be done this way, that it was a way for children and grandchildren to learn godliness, that they should understand their responsibility to help widows in their family.

So in Paul’s thinking, a true widow, as far as the church had a responsibility, was one who had a true need for help. Perhaps Paul was thinking of women like Anna when he wrote: 1Tim5.5-6

1 Timothy 5:5–6 ESV

She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Notice the contrast. One, a true widow, seeks God night and day. The other option is to be self-indulgent, always wanting her own way, which is what self-indulgent people want. Paul goes on to make some more points about widows. If someone in the church has a family member that is a widow, or other relatives who need help, and does not help them, he has denied the faith.

Paul also speaks of criteria for a widow to receive financial or physical needs met by the church: 1Tim5.9-10

1 Timothy 5:9–10 ESV

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

If she is less than 60, she will probably be able to do some physical work. But after that, it would be harder to work. A true widow to Paul was one who had not been remarried, and has done acts of service in the church.

Younger widows should be remarried rather than being enrolled as widows in the church. Otherwise, they will be tempted to become idle gossips or busybodies.

So clearly Paul has drawn from his Jewish understanding to give instructions about what widowhood in the church should look like.

And I have said all of this simply to point out that Anna certainly would have met Paul’s description of a widow. Although Anna is held up by Luke here as an example of piety, he is not making a statement that this is what every widow should do. Remember another lesson of Bible Study. Some passages are descriptive and some are prescriptive, and some are both, and by looking carefully we can discern this. This passage is descriptive. Luke is simply describing the person and the event.

He is not making a doctrinal statement. He is not prescribing certain behavior. He is commending Anna to us as an example, but saying we must all do the same thing. If everyone in the church spent all day praying at the church, no one would be working and it would not take long before we were all without help.

Additionally, fasting, as Calvin pointed out, is only useful to the extent that it “aids the earnestness and fervency of prayer.” He said that prayer is necessary, or required, but fasting is accessory, and has not other design than to aid the prayer. In other words, it seems he was saying that unless your fasting makes your prayer better, it is kind of pointless. Many times people fast in a sort of dutiful way, that is not really about making prayer more fervent. If that is the case, they are better off not fasting. And Jesus warned about fasting for the wrong reasons, so if you do fast, be sure you are fasting for the right reasons.

I heard a pastor say once that January is a good time to fast, because we all have a few extra pounds to lose after the holidays. But this is not helpful fasting. If you are fasting for dietary or health purposes, just say so! That is fine, I have heard people say it helped them. But if you are doing it to lose weight, don’t pretend it is being done out of devotion to God.

And now we get back to the last verse of our study this morning: Luke2.38

Luke 2:38 ESV

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.

Last week, I said that Simeon was sort of the first Christian hymn writer. If so, then Anna was the first Christian witness. Although at the birth of Christ, the Shepherds were in on the excitement, scripture does not record they went out and told others. But Anna began to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

As we consider this last verse, may we ask ourselves, “How did Anna know who were the ones waiting for the redemption of Israel?” Well, hanging around the temple all the time, she must have had many conversations. And as one has many conversations with people, you begin to learn about what drives them, what they are passionate about. The same is true at church. You will find out, if you have not already, that in the church are many people with different passions.

Some people are always excited and looking up. Jenelle’s dad, Jim was that way. He was a guy always thinking about Jesus’ return. And he always had a sparkle in his eye. You could just sense a joy and expectation in his faith. And if there is something that is opposite to a sparkle in the eye, I have seen that, too.

So which are you?

Expecting like Anna, and Simeon? Devout, and awaiting the final return of Christ?

We have much to be excited about. Let us be witnesses of Christ as Anna and Simeon were.

She only saw a baby and testified about him. We have the gospel accounts, we know of his death and resurrection.

Let us glorify God together, let us give thanks and speak of him to all.

Gospel recap: