A Magnificant Hope

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Introduction

As requested I am going to jump off for a week here and take some time to look at the Christmas story, however, we aren't going to go to far from the minor prophets. But more on that shortly. Hopefully you still have your finger there in the book of Luke and chapter 2. Jake read there the story of Jesus being presented in the temple after His birth.
Lets take a moment to read the whole story and then we will pray and jump right in.
READ & PRAY
My focus this morning is going to be on the two individuals, Simeon and Anna who Mary and Joseph meet in the temple but it would do us well to understand why they, Mary and Joseph, are there in the first place.

In the Temple

We are given some of those details:

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 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

This would have been 40 days after Jesus’ birth. One verse earlier we see that Jesus had been circumcised after 7 days, on the 8th day of his life outside of the womb here on this earth. The purification mentioned here though would have been for Mary as we read in Leviticus ch 12:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 Then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.

However, as verse 23 shows us , the people had also been commanded to consecrate every first born male to the Lord as we read in Exodus ch 13 and we find in Nehemiah ch 10 that when the people came back to the land after exile they made a commitment to bring their first fruits and first born to the house of the Lord, the temple, in order to consecrate them.
And so it seems that Mary and Joseph, rolled this all into one trip and so here about 40 days after His birth they make this journey 5 miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to take this amazing child to the temple.
We also see a nod here to the low estate of this couple. in Leviticus Ch 12 we read further of this purification ritual for a postpartum mother:

And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, 7 and he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female. 8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

We read here that Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb and so they made the journey to offer a pair of birds for Mary’s cleansing.
Now there is plenty we could draw out of those texts alone but my aim today is to now move with them into the temple. We have seen what has occasioned their visit, they were being faithful to the commands of the covenant that God had laid upon them as His chosen people. It was not in vain that God had chose this particular couple as the parents of His beloved Son, these were people who, though poor, took seriously the demands of God’s covenant upon their lives and sought to live faithfully to it.
(Luke 1:30)

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

(Matthew 1:24)

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him:

These were faithful people and this faithfulness on this day has brought them to right where God intended them to be so that we might see this wonderful display here in the midst of the temple courts.

Simeon: Waiting

First we read of Simeon:

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. 26 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. 27 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, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God

We are not told anything of Simeon and outside of this account in Luke; he is nowhere mentioned in any other scriptures but we see that he is a devout man, a faithful Israelite who had been waiting for the consolation of Israel!
This is really where I want to hang my hat today.
Simeon had been waiting for something, in fact we read that not only was he waiting for something but that God through His Holy Spirit had revealed to this man that he was not to die until he had seen this thing come to pass!
This thing that he had been waiting for, likely for a long time, (we aren't give an age here for the man but the passage reads as though He is quite old, especially his statement about death that we will come back to towards the end of the message.) But regardless he has been waiting earnestly for the consolation of Israel.
Consolation here is the word paraklesis, and it means encouragement or comfort. The sense of the word according to my Logos software is “a source of comfort a person feels when consoled in times of disappointment.”

A Glance Back

Here is where we need to begin thinking back on our time in the minor prophets. We could also look to the larger prophetic books, in fact Isaiah, a contemporary of prophets like Amos, Hosea, Micha, and even for a time maybe Jonah; Isaiah’s prophecies form the background for much of what Simeon had to say. However, I think our time in the minor prophets has conditioned us to see and feel this man’s eager longing for this consolation.
Think of the amazing promises of restoration we have seen.
Amos 9

In that day I will raise up

the booth of David that is fallen

and repair its breaches,

and raise up its ruins

and rebuild it as in the days of old,

English Standard Version (Chapter 9)
Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,... I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.15  I will plant them on their land,and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,”says the LORD your God.
Zephaniah 9

For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples

to a pure speech,

that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD

and serve him with one accord.

10  From beyond the rivers of Cush

my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,

shall bring my offering.

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter of Jerusalem!

15  The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

he has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

16  On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

“Fear not, O Zion;

let not your hands grow weak.

17  The LORD your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing.

At that time I will bring you in,

at the time when I gather you together;

for I will make you renowned and praised

among all the peoples of the earth,

when I restore your fortunes

before your eyes,” says the LORD.

And Joel chapter 3 though we haven't gotten there yet:

So you shall know that I am the LORD your God,

who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

and strangers shall never again pass through it.

18  “And in that day

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and the hills shall flow with milk,

and all the streambeds of Judah

shall flow with water;

and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD

and water the Valley of Shittim.

Zachariah 9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zachariah 13

On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

And finally Hosea:

And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

“In that Day” Over and over again, promises of hope to a people experiencing the pouring forth of the cup of God’s wrath.
As we have looked at many of these promises we have see that though the people were eventually brought back to the land after their exile in Babylon, we never quite see these promises fulfilled to the extent that they seem to imply they are to be fulfilled. This picture grows even more clear if we would widen our net and look to the other prophets, particularly Isaiah who spoke of the future glory of Israel, in particular a glory that she would experience under the rule of her King, the long awaited Son of David who would ascend in righteousness to the throne of His father David and rule in perfection forever. These promises never materialized with the return to the land and in fact for those faithful Jews, like Simeon, the contrast between what they surely saw taking place in Jerusalem and what they saw in these promises would have been stark indeed! In Simeon’s day the worship of God had been so perverted once again, this time not by rank foreign idolatry as in the days of the former kings that led to the exile but now in the legalism and Pharisaical practices that had come to dominate the religious landscape of God’s chosen people. These kings, these rulers, these religious leaders, were the blind shepherds who had been spoken of by the prophets who cared not one ounce for the sheep but sought only to pursue their own interests and line their own pockets.
How a righteous man like Simeon must have mourned and cried out in prayer to God as he moved through the temple, a restored temple, sacrifices being offered, and yet to see the people being so misled by their leaders, He like Jesus may well have even saw the tables of the money changers and those who sold sacrifices and felt the same righteous burn within him that led Jesus to authoritatively take up a whip and drive these sellers of wares, these thieves and robbers out of the house of God.
Yes, Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel because He, like we are hopefully being trained to do, could feel the tension between the reality that he saw around him and what he knew to be the promises of God from the prophets.
And so he waited. And as he waited he lived his life faithfully in dark times.
JC Ryle says of Simeon:
Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 Luke 2:25–35: Simeon, His History, Praise, and Prophecy

We see, in the case of Simeon, how God has a believing people even in the worst of places, and in the darkest times. Religion was at a very low ebb in Israel when Christ was born. The faith of Abraham was spoiled by the doctrines of Pharisees and Sadducees. The fine gold had become deplorably dim. Yet even then we find in the midst of Jerusalem a man “just and devout,”—a man “upon whom is the Holy Ghost.”

Yes, God had this faithful man set aside for a purpose, for this purpose, and as the holy spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ, so now that same Spirit moves him to come to the temple.
Luke does not describe much detail about Simeon’s coming but I can only imagine the excitement in this old man as he walked into the temple that day, led by the Lord, knowing that at long last this was the day, the day when his faith would be made sight, the day when he would lay his eyes on this long promised consolation of his people.
Now there is more here than we have time to dig into this morning, someday maybe Jake or I will go through Luke, but you can see from what Simeon says that something of what God’s plans were for the consolation had been made known to him. We often talk about how seemingly everyone in Israel missed who Jesus was and what he came to do, their expectations being ordered after a kingdom being realized in an earthly political sense. However, Simeon does not at all seem surprised to find his longing eyes satisfied as they settle here on a baby, and not just any baby but the baby of parents who were clearly of little means, poor, Mary, Joseph, and most of all this baby, would have visually screamed “poor” and yet Simeon joyfully takes the baby up in His arms knowing that this is indeed the Lord’s Christ. The messiah, the one who has been promised as the savior of His people and not only his people but we see Simeon proclaim that this baby would bring salvation, salvation in the presence of all peoples, not just the Jews and that He would be a light of revelation for the gentiles, a term for anyone who was not a Jew, meaning, everyone else, those outside the covenant promises of Israel.
Even Mary and Joseph marvel as Simeon says these things. Though as we have spent time in the prophets now we should not at all be surprised to see these types of things being said about the Christ!
Simeon then ends his prayer of thanks to God and speaks directly to Mary and Joseph. He, prophetically I believe, tells them even more about what they are to expect from this child that they have been entrusted with.

Sign Opposed

Just one note out of this second section and just because I felt that one thought I read from JC Ryle at this point was so relevant for us today.
Simeon tells Mary and Joseph that the child would be for a sign that is opposed and this opposition is going to lead to much anguish and distress for his parents, Mary in particular, and we indeed see this most agonizingly at the cross as she watched her God given Son die there in bloody agony. Jesus indeed would be opposed as His people after him would continue to be opposed for living in His name.
Her JC Ryle says:
Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 Luke 2:25–35: Simeon, His History, Praise, and Prophecy

Christ was to be “a sign spoken against.” He was to be a mark for all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He was to be “despised and rejected of men.” He and His people were to be a “city set upon a hill,” assailed on every side, and hated by all sorts of enemies. And so it proved. Men who agreed in nothing else have agreed in hating Christ.

How clearly we see this today, “Men who agree in nothing else have agreed in hating Christ!”
And just like that, Simeom must have passed the child back to his parents and at some point moved away filled with joy and wonder at what His eyes had seen and the sheer joy that he had been able to take this long promised one up in his very arms!

Anna

Luke them moves us on to Anna. Anna is another devout follower of God. Like Simeon she was, even in these dark days seeking to live faithfully before God trusting that He would bring His promises to fulfilment. Anna had been married for 7 years and then when her husband died she had chosen, rather than seeking to be re married, she had chosen to spend the remainder of her days, 60, 70 years or so, we aren't given the exact time, but it is likely that she is 84 now so it has been a while and she has spent these long years worshiping, praying , and fasting, day and night, really just meaning “all the time” in the Temple.
This faithful woman also comes into the temple at that same time and likely hears it being repeated what Simeon has said, they perhaps knew each other, (more on that in a minute) but she hears all of this and she as well begins to thanks God for what has finally come.
And notice the last line there in verse 38:

she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

What do we see there? Do you see it?
There were others! They likely knew each other, faithful people tend to gather together to support each other especially in dark times, we were built for fellowship. There were others that were waiting in the same expectation and hope that Simeon and Anna had long waited in. They were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. The phrases throughout this passage like “redemption of Jerusalem” are all really synonymous phrases that all wrap around this idea that these people were waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled, the messianic redemptive promises that we find throughout the OT including those we read this morning from the Minor prophets.
These people lived in expectation and here on this day as the Christ, ala Malachi 3:1 suddenly comes into His temple they see the beginning of the fulfilment of this long awaited hope! and expectation.
I think of a line from the first verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem: “The Hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!”
And here is where I want again hang my hat this morning, this is the point, Christmas, that first Christmas, was the glorious dawning of the realization of some long awaited promises of God, promises that the people of Israel, the faithful people of Israel had been waiting for and living in light of for hundreds of years, even longer depending on how far back you cast your eye for messianic prophecies in Scripture. These were God’s people, Simeon had the Holy Spirit with him, Anna as a prophetess had the Holy Spirit with her, there were others who were waiting for these promises to be realized and they must have rejoiced in wonder as they heard these things told to them.
Now don't get me wrong, the text does not drive us to believe that this group numbered in the thousands or hundreds of thousands. That is not often how God works, but He does preserve a remnant of faithful people and these people who know him and have faith in Him, trust in His promises and live faithfully to they ways He has called them to live as they eagerly await the fulfilment of those promises because they trust 100% that He will not fail to accomplish what He has promised.

Our Long Awaited Hope

Bit now lets take the story and drive it forward. Simeon and Anna and the others, they were living faithfully in their day, faithfully in light of who God is and what He had called them to and eagerly awaiting the fulfilment of His promises.
Has much changed?
Some things have! While old Simeon had a great apprehension on what the Christ had come to accomplish I don't think that even he could have imagined the full glory of the plan of redemption that this Christ was to walk out in this world and just how it was that He was going to redeem Israel and shine as a light even unto the gentiles.
We can see that though. We can see this baby, the Christ, God’s Son, after having fulfilled His ministry, after having lived a perfect life, willingly laying His life down as He submitted himself to the shame of being nailed to a cross by sinful men and hung there between heaven and earth to shed His precious blood that we might, in Him find redemption for our sins. That this Holy Son of God would become the precious lamb sacrificed so that all of our sins might be covered, and that we might be redeemed, forgiven, might be made holy before God through His work there on the cross on behalf of all of God’s children! This is amazing!
And we can see it clearly, we have it recorded for us right here in sacred scripture. Those promises that Simeon and Anna longed for we now experience them if we have put faith in Christ and trusted in Him alone as our savior, if that is the case then the Christ is our salvation, we have experienced that redemption!
BUT!
There is MORE!
Just like Simeon and Anna, we still, to use the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans Chapter 8, GROAN! We eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies!
You see while many of those promises of the OT were fulfilled fully at Christ’s first coming and through His work on the cross, more I might add than we often realize!
There are yet more to be fulfilled. There are promises that point us forward to the realities of a creation renewed, of bodies renewed, of Satan and the forces of evil not just defeated but cast away into a place where they will never again wreak their wickedness and evil desires on God’s children, there are promises of our being set free fully and finally from every last vestige of the effects of Adams fall and the sin that clings so closely to these bodies of flesh!
Not just in the OT but the coming of Christ and the making manifest of the full revelation of God’s Word brings us even more promises in the NT!
Promises like the one that has been on my mind a lot lately, 2 Corinthians 4

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

An eternal weight of glory! Imagine that!
And what do these things cause us to do? To look not to the things that are seen! It causes us to live like Simeon and Anna and the other faithful Israelites as they waited with eager longing for the fulfilment of these same types of promises!
Oh how easy it is to live looking at what is seen. There were plenty of old men and women in Israel who may have even been decent people but who were living for the now, they might have known the promises but they didn't really live in light of them. Not just old men and women either!
Where are our eyes fixed and where are our hopes anchored as we live out our days in this weary world?

Depart in Peace: An Illustration

And finally as we round out to a close here I want to take us back to JC Ryle and Simeon for one moment to just illustrate this point maybe even more clearly.
Take a look at the first line of Simeon’s prayer of thanksgiving to God in verse 29:

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

Simeon is talking of his own death here (This is why I believe he was quite old) and he now talks about His death as departing in peace.
At this point JC Ryle says:
Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 Luke 2:25–35: Simeon, His History, Praise, and Prophecy

What is it that can enable a mortal man to use such language as this? What can deliver us from that “fear of death” to which so many are in bondage? What can take the sting of death away?—There is but one answer to such questions. Nothing but strong faith can do it. Faith laying firm hold on an unseen Saviour,—faith resting on the promises of an unseen God,—faith, and faith only, can enable a man to look death in the face, and say, “I depart in peace.” It is not enough to be weary of pain, and sickness, and ready to submit to anything for the sake of a change. It is not enough to feel indifferent to the world, when we have no more strength to mingle in its business, or enjoy its pleasures. We must have something more than this, if we desire to depart in real peace. We must have faith like old Simeon’s, even that faith which is the gift of God. Without such faith we may die quietly, and there may seem “no bands in our death.” (Psalm 73:4.) But, dying without such faith, we shall never find ourselves at home, when we wake up in another world.

As human beings we tend to do everything we can do to postpone death, it is amazing the amount of money that is pent to and just a few moments to a lie.
Now I need to be careful here, life is precious and we ought not throw it away flippantly but there is also a very real aspect to what Simeon and what JC Ryle say here about the nature of death for those who are in Christ and who have eyes set on things that are unseen. We need not fear it, we need not let the staving off of it drive us to any measure that we can think of, and plenty of believing Christ and join the world in doing just this.
Because of what Christ has done and in light of the amazing promises and hopes that are held out to us in God’s word we can live our lives, if and only if we have put faith in Christ and trust in Him alone as our Savior, we can live our lives sure and steadfast in this world, eyes fixed on unseen realities, hopes anchored in eternity and when death comes we can say with Simeon, “Now you are letting your servant depart in peace”
How magnificent is the precious hope and promise that we celebrate this time of year!
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