Welcome to the ministry of First Reformed Church of Aberdeen, South Dakota. Our worship services are at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning. Now we join Pastor Hank Bone as he brings us God's Word. For our Bible reading, let's turn to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2. So we'll conclude our study that we've been going through with Christmas, looking at Luke, Chapter 2. And as we end our reading here, we'll look at Anna and see how God utilized her in terms of her witness to Christ as the promised seed, the infant child that was looked for by God's people to come. So I wanna start our reading, we'll go ahead and start our reading with verse 22, and then we'll read down through verse 40. And so here Luke records in his gospel, now when the day of her purification, according to the law of Moses, was completed, they brought him, they brought Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord. Every male who 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 turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just 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. So he came by 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, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which are spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribes of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And this woman was a widow of about 84 years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Let us pray. Our God and Father, as we consider this passage, we pray that you may encourage us, not only with the comfort of salvation that comes through our Savior Jesus Christ alone, but also with the challenges of what that faith calls us to, to be passionate and persevering in our worship and in our seeking of our Savior. And so, Father, let us hear your word. as it is presented here by Luke in this passage. For we ask these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Beloved congregation of the Lord, today we close out 2023. And we cast our eyes toward 2024. The new year reminds us that we are time-bound creatures who have a limited time in this life. When we are young, we think we have all the time in the world to experience the things that we want to do. But as the years roll by, we become amazed at how quickly this life goes by. In our elderly years, we think back on those family and friends who left this world all too soon. And it reminds us of God's exhortation in James 4.14, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor. It appears for a little time and then vanishes away. It is good that we end the year by remembering the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, so that we may set our hearts on things above and not on the things of this world. When we consider all that God has done in the sending of His Son to provide us with such a great salvation, it's reasonable that we present our lives as a sacrifice in service to God's glory. In our look at Luke 2 these past few Sundays, Luke saw fit to turn our attention to two elderly and passionate believers who served God throughout their lives. Simeon is described as a just and a devout man who waited for the consolation of Israel, who had that promise of the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the promised child. Because of the promise of the Holy Spirit, Simeon functioned as a prophet of the Lord's coming, to be that seal that the baby Jesus was the true Messiah who had come in the flesh. But the second figure is Anna, a prophetess whose life was an example of perseverance in the hope of the Redeemer. Manifested in her life, committed to the worship of God, and thus her faith was an example to all. Both the words of Simeon and Anna occurred when Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to the temple to be circumcised on the eighth day according to the custom of Moses. In God's providential timing and the leading of the Holy Spirit, both Simeon and Anna come at that moment when Mary and Joseph bring their son. The words of Anna follow her observing of Simeon, taking that infant child and taking him into his arms and blessing God as having seen the promised one who brings salvation not only to the Jews but also would be that light to the Gentiles. Well, Simeon functions as a prophet who brings the word of God revealed to him. directly by the Holy Spirit, Anna functions as a prophetess through the proclamation of that Word of God that had been spoken, that she had heard, that she had read. In both of these proclamations, there is a call to us today in a word and deed to fully embrace our faith passionately and devoutly. The theme of our sermon this morning is this. Because Jesus is the Redeemer, we seek salvation in Him alone. The sermon unfolds in three points. First, we seek Jesus by our perseverance. Second, we seek Jesus through our prayers. And then third, we seek Jesus in our praise. So first, considering that we seek Jesus by our perseverance. We see this in both Simeon and Anna. As Christians, we speak of perseverance as that having professed faith in Jesus as our only Savior, we then trust in God through the work of the Holy Spirit in us that he will keep us as a holy possession until the day we go home to be with the Lord. It is that conviction that we are so in the Father's hand that no one can pluck us out. that he who has begun that good work in us will finish it. That Jesus is the author and the finisher of our salvation. We see this teaching work out in the lives of both Simeon and Anna. Recall that in the life of Simeon, the Holy Spirit had promised that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. We see that in verse 26. And from this we conclude that he was nearing the time of his death. that he was at that point where he was ready to die. But he knew this one last thing had to take place first. Anna is described as one who was of great age. Now, there are two possible ways to understand how old she was. She is described as one who had lived with a husband for seven years from her virginity. And that could have been as young as 14 that she was married. It was common in those days. But her husband died after seven years of marriage. And Anna never remarried, though she would have been quite young still when her husband died. The question arises, how to understand the phrase that she was a widow of 84 years? Some hold that she was a widow for 84 years, which would place her over 100 years old. However, it's more probable to understand that she was a widow who was now 84 years old and still active in serving her Lord in the temple. This would be consistent with Psalm 90, verse 10, where we read, the days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength, they are 80 years. A second element of note is that Luke describes Anna as a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel. and of the tribe of Asher. Now we read over that. We don't really pay much attention to that. There's more language in there. We don't really know what it means. But it's kind of interesting. The tribe of Asher would have been one of those lost tribes of Israel taken into captivity 500 years before. This is interesting in this respect, that even the lost tribes were not completely wiped out, and that they still kept a record of who they belonged to, to which tribe, even at the time of the Lord's birth, that they had these records kept. It was important, as we saw, the genealogy for the Lord listed in one of the Gospels. It's the genealogy of Joseph, and in the other, the genealogy of Mary. They have them recorded. It was important to the people of God to maintain these genealogies, these tribes that they belong to, both with regards to how the possession of land was distributed, but also in terms of tracing the seed of the promised child. A second aspect here is the curiosity, the way that Anna is defined as a prophetess. There does not appear to be any direct revelation to her by the Holy Spirit like with Simeon. However, her commitment to the temple for perhaps 50 to 60 years might well have put her into a position where she taught the young women regarding how to live their faith in God. Think about the words of Titus chapter 2, where in the verses 2 through 5 we read, This instruction, the older women be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. But what is most observable? was the passion with which Anna was committed to serving God. In verse 37, she is noted for being one who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Now this is sort of hyperbolic language. It doesn't mean that she never left the temple. But it does mean that her heart was set upon entering every opportunity she had to be in church, so to speak, to serve God, to be there, to minister to others. That she has fastings and prayers night and day means that she was a person of prayer, both in her public worship and in her private worship. This is not some... official office prophetess in the temple, but rather should be understood as being faithful in her attendance to all times that the services were going on. But it was even more than that. Not only was she faithful in going to the temple every opportunity she had, but the day and night points to her also having that active private devotional life away from church. One of the marks of being passionate about serving God is that you are active in public and private worship. And we see this in our second point, that we are to seek Jesus through prayer, through our prayers. At the end of verse 37, Anna is said to have served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And the phrase night and day is a way of saying all the time. It means the same thing as Paul saying, we are to pray without ceasing. The character of her persevering faith was that she never took time off from her relationship with God. She lived as one who was continually before the face of God. She saw herself that way. She lived what we call theocentrically, or God-centeredly, or Christocentrically, Christ-centered, for those of us who looked for the Redeemer, for those of us who trust in that salvation of Christ. Now, I want to just briefly talk about this idea of fasting. In the Bible, fasting is to be viewed in conjunction with prayer. It normally is added to prayer in times when there are pressing concerns. We saw both in Simeon as well as in Anna here. They looked and they saw that the day that they lived in was a time when even the people of God were not living in a devout and just way. As I mentioned, last week was Simeon. The church was a mile wide and an inch deep. There were a lot of people who came to the temple, but very few were really living in that kind of passionate, persevering faith that we see in both Simeon and Anna. And so they understood that these were dark times for the church, for the people of God. And so it would be common that she would fast and pray for the church and for the nation and for the coming Redeemer. Next Sunday is to be a day of fasting and prayer. for the Lord to provide men to pursue becoming ministers of the word. There is a shortage of men. We have two empty pulpits in our classes. We have ministers that are struggling physically. We have aging ministers and not a lot of young ministers. It's not a pursuit of many. And yet we're entering into a time, and we've been in a time, but we're entering even, I believe, into darker times where we're going to see culture confronting the church and challenging the church. And so the church needs to be armed and equipped and ready to confront the world with the light of the gospel. It is through the preaching of the word that we find our hope. And if our culture is to be restored, be reformed, it'll only come through the preaching of the word of God, not through embracing and adopting cultural ways of thinking, but rather confronting how those cultural ways stand in conflict to the God who created them. Think about the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 9.37. He says, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So having recognized this challenge to the church, We have this annual day of prayer and fasting to pray for God to raise up men for the harvest. And we're thankful that after a couple of decades, we finally see in Heidelberg Seminary there in Sioux Falls, we've got 12 men preparing to go into the ministry, where before we would have two or three. We see the Lord is moving, but we need to continue to observe the Lord's exhortation to us. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And so I hope in this week leading up to next Lord's Day that you'll take that to heart. Now, there's another thing of note here. Luke chose both a man and a woman as persons of faith, privileged with being seals as to the infant baby Jesus being the promised Messiah. And from this, you should note that neither held any office in the instituted church, but both exercised their office as prophet, priest, and kings, as partakers of that anointing of Christ. I believe from this that Luke wanted to make clear through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that women are to play an important role in the church. In particular, Anna was both aged and a widow. Yet she persevered in her faith. And that was evident by her being constant in prayer for the needs of the church, as well as she was not hesitant to assume the role of a teacher in some capacity. As you look at the witness of Anna through her lifelong commitment of passionate service to God, you can see how important prayer is to persevere in the faith. From Anna, we can learn that prayer is necessary for our seeking Jesus. But also, in the context of what we're reading, Anna was a person of worship. Prayer is an integral part of our worship. It is a response to the Word of God. And if you take the connection of Anna coming into the temple, at the same time Simeon has come into the temple and is holding the baby Jesus and begins to prophesy that this is the promised child, the one who will be a light to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel, she hears these words. And her response immediately is her heart is filled with joy. And she begins to pray likewise with Simeon, blessing upon God and thanksgiving. As we think about that essence of worship, where God speaks and we are to respond through hymn, through prayer, are your hearts filled with thanksgiving? Do you respond in the kind of way that we see in Simeon and Anna when they hear of the Christ child? All their lives they had grown hearing the covenant promise of the seed to come, the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David. They were looking for that, the consolation of Israel. And then the word comes and there's confirmation and their hearts are filled. We hear of the birth of Christ. Are our hearts filled with the same kind of joy and thankfulness and gratitude? The Catechism speaks of prayer as the chief instrument by which we express thankfulness to God. But prayer is also seeking Jesus as the object of our praise. Which brings us to our third point. We seek Jesus in our praise. In verse 38, it says, coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord. From the context, you must conclude that the instant that she arrived in the temple was the very moment that Simeon had taken the baby Jesus into his arms and blessed gods and began to prophesy in what almost becomes a hymn for the church. She would have heard the word of prophecy that Simeon proclaimed, and through faith in the work of the Holy Spirit, she immediately responded in words of praise and thanksgiving. You know, the particular Greek word translated as gave thanks appears only here in the New Testament. It's a unique word. There are other words for giving thanks. But here, this one is chosen because it has a particular application. It is to acknowledge one's thankfulness restricted in the New Testament usage to context in which God is the one being thanked. This is immediately that looking to heaven and praising the Lord. A word close in usage is found in Matthew 11, 25, where we read, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Now, you might think that interesting. The wise and prudent would be the scribes and Pharisees. And babes we would think as being children, normally. But perhaps here he has in mind those who don't see themselves as the highly educated in the church. In other words, the common people. In Anna, we see how we are to respond when we hear the word proclaimed. It should fill our hearts with awe and wonder and at the marvel of God's grace. You know, as I read this passage, and I hope as you read this passage as well, over and over, that you catch the flavor of it, that you catch the emotion of it. Even with all that Joseph and Mary had witnessed, the appearance of Gabriel, the shepherds coming in, all the various things that had happened, they both now witness Simeon and what Simeon says. And we read in verse 33 that they marveled at those things which were spoken of their little baby boy. Simeon marveled. Anna marveled. Joseph and Mary marveled. Why? Because the work of God's grace made manifested as that bright brilliance of the glory of God should lead us to nothing less than that, to marvel at the grace of God. Keep in mind that Anna and Simeon had lived long lives persevering in faith and pursuing the promise of God that he would send the Savior. never did it become common to them. They hungered and thirsted for it because Christ was their righteousness and Christ is our righteousness. And so it should be in your life that the longer you walk in a persevering, passionate faith seeking Jesus, the more you should marvel at the wonders of God's grace that works salvation in your mind and heart. There was a second aspect to Anna's hearing that this child was the consolation of Israel, the savior of the world. The passage ends, and she spoke of him, that is, Jesus, to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. As people would come, and they would say, how do I seek God? She would say, He has sent His Son into the world. He has sent our Redeemer to buy us back, to pay the penalty and the price for our sin, and to purchase for us a place in heaven. That through Christ, we are freed and liberated. And that's the marvel of God's grace. Grace is that blessing of God that bestowal of the mercy of God upon us, not because we deserve it. not because there's any good thing in us, but God does it out of the free and good pleasure of His own will. And He sovereignly works in our hearts faith. For by grace have we been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works. We don't boast, well, I've done this and I've done that. No, our boast is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit opening our hearts. New birth comes through that working of the Holy Spirit in us. So as we find ourselves with an interest in scripture, an interest in God, a seeking of Christ, we understand that's the working of the Holy Spirit within us, working life in us, taking those of us who are dead and trespasses and sins and raising us up unto new life. That's the condition we all come through. We're saved by God's grace, undeserved favor, through faith that he works in us. And so we praise God for that working of the Holy Spirit. For Christ is our Redeemer, who comes and he lives that perfectly sinless life. He provides for us the entrance into God's presence through salvation. because He is our Redeemer. He is that consolation, that one who brings peace to us. He is the Savior, not just of the Jews, but of the whole world. That is, He becomes the one who alone is Savior to all who shall call upon the Lord. We see here that Anna embraces Christ, even as an infant child. Anna would have been a fixture in the temple and well-known for her deep faith and her devotion. Her coming to the temple as often as she could would have revealed her love for worshiping God. And others would have looked to her as a witness of God's grace. Thus, Luke records that she now becomes one who was active in her witness to the fact that the promised child had now come into the world. We know from the historical record that Joseph and Mary fled the promised land to Egypt because of the wicked decree of Herod to kill all of the male children around Bethlehem. And so they had departed. But Anna remains in the temple. Anna remains the one who keeps saying that the Christ has come, that the Savior is alive, that He's been born. We don't know how much longer Anna lived. But while she did, she proclaimed that God had sent her son into the world. Why? Because that's what perseverance is. It's that we persevere in our faith. We persevere because God, by his Holy Spirit, works in us, that walking in the Lord, the one who is our redemption to all who came looking for the hope of salvation. Even as Anna was compelled to be passionate about proclaiming the Christ. So that should be all of us. The love of God so dwells in our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit that we desire to express that love of God to others. You know, Jesus came as the light of the world. And yet, in the Sermon on the Mount, what does Jesus say? He says, you who believe in me, you are the light of the world. not because of the light of our own light, but because the light that is in us is reflected. And I use this picture, I mention this picture often, that Jesus is the sun and we are the moon. And the more we get the world out of our lives so that we're in direct relation to the sun, the more the light of the sun reflects off of us unto the world. That's our calling, brothers and sisters. to be those who proclaim the redemption that comes through our Savior, Jesus Christ. And because Jesus is the Redeemer, you are to seek salvation in Him alone. And having been saved, believe with a passionate, persevering, and praiseful faith. that is so much a part of who you are, that your desire is that others also may know this Christ, that they may know our Jesus, that they may understand that there is salvation to be found in no other name than the name of Jesus Christ. And thus we do lift up our heads in praise and we worship our Savior. Amen. Our God and Father, the Christmas season is a fruitful time of reflection upon Christ entering into the world. The very son of God, Emmanuel, one who is true God, taking upon himself our very nature of flesh and blood. And that glory that he had in heaven as true God is veiled by his human nature, by his flesh and blood. And yet at times, that divine omnipotence peeks through as He changes water into wine, as He calms the storms at sea, as He heals the blind and the lame and the deaf. We see that He is the true Christ, the Son of God, the Redeemer of all who the Father has given to Him. And Father, as we think about Your Word, about the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit compelling us with a passion in our hearts to serve God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. It becomes evident to us that Christ's death upon the cross not only took away the guilt of our sin so that we are counted as righteous in Christ, but also that His righteousness is imparted unto us as the fruit and the benefit of His work upon the cross. And so, Father, as we gather here, we often sense more the struggle that we have with our flesh, with the temptations of the world. Often we have things that come in and intrude and draw us away from living with you first in our lives. But we look at these figures like Simeon and Anna, and we think that somehow they were unusual and special. And yet, Father, the reality is they were simply like us, who loved the Lord and sought to serve the Lord in any way that they could. They lived to reflect that glory of God. that we have received through Jesus Christ. And so, Father, we pray as we end this year, and we look back at your favor that you have bestowed upon us, how we celebrated the 75th year of this congregation being here in Aberdeen, how we see that you have continually filled our pulpits with faithful men, how you have provided leaders in our church both to teach in Sunday school and to serve in office as elders and deacons. We are amazed. We marvel at your goodness unto us. Because, Father, we still sense our weakness, our sinfulness, and we confess our sins. And we think about those sins of omission, those things that we know we should be doing, like Anna coming to worship when she can. to Simeon being in the temple at the very moment when Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus. We see the leading of your hand upon our lives. And Father, we ask that we may more consciously understand the path that you set before us, how we are to work and labor and serve, that the glory of Jesus may be seen in and through us to others. that we, like Annas, may proclaim to all those who desire to know their redemption, how to escape the judgment to come, that we might be quick to speak of our Savior Jesus and all that he has done for us through redeeming us from our sin, through saving us from the world, that through his precious blood, he brings to us comfort. And so Father, as we end another year and we enter into the year that lies ahead, lay it upon our hearts to serve you, to ask that question, in what way have you gifted us that we might labor for the kingdom of heaven? Father, in and through all of the things that we do as your children, that you may be glorified and that your name may be exalted in the world. We ask these things through the name of our great Savior, even our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.