next week we'll look at Zacharias and then the following Wednesday will be our Christmas candlelight service and we'll have songs and some testimonies and some scripture and a brief devotional thought that night but I do want to look at Anna more in detail tonight quick review of Simeon and Lord willing next week we'll look at Zacharias the father of John the Baptist. But tonight we'll be back in Luke chapter number 2 and we'll go to once again verse 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And last week we looked at this passage and we talked about Simeon, the only place in Scripture that we find anything about Simeon. Yet what an honor for him to be recorded in Scripture As an older man, we're not sure exactly how old, but every indication is that he was in his latter years. There even seems to be in his statement about now he could go, he could pass, he could depart in peace, verse 29, having seen the consolation of Israel. So it appears that he was later in life, but nevertheless, Simeon was a faithful man. He was a just man, just meaning he was saved, but also he was a man of integrity. He was a devout man in that he was religious, he was faithful to the Mosaic law, he was going about his priestly duties, he was there in the temple serving, and he was a man of good reputation. He was also a man who was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Here is a man who was looking for the Messiah. He understood the Old Testament prophecies. He understood the sacrifices. He understood the meaning of the Passover. He knew what was to come. And he was waiting, eagerly anticipating the Messiah's coming. And so he was faithful. He was serving. He was living a life of righteousness. He was living a life of integrity. And he's a good example of what we should be doing right now, waiting for the second coming of the Messiah. We should be occupying till Christ comes, much the way that Simeon was occupying before the first coming of Christ. And he's a great example of how we should be looking for the Savior and living for the Savior. The Holy Spirit was upon him. He was a spirit-led man. He was yielded to the Holy Spirit. It had been revealed to him that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. And again, he was led by the Spirit. Now, think about that for a minute. I didn't take much time on this last week, but can you imagine being told that you would not die before you saw the Messiah? What would that do for the way you live? How would that affect your motives, your priorities? Now, I don't see Simeon as being the kind of guy who would go out and go skydiving and not wear a parachute. Oh, nothing's going to happen to me. God told me I'm not going to die until I see the Messiah. I mean, that'd be foolish, right? It wasn't like that at all, of course. It wasn't like he just went out and said, well, eat, drink, and be merry, because I'm not going to die anyway. There was none of that, right? Here's a man who was told that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. And what did it do for his devotion to the Lord? It made it stronger. He lived even more faithfully. Sometimes the attitude is, well, if I know I'm going to die, I've been told by the doctor I've got six months to live, or whatever the case may be. Most people's attitude is, well, now I can go out and party. I can go and do all the things that I never got to do. But you don't sense that at all. Here's Simeon, who's been told that he would not die until he sees the Messiah. who he has been eagerly waiting for and anticipating and living for, and it motivates him to be even more faithful, to be even more righteous, and to have a life of integrity so that when he sees the Messiah, when he meets the Messiah, there'll be no regret, there'll be no shame, and there'll be nothing to hold his, or to hang his head in shame for. And I just look at that, and I'm just astonished because Our selfishness, many times, would take over, and we see that in some people's hearts and minds when they're told they only have so many months to live, or the doctor says there's no way you're gonna make it. For some people, for far too many people, that means it's time to party. It's time to live for myself, get the gusto out of life, and that's not the way Simeon lived. It challenged him to be even more holy, to be more righteous to live even more faithfully and it didn't change his service and his faithfulness to the temple and God honored him and we see his testimony in scripture. He knew the prophecies, no doubt, when he referred to Christ as the consolation of Israel, no doubt he was making reference to some of these prophetic verses in the book of Isaiah that speak to the comfort or the consolation that God brings, that the Messiah would bring, speaking to the satisfaction, to the peace that Christ brings to lives as Believers, as we're saved and serving Him faithfully, and the fact that Christ is sufficient. He alone satisfies. And then, we went through these, and I won't spend a lot of time here, but just a quick review. He believed the word of God, even over the shallow legalist, or legalistic hypocrisy of the day, that was so prominent, that was so popular, that the crowd followed, And he went against the crowd. He was among that small remnant of believers who went against the popular legalism of the day that was taught by the religious leaders. He went against that. He believed the Word of God over that shallow legalistic hypocrisy. He was a man of integrity, a faithful man, valued the things of God more than the things of the world. He was looking for the Messiah much like Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and Anna. He had eyes of faith toward God's full redemption plan. He He understood salvation through Christ alone. He knew that he was a sinner and he knew that the only way he was going to receive the peace of God, the consolation of Israel, was through repentance and faith and trusting in the Messiah and the Messiah alone, Jesus Christ, and Christ alone for his salvation. He understood that salvation was for the Jews as well as the Gentiles. The Jews were to be the ones to lead in the proclamation of the gospel to the whole world. Of course, they failed in doing that, they fumbled that opportunity, and God has now given the church, the Gentiles, specifically the church, the responsibility to take the gospel to the world. And we know that we're to take the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He understood that God's redemption plan always included the Gentiles. And he talks about a light to the Gentiles as well as to God's own people, the Jews. knowing that some would reject him. He speaks to the fall and to the rise of groups of people. The fall speaks to those who will reject him, and the rise speaks of those who would receive him as their savior. And then the sign, spoken against by many, makes reference to the fact that Jesus Christ is that place where everyone must come to a decision regarding their eternity to either receive him or to reject him. And he is that sign. And to some, he becomes a sign or a stone of stumbling. Again, I used the illustration last week. There are signs that we have that we can choose to obey and receive the honor and the blessing, or we can choose to disobey and receive the consequences But the sign remains the same. The sign speaks the truth. Jesus Christ being that sign of redemption, speaking to the truth of redemption through Jesus Christ, through Him alone, pointing to the Father, and only through Him can we be saved. And obviously, there are some who, sadly, it's a sobering reality that some will see the sign of truth and reject Jesus Christ and go their own way. So a lot to unpack in that short sermon by Simeon. And then he even talked to Mary a little bit and said, Mary, you're gonna experience heartache. There's gonna be a sword that's gonna pierce thine own soul again. Something special about a mom and the bond that she has with her children, it's unique. And abortion doesn't take that away. Abortion drives that deeper. I don't care what all the liberals say and all the women who shout their abortion. It's sad because it's not something that just goes away. It's not something to celebrate. The murder of your own child in your womb is not something to celebrate. And it causes a great grief and emotional harm, as well as there's even physical harm that the research is showing. But here Mary would have to come to grips with the fact that her son, not the mother of God, again, not the mother of God, Mary is not the mother of God. She's the mother of Jesus and his humanity. And as a mom, she had to come to grips. Even in John 2, Jesus was already saying to her, and he said, woman, he was saying, ma'am, he was saying, respectfully, my hour has not yet come, but I am about my father's business. And we see throughout the life of Jesus, even down to the cross, he looks at John and he says, take care of my mother. take care of Mary. She had to come to grips with the reality that he was the Messiah and he was going to die. And there's all that humanity that was involved there and Simeon made reference to that. And Mary had to come to grips with that and she understood that he was dying for her sin. She speaks in her song about her need for salvation and her being a handmaid, a servant of the Lord and knowing her own need for salvation. And so she understood that Christ, the Messiah, and can I just go ahead and say the popular song? Yes, Mary did know. Mary did know. I know there's that popular song, Mary did you know? Yes, she did. I think she understood a lot, all right? She kept these things and pondered them in her heart, and he was speaking to the fact that there was gonna be some emotional experiences for Mary, but she could experience God's grace because she, too, would have to trust the Messiah as her Savior, and she did, and God would give her grace to go through those heart-wrenching experiences. And then he even mentioned how Christ would expose the hearts of men that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Simeon was quite the prophet in just a few verses, and it just goes to show the depth of his theology, it goes to show the depth of his understanding of the Old Testament, and it goes to show the faith, and the depth and the strength of that faith. And what a great example for us. And then it seems right there, and I will have to go back and correct myself. I said Jesus was eight days old. He was probably 40 days old. And I did not go back far enough in my research. And I apologize, I said he was eight days old. He would have been 40, because the days of her purification would have been at the 40th day. She was to be in her time of purification for 40 days, according to Leviticus 12. So it would have been that 40th day as they came to offer those sacrifices and to dedicate Jesus unto the Lord. And in walks Anna. Here's Simeon, and he's giving this brief sermon, even prophetic sermon, a little bit of prophecy in there about what would happen with Jesus. And in walks Anna. And that gets us down to verse 36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, or Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with and husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but serve God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. So here is Anna. She comes in, and apparently it was right as Simeon was finishing up his short sermon there, and Anna is met with the Messiah, Joseph, Mary, Simeon, and again, this is just an artist rendering. I can only imagine Simeon holding the baby Jesus, 40 days old, and dedicating him to the Lord and the proper offerings being given. And then Anna, of course, they're kind of off to the side, according to the artist. She walks in and I can just... Imagine for a minute Simeon and Joseph and Mary and Anna was daily in the temple. She was regularly there, night and day, the Bible says. So she walks in and Simeon, I can just kind of, in my mind's eye, see Simeon saying, Anna, come on over. Look who this is, you know? I mean, again, I can't, obviously not having been there, obviously I don't know, but the excitement that might have been in Simeon's mind and heart Here's the consolation of Israel. Here's who he has been waiting for, praying for. Here is who he has been hoping for. This is the fulfillment of all that prophecy from the Old Testament. Here is God's Son. Here is the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And Anna walks in as he probably saw her on a regular basis. She's in there all the time. And I can only imagine Simeon being like when Anna walks in saying, come here, come look and see who this baby is. And so let's look a little bit at who Anna is. Her name, Anna. is actually in the Hebrew the same word that is translated Hannah, and there is the Hebrew word for Anna, also the name Hannah, and the names Anna and Hannah simply mean grace. 1 Samuel 1, we think of Samuel's mother, Hannah, and a lot of similarities between Anna and Hannah, women who loved God and were dedicated to the Lord and were serving Him faithfully, and God blessed both of them. She was a prophetess, and we'll come back to this, but simply, a prophetess is a woman who is given the privilege of delivering the Word of God in certain circumstances. Okay, we'll come back to that. She was the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, In Jewish tradition, the tribe of Asher was celebrated for the beauty of its women, and many of them often married high priests and kings. The tribe Asher means happy. Obviously, one of the 10 tribes that was part of the Northern Kingdom, which, of course, the kingdoms were no longer divided, and there had been, of course, the captivity of the Babylonian captivity. There have been the conquering of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria in 722 BC, the conquering of Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Babylonian captivity, and then, of course, Nehemiah, and all of that that went on in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the walls and the temple, and all that was hundreds of years before, but they still knew who each member which tribe each Jew was a member of. And those records were not destroyed until 70 AD when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Now the Jews don't know necessarily what tribe they are from. But God will take care of that, won't he? When the 144,000 are chosen in the tribulation, which Lord willing we'll talk a little bit about on Sunday night. And God will know, and he will choose 12,000 out of each And anyway, we'll get to that, Lord willing, Sunday night. But she was of the tribe of Asher. And Asher was the second son of Leah's handmaid, Zilpah, and the eighth son of Jacob. Her husband, she had only been married for seven years. Her husband had died seven years into their marriage. And we understand that she was regularly in the temple. So her husband, she was of the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, not a Levite, which would have been part of the priesthood and the care of the temple, but nevertheless, she departed not from the temple. There is some debate as to whether or not she was 84 years old or 104 years old, because the Greek here is a little bit difficult to translate into English. And there's debate as to whether it was four score years, Let's look again at the verse in verse 37, and she was a widow of about four score and four years. So is she married for seven years, and then you add another 84, and then assuming that she was about 20 when she got married, and there's commentators, and I read a couple of different commentaries, two or three of them. One of them said she could have been as old as 104, depending on how the Greek is translated there, she was of great age. Whether she was 84 or 104, we know old is a relative term, but in our understanding, 84 would be of significant age, 104 would be, can we just go ahead and say old, all right? So whether she was 84 or 104, she was up in her years. and she had been a widow for a long time. But what was she doing in the temple? I thought it was men, Levites, sons of Aaron, right, who were to be serving in the temple. So what was her role? We're not told that she had any kind of role in the sacrificial system, that she was doing any kind of priestly function. She was serving God with fasting and prayer. She probably had been given a place to live near the temple. Priests on a rotational basis, two weeks of the year on a rotational basis, would come and do their two weeks of service in the temple and they would be given temporary living quarters and it's probably where she lived. She probably was given a place to live right there near the temple. And she came to the temple every day praying, and she prayed so much that she lost her appetite for food. She fasted. We're not commanded in Scripture to fast. As a general rule in Scripture, we're not told, thou shalt fast. We're told that if we fast, we should do it in our closets, to be proud and to be seen of men and to go around and put on our sackcloth and ashes and tell everybody, hey, I haven't eaten for three days because I really love the Lord. If you really love the Lord, you would take a break from meals like me. That's not the attitude. The attitude of fasting is one of dedication to the Lord to the point that we lose our appetite for even food itself. and that's the way Anna was dedicated. She loved God so much. She was so faithful in her prayers and in coming to the temple and so eager for the Messiah to come that she lost even her natural appetites, her natural appetite for food. Now, I'm not diabetic, and I don't think I'm hypoglycemic, but I do need my carbs. and maybe I'll eventually find out if there is something wrong with my blood sugar, but we know how blood sugar can affect us, and I just have known for years that I've gotta have snacks in between meals. Part of it is I get up early, and I'm usually hungry within half an hour, so I usually have to eat something within half an hour, or I get headaches, and I have to eat snacks. I used to get teased, because I'd go to my office around 9.30, 10 o'clock in the morning, and I would, grab a snack before chapel. And so the staff would tease me at our former ministry, because I would keep a drawer and I'd have snacks until my kids got older, and then they started finding my snacks in my office. And then it was harder to hide them and keep them, so I had to find special places. But I would snack, and I still to this day, I have to have a certain amount of carbs and protein or whatever. Anyway, do we ever get so caught up in our prayer life, in our service for the Lord, in our passion for the Lord, in our desire to see God work, in our desire to see God answer prayer, that we lose even our appetite for food, that skipping a meal is a sacrifice worth making because we just need to get before God. We just need to be before the throne of God. That's incredible. It's convicting. It's rebuking. And then, upon seeing the baby Jesus, she gave thanks to the Lord, and she spoke of Jesus, making reference even to his work of redemption. That all those who are looking for the redemption of God, he is there in infant stage, 40 days old, As a baby, that's the Messiah who would go to the cross and die on the cross for our sins and rise again and ascend into glory and intercede on our behalf at the right hand of the throne of God. In the few minutes that we have left, we'll just talk quickly about, first of all, her being a prophetess. She was not a source of divine revelation. She did not have an office in the church. She simply spoke. the Word of God. People make way too much of this. Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Philip's daughters are all referred to as prophetesses. But they were not charismatic preachers. They were not pastors of churches, never in Scripture, in 1 and 2 Timothy or Titus, or in any of the New Testament epistles. As a matter of fact, in Corinthians, the women are told to be silent in the churches, and to not have authority over a man. And that's a whole sermon for another day. And that doesn't mean that women have a lesser role in society or that they are unequal to men. It just simply means they have a different role in the church and a different role in society. Women are not given the role of pastor, of deacon. They are not involved in the leadership ministry of the church, but they have significant roles in the church. And many of them are teaching, as we have in our Kids for Truth, the children of the church. They have tremendous roles of influence in the shaping and nurturing of children's lives, of supporting their husbands. And a woman can beautify a home and beautify the world in a way that a man can't. Most of us men, if we lived alone, we would have plastic drawers and maybe a crooked frame on the wall, and we'd be happy to live with a sofa on the floor without a bed frame and never put our clothes in our drawers. And we'd be perfectly content to do so. Women domesticate men. We do a lot of stupid things. And there is something about a woman who says, honey, Don't think that'd be a good idea. I think you ought to slow down a little bit. I think you ought to not shoot in that direction or throw that. Maybe you ought to calm down a little bit. So many hundreds of ways that a woman has an influence on a man to tame him and to bring him to his senses. There's a nurturing aspect, a beautifying aspect. And I just can't help but think as Simeon gives the prophecy, there's a prophetess who speaks the word of God, but not in the same role, but nevertheless with a powerful influence and with a dedication and a righteousness. She was at the temple praying regularly. She was probably there for all the public gatherings and feast days. And she so was in love with God and so dedicated in her prayer that even food at times didn't even matter. You know, I can't help but think with both Simeon and Anna. Once again, they were at the right place, at the right time, doing the right things, with the right heart, with the right attitude. And God bless them. You know what we do? We go out and we go fishing. We look for the right places and we go frequently so that we can get the good catch. We go hunting and we go frequently and we go to the right places so we can get the big doe or the big buck. We go shopping and we go to Goodwill on the first Wednesday of the month and we go weekly so that we can get the good deal. So if we go regularly, we can find the sale or find the right price or find the right item. What if we were that faithful to church and to the word of God and to being where God wants us to be, serving faithfully? Imagine what God would do in his church and with his people if we were busy doing the right thing, with the right heart, in the right place, just faithfully serving the Lord and being faithful in the little things, and then God gives us bigger responsibilities. And as we're faithful in the little things, then God makes us faithful in the bigger things. And so many times we have grand visions of the great things that we can do, that everybody can see, and we're not faithful in the little things. And we're not humble in the sight of the Lord and letting him do the heavy lifting and lifting us up in his time and his place. Simeon and Anna are examples of being faithful in the little things, and yet they have great honor from God the Holy Scriptures. It's an incredible picture of faithfulness. We see that they receive special honor, and we see that God can use people even of all ages, even in their latter years. I've heard this through the years, that you don't retire as Christians, you retread. You just find another place to serve. You don't retire, You don't go just sit back on your couch and eat potato chips and watch reruns of Matlock. You find another place to serve. I've mentioned in here, and our church is full of men and women who, no, they don't work a full-time vocational job, but they are faithfully serving the Lord. Our church is full of people who have retreaded. I can't help but think of Mr. Titus in our former ministry, former coach. who gave up his retirement years to go clean toilets and be a janitor at our school, who would come up to me on a hard day and put his arm around me and say, I know it's been a rough day, I'm praying for you, who would put his arm around a kid at school who was being a brat and say, have you thought about changing your attitude and just doing what the teacher says? I don't know if Mr. Titus will come visit here someday. If he does, I want to acknowledge him because he's another example of a person who's retreaded, who's going to probably, if the Lord tarries, he's probably going to die working for the Lord in some way. And I'm thankful for people like that. And Simeon and Anna are examples of that. We're out of time, but wonderful examples in these two individuals. And may we love the Lord and serve faithfully like they did, even to the final days that God gives us here on this earth. May we be faithful. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the examples of Simeon and Anna and the challenge they are to us. the testimonies and so much that we can learn from their lives and their examples. Thank you, Lord, for the honor that you gave them. We look forward to meeting them one day in heaven. I pray, Lord, that you will help us now to go out from here and to serve you faithfully the remainder of this week. I pray that you give us opportunities with the gospel and to be an encouragement to others. I pray that you will bless our church and our ministries here. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thanks so much for being here tonight and hope that you have a wonderful rest of the week and we look forward to being back on Saturday for the men's meeting or the memorial.