Advent 1: The Hope of Simeon and Anna

The Hope of Simeon and Anna in Luke 2

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke and chapter 2. Gonna be reading verses 25 through 40 through a very familiar section. No doubt. We will be in Luke 2 a few times in the coming weeks. Luke chapter 2 beginning at verse 25.

This is God's holy and infallible Word. 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 and 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 were 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 tribe of Asher. She was of 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 instance. She gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who look 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. The child grew and became strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.

May the Lord be pleased with our Consideration of his most holy word, please pray with me. Oh Lord, I pray that you would fill our hearts with.

Hope.

That we would long for Your salvation. That we would wait patiently and endure great trial if necessary. And we know this will all culminate in our great rejoicing. We give thanks in Jesus name. Amen, please be seated.

Longing for the Consolation of Israel

The title of the message today is the hope of Simeon and Anna. The hope of Simeon and Anna. And I have Four words which you could use as outline points. They're very easy to remember. The first one is longing.

The first word for today an outline form is longing. The second is waiting.

Longing.

Waiting.

The third is hoping and the fourth is rejoicing. Longing waiting hoping. Rejoicing. In the book of Lamentations chapter 3 it says this. The Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Simeon and Anna God's faithful servants long for his consolation and redemption. They wait in hope knowing that he keeps his promises and They rejoice in what he has done and watch expectantly rejoicing in what he will do.

Well, let's consider our text now. The first couple of things I'd like to point out to you I think to properly do an exposition of this I would probably break it down into the two sections and treat Simeon first and then do Anna second.

But I have to tell you today. I'm under heavy conviction that I want to reach your heart. I.

Want to.

Get deeply into your thinking in your mind because a lot of times in texts like this They're familiar to us. In fact, we sing this every week. Don't we now again? It would be natural for us and enjoyable for us and stimulating to us to go through a lot of the details and and a lot of the layers of The text and to think about possibly speculate on the identity of who Simeon is.

There's a lot of rich tradition and mythology around who Simeon is. But today I want to get closer To the heart of the matter for you and for me and that's the matter of our desires and our Expectations and our hopes and the way that we view the world and and how we see things.

There there's a great lesson for us today in Simeon and in Anna. It's a good beginning. At verse 25 there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And listen to this description of Simeon this man was just and devout.

Incredible superlatives given to a very godly man. Wouldn't be wonderful if they said of you. Oh, they are just and devout. But the the first thing I want us to consider is Look at this description of this great man in his life.

He's.

Waiting for the consolation of Israel. He is most likely an aged man Probably older even than Anna. He has been living his life in faithfulness. But this defining Characteristic of Simeon is he is waiting for the salvation of his and our God.

He was longing for Christ and his salvation. Sometimes we forget and make a great Trinitarian error. And we act as if the Holy Spirit was born on the day of Pentecost. A terrible thing to do wouldn't it for our own doctrine of the Trinity?

This man Had the Holy Spirit upon him. And it had been by some special revelation by that Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

And so Simeon lives with a waiting and expecting hope. He's longing for the revelation of God's salvation in the person of Christ. And so he labors faithfully and he waits. Hoping. And now this dramatic moment Christ appears Being carried in by his parents to the temple.

One thing that I will offer as a speculation that may be Helpful and encouraging to us as you know at the time of the arrival of Jesus in that era in the life of the Jewish nation their conception of the Messiah was one of a temporal Messianic office like really all the kings that had gone before them.

And it's argued that Simeon forcefully debated theologically that the arrival of the Messiah would be the entering into the perpetual kingdom of Christ. So he has a radical view about who the Messiah is going to be the.

The the people who know about these things. The theologians of that age say this is going to be a great military and political leader. He's going to drive out the Romans. But we know and I believe Simeon knew Joseph and Mary I don't think understand the full weight of the comprehensiveness of it.

But but Simeon like Abraham his father sees something of the glory of Christ. And that he's not going to die until he sees God's Salvation. There is in this season there should be a.

Lament.

We start getting excited. Christmas is coming. Children are looking forward to all of the festivities. There's a lot of darkness before the dawn. How long had the people? waited for the deliverance of Christ and his salvation.

In Genesis chapter 3 let's turn there again. It's probably the most quoted Bible verse in my life and ministry in terms of preaching. I seem to come back here. I want to read it one more time. And the reason I want you to see something.

Adam and Eve are in the garden. They have fallen into sin and. And I believe that's when the holy longing and waiting and hoping and anticipatory rejoicing starts. Can you imagine? Living in perfect communion with God and Then when when sin takes hold, can you imagine the the sickness in their stomachs?

They must have felt how everything changed. They ate the fruit and it begins again in verse 8 they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden the Lord called To a Adam and said to him.

Where are you? And he said I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid myself. And he said who told you that you were naked. Have you eaten of the tree? From the tree of which I commanded that you should not eat.

And the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me she gave me of the tree and I ate. The Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done. And the woman said the serpent deceived me and I.

Ate.

Now the curse now comes upon the serpent from the mouth of God but I believe that the the Interjection of longing and righteous waiting and hoping and future rejoicing starts here. I I think we have here on display for us quite shockingly really if we consider it.

The the entrance into the world of God's gracious dealings with sinful men. Man sins and falls and God immediately offers a hopeful future. It's amazing. Oh how far man has fallen and God says salvation is coming and We learn in my son.

So the curse goes into the serpent. But then in verse 15 it says this. And I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel Into the woman.

He said I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception and pain. You shall bring forth children your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you because He says to Adam because you have heed the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying You shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground for your sake and toil. You shall eat of it all the days of your life. The thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. You shall eat the herb of the field and the sweat of your face.

You shall eat your bread until you return to the ground for out of it. You are taken from dust you are into Dust you shall return. Now what happens here next? It's a little speculative. But I believe that can you imagine and I want to appeal to all the moms in here.

Can you imagine going through the process of pregnancy without a mom or cousins or friends or other? Women to talk to you. Think and think how much we have relied on The wisdom of our of the fellow women that we know people who have gone through these things before.

We rarely think about this in relation to Eve. And can you imagine that the feeling that she had prior to the fall how blissful her existence was?

And.

Now her her belly has grown and now she is Screaming and shrieking in pain to give birth to this child and you have to see that maybe she hopes That this could be the one who would bring salvation. This devastating thing has happened to him.

It's their own fault and you can almost imagine that she hopes and longs that this could be the man. Could be our salvation could Trample on the head of the serpent. So this idea of a future hope is is in the beginning.

In fact, it shapes the whole history of of Israel. I think about the Exodus. So we're not going to talk about all the details of that, but they're down in Egypt for 433 years. Longing for deliverance.

You turn back to Luke Simeon's life again at verse 25. Luke chapter 2. Simeon the just and devout man is waiting for the comforting the consolation of Israel. The first thing I'd like us to consider in terms of application, I hope to weave some application throughout today is a question.

We we jump right in we see there is a longing in Simeon and Anna a Longing for the revelation of Jesus Christ. Is that longing present in you? Think about how excited and how their lives are governed by their anticipation of the incarnation of Christ.

How much more so should our zeal and our our energy and our our passions our holy affections be geared toward the victory the victorious triumph of Christ and his second Advent. But we're so tepid. You heard about lukewarm Church.

We're so stoic we're so unmoved we sing the Apostles Creed and Our hearts don't leap within our chests when we think of the salvation of our God. We need to pray today that that God would give us an intense longing for himself.

Nothing really Excites us. Our sins don't bring us to tears and the glories of Christ don't elevate us to the heavens. We're so numb. These people these great people this great man and this great woman.

Were moved and they long to see the salvation of their God. Do you long to see the Fullest expression of salvation of our God. Well. In Advent we should have a lament as I mentioned earlier. We should go back into time and can you imagine all of the events that take place from?

Genesis 3 to the arrival of Christ and Luke chapter 2. There's a lot of longing 433 years there's a lot of waiting. The promise to Abraham. He has to wait to be an old man to have his son of promise. The people are delivered from Egyptian bondage and they have to wait 40 years again 433 years then 40 years before they can enter into the promised land.

Remember our study in Zechariah. They're taken into captivity for 70 years and they come out and they get to The place of their home the promised land and it's all in ruins. The people of God are a people who long and wait and hope to lament is to cry out.

Do you lament that you still sin against your God? You're a good Calvinist you believe in total depravity. It's it's just an intellectual concept for you. Does it grieve your heart that you sin against your Redeemer?

Do you express sorrow and and mourn over your sin. A? Right kind of lamenting enables us to better see the wisdom of God in our Finitude our finiteness our limitations. Adam and Eve and all of the redeemed in Christ since learned that they are not able to save themselves.

So we long for a Savior we long for a redemption. We wait and we hope and we rejoice. Simeon and Anna rejoice. Because Christ has come in our waiting in our longing and our hoping we learn to trust God.

We learn to trust God in our sadness in our grief. And that will enable us to trust him and not forget him in our gladness. When we lament we Comprehend God's grace more. Imagine if you were Imagine this woman Anna who let's say she got married when she was 16 years old which would be pretty common.

She's married for seven years her husband dies when she's 23 and From that point for 61 years. She has longed and she's waited and she has foregone the the joys of family life and another husband and children and grandchildren.

Possibly. And she has devoted her entire existence. Longing to see the day when she would see the Lord's Christ. That was a life well spent it was not a wasted life. How many of us long. To see the salvation of our God for our Unbelieving family members for the pagan nations for the ends of the earth.

When we lament and we wait and we labor in faithfulness, we comprehend God's grace more and He meets us there and our weakness and our despair and we see his grace and we see how Free and undeserved it is that that dark night dramatically turns into the dawn.

Can you imagine these righteous ones. Seeing the corruption of the Jewish temple system Which became a den of money changers political favor and corruption. And fraud and yet day after day they labor in hope knowing that God would keep his promises.

Knowing that the Christ would come and salvation would enter into the world and the future would be bright. We need to lament. We need to see our grief rightly. We need to Grieve over our sin and our death.

I tell this to my wife Often that I cannot deal with crimes against children abortion the first one the chief one, but then Why would someone hurt a child? It makes me crazy. I cry out to God. Why would you allow? This to happen.

Why is this in your providence? Why have you ordained these things? It's a cause of grief. But it causes us to hope in Christ. Will become more discerning of the grief and the brokenness of this world.

We see what a great Reconstruction project Christ is doing in the new creation. There will be a day in which righteousness dwells and no little children will be hurt by monsters. It's hopeful. It's a cause of rejoicing.

We lament biblically and we wait. We also walk in the imprints of our master. We follow after his ways. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, but joy was before him. He walks in perfect righteousness.

He had gladly accepts God's will which includes the cross and he does it for our redemption and he emerges from the grave accomplishing That redemption and we hope and we wait. That he will bring all things to its joyful end.

There's an argument for us to believe in a bright future. For the people of God whatever and this is not eschatology that I'm arguing about here. There's going to be a capital D day. When the victory of Christ will be known by everyone Who's ever lived?

Do you believe do you long for the day when sin will finally be conquered that you will no longer sin against your God? Do you long for the day when death will no longer have its grip over humanity and the creatures the plants the animals.

Do you long for that day because there's going to be a day a new day of new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. Simeon and Anna in great faith get a glimpse of this. Well, there's a second part of this that was the biggest.

These others will go a little bit quicker. The idea of waiting. When I think of waiting I think of a traffic jam on I -4 or sitting in his doctor's office. There's some level of passivity when I think of waiting.

But this kind of waiting and an advent waiting is not passive. It seems that these examples of Simeon and Anna Worked and labored and were grinding and striving to walk in faithfulness. Waiting for the promises to be revealed and I think we should too Christ will reign over all and everyone will know it.

We know that he reigns but everyone's going to know it and there's a sense in which that seems far off from us when this Cultural collapse is happening before our eyes. But when we look to the future, we know that Jesus Christ wins.

And so we labor.

While we wait.

This requires a spirit of meekness. So I want you to have an intense longing on the one hand a longing for greater things a longing for future glory but I also want you to have a spirit of meekness in waiting.

Don't be easily provoked or irritated by the circumstances of life because The history of God's people tells us that Jesus is the victor. Therefore my circumstances my life the things that I'm facing.

Need to be put in a proper perspective. We are submissive to the divine will. Simeon and Anna are not complaining because This hasn't happened sooner. They're happy to be aged and old and to wait because they have entirely submitted themselves to the will of God.

Is that the characteristic of your life? Are you waiting for promises to be filled? By him and yet walking every day and your responsibility and faithfulness toward that end. Knowing that he's the only one who can do it.

Do you wait and hope. Do you long and wait and labor? Waiting with meekness for God's hand to be shown. It's hard for us because we're proud and Self-sufficient. We want things to happen on our terms.

We ought to know better than that because the scripture has shown us it doesn't happen that way. Moses and Abraham. Moses definitely 80. Abraham approaching 80 at least. Before God starts moving really in their lives.

Strange, isn't it? We always think of God's people are like Spurgeon. They'd be called to be preachers when they're 17 and it happens this way and they have this Amazing life of ministry and service just anointed of God from the day.

They were born. Maybe your greatest works will happen. Like many of the saints of scripture in your old age. Are you living in such a way? That you'll be faithful at the end. Are you doing everything today for that future?

Blessing and use of God as an older man or woman. Are you willing to wait for his blessing? There's another Element, I like us to consider. And that is hoping. Simeon hoped for Consolation. He waited for it and Anna Waited for Redemption in Jerusalem.

Men were we were talking on Thursday evening and it suddenly turned to the resurrection as a sub point because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. I 100 believe and you 100 believe. Defying all natural reason that we will be raised from the dead with bodies incorruptible.

How is it possible? Because we are united to Christ and his resurrection.

Our.

Lowly bodies subject to corruption and decay. Our bodies will be raised so we live with a different kind of hope than the world. The world hopes they can tack on a few years of their lot to their to their life at the end.

They hope they have a big bank account in a 401k and a vacation home. The people of God have heavenly hope. Eternal hope. Eternal Inheritance at our disposal. Joint airship with Christ. Perfect face to face.

Communion with God in him. Oh what hope we have in Christ. It seems that Simeon responds with praise the song of Simeon. When he's confronted with the promise of The child the Messiah coming he gives praise and worship.

It seems a Thanksgiving that God kept his promise. I want you to look at verse 38. Anna has a different response. Part of it is different. She happens upon the scene. She's been laboring For God with fastings and prayers night and day.

She's always at the temple offering her life and praying for God to move and to work. And She sees Jesus. She gives thanks to the Lord and this seems to be a very abbreviated period of time. And Then she goes out and starts doing evangelism.

She's so taken with the prospect of redemption and Israel that she goes out and speaks to all of those who Looked and longed for that redemption. Is your life characterized by praise and worship. And Thanksgiving.

Is it characterized by the bold? proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to confess in some measure tepid Lukewarmness, we're not moved because we haven't longed. We haven't seen the value in the waiting.

We've.

Seen holy things and when we talk of them, they're they're ordinary and common to us. Simeon and Anna were gripped by the prospect of Christ. How much more so should we be gripped by the reality of Christ in us the hope of glory?

If they were just in devout if they labored with prayers and fastings night and day how much more so? Should we. How much more so are we qualified to to share the good news of Christ? I don't know that Simeon and Anna saw the whole of Jesus life his death his burial his resurrection and his ascension, but we have.

It seems that we should have lives that are filled with hope filled with faith. Believing God. Knowing he's going to act. Knowing That the Lord is going to bring all of his purposes to pass. The great encouragement for us.

You're feeling a bit discouraged today. Some anxiety. Depression, whatever it could be called the that dark cloud over you. If you be in Christ, oh what hope you have. How rich are we? To have the risen and reigning Lord Jesus Christ.

Hope and Rejoicing in Christ's First and Second Advent

Finally, let's consider rejoicing you. And I need to exalt. There's a little bit of it today in the singing. You could hear it. We need to exalt in the salvation of Christ. Consolation has come. Comfort has come to the people of God.

The gift of Jesus Christ in the incarnation is infinitely better than all of the riches and wealth and all the gifts that will be given or have been given. To our families and to our loved ones Christ is better.

Are you rejoicing? Are you longing? Are you waiting and laboring and working while you wait? Is your life characterized and filled with hope?

Are you?

Rejoicing. Salvation has come in Christ. Can you imagine if we told? Abraham and he saw all of it. He would have dropped to his knees and worship and adoration and there's some Textual evidence that he saw something of that glory if we we stopped David after he'd been restored in his Situation with with Bathsheba and his tremendous failure, and we said to David Oh David your son has taken away your guilt and your shame and you have Salvation and he's blotted out all of your transgressions.

Can you imagine the worship that David would offer? You have to ask why are we so? Stoic and lukewarm and unmoved through the Lord ignite in us holy affections. That we would long for the salvation Of our God that we would in faith know.

Can you imagine you and I will be seated at the wedding supper of the Lamb? Will be there. It's not hyperbole. It's not hypothesis. It's not a theory. We will be at the table of our God feasting with him in his presence.

What hope we have. What cause for rejoicing we have. Because Christ has come. Well, I'm going to give you a few words of application. We'll conclude here. First I think we really need to long for the advance of Christ's kingdom.

I think we need to wait and hope we need to rejoice that he is bringing it.

To pass.

The testimony of scripture is that he will return in victory. Meditate on these things and I have a question for you to consider. It's very exciting. This question to answer in your heart. Which of his promises has he failed to keep.

That should be the backbone of my longing and my waiting and my hoping my rejoicing. Second. Meekness should be a characteristic of our Christian lives. There should be holy boldness in some areas in our lives but also a quiet resignation and submission to the difficulties of this life.

Knowing that God works in these things for future glory. We need to accept God's providences joyfully in Submission to his divine will for he is trustworthy. Munder heavy conviction about this one. For all the optimism of eschatology we have in this room. Do you actually desire to see the fulfillment of?

The Great Commission. The making of disciples. The teaching them to obey all of his commands. Do you long for that? It's cool to talk about. But are you laboring to that end. Are you. Undertaking the responsibility as a child of the king one of his ambassadors to make disciples.

To teach all that he has commanded. Fourth. Do you have hope for the future? Think about the hopeful future of every sinner converted. The possibilities seem limitless.

When.

The burden of sin and death has been lifted. Why do we have this? Burning desire within us to procreate because of the future. Every child Born particularly among the family of God is a cause of rejoicing and for hope.

We're we're stretching. Your children that you're having are going to be into the 22nd century. Have you considered that. Your children are gonna be living in the 22nd century. How much hope? Arrived in the world at the incarnation of Christ.

Oh the laments and the longing and the waiting for salvation from God. And then Jesus comes in.

The flesh.

Look at all that he has accomplished. Rejoice in these things our salvation has been accomplished by Christ and With great expectancy. Let us wait and hope for future fulfillment. Someday you and I will walk around the streets of gold in the new heaven in the new earth.

You think this Lord's Supper table is a blessing. Oh to sit and feast At the marriage supper of the lamb. And finally I'm gonna ask you to pray That the Lord will stir up holy affections in you that your desires will accord with his will that You will labor for his kingdom and hope and that you will today rejoice in all the ways his Salvation has been made known and is being made known the future glory that awaits and We have cause for Rejoicing from the cosmic realm to the created order down to the most common of things.

Because promises were made That a Savior who is Christ the Lord would come and brethren my friends. He's come. Salvation has come from our God. Let us rejoice and be glad and hope For all these great things he has done.

Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we I pray that you allow us to use this season to Try to remember what life must have been like before the incarnation and how sin Hung over the heads of our Forefathers the Lord there was and your faithful people and intensity and their longing and I pray that you would give us a Hunger and a longing for you to have communion with you to worship you to praise you to adore you To serve you.

And Oh Lord, I pray that our lives would be characterized by this worship and praise but also like Anna. Oh Lord, I pray that it would be characterized by the bold proclamation of your victory in your kingship.

Oh Christ. That we would tell the world that our King has come and he has come saving us. He's brought salvation with him and he sweeps up the nations under his arms and and draws them to himself. Oh Lord, let's go out with confidence and boldness.

And make the glories of Christ known the Lord. I pray that that we would not grow dull in these things that these would be exciting things for us.

That they would be.

The defining characteristics of our lives these holy affections and Holy service to you and we ask these things in Jesus name Amen.