Now, we're here in Luke chapter 2, and if you'll notice here, there's a bit of a continuing theme. And if you remember, that theme that we have from last week was that the Holy Spirit, through Luke, is very careful, almost meticulous, almost to the point of making it so obvious when you do this reading. You know, we try to really read and pay attention that the reason we're given these events in the birth of Jesus here, out of all the things that might have happened, is because a point is being made. Does anybody remember what that point being made is? The main point of being made in these verses 21 down through 40? There's a repetitive word in here, phrase or word, that it makes the point. And remember, I forgot to follow up with the kids. I asked the kids, or really anybody, to find how many times that phrase was listed over and over again. If you have your notes, you'll notice I have a blank. I don't always do that. But Luke is verifying that the law was fulfilled in Christ from His infancy. And you find this phrase in verse 22, 23, and 24 that we looked at last week. According to the law. See that in verse 22. According to the law. Verse 23. As it is written in the law. Verse 24. What is said in the law of the Lord. And then there were two other times, there was a total of five in this passage. And I'm wondering, does anybody remember, did anybody pay attention to what the other two times that the law is mentioned in this passage? Could you fill in that blank from last week? I ask you to read the whole thing, everybody's like, I don't know. Now for you guys, you people that weren't here, you have the excuse. You weren't here, I wasn't here. That's the first thing in your class and they raise their hand. I wasn't here, I know you weren't here. If you weren't here, it's okay. But if you were here, The next statement about the law is made in verse 27. You can fill in your blank there on your notes if you have it. Verse 27, the parents brought in a child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law. These are the verses we're gonna look at, verses 25 down through 40. And the fourth one is at the very end of this passage. It's in verse 39. It sums up what's been going on in this passage about these post-birth events that we're looking at that are recorded for us. Luke 2, verse 39, when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord. It's repetitive. It's an emphasis. And everything that's being done here has to do with the law. And we covered the fact that baby Jesus was circumcised as the Son of God promised to Abraham. Remember, born of a woman, born under the law. And this idea that Jesus had to be born of a woman so that he could become a man. and becoming a man under the descendancy of Abraham so that he could participate in the Abrahamic covenant. He had to take on flesh that he might be circumcised as a sign of entering into that covenant. But more so, remember, God had promised a son to Abraham in that covenant, that a son would come and the son would be the fulfillment of all of God's promises to Abraham in that son. And it says in Galatians 3 when our Apostle Paul is speaking about the covenant God made with Abraham and the promised son. It says in Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. It does not say, and to seeds. It's not talking that Abraham's promise included the multitude. but a specific Son that would come. And in that specific Son of Abraham all the promises would be fulfilled. It's not of many. And to your seed, who is Christ? So Jesus being circumcised, born of a woman, entering into the covenant of Abraham that he might be then the seed, the son that was promised to Abraham. And then of course circumcision was included in the law. We look back in Leviticus 12.3, the commandment to circumcise your son, the eighth days include in the law of Moses. And the Jews began to understand that circumcision is the very first thing God commands for a person. You're eight days old. And, you know, your parents do it for you, but to be a son of Abraham and to be a son of the law is to be circumcised. And when Jesus was circumcised, the understanding was He took upon Himself to keep the whole law. You know, you don't just nitpick different parts of it, but the Lord placed Jesus under the whole law, and it began with His circumcision at eight days old. And then Mary, the mother of Jesus, we read, she was purified according to the law. We talked about her role as Jesus' mother, the one who gave him life. And I can't spend too much time on it, but we try to put ourselves into that place, understanding the real difficulty in keeping some of the law, some of the law that you don't understand, some of the minutia of the law, some ceremonies. We try to put that in our modern-day context, especially in the context of women, Because this is Mary, she's the one that's had to do it. And women today are restricted by God's commandments, if you want to look at it that way. Can't be preachers, can't be pastors. And I didn't give other examples. Women are also subordinate in the home, that the husband is the leader in the home. And it's another area where it has nothing to do with competence or abilities. It has to do with just what God says. And and this could apply to men, too. There are commandments that the Lord's given that that can be difficult. All we realize, all of God's commandments are impossible for us to keep. But Jesus is born under the law, and he kept even the minutia of the law, even those small things and all of the difficult things. And then of course baby Jesus was redeemed and that's also why they brought him in verses 22 through 24 to the temple that he could be redeemed as Joseph and Mary's firstborn son. And God gave his firstborn son over to die for sins to be the redeemer. Now look, this is still the same theme of the law. So you could read down to the bottom of your notes or you could try to figure, that's why one thing, I have these notes and then I keep thinking I might have a surprise at the end when I put it in the notes. If you're one of them that read the end of the book, and really you should if you got notes in front of you, you should read all the notes. That's a good way to study. But I'll say this, there is a way in which Simeon and Anna that we're gonna look at have to do with this law keeping. It's still under this theme of the fact that the law is fulfilled in Christ. He's born of a woman, born under the law. And what is going on in the events with Simeon and Anna have to do with the law keeping of Christ from his birth. So I'm going to do for our scripture reading, I'm not going to read the whole passage like I do other times. I'm just going to read 39 and 40 and then we're going to begin our message. Luke chapter 2 verse 39, we're going to sum up at the end. and then go back and look. 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's begin our message time with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for this time. And Lord, as this message may be, there might be some application for us personally, there always is, Lord, this message, this portion of scripture is about Christ and what he did, what happened to him in his birth. Specifically, how the law was kept in him from the time he was born. If we read the rest of the gospel, the life of Jesus, till he died, he kept the law, which made him a righteous sacrifice for our sins. He did what none of us could do in keeping the righteousness of the law. And Lord Jesus, thank you you died for our sins that you might give us that righteousness. Lord, there must be an exchange that takes place where our sin is counted to you and you give to us your righteousness so that we might be saved. That's redeeming us from the curse of the law. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Help us understand more about this this morning and your redemption, more about how you kept the law for us, even from birth. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so first thing we're going to look at is the witness of Simeon, and specifically the witness of Simeon by the Holy Spirit. Okay, we're looking at the witness of Simeon and Anna, but there's something specific in how they witness that's divine. That's of God, okay? It wasn't just their opinion, let's put it that way. Witness of Simeon by the Holy Spirit. You see in verse 25, Now this consolation of Israel, let's talk a little bit about Simeon. There's some interesting things about him I probably shouldn't get into. There are theories, but he was not a Levite. He spent his time at the temple. He was a pious Jew. He had dedicated himself to service of the Lord. Could make an application. Believers do that today. You just say, you know what, I'm going to spend most of my efforts, most of my efforts serving the Lord in the context of the church. It was spiritual service, just as Anna was. Possibly he was a Pharisee, and it's possible he was related, he was the father of Gamal, which all that becomes interesting. But we're not told a lot about him, except that he was just and devout, and he spent his time at the temple. And here's what he's doing. He's waiting for the consolation of Israel. Now, let's turn to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. Remember this, a couple things for background here. There's probably some exceptions. I know when you talk about the church theories. With few exceptions, all of what Jesus taught is based in the Old Testament. It wasn't some new thing that he did when he arrived on the scene. This idea that God in the Old Testament's judgment and God in the New Testament's love, all that is bogus. Everything that Jesus taught and everything he did and everything of who he is and everything of the Christian faith is all based in the Old Testament. And there's nothing new that way. And so even when we read something like this, waiting for the consolation of Israel, what is that? It's based in the Old Testament. Okay, so keep that as you study the Bible. Probably based in the Old Testament. Probably an Old Testament reference. Probably got it from the Old Testament, okay? That's always true. Now, the other thing is Isaiah 40. Let's talk a little bit about Isaiah. Remember from chapters 1 through 39, the prophet is really speaking almost current day Israel. He's pronouncing judgments on Israel, judgments on the nations that come against Israel. But there's a change that takes place in the book. From chapters 40 to the end of the book, it's more eschatological. We call Isaiah the evangelical prophet. He's talking about the Messiah. He's talking about the messianic age. He's talking about the great end time promises when God brings a fulfillment to save Israel, to deliver them and bring them into a kingdom and they reign and rule and all the blessings and almost heavenly. It's an earthly kingdom. promises made to Israel. So it's really, the topic is heavy on the Messiah. He's called the servant of the Lord in chapters 40 through 66. And that's where you have Isaiah 53 that talks about his suffering and so forth. Isaiah says the most about the Messiah, of all the prophets. He has the most quantity about the coming Messiah, who he is, what he does, and so forth. And it begins in chapter 40. That's where it begins. And look at the first two words in this turning point of the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 40. What are the very first two words? Comfort, yes, comfort, my people. You know what that's a synonym of? You know what really is the same word? Consolation. That's what consolation is. It's giving comfort. If you're giving consolation, if you've been given a consolation prize, you didn't win, but we want you to feel good about losing, so we give you a consolation prize. Have you ever won a consolation prize in a beauty contest? You know, I'm just kidding. That's the joke, right? You enter a beauty contest and you win a consolation prize. You know, that's what we say, but he's waiting for the comfort of Israel. He's waiting for the time when God comes and relieves the pain, relieves the suffering, delivers from the evil. And the first proclamation you have in chapter 40 when God is gonna talk eschatological, end times, kingdom, Messiah, the first words he speaks to his people is comfort, yes, comfort my people. It's very important to understand that. This is what Simeon is waiting on. He knows his Bible well. And he's basing his time worshiping at the temple and his looking for the consolation based upon a promise here that God's given to bring comfort, consolation, deliverance. And so it goes on in verse 2, it says, Remember that Israel would be judged for their rejection of the Messiah? And Israel, if you read the Bible, you see that they are judged, and the Lord does give them over to judgment, but it's because of their refusal to believe Him, their disobedience to Him. And it's necessary that God judges them, but God also promises that He'll bring them back, that He can restore them, and that He'll give them comfort. And what's being referenced in verse 2 is that She as Israel will suffer the full consequence for their sin. And Israel has suffered that for 2,000 years now for rejecting the Messiah. Jerusalem destroyed, the temple destroyed in A.D. 70, scattered about. You read the horrible history of the Jews all the way to the Holocaust. They've only now gathered themselves with some independence in the land of Israel, but still under persecution or suffering. Israel right now is still suffering double for all her sins. Understand this, God will not let sin off the hook. That's not how he saves, he doesn't just wink at it or overlook it. Our God judges sin. And you learn that when you read the Bible, and you say, yeah, he judged Israel. And he judges all of the wicked people in the Bible. But at the same time, you ought to be overwhelmed with, this is the same God that finds it necessary to judge, but then finds it in his heart, just out of grace. to also extend love and mercy and grace and comfort. And this is the great promise that God has. You're trying to understand what's going on in the world. Well, God will bring deliverance and salvation. He'll judge, but then He's going to deliver and save. And that day is coming. And look, it is about sin. It's not just enemies that are coming against Israel. It's that her iniquity is pardoned. that God's ultimate salvation has to do with saving from sin. This is the comfort he's looking at, to be delivered from sin, from guilt, from the punishment and condemnation of God for that sin. This is what Simeon looked for. Now look, we're not gonna get into it right now. Keep your fingers here, by the way, because I should have said we're gonna go back and forth a little bit. But verse three and four look familiar to you? The voice of one crying in the wilderness? If you look ahead in Luke 3, that's John the Baptist. See the context? Comfort, and he's gonna send the forerunner. Okay, be prepared for that. It's in Luke 3, that's John the Baptist. Hold your finger here in Isaiah 40. Go back to Simeon in Luke chapter 2. What we're doing here is I'm gonna spend a little time in chapter 40. All of what's going on with Simeon, everything he says in verses 29 through 32, The whole point of what Anna is doing and who she is as a widow and a childless widow is all fulfilled in Isaiah, or excuse me, prophesied by Isaiah. We could spend time in verses 25 down through 38 and exposit Isaiah 40 through 66. Simeon and Anna know Isaiah 40 through 66 very, very well. We don't have time to do that, but we're going to spend some time in chapter 40. Then if you look in your notes, the rest of the time I'm going to just make references of other passages in Isaiah. But understand, that's what's going on is they're just expositing their understanding Simeon and Anna of Isaiah. The Holy Spirit, if you look back at Luke 2, verse 25, waiting for the consolation. Oh, he's getting that from Isaiah 40. But notice something else about the consolation. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. Do you remember another title that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit in John 16, is it? He calls the Holy Spirit the... Who said that? Say it loud. Comforter. In the New King James it says helper. But it's the same word, it's paraclete. Plarikitos we call the Holy Spirit, the paraclete. That's the Greek word in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament in Isaiah 40. It's a version of the Greek word in consolation. It's what Jesus calls the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the comforter. By receiving the Holy Spirit and being born again, this is how God translates, communicates, gives over to a person this comfort. If you're here today and you're overwhelmed with the guilt of your sin, if you're lost in this world and don't quite know the meaning of life and what direction to take or how to live or what's gonna happen to you after you die, you gotta go to Jesus. The story is, the word is that he died for your sin and rose again. That's the gospel word, that's the good news. And when you believe that message, you get saved. And when you get saved, Jesus gives you the Holy Spirit and a Holy Spirit comes to reside in your heart and causes you to be born again and opens your eyes and understanding that you start to find comfort. You start to find help. This consolation from God to say God loves you. God's got a purpose for everything in your life. Now your life has meaning. God's gonna work this out. You have a hope of heaven. Your sins are forgiven. It goes on and on. This is why he's called the comforter. Because brother and sister, anytime your life is in turmoil by all the circumstances around us, you seek God's comfort. That's the Holy Spirit's work in our life. You come to the word and you say, man, the Lord's promised me something. The Holy Spirit makes that so that you understand it, so that you experience it, so that you grab onto that. He is called the comforter. Do we see the connection here? He's looking for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon Him. He's looking to the Messiah who becomes the giver of the Holy Spirit. It's all connected. And it had been, verse 26, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. By the way, I'm going to make the mark three times. Revealed him by the Holy Spirit in verse 26, verse 27, and he came by the Spirit. The Spirit is the consolation of Israel, okay? It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Simeon waited, you know, we're not told how long he was told this for we're only Surmising that he was an older man. I think it's a good guess. He's waiting. You would not see death I don't think the Lord told him this at 22 and he's walking in here at 23 and oh I seen with what your life's over the ideas that the Lord told him this at a young age and and and he would live until he saw the Lord's consolation And he's an old man now. And he's looking at this and understanding he wouldn't see death till now. We're not recorded. We died the next day. But he lived a full life. And he realized that the Lord would keep this promise. And we're not told how many years. Decades. You can easily surmise it was decades that the Lord had made a promise to him. And he waited and he endured. Year after year trusting that the Lord would fulfill His promises while others around Him doubted. While others wondered if the Messianic prophecies were true at all. These Romans are coming in and taking over. They've defiled the temple. The Pharisees and their legalism is not at all what God has promised to us in righteousness. And people would have doubted and questioned the Word of God, but not Simeon. The Holy Spirit revealed to him when he read Isaiah that he personally would not see death until he laid his eyes upon the consolation, the comfort, the Messiah. And he waited and he endured. And you know what he does then? He says in verse 27, so he came by the Spirit into the temple. Now think about that. I don't know if he went there every day, or every once or twice a week, how often as he could, but by the Spirit somehow, the Spirit worked. And remember, sometimes Providence, he thought, I'm going to go to the temple today. and I'm gonna go at such and such time. And there was tens of thousands of people that went to the temple every day. Okay, this was a busy place. You couldn't have picked someone out in a crowd. But that day, Simeon went to the temple. At that time, Simeon went to the temple. And while he was standing there, presumably, right there while he was at the temple, amongst thousands of people stood this young couple with this child. See how God arranges those things in his providence? Leading by the Holy Spirit. And when his parents brought the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God. Because the promise that God had given him specifically about laying his eyes on the Messiah and the consolation of Israel had come true. and he gave praise to God for fulfilling his word. Now, I'm gonna come back to Isaiah. Hold your fingers in Luke chapter two and let's see how it's connected here. Now, one and two we looked at. This is the promise of the deliverance and the comfort. Verses three down through five and even six, but five is the forerunner. We'll talk about John the Baptist more later. I hope you're familiar with him when you read those words in verse three. It makes sense, it's quoted exactly like that in Luke 3. And what is the voice saying? Cry out. What shall I cry? And here's the idea of the forerunner coming. He's here. Make way. The Messiah's here. He's finally come. The promises of God have come true. In verse 6, all flesh is grass and its loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God's word is unbroken? That God's word cannot fail? That no matter what you see fail around you, even in your own heart when you fail, God's word cannot fail. And what's been specifically talking about in verses six through eight is this truth about the supremacy and the faithfulness of God's word. But specifically it's God's word concerning the Messiah. Israel's long history of being judged and waiting for the Lord has finally come to an end. All the promises that the Lord would send the Messiah would become fulfilled. because the word of our God stands forever. I think Simon was rejoicing for two reasons. He was rejoicing because he understood the Lord had given him a specific promise. He would see the Lord's salvation, the consolation. And right here, that God's word had not failed Israel, that God's word was true. He promised the Messiah, he promised salvation, and the Lord was true to that. His word did not fail. Now this is the point where I really want to make a personal application. If I asked everyone here, you can turn back to Luke too. If I asked everyone here, do you believe that God has promised to save from sin and from hell and you have eternal life? I think most of the brothers and sisters here as I look out would say absolutely, amen. We don't have a problem believing the big thing. Okay, well, maybe it was like that then. Oh, he'll send a messiah, he will. But now let's talk about specific promises. Those sometimes seem to be the easy one, although I would spend some time challenging all of us that they're not as easy as they appear. But I think I would get a hearty amen for that, right? Amen, we believe that saved from hell and into heaven, eternal life, amen. Jesus is coming again, amen. But what about the specific promises? See, Simeon's believing both. and he believed the big one, but then there was something real specific to him. Brethren, sister, we're challenged by the little specific promises. We say, yeah, no, I know he's coming back. Well, that should be consolation to us when we're in our struggles. But it tends to be kind of cliche. I'm really struggling along and say, well, the Lord loves you. Oh, I know. I know. Well, the Lord was going to return and fix this. Oh, I know. I know. I know. Well, he'll forgive you of your sins. Oh, I know. I know. But I'm really struggling with little details and specifics. First of all, don't do that. Oh, I know, I know. Don't do that, okay? We should be feeding off those big promises. But what about the specific promises? You know, I told Emily she had her birthday, and she memorized Psalm 23. You know, she said that, and I wrote in her card. Hopefully she remembers. My favorite verse out of Psalm 23 is, put it on the spot here. It's okay, don't have to remember every birthday card somebody sends you. I like the verse in Psalm 23, he restores my soul. It's in verse 3 it leaves me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake goes on to say but just that phrase He restores my soul. Do you believe a simple promise like that? I mean when your soul is empty when it's hurting when you've really been dragged through the muck Do you believe that he'll restore your soul? Brother sister there's times in life. We feel hurt. We feel empty drained But there's a promise that he'll restore your soul You got to turn to him In Psalm 30 verse 5, when you're suffering through whatever trial it is, and it's a tribulation, and it hurts, and the tears are flowing, and you feel the pain almost physically, not only just in your heart and mind. The Bible says this, weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Do you believe that God brings his children through seasons of suffering, through a nighttime of suffering, but has promised that in the morning there'll be joy? It's hard to believe when somebody comes and says, the Lord will bring you through this. And when the morning comes, metaphorically speaking, maybe quite literally, there'll be a joy for you, that the Lord will come back around, he'll bless, and you can feel joy again. Oh, I don't know how I could ever feel the happiness that I felt before after this hurt, after what's happened here. But the Lord brings us through those times. And we don't look at it like the rest of the world. Oh, just wait, time heals all wounds. It has nothing to do with that. Because Christians understand we hurt when it really hurts, because we understand sin, and we understand loss. But we also understand the promise of God, that He heals, that He brings a joy that cannot be taken away. Jesus says to His own disciples, therefore now you have sorrow. Remember, they lived through this experience of following Him and seeing Him die on a cross and saying, what is going on? I thought He was the Messiah. He said, you'll have sorrow now, but I will see you again. and your heart will rejoice and your joy, he told the disciples, when he's resurrected, when you understand the full, the death on the cross for the guilt and sin and how sorrowful that is, but then when you see Jesus raised from the dead for forgiveness of sins and eternal life and victory over sin, he says, your joy, no one will take from you when you understand the fullness of that. Do you believe that? I'm talking a little bit about joy. It's the specific promises that we have to wait and endure on. Don't write off the big ones, like, oh, I know, I know. No, cling to those big promises and wait for the Lord. His word will not fail. He's made these promises. You find those promises in the word and you hold on to them. and wait for God to bring those to fruition, to truth, to reality in your life. Simeon praised because, glory to God, because God fulfilled his word. Simeon declared that Christ is the Lord's salvation. Now Luke and Isaiah, right there he says in verse 29, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. That's what we just covered. For my eyes have seen your salvation, verse 30. My eyes have seen your salvation. Go back to chapter 40. Look at verse five, it's at the end of that part with John the Baptist with the forerunner. Verse five, chapter 40, verse five. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. By the way, there are multiple verses about seeing God, seeing God's glory, laying your eyes upon, set your focus and your heart and see God's salvation. Multiple verses. It's right here in this chapter 40. See the glory of God being revealed. You know when Simeon, you go back to Luke 2 now, when Simeon came in and the Holy Spirit revealed to him that this was the Christ child, what Simeon is saying, when you understand Isaiah, and he says, my eyes have seen your salvation, he is seeing the very glory of God. He is seeing the very salvation of God personified in a baby at this point, that when he looked upon this child, this baby, he actually saw the glory of God, he actually saw the salvation of God. And all of that glory and all of that salvation is in a person, in Jesus. And so the question that I have before us is, have you seen Jesus? Well, not physically, not literally. I didn't see him like Simeon. No, but remember when Jesus gave the blessing for the apostles, he said, you've seen me, Thomas, and you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. It's with the mind's eye. It's with the eyes of faith. And I hope everyone here, the brothers and sisters here, if I say, have you seen Jesus? Yes, you say. I have seen Him. I have seen the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And Simeon is saying if he's seen the salvation of God and he's seen the baby, well then the baby's God. Right? It goes together. Like we're looking at this idea of Jesus being God and Jesus being the salvation of God. When he laid his eyes upon the Christ child. Then Simeon declared in verse 31, you have prepared, which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples. The Lord has done this in the open. It's not a secret. There are no secret rites, religious ceremonies you have to learn. It's not something you have to figure out. You don't have to be smart enough. The Lord has done this openly in all the world and the message goes forth. The Bibles are laying around everywhere in this country. You know, nobody has any excuse really. Any excuse to say, well, no one ever told me. There is this side that the Word of God, the Gospel, the death, burial and resurrection, Christ Himself is being broadcast openly. That if a person would say to God in a judgment day, Lord, I really did want to know you, but I never could find you. I prayed for someone to come tell me, and I looked, but you never showed up. You made it too hard. That is not true. And people use that excuse. They say, oh, I just can't. It's they're blinded because of their own sin. The Bible says in Romans 1, they hold down the truth because this salvation is easily found. And if you're here this morning, you're hearing about it now. And if you don't understand it all, you're very capable of asking a question, calling, coming. Please, we want to help as best I can to explain to you very clearly who Jesus is and how to be saved. He's a light to bring revelation, look at verse 32, a light to bring revelation to Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. You know, I'm gonna spend just a couple minutes on this, that Israel is the people of God. and God gave revelation to the nation of Israel about the Messiah. And us Gentiles, we really have no real right to that. We can't demand from God that he tell us. We're Gentiles, we're excluded. The Bible says in strong terms, Gentiles, non-Jews, Kansans, are excluded from the promises and covenants of God. Now, God didn't set out and go, well, I better go over to Kansas and let them know that no, he told Israel And then he chose some apostles and he sent Israel in the Old Testament. Then he sent apostles and he sent Christians. But you can't stand and say, well God should have came to me personally. God came to Israel. Okay, first of all, and the Gentiles are excluded from this. But it says in Isaiah 49, 6, I will give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. God always intended for the nation of Israel to tell this story. That Christians are supposed to tell this story. He does have a means for it. But salvation is given first of all to Israel. Jesus said salvation is of the Jews. God is still working with Israel. They're under judgment, but Jesus Christ will return and restore the nation of Israel. All of the promises in the Old Testament are yet to be fulfilled to the nation Israel. The Bible's very clear about that. And so he's prepared for the face of all peoples to bring revelation of Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. In Isaiah 46, 13, The prophet says, I will bring my righteousness near and it shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. Israel My Glory is a magazine you ought to subscribe to. We had a representative from that organization. Israel is still God's glory. After saying that, and that's his expositing Isaiah. In verse 33, it says, Joseph and his mother Mary marveled, excuse me, Joseph and his mother marveled. They really were trying to grasp everything going on here. Imagine this man walking up to you, and you have your baby, and he takes the child out of the arms. There was something about him I'm sure they trusted. Joseph might have looked and nodded, and Mary knew Joseph was nearby, and he takes the child, and he begins to say these things. They're really trying to grasp all of this. Verse 34, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. This child, Jesus, would now be the determiner, the determiner of who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. If you're here this morning, you have to understand that you have to come to Jesus. He is the one that will determine your eternal destiny. Jesus is the one who will determine whether you're right with God or not. Now, for those who have accepted that, say, that's fine with me. I wouldn't rather not put that in anybody else's hands except Jesus because he's full of mercy and love and compassion. He's the one who died on the cross for me. That's how much he loves me. I hope if you're here today, you realize that, that you want to come to Jesus, that Jesus is also the Lord and he calls men to repent and turn away from sin and to put your faith, all of your allegiance in him as Lord. And people will make or break on that. And it'll be the fall and the rising. Some people will hear that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord, and they'll stumble over that, the Bible says. As a stone, they'll stumble over it. And some of them, that truth will crush because they reject that. But for others, they'll say, that's the most precious, wonderful truth I've ever heard in my entire life, that this Jesus would be my Savior and my Lord. And then he speaks to Mary directly and says, a sword will pierce through your soul only. You know, because he says in verse 34, a sign which we've spoken against. The idea is there are going to be many, many in Israel during the life of Mary who reject Jesus. and a sword will pierce through her own soul. And I've said this before, that Mary, as the mother of Jesus, in a unique way felt his suffering. She was there at the cross. And probably if there's a single human being that ever lived in the earth that could identify, feel, empathize with what Jesus went through on the cross in his humanity, in his physical suffering, it was Mary standing there. Oh, he had his disciples there. John had become a close friend of his. but only Mary could stand there, his mother, and in a way that only a mother can, almost hurt more, but hurt for her son. on the cross and that way the Lord God had a human representative that stood at that cross and shed tears for the price that Jesus had to pay on the cross. I hope all of us well up at times and we consider what Jesus went through physically for us. You ought to do that. It ought to cause you sometimes to even shed a tear to think about the suffering that he did physically. But there's Mary, and it almost becomes the height of that experience as a sword pierces her own soul also. Well, go on now to Anna in verse 36. There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. And she was of great age and lived with her 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. Anna was an aged and widowed woman dedicated to the spiritual service of the Lord. The Lord's providence had brought this about in her life. She had lost her husband at a young age. She's possibly 84 years old or she had lost her husband and lived as a widow for 84 years old, which would put her in her like 105 or six or seven. I think both could be true. We don't know exactly. It's hard to say a widow of about 84 years. Sometimes people lean on she's 84 years old, but she had been a widow seven years after she was married for seven years and became a widow, presumably no children. Now, You see her fasting and praying, and this fasting and praying was not just so much her lovely devotion to the Lord, but in an Old Testament context, fasting and praying is really in a crisis. Esther called the people to fast and pray as she made her decision, and she would go in before the king to ask him a favor, to deliver her people. Fasting and praying is what she is doing because she realizes that they're in this time right before the Messiah's coming. They need him to come. Rome is dominating them. Israel is suffering under their sin. And there needs to be the deliverance of God, and she is fasting and praying for this deliverance. You see her devotion. Let me ask you something. Does it mean something to understand that she's an aged, a widowed woman, dedicated to this spiritual service and prayer and fasting? Does that seem to put her on a, if I say higher, a different level of spirituality? I hope you think so because that's why we're given this detail of that. So that it's really pressed home to us her commitment, her dedication, her sincerity, her entire devotion. She didn't have a husband. She committed her life after being widowed completely over to the Lord, fasting and praying. So that when you read in verse 36 that she's a prophetess, Now understand something, that there was no prophet sent by God until John the Baptist for 400 years. We talked about those silent years. So don't think for a moment that Anna was there and they all said, oh, she's a prophetess and she's teaching and preaching at the temple. And everyone's listening to her give these foretelling prophecies of what's going to happen of God. I don't think that's what her ministry was. They saw her as an old woman, widowed, that had given her entire life over to fasting and prayer and intercession for Israel, for God's people, waiting for the Lord to deliver Israel. When she became a prophetess is when she did what was spoken right here. That she was given because of the Lord rewarding her and allowing her and using her because of her piety, her devotion to the Lord. The Lord used her as a vessel to speak forth the truth of who Jesus was. So that when the child was brought in, It says in coming in, verse 38, in that instance, she gave thanks to God and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Israel. She is a prophetess. She did speak forth the word of God, and she spoke forth revealing who Christ was for all to hear. She gave praise and proclaimed Christ as the Redeemer. In Isaiah 59, 20, she understands her Bible. Isaiah 59, 20 says, the Redeemer will come to Zion. Those who turn from transgression and Jacob says the Lord there'd be a Redeemer who'd come to Zion and he'd come to Zion He'd come to Israel. He's come to Jerusalem into the temple, but only to those he's a little qualification there. He'd come there and to those who turn from transgression. See, she spoke of Him, this is the Redeemer promised by the prophet Isaiah and all of the prophets. God has sent His Redeemer, the Messiah has come. This is really what she's saying. But it says, to all those, verse 38, who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Some people said, it's that old woman again. She's getting a little off her rocker. What is she saying? I don't know. We don't have time to go listen to her. We're trying to get our sacrifice done. But to those who would listen, those who had the ears, those, and it's really, it's listening because she's saying, but look what it says, who looked, let's tie it together now, who looked for redemption in Israel, who were waiting to see God's salvation. Those people listened. Those people heard her prophecy. Those are the people that God spoke to through Anna, the prophetess. Now, if you come to the end of the notes there, Simon and Anna provided, here's how they did fulfill the law. The legal witness to the Christ according to the law. We understand what was told to Joseph and Mary. Biased, right? Somebody could say biased. Well, these shepherds came and they saw something. Well, you guys are just shepherds out there, the lowest of the low, out in the fields watching your flocks by night. Sure, you saw something. Get it? Question after question. Yeah, they were witnesses to it. But we're talking about under God's law now. And the law requires that every matter be established by two or three witnesses in Deuteronomy. It says it in multiple places. If you're gonna establish a matter legally before God, it must be established by two or three witnesses. You can't count Joseph and Mary, they're relatives, and you only have the shepherds, and they're all in on it together. But here they are at the temple. Here we have two pious people whom really, if you did ask, They'd say, well, you can't knock Simeon, he's the real deal. Well, what about Anna? Certainly, absolutely, she spent her life here praying and fasting. Nobody questions their spirituality, their relationship with the Lord. And these two witnesses, the two or three, the two, Make a proclamation right there at the temple, and the priests are there, and they hear what's being said. People are there to hear, this is the Redeemer. This is God's salvation. This child is the Christ. God's Son is being proclaimed. And it's important to have this record of Simeon and Anna that God brought this about. It's recorded for us in Luke because it provides a legal witness for Christ according to the law, two or three witnesses. Now, for the challenge for us, Christ the Redeemer for Israel, is for Israel and for everyone who will see Him. If you're here this morning and you've not seen him, ask the Lord, show me, Lord, I wanna see you. And if you have a sincere heart and you come to the word of God and you hear this message and you see these words, the Lord will reveal himself to you. He won't hide himself from anyone. You'll see that Jesus is the son of God who died on a cross for your sins and rose again, that he is your savior, your redeemer, the Lord. And if you will see him and call upon him in faith and believe, God will save you. For us, brother and sister, we come to this place, we say, you know, Lord, I want to keep seeing you. This this you are my salvation. My relationship is in a constant observation or focus on the Lord. And in our song after we pray is going to be turn your eyes upon Jesus. It's even in a song. So let's stand together as we have a time of invitation. And that's my invitation this morning for us. Would you turn your eyes upon Jesus? If you're here and you need to be saved, call upon Him to be saved. For all the saints gathered together here, just turn your eyes upon Jesus and confirm to Him your faith, that you believe He is the Savior and the Lord who died and rose again, the Redeemer of Israel and all mankind. and He has saved your soul and He is coming back again to establish His Kingdom. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Let us have a time of prayer and then I'll close in prayer.