It's great to have you here. Today is a really special morning and I'm really thankful for each one who has put so much time into making this happen.
You're going to get to see all of it in one piece. We've seen it in a lot of different pieces over the last couple weeks.
And I'm just thankful for all the leaders, for all the kids, for all the teens, and all their hard work that they've put into this.
Well, this morning we're going to think about Christmas. And ever since I was a kid, I've always had an affinity for Christmas.
To quote a really popular song, it's the most wonderful time of the year. I hope a lot of you are with me in that as well.
But as we think about Christmas, it's a time where we come together with our friends, our family, a time where we give gifts, we have parties.
But ultimately, Christmas is about Jesus, a time where we remember and celebrate his birth and his coming here to earth and all that that means for us.
As Christmas comes each year, usually sometime in November for our family, I begin thinking, man, there's a lot to get ready.
I don't know if you feel that way as well. Whether it's decorating the house or putting up the tree, putting out the lights, baking cookies.
Any of you kids like baking cookies? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Any of you kids like eating cookies? Yeah.
So there's a lot to do to get ready for Christmas, right? And not to mention all the gifts.
We spend a lot of time making lists and then looking at lists from family, trying to buy the perfect gift for everybody.
And really, as we think about it, there's a lot that we do to get ready for Christmas.
And I learned when I got married nine and a half years ago that not all families prepare for Christmas in the same way.
Did you know that? Go figure. Sometimes it takes getting married to learn these things.
Growing up as a kid, my family, we typically did our shopping, usually we would start early on like the 23rd.
That was about the time we started our Christmas shopping.
And so there was always this big rush to the finish to try to get the gifts that we wanted and run to different stores because a lot of them were sold out and things like that.
But there was a certain adrenaline that I think we got getting ready for Christmas.
Now, when I married my wife, one of the things I saw is, wow, she starts Christmas shopping in like October.
That's incredible. And I saw that all the intentionality, the planning that she put into Christmas far in advance.
And I thought, wow, there's something to be said for this.
Now, I'm not here today to tell you that one way or the other is a better way to prepare for Christmas.
But what I am here and what we want to talk about this morning is all that God did to prepare for Christmas.
God didn't haphazard his Christmas plans.
Jesus wasn't an afterthought or something he tried to squeeze in at the very last minute.
But God, before the foundation of the world, prepared the way for Jesus to come.
Before time began, he sovereignly set forth his plan to bring salvation to his people.
And that's what we're going to take a look at today is how the Holy Spirit worked every single detail out.
If we look at the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 4, as we kind of open the beginning of the series of messages,
we see that God said he sent Jesus in the fullness of time.
Now, we might ask the question, maybe you've wondered this, why did God send Jesus when he did?
Why 2,000 years ago?
Certainly, if Jesus came today, he could have billions of followers on Twitter.
Why 2,000 years ago?
Well, while we don't know for sure, we can understand that there was a reason and a purpose for that.
I don't know about you, have you guys ever gone to an arcade and you've seen those games?
Wait, I see some hands down here.
Chuck E. Cheese's or I don't know, we go to Great Wolf Lodge.
They've got a pretty cool arcade there too, right?
You guys like arcades.
How many of you guys have ever seen one of those arcade games where there's like this spinning wheel
and if you can land a token right on one of those things as it spins around, you get like 100 tickets, right?
It's cool.
You guys have seen, you know what I'm talking about.
How many of you have wasted hundreds of tokens trying to win 100 tickets, right?
It's not easy.
And we sit there and we think that somehow if I can just get the timing right and then it, boom, just falls off the edge.
You're like, oh no, one more time, I'll try it again.
Well, it's important for us to understand this is not how God planned Jesus' coming.
He didn't look into all of the world's history and say, oh, if I can just get it in the right spot.
Oh, nope, missed it, but that's okay.
Jesus was very, God was very intentional in his planning of Jesus' coming.
As we look and see in 1 Peter 1.20 tells us that he, Jesus, was foreknown before the foundation of the world,
but he was manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God,
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.
God knew Jesus before the world was created, before it was founded.
Jesus was with God.
He was there as a part of the creation process.
And before the world was even started, before any of us existed,
God had a plan to send Jesus at the perfect time.
Galatians 4.4 tells us that that was the fullness of time that Jesus came.
The fullness, when I think of fullness, I tend to think of ripeness.
This was just the perfect time.
You guys have probably been this way with fruit before,
where you, mangoes are usually the one in our house that can be kind of hit or miss.
Our kids love mangoes, but oftentimes when we buy a mango,
Titus, I see your big eyes there talking about mangoes.
We love mangoes at our house.
And the challenge with mangoes is getting them at just the right ripeness.
If you get them too soon, they're really hard and yucky.
But if you wait too long, you cut them open in the middle,
and they're mushy and smell not very good.
They don't taste right.
But here, this passage tells us that the fullness of time had come.
Galatians 4.4-5 says,
When the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
Now, why did God send forth his Son?
The rest of the verse tells us,
To redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
So this is the idea that God waited for the perfect time
in all of human history to send Jesus.
Now, it may be easy for us to think,
Well, why didn't he send them way back when Israel was disobeying
and was about to go into exile?
God could have sent Jesus then.
Or why didn't he send them a thousand years ago?
Or why not today?
We can challenge those things.
But the ultimate truth that we see in God's Word
is that it was the fullness of time,
the ripeness of time,
at just the right time Jesus came.
Now, we can't know all of God's purposes,
but we can know that at the time Jesus came,
the world was in a really unique place.
It was something called the Pax Romana.
It's a fancy way to say the Roman peace.
If you've studied history,
you guys know that Rome was a really powerful country,
and they conquered all of the known world at that time.
And in doing that, they brought peace to the world.
Also, what they brought was the Greek language.
So the whole world at that time was connected by a common language
and also by a great road system that the Romans built
so that they could easily move their army from city to city.
But what that did is it allowed people to be able to travel quickly
from place to place.
And as we look in the book of Acts,
we can see how God used the Roman peace
to be a vessel for spreading the truth about Jesus all over the world.
So today, as we think about the Spirit's work in Christmas,
as we think about how God has prepared
long before the foundation of the world,
I want to understand a really important point.
In God's sovereign plan,
His time is always perfect.
Each of you guys here today came at a certain time.
Some of you may have gotten here earlier than you wanted.
Some of you may have gotten here later than you wanted.
But all of you got here exactly when God wanted you to get here,
according to His sovereign plan.
And so I believe that by the fact that you're here today,
to get to hear this message,
as we study from God's Word,
as we sing praise to Him,
as we hear the kids and the teens lead us in praise,
God has brought each one of us here
specifically today for a specific purpose.
And we should understand that Jesus,
or excuse me, that the Holy Spirit
has gone through great preparation in Christmas.
And we'll take a look at that further
this morning as we study.
So turn with me, if you would,
to the Gospel of Luke
and to the Gospel of Matthew.
So if you've got to get ready
to put your finger in two spots in your Bible.
We've looked at first to begin this morning
as we think about the Holy Spirit's work
in preparing for Christmas.
We've looked at the timing.
That God sent Jesus in the fullness of time
as a part of His plan
from before the beginning of the world.
I want to look next
at some of the preparation
that went into who Jesus' parents would be.
Now you think about that
in the context of all the people
who have lived throughout all of history.
Why Mary?
Why Joseph?
We're going to look a little bit
into the character of Mary and Joseph.
Who they were,
and maybe in part why God used them.
So turn with me to Luke chapter 2
and Matthew chapter 1.
We're going to begin in Matthew.
But be ready,
because we're going to flip back over to Luke 2.
Out of the four Gospels,
Matthew and Luke give us the most detail
about the birth of Jesus.
And so we see here a parallel account
of the same thing
from two different vantage points.
So beginning in Luke chapter 2,
or excuse me,
in Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.
Now the beginning of Matthew chapter 1,
we see the genealogy of Jesus,
and so we can understand
the heritage of where He came from.
God was really intentional,
and we could spend an entire morning
just talking about
who was in the lineage of Jesus.
But for the sake of time,
I want to focus in more
on the specific character
of Joseph and Mary.
Now as we think about Joseph
as Jesus' father,
it's important to remember
that he was Jesus' adopted father.
Right?
We're in no way saying
that Joseph was the true physical father.
We know the Bible tells us
that Jesus was conceived
by the Holy Spirit.
But Joseph brought Jesus in
as his own son
while he was here in this world.
And so as we take a look,
the first thing I want to consider
is the character of Joseph.
Look to Matthew 1, verses 18 and 19.
And you'll see here,
Matthew tells us,
Now the birth of Jesus Christ
took place in this way.
When his mother Mary
had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together,
she was found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit.
Now I want to pause here
for just a second.
There's a little bit of context
that we need to understand
as 21st century Americans
where we could maybe
put this off in one side.
Back in those days,
when someone got engaged,
the commitment was significant.
It was almost the same commitment
as marriage,
just not fully realized.
So at this point,
Mary and Joseph are engaged.
They're going to get married.
And you think about,
in our culture,
how important marriage is
and the marriage engagement.
That's a significant life chapter.
Even more so back in those days.
And young women oftentimes
would get betrothed.
Some as young as the age of 13.
So the youth group,
how many of you are 13-year-old girls?
Raise your hand.
Oh, sorry.
Some of the guys are like 13, right?
There's just a few.
How many of you are between 13 and 15?
Raise your hands.
Okay.
Girls, sorry.
Clarify.
Just a few of you.
And you're like,
I don't want to know this, Pastor Ben.
Now all of you dads out there
of those girls
who are between 13 and 15,
how many of you would be comfortable
with your daughter
getting married right now?
Probably how many of you dads
with daughters under the age of 18
are going to be comfortable
with them getting married?
Probably not.
But culturally back then,
this was really normal.
And so Joseph and Mary
were set to get married.
And suddenly, out of the blue,
Mary finds out she's pregnant.
Now, we're not going to do
an anatomy and physiology class
this morning,
but we all know
that God has designed babies
to be a product of a husband and wife
coming together in a special union.
And so the assumption would be here
if Joseph said,
well, we're not married,
then this isn't my baby.
And the text then tells us
we get this really interesting scenario
that starts to unfold here.
So you imagine Joseph and Mary,
they're planning their wedding,
they're excited,
and then suddenly, boom, this happens.
And Joseph goes,
ah, what's going on?
I thought I knew you, Mary.
I thought I understood this.
How could this be
that you're going to have a baby
and we're not even married?
This can't be my child.
What does this mean?
We'll look at verse 19
and we understand a little bit more
of the character of Joseph.
It says,
and her husband to be,
really here,
Joseph,
being a just man
and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
So we'll look at first this phrase,
this description that's used here,
Joseph as a just man.
Now, we have to understand
this was probably something
that was heartbreaking news for Joseph.
All of his plans, his hopes,
had just been crushed,
dashed to the ground.
But he was a just man
and he knew that this was caused
to call off a marriage.
If there was unfaithfulness
during the betrothal period,
this would be a reason to walk away.
And really, that would be the thing
he needed to do to honor God.
And so being a just man,
he had a desire to do the right thing,
even though it meant
giving up the one he loved
and all that he had planned and hoped for.
As a just man,
he knew he needed to do this.
Now, culturally in those days,
honor and shame were so important.
That's very much what we would see
in Eastern cultures,
like the Chinese culture
or other cultures of the East,
where you want to do everything possible
to bring honor to your family
and avoid anything that brings shame.
Well, this would have been
a really shameful thing.
And it would have been shame
not only on Mary,
but also on Joseph as her fiance.
And he had a decision
about how he was going
to handle the situation.
Joseph could have taken
and simply put all the blame on Mary.
He could have made her a spectacle
and said,
look at this terrible woman.
She's been unfaithful.
Look what she's done to me.
She's ruined me.
And could have really publicly shamed her
and tried to push all the shame
away from himself
and put it onto her.
But instead, look at verse 19.
We see a bit about the character of Joseph.
He said he was unwilling
to put her to shame
and he resolved to divorce her quietly.
Now we're talking about divorce here.
You might be thinking,
wait, Pastor Ben,
I thought you said they were engaged.
Why is the word divorce here?
Well, again, in that day,
the word betrothalment or engagement
was such a strong commitment
that it was considered a divorce
to break off an engagement.
So this is a significant thing
that was going to be done.
And Joseph knew he had to do this
as a just man,
but his desire was to do it quietly,
to not bring shame to Mary,
to not hurt her.
And we can see here,
not only was he a just man,
but he was a loving
and merciful and tender man.
We also see that,
that part of his character reflected
when we look at how he handled
Jesus' coming.
Flip over now with me
to Luke chapter 2.
And we'll see in Luke chapter 2
another aspect of the character
of Joseph.
So we see that he was just,
but he was also loving,
kind, and tender.
If you look at Luke chapter 2,
look with me at verse 33,
and in several places
throughout this passage,
33 being a specific one,
Luke says,
let me turn there.
Luke 2, 33.
It says,
And his father and mother
marveled at what was said about him.
You might be thinking,
what is so significant
about this verse?
Look at the word there.
And his father.
Now remember,
was Joseph really
Jesus' father?
No.
But this passage,
along with other places
where we see later on
in the chapter,
reference to Joseph
as Jesus' father
show that he was someone
who was tender and compassionate.
He didn't treat Jesus
as an outsider in his family,
but he brought him in
as his very own son.
And I think that tells us
a lot about the character
of Joseph.
He could have been really bitter.
God, you messed up my plans.
This was not the way
I would have made this.
But instead,
not only did he embrace
God's plan,
but he showed love
and kindness
in accepting Jesus in.
We also see,
flip back to Matthew again,
Matthew 1,
that Joseph was obedient
to God's command.
So Joseph finds out
that Mary's pregnant.
All of his dreams,
as he knows,
that are dashed to the ground.
He's trying to figure out
what's the best way
to manage this
somewhat of a catastrophe,
this social mess
that he's got on his hands.
And he's pondering,
how do I do this?
But man,
I don't want to hurt Mary
in the process.
And we see in verse 24,
or excuse me,
in verse 20,
while he was considering
these things,
behold,
an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream,
saying,
Joseph, son of David,
do not fear
to take Mary as your wife.
For what is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people
from their sins.
All this took place
to fulfill what the Lord
had spoken by the prophet.
And then we go on further
and see in verse 24,
when Joseph woke from his sleep,
he did as the angel
of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife.
So here,
Joseph didn't challenge
God's command.
He didn't question it.
He accepted it,
and he obeyed.
And we understand
that Joseph not only
was a just man,
not only was he a loving
and kind man,
but he was one who was willing
to obey God's command.
You can also understand
that when we look at how,
and we can flip back
to Luke again.
Sorry, I'm back and forth here.
Look back to Luke chapter 2,
we see not only did he obey God
in not divorcing Mary
and marrying her,
but he also obeyed
in verse 21 of Luke chapter 2.
It tells us that
at the end of eight days,
when he, Jesus,
was circumcised,
he was called Jesus,
the name given by the angel
before he was conceived
in the womb.
Now, it would have been
much more typical
in those days
for the firstborn son
to take up the name
of the father.
And there certainly,
we see that in John the Baptist's birth.
Everybody assumed,
well, what do you want
to name him?
Do you want to name him
after yourself, Zachariah?
And he said, no,
his name is John.
Zachariah, Jesus' cousin,
or Mary's cousin's husband,
obeyed God.
And in the same way,
we see Joseph's willingness
to obey God's command
and name the baby Jesus.
And Jesus,
in the original Hebrew,
means the Lord saves.
And so not only
was he obeying the angel,
but he was by faith
looking forward
to how his adopted son,
how this baby,
was going to save the world.
Stay in Luke chapter 2 with me,
and I want to look at
verses 21 through 24
and reflect on this idea
how not only was Joseph obedient,
but he was faithful to the law.
Look with me at verses 21 through 24.
There we see in 21,
at the end of eight days,
when he was circumcised.
So they obeyed the law of Moses
by having Jesus circumcised
on the eighth day,
according to the law.
Then in verse 22,
when the time came
for their purification,
according to the law of Moses,
they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
As it's written
in the law of the Lord,
every male who first opens the womb
shall be called holy to the Lord
and to offer a sacrifice,
according to what is said
in the law of the Lord,
a pair of turtle doves
or two young pigeons.
So here we see
the first sacrifice they offered
was a sacrifice for purification.
Now, again,
21st century Americans,
that doesn't mean a lot to us.
Probably not anybody here,
or many, if any,
have ever gone to the temple
to offer a sacrifice
for purification.
But the law of Moses
instructed that women,
after having a child,
should go and offer up a sacrifice
because of their impurity.
Now, in this case,
it's interesting
because the language here
says they offered up
a sacrifice
for their purification.
So wait,
shouldn't this just be for her,
just for Mary?
What was Joseph's role in this?
Why was he a part
of this purification?
Well, let's think back
to where Jesus was born.
Remember,
this was in a stable
in Bethlehem.
There wasn't a nice,
warm hospital
for baby Jesus to be born,
and he was born out in a barn
with all the animals.
So very likely,
Joseph was a very active
participant in that birth
and in helping.
And any of you
who have kids know
that's not a clean process,
right?
Having a baby
is a beautiful thing,
but it's a unique experience.
And so here we see also
Joseph recognized
that he was also
ceremonially unclean.
And so not only
did Mary honor the law,
but even Joseph
went above and beyond
to honor the law
of God in this context.
We also see
that there was
an additional sacrifice
where they offered
Jesus up to God's service.
This really reflects back
to a tradition
started in Israel
with Samuel
when he came as a baby.
If you remember the story,
Hannah was barren,
had no kids,
and she said,
God, if you give me a child,
I will offer him up
to serve you.
And God answered her prayer,
gave her a child,
and Samuel became
one of the great priests
and judges over Israel.
And so in the same way,
Mary and Joseph came
to offer Jesus up
to God for service to him,
recognizing that
he wasn't really theirs.
He was there.
He was,
Jesus was God's.
And so they offered him up
in the same way.
It's so important
for us to recognize
that Mary and Joseph
keeping the Mosaic Law
shows that even as a baby,
Jesus was brought up
in a way that honored God
and that was sinless.
No one could say to him
in his older age,
well, no,
you weren't circumcised,
or you didn't follow
as a child
the things of the law.
God's sovereignty
in choosing the timing
of Christ's birth
and choosing the parents
that would be there
in his birth
meant that Mary and Joseph
were going to be those people
that God planned
before the creation of time
for that purpose.
Now I want to look briefly
at Mary,
the mother of Jesus.
A lot can be said about her,
but I want to look just briefly
at a few things.
If you look with me
back a page or so,
a chapter in Luke,
let's look at Luke 1.38.
And we see here
that Mary was willing
and obedient to God.
So here an angel
appears to her
and kind of outlines
what's about to happen.
Hey Mary,
you're about to have a baby.
And Mary's like,
um, you know,
I don't know a ton about this,
but I need a husband
to make that happen
and that's not happening yet.
And the angel says,
don't worry,
it's going to be
the baby you're going to have
is of the Holy Spirit.
And then tells Mary
this great news
about how he will be
Emmanuel, God with us.
And then we see
after all this explanation,
Mary says in verse 38,
she says,
behold,
I am the servant
of the Lord.
Let it be according to me,
let it be to me
according to your word.
Mary was willing
and obedient
to do whatever
God asked her to do.
Even if that cost
her own honor,
even if that was inconvenient.
And even more so,
think about what this meant.
Imagine her hearing
this news thinking like,
how am I going to
break this to Joseph?
This is going to be
an interesting one.
She knew that
whatever God asked her to do,
she was going to be
willing to submit to it
and that he would
take care of the rest.
And we see that.
The birth story doesn't end
with Mary being
a single mother
raising Jesus.
It ends with God
working both in Joseph
and Mary together
as his parents.
We also see that
Mary was faithful.
And this was really interesting
as I was thinking
about this passage
and studying this.
You know,
we often,
we see this picture
of Mary on a donkey
riding up to Bethlehem
and they're going there
to register for the census.
But the reality is
most scholars indicate
that there actually
wouldn't have been
any need for Mary
to go to Bethlehem
to register.
That was Joseph's hometown,
not hers,
and they weren't yet married
at this point.
And so we think about this.
Now,
any of you moms out there know,
imagine your 39th
or 40th week of pregnancy.
We just recently experienced
that this summer
with Naomi,
our daughter,
who's four months old.
And my wife is amazing.
But I would not have asked
her to go on a long journey
in that 39th or 40th week
riding on a horse
or walking miles and miles
and who knows
what kind of conditions,
right?
But this was something
Joseph was required
to do by law.
And because of his desire
to be there for the birth,
and I believe
because of Mary's desire
to be with her husband
and to submit to her husband,
she came along,
even though it wasn't
comfortable for her
or convenient.
As a matter of fact,
it meant her giving birth
to her baby
away from family,
away from the comforts
of home.
And so we can see
that Mary was someone
who was really faithful.
Lastly,
we see that Mary
was thoughtful.
She's not a reactionary
kind of person.
If you look at Luke 2,
verse 19,
right at the tail end
of the shepherds
have just come now,
the angels have proclaimed
the good news to them,
they've come rushing in
and they're like,
whoa, look,
it's the baby Jesus,
just like the angels
told us.
This is amazing.
And they're praising God
and they're glorifying God.
And Mary could have reacted
like, shh, guys,
keep it down.
The baby's sleeping
over here, okay?
But instead,
the passage tells us
as we look at chapter 2,
verse 19,
that Mary treasured up
all these things,
pondering them
in her hearts.
And the shepherds
returned glorifying
and praising God
for all that they
had heard and seen.
So we recognize
that Mary was someone
who was watching
what was happening.
She was savoring
these moments
in her heart
of seeing God at work
and looking forward
to ultimately
what he was going to do.
As we close this section,
I want to think a little bit
about parenting in general
and some principles
we can see here
from Mary and Joseph.
And one of those
that I want to look at
is the fact that
faithfulness,
not success,
was what drove
Mary and Joseph
as parents.
Think about it.
How many of you
would feel like
you were successful parents
if you said,
yep,
my kid grew up
and he was tried
as a criminal
and executed.
Probably not many
or if any of us
would say
that's what our aspiration
would be for our child.
I know it's not
an aspiration
I would have
for one of my children.
Mary and Joseph
got a taste
of what Jesus' life
was going to be like.
We'll see that later
as we look at
the proclamation
that happened
in the temple.
But ultimately,
their pursuit
was not what they
measured success as.
They understood
that faithfulness
to God
was the most
important thing.
So parents here today,
I want to encourage you,
I want to encourage myself.
How can we learn
from Mary and Joseph?
Because we think
about all the things
that God is going
to sovereignly
bring into our life,
things that are
far beyond our control,
definitely outside
of our plans.
How are we going
to show faithfulness
to God?
I think that is
one of the strongest things
that was marked
by Mary and Joseph
is faithfulness.
And in the same way,
my hope,
my prayer
is that the Spirit
would work in our hearts
that we might be people
who are faithful
as we follow God
wherever He calls us.
So turn with me again
if you will,
back to the book of Luke,
chapter 2.
We're going to be here
for the rest of the time
so you don't have to be
flipping around
quite so much.
I want to take a look
at this idea
as we look at
prophetic fulfillment.
You could be thinking
as we go into this section,
boy, you're really going
to stay in Luke,
chapter 2
and talk about
prophetic fulfillment?
Aren't you going to be
in like Isaiah,
Jeremiah,
all over the Old Testament?
And while I could do that,
this morning what I really
want to do is just focus
in on how God
fulfilled His Word
specifically to one
of His faithful servants
that we see introduced
here in Luke,
chapter 2.
So look at Luke,
chapter 2,
beginning in verse 25.
Here we see this scenario.
Mary and Joseph
have come to the temple.
They've brought
the baby Jesus up.
They've offered
all these sacrifices
in keeping with the law
and everything
that they have been
commanded to do.
And then after offering
these sacrifices,
there's this new character
that enters the scene,
a man named Simeon.
And as you read verse 25,
you'll see it says,
now there's a man
in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon,
and he's described
two ways.
This man was righteous
and devout,
waiting for the
consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit
was upon him.
That last part
is pretty significant.
Oftentimes,
we think about the fact
that the Holy Spirit
as believers
has come to indwell in us.
And so,
we take for granted
the very real presence
we have of the Spirit.
But before the day
of Pentecost came,
the Spirit's presence
was much more,
it was not permanent
among those who were followers
of God in those days.
So,
for this description
to be Simeon
whose,
the Holy Spirit
was upon,
was a really significant
descriptive
for Simeon.
And so,
we see here
that Simeon
comes into the temple.
He was a righteous man.
This means that
his life he had spent
seeking to honor God.
Now,
interestingly enough,
out of all the credentials
we're given about Simeon,
we're not given
his age
or we're not given
his job.
We don't know
if he was a priest.
We don't really know
what he did,
but we know
who he was.
We understand his character.
And we see to Simeon here,
as you read on
in verse 26,
we see,
it had been revealed
to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death
before he had seen
the Lord's Christ.
Now,
remember,
the first prophecy
about a Messiah coming
had been over 400 years
earlier to Isaiah.
So,
this was a really
significant thing
that God had revealed
to Simeon
that in his day,
before Simeon died,
he was going to get
to see God's salvation
for Israel.
And so,
Simeon,
this righteous
and devout man,
was waiting.
Now,
we know,
Paul tells us
that not all those
who were of Israel
were the true Israel.
There was a remnant
of faithful people
within Israel.
Not just those
who outwardly went
to the temple
or called themselves
the Jews,
but those who were
faithful to God.
And likely,
Simeon is someone
who is representative
of the remnant
of people,
the faithful,
who are committed
to following God
and following his ways.
And here we see
that the Holy Spirit
had told him
that he would not die
before he saw
the Lord's Christ.
And so,
this significant
moment happens.
Simeon walks
into the temple
and there,
led by the Holy Spirit,
he sees Mary and Joseph.
Now,
Mary and Joseph
would not have been
an unusual scene.
On any given day,
there could have been
dozens of parents there
offering up
these sacrifices
according to what
the law
was requiring them.
But led by the Holy Spirit,
God brought Simeon
to that place
at that exact time
to get to see
Mary and Joseph.
And we see there,
as you look on
in verse 28,
he took him up,
Jesus,
in his arms,
and he blessed God.
We're going to look at
in our last segment
this morning
a little bit of more
of what this pronouncement
was that Simeon made.
But at this point,
Simeon saw
in seeing Jesus,
even not knowing
Jesus was going
to go to the cross,
this was 30-some years
later that this would happen.
He knew that God's salvation
had come through Jesus.
And by faith,
he looked forward to that.
We see,
secondly here,
another person
enters the scene.
While Simeon is still speaking
and blessing them,
look down with me
to verse 36,
and there's a prophetess
named Anna.
She's the daughter of Phineal
of the tribe of Asher.
Now, just so you know,
I thought when I saw this,
wow, that must be
something really important.
It wasn't.
Asher was just
any other tribe,
and we don't understand
exactly why Luke
gives us these details
other than to say
she was just
an average Israelite.
But we understand
that she's not just
any Israelite.
As further on,
we see that she was
one who had not
departed from the temple
in verse 37,
but worshipped
day and night
with fasting and prayer.
And we see later on there
that she was also
one of those remnant,
one of the faithful
who is waiting
for the redemption
of Israel.
We can also look at Anna,
and as we see
the description
of who she is,
we see in the end
of verse 36,
she was advanced
in years,
having lived with her husband
only seven years,
and then she was a widow
until she was 84.
There's a little bit
of debate about
the dating of all this,
but we can safely say
Anna was between
84 years old
and 104 years old.
Okay?
So, she was no spring chicken.
She was up there
in years,
and look how
she committed her time.
Night and day,
the passage tells us,
she spent,
verse 37 tells us,
she did not depart
from the temple,
worshiping with fasting
and prayer
night and day.
So, here's someone
who was just
all about worship.
Imagine running into Anna
and talking to her.
What kind of things
do you think she would say?
I think it would have
been incredible.
And here,
God brought her about
just at the right time,
and she too
had been looking
for the hope of Israel,
the salvation of Israel
that God was going
to give.
And here she comes
and sees Mary
and Joseph
and the baby Jesus.
And so,
as we think about
God's preparation
for Christmas,
the Holy Spirit's work,
we want to think about
it's not only that
God brings people
at just the right time,
he has just the right
people in place,
but that God
keeps his word.
Here we see God
had given a specific
word to Simeon
that he wouldn't die
before he saw
God's salvation,
and God kept that word.
That's significant
for us to know
that God keeps his word.
And ultimately,
Simeon and Anna,
after hearing this good news,
after seeing Jesus,
they went and told
everyone around them
the great news
about what Jesus had done.
God still has said
as many as