Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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s remain standing. In turn to
Luke Chapter two. Luke two, I'm
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going to start at verse twenty two
and read through verse forty. Luke twenty
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two through forty. This is God's
word. Hear it and be blessed.
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And when the time came for their
purification, according to the law of Moses,
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they brought him up to Jerusalem to
present him to the Lord. As
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it is written in the law of
the Lord, every male who first opens
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the womb shall be called holy to
the Lord and to offer a sacrifice,
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according to what is said in the
law of the Lord, a pair of
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turtle doves or two young pigeons.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose
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name was Simeon. This man was
righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation
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of Israel, and the Holy Spirit
was upon him and it had been revealed
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to him by the Holy Spirit that
he would not see death before he had
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seen the Lord's Christ and he came
in the spirit into the temple and when
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the parents brought in the child Jesus
to do for him according to the custom
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of the law, he took him
up in his arms and blessed God and
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said, Lord, now you are
letting your servant depart in peace, a
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in your word, for my eyes
have seen your salvation that you have prepared
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in the presence of all people's alight, for revelation to the gentiles and for
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glory to your people, Israel.
And his father and his mother marveled at
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what was said about him, and
Simeon blessed them and said to marry his
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mother. Behold, this child is
appointed for the fall and rising of many
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in Israel and for a sign that
is opposed. And a sword will pierce
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through your soul also so that the
thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
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And there was a prophetess Anna,
the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of
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Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years
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from when she was a virgin and
then as a widow, until she was
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eighty four. She did not depart
from the Temple, worshiping with fasting and
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prayer, night and day, and
coming up at that very hour, she
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began to give thanks to God and
to speak of him to whom, to
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who sorry, and to speak of
him to all who were waiting for the
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redemption of Jerusalem. And when they
had performed everything according to the law of
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the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth,
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and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom in the favor of
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God was upon him a man.
You may be seated. Well, as
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you consider the end of this year
and the year ahead, it's often a
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time to take and consider what has
gone past and what perhaps lies ahead.
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This is not a bad thing to
do. The Lord tells us to number
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our days that we might be wise, I'm to reflect on our time here
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in this world and to consider on
the things he has spoken. As we
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do that, I think it's helpful
and encouraging to think about Simeon and Anna.
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Let me pause there for a moment
and ask are you hearing a buzzing
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or is it just me? No, I think it might be better now.
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I just adjusted that. Okay,
Simeon and Anna. Anna is an
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old lady, a very old lady, advanced in years, it says.
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We are told that she had lived
with her husband seven years from her being
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a virgin, if she was married
at a typical age of fourteen, Young
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of course then then, and then
widowed for eighty four years after having lost
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her husband she might be a hundred
and five. This is a very old
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woman, advanced in years and having
lived a long time as a widow.
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No doubt this would have been a
very difficult time. Widows are singled out
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along with the orphans constantly in Scriptures
and in the ancient worlds, those most
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in need of protection, most in
need of consolation, most in need of
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the help and safety of the Lord. We also have Simian. It doesn't
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mention his age, but it does
mention that he was looking forward to the
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end of his life, that he
was told by the Holy Spirit that he
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would not depart until he had seen
this great hope of the Lord. We
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read in Verse Twenty Six. And
it had been revealed to him by the
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Holy Spirit that he would not see
death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
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Simeon was not hoping based on some
kind of intuition, some sort of
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vain hope. The Holy Spirit himself
had told Simeon that he would not see
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or he would not die until seeing
of the Lord's Christ and then having seen
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the Lord's Christ, the Messiah who
had long been promised in the law and
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the prophets. He praises God,
he blesses God, and Verse Twenty Nine
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Through Thirty Two we have what has
been called the song of Simeon. Lord,
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now you are letting your servant depart
in peace, according to your word,
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for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you've prepared in the presence of
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all people's alight, for revelation to
the gentiles and for glory to your people,
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Israel. And it's a little bit
too difficult to tell, but it
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seems that Anna, having seen this. Why? Because she is constantly,
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the Scripture says, in the temple, fasting and praying. Having seen this
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event, having her herself been one
who is devout and devoted to the Lord,
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she goes and then herself gives thanks
to God and begins to speak of
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him, of Jesus, to WHO, to all who are waiting for the
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redemption of Jerusalem. The Lord comes
into and this holy city, brought by
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his parents. I'm just a baby
and his were. The word of him
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is already spreading, the Gospel is
already going forth. An amazing thing.
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This continues throughout the rest of his
life and indeed after his death and resurrection
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as well. It's an amazing thing
that Simmon says here in Jerusalem, in
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the temple, that this Messiah is
a light for the revelation of the gentiles.
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And here we are, many of
us, most of US gentiles,
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saying the very same thing, singing
the very same thing, praising God for
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the redemption that he has brought.
And as we consider these two people,
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Simeon and Anna, filled with the
hope and joy of the Lord, one
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at the end of his life,
the other, unlikely, at the end
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of her life, is good for
us to reflect and know what it means
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to belong to him. This,
in many ways, is a story about
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hope and faith, and it gives
us courage and confidence in the year of
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Heay, year ahead. It gives
us a godly perspective, a perspective centered
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in Christ and his Gospel, concerning
our days, our life our deaths as
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well. The setting for this story
begins with Jesus his parents bringing him to
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Jerusalem. This is made very clear
at the beginning and throughout the story that
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they came there at the time for
purification according to the law of Moses.
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This is a reminder to us,
as Paul says in Galatians, that Jesus
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was born under the law, born
of a virgin under the law. Why
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is this? Because he came to
fulfill that law, because he came to
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fulfill all that the law and the
Prophets had spoken of. And there are
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two things, it seems, that
were required here of the law of Moses.
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Why are they there? What's going
on? Well, the first thing
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was there was a requirement in the
law of giving of the firstborn child.
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And if you turn to exodus thirteen, I'll turn there and read this with
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you. Exodus Thirteen, and we
read of the we can read the particular
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law which God had spoken Exodus Thirteen, on verses eleven through fifteen, we
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find this. When the Lord brings
you into the land of the Canaan I
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hates, as he swore to you
and your father's and shall give it to
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you. You shall set apart to
the Lord all that first opens the womb.
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All the firstborn of your animals that
are males shall be the Lord's.
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Every firstborn of a donkey you shall
redeem with a lamb or, if you
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do not redeem it, you shall
break its neck. Every firstborn of man
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among your sons you shall redeem.
And when, in time to come,
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your son asks you what does this
mean, you shall say to him,
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by a strong hand, the Lord
brought us out of Egypt from the House
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of slavery, for when Pharaoh stubbornly
refused to let us go, the Lord
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killed all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt, both the firstborn of man
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and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the
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males that first open the womb,
but all the firstborn of my son's I
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redeem. It shall be as a
mark on your hand or frontlets between your
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eyes, for by a strong hand
the Lord brought us out of Egypt.
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So you see what we have here
this ceremony, that God enacts a requirement
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for sacrifices and institution in the law
of Israel that is to be repeated constantly.
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A particularly and as agrarian culture,
people would be continually giving to the
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Lord on both the firstborn of their
flocks and live at livestock and their animals,
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as well as the firstborn of their
children. In the Lord's mercy,
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he does not require the sacrificefice or
the death of their firstborn sons. Buddy,
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instead allows them to, what it
says, redeem them. There would
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be a price in other words,
that would be paid to the Lord in
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lieu of a sacrifice. In the
case of animals, however, at least
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some animals this, that sacrifice would
be given. This, of course,
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would remind them of several things.
There would be a constant reminder that they
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belong to the Lord. Their things
are not their things. There are things
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are his things. But it was
all. But it was more than that,
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as the scriptures say, when the
sun, who is redeemed, goes
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to the Lord later on and says, what does this mean, much as
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our children who are baptized come to
us later in their age and say what
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does this mean? And explanation is
given. They are taught and they are
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told of the things of the Lord
and in this case, this particular ceremony,
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the children are taught. The Lord
brought us out of Egypt by a
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strong hand. He rescued us out
of bondage, out of sin, out
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of slavery, out of idolatry.
And how did he do that? by
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striking down the firstborn of Egypt,
but by saving us. You remember how
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that happened. The Israelites were called
to put the blood over an around the
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door, and when the angel of
the Lord saw that blood, they were
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passed over and death did not visit
that household. It was through the blood
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of Christ, this one who is
being brought to the temple here in Luke
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to, that we receive our paths
over through his blood. We are not
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claimed in the Lord's Justice, but
we are saved and rescued. It's the
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remembrance of this and the foreshadowing of
this thing to come that Mary and Joseph
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bring their son, as the law
requires, this firstborn son, who has
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opened the womb, to the temple
that he might be given to the Lord
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and redeemed. The second thing that
is going on is the purification of the
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mother. We are reminded in Leviticus
twelve one through five that after a woman
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gives birth, she would be considered
unclean for seven days and then for an
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additional thirty three days for male children, double that for females. There she
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would not the mother would not be
allowed to touch anything that was consecrated as
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holy. When this days of her
purifying, as it was called, were
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complete, she would then bring a
sacrifice and be may be made clean.
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Now this, these distinctions betweening cleanliness
and uncleanliness, doesn't have to do with
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germs and it doesn't have to do
in directly with a spiritual reality, although
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it connects with it and depicts that. It's a ceremonial cleanliness or uncleanliness.
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It's a marker of a person who
is able or not able to come into
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contact with holy things. This is
one of many laws throughout the Old Testament
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that God gave to his people regarding
cleanliness and and how it is they were
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to come in contact with holy things, like the temple, for example.
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This is not the time to give
a long lesson on all of those things,
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but simply to remind you that God
instituted these things also for a reason,
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to mark out his people as distinct, to mark out himself and his
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worship is something that was supposed to
be holy, set apart and clean.
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These things were, of course,
mark this way because of the problem on
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the inside, because of the spiritual
problems that were in this world. There
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was a constant reminder to God and
his people that they needed to be made
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right, over and over and over
again. You can't just approach the Lord
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because you are unclean, and so
a system of ceremonies was put in place
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to teach this lesson over and over
and over again, and that's what's happening
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here as well. A Mary is
coming to offer the sacrifice. In particular,
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we read of these birds, verse
twenty four, a pair of turtle
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doves or two young pigeons. She's
going to offer this sacrifice so that she
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might be made clean again. It
says, they're purification, probably because through
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her impurity, Joseph and perhaps Jesus
as well, would have also become impure.
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This is one of the romantic and
one of the ways in which God
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shows that sin and pollution is just
constantly spreading, as a difficult thing to
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remain pure, a difficult thing to
remain clean. It's not like you just
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do a few nice things every now
and then you run through a ceremony in
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your had to go for it was
a constant problem, a constant concern,
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and that's how it is with the
holiness of the Lord, when we live
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in a world that is tainted by
sin and corruption and pollution, and so
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it's an obedience to these laws.
It's understanding these things in their minds and
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their hearts that Joseph and Mary come
to the temple and they bring their son,
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their firstborn son, and they come
into contact with Simian Simeon, who
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also understands these things, simeon who
feels the weight of the law, who
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feels the weight of Israel sins,
who understands that the world is lost,
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except for one thing, that God
had promised an anointed one to come,
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a Messiah, a Christ who would
come and he would rescue this whole sorry
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world from their sin and death and
pollution and corruption and uncleanliness and unholiness.
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Simon was righteous and devout. This
piety that simmion had was because the Lord,
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God had worked in him, had
changed his heart. So instead of
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constantly fighting against the Lord, Simeon
was waiting for the word, waiting for
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the consolation of Israel, and it
was on the basis of that promise,
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on the basis, as he said, of God's Word in Verse Twenty Nine,
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that he is hoping, that he
is waiting. This is, of
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course, an wonderful example for all
of us to follow. This is what
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it means to be a Christian,
what it means to hope in the Lord,
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to wait on him, to trust
him, to look to him for
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all things and, in particular,
for the salvation that comes in the Messiah.
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The Holy Spirit Brings Simeon into the
temple and when the parents are brought,
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when parents brought Jesus, to do
all according to the custom of the
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law, he sees them, he
takes Jesus up in his arms and he
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blesses God. Can you imagine?
Can you imagine waiting all your life,
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knowing that someday you are going to
see this thing, and then seeing it
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and receiving it? And not only
just a thing, but a child,
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and not just a child, but
the hope of all the world, the
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one that the ever since Adam and
Eve first sin, we've all been waiting
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for. And there he is,
the Lord's Christ. Not only do we
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see this great example that following the
piety of Simion, in his righteousness and
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his devoutness and is waiting on the
Lord, but we see it all in
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his hope and everything was connected to
this salvation. This was his happiness,
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this is what he was waiting for. Simeon was not chasing after other things.
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Everything was here. This was his
only comfort in life and in death.
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Is the Heidelberg Catechism puts it.
I'm so when he takes the Lord
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Jesus into his arms. He blesses
God and says now, Lord, now
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you are letting your servant depart in
peace. Simeon's peace is connected to Christ.
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This happens according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation
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described in verses thirty one and thirty
two, that you have prepared in the
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presence of all people's much like in
Psalm twenty three. This table that is
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spread before the enemy is the Lord
spreads this, This News, this righteousness,
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this victory, in before all,
a light for the revelation to the
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gentiles and a glory to your people, Israel. He goes on to speak
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to marry and he says some hard
words as well. Behold, this child
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is appointed for the fall and rising
in Israel and for a sign that is
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opposed, and a sword will pierce
through your soul, also so that,
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so that thoughts from many hearts may
be revealed. What we find here spoken
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is that this salvation that the Lord
promises and Jesus, this Christ to his
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prom promised and who is now here
veiled in glory. He's just too baby,
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just a child from Isaiah tells us
that he was not even anything special
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to look at. And yet Simon
saw with the eyes of faith who this
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really was, and who this was
was the strong salvation for all the world.
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You might imagine a Jesus as a
great UN a stronghold and city,
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a mighty fortress in which all of
God's people would be protected. Well,
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what happens to those who come against
such a fortress? They're ruin. Those
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who come against the Lord will fall. This child is not optional. This
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child changes the world. The those
who stand in him stand strong and rise
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even up from death itself. Those
who stand in Christ will be victorious over
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Satan, will be victorious over evil. Those who stand in Christ will have
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a resurrection of their own lives,
but those who oppose Christ will fall like
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a ball of sand being thrown against
the wall of this great fortress. Ruin
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will simply be destroyed. Psalm to
talks about the Lord of his anointed one,
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and it says the the the righteous, will be strong, but the
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the wicked will be blown away like
chaff, scatters into nothingness, waste.
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This child, Simeon says, is
appointed for the rising fall of Israel.
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Hearts will be revealed. Everything is
changing, for the Lord is fulfilling all
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things. We see this in Anna
as well. While all of these people
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around Simeon and Anna are in there
at the temple, remember they're engaged in
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these outward exercises of religion and is
too, fasting praying, but Anna head
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with a worship of God truly in
her heart at like Simian did. She
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wasn't just going through the motions,
as so many of the scribes and the
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Pharisees and the priests were. She
was there truly to worship the Lord.
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Anna had given her widowhood, eighty
four years of widowhood for some multiple lifetimes
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of widowhood. She had given it
not over to sorrow, but she had
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given it over to the Lord,
worshiping always, it says, in the
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temple. Here we see that these
outward exercises of religion are not separate from
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true spirituality, but that they can
be separated by man, that there are
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people who can go through the motions
and come and to the temple and do
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these things and totally miss the salvation
of the Lord, Walk Right by him.
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You can come to church, you
can hear the Gospel, you can
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hear the good news of Jesus and
leave just as empty headed as you came.
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Your hearts just as lacking as when
you arrived. That is a possible
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thing, and my prayer is that
it doesn't happen for you, but that
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you come, Anna and Simion,
into the worship of God, hoping and
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expecting and waiting and trusting in the
promises. Is that he is made so
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that you not might not walk just
in and out right past Jesus, but
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that you might hear him and receive
him and know that you can die in
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peace. That's what it means to
follow the Lord. That's what means to
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belong to the God of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob. That's what it means
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to trust in the Lord and his
anointed one. If you merely attend church
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and move your lips put on the
right kind of smile, but are rotten
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in your hearts, you will fall. If you come in the Lord and
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you worship him in his name,
trusting in the salvation of Jesus, you
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have everything. You have everything,
you have life itself, even victory over
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death. That's what was true for
Simeon and Anna. Their hearts were filled
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with the Holy Spirit. Praise be
to God in His grace. And so
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then, what Simeon had long seen
and what Anna had long seen by faith,
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he saw with his eyes. And
that will be true for us as
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well when we die in the Lord. What we now see, as the
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apostle says, through a glass,
dimly or darkly, one day we will
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look upon on our Lord Jesus,
not the eyes of faith, but with
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just our eyes, knowing him perfectly, seeing him as he is. This
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is not a blind and irrational faith. I saw a Christmas movie this way
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week that said faith is something like
faith is believing against common sense. Maybe
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that's faith for Christmas movies. This
is this is not the faith of Christianity.
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Faith is not irrational, believing against
common saith sense. Faith is perfectly
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and completely rational. Believing in the
promises of God Almighty, who says this
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is the Christ, believe and you'll
be saved. Who Raises the Christ,
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our Savior, Jesus, up from
the dead for all to see in many
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to testify to? Faith doesn't go
against common sense. May Not be common,
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but it is good sense. Faith
is trusting, as Simian does,
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in the word. Faith is like
with Ana, going and spreading that word,
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having heard it, having known it. Faith is lying on your deathbed
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in peace, knowing that you,
though you are about to die, you
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will soon live. And I've always
been living through faith in Christ, because
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this light was not just this light, and of the glory of God was
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not just for Simeon and Anna,
not just for the glory of Israel,
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but as for all the world.
So how do we take this news?
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How do we react to it?
Well, we have the example of Mary
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and Joseph to follow, who marveled
at what was said about Jesus. We
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ought to treasure these things in our
hearts, because there is no greater treasure
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in the world. And when we
believe them, we can know that both
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in life and in death, we
can worship and praise God, we can
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have peace and spread his word,
because God is good and the Lord and
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his anointed one. The bonds between
them will not be broken apart by those
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who war against them, and they
will not be broken apart in us either,
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because when we are justified through faith, we have peace with God and
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nothing can separate us from his love. Let's pray and thank the Lord
