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We are. Here we go. Good morning. It’s great to see you all this morning. Thank you to Adam and the worship team for just the awesome worship this morning.
So my name is Wes. I’m a pastoral assistant here at Red Village Church. This is where I help lead the Youth in College ministry, which I really love to do. And you’re stuck with me today. So Aaron is at Campus Community Church, as Rob mentioned, and so I’m grateful that I can help fill the pulpit today.
So our sermon that we’ll be looking at for the passage today is in the book of Luke. So we’re going to keep continuing working through Luke. So if you have a Bible, go ahead and open up there. If you don’t, there should be some blue Bibles around you on the chairs. And feel free to grab one and open it up to Luke chapter two as you’re opening there.
I just want to thank everybody here who wrote kind cards to me and Aaron and even just generously gave gifts to Aaron and I. It was really deeply encouraging for me just to read some of the notes that I received and just makes me really, really grateful for the ministry that I have here with Red Village Church. So grateful for you all, and it’s a joy for me to be able to shepherd God’s people. So Luke chapter two, and we’re looking at verses 21 through 40. So I’m going to go ahead and read this passage, and then I will pray and ask for the Lord just to bless this time and.
And then we’ll get to it. So Luke 2, verse 21. Here’s what the word of the Lord says. At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they.
They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is 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 turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law.
He took him up in his arms and blessed God. And so, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed.
And a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Faniel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was. She was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping and fasting, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak to him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they. They returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
So that’s God’s word for us. Please pray with me.
God, I thank you that we can gather today in your house of worship, and God that we can hear from your Word. Please help me to be a good communicator of your word. And I pray that you’d give us open hearts and ears to hear what your spirit is saying. It’s in Jesus name we pray these things. Amen.
All right, so as every good story begins, hopefully you’re learning this from Aaron. There I was. There I was, in college at New Mexico State University. I was a college student on campus, and I was just beginning my junior year of college, and I was walking to go to a leadership meeting for the collegiate ministry that I was a part of called the Christian Challenge. The Christian Challenge was a place where God had been exponentially growing my faith through discipleship and evangelism and through fellowship with my Christian friends for the past year.
And I decided to sign up for a leadership team at the Christian Challenge that was called the Touch Team. So don’t ask me why it’s called the Touch Team. It’ll make more sense to you as I tell the story. But this was A community service team. So there I was, going to my first touch team meeting.
Now I want you to try to imagine I was wearing some amazing slip on moccasins. They were like full leather. I can remember being really proud of them. I then had some basketball socks that came up towards my knees. They weren’t matching.
I then had just like a basic T shirt. I don’t know what was on it. Probably hadn’t washed in a little bit. And then I had my greasy hunting ball cap with my hair, it was really long, all curling out on all the sides. And that was what I had going on, going to this meeting.
And so as I go in there, essentially, context. I spent a lot of my time studying wildlife and studying the Bible during this time, but not a lot of time studying style. So I did not have a lot of style going on. But that wasn’t something I cared about. So keep this in mind.
Show up at the first touch team meeting at the student union. And as I approach the group, I come and sit down and I notice that there is a very attractive woman sitting across from me at this meeting. And I had never noticed this girl before in any of our large group meetings. So as I sit down, I also notice that she is wearing cowboy boots, which for me that was like a really great thing in my books. I was like, okay, there is an attractive woman sitting across from me with cowgirl boots.
I need to know this person. So without sparing any time, this mystery woman reaches out her hand with a smile on her face and then says, hi, I’m Sierra. And so although a handshake I thought was like a little odd because like none of us were, you know, making handshakes in this group, I put up my hand happily and told her that my name is Wes and shake her hand. And I remember like glancing at Sierra multiple times throughout this meeting as half of my brain was like focused on whatever we were discussing in a group meeting, the other half of my brain is thinking like, this girl just shook my hand. What does this mean?
So that goes on through the whole meeting. The meeting ends and I tell this mysterious woman that it was nice to meet her. And then we went on our way. About an hour goes by and I get a message on my flip phone. Yes, a flip phone was what I had.
So my flip phone goes off. I’m like, what is this? I open it up and it’s on the group chat. That’s for this team. I see it’s an unknown number.
And this unknown number had texted, sorry I’m not going to make it to our next team meeting because I’m going to be gone elk hunting. And immediately this is another big, big check in my book. Okay, elk hunting. And I’m like, who is going elk hunting? Which number has like go going through the list?
Like a bunch of the guys, they don’t hunt, they don’t care about elk, which is sad. But someone is going elk hunting. So I immediately text this person privately and I text him, say, who is this? Where are you going elk hunting and what’s going on? I need to know because, right, elk hunting and the Bible, two big things.
So she texts me back and I realize this is the mystery woman with the cowgirl boots. And she tells me very innocently, oh, yes, this is Ciara. Yeah, I am going elk hunting. No big deal with my dad. So I’m not going to be at the meeting.
Why do you ask? And so I begin to continue to ask her questions about this. But I later on learn after I start to date Sierra that she had baited me with this text.
She literally had told her friend, watch this, I will get this guy to text me within 10 seconds of sending his text. And I did exactly that. So, yeah, pretty, pretty easy to reel in. But two years later, I asked for this woman’s hand in marriage and she’s now my wife. And so the reason I share this story, looking back on this day, I didn’t know it at the time, but I can see now that the good and kind hand of God was what led me to that meeting and what led me to meet Sierra on that day.
It certainly wasn’t my style or anything that I had going on there, but it was just like God’s good hand in my life that allowed me to meet Sierra, who I’m now married to and have a little girl who’s almost one year old. And so that’s something that I see. God has been good and faithful to me and with his providence. So as we look at this passage together here in Luke, I want you guys to see that the kind and good providential hand of God is seen like all throughout this passage with all the characters that are mentioned. And so I’m going to point those out as we work through it.
So God’s favor, even since like the beginning of the book of Luke, God’s favor has been clearly seen with John and his conception with Zachariah and Elizabeth, and then with the conception of Jesus with Mary and Joseph, and then even so, more so like the angel tells Mary directly In chapter one. Greetings O favored one. The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God. So we see that God’s favor rests on his people because Christ is coming into the world and because of the favor that rests on Jesus.
This is overflowing to all who we learn about here in Luke’s gospel. So that being said, look with me at verse 21. It says at the end of the eight days when he was circumcised, which is pertaining to Jesus, it says he was called Jesus and the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So last week Aaron preached on Luke 2 verses 1 through 20 that tells about Jesus miraculous birth and the events surrounding that birth that really confirmed that like Jesus is is the Christ, he is the long awaited Messiah. And so verse 21 is kind of like Luke re kind of hashing a little bit of this to remind us that the angel had given the name Jesus before Jesus was even conceived and that the name was revealed after Jesus.
Circumcision according to the law of Moses. So in Genesis God made a covenant with Abraham and the sign of that covenant was circumcision for every male boy. And Luke includes this in his gospel to inform his reader us that this identified Jesus with God’s covenant people by receiving the covenant sign of circumcision. So from the very beginning Jesus kept the whole law of God. So Luke then reiterates that the name given to him to this baby was Jesus.
The name Jesus is actually pronounced Yeshua in Hebrew and the name literally rendered Jehovah is salvation. So even before Jesus arrived on earth, he existed as the eternal Son, the salvation of Yahweh. And now here in this text, salvation has arrived in time and space as a meek and humble baby boy obeying the law in accordance with God’s covenant. In verses 22 through 24 we see that Mary and Joseph were very careful to do all that the law of Moses requires for purification. And a little bit about purification in Leviticus 12 the law states that if a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she’ll be unclean for seven days.
And then on the eighth day the child must be circumcised. And then after that the mother will be then unclean for another 33 more days where she must refrain from entering the sanctuary until her purification is complete. So after the days of purification are complete for the mother, she is then instructed to bring her child to the priest in the sanctuary and offer a year old lamb as a burnt offering and a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering to make atonement for herself. So after all doing all this, the mother would then be purified from giving birth. So that’s what Luke is informing us is going on with Mary.
So Mary had just waited her 33 days of uncleanliness after Jesus circumcision, and her and Joseph are now bringing Jesus to the temple to finish Mary’s purification and to present Jesus to the Lord as their firstborn son. A little more context is that in Exodus we see that as as verse 23 in Luke’s Gospel tells us that as is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And this was required by the law of Moses for all the firstborn sons and animals to be dedicated to the Lord. So understanding this, the firstborn sons essentially would then be redeemed by a month later with five shekels of silver. And we learn about this in numbers.
And this was to be a reminder of how the Lord redeemed his people by bringing them out of Egypt and then killing the firstborn Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s refusal to let God’s people go. So all this is like the backdrop of the law that Christ right now is fulfilling in our text. And Mary and Joseph do all of this. Okay, Every iota of what the law says, they follow through with it. And Luke informs us that Mary and Joseph offered up a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons to complete Mary’s purification.
So you’ll notice that there is no lamb that is described here for the burnt offering that I just quoted from Leviticus. But in Leviticus it says for those who could not afford to have a lamb for a burnt offering, then that person is instead to offer up two turtledoves or two pigeons. That would be one for the burnt offering and one for the sin offering. So what this tells us is that Mary and Joseph were likely in the lower class of society during this time, since they probably could not afford the lamb for the burnt offering that is first prescribed in Leviticus. So it’s amazing for us to like take that in and understand like that God chose Mary as a lower class citizen to display his power and majesty with Christ’s arrival.
God chooses what is foolish and what is weak to shame the wise and the strong. We see that with God’s choosing of Mary and Joseph, so Mary and Joseph, they didn’t have to have the means to afford the lamb, for God had provided one through their firstborn son, whom they fully dedicated to the Lord. Luke gives us these details to help us understand that Jesus very fulfillment of the law as an infant is hinting at the purpose for which he has come. Jesus is the great firstborn over all of creation. He is the Lamb of God who would be sacrificed in order to redeem and sanctify all of God’s chosen people.
And already we see God’s providential hand fulfilling the the law through Christ’s first month of being alive. But that’s not all that God was providentially doing on this day, as Mary and Joseph visited the sanctuary at the temple. So looking at verse 25, the text informs us there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him.
And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So Simeon is like an old Jewish man who is described as righteous and devout. And he is like waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is resting on him like this is very high praise coming from Luke. And it’s clear that Simeon was part of the faithful remnant of Israel. He’s devoted to not only like knowing the Old Testament scriptures, but he’s devoted to practicing them and to living them out on a daily basis, which gives him like this righteous reputation before all who meet him.
And Simeon was also eagerly awaiting the comfort and restoration of Israel that was prophesied in Isaiah and Jeremiah and in all of the prophets. Simeon’s hope was in God’s coming salvation, meaning that the coming of the Messiah. Simeon was eagerly waiting for this to happen. So Simeon may have been old, but his faith in God and his promises, they were vibrantly alive and active. Luke also informs us that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.
And this is like really important because in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was limited to only specific individuals for specific amounts of time. Not all of God’s people of faith had the Holy Spirit during this time. So out of the kindness of God in Simeon’s life, God allowed Simeon to have like the presence of the Holy Spirit rest upon him. And it is through this, through the Holy Spirit, that God reveals to Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So God gave Simeon a special revelation and about the end of his life.
Now we don’t know like how long Simeon lived before God allowed him to see Jesus, but we do know that Simeon had faith that what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him, it would come to pass. Verse 27 tells us Simeon was led into the temple by the Holy Spirit at the exact same time that Mary and Joseph were bringing Jesus into the temple to do all that the law had required of them. So I really don’t want you guys to miss this. This is like no coincidence that Simeon has like popped up at this time. Like Simeon’s not like a random old guy who happens like bump into Mary and Joseph and like, oh Jesus, that’s not what’s happening.
Scripture’s clear that God’s hand is really orchestrating this moment that could have been hours or days or weeks or maybe even years in the making that Simeon had known he was going to see the Christ before he dies. So just take a moment and to like really think about this moment, what this moment must have been like for Simeon. Simeon, being led by the Holy Spirit, steps into the temple and he goes into the sanctuary where Joseph and Mary are with one month year old Jesus. And Simeon sees this baby. And as he sees baby Jesus, the Holy Spirit tells him, this baby, you see, this is him.
Like this is the Lord’s Christ, the salvation of God for all mankind. Here he is right in front of you in the temple. I’m sure words could not describe how precious of a moment this must have been for Simeon. Like the person he desired most to see before he passes from this life is now right here, bundled before him as a meek and beautiful baby. Not only does God fulfill what the Holy Spirit said by allowing Simeon to see Jesus like from a distance, but Simeon actually gets to hold the Savior of the world in his arms.
Like, try to understand, like how incredible this is. Like just how merciful and kind God is to Simeon to allow him to hold the Savior of the world in his arms like this. This is just mind blowing, this moment for Simeon. It had to have been for righteous and devout Simeon, waiting for the comfort of God’s Messiah to come, that he now holds in his arms. This is unbelievable grace and just unfathomable kindness to Simeon.
Simeon’s response comes from this like, overflow of his heart with blessing to God. And in doing so, Simeon prophesies an incredible doxology for Mary and Joseph and for all of Luke’s readers who hear it and believe. So here’s what he says in verses 29 through 32. Lord, now, right now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. In that very moment, Simeon could now depart, or better said, he could now die in peace.
For his arms have held the Prince of peace according to the word that the Lord had spoken to him. His eyes had seen the salvation that God prepared for all nations to see and behold a light to the Gentiles, those who live in darkness of sin without the knowledge of God’s word and without the instructions of God’s law. The light was now here in Christ. Here in Simeon’s arms lies the answer for all people and all nations. God’s light of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ.
The glory of why Israel was chosen, why God made a covenant with them, why all the law and prophets and writings exist to bring Jesus. That Simeon now holds the weight of this doxology that Simeon reveals is gloriously heavy. God’s salvation is not just for Israel, it is for all of mankind. And this has been hinted throughout the Old Testament. But now it is fully on the scene and brought forth through Christ’s coming.
And Simeon’s hymn echoes the prophet Isaiah in saying, I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And here it begins. None of us here would be here if this was not true. God’s light has revealed Christ to sinners like you and to sinners like me. And because of that it changes everything.
God’s word tells us that Jesus, father and mother, marveled at what was said. They understood that Simeon’s words were God’s words. And Simeon then turns to Mary and Joseph and proceeds to bless them and and speaks a prophetic word directly to Mary. This is what he says. Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.
And for a sign that is opposed, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.
This last prophetic word from Simeon is really not an easy one to hear. Jesus is a light of salvation for all who receive him. But not all will receive him. He will be assigned to be opposed. Those who do not believe, they will reject him and seek his demise.
When people face the reality of Jesus and who Jesus is and what he has done and what he offers, they have a choice to make. They either have to choose to believe in him, or they choose to reject him. And the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed because of this. That’s what happens when one hears the Gospel, they must choose to believe it or reject it, and the truth of their hearts will come out. This is what Simeon’s prophecy is getting at.
And this prophecy is likely echoing Micah, who says, when I fall, I shall rise, and when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. So Jesus will cause the fall and rising of many in Israel. What Simeon is saying is that the Christ will also cause the righteous to fall from the suffering that precedes glory that will occur when God’s people rise with Christ. In other words, the favor of God through Christ does not mean prosperity for God’s people while they are here on earth. For those in whom God’s favor rests on, there will be hard things that they must experience and go through that will cause them to fall.
And part of what Christ had come to do would cause the fall of many, yet they would rise again. And so Simeon warns us that there are storm clouds on the horizon that will not be easy. For the righteous persecution and suffering would come. But the good and kind providence of God includes hardship that God uses for our good and for his glory. And we see this clearly prophesied for Mary’s own life.
The favor and kindness of God allowed Mary to nurture and raise the Son of God. This is an incredible blessing and gift of kindness to Mary and to Joseph. But because of this, it also meant that she would have to watch him suffer from those who would oppose him. And one day she would have to watch her son be nailed to a cross and die a criminal’s death that he did not deserve. This would feel like a double edged sword being plunged through Mary’s own soul.
The pain and suffering that Mary would endure from God’s favor and grace in her life would be excruciating. But it wouldn’t end there. Jesus would rise again. And although Mary would fall, she also would rise again. We do not have to fear the dark storm clouds of life because just as Micah and Simeon declares, the righteous may fall, but through Christ they will rise again.
Moving to verses 36 through 38, we are introduced to another witness of Christ named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. Now the tribe of Asher was one of the lost ten tribes of Israel that had been scattered during this time, which could perhaps be Luke’s way of telling us that Christ came to restore all tribes of Israel. So along with this we learn that Anna is advanced in years and lives a very unique life as a prophetess of God. And no doubt Luke is pointing out that the Spirit of God was on Anna as well, since the Holy Spirit was almost always included with God’s people prophesying in the Old Testament. So Anna married young, but was only married for seven years before her husband died and she was left alone as a widow.
Anna then lived as a widow until she was at least 84 years old. If not, she was even older than this. That is a really, really long time to live alone as a widow. Anna had every right to be angry and bitter with God for his providence in her life. Yet that’s not what we see in the text.
Anna spent her free time as a widow doing something absolutely incredible. She spent her time worshiping and fasting and praying night and day in the temple without ever departing. Instead of letting Anna’s hardship define her, she committed her life as a widow to the Lord to make it her mission to worship, fast and pray night and day in the Lord’s house. Like this is an incredible description of an incredible woman of God. This is like a Corrie 10 boom or a Lottie moon.
Women that have devoted their lives to God’s ministry, no matter the sacrifice with hearts on fire for the Lord. That is what Anna is like. Both Simeon and Anna were part of the faithful remnant of Israel who lived with eager expectancy for God to save his people through the coming Messiah. And both Simeon and Anna hungered for righteousness, and they both got to see what they hungered for. It would have been easy for Anna to just stop believing in God after her husband had died at a very young age.
But instead, this only catalyzed her faith and devotion to the Lord to be her rock and her salvation all of her days. And we see the kind favor of God’s in Anna’s life as she providentially led her to Mary and Joseph and to Jesus during the same hour that Simeon had just come to the temple. And Anna had a very similar response as Simeon did. So when she laid her eyes on the Savior of the world, she began to give thanks to God, praising him for bringing the Christ at such a time as this. Then after seeing the salvation of God, Anna begins to speak of Jesus arrival to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.
Which is like another way of saying all the Israelites who were part of God’s people of faith, these were the people that Anna was going to tell that Christ had come. And it’s almost like she couldn’t like help but share the joy and praise that she was experiencing from seeing the Christ. Like she had to tell her believing Jewish Brothers and sisters, that the Lord the Christ is here, they too must know and spread the message that the redemption of Israel has arrived. The one whom the temple was constructed to praise now dwells among his people in the flesh as a humble baby boy. What joy and blessing Simeon and Anna must have felt on this special day, like the day that they got to behold the blessed Son of God, all because of God’s kind favor in their lives.
I hope you see this very clearly in all this passage of Scripture, that God is so good and so kind to his people who live by faith even in the midst of the difficulty that they go through. God remains good for his people. And our passage then ends in verses 39 and 40, which says, after Mary and Joseph had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to the humble small town of Nazareth in Galilee, the place that no one would have expected the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to live and to grow up. It is here that Luke tells us that Jesus grew older and became strong and even as a child was filled with wisdom and had the favor of God resting upon him. This description is reminiscent of John the Baptist description given by Luke in chapter one, verse 80, except Jesus is greater in being filled with wisdom and having the favor of God resting upon him.
So the word favor here can also be translated as grace. So God’s faithful grace filled favor was upon his eternal Son as he grew from baby to child. So Jesus tells us Jesus is the embodiment of God’s favor and grace that entered into the world to bring light and life to all living in darkness not because we deserve it, but because of the rich goodness of God to save man from his sins by seeing the Savior, the favor of God and believing in him. So to end our time, I’m going to give you just two applications to take home with you today. So if there’s anything I want you to take with you, really lean in for these last few applications.
Number one, take comfort knowing God’s favor is on you through Christ.
From the beginning of Luke’s Gospel to the end of our passage today we see God’s favor is poured over graciously upon his people through the coming Christ. And this is all because the favor of God rests upon Jesus. Jesus was born into this world without sin and lived a sinless life. He came that he may lay his sinless life down as payment for your and my sin. And because on our own we do not find favor with God, rather our righteous acts, they’re like filthy rags before A holy God.
We deserve death and separation because of our stubborn hearts that would rather live for ourself than live for the God who gave us breath and life. Jesus fulfilled the entire law from birth until his last dying breath on the cross. And after dying, Jesus rose again from the dead, proving his sacrifice was acceptable to God for the penalty of our sin. So now, today, if anyone would see Christ for who he is as the Savior of the world and believe in him by faith, they will be forgiven of their sin. Just as Simeon and Anna experienced the presence of God through the Holy Spirit, now all who live by faith can receive the same Spirit and be directed by his counsel and his help.
If you believe in Jesus as the Lord of your life, take heart, knowing no matter what you’ve done or no matter what you’re going through right now, God’s favor rests on you because of his favor that rests upon Christ. As Simeon had peace to pass from this earth, you too can have peace. Trusting God is for you. He will watch over you until the day you are called home. We see this very clear for Simeon, for Anna and for Mary.
God is good and kind in how he lays out our days. Even with the dark storm clouds of life, his providence remains good. And even if we fall, we will rise again. God’s favor is with you. He gives you light in the darkness and freedom from sin.
Take heart and be joyful, knowing God’s favor is upon you through faith. And if you’re here and you do not have faith in Christ, then know that Simeon’s last prophetic words are a warning to you. When you see Christ, the inward thoughts of your heart are revealed in whether you choose to believe or to reject Jesus. The only way to knowing God. Do not oppose the Son of God for those who reject Him.
God’s favor does not rest on you. In the day of your judgment, you will be judged for how you responded to Christ. To those who do not believe, Jesus will tell them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. If you’re here and you do not know Jesus.
And there’s only one answer for you to do, and that is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. Today. Today. Today is the day of salvation. If you will hear and see and believe as Simeon and Anna heard, seen and believed.
My second application for you is this. Live with purpose in God’s providence. We see the providential hand of God all throughout this text. Jesus. Fulfillment of the law of the Lord.
Even as a baby Simeon looking for God’s Consolation and then seeing it in Christ at the exact time and place that Jesus was in the temple. Anna devoting her life to the Lord at the temple after becoming a widow and then seeing the Christ that very hour. Simeon and Anna, they lived with great zeal and purpose for the Lord even in their old age. They loved the Lord and they longed to see the salvation of God in their lifetime. And they did see it.
They boldly proclaimed the word of God to others and they sought to serve the Lord wherever they went. Live a life like that. Live with purpose in God’s providence. Know that for such a time as this God has given you life and breath and faith in Christ so that you could tell your neighbors and tell your friends and your co workers about who Jesus is and that he has come to save for such a time as this. He has brought you to Red Village Church to love your brothers and sisters in Christ here who are sitting around you.
Live life with joyful purpose. God has a plan to use you for his glory. And it’s like really exciting to know that you are part of God’s plan and his spirit is in you and leading you to accomplish all that he wills to have happen.
Who knows what the Lord might do through you? Who knows what he might show you or what you might go through with the Lord because of his good and gracious providence in your life. It is a joy to have the Holy Spirit as our guide knowing that today our God has a plan for us. So whether we are on a mountain or we are in the valley, there is purpose in the providence of God for our good and for the glory of Christ forevermore. So let us humbly and eagerly live for the Lord today.
Please pray with me.
God, I thank you for your word.
Lord, I thank you for the examples of Simeon and Anna, how God they believed that Christ would come and then they got to see it. Lord, you are so good and gracious and kind to your people all because the favor of God has come to us in Christ. Lord, we thank you that we have a Savior. And we thank you that you are a loving Father who sees tomorrow and today and orchestrates all things for your kingdom. That we can not have to walk in fear, but we can walk by faith, knowing that you will lead us by your good hand and by your good spirit.
God help us to apply this as we walk out of here to live with purpose in your providence. And God, thank you for your word that you speak to us. May you be glorified and worshiped with the rest of our time here this morning, and in Jesus name we all pray. Amen.