Definitely, Father, we just thank you for our brother Sam
and the word that he brings the message.
We thank you for your word, God, we just pray that you'll speak
powerfully through Sam. And we also thank you for the
volunteers and their helpers and the kids ministries.
Lord, thank you for them and their hearts.
We pray for the kids that you would just continue to guide
them in your way in in your word.
We pray this in your name, Amen. Good morning.
It is so great to be with you all this morning.
Would you turn with me please in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2?
Luke chapter 2 is going to be our passage today from verse 21
to verse 40. And just while you're turning
there, I just want to say it is it is such a joy to be with you
all this morning. I think it's been over a decade
since I would have been a member of this church, but we've been
following in, in Christchurch where I live with my wife and
we, we serve at Redemption Church there.
And we at Redemption Church are so, so blessed to call you
brothers and sisters. And we've been encouraged to see
what the Lord is doing here in this church.
We, we have been following with great joy as we, we see
different things going on and, and friends, old friends, new
friends, some of whom we saw yesterday at the wedding.
And it's just so wonderful to see your faces and people have
never met as well. The Lord is doing great things.
He is so faithful and we're just so, so glad to be with you this
morning. And we welcome you as well to
Redemption Church in Christchurch.
If you're ever in the South Island, we welcome you with all
the warmth that the South Island can bring.
We're just, we're grateful to be fellowshipping with you this
morning. Let's read God's word.
We're in Luke chapter 2. This is the passage I've been
assigned, Luke chapter 2, verse 21 through 40.
It's a longish passage. We'll read it together and I'll
pray briefly and we'll dive in. So if you're there in your
Bibles, this is from the ESV, this is God's Word.
And 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 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 wholly 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.
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 said, Lord, now you are leading 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 marvelled 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 the 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 Fanuel of
the tribe of Esher. She was advanced in years,
having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a
virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84.
She did not depart from the Temple, worshipping with fasting
and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour,
she began to give thanks to God and to speak of 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 returned into Galilee to their own town of
Nazareth. And the child grew and became
strong, filled with wisdom in the favour of God was upon him.
Father, may your favour be upon us this morning.
And would you fill us with wisdom to understand the message
of this desperately needed text of your precious You're
inspired, your infallible, you're sufficient, You're
authoritative word. And may each of us be obedient
to this word. And may Christ be formed in us.
We pray in His name, Amen. Well, there's a lot in the
account that we just read, but there's two constant recurring
themes and they happen to be two of my favourite themes in the
entire Bible. So I'm very, very happy to have
been assigned this passage this morning.
As we work through this together, we're going to be
seeing 2 main themes, faithfulness and fulfilment.
Faithfulness and fulfilment and these are so relevant for our
day-to-day lives. Now let me explain.
So weeks before we left Christchurch to fly here to see
all of you, our children, our three children were very excited
about getting on the plane, about coming to see Grandma and
Granddad and the rest of course. And their eager expectation was
fulfilled when we went to the airport and we got on that plane
and in New Zealand didn't let us down.
All of their little hopes and dreams, they were fulfilled, but
you can imagine the devastation if they hadn't been.
If they're after all our promises and after all of the
conversations about Grandma and granddad, we never got on that
plane. And I think it's, it's not just
that there would have been no fulfilment of their
expectations. I think that the deeper pain in
the children's heart would have been from realising that their
parents were not faithful. The parents were not faithful to
keep their promises. Their their father's word could
not be trusted for some reason. Dad was either incapable or or
he he didn't see something coming.
He wasn't wise enough, or he wasn't strong enough, or he just
wasn't good enough. Maybe he just didn't want to
keep his word. So you see how faithfulness and
fulfilment are intertwined and a trillion times more serious than
our little trip to the North Island is God's promises and
God's faithfulness and the fulfilment of all that God's
children have been eagerly waiting for and and longing for
over the centuries. For thousands of years God has
made promises to us people. God made a promise as early as
Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden.
God said that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the
serpent. And then as clearly as Isaiah
53, we were told that the Servant of the Lord would be
pierced for our transgressions. And so all through the sad myth
that as human history, the only hope that God's people have had
is that God would remain faithful and that his promise
about the Messiah will be fulfilled.
And if not, there's no hope. There's not.
There's only sin and suffering and death and judgement.
So now passage this morning, Luke weaves together these
precious themes of faithfulness and fulfilment, and we see them
playing out in the lives of of three sets of people.
And first of all, we'll see it in the lives of Joseph and Mary,
the parents, and then secondly in the life of Simeon, the
Prophet, and finally in the life of Anna, the profiteers.
So through the parents and the Prophet and the profiteers, we
will see faithfulness and fulfilment.
O, let's dive in. Let's look at the appearance.
And again in verse 21, at the end of eight days, we're told
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 the purification, according to the
law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him
to the Lord. So what we see here is that
Jesus had all the right things done at all the right times.
His parents, they had him circumcised.
Then they presented him at the temple.
They presented the Lord to the Lord, and verse 24 says they
offered a sacrifice. Now why?
Why would the Lord of Glory need to go through the indignity of
circumcision and the inconvenience of all these
temple rituals? And why would he need a
sacrifice offered and all these all these things that he was the
author of? It wasn't just practical, it was
essential. It was essential to his very
mission as the Son of Man. He had to fulfil all
righteousness. This is the holy One of Israel.
He is righteous. He is absolutely perfectly
righteous, but He still had to go through these things to
fulfil all righteousness so that He would be the perfect
substitute for sinners. Because the name given by the
Angel Jesus means the Lord saves.
And to save us, He not only had to be perfectly righteous within
himself, as He always was and always will be, but He had to
actively obey on behalf of His people all of the legal
requirements that they were enslaved to so that having
fulfilled the law, He could free His people entirely as their
substitute, as the spotless Lamb of God.
And there's there's so much about Jesus life that we don't
know, right? Like we've been seeing in these
last you've been seeing, I assume in these last chapter and
a half of Luke, some of the few details that we have of Jesus
early life. And then there's a gap.
We see nothing for 30 years almost until his ministry and
his death. And what was the point of those
30 odd years before he went and died on the cross?
Well, he spent those years living in total perfect
obedience to the law of God so that when he suffered in the
place of his people, he would be an acceptable sacrifice, having
fulfilled all righteousness, having been faithful to every
detail of the law we couldn't keep.
I really think Luke wants us to get this because he says, you
know, verse 22, the law, verse 23, the law, verse 24 the law,
verse 27, the law, verse 39, the law.
You get the point. Each time the law was faithfully
fulfilled by Jesus and every last detail.
So Luke is taking us by the shoulders and he's shaking us
and he's saying this is the saviour of the world.
He fulfilled every letter of the law that we could never keep,
and he said it himself. And Matthew 517 Jesus said, do
not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets.
I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.
And even as a baby, he was faithfully fulfilling his own
law. And council is perfect, right?
It reminds us that we're not that reminds us that we'll never
measure up. We wouldn't never deserve mercy
and grace from the Holy One. We're sinners, but there's hope
because he was called Jesus, which means the Lord saves.
I know we're just getting started, but before you go any
further, you need to face this. The Lord saves.
Are you saved? Saved from what?
Well, the penalty of sin, of disobedience to God's law.
We have all broken His law, and He is too good of a judge to let
anyone off the hook. That is not how it works,
sinners. Serious sin has to be punished,
otherwise Jesus would never have had to die.
But he didn't die for his own sin, right?
He had fulfilled all righteousness, so he died as a
substitute. He died in the place of sinners.
We are not good enough, my friends.
You are not good enough and you will never be good enough, no
matter how hard we try. We don't deserve to be saved.
We are a fallen race, but Jesus Christ is good enough.
He's good enough. He's acceptable to the Father
and all you need to do is believe in Him.
By faith, we're just saying it. Admit you're not good enough and
receive His free gift of righteousness and forgiveness.
Now see the faithfulness of God. See how His word is fulfilled.
He was called Jesus, right? The name given by the Angel
before he was even conceived. Everything the Lord says is
true. Everything he said, there would
be a virgin birth and there was. Jesus said he would rise from
the dead, and he did. Jesus said that he offers
forgiveness of sins, and he does.
He said he would return and he will.
Are you ready? Are you ready for that?
And how can anyone really be ready to see the King and all
his glory turn away from your sin and trust completely in this
perfect Saviour? I want to draw your attention to
the faithfulness of his parents again, faithfulness and
fulfilment. Their, their hand in hand,
they're woven together all through this passage.
Notice how God used the faithfulness of Mary and Joseph
to fulfil everything concerning Jesus.
We learn a lot about Mary and Joseph here.
They were super diligent, weren't they, to do everything
right. They do everything correctly in
line with the Old Testament and what the Angel told them to.
They knew the word of God. They were faithful to it.
But that's not all that we learn about them here.
They were poor. Verse 23 As it is written in the
law of the Lord, every male who first opens the worm shall be
called holy for the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to
what I said in the law of the Lord.
A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
Now, who cares about turtle doves and pigeons?
Well, would you just come with me in your mind's eye, just for
just for a moment, and just be there in the temple as this is
happening? You've got a young couple.
They're exhausted, no doubt. They're dusty and they're sweaty
and they're weary, these new parents, and they're heavy with
responsibility and fatigue that they've probably never felt
before in their lives. And there's this busy crowd.
There's thousands of other worshippers and other young
babies being dedicated as well-being consecrated to the
Lord. Jesus is not the only one there.
Then you can see there's Pharisees all decked out in
their robes and there's priests doing their doing their bloody
work and slaughtering animals and there's animals dying and
and crying out. There's Roman soldiers keeping
watch. You've got babies screaming,
you've got merchants haggling. There's all the smells of sweat
and blood, and in the middle of there is a man called Joseph,
and in his arms as a sacrifice that is not a lamb, which
everybody knew was the standard offering, and Joseph's arms is a
pair of birds. This is the poor man's
alternative. So this couple faithful to the
law was nothing in the eyes of the world.
They were scandalous because of the circumstances of Jesus birth
and they were broke. So the Mother who carried the
Lamb of God could not afford a lamb for the purification
sacrifice. It was from Leviticus 12 which
says that she shall bring a lamb for the atonement.
And verse 8, if she cannot afford a lamb and she can't
afford it, then she shall take 2 turtle doves or two pigeons, one
for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and
the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean
if she cannot afford a lamb. So Mary, holding in her arms the
first born Son, holy to the Lord, the fulfilment of the Law,
the true Temple, the true purification sacrifice, the true
altar, He was everything that the Old Testament pointed to.
He's the true Lamb. She's holding him in his arms,
but she came with a pair of turtle doves or two pigeons.
And so in the eyes of that crowd, this little family may as
well have had a sign above their head saying, She cannot afford a
lamb. But in the eyes of God, in the
eyes of the faithful, like Elizabeth in the previous
chapter, we say blessed are you among women and blessed as the
fruit of your womb, and blessed as she who believed that there
would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
And the question for us this morning is, are you looking at
outward appearances? We who have believed, like Mary,
we have Jesus. We have Jesus.
We have the King of Glory. Who cares what we don't have?
We have Jesus. Who cares how we look to the
world? We have Jesus, and we ourselves
must not look to this world, to this life, for our satisfaction,
for our contentment, for our fulfilment, for our worth.
We have Jesus. I want to look now at the the
man Simeon the profit and verse 25 as we turn from looking at
the parents to looking at the profit, there was a man in
Jerusalem. His name was Simeon.
He was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
This is high price, and this is a faithful man.
He's righteous, he's devout. The Holy Spirit is upon him.
We know nothing else about Simeon except what we're told
here. This is quite a man, this he was
waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Now what is that this refers? Most of specifically refers to
the 1st 2 verses of Isaiah 40 where the law says comfort,
Comfort my people says you're God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has
ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received
from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
So comfort, the removal of sorrow, the consolation of
Israel. That's what it was.
It was prophesied, it was promised that the Messiah would
come, the one who would fulfil everything and bring freedom and
forgiveness. Christ, the constellation of a
grieving, hurting people. Now Simian this faithful man, he
knew that God is faithful to his promises.
He knew so he was waiting for the fulfilment.
He was longing to see the Messiah because verse 26 says it
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not
see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
So he's waiting. He's waiting and the Lord says
to him, you're gonna see it. You're not gonna die until
you've seen the Lord, the Lord's Christ.
So he's an He's an eager expectation.
His life is drawing to an end, but he knows he's going to see
the Messiah. And this is, again, this is so
much more than that. But I just I can't help but
think of the little kids waiting to get on that plane and there's
no shadow of a doubt in their minds.
Cause Dad's faithful right? Of course.
Of course there will be a fulfilment of all the eager
expectation. The difference here is that from
the eyes of of flesh like it looks so unlikely.
It looks there's no plane on the tarmac.
It looks so unlikely that this promise is going to be
fulfilled. The Romans have occupied
Jerusalem. The Jews are living absolutely
in in sin. This is false religion.
At this point in time it looks so unlikely.
Verse 27 He came in the spirit into the temple, and the parents
bought him the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom
of the law. He took him up on his arms, and
he blessed God, and he said, Lord, now you are letting your
servant depart in peace according to your Word.
My eyes have seen your salvation that you've prepared in the
presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people. Israel.
What a fulfilment. What a fulfilment after
faithfully serving the Lord all those years in the midst of all
that darkness, the Lord had held Simeon.
The Lord had held Simeon through the trials of his life.
And now the Lord comes to Simeon as a baby and let Simeon hold
him. And fulfilment of that gracious
promise. God is faithful, and this is the
greatest moment of Simeon's life.
He's overwhelmed with joy. My eyes have seen your
salvation. Light to the Gentiles, glory to
Israel, fulfilment of every word of God's promises.
Because God is faithful and you'll notice that having seen
Jesus, Simeon is ready to die. He says, you know, it's it's
really interesting. Verse 29.
It's difficult to translate, but in effect, Simeon said.
Lord my Master, you can now dismiss your slave.
Send me away in peace, as you promised.
Let me die, Lord, I'm at peace. Your word is fulfilled.
Let me go home. This is anything but morbid,
right? This is this.
There's no hint of that, that self pitying or overwhelmed
desire for for death that we see in this Dark World.
But this is a song of praise coming from a heart at peace.
I'm ready to go home. Lord, Take Me Home.
Thank you. I've seen all I wanted to see.
I don't need to see anything else.
I've seen the Lord, He's ready to be dismissed by his Master,
having served his Lord faithfully, and the Lord have
been faithful to him, fulfilled all that he had promised.
And old Simeon was at peace. And this strikes me because I,
I, for the last eight years, I've been working as a paramedic
and I can just, I can just promise you this is not how most
people go to their death. This isn't how it ends for
people, I think. A life of faithful obedience to
a faithful God will bring you to your death fulfilled.
May God help us all to end our earthly lives like Simeon did,
at peace. At peace, content and joyful and
fulfilled and ready to go home. That happens when you serve them
well and you know His faithfulness.
I want to comment just really briefly on verse 33 before we
move on because this is dear to my heart.
Look at this. His father and his mother
marvelled at what was said about him.
Now you know. Scripture makes it so clear.
Joseph was not Jesus biological father right?
Jesus was virgin born, but here the Lord honours Joseph.
He owns them as His earthly father.
And I really do believe that this little detail tells us
something about the heart of God.
Because Joseph was poor, right? He was.
He was socially of low standing, but the Lord elevates him.
He honours that faithful man who humbly and diligently just
shouldered that responsibility of raising the Son of God.
Now God sees the work of parents, even those parents who
are caring for children that are not their own.
We just had Father's Day last week and I'm sure that in your
church as in ours, there are there are step parents and and
adoptive parents and foster parents and, and people who care
for others children. God sees your work, even if the
world never sees it. And you may not see the
fulfilment of all of your prayers and all of your hopes in
this life, but God is faithful and the work is worth it.
The Lord honours Joseph here. Please come back to the the
story verse 34. There's a dark prophecy.
Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary's mother, Behold, this
child is appointed for the full and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign that is opposed. And the sword will Pierce
through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts
may be revealed. Now this may be the most
disturbing biblical prophecy ever made about any godly
individual other than Christ himself, right?
The sufferings of the Messiah, they were foretold, and the
destruction of of rebellious nations was foretold.
But I know of no other faithful person who received such a
devastating personal warning. And I think you know that it was
very much fulfilled when Jesus hung from a Roman cross, when he
was suspended above the ground by nails through his hands and
feet, beaten bloody and abused, with insults being hurled at
him, as he laid down His life, as he poured out His blood, is
Isaiah 53. C poured out his soul unto
death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
Mary stood watching, John 1925 says.
The soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of
Jesus was his mother, safe to say, as he cried out with a loud
voice and yielded up his Spirit. And then as this, the spear
pierced the side of his dead body.
I think it's safe to say that Mary's soul was pierced through
as though by a sword. The Lord sent His servant
swimming in here 3 decades before that happened to help to
prepare Mary's heart. It was loving, was it not, to
tell her in advance to protect her faith when it did happen so
that she would not be completely unprepared and think, well, the
Lord's not faithful then well, it's my son is dead, where's the
fulfilment of his promises? The Lord prepared her faith and
we received something similar. When Paul warns us that all all
who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
When Peter warns us, he says, do not be surprised, brothers, by
the fiery trial that is coming among you.
When Jesus warns us, he says in this world you will have
troubles. We've been warned, but take
heart. Christ has overcome the world
and the suffering of Mary's soul that was prophesied here.
Awful though it was, it was not accidental.
That was not unnecessary. That was not permanent.
Neither is your suffering. God is faithful.
He is absolutely in control of every detail.
He has a good purpose and his good purpose will be fulfilled
even through the suffering of his own people, even through the
suffering of Jesus. Well, why?
Why did, why, why did the Lord ordain suffering an opposition
for him, for himself, for his son?
And Simeon says, because this child is appointed for the
fallen rising of many, and so the thoughts from many hearts
may be revealed. Now that includes you, your fall
or rising, your thoughts and your heart.
You see, Jesus is either a stone of stumbling and a rock of
offence, or He is the chief cornerstone.
With Jesus, you're either all in or you're all out.
There is no middle ground. He demands total allegiance.
Whoever believes will be saved right?
Whoever, but only those who believe and how you respond to
Jesus, it determines whether you will fall or whether you will
rise at the judgement. How do you respond to Jesus?
Reveals the thoughts of your heart, it reveals the state of
your soul, and it reveals your destiny.
Because the Lamb is also the Lord, and He came this first
time as a Saviour. He returns as a conqueror and as
a judge. So just like it was kind of
Simeon to warn Mary of what would happen to her soul, it is
out of love I warn you today. Your eternal soul hangs in the
balance of what you do with Jesus.
Rise or fall? Heaven or how?
Repent or perish? The Bible is so lovingly clear
on this, we cannot be mistaken. I know what it is to sit in
church. It's a Christian so-called for
years and not to be saved. Please examine your own hearts.
How you respond to Jesus will reveal the thoughts of your
heart. It's not about being worthy.
None of us is worthy. Only Jesus fulfilled the law.
It's about being rescued. It's about admitting your
unworthiness and embracing the only one who can save you.
Jesus suffered to save sinners, and that's us, and He will
welcome you with open arms if you just trust in Him.
Shall we move on? Look at the prophetess.
This is an amazing, amazing woman.
And our final, our final point here, the profiteers and verse
36, this lady Anna, and she was advanced in years, we're told
with verse 36, having lived with her husband seven years from
when she was a virgin, then as a widow until she was 84.
She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting
and prayer, night and day. Now this.
This is a faithful woman. She's been faithful for the long
haul. She's been a widow for longer
than most of us have been alive, married only seven years before
her husband was taken. And how did she respond to that?
Very difficult and very drawn out trial that God brought her
away. She did not depart from the
temple worshipping with fasting and prayer, night and day.
Now that's one way to spend your retirement years.
You can't. You can't fast and pray night
and day for your own needs year after year, so I think it's fair
to assume the Anna was fasting and praying on behalf of others.
This is constant, fervent, generous prayer.
She had to have been praying for others, for the people of God,
no doubt the redemption of Jerusalem, the consolation of
Israel, but also for the many burdens that she sees as people
come to the Temple year after year, in great need and great
sorrow. She's praying night and day,
with prayer and fasting. So what an example to ask.
But again, to the world, what is she?
She's just an old religious widow.
That's all she is in the eyes of the world, totally unremarkable,
unimpressive. But in God's Kingdom, she's an
elite warrior. She is highly esteemed.
She's an example to us all, and now she is deeply loved and
richly rewarded forever. And notice in verse 38, she
began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who are
waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
She gave thanks and she spoke of Jesus.
And see, those two are inseparable.
If you're grateful for the fulfilment of God's promises in
Christ, you will be faithful to speak of Him to others.
You cannot receive the gift of the Gospel without wanting to
share that gift with others. Gratitude cheers the gospel,
that's how it works. And Anna is just such an example
to us all of suffering well, of suffering with faith, of
gratitude, of devotion and worship and prayer and sharing
the good news. In a word, Anna is defined by
faithfulness, and I think whatever season of life you're
in, you can learn from Anna how to faithfully live for God.
But I'm conscious of time. Believe it or not, I am.
I am. So let's wrap up.
And just looking at these last two verses, we almost double
back to the parents here when they performed everything
according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee
to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became
strong, filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon him.
And again, faithfulness, fulfilment, all wrapped up here
together, Mary and Joseph, they were faithful to do their part.
And all the while, every prophecy about Jesus was being
fulfilled. From his birth in Bethlehem, his
presentation in Jerusalem, their return to gallery Galilee, all
of that was foretold, all of that was fulfilled.
And Jesus grew. He grew right against all odds.
He was poor, uneducated, oppressed, but the child grew
and became strong, filled with wisdom.
He was opposed by the world, but the favour of God was upon him.
Because God is faithful, His promises are always fulfilled.
Therefore Jesus grew and now in how entire world and our that
this little child grew. He grew to become a man, a man
who died and rose again and even now is seated on the throne of
heaven, and he will return to judge the living and the dead.
The child grew and God is still faithful.
His promises will still be fulfilled.
I can't. I can't look at this passage and
see Simeon eagerly waiting for the coming of the Lord and see
see Anna rejoicing over the coming of the Messiah and see
Mary and Joseph faithfully obeying and trusting that God
will be faithful to his promises.
I can't look at this and not think about the fact that Jesus,
it's coming back. He's coming back again.
I want to look forward to his return the way they did.
I want to be faithful to him now the way they were.
So as we close off, I wanna leave you with Paul's final
words in Second Timothy 4. And to me, when I read of Simeon
and Anna, I just cannot not think of Paul's final words.
I think he could have echoed them.
I think they could have echoed what Paul said here and he said
in his last letter before his church history tells us he was
beheaded for his faith. He says the time of my departure
has come. I have fought the good fight.
This as we sang this morning. I've finished the race.
I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but
also to all who have loved His appearing brothers and sisters.
Our God is faithful. His Word will be fulfilled.
Are you among those who love his appearing?
When you look at this world, when you look at everything
that's happened even in this past week, if you've had your
eyes open, our hope is in Jesus. It's nowhere else.
God is faithful. Christ will return.
Every word of God stands true. The grass Withers and the flower
fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever His faithful
cherry praying her Father, we thank you so much for your
faithfulness. We thank You so much that this
little child fulfilled every last detail of Your law, of the
promises that You made Lord, and that You are still faithful and
He will return. Help us to trust You, help us to
look to Christ and to His return, and not to get bogged
down by the trials around us. The Lord with heavenly vision,
with unwavering faith to imitate the examples we've seen today in
Jesus parents and in Simeon and Anna of lives lived hopefully,
faithfully. Lord make us more like Christ.
For his glory we pray. Amen.