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Good morning Riverbend. My name is Todd Slade, and I
have the privilege to serve as your executive pastor.
It's crazy that it's been 15 or 16 months ago that the Lord
brought us to Riverbend. Crazy how fast time flies.
But we are so thankful that God has brought us here.
So thankful for Pastor Ben allowing me to come up and close
out our Christmas series this year, 2025.
Just real quick by a show of hands, how many of you knew that
I was preaching this morning? All right, so one or two of you.
And you came anyway. So you're a glutton for
punishment, I guess. And so thank you for being here
this morning. I'm so thankful for Pastor Ben
and the way that God has allowed him to lead Riverbend over this
past year. And man, it has just been such a
a fun ride. And I'm so excited about what
God's going to do over 20262027 in the years to come.
So thankful again for the opportunity to close out our
Christmas series with you today. It's been wonderful to look back
at the big idea of our series. Christmas Isn't Christmas isn't
just the story of Jesus birth, it's the story of God's heart.
And this has served as our big idea for this series the last
four weeks. Again, Christmas isn't just the
story of Jesus birth, but it's the story of God's heart and
it's been so good to look back over this.
God's heart is to send Jesus to come rescue his people.
And we've looked at that these past four weeks.
This morning I want to put a bow on this series as we look at 2
incredible individuals that are part of the Christmas story and
you may not think they're part of the Christmas story, but they
are. We're going to look at 2
possibly forgotten characters of the Christmas story.
It's kind of like 4 weeks ago. Nathan read through all of
Matthew chapter one. I'm glad Pastor Ben asked him to
preach that sermon and not me because there were so many hard
words. And that's in that passage that
Nathan did a great job with. But often times that passage of
scriptures overlooked because people don't want to try to say
those words or read those words. Pastor Nathan did a great job.
But it's kind of just like that, that passage of scripture.
Often times Anna and Simeon get left out.
They kind of get forgotten about.
And so this morning we're going to look at 2 possibly forgotten
characters of Christmas Story, Anna and Simeon.
Before I jump into the message this morning, I want to
recommend to you a wonderful little book.
It's written by a guy named Daniel Darling.
We've got it up here on the screen this morning.
It's called the Characters of Christmas, the unlikely people
caught up in the story of Jesus. And that's exactly what we've
been talking about through this through this series.
The unlikely characters of the story of Jesus.
Anna and Simeon fit right into that.
This unlikely characters, the unlikely characters that are in
this story. And so this morning as we look
at at at Anna and good grief, Anna and Simeon, I pray that you
would be encouraged by the by what we see about them.
The characters of Christmas that point out Jesus presence in our
lives are Simeon and Anna. If you're like me, this is not
the first two people that you think about when you think about
Christmas. I'm sure all of you, if you have
the Nativity set somewhere in your house, you have your Anna
figurine and your Simeon figurine right beside your
Nativity set, don't you? Right.
Yeah. None of us do, right?
It's just not what we do. Simeon and Anna are often
forgot. One quick question before we get
going. You can raise your hand if you'd
like to. How many of you sat around at
some point this Christmas and read the Christmas story from
Luke chapter 2, starting in verse one?
Any of you do that? Yeah, we do that.
That's part of our Christmas tradition.
And so it was a little bit later this year.
My family's had a, a, a different Christmas this year,
which was fine. But we we read the Christmas
story, Luke chapter 2 verses one through 14.
What we didn't do is we didn't read about Simeon and Anna at
the end of Luke chapter 2, right?
I was going to say, how many of you read about Simeon and Anna
at the end of Luke chapter 2? You just don't do that right?
We. Stop at at.
Luke chapter 2, verse 141516, somewhere around in there, but I
challenge you to go back and read all of Luke chapter 2
because it's very, very encouraging to us, and we're
going to look at that this morning.
Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 25.
We're going to start looking at Simeon, talk about him, and then
we're going to dive in and take a look at Anna towards the end
of our time together this morning.
So if you have your Bibles, I'm going to ask if you would to
open to Luke chapter 2, Matthew, Mark, Luke in the New Testament,
Luke chapter 2 and begin in verse 25.
If you don't have a hard copy of God's Word, that's OK.
The word of God will be on the screen for us this morning.
And so if you want to read together along.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
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 he when, 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, Blessed God, and said, 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 and for glory to your people.
Israel. Father, I thank you for your
word this morning. Lord, I pray that you would use
Your word to challenge us. Lord, I pray that you would use
your word to encourage us. Most of all, Father, I pray this
morning that through the study of Your Word, we would leave
here more in love with you. Father, would you send your Holy
Spirit to provide illumination and understanding?
Lord most of all, Lord, would you allow us to hear from you
this morning? Father, we love you.
Christ's name we pray. Amen.
So verse 25 of Luke 2 starts with a conjunction and that
conjunction is the word. Now I want to give you just a
little bit of background as we jump into this passage this
morning. Jesus has been born, all right?
We know that because Luke chapter 2 one through 14 tells
us that it sets out the story of Jesus birth Mary, Mary and
Joseph going up to Jerusalem. And it's interesting that it you
always when you hear about Jerusalem, they're always going
up. Well, that's because Jerusalem
was on a hill and so they had to go up.
And so Mary and Joseph have gone up to Jerusalem.
They find themselves without any place to have a baby.
So they go into the stable. Jesus is born here in our story,
as we get to verse 25 of the story, verse 2223 of Luke
chapter 2, we find that Jesus is now 40 days old.
Now this is important because an Old Testament law when a, when a
baby is 40 days old or so, you would have to take him to the
temple to have him presented to the Lord.
And so that's what Mary and Joseph are doing here.
They've taken Jesus up to be dedicated, if you will.
We, we practice a parent child dedication here as well.
That's kind of what's going on here with Mary and Joseph.
There's also an additional thing that's going on after you would
have a baby in Jewish, in Jewish customer Jewish culture, you
would have to go to the temple and be cleansed 40 days after
you had had a baby. And so Mary is going to be
cleansed. Jesus is going to be dedicated
or presented to the Lord. So that's what's going on here.
Mary and Joseph are devout followers of Jehovah God and why
wouldn't they be miraculous? Or some say crazy things have
happened to get them to this point.
Just think about it. Wouldn't you be a devout
follower of God if if an Angel had come to you and your soon to
be spouse and told you that you were going to have a baby, On
top of that this baby was going to be the Son of God.
Oh and on top of that that Mary was going to be pregnant by the
Holy Spirit because she and Joseph had not been together.
I mean these were miraculous things right?
And so why wouldn't they be devout followers of God?
Well, they would have been devout, the devout followers of
God, not just because of those things that had happened, but
Mary and Joseph were devout followers of God because of
their family history, because of their lineage, parents,
grandparents. Let me say this to you this
morning. It's huge for us that we lead
our children according to God's law, according to God's Word.
Mary and Joseph were devout followers of God, not just
because of the things that had happened to them over the past
few weeks and months, but they were devout followers of God
because of their parents and their grandparents and the
lineage that had been given to him, the history that had been
given to them. The.
Legacy of faith. That had been passed down from
them. And so let me encourage you this
morning, parents, grandparents, whether you're new to the faith
or whether you've been a Christian for 50 or 60 years,
let me encourage you this morning.
It's never too late to leave a, to leave a godly heritage for
your children and grandchildren. Mary and Joseph were devout
followers of God. Praise the Lord And remember,
they're just teenagers here. They would have been 12/13/14,
maybe 15 years old at this point.
And so the fact that that all of this is happening to them is
amazing. This sort of explains a little.
Bit about why Mary and Joseph would have been devout followers
of God, but the interesting thing is their devotion to God
had begun a long time before this.
Their devotion to Jehovah God is a result of the families they
were raised in. I would say that there's a
sermon in that for a different day.
We could preach all day about that.
We could preach all day to encourage us as parents and
grandparents to leave a legacy for our kids.
But for today, let's go on with Simeon and Anna.
Jesus is 40 days old. His mom and dad take him to the
temple to present him to the Lord.
We come to verse 25. 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. Now I'm going to give you some
points about Simeon and we'll dive into these points as we as
we get into each one of them. But first, Simeon was righteous
and devout. That's interesting.
We don't know a whole lot about Simeon.
We don't know much about him at all.
We don't know his parents or we don't know any of those things.
We just know that he was righteous and devout.
This is a pretty good thing to know.
Simeon is an example of the faithful.
Verse 23 says he was. I don't think that's verse 23.
That's verse 26. I think he was waiting for the
consolation of Israel. More on this in a moment.
And Simeon was full of the Holy Spirit.
We don't have time this morning to really dig into this.
There's so much in this passage that I wish we could really dig
into because it is so very important for us to dig into
each of these things. There's so much here, church, we
could spend all day just on this one point.
But let me point this out, Simeon.
It says he was full of the Holy Spirit.
Do you remember a little thing that happened in Acts chapter 2?
Acts chapter 2 verse one says when the day of Pentecost
arrived, they were all together in one place and suddenly there
came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.
It filled the entire house. So they were sitting divided
tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of
them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began
to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from
every nation under heaven. And at this sound the magnitude
came to the multitude, came together, and they were
bewildered because each one of them hearing them speak in his
own language. Now here's the interesting
thing. Acts chapter 2 is Pentecost.
Luke chapter 2 is what we're talking about with Simeon.
All right, Acts chapter 2 takes place roughly 33 years after
Luke chapter 2. OK, so hang with me just for a
second. Get this if you will.
Acts chapter 2, Luke chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 happens 33 years
after Luke chapter 2. The Holy Spirit falls on the on
the people, on the followers of God in Acts chapter 2.
There has been no Holy Spirit in Luke chapter 2.
All right, you got me so far. So the fact that Luke includes
this small little detail and says that Simeon was full of the
Holy Spirit, that shouldn't have happened.
It shouldn't have happened because the Holy Spirit hasn't
come yet. All right, you got me.
So the fact that Luke adds this detail about Simeon tells us
something huge about this man named Simeon.
He wasn't just your regular old patron at the at the Jewish
temple that day. That was something unique going
on with Simeon. You know, Pastor Ben has says
that has said this a lot over the past few weeks.
But we are as close to God as we want to be.
And man, what a powerful statement that is.
Hey, listen, church, if you get up in the morning and you go
about your day, you jump in the shower, you brush your teeth,
you comb your hair, you go grab your cup of coffee and you hit
the road and go. To work.
Hey, guess what? You're probably not going to be
as close to the Holy Spirit as you want to be.
But if you get up in the morning and your first 5-10, fifteen,
20-30 minutes that you spend in the morning is diving into God's
Word, hey, guess what? You're probably going to be a
little bit closer to the Lord than if you didn't do that.
And so the fact that Luke includes this, this important
distinction about Simeon is huge.
This shouldn't have been the case because the Holy Spirit
hadn't come yet. But the fact that the that the
Bible says that Simeon was full of the Holy Spirit is huge.
Lastly, Simeon waited a long time for the long.
Expected Christ, child. He was a devoted follower of
Christ who had waited a long time for this consolation of
Israel. Now we don't know where Simeon
was from. We don't know who his parents
were. We don't know many details at
all about this man named Simeon, but what we do know is very,
very powerful and it ought to be a lesson to each of us, man, if
we want to be known as as these types things, there's things we
need to do in our lives to make sure that people know us by
these things. I don't know how many of you, a
lot of you in the room this morning, you weren't born in
1980, so this won't mean anything to you.
But for some of you, this brings back a little bit of nostalgia.
I've got a little video I want to show just real quick.
What's Ernest doing now? He's waiting for the ketchup.
He's what? Hey, we don't wait for ketchup.
You don't. Hope you and your ketchup have a
real nice time. Heinz Ketchup.
It's so rich, so thick, why waste time with anything else?
Heinz Ketchup The best things come to those who wait.
Any of you remember those commercials from Heinz ketchup?
Good things come to those who wait.
Yeah. So Simeon understood that.
Except for Simeon understood it. And much more of an appropriate
way than that. That wasn't the one I wanted to
show. Thank you, Chris.
But Chris found that and showed that this morning.
And so I appreciate that. Our great communications
director, or whatever we call him.
Lord have mercy, You got me so frazzled this morning.
All good, good things come to those who wait, right?
That guy waited. He was glad he waited for the
ketchup, wasn't he? And when I was his age, I'd have
been waiting for ketchup too. Dang, remember 2 weeks ago
though Pastor Ben mentioned to us that from Malachi to Matthew,
there's a mostly. Blank page in your Bible, and on
that mostly blank page there's. 2 words written on that blank
page. It's called the New Testament,
right? That mostly blank page
represents 400 years of 400 years of history, but more than
that 400 years of. Silence. 400 years of God not
speaking at all to his people, 400 years of nothing, nada.
Just the people going about their lives with nothing from
the Lord, 400 years of people just relying on the history that
they've been told that God is going to send them a hero.
God is going to send them somebody to come and rescue
them. 400 years of nothing. And then before that, 400 years,
there was 350 to 350 years prior to that where Isaiah had
prophesied that the Messiah was going to come, that the Messiah
was going to be sent, the King of Kings, the the wonderful
counselor, mighty God, Prince of Peace, He was going to be sent
and he was going to come and rescue the nation of Israel. 750
years of waiting on this Messiah to come.
And Simeon knew that now. No, Simeon wasn't 750 years old,
but he knew these prophecies. He knew that God had promised to
send his long-awaited Christ child.
And so every day Simeon would go to the temple and he would say
is today the day, is today the day, is today the day.
And as the 80s commercials say, good things come to those who
wait. Simeon was a faithful waiter on
the Lord. He had waited all of his life
for the consolation of Israel. And you may want to just jot
this in the margin of your notes, but the consolation of
Israel just simply means God coming to rescue his people.
That's all it means, God coming to rescue his people.
So Simeon had waited on that rescue.
He knew that 750 years ago that the Messiah had been prophesied.
And so he's faithfully waiting on God to come and rescue his
people. God had told Simeon that the
consolation would happen within his lifetime.
And what we know about God is that God always keeps his
promises. Always.
And so this morning if you're in the room and you're waiting on a
promise from the Lord, God always keeps his promises.
And Simeon wasn't a young man when when we read about him in
Luke chapter 2. We understand this because verse
29 says this Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in
peace according to your word. Simeon is old and he's about to
die, but he can die in peace because this long-awaited
consolation of Israel, this long-awaited savior of the world
has now come and Simeon has seen him there in the temple.
I'm going to give you a really. Amazing detail found at the end
of verse 25 and 26. I've already talked a little bit
about the Holy Spirit being upon Samuel, but verse 25 and 26, the
Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. I think I said Samuel Simeon.
Sorry about that. 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. Now, there's so many things that
I could be remembered for. Doesn't look like it now, I
know. But I was a fairly good athlete
in high school. And I'm pretty sure I can still
take some of you in the room to this morning, right?
I was a fairly good athlete in high school.
I could be remembered for being a slave, my last name.
I have a a rich legacy of faith on my dad's side of the family.
I could be remembered for being a slave.
I could be remembered for being the grandson of an amazing
pastor. My mom's dad was a pastor.
He passed me for over 60 years and he passed away last year.
Thank God for his legacy that he has left me.
I could be remembered for being on staff at Riverbend during one
of the most amazing times of history of Riverbend Church.
This last year has been amazing and I hope that the momentum
that we have, the fact that God has been working in and through
River, been the way He has. People coming to faith, us being
able to baptize folks. I pray that that continues for
many, many, many years to come. I could remember for being on
staff during that time. I could be remembered for being
Jennifer's husband who raised 5 amazing children together, and I
hope that when my children become adults that they would
follow in this rich legacy of faith that has been left to
Jennifer and I on both sides of our families.
But most importantly, I could be remembered for being the best
looking staff member at Riverbend in 2025.
I mean, let's just say let's just tell the truth.
All of these things are great, right?
But how much? More important, is it to be
remembered as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ who was
full of the Holy Spirit. I mean, all jokes aside, church,
when I'm dead and gone, whatever is remembered about me, if it
doesn't include a rich legacy of faith, then I don't want it
written. I want, I want, I want.
People to Remember Me as one who loved Jesus Christ.
People that Remember Me, they Remember Me as always giving,
always being concerned about people knowing Christ and people
being led to Christ. I want the history books to say
that Todd cared about the next generation knowing him and
worshipping him. And I hope and pray that that's
your goal and your mission in life as well.
Simeon was remembered for being a faithful follower of Jesus
Christ, full of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us very little
about Simeon, but what it does tell us is so very important to
us this morning. And I believe that it's not by
accident that Luke doesn't include any of those other
details. He just includes these very
important details that we all hope and aspire to.
So let me pause right here and just ask you a very simple
question of application. What will you?
Be known for when your life is over.
If by some happenstance 100 years from the time after your
death, there's a book written that survives for 2000.
Years and in 2000 years in some church in America, somebody
picks up that book and they start reading about you.
What will that book say? Again, there's not much known
about Simeon in history, but what is known is super, super
important. Simeon was a faithful waiter on
the Lord who was full. Of the Holy Spirit.
A simple way that we could describe Simeon this morning is
that he was faithful. Christmas reminds us through the
story of Simeon that God's heart is for the faithful.
One quick note to add here. And this got me all excited.
This got me. I'm going to just say it jacked
up when I was studying for this message.
Christmas is about God's heart for the faithful.
And I pray this morning that it describes you.
I pray that you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that
you serve him faithfully. But there's a little detail in
this story that is really, really huge for us that can be
missed if we don't, if we don't take time to really dive into
it. And it's found in verses 30 and
32. It says this.
Let me set this up real quick as Simeon is.
Seeing Jesus and he's holding the baby Jesus there in the
temple, Simeon responds to God. And he says this, 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.
All right, wait, hold on just a second.
What? Why does Simeon say this?
Salvation up until this point was was reserved only for the
nation of Israel. Like if you were a Gentile.
And just in case you're wondering, all of us in this
room this morning, I'm pretty sure every single one of us are
gentiles. If you're a Jew.
I'm sorry that I missed you, but I think most of us in the room
this morning are Gentiles. Up until this point in history,
all of us would have been outside the promises of hope.
All of us would have been left without any kind of hope in a,
in a, in a risen savior who was going to come and rescue us.
We would have we, we, we, we would have been looking at dying
and going to hell without any chance of being rescued.
And, and, and Simeon says, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles. Wait, what?
Remember Paul writes this in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11
and 12. Therefore, remember that at one
time, you Gentiles, all of us in the room, you Gentiles, remember
that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated
from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
Gentiles, in this time they were, they were bad off.
Can you imagine not having any hope, No hope at all?
Some of you in the in the room this morning.
You're thinking, boy, life has left me over the past couple of
weeks and months with no hope. Life has left me feeling
absolutely awful about life. I just want life to end.
Well, let's be honest with what Simeon has just said here.
We have hope because Christ has come and he's torn down that
dividing wall that separated the the the nation of Israel from us
Gentiles when Christ died on the cross, Well, really when he rose
from the grave, that curtain that separates the Holy of
Holies was split in two. And Gentiles can now boldly
enter in to the presence of King Jesus.
And we should all say thank you, praise the Lord for that.
But again, it didn't happen until many years after what
Simeon it's saying here, Simeon had been given special
revelation that nobody else had been given.
And we of all people ought to be most gracious for what Simeon
says here because later on in Acts verse 26, verse 18, Paul
responds to the Lord Jesus and he's and and and God tells him
this. I am sending you to the Gentiles
to open their. Eyes.
So they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of
Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and
a place among those who were sanctified by faith in me.
And all of us collectively should say Amen, praise the
Lord, because we have been grafted into the faith of God.
Now the fact that this is included in Luke chapter 2 ought
to make the hair on your arms stand up like it does mine.
Because Simeon had understood that this baby was something
special, perhaps. This year you've gone about
Christmas and it's just been another Christmas.
Perhaps you've gone about Christmas this year and it's
just been about presents, not with AC, but with AT right
presents that we open. Perhaps it's been about giving
presents. Perhaps it's been about being
with family and and. Eating, obviously, which I love,
right? But if you've not gotten excited
about this baby Jesus and what what he has done for you and for
me, this baby Jesus, he's changed everything for us.
If you're in the room this morning and you've never made
Jesus Lord of your life, then I pray today before you leave this
place that you make that right. The second character of
Christmas that I want to quickly look at this morning as a lady
by the name of Anna, Anna the prophetess.
We read about Anna in Luke chapter 2 verse 36 and
following. There was a prophetess Anna, the
daughter of Fanueil of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband 70
years from when she was a virgin and then a widow until she was
84. She did not depart from the
temple worshipping with fasting and prayer all night and day.
Coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and
to speak of him to all who are waiting for the redemption of
Jerusalem. Anna, just like Simeon, is
fairly obscure. We do have a little bit more
information about Anna because it tells us who her who her
father was. So by that we can do a little
bit more research than we can on just this guy whose name was
dropped, right, Simeon? I keep saying, Samuel, I'm sorry
if I do that. I don't know, it's my brain.
All right, so you all know it's not normal.
And so anyway, there you go. All right, Simeon, if you hear
me say, Samuel, just think Simeon.
Simeon has just dropped on us and we're given this amazing
list of characteristics about Simeon, and that's all we know
about him. Well, Anna's a little bit more.
We have her dad's name, so we can do a little bit of more
research. But anyway, the things that are
important about her is #1 she was a prophetess.
Unfortunately, we don't have enough time this morning again
for me to drop to really dive into what it means for her to be
a prophetess. What I can tell you is that
there aren't many women in Scripture who are called a
prophetess. So this characteristic of Anna
is hugely important. I want to encourage you to go
back and do some research on your own about what it means for
Anna to be a prophetess. Why is this designation given to
her right here in Luke chapter 2?
Again, remember, there are no details given in Scripture by
accident. So these, these details that are
given of these folks that we're reading about are given to us on
purpose. And so if you have time, I pray
that you do go back and do just a little bit of research on why
she has been designated as a prophetess.
Excuse me, just for a minute second, Anna was a widow.
With the time we have remaining, we will focus on what it meant
for for Anna to be called a widow or for Anna to to for this
point to be made crystal clear about her being a widow.
Anna became a widow when she was very young.
Historians and commentators largely agree that Anna would
have become a widow in her 20s. Now most of us in the room this
morning are over the age of 20 and so we we can understand what
it would have meant for us to be a widow in our early 20s or a
widower in our early 20s. More than likely she was
probably 2122 when she became a widow.
The Greek text here can be interpreted two different ways.
One way is Anna could have lived as a widow for 84 years.
This means that Anna would have been 100 to 105 years old at
this point in Luke chapter 2. Now that's not the most widely
accepted meaning here of Luke chapter 2.
The most widely accepted interpretation is that Anna
lived as a widow from the age of 21 until now.
In Luke chapter 2 we find her. She's 84 years old.
The point though, is still the same.
Anna had been resilient in her faith for a very, very long
time. Probably some 60 some odd years.
Anna had been resilient in her faith as a widow.
You say, Pastor Todd, why do you keep using the word resilient?
Why? Why would it have mattered that
she was a widow for 60 some odd years?
And why would that make her resilient?
Well, let me tell you, we'll get to that here in just two
seconds. I'm sure if we could go around
the room this morning though, we could talk about some very heart
wrenching stories that God has allowed to take place in your
life, in my life. If we go.
Around the room this morning we can hear some stories that would
tug on our heartstrings. We go around the room this
morning. I'm sure there would be some
tears shed on things that are happening in our life today, If
not today, then things that have happened in our life within the
last five or ten years. You could tell stories about
things that have happened to you and your spouse that just don't
seem fair. You could tell stories about
things that have happened in your family that that just
aren't right. Well, Anna, I'm sure could tell
those stories. The story of Anna.
What makes this story even more heart wrenching is that Anna
would have found herself all by herself when she was 21 years
old, just a young, a young lady, just without anything.
What we need to understand about the Jewish culture is women
would marry at a super young age.
Most often times in biblical culture, women would marry
somewhere between the ages of 12 and 15.
All right, super, super young. Not many of you in here, if any
of you in here could, could understand being married at
12:13, 14-15 years old. Some of you may be right.
My parents were married. I think my mom was 17.
I think my grandparents though they were 1516 when they got
married. So it was a lot.
More common 60-70 years ago than it is today.
Most of us today get married in our mid to late 20s, if not even
our early 30s. And so for us to understand
what's going on in Jewish culture here, we really have to
set our minds back, right? They would get married at 12:13,
14-15 years old. Now, this is for a purpose.
Women would become adults at the age of 12.
They would enter into religious adulthood.
And this was also the age at which they would enter into
puberty. And so they would get married at
12:13, 14/14 years old. And it represents those of those
of us in the room who have been through unimaginable tragedy.
Now here's the reason why that is.
Imagine being married at 12/13/14 years old and being
being widowed at the age of 21. I mean, I can't even imagine
that Jennifer and I have been married 21 years.
And if something were to happen to Jennifer, half of me would be
gone. I can't imagine spending the
rest of my life without I'll. I'll go ahead and say it.
I know most of you will too. But without my better half,
right? I can't imagine what Anna has
experienced in the loss of her husband.
And while some of you in the room have experienced what Anna
has experienced, you've. Lost.
Your spouse. What Anna really represents is
all of us, because all of us have experienced tremendous loss
or tremendous tragedy in our life.
I'm positive you've heard me talk about the fact that
Jennifer and I lost our first baby girl.
We lost her at 2020 weeks in utero.
I can't, I can't begin to tell you what that day was.
I remember it as if it were yesterday and it's been almost
1514 years ago now. I remember walking out of the
doctor's office and I put we had a truck and I put Jennifer in
the front seat and I turn around and I put my back against the
door and I just shrunk to the ground sobbing uncontrollably.
I somehow managed to call my dad and my dad, all I could hear him
saying is what's going on, son? What, what, what's, what's
wrong? What's happening?
I couldn't talk. I I was gasping for air because
I was crying so hard. At this unimaginable tragedy,
Jennifer and I waited seven years to have a baby and for us
to get pregnant and then find out 16 weeks in the pregnancy
that this baby had less than a 5% chance to live.
You can imagine Jennifer and I's thoughts were God, why would you
do that? Why would you even allow us to
get pregnant only to allow that pregnancy to end?
God, how cruel. Of you.
And on top of all of that, I was a student pastor at the time.
And so I have to show up in front of my students and I have
to tell them that God is good and that God is loving, and God
wants nothing but good things for you.
It was at that point in time that I realized that God maybe
not always want good things for us.
God wants us to go through hard times because it teaches us more
about Him when we're in those valleys.
It teaches us more about trusting in Him and relying on
His goodness and His graciousness and His love for
us, that no matter what this life throws at us, He's got us.
And he's holding us in his hand. Anna represents that to all of
us in the room this morning. On top of that, last year we
found out that Jennifer's dad had prostate cancer.
And that's in large part the reason how the way that God got
us to Riverbend. We found out just about a month
or two ago, maybe six weeks ago, that what we originally thought
Jennifer's dad was going to die with, now he's going to die from
his cancer has mutated into a terminable cancer.
And we're probably going to watch Pop, her dad Charles.
We're probably going to watch him enter into to his eternal
rest at some point in 2026. That day will be sad.
That day will be hard because Pop, my father-in-law, the man
that I've come to love and to admire over the last 22 plus
years. There's a good possibility I
will do his funeral, but the reminder is always there.
God is good. And he's calling us to be
resilient in the face of life's challenges.
Challenges. He's calling us to be resilient
no matter what life throws at us.
Anna, just like us, had a choice to make when her husband died.
She could. She could have said, God, how
could you? She could have said, God, why
would you do such a thing like this, God?
Why would you let me go through the rest of my life like this?
God, why? But she didn't do that.
She stayed faithful and she stayed resilient.
And, and I haven't mentioned this yet, but a very important
point that we need to make. Women, especially in Jewish
culture, women weren't very high on the totem pole.
Women often times faced extreme vulnerability due to lack of
property rights. These women, these women would
have relied heavily on men and their family for support and
protection. Let me explain that just a
little bit. Women couldn't own property in
1st century Jerusalem. They couldn't own property.
It was, it was a man's culture. It's why we see in Scripture why
everything was passed down to the first born son and not the
first born daughter. Women had very little places of
significance in 1st century Jerusalem, right?
So Anna, when she got married, she would have married a man who
would have had property, would have had a house, who would have
had all kinds of different things.
And when she was widowed, all of that would have gone away.
That's one important thing. Secondly, in the Old Testament,
widows are protected by law, but really in practice they were
often marginalized, with some being forced into unwanted
marriages simply to be able to make life do or to make to make
ends meet widowed. Women.
Well, let me just say this, women in general in 1st century
Jerusalem would have had little significance.
A widowed woman, you can forget about that.
This is why Anna had every reason to give up on God.
Why would he allow this to happen?
How could a loving God be so cruel?
And if this is you this morning, if you're struggling with how
could a, how could a loving God be so mean?
How could a loving God allow me to go through this?
I have hope for you today. It's called Christmas.
It's called Christmas because that's when Christ was sent to
the earth to live a life that you and I could not live and to
die a death that you and I deserved to die.
Christmas is a time that reminds us.
That no matter what life throws of us, throws at us, God has got
us. And He's calling us to be
faithful. He's calling us to be resilient.
Listen, life's not always going to be fair, but I'm telling you
today. Church, you've heard it before.
We don't want fair. We don't want fair.
We should be thankful for grace and we should be thankful for
mercy because that's what we want even without knowing that's
what we want. So we close this morning as we
often do here. Let me just ask you a quick
question, one question for application today after four
weeks of being reminded of this big idea this this big idea for
the series, Christmas isn't just the story of Jesus birth, it's
the story of God's heart. What do you do with that?
What do I do with that? You know, often times we come to
church and we sing some songs that make us feel good and we
listen to a sermon that hopefully encourages us.
But when we walk out the door 15 minutes from now, are we going
to remember anything we've talked about over the last four
weeks? I hope that you, I hope that you
do. Christmas isn't just the story
of Jesus's birth. It's the story of God's heart.
God is running after you this morning.
And if you don't know him, I pray that you would make
salvation true today, that you would make today the day of
salvation, that you would come running to Christ this morning
and that you would receive him as your Lord and Savior.
Perhaps this morning you're in the room and you're like Anna
and you're just going through an UN a crazy amount of suffering
in your life. God is there for you.
He's wanting to hold your heart. He's wanting you to know that
it's going to be OK. He's wanting you to know that in
spite of that diagnosis, in spite of whatever it is that
he's here for you. And so perhaps this morning you
may just want to come down and make this altar your place of
just pouring out your heart to the Lord this morning.
If you need to do business with God, this altar is open.
I've asked. Connor and the team to come out
and as he so appropriately said while ago, King of Kings, man,
what a song. As we in 2025, God is the King
of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords.
And so we're going to they're going to come back out.
They're going to sing through that again.
I pray that you would just reflect.
On the Lord and if you need to do business with the Lord,
Pastor Ben will be over here. Pastor Nathan will be over here.
Come do business with the Lord this morning.
Father, I thank you so much for Simeon and Anna and what they
represent to us as part of the Christmas story.
Father, it's by no accident that you have included the details
that you have included about each of these characters of
Christmas in your story. Father, I pray, Lord, that
whatever you are doing in our hearts and our lives today,
Father. What you're doing in my heart in
my life, Lord, that I wouldn't leave here today without one
even giving you acknowledgement for what you're doing or two,
Father, just laying my heart out on this altar.
And Lord, maybe I need to repent for not being faithful.
Maybe I need to repent for not being resilient.
Father, I pray that you would. Have your will in your way in
this place this morning. Lord, do whatever you would want
to do now. In our hearts and in our lives,
in Christ's name, we pray, Amen. Thank you for listening to
Riverbend Church's podcast. To find out more about this
message or Riverbend Church, connect with us online at
Riverbend Church dot live.