Christmas Anticipation: Christmas 2016 #2
This is an exposition of Luke 2:22-38. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 18, 2016.
Intro:
Christmas is about anticipation. Children dream of the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas morning. Moms endure the endless days proceeding the return of children and grandchildren and that moment when her home will be alive again with laughter and joy. We have a lifetime of Christmas memories. Most of them good, a few tinged with heartache and sorrow but all of them with traditions and music. Christmas is a nostalgic time. A time for looking back. Christmas has always been a part of our experience. There has not been a time in our lives when we did not look back and consider the wonder of the birth of the Christ child. Every year, a year for giving thanks and rejoicing in God’s gracious gift of His Son. Every December we have declared, “Unto us has been born a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” That’s why it is hard for us to think of what it must have been like in that time before the angelic choir announced the Savior’s arrival. Those “days of anticipation.” We look back with salvation “in hand” but what of those days when salvation was yet future?
It was in the Garden, immediately following man’s rebellion, God first declared the Gospel by making a sacrifice and covering man’s nakedness. Throughout the pages of the Old Testament God continually reminded His people of redemption through blood. Through the prophets He promised a Deliverer. He promised there was one coming who would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God and Prince of Peace. He spoke of a virgin who would conceive and one who would be called Immanuel, God with us. Centuries came and went. The message seemed to fade. Yet there were those who believed. Through captivity and oppression, through heartache and struggle they hoped against hope that God’s Anointed would come. With the dawn of each new year they wondered if this would be the year He came?
His name was Simeon. He was a just, righteous and devout servant of the Lord God. In spite of his advanced age, in spite of his failing health he continued to cling to the promise of God that he would not taste death until he saw, with his own eyes, the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah. He lived in anticipation of the dawning of that new and glorious day.
It was a day like any other. Simeon made his way to the temple courts. There he found a young couple that had come to make purification for their first-born son. Moved by the Spirit of God Simeon took the child in his arms and praised God for light had come into the darkness. Anticipation had given way to experience and Christmas came to Jerusalem. Our text this morning is found in Luke Luke 2 beginning with Luke 2:22.
Text: Luke 2:22-38
Thesis: Simeon and Anna represent the wonder of God’s gracious, faithful, redeeming love.
The law commanded that offerings be made following the period of uncleanness. According to Lev. 12:1-4, a woman who gave birth to a son was ceremonially unclean for 40 days. When her time was up she was to come to the priest with a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering. In this case, Mary and Joseph didn’t bring a lamb because they could not afford one. (Another reason why we know the Magi didn’t make it to the stable!)
Leviticus 12:8 makes allowance for the poor.
They are to offer two turtledoves or two pigeons.
This again speaks to the humiliation of the incarnation.
Ordinarily the rite of purification presumed that the child was a sinner. What made the mother unclean was the guilt of her child’s sin which was inherited from Adam. This is why sacrifices were made. So why did Mary need to go through this process? Her child was no sinner! This, like His baptism later, was to identify him with sinful humanity. He came to take our sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
They also came to present their child to the Lord. This too, was part of the law (Ex. 13:2). This was an act of setting the child apart to the service of God.
While at the temple for these two rites, Mary and Joseph encounter two godly servants of the Lord.
Both were devout.
Both were filled with expectancy.
They believed when few others believed.
Both kept trusting, looking and longing for the Lord’s coming.
- Through the eyes of Simeon we behold God’s long promised Deliverer. (2:22-35)
- Through the voice of Anna we hear the glad tidings of salvation’s presence. (2:36-38)
Conclusion:
It’s Christmas and to us has been given the glorious task of telling this “good news.” We have the privilege of declaring to the world, “Unto us has been born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.” There is life and hope for all who will repent of their sin and trust in Christ. That is the glory of Christmas. That is the Gospel.