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1. When was Jesus circumcised? (21). To where did Joseph and Mary take Jesus after the time of purification? (22) Why? (23-24)[Lev 12:1-8, Ex 13:11-16, Num 3:11] 2. Who was Simeon, and what was he waiting for? (25-26) How could Simeon meet the child Jesus? (27) How was his hope of lifetime realized? (29-31) [1Peter 1:10-12] 3. What can you learn about Jesus through Simeon’s song? (32) What does it mean that Jesus is the light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to his people Israel? [Isaiah 62:1-2] What does Jesus’ coming mean to people, and to Mary? (34-35) [Luke 20:17-18, John 19:25-27] 4. What was the human situation of Anna? (36) What did she do during those years without husband? (37) What did she do when she met Jesus? Who are those who are looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem? (38)

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Message

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In this passage, we meet two old people, Simeon and Anna. Humanly speaking, they are insignificant to the eyes of worldly people. But God honored them to become witnesses of baby Jesus in the temple. It was because they had burning hope in their hearts. In this passage, may we learn what they were waiting for, and what burning hope they had in their hearts. 1. Simeon, a righteous and devoted man of God Look at verse 21. “On the eight day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.” Like John’s parents, Joseph and Mary named their child Jesus according to the angle’s instructions. After the birth of Jesus, Mary had to spend 40 days for her purification according to the law. When the purification had been completed, the parents took Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Since Jesus was the firstborn of their family, he had to be consecrated to the Lord. As it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn is to be consecrated to the Lord.” Joseph and Mary showed their faith in God by devoting their son to him. They offered a sacrifice in keeping with what was said in the Law of the Lord.: “a pair of dove or two year pigeons.” This is called “the offerings of the poor.” This tells us that Jesus was born in a very poor family. Even thought Jesus was the Son of God and the anointed Messiah, he came to this world as a very humble and poor baby. Like other ordinary Jewish baby, Jesus went through all the requirements of the law, such as, circumcision, purification, and presentation of the firstborn son. When Jesus emptied himself, God filled with grace and truth and raised him as the Saviour of the world. Look at verse 25. “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Here “devout” means “cautiously and carefully observing the divine Law.” In other words, he was devoted to God and the Bible study. Through deep and personal Bible study, he could understand the major theme of the Bible, which is the coming of the Messiah. In Isaiah 40:1-2, Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would bring comfort to his people at his coming. Since the prophecy, Simeon had been waiting for the consolation of Israel, which the Messiah would bring. He was a man of God filled with the Holy Spirit. Let’s read verse 26. “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Through the Holy Spirit he received God’s promise that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. We do not know when exactly he received this promise. But from that time on his hope of seeing the Messiah was burning in his heart. It had become his life-long prayer topic. Look at verse 27. “Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:” When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go into the temple courts. When he saw the child Jesus, he took him in his arms. He learned that God had kept his promise, and that his life-long hope had been finally realized before his very eyes. How happy he might have been embracing the Messiah in his arms! His heart might have been bursting with rapture. Then he began to praise God. Let’s read verses 29-31. “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people,” This song of Simeon is called “Nunc Dimittis”, which means “[You] now dismiss.” At last, he was happy to die in peace, because he had seen God’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Since Adam’s fall due to his sin of disobedience, God gave the hope of salvation through his promises. God promised to send the Messiah through the offspring of a woman in Gen 3:15. Since then, many prophets and servants of God wanted to see God’s salvation, and searched intently and with greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing.(1 Peter 1:10-11) But they could not see the Christ. However, God blessed Simeon and gave him the privilege to see the Messiah with his own eyes. So what was so special about seeing baby Jesus with his own eyes? After all, he was just a baby. But to Simeon, seeing Jesus was not a small matter. It was a matter of life and death. His hope of seeing the Messiah had sustained his life thus far. How was this possible? It was because his heart was fully devoted to God and God’s hope. His heart was burning with the hope of God. God honored him because his heart was fully devoted to God. God cannot bless people whose hearts are divided and distracted by things of the world. We must know what holds priority in our livs and focus on it. Jesus the Messiah must be the focus of our life. Jesus Christ is all, and is in all. To such people, God gives abundant life and abundant joy through Jesus Christ, and this cannot be substituted by anything in this world. If just seeing the baby Jesus brought such a great joy and deep emotion to Simeon, how much more must we rejoice since we now have seen the full salvation through Jesus Christ, which was fulfilled through his death on the cross and his resurrection? Now we can see the fully glorified Christ seated at the right hand of God. Should we have such a burning hope and desire as Simeon’s in our hearts? Should we long for such an inexpressible joy that comes from seeing Jesus as we study the word of God? May God grant us the same joy and blessing as with Simeon’s, as we long to see Christ with our spiritual eyes through Bible study. 2. Jesus, a light for the Gentiles and glory for his people Israel Let’s read verse 32. “A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” In this verse, we can learn who Jesus is and why he came into the world. First, Jesus came as a light for the revelation to the Gentiles. Gentiles are those who do not know God and are the object of God’s wrath due to their sins. While God revealed his salvation plan to his people Israel through his prophesies, the gospel of salvation was hidden to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were in total darkness due to their spiritual ignorance and intellectual blindness. But now God would reveal his salvation to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the light of truth that enlightens the Gentiles. He is not just the teacher of the truth, but the truth itself. Jesus is the truth that sets them free from the bondage of sin and darkness. Wherever the gospel of Jesus is preached, the light has dawn, and the darkness is driven out. If this is God’s vision of world mission Simeon saw while holding a little child in his arms, how much greater our vision should be when we see the glorified Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords over all nations! Before his ascension into heaven, the Risen Jesus gave his disciples The Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Second, Jesus is the glory for his people Israel. Jesus’ being a light for the Gentiles is closely related to him being a glory for his people Israel. Why is this so? It is because God would use his people Israel to reveal the glory of Jesus to the Gentiles. When we observe the history of Israel, we find that God had a great vision for them to be a light for the Gentiles. That is the reason God raised them as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. But when his people ignored God’s purpose, they became a shameful nation full of sin and failure. The 70 years of Babylonian captivity was God’s punishment and divine discipline for their sins. But God did not give up his hope for them. Finally, God sent his Son as the Messiah and restored the glory of his people Israel. The glory of Israel would be restored because Jesus would dwell among them. God would glorify them again by using them as the light for the Gentiles through the gospel of Jesus. Since the coming of Christ, the church of Christ became the spiritual Israel. By dwelling in his church, Jesus would use it for his world mission purpose and glorify it among the Gentiles. Even though our church is small, we can be used as the light to UofT campus as long as the glory of Jesus dwells among us. In this way, God can glorify us as his people. It is amazing to see how God has restored our glory during the past one year. God brought us into this beautiful Bible center and sent Bible students with sincere spiritual desire, such as Jaiqi, Mario, Albert, Ruth, Szechieh, including S.Bushy and George. I pray that in the new year of 2009, the glory of Jesus may fill our church and use us as the light to UofT students. Look at verse 34. “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,” In this verse, Simeon prophesied about Jesus’ life. Jesus would be the rise and fall of many people. Jesus would cause their fall due to their own sins, but he would raise them up through his gospel of salvation. Jesus would be persecuted by the people who would speak against him. They persecuted Jesus because he did not fit into their blueprint of earthly messianic kingdom. The cross of Jesus would be the sign of rejection and persecution. This is the first reference in this gospel to Christ’s suffering and death. Look at verse 35. “so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” At the cross f Jesus, the thought of many people will be revealed. Many will beat their hearts and wept loudly. At the cross of Jesus, Mary would experience the pain of a sword piercing her own soul as the mother of Jesus. In this way Mary would participate in Jesus gospel work. Anyone who becomes involved in Jesus’ gospel work must expect suffering and rejection. Paul suffered more than one could describe for preaching the gospel of Jesus, but he rejoiced because he was participating in the sufferings of Christ. Later, Paul said to his beloved disciple, Timothy, in 2 Tim 1:8. “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” May God bless us to participate in Jesus’ suffering by preaching the gospel to UofT campus in the new year of 2009. 3. Anna, the mother of prayer Look at verse 36 and 37. “There was also a prophetess. Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old, she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” Humanly speaking, she was a pitiful and hopeless widow. But since she lost her husband, she gave her heart to God. She became a pure bride of God, and God became her true husband. She devoted her whole life to worshiping God night and day, fasting and praying. God honored her faithfulness to God and blessed her to see the baby Jesus with her own eyes. Look at verse 38. “Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” She became a witness of the Messiah to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. In this passage we learned that God honored Simeon and Anna and gave them the amazing privilege to see the baby Jesus in the temple because their hearts were fully devoted to God. Their hearts were burning with the hope of seeing the Messiah with their own eyes. They were remnant of God and the lamp of God burning in their generation. May God give us the same burning hope in our hearts to see Christ with our own eyes and serve him with all our hearts. May the glory of Jesus fill our church so that we may be a light to UofT students as Bible teachers.

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