back to index2022-07-24 Ministry of Jesus
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If you can turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 2, and we will be looking at verses 21 through 00:00:14.760 |
38, but I'm just going to be reading the first four verses for the sake of time. 00:00:19.960 |
Again I encourage you as I put up the passage that we're going to be going over on Saturday 00:00:25.220 |
afternoon and Saturday night, I just encourage you to at least take a look at it, look over 00:00:29.240 |
the questions so that you'll know what we'll be covering and I think you'll be able to 00:00:33.060 |
understand better because the text art we're looking at is not just two or three verses 00:00:38.000 |
so it'll be easier if you kind of had some idea of what's going on in the text. 00:00:43.480 |
So I encourage you to do that Saturday before you come. 00:00:48.040 |
Luke chapter 2 verse 21 to 24, "And when eight days had passed before his circumcision, his 00:00:55.560 |
name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the 00:01:01.400 |
And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought 00:01:08.560 |
As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be 00:01:12.680 |
called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the 00:01:17.560 |
Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons." 00:01:26.920 |
We pray that you would guide us and lead us and lead us into a deeper understanding of 00:01:32.920 |
why these holy scriptures have these events and things, Lord God, in here for us. 00:01:38.440 |
Help us to glean what you have intended and to mold our hearts, our thoughts, our hopes 00:01:43.680 |
completely upon your desires and upon Christ. 00:01:51.360 |
I think we all know that whatever it is that you are coveting changes how you behave and 00:01:59.600 |
It kind of shows what we long for, what we value. 00:02:02.880 |
If you are waiting for something that's important, you will adjust your life, spending, habits 00:02:15.800 |
If you have a trip in mind that you really, really desire to go, you're saving money, 00:02:22.760 |
maybe you're saving points, looking at airlines and hotels and saving up your vacation time 00:02:29.360 |
and planning for whatever needs to be taken care of so that you can be gone for that period. 00:02:35.200 |
Whatever we have in our hearts that we're longing for, it changes our behavior, changes 00:02:39.120 |
how we spend money, changes how we spend our time. 00:02:42.640 |
We go through different phases of this when we're young. 00:02:44.720 |
Maybe a toy or something promised at Christmas. 00:02:48.040 |
We get older, we want to get our driver's license or get a car because it means freedom 00:02:54.040 |
Then you get obsessed about that or you want a certain job or maybe you want to get married, 00:03:01.760 |
Whatever it is, it causes you to change your behavior because whatever is in our heart 00:03:12.160 |
When I was thinking about this, it automatically took me back before I met Christ. 00:03:18.480 |
Me and my friends, we decided that we want to make the baseball team at Burbank High 00:03:34.560 |
If it was my turn to practice, I would stand outside and these guys would hit me like a 00:03:42.120 |
They would deliberately hit it far from me so I would see how much distance I can cover. 00:03:46.600 |
Probably the same shot, thousands of times that summer. 00:03:50.320 |
Then it was time for shortstop and we would just take turns just hitting it as hard as 00:03:55.160 |
The guy who was trying out for shortstop would run and try to get it and see how much space 00:04:04.080 |
We just threw it in the ground, threw it on the side, threw it as hard as we could and 00:04:07.280 |
see how much of space he could cover, what kind of balls that he can catch. 00:04:11.680 |
We probably spent that whole year, every opportunity we got, we got out in the Burbank baseball 00:04:17.680 |
field because that's where the tryouts would be. 00:04:21.400 |
Probably at least a year, maybe more than that, just preparing ourselves to join this 00:04:28.200 |
As I mentioned before, right in the middle of that tryout, I ended up going to a retreat 00:04:33.600 |
You just completely, it's not that I lost interest in baseball. 00:04:38.640 |
It's just what I coveted, I coveted more to be able to be at that Bible study that they 00:04:47.080 |
All of a sudden, all that time and effort that I spent to try to get on this team, it 00:04:53.560 |
I just didn't want to miss what was happening on Friday nights and the prayer meetings that 00:04:57.800 |
Again, I share all that because that's the first thing I think of. 00:05:01.160 |
What is something that I poured all my energy and thought and because I wanted that so bad 00:05:08.440 |
and I can't think of anything else that I put that kind of devotion to. 00:05:12.400 |
And then to have it just instantaneously, my value changed overnight when I met Christ. 00:05:17.560 |
I know a lot of you, and I'm not saying there's anything bad, innately wrong about baseball 00:05:22.360 |
itself, it's just that I just put so much time and effort to prepare for that. 00:05:28.960 |
All of a sudden, it just didn't seem as important. 00:05:31.560 |
It just seemed like a silly game, whether I made the team or not made the team. 00:05:35.960 |
I'm not sure if I would have made the team because the Burbank High School baseball team 00:05:39.400 |
was a really good baseball team at that time. 00:05:42.080 |
And among my friends, the catcher made the team. 00:05:45.160 |
And he was good enough where he was in the varsity when he was in 10th grade. 00:05:50.360 |
And so we kind of lived our life vicariously through him. 00:05:54.160 |
So I'm not sure if I would have made the team anyway, but I just remember very vividly when 00:05:58.840 |
my heart and my desire changed, how much that changed the trajectory of what was important, 00:06:06.560 |
I say all of this because as Christians, we are to eagerly wait and long for the coming 00:06:16.280 |
And from time to time, we have to ask ourselves, how much of our longing for Christ is affecting 00:06:27.960 |
I know you're participating in Bible study and maybe you're a faithful giver, but the 00:06:32.000 |
question goes beyond just a superficial, how much of your longing for the second coming 00:06:36.760 |
of Christ actually affects the career decision that you're making? 00:06:42.480 |
How does it affect the person that you may be dating? 00:06:47.540 |
How does it affect the person that you may marry? 00:06:55.120 |
Like how does it affect the way you raise your children? 00:06:58.340 |
Or is that somehow compartmentalized where you see secular and then religious and you 00:07:06.000 |
Whatever is in your heart, truly in your heart that you really covet, whether we like it 00:07:14.900 |
How you spend your money, I think there's a good indicator of how you spend your money, 00:07:17.840 |
how you spend your time, is a good indicator of what's in your heart. 00:07:24.360 |
Now I say all of this because there's two people that are mentioned in the birth and 00:07:30.200 |
Simeon and Anna is mentioned to us, the two people who eagerly waited all their life of 00:07:37.400 |
Now there was no guarantee when they were eagerly waiting for him that Christ was going 00:07:43.160 |
And yet they knew that the answer to whatever suffering of Israel or whatever longing that 00:07:49.000 |
they had in their own heart, that Christ would be the answer. 00:07:53.540 |
So the scripture tells us that Simeon, as he is introduced to us in verse 25, there 00:07:57.760 |
was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous man and devout, 00:08:05.200 |
Looking, the word looking isn't simply just watching to see, "Hey, is he going to come 00:08:10.360 |
It means to eagerly search that this was consuming in his heart. 00:08:16.920 |
And the reason why we know that this was consuming, as soon as he meets the infant Christ, he 00:08:28.400 |
And so he responds in verse 29, says, "Now Lord, you are releasing your bond servant 00:08:36.880 |
In other words, everything that he desired and coveted so much in the coming of Christ, 00:08:45.280 |
And as soon as he sees him, he says, "Everything that I want in life is done. 00:08:50.960 |
There's nothing that he is longing for anymore because that was at the core of his desire. 00:09:00.160 |
Because he's a righteous man, he suffers and he's asking God, "Where are you? 00:09:09.960 |
You know, up to this point, "I've heard of you from a distance, but now I see you face 00:09:18.140 |
His greatest longing, he realized, was meeting God. 00:09:24.560 |
He was longing, looking for the coming of the Messiah. 00:09:29.680 |
Now that he's here, he says, "Now I can depart in peace." 00:09:34.400 |
When our heart is not fixated upon Christ, we have a tendency. 00:09:43.560 |
It's a theological truth that this is what Christians believe, this is what the Bible 00:09:50.040 |
I think many of us would be, if we're honest enough, we'll confess, if you have something 00:09:53.860 |
that you have planned in the next year or you're coveting something, maybe your promotion's 00:09:58.560 |
coming up or maybe you're preparing for a wedding or maybe you have this great trip 00:10:04.820 |
If I told you that Christ was coming tomorrow, maybe in our hearts, we say, "Wait, can you 00:10:14.080 |
And if I go to Machu Picchu, then I could die in peace." 00:10:20.020 |
If our heart is coveting anything else besides Christ, the coming of Christ will actually 00:10:24.840 |
seem like an interference of what we're longing for. 00:10:30.660 |
It's something like, "Well, not yet, not yet, because we have this. 00:10:43.080 |
Simeon is mentioned here outside of the fact that he was just a random guy. 00:10:49.120 |
I mean, he doesn't play any significant role. 00:10:52.880 |
We understand why Elizabeth and Zacharias and Mary and Joseph is in this story, right? 00:10:58.360 |
Because they're mothers and fathers of two significant people. 00:11:02.200 |
But the only reason why Simeon is even mentioned here is because God answered his prayer. 00:11:10.160 |
There's no other significant – he's not mentioned in any prophecies, right? 00:11:16.400 |
If Simeon is never mentioned in this story, it would have no significant change in the 00:11:25.600 |
Only reason why he's there is as an example for us, for our own longing. 00:11:30.160 |
That even though this was God-ordained, God had promised this, he tells us God fulfilled 00:11:36.320 |
his own promise, his own covenant through the fervent watching and looking of this righteous 00:11:43.520 |
You know, sometimes we wrestle with God's sovereignty and man's responsibility and 00:11:48.200 |
say, "Well, if God is sovereign, what does it matter if we pray? 00:11:51.000 |
If God is sovereign, why do we need to be righteous?" 00:11:56.080 |
But it tells us here that though this was God's plan and everything is happening according 00:12:00.600 |
to God's plan, he tells us that this was also in response to this man's fervent seeking 00:12:09.420 |
We don't know how this works, but we know that the Bible clearly tells us that this 00:12:16.560 |
Another lady named Anna, who's 84 years old, tells us that she was married for seven years 00:12:23.000 |
and then her husband passes away and she never marries. 00:12:26.120 |
And she devotes herself to prayer and fasting until she's 84 years old, waiting for the 00:12:33.080 |
redemption of Israel, in other words, the Messiah to come. 00:12:36.520 |
You know, whenever I read this story, it reminds me of this old lady that I remember when I 00:12:42.040 |
was in my early 30s when I was teaching ESL to Korean elderly. 00:12:45.480 |
There was this one lady in her late 70s, right? 00:12:50.440 |
She would come into class almost every single morning and say, "Oh, I guess I didn't die 00:12:59.320 |
And as a young man, it sounded pretty morbid. 00:13:03.080 |
Like every day she would walk in, "Oh, another day." 00:13:07.440 |
And then she would sit there and say, "Clearly she's a committed Christian," because she 00:13:10.320 |
would always bring her Bible, open it up and read it in between break. 00:13:19.960 |
Like every day you're like eager to die, right? 00:13:26.760 |
She said she was married right before the Korean War broke out. 00:13:35.600 |
And during her honeymoon stage, when the North Korean soldiers came to the South and forcefully 00:13:40.600 |
recruited her husband into the North Korean army, which happened to a lot of South Korean 00:13:46.600 |
And so she lost her husband and she never knew what happened. 00:13:52.320 |
And after a couple of months of that, she said she never remarried. 00:13:56.880 |
And she said she just stayed as a widow and she devoted herself to serve the Lord. 00:14:04.440 |
And then all day long, when I knew her, all she did was copy the Korean Bible, right? 00:14:11.720 |
She would finish the classroom, learn probably the same lesson. 00:14:15.000 |
I taught the same lesson every year for four years, right? 00:14:17.440 |
And she would learn the same lesson every week, but in between times she would just 00:14:22.480 |
And she told me that she was almost done with the Bible. 00:14:25.440 |
And then when she is done, she repeats it over and over again. 00:14:28.200 |
And she literally is waiting for her to go to the Lord. 00:14:32.680 |
Every time I read the story of Anna, it reminds me of that lady because this lady, one, was 00:14:37.840 |
eagerly waiting to be reunited with her husband that she lost when she was young. 00:14:44.620 |
But along with that, she spent all her life devoted to serve the Lord. 00:14:49.480 |
So I can see why she is eagerly waiting, because she didn't see death as an end to life. 00:14:56.920 |
She saw death as an opportunity to get to the place that she really wanted to go to. 00:15:02.780 |
It says Anna, when she lost her husband, she lived the rest of her life until she was 84 00:15:08.960 |
And all she did was devote herself to prayer and to fasting, waiting for the redemption 00:15:17.240 |
It is not by accident that Simeon and Anna is in the Bible. 00:15:22.240 |
It's not just random people that just kind of threw in there for no reason. 00:15:28.280 |
They're in there because their faithful prayer, even though they seem insignificant in this 00:15:33.100 |
redemptive timeline, we're told that because of their prayer, because of their longing, 00:15:41.880 |
Now, what specifically were they longing for? 00:15:46.600 |
Anna says that she was praying for the redemption of Israel to appear. 00:15:51.360 |
Simeon specifically says that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. 00:15:58.000 |
You know, in English, when we say consolation, we often think of game shows that if you don't 00:16:08.400 |
Well, the word consolation basically means the one who consoles, the one who encourages, 00:16:16.920 |
So it's interesting here because prior to chapter 2, 21, we've been introduced to the 00:16:26.000 |
We were introduced to the rightful King of Israel, the Savior. 00:16:32.240 |
But here it says Simeon was longing, looking for the consolation of Israel to come. 00:16:40.160 |
Now, that's an interesting way to describe the Son of God. 00:16:51.880 |
Was he consoling them because they were under oppression of their enemies? 00:16:56.600 |
Were they consoling them because economic trials? 00:16:59.520 |
Were they consoling them because they were having hardships of life? 00:17:03.080 |
What is it exactly that the Messiah is going to come and to console and to encourage? 00:17:09.200 |
Well, Paul describes our salvation with the same term, that word consoling. 00:17:16.200 |
And so as he writes 2 Corinthians, the beginning of that letter, 2 Corinthians, he basically 00:17:23.040 |
And listen to the way he describes salvation. 00:17:25.360 |
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God 00:17:30.360 |
of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort 00:17:36.720 |
those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 00:17:42.080 |
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant 00:17:48.480 |
But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, or if we are comforted, it 00:17:52.600 |
is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same suffering 00:17:58.760 |
And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our suffering, 00:18:06.280 |
In those four verses, he mentions the word comfort ten separate times. 00:18:13.240 |
And the reason why this is significant, he's just describing our salvation. 00:18:18.000 |
He says, "God of all comfort, who has comforted us in order that with the comfort that we 00:18:22.600 |
have received with him, that we will be able to give comfort to other people." 00:18:28.640 |
He's not simply talking about comfort as in, you know, you have trials, hardship, or 00:18:34.520 |
you're hurt, or maybe you're having marriage problems, and so Christ comes to comfort you. 00:18:40.960 |
It may be true that that is also comforting, but the comforting he is describing is our 00:18:52.180 |
And another way to describe that is describing comfort, right? 00:18:57.200 |
Now those who don't feel the need for a Savior, cannot understand what he means by 00:19:07.440 |
He gives us hope, he gives us power by the Holy Spirit, but is he actually our comfort? 00:19:15.200 |
When's the last time you viewed your salvation as being comforted? 00:19:20.900 |
But that's exactly how the Bible describes it. 00:19:23.360 |
In Isaiah chapter 41 through 4, "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 00:19:28.160 |
Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended." 00:19:32.320 |
He's describing that because of their sins, they fell into captivity. 00:19:36.120 |
Babylonians are going to come and destroy your nation, and as a result of your sin, 00:19:42.400 |
But at the end of that, he says, "I will not forget you. 00:19:47.360 |
And then he describes a restoration that's going to come when the Messiah comes, and 00:19:50.800 |
he says, "Comfort, comfort, says our Lord, comfort." 00:19:57.000 |
Why does he describe our salvation as comfort? 00:20:00.960 |
And again, let me ask you, when was the last time you've considered the forgiveness of 00:20:12.080 |
Isaiah 49 verse 13 says, "Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth. 00:20:16.360 |
Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and 00:20:25.120 |
So what is the comfort, and what is the affliction? 00:20:29.600 |
Is he simply talking about those who have been afflicted by their enemies, persecuted? 00:20:35.680 |
Because of the Romans, because of the Persians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, that he's coming 00:20:47.760 |
This is the distinction between somebody who recognizes what he has in Christ, who is longing 00:20:53.480 |
for the coming of Christ, versus people who just see him as a figurehead. 00:21:01.200 |
I believe just enough to make sure that I have the right ticket, and I confess the right 00:21:05.720 |
thing so that when I die, that I won't go to hell and I go to heaven. 00:21:09.760 |
Meanwhile, in this life, I'm going to try to get as much as I can, just like everybody 00:21:14.640 |
else in the world, and then when I die, just as I had a good life here, I want to make 00:21:21.800 |
The distinction between somebody who is genuinely longing for the coming of Christ is the one 00:21:34.200 |
Have you ever tried to comfort somebody that just cannot be consoled? 00:21:40.440 |
Think of a situation that maybe it was a friend or a family member or something that they 00:21:44.280 |
were going through something horrible, and you try to console them and comfort them, 00:21:52.760 |
Now, again, being in ministry through the years, there's been many situations where 00:22:00.240 |
we try to, "Here's what the Bible says," and we try to come around, encourage them, 00:22:07.400 |
I'm encouraged that we have a food team in our church when people are going through trials. 00:22:12.680 |
We send food just to let them know we're there. 00:22:16.000 |
But there's a kind of suffering and pain that no amount of human comfort, no amount of words, 00:22:21.480 |
no amount of encouragement would get you out of that. 00:22:25.840 |
I've been in situations, many of you guys know, the young families who lose their child. 00:22:36.200 |
There's no amount of words, no amount of money that can be given, no amount of community 00:22:46.600 |
With many of you guys, counsel so many people who have been abused growing up, sometimes 00:22:53.560 |
by people that they trusted, and no amount of counseling. 00:23:01.940 |
No amount of love you can pour upon them is enough. 00:23:04.680 |
You can't just turn that off, and that pain is there for the rest of their lives. 00:23:08.800 |
I remember as a young pastor trying to figure out, "Maybe I need to learn how to do counseling 00:23:16.360 |
Maybe there's a book that I can read, and I could be a better comforter." 00:23:20.120 |
And I realized through time and through frustration that there are some situations that maybe 00:23:32.880 |
There are some situations that maybe people around you, that you realize that you are 00:23:40.280 |
The reality is you are helpless, because we do not have the ability. 00:23:46.200 |
And at the end of the day, the hope of the gospel is, the only comfort that can be given, 00:23:53.840 |
is that one day Christ is going to come, and He's going to make all things new. 00:23:59.560 |
Whatever was broken, whatever heartache, whatever hardship, whatever excruciating pain that 00:24:06.280 |
you may go through because of your sin, and because of being in a sinful and fallen world. 00:24:14.960 |
The only true comfort is when the Comforter comes. 00:24:22.400 |
And no matter how broken this world is, no matter how broken our relationship, no matter 00:24:25.640 |
how broken our families, that when the Comforter comes, that He and He alone can make all things 00:24:35.840 |
Simeon was waiting for the Comforter, because he recognized that only the Messiah. 00:24:44.080 |
Because he recognized that only the Messiah can fulfill this longing in a sinner's heart. 00:24:51.360 |
See, there's one thing that you and I cannot do. 00:24:58.800 |
The damage that you've done because of your flesh cannot be reversed simply by adding 00:25:11.080 |
You can't break something and then say, "You know, I'm going to make this better by putting 00:25:17.240 |
See, every sinner, when he recognizes his sins and the damage of the sin, it puts us 00:25:29.240 |
No amount of hard work, no amount of hearing sermons, no amount of counseling, no amount 00:25:37.800 |
Only Christ and Christ alone can take that burden upon Himself. 00:25:45.160 |
And that's why Simeon wasn't simply waiting for the Messiah to come so that He can deliver 00:25:49.320 |
us from this bondage of these foreign agents. 00:25:55.280 |
That's why the Scripture says, "Behold, the child is appointed for the fall and rise of 00:26:00.800 |
many in Israel and for the sign to be opposed." 00:26:08.160 |
The same gospels, the same hope that we have in Christ causes some to rise. 00:26:13.600 |
Rise meaning to have hope in Christ and then it would be the source of stumbling block 00:26:20.000 |
There's a reason why the Bible says the cross is what? 00:26:23.440 |
Foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God for those who are being 00:26:29.220 |
If you, again every single one of us as sinners, we recognize that the poverty of our sins 00:26:34.840 |
and we recognize the destructive nature of the sin, every single sinner is in a position 00:26:40.080 |
before God in desperation that my only hope is Christ. 00:26:45.560 |
It's not better economy, it's not better friends, it's not if I find a better church or better 00:26:54.800 |
So it causes me to go and to be anywhere that draws me closer to Christ. 00:27:04.720 |
The whole giving of the law is so that we can see sin as utterly sinful. 00:27:09.440 |
And once we recognize sin as utterly sinful and how desperate we are, we are put in the 00:27:14.000 |
same position as Simeon, longing and eagerly waiting for the only one who can truly console 00:27:22.440 |
us, to comfort us and to deliver us for him to come. 00:27:30.120 |
It's not because they were something special and they're more righteous than others, it's 00:27:41.280 |
You know what's interesting is I posted up last night, I said look at verses 21 all the 00:27:50.180 |
And hopefully some of you who looked at that, that you found what I was trying to get at, 00:27:56.940 |
If you look at verse 21 to 29 repeatedly over and over again, there's a phrase, a similar 00:28:02.820 |
phrase, maybe not exact wording, but in almost every verse that describes Jesus' birth and 00:28:08.500 |
his childhood after circumcision, what does it say? 00:28:12.900 |
According to the law, according to the law, as God commanded, as God commanded, according 00:28:18.300 |
to the law, every single one of those verses. 00:28:21.180 |
Verse 21, he was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law that was given in 00:28:27.740 |
Verse 22, and when the days for the purification according to the law of Moses was completed. 00:28:32.420 |
Verse 23, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male that opens the 00:28:40.700 |
Verse 24, and the offer of sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord. 00:28:47.340 |
Verse 27, and he came into the spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in 00:28:51.180 |
the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law. 00:28:55.900 |
Verse 29, now the Lord you are releasing your bond servant to depart in peace according 00:29:01.580 |
So every part of the introduction of Jesus' childhood says everything was done according 00:29:11.540 |
What is Luke trying to convey by telling us that everything that was happening was happening 00:29:18.740 |
One, his parents were righteous people and they were very faithful Jews who raised him 00:29:28.940 |
It's something more happening just pointing out the righteousness of the parents. 00:29:42.740 |
The whole reason why Jesus came was to be a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 00:29:51.060 |
If Jesus disobeyed the law in any commandment, he would have been disqualified, even from 00:29:57.880 |
So everything from the get-go, it says it was according to the law, according to the 00:30:01.620 |
law, according to the law, according to the law. 00:30:04.160 |
Even as an infant, everything that God prescribed a faithful Jew to do, he said Jesus performed 00:30:14.900 |
There's a reason why Jesus lives 30 years before he comes on the scene. 00:30:23.020 |
The reason why he waits until he's 30 years old, according to Levitical law, a priest 00:30:27.980 |
was considered an intern until he turned to age 30, because they considered at 30 that 00:30:36.660 |
So prior to the age of 30, you would have to have a supervisor supervising you and then 00:30:41.380 |
when you're able, as a full-grown adult at the age of 30, you were independently able 00:30:49.060 |
So 30 was the marker that was given in the law where you've experienced the totality 00:30:57.960 |
Obviously, there's people who live to 60, 70, but 30 was the marker where it's like 00:31:02.820 |
now you're a full-grown adult, you've experienced, you've lived long enough to experience life. 00:31:08.460 |
Jesus waits 30 years, because what was the 30 years for? 00:31:18.100 |
And you notice when Jesus comes to get baptized at the age of 30, to get baptized by John 00:31:23.560 |
the Baptist, remember what John the Baptist says? 00:31:39.980 |
To be obedient to everything that God has established. 00:31:44.340 |
And then right after he gets baptized, what happens? 00:31:46.380 |
He gets led into the wilderness and what happens to him? 00:31:48.540 |
He gets tested by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. 00:31:56.500 |
Because everything that he was doing was proving ground of his worthiness to be a perfect sacrifice 00:32:05.740 |
So even from his birth, every part of what he has experienced, even through his parents, 00:32:11.220 |
he was completely obedient, perfect substitution for our sins. 00:32:17.440 |
In Hebrews 4.15 he says, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our 00:32:21.480 |
weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." 00:32:30.600 |
If he disobeyed any of this, he would have been disqualified. 00:32:35.040 |
If he failed in any of his testing, if for 30 some years that he lived and he broke any 00:32:40.300 |
commandment of God, everything that he came to do would have been disqualified because 00:32:48.180 |
Hebrews 2.17, "Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he 00:32:52.740 |
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God to 00:32:56.840 |
make propitiation for the sins of the people." 00:33:01.240 |
And again in 2 Corinthians 5.21, "He made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf 00:33:05.940 |
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." 00:33:14.480 |
Now I know many of you guys have children that are young. 00:33:19.260 |
And when we go to your birthdays or you know, hundred day celebration, it's usually a huge 00:33:33.000 |
Naturally there's life and hope that somehow, some way that God's going to bless his life, 00:33:40.280 |
that he's going to be a great person of influence, he's going to have great education, 00:33:44.860 |
he's going to be possibly wealthy and man of influence and so we have great hope. 00:33:49.040 |
But when we look at the infancy of Christ, every part of what they did was to prepare 00:34:03.920 |
Even from birth, every part of that was necessary to confirm that he was going to be the perfect 00:34:13.120 |
That he was going to replace Isaac as a sacrifice for our sins. 00:34:21.560 |
It puts a completely different spin when you look at this chapter with that perspective. 00:34:29.760 |
To know that Christ didn't just randomly go to the cross. 00:34:33.600 |
He didn't just wait 30 years and live the normal carpenter's life and experience the 00:34:37.480 |
joys and all that comes with being a human being. 00:34:42.000 |
All of that is maybe true, but every single part of his life was ordained, willfully chosen, 00:34:58.240 |
That's why it says in 1 John 3, 2-3, it says, "Beloved, now we are children of God and it 00:35:07.600 |
We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. 00:35:12.800 |
Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure." 00:35:19.520 |
Sometimes we get so entangled with the affairs of this world, job, raising children, buying 00:35:27.560 |
a house, and none of these things are innately evil, but we get so entangled in these things 00:35:33.360 |
and we don't realize at times that how much of our hope and desire and how much of our 00:35:38.000 |
life is consumed coveting things that don't matter. 00:35:45.080 |
We confess it doesn't matter because we're here, because it contradicts what we believe. 00:35:55.120 |
God willfully is building house upon sand because we know when the storm comes, the 00:36:02.000 |
sand disappears and everything you built on it is going to be gone. 00:36:05.840 |
We confess that, we believe that, we study that, we memorize that, we teach that to our 00:36:09.520 |
children, yet how often do we see our life pattern, the things that we choose and where 00:36:15.600 |
we're headed is building a bigger house upon the sand that when Christ comes, it will all 00:36:22.560 |
just be wiped out because we forget sometimes. 00:36:29.040 |
And so it's necessary for us from time to time to take a step back and examine our own 00:36:42.200 |
What is the desire in your heart that causes you to invest money a certain way or buy a 00:36:46.760 |
certain house or go somewhere or do something? 00:36:50.060 |
What is the central thing in your heart that's driving you? 00:37:06.440 |
Or have we become entangled with things that ultimately don't matter? 00:37:15.560 |
But as Simeon and as Anna devoted their lives for the coming of the redemption of Christ, 00:37:21.920 |
redemption of Israel, the comfort of Israel, they are here for us that we are to follow 00:37:28.720 |
their example, to long, to pray, to fast, to know that the true problem in our lives 00:37:36.160 |
and our society can only be found, the answer can only be found in Christ and Christ alone. 00:37:43.840 |
Again, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, do you believe that? 00:37:54.560 |
Or is that just a doctrinal statement you sign or something that you were taught in 00:38:00.080 |
So you just memorize and regurgitate it, but in actual practice, that may not be the case. 00:38:09.080 |
Our prayer as we continue to study the Word of God is to calibrate our hearts, calibrate 00:38:13.640 |
our thoughts, that in our pain and our struggle, to long for the coming of Christ because true 00:38:20.840 |
answer, true freedom, true restoration can only be found in Christ and Christ alone. 00:38:29.200 |
I pray that we would believe that with all our heart and that our lives would be consistent 00:38:39.200 |
Gracious and loving Father, we come before you confessing our weakness, how easily we 00:38:48.120 |
get distracted, how easily, Lord, we get entangled with civilian affairs, longing for things 00:38:56.080 |
that the world longs for, seeking comfort more than anything else, willing to compromise 00:39:04.860 |
what you have called in order that we can have some of the things in this world. 00:39:10.520 |
Help us, Lord God, open our eyes that we may continue to see the glory of the gospel of 00:39:16.160 |
Jesus Christ, that we will be sanctified, that we will live each day longing and hoping 00:39:23.500 |
and praying for the coming of Christ to deliver us. 00:39:29.840 |
So we pray, Father God, that you would give us soberness, that as Simeon and as Anna long 00:39:36.840 |
for your coming, that we would live each day longing for that as well.