This Changes Everything: Simeon Series

We all know the words; we’ve heard them over and over again. If you close your eyes, you can almost picture the. The Old Testament words that are read each year during Advent. The words of Isaiah, Micah and David which relate to the coming Messiah. They are repeated in sermons and songs and printed on Christmas cards.

Most of us can even recite bits, and pieces of those prophecies. Some are from the Prophet Isaiah “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” and “The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)” Those words were read when the first Advent candle, the Prophet’s Candle, was lit two weeks ago.

And Micah’s word about where Jesus would be born “But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.” And those words were read last week when the Bethlehem Candle was lit.

And those prophecies were read and repeated for hundreds of years within the Jewish community as they looked to the one who would free them from their oppressors and restore Israel to the glory it had experienced under King David.

And all of those prophecies were fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

This morning we are continuing with our This Changes everything series. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve looked at how the birth of John the Baptist pointed to the birth of Jesus and how Christmas, the birth of Jesus, points to his ultimate return. \

This morning at Windgate, Pastor Rob is looking at the Old Testament prophecies and how they were fulfilled in the New Testament. Not just in the story of Christ’s birth but in his ministry, his death and ultimately in his resurrection. You will get to hear that next Sunday.

This morning we aren’t going to focus on the prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus. Instead, we are looking at the prophecy concerning the purpose of Jesus.

Maybe you remember looking at your newborn child and imagining all the possibilities wrapped up in that tiny person. And imagining how someday they would provide for you in your golden years, you know, as the next Sydney Crosby or Taylor Swift, without all the heartbreak.

In Luke chapter 2, we read how Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated as required by the law.

I would suspect that Mary and Joseph saw this as an incredible opportunity. Jesus was probably the only one of their children to be presented to God at the temple. The rest probably were presented at the synagogue in Nazareth, where they lived.

We discover the back story in the two verses that precede the scripture that was read for us earlier..

Luke 2:22–24 Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the LORD.” So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

This requirement was spelled out in Leviticus chapter 12, in the Old Testament. And it’s there we read Leviticus 12:6 “When the time of purification is completed for either a son or a daughter, the woman must bring a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for a purification offering. She must bring her offerings to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

And maybe you’re thinking, hold on. Leviticus says that they were supposed to bring a lamb and a pigeon or a turtle dove, but in Luke, it says they were supposed to bring a pair of pigeons or turtle doves.

That was because of a caveat that was given later in the regulations spelled out in Leviticus 12:8 . . . “If a woman cannot afford to bring a lamb, she must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons. . .“ And that statement tells us a little bit about Mary and Joseph’s economic standing.

And so, Mary and Joseph made the trip to Jerusalem to dedicate their son, and that is so fitting because Jerusalem would play such a central part in Jesus’ story. 96 times Jerusalem is mentioned in Luke’s account of the Jesus story. It was in Jerusalem that Mary and Joseph dedicated their son, and in Jerusalem where they lost their son and found him in the temple.