Divine Encounters Series

New Year

new goals

financial

physical

academic

social

medical

Spiritual

New Hopes

changes in relationships

friends and family members coming to faith

baptisms

greater connection with God

One of the challenges that we face in entering into a new year with new goals and hopes, is that we can be tempted to try drastic things in order to make some significant changes. But, often we’ll find those drastic changes are not sustainable. It becomes easy to fall off the wagon and give up or spiral into despair.

While there are some things that we can do in order to reach new goals, one of the things that I think we find in the next section of Luke is that sometimes the encounters we long for happen because we’re obedient and faithful in the ordinary and not exuberant in the extraordinary.

Let me encourage you to grab your bibles or open the pew Bible to Luke 2. We’re not going to have any slides today, so I’d love for you to be able to see the text for yourself.

As you may remember, last week, we got to look at the birth of John the baptist and reflect on how we should verbalize things about our faith - just as the people around Mary and Zechariah did.

On Tuesday night, we considered the scandalous nature of the birth of Jesus - prompting us to ask, are we living lives that are radically different than the ones we lived before we came to faith?

Today, we get to witness some divine encounters that Mary, Joseph and Jesus experienced with in the first few weeks of his life. As we do that, we are going to reflect on what allowed them to experience those encounters.

Luke 2:21–40 ESV

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 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. 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. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and 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 and 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 glory to your people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

One of the challenges I find with preaching through narrative passages or stories, is that I don’t want to simply retell the story. So as we walk through this passage, we’re going to look at several points of application that we can learn from Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna. Overall, it seems like we can learn from them that…

Theme: When we do the things God calls us to then we are in a place to experience encounters that God ordains for us.