Good News For Simeon And Anna Series

Alba 12-29-2024

GOOD NEWS FOR SIMEON AND ANNA

Luke 2:21-40

I'm thinking of church attendance. Have you ever heard of Murphy’s Law for Preachers?

Law # 1: If the weather is extremely bad, church attendance will be down.

Law #2: If the weather is extremely good church attendance will be down.

Law #3: If the bulletin covers are in short supply, church attendance will exceed all expectations.

Some of you when you were greeters have experienced that if you ran low on bulletins. But I am always glad to see as many people as can come sharing in our time of worship. First of all, because God deserves our praise. And also because it is my hope that what we share together here will be a blessing to us all. It is good to be in the house of the Lord.

The scripture for today's message tells of some wonderful things that happened when certain people came to God's house. Actually, they came to the temple in Jerusalem. These events happened shortly after the birth of Jesus. Mary and Joseph went to the temple because they were being obedient to God's commands concerning the birth of a son.

Luke 2:21 tells us that they had already had Jesus circumcised when he was eight days old, just as is commanded in Genesis 17:12. Then Luke 2:22-24 tells us the reason why Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus went to the temple on that particular day. It says, “Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who 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.”

Bethlehem, the birth place of Jesus, is only about six miles from Jerusalem. So the journey to the temple was not far. But it was not because it was convenient that they went to the temple. No it was because of what was “written in the law of the Lord.” No wonder God chose these two faithful people to be the earthly parents of His only begotten Son.

In the Old Testament, Leviticus 12:2-8 it gives the requirements for a woman after giving birth. She must wait at least 40 days after the birth of a son, and then offer a sacrifice to be considered pure again. It was not the birth that was the concern. It was the loss of blood during the birth that required a sacrifice for cleansing. The minimum sacrifice that could be offered was two doves or two young pigeons.

That minimum sacrifice was allowed for those who could not afford to offer a lamb. So that tells us that Mary and Joseph were not a wealthy pair. Some may ask, why not use the gold that the Wise Men gave? That is because they hadn't arrived there yet.

We are also told that Mary and Joseph came with Jesus to “present Him to the Lord.” Once again, it shows that they were being faithful to God. It appears that this is a reference to the requirement in the Law to redeem the first-born of the mother (Leviticus 13:13 and 27:6). The redeeming price was five silver coins. This commandment commemorates the plague of the first-born in which God smote the first-born of the Egyptians, but spared the first-born of the Israelites, demonstrating that the first born belongs to God. But think about this: Jesus Himself was to become the redeeming sacrifice to which all other redeeming sacrifices had pointed since Moses' time.

All of this was why Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to the temple on that particular day. But there were others who came that same day. And what happens next reinforces the good news that Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds and the Wise Men had been told. Because this day, that same good news came through a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna. It was a good day to be in the house of the Lord.

The account of Simeon and then Anna meeting with Mary and Joseph is found in Luke 2:25-40. They don’t appear in any nativity scenes or in many Christmas cards, but they are significant players in the first Christmas pageant. There's a lot of good news wrapped up in this story. And there's a lot we can learn from these two individuals. If we want good news, we need to pay attention to how things happened here. First of all...

1. Good news comes to those who are in the right place.