INTRODUCTION
In Luke 2, Jesus is brought to the Temple to be presented to the Lord 40 days after His birth in fulfillment of the Law. Then the text takes an interesting twist. At such a momentous occasion; the time in which God’s very Son is being presented to Him at His Temple, the focus turns to two of God’s servants who are in their latter years in life, Simeon and Anna. They are two people who lived lives with purpose and would be blessed by God with the privilege to see the Redeemer of Israel. They came to see Jesus, but it is them that the Lord calls for us to “behold” (v25).
Simeon and Anna are two people that were truly planted in the house of the Lord and flourished for Him as Psalm 92:12-15 speaks of. There are three simple points I would like to make about these two older servants of the Lord that helped them to be an example to us of what it means to live a life of fruitfulness and purpose:
1. They waited on God
2. They worked for God
3. They worshiped God
In these three things, Simeon and Anna show us why it is that the Lord takes up more verses to talk about them than He does to talk about His Son who is being presented to Him.
_______________________________
❶ SIMEON AND ANNA WAITED
SIMEON: (Luke 2:25-26)
We are told in Luke 2:25, “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was…waiting for the Consolation of Israel.” This is surely a reference to His hope for the coming Messiah. He had no doubt been taught the prophecies about God’s coming King; the One who would come to help Israel be freed from their captivity and given peace by God. Then just imagine being in Simeon’s sandals as the Spirit of God reveals a very special promise to him… “You, in your lifetime Simeon, will see the Messiah.” He would not die until he sees the Messiah who has been promised to God’s people for over a thousand years.
We are not told exactly when during his life this promised was revealed to him by the Spirit, but can you just imagine what was going through Simeon’s mind as the years passed by. The anticipation, the excitement of being able to see God’s Christ in the flesh. No matter how long he had to wait, he was going to be willing to wait patiently. He trusted that God would fulfill His promise to Him.
Many people before they die have a long list of things they want to accomplish before it happens; their “bucket list.” I think it’s safe to say that for Simeon, there was only one thing on His “bucket list,” to see the Redeemer of Israel.
ANNA: (Luke 2:36-37)
We are introduced to Anna in Luke 2:36. Her story is one of sorrow. She was married for just seven years before her husband died. She was left as a young widow. She may have been in her early twenties when this happened. One would imagine that in her situation she would soon find another husband, or that her kinsmen redeemer would come and raise up children for her husband who had died. But this is not what happens. She decided to stay single. She took a path that many women of her time would run away from and even loathe. She would, after the death of her husband, be a widow for a very long time. There are two possible ways to look at verses 36-37 when speaking of her age. She may have been married for seven years, and then a widow for 84 years, which would put her in her over 100 years old if she got married in her teens. Or the other possibility is that she was married for 7 years and then became a widow until the age of 84, which would be her current age. Either way, this would be a long time to be a widow.
Anna would spend her whole life on her own, trusting in her God to provide for her physical needs. She didn’t have welfare to help her or social security to collect. She depended on the generosity of others to help sustain her physically. Why would she be willing to live a life like this? I believe the reason is that her sights were not on herself, but on Someone else. She wanted to devote her life to God, and be able to meet, not her kinsman redeemer like in the case of Ruth, but her spiritual Redeemer. She was waiting for the best of Redeemers.
APPLICATION: What is it that we are waiting for? Simeon and Anna show us that there are better things worth waiting for than the things that we tend to focus so much time and energy on. There are better things to devote our lives to; better things to anticipate.
Many of us are in anticipation mode when it comes to children. As the days roll by, we become more and more excited about the birth of our children. I wonder how many of us have this kind of anticipation spiritually. As we each day get one day closer to meeting our Lord in glory, do we have this kind of anticipation? This kind of longing? This is what I believe Paul is talking about to Titus whenever he tells him to instruct the Christians in Crete to live in a way that shows they are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus…” (Titus 2:13). We need to wait and anticipate the fulfillment of the promises God has made, just as Simeon and Anna did.
❷ SIMEON AND ANNA WORKED
Even at their old age, they continued to work for their God. They were not going to allow it to be an obstacle. They would do what they could to be fruitful.
SIMEON: (Luke 2:25, 29)
There are a few things we learn in this text about Simeon as a worker for God:
• He was righteous (v25) and devout (v25). Simeon’s life was characterized by God as one that was virtuous and sincere. He was devoted to his God and devoted to following God’s law, even at his older age.
• He was the Lord’s bond-servant (v29) (doulos (lit. a slave)) Sometimes we may think that people are too old, too frail or too limited to be of much use to God, but Simeon’s life is a rejection of that notion. Simeon obviously didn’t look at himself this way. He viewed himself even now as a servant of God who could do something. He saw that his life did not belong to him, but to God.
• He had the Holy Spirit upon him. We don’t know exactly what this means in the case of Simeon. Since God revealed some things to him, it is possible this is speaking of Simeon being a prophet. It could also mean that the Holy Spirit was the One who guided and directed his life. He was in tune with God and His revelation. He sure had some insight that others did not, even many of Jesus’ disciples. We see in this passage that unlike many of the Jews, Simeon was willing to see the truth that Jesus would be the One who would bring salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. We don’t see the same prejudices and biases in Simeon. We see a man with a heart for the truth of God.
ANNA: (Luke 2:36-37)
• Was a prophetess (v36). Unlike Simeon, we are plainly told that Anna was a prophetess. God used her in some way to reveal his truth to others. And it sure seems like this is a job that she took seriously and spent a lot of time doing…
• Worked at the temple all day (v37). The text says that she never left the temple! She probably worked more hours for the Lord than each individual priest did!
• Served with fasting and prayers (v37). The focus of her work that the text gives us is her fasting and prayers. I doubt she was fasting just because she was poor. She was seeking the Lord’s will. She wanted to serve His people. So she would spend time praying instead of eating so she could pray to the Lord. The necessity of prayer was more important to her than the necessity of food at times! Whether she was 84 or over one hundred years old, she could still pray and fast and talk.
• Spoke of her Redeemer to others (v38). She cared enough about the souls of others to tell them about their Redeemer. She didn’t keep the news of the coming Messiah to herself.
APPLICATION:
These two “older” people should lead many of us who are younger to be ashamed of our lack of service to God. Could the same things that were spoken of Simeon as an old man be spoken of you as a younger person? Are you righteous, devout, and count yourself as a slave of God?
Anna obviously had a lot of time on her hands to spend at the Temple in prayer and fasting and telling others about her Redeemer. I don’t believe the Lord wants all of us to quit school and to quit our jobs and meet together every day to pray and fast. But do you every pray with fasting? Do you ever want to spend time with God so bad that you will skip meals to do it? Do we even care about each other enough to even think of doing such a thing; to spend meal times praying for each other? Do we ever tell others about our Redeemer?
❸ SIMEON AND ANNA WORSHIPED
God fulfills the promises He makes to His people who wait and work for Him. For Simeon and Anna, their waiting and working paid the ultimate dividend. They got to meet their Redeemer!
Let’s look at the responses of Simeon and Anna.
SIMEON: (Luke 2:28-35)
Simeon responds to the fulfillment of God’s promise by taking Jesus into his arms and blessing God for His faithfulness. He had given his bond-servant peace and had seen God’s salvation. Now that he has seen the Messiah, his life is now complete. He has seen what he was waiting for. He was ready to depart. What else can he do but bless and praise God for what He has done.
ANNA: (Luke 2:38)
I don’t know how much Anna knew about the promise God made to Simeon, but somehow she knew that her Redeemer was at the Temple. Maybe the Spirit revealed it to her. But right at the time in which Simeon is speaking to Joseph and Mary, Anna comes in, and all we are told about her is that in the same way she gave thanks to God. She probably had many prayers answered by the Lord! We are not told exactly what her words were, but surely as with Simeon, they were a pouring out of her heart to the Lord for His faithfulness.
One last point I would like to make is that both Simeon and Anna not only openly acknowledge their thankfulness to God for what He has done, they also show it by continuing to work. They both in this text are a blessing to others after they meet Jesus.
• Simeon gave a blessing to Joseph and Mary, and told them about what laid in store for the child, even preparing Mary herself for what is ahead.
• Anna, as I mentioned earlier, shows her thankfulness to God by talking to others who were looking for the promised Messiah.
• Their thankfulness to God led them to look outward to others.
APPLICATION:
Can this be said of us. God has blessed us with salvation and with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We are here today to thank Him and praise Him for what He has done in Christ, but does it end there? Do we, like Simeon and Anna, show our thankfulness to God and worship Him by putting our lives on the altar for Him so we can be a blessing to others?
_____________
CONCLUSION
Are you seeking and giving thanks for your Redeemer as Simeon and Anna did? These two old saints give us a great example of what it means to wait on the Lord, to trust His promises, and to serve Him and His people. We would do well to imitate their examples and to strive to in our older age to have faith like theirs.
