Frances Green was an 83-year-old woman in California who lived by herself, and whose only means of support was her Social Security check. She didn’t have much money, but for 8 years she’d been sending $1 a year to the Republican National Committee. Well, one day Frances got a fund-raising letter in the mail from the RNC. It was a beautiful cream colored paper with black and gold lettering, and it invited the recipient to come to the White House to meet President Reagan. But what she hadn’t noticed was that the invitation implied that this was only for those who would give a generous donation. She just thought she’d been invited because they appreciated her dollar a year support.
Francis was excited, and scraped up every cent she had to take a 4 day train ride to Washington D.C. And when she arrived at the White House gate, the guard saw a little elderly woman with white hair and with white powder all over her face, wearing white stockings, an old hat with white netting, and an all-white dress, that was yellowed with age. She gave the guard her name. But the man frowned as he glanced over his official list. Her name wasn’t there. She couldn’t go in. And she was heartbroken.
A representative with the Ford Motor Company overheard her story and told her that obviously been a mistake and that she was to come back at 9 the next morning. Then he got word to President Reagan … who agreed to see her. At 9 o’clock she arrived full of anticipation and excitement, and in spite of the fact that the Reagan was very busy with high level meetings, when she came to his office, he rose from his desk and said: “Frances! Those darn computers, they fouled up again! If I’d known you were coming I would have come out there to get you myself.” Then he sat down with her and they talked for about an hour about her life and her family and about the city she lived in. Francis felt important, because the President of the United States said she was. ("The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart" by Charles Swindoll relating a story by Peggy Noonan, the speechwriter for President Reagan)
Now, Frances thought she’d received an invitation to see the President… but she hadn’t. By contrast, in our story this morning, Simeon and Anna HAD received an invitation to see the King of kings and Lord of Lords. In fact, they’d lived their whole lives in anticipation of His arrival.
Luke 2:25-26 says “there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for (anticipating) 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 in Luke 2:38 it says that when Anna saw Jesus “she began to give thanks to God and to speak of (Jesus) to all who were waiting for (anticipating) the redemption of Jerusalem.”
These folks were ANTICIPATING the arrival of the Messiah. It was like they had received an invitation to see Jesus in person. (PAUSE) And when they saw Him, they were filled with excitement.
Now Simeon and Anna don’t get much press. They’re never in any of the nativity scenes I’ve ever noticed. They’re not mentioned in any carols that I’m aware of, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a Christmas card with them in it. It’s like … they weren’t all that important! (pause)
BUT THEY WERE! They were important to God! And do you know HOW I know they were important to God? God told us their names… and He told us what they said. Their lives mattered because God said they mattered.
One of the things that’s always impressed me about the Bible is that it tells us WE MATTER! It tells us our lives can be valuable. It tells us that God can do something with us that will make our lives worthwhile.
So here we have Simeon and Anna… and it seems they matter to God. IF I could just figure out WHY they were mattered to God maybe my life (and yours) could make a difference in this world too. So, what was it… that made THEIR lives so special to God?
The first thing I noticed was WHO they were.
God says that Simeon was “righteous and devout” (Luke 2:25). “Devout” means – Simeon was COMMITTED to God.
And Anna was an 84 year old widow who “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” (Luke 2:37) Anna was always at the Temple, and she COMMITTED herself to fasting… and to praying night and day.
So that’s WHO they were. And I saw something there - Simeon and Anna totally committed themselves God before God actually used them. Simeon decided “I’m GOING TO BE GOD’S MAN” and Anna had decided “I’m GOING TO BE GOD’S WOMAN” longgggg before God used them.
And so… here is the first principle: If you want God to make a difference with your life, you’ve got to DECIDE you want Him to do that.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is II Chronicles 16:9 “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (PAUSE) Did you catch that? God says YOU must decide to commit yourself to ME… FIRST! And THEN I’ll strengthen you. Jesus said it this way “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). It’s the person who is fully committed to God (seeking 1st His Kingdom) that God can use.
ILLUS: This is the season of the year when you see people outside businesses standing beside red buckets and ringing bells collecting money to help the poor. One particular woman was doing just that until she was informed by the police that there was a local noise ordinance that her bell ringing was violating. So, what was she supposed to do? Well, the next day she was back at her post and she was receiving even more contributions than ever before. Instead of ringing bells… she held up one sign and then another in the air. The signs said "ding" and "dong."
She was fully committed to doing her task, no matter what. And that’s the kind of person God’s looking for. Someone who’s fully committed to Him… no matter what.
The 2nd thing I noticed about Simeon & Anna was WHAT they wanted. Around Christmas time lots of kids have their “wish list.” It’s a list of things that they want for Christmas.
ILLUS: Back when Jonathan was about 4 years old we had one of those “Sears Wish Books” that focused on toys for children. One day Jonathan was dragging it thru the living room and I asked to see it. He’d taken a red marker and circled about 30 or 40 different toys he wanted. And he kept it with him all day long…just in case there was something he’d missed.
Simeon and Anna had a “wish list.” But what they wanted wasn’t toys or tools or trinkets. What they wanted was something they couldn’t wrap in a box. Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25), and Anna was “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38)
Now, what’s all that all about? Well, one man described it this way: “Things weren’t going all that well for the nation of Israel. They hadn’t heard from God in years and now they were under Roman rule. They were a people who were lost and living in fear. They were a people without hope!” (my rendering of words from Brian Bill)
What Simeon and Anna wanted… was HOPE! Their nation had been down so long even UP looked wrong. They were looking for HOPE, and that’s what they saw in Jesus.
Do you remember that famous prophecy about Jesus from Isaiah 9? “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Do you remember that?
Well just a few verses before that Isaiah 9:2 promised that “The people walking in darkness have seen a GREAT LIGHT (Jesus) on those living in the land of the shadow of death a LIGHT has dawned.” Isaiah promised that when the Messiah (Jesus) was to come, He’d give light to those walked in darkness. He’d give HOPE to those “lived in the land of the shadow of death.”
ILLUS: One of the beauties of having a 2-year-old grandson in my house is that he sees the same things you and I do - but he sees those things with new eyes. First thing in the morning he’ll walk over to the Christmas tree, and (if it’s not plugged in yet) demand I plug in the lights. And he’ll stand there for 5 to 10 minutes and just stare at the tree. There’s something about those lights that fascinates him, because there’s something about light that makes us feel good/and gives us hope. And that was what Simeon and Anna wanted: HOPE.
If you have God’s hope in your life… God can make you so you can do anything. William Barclay once wrote “A person can endure anything so long as he has hope, for then he is walking not to the night but to the dawn.”
So God could do powerful things with Simeon and Anna because of WHO they were, and because of WHAT they wanted.
But the last thing that made them valuable to God - they knew WHO they were looking for. When they saw the baby Jesus… they knew WHO they were looking at. When Simeon saw Jesus, “he took him up in his arms and blessed God” (Luke 2:28). And then he told everyone around him who this Jesus was.
When Anna saw Jesus “she began to give thanks to God and to speak of (Jesus) to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Luke 2:38
When they saw that Jesus was the answer to their prayers they were excited because they’d seen Jesus, but they didn’t see Him as a MERE baby. When Simeon saw Jesus he 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.” Luke 2:29-32
One of the problems with the Christmas season is that too many people only see a baby.
ILLUS: Lots of churches will put up nativity scenes with Mary and Joseph and the baby. In California a few years back somebody stole the baby Jesus from a church’s display. When the preacher at that church called the police, he told them: “We’ve just got to find that baby. He’s the only Jesus these people have ever known.”
Now… that’s a problem.
If the baby Jesus was the only Jesus these people had ever known that preacher wasn’t doing his job, and his church didn’t really know Jesus. If the only Jesus those folks were looking for was a baby, they weren’t looking for Jesus of the Bible. They were LOOKING for a harmless plastic doll in a display.
CLOSE: You see… Jesus was God in the flesh. He’d come down to walk amongst us and die for our sins… and rise from the grave to give us hope.
Max Lucado (in his book "God Came Near") once wrote this about Jesus. “When God chose to reveal himself, he did so through a human body. The tongue that called forth the dead was a human one. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were callused and dirty. And his tears... oh, don’t miss the tears. They came from a heart as broken as your or mine has ever been. So, people came to him. My, how they came to him! They came at night; they touched him as he walked down the street; they followed him around the sea; they invited him into their homes, and placed their children at his feet. Why? Because he refused to be a statue in a cathedral or a priest in an elevated pulpit. He chose instead to be Jesus. There were those who mocked him, who were envious of him, who misunderstood him, and there were those who revered him. But there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected. REMEMBER THAT.
“Remember that when you see the nativity scene with a helpless infant drawing shepherd and wise man, manger beast and celestial angel, all in an unthreatening atmosphere that was to mark his entire life, even when that life was eventually slain on a desolate hill in Judea. Remember that.”
That’s the Jesus that Simeon and Anna were looking for. They weren’t looking for a pretty baby in a manger. They were looking for the MESSIAH that God had promised. The promised savior who would die on the Cross, and rise from the dead to give us HOPE, and to give us a lasting purpose for our lives.
The question this morning… is that Jesus you’re looking for? Are you MERELY looking for the baby Jesus in a manger, or are you looking for the Jesus who died for you on the cross, and who came to change your life.
INVITATION
