It’s a difficult year to celebrate anything. Yet, Christmas is a season of hope in the midst of a really challenging year. The hope of Christmas is irrepressible no matter what you’re facing. There’s a buoyant hope to Christmas that continues to surface despite challenges.
Some years ago, The Cincinnati Post decided to keep all the bad news off its front page for one day. They decided to only put the good news on the front page of the newspaper. What would make the editors do this rare thing? They did this in honor of Christmas.
Christmas’ buoyant hope seeps through everything and moves through any obstacle.
Marxist Lenin issued an order in 1919 that if anyone didn’t show up to work on December 25 because of the Christmas holiday, they would be shot. The people turned to Christmas to gather hope and warmth in the midst of challenging times. Lenin knew this and hated it.
The hope of the Christmas message moves us; it’s irrepressible.
Now, the celebration of Christmas has grown through the years. Like the layers of an onion, the traditions around the Christmas holiday have grown. If you could travel back in time, Christmas would look really different down through the centuries! The earliest Christians really did not celebrate Christmas. These men and women of faith were more interested in celebrating Easter and the resurrection than they were in the birth of Christ. It was not until people began to deny if Jesus really came in human flesh that Christian churches began to place up nativity sets.
And the way we celebrate Christmas has changed down through the years. The modern picture of the holiday where Christmas trees are put up and presents for children are under the tree really began to take shape in the middle part of the 1800s. It’s here that a painting of England’s royal family was reprinted in New York. The painting showed the family around a Christmas tree that Albert had brought from Germany. You could see children surrounding the tree in the painting, and you could see gifts there as well. From this “middle class” looking photo, our idea that the holiday should be centered around the idea of putting gifts under a tree really took off. And with the beginning of department stores, the commercialization of Christmas really took off as we know it today. Before the start of department stores like Macy’s and their great advertising, friends and family would give handmade clothes.
Today, I want to peel the back onion to the real story of Christmas. The biblical story of Christmas has major characters and minor characters, who all play an important role in making the story of Christmas great theatre. Some of these you know well, such as Joseph, Mary, and the angels. Others are less well-known and only have cameo appearances, such as the two characters we see today: Simeon and Anna.
To prepare you for the upcoming Christmas season, I want to introduce you to these two people who were exceptional at waiting. God tells this relatively unknown man named Simeon, I will show you the Messiah before you die. And then there’s a lady named Anna, who did nothing but fast and pray at the Temple night and day. Here when Jesus is presented at the Temple, we meet a man of faith and a woman of prayer.
1. Learn to Wait
“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. 26 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” (Luke 2:25-26).
“And there was a prophetess, Anna, …. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 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” (Luke 2:36-37).
So both Simeon and Anna were really good at waiting. They waited because they took the Bible seriously.
1.1 Examples of Waiting
How do you like waiting? Now, there are all kinds of waiting in life. There is “wait until your father gets home,” and there’s waiting on your plane during a long layover. And there is the waiting room where you sit to hear news from the doctor on the outcome of your loved one’s surgery. And then there’s waiting on Christmas.
Traci and I were recently watching Frosty the Snowman on TV over the Thanksgiving break. I said to her that I loved when that show came on because it meant Christmas was just around the corner when you were a kid. Maybe you had something similar which marked the beginning of the Christmas season for you. Waiting on Christmas was packed full of anticipation and excitement. But waiting for the first Christmas wasn’t nearly that exciting.
From the end of your Old Testament to the beginning of the New Testament, 400 years go by with no word from God. Israel had been used to prophets speaking for God like clockwork – one after another appeared. But the heavens were silent, and God’s people waited. For 400 years, God had been silent when Anna and Simeon waited on Jesus to be born. For 400 years, no prophet had spoken a word from the Lord. It had been a long and hard time waiting.
1.2 Something to Wait for
If you were to locate me in Kohl’s store’s parking lot in the next couple of weeks waiting in my car. You would ask me, “Scott, are you waiting on Traci?” If I said, “No, I just come to the parking lot to wait for fun in my idle time,” you would look at me if I were crazy.
If I were to find you at Love Field early on Monday morning and I were to ask you, “You waiting on a flight,” would you say to me, “No, I just come to hang out at the airport. I love watching the departure and arrival screens.” No one does this. People that wait in department store parking lots and find fun waiting at airport lobbies need a special jacket with a zipper up the back!
It’s important for you to understand that Simeon and Anna had Something to wait for. Simeon and Anna knew what they were waiting for. They were not just waiting, but they were waiting for Something and really Someone. They were waiting with a purpose.
In verse 25, Simeon waits on “the consolation of Israel,” which is Jesus. Jesus is “the consolation of Israel.” The Holy Spirit told Simeon Someone was coming: “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” (Luke 2:26).
Their Bibles, our Old Testaments or Tanakh, told them Someone was coming. Both Simeon and Anna were devout believers who knew their Bibles well. They had read and reread the Bible numerous times over.
1.2.1 Everyone Knows
They couldn’t help but see over 300 predictions that lay scattered throughout the Old Testament about the Messiah.
Everyone knew this, and when I say “everyone,” I mean everyone. In 2014, a British woman sued her divorce lawyers, claiming that they had not warned her that getting a divorce would end her marriage. The case was quickly dismissed.
There are just some things everyone knows or should know!
Let me show you…
The color of blood is ???? (red).
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by ????? (Lee Harvey Oswald).
The rich only get ???? (richer).
And everyone knows that man’s best friend is a ???? (dog).
Again, everyone knows this.
1.2.2 The Woman at the Well
How widely was it known that the Old Testament predicted the Messiah? When Jesus met with the woman at the well, she told everyone in the village this: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ” (John 4:29)? Now, she was a woman who had divorced five husbands and was living with a man when she spoke to Jesus. It was actress Zsa Zsa Gabor who once said, “A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it.” Needless to say, the Woman at the Well wasn’t the most spiritually-sensitive person alive. Yet, even she knew there was a Messiah who was coming, and she asked everyone in her town, “Could this be the Christ, the Messiah?”
Every good Jewish person knew the Messiah was coming because our Old Testament predicted it. Anna and Simeon had the faith to go to the Temple to wait. Simeon and Anna waited because they took the Bible seriously. They read the Bible seriously and waited on God to move with a sketch artist’s rendition of Jesus in their minds.
1.3 Isaiah’s Prophecy
Let me offer you just one example of this. The book of Isaiah alone contains 111 separate predictions.
Seven hundred years before Jesus Christ was even born, this prophet explained Christmas before anyone had even experienced Christmas. Seven centuries before the star was shining, and the cradle was rocking, and the wise men were giving, and the angels were singing, God revealed to Isaiah exactly what this baby that was born in Bethlehem was to be called.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Isaiah 7 predicts how the Messiah is to be born. Isaiah 9 predicts how the Messiah will rule.
Isaiah says we won’t vote Him into office, and we won’t vote Him out of office. Isaiah dipped his prophetic pen into inspired ink and wrote what would become the centerpiece and cornerstone of Christmas prophecy. When Simeon and Anna read these predictions, they knew there was Someone to wait for.
1.3.1 Bar Code Tracking
Think of it like an Old Testament bar code where you could track the arrival of the package. The Messianic prophecies functioned like a tracking number to let Simeon know his package had arrived. Only the package was the arrival of Jesus Himself. Remember this: lots of people may have discussed the Messiah, but only these two were noted for having the faith to actively wait for the Messiah.
1.3.2 Sketch Artist
Today, if a criminal commits a crime, a sketch artist will draw his picture from eyewitness accounts. Think of the Old Testament as giving a sketch artist for the coming Messiah. Simeon and Anna waited because they took the Bible seriously. As if they took the sketch artist’s rendering around the Temple, actively looking for the Messiah. They read the Bible seriously and waited on God to move with a sketch artist’s rendition of Jesus in their minds. They actively waited on God to act.
1.4 Waiting on God
What does it mean to “wait on God?” To wait on God to do what He says doesn’t mean you sit completely still and do nothing. Many of our first jobs are working as a waiter or waitress in a restaurant. A waiter doesn’t sit idly by when you get your own food and water. No, he/she serves you. He is there for one purpose, and that is to obey you, to take your order, and to fulfill that order. While we are waiting on the Lord, we are to be serving Him, taking His order, and obeying His command.
Waiting doesn’t mean you stop everything. Waiting on God means you are simply telling God, “I am totally dependent on You. I am helpless and hopeless without You. I am waiting for your promises to take shape and take place.” Anna and Simeon waited for God to fulfill His promises.
Do you take the Bible seriously enough to wait on God to act? If the Bible told you there was going to be snow on the Fourth of July in the Sahara Desert, would you arrive with a parka on?
1.5 Be Honest
Let’s be honest for a moment. Do you have enough faith in God’s Word to actively wait on God to do what He said He would do?
Again, be honest with God and with me. It was during the season for gaining weight, and after Christmas, a wife had put on a brand new dress and looked at her husband, and she asked a question that could bring instant death to husbands everywhere She said, “Honey, do I look fat in this dress?” The husband thought for a moment, pointed to his shirt, and said, “Do I look stupid in this shirt?”
How seriously do you take the Bible? Again, be honest with God and with me. Anna and Simeon waited for God to fulfill His promises. Simeon went to the Temple daily as He knew the Lord told him he would see the baby with his very own eyes.
Do you take the Bible’s message seriously enough to go to one place day after day in order to see the Bible’s prediction come to fulfillment?
Simeon and Anna waited because they took the Bible seriously.
1. Learn to Wait
2. Expect His Arrival
Now, Mary and Joseph make their way to the Temple in Jerusalem, which was about 6 miles from His birthplace in Bethlehem. So in verse 22, the couple took Jesus into the Temple complex 40 days after His birth (Leviticus 12:1–5). Joseph and Mary walked into the Temple area with Jesus in their arms. Now when it came to the sacrifice, Joseph and Mary had their choice of offerings, either a lamb or a pair of doves or a pair of pigeons. Only the wealthy offered a lamb, so they offered the pair in its place.
The beautiful message of Christmas is a message of irrepressible hope and joy.
2.1 Hitler and Castro
To witness the power of Christmas, you need to only see how dictators have been threatened by it. Realizing the message of Christmas was too big to be ignored, Adolf Hitler of Germany attempted to twist the message of Christmas to fit the Nazi ideology. In place of the traditional words to the Christmas Carols, Silent Night, children were taught a new song. See if you can spot the difference:
Silent night, Holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.
Adolf Hitler is Germany’s star
Showing us greatness and glory afar
Bringing us Germans the might.
Not to be outdone by Hitler’s radical notions, Communist Cuba, Fidel Castro banned Christmas celebrations and public decorations in 1969. One person said there were two naughty words in those days: Christmas and human rights. But none of these dictators stand in your way of receiving the good news of great joy.
Again, the beautiful message of Christmas is a message of irrepressible hope and joy.
Question: how did Simeon and Anna know it was Jesus when He entered the Temple area? Just how did they know when the baby Jesus arrived? Was He marked in a special way like a hallow of light over His head? Did angels float in the area around Him wherever He went? None of these were true – Jesus didn’t have a hallow of light or a special tattoo.
2.2 Spiritual Sight
Remember, the angels lit up the night sky to tell the shepherds Jesus was born. And the star appeared in the sky for the wise men to see Jesus’ birth. But no angel was there to tell Simeon or Anna to look for Jesus. And no star appeared in the night sky for them either. Jesus enters the Temple and, when He does, it was as if fireworks go off inside Simeon and Anna. It was as if these two heard a dog whistle notifying them of Jesus’ arrival. Simeon and Anna didn’t need angels to tell them Jesus was near, for their spiritual eyes could see clearly the hope of the nation was before them. These two possessed spiritual eyesight that had been developed over decades. The reason they had spiritual sight was because they possessed remarkable faith. The Bible tells us that faith is this: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). You could say that Faith is sight even when the lights are off.
How do you develop your spiritual sight? First, you have to be spiritually reborn.
Dave did just that. Even though he grew up in a Jewish home, he began to investigate the wide number of Old Testament predictions about the Messiah. The same predictions led Anna and Simeon to believe in the Messiah. He was 54 years old because he was amazed by the descriptions and the predictions about the Messiah in the Old Testament. Dave is now the general manager for the New York Giants. This football GM placed his faith in Jesus, who died and rose again for the forgiveness of sins and to give him eternal life.
Place your faith in Jesus, who died and rose again for your forgiveness of sins. If you are not born again, then the Bible says you are spiritually blind. To develop spiritual sight, you must be spiritually reborn.
2.3 Anna
Now, once you are reborn, it’s not as if every believer has the same amount of spiritual sight. We are told she was a widow, and she was a really old widow. She was married for seven years (verse 36), and she was anywhere between 84 years old to 105 years old. And she was constantly in the Temple fasting and praying and praying and fasting. Yes, she went home at night, but she “lived” at the Temple like you might “live” at your workplace. She was there all the time. One day, she is in the Temple, and without a word being told, she sees Jesus. Her spiritual eyes told her immediately this was the child. And the moment she saw Jesus, she gave thanks to God: “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” (Luke 2:38).
Anna gave thanks, and she spoke of Jesus to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
2.4 Simeon
When Simeon sees Jesus enter the Temple, he’s like Charles Dicken’s character Ebenezer Scrooge on that famous Christmas morning: he runs around telling everyone what he has seen.
“…he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:28b-32).
When he first sees the baby Jesus, he sings. Jesus was on his bucket list because he began his song this way, “I can now ‘depart in peace’ (verse 29). He was ready to die! Is seeing Jesus on your bucket list before you die? Now, here was a man who was hardwired to God through the Holy Spirit of God. He was a man who was led by the Spirit of God, taught by the Word of God, and obedient to the will of God. The Holy Spirit of God says to Simeon, “That’s the one. That’s the baby.” And Simeon takes this baby in his arms, holds this baby to his chest, and says, “Now, Lord, now I’m ready. Let me depart in peace because, Father, you have spoken to me.” “Here,” says this faithful son of Abraham, “is the fulfillment of a thousand prophecies and promises, the hope, the expectation, and the joy of my nation!”
2.5 Expectation
You must hone the spiritual skill of seeing with a confident expectation that God will do what He says. The dictionary defines expectation as the regarding of something as likely to happen. Expectation is actively waiting like you are actively waiting for Christmas right now. It’s the idea that something is likely to happen or that you’re confident something is about to happen. We do this all the time in life. We order something online, and we expect it to be on our doorstep in the next couple of days. You expect your family to be home for the holidays.
Our confidence is not in chance or good fortune but in the true and living God to work in our day. Anna and Simeon were given a spiritual sight that they had honed for years. Because of their growing confidence in God’s Word, they expected God to act in their day. It’s interesting no high priest, a member of the Sanhedrin, Levite, or no temple official waited to welcome Jesus into the Temple. No official person was the model of faith, but two unknown people were. Christmas is an irrepressible hope that God moves and acts in our day.
Conclusion
There’s a buoyant hope to Christmas that continues to surface despite challenges.
