Out of the mouth of babes.

Steve Brown:
Out of the mouth of babes. Let’s talk about it on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Justin Holcomb has been teaching us all this week. Justin is an Episcopal priest, an author, and he teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’ve been listening this week, you’ve found out some really important life changing stuff about Epiphany. And some of you didn’t even know what that was. I invited Dr. Justin Holcomb to spend this week as we look at some of the events in the church year, Epiphany being one of them. And we’ve been looking at those passages that are read in the lectionary in churches all over the world at Epiphany. And let me read to you from the Gospel of Luke, the presentation, and that’s what Epiphany means, of Jesus in the temple. And then we’ll have a prayer, and then we’ll learn stuff from Justin about this incident. I’m going to start at the 22nd verse of the 2nd chapter.

And when the time had come for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him, Jesus, up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male that 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 turtle doves, and two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking 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 should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit, he came into the temple, and when the parents brought 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 let us thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for my eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared in the presence of old peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.” And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

Justin Holcomb:
You want to read about Anna too? I’ll just talk about, I’ll talk about Anna.

Steve Brown:
Okay. I’ll, you just talk about her. We’ll trust that you’re being faithful to Scripture.

Justin Holcomb:
So again, we’re in Epiphany and what we see is that Simeon and Anna, who’s a prophet, who shows up in this story, recognize Jesus as the Messiah, proclaiming that he’s a light for the nations. This is the whole point about Epiphany, which is the appearance, the manifestation, the revealing of the person of Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man. And the work, which is he is God’s revelation to the world about God, God’s holiness, God’s grace, God’s plan, God’s redemption, all of that. And so, you have this story where Mary and Joseph are just fulfilling the rights of purification that they’re supposed to do. Bring this child and do the proper sacrifice. And then Simeon shows up in, he had this promise. He says in verse 26, the Holy Spirit said, told him he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. So, Luke is writing this to highlight the Messianic secret, and that is no longer a secret. And so, what you see is there’s the universal scope of the gospel. God’s plan, you see in verse 31 and 32, it says.

Which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles in the glory of your people Israel.

So Simeon reads this passage and it says the child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Well, they marveled because they thought, okay, we know there’s something special going on with this baby because there’s dreams and angels and all this kind of stuff. This Simeon guy just read that there’s a lot more going on than we thought. That’s why they marveled. And so, you have, Simeon is revealing God’s plan from the beginning of all creation is now being accomplished in Jesus Christ, this kid. The spread of his grace to all of the earth, Jews and Gentiles. That’s in verse 31 and 32. And this gospel, which corporately unites all people, this is the, I mean, Jesus’ gospel flattens out self righteousness. It’s like, none of you are righteous, no, not one. You all need to repent. That’s the call for repentance because I’m the only righteous one. And so, it flattens that out. So, there’s a unity of, this is for all people. We learned from Daniel and Revelation 5 and 7, all tribes, tongues, peoples, language, nations, ethnicities cultures. This is for everyone, this call. But this gospel also divides all people at the level of their heart, that’s 34 and 35 says.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary’s mother, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and will be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”

That almost seems contradictory, like it’s for the world, but apparently there’s going to be some people who aren’t going to be getting on board with this. And that’s because because Jesus is God himself in flesh. To face the gospel of Jesus is to face God, and to face God is to have our thoughts and our hearts opened and revealed. This is from Hebrews 4:12, we’ve been talking about Hebrews quite a bit.

And this will result in a fall for any who are proud or opposed to Jesus.

If you’re opposed to Jesus’ flattening out of your self righteousness, and giving you the forgiveness of sins, and declaring you righteous. If you’re opposed to that, then you’re turning away a spectacular gift. But for those who are like Simeon, who see Jesus and respond to him with hope, this is great news. And this is also where Anna comes in because it says right after in verse 36.

There was a prophet, Anna.

And it goes through and tells from what tribe she’s from. And she was a widow until she was, and it talks about her marriage, and she’s widowed and she never left the temple, but always worshiped there. And then, she shows up and she sees this kid, Jesus, who’s just been presented. And it says.

She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Israel.

And so, Simeon and Anna are, again, this is kind of the culmination of Epiphany, which is who is Jesus? What is he doing? And for whom is this? And we find out it’s for the world, not just the Jews, but the entire, this is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.

You will be a light to the nations and the nations will come and worship him.

Steve Brown:
You know, I can see it’s Simeon and Ruth too, but Simeon in particular. He’s an old man, he’s been hanging on to this hole most of his life, and I can just see him going, Phew, now I can go home because this is, and by the way, this is not fiction. This is all the marks of an historical record that really happened in the way that Luke reports it. And it is nothing less than amazing.

Justin Holcomb:
Luke was, he was Captain Precision. You have John who’s moving things around and telling the story, and it’s accurate, it’s true. Luke is a doctor who’s interviewing people trying to get like more of a historical record, not trying to teach like the personal work of Jesus with miracles. So again, no contradiction, just a different purpose. I love this because this is a picture of hope in waiting, which is, that’s all Messianic. This is, we’re hoped, long for, the Messiah that will come. And now, here we are after the Messiah came. We’re still hoping and waiting for his return. But Simeon and Anna waited faithfully. The number one command in Scripture is. Well, number one command is.

Fear not, because the Lord is with you.

The number two command is.

Wait.

And so, the picture that you have.

Steve Brown:
I’m an American, I want to do something.

Justin Holcomb:
We do not like the waiting and it’s, they waited for years. They waited, they just, they, it’s a beautiful picture of their trust in the character of God. And they persevered and they waited. That’s good for them. But they did that because they knew who God was. And there was silence. So, they heard a promise. So, it was through long years of silence, just showing us that God’s timing is absolutely perfect, even when we don’t see it. There were probably years where they wondered and doubted, you gave me a promise. Where is it? Come on, God. And then at the end, they’re like, Oh, here it is. This is him. And they both, you can see, they’re just exuberant in the celebration of God’s fulfillment. And this is Galatians language that, Ephesians, this is the plan of God, before the foundations of the world. And then in Galatians we hear about in God’s perfect timing this actually occurred, so this is part of God’s providence, he wanted Roman emperors and the crucifixion and the promises of Israel and the silence for a few hundred years. This is all in God’s timing. He knows what he’s doing to win back his world, he’s got a plan and we just get clued into it some of the times.

Steve Brown:
Oh, Justin, this has been so good. So, no matter how dark it is, just wait and trust God. Isn’t it awful that you have to wait and trust God? He may fail you. And if you believe that, you’re crazy. Hey, we’ve got to go. But before we go, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and Justin. What an insightful and timely series this has been, exploring the event of Epiphany. We’ll resume our journey through Philippians next week, but tomorrow, of course, it’s time for the nearly world famous Friday Q&A with Steve and our good friend, Pete Alwinson. Tomorrow, they’ll tackle this question. What about war? So, let me ask you something. Where do you draw the line on grace? How do you know if you’ve gone too far? Well, Steve addresses those questions in his book, Three Free Sins. But he also spoke to them in a talk on his Three Free Sins Book Tour. We would love to send you that full talk on CD for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of the Three Free Sins CD. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.