LUKE 2:21-40 JESUS PRESENTED AT THE TEMPLE2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 2:21-40 Jesus Presented At The Temple

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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This morning as we're here in Luke chapter 2, we are continuing our journey. We kind of really are just at the beginning part of this journey and looking at who Jesus is. And here in this portion that we have this morning, we're learning and getting some insight into who Jesus is and really what that means for us. Now,

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Now at this point, Jesus is very, very young. In fact, he's just barely been born. We get to see him here in this portion when he's just a couple of days old and the things that are going on around him. And these things give us insight again into who Jesus is and the fact that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

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Well, there's four things I'd like to share with you this morning from this account of Jesus in his early years and four things that give us insight into who Jesus is and what we need to believe and understand about Jesus for salvation.

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And the first thing I'd like to point out to you this morning, point number one, is that Jesus fulfilled the law. And we see this in verses 21 through 24. He fulfilled the law in several different ways, which we'll see here in this passage. And he fulfilled the law of God completely and wholly from the very, very beginning of his life to the very end of

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He completely, perfectly, without exception, without one disobedience, kept the Word of God. Well, let's look at that in verse 21. It says, And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

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Here in verse 21, we find the first aspect of how Jesus fulfilled the law. And the first thing that we see here is that he was circumcised on the eighth day. Now, circumcision for that day was, of course, something that was commanded by the Lord for his people.

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that it was a sign of the covenant. You can go back to Genesis chapter 17, I encourage you to check it out later on on your own, spend some time considering what that means, but in Genesis chapter 17, God told Abraham that all of his family, all the males of his family, and all of his descendants afterwards should be circumcised on the eighth day.

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And that circumcision would be the sign that they were God's people. It would be the sign, the proof that they were in this agreement together, that God would be their God and that they would be His people.

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Well, also in that day, the day that they would circumcise the male child was the day that they would officially name the child. And so that's what we see happening here. It's the eighth day of Jesus's life. He's just barely brand new. Eight days old. They perform the circumcision and then they give him the name Jesus.

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They give him the name Jesus. Why did they give him the name Jesus? Well, it tells us there that the name was given by the angel before he was even conceived in Mary's womb.

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And so if we back up just a little bit, in Luke chapter 1, you probably remember the angel Gabriel appears to Mary. And he tells Mary, you're going to have a son. And she's pretty shocked by this because she's not married. She's engaged or betrothed, but she's not married yet. She's still a virgin. And so she's wondering, how can I have a son when I'm still a virgin? Right?

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Well, the angel tells her, God's going to do a supernatural work. You're going to conceive and then you're going to bring forth a son and you're going to call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? Well, the angel says, because he will save his people from their sins. We see this also in Matthew chapter 1, where the angel tells Joseph to call his name Jesus because he will save his people from

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from their sins. The name Jesus means the Lord is salvation. And that really describes Jesus perfectly. He is the Lord in that he is God who became man, but he's also our salvation. He is the salvation extended to us that we could have the hope of eternity with God. And so as they circumcise Jesus, they're fulfilling the law.

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They're fulfilling what was instructed by God and commanded by God. And a lot of these things that we'll talk about here in these next couple of verses are all found in Leviticus chapter 12. And so if you want to see how Jesus fulfilled the law regarding his birth and these early days of his life, you can check back to Leviticus chapter 12. I encourage you to check that out and see what the law says and you can see how it was fulfilled in Jesus' life.

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But again, the law said in Leviticus 12.3 that the eighth day was to be the day that the male child is to be circumcised. And so he's circumcised. The law is fulfilled. Although Jesus, of course, he's eight days old. He's not the one initiating these things. But God entrusted Jesus to some godly parents, to Mary and Joseph, who were keeping the law. And as a result, he has fulfilled the law. He is circumcised on the eighth day.

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Going on in verse 22, it says, Now in 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. Here we see two more fulfillments of the law. He first of all fulfilled the law by being circumcised on the eighth day, but now the law is being fulfilled by

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in regards to the purification or the days of Mary's purification. It tells us there that the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed. Now again, this is detailed for us in Leviticus chapter 12 where it tells us that after the circumcision that the mother of the newborn son is to continue on in these days of purification for 33 days.

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So the eighth day he is circumcised, counting that day and 33 days after that, it's a total of 40 days that are required for the mom to be set apart.

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For her to be in what's called the days of her purification. I think part of it too is the days of her recuperation where she's recovering from the childbirth and being set apart. And then after that time period, those 40 days, then she was to go to the temple and to present an offering to the Lord.

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And we'll see that that takes place in just a moment. But so these days of purification were detailed in Leviticus chapter 12 of how it was supposed to be done. And Mary fulfills those days just like the law said. And so for a total of 40 days, Mary was set apart. She was fulfilling these days of purification according to the law of Moses. Now it says then that she brings Jesus home.

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to Jerusalem in order to present him to the Lord.

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Now at this time, Mary and Joseph are staying in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. That's about 10 miles from the city of Jerusalem. And so they pack him up after 40 days. Again, he's only 40 days old. Now, a lot of moms, you know, 40 days old, they're like, hey, don't get near my kid. You know, I'm not taking him anywhere. We're locked inside the house. And that's okay, right? But according to the law, after those 40 days, they were to take the little baby to Jerusalem.

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Why? Well, it says in verse 23, quoting from Exodus chapter 13, that every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And so what's happening here is the firstborn was to be dedicated to the Lord.

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Now that goes back to the Passover feast and you probably remember what I'm about to share but just in case, in Exodus chapter 12, you remember the Israelites are in bondage in Egypt and God has sent Moses and Moses has been telling Pharaoh, God says, let my people go. And there's been all kinds of plagues and signs and God demonstrating that Pharaoh is to let his people go.

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But Pharaoh has hardened his heart. He said, no, no, no, no, over and over again. And so the final plague, the final event before the children of Israel are allowed to be set free and leave Egypt was the death of the firstborn.

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And God said, look, I'm going to send an angel through and all the firstborns of animals and of people are going to be killed. Except for those who have the sign that I've instructed on their doorpost. And they were to take a lamb and they were to strike the doorpost on the top and on the sides with the blood of the lamb, with a hyssop branch. And that sign would protect the household so that the firstborn would be spared.

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Now throughout the rest of Egypt, those who didn't believe, they didn't apply that, they didn't obey God, and so the firstborns were killed. And so when God delivered them and brought them out of Egypt in that way, God said, okay, I preserved, I saved your firstborns. Now, all firstborns belong to me. All firstborns are to be dedicated to me, to be used for my purposes. And for animals, that meant they were to be sacrificed and offered to the Lord. Now,

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And for people, that meant that the parents had to redeem their children back from the Lord. They were given to the Lord or they were dedicated to the Lord. Of course, they wouldn't sacrifice their children. God wasn't asking for that. But they would pay five shekels in order to redeem their child in recognition that this child belongs to you. This child is yours, God. And so this is what's happening here in Luke chapter 2. Mary and Joseph, they bring...

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Jesus, 40 days old, to the temple and they are presenting him before the Lord, dedicating him to the Lord and redeeming him, paying the five shekels in recognition that he belongs to you, that this is a gift from God.

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And so the law is being fulfilled here. How? Well, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. Mary was in the days of her purification for 40 days, just like the law commanded. Then Jesus is presented to God because he's the firstborn, just like the law instructed in Exodus chapter 13. Well, another way that the law is being fulfilled, we find in verse 24.

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It says, "...and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons." And so the final aspect of the fulfilling of the law that we'll look at this morning is now this offering is made. And so Mary, having given birth to Jesus, is now required by the law to bring an offering and sacrifice unto the Lord.

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And so what does she bring? Well, it says that she brings either two turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now, again, this is detailed for us in Leviticus chapter 12. I'm giving these references. I know it's a lot of references, but it's because we're talking about the fulfillment of the law. And so I'd encourage you, check it out. Look at how Jesus has fulfilled the law, how he's kept every detail, even from when he was eight days old all the way to the end of his life.

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Well, it tells us in Leviticus 12 that if a mom was not able to bring a lamb to sacrifice after giving birth to her child, then she could bring, if she was poor, she could bring two young turtle doves or young pigeons. And so this is what Mary brought to offer to the Lord. It's one of the ways that we know that Mary and Joseph were very poor. They didn't have much

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And yet God had entrusted them with the greatest treasure of all. The Son of God was entrusted to them. And so they're obedient to the word and they bring this offering for purification, the sin offering and the burnt offering of these two birds before the Lord.

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And so what we see in all of these things is that Jesus fulfilled the law. All the things regarding Jesus and his birth, in his early days, were in fulfillment with and in agreement with what God had instructed his people in his word. Now as I'm talking about that, you might be asking, well who cares? Why do we care about all these little details about when Jesus was 8 days old or 40 days old? What's the big deal?

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Well, the big deal is the understanding that, again, from the very beginning, every detail, Jesus kept the Word of God.

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Understand, what we're seeing here is just the beginning. The rest of his life is still before him. But even here at the very beginning, in things that we might consider, you know, it's not that big a deal. He's circumcised on the ninth day instead of the eighth day. Oh, well, no big deal, right? Or she offered this instead of that. Or they came, you know, 41 days instead of 40 days. We could think, oh, big deal. Not that, you know, much different. It's about the same. But what we find in the life of Christ...

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is that every detail is fulfilled exactly the way God instructed in His Word. Even those things that Jesus really didn't have control of as an 8-day-old, as a 40-day-old, but the Word of God is being fulfilled. The law of the Lord is being fulfilled. Jesus kept God's commands. He kept God's Word. He kept God's law perfectly. He never ever broke it. Not even one time He fulfilled the law.

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Now, He fulfilled the law in the sense that He kept it, He never broke any of the commandments, but He also fulfilled the law in the sense that He completed the law, that He is the fulfillment of what the law was pointing to and declaring was coming, that He is the Savior that the law has been promising all along. Jesus kept the law so that you and I are not bound by the law any longer.

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Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, he says, don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy it, but to fulfill it. He says, assuredly, you can count on this. Heaven and earth will not pass away until every detail of the law will be completed or be fulfilled.

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So Jesus came to complete the law, not to destroy it and do away with it like it was no good, but to be the completion of the law so that you and I would not be bound under the law any longer. Now what does that mean? Why do we care about that? Well, see, if we were bound to the law, we would be in big trouble because what does the law say?

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The law says you've got to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if you've ever not given God your all, you've broken the law. And you deserve judgment. You deserve punishment. You deserve eternal separation from God. That's what the law requires. That when we break God's law, that we be cut off and separated from God. The law says you shall not steal.

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If you've ever stolen, you've broken God's law. The law says you shall not bear false witness. If you lie, you've broken God's law. It says you shall not covet or commit adultery. Jesus would later on explain, even if you do that in your heart, in your mind, you've committed the sin of adultery. And so if we're bound to the law, we're in trouble. Because according to the law, we deserve judgment. We deserve judgment.

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The full penalty explained by the law. And that is eternal judgment. The law proves, it declares to us that you and I are not righteous. But here's the good news. Jesus fulfilled the law.

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He fulfilled the law so that we can be righteous by believing in him and not by keeping the law. In Romans chapter 10 verse 4, Paul explains it this way. He says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. You see, before Christ, in order to be righteous, in order to have right standing with God, you had to keep the law.

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Which there's a problem with that because none of us can keep the law. And so we're all in this dangerous position of being judged, being cut off from God. But Jesus completed the law. He lived a perfect life. He became the perfect sacrifice, receiving the full penalty, the full punishment prescribed by the law so that by believing in Jesus,

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we can be forgiven. So that our righteousness is by faith in Jesus and not by keeping the law or by doing good deeds. And so we see here, even in the very beginning, the very kind of minute details of Jesus' life, He fulfilled the law of God. This is the foundation, the formation of the perfect sacrifice, the one who would die upon the cross for our sins, who didn't deserve it, but He did it for our behalf.

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And so the first thing we see here in this portion is that Jesus fulfilled the law.

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Now the next thing as we continue on, we're introduced to a guy named Simeon. And through Simeon, we learn that Jesus is for all peoples. That's point number two. Jesus is for all peoples. Check out verse 25. It says, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

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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. Here we're introduced to this guy named Simeon. He's there in the temple area. And as he comes into the temple, we learn about him that he is a just man and a devout man. So he's faithful to God. He walks with God. And it says that he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. That is really that he's waiting for God

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The Savior, the Messiah that God had been promising since the fall of man back in Genesis. The Holy Spirit was upon him. So he was a man, he was filled with the Spirit, he walked with God, he was faithful to the Lord, he was waiting anxiously for the salvation that God had promised. And it tells us in verse 26 that God had given him a promise that he would not die until he got to see the Messiah, the Christ.

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The word Christ, it means anointed one. It's the same word which is in Hebrew, Messiah. Again, it means anointed one. This Messiah, this Christ, is the one that God has been promising since time began, the one who would save His people from their sins.

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And so this guy Simeon, he had a promise. What an exciting promise, don't you think? To be in that day and to be given this promise by God, you will not die until you see the Savior arrive.

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That's a pretty exciting promise. And so he's waiting. Now, church tradition, we don't have this from the Bible, so we can't say for sure that this is true, but the tradition of the early church was that Simeon was about 113 years old at this point. And so he'd lived a long time, and he's been waiting for this promise that God said, hey, you're going to see the Savior before you die. Verse 27, so he came by the Spirit into the temple.

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And when the parents brought in 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 you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. Here Simeon now comes into the temple. He's been given this promise by God. You're not going to die until you see the Savior. And he walks into the temple. He's being led by the Spirit. And he sees Joseph and Mary. The Holy Spirit tells him, hey,

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Go check out that couple. They've got something you might find interesting. And he goes and he sees little baby Jesus, 40 days old. And his heart begins to rejoice as the Spirit is confirming in his heart, this is the Messiah. This is the Christ. This is the Savior I've been telling you about.

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And so Simeon, he gets pretty excited. He takes up Jesus in his arms. I kind of wonder, you know, what was Mary thinking at that point? You know, here's this old guy who just walks up and takes him up in his arms. And he begins to praise the Lord. He says, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. What was his word? God told him, you're going to see the Christ. You're going to see the Savior. You're going to see the Messiah before you die. And so he says, now I can go in peace.

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I've seen the Savior. He's recognizing that Jesus Christ is the Savior. And so what we have here is a testimony, a witness testifying to us that Jesus indeed is the Savior, the Anointed One, the Messiah that God had promised. Now, he's not the only witness that we have. In fact, already Luke has built quite a case for us.

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from many different witnesses demonstrating that Jesus is the Savior. Going back to chapter 1 of Luke when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. The angel Gabriel told Mary that he would be the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One. And then as Mary receives this news, she's kind of overwhelmed and the angel tells her, Hey, you want to check it out for yourself? Go visit your cousin Elizabeth. She's an old lady and yet she's six months pregnant.

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And so Mary goes and she visits Elizabeth, who's pregnant with John the Baptist. And then Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. And Elizabeth rejoices and praises God when Mary greets her. And she declares that Mary is the mother of her Lord. She declares that the Messiah has been conceived within Mary. That the Savior is going to be born through Mary. Well then...

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As we go forward into chapter 2, of course, they go into Bethlehem, Mary gives birth, and then a host of angels appear to some shepherds. And they declare, the Savior has been born. And the shepherds go and they find it just like the angels said. They go visit Mary and Joseph and Jesus is there in a manger. And then they go around telling everybody, look, the Messiah has been born.

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So you've got the witness of Gabriel, the witness of Elizabeth, the witness of the shepherds and the angels. And then here you have the witness of Simeon who says, I was promised. God said, I wouldn't see death until I saw the Messiah. And here he is. I've seen him. Now I can die in peace. And then in just a couple of verses, we'll see the witness of Anna who testifies, who agrees. This is the Savior. This is the anointed one. This is the Messiah.

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And so Luke is demonstrating for us, without a shadow of a doubt, this is not an ordinary child. This isn't just a good man or a great prophet. This man is the Savior that God has promised. It's established by many witnesses.

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Well, Simeon continues to praise the Lord in verse 30. It says, For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And so Simeon is caught up in this praise as he sees this little baby boy, 40 days old, and he's realizing this is the Savior. He says, My eyes have seen your salvation.

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He's telling God, oh, I can see. This is the Savior. This is your plan to save the world through this little boy. How amazing to be able to hold little baby Jesus in his arms and recognize this is the plan of salvation that God has provided. But what Simeon says next, for us it might not seem like a big deal. It might not be surprising to us.

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But if you rewind and put yourself into that culture, into that day, this would have been an amazing revelation that Simeon is giving. He says, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. All peoples. He goes on to say, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

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You see, what Simeon is declaring here is something that was not understood in that day. That the Savior that God was sending was not just for the Jewish people, not just for those of Israel, but was for the whole world. That wasn't known. That wasn't understood. Although God had declared it in His Word, the people had been taught it was just the Jews. They were the only ones. In fact, the church later on, you can see in the book of Acts, they had to wrestle with this.

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They had to wrestle with, can people who are not descendants of Abraham be saved? You can check it out in Acts chapter 15. They had to wrestle with, is that possible? Acts chapter 10 as well, you can see that. And God is demonstrating, of course, in the New Testament, that yes, indeed, the salvation is for all people. But as Simeon is declaring this, this would have been an earth-shattering revelation.

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Of course God was bringing a Savior for Israel. They were God's chosen people. And they knew that God was sending them a Savior. But the Jewish people of that day could not even begin to imagine that God would send a Savior to the Gentiles.

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You see, the Gentiles to them, they were like barbarians. They were like dogs. They were like, oh, these guys are unclean. They don't keep good hygiene. They don't keep good eating habits. They do disgusting things. They do barbaric things in war. How could God even want to consider saving those people? That's how the Jews felt about the Gentiles. Now, a Gentile, in case you don't know, is basically anybody who's not a Jew.

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Not a descendant of Abraham. You're a Gentile. And they knew they were God's chosen people. God had given them the law. God was bringing the Savior through them. There was many blessings associated with that. But God wasn't just out to save the Jewish people. He was out to use the Jewish people to bring salvation to the whole world. And they misunderstood that. They didn't get it. And so as Simeon is declaring these things, it would have been earth shattering. It would have been unthinkable to them.

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Maybe you can relate. Is there anybody that you could think of and you just cannot imagine God sending a savior for them? Is there anybody that you can think of like that? Maybe if you just rewind the calendar just seven days. What happened last week? Well, there was a big announcement. Osama bin Laden finally found and brought to justice. He's been killed. And there was rejoicing in the streets.

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What's interesting about that is what God says in Ezekiel chapter 33. God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He says, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. He says, turn, turn from your evil ways. Although God is righteous and he is just and he is holy.

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And he calls us to rejoice in righteousness and justice. And it's appropriate to do that. Yet at the same time, God says, I don't rejoice in the death of the wicked. Here's my preference, God says. I would prefer for the wicked to turn, to repent, and to get right, to receive forgiveness, to receive salvation. And so Bin Laden has been found. He's been brought to justice. And

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there is rejoicing in the justice that has been brought. But at the same time, God grieves over the death of the wicked. He's not excited about it. He would prefer that Osama bin Laden turn and repent and get right with God and be forgiven of his sins. Now for us, some of you might be thinking, oh, you're taking it too far. But that's what God's heart is.

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Because we can be much like the Jews of that day. We think, oh no, God wouldn't send a savior for terrorists. Of course he would. I think he's kind of like moms in that way since we're celebrating Mother's Day. You know, no matter how bad a kid is, mom still loves him and doesn't give up on him. God's the same way. He loves his children. He loves all people. And we get so caught up in our own life and our own mentality and we begin to put God in this box.

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I think that God thinks about people just like we do. No, the reality is that Jesus is for all peoples. The Savior that God has sent, there's no limit to who may receive Him. You know, there's no like clause, you know, you got to read the fine print. Oh, unless you're a terrorist or a Muslim or a bank robber or a, you know, bad neighbor, you can't receive Jesus. It's open. Whoever will come by faith

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can be forgiven. Whoever will receive Jesus as Savior and Lord will be forgiven and given the hope of eternity. Jesus is for all peoples. And listen, Christians, we need to be reminded of this because we do get caught up in our own mindset.

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And we begin to exclude people. We begin to withhold the gospel. I'm not going to share with that. I mean, come on. They're not going to get saved. Look at them. Look at what they're doing. We're just like the Jews. Looking with disgust upon the Gentiles. Listen. Jesus is offering his gift of life and salvation to terrorists and to good students, to thieves, to bikers, to gang members, to church goers. Praise the Lord for that. All peoples.

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The gift of life, the gift of salvation is for all races and genders and backgrounds and social status and income level. It's for all peoples. And Simeon is making this incredible declaration. This is who Jesus is. He's the Savior. And He's for all people. And you know what that means? That means no matter who you come in contact with, that means no matter who you talk to, that means no matter what their background is, you can talk to them about Jesus. Jesus is for them.

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The salvation that is offered in Christ is for them. God says, I have no pleasure in the wicked's death. I want them to turn and to live. What we find as we continue on in the things that are happening with Simeon

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Point number three, that Jesus reveals the heart. Look at verse 33. It says,

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Simeon now directs his words to Joseph and Mary. It says in verse 33 that Joseph and Mary are marveling. They're in wonder at the words that are being declared. He's the Savior for all peoples. What does this mean? How does this all fit together?

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They're amazed, they're blown away at this declaration that Simeon is making. And then Simeon looks at them and he blesses them. But he also gives them some insight into the kind of person that Jesus will be and some of the difficulties that will be for Mary. He says, "'Blessed, blessed are you. "'But behold, this child is destined for the fall "'and the rising of many in Israel. "'This is no ordinary child.'"

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He's going to be a stumbling block, but he's also going to be the one who lifts up many. Some are going to hate him and some are going to love him. Some are going to be stumbled by him. Others are going to be saved through him. He'll be a sign. Everyone's going to look back and see Jesus. He'll be a sign for all of Israel, which will be spoken against.

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So not everything that people say is going to be good. There's going to be some difficulties. He tells Mary, a sword will pierce your own soul also. So Mary, this is no ordinary child. This is a great blessing. He's the savior of the world. But understand, it's going to come with a little bit of sacrifice, a little bit of cost. It's going to be hurtful for you. You don't know this now, but your son's going to be crucified. You're going to be there.

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It's going to be for the good of the people. It's going to be for the good of all peoples. It's the way that God is bringing salvation, but it's going to hurt. There's going to be some difficulty there, Mary. But notice how he ends. Here's the purpose of the life of Christ, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Here's what Jesus is going to do. He's going to reveal the hearts of people. He's destined for the fall and rising of many hearts.

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You know, Jesus reveals hearts like nothing else, like nobody else.

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You can be in a conversation with somebody and if you want to kind of get a feel for who they are and what they're into, you can begin to bring up subjects. You can begin to bring in religion into the conversation. You can bring in politics into the conversation. Maybe this bill or that bill or this issue or that issue. You can begin to see where people are, where their heart is regarding certain things. But the real revelation of where a person's heart is...

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is in regard to the person of Jesus. It's like a fork in the road. When a person is introduced to Jesus, they have to make a choice. Jesus said, you're either for me or against me. You can't be in the middle or, you know, mostly for him, but not all the way for him. No, it's one or the other. You're either for Jesus or you're against him. You've got to go one way or you've got to go the other. Jesus reveals the heart.

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Those who want to have relationship with God will do so through Jesus Christ. Because he declared in John chapter 14 verse 6, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. You see, Jesus reveals the heart. The person who says that they have a relationship with God but rejects Jesus,

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their heart is revealed. They really have no relationship with God. The person who says they want to know God but rejects Jesus, their heart is revealed. The person who doesn't want anything to do with God, their heart is revealed by their relationship to Jesus. But the person who desires to know God and approaches God by faith in Jesus Christ, their heart is revealed to show that they really do have a relationship with God. They really do have everlasting life.

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It all boils down to Jesus. You remember Jesus, He was with His disciples in Caesarea and He tells them in Matthew chapter 16, Who do the people say that I am? Let's see what is revealed about the hearts of the people. Some people thought He was John the Baptist. Some people thought He was this prophet or that prophet. They were confused. They had no idea who Jesus was. But Jesus looks at His disciples and says, Who do you say that I am? And you know, Peter responds. He says, You're the Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the Savior. You're the Savior.

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the Son of God, revealing Peter's heart, revealing our hearts. Who do you say that Jesus is? Is He your Savior? If you want to know God, if you want to walk with God, you will do so through Jesus Christ. He reveals our hearts. He shows whether we truly seek God or not. He shows whether we truly have relationship with God or not. He shows really where we stand with God. Nobody reveals our heart like Jesus does.

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And so Simeon says, look, the result of this is that the thoughts of many hearts are going to be revealed. It's going to be shown. It's going to be evident. The Jewish leaders, they proclaim to have this great and wonderful relationship with God, but they rejected Jesus Christ. Their thoughts, their hearts were revealed. The same is true for any other religious person who comes to God apart from Jesus. With good works, with good deeds, with rituals, with whatever the case may be.

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The heart is revealed. You really have no relationship with God if you do not come by faith in Jesus Christ. The thoughts of the heart are revealed by Jesus. Well, finally, point number four.

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We find that Jesus is for those who look for redemption. And we're introduced to this person, Anna, here in the next couple of verses. Verse 36 says, Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had lived seven years, with a husband, seven years from her virginity.

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And this woman was a widow of about 84 years who did not depart from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And so now we're introduced to another person. She is named Anna. She's a prophetess. She also is walking with God. She's filled with the Spirit. And she also is very old. It tells us here that she was married for seven years.

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from her virginity, that means her first husband. She was married to her first husband for seven years. Then her husband died. And then, for 84 years after that, she's been a widow, so she never got remarried. So for seven years she was married, then she's been a widow for 84 years, that's a total of 91 years. If she got married at around 15, that makes her about 106 years old. She's old!

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She's walked with the Lord for many years. Not departing from the temple, it says, but she's just been serving God in her singleness. She's been serving God and faithful to God through it all. And she comes into the temple, verse 38, and coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And so Anna now comes into the temple and she comes in at the moment that Simeon is making this proclamation.

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He's the light to the Gentiles, the glory of Israel, the salvation that God has set before all peoples. And she comes in at that moment and she begins to give thanks to God. She begins to rejoice in his salvation. And then she begins to spread the word. And she speaks of Jesus to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. She gets excited. She gets fired up.

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Here's this old lady, 100 years old or more, and she's running around Jerusalem telling everybody about the Savior that has been born. What a great example for us. This is what we are called to do. We are called to spread the news. We've heard, this is Jesus. He's the Savior. We've seen the witnesses. We've seen the testimonies. They all agree, Jesus is the Savior. He's the only way of salvation. So now our job, like Anna's,

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is to spread the word. Now what's interesting here, it says that she spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Just a moment ago we were talking about how Jesus is for all peoples. And that remains to be true. But at the same time, Jesus is for those who look for redemption. Understand that the point that Jesus is for all peoples doesn't mean that everybody automatically is saved. No, there's many who are not saved.

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Jesus said, remember, wide is the road to destruction and there's many on it. Narrow is the way of life and there's few that find it. Not everybody is saved. Not everybody makes it to heaven. It's only those who look for redemption. And where is redemption found? In Jesus. God made the promise many times throughout the scriptures. If you search for me with all your heart, you will find me. Again, Jesus reveals the heart. Anyone who searches for God...

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Anyone who's really serious about knowing God and walking with God, they will find God through Jesus. They will approach God through Jesus. They will find salvation in Jesus. Anyone who's looking for redemption will find it in Jesus.

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Jesus is for all peoples. That is, whoever responds. It doesn't matter what the background is. It doesn't matter what the history is, what horrible atrocities they've committed. None of that matters. Jesus is for all peoples. But He's only for those who look to Him. He's only for those who respond to His invitation of forgiveness and grace by faith in what He accomplished for us at the cross. Well, let's finish up the chapter. Verse 39 and 40 says...

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So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Thus far, Luke's kind of been taking his time. I mean, we're looking at the eighth day of Jesus, the fortieth day of Jesus, and now he begins to quicken the pace a little bit. And so he tells us that they performed all these things and then they headed back to Galilee and back to Nazareth.

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We know from the Gospel of Matthew, it wasn't a straight trip from Jerusalem to Nazareth. They spent some time in Egypt, and then after Egypt, they came back and went into Nazareth, and that's where Jesus grew up. But Luke begins to quicken the pace a little bit, and he doesn't talk a whole lot about the childhood of Jesus. We'll see one example from his childhood when he was about 12 years old, next time as we continue on in Luke.

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But all we know here is that the child grew and became strong in spirit and was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Jesus is growing up. What's amazing about this is to remember that Jesus Christ is God. And the Bible tells us he humbled himself and became a man. Now, he didn't just humble himself and became a man. He humbled himself and became an 8-day-old boy and grew up to be a 40-day-old boy.

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and grew up to be a two-year-old. God, Creator of the universe, humbled Himself and became a two-year-old because He loves you, because He loves me. He grew up, He experienced the teen years. He experienced the emotions. He experienced the hormones. He experienced all of the physical things that we encounter. He walked in our shoes so that the Scripture says that He is our perfect High Priest because He can identify with us. He knows. He walked there.

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He experienced those things. So He can relate with us perfectly. Although He did it without sin. He kept the law. He fulfilled the law completely. But He knows what it's like to be in our shoes, to struggle with the things that we face. He knows what it's like because He's the Savior, the Messiah. Because He loved us so much that He humbled Himself to such a great extent to walk this earth, to grow up, to die upon the cross.

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to be our Savior. And so here, even at the very early beginning stages of Jesus' life, we see who He is and the salvation that He offers. He fulfilled the law. He was the perfect sacrifice. He's for all peoples. And maybe that means you today. Listen, Jesus is for you.

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You might think, well, Jesus is for that guy over there. Hey, you found religion, good for you. You keep that, I'll do what I want to do. No, Jesus is for you. Salvation is found only in Him. And it doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how you've behaved. Even if you've been as evil and wicked and vile as Osama Bin Laden. God's desire is not for you to perish, but for you to turn and to have everlasting life. And you know what? Jesus reveals your heart.

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You can claim to want to know God. You can claim to have a relationship with God. But unless you fully receive Jesus and the work that He accomplished for us upon the cross, unless you are born again, Jesus said in John chapter 3, you must be born again. There's no other way. Your heart is revealed. If you turn to Jesus to be born again, your heart is revealed. You really do want to know God. You really do want forgiveness. If you turn from Jesus, your heart is revealed. You want nothing to do with God.

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And that's your choice. He gives you that option. But it's a bad choice to make. Because to reject Jesus means you will be bound to the law. Jesus fulfilled the law, so those who receive him, hey, we don't have to worry about the punishment. He took it. He received it. But those who reject Jesus, you deserve what the law declares is the penalty and the punishment for sin. And that's to be cut off and cast from God. That's a bad choice.

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Jesus is for all peoples. He's for those who look for redemption. And so this morning, I would ask you to consider, are you looking for redemption? You don't have to look any further. It's found in Jesus. Turn to Him. Receive Him. Maybe come back to Him if you've been away. He is the salvation that God has offered to us. Let's pray. God, I pray for us here. Lord, for those who are believers here, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be like Anna, to be going all around.

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And sharing the news about Jesus to those who look for redemption. Help us, God, to be willing, to be bold, to be excited about who you are, that we would share you with others with passion. Lord, for those who don't know you, God, I pray that this morning you would bring them to the saving knowledge of you. Help them, God. Remove those boundaries. Remove those barriers. Remove those things. Help them, God, to overcome the pride, the shame.

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Lord, we understand we can't clean up our lives and then come to you because, Lord, we're powerless. We've tried that. I pray, God, instead we would just surrender ourselves to you this morning. Lord, help those who need to to turn to you and to receive the gift of life that you offer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.