Luke 2:36-38

Luke chapter 2 verses 36 to 38. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fenuel of the tribe of Asher, or Asher. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. She was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but serve God with fastings and prayers, night and day. She coming in, that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all that look for redemption in Jerusalem. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. There was a young woman who, purchased a book, read the first few pages, and set it aside. She didn’t find it very interested. Sometime later, she became acquainted with the author of the book. This changed everything. A tender friendship developed, and soon there was love and courtship, and indeed, betrothal. Now the book was no longer dull when she picked it up. She read every sentence in it, because her beloved had written it. It charmed her heart. Why is the Bible uninteresting, even distasteful to the natural man? And the answer is because they don’t know the author. They don’t know the author. When salvation is granted you know and you love him, who gave you the Bible, and indeed reveals himself in it. becomes interesting to you as you read through the scriptures. Now our text is really a case in point as we think about Anna here. Mary and Joseph have brought the baby Jesus to the temple for his circumcision and his sacrifice that is made with regard to Mary’s purification and so forth. And then the silver coins that were paid also. regard to Jesus, the redemption money. While they’re there, as we looked on last week, we found that Simeon gave a prophecy concerning Christ. And he’s no sooner finished than Anna comes along. And she also has something to say about Jesus Christ. And so we’re going to look at Anna’s prophecy or a prophecy or account here, her adoration, if you would, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now some would look at this and say, well, this is just sort of plain historical facts that we have laid out for us. Maybe find it lacking in value. I hope if you love the Lord, as you come to a text of scripture like this, you’ll realize there’s something deeper and richer and fuller for you, or God wouldn’t have put it in its Bible for you to read and to ponder. And hopefully we can glean some benefits for our own soul from this text. Let’s talk about Anna here in these verses. We have the account given of Anna in verses 36 here in 37. The name Anna is the same as Hannah in the Old Testament. In fact, the Greek Septuagint uses the same word for Anna in the New Testament for Hannah and the Old Testament. and so it’s the very same word. Her name means gracious. And Anna was indeed a gracious person. She was a person who was touched by the grace of God and it changed her life. It would be good if everyone who has a biblical name would live up to the name that they’ve been given and she was one dead. We see that she is called a prophetess here. Now since the close of the Old Testament canon with the book of Malachi, there were no prophets for about 400 years of the silent years they are called. However, prophecy revives when Christ comes on the scene with the birth of Christ and the Messiah coming. Women prophets were rare. Occasionally we run across them in Scripture. Miriam is called a prophetess, the sister of Moses in the book of Exodus chapter 15. We have Deborah, who was called a prophetess in the book of judges. Haldah in 2nd Kings 22. There is a woman who’s unnamed who’s called the prophetess in the book of Isaiah chapter 8. Anna here in Luke 2. And then there is the daughters of Philip. in Acts chapter 21 who prophesied were told. Joel’s prophecy in chapter 2 indicated that in the days of the Messiah that it shall come to pass that it will pour out my spirit upon all flesh in your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Now scripture never sanctions a teaching or ruling ministry by women. either to be an elder or a deacon in the church. There are no instances of women prophesying publicly in the assembly of the assembly of the people of God. The biblical directive, according to 1 Corinthians 14, is let the women be silent in the church. It seems that when women were given the gift of prophecy, they exercised it in a private circumstance, like their homes. For instance, King Josiah sent his servants to the house of Hilda, the prophetess, to inquire of the Lord in 2nd Chronicles 3422. They were sent to her house. She didn’t come, you know, publicly in front of the whole assembly at the temple do this. And here, even Anna’s prophecy, see anything that she would say here, we have the impression that this would be done privately, even if communicating to Joseph and Mary, would be something here that was not done in front of the whole assembly for the temple. So when we come across a passage like this, we’re going to be careful that we don’t jump to conclusions and decide, well, you see, women can be prophetesses and therefore they should be. allowed to preach or teach or hold an office in the church of the Bible would indicate otherwise to us. Prophecy has ceased with the completion of the canon of scripture, and in the church assembly, women were not permitted to use the gift. If any man prophesized, verse Corinthians, 14, talks about. She was a prophetess. She’s the daughter of Fanuel. Now, we don’t know anything about. her father. The name is interesting to us, but outside of that, we really don’t have any information about him personally. In the Septuagint, Penuel is called Fanuel. Penuel. Penuel is a name of a place that Jacob spoke of. Do you remember when Jacob wrestled with the angel of God, or actually it was the Lord in human force? at that time. He called the place Penuel in Genesis 32. And why did he say that? Because I’ve seen God face to face. It’s interesting. Now, the daughter of Fanuel sees the Lord face to face. She’s holding Jesus Christ in her arms. I don’t know if that’s the reason that the name is mentioned here or not, but it’s an interesting connection with this passage of Scripture. She holds in her hands Jesus Christ, who was God overall blessed forever, as Romans 9-5 tells us. She is of the tribe of Astor or Asher. You remember Asher was one of the northern tribes. It was one of those ten tribes that broke away and went with Jeroboam, broke away from David’s family rule. They abandoned the war. worship of Jehovah and began worshipping the golden calves up there in the north. They were taken captive by the Assyrians. And yet there were some of these ten tribes who returned to Israel after the long 70 years of captivity. And they were mixed in with those from Judah and Benjamin and lived in the southern area, the southern part of the kingdom at that time. dispersed there. The tribe Asher was in Galilee originally. The Jews said that there was no prophet from there, but at least there was a prophetess from there according to this passage of scripture. So the tribe Asher, she was of great age, we’re told. She was a widow for 84 years. Now, if she was married for seven and she was a widow for 84 years, she had to be well over a hundred years old at this time. You would imagine. The text just gives us, she’s a great age here. We’re not told exactly her age. But what’s interesting, and I hope this is interesting to you as you think about this, here’s a woman of great age, and look how busy she is serving the Lord, even using her gift at this age. And I think that’s of benefit to us. her service to God. She didn’t leave the temple, the courts of the temple. Now, some think that she had lodgings there. Others think that she just went there constantly, all that every day. Either way, she was busy. She was a widow indeed, for she was busy about the worship of God. Her devotedness to the Lord is portrayed in her long widowhood here. she never remarried, but she focused on serving the Lord. Remember, those who are widows indeed, according to Paul, or the church would support, are those who would be dedicated to serving the Lord and not remarrying. He says, the younger widows, he said, I prefer they would remarry. Besides her constant attendance at the public worship service of the temple, Anna engaged in private devotions as well, we see her engaged in prayer, much prayer. And even fasting is mentioned here as a indication of the seriousness of her prayers. You know, usually prayers are connected with fasting, and it speaks of the mortified life of an individual. When you have something serious before you, many times there is fasting connected with prayer. It shows you how. dedicated and serious she was. So here’s the account given of Anna. Now notice Anna’s testimony concerning Christ, verse 38, and she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. She gave thanks concerning Christ. Just as Simeon was embraced. Jesus in his arms and thanking God for the coming of the Messiah, all of a sudden Anna comes into the temple. She comes by the direction and guidance of the Spirit of God. And she also gives thanks to the Lord. She has lived now long enough to actually see the face of her blessed Lord. She has lived now long enough to actually see the face of her blessed Lord. She has lived now long enough to actually see the face of her blessed Lord. She is thrilled and has great happiness about this. She considers herself highly favored by the Lord to have this privilege of seeing Christ before she dies. She gave thanks concerning Christ, and she spake to others of Christ. Notwithstanding the darkness of spiritual darkness of those particular days in which Anna lived, there was a remnant of believing and godly people who rightly understood the prophecies concerning the Messiah and were longing or looking for the Messiah to come. And Anna, in addition to what she said in the temple afterwards, spoke to others who were looking for redemption concerning Jesus Christ. I’ve seen the Christ. He’s here and so forth. It appears that she knew their kingdom. character and she knew where to find these individuals and she didn’t fail to make known to them the welcome news of the Messiah’s arrival. So here is the basic teaching of the story about Anna. Now what are the practical observations we could make? How can we benefit from this passage of Scripture? Well, let me begin by saying this. You find here an example of true, Christian character. But the sun has spots upon its face at times, is well known. We know that people talk about sunspots. The sun can shine ever so brightly and provide light and warmth to those who are on the earth, but some people are, all they want to do is study the sunspots. Some of the scientists, that’s what they’re focusing on. In a similar way, I guess you could do the same thing with Ann. You can look at the spots, miss all the brightness and the light that’s there and think about, well, she’s an old woman. She’s an aged woman. She’s a widow. We can look at all the negatives, but look at the positives here. Yes, she has trials and declining health, no doubt, and all these things, but she overcame all this. She fits the difference. description, as I said, of what Paul says, a widow indeed, because of her dedication to Lord. She was one who trusts God. She steadfastly gives herself to prayer and supplication day and night, it says. That says a lot about Anna and her godly character. You know what else about the godly character we can see here is she loves to be where God is worship. She loves to be with the people of God in worship. She departed not from the temple. Do you love to join God’s people in public worship? Do you love to sing the songs of Zion? And hear the Word of God expounded? Do rejoice in learning more about God’s ways and the salvation that He’s provided in Jesus Christ? She’s so great self-denial. Here’s another thing that shows her seriousness about her cross. Christian character. We see here her fastings also, serving God with fastings. Now, normally fasting is not a daily religious exercise. Normally it’s for special occasions. However, in such a degenerate age, with true religion and decline, maybe she felt obligated to fast much at this time. Fasting involves, according to Isaiah 58, a day for a man to afflict his soul, a time to humble yourself, the loose the bands of iniquity, and the undue heavy burdens. That’s what God says, his fast are to be like. Do you ever fast? Do you ever found the need to fast? Jesus said to his disciples that while the bridegroom was about his disciples, while the bridegroom was here, they don’t need to fast because the Pharisees were, why aren’t your disciples fast? Well, while the bridegroom’s here, they don’t need to fast. But when the bridegroom is gone, they will be fasting. And so the indication that even during this age, fasting is something that should take place from time to time when necessary. Notice she gave herself to prayer. Now as a colder Christian, sometimes you just can’t do the things you used to do. Maybe you can’t engage in the more rigorous work of the church or more things that you would like to do, but you can. Even if you can’t get out of bed, there’s one thing you can do is you can pray. You can always pray. You can always go to the Lord. You can always be a prayer warrior and go before the throne of grace and pray for the church and for the other people and the missionaries and so forth. You can intercede for others. seek God’s blessing on his church. Plead for the fulfillment of the promises of Christ to his people. She engaged in also edifying conversation with other believers. She spake of him to all those that looked for redemption and drizzle. If you speak of spiritual matters to others, the Bible indicates you minister grace under your hearers, according to the book of Ephesians chapter. 4 in verse 29. We often talk about frivolous things, but we ought to be talking about the things of Christ and the things of the Lord. Perhaps you don’t even know what to say. Maybe you don’t know how to get into some of these conversations that you’d like. Then ask questions. Ask questions about a text of scripture. Ask questions about something about your life and maybe there’s something you would like more light on. Maybe somebody else can answer the question. You don’t have to have all the answers. You can have the questions. questions, and you can still engage in spiritual conversation. Your goal should be to stimulate spiritual thinking among your fellow believers, so it’ll be a profitable exercise for all of you. So you find an example of true Christian character in Anna, and she’s a good example of that. Secondly, as you grow older, you should abound an acts of devotion. Reflect upon Anna in an old age. She wasn’t a long. not preoccupied with unprofitable activities. She knows she doesn’t have much time left. So she redeems the time that she has. Let the age get interested, deeply interested, in the things of the Lord. Often when we get older, we have more time to devote to the study. You know, when you’re younger and you’re raising children and things are kind of a wild, you can’t always devote as much time as you’d like to studying this or that or the other. But when you get older, you have more leisurely time and time to reflect on some of these things more fully and spend time in prayer and Bible reading and so forth and the studying of the truths and promises of Scripture that you may have an abundant entrance into heaven so that you would certainly be preparing your soul for that occasion when the Lord takes you home. George Mueller was frequently an ill individual. In fact, when he was younger, they thought he was going to die. He was so sick. He was too sick or too ill to even be in the military. They dismissed him from military service. And instead of dying early, he became famous for his great work with the orphanages, as most of you know. What you may not know is, beginning at 70 years of age, he spent 17 years on evangelistic tours. The distance he traveled was the distance of eight times around the world. And he started at 70. It’s, it, you never know what God will enable you to do. Mueller ascribed his miraculous preservation, he said, the three causes. One, the exercising of himself to always have a conscience void of offense toward both God and man. Two, to the love he felt for the scriptures, and their constant recuperative powers upon his whole being. He looked at that passage in Proverbs 422. It says this, for they, the scriptures, are life unto those that find them, health to all their flesh. And he felt that studying the scripture helped him physically with his health. And as a sick man, that’s an interesting comment to make. The third thing, he says, to the happiness he felt in God and his work. He said, he delighted in the study of Scripture. He delighted in the teaching of the Word of God to others and so forth. And he said it placed him in a position of happiness so he didn’t have all the anxiety and wear and tear on the body that a lot of people had. I thought that was interesting to find out that about this man. There was an elderly woman who had much godliness and grace about her manners, who won the admiration of all those who were around her. There was a young woman that said to her friend, oh, what a beautiful lady. I hope when I grow up I can be just like her. her replied, you may be like her if you wish, but if you want to paint that picture in your old age, you better start mixing the colors now. You are what you’ve, what you move toward as you go through life. So if you want to be that, have that beautiful picture at the end, you better be working toward that picture as you grow older. So as you grow older, you should have that beautiful picture at the end. You better. in acts of devotion to the Lord. Thirdly, you have good reason to give thanks if Christ has been made known to you. Anna here upon Christ being revealed to her, immediately gives thanks to the Lord. That favor wasn’t granted to everyone. It is such a great divine favor for Christ to be seen by us, not with the eyes of the flesh. But with the eyes of faith, that we should be giving thanks to the Lord. Not everybody has that privilege. Your eyes have been opened to behold the wondrous salvation that is found in Jesus Christ. You didn’t open your eyes, but the Lord revealed it to you, and it was a blessing to you. Maltitudes around you haven’t been granted that grace. I remind you what Jesus said in the book of Matthew, If you turn there with me to chapter 11 and verses 25 to 27, Matthew 11, 25 to 27. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my father, And no man knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son. And he, to whomesoever, the Son will reveal Him. We see in this passage of Scripture that salvation is at God’s disposal. And Christ gives God thanks that this is the case. Even thanking him that he hides it from some, he hid it from some, and he revealed it at others. The worldly wise and elevated are not commonly the ones to whom the Lord reveals himself, but the simple, common people are frequently granted a revelation of Christ and His salvation. Any right knowledge that we have of the Father is revealed to us by the Son. Any right knowledge you have of Christ is revealed to you by the Father. Christ is never going to lack any followers. Because God is always going to have a people that he is going to reveal the truth and bring into his kingdom. Only those who realize that salvation of the Lord is of the Lord are the people that are going to thank the Lord for it. If you thought that it was because you were wise enough to see Christ, that you were bright enough to understand the salvation that’s found in Scripture all on your own, You could see people thinking, well, I believed, I did this, I did that. That’s what Jesus talks about this text. He talks about what God did. God revealed this to you. I ran across in Spurgeon’s autobiography, this little passage that he wrote, and I thought it was interesting. Well, can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instance. born as all of us are by nature in Armenian. I still believe the old things I heard continually from the pulpit. It did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself. And though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I first I receive. those truths into my very soul. When they were, as Bunyan says, burnt into my soul as with a hot iron. And I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man, that I had made progress in spiritual or scriptural knowledge. Though having found once and for all the clue to the truth of God, through having found once and for all the clue to the truth of God, through having found once and for all the clue to the truth of God. One weeknight, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, how did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth have flashed across my mind in a moment. I should not have sought him unless there had been a previous influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed, thought I. Then I asked myself, how came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the scriptures. But how came I to read the scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do that? Then in a moment I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and he was the author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine, I have not departed to this day. And I desire, to make this constant confession, I ascribe my change wholly to God. My friends, that’s the way it always is. Flesh and blood did not open your eyes with regard to Jesus Christ, but the Heavenly Father did. So how thankful we ought to be that God has allowed us to share in his wonderful salvation. Anna got to see the real Christ. We get to see the real Christ. We get to see Christ by the eyes of faith. And hopefully, we will be as thankful as she is. Lastly, as one of God’s people, you should look for redemption. The saints of Jerusalem were people who look for redemption. Faith always characterizes God’s people, they’re always looking forward the fulfillment of some promise of God. So they were waiting for Christ, the Redeemer, come in order to provide redemption for their souls. Now today, Christ has already come. He has provided redemption for our souls. But aren’t we still looking for redemption? Aren’t we still looking for a new heaven and new earth where in dwells righteousness? Aren’t we still looking for our body to be redeemed after we die, that it would be raised up from the grave? Or if we’re alive, it would be changed instantaneously, like under Christ’s glorious body? So we’re still looking for a redemption. We’re just looking at some other aspects of redemption besides that redemption that is involved with regard to our soul. Romans 833 says, we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies. Paul says, oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The complete redemption of this earth from sin, and Satan and the curse still awaits. The change of your vile body still awaits. Shouldn’t we live in anticipation not of Christ’s first coming, but of his second coming? I think we should. Let me close by saying this. A young woman’s interest in a book greatly increased when she became acquainted with the author, fell in love with him, and so forth. The same is true with regard to the Bible. knowing the Savior Jesus Christ changes your whole outlook regarding the scriptures. Many people may read the account of Anna and think, well, what is there here of practical value for me? Well, there’s much here of practical value if we will ponder what God says in his word, and I hope that you will be able to learn all that you can from a passage of scripture like this. Let us know.