The Old Testament Law is clear – a lamb is to be sacrificed for the firstborn, just like at the original Passover when the lamb was killed and its blood put on the doorpost and the lintel over the door. Otherwise, the thought was that the child would die prematurely. The sacrifice of a lamb - unless the parents cannot afford a lamb, in which case, they will sacrifice a pair of doves or two young pigeons.
Luke 2:22-40
When it came time for these redemption rites to be performed, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord and offer the customary sacrifice from the Law – a pair of doves or two young pigeons. The boy was likely about six weeks old, for His mother could not travel until forty days had passed since giving birth. Joseph and Mary did not sacrifice a lamb for their son, for they were not farmers and could not afford a lamb, only the pair of doves or two young pigeons. But the Lamb would be sacrificed for them about thirty years later.They walked the 5 or 6 miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem – about two hours for those accustomed to walking.
Meanwhile, there was a righteous and devout man who lived in Jerusalem named Simeon. His name means “listening” in Hebrew, and was a common Jewish name of the time. The name also means “flat-nosed” in Greek. Simeon lived up to His name – he listened to the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and he listened to the Holy Spirit and did what the Spirit told Him to do. The Spirit had already told Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. And today, the Spirit told Simeon to go to the Temple.
Imagine that you are at the Temple. You take your newborn son to the Temple and the three of you walk around the Temple, heading toward the altar of sacrifice. It is a bright, sunshining day, with a fair number of people walking about, but nothing like the crush during Passover Week, yet not empty of people. Construction workers are still working on the Temple, putting up gold, silver, and fine gems in various places over the rough limestone blocks that form the walls, for Herod the Great only began construction a couple of years ago and there is more to do to make this Temple one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which it will be in a decade or too.
As you reach the altar area, a kindly devout man comes up to you, smiles at you, and says, “May I hold your child?”
And you hand Him over, because this is in the Temple courts, this is in the godly territory, in the godly city. And the man introduces himself as Simeon as he takes the Babe in his gentle arms.
“Praise God!” Simeon shouts, looking to the sky. “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” And he lifts the child high into the air.
“What did you say?” you are surprised by the man’s song.
“I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.’ The Spirit of God told me I would see the Messiah before I died – and today is the day!” The man’s smile stretches from ear to ear.
“You are too kind!” you respond. The man gently gives back the Child, who has slept through all of this with closed eyes and a slight grin on His face. Simeon then blesses all of you, and turns to the child’s mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” And then the man adds, a bit ominously, but gently: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
About that time, a very, very old woman walks up, famous to all pilgrims for her prophecy, her ability to speak on behalf of God. She is Anna the daughter of Penuel, a woman of the tribe of Asher. It is said that she was married to a man in her mid-teens like most girls of her time. She lived with him for seven years after their marriage, and then had been a widow for eighty-four more years, which would make her over a hundred and five years old, perhaps a hundred and ten years old. She never left the Temple grounds, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying, eating very little which was given to her by pilgrims. Ancient Anna came walking up just as Simeon was ready to take his leave.
“Thanks be to God!” she said as she took your child into her arms. “This child will redeem Jerusalem from all who would destroy her!” And she stared at the child with that toothless grin she was famous for, clearly enjoying every minute of their time together. And as other people walked by – she stopped them and showed off the Babe, telling everyone that this Child would redeem Jerusalem. She must have done this for twenty minutes before she gave you back your Child and left, praising God.
You finally were able to continue to the altar, make the sacrifices, dedicate the Child, and then you began the long, long walk back to Galilee, to Nazareth, to your home. And your Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. God’s grace was upon Him – and through Him, God’s grace was upon you.
Prophets
When Joseph and Mary and Jesus went to the Temple, they encountered a Simeon and Anna, two prophets of God.Now the image we have of prophets is always fixed in our minds by the image of John the Baptist, a wild, crazy-looking man who yells fire-and-brimstone at those who will not listen to God’s words about the future. But in a more general sense, a prophet is a man or woman who speaks on behalf of God and delivers God’s messages. Those messages may be about the future, but they don’t have to be about the future. They may be about the present, an instruction, a command, or even a revelation about a past event. The prophet sometimes doesn’t even know he or she was speaking on behalf of God at the time.
When we were living in Atlanta, we attended Stone Mountain Community Church, which later moved and became Cornerstone Bible Church. The pastor was Dr Doug Macintosh, who has written several books with Moody Press. One evening, Dr Doug told us the story of the days when him and wife Cheryl lived in a high-rise dormitory in Dallas on the campus of Dallas Seminary. A group of the students would gather most evening to talk, play games, share pizza, talk about early Swiss Reformation leaders like Jean Calvin or Menno Simons, etc. Meanwhile in the last semester, a young man who lived in the room below them was struggling with his calling. Every evening, this young man would pray – loudly – “Lord, what shall I do? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?” And his prayers would come up through the ventilation system.
After about a week of this, it had become annoying to the group upstairs. So one of the men leaned over the vent and shouted back at the young man’s prayers in a deep voice. “Go to Switzerland!”
There was sudden silence. “Lord, what was that? Did you say for me to go to Switzerland?” Upstairs, the group could hardly contain their giggles, for Switzerland was where the Protestant Reformation began in earnest. It was one of the places with the longest tradition of Christianity in the world! The man who had spoken before leaned again over the vent and said loudly, “Yes. Go to Switzerland!” More silence. And peace for the rest of the evening.
The next day in class, the young man announced he was called by God to Switzerland. And at the end of the term, he moved to Switzerland.
And you laugh. But thirty years later, he had a thriving ministry in Switzerland. God speaks through godly people – even if they don’t realize it at the time.
The Old Testament is filled with prophets. Some are famous: Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah. Others are less famous: Joshua, Elisha, Nathan, Micah. The New Testament also has prophets, primarily John the Baptist and the Apostles, but also some others like Simeon and Anna. What joins them all together is that they listened to God’s Holy Spirit and spoke what God asked them to speak.
Modern Prophets
We have modern-day prophets, also.In 1907, Evengelos Porphyrios Bairaktaris was born in Greece. As a boy he looked after the family sheep and completed first grade. At age 7 he went to work in a nearby town until he was 12, when he snuck off to a large Greek Orthodox monastery. God led him to become servant to two elderly priests who lived as hermits. He became a monk by the time he was 16, and became a Greek Orthodox priest at age 20. In 1940, he became the chaplain of a large hospital in Athens where his reputation spread far and wide in Greece as Elder Porphyrios.
Here is an example story about this man who listened closely to the Holy Spirit and spoke on behalf of God. A young priest was having difficulties. Several people told him he needed to talk to Elder Porphyrios, so he called the Elder’s office. His secretary took a message and that was that. A couple days later, the difficulties eased a bit. About a month later, the secretary called the young man back and told him to be at the office at 9 am the next morning.
The young priest made it to the appointment. Elder Porphyrios walked in, asked him about the problem and gave the young priest about 2 minutes to speak, then interrupted him. “I have been praying for you since two days after you first called.” The Elder said. And the young man remembered that that was when things began to improve. Then, the Elder spoke for over a half an hour, explaining the entire situation, what the motives were of each of the parties involved, showing knowledge that he simply could not have by any normal means. And at the end of the session, it all made perfect sense. The young priest left and the difficulties were gone.
People who knew Elder Porphyrios agreed that the Elder had a special source of knowledge. The Elder simply said that he prayed and listened for the response of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit always spoke truth to the Elder. And so, I think we can say that Elder Porphyrios, who died in 1991, was indeed a prophet of God.
When pastors are in training, we are taught that there are three offices which we hold. We are leaders – this is where we lead or shepherd the flock on behalf of Christ. We are priests – building bridges between people and God through the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism. And we are prophets – speaking on behalf of God through the reading and teaching of scripture and the proclaiming of sermons.
Some misguided pastors believe their prophetic voice must always be harsh. This, unfortunately, is common both to the very conservative fire and brimstone preachers – and to the very liberal social justice preachers. They feel that they are always speaking to King Ahab as Elijah did, or speaking to the Pharisees as John the Baptist did. But being a prophet does not mean we must always proclaim what the people or leaders are doing which is wrong. Much of the time, we must remind the people of what they are doing that is right. Simeon and Anna’s messages were messages of great joy to Joseph and Mary.
The prophet must also remember that it is important to distinguish between “here’s some advice” and “Thus sayeth the Lord God!” Even the Apostle Paul, in his writings, sometimes wrote “I have no command from the Lord, but I say…”such and such. And even when we do have a direct command from the Lord, the Lord has also given us the ability to deliver a message effectively and politely – if we will take the time to put aside our anger and love the person we are talking with.
What About Us?
And now comes the part of this message that will step on toes.If you have been baptized, you are liable to be called upon by the Lord any day to deliver a godly message to someone – usually yourself. The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to speak to each of us – but we also are constantly trying to cover up that voice, for it is that gentle, quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit that can be most irritating when we want to have pleasures and comforts and do our own thing.
“I wish my child wouldn’t whine!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “I wish you wouldn’t whine!”
“If they’d work harder, they wouldn’t be broke!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “And if you worked a bit harder, you would have money to give away!”
“My spouse is always too busy for me!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “And you’re always too busy for Me!”
Being asked to speak on behalf of God is one of the greatest privileges God can grant a person. And the sad thing to say is that we are ready with excuses why we won’t speak.
Moses claimed he stammered – God said, “Okay, tell your brother Aaron what I want said.”
People claim they have stage fright – so did I the first five times I spoke in public.
People claim they don’t know what to say – God promised to always have the words for us.
People claim they are too young – My son Andy began leading a five-church charge at ages 19.
People claim they are too old – My friend Virginia Cunningham led her new roommate to join our church when Virginia was 98 years old and mostly deaf.
People claim they have no education – William Carey was a simple shoe repairman who raised the money, went to India, and translated the Bible into the principal languages of India.
People claim there are no places to preach – John Wesley was locked out of his home church, so he began to speak on street corners and at factories, in cemeteries and at mine shafts. He began the Methodist Church.
People claim they are discriminated against – Harper Lee was a Catholic woman who was not allowed to preach because she was a woman, so she wrote books instead, like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and reached more people than most preachers.
A friend of mine wanted to reach people who don’t like church – he started a “philosophical discussion group” at the Marietta Brewing Company on Sunday evenings – it became the “Pub Church”.
If God has given you a message for people to hear, today there are many ways to be a prophet. Facebook, visual arts, music and lyrics, poetry, books, Twitter, Instagram, email newsletters, comic books, children’s stories, short videos on Youtube, so many different ways to proclaim God’s Word.
But before you begin, take time to pray and listen to what God’s Holy Spirit is saying to you.
Perhaps the Spirit is simply saying to go to that family with the new baby, and, like Simeon and Anna, tell them of the Joy the child will bring. Tell them of the Joy that the Baby Jesus brought to the world when He grew to be thirty-some years old, was crucified, and then brought back to life. Tell people WHY the Babe of Bethlehem grew to be so special.
For being a Christian isn’t just about finding a way to Heaven. Being a Christian is learning, doing, and listening enough so you too can be a prophet of the One True God, speaking on God’s behalf to a world that is broken, torn apart, and dying, with a message of hope from the God who loves us all. Be a prophet of God!
Prayer
Let us pray:God of the Universe, teach us to speak on Your behalf. Give us the people to speak to, the words to say, and fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we may speak with gentleness and grace, leading people to Your Son, Jesus. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Benediction
May the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit shine upon you. And may you be the hands and voice of Jesus in this world as you go forth to do good and speak the Gospel. Be blessed each day! Amen.Closing Song: Star of Bethlehem
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