Who is Anna? Who is Anna and
why do we care? What did she say? And who did she say it to? You
might ask with regard to all three of these questions, why
does it matter? If I say, who is Anna, you might
say, well, I don't care who Anna is. I want to hear about the
Lord. Well, you can't find out who she is without hearing about
the Lord. That's the thing, see, and that's the first lesson right
there. May that be true of us. May our life story be defined
by Him. Hers was. What did she say? Well, I don't
care about that. I want to hear what God said.
Well, you see, that's the thing about what she said. She talked
about Him. Who did she say it to even? Well,
what difference does that make? She said it to people that were
looking for Him. All three of these questions,
they can't be answered without talking about Him. Who is Anna? These questions are answered
in these three verses this morning. The answers are amazing. They're remarkable. They're very
instructive and they're vitally important. We're told some details of this
woman's life in this short passage of scripture. She was a widow,
but no doubt there were a lot of widows in the world at that
time. So why does the scripture speak
of her? Why is this one in the Bible?
We're told she was a very old woman. But again, seemingly in
insignificant detail, she wasn't the only older lady around at
that time. So we're told that her husband
had died 88 years before, and that she had had seven years
of marriage with him before she died. So according to the custom
of that time and place, she was likely a teenager when she was
married, so she was well over hundred years old, but none of
this really explains why we're told about her at all. But if
you look a little bit further, if you look at the rest of the
information we have of her beyond these things, it begins to get
interesting. Verse 37 tells us that she departed not from the
temple. This doesn't mean that she lived
in the temple. which in and of itself is interesting. So what does it mean? If it was
the custom at that time for certain people who served in the temple
to live in the temple, then we'd read this and we'd say, okay,
well I get that, that makes sense. Pretty sure that's not the case. It's a very interesting way to
say this. She was there every time that there was public worship
or service of any kind, and so devoted was her worship that
Instead of saying, think about the normal way we would say this.
If somebody always comes to church, we say church when we really
should say to the worship because the church is people, not a building,
not a place. But we say it that way. She always
comes to church. It doesn't say it like that though.
It says she never left it. John Gill was a Bible commentator
who lived from 1697 to 1771 and one of the distinguishing things
about him as a commentator was he was very knowledgeable, more
so I suppose than any other commentator on the scriptures, about everything
that had to do with the Jews. And he wrote that she came and
went from her home to the temple like everybody else. Nobody lived there, not a woman
for certain at that time. But the way this is worded teaches
us something very important. Her life is characterized not
just as coming to the temple a lot. That's the way we would
say it. She came all the time. But what
this says is that her life... When we say somebody comes to
church all the time, what we're saying is their life
is somewhere else, but they come here a lot. What this is saying
is that her life was the worship and she never left that. Her life was the worship of God
in so much that even when she wasn't there, she was there. Does that make sense? Her heart
was always there. Her heart was always about the
service and worship of God. I know a few people like that. and she was a prophetess. What
does that mean? Well right away you probably
thought of the fact that scripture teaches that women aren't to
teach or preach in the church. The word prophet used in the
scripture often if not usually refers to God's ordained prophets
of Israel and preachers were pastors shepherd bishops of churches
and things like that in the scriptures clearly teach that no woman was
ever ordained of God to be a prophet over Israel or to even preach
as leader of his church. That's true. This word isn't
always used that way. I had quite a bit in my notes
about that, but you understand that that's true. The fact that
she's called a prophetess here doesn't contradict that. Let me say this about it though.
Let me say this about it because many seem to get the idea that
because God doesn't ordain women to preach or teach that they're
inferior in some way. Women aren't the only ones that
are taught subjection in the Bible. When I was in Texas, a
member of Laird Street Baptist Church, I was subject to the
authority of God under the leadership of Jack Chang. I know what it
is to subject myself. under God to his ordained leadership
as a man. So it's not about that. It's
about God's clearly taught order in the scriptures and us submitting
and honoring him in that. That's what it's about. That's
all it's about. But our text defines what is
meant by the word prophetess in the text. It doesn't always
mean a God-ordained leader of worship or a prophet in the way
that Isaiah was a prophet. We're told that her whole life
revolved around the worship and service of God. And we're told
something else about her that defines her as a prophetess.
She was dedicated to the service of God. As the scripture says
concerning another family, she was addicted to the ministry
of God, of Christ. And we're told that She spoke
of him. She had something to say. And
that's our second question. What did she say? What did she
talk about? It was just really one word. Him. How many times have we seen
this in the word of God? How many times? Our brother read
a passage of scripture concerning sound doctrine and prayed for
us before we looked into the text for today. Sound doctrine. When did somebody first get the
idea that sound doctrine was anything but the Word of God? Why do men get the idea that
we need to define doctrine as us taking the Word of God and
processing it and categorizing it into points that we like,
that align with our logic, and then we post them as a man-made
system of theology of some kind and say that's our doctrine.
Is it? What's your doctrine? What is sound doctrine? She spoke of him. What do we care what she talked
about? We want to hear from God. If you heard from her, you heard
from God. That's what it says. What has God been talking about
from the beginning? Him, since the first lamb was
slain. Before that, when God made coats
of skins from an innocent animal and shed innocent blood to cover
Adam and Eve's nakedness and shame and sin before Him figuratively,
God had been declaring His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Her life
was to worship Him And so it shouldn't have surprised anybody
that her message regarded him. It was of him. It was from him,
not just about him. It was from him. I've had people
say to me, and I really can't think of anything sadder to hear
come out of somebody's mouth than this. There's a lot more
in the scriptures than Christ. If you believe that, you've never
understood a single word of Holy Scripture. What a sad, sad thing
to say. Our Lord said, you search the
Scriptures and you think, you have your thoughts about what
the Scriptures are, but here's what they are. They testify of
me. That's what they are. And you
won't come to me. All of the Word of God, John
20, 31 says, the whole Word of God is written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That's sound doctrine. May God give us grace to speak
of Him. Doesn't the Bible deal with other
subjects? Doesn't it talk about salvation?
What is salvation? Is that a series of steps that
you're supposed to take? Is salvation a decision that
you make? If you're talking about salvation, you better be talking
about Him. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. What about heaven? Doesn't the
scripture talk about heaven? Let's sing about the pearly gates.
Well, the Apostle Paul described heaven like this. I'm in a strait
between the two. Having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ. Which is far better. Well, they
went to a better place. You heard that one before? You
know what Paul says the better place is? With Him. It's better. Nothing else is
better. If they're not with Him, they're
in a worse place. Redemption is the book about
redemption. Christ is made unto us. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 2 Corinthians 2.14, now thanks
be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. We preach Christ. Why? Because God, it's a win
whenever we do. It's a win in God's book. And it's a win in our book by
His grace. God always causes us to triumph in Christ. What
do you mean, Paul? What are you talking about? And maketh manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ. in them that are saved and in
them that perish. You think about what he's saying.
This is why we preach Christ. Because everything else is a
failure. Everything else is lost. If you preach Him, it's a win.
Whether people believe or don't believe. Because it's a sweet
savor of Christ unto God. And in them who are saved and
in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto
life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not
as many which corrupt the word of God. But as of sincerity,
but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." Think
about that. Speak we in Christ. What is it
to speak in Christ? I'm not sure I know. all that
that means, to speak in Christ. But I know what part of it is.
I know this, if you're speaking in Christ, you're speaking of
Christ. And look who she was talking
to. Again, why do we care what difference
those people make? We want to hear about Christ,
do you? Maybe you're one of these people. Maybe you're one of the
ones like these she was talking to. You're looking for redemption. And think about this. Why? She
walked in there. Let's look at it again, the text.
Verse 36. Let's look at verse 38. We've read
about her, about the details of her life, all of which we'd
even know about because of what defined her life. You think we would know anything
about how old she is or who her daddy was if her life wasn't
defined by him? You think she'd be in God's Word?
And she, verse 38, coming in that instant. In what instant?
Well, you remember last, I believe it was last week we looked into
this. Simeon came into the temple. Somebody that God had promised
that he wouldn't die until he saw the salvation of God, until
the consolation of Israel was seen by him. And he walked in
there, and Mary and Joseph had brought the Lord Jesus Christ,
the little baby that was born in a manger, to come and be circumcised
according to the law on his eighth day. He was eight days old, and
here they come to worship God and to do after the custom of
the law with him. And Simeon saw him and took him
up in his arms and said, and blessed God, I said, mine eyes
have seen God's salvation. Lord, let us now thy servant
depart in peace. And at that moment, Anna was
walking in. And it says, she likewise, she
likewise gave thanks unto the Lord. Thank God for what? For his salvation. For redemption. for his son, for his unspeakable
gift, that salvation was come to his people. And what did she
do? She gave thanks concerning him.
I'm pretty sure she was sincere about that because then she began
to speak of him to everybody, only certain people though. And
what does that mean? Think about this. Who was she
talking to? She wasn't talking to people
that were looking to redeem themselves. Did you know that's most people?
Now, think about this. This is not just some clever
way for me to... This is the reality of it now.
Most people are looking to redeem themselves. When they come to
church, that's what it's about. Well, I've done so many bad things,
I've got to do something good now. I've got to redeem myself
somehow. I've got to... My good needs to outweigh my
bad. If I've heard that one time,
I've heard it a thousand times. As long as your good outweighs
your bad, you know. What good? She wasn't talking to people
who were looking to redeem themselves. She talked to people that were
looking for redemption. There's a huge difference. Most
people are looking to redeem themselves. They weren't looking
for a chance. They weren't looking for an opportunity
at redemption. They were looking for sinners,
looking for redemption. You think about that. Now does
this mean that she was just going around and asking, are you looking
for redemption? Are you looking for redemption? She wasn't picky
about who she spoke to. She was talking to everybody.
And why does it say it that way? She just talked to anybody that
would listen to her. And here's the thing about that.
If you're talking about Him, you know who's going to listen
to you? Not everybody wants to hear about
him. You say, well Chris, but what
about people that are in church, true church, a place where the
gospel is preached for years and never, you know, they never
come to the knowledge of the Lord. They're not hearing about
him. They just come in there to socialize, or for something. If you're looking for him, you're
going to find him. She wasn't picky about who she
talked to. It just worked out that way, didn't it? She's talking
to people looking for redemption because she's talking about Him.
And those are the ones that want to hear about Him. The ones that
are looking for redemption. What then is redemption? This
is a beautiful word. It means to release. It means
freedom. It means to set free, but not
just arbitrarily. To set free upon receipt of ransom. The term redemption is used to
describe freedom, release. But that only happens when a
ransom is received. There's a cost. There's a price
for freedom. And this is the simplest of concepts. It's just so simple. If somebody's
going to be set free, then a price has to be paid and it has to
be enough. It has to be sufficient. Why are they being held in the
first place? Why aren't they already free?
And what's it going to cost to set us free? Sinners have been talking about
this, the truth of redemption. Redemption from sin, redemption
by God for sinners since the beginning of time. And we still
don't really know what happened, except in the simplest terms. Do you really know what the redemption price was?
Do you know much about that? The scripture says that the Son
of God was made sin. Do you know what that means? I don't. I really don't. I don't know
what that means, do you? But I know what God has revealed. I know what I'm redeemed from
by His grace. We're redeemed from our sins.
I know what I'm redeemed with. I'm redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
And I know this, because He bore my sin in my place on Calvary,
I will never bear a single And I got a whole bunch of it. I
will never suffer one iota for my sin before God because Christ
bore it all. I know that. By His grace, I
know that. God released us. He set us free
from the penalty of our sin because He received a ransom, a payment
that was enough to satisfy God for all of my sin. Again, people who don't know
the truth often say, my good outweighs my bad. And that's
my hope, you know. Those who do know the truth of
God know that we have no good. That even as believers in our
flesh dwelleth no good thing. We don't do anything apart from
our flesh. We don't say anything or do anything apart from our
flesh. Sin is mixed with all that we do. In this flesh dwelleth
no good thing, and so nothing good comes out of it. Not in
the sense of us being sinless before God in anything. But we also know that Christ's good does outweigh
our bad. It's not about my good, and I'm
glad because I don't have any. But there is a righteousness,
there is a human righteousness that God not only will accept,
but He is perfectly pleased with it. This is how He's able to
say as the scriptures teach to those, to sinners who enter His
presence, well done thou good and faithful servant. Why? Because
our substitute is the good and faithful servant of God as our
representative. And he paid the price for my
freedom. Here's the way the scripture
says it, where sin abounded, his grace did much more abound. My sin before God is infinite. How can a finite creature sin
infinitely? Well, here's why. Because the
measure of my sin is not defined by me, by who I am. It's defined
by who I sinned against. God Almighty, who is infinitely
holy, here's the measure of my sin. How much is God's honor
worth to him? How much is his son worth to
him, whom you slew and crucified? and spit on and mocked while
he bled. It's not about you being infinite
or not. Sin is the transgression of God's
law. It is to be, not just do, but
be evil in the sight of God, who is infinitely holy. Our sin
before God is pictured here as a debt that we owe to God. We
go, God, honor and obedience and glory. How much is that worth
to God? We can't pay. We have nothing
to pay. That's why He told that parable.
When they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both.
You know how God does that? When you owe so much that you're
overwhelmed, we're just thinking about it. I can't pay for one
sin, much less the countless evil that I've done. How does God frankly forgive
me? The Lord Jesus Christ washed
us from our sins in his precious blood, in whom we have redemption
through his blood. We have the price that's necessary,
the price that must be paid for our freedom from the justice
of God. through his precious blood. Redemption through his blood.
That's what that word is, redemption. And it's our own fault that we
can't pay. We're not victims. We are not victims. We are the
perpetrators. We are evil by choice. Our rebellion, our own choice
in rebellion makes us unable to pay. Now some people's, most
people's answer to knowing that we have sinned, and everybody
knows that whether they're willing to admit it or not, they know
that they've sinned. They may not know the magnitude
of that and they're not going to understand in any spiritual
sense whatsoever what that is without the grace of God. But most people's response to
the truth that we have sinned against God is to try to do better.
That's our immediate response. What must I do? What can I do?
What can we do? Those people are not looking
for redemption. That's not looking for redemption.
That's looking to redeem yourself. And they're not going to listen
to somebody talking about Him. Because what they want to know
is about them. They want to hear about themselves. They want to
hear about what they need to do to make up for their sin. They
want to be bragged on for doing it. What do I need to do? The rich young ruler said, I've
been doing it. The law tells me what I need to do. I've been
doing it. And they want to be bragged on for that. They want
to be accepted on that basis just like Cain of old and everybody
else apart from God's grace. for coming to church, for paying
their tithe, for reading their Bible, for praying and so on,
for all the so-called good things that people do. They want to
be bragged on. They're not looking for redemption,
but some, some by the grace of God, and
this is who she was talking to, and again, the reason she's talking
to them is they're the ones that want to hear about Him. By God's grace, they know that
the more they do, the more they sin. The more in debt they are. You
think about that. Think about the futility of that.
The more I pray, the more God has to forgive me
for. Is that the truth now? If I've
ever told it, that's the truth. But you see, I'm not praying.
What I'm praying for is redemption from my sin, forgiveness of my
sin, which includes that prayer. Because everything I do is full
of sin. My repentance has to be repented
of. My prayers are full of sin. My worship is full of sin. The
more I do, the deeper in debt I am. But here's the beauty of
it. My debt to God is infinite. And so redemption, The ransom
paid must be of infinite worth. And it is. If you're looking
for redemption, you must look to one alone. The one sacrifice
that can satisfy God for sin. The precious blood. You're not
redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. What's
worth something to you without silver and gold? Well, silver
and gold is not worth much, but wait a minute, Chris, there's
a whole bunch of it. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things like that. Why not? Because there ain't
enough of it. It's not worth anything to God anyway. If you
had all the silver and gold in the world, but you are redeemed,
just not with those things. If you're redeemed, you're redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without blemish
or without spot. So those who are looking for
redemption, where are they looking? To the Lamb of God. And once
you look to Him, you don't ever stop looking to Him. When all
of this is over and we are in eternity, we're still going to
be singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Why? Because
He was slain and has redeemed us. We're looking for redemption
now. We're going to be looking to
redemption then. He redeemed us with his blood
out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven.
Worthy. Worthy. What she was saying and said
to them, because they were interested in what she said, we know what
we know what she was saying and we know what they were interested
in. It's the same thing. And think about the beauty of
that. Think about how beautiful this
is. The way God has arranged things. He commissioned his people. He said to them, go and preach. Preach what? Everything I've
taught you. What did he teach? I am. I am. I am. I am the door. I am the bread. I am the life,
I am the truth, I am the way, I am. Christ preached Christ. And he said, now you go preach
Christ. And he said, whoever believes you, I'll save them. And whoever, whoever shuns you
and rejects you and despises what you say, I'll damn them. But think about the beauty of
what he's done, this arrangement. We're still doing that. We're
still preaching. Sinners are still hearing what
he taught. Hearing of him. And think about what happens
there. What happened in our text? This is where a sinner who needs
to be redeemed and knows it meets God's redemption. Right here. Where somebody is telling of
him. What a beautiful place that is.
No wonder, he said, how beautiful are the feet of them. And I don't
care if they're man feet or woman feet, they're beautiful. Isn't
that right? They're beautiful. It doesn't matter whose feet
they are, because it's not about them. Who is Anna? The answer to that, she's defined
by him. That's why their feet are beautiful.
What did she say? She spoke of him. Who did she
say it to? People that were looking for
him. Looking for him, looking for redemption. Looking for redemption. No matter
who's declaring it now, at the place and time of the declaration
of the gospel, at that place, those who need redemption meet
him who is himself the redemption of God. Thank God for that arrangement. 1 Corinthians 1.30 But of him
are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. You are in Christ of God. Of him are you in Christ, and
of him Christ is redemption to you. The reason you're in Christ
is because God put you in him. And the reason you say Christ
is my redemption is because God made it that way. And everything else I need, my
wisdom, my righteousness before God. Righteousness and redemption,
you see. Positive and negative. He washed
my sins and He is my holiness. In the next verse, Explains why she was always in
the temple look at back at our text in Luke 2 No, I'm sorry the next version that
I just read this is it and the end Luke 2 First Corinthians
130 let me read it again, but of him are you in Christ Jesus
who of God is made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and Redemption and the next verse listen to it that according as
it is written that He that glorieth, let him glory in that one. The one who is our redemption,
let him glory in the Lord. That's why she was always in
the temple. That's why her life was defined
by him. That's why she said what she
did. And that's why those who she spoke to were defined the
way they are. Because once Christ, of God,
of His grace, of His mercy, of His regenerating power, is made unto you, everything
you need, you're gonna glory in Him. I pray that God would make that
so of everybody in this place. Let him that gloryeth, glory
in Christ alone. Amen. Let's pray.