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Today on Growing Through Grace. This young couple stayed in town a month later as they come to finish this rite of purification. If you had a child, you had to redeem that child. Bring a sacrifice for that child. Just to acknowledge this belonged to the Lord. I love you in your grace. You have your end on me. And all that I do wrong, love will keep me strong and love me in your grace. You're listening to Growing Through Grace with Pastor Jack O'Bealand of Morning Star Christian Chapel in Whittier, California. And as we finish up the week, we'll return to our series in the Gospel of Luke, and today you begin to look at the baby Jesus being dedicated in the temple. Bethlehem is just a short distance from Jerusalem, so in Luke chapter 2 verses 21-38, we see Joseph and Mary encountering two very intriguing and confirming characters. Here's Pastor Jack. All right, let's open our Bibles again to Luke chapter 2 verse 21. We will conclude all of those young, you know, young, the first month and a half or so of the events that surrounded Jesus' birth. And then we'll spend the time with looking at Jesus' boyhood days, at least what we know about him at 12 years old. And then jump ahead 18 years to about 30 years out from where we are this morning. Verse 21, "When eight days were completed, for the circumcision of this child, they named him Jesus, the name that was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." We went over this, I think, a couple of weeks ago with John the Baptist as well, the dedication of the child, bringing him on the eighth day to the temple to be dedicated, to be circumcised. It was part of the covenant that God had made with Abraham. It is a outward symbolic act, if you will, and yet God gave it a significance in Genesis chapter 17 when the Lord took Abraham and had him circumcised, and it became a practice for the Jewish people to symbolize the cutting away of their flesh, a life after the flesh. Abraham had already believed in the Lord. Paul, when he writes in Romans chapter 4, mentions that God had accounted to Abraham for righteousness as faith. It wasn't the circumcision that had him standing right with God, that was just the result of him believing God. He did what he was asked to do, but his faith had already been established, and the Lord took the focus off, if you will, the action itself to looking in at the heart that was driving the behavior. So he was the father of all who believed the uncircumcised as well as the circumcised, but this was a right, if you will, and a physical, symbolic act that God established for the Jews. It was to be the people that lived a spiritual life. Paul, when he wrote to the Colossians, wrote about those who were in their uncircumcision of their flesh. And so they understood, and in fact, when Jeremiah, the prophet, was sent by the Lord to the nation and sought to get them to repent, he said to them, "Circumcised yourself before the Lord, and take away the four skins of your hearts, and come and believe in him." So there was a definite purpose, if you will. There was a definite application, if you will. But at the same time, when whatever religious practice or act we follow, whether it is baptisms or communion, or tithing for that matter, it really isn't worth anything to the Lord unless the purpose that drives it is there in your heart. You can have communion and not be right with God. You can certainly be baptized and not seek to follow the Lord or live in that newness of the Spirit. So when the practice that God establishes loses its significance, then it becomes a worthless habit that really becomes a deception, and that certainly has happened to a lot of folks. They'll tell you, "Hey, I've had communion, I've been baptized and thinking, "Well, good for you. How about your relationship?" Well, they'll look. And like I said, if you go back to Romans 4 and you read about Abraham, he was kind of right just because of his faith in the Lord. And then the behavior had significance, it had value, and it certainly has value when our acts are not just without a heart, but because of the heart that we have for the Lord. Circumcision though, to the Jews, such an important practice that was one of the few things they would allow even on the Sabbath. If that just worked out that way time-wise, then you were to come and circumcise the child. It was kind of an outward badge of spiritual devotion, but it was worn without a heart to the Lord. And so it had lost its significance, certainly. But it hadn't lost it for John the Baptist parents and as well for Mary and Joseph. They were very much interested in walking with God, and I'll keep repeating it to you at least for a while. They lived in a culture where very few people loved the Lord, or very few people really desired to be right with God, they believed the Bible. They lived in a religious culture. I mean, religious enough people that they would put people to death for not following their rules, but there wasn't a relationship with God that God so much desire. So on the day of circumcision, I think we mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago, was also the—and it was usually performed by the father of the family. The child was officially named, and here he was named Jesus, which had been the name given by the angel to Mary before he was conceived, and later on to Joseph as well. The name Jesus is originally Hebrew. It is the name Hosea. You might go way back in the Old Testament, there was a servant that Moses had named Hosea. And Hosea just means salvation. But Moses watched this young man who was serving with him, and he thought, you know, this guy's devotion to the Lord is such that, you know, it's almost like the Lord has his hand upon him, and he changed his name to Joshua, Jehoshua, which means God is salvation. Numbers, I think, 13. In Greek, that name Jesus becomes Jehovah-Shua if it's translated over. It is the point of the deliverance God has brought to man through his son. God is salvation. That's what Jesus' name is called, his name Jesus. He's going to save his people from their sins. So the name is appropriate because it speaks of his mission, he's come to save. And of his deity, he is God in human flesh. Mary didn't choose the name, Joseph didn't choose the name. They were given to them in, like I said, two separate incidences. One in Matthew, I think chapter one for Joseph, one for Mary here in Luke chapter one. I can't imagine that as they bring this little baby to Jesus that Mary's going, my son is God who is going to save the world. I don't know how much of that readjust is on a 14 or 15 year old young mind, but needless to say, we keep reading and the scriptures, Mary just stored this all in her heart. She took it all in and I think grew into that understanding as she went along. But I would have loved to listen to Mary and Joseph talking to each other, tell me again what the angel said. Well, that's exactly what he said to me. And when did he visit you? Oh, he visited me first. You know, I don't know if that's a discussion or that. But it was the official circumcision and the naming and then a month later, the dedication at the temple would also take place according to the law. There are a couple of other things that Luke wants us to know about these early days of Jesus's life. We read in verse 22 when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed that Mary then brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord because as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the, or every male who opens the wound should be called holy or dedicated to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtive devs or a pair of young pigeons. Mary and Joseph certainly stayed in town for a while. If you read through the gospels carefully and maybe jumping ahead a little bit to verse 39 and verse 40 of next week, but if you follow the chronology, the baby is born eight days later brought to the temple, 40 days in all later brought to the temple again for these purification rites, if you will, and the offering for the firstborn according to the law. And then we are told in Matthew that at some point the wise men come, don't really know how long that was, but when they come they come to Bethlehem and they don't find Mary and Joseph in a manger with a manger, they find them in a home and they come to worship, they bring wealthy gifts, they have significance, but they're of great worth and it is then that Herod who has heard that this baby is born gives this order to destroy and kill every child born into the age of two, so somewhere in that time frame, to try to eliminate the one that was born king of the Jews. The wise men don't go home or back to Herod to tell him where this child is, that they go home a different way, but the Lord then speaks to Joseph and says go to Egypt and I suspect that they use the gifts from the wise men to finance this trip because they were poor and it isn't until Herod dies that the Lord then allows them to come back and then eventually to head back to Nazareth. So it does seem like they stayed here for a while where they stayed, we don't know. The Lord doesn't give us enough information, but needless to say they've now been here a month as the purification according to Leviticus for a male born was 30 days after his circumcision or 40 days in all where she couldn't enter the sanctuary of a child, by the way if they had a daughter it was 80 days, I don't know, I'm just telling you what it says. But when this offering of purification was to be offered the woman who had the child have to bring a lamb of one year old to offer as a burn offering to the Lord. And then to bring a pigeon or turtle dove as a sin offering and as the priest took that offering then she was declared to be clean and ready to go back to worship and into the society and all. If she was poor however rather than that lamb that was pretty expensive she could bring two turtle doves or two pigeons considerably cheaper and that's what Mary and Joseph were able to afford. So young couple you can just imagine you know their plight but this was kind of a public declaration of their poverty, we don't have all of that, here's what we have. But they wanted to serve the Lord and do that which God required. I always think about you know our Christian life always begins with the declaration that we have a tremendous spiritual need, we're poor in spirit and having confessed that. In fact if you go back to chapter one I think verse 48 Mary said to the Lord and after the announcement what he wanted to do in her life she said I'm a maiden of lowest state. I find myself having very little to offer God but with this revelation in her heart you know she was willing. It's kind of like the angels went to the shepherds not to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. You know those who have open hearts God was willing to go speak to. And so this young couple stayed in town a month later as they come to finish this right in person purification but there was one other thing that needed to happen if you had a child you had to redeem that child Exodus chapter 13. God in the law claimed a right to everything that he gave you. In other words when you got a crop you gave a tenth to the Lord, when you had an income you gave a tenth to the Lord, it wasn't that God needed it, he didn't need your money, didn't need your help. If you think God needs your help think again. But we do need to make the connection between everything we have God has given to us. And so all of those offerings, all of those demands, all of those tithes of you are they really except for the tithes that ran government in a sense in Israel were designed to have the giver acknowledge his connection to God's provision. And so even in this redemption of the firstborn the Lord said that one belongs to me it's holy it's hagias it belongs to me. And so if you had a lamb that was born you'd sacrifice the lamb whatever that is in the animal kingdom if you had grains and all you gave it to the Lord. But if you had a child obviously you're not sacrificing their child so it was a substitute you would bring a substitute to sacrifice for that child just to acknowledge this belonged to the Lord and you were willing to see that as such. So if you had a child not only did you have to offer the lamb or the substitute if you were poor but you also had to bring five shekels to the Lord to acknowledge that God has given you a child that belonged to him and one day it's going back to him. And so the quote here in verse 23 is out of Exodus chapter 13 which is exactly where this law was developed. Between verses 21 and verse 22 like I said is a 33 day gap the burn offering if you know from the Old Testament was a offering of consecration so burn offerings were thrown in the fire and completely consumed. What did they represent? Well like circumcision they represented a full hearted commitment to the Lord. There were other offerings where you would bring to the Lord where part of it would be given to him and then you would eat it with your family and there would be that fellowship but this offering of consecration spoke of whole heartedness. The sin offering the co-far the covering was providing temporary access to God's throne for sinful man. So all of this is kind of the spiritual journey that this young couple had to take according to the law and Jesus had come to certainly fulfill the law. They gave the offering of the poor, they paid the redemption price of the first barn and then they dedicated their son to the Lord naming him over those 40 days Jesus as they had been told. Like I said we will talk a little bit about the wise men next year but before this is over this days over we're kind of left in limbo a little bit as to housing and time just a couple of little insights that we can have as to what happened to this young couple after this day. Little to report but we are told beginning in verse 24 or 5 sorry to the end that there at the temple during this time of delegation God had two people show up who had to further declare that Jesus was the one and the declaration was made for our sakes because of what Simeon says it was made for Joseph and Mary's sake they had a lot to go on now and it was made for the folks who were there in the temple seeking to know the heart of God. Like I said there were very few people that literally came to worship in those days. There was a religion without a relationship. So we read in verse 25 that there was one fellow named in Jerusalem named Simeon he was a just devout man he looked for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him he had a lot go on for him you know this is the only verse that mentions him in the scriptures are these verses his name Simeon means someone who obeys so he sure has possession of lots of qualities he's just and devout he's waiting for the Lord and he's anointed by the Spirit. By the way just and devout you find those two verses a lot or words a lot in the scriptures the word just means to be well behaved towards men or to be honest with people the word devout literally means to carefully observe the dedication you've made to the Lord whether it's religious practices or not. So here was a guy that walked his talk if you will was dedicated to the Lord in the Old Testament economy of things you could say he had it all together with the Lord and with others right he was just a godly man he was also waiting for the consolation of his room the word consolation is the word paraklitas in Greek it is usually the word for the Holy Spirit and it is usually used for the Holy Spirit in terms of how he comes alongside of you to help you walk with God that's what the word means to come alongside to help here it's used of Jesus he was waiting for the one that was going to come alongside and help us to save us and Simeon was was one of those few people at the time that were filled with the expectation that the Lord was coming the most of the nation had given up hope most of the folks were lost in their religious ways they went through them like you know I don't know if before you were a Christian you went to church but it would have been you in that time you just going I have to go to church well I don't know that's just what we do and that's pretty much what the culture was like but Simeon was a different guy you know he was seeking the Lord and and the Holy Spirit was upon him I really see Simeon as the church today in many ways you know the whole world is giving up hope I can't watch the news anymore it either makes me giggle or cry it it just did there's really no third way to battle you know but they have very little hope we have tremendous hope don't we I can't believe that the Lord is not here yet I'm waiting come on Lord maybe today maybe tomorrow and certainly we need to live with that kind of hope but but understand that Simeon is one of those guys in the midst of a very perverse religious culture with a tremendous political pressure up on the people to be forced to live lives that it will not Simeon goes to the temple expecting to see the Lord he's his heart is open he's filled with the Spirit he's longing to see the Holy One the Christ how long have you been waiting I don't know how long have you been waiting long time I got saved in the early 70s I've been waiting 40 years 50 years now come on Lord I think he's come I don't see anything else that can bring hope so I don't know how long he lived like this a month a week a year I don't know but he was a godly man and he waited patiently for the Redeemer to come and he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he was a part of this very small group of faithful folks in Israel that you know we're able to survive with a corrupt priesthood and a religion kind of barrenness in fact if you look at verse 38 the last portion it says that Anna spoke to all those who are looking for redemption in Jerusalem so there was a group there was there was a group you're a group of people that are every Sunday you're run into the culture carrying the hopes of the Savior that's coming you know that God wants to use you and I to be the the the like to a people sitting in darkness Malachi chapter 3 towards the end of the Old Testament says that they that feared the Lord spoke off into one another of the Lord listen and wrote a book of remembrance for those who feared the Lord and who meditated on his name that's how the books really ends God began to take notice of those who are living with with a hunger and a desire for him and then for 400 years nothing and now God began to speak again but there weren't 400 years of silence for Simeon and there weren't 400 years of silence for Anna they were looking and lay listening and and hearing what God had to say in the in the in the culture that that gave up they didn't and in a culture that is giving up you shouldn't you shouldn't we have tremendous hope and of all people in the world we should be the ones most hopeful we are waiting for his return it's interesting when when I was a young Christian it was all that we talked about the Lord's coming and then you get older and you get on to other things like arguing about nonsense but the Lord's coming look up your redemption is drawing nigh the religious people will never see him but believers who are looking for him should be looking for him every day so we read in verse 27 that so he came by the spirit into the temple and it was the day that the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law don't know how many days he showed up maybe it was just his practice to come and worship every day came this one and if you understand at least the dedication practice every day there would have been tons of parents rocking in with kids time to dedicate this day because it was it was obituous a custom of the law so he would have just been around a bunch of crying babies all the time I guess in the temple you know don't know but he was led by the spirit this day verse 27 to come and he arrived some time before Joseph and Mary walked in and this day the Holy Spirit shook his heart in the midst of all this daily activity of ritual purification redemption the Lord singles out this young couple points out to him who they are this is the one this is the one man it's heart plans his ways that we read in proverbs but the Lord directs his steps so he hears from the Lord this is the one I want to point out to you verse 27 and it's in a couple of different places in the scriptures that the Lord calls Mary and Joseph Jesus's parents because God and to his heart a parent is not someone who has a physical child because Joseph didn't but a parent to Jesus is someone who provides nurture and care and direction left for a child when Mary gets angry at teenage Jesus or almost teenage Jesus for running off she will say to him in verse I think it's verse 24 to 48 of this chapter your father and I have been very worried well that's not your father but in God's economy a father is not someone who has a child as someone who raises there's still a good portion of our study remaining but we'll pick up the balance of Luke chapter 2 verses 21 through 38 the next time we're together this has been the first part of a three-part study taught by pastor Jacka Bielin if you'd like to get the entire message we do have that available for you all you need to do to order simply contact us and ask for study number 42 40 it's always helpful for us to know the radio station that you're listening to so be sure to mention those call letters when you get a hold of us and here in the month of June we're offering in the mp3 format the old and new testament of pastor Jack's verse by verse study through the entire Bible at a special bundle price with over 1,000 studies to listen to this would make a great gift for anyone on your list or even yourself so if you'd like to walk with pastor Jack through the entire old and new testament in this mp3 format you can order this resource or get today's study by dialing our toll free phone number that number is 866 88 grace that's 866 884 7223 you can also order by mail just address your letter to 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