I. Introduction
In the fall of 2003 the founders of our church went over a long list of potential names for this local assembly of believers. After a time the list was shortened to four final possi-bilities. I think one of the four was “Soul’s Harbor,” but I’m not sure. In any case, nine of the twelve founders voted for the name “LIGHTHOUSE BIBLE CHURCH.”

All twelve people were intent on establishing a church from which God’s Word would go forth with power and clarity. Isn’t that what the beam from a lighthouse is supposed to do? Isn’t it there to let you know there is danger ahead, and to show you how to avoid it?

But there is something else that many lighthouses have in addition to a beam of light emanating from the tower. They have a loud, and I emphasize “loud,” fog horn. If you’re out at sea and the fog is thick, you may not be able to see the light but the chances are pretty good you’ll hear the horn. However, neither lighthouses nor fog horns can do their jobs unless and until they are activated, and then seen and heard by those whom they are intended to warn.

In this morning’s passage we’ll both see and hear the truth of Christ’s first coming from two trustworthy witnesses. Their witness – like a lighthouse – acts as a warning to all who see and hear it. Lives are literally on the line here.

We have already met Zacharias and Elizabeth. We’ve already met Joseph and Mary. All four of them have been trustworthy witnesses to the truth. Today we’ll meet two more witnesses whom Dr. Luke tells us we can trust. They are Simeon and Anna. Simeon will speak of the Light going out into a world that is spiritually blind. Anna’s words will penetrate a world that is spiritually deaf.

A blind world desperately needs to have its eyes opened so it can see the Light.
John 8:12
12 “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in dark-ness, but shall have the light of life.”

1 John 1:5-7
5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

A deaf world desperately needs to have its ears opened so it can hear the Word.
Luke 11:28
28 “…blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it.”

Romans 10:17
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

So we need to see and we need to hear. Now I want to begin by going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. There is a basic truth there we need to see before we can understand why God sent His Son into this world. Adam and Eve were not created to die. They were created to be immortal. But when they sinned against God, they broke fellowship with Him and were thus driven out of Eden and consequently, out of His presence.

In His mercy God told them that they would eventually die. That was merciful? Yes, it was! If Adam and Eve did not eventually die they would have had to live forever in eternal darkness away from the light of God’s presence.

Do you know what such an eternal existence is called? It’s called Hell! That’s exactly what hell is – eternal darkness and separation from the light of God. But even before God drove Adam and Eve from His presence in Eden, He promised He would send a Redeemer. In others words, God promised He would provide a way to get back to Him.

Personally, I find it fascinating that God didn’t reveal that truth to Adam and Eve directly. He told Satan. Did you know that Satan was the first one to hear the gospel?
*Genesis 3:14-15
14 And the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life;
15 and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

In v. 15 “your seed” is symbolic of Satan and his followers, that is to say, all unbelievers. “Her seed” is symbolic of Christ, our Redeemer, and His followers, that is to say, all true believers. The bruise on Satan’s head is equivalent to death. Satan will be destroyed. The bruise on the Redeemer’s heel is equivalent to pain, sorrow, and suffering. Jesus has already been through those things and now they are behind Him.
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II. Text
Now let’s move from Genesis 3 all the way up to the first century. God’s chosen people, the Jews, knew that He would keep His promise to send the Redeemer. Their Scriptures had taught them that they were the channel through which the Messiah would come. In Luke 2:25-38 we’ll see that promise kept. Then we’ll be reminded of obedience to God and His Law. We’ll hear prophecies made. We’ll see dedication to serving God. And finally, we’ll hear a testimony given. God’s salvation will be both seen and heard.
*Luke 2:25-38 (Please stand with in honor of reading God’s Word.)
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 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.
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,
28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 “Now Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, according to Your word;
30 for my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
33 And His Father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed –
35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul – to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage,
37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
38 And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Before we look more carefully at these verses I want to remind you that this is neither a fairy tale nor a legend. Remember how Luke began his gospel? “Dear Theophilus…”
*Luke 1:1-4
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,
2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us,
3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excel-lent Theophilus;
4 so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
We know how careful a historian Luke was. He may well have spoken to Mary herself to get the details of Jesus’ early life. This is history. You can be assured that your faith is rooted in truth, not in myths. When your time comes to leave this world, it is only a faith in revealed truth that can give you the kind of peace that it was about give to Simeon.
*Luke 2:25-27a
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 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.
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple;

Luke tells us a lot about Simeon in the first verse. He is righteous. He is devout. He is expectantly looking for God to fulfill His promise to send the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is with him.

To say that he was righteous simply means that he had been saved by faith, just as had Abraham and every one of God’s children since Abraham. To say that Simeon was devout means substantially more. “Devout” is “ĕulabēs.” Its means “cautious.” Luke tells us that Simeon was very careful about how he worshipped God, how he handled the Scriptures, and how he lived his life. This man honored God in all that he said and did.

He was justified by faith and was growing in the grace and knowledge of God. As such, he was looking forward not only to his own personal salvation, but the salvation of the nation of Israel as well. He was about to see His personal salvation, but the salvation of Israel would have to wait until the Second Coming.

In any case we read that he was “looking for the consolation of Israel.” That is an OT term for the Messiah. The word “consolation” here is “paraklēsis,” meaning encourage-ment or comfort. Jesus uses a different form of the same word in John’s gospel when He speaks of the Holy Spirit’s coming to take up residence in the Christian.
John 14:16
16 “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (or “Comforter”) (paraklētŏs), that He may be with you forever.”

Since we know all this about Simeon – he is righteous, devout, and looking forward to the coming of the Jewish Messiah – we should not be surprised that the Holy Spirit is upon him, and that through the Spirit’s presence, God has revealed to him that he will not die until he has seen God’s salvation in the person of the Lord’s Christ.
*Luke 2:27b
27b …and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,
In full obedience to the Mosaic Law the Baby has already been circumcised, Mary’s time of ritual purification is complete, and now Jesus is being, “…brought up to Jerusalem to (be) present(ed)…to the Lord.” (v. 22)

It is at this divinely appointed time, forty days after Jesus’ birth that Simeon “…came in the Spirit into the temple…” Neither party was looking for the other. They did not know each other. They had never met. It’s at this very moment that Joseph and Mary bring the baby Jesus into the temple. We have no idea how long Simeon had been waiting and watching and for the Messiah, but we can reasonably assume it had been a long time.

Can you even imagine how many times he may have said, or at least thought, “Lord, is that the One?” Now Simeon sees Mary come in with Jesus in her arms and he knows. He knows. This is the One. Here He is.
*Luke 2:28-33
28 then (Simeon) took (Jesus) into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 “Now Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, according to Your word;
30 for my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
33 And His Father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.

In vv. 28-29 Simeon is saying, “Thank you, Lord. You have kept Your promise to me. You have blessed me just as You said You would. So now I can die in peace.”

How many of us can say something like that? How many of us can honestly say we know God keeps His promises and we have been so blessed by what He has done for us that we are fully prepared to leave this life in peace whenever He chooses to call us?

That’s the peace of God that passes all human understanding, isn’t it? That is the place to which God has brought Simeon. What a blessing! By the way, the Bible doesn’t tell us how long after his seeing God’s salvation that Simeon departed this life, but I suspect that it wasn’t very long. Furthermore, if anyone has ever died in complete and total peace, you can be sure Simeon did.

Now look with me at v. 29. Simeon said, “…my eyes have seen Your salvation…” He doesn’t say, “…my eyes have seen my salvation…” I would be remiss if I didn’t make this point. Simeon does not see and hold his salvation; he sees and holds God’s salvation.

To be sure, the salvation that came to Simeon is the same salvation that comes to all who receive Christ. Salvation is a gift from God to all who seek forgiveness, repent of their sins, and put their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. So since it is a gift, and once we have received it, it is most certainly ours. But…
• It’s God who saw our need for salvation. We didn’t.
• God planned salvation. We had nothing to do with it.
• God chose the ones to whom He would give salvation. We aren’t sovereign, He is.
• God provides salvation. We aren’t capable.
• God calls us to salvation. We don’t call ourselves.
• God enables us to hear the gospel. We don’t listen unless He opens our ears.
• God convicts our hearts to respond to the gospel. Our flesh isn’t interested.
• God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, purchased our salvation. We can’t pay that price.
• God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, standing before the throne as our Advocate and Great High Priest, keeps the salvation that He has bought with His own blood. It’s not us because we have neither the power nor the strength to keep it ourselves.

*John 10:28-30
28 “…I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.
29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 “I and the Father are one.”

So the salvation of our souls isn’t even held by us. Jesus has it and He keeps it safe for us. If you and I were left to protect and keep salvation, Satan would snatch it away from us in an instant. And yet, with all of that, we still tend to think of salvation as “ours.” Well, Simeon gets it right. “…my eyes have seen Your salvation…”

What Simeon says in the last part of Luke 2:32 is exactly what the Jews expect of their Messiah. He will be the glory of Israel. However, what he says in v. 31 and the first part of v. 32 is shocking to a first century Jew. “…all peoples” and “a light to the Gentiles.”

What is he saying? The Jews are God’s chosen people, not the Gentiles. Yet Simeon says the Messiah is a light to all peoples. As late as Acts 1 the disciples were still not clear on this, even though Jesus had said as much in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew 28:19
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…”

The simple fact of the matter is that any Jew who truly understood his own Scriptures would not have been shocked at all. This was nothing new. Isaiah had prophesied it.
Isaiah 49:6
6 “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will make You a light to the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Luke 2:33 speaks of the impact the things Simeon said about their Baby Boy. It says that Joseph and Mary were amazed.
*Luke 2:34-35
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed –
35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul – to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

In these two prophetic verses Simeon directs his statements to Mary. (It seems that by the time Jesus’ ministry will begin, and these prophecies will be fulfilled, Joseph will have already died.) The first prophecy is that many Jews will reject their Messiah. They are the ones who will fall into judgment and be lost. Isaiah prophesied it.
Isaiah 8:13-15
13 “It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread.
14 “Then He shall become a sanctuary; but to both houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the people of Jerusalem.
15 “And many will stumble over them, they will fall and be broken…”

But those whom Simeon says will rise are the believing remnant. The metaphor of the Messiah as being a stone is used again.
Isaiah 28:16
16 Therefore this says the LORD God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disappointed.”

Simeon says that Jesus will be a sign to be opposed. The world will stand against Him, and by implication, His followers. But you already know that, don’t you? Naming the name of Jesus is no way to make friends with this world, is it?

Then Simeon tells Mary that “…a sword will pierce (her) soul…” It is a graphic picture of the pain and suffering she will go through because of what will happen to her Son. Lies will be told about Him. His parentage as well as His sanity will be questioned. He will be hated without cause. He will even be accused of being a demon. In the end He will be arrested, falsely tried, mocked, beaten, and murdered. The joy of Christmas will give way to the horror of Good Friday. And Mary will have to witness it all.

Simeon’s final words hit home. He says that Jesus will reveal the true condition of the human heart. People will either be for Jesus or against Him. There will be no such thing as neutrality when it comes to Him. Listen, you do not come face to face with Jesus Christ and remain the same. He demands a decision, one way or the other. Yes or no!
There is no maybe. There is no fence to sit on. There is no middle ground. You either put your faith in Him or you don’t. You are either saved or you are lost.
Matthew 12:30
30 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

Jesus is Lord, God in human flesh, or He isn’t. But the one thing He is not is what so many try to make Him. In his classic “Mere Christianity,” C. S. Lewis wrote this:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (back to Luke)

*Luke 2:36-38
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage,
37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
38 And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Just like everyone else Luke has told us about, Anna is described as someone whose testi-mony is sure. She literally lives her entire life in His service. Her sincerity and devotion to God is well known among the Jews. She sees Jesus and immediately she praises God. Then what does she do? V. 38 makes it clear. She tells others! “I have seen God’s own Messiah and I want to tell you about Him.” Do I even need to say there is an application here for us? Do you want to be saved? Then look to this Baby. Look to Jesus!
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III. Conclusion
Well, we have met Simeon and Anna. What we’ve learned about them in these last few verses is all we know of them, but it’s enough, isn’t it? Simeon saw, and more impor-tantly, he recognized the Light of the world. Anna saw, and by her testimony, others heard about the Light of the world. God’s salvation has been seen and heard.
Turn with me to John’s gospel. We all know John 3:16 but I want to read the next few verses. See what else Jesus said.
*John 3:17-21
17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.
20 “For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

God has given us this church. It really is a lighthouse. By His power and by His grace His light will go forth. If we are obeying Him and if we are trusting Him, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, will be both seen and heard.

Each one of us has a part in getting that light out. Each one of us has a role to play in making it known. Most of the people in this world are facing great danger, but they don’t even know it because they are blind and deaf to the truth.

May God give us the strength, the wisdom, the opportunity, and the courage to be like Simeon and Anna, to make His Light seen and His Word heard by those whom God puts in our path.