December 25, 2022

At the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord.

Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle, turtle, doves, or a or two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout. Waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him 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.

And he came in the spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in. According to your word, for my eyes, have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for the revelation of the Gentiles and for glory to your people.

Israel and his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother. Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed. And a sword will. Through your own soul also so, that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

And there were, there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, the of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. And then as a widow, until she was 84, she did not part from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day and coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of to him, or speak of him, to all who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

So, here we have this. Little, little bit of a lengthy passage that we just read here. That is sort of the conclusion of the birth section of the infancy section of the Christ Child and Luke's focus in this section. His point in this section is to provide testimony. To the identity of the Christ to provide credible, believable, sustainable testimony to the identity of the Christ.

That's his main focus in this passage before us. So, all the Gospel writers take up their pen for the same essential task, and that is to give testimony to the Christ, to give testimony to the son of God. As we're working our way through the gospel of Mark, we've seen that this is Mark's purpose is to, to show that Jesus is the son of.

Luke takes up his pen for the same purpose, to give testimony to the Christ. And in fact, just by way of a side note here, let me just say this, we won't have time to flesh this out completely, but I do want to just make this note in passing that of all the things that that have happened in ancient history, of all the people, of all the events and all the sequences of events in ancient history, nothing is attested to as thoroughly and as completely.

The birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of the Christ. Nothing. Nothing in ancient. Nothing in ancient history. No person, no sequence of events or no event in ancient history is as nearly as well attested to as the birth life, death, and the resurrection of the Christ. So, we have the four gospels attesting to this, and they speak to us of, uh, of these events of the man.

We also have the words of Paul as he writes in one Corinthians 15, chapter six, he speaks of 500 people who saw the risen Christ, and most of them were still alive at the time that Paul wrote this. So, again, we could say much more about this, but I just want to make note in passing because we're talking about the testimony of Luke to the Christ.

And so, no person in ancient history, no event in ancient history, is as well attested as the Christ. So, here we have Luke. Uh, attestation to the birth of the Christ and the identity of the Christ child. Now, Matthew and Luke will both spend a significant amount of time giving testimony to the identity of the Christ child.

Luke here in his infancy narrative as well as Matthew and his narrative will both give us. Testimony to the identity of the Christ child. So, in giving this testimony to the identity of the Christ child, we think first of all of what the Bible tells us is the main requirement for a testimony to be credible, to be believable.

And we know from the early pages of scripture, what the Bible tells us is the requirement for a testimony to be credible. And that is that it be attested to. Two or three witnesses who agree with one another. Right. And so, that is the Bible's first criteria for a testimony to be credible. To be believable is that that testimony can't be the testimony of one.

It must be the testimony of two or three and the testimony must, ag must agree. So, that's the The most fundamental aspect. The most fundamental requirement in order for a testimony to be credible and believable is that it must. Substantiated by others. And so, in the, the, the gospel accounts here, we're given multiple accounts of the birth of Christ and the identity of Christ.

However, the multitude of witnesses, the fact that there's two or three witnesses doesn't in and of itself make a testimony absolutely believable, right? We can have multiple witnesses attest to a thing and it still be false. Just think for example, of the trial of Jesus. Or the trial, for example of Steven.

Remember those two trials, both of those had multiple false witnesses come forward, and their testimonies didn't completely agree, but they did agree enough that they could sort of take it and run with it, right? So, multiple witnesses came forth, their testimony was false, but nevertheless, there was enough agreement that they could sort of make it work.

So, the multitude of witnesses in and of itself is not. The greatest measurement of the truth of a thing, that that in and of itself doesn't make a thing believable, does it? Just because multiple witnesses attest to it. So, what is the thing? What is the requirement that A, that a testimony be credible is the character of the witness, right?

That is the greatest requirement. The character of the witness is the best measurement for whether or not that testimony is true or false. And so, we think of the trial of Jesus and, and those scoundrels that came forward and received money and gave false testimony, and we think of their character and their testimony was a reflection of the character of their hearts.

Now, as we are turning to the gospel accounts here and we're turning to this testimony about the identity of the Christ child, what's really important to us is the character of those witnesses that are, that are giving testimony to the, to the birth of the. So, let's think for a moment about the testimony that we've received elsewhere in the gospels.

The testimony to the identity of the Christ child. Think for example of Matthew's narrative, Matthew gives testimony to the Christ child. His testimony begins with the genealogy of Jesus, but then he moves quickly to the, uh, testimony of the Magi. The wise men from the east who see the star, who receive the sign, who receive the visions, and they travel and they travel and they see the young boy Jesus.

Not the infant Jesus, but the young boy, Jesus. And immediately upon seeing him, they fall down and worship him, and they give him gifts. thereby testifying to the identity. This is the King of Kings. This is the boy king. This is the king that is to come. The one whose sign we saw in the stars, the one whose dreams came to us from the father above, right?

So, that was this testimony of the gentile wise men that came to give testimony to the identity of the Christ child. So, that was Matthew's gospel. Now we think about John's gospel and John's gospel. We're given testimony of the identity, not of. Child Jesus, but of Jesus himself, essentially by John the Baptizer.

Remember, John the Apostle is going to spend a good deal of time in chapters one and chapter three with the testimony of John the Baptizer saying. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so, that is the testimony that the gospel writer John gives to us. So, now we think about Luke's testimony.

Luke is a very thorough writer. He's very concerned with collecting his facts and collecting all the stories together, and he's very concerned with presenting it to us. In an orderly fashion. And so, his testimony to the identity of the Christ child is going to be more thorough even than Matthew's testimony or John's.

So, let's think, for example, from the beginning of Luke's gospel of the testimony that Luke has given as to the identity of the Christ child, he begins with the testimony of. The Angel Gabriel. The angel Gabriel, who comes to Elizabeth and then comes to Mary with these messages of becoming miraculous conception of John the Baptizer, and then the miraculous conception of the Christ child in the womb of Mary and the identity of both.

And the roles of both. So, then we have the testimony of Gabriel, the answer or the, uh, angel. Then we have the testimony of John the Baptizer, John the Baptizer, even in the womb as he leaps, as he hears the voice of his mother's, of his Lord's mother. Right? And so, there's the, the beginning of the Baptizer testimony to say, this is who this child is.

This child is the coming one. So, we have those two testimonies, but then we have in chapter two, of course, the well-known testimony of. Shepherds, right? The shepherds who see the host of angels in the sky, they receive the message from the angels and then they travel and they see the child in the swaddling cloths and they fall down and worship the child, thereby giving testimony to who this child is.

We also have the testimony of the host of angels as they declare this night is born unto you in the city of David. A. So, we have that testimony that MA now makes four testimonies in Mar in Luke's gospel, and we haven't even gotten to our text. And the point of our text is this testimony of who the Tri Christ child is.

So, now we come to this section and Luke's particularly interested in giving, not just multiple testimony. But valid, solid, believable, credible testimony to who the Christ child is. So, in this section we have testimony from a number of people. Depends on how we count 'em. We could, we could, uh, we could think of Marion Joseph.

We could think of those as one or two. So, we have Marion Joseph, and then we have this fellow by the name of sim. And then we have this lady by the name of Anna. These are, this is the only place that, that they show up in all of our Bibles, but they are incredibly helpful and instructive and important people in the story of the birth narrative of the Christ, Simeon and Anna, as well as Mary and Joseph.

And then finally, we're going to receive testimony from God himself. So, if we add all that together by the end of chapter two, Luke has given eight different testimonies. As to the identity of the child who has been born. So, in the passage today, we're going to look at the testimony first of all, of Marion Joseph.

And what Luke has to say about their character and how their character says to us that the testimony that they speak is believable, it's credible. Secondly, we're going to look at this fellas, Simeon and Anna, and then we're going to put all this together. We're going to see what Luke is telling us about the birth of the Christ child and what that means for us today.

So, let's think first of all about Marion. Now Mary and Joseph are both presented to us in scripture as people who are righteous. Now, when we come across that word righteous in the in the pages of our scriptures, we should be careful to understand that the scripture writers are not speaking to us about something regarding their behavior.

When someone in scripture is described to us as righteous, it's not speaking of righteous behavior or right behavior. Instead, when the scriptures speak to us of someone who ise. It's speaking to us of someone who has been made right with God or justified, just that's the same word, just or righteous. And so, one who has been made righteous by faith.

For example, Abraham Genesis 15 in verse six, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteous. In other words, God declared him or made him to be righteous based upon his. Faith in the words of God, the promise of God, specifically the promise of the one who is to come, the promise of the coming Messiah.

So, that righteousness of Abraham, the righteousness there that the scripture speaks of is not saying anything about Abraham's behavior or misbehavior. Instead, it's speaking of the condition of his heart, how he has been made right with God through. So, when we come to the examples of Mary and Joseph, we are told that they are both righteous people.

In fact, mark, or I'm sorry, Luke is going to spend quite a bit of time in chapter one in a section that we refer to as the Magnificat of Mary, which is this extended section in which she lifts up this Praise to God, after receiving the message from the Angel Gabriel, and in that section, we won't take the time to look at.

But in that section we see clear evidence of the righteous heart of Mary. Of Mary, who is one of God's remnant, one of God's true people. Mary is a genuine convert to Christ, even though she's the mother of the Christ. She's a genuine convert to the coming Messiah. So, by faith, she has been made righteous and she has called in scriptures the most blessed of all women.

Blessed among women. There's another, never been another woman blessed in the same way that Mary was blessed to be the mother of our lure. So, we have the testimony of this righteous Mary, but we also have the testimony of Joseph. Now Joseph in Matthew, chapter one in verse 19 is also described to us as a righteous man or a just man.

Again, that's the same. So, Matthew describes Joseph as being just, or righteous, and to illustrate his justness or his righteousness, he gives this example or this validation or this, this description of Matthew's righteousness. And the description is being a just man. He did not want to put her to shame, speaking of Mary, but instead wanted to put her.

Privately or secretly. So, what's going on there is that Mary, of course, has been shown to be with child. Joseph and Mary are betrothed to one another and a betrothal in these days was, was not like an, an engagement today instead of betrothal in these days was a legally binding. Relationship, a betrothal held all the legal requirements, all the legal bindings of marriage, yet none of the physical benefits.

So, the couple still lived apart. The marriage wasn't consummated. Nevertheless, in order for them to separate, it required a divorce. The betrothal period lasted for at least a year, and during that period, the the couple were never alone together. They didn't live. The husband was building the house for the family, but during that period of time, they were betrothed to one another and it would require a legal divorce for them to separate.

So, this is the period of time in which Mary was found to be with child. And so, then Joseph discovers this, and were told in Matthew chapter one, verse 19, that because he was righteous, he didn't want to put her to shame, but instead wanted to put her away privately or secretly. So, what's going on there is.

J uh, Joseph could have accused Mary of fornication of infidelity and having accused her of infidelity. If she was convicted, she would've been stoned. So, Joseph, because he is righteous, nevertheless, he is forgiving. Because the scriptures tell us that we have, if we have received forgiveness from God, we will be forgiving towards others.

So, Joseph in his heart, wants to forgive Mary and he wants to put her away quietly because if he brings accusations against her, she'll be stoned. But if he puts her away privately, he shares her shame, and that's the whole key. He shares her. If he puts her away privately without the accusation of infidelity, he shares in the shame because the assumption is it's his child.

So, he's willing to share in her shame, in order to spare her life. Why? Because he's righteous and that has nothing to do with his behavior, but it has everything to do with his heart. He has received forgiveness from the. He is one of the true remnant of God's people. He's a truly converted man, and so, therefore he is forgiving towards others, forgiving in this instance, towards Mary at the cost of his own reputation.

So, this is this man Joseph, this described to us. As one who has received the new heart from God and he's the one testifying to the identity of the Christ child, along with Mary, his wife. So, here we have, first of all, this testimony of Mary and Joseph, but then also read with me from verse 22, and let's read up to this second, or I'm sorry, let's just skip to verse 25, and let's read for verse 25 of now this second testimony.

There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was, and here we go again, righteous. This man was righteous. And so, once again, we're, we're thinking here of someone who's being described, not in terms of his behavior, but in terms of his heart condition. He is a true remnant of God's people.

He is a truly converted man. He has received by faith the righteousness of God. So, he is righteous, but also, he's also devout. Now that word devout literally means, So, what that means is this is describing his behavior. His behavior is careful to keep the precepts of God careful to live a life pleasing to God.

He is converted in his heart, but he's also careful to live in such a way that's in accordance with that. So, he is righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's.

And he came in the spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, according to the customer of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes. Have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the and for glory to your people.

So, here we hear this testimony of this man, Simeon, we're told of his character. It's a righteous character. We're also told of his lifestyle. It's a devout lifestyle. It's a careful lifestyle. And then we hear of his testimony. We're also told that he has the Holy Spirit upon him. So, here we have Simeon seeing the child Jesus brought into the temple in order to be circumcised and named in this whole ceremony.

We'll talk about that in just a. But here we see him now affirming or giving testimony to who this child is, this, this is the Christ child, Lord, you can now let me die in peace because I have now seen the Christ child. I've seen the, the Christ, the coming Messiah. So, I've often thought, how was, how did this all come down?

Did Sime and just see Mary and Joseph walking across the hallway of the temple and from across the way he sees the child and says, that's Messiah. Right there just begins declaring: As though there's some, some sort of supernatural vision that he's gained, given that this is the Christ child. We're not told, but I don't think that that's the case.

I think rather more of what happened was, was probably something like this, as Mary and Joseph are coming in to go about the circumcision and the naming of the child and the ceremony and everything. Send me in his here is here because we're told that he's here in the. Fasting and praying often, and they meet one another.

And through the course of events, there's a conversation that takes place and Mary and Joseph tells Sime. About the Angel Gabriel's visit and the Angel Gabriel's message, and Mary tells about John the Baptizer and her cousin Elizabeth, and how John proclaimed that this is Messiah, even from the womb. And Mary tells about the shepherds who came and all these things.

And Simeon hears that. And in his heart of faith, he believes and the Holy Spirit testifies to his spirit that this is mess. It's not as though he just sees him in those swaddling claws and says that's him. He hears the testimony and says, this is the one we've been waiting for. And so, then he gives this testimony.

We're told that he's has the Holy Spirit upon him. And then from there, we now meet this lady, Anna. Anna, we're also told of her devoutness as well. Take a look with me in verse 36. And there was a prophets Anna, the daughter of Fel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years for when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84.

She did not part from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day, and coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to. And to speak of him to all who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. So, here again, we hear the testimony of Anna proclaiming the identity of the Christ child.

We also hear of her devoutness of life. We also hear of her righteousness as well. And so, now Luca has given us yet another testimony of the identity of the Christ child. And he's told us of the character of the one that's giving the testimony. And then lastly, so, now we have the testimony of Marion Joseph.

Of course we have the testimony of the shepherds. We have the testimony of John the Baptizer. We also have the testimony now of Marion Joseph and now of Simeon, and now of Anna. And then lastly, we have the testimony of the Lord himself. So, look with me in the passage again, and we see from verse 25 once again.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon. 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. So, here we see this revelation to Simeon, that God lets him know in the supernatural manner that he would not see death until he sees the Christ.

And then we're told that he comes into the spirit or comes into the temple in the Spirit. And here we have an example. An Old Testament saint, so, I know that we're reading in the New Testament, of course, but Simeon and Anna are both Old Testament saints in the sense that they lived and they believed and they were converted and they were the people of God prior to the cross.

The crucifixion and the resurrection of of the Christ. So, they are living in this Old Testament period, this old covenant period. And so, as an old Covenant Saint or as an Old Testament saint, he is described as being full of the spirit or having the spirit upon him. And so, as we think about the spirit and the Holy Spirit's work in his activity in the Old Testament Saints, it can be a little bit confusing because we.

Of this event at Pentecost. At Pentecost is when the spirit is given and believers are in dwelt in this new way by the spirit. But then we hear the spirit's activity in the Old Testament and it can be a little bit confusing. So, what's happening with, when we hear about the spirit in the Old Testament, what's going on there?

Well, old Testament Saints were converted in the same way that we're converted today, meaning by. In the promises of God in the Messiah of God. The difference there is that the Old Testament saints lived prior to the coming of that Messiah, and so, they placed faith in the one who was to come. We placed faith in the one who has come, nevertheless, for both Old Testament Saints and New Testament Saints conversion only comes in one way by the activity of the.

So, a man or a woman living in the days of Abraham or David or Solomon would believe and be converted only through the work of the spirit, just like today. So, the Holy Spirit does his convicting and converting work, making the heart that's dead to God, to be alive to God, the Holy Spirit. Does that work in the old covenant, just like the new.

But when we read the Spirit being upon people in the old Covenant, what that is saying to us is the spirit's anointing coming upon a man or a woman to equip them for specific job that the, that God has for them. So, the Holy Spirit would come upon people in the Old Testament, and he would come upon them with an anointing, with an equipping just like Jesus that we talked about just a few, uh, Sundays ago in the baptismal waters as the spirit comes upon him.

In the same way the Spirit would come upon believers in the Old Testament and equip them or anoint them for a particular task we read of Samson having the spirit come upon him and equipping him. For the physical task of fighting that God raised him up to, but more, more often than not, far and away, the most common way that the spirit equipped people in the old covenant was to equip them to speak.

For example, take a look in your notes at Second Samuel chapter 23 in verse two, the spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. Okay? So, the spirit of the Lord comes upon people in the Old Testament, and he comes upon them in the power of anointing them, of equipping them most often to speak testimony for the Lord.

And this is what's happening with Simeon. We're told that Simeon has the spirit upon him and this spirit upon him. Revealed to him that this child is the Christ child and it has equipped him to speak these words of testimony. First ha. First John, chapter five and verse nine. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.

So, we've received the testimony of the Shepherds of John, the Baptizer of the Angel, Gabriel. We've received the testimony of Marion Joseph, of Simeon and Anna, but the testimony of God is far greater because God is the one who's filling and equipping sim, uh, Simeon to speak these words in recognition of the Christ.

The same thing is true for Anna. Take a look at verse 36, and there was a prophetess, Anna using different words in a different phrasing. Luke is saying the same thing, that the spirit was upon her to equip her, to anoint her, to raise her up, to speak these words of validation, of testifying that this is the Christ's child.

So, here we see this testimony that, that Luke has given for us. And now having seen that, let's quickly take a look at what, what we're being shown here in the passage in regards to. Three things that Mary and Joseph come into the temple to do. We're told three things that they come here to do. Take a look up at verse 21 now verse 21.

And at the end of eight days when he being meaning Jesus was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.

So, in those verses there we are told of three acts of obedience that Maryam Joseph partake. With the young baby Jesus in accordance with the law of the Lord. In these verses, we, we read that phrase five times the law of the Lord. So, Luke is telling us here, first of all, of this testimony of the Christ child, but he's also wanting to speak to us of the obedience of Marion Joseph and by connection of the obedience of Jesus.

So, we're told here of this obedience that takes place and what Luke is showing us is that Jesus is the perfect law obeyer. He's the perfect law keeper, even as an infant, because of course, Jesus didn't walk himself to the temple. Jesus didn't come and present himself for circumcision. His parents, Mary and Mary's husband Joseph, do that.

So, even as an infant, Luke is presenting to us a picture of the Messiah, who is the perfect law keeper, the perfect law, obeyer, and, and so, doing. He's presenting to us the, the one who is the perfect Messiah for us, the perfect Christ for us. Do you know that if Christ had come and died for us and bore the penalty for all of our sin, and then Rose again on the third day, and that was all he did?

That you and I would still spend eternity separated from the presence of God. We could receive full forgiveness for every sin we've ever committed, and that would not be enough for us to spend eternity with our maker because we would then have nothing to commend us to God. We would not have a righteousness to commend us to.

We will be forgiven sinners, but we would nevertheless have nothing about our life to commend us to God because the prophet Isaiah tells us very clearly that even the best act of righteousness on our part is as filthy rags. So, Christ came to do two things. He came to pay the penalty for our sin, but he also came to live a righteous life on your behalf so, that.

Two Corinthians 5 21 tells us he who knew no sin was made to be sin so, that we could become the righteousness of God. Paul doesn't say there that Jesus was made to be sin so, that we could be forgiven of our sin, although he was, Paul says there that he was made to be sin so, that we could become the righteousness of God so, that he would live this perfect life of perfect law keeping.

And the perfect law keeping that he accomplished is given to us by faith. So, that being forgiven of our sins, we now have the righteous life of the perfect law. Keep to commend us unto God. Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish one single law. I came to fulfill them for you. I came to live them for you. I came to do what you couldn't.

To fulfill them on your behalf so, that you could stand before your maker, not only forgiven of your sins, but clothed in the righteousness that I achieved for you. This is why Jesus couldn't just come for a weekend, right? I mean, because all the important things happened on a weekend, right? Jesus was crucified on a Friday, spent Saturday in the Tomb Rose on Sunday.

So, couldn't Jesus just come for a long weekend and get everything done just in those three days? No. He had to live a full, complete, righteous, sinless law, keeping life on your behalf. And all this begins, even as an infant and his perfect obedience as he's taken to obey this. But here we see something.

We're going to see really a dramatic picture of the whole problem that for which Jesus came again, verse 21. At the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus. The name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

As is written in the law of the Lord. Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle, turtle, doves, or two young pigeons. So, here we see three acts of obedience that each speak to.

Dramatically of the whole problem of sin for which Jesus came to solve to rectify. First of all, we see the circumcision and so, circumcision. We know that, that every Jewish male boy was circumcised at the uh, a, usually males are boys, right? Every Jewish male was circumcised on the eighth. And so, we know that the circumcision is the sign of the covenant and everything.

However, circumcision is one of those things. I don't know if there's anything else that shows up more frequently in our Bibles that finds its way less frequently into our sermons than circumcision. I mean, circumcision is all over your Bible, however, you don't hear it from the pulpit very often, right?

Because it's not exactly one of those things that's comfortable to talk about. But the circumcision, the sign of circumcision was something that was incredibly important to God's people. Now, we won't take the time to go through the meaning of the circumcision, but we do want to say this, that the circumcision is the sign of the covenant.

Now, why was that the sign that God chose? The covenant is in the seed. And the sign has to do with the seed. That was God's promise. From Genesis chapter three, i I, through the seed of the woman will defeat the seed of the serpent. So, the covenant is in the seed, the cov, the covenant comes to us by way of the seed, and that's what this sign is showing.

So, this sign, this, this most personal sign of God's people comes to God's people. Every male, every male of the Jew comes to them, but it doesn't come to them without blood and pain. This in itself is speaking just of the continuing problem of sin, that even the sign of God's people comes to them by way of blood and by way of.

So, those of us in the room who are parents of boys, we probably remember for us it was, I think it was it, our four boys were less than a day old. When they take them, the nurse comes and takes them and and does the procedure, and I wasn't there for any of those procedures. I'm glad I wasn't. I probably would've gotten weak of the knees to see that being done to a one-day old baby, because that's a painful sort of.

And so, here, the, the very sign of the covenant is something that comes to God's people by way of blood and by way of pain. Here is the Messiah that has come to take away the curse of sin, and he himself begins by being submitted to the same blood and the same. That has bloodied his people and pained his people for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The very Messiah who has come to resolve the sin problem is himself submitted to the pain of the problem. So, this is the circumcision on the eighth day, but we also see this other thing going on. Luke says, at the end of the eighth day when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, verse 22. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem.

So, what's this purification? Well, we read from Leviticus, this is in your notes, Leviticus, chapter 12, verses three and four, that a couple things take place with the birth of a child. First of all, if the child is a male. Then on the eighth day there's a circumcision that we just talked about. But in addition to that, there's also this uncleanness that takes place after the birth of a child, and the mother remains unclean.

Those first eight days until the circumcision, and then for an additional 33 days, all totalling 40 days. So, there's this period of uncleanness that the mother experiences after birth that lasts for 40 days. This also coincides with the period of seven days of uncleanness that coincides with the menstrual cycle.

So, let's talk for just a minute about this unclean. For those in the room who have been in the room for the birth of a child. What can be difficult is to separate the idea of the uncleanness of the birth mother from anything physical, because that's kind of a messy process and it's easy to think of the un uncleanness of the mother and kind of get that mixed up with physical uncleanness.

That's not what God's talking. God's not talking about any type of physical uncleanness. He's talking about ceremonial uncleanness ritual, uncleanness uncleanness that would render the mother as the Leviticus passage tells us unable to come into the assembly of God's people for 40 days. There's this one period that in which she can come under the assembly for the circumcision of the child on the eighth.

And then she goes back into her time of purification for 33 more days. So, nothing to do with physical uncleanliness, but ceremonial uncleanliness for 40 days. What is all that about? The Old Testament law is like a mantra telling us over and over and over again one message, and that is the problem of.

It's teaching us over and over. Sin is the problem. Sin is the problem. Sin is the problem. All of that was part of the process of preparing a people to receive Messiah, a people who had been prepared to understand the problem of sin. That's what the Old Testament law is doing, and so, in this specific.

What this is speaking to us of is the fact that the scriptures teach us that our sinful nature is given to us at birth, and that's the whole point. That's the point of the uncleanness with the menstrual cycle, and that's the point. The point of the uncleanness after birth is to say, God has given you the greatest gift of mankind, which is a baby.

Made in the image of God, what a precious gift. But this gift comes in the context of sinfulness because even as this beautiful baby is given to this couple, in this example, Mary and Jo's, if they're first, this beautiful baby is given to them even as it's given to them. They're reminded in giving birth to this child.

We gave birth to a sinner. We gave birth to one who like us. Is under the curse of sin. And so, this period of ritual uncleanness is a reminder. The birth process passes on the sin nature. So, now here's Messiah, born to Mary. Joseph is her husband, yet Joseph is not her biological father. Jesus, who is the sinless one.

His father is the heavenly father Above. He was born without sin and will live without sin. Yet the sinless one, even his mother, is submitted to the same ritual, UNC cleanness that teaches about the sinfulness of birth. Isn't that fascinating? This section of Luke is, is a tremendous passage to show us the ironies surrounding the birth of Messiah, the sinless one.

Born without sin has his mother enter into this period of separation to illustrate the sinfulness of all birth mothers. Yet he is here to take away that scour. So, that's what we see in this 40 days of purification. But we also see there's a sacrifice. The sacrifice of two turtle doves or two pigeons, pigeons.

My understanding of pigeons is at the same species as a. That the words are interchangeable. If anybody is an expert on birds, maybe you can correct me there, but my understanding is that they're the same species and the words are interchangeable. So, it could be the sacrifice of two turtle doves, or two pigeons, or two doves.

I think that there's a choice given there because I understand turtle doves are migratory birds, and so, perhaps. Due to the SI time of year, perhaps there weren't turtle doves available and they could give doves of sacrifices. But in either case, we're not told which one Mary and Joseph do, but they give this sacrifice, this sin offering, the sin offering that was to be given upon the birth of their child.

So, the irony just even gets thicker, doesn't it? Mary has given birth to the sacrifice and she gives a sacrifice for the s. The one who will end the sacrifices, the one who himself will be the perfect and the final sacrifice. Yet as this reminder of the oppression of sin that remains upon the human race, this constant reminder birth has passed down sin.

The sin nature is passed along from mother to child, from father to child, from father to. This reminder. And then the, the parents give this sacrifice as a sacrifice of atonement for their sin. And the sacrifice, they, they enter into the temple in their arms is the very sacrifice that will take away the sacrifices.

And then lastly, there is a second sacrifice that they must give, and that is what's called the redemption tax or the ransom. Now we're told in the scriptures that the ransom tax, we won't go into the explanation there, but the ransom tax was a tax of five shackles that was to be paid upon the birth of a child or the firstborn child.

And so, God has declared in the old testimony, he declares that the firstborn child is his and, and that firstborn child should be given to him for service or ransom for a cost of five shekels. And so, they pay this ransom or this redemption tax. And so, you see here the one who is here to redeem his people, the redemption taxes paid for him.

The one who is here to be a ransom has the ransom paid for. So, all of this just serves us as great reminders of what Jesus has come to do. And even as it's like this cloud, this has to be the happiest time of Marion Joseph, Joseph's life. She, if, if your parents, you, you think of just that time when the first, when the first one was born.

If you have more than one, what a joyful time. What a happy. And in the midst of the joyfulness of that period, it's like this cloud is there saying yes, but there's the problem of sin. Yes, but there's the problem of sin. Yes, but there's a problem of sin. Only in this occasion, the one who was born was born to take away that problem.

So, now, that’s what I think Luke is showing us. Then one final thing and then we'll be done This morning, one final thing, and this is my favorite part of the passage, look back up with me in verse 21, and then at the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the room.

So, here we we're told that Jesus was circumcised, which. Think for just a moment of Marion Joseph and just think of their obedience as they offered Jesus up to be sac to be circumcised. Just think of their obedience. So, this circumcision, this was of course the today's, uh, prior to medical cleanliness, prior to the, the knowledge of bacteria and those sorts of things and sterilization of, of whatever instruments were used to circumcise the baby boys.

It goes without saying, doesn't it? That certainly there would've been infections and sicknesses that were caused by circumcisions in those days. And here's Mary who offers up the boy Jesus, the baby Jesus, for circumcision. Now, any mother, I'm certain would've had second thoughts at, because you know that they've heard of so-and-so's baby who got this bad infection or so,-and-so,'s baby who got sick.

And so, any mother would've had second thoughts, but Mary is the mother of Messiah. Just imagine. Imagine if you were the caretaker of Messiah and you let Messiah get sick. Her obedience is full. In total, her trust is full and told the temptation would've been there to just be this protecting wall around Messiah.

Imagine being the parents of Jesus. As, as Jesus was a young boy, you know what it's like to be a parent, and you sort of look out the window and you see the six-year-old 25 feet up in the tree, you know? And you think, your first thought is, that's my kid out there. Your second thought is, wow, that's, he's pretty high up there.

That could be serious if he fell out of there. Right? So, you have that sort of instinct that kicks in, that you're like, oh we, we don't want this child to die. Imagine being the parent of mess. I mean, he's the Messiah of Israel. What if you let Messiah fall off a cliff and die? You know? So, this obedience as they lend him up to this circumcision, but then the naming, so, apparently the naming took place at the circumcision event because Luke tells us the same thing for John, as John was circumcised, he was named John.

So, apparently that's when the naming took place was at the event of circumcision, and they named him Jesus. So, let's think about this for just a moment. Jesus. Is the only baby in all of human history to ever name himself. No other baby has ever named himself. There have been adults that renamed themself because they didn't like their first name.

There's even been adults that renamed themself a couple of times, like the artist formally known as Prince, right? So, sometimes adults will change their name. Sometimes people as they grow into their teenage years or their older childhood years, sometimes they maybe aren't crazy about the name that they're going by and they'll sort of choose a different nickname.

Or some friends or something will stick them with a nickname. And sometimes a ch a name will kind of. Change my, maybe you know somebody in your life that you, you knew them at a period in their life when they went by one name and then later on you reconnect to them and now they're going by. Does that ever happen to you And you reconnect and now they're going by a different name?

How weird that is. So, sometimes adults will change their name, but there has never in the history of humankind ever been a baby who chose their own. We're told that Jesus was called Jesus. He's given the name Jesus, because that was the name given by the angel Gabriel. Luke specifically says before he was conceived, so, the angel Gabriel, of course, is the messenger of God.

Jesus is the son of God, and so, Jesus himself tells Gabriel what to tell Mary to name him and he picks Jesus. So, think about a name. Think about your name. Doesn't your name just have a ring to it? Doesn't your, aren't your ears just especially tuned to the sound, to the vocal sounds of your name in such a way that you can hear your name spoken in a crowded room on the other side of the room, and immediately it gets your attention?

Isn't that how your brain works? That something about the sound of your name is just deeply ingrained into your ears, into your brain, so, that when you hear it just something connects and resonates because that's your name. Now, none of us have chosen our name. It's a Jesus. Jesus chose his. So, think of just how many hundreds of thousands of times you've heard your name.

Think of how many hundreds of thousands of times Jesus heard his name. Now, knowing all of that, what did Jesus want people to call him? Being able to choose what sound he would answer to hundreds of thousands of times. What sound, what word did Jesus choose? He chose, of course, Jesus, which means Yahweh, save.

That's what Jesus wanted to hear in his ears. Tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of times he wanted to hear, he wanted to answer to Yahweh saves, Yahweh saves. He wanted that to be the sound that was so, close to his heart, so, close to his ears, that when he heard that on the other side of the room, his ears would p.

Yahweh saves. You know what that tells us? In a very subtle sort of way, but a but a clear sort of way that says to us of God's delight in saving, lost people in such a way that Jesus would say, Hmm, what do I want people to call me? King of kings? Nah, Lord of Lords. Nah, almighty one. Nah. Everlasting powerful, Lord God Almighty.

No, I want to be called Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves. That's what I want to be. The sound that I hear over and over through my entire life, Yahweh saves because those words are so, precious to me. The truth and the reality that I am a God who delights in saving, lost people. God is not a God that has to have his arm twisted.

God is not a God that that sort of gets backed into a corner by this cross thing and, and when a sinner repents God's up there in heaven saying, well, you really do deserve hell, and I wish I could throw you in hell, but dog on it. That cross thing is now in the way. So, I guess I gotta forgive your sins.

He delights. It is his greatest pleasure to forgive sinners. That is what brings such pleasure to his heart. Zephaniah three in verse 17. The Lord your God is in your midst. A mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing.

If Jesus says the angels re rejoice at one sinner who repents. How do you think the master of those angels rejoices when one sin repents, and so, Jesus picks his name, he says, this is what I want to hear. I just want to hear people call me. Yahweh saves because that is the, the delight of my heart.