The Christmas We Weren’t Expecting

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If you want God to deliver you, if you want His powerful working in your life, it will come on the heels of a season of waiting. God will not disappoint those of you who wait for Him. He will not let you be put to shame. Nobody who has ever waited for God ever in history has been let down.

You will not be the first. Waiting is an essential, even an appointed part of the Christian life. Welcome back to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Okay, who out there loves Christmas?

I know it was a few weeks ago, but sometimes I wish that that season lasted a little longer. How about you? Well, guess what? Today Pastor J.D. takes us back to those first days and tells us the story of Anna and Simeon, two of the first people to meet Jesus. Unlike so many others, Anna and Simeon were able to recognize the unexpected majesty of the newborn king. Their story raises the question for us, will we see Jesus?

If you're new to Summit Life, you can always catch up on previous messages, download the complete transcripts, and learn more about this ministry when you visit jdgreer.com. Now here's Pastor J.D. with a message he titled, The Christmas We Weren't Expecting. Joshua Bell is perhaps the world's most famous violinist. At 39 years old, he was called America's greatest classical musician, the kind that people would fill up Carnegie Hall at a minimum of $100 a ticket just to hear him play his Stradivarius violin.

In 2007, a news outlet put him up to an experiment. He was in Washington D.C. for a concert and so the day after the concert, they had him go down anonymously into the Lefont metro station in D.C. right in the middle of rush hour, his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin in hand, and he played for an hour with his hat out to collect tips. Keep in mind, thousands of people had just paid hundreds of dollars each for a ticket to hear this guy play the night before.

Over the 43 minutes that he stood there in the Lefont metro station playing Bach and Brahms and other classical pieces, they say that no more than six people stopped and he made a grand total of $32.17 in donations, not counting one $20 tip from one person right at the very end who recognized, actually recognized who he was. It is possible, it is possible to miss some of the greatest things in your life because your heart is not tuned to listen for them or look for them. Sometimes our hearts are so dull and so distracted that we don't recognize majesty even when it's right in front of us. If there were a theme for Luke's rendition of the Christmas story, I think that might be it. Luke chapter two, if you got your Bible, if you are with us at one of our campuses here on Sunday morning or you are in one of our home gatherings all across the triangle or joining us somewhere across the country or around the world, I wanna welcome you. Grab your Bible, turn it to Luke two.

If you're at home, you have the privilege of pausing me right now to run, get your Bible. If you are at one of our locations in person, obviously you can't do that, but you get your Bible, turn it on and go down to Luke two. We have been working our way around the gospel of Luke for a while now and so for the next few weeks, we're gonna look at what Luke says about the very first Christmas. Of course, they didn't call it Christmas, but that's what it became. One of the big themes in Luke's gospel is that the first Christmas came and went with most people totally unaware that anything at all had even happened. Have you ever gotten an unexpected or an unwanted Christmas gift?

Think about it for a minute. What is the worst Christmas gift that you've ever received? One of our missionaries told me recently that she got a gift from one of her new friends in her new country.

She opened it up, she was pretty excited and it was a local variety of candy, beef flavored candy, she said. I think this is the worst Christmas gift I've ever received. I'm sure it's hard to hide your disappointment in the face of a gift like that. I remember one year, one of my relatives, the kind of, you know that relative that you could always depend on for a good gift?

You count on them, the good aunt or the good uncle. I remember opening up the gift and that year they gave me a belt. I was sure, I'm sure it was a nice belt. I'm sure my mom had told them that I needed a belt, but still y'all, it was a belt. I had opened the package so expectantly, so excitedly and I literally had to fight back tears when I saw what it was. This was last year by the way.

No, no, just kidding. I was like 10 years old. God's gift to us at Christmas was unexpected, but if you knew what you were looking for and your heart was tuned to listen to the right things and you could recognize majesty when you saw it, it wasn't disappointing. Luke chapter two, let's begin in verse 22. And when the days of their purification, that is Joseph and Mary's purification after Mary had given birth to the baby Jesus, according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought him, that is Jesus, up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, which was the next stage of their ritual offering process. Verse 23, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord. Verse 24, and to offer a sacrifice according also to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. In Leviticus chapter 12, when it refers to the law of the Lord, it's a reference back to Leviticus 12, where God commanded each Israelite family to dedicate their firstborn to God by means of an offering. That was because in the exodus, God had spared the lives of all of Israel's firstborn sons if they put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost of their homes. When the angel saw the blood of the lamb, he would pass over that house and spare their son. So when they gave birth, when Israelites and future generations gave birth to a firstborn son, they were to travel to the temple and offer a lamb to commemorate that Passover. Now this text says that Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons instead of a lamb, which is a very important detail to note because that was an exception made in the law for exceptionally poor families. If a family just could not afford a lamb, the law said that instead of a lamb, they could offer two pigeons or two turtledoves or a partridge in a pear tree or whatnot, right? What that shows you is that Jesus was not just born middle-class, he was not just born lower middle-class, he was born poor.

And I want you to let that sink in for just a minute. A pastor friend of mine, Pastor Thabidi Anabwile, he asked, he says, what does it mean? What does it actually mean that Jesus chose to be born into poverty?

Well, he says it means at least five things. Number one, it means that poverty by itself is not a sin and it's not shameful in and of itself. He says, number two, it means that poverty is not a sign of God's disapproval or that you've done something wrong. He says, number three, it doesn't mean poverty does not prevent a person, he says, from worshiping God. I mean, after all, didn't God in the law make the provision for them, for a poor person to still be able to offer their first and their best?

Right? People, even when they're on hard times, can still offer the first and the best of what they have to God. Number four, he says it means that poverty now does not necessarily doom you to poverty forever.

And some of you should be encouraged by that, right? Jesus' life certainly took a turn. And then number five, it also means he says that a cross, that poverty is a cross, that God entrusts to some of us for a season, maybe for a lifetime, and it is possible for us to be faithful in that season.

So just listen to me, if you're poor or if you feel downtrodden, you should not feel second class. Jesus identified with you first. God has a plan for you, where you are, and that plan can turn out very well indeed. So we see that Jesus was born poor.

But what happens next is totally unexpected. Verse 25, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout. He'd been looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, if you underline stuff in your Bible, kind of underline that or smudge it with lipstick or prick your finger, dab it in blood, that's an important little phrase, that he would not see death before the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, there's your second reference to the Spirit of God, Simeon entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, now master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised, for my eyes have seen your salvation.

You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel. Y'all, this is crazy, right? Mary and Joseph are simply there with hundreds of other moms and dads presenting their babies, and an old guy, a stranger, an old guy, suddenly runs up to them, grabs their baby, and starts singing. Mary and Joseph are like, hey man, I mean, respect the social distancing, please, you at least got to sanitize before you do that. I mean, old ladies do this kind of stuff all the time, right?

Pinching babies without asking permission and saying weird stuff like, oh, I could just eat you up, right? But old men typically don't do this, which leads to another important detail in this story. Luke says it was the Spirit of God that gave Simeon this insight, says that three times in that little passage, right? That's an important insight, that is the only way anybody ever accurately recognizes Jesus. The irony here in this whole story is that all of these rituals that the Israelites were going through, all the going to the temple and all the offerings and all the Passover stuff, those were all given to them to prepare them for to recognize the Messiah when he came. The irony is that those Israelites most steeped in the rituals were the last ones in line to recognize him.

And I think that there's a very important lesson here for you and for me. Keeping rituals and traditions and Advent celebrations are great, but more often than not, they can keep you from seeing Jesus. I mean, think about it, right? How many of you have already started to just go through the motions this season? Day after Thanksgiving, you bought the tree. How many of you fake tree people out there? Just raise your hand, you're a fake tree person. I'm a fake tree person. How many of you destroy our environment every year by cutting down a real tree? Why don't you raise your hand?

No, no, I'm just kidding, right? But you whatever, you got the tree. You listen to the never-ending Christmas music on K-Love.

You watch all of the Hallmark movies about the big city lawyer girl who comes home and falls in love with the tractor-driving high school dropout who looks like Matthew McConaughey guy. You set up your stockings and your manger scenes and even your little heretical elf on the shelf to teach your kid to be little self-righteous Pharisees, right? Maybe you're even doing some Advent readings. Maybe you're doing the Advent blocks that we've given out to our families here at the Summit Church, but there's very little reflection or very little wonder over who Jesus actually is. You need the Spirit of God to open your eyes to the majesty of Jesus.

That's the only way that you can see it. So let me urge you this season to pray that over yourselves and your families. Pray it for your families.

You go through your Advent traditions. Pray it for those to whom you give this book searching for Christmas, right? It's not a good book that's going to open their eyes to who Jesus is. It's only the Spirit of God. You and I never talk to men and women about God until we've talked to God about those men and women. The good news, the good news for you is that this is the Spirit's mission on earth. It's why Jesus said, John 16, Jesus sent the Spirit to earth to teach people to see Jesus. But here's the catch.

If you want to call it a catch, you have to ask for His help. He gives the Spirit without measure, He said, to all those but only those who ask for Him. Verse 33. Verse 33. His, that is Jesus's, father and mother were amazed at what was being said about Him. Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, indeed this child is destined to cause the fall and the rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed and a sword is going to pierce your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

We will come back to that in just a minute. Verse 36. There was also a prophetess named Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, the tribe of Asher, dancer, vixen or prince or whatever. She was well along in years having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage and there was a widow and she and after that she was a widow for 84 years. She did not leave the temple serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment, at that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about Him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Israel.

All right, so what you got here is you got two people, two people who have something in common. They're both old and they're both hanging around the temple waiting, longing for something. First you have Simeon whom the text says was waiting for the consolation or comfort or the relief of Israel. For most Jews that referred to a or they pointed they thought to political deliverance because for nearly 700 years Israel had been subject to oppression by foreign powers.

It had started with the exiles to Assyria and then to Babylon but after that came subjugation to the Persians then the Greeks and then the Romans under whose rule the Israelites were now and who were probably the worst of all the oppressors and even when the Jews were in their own homeland under self-rule their kingdom did not have near the glory that it once had had under King David or King Solomon. So Israel was waiting. They were waiting for consolation, for deliverance, for justice, for restoration, to promise glory. Simeon being old represents for Luke that posture of long waiting. Then beside him you've got Anna whom it tells us has been a widow for 84 years after being married for seven.

It is safe to say I think we can say that no girl of 16 years old dreams about her life turning out this way. Being married for seven years and then having your husband die and then living for 84 years alone especially in those days because widows usually had very little way of providing for themselves which often meant that widows were lonely and poor and had nobody to take care of them. I think we could say that for Luke she represents somebody for whom life has turned out very differently than what she had expected or hoped. Hers I think is not so much a yearning for political deliverance. She yearns for what?

For personal relief. She yearns for personal consolation and comfort. So let me make a quote so let me make a couple of I think important observations about this story observations that should impact you and me. Number one waiting is a key component of the Christian life. Waiting is a key component of the Christian life. There is a reason that Luke brings these two characters into the story.

It is to show you that Jesus comes to those who wait and there's a reason that both of these characters are old because for Luke that shows that they've been waiting for a long time. Sometimes you and I talk about the Christian life as if it is instant fulfillment. Immediate answers to prayer requests. If you do A, oh yes God will give B. And if you do A in your marriage then your marriage is going to turn into B.

And if you do A with your kids and your kids will turn out like B. But friend that is just not always true. Many of you find yourself in a posture of waiting this Christmas. You're in a time that feels dark.

A time of confusion. Maybe you even feel abandoned. Maybe it's a season for you of yearning and longing. A longing for something to be set right. Injustice seems to reign everywhere around you.

Maybe you yourself have been the victim of that injustice. Maybe you like Anna are yearning for some need to be fulfilled. Life just has not turned out the way that you would always expect it. Maybe it's a longing for it to have your family put back together.

Or maybe to have a family of your own. You were hoping to be married by this Christmas and here we are again entering another Christmas season and you're still single. Maybe you're grieving the death of a child this Christmas. Maybe you're grieving a miscarriage this year. Maybe you're still waiting on a prodigal who is yet to return home. I don't know.

I don't know. And here's the thing. You've tried everything that you know how to try. Or you try to do it God's way. I mean you went and got advice and you talked to the pastor and you you believed God and you trusted him and you worked hard and and still things have just not gotten better for you. Why isn't the marriage getting better?

Why isn't the situation changing? Simeon and Anna's story show you that God sees you. God has not forgotten you and waiting does not mean that you've done something wrong. Waiting is in fact an essential, I would even say an appointed part of the Christian life. You see the prophet Jeremiah said in the book of Lamentations the Lord is good to those who wait for him.

The prophet Isaiah agrees. He says blessed are those who wait for him and those that wait for me shall never be put to shame. If you want God to deliver you, if you want his powerful working in your life, it will come on the heels of a season of waiting. God will not disappoint those of you who wait for him. He will not let you be put to shame. Nobody who has ever waited for God ever in history has been let down. No one not even one.

You will not be the first. Waiting is an essential even an appointed part of the Christian life and that's what we're reminded of at Christmas. I love how Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who ended up being a martyr of the Nazi regime, I love how he said it the Advent season. The Advent season is a season of waiting but our whole life our whole life kind of feels like an Advent season. He says that is the season of waiting for the last Advent.

Advent just means coming. The last coming for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Christmas reminds us that while we've got a lot to be thankful for here, a lot of us are still waiting. In fact we're all waiting for the second coming of Christ. We're all waiting for the new heavens and the new earth. We're all waiting for Jesus to come and make things right and for all the sad things in our lives to become untrue. So I would just say to you this weekend whether you've got a specific need that you're waiting on God to do something in or whether it's just a yearning for heaven. Simeon and Anna show you that God has not forgotten you. The joy and the comfort of Christmas is for you.

Even if your situation is not going to change this weekend which leads me to number two. Number two, God's answer did not match their expectations. God's answer did not match their expectations. I think it's safe to say that neither Simeon nor Anna was thinking that a helpless baby born to a dirt poor family was God's answer to their longing.

But he was. You see what Israel thought they needed most, what they thought they needed from God was different from what they actually needed most. What they thought they needed most was political deliverance. What they thought they needed most was a new husband or a restored fortune.

But what they actually most needed was restoration with God. This Jesus says is eternal life not streets of gold and not perfect health. You want to know what eternal life is? To know God and Jesus whom he has sent. You can have that knowledge in pain as well as you can have it in health. In fact sometimes you can have it better in pain than you can in health. Jesus said the abundant life that I'm talking about is not a Mercedes Benz and it's not a 5,000 square foot house and it's not a second home at Hilton Head and it's not a perfect family.

It's not all the people around the table. You want to know what the abundant life is? Jesus says it's knowing me.

We're all waiting for something whether it's something specific in your life or simply yearning for heaven. God hasn't forgotten you. That's an important truth today on Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We're in a teaching series called In Step and if you're new to the ministry let me be the first to say welcome.

We hope you'll join us as often as possible but if you ever miss a message or tune in late you can listen online for free when you visit us at jdgreer.com. Pastor JD we spend day after day here on Summit Life dissecting scripture. Can you remember what created this love for the Word of God in you? You know Molly I think I've told you before that I grew up in a church where scripture memory was just a thing. We did it memorize verses.

I was in a WANNA program which I was so grateful for. I did Bible quiz when I was in high school and to be totally frank with you probably most of the scripture that I memorized as a kid up through high school was memorized not for all the right motives. Sometimes it was to get the award to be trotted out on stage. Sometimes it was to win the Bible quiz thing but it got in there. Scripture in your heart never goes to waste. That's why the psalmist says I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Train up a child proverbs in a way that he should go teach them scripture and when they're old they won't depart from it because the Holy Spirit can can bring to mind can quicken can make alive that word of truth planted in your heart that is able to save your soul. There's very few things you could do as profitable as memorize scripture.

So what we did here at Summit Life something we did last year we wanted to produce a pack of memory cards 50 of them essentially one for every week of the year of 2022 that you could put in your heart and I can promise you that if you memorize 50 verses of scripture just one a week how you think and how you counteract doubt despair darkness deception will be totally different because of the word that's put in your heart so go to jdgrier.com today and reserve your set. Commit God's word to your heart and mind and apply it to your life through prayer and actions. Our world is filled with lies. The lies come from outside from a world promising happiness and security but they also come from within our own sinful hearts and I'm sure you've heard it said that the best way to confront a lie is to know the truth. We need a weapon to fight back and something to keep us from falling prey to the enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for people to destroy. The best weapon we can wield is the word of God. That's why we have to keep putting it into our hearts so that when life cuts us we bleed the word of God.

The Lord calls us to take a step of faith and then another and another and the only way to walk and step with him is to know him and we know him through his word so commit to knowing him deeper by hiding his word in your heart. Be sure to ask for your set of the Rejoice Always Memory Verse cards when you give a financial gift of $35 or more. Call 866-335-5220.

The telephone number again is 866-335-5220 or go online and request your cards at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovich and I'm so glad that you joined us today. Be sure to tune in Friday when Pastor JD concludes this message from Luke Chapter 2. When Jesus came, he drew a dividing line.

One that would separate people for all of eternity. Join us again Friday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.