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Man, Luke chapter 2 verse 1, the Bible reads, And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Now, as I mentioned last week, Luke is the longest and most detailed gospel. It gives all kinds of just details. We're not even to the birth of Christ yet, we're already into chapter 2. And he's talking about who was the governor of Syria at that time. If you look at chapter 3 verse 1, it says, Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being teatric of Galilee, and his brother Philip, teatric of Icheria, and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias, the teatric of Abilene, Annas, and Caiaphas, being the high priest. I mean, he's telling you, this is everybody who's in charge in this part of the world at that time. Why? Well, remember, one of the purposes of the book of Luke, according to chapter 1, was that Theophilus would know the certainty of the things wherein he'd been instructed. Just to make sure that no one thinks that the story of Jesus is just a myth or a fable, or maybe it's just an allegory, maybe it's just symbolic. No, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. These are real events. He gives us great detail about when and where and how they happened. So that's what we'll see a lot in the book of Luke. So in Luke chapter 2 here, it talks about Caesar Augustus making a decree that all the world should be taxed. Now, was it really possible for Caesar Augustus to enforce that tax in every part of the world at that time? Probably not, but just that goes to show you the scope and power of the Roman Empire at that time, that they ruled over what would be known as the civilized world, or the part of the world that was the most inhabited, or the most important parts of the world. Obviously there were outlying regions that they were constantly trying to conquer and you know, exerting a little bit of influence over. They didn't have a fully worldwide or global kingdom, but when you're making a pronouncement that the whole world should be taxed, you have a lot of power at that point. And so the Roman Empire was the dominant power on the earth when Jesus Christ came to this earth. And this was during a 200 year period known historically as the Pax Romana or the Roman peace, because Rome was just so firmly in control that the world was pretty stable at this time. And they'd build a lot of roads all over that area. You know, all roads lead to Rome, right? They built all these roads and they'd spread their language and their forms of money and everything like that. So it really paved the way for Jesus Christ to come on the scene and be born and for the word of the gospel to get out on all these great paved roads. You know, when they're taxing the world and you know, cause it's always for the roads, right? When they tax the taxes. So when they're taxing the world and building all these roads, they have their own agenda of just lifting themselves up and being deified and worshiped as a God and just their own power, their own pride, their own vanity. But God used a lot of that stuff for the gospel to be preached so that those roads would be the roads that the apostle Paul is going to be traveling down and other great preachers and missionaries are going to be traveling down and preaching the gospel. And the language of Latin is going to be a language that a lot of people would hear the gospel in and so on and so forth. So that taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed everyone into his own city. So to make sure that they got everybody taxed, they wanted to make sure everybody went to their hometown because people tend to move around. So they wanted to do it by lineage or by family. So because of the fact that Joseph was of the tribe of Judah and he was a son of David, he goes with Mary, his espoused wife, to Bethlehem, which is the city of David, to be taxed. It says in verse 4, Joseph also went up from Galilee so he doesn't live in Judea, he's living out of Judea in a place called Galilee and he has to leave Nazareth to go down into Judea under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son. By the way, if you have a firstborn son, guess what you have? You can't have a part one without a part two, right? So she brought forth her firstborn son, which means that she had other children, right? Because after Jesus Christ was born, her and her husband Joseph came together, had a normal married relationship, and had at least seven other children, according to the Bible. It names four of Jesus' half-brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. But then it says, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Well, you can't use the word all unless there's three or more, you'd use the word both. So he had at least seven siblings. So he was raised in a family with at least eight children, right? It says right here that she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Of course, a manger is a trough that's used to feed animals. So it's something that you would put the feed into so that the animals would be able to eat it up at a higher level where they could put their face down in the food and eat it. So they took this trough that's a feeding trough, or a manger, and that's where Jesus is laid. That's his crib, all right? So he wasn't born in a palace, he wasn't living in a wealthy area with parents that put a silver spoon in his mouth as a baby. No, he had a very humble, poor beginning, no room in the inn, and he's out in the manger. Because there's no room for him in the inn. This is the first in a series of rejections of Christ throughout his life, and even to this day people reject Christ. It says in verse 8, there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. So they're scared. I mean, you'd be scared too, right, if you're out in the field, you're out in the middle of nowhere, you're watching the sheep, and all of a sudden there's just this bright light, the glory of God, this angel appears. They're sore afraid. And he says, no, no, no, don't be afraid, this is good news, this is good tidings. But look what he says at the end there, which shall be to all people. Now one of the things that's emphasized over and over again in the life of Christ, even from the beginning, is that this isn't just for the Jews, this isn't just for Israel. He said, I'm bringing you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And there's this goofball doctrine out there called dispensationalism that says, well, Jesus came for the Jews, and he just wanted to have a kingdom with the Jews, but they rejected him, so he had to go to plan B and turn to the Gentiles. It was foreordained that Jesus would always be the savior of the Gentiles. He would always be the light. The whole prophecy about who the Messiah is says he's going to show light to the Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles trust. That's all the way back in the Old Testament. And you know, Jesus is first prophesied in Genesis 3.15 before there ever was a Hebrew, before there ever was an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the Garden of Eden, Christ's coming is prophesied. Why? Because he always planned to come as the savior of the world. What are the shepherds told? The shepherds are told right away, listen to me, this is for all people. What do the shepherds do? They go out and publish that. I mean, they probably spent the rest of their lives telling that story. They go around telling people. The Bible emphasizes in this chapter repeatedly just how much the shepherds spread this around and how everybody in all that part of Judea, they all heard about this through the shepherds. So these guys are some great soul winners. You know, they meet Jesus and they go tell everybody about Jesus that they can. And I'm sure that if the angel only says a few things to them, they're hanging on every word. And I'm sure they're telling everybody, hey, this is going to be for all people. This is for everybody. This is for all people, right? Okay, go just a little later in the same chapter to verse number 32. This is when Simeon is prophesying in the temple. Again, public place, lots of people are there. He's preaching this to a bunch of people that are at the temple. And what does he say about Jesus? Hey, this is going to be what? A light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. And so right there we see that all of these witnesses, the shepherds, Simeon, all these people are emphasizing the angels. They're telling people this is for all nations, is for all people. He's going to be the savior of the whole world. Now a lot of people didn't get it. And even when Jesus kept saying it over and over again, a lot of people, it just didn't click and they kept thinking, oh, it's for the Jews. It's for the Jews. You say, well, how is it that he said it so many times and the angel said it, the shepherds said, and people just don't get it. Well, here's my question. How can people still don't get it today? They have the whole new Testament and they're so hung up on the Jews and Israel and not understanding that it's for the whole earth and it was always planned for the whole earth. God's always been the God of the whole world. His plan is to save mankind, not one nationality. And in fact, that nationality rejected him to the point where he said the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, which is a nation that's not a physical nation. It's not the U S it's not Mexico. It's not Canada. It's a spiritual nation that's made up of all believers. He says to all believers, you're a holy nation. You're a Royal priesthood. You're a peculiar people. Look at it says in verse 11 front of you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Now why would that be a sign? A sign is something where when you see it, it confirms that God's word is true, right? So you hear the word of God, and then there's a sign to show you that God's word is true. Now it's better if you don't even need a sign. It's better not to even seek after a sign, right? It's better when you just hear the word of God and you just believe it and you don't need a sign. See, it's an evil and adulterous generation that seeks a sign. These guys aren't necessarily seeking a sign, but they're given a sign and when God offers you a sign, you take it. And when God wants to give you a sign, go for it, take it. But we shouldn't be always demanding a sign, seeking after a sign. God gives a lot of signs in the Bible. For example, to confirm that he was telling the truth to Pharaoh, the sign of the rod being thrown down and it becomes a serpent. The sign of water being turned into blood. There's a sign given to Gideon where the fleece, the woollen fleece is dry and all the area around it is wet and vice versa. Those are signs that are given to confirm the truth. So these guys are out in the middle of the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. They get this message from the angel telling them about this miraculous birth. And then they said, this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. So basically when you go to Bethlehem and you go to a barn and you find a baby lying in a manger, then you'll know that I'm telling you the truth. Why? Because that's not something that you see every day. That's out of the ordinary. A baby is normally going to be found indoors, in a bed, in a crib, anywhere but a manger. And not only that but if this is the Messiah, if this is the Christ as is said here, if this is the heir of the throne of David, it's even more odd to find him in a manger. So that's why he said this is a sign unto you. You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men. Now that's got to be a pretty dramatic moment because think about it, the angels talking to them and then just all of a sudden with the angel, it's no longer just an angel. Now it's a whole heavenly host. Now I don't know how big that multitude was but when we look at the word multitude in the Bible, that's a word that's used, I think the smallest, you know, maybe I'm wrong on this but I think the smallest multitude is when Jesus feeds the 5,000 or feeds the 4,000. You know, that's what a multitude is, it's thousands. And when the Bible talks about the angels praising God up in heaven, it's 10,000 times 10,000 which is 100 million and thousands of thousands. So just imagine you're these shepherds, this angel is talking to you, there's all this glory of God there which is pretty impressive. But then just imagine a host of just thousands of angels all of a sudden, all in chorus, saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men. I mean that would be an amazing, who were these guys? You know, I mean these are just random guys, they're just shepherds out in the field. But man alive, what an honor, what a cool experience to be chosen to be that guy. Why did God pick these particular shepherds? I guarantee you there are shepherds all over the place. That's the traditional trade of the children of Israel was to be a shepherd, right? So I'm sure there were lots of shepherds who said, why did he pick these shepherds just to get this great experience, this amazing experience. I'll tell you why, because the Bible keeps telling about how they went and told everybody about it. I think he picked the people that are going to go tell everybody about it. You know what, if you want to see great things, if you want to be used greatly by God, if you want to experience the glory of God, be a soul winner. Be the type of guy where God, well if I show, hey you want to learn great things in the Bible, be the kind of guy where God can say, well if I show him this in the Bible, he'll teach that to all kinds of people. If I do this great work in his life or her life, oh they're going to preach this everywhere. They're going to knock doors, they're going to win souls, they're going to talk to people about this. And so I think that's probably why he chose these particular shepherds, because they did such a great job of getting the word out. You say, well why didn't God just appear to everybody, why didn't he just send the angels on tour? Just you know what I mean, just going to all the shepherds, all the people, just lighting up every living room, lighting up every house. Here's why, because God desires that we have faith in his word, not that we seek a sign. Now the shepherds are given a sign, why? Because these guys are already believers, they're already faithful. You know Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead, showed himself to over 500 people, but do you know what was the common denominator with these people they showed himself to? They were saved. He didn't go showing himself to all the unsaved, why? Because they need to hear the word of God and believe it. And so these shepherds, he's rewarding them with this amazing vision, and then they're going to go around preaching the word of God, and guess what, people have to take their word for it. They don't all get to see the heavenly host, they get to hear from that soul winner what the word of God says and they have to believe it by faith. Most of them didn't believe it, as we see as events unfold, but many of them did. So it says in verse number 15, it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child, they made it known abroad. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. They were amazed by it, they were blown away by this report. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Now the but there is a contrast. So the shepherds, they're going around telling everybody, Mary didn't say anything about this. She kept this quiet. She kept it in her heart. It says in verse 20, and I'm not faulting her for that, but the Bible repeats that a couple times in this chapter. You know, she's in kind of a strange position, a unique position, right? You know, when you're giving birth to the Lord Jesus Christ and you're raising him, you know, you're probably not as focused on going around telling everybody about it as just figuring out, okay, what do I do here? You know, how do I do the best job because this is a super important job of taking care of baby Jesus here. So for whatever reason, I'm not going to judge her because I don't really know why, but she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart as opposed to the shepherds who are just blazing the matter abroad. Okay. It says in verse 20, the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb, Sam Gibb. And when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Again, back in Leviticus, there's an option given to bring the two turtle doves or two young pigeons if you can't afford the other offering. So again, this shows that Mary and Joseph were not wealthy. They were poor. They went with the poor man's offering. Okay. When we were making the film Marching to Zion, and we interviewed a bunch of Jewish rabbis, we interviewed the old man, Leo Abrami, the one that was really fired up in that interview, right? Well, if you watch the full interview, then you'll see that he actually said at one point in the interview, he said, oh, you know, because I was asking him about the sacrifices. Why don't you guys do animal sacrifices anymore? If you guys are following the Bible, if you're following the Old Testament. And he said, oh, you know, even before the temple was wiped out, he said, they were already phasing out the sacrifices. You know, even at the time of Christ, they were already phasing out the sacrifices because, you know, God wanted to do away with that stuff anyway. And so they're phasing out. He said, by the time, you know, the temple was destroyed, by the time, around the time Christ was on this earth, he said they were just down to a morning and evening sacrifice. This is what this rabbi taught. He said they didn't come there every time they got cleansed of leprosy or every time a baby's born or every time they want to bring a sin offering or a trespass offering to get right with God. They weren't doing that. They just were down to just two lambs a day, just a morning and evening sacrifice. That's it. Just to kind of cover everything. Because they don't want to admit the fact that the real reason why their sacrifice is stopped is that Jesus is the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And that it was God's will that those sacrifices stopped. It doesn't make any sense that they stopped. From a Jewish perspective, they should keep on going. They've been doing it for thousands of years. God commanded it. Keep doing it. It's bogus. Oh, we don't have the temple anymore. Well, you know what? People made all kinds of sacrifices. Even when the temple was there, you don't have to make it at the temple. You can make an altar of stones. You can just pile a pile of rocks. What did Elijah do? I think God blessed that offering. He didn't seem to have a problem with that altar because as long as you pile up rocks or pile up dirt, you can make an offering under the Lord anywhere. The Bible is pretty clear on that, that there are other options besides the temple, which by the way, God didn't even tell them to build. It was David's idea. His plan was a tabernacle, a tent that's portable. A portable tent. You can put that anywhere. You can build a pile of dirt or rocks anywhere. But they try to make all these different excuses, why they don't do the animal sacrifices. The bottom line is, Christ is the final sacrifice and so God's will was that it stopped. He destroyed their temple, scattered them abroad, and they quit doing the sacrifices. Let me ask you this. Does that jive with the New Testament account? No. Because in the New Testament account, are they just down to just a morning and evening sacrifice? No. Because what do we see here? When Jesus is born, his mother brings the offering commanded of the two young pigeons. Also, what about when Jesus cleanses a leper and says, hey, go offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them? Even further into the future, what about when the apostle Paul in them, and obviously he was getting mixed up into a bunch of Jewish stuff he shouldn't have been getting mixed up in, but what about when they're doing a Nazarite vow and bringing an offering? So there's tons of evidence that that's bogus, but who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, amen? He's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son. Let's keep going. So she brought that offering. Look at verse 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. This is a very old man, but he knows that before he dies, he's going to see Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. So God leads him into the temple at this time that he might see the Christ. He came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph, if you're in the King James Version, amen? And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign that shall be spoken against. So here's the picture. They're in the temple with their baby, right? They're offering the sacrifice. And this guy comes and just swoops the baby right out of her arms, right? Takes the baby up in his arms and says, this is the Savior. This is the light to lighten the Gentiles. And I love what he says in verse 30, this is a beautiful verse. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. You know, when you're looking at Jesus, you're looking at salvation. And by the way, he wasn't looking at a baptistry, right? He wasn't looking at commandments. He wasn't looking at anybody's good life. He wasn't looking at anybody's repentance of all their bad deeds and turning over a new leaf and no, what he was looking at was Jesus. Salvation is Jesus. You know, if you see Jesus, you see, look to Jesus now and live. Look and live, my brother, live. Because Jesus is salvation. All of our salvation is wrapped up in who Jesus is and what he did for us. Not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not of ourselves, it's of him. Salvation's of who? The Lord. And Jesus is the Lord incarnate. And the Bible says here that Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, watch this, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. So he's just a baby and the prophecy's already there. Look, people are going to speak against Christ. People are going to be against this. Even to this day, Christ is spoken against. The Bible's spoken against. The New Testament, the Gospel, Christians are spoken against. And then he follows it up with this statement, yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also. Now I don't believe we can know for sure exactly what's meant by that. But it's possible that this is figurative. You know, especially because we're using the word soul here. And that it could just be that she's going to be cut to the heart with feelings of sadness and just a natural feeling of seeing her son killed, you know, watching him die on the cross. You know, that that could be an interpretation. But a very likely interpretation could be actually that she was actually literally slain with the sword. Simply because the word soul in the Bible doesn't always refer to the part of us that specifically is known as the soul. In the sense that we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. But sometimes when the word soul is used, it's not talking about specifically our soul. It's just talking about people. Like when we talk about winning souls, you know, we're obviously winning the whole person to the Lord. You know what I mean? The spirit for sure is being won. But when you look throughout the Bible, you'll see what I'm talking about. Like for example, when it talks about Abraham and the souls that he'd gotten in Haran. And just the soul of the soul that sinneth it shall die. It's talking about just whoever sins, people who sin. And if you study the use of the word soul in the Bible, you'll find that it's often used just to refer to the person. So this could either mean a sword shall pierce that own soul also, then it's going to be figurative at that point. Or it could just be referring to her. A sword will pierce your own soul also. Just a poetic way of saying you will be pierced through with a sword. You will die. Now we don't know what happened to Mary. I'll guarantee you one thing that did not happen to her. She did not ascend into heaven. Okay. Now I figured out what it's called in English. My wife Googled it on the way home from that sermon when I was talking about that. It's called the Assumption of Mary into heaven. I think I've even seen churches of the Assumption. That's a big Assumption. When you're saying that Mary ascended into heaven, you're making a huge Assumption. And that's a new doctrine that came out in the 20th century. The Pope rarely speaks ex cathedra, where he makes a pronouncement that's on par with scripture. It precedes scripture. When he speaks ex cathedra, he does it very sparingly. He did it in the mid 20th century and said that Mary ascended up to heaven. That's when the Catholic church came out with that doctrine. Which is a bizarre false doctrine that's not found in the Bible. So we don't know. All we know is that she was at the cross. And Jesus said, woman, behold thy son, son, behold thy mother. He took her into his home. We see her in the book of Acts in the early church. She's assembled there with the apostles in that early church. We don't really know how she ended up. She probably lived longer after that. Perhaps a sword pierced her. We don't know. So we'll find out when we get to heaven. If anybody has the smoking gun about what this verse for sure means, come see me after the service. But I couldn't really say with certainty. I would lean toward the fact that it's probably saying that she's going to be killed for the cause of Christ. But again, I don't know for sure on that. It says in verse 36, there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, which is also known as what? Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. It's interesting that she's of the tribe of Asher because the ten tribes were mainly scattered. Most of the people living in Judea are of one of three tribes. Judah, Benjamin, or Levi. Those are the three tribes of Judah, the southern kingdom. But if you remember, there's a great revival in the days of Hezekiah where a lot of the people from that northern kingdom of those ten tribes, they got out of the heathen northern kingdom and they moved their families down to Judah. So there are people that were in the southern kingdom from other tribes, although the vast majority were of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi in Judea. This is a carryover from the tribe of Asher, Asher as it's spelled here. She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. She was a widow of about four score and four years. So this woman was a virgin when she got married. Praise God for a woman who kept herself pure and clean. She got married, well, she dwelled with her husband for seven years. And then apparently her husband passed away after seven years because now she's a widow of about four score and four years. So imagine this. You're a young virgin lady, you get married, you did everything right, you're married for seven years and then you're widowed. And she's been a widow for how long? Four score and four years. Eighty four years. Unless it's just saying that she's 84 years old. If it's saying that she's 84 years old, that's still a really long time to be a widow. I think it's probably actually saying that she's been a widow for 84 years, which would make her a little over 100 years old, which is, you know, people do live that long. So either way, this woman's old. Whether you're 84 or whether you're 104 or whether you're 98, you know, because think about it, seven years, let's say she got married, let's say she got married real young, right? She got married when she's like 16. And then she's with him for seven years, that put her at 23 plus, yeah, so she'd have to be like 107. But it's possible. People do live that long sometimes. But let's say she's 84, 107, however old she is, she's ancient, okay? And the thing is, she's serving God with fastings and prayers night and day. I mean, isn't that a great testimony that this woman didn't get bitter? And you know what, sometimes you'll see this phenomenon where you've got a godly young man and a godly young woman, and then the husband dies a tragic early death, and what does the wife do? She gets away from church, she gets away from the Lord, and, you know, she was leaning on her husband spiritually too much. She didn't have her own walk with God. This woman had her own walk with God. And she didn't get mad at God, she didn't get bitter at God, God, why'd you do this to me? I did everything right, I kept myself pure, I married the love of my life, and then you take them away after only seven years, and then I spent decades, no matter how you interpret the verse, I spent decades by myself, alone, a widow. No, this woman still loved the Lord, still stayed faithful, and she served God with fastings and prayers night and day. I mean, this woman was serious about living for God. And she, coming in at that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Look, she is doing what? Speaking of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Look, why did God pick these witnesses? Because they're going to do the soul winning. They're going to preach the gospel, they're going to tell people. I mean, I love this story because God prepared these people for so long. I mean, this old, old man Simeon. This is the greatest moment of his life. I don't know anything else about his life. We know hardly anything about this woman, Anna. I mean, these people, Anna and Simeon, it's like they live these whole lives, just decade after decade after decade after decade of serving God. And this was the moment. It was all for that moment, just to be in the temple at that time, and see Christ, and then tell everybody about it, preach about it, witness about it. That tells me that if you're here today, and you're old, don't just give up on life and just, oh, I'm done. What if these people would have thought they were done? They hadn't even started yet on the greatest works. Maybe God, you say, well, I'm 50, I'm 60, I'm 70. Maybe God's been preparing you your whole life for some great work that you haven't even thought of yet. You haven't even started the big thing that you're supposed to do, who knows? Or maybe you're just supposed to just continue what you're doing and just be faithful and stay faithful. Look, these people stayed faithful to the end, and it really paid off. They made it into scripture as great witnesses that we're talking about thousands of years later. I guarantee you, Anna's rejoicing in heaven right now, Simeon's rejoicing, and they're thrilled that they got to be a part of one of the most famous chapters in the whole Bible. Luke chapter two is one of the most famous chapters in the entire Bible. Great encouragement to the elderly in this passage here. Drive it until the wheels fall off. Stay faithful to the end. You might retire from your job, but you don't retire from God. You don't retire from soul winning. You don't retire from preaching. These people were very elderly. I mean, Simeon is so elderly where he's like, okay, now I'm ready to go. That's old when you're saying that. She spake of him to all them that look for redemption in Jerusalem. You know what? That's what I want to do. I want to speak of Christ to all the people who are looking for redemption in Arizona. Now there are people out there that aren't looking for redemption. I want to go to those people too because they might not know what they need, and I want to at least show them what they need and try to talk to them. But you know what? I'm going to move on to the next door, and they're not interested. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to move on to the next door. I don't force people to listen to the gospel. When I first started soul winning, I did, but then I realized, you know what? I only have so much time. I only have so much breath. I only have so much of a throat that can handle a certain amount of talking, a certain amount of preaching, and I don't want to just waste a bunch of time giving the gospel to people who have no interest. That's why I ask people, hey, can I show you? Now, if they don't want to hear it, I still leave them with one verse. I want to plant that seed and just give them a quick thought, give them a quick seed planting. I quote the verse and I expound the verse in a sentence or two, and then I bless them and move on so that hopefully the next person can come by and hopefully they've been a little softened up for it, or they've got something to think about. Maybe they'll ponder that, but listen to me. If people are just bored and they're not listening and they're trying to get rid of me, I'm not going to stick my foot in the door and keep going. You know why? I'll tell you why. Because there's more fish in the sea. That's why. There's plenty of fish in the sea. And our church is going to be here, God willing. We believe we're going to be here for a long time and knock all these doors again and again and again. So you want to make sure that you don't just feel like, this is this person's last chance. Now, it might be their last chance, but it might not be their last chance. So if there's a whole bunch of people out there in Phoenix that are looking for redemption, and I guarantee you on that map back there of soul winning, all the part that's colored in orange and all the part that's not colored in, I guarantee you in the part that's not colored in, there are a bunch of people who are looking for redemption and they're just waiting for us to get there. And when we get there, they will be thrilled to hear the gospel. They want to hear it. They're going to be thankful. They're going to be glad. They want to listen. Here's about the guy who slams the door. You know, if I walk up and somebody just immediately slams the door, you know what my thought is? Great. Thanks for saving my time. That's just the faster I can get to the one that wants to hear the gospel. The worst is when they have no interest, but just talk to you for several minutes. I don't need them to be that polite. I'm not a baby. Somebody can yell at me. It doesn't hurt my feelings. Yell at me. Slam the door. Get me out of there as fast as you can. I want to get to the one who's looking for the truth. Doesn't mean I'm not going to preach it to everybody because I'm going to try to preach it to everybody. But I'm really out there for the one who's looking for redemption in Israel. The Bible says in verse 39, and when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and waxed, strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey. Isn't that funny? And they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. Acquaintance? Man alive. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem and it came to pass that after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and ask them questions. I mean, is that funny? And here's the moral of the story too. It only takes one day to lose Jesus and three days to find him again. What does that mean? Obviously we never lose our salvation, but you know, we can lose fellowship pretty easily. We can lose the joy of our salvation and it's a lot easier to get out of church than it is to get back into church. It's a lot easier to miss your Bible reading than to pick it back up again and get that habit again. It's a lot easier to skip soul winning than it is to get back. It takes one week to stop soul winning and it takes three weeks sometimes to get back started again. So it's just a kind of a side symbolic meaning here that it took them one day to lose him, three days to find him. And you know, watch your kids, right? But I mean, you can imagine he's the son of God. He's the savior of the world and we've lost him. What have we done? We're being so irresponsible here with the son of God. What's the punishment going to be for not taking care of him, right? So they, they, they get to him and they say to him, you know, why have you dealt us with us? Like, why did you do this to us? It says in verse number, uh, 47, all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. You know, he's 12 and when they saw him, they were amazed and his mother said to him, son, why has thou dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought the sorrowing. Of course, Joseph is not Jesus' father, but he said it to them, how is it that you sought me? Sought means looked for. How is it that you looked for me? How is it that you sought me? Wished he not that I must be about my father's business? Didn't you know that I should be about, now that's a rebuke of her calling Joseph his father. Hey, your father and I. Hey, no, actually you should have known that I'd be about my father's business. If you were going to look for me, you should have gone straight to the temple to find me and straight to where the word of God's being preached and discussed. That's where I'll be. Now the NIV and all the modern versions will change Luke two 33 to saying his father and his mother marveled referring to Joseph. Okay. That's clearly false because later in the same chapter, Jesus rebuking them for calling him his father and say, no, no, no, I'm about my father's business and I'm not building a table. I'm not doing carpentry right now. Why would Jesus rebuke them for something? And then the Holy Ghost is going to lead Luke to, to, to make that same mistake. That makes zero sense. If it were okay to call Joseph Jesus' father, Jesus wouldn't have made that remark. He's making that remark because it's not okay because he's correcting them and say, no, actually, the father's up in heaven because he was born of a virgin. The Bible says in verse 50, they understood not the saying, which he spake unto them. So when he said that to them, when he responded to them, we understand what he meant, but it went over their head probably because they're upset. When you lost your kid and you find him again, you might not be listening to everything that he says super clearly. So they didn't really get why he said that to them. And they understood not the saying, which he spake unto them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, watch this, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Now if Jesus Christ could submit himself to his parents, that shows, and it is appropriate to call them his parents, the Bible does call them his parents, but it doesn't call them father and mother or Joseph the father. If Jesus Christ submitted himself unto his parents, then can you child submit yourself unto your parents? Some children might think that they're better than their parents, smarter than, okay, sorry, not some children. Every teenager, you know, they get to a certain age where they start thinking that they know more than their parents, right? That's what teenagers think, that they know more than their parents. But here's a young preteen, a tween, a 12 year old who's just getting to that age when they start thinking that they know more than their parents when they're like 12, 13, 14. You know what? He went down and he spent his teenage years obeying his parents, say, well, I know more than my parents. They're wrong. I'm right. Okay. Well, do you think Jesus knew more than his parents? Because I didn't see the doctors getting astonished at Joseph. I didn't see Joseph walk up and just wow all the doctors with his knowledge, but we do see 12 year old Jesus wowing them with his knowledge. Now listen to me, 12 year old Jesus did not know everything, say, Oh, no false doctrine. If you say he didn't know everything, why? Because what did he do in verse 52? Jesus increased in wisdom. You can't increase in wisdom if you already know everything. In fact, Jesus, as an adult is going to say what that no man know at the day or the hour of his coming, no, not the angels in heaven nor the son, but the father only. So even in Mark chapter 13, when Jesus is preaching at the very end of his ministry, did he know everything? No, because he didn't know the hour of his coming. There are things that the father knew that the son did not know. Now Jesus Christ in his earthly existence, he became flesh and dwelt among us. And part of that is that he took upon himself limitations of being a human being to where he hungered, he thirsted, he had to sleep at night. He went through the whole experience that we go through as human beings. And so when he was a baby, he didn't just come out of the womb talking, unless you're reading the Quran. He does come out of the womb talking the first day, but you know, he didn't come out of the womb talking. He's a baby. He didn't just walk, oh man, he walked so early, two months. No, he had to grow. He had to learn. He had to learn how to talk. He had to learn the language. I believe he spoke multiple languages based on where he lived and the evidence we have in the Bible. He had to learn. He had to learn the Bible. His parents taught him things. He was a human being. Okay. Now that doesn't take away from the fact that he's God. It doesn't take away from his deity to understand his humanity as well. Okay. So Jesus did not know everything. He wasn't just automatically just omniscient because he's God. Because he's the son of God. He just knows it wrong. So for Jesus to have a great amount of knowledge at age 12, it's because he had studied and thought and spent his time listening and learning. He's going to the synagogue. He's listening to the Bible being read. He's sitting with, look, he wanted to sit there. He could have been playing ball or something. He wants to sit there with the doctors and he was doing what? Asking questions. And Jesus wasn't asking questions just to mess with them. Because when people come to you and start asking you questions to mess with you, that's irritating. These guys aren't irritated. These guys like him. And they're marveling. Wow. He knows a lot. These are great questions. Why? Because he's trying to learn. He's increasing in wisdom. And he answered them. He's asking such good questions that pretty soon they're getting answers from him because it says that they were even astonished that Jesus answers. Even though Jesus starts out, he's asking the questions. So Jesus is spending his time in intelligent activity here, discussing the Bible, going to intelligent people, asking them questions, giving them answers, talking to them. So if you want to be smart, you've got to learn. You've got to study to show yourself approved unto God. You need to spend time reading. And Jesus knew how to read. And Jesus was a smart 12-year-old, and he obeyed his parents, and he increased in wisdom. And that's what you young people should model your young life after the life of Christ where you want to be in church, you want to listen to the Word of God, you want to ask intelligent questions where people say, wow, that's a good question, not that's a stupid question. People ask some dumb questions. Don't believe me? The Bible says avoid foolish questions. No, Jesus is asking great questions. Hey, you as a young person should want to ask great questions and listen to people that are older and smarter than you and learn and be subject unto your parents. That's what Jesus was like as a young person. And I'm glad that the Bible gives us this little story of him at that age, because we see his birth and we see him at 30. But in this Gospel of Luke, we actually get the 12-year-old Jesus. So this is a fascinating chapter. And so the Bible is pretty clear here. He increased in wisdom. He increased in stature. And he increased in favor with himself, if you're a modalist, right? He just liked himself more and more. Now he increased in favor with God and man. God there referring to whom? The Father. Now when the Bible says God, sometimes it's referring to the Son, sometimes it's referring to the Father, sometimes it's referring to the Holy Ghost, and sometimes it's referring to all three collectively. There's only one God that is composed of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And those three make up one God. And so Jesus increased in favor with God and with man. So Jesus Christ was, of course, being perfect in every way, the ideal young person. He was the ideal 12-year-old, the ideal teenager. He was not a rebellious punk teenager, but he was subject unto his parents. And he was far greater than them. I'm sure that by the time he hit 12, he was smarter than them when they're in their 30s. And you teenagers are like, exactly. But here's the thing. That's because he's the Son of God, though. So he's obviously learning a lot. He's doing everything perfect. He's not goofing around. He's not just wasting a bunch of time on video games and just goofing off. He's not, you know, huffing gasoline and paint fumes and being an idiot. No, what's he doing? He's doing everything right. I'm sure he's eating a nutritious diet. I'm sure he's working hard around the house, working hard with whatever Joseph or Mary need him to do. And I'm sure he spent a lot of time having intelligent conversations about the Bible and learning. So yeah, I believe that although Jesus didn't know everything, because he's still increasing in wisdom and learning, I believe that when he's 12, he's a lot smarter than even those doctors that he was talking to, super smart. And when you have a really smart child, sometimes that child thinks that they don't have to listen to their parents, that they don't have to obey their parents because they already know more or whatever. You know what? Even if you do know more than your parents, because if I tell you that you don't, you won't believe me. But it's true. You don't. Most don't. It's super rare that a teenager would know more than his parents. Super rare. Like, you know, virgin birth rare. No, I'm just kidding. It's pretty rare. But even if you do know more than your parents, what do you do? What your parents tell you. Because the Bible says that Jesus himself was subject unto them. He humbled himself, even though he's the son of God, even though he's the creator of the world, right? He does what? Submits himself to a carpenter and to a woman named Mary. He just submits himself unto them. Why? Because he's the man of the father. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. The next time we see Jesus, it's going to be 30 years old, beginning his earthly ministry about 30 years old. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.