#15 Lu. 2:36-38; THE PROPHETESS ANNA, A WITNESS FOR JESUS
Introduction:
In our studies in Luke we have already seen some who
witnessed for Jesus. They gave testimony that He is the
Christ, the Savior of men. In our message today we are going
to take another look at those
witnesses. However, the chief
witness for Christ that we will give
attention to today is
Anna, the prophetess. She is the witness
spoken of in our
text.
I.
The prophet Simeon, a witness for Jesus
As you will recall, Simeon was present in the temple of
God at
temple to present Jesus to God the
Father. As a prophet of
God, Simeon spoke by inspiration of God
and identified Jesus
as being the Christ, the Savior. Simeon expressed that he
was now ready for God to take him on since
he had lived to
see the Christ. However, it is not to be supposed that
Simeon did die immediately. It is to be supposed that he did
live for at least a few weeks or perhaps a
few months longer.
One thing we can be sure of: Just as long as he lived and
was able to do so Simeon told other people
about his grand
experience. He told them about the day that Joseph and
Mary
came into the temple carrying a little
baby boy and God
revealed to him that this is the
Christ. The Christ that the
prophets of old had spoken about and
written about has now
been born and is alive today. Simeon could say, "I have seen
him with my own eyes."
It is also to be presumed that the time in which Simeon
had to witness of the birth of Jesus was
but a brief period
of time.
It covered a few months at the most after he saw
the Christ. It almost surely did not cover a few years.
However, even though Simeon was highly respected as a
prophet of God and even though what he
said was the absolute
truth, yet his testimony standing alone
was not sufficient to
make a credible witness to the people of
the land. There was
an Old Testament law which prescribed that
in the mouth of
two or three witness a thing may be
established.
II.
The shepherds, witnesses for Jesus
There was, of course, the testimony of the shepherds to
whom the angel of the Lord appeared and
announced the birth
of the Savior. They then went to
Him.
They, too, were saying, "The Christ has already been
born.
He is already alive upon the earth and in our land.
His name is Jesus."
But even thought the shepherds were telling the story of
the birth of the Christ, it is not likely
that they were
telling it at
one at
would not hear sufficient witness.
III.
Anna, a witness for Jesus
So God arranged for a second witness.
And this second
witness was a very credible witness. This witness was a
prophetess by the name of Anna. That is, it was Anna in New
Testament terminology. Her name would be called "Hannah"
in
the Old Testament terminology.
V. 36, "And there was one
Anna, a prophetess, the
daughter of Phanuel,
of the tribe of Aser..." Luke tells us
that Anna was a prophetess. That is, she was a woman
prophet.
She was one to whom God revealed certain things by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Anna was one of the very few
prophetesses ever to exist in the history
of
to the mention of Anna, there were only
seven such
prophetesses listed in Scripture. There may have been a few
others, but if so, their names were not
recorded in
Scripture.
The point is that when this woman would speak out and
say that the Christ had already been born
and was alive at
that time, she spoke not just her own
opinion. She spoke
with authority from God. She spoke as a prophetess of God.
She spoke by divine inspiration of God.
(V. 36), "...she was of a great age..." At the time that
Anna saw Jesus in the temple, she was
already well up in
years.
During those many years of her life she had gained a
favorable reputation among the people. She was a highly
respected elderly prophetess of God. Many people would very
readily accept her word.
(V. 36), "...and had lived with an husband seven years
from her virginity." In her earlier years Anna had been
married.
Luke informs us that she had only seven short years
with her husband before he died. Our next verse tells us
that she was left a widow at that young
age. It is during
those youthful years of widowhood that her
character was most
severely tested. Some women under similar circumstances
gained a bad reputation. But in spite of the hardships and
in spite of temptations, Anna remained a
godly woman,
faithful to God. Her reputation was that of the highest
character.
She was the kind of woman we could admire and
respect.
She was the kind of godly woman that any woman
would do well to pattern after.
V. 37, "And she was a widow of about fourscore and four
years..." The wording may be a little bit confusing to
us
right at this point. At first it sounds as if Luke is saying
that it had been fourscore and four years
(eighty-four years)
since her husband had died. She had been a
widow that long.
That would make her one-hundred and eleven
years old at this
time.
However, most Bible interpreters believe that what is
meant here is that her total age was that
of eighty-four
years.
She was a widow and she was eighty-four years old.
She was an eighty-four year old widow.
Again the stress that Luke is placing on the verse is
that she was highly respected by the
people. An eighty-four
year old woman who had been true to her
husband during his
life-time, was left as a widow during her
youth and yet had
remained true to God with such high and
noble character
during all the years of her widowhood would
certainly be
respected.
Add to this the fact that she was a prophetess
and you can see that she was greatly
respected and admired.
She was the kind of person that people
would be inclined to
believe.
(V. 37), "...which departed not from the temple, but
served God with fastings
and prayers night and day." This
was a woman of great devotion to God. She lived her religion
every day.
She served God every day. She was
frequent in
her fastings. Yet she was not like the Pharisees were with
their fastings. When the Pharisees would fast they would put
on sackcloth and put ashes upon their
heads and paint their
faces and make themselves look as if they
had been fasting
for a week when they had done so such
thing. The Pharisees
fasted for the show of it and for the
praises of men. When
Anna fasted she did it to seek to draw
closer to God in
prayer.
V. 38, "And she coming in that instant gave thanks
likewise unto the Lord..." When we connect this to the
previous verses what we have is that just
at the time when
Simeon was pronouncing his prophecies
proclaiming Jesus as
the Christ, Anna came into the area where
Simeon and Joseph
and Mary and Jesus were located. She came in just at the
right time to hear him say that Jesus is the
Christ.
There is no doubt that Anna knew who Simeon was and that
she respected him and would have been
favorably inclined to
believe whatever he would say and accept
it as the truth.
But Anna did not have to take Simeon's
word just because she
had confidence in him. She was a prophetess of God and she
had the had the Holy Spirit of God bearing
witness with her
own spirit that Simeon was telling the
truth. So she
believed him. Many years prior to this she had heard the
message of the coming Christ and she had
placed her faith and
trust in Him. But now, like Simeon, she had seen Him with
her own eyes. She saw Him and she believed without any
shadow of doubt that this little baby
which Joseph and Mary
had with them was indeed the Christ.
(V. 38), "...and spake of him to all them that looked
for redemption in Jerusalem." You will note here that Luke
does not tell us whether or not Anna said
anything about
Jesus right at the time. She may have spoken up and followed
the speech of Simeon with a speech of her
own. Luke does not
say one way or the other. Nor does he tell us of any
specific thing that Anna said of Jesus
when she did speak up.
It is to be presumed that whatever she
said is was in keeping
with what Simeon had already said about
Him.
But the point that Luke makes is that from this point
forward Anna spends her time day after day
telling people
about the time that she heard Simeon
proclaim that the baby
Jesus is the Christ. She had a special audience with those
who had already themselves beenlooking for the coming of the
Christ.
Those who were looking for Him had been expecting
Jesus to come at just any time were ready
to hear her
message.
So Jesus does not have to wait until the preaching of
John the Baptist some thirty years later
to announce to the
people of Israel that the Christ had
come. He was already
born.
He was already on the scene. The
shepherds proclaimed
that message wherever they had opportunity
and to whomever
they could. Simeon did not live very long after he saw the
Lord, but as long as he lived and as long
as he could, he
proudly proclaimed the message to whoever
would listen to
him.
Anna gladly and enthusiastically proclaimed the
message.
She would hear people talk about the coming of the
Christ and she would not hesitate to tell
them. "The Christ
has already come," she would
say. "He has already been born.
I saw Him personally with my own
eyes. The prophet Simeon
saw Him, too. Simeon would tell you himself if he were
still
around.
But you can be sure that the Christ is already here.
He is alive. He is already on the scene. You can expect
that within a few years you will all hear
of Him and most of
you will have the opportunity to see Him
and hear Him. He
has already come, I tell you. He is already here."
I have no way of knowing just how many people the
shepherds and Simeon and Anna won to the
Lord and to
salvation, but I am convinced that there
were many. Most of
these people would still be around when
John the Baptist
would begin his ministry and announce the
ministry of Jesus
to the nation of Israel. These people would remember Anna
and Simeon and the shepherds. They would remember and they
would thank God for the one who told them
about Jesus.
IV.
The saved as witnesses for Jesus today
But today the shepherds are not around any more. Simeon
is not around any more. The prophetess Anna is not around
anymore.
Even the temple in which Simeon and Anna worshiped
is not around any more. But I will tell you who is around.
We who are saved by the grace of God
through faith in Jesus
Christ are still around. And a world of people who are lost
in sin are still around.
Since we are saved and a lot of people around us are
still unsaved, it fall our responsibility
to tell them about
Jesus Christ. The shepherds cannot tell them. Simeon cannot
tell them.
Anna cannot tell them. It falls
our
responsibility and our privilege to tell
them about Jesus
Christ.
Let me say to you that it is a privilege. I do not
think anybody had to persuade the
shepherds or Simeon or Anna
that they should witness about Jesus. I think that they were
just as anxious as could be to talk about
it and to tell
about Jesus who is the Savior of the
world. I think they
gladly added, "He is my Savior,
too. I have trusted in Him
and He has saved my soul." I think they considered it a
privilege to be able to tell people about
Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you what I think. I
think that it is just
as much a privilege today to tell somebody
else about Jesus
as it was back in the days of Simeon and
Anna. I think that
it is a special privilege to be able to
talk to somebody who
is unsaved and to tell him what Jesus did
for you and to tell
him how he can be saved, too. I know for a fact that when
one of those people turn to God and trust
in Jesus Christ and
get saved, that is a time of great
rejoicing on our part.
Now I think that there is a strong possibility that
somebody is thinking, "Bro. Davis, I
would if I could. I
would talk to others about Jesus if I
could." But let me say
to you, "You have got that
backwards." It is not that you
would if you could. It is that you could if you would. I do
not say that to me mean. I am very sympathetic to those of
you who are so timid that it almost makes
your knees tremble
to even think about witnessing to somebody
else about Jesus.
I know how you feel because I have been
there. But I still
say to you that it is a privilege to talk
to men, women, boys
and girls about Jesus Christ.
Now not many of you are going to ever be able to get up
in front of a crowd of people and talk to
them about the
Lord.
But I think that you can do it one-to-one. You can
talk to at least somebody else even if you
have to do it in
private.
To tell you the truth, that is one of the best ways
to talk to somebody that you are praying
for is to talk to
that person in private.
And here is what you can say. You
can start out by
telling him about the time that the Bible
teaches that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God and is the Savior
of the world. You
can tell him about the time when you
called on Jesus and
asked Jesus to save your soul. You can tell him that Jesus
loves him and wants to save him. You can quote or read to
him at least one verse of Scripture. You can quote John 3:16
if nothing else. Then you can tell him that you are praying
for him that he, too, will be saved.
Now I am not going to ask you for a show of hands on
this, but I am going to ask you a
question. That is, I am
going to direct this question to those of
you who are saved.
Have you ever tried to talk to an unsaved
person about his
soul?
If you have, that's good. Whether
you were successful
in winning them to Christ or not, it is
good that you tried.
But whether you have done it or not, let me ask you this
question:
Are you willing to talk to God and say to God,
"Dear God. Please help me to talk to someone this next
week
about their soul." If so, will your pray that prayer with me
right now.
"Oh, dear God, please---please, Lord. Lord help
me to talk to one of my friends or one of
my acquaintances
this next week about his need of Jesus
Christ as Savior."
Conclusion:
Now I am not going to wait until some other time. I am
quite confident that there is somebody
right here under the
sound of my voice that has not been
saved. If you were to
die right now you would go right straight
to the torments of
hell and you would never escape. I am going to tell you that
I was in exactly the same shape
myself. I was on the road
ato hell myself. But somebody told me about Jesus Christ and
I turned to Jesus Christ and I trusted Him
as my Savior and I
thank God that Jesus saved my soul. Will you turn to Jesus
right now and be saved. There are some of you who have known
for quite some time that you need to be
saved, but you have
kept putting it off. You are still lost and hell-bound. If
you just keep that up you will go to hell
for sure. I am
asking you to quit putting it off and to
call on Jesus right
now and ask Jesus to save your soul. We are going to bow our
heads right now and I want you to pray and
talk to God about
your need.
Want you do it right now?