I. We have focussed our advent series on the vision of the prophet Isaiah of the coming of Christ in Isaiah 25.
II. Today -- Isaiah 25:9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
A. Sometimes a vision in the Bible is not of future events, but future emotions and experiences.
B. This is a vision of people’s experience when the promised Messiah appears.
III. The Messianic anticipation
A. The birth of Jesus was not the beginning of the story. In one sense it was the grand finale of a very old story, a story of great need, a story of promises, a story of long waiting.
B. The first promise of the Messiah was given in the garden of Eden (Gen.3:16), when God spoke of a seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent, though the serpent would bruise His heal. And ever since that promise, faithful believers had been waiting for the promise to be fulfilled.
C. Among Bible believers, there was a surge in Messianic expectancy at this point in history. The reason for this was Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in Daniel 2 of a great image with four parts:
1. Head of gold
2. Chest and arms of silver
3. Middle and thighs of bronze
4. Legs of iron, feet of iron and clay
5. And during that last part, we are told that a certain cut Stone, but not cut by any human hand, came along and struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces and they became like the chaff of the threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” – which is a reference to the coming Messiah (Daniel 2:34–35).
D. Well, history had unfolded exactly according to the vision. The Babylonian empire was taken over by the Medo-Persian Empire, which was taken over by the Greek empire.
1. And then, in the 60 years before Christ was born, the 4th empire, Rome, had taken over the world from Greece. The fourth and final part of Nebuchadnezzar’s image was now in power, and the stage was set for the coming of the promised Messiah.
E. For most people, of course, all this meant nothing. But for those who paid attention to such things, and for those who put their hope in the coming Messiah, this meant everything. So there was a significant swell of Messianic expectation in the generation before the birth of Jesus.
1. However, on the other hand, things looked bad for the people of God. They were oppressed by the Roman Empire. They experienced a broad waning of faith after 400 years of prophetic silence.
IV. The community of expectation and their stories of epiphany
A. Though a small minority, there was a community of Jews waiting for their promised redeemer.
B. In the Christmas story, they’re referred to in Luke 2:38b as “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
C. When we get to heaven, we’ll be able to hear their stories of epiphany.
D. We know a little bit of some of the stories: Mary & Joseph, Zacharias & Elizabeth, Simeon & Anna.
1. Zacharias: Celebrating his son second
2. Elizabeth: The mother of my Lord should visit me
3. Shepherds: The life they lived
4. Simeon: Now I’m ready to die
V. But this morning I’d like to think together about the epiphany of Anna.
A. “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38)
B. When Jesus was 40 days old, his parents brought him to the temple in Jerusalem to make the prescribed offering according to the law of Moses. And while they were there at the temple, this old woman named Anna came up and began to give thanks to God and to speak about the baby Jesus to others who were waiting for the promised redeemer.
C. The ESV says she was 84 years old, but grammatically, it is probable that Luke here means that Anna lived for 84 years as a widow, which would probably make her around 105 (if she got married when she was 14). Most of her life was waiting. And at 105, she is still waiting.
D. She grew up in an Israel that was ruled by the Greek empire.
1. In her lifetime she watched Greek-ruled Israel taken over by the Roman empire.
2. She witnessed the fall of the third empire and the rise of the fourth.
E. Anna was symbolic of the old saints of Israel who had been waiting for so long!
1. She was a picture of all the daughters of Zion.
2. It is as if she is Eve, very old by now, who is still clinging to the promise that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent.
3. She is also Sarah, even older now, still waiting for God to fulfill His promise to give a child.
4. But most amazingly, ANNA IS HANNAH. Anna is Greek for the Hebrew name Hannah. Anna is Hannah, still waiting around the temple and still praying for a child, knowing that though God gave Samuel, that what she and all mankind needed was One greater than Samuel.
F. She is Israel as a widow, alone and languishing, wasting away without her Messiah husband.
G. “She began to give thanks to God” We can only imagine the intensity of this thanksgiving. Do you know what it’s like when you wait for something and long for something and spend your life praying for something, and then when you’re 105 years old you finally get it? How about when it’s redemption?
H. Let’s go back to Isaiah 25:9: It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
1. It’s as if these are Anna’s words. Besides Joseph, she’s the only one in the story who has no recorded verbal reaction to the appearance of Christ.
VI. There are many lessons to learn from Anna.
A. She is a lesson in endurance.
1. How many times she must have grown discouraged and felt hopeless!
2. How many times they must have laughed at this old woman!
3. But she kept going, she kept hoping!
B. She is a lesson in perseverance in prayer.
1. “She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”
a. She kept praying, even though her prayers seemed fruitless!
b. How her life looked like a waste! 84 years of praying, and nothing to show for it.
2. When no one else was listening, God was.
C. But greater than either of these is the lesson of how we should appreciate the hugeness of the coming of Christ.
1. Manger scenes: not historical, but everyone is pointing to Jesus. Simeon & Anna should be there.
2. She had lived a long, hard, lonely life of poverty through very difficult times.
3. But seeing Jesus made it all worthwhile! He was worth waiting for! Worth waiting 105 years for!
4. She was one of the blessed which Jesus referred to in Matthew 13:16-17 “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
5. “And at that very hour she began to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:38) — Pretty old to be an evangelist, huh?
6. 105 year olds have experienced a lot of hardship and struggle, and those who have been widows for their whole adult life even more so.
7. She lost her one earthly lover and spent the rest of her life longing for and waiting for and asking for her one heavenly lover. Her loneliness drove her to seek and pray for her ultimate husband.
8. To us, she is a voice of wisdom about what’s really important in life.
VII. Isaiah 25:9 will happen again. This is still to be expected. The experience described in Isaiah 25:9 has already happened to those who have met Christ. But it’s going to happen again in an even more spectacular way! When Christ returns, we’ll say, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him!”
A. In one sense, all believers in Christ are like Anna now, clinging to the promise of Christ’s coming.
B. We have no future in this world. We are weak, we are helpless in ourselves. We are barely hanging on. All we have is His promises, like John 14:3: “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
C. The world may laugh at us. The world may feel sorry for us. But on that day, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” – Hebrews 9:28 (see also 1Thes.4:16–17; 2Thes.1:7–8)
D. And “it will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” – Isaiah 25:9