Title: Christmas Disciple: Anna, the Prophetess

During this past Advent four Sundays, we have studied the very first four Christmas songs. The first song sung by Mary is called “the Magnificat” since her soul “magnifies” the Mighty and Merciful God in the birth of Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:46 ) The Priest Zechariah tuned the second song known as “the Benedictus” since it means God’s blessing in Latin. He blessed the Lord because God had redeemed His people through the Horn of Salvation, Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:69 ) The third praise choired by the Angels of the Lord is titled “The Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” On the first Christmas, they raised their voices with joyfulness about the baby Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest heaven…” (Luke 2:14 ). Sometime after the birth of Jesus, Simeon sung the fourth hymn titled “the Nunc Dimittis” which means “…you may now dismiss” (Luke 2:29 ) in Latin. When Mary and Joseph brought in the Baby Jesus to present him to the Lord at the temple, Simeon was convinced that this child was indeed the Messiah. He witnessed the coming of the Messiah and praised the Lord for the consolation of Israel which is the Immanuel baby. Today I want us to explore one more story of praise by the prophet Anna. When Simeon was holding Jesus and presided over the ceremony for the Jesus family, she participated in the blessing of Jesus. She gave thanks to God and also praised the Lord for the redemption of Jerusalem through the Baby Jesus. Today I want us to look at some of the characteristics that Anna has shown and make firm commitments to God in the coming year as she did.

Let me begin with the name of Anna. Her name means “grace.” Anna was a prophetess, a female prophet. In the Old Testament era, prophets were appointed to speak out God’s words and plans to them. Ever since the last prophet named Malachi, no revelation from the Lord had been available to the people of Israel. In the previous 400 years, they had lived in spiritual darkness and death. The author of the Gospel of Matthew described the situation they were in like this: “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16 ). Anna was the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. In those days, this tribe was not considered as a significant branch. Unlike the city of Jerusalem, the town of Penuel and the tribe of Asher was unpopular and insignificant. Anna was also ancient. She “had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four” (Luke 2:37 ). Today many people might considerher as a candidate for a retirement home, and nothing more. At the appropriated time, God chose her to speak about the baby Jesus. We can learn from the description of the female prophet, Anna that God can use anyone for His Kingdom ministry regardless of age, gender, and social status. God can choose anyone to reveal His plans and messages to His people.

Now I want us to think about some of Anna’s characteristics. The Bible does not say much about this. The only verse in our main text for today explains it in the following statement: “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37 ). While preparing this message, I had spent quite some time thinking of this statement; in particular, the phrase “never left the temple.” In the Old Testament, the temple or tabernacle is known as God’s dwelling place. King David made a blueprint of God’s temple, and King Solomon built God’s tabernacle based on that print. Levis, priests, and other religious leaders had kept and taken care of the temple of God. The people of Israel came to the temple to have fellowship with God through those chosen people. During the period of the Old Testament time, those earthly temples of God had been destroyed a couple of times and had been unfortunately corrupted.

In the era of the New Testament, Jesus Christ is considered as God’s temple (John 2:13-22). When Jesus saw “people selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at table exchanging money,” he was so upset and drove all of them from the temple courts. He said to them, “Stop turning my Father’s house, in other words, God’s temple, into a market” And then he challenged them by saying “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” Later, Jesus explained to them that this temple would be his own body and revealed them death and resurrection through this temple subject. Since Jesus had fulfilled all of God’s will during His public ministry, we as the followers of Christ, can meet God and worship Him through Christ.

Jesus also built God’s temple. He said to Peter, “I will build my church” based on the gathering of those who confess that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 ). The meeting places of these believers are called God’s temples or God’s churches. The Apostle Peter describes the followers of Christ as “living stones to build God’s spiritual house in this world” (1 Peter 2:5). Think about this. How blessed we are gathered today in the house of the Lord and worship Him with all our hearts. The Psalmist said, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1) All of us here enjoy in coming to this sanctuary to worship the Lord our God. We listen to His Word and place all our burdens in His hand and ask Him for His guidance and strength. We sing to the Lord with all our minds and strengths. Since we believe that the church is God’s dwelling place we have installed some things in our sanctuary which represent or symbolize His love and grace for us. Sometimes we present or dedicate some things for God’s ministries. Take a look at this sanctuary. I believe that the Lord our God has been pleased with the dedication we as a church have shown to Him and the faithfulness for His Kingdom ministries.

Furthermore, the Apostle Paul describes that we as followers of Christ are God’s temple. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and your together are that temple” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17). According to the Bible, we are “the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16 ) and our bodies are also “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19 ) “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We are all mini temples of God. I will soon explain in detail what I mean by this.

The temple in the Bible has been known as God’s dwelling place, Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, the Church and individual followers of Christ. Keeping this concept of God’s temple in mind, let us continue to think about the statement, “She [Anna] never left the temple”. I don’t know whether Anna had literally never left the temple or not. She might have had a permanent place inside the temple to do her God-given tasks as a prophetess. The Bible did not tell us about this. What the scripture is telling us today is that she never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. The meaning of the word for worship is to put someone or something number one in our lives. In a spiritual matter, when we worship God, we place the Lord our God as the priority in our hearts and want to love Him with all our heart. When we love some people, we want to spend time as much as possible with them to get to know them and do some things well to make them pleased. “Fasting and praying” is one of the expressions of how much we as children of God love Him and rely on Him. Fasting can be done by people who want to have a deeper fellowship with God. Prayer is the expression of our faith in God. We believe in the power of prayer. In our spiritual journey of faith, prayer makes a difference. In our Sunday worship services, we not only pray to God at the Prayers of the people but also pray to the Lord at the sinning of the hymns as well as at the reading of the book of Psalms. The Prophet Anna loved worshipping God at the temple night and day with fasting and prayer.

What would be the reason why Anna did those activities at the temple? Did she do them out of her duties as a prophet? Did she feel obligated to do those devotions to God? I would believe that Anna did all those things out of her joyfulness. When I was young man, I was hesitant to fully follow Jesus Christ as my Lord and Leader in my life. The main reason I had at that time was that I thought that I would not have enjoyed any fun stuff if I committed to God. In a way, it can be right. Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we need to honor God with our bodies, our daily activities. We need to take care of our bodies, not only physically but also spiritually. As we want to decorate God’s temple in a sacred way, we need to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). According to the Apostle Paul, offering our bodies as a living sacrifice means “not conforming to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing your [our] mind” (Romans 12:2). The center of God’s temple in our bodies is our spiritual heart. Since I became a Christian, with the help of the Holy Spirit I have been enjoying the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22 , 23). These by-products the Holy Spirit has given me are much better than the fun things I wanted to have on my own. I give my huge and sincere thanks to God for helping me to make Jesus sit on the throne of my heart and to be governed by the Holy Spirit during my journey of faith.

From time to time, I pause out of my daily routines and want to deal with the similar question that I had when I w