It is such an honor for me to be bringing this message tonight. Again I am humbled by the marvelous sovereignty of God in allowing me to investigate and share my findings about Anna and to do so now, in March, 2021. Anna exhibits traits I have been attempting to develop in my heart and expression for decades now and March is a thirty-one day long test for me to truly practice, fail, practice again the execution of those traits.
Let’s dive in!
For context, in the preceding verses of Luke 2, we see Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus have traveled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in obedience to the law regrading the birth of a child to make sacrifice in the temple. Simeon, an elderly, godly man, previously promised by God that he would see the Lord’s Christ before his death, and prompted at this time to go to the temple, sees the young family and immediately knows this is the event he has been waiting for. He takes the baby in his arms and praises God for this meeting, pronouncing the fearsome truth that because of His ministry unique heartache awaits the family.
Anna is aware of the excitement and joins in.
Luke 2: 36-38 nasb And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Let’s unpack a bit of Anna’s details before moving into the larger character issues.
“Prophetess” jumps out at us right at the first. Prophet means “to proclaim a divine message,” the suffix -ess indicates a woman. We know there is no, “Thus saith the Lord through His prophetess, Anna,” in scripture, as there is of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jonah, and company. Anna’s proclaiming, I believe we can safely suggest, was in consistently praising God, not only in words, but also in her life of devotion to Him. I can picture her as the woman bringing praise to the Lord into every conversation, seeing His divine hand of blessing in every situation, reminding all of the promise of future release from the life of bondage they now experience and full redemption for Israel.
Anna is an old woman at this time… an extremely old woman! The average life span of the first century was 35 years, and here she is noted to be 84 years old! Likely married as a teen, widowed after only 7 years of marriage in her mid-20’s, Anna has spent the ensuing 60 years of her life serving God in the temple with fastings and prayers, and as evidenced by the blessing of her very long life, undoubtedly known and loved by many of the temple community.
Notice the last phrase of verse 38: and (she) continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Anna was fully aware of Jesus’ mission on earth. As she spoke of Him, this most unique and longed-for infant, day in and day out, with all who also were looking for the promised Messiah, she forged the new trail of Christian missionary work. It’s highly doubtful she lived to see Jesus’ ministry and then atoning work of the cross and resurrection, but likely many with whom she spoke did. Imagine that seed she planted in their hearts taking root and bearing the fruit of repentance and belief as the ministry of Christ unfolded!
Anna exemplifies so many wonderful traits, three in particular I want to point out and have noted in the title, From Anna with Love, Hope, Holiness, and Honor. Now let’s see how she demonstrates Peter’s exhortation to us in 1 Peter 1:13-17 to live out these true marks of Christian devotion.
1 Peter 1:13-17. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
First, what is hope? John MacArthur gives us a solid, biblical definition. “Hope in its essence is the same substance as faith. It is believing God… faith is believing God in the present and hope is believing God for the future.”
What does it mean to fix your hope completely on grace?
This “fixing” is not akin to a sticky note or thumb-tacked card on a wall. Picture instead hammering deep into the ground large metal pegs and the subsequent secure tent, fully resistant to all that may attempt to upend it. And there’s “grace,” the totally unmerited, undeserved, overwhelming favor of God, into which we drive our hope. Peter tells us grace should be our focus because it is the solid ground into which we can secure our hope. Anna had faith in God, aware of His boundless grace, resulting in a strong hope He would care and provide for her, that the promised Messiah would come. She knew it was His grace that made all possible.
What does it mean to be holy?
Hope produces holiness. God clearly commands it of us, and therefore we know it is within our ability to obey. In 1 John 3:3 we read, Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. To be aligned with Christ, indeed in Christ, with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we have holiness in us and the continual instruction to pursue more holiness in our hearts and minds, as well as in our words and actions. Peter has identified believers as “obedient children,” or as could be better put, “children of obedience.” Pre-salvation we were the children of darkness, of disobedience. He further instructs do not be conformed to the former lusts, and Paul adds in his letter to the Ephesians, Be imitators of God (Eph 5:1). To make a true, clean break with the wickedness of our former ignorance is a step toward holiness and being the imitator of God we are called to be.
What does it mean to honor God? Does conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth mean to live a life of trembling terror, cowering in corners all our days? Of course not! Instead we should be known to have a deep, immovable awe of God, a respect and reverence that affects every moment of our stay on earth. John MacArthur beautifully states, “The more the Christian knows God intimately the more he fears God. The more he fears God, the more he fears to offend God and long to honor God.”
Why should we do this? As evidenced by Anna, and also notably by Abraham (see Romans 4:13-25), it brings glory to God when we affirm our hope in Him. It shows to all who are watching we attest the true and unwavering worthiness of God and His Word.
How do we accomplish this? Peter has told us to prepare our minds for action, keep sober in spirit. Preparing our minds for action will require binding together our thoughts, tossing the inconsequential, filling our minds with His Word and being ready to employ that life-giving teaching to every situation. One who is sober in spirit is focused on a goal. Silly distractions, foolish or prideful ambitions are given no quarter. Paul urges believers in Romans 12:2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and in Colossians 3:2, set your minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
In my introduction I noted that March is a thirty-one day long test. By that I mean this particular month is full of anniversaries of events and reminders of people near to my heart that provide opportunities to practice, and I mean really practice, as in hammering and hammering my hope into the ground of grace till my back is breaking and my hands are bloody, then given glorious rest as all striving is left at His feet.
Saturday is March 20, our wedding anniversary. This one marks 44 years together for Richard and myself. Because of his work we are not celebrating together, but are separated by some 2000 plus miles. Thoughts of deprivation or doubt or any of a thousand other possibilities are driven out as we maintain our focus on honoring God through this. To be honest, I don’t need the wedding anniversary to be reminded how profoundly I miss my husband, but it is an excellent point on the calendar to declare anew our trust in God and hammer our hope a bit further into His wonderful grace.
I could go from here and write volumes regarding the breadth and depth of heartache and anxiety detailing the crushing effects of sin on our family. Starting with ourselves, adding in two sons and six daughters, all adults now, five of them married, three with children, each with hearts, minds, bodies broken by sin as with every human walking the earth, I believe it is accurate to say we have been touched by every possible sort of weakness and challenge.
But I’m not going to do that. Regardless of my set of details and whether they correspond to yours is totally irrelevant. What is relevant is the unchanging, infallible, omnipotent, and all-knowing God Who is at the helm, using all the details of our circumstances to bring about His will on the earth and in hearts, conforming us who have entrusted our souls to Him into the image of His Son, Jesus. Those volumes would have at their conclusion the truth of what Anna has taught us and what I in my pride and often refusal to accept have been struggling to learn and now humbly embrace.
No doubt Anna struggled throughout her life with many questions, yet she settled in and fixed her hope in the grace of God. What we learn of her from God’s Word, among other things, is the blessedness of obedience and hope. There is much in our hearts, even as we have surrendered them to Christ, that entices us to evil, and it’s in our sanctification that God reveals our sin, purges it, and little by little is conforming us to the image of His Son. Anna understood she is not the master of her life, but that God in His marvelous grace purposed to use and grow her in the here and now of her situation, as He is doing with me and you in our here and now, and our best option is to trust Him fully and to hope with the same fervency in His plan for the future, wherever and whatever it may bring.
My sincerest hope in this is that you will be encouraged to deepen your own hope in God regarding your challenges. He is worthy.
moonbeamsandsalt 