Fulfilled: The Chosen King: Come, Jesus, Come with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the Medichurch Podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

I want to welcome you to MetaCurch, wherever you're watching from.

We are in this journey through the Gospel of Luke.

We're going verse by verse, passage by passage, really trying to let the text speak to us.

And where we are at this week is very interesting.

If you were here last Sunday, then we saw Mary and Joseph taking Jesus into the temple eight days after he was born, according to the Jewish law, in fulfillment of not just the Jewish law, but the prophetic word of the Old Testament that said that Jesus would come through the line of David, which is Joseph's line.

We learned so much about how God views us and adopts us into his family last week.

This week is interesting because we kind of get this alternate view of the same story from last week.

We're introduced to two new characters, and what they have to teach us, I think, is so instructive.

I think it'll be challenging for us, but encouraging all the same.

And so it's kind of a long passage.

I want to read through it quickly.

We're going to spend some time breaking it down and trying to apply it into our own life.

In Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 25, it says, There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Messiah.

Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple.

When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, Now, master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised.

For my eyes have seen your salvation.

You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory to your people Israel.

His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him, and then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, and a sword will pierce your own soul, and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for four for 84 years.

She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.

At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

We have these two new characters, Simeon and Anna.

And man, there is so much in this text that we're gonna unpack together today.

But before we do that, across our venues online, if you would join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you.

We thank you for your word.

We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would bring clarity to this text, that you would just move, that we would have open hearts and open minds and allow you to speak uniquely to us, to challenge us, that we could model after Simeon and Anna, these great examples to us, that you would guide us today.

God, I thank you for Metachurch.

I thank you for those who are among us in our venues, who are with us online, who are not sure about you yet, God, who aren't convinced by the claims that we make in Christianity.

I pray, Holy Spirit, you would get a hold of their hearts and you would lead them to a relationship with you, Jesus.

And we pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want to give you a little bit of context for what was happening during this time.

We've talked a lot about this throughout this fulfilled series, but when Jesus entered into humanity, he entered into a specific context at a specific time.

He was born a Jewish man, and he was born in the context of Israel.

And at that point, the Roman Empire was expanding massively.

And the Roman Empire had conquered Israel and it was trying to maintain governance over Israel.

And so the people were occupied by a foreign enemy and they had lost a lot of hope.

We've also seen that in between the Old and New Testament, there were 400 years of silence, where the Jewish people had rebelled so much, so frequently, they were not hearing from God, and that there was the promise of a Messiah they'd been waiting for for thousands of years.

And so at this point, in the religious context of Israel, part of what had happened is the people had grown wary of waiting.

And that is something that can happen to us very quickly, whether it is on the micro side, where we are just tired of waiting on God for our finances, we're tired of waiting for a spouse, we're tired of waiting for deliverance from a habit, we're tired of waiting for healing from a disease, we're tired of waiting on our marriage to get better, on our kids to behave.

We get tired of waiting.

They were tired of waiting.

They were waiting for God to deliver them from the Roman Empire.

They were waiting on God to send this Messiah who would bring redemption and salvation and make things right.

They got tired of waiting.

And there's this interesting thing that happens with spiritual people when we get tired of waiting.

We either end up focusing our attention just on the present, on the here and now, or we get focused on the past.

And both of these things were happening in Jesus' day, in this very story when Jesus is eight days old, you have a population of people.

And many of the people still went to synagogue, which was the local house of worship.

They still went to the temple, which is where the sacrifices were made, and it was the center of religious and social life in Israel.

But they used the religious sacraments not to express gratitude and worship to God.

They used the religious system and the religious sacraments to build their own influence and to build their own power.

Now I know nobody would do that today.

Like no one would try to outspiritualize each other to get a leg up in their local church.

I'm being facetious.

Of course, people do that.

Of course, people want to display their righteousness for others to see.

These are the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the scholars that Jesus would grow up to rail against in his ministry.

He would say they are like whitewashed tombs, or they are like dirty dishes that they clean on the outside, but they leave all the gunk on the inside.

They look good to everyone else, but their hearts are not pure.

And this is what happens when we get infatuated with the here and now, and we're just living for today, and we're living for instant gratification, and we fall into sin patterns because we get tired of waiting.

The Jewish people were tired of waiting.

And so instead of looking forward, they would focus on the here and now.

Or instead of waiting on what was to come, they would look back.

And so everyone knew that God had moved previously in Israel's history.

And they loved to tell those stories.

They would tell the stories of Abraham, they would tell the stories of him taking his son Isaac and God providing a ram as the sacrifice.

They would tell the story of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.

They would tell the story of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down.

They would tell the story of David and Goliath.

They loved talking about how God had moved in the past, but at the same time, they had lost faith that God would still move in the future.

And so their worship became self-centered.

Their worship became only centered on the past.

They got tired of waiting, and because they were tired of waiting, it affected their worship.

And that was true for many people in Israel.

But it was not true for Simeon and it was not true for Anna.

Simeon was devout and he was righteous.

Anna was devout and she was righteous.

And what they had in common is that they believed the promises that God had given for the future still held.

They had not lost faith that God might speak, even though he hadn't spoken for 400 years.

See, Simeon, he had a word from God that he would not see death.

He was a very old man, he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah, the one true chosen king.

Anna had a very hard life.

She got married very young, she was married only seven years, and now she has been a widow for decade on decade on decade.

And instead of growing bitter and resentful to God for such a hard life, she instead dedicated herself to the worship of God, and night and day she would be in the temple seeking the Lord and seeking his promises, still believing in the future of those promises, and that they could, in fact, still come to pass.

Day after day, week after week, year after year, Simeon and Anna, two of the oldest members of the community, two of the most upstanding members of the community, two of the most righteous members of the community are in the temple and they are worshiping God.

They're not worshiping God for their own status or influence, just focused on now.

They're not just worshiping what God has done in the past.

They are worshiping with expectation.

They are worshiping with anticipation.

They are worshiping in the waiting.

And one day, Simeon and Anna walk into the temple and it's kind of status quo.

It's just a normal day.

And a young, impoverished couple walks in on the surface.

Doesn't seem like anything is too special about them.

As a matter of fact, they're too poor to sacrifice a lamb.

They have to use the carve out in the Old Testament law to allow them to give the lesser sacrifice.

They are consecrating their eight-day-old baby to the Lord, what would seem like just normal.

This happens multiple times every single day in the temple is not normal.

See, it says that Simeon was being spoken to by the Holy Spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit, that he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And he approaches this young couple.

And I want you to try to imagine this scene.

This very, very, very old man comes up to Mary, and she's holding her newborn baby boy, and he extends his aged arms and he takes up baby Jesus and he pulls him close to his chest.

He looks into the eyes of his creator, and the Holy Spirit speaks to him, and he knows who he's holding.

He knows that the Messiah has come, the chosen king is here, and it is such an astonishing moment for him.

All of his faith, all of his patience, his worship in the waiting, it is all culminated in this moment.

As a matter of fact, he is so blown away that he looks up to the heavens and he tells God, now, master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised.

For my eyes have seen your salvation.

I've seen it.

You told me, God, that I would not see death until I saw the Messiah, the chosen king.

And here he is in Simeon's arms.

He is so overwhelmed, he's ready to go.

He's like accomplished his purpose.

He's seen the promises of God in real time.

After this, he prophesies about who Jesus will be.

The Holy Spirit gives him insight that this isn't just the chosen king he was expecting.

It's actually the Lord, Yahweh, the one true God in human flesh.

He prophesies that Jesus will cause both the fall of many who reject him and the rise of many who embrace him.

He then looks directly at Mary and he lets Mary know that she is going to experience things in the life of Jesus that will crush her.

It will be like a sword piercing into her soul, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Simeon is one of the first people to prophesy about the coming of the crucifixion, what Jesus' actual life purpose is.

Now here's what's interesting: right as Simeon is concluding this prophetic word, there is Anna.

She's also in the temple.

We're getting these multiple angles on the same story.

And Anna sees Simeon bursting out in prophecy.

And Anna, who is in tune with the Lord because her worship is pure and her righteousness is pure, she recognizes what's happening as well and bursts out into a song of praise.

Now, this is very, very unusual.

There are babies being brought in on the eighth day after their birth, all of the time, every day, multiple babies coming into the temple to be consecrated before the Lord, and it's just boilerplate.

They come in, they do the little rites, they make an offering, they do a prayer, they officially name the child, so on and so on.

The next baby in line comes up.

This just happens.

This is normal, but not with baby Jesus.

Jesus is brought in.

It seems normal.

And all of a sudden, prophecy breaks out by one of the elders who is most righteous and most upstanding.

All of a sudden, praise breaks out from Anna, one of the elders who is most righteous and most upstanding.

This is a declaration that something new is breaking out in the world.

It says all of this amazed Mary and Joseph.

It's just more confirmation, more affirmation, just like had come with the shepherds when they were obedient and came and worshipped the king.

And so what do we learn from this?

What do we learn from Simeon?

What do we learn from Anna?

The first thing that really jumps out of the text is that both Simeon and Anna were experts at worship.

They were experts at worship.

The second thing that really jumps out of the text at me is that both Simeon and Anna were experts at waiting.

Experts at worship and experts at waiting.

Now we don't think of it this way.

But waiting and worship are actually interconnected.

We don't think of it this way, but waiting on the Lord, maintaining our hope, our expectation, our anticipation of his future work in our lives, it is an essential part of a lifestyle of worship.

Let me say that again.

Waiting on the Lord is an essential part of worship.

We don't think of it this way because, much like the people in Jesus' time, we feel like we've been waiting for a very long time.

And we experience this on the micro and we experience this on the macro level.

We experience this on the micro level where we are waiting on the Lord in our actual, tangible, pragmatic lives.

We're waiting on deliverance, we're waiting on healing, we're waiting on answers, we're waiting on clarity, we are waiting on the anxiety to go away, we are waiting on the peace to come back, we are waiting on our children to make better decisions, we are waiting on our marriages to heal, we are waiting on the people who are sick or damaged in our life.

We are waiting and waiting and waiting, and we grow wary of waiting.

And we also have this on the macro level.

Because 2,000 years ago, Jesus lived, he died for our sins, he rose again, and 40 days later, he ascended back to heaven with a promise.

And that promise was that he would return.

Well, it's been 2,000 years and we're still waiting.

And there have been generations of Christians who have just known it's like it's gonna be now.

Even the apostles were like, I bet he comes back in our lifetime.

You can read about church fathers 400 years after Christ, convinced Jesus would come back.

In 1000 AD, people were convinced he would come back.

At the turn of this millennia, people were convinced he would come back.

All kinds of misplaced prophecies from people who had no right prophesying that this will be the year, 1988 will be the year, 2002 will be the year, 2010, 2020, and still we are waiting.

And we don't often see, and maybe you've never seen, the parallel that where we are at right now mirrors where Israel was at during the birth of Jesus.

They were waiting.

They were waiting on a Messiah to solve their micro problems, like a Roman Empire who had recently come in and dominated them.

They were waiting on God to answer their macro expectations, that God would speak again after 400 years, and that the Messiah would come after a few thousand years.

They were waiting.

And many of the people who loved God and knew God had begun to lose hope.

We are waiting a couple thousand years now on the return of Christ.

And many Christians are living like they have lost hope.

And what happens when you lose hope?

We already saw it.

You do two things, you begin to focus your energy on the here and now.

You stop looking to the future, you start feeling foolish.

It's like, well, my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents all thought Jesus was coming back, and he didn't, so why would I spend my energy looking forward to his coming?

I'm just gonna focus on the here and now, and so we start being just enmeshed in instant gratification and making this world our home and this world our kingdom.

The other thing that we do is we start looking back at the things that we know that God has already done.

Just to make an observation, there are many in the church today where it seems all of their worship is focused on what Jesus has already done 2,000 years ago.

And so we think about the cross and the grave and the miracles and the teachings.

We sing about the cross and the grave and the miracles and the teaching, we preach about the cross and the grave and the miracles and the teaching, and we should.

As a matter of fact, our hope is established in those things.

If Jesus did not raise from the grave, the apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, then our faith is in vain.

Our hope is established in those things.

But it is worth noting that the same Jesus who walked out of a grave 2,000 years ago is reigning in heaven as king right now.

How often do we think about Jesus right now?

How often do we live with what at Metachurch we call a pilgrim's perspective, which is the awareness that this world actually isn't our home?

Our home is temporarily in heaven where Jesus is reigning as king.

And then our final home is back on a new heavens and new earth, where Jesus has established his kingdom here and now, where finally the prayer that we have prayed has come to pass, that Jesus taught us to pray, that his will would be done on the earth as it is in heaven, that will finally and fully be established in the macro sense because Jesus has promised to return and establish his kingdom.

Do we think about Jesus here and now, or is Jesus always on a cross?

Is Jesus always walking out of a tomb?

Do we think about King Jesus and what he wants from us today?

More than that, do we think about the return of Jesus?

Do we long for it?

Do we anticipate it?

Are we expectant that he actually is coming back?

That it could happen in our lifetime.

It might not, and that's okay, but it could.

And do we long for it?

I want to go to a couple places in scripture in Hebrews chapter 9.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

It says, And just as it is appointed for people to die once and after this judgment, so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many men, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Waiting on the Lord is an essential part of worship.

Reflecting on what Christ has done in the past is an essential part of worship.

Reflecting on who Jesus is right now, our King of kings, the chosen king, is an essential part of worship.

What does he require of me today?

Not what does the world require of me?

What are the metrics of the world for success?

What does Jesus require of me?

What is Jesus' values for success in this life?

And waiting in anticipation of the Lord, it's an essential part of worship that I think we have lost in the church today.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, he talks about how the whole world is suffering and it is groaning, and he uses the analogy of labor pains.

It is like we are waiting in anticipation, just like a pregnant woman is waiting and the pain is worth it because she knows on the other side of that this miracle of a child is coming.

It's an analogy that Paul uses in Romans chapter 8, and he gets that analogy from Jesus himself.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Here's what Jesus said to his disciples in John 16.

It says, Jesus knew they wanted to ask him.

And so he said to them, Are you asking one another about what I said?

In a little while you will not see me, and again, in a little while you will see me.

Truly I tell you, Jesus said, You will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice.

You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.

When a woman is in labor, She has pain because her time has come, but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.

So you also have sorrow now, but I will see you again.

I will see you again.

And your hearts will rejoice, and no one can take that joy away from you.

Waiting on the Lord, anticipating his coming, living with a pilgrim's perspective that Jesus is not just some character in history back then who did miracles back then.

Yes, what he did on the cross and walking out of his grave, it establishes our faith.

But focusing on him right now as king of heaven, the king of kings, it pushes forward our faith and enacts our faith in the real world in real time and living in anticipation of his coming, that is the fulfillment of our faith.

And it is required of us to actually live a life of worship to do all of them.

Sometimes we feel like, why do I still struggle so much?

Why don't I have peace?

Why am I not experiencing joy?

Why do I have so much doubt?

Why am I discouraged?

It's like, man, I think about Jesus all the time.

And part of what I think is happening in the church today is we think of Jesus from 2,000 years ago.

And we know that our faith and our hope has been established on a cross and out of a grave.

But our worship is incomplete if we are not also living in anticipation of Jesus' return.

To be really transparent with you, when I first really came back to Christ, I fell in love with Jesus.

I wanted to give my life to building his kingdom.

I was amazed by the grace he had given to me, the opportunity, the fresh start.

And yet I struggled with this.

I was young in my 20s.

I would think, man, I love Jesus, but I am not ready for him to come back.

I have a lot of life left to live.

I have a lot left I want to accomplish.

I have a lot I want to see.

I'm happy.

Like I'm good right now.

I'm not ready for it to be over.

So I obviously I want Jesus to come back, but I hope he will wait for a little while.

Let me stretch my legs a little bit here on earth.

And I would wrestle with that because I thought, man, I should be anticipating.

I should want him to return.

It's so interesting what has happened as my relationship with Jesus has developed, as I have gotten to know him more over the years, gotten to know him in his word, gotten to know him in the quiet.

And I'll be honest with you, I have gotten to know Jesus at the deepest level in my suffering.

And as I have suffered, I have come closer to Christ.

And as I have gotten into his word more, I've gotten closer to Christ.

And what I've realized is it wasn't that my life was just so great in my 20s, and that's why I was hesitant about his second coming.

Because right now, my life is better than it has ever been.

I am more fulfilled.

I am in an unbelievably happy marriage.

I have amazing relationships with my kids, who I am so proud of.

I have my dream job that I am totally fulfilled by.

I have more resources in my life than I've had before.

It isn't that life was just so good and so I wanted life to continue.

My life is as good as it has ever been.

And right now, I am more eager for the return of Christ than I have ever been.

And I think this is part of what happened to Simeon, part of what happened to Anna.

Anna met God deeply in her suffering.

And in her suffering, she held on to the promises of God.

And she experienced the grace of God.

And every day she went to the temple believing in those promises, believing a Messiah was coming.

Yes, that Messiah had been prophesied for thousands of years at that point.

She had not lost hope.

Yes, Jesus' return has been imminent for 2,000 years at this point, but we cannot lose hope.

I want to challenge you to rethink worship.

That is the lesson that we get from Simeon and Anna.

Rethink worship.

If you are only worshiping what has been, then you need to start worshiping what is and what is to come.

Waiting on the Lord is an essential part of worship.

I've been really moved by a worship song in this last season of time.

It's sung by Cece Wynans.

Here's some of the lyrics.

She says, Come, Jesus, come.

We've been waiting so long for the day you return to heal every hurt and right every wrong.

We need you right now to come and turn this around.

Deep down I know this world isn't home.

So come, Jesus, come.

As we close our service, I want to invite you across our venues online to just enter into a time of prayer and reflection, to bow your head, to close your eyes, create a little bit of space, to do some business with Jesus.

For those of you who are believers, I wonder what worship has meant to you.

Maybe today the Holy Spirit is convicting you, like I have been convicted throughout my own life, that my worship of Jesus is always focused on the Jesus who walked the earth a couple thousand years ago.

I wonder if right now you are realizing Jesus is king today.

He sits on the throne of heaven, awaiting his return when he will establish his kingdom on this earth.

And if you're a believer, you will be a part of that kingdom.

As a matter of fact, we live with a pilgrim's perspective that says that is the realest reality.

Our home is not this world, and it is certainly not the kingdoms of this world.

If we lose hope, we will just live for today.

True worship involves waiting with anticipation and expectation of what Jesus will do.

Now, if you are not a believer in Jesus, then you are living with this world as your home, and this world cannot offer you the hope that your soul longs for.

And what I want to do is give you an opportunity to come into an eternal relationship with your Heavenly Father.

And what scripture says is all that requires is faith in Jesus.

So it is not a religious exercise, it's an invitation to relationship with Jesus, becoming convinced and convicted that Jesus is who he says he is, and he has done what he says that he has done.

And so if that's you, my guess is the Holy Spirit has really gripped your heart in this moment.

He is calling you to repentance, to change your mind.

And so I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now, where you are sitting, with everyone's eyes closed, if you are ready to put your faith in Jesus, as a symbolic gesture, I want to ask you just to raise your hand.

By raising your hand, you're saying, today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

For those who are raising your hand, Jesus sees your faith and accept it.

And what I want to do is help you acknowledge this moment through a very simple prayer.

So I'm going to ask you to repeat this with me.

And so no one feels called out.

I'm going to ask all the believers across our venues to pray this out loud as well.

Let's pray like this: Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God that you died for my sins and that you rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Now let me quickly pray over you, and then we are going to worship together.

Jesus, we love you.

We thank you for what you're doing.

We thank you for what you have done, and we look forward in anticipation to what you are going to do.

I pray we would keep our eyes on you and our true home in your eternal kingdom.

We love you.

We pray these things in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.