Yesterday I spoke about Simeon.
Today I want to speak about Anna.
So we'll read from Luke chapter 2 from
verse 36.
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 after her marriage.
And then as a widow to the age
of 84.
And she never left the temple, serving night
and day with fastings and prayers.
And 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.
We'll read thus far.
Anna was someone amazing.
She was quite old by this time.
She was a widow.
She had been married and lived with her
husband for seven years.
And so she lived with her husband after
she had been a virgin.
So she had lived also as a pure
young girl, a virgin.
And she got married as a virgin.
It's amazing in what detail everything is recorded.
Do you realize that even your life is
being recorded?
Do you know that one day when we
stand before the Lord, the books will be
opened, those records will be opened and be
read.
What is being written about your life?
And that's written how you live together with
your parents.
Your life at school is recorded.
And whether you went to church or not,
and even if you went, whether you listened
while you were in the service or not.
And it's also recorded that as you sit
in the service, whether you're just busy watching
that door, the people coming in and going
out, the people who cause distractions, you just
keep yourself busy with them.
That when you go home after the service,
you don't even know what the sermon was
about.
So God is very much at work.
He's busy recording everything you do, even when
you're in the bathroom, when you're bathing, everything
you do is being recorded.
God records everything, even what you do with
your fingers and with your hands.
Every detail is being recorded.
Everything, even after you've left school, when you
go out and do what you do, God's
recording everything.
Because one day He still wants to speak
to you about all these things that you've
been doing.
And He wants to speak to you about
whether you've kept what He's told you or
not.
And so God records everything, even her age
and how she got married after her virginity,
how she had got married pure, having lived
a holy life.
There were no fingerprints of any boy on
her.
God knows all the fingerprints that are on
your life.
He is going to ask you about them.
And
so you
know, you know of people who go around
who are marked all over their bodies, tattoos,
when a person takes his shirt off, you
see all these marks on his body.
So one day God is going to make
you show your arm, your whole body.
And then all those marks and all those
things that have been left on you will
be brought to light.
And not just those fingerprints, those letters, those
love letters which were passed between you and
somebody else.
And all those men you left into your
life and into your house, God is going
to reveal everything about your life.
It's like that young man that got married.
He stood before the altar and said he
would take his bride as his wife, and
they would stay together till death parts them.
And then someone from a girl, and a
girl in the audience got up while he
was busy giving his vows.
She came and stood next to him and
everyone was amazed.
The minister looked, he looked.
And then the man said, the man said,
but what do you want here?
And then she said, but don't you remember
that you promised that you were going to
marry me?
Now you're marrying this other girl.
What about your promise to me?
Call it, call it.
And then
one
girl after the other came forward until there
were a string of them standing there all
saying, but you promised to get married to
me.
And it was a huge embarrassment.
And the bride started crying because, well, brides
and wives often end up crying.
Sometimes they only end up crying because they
can't hit their husbands, but that's the way
that they get them back.
They just start crying.
But there are many tears which are wept.
So these things all came to light.
And so it could be in your life
as well, and will be if you're up
to that, if you live that type of
life.
That's why the Lord said to that woman,
that Samaritan woman, he said to her, you've
had five husbands.
And the sixth one, the one you're living
with now doesn't belong to you.
He belongs to someone else.
So you will also meet up with that
one day where you are going to stand
before God, and all those girls are going
to come and say, but Lord, this is
what he promised me.
Here are his marks on my life.
This is the mark he left on my
life.
That's what you're going to meet up with,
unless you make right with God what you've
done wrong, and you make right with those
people that you have wronged as well.
And then the Lord says, every idle word
that you've spoken, you'll have to give account
for.
You yourself are going to give account.
You're going to be saying to that person,
just come here and then you will give
account what you spoke to that person.
You yourself will be doing it.
We live so lightheartedly.
We go through life and are so superficial
about things.
We're still going to meet up with a
difficult day one day.
If you go through life realizing that that
is what is awaiting you one day, surely
you wouldn't just speak lightly and do things
lightly.
You'd be careful and say, Lord, help me
how I speak and help me even in
what I think, because I could so easily
think the wrong thing about somebody else as
well.
Thinking something and all the time it's not
true.
So Anna got married as a virgin.
I know her father's name, Fanwill.
He must have been an upright man as
well.
Someone who set a good example.
Not just living a loose life, running after
other women.
If I come across a pure young virgin,
then I can only respect that girl's father.
How can a father that lives a loose
life, immoral life, bring up his daughter properly?
And even the sin of the father follows
on to the children.
To the third and fourth generation.
So remember you young men.
You go through life doing the things you're
doing.
You are bringing something upon yourself and upon
your children that aren't even born yet.
So you think you're just doing something on
your own.
Yet God sees it.
And when you get children, they will be
injected with that same thing that you've done.
And their children.
And those children.
To the third and fourth generation God visits
that sin.
So we don't doubt that Faneuil must have
been someone that was upright before the Lord.
He was of the tribe of Asher.
There are ten tribes of Israel that just
disappeared.
Yet And he was of one of those
ten tribes.
Only a few of these tribes went into
exile together with those of Judah and Israel.
And so while they were so to say
preserved there these other tribes just were wiped
off the face of the earth.
Or just Or
they were So they as tribes just disappeared.
They were scattered all over.
And yet we know that this particular man
was of the tribe of Asher.
And So
even though there are such families that just
get scattered all over and nothing remains of
them and yet even among and in this
situation you find that this particular man it's
recorded and known that he was of that
tribe.
You just have to look at people who
forsake the Lord.
Look at their children and you'll see how
their children are just scattered all over.
And the parents are left alone.
They're lonely while their children are scattered all
over the face of the earth.
It's a blessing if you can live together
with your children.
But of Of course if they go out
to other countries because they're furthering and preaching
the gospel well that's a blessing.
That's wonderful.
But if they just go for other reasons
that is a difficult situation.
So Anna also was of the tribe of
Asher.
Now Anna she got married she was a
pure young virgin.
Now of course if you grew up in
the world as a heathen and you lost
your virginity and then you can come to
the Lord in the state that you are
and repent of your sin and confess your
sin and the Lord forgives you and then
He makes everything new.
He creates you anew and you become a
brand new person.
Even if you've been spoiled by your own
father or your own brother, God can make
you into a brand new person.
That is the gospel.
That's the gospel.
But then you
you you you
you you you you you you you you
on on on on everything you've
done.
So if you've lived immorally and you've lived
a rotten life you've come to the Lord,
He forgiveness you and He has made everything
new And then you don't need to go
and tell your husband all the rotten things
that you've done if the Lord has already
forgiven you and what you've done with with
other men because the Lord has made everything
new and Especially if he's a heathen if
you do that and one day something goes
wrong he gets angry with you, then he'll
recall all those things that you've done before
and He'll use it against you and he's
not not like with the Lord when he
forgives he forgets It's all past only of
course, if you go back to that sin,
the Lord will remind you of what he
had forgiven you in the past So the
gospel is wonderful So
the gospel is wonderful It is truly the
good news because the Lord forgives he takes
it away that evil is erased It's taken
away where evil was was recorded.
He erases it and he writes something good
in its place And
then she became a widow and now we
get to her age and she was a
widow to the age of 84 84?
How long did she live with her husband?
7.
7 years.
7 or 84?
91.
It could even be that she was a
widow for 84 years and then plus the
7 years that she was married and then
we don't know how old she was when
she got married.
I can't imagine she was under 12 so
she was way over 100 then.
84 years a widow, 7 years with her
husband, that's 91.
Now you add her years when she got
married.
I don't think that she was under 12.
Maybe I'm wrong.
I would rather think 16, 17, 18.
So she could have been 110 years or
even more.
But if she would have got married with
12 years she would have been 103 years
old.
Now it says of Anna that she lived
and stayed in the temple and served there
day and night.
She was a true widow.
Some widows are true, some are not.
In 1 Timothy chapter 5
verse 5 or
we can start reading from verse 3.
Honor widows who are widows indeed.
But if any widow has children or grandchildren
let them first learn to practice piety in
regard to their own family and to make
some return to their parents for this is
acceptable in the sight of God.
Now she who is a widow indeed and
who has been left alone has fixed her
hope on God and continues in entreaties and
prayers night and day.
Fasting and praying and being there all the
time before the Lord.
But those who have children, those widows who
have children, those children should be caring for
their mother and if they don't the Bible
says they're worse than the heathen.
Now of course of
course nowadays it's the other way around.
All the young people they even have illegitimate
children and they love these old grannies these
widows because the widows care for them and
for their children.
It's the wrong way around.
The Bible says he who doesn't work should
not eat.
You should even tell him Peggy that he
should make such a law in South Africa
that if someone doesn't work he shouldn't eat.
But then there are worse criminals.
They go around and they even pickpocket and
rob the widows of their pension money and
of the money they've got.
Hell is made for them.
That's where they'll be fried.
But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure
is dead even while she lives.
So a widow so and then such a
widow who is just after this pleasure and
driven by lust even the way she dresses
and she behaves she just wants to catch
the attention of other men.
It's said that such widows they are dead
while they're alive.
Prescribe these things as well so that they
may be above reproach.
Do you see now what a true widow
should be like?
I thought this morning we've got quite a
few widows around and we've also got some
unmarried young woman.
And if you widows would be like this
we'd be a blessed congregation.
But if they're not we're the opposite of
blessed.
See opposite.
But Paul also did write and say that
the young widows if they can they should
get married again that they don't get driven
by lust.
That they shouldn't be a burden.
But a true widow so
Anna a true widow all these years living
as a widow but in all those years
staying in the temple serving God praying and
fasting.
No time for men.
She was engaged to another man.
She had a boyfriend up there.
So she was busy there in the temple
with praying and fasting and the Jews they
fasted twice a week.
And she was always in the services.
She attended all of them because she stayed
there in the temple.
There were two services a day in the
morning at nine in the afternoon at three.
It was also for practical purposes.
They didn't have cars.
They didn't have electricity.
So it was easier to have the the
services during the day not at night.
But she was there all the time faithfully
attending these services.
The Bible says we should not neglect the
fellowship.
A person a
backslider a
backslider someone whose love grows cold towards the
Lord you will recognize by the fact that
he doesn't attend services anymore.
He doesn't come to church anymore.
And then you'll have all sorts of excuses.
He worked too hard.
He had a headache.
He wasn't feeling well.
Whatever reason these are all warning signs.
Like with a tsunami when suddenly you see
these signs that something bad is coming.
When Jesus was on earth when they were
sick they went to the service to get
healed.
So she was a prophetess.
Let's read in first Corinthians chapter nine.
I didn't make a note of it so
it could be in 1 Corinthians 14.
Verse 29.
And let two or three prophets speak and
let the others pass judgment.
Test it.
But if a revelation is made to another
who is seated let the first keep silent.
For you can all prophesy one by one
so that all may learn and all may
be exhorted.
And the spirits of prophets are subject to
prophets.
For God is not a God of confusion
but of peace.
So Anna was someone who exhorted other people
who encouraged other people who preached to them.
Sharing God's word with them and counseling them.
Philip had four daughters that prophesied.
They preached the will of God.
But here in Corinthians we have read how
there can be two or three may prophesy
one after the other.
But then he goes on to also say
that he doesn't allow women to speak in
church.
Is that a contradiction?
No there's a difference.
There it's spoken about teaching and here we
read and it speaks about prophesying.
And the Jewish synagogues were not like this
auditorium.
In the synagogues the men sat down so
to say on the ground floor.
You may know some other churches like some
Lutheran churches they have an upper level.
And the woman would sit on the top
upper level.
They didn't sit with the men on the
ground floor.
So the women nowadays are lucky they can
sit together with the men.
In those days they had to sit upstairs.
Now in those situations in the synagogues not
just one person would speak not just one
man spoke many would speak.
I was once invited in Germany to speak
to some Jewish people.
And so before I got there someone warned
me and said look among the Jews it's
totally different because you'll find that while you're
talking you'll suddenly find someone else will get
up and he'll start speaking as well and
maybe he'll contradict you while you are still
talking and many start talking at the same
time it's just chaos.
So he said don't be disturbed by this
fact that's just the way they do it.
You talk someone will agree with you openly
others will contradict you openly but that's just
the way it is and it's quite noisy.
He said I think it's just better that
I warn you before you get there because
while you're there you can be totally confused
by the situation.
And then I remembered that the Germans have
a saying if there's noise around like at
home and the children are noisy then the
older person will come along and say what's
going on here is this a Jewish school
or what is it.
Then I knew where that saying came from.
So this is the situation Paul was referring
to where he said the woman should be
quiet in church or in the synagogues because
while they were sitting upstairs there and the
men were there was a huge commotion downstairs
with the men all talking then the woman
would sort of lean over the railing at
the top and they would still have their
say from the top and create even more
confusion and that's why Paul said the woman
should keep quiet.
Do you understand now?
So he wasn't referring to prophesying.
He wasn't referring to when a woman proclaims
the will of God.
But what he was referring to was these
women.
So he was referring to this situation where
these women would shout from the top there
teaching their husbands what they should be saying
from the top there because there are such
women who take the reins into their own
hands.
And Paul said no he doesn't allow that
a woman lords it over her husband like
that.
So Anna was a prophetess in the temple.
They're proclaiming the will of God, helping people,
counseling them.
She knew them and they knew her and
they came to her for help.
Oh Anna.
So when Mary and Joseph were in the
temple with the child and there was Simeon
and as they were together it didn't take
long and Anna appeared because after all she
was always there in the temple.
She never left the temple it says here.
Serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
And so she appeared at that very moment.
She was at the right place at that
right time and she began giving thanks to
God.
She most probably got there while Simeon had
the child in his arms and while he
was praising God and so she joined in.
Now it's amazing.
She came there and remember at that time
there were many in Israel who were awaiting
the Redeemer, awaiting the coming of the Messiah.
And here
we find this old
woman coming in, hearing this and then seeing
what she saw and recognizing what was happening
and then she started praising God and then
she didn't have any rest after that telling
people about the fact that the Messiah had
come.
And then I thought of all our unmarried
lady co-workers and I thanked the Lord
and I said oh Lord thank you for
so many of these unmarried women who can
be before you all the time serving you
wholeheartedly, undividedly.
It's different when you get married because then
you've got a husband also to care for
and it's amazing.
Many people want to get married but when
they do get married then it's too much
for them.
So if you're unmarried you're blessed in many
ways.
You have so many liberties.
You can serve the Lord wholeheartedly.
When you get married you can serve the
Lord and then you're tired and you think
you need to go to bed and then
the husband comes home and then he expects
you to make tea for him, to have
food ready, to have time for him and
if you don't then he's upset.
So there are many things to consider.
So seek God's will and if it's God's
will for you to go through life as
a widow or an unmarried person, not a
divorcee but a true widow, then you can
devote your life to serving the Lord, to
praying and being before the Lord and what
wouldn't the world be like if we had
more such widows.
And not that you become a gossip when
you're a widow or when you are alone
but and that you become the local newspaper,
then you are dead while you're alive.
So let's take after
Anna, follow her example,
even for us men that we should that
we serve God day and night.
Now I said that there were morning and
afternoon prayers at that time, but she didn't
just pray in the morning and the afternoon,
she prayed and served day and night.
As the Bible says we should pray without
ceasing.
Some people they So
many people get together for prayer meetings and
during that prayer meeting while at last they're
all on fire and they pray and there's
amens and hallelujahs and what not all, but
as soon as they walk out of that
prayer meeting there's none of it left.
Then they live a different life, but our
life should be a continual devotion to the
Lord where we're before him seeking his face,
serving him, praying.
You
young people You
young people should learn from that as well,
not that you're just busy with the opposite
sex, that's all you busy with.
Can you not devote your life to the
Lord as well where you can even share
with other young people, warning them and telling
them about the kingdom of God.
So there are those that are alive spiritually,
but there are also those that are dead
spiritually.
Now from what you've heard, I hope that
you've realized whether you're a rotten egg or
whether you are healthy.
They are the Simeons, they are the Enners.
Where do you belong?
Which group do you belong to?
So there are those that are good, there
are those that are wicked.
Which group are you in?
2005 lies ahead of you.
What kind of person will you be in
this year?
Will you be a blessing in the kingdom
of God or will you be a curse?
Let's pray.
Lord, we have heard about Anna.
It's obvious that right from her youth, she
was someone who was committed to heaven, not
for the world and for hell.
Lord, we pray that in our midst you
will raise up people like Simeon and Anna
among the older people and among the youth.
Lord, we pray that in our midst you
will raise up people like Simeon and Anna
among the older people and among the youth.
That's how they grew in your service too.
Amen.