A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

(Introduction of Worship Pastor Jason Lanier by Pastor Bobby Conway)

Good morning, Life Fellowship. It is good to see you. This is an exciting day for us as a church because we have a special treat in store. I have been in ministry almost 25 years and have met many pastors, many worship leaders and many Christian leaders and have had the privilege of interacting with lots of different individuals. And I have to say that Jason Lanier is one of the finest, kindest and most humble men of God that I have ever met in my life. I mean that. (Applause.)

For a long time now I have watched Jason lead us in worship, and he is this person who truly has a million dollar gift. He could have been singing on stages to hundreds of thousands of people. In fact in college it was said that he was foolish because he wanted to serve Christ and that he would be throwing his gifts away at the church. I am so thankful that he has used his gifts to help build the local church.

This is a guy who has been a worship pastor at churches much larger than this and he would leave a role whereby it would require a massive pay cut for him to come to Life Fellowship when we hired him. But he would come here because he believed in the vision. He would come into a setting where we met in a basketball gym with set up and tear down each week.

Since he has come on this team he has built a beautiful production team for us, but most importantly it is who he is and how he leads out of a humble heart. Having watched him speak in between his songs I have often wondered if Jason has the gift of teaching tucked away and he has never used it. And I began to pester him about teaching and he got scared to death at the thought of it. ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ But he finally acquiesced in the midst of this series as I asked him to teach on Simeon’s Song by Rembrandt.

Jason has never preached in his entire life until this morning. But I have to tell you that you are in for a blessing. Would you welcome not only my teammate but my dear friend, your worship pastor, Jason Lanier. (Applause.)

Yes, I have notes. This reminds me very much of twenty-five years ago when I led worship for the first time in a small church in Boone, North Carolina. I was dry heaving in the bathroom then, and I was dry heaving again this morning. I stood out on the stage my very first time as a worship leader and doubled the tempo to celebrate Jesus with anything we could sing fast, fast, fast so I could get off the stage.

Page 1 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

Pastor Bobby is very kind to have given me this opportunity, and you are kind with your encouragement as well. Regarding the series ‘Rembrandt’s Brush,’ it is the primary reason that Pastor Bobby felt like I should teach today, because it is the series that I am so thankful we are willing to go through as a church where we explore the relationship between truth and beauty, theology and doxology. Theology being the study of God, and doxology being the formulas through which we approach Him in worship.

I am thankful for a pastor and a church that engages in such study and learning, because I believe with all of my heart, through the twenty five years that I have served Christ in His church, that we owe a debt of love and thanks to the faithful men and women that we refer to as artists and craftsmen. They made themselves available to the Spirit of God, and they create things from and for His story, from Christ’s story, that encourages the church, informs the church, and provides the church with a timeless living narrative about our living God. As we look back from antiquity to today we see Christian artists producing inspired works to share the testimony of Christ in their lives.

We enjoy when we look back to writings, we sing their songs, we enjoy their architecture, and we enjoy the moments that artists help to create for us, because through those moments and through their works, we feel connected to the global body and to our global God. They effectively bring the perpetuating story of Christ to all of our five senses, which in and of itself is a beautiful gift, to be able to see, to taste, to smell, to touch and to hear. And often by their leaving behind tangible declarations of Christian testimony through their works, we and those after us can experience beautiful evidence of God’s truth, and His ongoing, never ceasing living gospel.

It is with the utmost conviction that I believe the gift of creativity and design comes from the creator, God, and I think we would all agree with that. His majesty is beyond our comprehension, and His eternal glory is beyond the grasp of our mind’s effort to describe or to illustrate. But I pray that the church always finds within itself a group of artists who will continue to strive to bring expression, abstractions, concreteness for our hearts, our spirits and our minds as they work through His story.

I want to take you for a moment to Exodus Chapter 35 and verses 30 through 35, but before I do that I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for you to encourage Life Fellowship’s worship and production team for their tireless and faithful efforts to serve you in using their talents and their skills to tell the story of Jesus, to share with you the story of Jesus. They have been here all morning, they are here every Sunday morning

Page 2 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES singing, playing and creating for us from their own testimony. Would you show them some appreciation. (Applause.)

I know they work hard. And in the twenty five years that I have served the church, it is this church that has the largest number of those who just serve sacrificially. Yes, we pay a few, and I am one of those that is guilty of accepting compensation. But most of them are serving free, serving as volunteers, and I am thankful for them.

Now let’s look at Exodus Chapter 35 and verses 30 through 35. This is where I kind of get my philosophy for creativity and artistic design. We find that Moses is talking to the people about the design of the tabernacle. They are about to build the tabernacle. And we find in this one passage of Scripture that God pulls out one particular individual and surrounds him with several other individuals. He is putting together a team of artists, a team of highly skilled creative artisans and craftsmen. And as we read through that passage God says that He pulled them out and then He poured into them all knowledge, intelligence, skill and craftsmanship, so that they could create artistic designs.

“Then Moses said to the people of Israel, ‘See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And He has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver - by any sort of workman or skilled designer”

I can’t imagine what that would be like to be the recipient of all knowledge, all skill, the Spirit of God, and all craftsmanship. God took very seriously the design of the tabernacle as He tells us in Exodus that it is a form of what we will find in Heaven. So the use of colors, wood, gold, fabrics, pomegranates, bells, etc. were to be used by these artisans to create a set design, a stage that He would use throughout the development of His people to teach them about who He was, to reveal His nature to them, to reveal His gospel. And we see that continue throughout the Scriptures.

The great hymnist, Fanny Crosby, wrote “Tell me the story of Jesus; write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, the sweetest that ever was heard. Tell

Page 3 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed His birth, and glory to God in the highest, Peace and good tidings to earth.” Today as Pastor Bobby said we are going to be looking at Rembrandt’s painting, ‘Simeon’s Song of Praise.’ And we find this moment in time that Rembrandt has extracted for us in the gospel of Luke Chapter 2 and beginning with verse 25.

For me it was a bit of an obscure passage. Sometimes we tuck it into the end of our Christmas stories, and other times we just kind of jump over it. In fact the only recollection I have of Simeon was when I was serving at Christ Community Church in Huntersville many, many years ago. And Peggy Dickey was leading our children’s choir and I had to sing some song by Simeon while I was dressed like a priest. So when I got that passage it took a lot of familiarizing myself with the back story, the author, and what was actually occurring here in this moment.

Before we dig into the story it is important for us to know that we are not reading of some past incident that was singular in scope and that has little consequence for us today or tomorrow. We are talking about the story of Jesus. Jesus is in the painting and this is a part of His story, and we are a part of the story of Jesus. So this is a significant story for us to see as part of the entire narrative from Genesis to Revelations, all of which is the story of Jesus, and how we play a part in it.

We are going to be reading a singular page from within a story that encompasses all of humanity’s wherefores and therefores as we find it in here. And we are looking back upon one single moment from antiquity that is as much a part of our own story as today is. Before we dig into it I want to tell you about the author. I wanted to know why we had this account in this gospel and we don’t have it in the other gospels.

Well, the author of this story is the brilliant evangelist, Luke. What we can know about Luke is that he was a physician, and he was also actually a tremendously gifted writer, a quite talented writer. Theologians have referred to his book as the most beautiful book ever written. I didn’t know that. Others have referred to it as the gospel of poetry. Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul for eighteen years. He is considered in all probability to be the only Gentile contributor to the Bible. And we will see why that is in a moment.

He is credited with the books of Luke and Acts. He wrote both of those. In most gospel accounts the writing is heavily narrated. It is the story of the gospel as being told to us through the perspective of a narrator. But in Luke’s writings, the narrator speaks

Page 4 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES less than the characters. He lets the characters in his story tell the story. His writing style provides us with evocative characterization of the stories characters. Translators and scholars alike can readily identify the characters’ identities in Luke’s original language because he gives them such distinctive voices.

And what they mean by that is we have heard Pastor Bobby say at times that we can kind of get caught up in our language of Christianese. My Aunt Jennifer used to do this a lot. We would be in line, maybe at the Piggly Wiggly or Food Line or wherever we were, and the cashier would say, “How are you doing today?’ Well, the normal person would say, ‘I’m doing good. How are you?’ But my aunt would say, ‘I’m blessed and highly favored.’ She had a specific language. I knew what Aunt Jennifer was going to say whenever she was asked, ‘How are you?’ And Aunt Jennifer, if you are listening to this podcast later, I love you greatly.

Luke uses that same kind of medium where he gives voice to people. What was most moving for me is when the linguists who were translating his work had this to say about his characterization of Jesus’ voice: “Luke is not just creating these voices, he is writing as they speak. And he said Jesus spoke like an ordinary person, very clear, very simple, using normal, everyday language, because Jesus was oftentimes found talking to people like us, ordinary, modest, wanting us to understand His heart, God’s heart.”

Luke has some intriguing and distinguishing features as well. Here is a brief list:

• His desire was to share the story of Jesus with a primarily Gentile audience, and that is why so many believe that he was in fact a Gentile himself. • He wanted the Gentiles to see that Jesus was not just for the Jews but that He was also for the Gentiles. He emphasizes prayer, joy, social justice and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Luke ties wonderfully well into this series, because through my study of Luke for the last couple of weeks I found that legend notes that he was a painter, that he was a rather talented painter. The Catholics refer to him as the patron saint of artists. In fact in the Middle Ages artists created what is known as the Guild of Saint Luke, and it was a collaborative community of artisans and painters.

We are going to be looking at one painter, particularly Rembrandt, but before I came up you heard Brian sing about Vincent Van Gogh. And though Vincent Van Gogh

Page 5 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES came several years after the Guild of Saint Luke, he referred to the Guild of Saint Luke often in his letters that he would write to fellow artists and to friends, longing to re- establish it, pining to re-establish that guild for the artisans of his time.

Like many artists in his time he had a turbulent relationship with the church, and he was known, as you read about his history, to hold a great love for the common man. He often reflected upon the teachings of Christ, and he shared Christ’s high regard for eternal life and his desire to craft men into immortal men. He would share that in a letter to his friends.

Rembrandt is our artist of focus today. This is kind of a difficult painting to see if you are sitting anywhere beyond the first three or four rows. But it is a very detailed painting of Simeon’s Song of Praise from Luke Chapter 2 and verse 22.

Page 6 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

Rembrandt had indirect ties to the Guild of Saint Luke as well. And what we know of Rembrandt is there are some ambiguities surrounding his faith. Some don’t believe that Rembrandt was a believer; others believe that he was a believer. We are not sure. We know that he painted several paintings from the Scriptures, and that he painted Jesus differently than the Catholic Church did, because he felt like the Catholic paintings of Christ deified humanity, and he wanted to show that Christ came in the form of a servant of the creature in order to reach us.

So here is the back drop before we get into the story here that Rembrandt has painted so skillfully for us. You can see we have Simeon, Mary, Joseph and several other people in the temple. So every good story has a back drop, and from the gospel Matthew gives us a glimpse of the birth of Christ while Mark and John generally began with Jesus’ public ministry, so we don’t really get a whole lot of information in Mark and John about the birth of Christ. It is in Luke that we find so much rich detail about the birth stories of John the Baptist and of Jesus.

And Luke begins by providing us with this in Chapter 1 and verse 5: “In the days of Herod, king of Judea.” As I began to look at what all that meant I found it was turbulent times in Jerusalem. Things were not good, God was continuing to judge His people and He was using Rome and Herod to do that. Luke begins to tell the birth of John the Baptist, and Jesus was in that context in today’s story.

The back drop is the temple in Jerusalem. Herod is on the throne and Rome is exercising great political control over the priesthood which is not a good thing. There is an enormous Messianic expectation at the time. People were expecting any day to see the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Old Testament because there was such a wide abuse of power and of the poor that had reached such a fevered pitch.

Herod’s cruelty had been endured for many years, and the priests were heavily taxing the people with the temple taxes and the offerings. I’m sure you remember Jesus coming in and turning over the money changer’s tables. Jerusalem was facing cultural wars, and Greek culture was beginning to take over the known world at the time. Herod re-designed and added to the temple in which Simeon is shown in this painting. The Greeks tried to add gymnasiums and theatres to Jerusalem. There were just extreme culture wars in the holy city that were touching on the holy temple.

It sounds familiar to our time today. But there were a lot of Messianic expectation and people were ready for the relief of Christ. The Jews had been embroiled

Page 7 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES in a life and death struggle perpetuated by religious and political conservatives and liberals all playing to the tune of Rome. You can almost hear the faithful singing that classic Christmas carol, ‘Oh Come, Oh Come, Immanuel and ransom the captive Israel.’ In the spirit of fighting for freedom of religion most were desperate for freedom from religion.

So that is our back story. Now let’s look at this passage in Luke Chapter 2 and verses 22 through 35. If you have your Bibles open them up and the verses will also be here on the screen. Luke Chapter 2 and beginning with verse 22. “And when the time came for their purification, according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him (speaking of Jesus) up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Verse 25, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, (two key words for us today), waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said;” (and here is the moment Rembrandt has captured.)

Verse 29, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (You can see the light that Rembrandt has emphasized here in his painting.)

Verse 30, “And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about Him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, (and then speaking to Mary specifically) “(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also) so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Let’s pray.

Father, I pray that my preparation for this message today is pleasing to you, as I offer it as my best effort. I pray that we will all incline our ears and our hearts and our minds towards you and that you will anoint us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Page 8 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

So that is Simeon’s song of praise. Pastor Bobby had given me great counsel to read it four times, or five times, and then continue to go to the text. Read it in prayer and see what the Spirit will illuminate for you. So what did I aspire to teach from this story? Well, there were several things after reading about the time line up to the temple and the time line after the temple, the fleeing to Egypt, and all of Jesus’ parables but I decided I had to dial it back to this one moment. So I thought we could discuss outward behavior versus inner heart, because Simeon said that Jesus is coming to reveal the thoughts of our hearts.

Oftentimes we think of our heart as a place of emotion and of feeling. Feeling is attached to thoughts and our heart doesn’t actually think; it is our mind doing the thinking, but we know from Scripture that the heart is the source of all issues of life. I think it is Proverbs that tells us that Christ is coming to reveal our hearts. So discussing outward behavior versus inner heart was one topic I thought of. After all Simeon reveals that Christ will reveal those thoughts.

Christ is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, so we could discuss how Jesus unmasks all of our dark motives that are hidden behind religious behavior. It is very easy for us to act properly and to give off the impression that we carefully construct for one another. But I wasn’t prepared to do that because I would have to work on my own plank before I could come in and teach that to you guys. I have carefully constructed how to be and how to act and how to live in community. So I didn’t want to touch that for you because I need to touch that for me.

Or we could discuss cultural Christians versus faithful disciples. In this moment we see there are a lot of cultural religious practices. They were raised to be part of Judaism, but so many missed Christ. And their hearts weren’t for the Lord as we find Simeon’s was. They were just practicing what they were told to practice, much like we do today. We have many who are Christians because they were raised to be a Christian, so we hold on to our behaviors as security for our salvation, rather than having experienced for ourselves the transformational power of the Spirit which renews us and perfects us in the law of love. But again I would have to work on my own plank.

So then I thought well there are three areas of difficulty in the text that I could talk through and show you that I am literate and can read Google searches. Question one was - did Simeon actually sing? There is nothing that I could see with my untrained eye

Page 9 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES in the passage that indicates that Simeon sang. And yet here we are with popular opinion that Simeon sang.

The Catholic Church calls it a canticle. The Anglican Church uses it every evening at their evening song services where they sing the song of Simeon to conclude the day, because Simeon is dismissing himself and departing. And concluding the day they sing this song that we believe that Simeon sang.

I couldn’t find it anywhere in Scripture that he actually sang. Was Simeon old? I couldn’t find anywhere in Scripture that said he was old, but obviously it is popularly believed that he was. There is nothing in the passage that said he was old specifically. And then I stumbled upon the question of were the canticles even original to the characters in Luke’s story? Did Mary really sing The Magnificat? Did Zacharias really sing what he is saying? Did Simeon really sing what he is saying?

There are some theologians who argue that ‘No, Luke just felt the story needed something. You know those artist types.’ And so he added the canticles. And I don’t know how to untangle that. I read a couple of articles by trusted theologians who fully accept and believe that they did. And for my purposes today that is good because to discuss any of those, as I have said, would require me to go home and spend time before the Lord or get a seminary degree. And we don’t have time for that.

So all that I can adequately share with you today is what Christ revealed in me and about me as I read this passage. So as Simeon declared in his song and his prophecy, Jesus reveals the thoughts of our hearts. So I approached the passage with humility and worry, which I know is a sin, because I was going to be talking to you today when I usually just sing at you. And I asked Jesus to reveal my heart. I came to Him as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice, to remove the world from me and transform my heart and my mind with what I should walk away from this text with and employ in my life.

And I found these two things. I want to be faithful in my waiting and I want to be faithful in my worship. Like so many who missed Jesus then and who miss Him today, despite our having the Old Testament and the New Testament and the Holy Spirit poured out on the church, I don’t want to miss seeing the truth of Jesus.

So may God find us faithful in waiting because Simeon reflects such great waiting. What do we know of Simeon? Well, surprisingly very little for someone who is noted in this iconic scene, and as I have said, has secured this fantastic, beautiful song,

Page 10 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

‘Nunc Dimittis.’ You can look it up; it is a beautiful, beautiful song. They sing it in Latin. We don’t know a lot about him, but his song plays a very large part in liturgical worship. A canticle is a hymn or a chant, for those of you who may not be familiar with the term. And there are cantatas in our art.

We oftentimes set Simeon up to be a statesman, maybe a priest, an older gentleman, but as I was reading and studying it dawned on me that it is very likely that Simeon was simply an ordinary person with extraordinary faith. I wanted to look at his behavior to see what I could learn from Simeon, because he got to see Jesus. Simeon waited expectantly in Jerusalem for the consolation of Israel. The Bible refers to Simeon as righteous and devout.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit was upon him. Remember the Spirit hadn’t been poured out on the church yet, but the Spirit was on Simeon. The Holy Spirit had revealed that Simeon would not see death before he had seen Christ. And that is curious, because unless you guys have received special revelation for yourselves, we will likely have to see death before we see Christ. Simeon was not going to see death before he had seen Christ.

Simeon took Jesus in his arms, blessed God, and then blessed the parents. There is no question that Simeon was a righteous and devout Jew, and he was content in trusting God’s promise, and that is why his very waiting pleased the Lord. He went to the temple regularly waiting expectantly. What does waiting expectantly mean? He wasn’t apathetic; he wasn’t complacent. He was waiting, looking, listening, and praying as a righteous devout man. He is practicing the Law. He is studying the Law. And he is going to the temple regularly looking for Jesus to arrive.

Jeramiah says, “If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me.” And Simeon was looking wholeheartedly for the Messiah. Simeon had not given up believing; he was probably one of those people that we would refer to as ‘stubbornly optimistic.’ Can you imagine the conversations that probably took place with and around Simeon? I mean here he is in Rome where the Roman political structure appoints the high priest now.

And if you have studied Scripture you know that the high priest was an illustration of Christ. So here is Simeon knowing that the high priest is selected by a pagan government, not according to God’s law. Probably not related to Aaron at all, as he should have been. So you have a high priest who is simply there for the power that he

Page 11 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES gets to wield, and the money that he gets to make. And despite that, and despite the priesthood probably being highly dysfunctional, and the abuse of his friends and his community, his brothers and his sisters, Simeon is stubbornly optimistic. He is at the temple expectantly waiting to see Christ.

And that was convicting for me because I know that I have been to maybe five churches in my twenty five years of serving and I am guilty of what I am about to say to you. We often won’t come to the church because we didn’t like something about it. ‘You can’t have your coffee in here’ ‘You can have your coffee in here.’ I’m not going to say too much because I might say something that turns you into an enemy. And I don’t want to be your enemy; I want to be your friend.

But Simeon is still going. He is still going to the temple. It is worse than we can imagine. This church is fantastic, beautiful, honoring the Lord. The temple - a sow was sacrificed on its altar. Herod is designing it for his own ego. And Herod and Rome are choosing the priest and preachers, but Simeon is still there. He is still going, he is still waiting to see Jesus even in the midst of all that.

Jesus was likely carried past quite a few people in the temple that day, so were anyone inside or outside of the temple even expecting to see him? I don’t mean to say that anyone didn’t need what they believed Jesus was going to bring, or weren’t desperate for some kind of hope. But were they using their knowledge of God and their relationship with God to seek Him out because they knew He was coming and they held to His promises? Was anyone else other than Simeon doing that?

The fact is Simeon recognized Him. We don’t know how long he had waited; we just know that he wasn’t going to die before he saw Christ. That is all we know about the time line. And then he sees Him. The wholeheartedness of Simeon seeking for God was revealed in the long awaited fulfillment of God’s promise to Simeon. ‘You will see Jesus before you see death.’ And Simeon finally saw Jesus.

So how do we know if Simeon knew that was Jesus? He is surrounded by offerings and sacrifices and the Levitical choir is in the temple singing. We know this from historical accounts from Josephus. There is music being played, the choirs are singing, priests are burning incense, and they are burning the offerings. How in the midst of all of that did Simeon look at one of probably several babies brought in by one of several couples and say, ‘There He is; there is the consolation of Israel.’

Page 12 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

So we know Simeon likely knew God’s word well. We know he was probably people watching. So that is one way that I can relate to Simeon; I love to people watch. But Simeon wasn’t watching them ignorantly; he was watching them with the knowledge that he had, and with the promise that he had. So much so that he heard when God said, ‘Here I am.’

I wonder if he noted Mary and Joseph? Was that a clue? Simeon knew so much about God’s Law; he was devout, he was righteous, we know that. God assigned those adjectives to Simeon; I didn’t. He was devout and righteous. For God to call someone devout and righteous meant He likes him. But was Simeon aware of Mary and Joseph? Did he pick up on something from them as they walked by? He would know that they were probably going to be a devoted couple and devoted to Judaism.

Josephus, as I said earlier, gives us an idea of what temple worship was like. This was the second temple, and they had a service somewhere around 9 o’clock in the morning and they had a service somewhere around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, where the priest would come in and go through the liturgy, they would sacrifice, they would burn the incense, and they would sing the songs for all God’s people. But in between those two services, tucked in between the 9 o’clock and the 3 o’clock services, there was a special service for those who were coming to seek something specific, and to give specific offerings and specific sacrifices. Sacrifices and offerings exactly like Mary coming to end her 40 days of purification.

So Simeon probably knew that. He probably thought that she might come to the 9 o’clock service, but he knew for sure she would be at this one because she has to observe that Law. She would probably not stay for the second service, because she might be like some of you that just run out as soon as the prayer is done, even though we still have two more songs to go. Yes, I see you. (Laughter.) So Simeon thought Mary would probably be in the special in-between service to dedicate Jesus and to end her purification.

But there is a key piece that we find regardless of what all occurred in Simeon’s heart and mind, and what he felt or sensed. There is a key piece of the passage that Simeon was given special revelation. The type of revelation that Jesus says Peter received in Matthew Chapter 16 and verse 17, when Peter declared the answer to Jesus’ question, “Who do people say I am?” And Peter said, “I say that you are Jesus, the

Page 13 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

Christ.” “And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who in in heaven.”

So we look back at the passage and we see that Simeon had the Spirit upon him, and he was in the Spirit when he walked into the temple. While studying for this particular talk, and I like to refer to this as a talk instead of a sermon, I was in the park next to my house where I spend a lot of time. I like to walk, but I don’t walk necessarily for fitness. I am like Henry Thoreau and just like to walk in nature and reflect on the day, reflect on what the Lord is teaching, reflect on my family, etc. etc. And so I went to the park and I sat at a table to begin this prep because I didn’t know what I was going to be speaking about in regard to this passage.

I had books with me by George Beverly Shea, as I thought I might teach you guys about the significance of singing. George Beverly Shea had a great book on why the church sings. Then I had books on Hebrew worship. And you name it and I had a book on it. I had a stack of five or six books with me and suddenly they moved. They were thick books and I was ambitious to think I was going to read all of those books. But when they moved I realized that the wind was blowing. The wind was blowing so hard that it moved the books. It toppled them all over. And as I tuned myself to listening to the wind, because this is how I get into nature and immerse myself into it, I could hear the way the wind was playing the leaves, the branches and the grass. Just like instruments you could hear tone and rhythm.

It reminded me of when God told David, “When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” That was probably similar to what I was thinking, only I wasn’t going into battle, and we don’t have balsam trees. But the wind was moving and playing the grass and the leaves. I could hear it moving my books.

We find in Scripture that the word likens the Spirit of God often to wind and breath. In fact the words are all very similar, they are the same form. Jesus says this in John Chapter 3 and verse 8: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” He says in Romans Chapter 8 and verse 14: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Page 14 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

So we can absolutely assume that Simeon was a son of God because we are told that Simeon was under the Spirit walking into the temple. And it is by being moved by the Spirit that Simeon enters the temple and wham, he completes his bucket list item. He sees Jesus. He is so excited about it that he sings and then he is ready to go because his life is fulfilled and he could die now. Now we don’t know when he died; he probably didn’t drop dead in the temple. That would not make a great painting. But Simeon fulfilled his bucket list.

And as I am exploring that and thinking about what that must have felt like when I was at Starbucks. Three younger people came in and they began talking excitedly about completing the Starbucks star challenge. They were super happy about it and one said, “I am living my best life now. I am not at work and I just finished the Starbucks star challenge.” And one of the others said, “You are such a millennial.” And the first person said, “I am not a millennial. How am I a millennial?” And the other person said, “Yes, you are a millennial.”

And I was sitting there thinking, “Now I have heard the word millennial for so much of my life as a worship pastor and with working and stuff, so I wanted to turn around and say, ‘I knew millennials in 1993 when I graduated high school. We just called them poorly parented children.” (Laughter.) But I love millennials and I need them in my life. They bring me much more texture and patience. But then in the way the Holy Spirit has a tendency to do, He turned that right back around on me as I am sitting there judging them.

Simeon was holding Jesus and singing, and these young people were holding whatever lattes they wanted, basically emoting, and God says, ‘How are you any different? If people were looking at your life last week before you had a message to prepare, what were you expectantly waiting for?’ I wasn’t expectantly waiting for Christ. In fact if I had been studying the Scriptures all my Christian life as much as I have been studying them for this one message, I would be a much more sanctified Christian and be so much more in love with Christ than I am. And I do love Him and I want to be like Him. But He revealed in my heart there was a plank or speck that needed to be worked out.

As an aside I did quickly resolve the angst I had concerning whether Simeon was singing or not. I just had to get that worked out in my mind. And I found that it was very likely that he was singing. As I shared in the first service, after I was able to study and

Page 15 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES read, I found that there was a very specific way in which they wrote poetry in Hebrew. It was easily identified by the translator when it was a poem and they would know that it was Hebrew poetry. And what the translators knew of their studies of ancient Hebrew and ancient religious practices which carried on into the temple, all the way from Moses forward, was that they didn’t just recite poems, they sang poems.

I also learned that ancient Hebrew and the languages that came from it were known as ‘tonal languages.’ Tonal languages are similar to the language that my wife speaks. My wife is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese. Now I butchered her language in the first service, and she texted me about it. So I am going to see if I can get it right. Tonal languages are languages that use tones to provide meaning to the words. We use tone in our language to ask a question, or to emphasize emotion, like, ‘Children, if you don’t quiet down right now, we are going to go to the bathroom.’ And now if I said that in a harsher tone, it would mean they were more likely to die.

Or we use tones to ask a question. Well, in tonal languages if I say to my mother- in-law in one tone it means ‘I am well, I am better.’ But if I say the same syllables in another tone, it means, ‘You annoy me.’ So ancient Hebrew was a tonal language. To our modern English ears theologians wrote that it would almost sound like they were singing, just when they were speaking, but they did in fact also sing. So they would sing their poems. And Simeon very likely did in fact sing his canticle.

So I am going to conclude this here by going into some deeper reflections for myself and I hope that you find value in them. As I look at the story and the characters within it - the parents Mary and Joseph - and I am speaking to my wife and myself, note and reflect upon Jesus’ parents’ faithful attitude in obedience and in worship. There was evidence of personal preparation in their approach to God. They waited forty days. They came to the temple. They brought their offerings. There was evidence of their reverence and their sense of the sacred. They marveled at the response of Simeon over Jesus.

So I asked myself if my children sense an awareness of reverence in my approach to God, when they see me handle the things of God, when they see me speak of God, when they see me speak to and of other people? Is there a sense of reverence in my approach to the things of God? Do I instill any sense of the sacred or otherness into my children’s developing faith as they observe my personal and my corporate worship?

Sure, they see me up here singing and they have seen me singing in different churches for years, but when they see me not up here, when they see me at home is my

Page 16 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES personal worship and my corporate worship developing a sense of sacredness in their developing faith? I reflected upon the faithfulness of Simeon as he waited in the temple. He waited simply content in God’s promise, and he was so attentive to God’s Spirit. He was waiting like in a runner’s stance to hear God say, ‘Go, there I am.’ And the day finally came for it.

We received the gift of God’s Spirit. We have the same Spirit that Simeon had on him. In that light, how are we seen by others handling the responsibilities of just living in empowered faith? Do they see us living the Christian faith in the way that we see Simeon in the back drop of turmoil, death, blood and politics? Do they see us doing anything different? Simeon was different. We are empowered to be that, to do so.

What do our hearts and our behaviors reveal about our thoughts towards God’s way and God’s nature when we find ourselves taxed, when we find ourselves at church, when we find ourselves in the community? In other words, do we even know the promises of God? Are we holding to them? Do we faithfully devote ourselves to seeing them fulfilled? Do we walk around consistently conscious of what God has promised?

Do we listen for God’s voice with that runner’s stance? And when we pray are we praying in truth? Are we going through our day after we pray in truth expecting to see God work as a result of our prayers? Do we just say ‘Amen’ and then shelve the prayer, and then pray something totally different the next day? Do we go before Him in truth, in His Spirit, and pray and then wait expectantly for His answer?

I have learned for myself if I live blind to His word and deaf to His Spirit, I will fretfully live out the gift of a day. I watched my grandmother pass away. That is a blessing and a curse, but it certainly reminded me as she took her last breath how critical our need is for Christ, and what a beautiful gift life is, especially life redeemed. I don’t want to fretfully live out the gift of any day, whittling it away with fear and regret and worry, because that is not living. I want to be able to live in the midst of the type of mess Simeon was living in, with God being able to say about me: ‘That is a righteous and devout person.’ I want that.

We look at Simeon, Mary, Joseph and even Anna, who we won’t explore today. They were all at church on a mission and for a purpose. Why did we come to church today? Are we here on a mission, on a purpose? How is it going to impact the rest of our day that we were here today? My wife, my kids and myself will leave church and probably within an hour, not every Sunday thankfully, we will be arguing about

Page 17 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES something. And I am the one who has to say, ‘Did we not just go to church today?’ And then I will beat them with the Bible. (Laughter.)

So how will being here today impact our day? Being at the temple that day changed many lives. And we are not always going to have a Rembrandt painting moment every time we come to church, but are we seeking it? Are we waiting expectantly? Simeon didn’t experience it every day he was at the temple. But he waited for it, and then it came.

Live Mary do we prepare ourselves before coming to church? She waited forty days before she went to church so that she was clean, so that she could be purified. And she and Joseph came with something to offer. Like Mary and Joseph did, do we bring anything of ourselves to church today? Do we see ourselves as the living sacrifice as the New Testament refers to us as ‘the fruit of our lips, giving Him praise?’

Like Simeon do we come expecting to see and respond to Jesus? Did you even sing this morning when the team was up here leading in song? Do you pray? And I don’t mean just waiting for the period of the person leading in prayer; I mean praying yourself or agreeing in prayer. Praying like my Pentecostal family would have where we all prayed together. There was no single prayer leader; there was just a cacophony of noise as we all prayed. And I loved those moments as much as I love silent prayer. Do you pray? Do you sing?

Through the many years that I have served the church in worship I have seen so many things change. Like in the way in which I have to dress - now here Pastor Bobby is great with a great mind and great spirit - so there’s a lot of freedom here. But in other churches where I have served there was specific ways to dress. I would have never gotten away with a pony tail at other churches that I was in. I had specific ways to sing the songs. We all had our ideas of how we formulaic approaching the Lord in doxology.

‘And I can’t do that because I don’t know that song, or I can’t do that because you don’t have enough of the right types of song. Or why don’t we do more new songs? Why don’t we do more old songs? There is too much bass in the mix. There is too much of that. You use light. You use smoke.’ Blah, blah, blah. I am not saying that none of that is of value. I am just saying I have heard it for twenty five years.

And here in this moment we see Simeon extemporaneously compose a song that has never been sung before, while we only want to sing the songs we know. That is

Page 18 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES shameful. To experience the truth and the revelation of Jesus Simeon couldn’t help but sing. When I saw my children for the first time in the hospital I knew nothing else to do but to sing. It was such an overwhelming emotion at that moment.

I am out of time so I am going to do like Dan Burrell and read really fast. The story of Jesus in this moment of Luke, and in many others, involved people of all ages. Don’t let that be lost on us today. Simeon was probably an older gentleman and Anna definitely was older. She was thought to be 84, while some theologians say she was over a hundred years old. The story of Jesus also had young people. Whatever age Mary was, we know that she was young. And then there were people all the way up to the elderly.

So I asked these questions of my family and now I am asking these questions of my church family. Are your young growing in obedient service to the Lord? Would they respond as Mary did? Are you developing them to respond as Mary did when she heard she was going to carry the Messiah? She responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May what you say be in my life.”

Are our old rejoicing in the faithfulness of God? I have seen the church fragment itself so much over silly shallow things, such as music and style, etc. etc. And we have become less and less multigenerational, which hurts my heart. Are our old rejoicing in the faithfulness of God? Simeon, who was potentially an older gentleman, and Anna had young and vibrant souls. Their bodies may have been aging and decaying, they were passing away, but we get the idea that their souls were getting younger. They were getting closer to what my grandmother would have called, ‘Glory, or ‘Beulah Land.’

I have not seen Jesus as Simeon did, and many have not seen Him as Simeon was blessed to do. However it is important for us to know this, and then I will close. Jesus is seen in and through us. People should hear of Jesus from us. So do we live as expressions of the love and the hope that He represents then and now? Does the power of the Spirit through our lives intrigue people? Does it inspire people? Do our lives through God’s Spirit assist in fulfilling people?

I haven’t seen Jesus in the flesh, but for years I have sang this song, ‘I Want to See Jesus.’ And I do look forward to that day. But as a result of my having seen the truth of Jesus, and because I have the gift of the Spirit, do people see Jesus in me?

As we were going through the Holy Land with Pastor Bobby, riding in an air conditioned bus, along and beside all the miles and miles of roads that Jesus walked, I

Page 19 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES saw a sign pointing ‘This way to Bethlehem.’ We didn’t get to go there because of the political strife that still exists there even today, but it dawned on me that Jesus was tireless and relentless in walking these roads and these paths to declare truth and to demonstrate love. Do people see that in me?

So as we conclude, I will ask the worship team to come. Simeon shared that Jesus would reveal the thoughts of our heart, and that is nerve racking to me, because I do so much in my life to try to not let you see the thoughts of my heart. My heart is oftentimes wicked, so I try to through the word and through my relationship with Jesus and through the powerful voice of my wife, to do as I know I am supposed to do in public.

But Jesus will reveal the thoughts of hearts and that wrecks me. We know that the heart drives our behaviors. And some of us think that we are really good at crafting behaviors that mask our hearts, rather than seeking, as Christ offers to us in the book of Ezekiel, to replace our hearts, to renew our hearts. So we need to ask ourselves this - do we truly, do we honestly love Jesus? And in that snapshot do we see an overwhelming satisfaction and joy in seeing God’s promise fulfilled? Do we truly love Him that way? And do we truly love each other?

What has Jesus revealed to you about your heart today? Are you waiting expectantly for Jesus? There is a high Messianic expectation now; how many churches have given us a date when they think Jesus is going to come back? Are you aware of the Holy Spirit? Have you ever experienced in your life at all a move of the Spirit? Hopefully you did when you were transformed, when you were born again. Are you aware of the Spirit’s operation in your life? And are you found faithfully practicing a devotion to the works and the ways of the Lord?

As we come to our time of response, know that we have already been responding to Him all morning long in some way or another. Now I want to invite you to stand as you reflect upon the heart, your heart. Let’s pray.

God, show us our insufficiencies. Reveal our hearts to ourselves. Help us to see our heart as you see it. And then find our behaviors to be righteous and devout. Move us, Spirit, as you moved Simeon. If we feel you are to move to the altar to pray, help us to move to the altar to pray. Move us in faithful obedience to partake in communion as we remember your sacrifice. Move us to pray for one another. Move us, Spirit, to pray for our family members and our friends. Move us to be waiting expectantly as Simeon did to see your promise fulfilled. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Page 20 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES

The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.

Page 21 of 21 pages 5/13/2018