Welcome to our Together on Mission Podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation. And then continue that conversation with them throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twiney, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. In this season of the podcast, we will be journing through the Gospel of Luke, specifically looking for moments in the life of Jesus of the Aspirin.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Together on Mission Podcast. This is Travis and it is Monday morning. And if you're new to the podcast, welcome. You're going to need a Bible, a journal, a spot you can go to in the morning, a cup of coffee, a cup of tea.
And we're going to start a talk with Jesus. We're going through the Gospel of Luke, all the way through, every story, every move. We're going to be in Luke chapter two this morning, and I'm going to ask a question, read the passage, talk about the passage, and then we're just going to launch into a time, a conversation with Jesus that again is going to last throughout the day, because that's what we do in this Together on Mission Podcast, and that is what we do in the Christian life. That's what we're summoned into to be with and slowly but surely to become like Jesus.
And so the title of the podcast this morning is Holding on to Hope. And as we know life without hope is not worth living. It's really not. But we also know that living with hope is difficult because hope is the experience of not yet having what we've been promised, what we want, what we need.
So there's this tension when we talk about this idea of hope. I mean, hopelessness, as we know, can feel like a prison. But holding on to hope can sometimes be just as difficult. And sometimes it's just easy to let go of it.
And the story that Luke is telling, the one that we're to carefully investigate, the one about the arrival of the true King and the true Lord Jesus, the one that we are actually caught up in, that story, this story is a story where we are asked and indeed commissioned to hold on, to hold on to those things that God has indeed promised. Not only to us, but through us. And so the question this morning is what are you hoping for? What are you trying to hold on to?
What are you praying for believing will happen? Or to put it another way, what has God promised? What has he said he would do and therefore you're waiting for it? Let's answer that question because only when we get into that, are we really going to be able to enter into this story we're about to read, which is still the beginning of the story that Luke is telling about Jesus.
And whatever that thing is, whatever that hope is, it may be difficult to bring up. I mean, we might realize that we've entered into the desert of hopelessness. We may want to forget or we might want to give up. You know, maybe it's been too long.
But again, that tension, that struggle, that difficulty will welcome us into this story. So what is it? What is it that we are to hold on to in hope? What is it that God has promised?
And so as we enter into the middle of chapter two, Jesus is born. He's actually eight days old and Mary and Joseph are devout Jews. And so they like all devout Jews bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem on the eight day to be circumcised, because circumcision was the sign of the covenant in the flesh of every male Jew. And so we picked this story up right as Mary and Joseph and Jesus enter into the temple.
Chapter two verse 25. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon. He was righteous. He was devout and he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.
The Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed in him by the Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, what was the custom of the law.
Simeon took Jesus in his arms and he praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, just as you've promised. You may now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation. Go down to verse 36. There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penul, of the tribe of Asher.
She was very old and she had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage. And then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day fasting and praying. Coming up to them, at this very moment she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
And so Simeon is waiting. Anna is in touch with all of those that are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem, for the redemption of Israel. God had promised them and it had taken such a long time and they're waiting and waiting and praying and they're hoping and they're losing hope and then they're fighting for hope again and then they're doubting and then they're trusting and maybe we can relate to that concerning what filled our heart earlier, what God's promised. And I believe that this morning as we meditate on this passage and begin a time of prayer, it's time to hope again.
I'm thinking of that song, let hope arise and that darkness tremble. It's time to hope again, to have our eyes open to God's faithfulness. And it will take time as we know and there will be waiting just like Simeon needed to do for years and years and it probably will not have been near as fast as we would like. Because there's something happening in the waiting, something that may even be as important as the fulfillment and even though that sounds insensitive, I've found that to be true in my life and in my journey.
And the reality is relationships and waiting have always gone together, they go hand in glove. You know, I've often found that sometimes the fulfillment of the promise, the fulfillment of the hope looks different than what I originally anticipated. And often it's actually better because I've become a different person en route as a result of waiting for God to bring fulfillment. And I just love in this text Simeon sees Jesus.
He sees what God promised that he would see and he rejoices and Anna sees Jesus in this moment and she speaks to all of those that have been hoping and holding on to the hope that she has been holding on to. You know, the wait is over for them. Hope is realized God's promise has been fulfilled and Simeon and Anna have become the kind of people in the midst of the waiting that God believed that they would become and then hope arrives. And I just think this is a really neat idea that we don't often think about, but Simeon and Anna's story is being told 2000 years later because they didn't give up hope.
Even maybe when they lost hope, they fought for hope again and their story has been told and retold in 2000 years later, it's still being told and we get to write on their coattails as we enter into this story of hope and promise where our small stories are caught up into God's larger story, right? The Gospel of Luke, God is faithful and we must wait and we must hope and we must hold on to hope. And so this morning, let's read this passage. Let's let hope arise and if we've lost it, let's let it return.
Let's hope in the presence of God and let's tell God how we feel in the midst of the waiting. But let's let hope arise and so let's begin a conversation this morning with the one who is faithful, the one that keeps his promises and let's spend the day hoping again and we'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today.
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