Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Need A Savior | New Testament | Luke 2

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

How does Jesus offer salvation? Does Jesus still impact the way you should live your life? What does it look like to live a life impacted by Jesus? In today's episode, Tanya shares from Luke 2 to discuss the blessing Jesus receives as a baby. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Luke 2

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. I don't know if you've been to a baby dedication lately, but usually the mom and dad get dressed up. The baby might have a new outfit or something that's passed down in the family. I've always wondered about those little white dresses, even the boys wear, didn't have those. But anyway, the service is a special time for the family. And then there's probably a nice lunch or something afterward. And it's a celebratory event.

It marks the desire of the parents to raise a child in God's family and a dedication of the family and the church to come alongside one another to teach the child about God. Now, there are some similarities and differences in our current custom and dedication of babies and what happened with Jesus at the temple. See, under Jewish law, there was a required purification ceremony that happened 40 days after the birth, and it was required for the baby's mother. She had to come to Jerusalem to the temple to be purified, and that was the only place. So for Joseph and Mary, they traveled along with Jesus all the way to Jerusalem for this ceremony.

Luke 2 tells us about this special day, and Luke makes a point to show us the contrasts at work. For example, Mary and Joseph had to offer a sacrifice, but they were permitted to give a less expensive sacrifice that was available only to bore people. So as you picture this special day, Luke wants you to have in mind a weary set of parents who traveled a long way and probably gave everything they could to afford the minimal sacrifice to enter the temple. Now, while the baby that this is all about is God's son, the king who reigns over all the earth. But there are some other characters in this story that we need to have in our minds too.

First, there's a man named Simeon. Simeon is an old man and he has received a divine revelation that he will not die until he has seen the Messiah. Now, on this particular day, Simeon had a divine prompting to go to the temple and find the child. There was also a woman named Anna. She was probably 84 years old. She'd been widowed most of her life. And she is described as living mostly at the temple, which probably means that without a family to care for, she spent her time worshiping God. and praying for others.

She would have lacked the prominence that came from having a husband and family to care for in this culture. So on this particular day, 40 days after Jesus was born, all of these special people, humble in appearance and social prominence, come together at the temple in Jerusalem

at the same time. Poor young parents pay for their small doves and offer their purification sacrifice, quietly. Now Mary seems to go beyond the required purification for herself and also offers her child as a kind of sacrifice for the Lord's service, similar to the way Hannah offered her son, Samuel. And then, the most special and amazing blessing of all time was pronounced in this very temple, a blessing that all the money in the world couldn't buy. Simeon, who had gone into the temple an expectation that he would see the Messiah with his own eyes,

took the child in his arms and said, Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people, Israel. And Luke tells us Jesus' parents were amazing. at what was said about their son. It wasn't new information to them, but it must have been so special to hear what the angel had told them, confirmed, and said aloud by someone else.

As they were taking this in, remember Sweet Mary, the mother, whose scripture says pondered things in her heart. Probably holding her child close, just having finished the purification ceremony and praying to God a prayer of dedication for her son, among all the other things mothers pray for, gets another word from Simeon. turning toward her Simeon continued This child is destined

to cause many in Israel to fall and many others to rise He has been sent as a sign from God But many will oppose him As a result The deepest thoughts of many hearts Will be revealed And a sword will pierce your very soul

Mary holding a baby That would one day be her savior Holding a child that would cause nations to rise and fall, holding a child that would reveal the truth in her heart, in the hearts of all people, holding a child that would somehow be a sword to pierce her soul. I'm not quite sure as humans how Mary and Joseph could have processed all of that, but knowing that the Lord was with them and gave them the grace they needed for that day, just as he does for us. The couple turns, and then there stands Anna, the widow, who confirms Simeon's words,

prophesying that God would bring deliverance through this child, Jesus. I think if I was Mary, I would have thought, could we just have stopped at the blessing part? What do you mean by a sword? But surely Mary contemplated those words at the foot of the cross as she watched her child suffer for her sins and the sins of the whole world. Jesus said in Matthew 1034, I have not come to bring peace,

but a sword. His word divides our belief from our unbelief. He reveals the secrets of our hearts. He knows what we love most. He shines light on it so we can see it too, and see our need for a Savior. Luke 1223 tells us every secret will come into the light one day. And in Romans 2, Paul says God will judge them.

And in Revelation, Jesus will return with the sword and make the final separation from those who are his and those who are not. So how can Jesus be a sword and be our Savior? Well, when your work and your thoughts and your motives are all revealed and come into judgment on the last day, you can be judged by those things or you can be judged by the work and the thoughts and the motives of Christ. We all need salvation. None of us can stand before God blameless. But those in Christ have him standing in their place.

God looks at the cross when he looks at his own. This is what Mary was witnessing at the foot of the cross when the sword that pierced Jesus side pierced her own soul. So what does the sword do in us? Well, it cuts to the lie that we're not so bad we need a savior or we're not so weak we can't save ourselves. The sword reveals how much we need Jesus to stand in our place. And it offers us a new way to live every day. We don't just wait for him to stand in our place. one day, but we invite him to change the way we live today.

Knowing we have a Savior keeps us from pretending that we are cleaned up worthy people. It keeps us from being fake. It keeps us from being outwardly repentant and humble and inwardly wasting away. It gives us the freedom to bring our whole lives under his authority. But it's also really practical in the moment because he is always with us. Today, you need a Savior. Today. Can you practice breathing out repentance and breathing in forgiveness?

As active as your breath cycle, talk to God about your secret desires and those words that you just spoke and receive his mercy. You could stew on it. You could keep reliving it. You could even minimize it. But what about breathing it out, confessing it moment to moment? And moment to moment receiving, breathing in his mercy. and His grace. Will you try that?

As you practice this cycle, sin loses its power on you. It can't lie to you as easily. It can't carry your thoughts away for as long. It doesn't go away forever yet, but sin loses the ability to take you on a path far away from God. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus.

Thanks for listening.