Advent 20: God's Spirit when baby Jesus was at the Temple ...

Friday, Dec 20, 2013. The New Testament reports many things around the birth of Jesus. Today, we look into the passage about when the Jesus baby was brought to the temple the first time. Every first male was devoted to be holy to the Lord.

Prophecies …

There are various people speaking prophetic words about this little child. Let us listen first:

22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was

Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout,

waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 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. 27 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, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 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 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 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 from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2) How real is prophecy? … **

How real is what happened here? Perhaps you have no relationship to prophecy, you have never experienced it in your own life. But perhaps you have either heard prophecy yourself, or you have been someone who spoke prophetic words himself? Is prophecy something which only happened 700 years before Christ? Is it something which only happend around the birth of Christ, 2000 years ago? Or is it something which also happens today, and we can understand more about what happend when Christ was born from our experiences today?

My understanding of the New Testament is that prophecy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to his church - which today would be every collection of believers which stays faithful to the biblical testamony (I do not count various sects which have their own books establishing their faith). Prophecy is when the spirit of God talks to and through humans to reveal the will of the Lord, his guidance and his plans.

Today, we have charismatic movements in all large churches, both catholic or evangelical. We have pentacostal churches, we have charismatic churches, and we have experiences with the Holy Spirit in all churches, even if they do not understand themselves as particularly charismatic. Prophecy is real, it happens today, and we can experience the power of the Holy Spirit when we do what the prophets do in our text: search the Lord with all our heart and our mind!

(Roland Potthast) ... more texts