Title is untitled – please give it a title of your own (Luke 2:22-39)

1.
I’m preaching to you. The Bible is the foundation of God’s words. I’m using the Bible to teach you. Preaching is a kind of teaching. Whether I’m a good teacher or not is up to me. I’m teaching now, but someday I’ll be judged for what I teach.

2.
You’re the ones who will be judged. My success depends on your life. If you’re living a worse life than before, you should throw away this sermon. If you’ve grown in faith, I’ll be successful.

3.
Your life is the report card for my sermon. You don’t need to judge whether my sermon is good or bad. Just live as much as you’ve learned from it.

4.
Remember, the Gospel of Luke was a letter to Theophilus. It was written to make sure Theophilus understood what he had learned.

5.
How did Luke convince Theophilus? This is the main question when studying the Gospel of Luke.

6.
If you look at the big picture, you can see the structure. Today’s text is about Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, his circumcision, and being named Jesus. Mary and Joseph didn’t go to Nazareth right away. They went to Jerusalem.

7.
Why did they go to Jerusalem? Because the firstborn son belonged to God, and they had to offer a sacrifice to God.

8.
They offered sacrifices instead of the child. This made them go to Jerusalem. There, they met two people.

9.
One was a man, and the other was a woman.

10.
Luke emphasizes that this meeting happened according to God’s word and the law. It wasn’t a coincidence.

11.
Luke wanted to talk about these two people. He describes them as trustworthy.

12.
The man was a good and religious person. He was waiting for something good to happen to Israel. The Holy Spirit was with him.

13.
The woman’s name was Anna. She was a prophetess. She was very old. She was a widow for 84 years. She didn’t leave the temple during that time. She prayed, fasted, and worshipped day and night.

14.
These two people met Jesus. They said exactly what Luke wanted to say.

15.
The man said that Jesus is a light for everyone, and he is the glory of Israel. Jesus will be a sign that people will talk against, and he will show people’s true thoughts.

16.
The prophetess Anna said that she thanked God and talked about Jesus to everyone who was waiting for something good to happen to Jerusalem. This means that Jesus is very important for the future of Jerusalem.

17.
Jesus will live his life just like these two people said. It wasn’t a coincidence. God had a plan, and he carried out the plan of salvation.

18.
Why was certainty important? I would say confirmation instead of certainty. Even if we believe in Jesus, we might still doubt if we believe correctly. It’s not because Jesus is wrong, but because we are wrong. We might misunderstand Jesus and God.

19.
Many people talked about Jesus, but some believed wrong. They didn’t even know it. Even in the past, many people believed incorrectly in Paul’s letters.

20.
These stories can teach us. They can be good examples for those who want to believe in Jesus correctly.

21.
The Bible helps us teach, correct, and train ourselves to be good.

22.
The words that were meant to give assurance to Theophilus are now for us. Theophilus lived a long time ago. He was different from us.

23.
When we read the Bible, we should think about how it applies to our lives.

24.
I hope that the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, and these sermons will teach your soul, correct you, and help you learn to be good.