Entrance Into the Temple

OBJECTIVE

Faith, to show the students the boundaries the God pushes beyond our human mind or understanding.

To emphasize that Jesus followed the custom of the law in this feast to show us that He did not come to destroy the law but to perfect it.

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 10 Minutes

Have you ever tested God? Yes, we are not supposed to test God, but have you ever thought of something saying, "what a hopeless case" and just like that God turns things around ?

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes

"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people." (Luke 2:29)

"For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move." (Matthew 17:20)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 20 Minutes

On this day we celebrate the feast of presenting the Lord Christ to the temple after 40 days of His blessed birth. St. Joseph the Righteous and His mother, the Virgin Mary, presented Him in the temple, to fulfill the Mosaic Law.

According to Church Tradition, Simeon was one of the 70 elders who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. This was in the time of Ptolemy Soter in the year 296 B.C., who was sent by the will of God to Jerusalem. He brought 70 men from among the learned Jewish teachers and scholars and commanded them to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek.

He put every two of them in an isolated place so they would not agree on one translation, and to ensure a correct text after comparing all of the translations. Simeon the Elder was one of them. When Simeon was translating the verse from Isaiah 7:14, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel," he was afraid to translate that a virgin would conceive, because the King would mock him. He wanted to translate the virgin as a "young lady." He was disturbed because of this inaccurate translation, and God revealed to him in a vision that he would not die before he would see Christ the Lord born of a virgin.

This was fulfilled and he lived about three hundred years. When Christ was born; he was very well advanced in age and his eyesight was dimmed. When he carried the child Jesus in his hands, his sight came back to him, and the Holy Spirit told him, "This is the child that you have been waiting for." He blessed God and said, "You are letting Your servant depart in peace according to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the Glory of Your people Israel." (Luke 2:28-32

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 15 Minutes

God made Simeon live for 300 years where the average age was 100 Just because he believed and desired something from his heart

The servant can go back to the hook and discuss the students' stories about how God doesn't follow our timeline but can and will change the whole world just for you and me

LIFE APPLICATION - 5 Minutes

Let's try as we pray the 12th hour in the Agpeya to always remember that with God, EVERYTHING is possible Everything Whenever we are faced with hardship or temptation in schools or work, let us be reminded of Simeon.

SERVANT RESOURCES

The Feast of Presenting the Lord Christ in the Temple - Coptic Synaxarium