Luke 2:25-35

All right, good morning. It’s good to be here with the eyes. I love the advent season christmas. My our christmas events have already started this last week. We came back last night from our first set of christmas events and so it’s off right off to the races here, plenty of things to do. Uh We’re back home, I was back home in Norfolk and I I was driving by and I seen the the biggest nativity scene I’ve think I’ve ever seen Um I think the camels were eight ft tall, so I mean it was huge, just spread out on this whole church for the whole on and so it was pretty cool to see. I that’s kind of how my brain works. I was just like where do you store that in the off season? You know, like Alright, so uh but yeah, I mean the nativity scene is very common, it’s very familiar, we we see it a lot and uh you know, I got one up here, it’s been kind of been going around and so alright, if you see if you can catch the the air in here, right? Yes, Yoda doesn’t belong there I guess. But so a lot of times with christmas season though, you see the nativity scene it’s very common, right? But but what happens is the story gets so condensed and you’ve got everything going on at one time and you got the shepherds and you’ve got the wise men and you got everybody, it’s just everything’s together And so real quick. I’m just gonna kind of lay out, it’s very high level, very elementary, just the where we’re at in our story because we’re gonna be looking at Luke 225 through 35 and write the events happen so fast. Sometimes it gets a little convoluted. And so the beginning part is pretty easy right? Where we see uh an angel appeared to mary and tells her that she’s gonna be pregnant and give birth to the messiah. And then an angel appears to joseph reaffirming that right, don’t leave her. And so they go through and then there’s a census happening. So that’s why they have to go to Bethlehem, that’s where the the origins of joseph’s family is at. And so they go up, she gives birth at Bethlehem. The angels appear to the shepherds who then come in and praise God and give him glory. And then they leave. What happens though in that process now is on the eighth day, they are they are believers and and they’re gonna follow the mosaic law. And so on the eighth day, they’re gonna come in and they take jesus up to Jerusalem to be circumcised, that’s part of the jewish law. And then they go back to Bethlehem and then after 40 days after the purification that that has to go through again through the mosaic law for mary, they go back up and they combined two events. One is this dedication where they dedicate and they present and they give their firstborn to God and then they redeem the child back and that kind of um goes back to the Passover but then mary also offers a sacrifice for her purification. So we’re right here, that’s that’s in the midst of our story, this is why when we go into luke too, they are up in Jerusalem at the temple and just to kind of close out that season here is then they go back, right and and when the wise men come, jesus is a toddler. So we got the whole nativity scene with these wise men and the shepherds and that’s probably a year and a half to two years apart. Alright, so there’s a huge time gap and we just kind of throw it on the nativity scene. Um Rightfully so it’s perfectly fine but it’s but the stories are separated by a lot of time and then they flee to Egypt and then later after Herod has died, come back to Nazareth. And so that’s again that’s kind of the gist of where we’re at but we’re we’re right, there day 41 probably uh them going up and presenting jesus and dedicating jesus. So we’re gonna start right here when it when we look at luke two, we’re gonna jump into 25 so luke 2 25. Uh In fact actually I I told my some of my family yesterday at christmas hey we gotta go, we gotta leave some saturday night, I gotta get back, I’m gonna teach sunday morning, they’re like, what are you teaching on? I said Simeon and there’s kind of some blank stares and was like, yeah, and that’s why I actually really like this story is it’s Simeon gets 10 verses and people kind of forget about it, you tell them the story and they’re like, oh yeah, I remember him, but it’s just not like the household name biblically when it comes to um people you would know right away and we’ll see why I like it so much. But it says in verse 25 there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, This man was righteous and devout looking forward to Israel’s consolation and the holy spirit was on him. And so right, we’ve come to this time, I think about the song O Come o Come Emmanuel redeem your people, Israel, they’re, they’re waiting for this messiah and he’s born, he’s here, right, this is the pinnacle of history up into this point. The paramount of all the anticipation is right here. The Savior has come and in one sense, it’s just as it was foretold, the old testament has told us many of the details of how this was gonna happen, where to who, alright, how it’s gonna go down, but yet there’s a lot of obscurity, you know, because it didn’t happen the way you expect if you expect something, hey, you know what’s gonna happen and then you expected a certain way and then it happens in a different way, It can still kind of throw you off, right? And so there’s a lot of obscurity here, even though they knew the messiah was coming and you think about just the time and history, right? Much of Israel was apostate. They were, they were following these laws, but they had no relationship, they had no faith, genuine faith and that’s told even later when they talk about a remnant, there’s only a few true believers at that time. And so it’s in this weird portion, this obscure time in history, they show up to in a secure couple, right? This young couple, I mean marry a teenager at best, they’re poor. So if the Savior of the world is going to come and be in the line of David, this mighty warrior king, you would think they would come back to somebody at least of some prominence, well known. No, I mean even john the baptist, right? Like, okay as families are respected priestly family. No, this is a poor young couple. I mean really nobody right, but God has seen their faith, he calls them righteous and it’s an obscure town. Right? Nazareth, Nathaniel later even says one of the disciples what good can come from Nazareth, I mean it’s a town of no respect, no esteem and then you have Simeon and anna after this, but Simeon is like, who’s Simeon, well, it doesn’t tell us a whole lot, there’s actually a lot that is you know trying to people trying to dig up and thought like oh maybe he was the priest and there and that’s why he was involved because they had to bring the baby to dedicate and he was the priest, so that’s why he was or maybe he was from this family, this this famous family of gamma meal. And but it’s all speculation. I mean God doesn’t include that in this story. Why, I mean, the story is about jesus and it’s about him receiving the glory and thats why even just like this, I I call it the glory and the obscure God doesn’t need fame in in your prestige to get glory, like he uses many people who are just average in common, me and you Right? So that’s that’s really one of the things I like about this, but it does tell us the things that are important. It doesn’t tell us his position, it doesn’t tell us of his esteem, his ranking, his position, that he was well known. It tells us nothing like that, but it tells us the things that are important, It says that he is righteous, he’s developed and he’s led by the spirit those were important enough for God to mention and righteous. When the bible talks about being righteous, this is not something you can just self declare, well you can self declare it, it doesn’t make it true, right? When God talks about someone being righteous, it’s that they are justified by their faith and not by their works, they have been justified, they have been forgiven. And they are a person of true genuine faith. They are a believer, they are a christian and this is what God tells us of him, not of his own self admonishment, not of his own self acclaim. God says this is a righteous man, he is righteous and devout and devout, right. I mean, we think about someone whose devout, their their steadfast, they are committed and some of the traditional translations would say careful, he was very careful to obey what God has commanded right? Not just to listen, but to listen and then obey. And so as he says, this is a righteous and devout man. This is a very, a very high prominent praise for this man. And we see he’s led by the Spirit. It doesn’t tell us how he’s led by the spirit exactly. But we know that he’s led by the Spirit, this is pre Pentecost. So the Spirit is not descended in a permanent residence upon believers yet, at this time, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit would come and go. It would be on people from for a portion of time. And yet now we have the feeling of the Spirit, but this is before that, but what it tells us again, it doesn’t tell us of all these different things about his life. It tells us about these uh these characteristics of being righteous and devout and and following the spirit and this man, I mean this man has lived a successful life, right? He has lived a very successful life. And and some people say, well, how can you say that well? Because if you are righteous and about you, you fulfill what God has called you to do. And so we measure success Weird, right? I mean, think about how we measure success. How do you measure success in anything in your life? It’s generally based on a quantity measure. Is it how many people you have following you? Is it how much money you make? Is it how much influence you have? It’s how many people know you, is it? What is it? Right? It’s generally based on a quantitative measure. And yet God is like, you know that you don’t have to be famous, you don’t have to be well known, you don’t have to be any of that. What he measures, not the quantity of things. He measures it by the quantity of our faith. Think about throughout the bible, all the other stories that come into play when when people are rich man would come and he would give all this money and in fact they would like ring these bells and they would be like look at this man, look how much he gave, they just praise him and you know, you know it’s okay, you know, he’s acting like he’s humble and it’s like, you know, they they loved it and jesus never walked by, I was like, oh he didn’t join in that, but when the, when the poor lady gave her might, you know, a couple of pennies at best and he’s like, hold on, he stops everyone. Did you see that? Did you see her faith? I mean, this is probably what she has to live on. It was probably like, do I sacrifice to God or do I by some small crumbs of food just to fill my stomach. And he calls out her, he’s like, did you see her faith? Her quantity was nothing, Her faith was incredible. And so when we think about Simeon, he gets 10 verses and it’s like, who’s Simeon? Simeon is an incredible man of faith, I hope my life can at least replicate that in some degree, right? All of us could probably resonate with this, Who are any of us really to the rest of the world, right. Do we have famous people? I don’t think so, and can’t be that famous, I don’t know what you’re famous, I mean, right, that’s we can’t be that famous and we’re probably that obscure person. Sure, some people know us, we know each other, you know, we have our networks of friends and people, but none of us are probably that famous, we probably resonate with Simeon, we’re going to live a life and not be famous and well known and super rich or whatever it might be but we all can live that life of just being devout and righteous and faithful and led by the spirit just like Simeon and so I love, I love characters like this because it feels like me yeah, I’m primarily can be well known but I can be faithful and God can use these same words for my life and that’s what I hope he does. But what, what are you doing? He is waiting for the consolation of Israel. I grew up playing sports and consolation was generally not a good term right, you were in the consolation bracket, you’re like well the best I can get his third alright, I lost consolation here is to console right there waiting. They were as as this christmas songs that we’re singing right? They were, they were under oppression and they were waiting for their comfort, their redeemer, their messiah, they wanted to be peaceful, they wanted to be redeemed from this situation and again we always are reminded that they looked at it in a physical way and and God came and he gave gave them that spiritual peace, he didn’t promise to free them from roman rule when he showed up but that’s what they thought, which is why some of the obscurity happens is they were expecting something and he came in a very different way, they expected this mighty king to forcefully take over and he comes humble king, the picture of the cult riding in on a cult and all these different areas of humility, a poor family but he was waiting and a couple of verses prior to this as a couple weeks ago as we were talking about the shepherds, it says suddenly, right when the angels showed up says suddenly there was a multitude of heavenly host of angels praising God and saying glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to the people he favors. They were waiting. They were waiting for peace. That’s what they wanted. And I mean who doesn’t want that? Right? That’s that’s what we are after in this life we are after peace. It’s been revealed. It says in the next verse, it’s been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death before the before he saw the Lord’s messiah. It’s an interesting promise right? How would you like to have that? It was most likely that he was old based on the the words that they used describing him and the time difference here of waiting. He was probably an old man. I don’t know when he got that promise. But can you imagine getting that promise and be like I could see him tomorrow and that or next month or 10 years from now. Like he was looking Right, he didn’t give up, he trusted God whether that was a month or 20 years. He trusted God. He continued to look, he remained faithful looking because he expected that promise to come true right. For some of us would be like, you know, do you do you tell people and then they think you’re crazy. Well I mean did he tell anybody? I don’t know. But he was very faithful and at least doing his part, some of you might be like, you know what, I’m gonna do something dangerous, I’m gonna skydive like well that’s dangerous. You could get hurt unless jesus is on that plane, I ain’t dying right. Like he was guaranteed that he was going to see the Lord’s messiah and so he lived that life and he waited and he waited and he waited expectantly and that’s what we should be doing. We should be faithfully walking with God expecting God and his timing to be faithful to all his promises. But he was guided in verse 27, guided by the spirit. He was guided by the spirit. He entered entered the temple when the parents mary and joseph brought in the child, jesus to perform For him. What was customary under the law. Right? As we talked about on day 40, the purification and the dedication Simeon took him in his arms and praised God. Now we’ve dedicated for kids and this might be the weirdest baby dedication ever. Like you walk in and some old guy comes up and he’s like let me take your son and start saying all these things about and you’re like who are you? Right, like it would be kind of weird, but you’d probably kind of just go along with it and smile and like you know make sure he doesn’t drop them but so he walks in but think about how he was guided by the spirit, the temple was probably an active place, probably very active, might not have been the only kid being dedicated, I mean there’s a lot of babies being born and so but he was but he was lead, he saw jesus and he was led and guided to him and he knew he knew this was the messiah and so he grabs him and he lifts him up and he has this physical encounter with jesus, I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure we would all love to have a physical encounter with jesus. Many people as you here as they are wrestling with their faith would, will say things like, I mean if if I could live in that day where I could see jesus where I could touch him, I can watch him perform miracles, then I think my faith would really be strong and complete. I think then I would be this man or woman of faith. If I could just see him that tangible aspect of being right there and remember this happens later with thomas as jesus dies and he’s resurrected and thomas says and they’re telling him jesus is alive Yeah right, I’m not gonna believe that. And how gullible do you think? I’m not believing that unless I can put my hand in his side, unless I can touch my savior? No, and Jesus was very gracious in this moment and he allowed thomas, he shows up and he allows thomas to put his fingers in his side and touch his wounds in the in the physically touch him after his resurrection. But remember what it says, I mean, Jesus says very specifically to thomas says because you have seen because you’ve seen me, you believe, but blessed are those who do not see and yet believe that’s us, that’s us blessed are us blessed. Are we who believe without that physical tangible experience with God? Now we do have to have a personal experience with God. But it will not be tangible. This side of this side of life, there will be a day on the other side of life. Well, I will get a physically be with my savior, but not on this side of life, it is by faith that we are gonna believe in and experience, Jesus christ. And once he does once he has this encounter with him, he says some pretty amazing things he says. Now master, you can dismiss your servant in peace as you promised. You can dismiss me, my life is complete. I have fulfilled. I’ve looked, I’ve long that I’ve waited and you answered, my life, take it. I’m ready to go home. And he says, you can dismiss me in peace as you promised. For my eyes have seen your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all people, a light for the revelation to the gentiles and glory to your people, Israel. And again, it’s interesting because this was foretold. It wasn’t done in secret. It says you have prepared it in the presence of all people. It was not done in secret, not hidden, but yet because of the difference in what they expected versus what was happening, it was lost to them. It was obscured. They didn’t see it. and in verse 32, even more profound was the fact that Simeone said here says, you know, he’s going to be a light of revelation to the gentiles and the glory to your people. Israel, If you remember at this time, the jews hated the gentiles and vice versa. In fact, they didn’t even like the half jews the Samaritans, if you weren’t jewish through and through, you are not the people of God God’s not coming for you. Okay, Do you think about Jonah? And the old testament when he was told to go to these gentiles and he’s like, okay, God, nope, I’m I’m rejecting that I’m going the other way. You want me to go there, I’m going there, right. And then we know the story of just how God pursued him to go there. He he hated them. He did not want them to get saved, he literally did not want them to get saved. And so there’s this animosity right there right now happening. And even Simeon says, no, jesus is gonna be a light to all people, to the world, to the gentiles, to the Israelites, to all people. He is coming back for everyone, he is here and he’s gonna die for everyone. And so he has this spiritual agenda that was different than the expectations. And so what was happening in public was not even noticed by many, but Simeon, he saw him just as he had promised and he was a humble servant, Just Lord, this is what’s happening. I see it, take me home, this is so good and he has peace, but that that’s a special kind of peace then he can just say Lord, this is, I’m ready to go, my life is fulfilled. You have been faithful and people are looking for that. I think about the christmas season, how many times do you see peace? The word piece on signs in songs, we are searching for peace and people can look all over the place and many people will tell you that they have found peace right there at a place in their life where they just they found peace and and they’re not a believer and so at best you can’t find, you can maybe find appeasement, that’s all you got without jesus, you don’t have peace, you have appeasement, you have found something to temporary appease what you think is good. But when that fades, you’ll find out there’s no true peace in it. If it’s money and something happens and you have no money, your piece is gone. If its possessions, it’s experiences, if it’s relationships, whatever it is, that can be taken away and then your piece can get taken away. If that’s what you find peace in. And so when people look for peace, the only true lasting peace is if you come to jesus christ, that cannot be taken away, it is not dictated based on your circumstances, Jesus remains true and faithful and we can experience peace even in the most difficult at times. And so that’s what they’re looking for. A lot of them don’t even know Isaiah 967, this is a very common verse. You’ll hear around the Christmas time says for us, for to us, a child is born to us, a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father Prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, jesus is the piece that we’re looking for and it can only be temporarily satisfied by other worldly things. But it will not provide lasting peace unless you have given your life to christ, unless you’ve come to him through faith. And just like Simeon, when you have done that, you are declared righteous and devout as Simeon is so with or without a personal encounter, we can’t encounter peace. And so every one of us needs to experience that and we need to submit our lives to him. And so this happens, he has a personal encounter with jesus And it says that his parents, in verse 33, his father and mother were amazed at what was being said, right, you’d be pretty amazed if someone says this is the salvation of your people, right? He’s gonna be a light of revelation to the world. You’re like, oh my goodness, this old man is awesome, I love this old man, right? He’s saying these great things about my kid, but then he keeps talking and then he says, and Simon blessed them are Simeon blessed them and told them and told his mother mary indeed this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and it will be assigned to be opposed and a sword will pierce, pierce your own soul, that the thought of many hearts may be revealed. So you’re like this, Well man is great and he starts saying that, hey, your son is going to cause the fall of many people actually is gonna be really opposed. There’s gonna be a ton of people don’t like him, you’re like, can I have my son back, you’re no longer my favorite old man, right? Like I’ll take my kid back, please. But these these are hard things to hear. Can you imagine hearing this as a as a parent? But the interesting thing is, is Symbian speaks to mary, why not joseph? Even in God’s providence, in his, in his sovereignty and knowing the situation, he speaks to mary, Because somewhere along the way, the last time we hear is about age 12 and Joseph is not mentioned again, he dies and Jesus has a responsibility to take care of his mom. And you even see that on the cross as he’s dying, he goes and tells john john, this is now your mom, mom, this is your son and she goes into his home and he takes care of her. Like he had a responsibility as the oldest son to to take care of her. And so he speaks Simion speaks to mary saying there’s gonna be some hard things coming. This this man is gonna be raised up and he’s gonna be, he’s gonna cause the rise and fall, he’s gonna cause a division. He’s gonna be opposed, he’s gonna be hated, he’s gonna be ridiculed, It’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be so tough and it’s gonna pierce your own soul, It’s gonna be painful. He was telling her beforehand. Before she even cognizant lee understood what that was too mean, what was gonna happen many who have an encounter with, Jesus will reject them and that’s the truth of the matter, Not all who encountered, Jesus will accept them. Many. We’ll reject them. I mean think about Peter, all these different biblical characters were Peter, he accepts him, changes his life and lives after after christ all the days of his life. And yet judas walked in the same situation and he turned and he walked away from jesus. You got two people on the cross next to jesus to thieves, One repents and one doesn’t, one spends eternal life with Jesus Christ and one doesn’t. There are many you got characters like mary Magdalene who have a sketch background at best and demon possessed and she gets saved and she follows christ and then you have the religious people who you would think yeah this this is me who would choose jesus. Yet the Pharisees and the Saddest sees and describes the religious the good that the reputable people and they reject jesus, many will reject. Few will actually accept jesus as their savior. Think about an ax when when Pentecost comes and there’s how many people are in the upper room right after Jesus gets killed and all they’re like oh my goodness! I thought this was the messiah, what is going on? There’s 100 and 20 up in the upper room, praying Romans eight tells us there’s only a remnant list And Romans 11. It says so too at the present time. There is a remnant chosen by grace. There’s a small number of people who are faithful because this is a very difficult situation. He was a man opposed and if you chose to follow jesus and you put your faith in christ especially in this time you would be opposed, you might lose your position, you might be kicked out of your own family per se. You would not be invited back, you could lose all kinds of reputation, not be able to go in the temple markets, your livelihood, jesus would cause the rise and fall of many. He was a very polarizing figure and I could not imagine the difficulty as a mother as mary sees her son being ridiculed. Can you imagine if your child is ridiculed publicly and disgraced and for doing nothing wrong, I would just be like the angry guy right? Like I’d be so mad and I would want to probably seek revenge and I would probably do things that would not be Godly right? And but it would be like can you imagine seeing your kid go through this and you can do nothing or him on the cross dying being pierced ah like I don’t even want to fathom right? Like that’s not even something I want to pretend to fathom and he prepares her along the way, right? He he goes and think about the different stories in the bible where he says you know, hey look at your mother and your brothers are out here and he’s like who are my mother and my brothers and he starts to shift this position where he has to change eventually from sun to savior, right? I I don’t go home and say mom I am now your savior. That would be weird right? Like because I’m not, but it’s like how do you shift at a point in time in jesus life, he had to move from being mary’s son to being mary’s savior and Simeon for warned that there would be pain some of that from that opposition, some of it from seeing his son crucified, but some of it also from her son pulling away that she didn’t understand that this was her savior and so he tells her of these difficulties that are coming. They would pierce her own soul. But then also at the very end it says that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. So Simon is an obscure man, probably no different than you and I in a sense of just nothing prominent, he’s an obscure man. He has a personal encounter with jesus which we are called to have a personal encounter with jesus, all of us are and it doesn’t just happen one time per se. Yes, you get you have an encounter with jesus and you get and you choose, you put your faith in him and you are saved but then it’s not like okay I no longer have to walk with jesus. No, then then I can encounter him throughout his word through prayer on a daily basis, right? We are called to have a personal encounter with jesus and we can’t fake it out, we can’t fake him. We can’t just pretend you could walk into church and you could be sitting here each week every week and you could have the biggest smile, you could greet everybody, you could you could pretend all you want and you can fake me, Oh you can right, you can do me, I I don’t know, but you will not be able to convince jesus of something that is not true. He can he knows the thoughts and intentions of our heart. He knows why we do things, he knows the motivation. Is it for me? Is it for looks, is it just because right, I want to gain something now he knows the exact intentions of our heart, which is both comforting and a little scary because I know my heart’s deceitfulness and so God knows my heart the genuineness of it. I think about about when I had an impersonal personal encounter with christ, like I I was lead over time and I can look back now and say man, God had just led me and drew me in, but there was a time when I gave my life to christ and I remember that I remember that specifically just how I right my pride and I and I submitted and I gave my life to christ and I chose to walk by faith and it was a very special time in my life. Do you remember the uniqueness of that experience for you when you chose to put your faith in christ and that you received the Holy Spirit. There there’s a very significant time in our life when we are called to do that, but then I think about the christmas season and it gets so busy and we’re here celebrating jesus and his birth and why he came to save us and where we get christmas parties and work parties and friends and late nights and traveling and we’re doing all these things, how many of us miss spending time with jesus walking with him, that personal relationship, that personal encounter with christ on a daily basis in the business of life isn’t that kind of backwards when it comes to christmas? We celebrate something by not celebrating it by not right, we want to celebrate jesus by not spending time with them. Mhm. I know that’s not our heart and our intention, but that’s life, it really pulls you in all these different directions. And so for you who have experienced that you’ve put your trust in christ you, he is your Lord and savior during this christmas season take some time if you’ve got a busy schedule, you’re running around schedule time make it a priority to step back and to be with jesus, to spend that personal time with him right to read his word, to pray to meditate to really take the season for what it’s for, to celebrate that our God would send his son to die for each and each one of us and like Simeon that we would be counted as these faithful. These righteous, devout sanctified, led by the spirit people day in and day out. Amen Lord, we thank you, we thank you that you you get the glory in all things and that we can just be part of that. I pray as Simeon was righteous and devout Lord, that that would be something that marks my life, that marks all of our lives. I pray that you would help us during the christmas season to take time just to be with you, to be in your presence, to read your word, to praise you, to worship you because you deserve it Lord. And this is why we celebrate Father, we love you and we just thank you for our time today. Amen