Christmas According to Simeon
(Luke 2:25-32)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
12-10-2023
I’m currently reading Geddy Lee, the lead singer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Rush, autobiography. The first part is about the history of his family.
His mother and father, both Jewish living in Poland, met and fell in love in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp! They both survived and married, having three children.
Talk about light amid darkness, love overcoming hate, and hope in hopeless situations.
Hope Floats
As a counselor, I know that this season is one of contradictions. While it’s billed as the “most wonderful time of the year,” many are experiencing a first Christmas without a loved one. Or maybe you have lost a job this year and Christmas is going to be tight. Or the diagnosis came back and you are living with cancer or another disease. Maybe your family is dysfunctional, or your kids won’t be home.
Over these next six weeks, calls to the suicide hotline will skyrocket and more people will attempt suicide than any other time of the year.
People are looking for hope. They are desperate for hope. And many have lost hope altogether.
I remember talking to a guy about my age and telling him that there was light at the end of the tunnel. He looked at me with sad eyes and said, “Jeff, the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.” About three weeks later, he ended his life.
Let me tell you this morning that we love you, we need you. Please don’t think that the world is better without it because that’s a lie from the pit of hell.
There is hope. Hear me. There is hope. It’s not in a program or a plan. It’s in a Person - Jesus Christ.
The word “hope” is used 52 times in the New Testament - enough hope for each week of the year.
In Scripture, hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is a future certainty grounded in a present reality. Or another way of saying it - hope is waiting for God to do what has already promised us.
Paul told the Christians at Corinth:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)
To Paul, it’s about where your eyes are focused. This morning we are going to meet a man whose eyes and heart were laser-focused on the hope of the coming Messiah who would bring comfort to his people’s hurting hearts.
We are going to look at his heart, his hope, his faith, and his song.
Turn to Luke 2 and we will pick up the story at verse 21.
Prayer
Joseph and Mary’s Obedience
“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.
When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:21-24)
It’s so easy to read the Bible, especially these texts at Christmas, and miss massive theological truths right in front of us.
On the eighth day, he was circumcised. Wait? Why would Jesus be circumcised?!
Circumcision was a sign of being set apart from others and the “cutting off” of sin. But Jesus had no sin to “cut off.” Why would Mary and Joseph have him circumcised?
New Testament commentator Alexander Whyte wrote:
“For He who knew no sin, and who never was to know sin, was already in His circumcision made sin for us. He was not so much as eight days in this world till he began to be numbered with the transgressors. Mary’s firstborn son was a lamb without blemish and spot, but before He was a week old, He began to bear the sins of many…
And as He began in the temple that day, so He continued every day to lead a life of pain, shame, and blood-shedding, for us for our children, till He finished on the cross the sin-atoning work His Father had given Him to do. And even after that first day of His wounding of our transgressions, that Holy Thing bore in His body the marks of our redemption.”
Mary and Joseph were also obedient to name the child what the angel told them to name him - Jesus - God saves.
40 days after his birth, they traveled to Jerusalem to present Jesus at the temple and pay the five shekel redemption price found in Exodus 13.
Remember when we studied Galatians 4:
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (Gal 4:4-5)
Jesus was born under the law and fulfilled it perfectly for our sake!
Their offering of two birds shows us that they were poor.
Some prosperity preachers teach that being poor is a sin and judgment from God. The family Jesus grew up in was poor and He was homeless for much of his ministry.
Some of the poorest people I’ve ever met have been rich in faith.
Simeon’s Heart
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.” (Luke 2:25)
Just a quick note - this verse begins with the word “Behold” in the Greek. Luke wants to call our attention to something significant.
We meet this character named Simeon. We know almost nothing about him. He was Jewish and his name means “God has heard.” Most commentators believe that he was not a priest and probably a layman.
We are told four things about him. We will explore three of them in this section and look at the fourth in the next section.
Simeon is described as “righteous and devout.”
* Righteousness in the Bible has two meanings. It can mean “justified before God by faith” and it can mean the outward expression of that righteousness in a Godly life.
Both of these definitions are true of Simeon. He is a true believer.
* He is also “devout” which describes an inner heart attitude. He is a respectful, God-fearing man. His inside attitude and his outside behavior are in perfect harmony.
These traits would have stood out in the culture of Israel at that time. Most of Israel was apostate and hypocritical. Simeon understood the spiritual bankruptcy of the culture he lived in.
He was part of a small righteous remnant of people who were faithful to God in the midst of a free-for-all culture.
The same is true today. God has a small righteous remnant and we are called to follow Simeon’s example. Amid a culture that is a mess, we are called to be righteous and devout, that’s how we stand out!
We also learn that“the Holy Spirit was on him.” The Holy Spirit is mentioned in v. 25, 26, and 27. Simeon is a man who is under the guidance, dominion, and direction of the Holy Spirit.
Before the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, He would come upon people to empower them and anoint them to do a special task.
What was Simeon’s task? We will discover that in a minute. Let’s look at his hope.
Simeon’s Hope
“It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.” (Luke 2:26)
If you noticed, we skipped a phrase in the previous verse.
It said that Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Simeon and a small group of true believers were waiting on the Messiah, the Deliverer of Israel.
Scripture says that Simeon was waiting.
There is a classic song in which Elvis sang these words, “Wise men say / only fools rush in.”
We hate waiting. The rock theologian Tom Petty sang that “waiting is the hardest part.”
We are a microwave society who get road rage when we have to wait in traffic. We get annoyed at the workers and fellow customers when we have to wait in line. We get furious when we have to wait on hold forever.
Abraham waited 25 years for the child that God had promised.
Jacob waited for 14 years to marry Rachel.
Joseph waited two years in prison.
Job waited for God to reply to his cries of confusion.
David waited years between being anointed king and finally becoming king.
Paul waited 14 years before he went to Jerusalem to tell the other apostles what he had been preaching.
Jeremiah wrote these words when surveying the ruins of his beloved Jerusalem:
?“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:25-26)
Maybe you are in a season of waiting right now. Maybe you are waiting for a prayer to be answered. Maybe you are waiting for healing. Or for a husband or wife. Or for the pregnancy test to finally come up positive. Or for your child to come back home.
When we came back from Florida, I couldn’t find a job. I ended up helping to open a hotel in Pontiac. I prayed and waited for the next step.
There were days when I was calm and just knew that God was at work behind the scenes. I faced the day with great anticipation and expectations.
There were other days when the waiting would get to me and I would freak out.
I asked this question on Facebook, “What’s the hardest thing about waiting on God?”
Here are some of the answers:
- trying to stay focused on God
- Not knowing the outcome
- Trusting that God is working in the silence
- Wanting to take action myself
- Not allowing fear to enter in
- Not knowing how or when God will answer
- Not panicking
-Dealing with the confusion and doubt
- Feeling that He is not listening or that maybe I’m asking the wrong questions
- Waiting allows for your internal negative belief system to "fill in the gaps" so you believe the lies Satan tells you and project that onto God. I've, God doesn't love me… He can't use me... I'm worthless...
Paul Tripp writes that:
“Waiting is not about what you get at the end of the wait; it’s about what you become as you wait.”
According to Eric Spier,
“Waiting reveals our true motives and transforms our character. Waiting builds intimacy and dependency with God.”
David wrote:
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14)
You can pray this:
“God, I don’t exactly know what’s going on right now. I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to be in this season. But I trust You. You are good and I know that you are working behind the scenes for my good and Your glory. I wait in faith.”
In the classic play by Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godet, two men, Vladimir and Estragon spend the entire play talking and waiting on Godet, who never shows up. The play ends with both of them contemplating suicide.
It’s terrible to wait on someone who never even bothers to show up.
While watching the Peter Jackson Beatles documentary, “Get Back,” I was especially fascinated with two girls who seemed to show up everywhere the Beatles were.
The camera pans to them several times and they are asked what they are doing. They simply said, “We are just waiting to see them.”
They were asked which one they were waiting to see. As that question was asked, John Lennon pulled up in a white Rolls Royce and walked in. They didn’t respond. Neither did they respond when George or Ringo arrived.
But it was different when Paul arrived. They were ecstatic and nearly fainted when Paul nodded their way.
They were waiting on a specific person at a specific place at a particular time and when they saw him, they responded with joy!
This Greek word means to be alert for His appearance, and ready to welcome Him.
Simeon didn’t place his hopes in the politics of Rome or the cultural advances of the Greeks. He was looking, searching, and waiting in hope for the promised King.
Consolation can mean “comfort.”
The first 40 chapters of Isaiah are almost entirely gloom and doom judgments and prophesies. But in chapter 40, something changes. Hope appears.
In a chapter that describes the coming of the Messiah, it begins with these words, “Comfort, comfort, my people says Your God.”
Simeon was waiting with hopeful expectation for the Messiah. And he knew that he would see Him before he died.
How? In some kind of private communication, the Holy Spirit had made it clear that he would see the Messiah with his own eyes before he died.
Simeon lived in confident hope, no matter the circumstances of the day.
Can you imagine his wife? Now be careful out there, honey. Simeon would respond, “No worries. Not going to die today. I haven’t seen him yet!”
Each day began with hope. Each day begins with holy expectations. Would this be the day? As he grew older, he had confidence that he would make it through the day because his mission wasn’t complete.
Simeon’s Faith
“Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.” (Luke 2:27-28)
Simeon had no idea how this was going to happen. He would have been in a constant state of alertness.
He was on the lookout for the Messiah. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
One day, the Spirit directed him to the court of the women. How? I don’t know.
But on this certain day, there is a young couple with a baby. They were there to perform the purification sacrifice for Mary (unclean 40 days after birth) and to pay the price to redeem their firstborn son.
They are young and poor, only being able to afford a pair of young pigeons. They have a 41-day-old infant with them. They are faithful to perform what God requires.
Somehow, as Simeon looked down at this baby boy he knew that all that he had hoped for was right in front of his eyes.
He took the baby in his arms and praised God. His heart leaped for joy! I’m sure others noticed and wandered over to see what this old man was going on and on about.
Simeon’s Song
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32)
Throughout Luke’s telling of the Christmas story, he has recorded the songs of the major characters - Zachariah, Mary, and Elizabeth. Now, we get to hear what Simeon sang in response to seeing the promise fulfilled in this baby.
This song is known as the Nunc Dimmitis after the first two words - now dismiss.
He addresses the song to the Sovereign Lord. In this scene, Simeon is not the main character - Jesus is.
One translation says, “Now Master you can dismiss your slave in peace.” In other words, “Now I can die. My mission is complete. I’m looking at the hope of the world in these tiny dark eyes.”
Notice as an aside - Simeon is not afraid of death at all. Death is merely the transition to the Presence of God. Legend says that Simeon was 113 years old.
Now we get to the hope he had. He exclaims, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” Simeon had eyes of hope and faith. It’s “your salvation” that he has seen. It’s God’s doing. That was God’s mission.
As you remember from Jonah - salvation is from the Lord. Psalm 3 says, “From the Lord comes deliverance.”
And that deliverance is a Person - Jesus. The Jewish people had been waiting on this event since Jacob cried out, “I have waited for your salvation, O Lord.” (Gen 49:18) By the way, the word for salvation can be translated Jesus!
Philip Ryken writes:
“Recognize that the fulfillment of all expectations has come in the person of Christ…Like Simeon, we long to see Him with our own eyes, and we treasure the expectation that one day we will.”
Simeon then says something that would have surely blown Joseph and Mary’s minds. He proclaimed this little boy would not just be the hope and glory of Israel but would be the light to the Gentiles.
Simeon is quoting from Isaiah:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6-7)
This would be a global rescue mission:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
Verse 33 tells us that Joseph and Mary were astonished and befuddled by this declaration.
Can you imagine? Mary is visited by an angel and told you are going to have a child and He will be the Messiah. Joseph gets a visit from the same angel and tells him the same thing. At the birth, angels sang and shepherds bowed. Now, this old man in the Temple is singing and our little one is the Savior of the World.
As an old Christmas song said, “This is such a strange way to save the world.”
Simeon’s Warning
“The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:33-35)
Joseph and Mary were astonished at these words. I guess that they were in a constant state of shock and awe over all that had happened thus far.
Notice this warning was directed just to Mary. Why? Joseph probably died sometime after they visited Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old.
Simeon told Mary that this child had a special mission, a destiny. There will be no neutrality when it came to Jesus.
Peter said it this way in his writings quoting from Isaiah 8 and 28 and Psalm 118:
For in Scripture, it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,? a chosen and precious cornerstone,?and the one who trusts in him? will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected? has become the cornerstone,”
and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble? and a rock that makes them fall.”
Jesus will be a sign, one pastor translates this as a “target to shoot at.”
People will either want to worship Jesus or kill him. He will expose their sinful hearts.
Simeon then makes this ominous prediction that a sword, (a large double-edged sword), will pierce Mary’s soul as well.
This is the first storm cloud on the horizon of the book of Luke.
Watching her son be lied about, arrested, tortured, and murdered would break her heart into pieces and lead her to be called “Mater Dolorassa” - the mother of sorrows.
Application
Like Simeon, we need to hold on to hope. How?
[I’m thankful to Brian Bill for some of these thoughts]
Past Promises
The Bible is full of promises and these promises can give us hope. In the same chapter in Isaiah that starts with Comfort My People, we find this promise to hold on to:
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31)
Katie Scott, a Christian blogger, reminds us of 7 promises that we can hold on to in tough times:
God’s promises never fail. — Joshua 21:45 “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; everyone was fulfilled.”.”
God is always with me — Joshua 1:9 “This is my command-be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
God is faithful — Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
God is kind and compassionate — Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love {kindness} for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”
God can be trusted — Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
God will fill me to overflowing with hope — Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
God will forgive our sins - “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
When our hope-meter is running low, we need to remember the faithfulness of God.
2. Present Help
Maybe you need hope right now. King David knew that feeling many times and wrote:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
If you need hope, run to Him. Run to his refuge. Hide in His strength. Believe that He is with you and for you in your trouble.
Psalm 18
Saturate yourself in Scripture. Seek Him. Spend quiet time with Him just thanking Him for the salvation He provided in Christ.
You can trust Him. He is good. He loves you. He wants to give you hope and take away your shame.
“No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame…” (Psalm 25:3)
Corrie Ten Boom and her family were arrested for helping Jewish people escape the Nazis and she and her sister were imprisoned at Ravensbruk concentration camp where Corrie wrote:
“No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still; with Jesus even in our darkest moments, the best remains, and the very best is yet to be.”
This leads us to:
3. Future Glory
We know much more than Simeon did. By faith, he held the Christ-child and proclaimed He would save His people.
We live on the other side of the cross. We know what He did for us—he died in our place, for our sins, to pay the penalty that we couldn’t pay to give us something we never deserved - the hope of heaven.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (I Cor 15:18-22)
To people who tell me that heaven sounds boring, I simply respond that they must not have very many people they love there yet.
What if I told you that at the end of this life, you can live in a place that is the very definition of hope?
We have that hope. If you are in Christ, (the hope of glory), then you have the hope of heaven.
Because of the Incarnation, God coming down at Christmas, we can have this hope now. In a dark world, that is getting darker, this hope can change us and help us to stand out like the star that led the way to Bethlehem.
This week, rap star Daddie Yankee [Ramon Rodriguez], retired from secular music and said that he wanted to use his platform to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Hey said, “Don’t follow me. Follow Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life.!”
Country star Granger Smith did the same thing. Leaving music and entering Southern Seminary to be a pastor.
Aslan is on the move!
Dustin Benge wrote this Christmas card:
The first advent of Christ:
He came as a baby,
He came humbled,
He came wrapped in rags,
He came to a manger.
The Second Advent of Christ:
He returns as a warrior,
He returns exalted,
He returns robed in glory,
He returns to conquer.
Jesus is not in the manger now!
Ending Video - O Come All ye Unfaithful
