Rediscover Hope Series

[Grateful acknowledgement to Sermon Central contributor Scott Bayles. His sermon "Christmas Carols, part 4" provides much of the backbone for this sermon.]

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Luke 2.

I am so thankful that you have joined us for this season of Advent! The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is traditionally a time of expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing.

We can forget what it’s like to long for something. To wait in anticipation. Advent gives us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming.

Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and help us place our focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world. It’s not a season of pretending to be happy or covering up the pain or hardships we have experienced during the past year or continue to experience—it is a season of digging deep into the reality of what it means that God sent His Son into the world to be Immanuel, God With Us. It is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence more than just the hectic season of presents.

Now, we’ve had a tough year. And there have been times when things looked really bleak. But as we begin this sermon series called “Rediscover Christmas,” I want us to begin by Rediscovering Hope.

As hard as this year has been, take a moment to think about what it was like for Jews living in Israel during the time of Jesus. Israel, like much of the world, was a defeated nation under the thumb of the Roman Empire. It had been thousands of years since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the calling out of God’s people. Since then, Israel had been invaded and conquered at least four times. First by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, followed by the Greeks, and now Romans. Generation after generation remembered the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, that “All peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham. That one day there would be a Messiah who would come make things right, to bless humans and restore all that we humans had messed up since God’s perfect Creation.

But how long can hope survive? Especially under the oppression of the Roman Empire. Was anyone even looking anymore?

As it turns out, the answer is yes. Now, we are going to take things a little out of order this year. Here, on this first Sunday of Advent, we are actually going to jump ahead to when after Jesus was born. We are going to learn about someone who had never given up hope. His name was Simeon, and we read about him in Luke 2:22-36.

If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word:

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[a] 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.”

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray together.