Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Simeon And Anna) Series

Good morning! Please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2.

I’d like you guys to think about the last time you went shopping for a mattress. It’s kind of a big deal. When Trish and I first got married, the mattress on our bed was the first major purchase we made together. I remember the sales person convinced us to pay way more than we were expecting to pay with one simple line. She said, “Well, if you think about the fact that you’re supposed to get eight hours of sleep a day, then you’re going to spend a third of your life in bed. So it’s worth the investment.

Genius. So we did. We bought the best mattress we could afford. Maybe even a little more than we could afford. And since you’re supposed to replace your mattress every 8-10 years, and we are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this week, that means we’ve actually gone through this three or four times now. And every time, we research, and comparison shop, and ask for advice, because we want the perfect night’s sleep. We’ve found that as we get older, that eight hours of sleep is harder and harder to come by.

Be honest: How many of you have trouble sleeping? How many of you rolled your eyes when I talked about getting eight hours of sleep a day? Did you know that if you google the phrase “the perfect mattress” you get 204 million results? Did you know that in 2019, people spent almost $79 billion on things that they hoped would help them sleep better—from medication to CPAP machines to white noise generators to sleep hypnosis, and that by 2030 that figure is expected to double?

A good night’s sleep can be hard to come by. Maybe that’s why the song “Silent Night” is consistently one of the most popular Christmas carols. It’s that one line—sleep in heavenly peace that gets us.

But have you ever thought about that song? It sounds like a lullaby. So are we singing the lullaby to baby Jesus—hoping that HE sleeps in heavenly peace? Hoping that He won’t wake up while the cattle are lowing and the little drummer boy is drumming?

If so, that’s kinda presumptuous, don’t you think? Who are we to tell the King of Kings to sleep in heavenly peace?

Because, after all, we are the ones who need sleep. It isn’t the creator of the Universe that needs to be sung to sleep. Psalm 121 says that he [God] who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."

And even when God came to earth as a human being, in the person of Jesus, He apparently never had a hard time going to sleep. One time, He fell asleep in the bottom of a boat in the middle of a furious storm. (think about that next time we have tornado warnings all night long.”

No, Silent Night is not about Mary and Joseph singing a lullaby to the baby Jesus. Silent night is about how, because of Jesus, we can sleep in heavenly peace.

This Scripture passage for today tells the story of two people who were also hoping for some heavenly peace. We are going to look at the story of Simeon and Anna, two precious senior adults who had spent their entire lives waiting for God’s heavenly peace. Their stories are in Luke chapter 2, verses 25-38. As we look at their story, I’d like us to look for the answers to three questions:

What were they looking for?

Where were they looking for it?

What did they do once they found it?

And maybe you’ve come to church this morning with some of the same questions in your life. What are you looking for? Maybe you are looking for some peace, or joy, or love, and you’re desperately hoping that it’s going to last longer than just the Christmas season. Where have you been looking for it? How have you been searching? And if you’ve found it, what do you do about it?

Let’s stand in honor of 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,