The Patience Of Simeon Series

Simeon- A Portrait of Patience

Intro. Allow me if you will to recreate for you, retell if you will a story about a man. A man who is often overlooked in the Christmas story. If you were to break down his character, give him a portrait, he would be the portrait of patience. He waited his entire life for one gift, that gift was Jesus Christ. His story is found in Luke 2:1-38. This story has the fingerprint of God all over it. Make no mistake, this story is not about this man or this character, it is all about Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. We can learn and see some things in this man’s life, but the point of Luke 2 is simply, Jesus is the Messiah. If you would like to follow along as I retell this man’s story, please do so in Luke 2:1-38.

Turn into Simeon

Everyday the walk gets a little longer and a little harder for me. I am getting old you know. My knees aren’t what they used to be. I am starting to get a little arthritis in my hands. My hair is, well let’s call it the color of wisdom. Okay, so I’m graying a bit. Still, getting older isn’t that bad. It just makes my walk to the temple a little more difficult. I remember the days when I could just run through the streets without even thinking about it. I would run past the markets and every once in a while, accidentally knock over a cart of food. I could get around pretty well in my youth, but these days I somber slowly to where I need to be. The walk to the temple is more often than not a chore. I love to go to the temple; in fact I go there every week to worship God. The walk is not very fun though. But the other day as I walked toward the temple it was different. There was something different about my walk there. I was excited, in fact I felt like a kid again. I couldn’t run or jump to the temple, but I walked more quickly toward it than I had in a while. What was it that made that day so different for me? The difference was that the Spirit of God was urging me on toward the temple. Deep from inside my soul, the Spirit was telling me to make my way to the temple. I didn’t know for sure why God wanted me there on this day, I had my guesses. But I had already been there that week to worship. Yet, for some reason God wanted me at the temple that day. So I walked as briskly as I could to get there. I made my way through the crowded streets of Jerusalem until I rounded the corner and there it was the temple. My pace quickened as I made my way through the Golden Gate. I walked through the Beautiful Gate and into the Court of Women not knowing what or who I was looking for at all. I looked as if I was struck by the temple’s beauty the way I was looking around the temple. People bumped into me as they passed by and I still didn’t know what I was doing there. Then I noticed a couple as they entered in through the Beautiful Gate. No one else noticed them because they looked just like everyone else. They were walking through the Court of Women and headed toward the place of the temple where he could make sacrifices. That’s when the Spirit pushed me forward. I knew in my heart what was happening, this was it. All my life I had waited for this moment. As quickly as I could, I made my way over to them. I pushed my way through the thick crowd toward that couple. Then I finally reached them. And when I got to the couple I looked at the child and I reached out my arms to hold the baby.

How foolish of me. You’re probably wondering how I got here and who I am. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Simeon. I spend a lot of my time in the temple. No I am not a priest or even a prophet. I am just a normal man who is very devoted to his God. I have been devoted to God no matter what the people around me have done. So many times our people, the Jews, fall away from God. A lot of times we were out right disobedient toward God. Yet, I have still done my best to live my life according to God’s Spirit within me. God has had an open line of communication with me through His Holy Spirit. In fact it was a while back, my memory fails me in my age, when God’s Spirit spoke to me and told me something incredible. The Spirit of God made a promise to me and that promise was that I would not see death until I had seen the Messiah. That promise was amazing to me because I have wanted nothing more than to see God’s Anointed One come to earth. You see, just like most other Jews, I was waiting for the consolation of Israel. I was waiting for the comfort of Israel. This comfort was going to come through the Messiah. He was going to save His people and that was going to be our comfort. And now, because of this promise from God Himself, I knew that I was going to get the chance to see Him. All of the Jewish people have been waiting for this moment, for the Messiah to come, but God had promised me that I would see Him before I died. I don’t think that I am more holy than anyone else. I don’t even think that I am more righteous than any other Jewish person. But for some reason, God has spoken to me through His Spirit and allowed me, through a promise, to see the Messiah. I had waited years to hear news of the coming Messiah, but I hadn’t heard anything for a while. The reason was because God had been quiet in Israel for the last couple hundred years.