Title: Simeon’s Song
Text: Luke 2:25-35
Truth: Christmas reminds us that God remembered to save sinners.
Aim: I want them to understand and receive God’s salvation.
Life? What kind of salvation did God provide sinners?
INTRODUCTION
There is something comforting about the many lives in Scripture of which we know very little. There was more to the story of the woman who knew if she could just touch the fringe of Jesus’ robe she would get well. There was more to tell about the woman who anointed Jesus with a jar of perfume, or the thief who hung beside Jesus on the cross. Yet, we are told only that they will be remembered. And they are. However insignificant their lives were to society, they have been captured in the pages of history as people worth remembering, people who had a role in the story of God on earth—people remembered by God when multitudes wished them forgotten. It is a comforting reminder that our fleeting lives are infinitely significant because we are remembered by the One who sees our hearts and hears our prayers long before others notice and long after they have stopped listening. Simeon is another one of those characters that we know little about, but he played a part in the story of God on earth, and he is remembered (Jill Carattini).
We are told his name and address in v. 25. I have always thought Simeon was an old man, and he may have been. But that is an assumption I drew from his statement that God promised him he would not die until he’d seen the Messiah, and now he is willing to die. We’re told he lives in Jerusalem and then Luke gives us a four-fold description of his character.
He is righteous and devout. Righteousness describes his character and devout describes his attitude toward God. In other words, Simeon treated people right. He took God seriously. His commitment to God governed the way he related to people and to God. He was a godly man.
He was waiting eagerly and expectantly for the “consolation of Israel.” One of the names the rabbis had for the Messiah was the consolation of Israel or Comforter. They believed when the Messiah arrived he would comfort Israel after all her suffering.
We’re told the Holy Spirit is upon him. This is a tremendous characteristic of Simeon. Before Pentecost and the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell the personality of every believer, the Holy Spirit would come upon certain individuals to empower them to accomplish some task. He did this for the prophets. What the Holy Spirit did for Moses and David, He did for Simeon.
Lastly, we are told that God revealed to him that he would not die before he saw the Messiah, the Savior of Israel and the nations. What follows is the perfect synchronization of God’s promise. At the very moment that Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple to perform the requirements of the law for a son on the eighth day, the Holy Spirit persuades Simeon he needs to go to the temple at that very moment. How they connected, we don’t know. How the Holy Spirit informed Simeon it was this baby boy and not another, we don’t know. But we do know what’s most important. God kept his promise of the ages and kept his promise to this man, He has remembered to save sinners by sending the Savior.
Though we don’t know much about Simeon, we are told more about the salvation that God has provided. That’s what’s most important, and Simeon played his part in the story of God’s salvation for sinners. What kind of salvation did God provide for sinners?
I. GOD POINTS TO A TIMELESS SALVATION (LK 2:29-31, 34)
This was not an accident; God planned our salvation before the beginning of time. Simeon said in v. 30 that God prepared this salvation. In v. 34, he tells Mary that Jesus was destined to be the Savior of God’s salvation. When you think about it many elements of the Christmas story point to God’s eternal plan of salvation.
Some of you may have a star that caps your Christmas tree, or maybe you sent out Christmas cards that emphasize the star that led the wise men to Jesus. The star testifies to the timelessness of salvation, and science supports this teaching of scripture. I don’t have a problem if God suddenly created a star and caused its light to travel faster than the speed of light. He is the Creator, and He can do what He wants. But in the normal workings of our solar system, scientists tell us it takes years for light from a star to reach us. The sun is 93 million miles away, and it takes eight minutes for its light to reach earth. But the stars that are farthest from us but still visible take over 4,000 years for the light to reach us!
The Bible does not suggest that God miraculously created this star and sped its light to earth so it would arrive in the first century. It just says a star appears. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that the light the Magi saw around the time of Jesus’ birth had been speeding toward earth for hundreds or thousands of years? When Isaiah said, 700 years before Jesus’ birth, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light (9:2), this light could have been traveling for hundreds or thousands of years in order to arrive right on time for Jesus’ birth.
What I am saying is that our salvation was not an accident nor was it plan B after man sinned. Before there was a beginning, God had a plan of salvation for sinners that would display His amazing glory. Nothing was haphazard.
But what does this mean to us? The gospel is never outdated. The message of salvation was not just for another time or another culture. Twenty-first century Americans need God’s timeless salvation as much as first century Jews and Gentiles.
Every generation has declared the gospel as outdated and needing to be replaced by something more sophisticated. Voltaire, the French author and philosopher of the 1700’s, said that Christianity would be dead and thrown on the heap of outdated religions within one hundred years. What actually happened was that in 150 years his home was the office for a society that distributed Bibles!
Thomas Paine was an influential writer at the birth of our nation. He wrote The Age of Reason. In his book he called the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross an invention. He claimed his book would replace the reading of the Bible. Of course, you’ve all read his book, haven’t you? How many of you have read The Age of Reason? How many of you have read the Bible? Today, the Bible is the most sought after book and year after year is the runaway bestseller.
We hear these same voices today accusing the Christian faith of being hopelessly old- fashioned for our postmodern world. It’s heard in the late-night comedian mocking anyone that believes in a snake that talks. It’s the recent Newsweek article that said the Bible’s morals on homosexuality were misinterpreted and need updated for our day. It is heard in the tone of the question by TV reporter Cynthia McFaddin when she asked incredulously if President George Bush believes the Bible is literally true. It is heard in his cowardly or ignorant response that he does not believe in a literal Bible. I wonder if either of them knows what it even means to believe in a literal Bible? Do you read the newspaper metaphorically or literally? To read the Bible literally means you read it as the author intended it to be read.
Long after the mocking comedian is a has-been and homosexuality is finally recognized as an unacceptable moral choice and a younger, prettier face has long replaced Cynthia McFadden, people by the tens of thousands will be calling out to Jesus Christ for salvation every Sunday. Why? Because people know there is nothing better that answers the big issues we all struggle with than God’s timeless plan of salvation. We all know something is wrong. We all know we can’t fix it. We need a rescuer, a superman, somebody who can do what we cannot. The only one that qualifies is Jesus Christ.
If Christ has not returned and my grandkids get to be old men and old women, there are many things today that are going to be outdated. Things like computers, ipods, space shuttles and airplanes, but there is one thing in my world that will still be relevant in their world. It is God’s timeless plan of salvation.
II. GOD PROVIDES AN INCLUSIVE SALVATION (LK 2:30-31).
I mean by this, God’s salvation is for everyone.
Simeon sings that God has worked in such a way in history that Jews and Gentiles understand that He has provided salvation for all sinners. There are many examples in the Old Testament like Ruth, the idol worshiping Moabite, who embraces the God of her mother-in-law Naomi. In time she becomes the great grandmother of King David.
It’s seen in the New Testament. Luke illustrates this in his second volume, too. In Acts 1:8 it says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts reveals the good news of salvation beginning in the center of Jewish life, Jerusalem. But the book ends with the gospel being offered to Gentiles at the center of the Gentile world, Rome. God provides salvation for all.
According to v. 32, this baby will be a light to the Gentiles who are living in darkness. He will show them where salvation for sinners is found. He will add to the glory of Israel by completing the work God started with Israel in telling the world that there is a way of escape for sinners from the judgment of God. Christmas reminds us that God loves and wants to forgive all sinners of their sins through Jesus Christ. This is why we are compelled to take this message to everyone. The world misunderstands and resents our efforts.
On December 8, 2008 Cynthia McFadden on Nightline interviewed President Bush. She asked the President if he believed his prayers are directed to the same God “that a Muslim prays to.”
“I do,” said Bush.
“That’s gotten you in some trouble with your base,” McFadden responded.
“Maybe it does,” Bush said. “I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough, loving enough, that can encompass a lot of people. I don’t think God is a narrow concept. I think it’s a broad concept. I just happen to believe the way to God is through Christ, and others have different avenues toward God, and I believe we pray to the same Almighty—I do.” I thank God that President Bush is the president of our nation. I really do. But I also thank God that he is not our nation’s theologian. He could not be more contradictory of the clear teaching of the Bible he claims to read.
Chuck Colson told of one young man, who said to him, “You Christians are so arrogant. You think Jesus is the only route to God. It’s an insult to anyone who follows another faith.” His parting shot was: “It’s intolerant religious views like yours that lead to hatred and violence.”
One Jewish rabbi of our day (Rabbi Schmuley Boteach) calls Christian’s truth claims “spiritual racism.”
We are deeply resented for taking the gospel to Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Mormons, and seeking to convert them to Christ. We do have a history of acting badly toward these other faiths, but for Christians to take the gospel to people of other faiths is an act of love not hatred, an act of obedience not arrogance. What we are actually saying by our seeking to reach all people exclusively for Christ is that the gospel is inclusive, it is for all people. Nobody is outside of the reach of the saving love of Jesus Christ. He loves and wants to forgive sinners like atheist Lee Strobel, who is now a powerful spokesman for Jesus Christ. He loves and wants to forgive the sins of Muslim Ergan Caner, who is now a powerful spokesman for Jesus Christ and the dean of theology at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.
We have been insensitive to other’s culture. We’ve been offensive in our manner. Those things need to change, but we must never change the commitment to tell others the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves all people and wants to set them free from sin.
What amazes me when I hear attacks on Christianity is the failure to understand the nature of truth. All truth claims are, by definition, exclusive. Anytime you say something is true, you’re claiming that anything that contradicts it is false. Every major religion does this, not just Christianity.
Let me make a side comment on Christianity’s truth claims leading to violence and hatred. When it is honestly reported the violence nearly always comes from the people who resist the message and hate the messenger. It’s nearly always them and not us who commit the violence.
Can you name a Christianized nation where your life is in danger because you practice another religious faith? What do you think would have happened to the atheists in Washington State if they lived in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Iran and they put up an attack sign next to some remembrance of Mohammed like they did with the manger scene?
The Christmas message has no equal in any other faith. Christmas says God loves all people and wants them to be saved.
III. GOD PROCLAIMS A DIVISIVE SALVATION (LK 2:34-35)
Yes, the gospel is good news but it is also divisive. This child will seal Mary’s reputation as being the most blessed mother throughout all generations, but this child will bring great suffering to Mary, too. We can only imagine what Mary must have endured being the mother of baby Jesus and then standing at the cross watching her first born die cross after being cruelly tortured. That illustrates the clear division this child created in mankind. There are those that worship and receive Him as Savior and Lord, and there are those that scoff and reject Him. Why such opposite response? It’s because our response to Jesus exposes what is truly in our heart.
Other religions place their emphasis upon behavior, what people do. The Pharisees were very religious. They gave great effort to obeying religious duties. They hated Jesus because he exposed their real motivations. He said they didn’t pray to be heard by God but to be noticed by men. They didn’t give tithes and offerings and benevolent gifts to worship God and meet the need of the needy. They did it to receive the praise of men. Jesus described them as white-washed sepulchers full of dead men’s bones. He exposed their heart, their true motivations, and they hated him for it.
When people understand the plain message of salvation found in the Savior, Jesus Christ, there are always two results. People either embrace the message or reject it. They either love Christ or they hate Christ. The truth often hits a raw nerve. Not everybody who comes to church wants to hear the honest, plain truth. Sometimes the truth of God is awful news to people.
I blame the way I was raised. I was taught it is rude to interrupt people when they are talking. That makes me a dream call when I get a phone call from a telemarketer. I often listen to the whole sales speech. The truth is I am an impossible sale to a telemarketer. I simply refuse to buy from them. On the other hand, as soon as Carol figures out who it is, she just hangs up on them in mid-sentence, and she doesn’t feel a twinge of guilt. But the truth is she was not going to buy and they didn’t ask permission to interrupt her day, so she quit the conversation. Carol is far more honest than I am.
The truth usually has an edge to it. Despite Americans constant search for some miracle diet that requires no sacrifices, it doesn’t exist. If you make a certain amount of money for a family income, you should not own a new car. We are constantly being told the benefits of a new drug, but they gloss over the side effects. Truth usually has an edge to it.
When the truth of the gospel is told there will be some aspects that are offensive. But that’s the way truth is. It exposes and convicts and demands change. Truth has an edge. By the way, it ought to be the truth that offends and not our manner or presentation. “Speak the truth in love,” Paul said in Eph. 4:15.
It’s true. God loves you so much He will go to any length to close the separation between Him and you. He will leave the holy atmosphere of heaven and enter this world as a baby born to peasants if that is what it will take. He will live sinlessly in this world of vulgarity and ghastliness. He will even die on a cross for your sins and mine to close the distance between us.
But why is this necessary? You are fundamentally a self-centered person. You’re selfish. You love you more than you love God. You consistently chose your way and reject God’s authority. This kind of rebellion deserves judgment and eternal hell.
CONCLUSION
See what I mean? Truth has an edge. But in this case the truth will save you. It has saved people for 2,000 years. The only people who are not included in God’s family are those who chose to reject Christ rather than receive Him. Don’t stumble over Christ. Rise and receive Him in faith.
PRAY
INVITATION
Recently, I watched the movie Family Man with Nicolas Cage and Tie Leone. It’s the morning of their wedding anniversary, and he forgot it. He has no gift for his wife. She is deeply wounded that he failed to remember her. Not a one of you can accuse God of that. Christmas is a reminder that he remembered to save sinners.
