A Sunday School teacher had given her class an assignment to read Isaiah chapter 9. The next Sunday she asked the class how many had remembered to read the chapter. Every hand went up.
“Wonderful! she said, I’ve got a piece of candy for anyone that complete the 2nd half of this verse: ’The people who walked in darkness...’"
Instantly she was besieged by answers!
· "Use less electricity!"
· "Stub their toes a lot!"
· "Spend most of the time sleeping"
· "Are usually burglars"
· "Could really use a flashlight!"
Obviously, those answers weren’t right.
But does anybody HERE know what Isaiah 9:2 says?
“The people who walked in darkness... have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
APPLY: No one knows how old Simeon was when he met Joseph and Mary in the Temple court.
The Bible simply says: “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ…”
And when Simeon saw Jesus he said "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.” Luke 2:26 & 29
There’s just something about how this was said that has always led me to believe Simeon was getting up there in age. But the fact of the matter was: God had made this man a promise. He was NOT going to die until he had seen the Messiah. God had promised!
So he actively LOOKED for the Messiah.
You can almost see him prowling the Temple… searching the face of each person who came through the gates. He just knows that he’ll encounter the Messiah right here in the temple. And much to his surprise, when he sees this 8 day old baby boy being carried by Mary, HE KNOWS – this is the one. The Spirit of God tells him this is the child, born to be a King.
And led by that same Spirit, Simeon tells the boy’s parents what this boy was going to do. He prophecies about what the Messiah was to accomplish.
Now, this Sunday, we’re going to focus on just one small phrase in that prophecy.
Simeon said this Messiah would be “… a light for revelation to the Gentiles...” Luke 2:32a
Now, what does that mean?
Why would Simeon say this?
Simeon said this because that was what God had said about the Messiah in Isaiah 42. God promised the Messiah: "… I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a LIGHT for the GENTILES” Isaiah 42:6
And then, in Isaiah 49, God says it again: “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 you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49:6
In the book of Acts we read about the time when Paul was preaching to a group of Jews about Jesus, and they rejected his message. So Paul quoted Isaiah 49 to them saying that since they rejected Christ, he’d now turn his message to the Gentiles. He said:
“We now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ’I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” Acts 13:47
These Gentiles became Christians because they realized that Jesus had come – not just of the Jews – but for them TOO.
Now, a couple questions need to be answered here.
1st – what’s a Gentile? (ask for response)
A Gentile is anyone who’s not a Jew.
A Jew was someone who was born of the tribe of Judah (Jews=Judah).
If you weren’t born of that tribe you weren’t a Jew… you were a Gentile.
Now, in the day of Jesus, the Gentiles were hated by the Jews. They’d have nothing to do with them. They wouldn’t eat with them, wouldn’t talk with them wouldn’t pass the time of day with them. In fact, if a Jew bought something from a Gentile merchant… he’d take it home and wash it. If they bought a table or a chair, they’d dip it in a pool. They were washing away the filth of the Gentile from their new possession.
They even had a name for the Gentiles. They called them “dogs”. Not puppy dogs. Mongrels, strays, rabid animals. The Jews considered the Gentiles losers… outsiders… worthless.
Now, there was a reason why the Gentiles were considered outsiders and losers. That’s because that’s what they were. Gentiles were NOT part of the family of God!!
Only the Jews had a special covenant with God.
Only the Jews had a unique relationship
The Gentiles didn’t have that. They didn’t have a covenant with God. They didn’t have a special relationship. They were on the outside looking in.
They didn’t have a REAL God in their lives.
And they had NO HOPE of salvation.
But what God was telling Isaiah was this:
When the Messiah came - that was all going to change.
As Simeon told Joseph and Mary: Jesus was going to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles”. Jesus had come to die for both the Jew AND the Gentile.
The Gentiles were part of God’s plan.
About 3 years after the church began, Peter preached to a Roman Centurion and his household. And not only did they become Christians, but this opened the floodgates for Gentiles who came into the church. They came in in a rush, and Gentiles churches were established in places like Philippi, Ephesus, and Corinth.
This was all in fulfillment of the prophecy that said Jesus came to be a light for the Gentiles. That Jesus came TO DIE FOR THE GENTILES as well as for the Jews.
That was how God planned it.
But to this day, there are people who don’t believe Jesus came to die for Gentiles.
They don’t believe God’s MAIN plan was to come for both Jew and Gentile.
Instead, they believe the Gentiles were an “afterthought” for God.
It’s part of the doctrine of pre-millennialism.
They teach that God’s main plan was to save the Jews… but when the Jews rejected Jesus God settled for the Gentiles. Gentiles became something of a plan “B” (if you will).
ILLUS: In fact, that what a theologian named C.I. Scofield taught. He is the author something called the “Schofield Study Bible” and he’s considered one of the “godfather” of present day pre-millennialism. He taught the Gentiles were “the Great Parenthesis” in God’s master plan. They weren’t really his main focus, but after the Jews turned from Christ, God added them in – like some great parenthesis in His plan.
Basically, pre-millennialism teaches that the Jews are the main focus of God’s plan but since they rejected Christ, God had no choice but to settle for saving Gentiles instead. Ultimately, (they teach), God will be able to save the Jews because that was His plan all along.
(PAUSE)
Now, that’s all bogus.
God declared in Isaiah that the Gentiles WERE part of God’s original plan.
In fact God said: “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 you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49:6
What that passage is saying is this: IF God’s plan had been simply to save the Jews that would have been too small a plan for God. It would have been too trivial for God to go to all that trouble just for one select group of people. Jesus was to come for the whole world.
In fact, that’s what John 3:16 tells us:
“For God so loved…” (WHO?)
“THE WORLD…”
Not just the Jews.
Jesus died for the whole shooting match!!!
So the pre-millennialists are wrong.
The Gentiles WERE part of God’s main plan.
They were meant to be saved alongside the Jews.
In fact, the New Testament calls it a “Mystery” that God would choose to save the Gentiles as well as Jews. But mystery or not… that was part of God’s eternal plan.
But, what difference does that all make?
Why should I care about who’s a Jew and who’s a Gentile?
Why should I worry about whether or not this group or that was part of God’s plan?
Well – it makes a difference for 3 reasons:
1st - If you don’t understand what “Good doctrine” is you’ll become an easy prey for bad doctrine. You see, what bad teachers do is - they take Bible statements out of context. They warp them and apply them in ways they were never meant to be used. They change the focus of and add to God’s message.
And if you don’t know what they’ve changed they’ll suck you in and draw you away from what God actually taught.
It’s kind of like this:
ILLUS: Have you ever gone to a doctor and got a prescription? You take that prescription down to the pharmacy and they sell you the medicine.
Now, have you ever heard of a druggist getting the prescription wrong?
Of course you have.
Why would a pharmacist get it wrong? Well, not because they intended to. Sometimes it happened because doctors are notorious for having bad handwriting. They are so hard to read sometimes that it’s hard for a pharmacist to read it correctly. Other times a druggist would make a mistake because so many medicines have similar kinds of names.
Now… could that hurt you?
Could taking the wrong medicine be bad for you?
Well, of course it could!!!
It might not kill you.
It might not even hurt you.
But it won’t heal you.
Because it’s the wrong medicine.
Why would you want to take bad stuff, when you could have good stuff?
Getting bad doctrine (bad teaching) is like that.
It MIGHT not rob you of your salvation.
It MIGHT not hurt your relationship with God.
BUT it’s not going to do you any good.
Why would you want to the bad stuff, when you could have good stuff?
So 1st - If you don’t understand what “Good doctrine” (good teaching) is you’ll become an easy prey for bad doctrine. You don’t want that.
2ndly – The key of the Gospel message is that neither Jew (chosen people) nor Gentile (outsiders) deserved to be saved
The book of Ephesians was addressed to a Gentile church in Ephesus, and Paul spends a great deal of time teaching the Gentile Christians that were indeed part of God’s plan. In Ephesians 3:6 he says It was a MYSTERY he writes “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
But a chapter before that Paul pointed out that it was a mystery ANYBODY could be saved. He wrote:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins… ALL OF US also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” Ephesians 2:1 and 3.
Illus: One Bible College professor was teaching on this very topic: the mystery that God would choose to save the Gentiles. There was a lot of discussion in class that day, but when the discussion was finished, the professor said this:
“I’m not really amazed that God planned to save the Gentiles. What puzzles me… is why He’d chose to save me!”
3rd - If you don’t understand that Jesus came to die for ALL mankind (not just the Jews) you’ll be more inclined to reject all kinds of people who aren’t “like you”.
ILLUS: I heard about a church where a new family came to worship. The family’s young son sported a Mohawk haircut. Someone in the congregation came up to him and made fun of him. She said he was being disrespectful for wearing his hair that way and then coming to church looking like that.
The family didn’t come back.
Now, do I believe a Mohawk is a good idea?
No.
I think it’s a dumb haircut.
But if somebody comes to church with a weird haircut – I need to remember that Jesus came to die for that young man… and that Jesus is more concerned with that boy’s soul than He is with his hair.
I want to get him into Jesus so he can change on the inside.
Then MAYBE that boy will be convicted to change how he looks on the outside.
But IF I’M CONVINCED that only certain kinds of people are acceptable to God then I’ll reject people because they don’t fit the mold for me.
They don’t look like me
They don’t talk like me
They don’t dress like me
I’m not going to talk to them about Jesus.
I’m not going to want them in MY church building.
ILLUS: Back in the 1800’s churches had the habit of voting on who could become members in their congregations. If they didn’t want you… you didn’t get in.
During an evangelistic service in that day, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven. One of the first persons to walk down the aisle and give her life to Christ was a well-known prostitute.
But in the silence that followed, it became obvious that the congregation wasn’t open to voting her into their fellowship.
Finally, a leading member of the congregation - Samuel Colgate - arose and said,
"I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners. We’d better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn’t understand that she’s not the type we want him to rescue. We’d better spell it out for him just which sinners we had in mind."
Immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation.
That’s what can happen if you forget that Jesus came to save ALL people – not just the ones you feel comfortable with. The man and woman of God who really understands what Jesus came to do will realize Jesus came as a light to the Gentiles. Jesus came for the losers of that day… for the outcasts… for those who were regarded as worthless and without hope.
And that’s what Simeon was looking for.
He was “LOOKING” for the Messiah
He was searching the faces of every person who came in the door for Jesus!!!
But the Messiah he was looking for wasn’t like the Messiah the rest of the Jews sought.
ILLUS: There are some scholars who think that this Simeon was the son of the great Rabbi Hillel. Hillel had established a college for rabbis and his son followed in his father’s steps and eventually was chosen to lead that college. But Simeon lost his position of leadership because the Jews of his day believed the Messiah would establish an earthly kingdom. A kingdom that would throw off the shackles of the hated Romans and establish Israel as a great nation worth reckoning with.
Simeon didn’t believe that. He believed the Messiah’s kingdom would be a spiritual kingdom that would be greater than anything any earthly kingdom could be.
(Michael Stark, Sermoncentral.com)
Whether that Simeon was the same one as in our story – the Bible doesn’t say. But THIS Simeon prophesied about a Messiah who would do more than change the lives of his own people. This Messiah would change the lives of people that weren’t like him. Who would give light to the Gentiles and change their lives as well.
CLOSE: Years ago, there was a preacher in California named Charles Smith. He was disturbed by the number of hippies and degenerates he saw on the streets. He prayed about it… and then he went out and began to share Jesus with them.
Something clicked between him and this group of lost souls, and they began coming to church. As the church began to grow, some in the congregation were not pleased. They were uncomfortable with these dirty, unkempt people.
They smelled bad.
They dressed… weird
And (worst of all) their feet were dirty and they were soiling the carpet.
Smith heard these complaints… especially the one about the carpet and he said.
“Well then, let’s tear up the carpet.”
And… eventually they did.
And they grew dramatically eventually becoming a large denomination – Calvary Chapel
As we approach the Christmas season, we need to remember WHY Jesus came.
He didn’t come just to be a little baby in a manger.
He was God come down in human form, becoming fragile and vulnerable and accessible to Shepherds as well as Wisemen. But the reason He came was to grow up into a man who would welcome the outcasts, and the lost and the rejected of this world. And ultimately, He came to die so that their lives could be changed.
Is that who you are? Are you one of the lost and struggling? Have you messed up your life so badly that you don’t think anybody would love you? Do you think of yourself as someone who is on the outside looking in? Then Jesus died for you.
INVITATION
