Anticipation
Luke 2: 25-35
. My name is Simeon, and I have lived my life in anticipation. I would like to share my story with you this morning.
. I am Jewish, a descendant of Israel. A citizen of the nation of Israel.
. What that means is that my forefathers were called out by God to be a chosen nation for God to reveal himself to all mankind.
. You see, God choose my forefathers to birth a nation that would bring glory to him and reveal him to the rest of the world.
. Sadly we have not done a very good job of this; but I’m getting ahead of myself.
. We are called the nation of Israel because we are all descendants of twelve sons from a man called Israel. You may know him as Jacob.
. The scriptures tell us that Jacob wrestled with God and when God blessed him, He changed Jacobs name to Israel.
. Since the time of Israel though, all our people have lived with anticipation.
. You see, as he was dying, Israel called his twelve sons together and he blessed them because that is our custom.
When he blesses his son Judah, he tells him of a king that is coming. One that all nations will honor and bow down to.
. Our Messiah. We have been waiting for him ever since.
. As I said, our entire nation has lived in anticipation for centuries.
. If you look back at the history of my people, you will see times when we lived the way God wanted us to live and times when we were not very faithful to God.
. Through all of that though, God would still remind us that He had promised a Messiah.
. He used various prophets to remind us of this coming King.
. God sent us prophecies through the great prophet Isaiah that our Messiah would be born of a virgin.
. Can you imagine that, a virgin having a baby? I know, I know it sounds impossible; but that’s what God promised.
. Isaiah told us many wonderful things about this Messiah.
. He told us that He would be a blood relative of our greatest King, David.
. He even gave us a name for him. Emanuel, which means God, is with us. Can you imagine, God being both from a virgin and then living with us.
. Oh how our people looked forward to this.
. We lived in anticipation of the coming of our Messiah.
. Isaiah wrote that He was coming to heal the brokenhearted in this world
. The prophet Mica told us where He would be born. Bethlehem.
. The prophet Hosea told us where He would live part of his life. Egypt.
. The Psalms told us more than I can tell you about this morning.
. Isaiah also told us some things we didn’t understand or really want to hear because they seemed to contradict the good things we had been told.
. Isaiah told us that He would be spat upon, that he would be silent before his accusers who would falsely accuse him.
. Can you imagine that? Being accused of doing something you didn’t do and not defending yourself. That does not make sense does it?
. Isaiah told us that He would be beaten and whipped and then he said something strange.
. He said that we would be healed by our Messiah’s, by our Kings wounds.
. How can you be healed by someone else being beaten?
. Isaiah said that our King, the one that we have been anticipating would be crucified. Doesn’t make sense does it?
. The hardest thing to understand was that Isaiah told us that our Messiah would also be the sacrifice for our sins.
. You see, we knew that God required the shedding of blood to forgive us of our sins but these were animals we were sacrificing.
. Isaiah told us that our king would become that sacrifice.
. Like I said, there was confusion about this Messiah that we were anticipating.
. My people heard about Him through the prophets and then, there was silence.
. For more than four hundred years, there was silence from God.
. No prophets to speak to us and tell us about our long awaited King.
. You know, some of my fellow Jews began to wonder if this was actually true.
. We had heard about him for generations and then nothing.
. Not me though, I always believed that God would keep his promise to us and send us the Messiah.
. My whole life I have done my best to follow God’s laws and do what God wanted me to do.
. For some reason, I always knew that I would not die before I saw the Messiah with my own eyes.
. It was like God would speak to me, telling me to be patient. The Messiah is coming in your lifetime. When I told people this, they thought I was crazy.
. I would explain that it was like God consuming me and speaking to me.
. Some people thought I was crazy, but I trusted God and lived in anticipation of what he would do.
. I was living my life, providing for me and my family, trusting God; then one morning, while I was saying my morning prayers, This consuming Spirit of God, spoke to me in my very soul.
. I was compelled by God to go to the Temple because that very day, I was going to see the Messiah.
. As I was going to the Temple, I was praying and talking to God.
. What does He look like God? How will I know him? God’s Spirit calmed me and told me to just be patient a little longer and He would reveal to me the Messiah.
. As I stood in the courtyard of the Temple, I would look at every face that came by, hoping that I was looking at the face of the Messiah.
. One guy came by and I just knew that he was the one. He had these chiseled features and there was this air about him that just exuded leadership.
. As he walked by though I knew in my heart that he was not the one.
. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this young girl and obviously her husband come into the courtyard. They were carrying two birds. I couldn’t tell if they were pigeons or turtledoves because they were too far away.
. As they got closer, I could see that the mother was carrying a very young baby in her arms.
. They obviously were coming to dedicate the baby and make they required offering for him.
. As they got closer, God spoke to me in my heart and I knew that it wasn’t any of these adult males that were going to save my people.
. It was this little baby boy that this young girl was carrying.
. As they walked through the courtyard, I went over to them and as they stopped, I reached down and took the baby out of the woman’s Arms.
. You should have seen the look on her face. She didn’t know what to do. Obviously God’s Spirit intervened because she allowed me to continue to hold the child.
. As I looked down at the face of the child, an indescribable Joy came over me and I began praising God.
. I knew that God had kept his promise to me.
. He had told me that I would not die before I saw the Messiah and not only had I gazed upon his face; I had held God in my very arms.
. I thought back to the prophecy that said He would be called Emanuel, God with us, and realized that God was right here, right now, in my very arms.
. At that Time, God opened my eyes to all the prophecies and I understood all the things that had been said about this child.
. Not only would he be our Messiah but He would be the Savior of all mankind.
. This little child was going to be used to introduce the one true God to all of mankind.
. God’s spirit showed me all that this child would accomplish and I was overjoyed and saddened at the same time.
. He would be the Savior of all but He would have to die to do that.
. His parent’s very soul would have to be pierced because of his destiny.
. There was great sadness to come for his parents.
. I found out that they had named the child Jesus which means “God Saves”.
. How appropriate. Through this child, God will save mankind form their sin.
. You know, Jesus did grow up to fulfill almost all the prophecies that had been given by God about him.
. He did teach mankind how to be saved and reconciled to God.
. He did abolish that sacrificial system of animal sacrifice by being the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
. Do you know what else this child did?
. After they killed him and buried him, He rose from the dead telling everyone that accepted his sacrifice for their sins that they too would be raised from the dead and would spend an eternity with him and his father, God.
. Oh how I long to spend an eternity with my Messiah.
. You know what this did though; it created a life of anticipation for those who believe in him.
. You see, He promised that He would come back and take all believers who were dead and alive at the time to Heaven with him for eternity.
. This will bring all the prophecies about him into fulfillment.
. We lived in anticipation of his first coming for centuries. His followers may have to live in anticipation for centuries also. I have no idea when he is coming back.
. It’s probably hard for you who are anticipating his return. It was for me.
. May I give you some tips on how to survive a life of anticipation.
. I found these very helpful in my life.
. The first thing you need to do is realize that God is faithful.
. God will do what He says that He will do. Will He do it when you want him to?
. Maybe, or perhaps He will keep his promises in his own time.
.It took thousands of years for God to send Jesus. You see, God knows when the time is right.
. When the time is right, He will send him again. Until then, rest assured that the God you serve is a faithful God.
. The next thing you need to do is take advantage of your Guide. I did. I relied upon the Spirit of God to guide me through the time of anticipation.
. Through the Spirit, God told me that I would not die until I had seen the Messiah and when Jesus was born, the Spirit told me who He was.
. After Jesus was resurrected, he told everyone that this same Spirit that had been my guide would also come into everyone who trusted in him and be their guide.
. You have someone who will guide you through this time of anticipation just as He did for me.
. Learn to trust the Holy Spirit that is inside of all who believe in Jesus and what He did.
. The spirit is there, you just have to trust Him and allow him to be your guide.
. You are celebrating the Birth of Jesus this week. I am so thrilled for you.
. The third thing you should do is marvel at who you are celebrating.
. When I looked at Jesus for the first time, I couldn’t help but marvel at what God was going to do with this Child.
. As I spoke to Mary and Joseph about what God was going to do with their child, they marveled at what God could do with the birth of this Child.
. His birthday is a day of marvel and wonder and amazement at what this child did for all mankind.
. May God bless you this week as He blessed me with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
. Perhaps you don’t live in anticipation expecting the coming of the Messiah for the second time.
. Perhaps you have never accepted this free gift of Salvation that this child brought and brings to all mankind.
. The Apostle John wrote that God loved you so much that He sent Jesus, the only Son that he has ever had to die for you.
. Do you believe this morning?
. Do you live in Anticipation?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling?
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Waiting For Christmas, Brian Bill, Sermon Central
