Jesus is Coming: To Provide a Future
Sunday, December 28th, 2003
Luke 2:21-35
INTRODUCTION:
Well, the waiting is over. Christmas has come and gone for another year. Sometimes I think waiting for Christmas is as much fun or more fun than actually waking up on Christmas morning. There is such a sense of anticipation, of what’s coming and all of the things involved with the waiting. We try different tricks to help ourselves and our kids with the wait for Christmas. We have advent calendars and chains. Each one designed to count down the days and to build up that sense of excitement for Christmas day.
Over the last few weeks we have looked at some of the people who had been waiting for that first Christmas. We looked at Mary and how she was waiting eagerly for the fulfillment of God’s promise to her. We have talked often about the Jewish people and their anticipation of a Savior that was promised and was to come. We talked about Zechariah and Elizabeth, who had all but given up on what they were waiting for and yet they also found fulfillment from God that first Christmas season as they held their little boy, John, that God had given to them. Christmas seems to be about waiting. And to those who wait, we’ve seen, God delivers above and beyond anyone’s expectations.
I want to wrap up this series on the theme “Jesus is Coming,” by looking at another aspect of what He brought with Him. Jesus is Coming, to bring hope for a future. No one knew this more than a little old man named Simeon. We find his story in Luke.
Read Luke 2:21-35
The story of Simeon and his encounter with the Christ child is one that has always amazed me. Here you have an old man, through whom God has chosen beforehand to reveal the Truth behind this infant’s birth and the coming ministry of his son. He promises this man that he will live to see the Messiah. This is a man and a story that is often left out of the Christmas story altogether. You don’t have any manger scenes with Simeon in them, he is not a major player in Christmas pageants or Cantatas. Yet to this simple old man, the plan for the future of mankind is revealed and in his encounter with Christ and his family Simeon cuts to the heart of the Christmas message, that Christ has come to give hope to the hopeless. He has come to provide a future and it’s a message that has not changed in the years since that encounter and there is much we can learn from this unlikely messenger of God.
BACKGROUND:
Before we take a look at Simeon, I think it would be helpful to look at some of the background of this passage. What was it that brought Mary and Joseph to the temple and what does that tell us about the early life and upbringing of Christ.
There were three significant events that were taking place here in this story.
1) The first, we read in verse 21 was Christ’s circumcision. Now, this had taken
place several weeks earlier. Christ was, according to Jewish law, circumcised on the eighth day and given the name Jesus. God had confirmed his covenant with Abraham through the practice of circumcising Jewish males. This circumcision represented entering into that covenant, God’s promise to Israel, a promise of prosperity and blessing, and a promise of relationship. Upon circumcision, the boy officially becomes a part of the nation of Israel and is an heir of the covenant. So, Luke mentions this ritual to ensure that the reader understands that even though this was Messiah, he was man. And as man, he went through the same rituals and observed the same requirements of the law as any other little boy. He was Jewish. His name was the Hebrew name, Yeshua which means literally, Salvation. Luke also reminds the reader of the origins of the name Jesus, that it was the angel of God who had commanded him to be named this. Luke is a practical man and wants to make sure that the reader understands that this is the one the angel spoke of to Mary.
So, Christ had already been through the rite of circumcision, but there were two other ceremonies and sacrifices that had to be made after the birth of a child and that is why Joseph’s family was at the temple on this day.
2) The next event that had to take place according to the Jewish law was the
purification of Mary:
LEV 12:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say to the Israelites: `A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. 3 On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. 4 Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. 5 If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.
LEV 12:6 " `When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. 7 He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.
" `These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. 8 If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’ "
So, Mary had come to offer the sacrifices that would make her clean again according to the law.
3) The third Jewish ritual we see here is the presentation of the firstborn.
The presentation of the firstborn was the Jewish custom of buying back, or redeeming your first born son. The Jews placed great importance on the first born male and they believed that he belonged to God and was set apart for his service. Rather than give your first born to the temple, a redemption fee of five sheckels was paid to buy back the child and to help support those who carried out the duties of the temple.
So you have a great irony here, the very baby who is being redeemed will in his perfect humanity and complete divinity, become the redemption of mankind by buying back his people from their debt to sin through his blood.
So, Mary and Joseph find themselves in the temple to carry out the regulations of the law. I think that Luke includes this temple visit to remind us of a couple of things and to give us a little insight into Christ’s home life and childhood. Scripture is remarkably silent when it comes to Christ’s growing up years and the home in which he was raised. Many opinions and legends have been offered as to what his life may have been like, but in these few verses we can draw two conclusions about his life and family.
First, we see that Jesus was born into a family of very limited means. They were coming to offer two doves or pigeons. Which Leviticus tells us was a proper offering for those who could not afford a Lamb to sacrifice. So, we see through their offering that Jesus was born into a simple home and probably lived a very simple life.
Second, the mention of these ceremonies reminds us that Jesus was born into a very religious family and one that was entirely Jewish and strove to keep the Jewish laws and practices. It also reminds us that, as Galatians 4:4-5 says,
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
We have the God of heaven coming down and participating in the very ceremonies and laws that he came to free his people from. These were basic and normal ceremonies, they were carried out by every Jew and in the temple it was very normal procedure to have many of these on any given day. So, Mary and Joseph are simply trying to fulfill their obligation to the law in the normal way of their Jewish people and giving us a little window into their life.
There was nothing remarkable about the event, just another Jewish family taking care of business until the old man steps in. What happened next was anything but normal. Why? Because this child held the promise of the future in his hands and Simeon knew it, it was what he had been waiting for. God uses the divine, a revelation to Simeon, to show that this is no ordinary baby. He continues, as he had throughout the entire Christmas story, to balance the crude surroundings and circumstances of Christ’s humanity with the majesty and splendor of his divinity. He was born of a woman, humanity. He was born to a virgin, divine. He was born in a manger, humanity. His birth was trumpeted by angels, divine. He was subject to Jewish laws and customs, humanity. God sent a messenger to confirm that this was His Son, the Messiah of Israel, divinity.
Picture the scene. A father and mother walk into the temple. Out of the corner of their eye they see a bent over, old man hobbling towards them. He approaches and with trembling hands reaches out and takes hold of the baby. Now, parents, I don’t know about you but when my kids were about 6 weeks old, I was very protective of them and if some stranger tried to just take my baby, I would put up a little resistance. But Mary passes the baby over to the man, perhaps she could sense God moving or there was something in Simeon’s face or his expression that made it seem like the right thing to do. Imagine his face as he gazes at the one that he knows is God. This is what he has waited for. As he held that baby, the one he had waited for, the one he had looked for and longed for, he knew that the course of the world would never be the same and he began to praise the Lord.
The birth of a child is always an amazing thing. And to hold a little one in your arms brings you face to face with the miracle of life in a way that few other things can do. There is a newness and a freshness and that thought that this child has a whole future ahead of them. It’s hard not to be in awe when you hold a little one in your arms. How much that feeling of awe and wonder was magnified for Simeon because the Spirit had revealed to this man that this was the Messiah, the awaited one, the salvation of the world, the comfort and consolation of Israel.
God had told him, God had chosen him to be his messenger and had rewarded him with life until his eyes had seen the hope of his people. What a privilege. I want to look at three things in this story that about this man that God chose to reveal the future to.
1) Who He Was
What kind of man was Simeon? What was it that marked him for this great honor. We have already seen throughout the Christmas story that God had used ordinary people to put his plan in to motion. He had chosen a young, poor girl from a lowly family to mother Jesus . He had chosen to proclaim his birth, not to kings and priests, but to lowly shepherds in the fields. God continues to use the unexpected to announce His son and His plan to the world.
But Simeon was special, the Bible does not say he was rich or powerful, he was not a priest or temple worker. He was simply a man from Jerusalem, a layman, a common man with an uncommon faith that God rewarded.
Luke tells us little about Simeon but we do know two things.
a. He was a Righteous man (Just)
The word that’s used here describes who Simeon was with others. Simeon was a man who lived right. He was righteous in the eyes of the Lord and men. The King James translates this as just. It’s a description of how Simeon dealt with men and was viewed by men. His ways were in accordance with the laws that God had set forth and he treated others according to those laws.
The Greek word here means: being in accordance with the highest standards. This was a man who was above reproach.
But that was only half of what the Bible says he was.
Not only was he just (or righteous) in his dealings with men, but we are told that he was
b. devout.
This would describe his relationship with God. Not only was he a good man, respected by others, but he was a God-fearing man who was reverent and obedient first to his God. He was a man who moved at the prompting of the Spirit of God. Three times in this short passage we read about the Spirit’s impact on Simeon. He was upon him, He revealed things to him, and he led him. In each case, it made a difference in the life and actions of Simeon, when the Spirit led, he moved. It was that simple.
There was a consistency to Simeon. He allowed his relationship with God to govern his relationships with men and was therefore exalted by God and respected by men.
The two of these characteristics went hand in hand in Simeon’s life.
In those days that Christ was born into, Scripture records for us that there were many who lacked the pairing of these two characteristics in their life. You had the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees and Sadducees whose motivation for their acts towards men was for power and personal satisfaction. They were humble and they made sure everyone knew it! They had the righteous lives on the outside but it did not spring from the devotion to God on the inside. It came from a very self serving and self gratifying desire.
Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. They looked nice on the outside (towards men) but on the inside they are full of dead bones.
So who was Simeon? He was a righteous and devout man who lived the same before God and man. It was these qualities that God rewarded by revealing His plan for the Salvation of man to him.
The second thing this passage tells us about Simeon is:
2) What he was waiting for:
There in verse 25 and 26 we are told what it was that Simeon was anticipating. This is the reason that he was in the temple that day. Because of his relationship with God and the life he lived God had blessed with a promise of life until he had seen the Messiah. Simeon was waiting for the deliverer of his people, for the Son of God, but specifically, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.
Waiting can be annoying. If you’ve ever been in a busy emergency room with a minor injury, you’re going to wait. If you ever go clothes shopping with a female, you’re going to wait. There can be an aspect to waiting that fosters boredom and frustration. The greek word that’s used for waiting here has no hint of those things. This is a waiting that was embraced and enjoyed, the word has the sense of eagerly looking forward to. Like those Christmases where there is joy in the waiting because you are certain that it will be worth the wait.
That was Simeon’s attitude in waiting. Simeon was waiting for the comforter to come. The Consolation, consolation is to help, encourage, to comfort and the Messiah would provide all of those things and much more. Simeon has suffered with his people and he is eagerly waiting for that time when occupied, weary Jerusalem receives the comfort and relief the Messiah will bring.
There were few things in life that I looked forward to more than my post game time in the training room after a soccer game in college.
My back condition
My trainer
By the end of a game I was in agony. I knew there was relief and comfort and I looked forward to it immensely, no matter what went on in the game, relief was always in the back of my mind.
Israel was in great need of relief, and it’s this aspect that Luke focuses on when he talks about Simeon. Simeon longed to see his people prosper again. He longed to see them healed. We’ve talked about the condition of Israel during this time. They were defeated, oppressed, and occupied by the power of that day, Rome. They had lost their political independence and were now living in fear of the cruelty of King Herod. It was for the comfort and consolation of his people that Simeon waited. Simeon knew that the future of mankind lay in the life of this child and that any hope that Israel had would come through this baby.
Simeon knew his wait was over, the comforter had come. This aspect of Christ’s birth is one that we can lean on as well. We can know that in any circumstances, in any trial, no matter how long the wait may seem, we can know that our comfort has come.
2CO 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
MT 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Christ is the comfort and consolation not only for the nation of Israel then, but for all who call on his name today. There is comfort in knowing that our problems rest in the hands of God, who created all and to whom we have access through that Messiah that Simeon held in his arms so many years ago. There is comfort in knowing that God reigns, in our lives, in our churches, in our nation, and in the world. In times of trouble and uncertainty we have our consolation and he is Immanuel, God with us, the hope for the future.
3) How he responded
Simeon looked at this little baby and his response was to see the big picture of what God would do for the world through this little child. Simeon’s response to the time he had waited for was two-fold. It was one of Praise and (under the leading of the Spirit) Prophecy.
a. Praise
His initial response when he came face to face with the one he had waited for was to praise God, not just for what he had been waiting for, comfort for his people, but because he saw the bigger picture. He saw that this baby was hope. He saw that this baby was life. He saw that this baby was the salvation of all mankind, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles as well. God had fulfilled his promise to this old man and Simeon’s life was complete. He had seen the Salvation of the world wrapped up in a tiny bundle and hidden in the eyes of a baby boy and for that he rejoiced. The moment must have been better than he ever could have dreamed it would have been.
Even after everything that Mary and Joseph had been through, the angel visits, the shepherds worshipping, the birth of their son to his virgin mother, they marveled at what Simeon was saying. They were amazed that during this routine ceremony, God had broken through and once again pointed out who this child was.
b. Prophecy
Simeon praised and then he continued to speak, he saw the bigger picture and pointed to the future this child was bringing and what that would mean for mankind. Now the baby was here. There was no mistaking who he was and now a decision had to be made in the hearts and minds of all people for all time, what would they do with Jesus?
Simeon says three things about how people will respond to Christ.
1) That he will be cause the rising and falling of many in Israel.
2) That he would be a sign that is spoken against
3) That the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed
4) A sword would pierce Mary’s heart
a. This would be fulfilled through the agony she endured in watching her son suffer and die on the cross.
The other three proved to be true in the time Christ was on Earth and each is still proving true today.
How people responded to Christ would determine their eternity. In Israel there were many who heard his message and were saved and there were many, especially in the religious community that rejected him and the life that he offered and fell because of their inability to accept this carpenter’s son from Nazareth as their Messiah.
Today, people are faced with the same choice: What are we going to do with this baby?
1 Peter 2:6 For in Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame."
1PE 2:7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone, "
1PE 2:8 and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for.
So many stumble on the Truth that Salvation is found in anything other than man and the strength of man. They stumble at the simplicity of the message and the free gift that is offered. Yet, many others, believe and experience a changed life through the healing that is provided for them in Christ. He is still causing the rising and falling of many.
Simeon waited and was rewarded by being allowed to see the fulfillment of God’s promise. As we wrap up this Christmas time, the celebration of the birth of a Savior. We have received a promise as well. Scripture reveals what Simeon knew to be true that Christ came for many things but none greater than to provide hope for the future. Yes, there’s comfort and hope for this life. But, Christ came to provide for us an eternity in fellowship with God! As amazing as his promise to Simeon was, his promise to us is equally amazing! God promised Simeon that God would be with him, and fulfilled that in Christ. God has promised us that we will be with God, and fulfilled that through Christ.
If you are here this morning and you have a relationship with God through this baby that grew and died for your sins, the promise is for you. Are you waiting for it, or are you simply living day by day and not allowing God to flow into every aspect of your life? Are you eagerly expecting it? Waiting with the anticipation of a child that can’t sleep on Christmas Eve? Are you telling others what God has promised you? A future with Him, no more tears, no more sadness, no more evil, just God. What a glorious future.
But like Simeon prophesied, Christ is still a stumbling block for many. If you have allowed Christ to be a part of your life and this promise of a future is not something you’re sure is in your future that can change today. The Bible says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What’s keeping you from Christ this morning? Reach out with the same awe and wonder that Simeon did when he realized that this child was the light of the world, the salvation of the world, but more importantly, the salvation for you this morning.
