Simeon’s Prayer – Content With Jesus Series

John 10:35 …the Scripture cannot be broken…

For Simeon, there wasn’t a question. If it had been revealed to him by the Spirit, it would happen. Something that is revealed by God is a fact that can’t be changed. It’s not a prediction or a flimsy promise. It’s a look into a future that can’t be changed.

When you take up the Bible and read, is that the attitude with which you read it? Is it really the revelation of God, inspired by the HS, or is it like the US Constitution where people feel they need to constantly make changes to get it more accurate or fit into our circumstances. What you believe about that will completely control how you receive the Bible. You’re either listening to what the Spirit reveals, or you’re listening only to what you want to hear. The 3rd verse is…

Luke 2:27a

Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.

The HS is also a mover. He prompted Simeon to get into the temple courts that day. Paul, inspired by the HS to write it, said that we must learn to walk by the Spirit. It’s one thing to look at what He has said, it’s another to act on it. The good news is that the Spirit is there to help us not only know what’s true, but to do it too. That’s what the Scriptures mean when it says,

Philippians 2:13

for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Simeon ended up believing what he was supposed to be believing, doing what he was supposed to be doing, going where he was supposed to be going – all because he listened to the Spirit.

If you want to learn to let go of life, learn to listen to the Spirit. Finally,

III. Embrace Jesus

I wish the Christmas story included the way that everyone who heard of Him rushed to see and worship Jesus – to give Him the welcome He deserved. But that’s not the way it reads. Instead, there’s no suitable place for His birth, Herod tries to have him killed, and He grows up in obscurity. His hometown doesn’t respect His ministry, and even His brothers didn’t believe in Him at first. Foxes had holes, birds had nests, but Jesus didn’t even have a place to lay His head as an adult. Some of the most ironic and saddest words of Scripture are:

John 1:10-11

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Jesus wasn’t embraced by this world. There were different reasons for that

• For the religious, it was because Jesus didn’t fit into their legalistic framework. They had it down to a science, and they didn’t need Jesus changing things.

• For the powerful, it was because Jesus didn’t fit into their expectations for a king. He was humble and poor. There was nothing about His appearance that made Him stand out. He hung around with riff raff and losers and treated them like they were just as important as the rich and famous.