Simeon – Luke 2

Luke 2:1-52

If you’re here this morning and don’t have a Bible with you, slip up your hand. We’re going to put a Bible in your hand. We want you to open that Bible to Luke, chapter 2. I know increasingly some of you follow along on your phones. You know what? That’s cool too.

Luke, chapter 2, is about obviously the birth of Jesus. We’re going to start this week going into that whole issue of celebrating the incarnation. Chapter 2 gives us this timing issue. Verse 1 says, “At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire.”

Now if you grew up in church and you’ve grown up hearing this event read and talked about and you went through all the Christmas dramas and plays as a child, it may not have occurred to you. Or it may have occurred to you, but sometimes it messes people’s brains up when they’ve grown up in Sunday school celebrating Christmas. They’ve looked at the timing of this and the events of this. They get off to college…

Oh by the way, I was supposed to say this. Our college kids are home today. How many of you guys are college home guys? Hey, stand up. Let’s give them a hand. Stand up. Yeah! Welcome home. Welcome home. Yeah, we’re proud of you. Good job! I’m sure you just got that everywhere you went this weekend.

Sometimes kids grow up, and they go off to college. Some college professor kind of starts twisting into them about, “What do you mean Christmas? Christmas is a pagan holiday. It’s a plagiarized holiday. It has nothing to do with Christ’s birth.” Then they start peeling back the historic layers of why we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25. I wouldn’t even go here, except for the fact that I think it’s important we recognize Jesus may or may not have been born December 25. Now, He may or may not be. We have really no way of knowing.

The Gregorian calendar only dates back to the 1400’s. You do know not everybody was born into the age of Apple iPhone calendars, fifteen minute kind of sort of things where everybody got up, and every day they went, “What’s today?” That is a relatively new phenomenon.

The idea of birth certificates is a relatively new phenomenon. A hundred years ago, people did not have birth certificates. They were born… My dad was born downtown. If you ever go down… I mean, right downtown there is a Hemphill Avenue. There is a McDonalds. His grandmother’s home… He was born at somebody’s home. My mother was born up in Lawrenceville at home. Two generations ago, it was more common for people to be born in homes without doctors’ presence.

People literally had no idea about what day they were born, sometimes what even year they were born. What they attach those births to were big events that were happening at that time. That’s how they kept time. That’s how they notated time. Jesus’ birth…nobody knows whether it was December 25. What we know is where it happened. It happened in Bethlehem. What we know is when it happened. It was during this. They attach it to Augustus Caesar. They attach it to Herod. They attach it to the big historic events of its day.

Now why do we celebrate it on the twenty-fifth? This is where the history professors are absolutely correct. There is something called the winter solstice. For as long as anybody knows, people in the northern hemisphere have recognized that something greater was out there. There was this change of seasons. There was this shortest day of the year somewhere about December 21, 22 if you’re in the northern hemisphere. If you’d happen to be in the southern hemisphere, it’s June 21 or 22.

People celebrated that this was something. They didn’t know what. They knew something was really big going on here that this was the shortest day of the year. From this point on, days got longer and longer and longer. So it was this like pagan festival. All over the world people did that. When people heard about Jesus and they were already celebrating these festivals in 300 or so, the Council of Nicaea just said, “You know what? They’re already partying. Let’s give them a purpose.”

Now that may be troubling to you really exceedingly that the church can rip things off from the pagans. If it troubles you, well, I have some really bad news for you. He did the same thing with you and me. When we were born again, we were pagans. He redeemed you; He redeemed me. Our downtown campus meets at Center Stage. I don’t know if you know anything about Center Stage, but Saturday night, it’s not a holy day. What goes on in that place is not holy. Sunday? It’s a holy day. We rip it off. We redeem it. We proclaim it.

This is how we got to this particular day, but the day… Don’t let people mess with your mind about this. The day is just a day that the church says, “You know what? Great. They’ve been celebrating stuff. They don’t even know what they’re celebrating.” This is what Paul did when he goes into Athens. He walks into Athens, and he sees all these idols everywhere. It troubles they’re idolaters. He sits down, and he looks at the culture. He watches this Greek culture. Then he walks around, and there are idols everywhere.

He finally sees one that says, “To the unknown god.” It’s just because they wanted to cover all their bases. “You know, maybe there is a god out there we don’t know about.” So he goes to the center, and he goes, “I see that you people are really, really religious. You have this statue out here to the unknown god. Let me tell you who it is you’ve been looking for.” Then he just preaches Jesus like crazy.

You do know that in the heart of humanity, there is a hole of eternity. If you don’t know God, you’ll worship something. You’ll chase after something. Let’s see if I can use a metaphor at least you aging baby boomers will recognize. Bob Dylan…”Gotta Serve Somebody.” You will! You’re going to serve somebody. You’re going to follow something. You’re going to worship something. You’re going to give your life to someone because you were created to know not just the creation but the Creator Himself.

So let’s jump into… For thousands of years now, the church has said, “Let’s set aside these days to prepare our hearts so we can really celebrate the incarnation.” A couple of the people who do not normally make the casting call in our Christmas drama is found in verse 25. Let’s go up to verse 21.

“Eight days later…” So you have a few days later, the Baby was circumcised. There are three ancient ceremonies that are involved here. He was given the name Jesus. You might just want to circle that word Jesus. We’re well acquainted with it in the English. In the Hebrew, it’s Yeshua. Yeshua. The Old Testament equivalent to this word is Joshua. Joshua, the prophet. Joshua would have echoed… It would call out that whole story of the conquest of the land. He was given the name Yeshua.

This Yeshua name, this Jesus name, is a Savior name. It is a champion name. It is a leader name. It is a messianic idea of… This is a strong, powerful name, the name given to Him by the angel, even before He was conceived. Verse 22. “Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so His parents took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, ‘If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.’ So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord – ‘either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.'”

So you have three things going on there. Real ancient… I mean, old, old ceremonies. One is the ceremony of the circumcision at which time the child is named. The second is the ceremony of purification, which was under the Mosaic law that was just this period of cleansing. The third is this ritual of redeeming the firstborn child. In all of this, these rituals were designed to remind parents that children were really God’s. They’re not really yours.

You know, we tend to think, That’s my child! That’s my child. God is saying, “Listen…no, that’s My child. I am putting that child into your stewardship, but that’s My child.” There is a big, big, big worldview issue here that you and I actually don’t have the right to do what we want with these children. It is our job to figure out what God has called them to do. Help them find that. It is not our job to go, “Hey, I’m your parent. You’re going to do what I want you to do. You’re my child.”

That’s true all the way across everything that is put into our hands (the stewardship issue). Your lands. This is my house. This is my land. This is my car. This is my… Listen…I’m going to tell you this right now. One of the things you can find out… An easy, easy, easy way to find out if you have ownership issues is anger. If you’re angry a lot, or you’re angry often or angry intensely, it’s an ownership issue. It’s totally an ownership issue.

It’s like the dial on your car. If it says empty or full, you can get really angry at the gage. When that gage goes off, it’s a recognition of an issue. If you have surrendered your rights to the Lord, if you have surrendered those ownership rights, then you know what? If God decides to take some of that money back or send your kid off to China or call your kid to do something, you know what? That wasn’t my child anyway. This is what Hannah says. She says, “I have given this child to the Lord.” It’s that dedication idea, and those rituals all tie that together.

Man, I have to hurry. This is really where I wanted to start the sermon right here. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon.” Literally the word means like God hears. All these names mean something here. Like Zechariah means God never forgets. This Simeon means God hears.

“He was righteous and devout.” This word righteous just literally means he was a man with a sense of justice. He understood that Old Testament idea that God has this sense of what is right and what is wrong. He had this whole idea about justice. He was devout in respect to justice in that this wasn’t just… He wasn’t just concerned about him getting justice. He was concerned about the fact the world is broken.

Can I let that sit in for a minute? The world is broken. Do you understand that? Most of us live in a bubble that sort of insulates us from this brokenness. When we bump up against that brokenness, it cuts us, and it rubs us wrong. It makes us irritated that we are being mistreated. Like this New York cabbie made me mad.

Now, you know this is going to sound terrible. I’m 57. You know what? I’m not dragging a New York cabbie out of a car over $60. I’m sorry, but it’s just not worth it to me. There was a time I would! I know that just sounds terrible to admit, but I’m not going to do that anymore. I would have given him $60 more to drive away. I actually want more peace than I wanted at one time in my life.

Now see most of us live in this kind of bubble that we go, Yeah, life is good. One of the things the nation of Israel was supposed to do was to be a light to the rest of the world about how to treat everybody. There was a set of laws that applied to everybody that just because you were a judge didn’t exclude you from being fair. Just because you were a foreigner in the land didn’t mean you were supposed to treat them in a different way.

As a matter of fact, the nation of Israel was given these absolutely ridiculous laws about how to harvest. You know what they said? When you’re harvesting your land, don’t even touch the corners. How strange is that? Leave the corner stuff. Why? Because there are hungry people in the land, and they’re going to need it. Don’t put up a fence. Don’t keep them out. As a matter of fact, make sure on purpose you leave the corners of your land accessible to people who are wandering through.

Now what kind of insane business practice is that? “As a matter of fact, when you go through it, when you harvest the grain, only go through once. Don’t do a second picking because there are going to be people coming through who are hungry. Make sure you leave something for them on purpose.” He says, “You know why you can do this? Because you were foreigners, and you know what it’s like to live under the thumb of Pharaoh. Remember what it felt like.”

This is who Simeon was. Simeon had this sense of justice, and he was deeply serious about the brokenness of the world. This is what he says. “[He] was eagerly…” This is the New Living Translation I’m reading out of here. “[He] was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.” Now that’s the way the New Living Translation reads. If you have an ESV or you have your iPhone with 14 versions…

In the King James, in the New King James, in the ESV, it all uses this word that is actually technically important. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Isn’t that an interesting phrase? The consolation. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. I have to tell you, reading that doesn’t excite me. Consolation? Because like I remember…

Do any of you remember when you used to get a consolation prize? They don’t give consolation prizes anymore, do they? Now they give participant awards. You know what a participant award is? That means you lost. It’s true of a consolation award. “Oh, let’s give them a consolation prize.” What is a consolation prize? It means you lost.

Here is a man who is eagerly waiting the consolation of Israel. It’s actually a name of Jesus. That’s what he is waiting on. He is waiting for the consolation of Israel. I’ll come back to consolation, but let’s just look down through here because it’s important. “The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required…”

Now do you see what’s happening here? There is this convergence going on. Here is Jesus born in Bethlehem. There is Mary. There is Joseph. There are commandments that were delivered 1,400 years previously, and they’re following their pattern, their responsibilities. There is this Baby that’s born seemingly at any inopportune time. There is the Roman government going on here that just… The tax session had just been. All this convergence going on.

Something happens where in some manner or fashion, there is what we perceive to be (and probably so) an old man. Okay? Now it doesn’t say specifically he is an old man, but seemingly he is an old man because the Holy Spirit reveals to him he will not die until he has seen the Lord’s Messiah. “That day the Spirit led him to the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required [look], Simeon was there.” He was there. He was just where he was supposed to be.

“He took the Child in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘Sovereign Lord, now let Your servant die in peace, as You have promised. I have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and He is the glory of Your people Israel!’ Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about Him.

Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the Baby’s mother, ‘This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but He will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose Him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.'”

So what is this consolation? Let me take you on a quick journey. Open your Bible. Go back over to Isaiah, chapter 40. Isaiah in chapter 40 is an incredibly important passage in respect to all this. If you’ve studied Isaiah a little bit, you know that in between chapter 39 and chapter 40… If you’re taking notes, and you don’t have this in your study Bible notes, just kind of draw a line right there between 39 and 40 because there is something that changes here.

Now it changes so dramatically, it has made scholars go… Some scholars even have said there is a first Isaiah and a second Isaiah. Some even say there is a third Isaiah somewhere, but I’m not going there right now. There is a decided break in what happens here. Now what happens actually starting in chapters 37 and 38 and 39… If you were here a few months ago, I preached a sermon on what happened to Hezekiah. Does anybody remember that? Two people. That’s so exciting.

Hezekiah was an absolutely… I can preach this sermon next Christmas if only two of you remember. Hezekiah was an amazing king. His father was a total failure. He became king at an early age. The kingdom had slipped, and there was spiritual void. It was bad, and it was a mess. The temple had kind of gone into disarray. Solomon launched a massive revival in his teenage years. Hezekiah saw this great revival take place. Hezekiah saw just great victory after victory after victory.

Hezekiah came to a point in his life where he had some kind of head injury, and it was obvious he was dying. Isaiah the prophet walks in the door and says, “God has told me, Hezekiah, you’re going to die.” Now let me tell you something. If Isaiah walks in the door and says, “God has told me you’re going to die,” you better write a will. Wouldn’t you think? Would you think you’re dead? I would think I’m dead.

If I’m really sick, and my wife walked in the door and said, “I’ve been praying, Buddy, and God is telling me you’re dying.” Shew! Just okay. Let’s die. I’m like because I just figure okay, you know what you’re talking about. You know what? That’s not what Hezekiah did. Hezekiah got on his knees and said, “God, You’re a God who hears prayer. Please don’t. I have more I want to do. Give me some more years.”

He started fasting and praying. God spoke to Isaiah again and said, “Go tell Hezekiah I heard his prayer.” God heard his prayer. Now how does that work? Don’t know. For all you guys, sovereign theology, you know, God changed His mind. Well, you guys work that out in your system. I don’t know. All I know is this is what the Bible says. I believe the Bible far more than whatever your system of theology says.

You know, that last 15 years, actually it probably would have been better if Hezekiah just died because that last 15 years he kind of messed things up. He got kind of proud, excited, really thrilled with who he was. So when people from Babylon come over, they say, “Oh, I heard you really are a man of prayer and God answers your prayer even in spite of prophecies and all this stuff. I’ve heard God has really blessed you. You’re an amazing man, Hezekiah. Will you show us everything?”

Hezekiah just takes them through and shows everything, kind of takes credit for everything. He shows these emissaries from Babylon everything. Isaiah shows back up and said, “What have you been doing?” He goes, “Well, there were some guys from Babylon. Man, I’m showing them everything.” He goes, “You know what? You made a terrible mistake. Those people are going to come back with an army. As soon as they can raise enough army, they’re going to come back over. They’re going to overthrow you, and your grandchildren and some of your very children are going to be hauled off.”

Listen to this word…”into exile.” That’s an important word. Into exile. “They’re going to be made eunuchs. They’re going to be raised in a pagan kingdom.” “When is this going to happen?” “It’s going to be your grandchildren, children.” You know what Hezekiah says? “Wow that’s cool. Won’t happen to me.” “What? My kids? My grandkids?” “Well, yeah, but it’s going to be okay as long as I live. It will happen after I die.”

Let me just say this to you. If we are mortgaging our children’s futures, something is wrong with that. If we’re living in a way that spiritually we have sold our children and grandchildren into spiritual slavery, something is seriously wrong with that. Let me tell you who is responsible for where we are. This is on the side. This is where you quit preaching and you go to meddling. The baby boomers (that’s us) have presided over the spiritual bankruptcy of America. Yes, you. Me. Our generation. We have presided over the spiritual bankruptcy of America.

Now what you would think Hezekiah would do would be get on his knees and say, “God, forgive me! God, please…not my children. Not my grandchildren.” Who is going to pray for this next generation and not just pray for ourselves? Who is going to intercede? Who is going to be those who step forward and go, You know what? Listen…whatever happens to me in my lifetime, that’s okay, but my children. Lord, protect my children and my grandchildren. May they know You in a more powerful way than I do. Lord, let them not grow up in a pagan kingdom.

That doesn’t happen. The story cuts off right there at 39. You know what? The children of Israel… For all practical purposes, the story ends right there. Isaiah does this insane thing. He starts writing about the future in the present tense. Isn’t that interesting? It’s called the prophetic future perfect. Like he starts writing about the future as if it has already happened.

Chapter 40…look at it. Here is what he says. “Comfort My people.” See that word? It’s the same word for consolation. “Comfort My people… Comfort My people… Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her…” Now if you’re using a New Living Translation, you’re losing something here because it says, “Tell her that her sad days are gone.” Literally what it says, “Tell them that the war is over. Tell them the war is over.”

This is what they’re going to take with them into exile. They’re going to read these stories. They’re going to read Jeremiah. They’re going to read Isaiah. They’re going to say, “God, here is what You promised. You promised You would bring us out of this land of Babylon. You promised in Jeremiah that 70 years we would be here.”

This is what Daniel grabs this book up and says, “Seventy years…it’s almost over, God. Lord, You said You would come get us. You told us You’d bring us back home. Lord, we claim this promise. Lord, keep Your promise. Keep Your promise.” “Comfort My people. Tell them that the days of their toil are over. Tell them that the exile has almost ended.” You know what? They claimed those promises. God brought them back out of that land. It’s an amazing story about don’t go after the idols.

“To whom will you compare God?” There is no one like God. This whole big story out of Isaiah. Here is what happened is God brought them back. God raised up this pagan king named Cyrus in this place called Persia that’s modern day Iran. The oldest historical artifacts of religious tolerance came out of this Cyrus Persian place. You can go to the U.N. and there is a Cyrus scroll there. You know the story of Nehemiah. God raises up this pagan king named Cyrus and says, “Go back and rebuild the temple. I’ll even pay for it.” They go back, and they rebuild the temple.

It is to this temple that Simeon comes to, but he goes back into this story that’s already been fulfilled. In his mind, now it’s not Babylon. It’s Rome. Now they are living in exile in their own land. Do you get it? Do you get it? They’re living in exile in their own land. Simeon reaches back into this story, back into this event, and said, “God, You delivered us once out of Babylon. You can deliver us again in our own land.”

These men were defined by their stories. Now I mean that not in a story like made up, mythical story. They were defined by these stories of Scripture. It is exactly what happens with the children of Israel when they’re enslaved to Pharaoh. This is why they celebrated the Passover because it was to remind them that the God who delivered them out of Egypt could deliver them out of Assyria, could deliver them out of Babylon, and could deliver them out of Rome.

When he goes in here, and he sees this Baby, I can just see this old man. One morning he wakes up, and God has already told him, “You’re going to see deliverance happen in your lifetime.” One morning he wakes up, and the Holy Spirit just impresses him, “You need to go down to the temple.” What it means to be led by the Holy Spirit. He goes down to the temple. He walks in there to Mary and Joseph. They’re poor. They don’t even have the big offering for the redemption, just a little turtledove. He looks into the face of this Baby Jesus.

With his old shaky hands, he reaches over, and he takes that Baby. He holds that Baby up, and he blesses that Baby. He says, “The Champion is here. The Champion is here. Joshua is here. Moses is here. David is here. The King, the liberating King, the King, the Messiah, the God in flesh, the Word come down…”

This is what it says in Isaiah 40. “Say this.” “What am I supposed to say?” “Cry out! Cry out this. The road…make the crooked roads straight. Make the hills low. Straighten out the roads because the King is coming.” “What shall I cry out?” “Cry out this: all flesh is as grass, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.”

Jesus is called literally this: He is the Word of God. Here is what Simeon said. “The champion, He is here, and He is going to be a light to the Gentiles. He is going to lead us out of darkness. It’s not like David who is going to disappoint us and not like Moses who is going to lose his temper and hit the rock a second time and not be able to go into the land. Not like Abraham who would never actually see the land himself.”

No, this is the King who is going to take back the whole house. He is going to bring back Eden. He is going to take this whole thing. When He announces what He has come to do, He says, “The time is here. The kairos moment in the kingdom of God is at hand.” Anybody else hungry to see a broken world put back together? Yeah.

Let’s pray. Lord, we thank You for who You are. Lord, I have no question in my mind that there are probably some people here who their world is really broken. Maybe marriages that are broken. Hearts that are broken. Dreams that are broken. Lord, there may be some people here who You actually led here this morning because You want to encounter them.

Lord, we thank You for that privilege. Lord, this morning we ask You as we come that our eyes will be open to the reality of who You are. This kingdom has already actually broken in. The resurrection has started this new life. We eagerly anticipate…we welcome…this new life. In Your name we pray, amen.