Waiting is our theme this morning as we look at Luke 2 and see a man named Simeon. Waiting is not something any of us likes to do. Slow traffic, computers, lines….When we want, we want now. We love instant. We like our food fast so we have microwaves and drive-thru’s. We like our information fast, so we have FB and twitter and constant, round-the-clock access to information. When you’ve been pregnant 9 months you’ve waited long enough.
But, waiting is a necessary part of being a Christian. It is spoken of very often in the Bible. Psalm 27:14 gives us the exhortation, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
The Jews waited for the coming of Christ. They believed that in their destiny as God’s chosen people they were to become the “masters of the world and lord of all the nations.” So much of the experience of the Jews was suffering that it only heightened their dreams of future glory. Unable by their own power to have what they hoped for in the world, their longing for a Savior to deliver them to their glory only grew more and more intense.
While many believed that some great celestial champion would descend from above, some believed that a great man from the line of David would arrive and revive those old glories. Still others believed God Himself might break into their history by some supernatural way. There were many notions regarding the Messiah and the Kingdom He would bring.
But, in contrast to all these notions were a few people who were known as The Quiet in the Land. The Quiet in the Land are described by one author this way: “They had no dreams of violence and power and armies with banners. They believed in a life of quiet prayer and watchfulness until God should come. All their lives they waited quietly and patiently upon God…in prayer, in worship, in humble and faithful expectation waiting for the day when God would comfort His people.”
Simeon is a man who would have been one of the Quiet in the Land.
CONTEXT (v21-24)
Our passage is actually taking place 40 days after the birth of Christ. Joseph and Mary were staying in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Now they have travelled 5 miles north to Jerusalem which is where they will unexpectedly meet Simeon. Notice that Luke mentions 3 ceremonies that Joseph and Mary carry out as required by the OT Law.
First, there is circumcision. Every male child born in Israel was to be circumcised on the 8th day after being born.
Second, there is the redemption. Every firstborn male born in Israel belonged to God. Not the 2nd or 3rd and so on – but the 1st born male. God said in Exodus 13:2, “Every firstborn male among the Israelites belongs to me..” and then in verse 12 He says again, “You are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All firstborn males belong to me.”
What does this mean? To understand this ceremony we must go back to the time when God delivered Israel out of Egypt. We must remember that God delivered Israel by bringing 10 plagues upon Egypt. With each plague all the Egyptians suffered but the Israelites were protected. With each plague God demanded that Pharaoh release the Israelites from slavery to so they could go out into the desert. Each time Pharoah refused. That is until the 10th and final plague. The 10th plague finally broke Pharaoh’s stubbornness and with it he released the Jews. What was that plague? It was when God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn male of every family on a special night called Passover. Every firstborn male in Egypt, whether man or animal, was killed throughout Egypt. But God did not kill any of the firstborn males among the Israelites. He protected them from the angel of death. In this way each 1st born male among the Israelites belonged to the Lord. And so, to commemorate this evening when God passed over the 1st born males in Israel, all 1st born males from then on were to be redeemed from the Lord for a price. To redeem your firstborn you would have to pay 5 shekels. Five shekels was almost a month’s wages and it was paid to the priests in the temple. This money was to provide for the functioning of the temple’s activities. This is the second ceremony we see here.
Third, there is the purification. According to Leviticus 12, a woman who gave birth to a son was ceremonially unclean for 40 days after giving birth. At the end of that time, she was required to go and offer a sacrifice for her purification. So say if a mom in this church gave birth to a son this year on April 10th and another one on April 19th, that Mom would have had to wait until May 21st and May 30th, respectively, to make a sacrifice for her purification.
That sacrifice was one lamb and one dove. But, if she couldn’t afford a lamb, she could bring two doves. Mary offered two doves for her purification. This meant that she and Joseph did not have wealth. They couldn’t afford a lamb. This was referred to as the offering of the Poor.
Three quick points::
First, Jesus knows poverty. He grew up in it. Paul said it so marvelously in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” He set aside the riches of His own Divine glory to take up the impoverished garment of human flesh. Robed in poverty, having diminished His dignity and laying aside His immeasurable heavenly wealth, He became a human in the most humble of ways.
The God of glory was born in a barn having been told there is no room in the Inn where the humans stayed. No royal welcome or fanfare. No parade through the streets of Jerusalem with trumpets sounding and flags waiving. No songs, no cheers, no heralding the arrival of Israel’s long awaited Messiah. No one but the cattle and the sheep He created to witness His birth with His two ordinary and poor parents. He was a carpenter, not a statesmen or an ambassador or a rich business man. He didn’t wear the finest clothes or eat the choicest foods. He didn’t run with circles in high society. Later He would be heard to say, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Jesus knew the glory that was His and while on earth suffering a total poverty He waited patiently for the time when He would be restored to His rightful glory.
Second, righteousness doesn’t promise wealth. The prosperity gospel is bankrupt. Joseph and Mary were righteous and they were not well off at all. They knew what it was like to have more month left than shekels. It was a life without luxury. They knew what it was like to carefully consider every cost in the home and to feel the worry and insecurity of not making ends meet.
Third, Mary’s inability to afford a lamb for her purification portrays our inability to provide enough to God for our purification. We cannot afford the price-tag of righteousness. Our purification from our sin comes with a cost that is too high. There is nothing that God will accept from us that we might be pure in His sight. Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’?” No man can make himself pure. Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and He alone can purify you of your sins. Hebrews 1:3 says, “After He made purification for sins He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” That is the picture of finished work.
What can we see from Simeon this morning?
WAITING CAUSES RIGHTEOUS LIVING (v25-26)
First of all, Waiting Causes Righteous Living. Notice verse 25, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”
Notice what we are told first about Simeon. He was righteous, and he was devout. Simeon is like Zechariah and Elizabeth, when it says about them that they were “righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” So the first and most important thing that Luke tells to his readers about Simeon is his spiritual character.
APPLICATION: Do you give much thought to your character? Is your character and your name something that you value highly? Do we realize how much thought God gives to our character? Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” Ecclesiastes 7:1 says, “A good name is better than fine perfume.” Let this motivate us to carefully give attention to our integrity.
Simeon was righteous and devout. Lets look at these two qualities for a moment. Simeon was a devout man. The word “devout” meant “cautious”. It meant that he was cautious about the things of God. It’s not cautious in the sense that he was suspicious. Cautious here means that he was careful. He was careful in how he lived to make sure that how he lived was pleasing to God and showed reverence for Him; he wasn’t thoughtless or careless – he didn’t irresponsibly blow off the things of God. He gave careful consideration to every step of his life so that he pleased God in all his ways. He was cautious. He was devout.
I believe there is a direct relationship between Simeon’s waiting for the coming of Christ and how he lived while he waited. He believed the promise God gave to him through the Holy Spirit. What was that promise? Verse 26 says that God promised him he would see the Christ. I believe that brought a purifying effect on Simeon so that as he waited to see the Christ he lived knowing that Christ sees him. Since Simeon lived every day expecting that today he could meet the Messiah, he made sure that every day he was in the right spiritual shape to meet the Savior. I think Simeon probably was praying when he was moved by the Spirit to go into the temple courts. I highly doubt that on the road up to the temple he lost his temper because someone on a donkey cut him off. Everyday could be the day God would let Him see the Christ, so every day he made sure he was ready to see Him.
APPLICATION: People who are waiting for Christ’s coming will be careful to make sure they live to please Christ. It has a refining effect on you as a Christian. Does our expectation of Christ’s return make us cautious to live for Him? Could it be that we can live like Christ is not coming back – careless, irresponsible, un-attentive, and even insensitive to the things of God? But when we are convinced that the Lord could come back at any moment we will be cautious to follow the things of God – just as Simeon. How much do these worldly cares diminish when we focus on our Lord’s return? And how much more do the spiritual things preoccupy us?
Simeon was not only devout, but he was righteous. Righteousness in the Bible means justified. It’s the same word describing Joseph in Matthew 1, “He was faithful to the law…” (NIV11), or “he was a righteous man” (NASB). The words righteous and justified are so close in meaning that they are used synonymously. Whenever the Bible says someone is righteous, or just, it can mean one of two things. On the one hand it can describe the way they live. So when used of Joseph the context is his character and living. “Joseph was a righteous man and did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace so he intended to divorce her quietly.”
The second way righteous or just is used is to mean that God has declared that person to be justified, or righteous in his standing. It’s not just that their sins are NOT counted against them, it is the positive declaration that they meet the requirements of the law so as to be considered righteous. Galatians 2:16 says, “we know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”
Simeon was just and righteous in both ways: he was righteous in the sight of God, in his standing before God, because of his faith, AND he also lived righteously.
The amazing thing is that the work of Jesus on the cross wasn’t even accomplished yet. But the little baby who was being held up by Simeon was the one who was soon going to be held up on a cross. And the sins of Simeon were going to be paid for there, and the righteousness of this One who has been born would reach backwards in time and be given to all those who believed in God and His coming.
And that is what Simeon believed. He believed God that the Messiah was going to come as God promised. The 2nd half of verse 25 says, “He was waiting for the consolation of Israel.” The Consolation of Israel refers to the Messiah and the age of the reign of the Messiah. It is often designated as an official title or name for Christ. The Consolation of Israel – it’s interesting because the same Greek word here as Consolation is the word for Comforter, or Helper that describes the Holy Spirit. Simeon was one of those believing and expectant Jews who was hoping, longing, praying, and worshiping God with all his heart while he waited for God to send the Messiah to come and comfort His people Israel.
Simeon believed this for two reasons. First, he believed the OT Scriptures to be true when they spoke of the coming of Christ as the One who would console Israel. Isaiah 40:1 says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem …” God’s plans are geared to bring Israel comfort and that is what Simeon held out for.
But Simeon not only had the promises of Scripture, he also had a special revelation from the Holy Spirit. Notice verse 26, “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” I don’t know when the Holy Spirit revealed that to him, but, it seems like he’s lived with this knowledge for a while. The passage suggests that he is older and close to death. Maybe he was like Abraham and given a promise but had to wait a long time. Nonetheless, every day Simeon knew he was closer to death, but, he also knew he was one day closer to seeing the Christ. And I think that knowledge of what was coming and his waiting for it caused Simeon to live a devout life.
APPLICATION: What do you want to do before you die? Some people want to climb mountains or make a million dollars. Others want to travel or do something exciting or extreme so that when the end of life comes they can say they lived life to the fullest.
But there is one thing that everyone should be looking for before they die, and that is Jesus Christ. You may be able to say that you lived life to the fullest but if you don’t have Jesus Christ you don’t even have life. Simeon was a man who waited for Christ to come. He finally came and Simeon saw Him as God promised he would. The question is have you seen Christ yet? He has come and now it is your turn to come to Him. If you come to Him and believe in Him then you too will see Him when He comes again.
WAITING KEEPS US ON A COURSE TOWARDS CHRIST (27)
So first we see that Waiting Results in Righteous Living, and then we see that Waiting Keeps us on Course Towards Christ. Notice verse 27, “Moved by the Holy Spirit, Simeon went into the temple courts. When the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms..”
The key word there is “moved”. Simeon was moved by the Holy Spirit in the direction of Christ. Maybe he was directly spoken to by the Spirit, maybe it was just a strong feeling he had, an inner prompting by the Holy Spirit, who knows? But through some communication from the Holy Spirit Simeon headed into the temple courts where he would finally get what was promised him – the chance to see the Christ in the flesh. His dream was coming true.
APPLICATION: Now what I think is important to understand is this: because Simeon was living a cautious life – a devout life – while waiting for Christ to come, it made him sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. People who are focused on Christ and living for Him are going to be more in sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in their lives. That’s because everything the Holy Spirit does is to point to and glorify Jesus Christ (John 16:14). So when someone points everything they do in their life to glorify Christ they are going to be more receptive of the Spirit’s movement in their life. Simeon’s life was aimed at Jesus. When our minds are on the things of the Spirit we are able to be moved by the Spirit. It reminds us of our responsibility in Galatians 5 to be “led by the Spirit” and “to keep in step with the Spirit” (v18, 25). Simeon’s attention was fixed on Christ and therefore it wasn’t hard for the Holy Spirit to “get his attention” and move him.
APPLICATION: He was in the Temple. He was in the place of worship. Are you in Church? Do you gather with other worshippers of God? Don’t listen to the foolish attitudes of people who say, “You don’t have to go to church to worship God.” Or, “I worship God my own way.” Or, “My church is in the woods” or “My church is serving at the shelter.” God saved each of us out of the world and gathered us together to worship Him. When we relate to each other, and come together, and identify with each other, it is because we have each come to Christ, relate to Him, identify with Him. Mark my words, a person who neglects Church either is harboring sin, or they are not truly a believer.
The key point I want us to see here is that when we are waiting it makes us movable, so that the Holy Spirit can move us towards Christ. We are not being moved geographically, but, we are being moved relationally. Just as the Spirit moved Simeon towards Christ, the Spirit moves us more and more towards Christ-likeness. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
With this in mind we see that waiting has a focus aspect. Waiting means training our focus on Christ, the One whom we’re waiting for, so that we are being formed closer to His image.
WAITING PRODUCES PRAISES FOR GOD’S PROMISES (28-32)
Thirdly, we see that Waiting Produces Praises for God’s Promises. Notice the praise that Simeon gives God – in verses 28-32. This is one of the 5 praises that Luke has shown us. We saw Elizabeth (1:41-45); Mary (Luke 1:46-55); Zechariah (1:68-79), Angels (2:13-14), and now Simeon (2:29-32). Read verses 28-32…
When I read these verses I see arching over top of them like a rainbow the faithful character of God. Whenever you see promises made by God you have the guarantee of His faithfulness backing them up. Prophecy? Predictions? They are promises. Here we see God was faithful to Simeon because God followed through on his promise to Simeon. God was and is faithful to Israel. God is faithful. Do you see that?
Conclusion
The word “see” occurs 3 times. In verse 26 it says Simeon would see the Christ before he died. In verse 30 Simeon says his eyes have seen God’s salvation. In verse 31 he says again that God’s salvation has come in the sight of all people. Then in verse 32 it says His salvation is a light for the Gentiles – which means the Gentiles saw it. Do you see it?
There is coming a time when everyone will see the salvation of God. You might protest and say I sound like a Universalist. I’m not. What I’m saying is that everyone will someday see one of two things: that Christ is their salvation, or, that He could have been. Philippians 2:10 says “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord.”
Do you see God’s salvation? Do you see Jesus Christ as your Savior? That is the gift at Christmas. God gave His Son in order to have you. He died so you could live. Your sins were laid on the sinless One. Do you see it? Your crimes were charged to His account. He didn’t commit them, you did, but He went to death for your crimes. Do you see it? It’s laid out plainly before you, it’s out in the open, not somewhere secret. Do you see Him, the Savior? Be like doubting Thomas, who did see Christ and fell on his knees and said, “My God and my Savior!”