Luke 2:21-38 - The Song of Simeon

Well, good morning, friends.

Grace and peace to you.

We ordinarily study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.

So if you'd like a paper copy, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one to you.

Uh this week, though, we're continuing our Advent study of the Gospel of Luke and his carefully researched account of the coming of Jesus into our world.

Indeed, God with us.

Also, welcome to all those who are worshiping with us online.

So glad you are able to join us that way.

This true story, not a myth or fable, but this true story that we've been looking at more closely in this season, is extraordinary in its scope.

I hope you've seen that.

God Himself breaking into history, taking on human flesh, so that he might bring salvation to a world that is turned away from him.

Rebels like myself that are turned away from him.

The Gospel of John says, a light.

He is a light that shines in the darkness.

We're going to learn more about that at Christmas Eve.

The Gospel of Matthew says that his name shall be called Jesus, and he gives the reason why.

For he will save the people from their sins.

Cast out our sin and enter in, we just say.

In a city like Nashville, in a room like this, and those who are watching online, I think there are probably a spectrum of responses to the Christmas story, God's act in history, sending his son to come into the world that he created on a mission of restoration.

So that spectrum might be like this.

On one hand, there are many who grew up, and that includes me, hearing this story every year.

Anybody, anybody, were you in the Christmas pageant in your uh, you know, at your church when you were growing up?

Yeah.

I think I was a wise man once.

I don't know how good that was.

We heard the story every year.

And it can become dull.

I can become bored with it.

So on one hand, the spectrum might be that.

On the other hand, there might be those who are in here in this room today or watching online who are indifferent, apathetic.

How does any of this touch the live wire, real time, day-to-day, of my home, of my work, of my play, of my rest?

And I think the Holy Spirit, through the work of our brother Dr.

Luke, which we're going to be studying here today, the Gospel of Luke, has something for us to hear.

All of us who fall somewhere in that spectrum.

Cynicism, disenchantment, hopelessness, indifference, all of those things are poison to the soul.

Much as they would have been in the real, ordinary lives of the first century, it's poisoned to the soul today as well.

Again, I love that song.

I love in particular, I really appreciate the last line of the first verse.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight, that night in Bethlehem.

Our hopes and fears were met in the person of Jesus.

How?

Let's briefly, just very briefly consider the very beginning.

In the beginning, Genesis 1, God created.

And what he created was very good, Genesis tells us, until a choice to listen to another word, the word of a serpent over the word of the Lord.

Rebellion and sin entered the world.

Peace, shalom, Kim mentioned earlier, this right relationship between God and man, there was fellowship between God and man.

That was broken because of that choice to listen to this word, no word at all, in fact, over the word of God.

But we witness, even though we see death, decay, and fear that have been introduced into the garden, we do witness the very beginning of the thread of salvation history.

Do you remember?

In Genesis 3, 15, it says this the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

Right in the opening pages of our Bibles, if you turn there, we don't have time here today to study that, but I'd encourage you to.

Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

Right there, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

In other words, Genesis 3, we see the first promise that God Himself will make a way.

That God Himself will come into this world tangled and descend to rebels like me who have no hope apart from his work on our behalf.

And he has done just that.

The original recipients of that first promise, they wouldn't have known fully what fulfillment of that promise would look like.

But here in the Gospel of Luke, that we've been studying this season, we read about a child born of a woman named Mary.

And that child is the fulfillment of that promise.

We see the threat of salvation from the beginning into what we're reading here today.

And it is cosmic in its scope, but it's also very personal for each soul in this room here this morning and for me.

The promise that echoes throughout the Old Testament, the hope of every longing heart, we sang about that earlier, has been met in the person of Jesus.

The word became flesh.

We read this in our call to worship from Isaiah.

This is about 800 years before Christ.

He said this for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Shalom.

Of the increase of his government and Shalom, there will be no end.

And I know we're all longing for that day.

Many of us are also familiar, it's funny, we didn't plan this, but familiar with the Apostle Paul's admonition in his letter to the church of Philippi, we read it, do not be anxious about anything.

Do you remember that?

In other words, Paul is saying, do not fear.

The most often repeated negative command in the Bible.

And the Apostle Paul says, Don't be anxious about anything, but it's the preceding sentence that meets us at our point of need, the preceding sentence in that passage that is the ground and source, the grace we need so that we can't fear.

What is it?

Verse 5.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything.

God is with us.

Do not fear.

That's the good news we've come to celebrate here this morning.

Our hopes and fears are met squarely in the person of Jesus, who intends to restore what sin has broken, to bring the offer of salvation to anyone with ears to hear and for with eyes to see.

And I hope that's you this morning.

John Stott says this we can never anticipate him.

He always makes the first move.

He is always there in the beginning.

Before we existed, God took action.

Before we decided to look for God, God had already been looking for us.

The Bible isn't about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.

So let's turn together in the text we'll be studying today, if you don't mind, Luke 2, and we'll start at verse 22, which describes for us ordinary people who are saturated with the story of God's work in history.

They would have known that story in Genesis very well, these folks we're going to read about here today.

And they give us an example of faithfulness and of waiting.

Before we read, though, let me pray for us and we'll get started.

Living God, help us to sow hear your holy word that we may truly understand.

And that understanding we may believe, and believing we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience.

Let your word speak to us by your spirit in our waiting, in our longings, in our hope.

In Jesus' name we all said.

Amen.

Alright, Luke 2, 21.

And just as a background, if you remember last week we studied about the shepherds.

So Jesus has been born, and these shepherds go and see this child, and they return back to work, back to ordinary life, but they themselves have been changed.

And they cannot contain what they have seen.

Their eyes have seen the Messiah.

And so we pick up from there at verse 21.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, that's Jesus, he was called Jesus.

The name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

So here in the first, this first verse here, there's so much packed in here, with so many things that we learn about Jesus.

First, the humanity of Jesus, that he would be circumcised after eight days.

We see the faithfulness of Mary and Joseph, faithful to the law of Moses, that said, in fact, all the way back to Abraham, before Moses, God told Abraham, your sons should be circumcised after eight days.

And then with the law of Moses in Leviticus 12, we see the same thing.

And Mary and Joseph are faithful, lovers of God.

And they take Jesus, this human baby boy, who's also divine.

We see his divinity as well, to be circumcised after eight days.

He was called Jesus.

The name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

We see the sovereignty of God at hand and sending angels to say, this is what his name will be.

Jesus in Hebrew, Yeshua.

In English will translate it Joshua.

The Lord is salvation.

So they call his name Jesus.

Verse 22.

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord.

Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord.

A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Again, we see the ordinary faithfulness of Mary and Joseph.

They don't have to go to Jerusalem to do this, but after 40 days, the one who had the baby, a baby boy, would have to go for purification.

The first male in a family would have to go to the temple to pay a tax.

And that goes all the way back to Samuel and Hannah, who offered Samuel back to the Lord.

We don't know exactly why Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem.

They weren't required to do that, to go to that temple there, but they did, likely because they had been told that Jesus was the promised one and the Messiah.

There was something special going on here.

Mary and Joseph show some ordinary faithfulness, ordinary in the sense that they are doing what they know to be faithful to the law of Moses.

They do what is what is love of God, the customs they respect, the customs of the law, and they take Jesus here.

And it also shows their poverty, their economic condition.

The law said that they were to bring a lamb, and if they couldn't afford a lamb, if someone couldn't afford a lamb, they were to bring instead a pair of turtled doves or two young pigeons.

And so we see their ordinary faithfulness, and we see their economic condition.

Verse 25.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and his name means Lord Hears.

And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

Or you could translate that, waiting for the comfort of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah.

And he came in the Spirit.

That's the third time the Spirit is at play here.

We see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all working together.

27, he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the customs of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

Irene in the Greek or Shalom in Hebrew, according to your word.

Why?

Verse 30.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, or you could say, in the sight of all peoples.

32, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people, Israel.

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.

Simeon is a mysterious part, I think, of the story of Christ's coming.

I love this story.

He enters the scene, he sings a song or prays a prayer, he gives a blessing, and he's gone.

We never hear of him again.

But we do learn a lot about him.

He's described as righteous and devout.

You know, if you think about Luke, Luke is a Gentile.

And in the very opening of Luke, he says, to Theophilus, I'm writing these things so that you might have certainty about what has happened.

And knowing that, in the Jewish custom, you need at least two witnesses to confirm that something has happened.

And here we have Simeon, and later we're going to meet someone named Anna.

And both of them are righteous and devout.

He's described as righteousness is a gift, meaning he's faithful.

He has faith in the Lord and has been given this gift of righteousness.

He's devout.

You see, even justification and sanctification at play here.

He loves the Lord.

That's what Luke is getting at here.

This was a man who loved the Lord and he was waiting for the promise, longing to see a promise fulfilled.

And it says, the comfort of Israel or the consolation of Israel.

If you look all the way back to Isaiah 40, it's not on the screen here, but Isaiah 40.

This is what would have been ringing in his head in Simeon's head.

Isaiah 40 says this, Comfort, comfort my people.

Say, your sins have been paid for.

The glory of the Lord will be revealed to all peoples.

Simeon is waiting on that promise from 800 years before, when Isaiah said, Comfort, comfort my people, and Simeon is waiting.

The consolation of Israel.

And I think we can all understand deep longings.

We prayed about many of them here this morning.

We can see them vividly in the art and media, the marketing all around us, the billboards that we see on the highways, the ads that we see online, those can be mirrors that reveal some of our deepest longings.

At least on the surface, because honestly, there are longings behind longings.

Behind longings.

So I do have a confession, though, this morning.

I watched my first Hallmark Christmas movie last week.

Anyone brave enough to say you have to?

Okay, like four of you.

Yes, absolved, Jim says.

So I'd heard about this phenomenon, obviously it's been going on for years, about these Hallmark uh Christmas movies, and it's been copied derivatives on Lifetime and Netflix and many others.

I wanted to understand the appeal.

I kind of understood it a little bit.

But I told Emily, I said, let's watch the best Hallmark Christmas movie possibly can.

And by the way, there are at least 360 Hallmark Christmas movies.

Just Hallmark.

360 that I could count.

And estimates have found that the Hallmark channel uh generates a third of its revenue from these movies.

Perhaps it's a silly example of a culture full of longings, but I think these kinds of simple stories reveal something about what's going on in our hearts.

The basic plot: someone on the search for some kind of fulfillment in love, they ultimately find their deep longing, obviously, in their high school sweetheart.

Obviously.

Somewhere outside small town America, and you could have predicted who that person was five minutes into the movie.

But seriously, there is something about a longing fulfilled, uh, completed, finished, satisfied.

That should ring bells in our hearts and minds, that this points to something far more true, good, and beautiful.

For Simeon, salvation, the Messiah, was not purely academic.

It wasn't just a surface longing.

The satisfaction of finally seeing the promised Messiah touch something in the deepest recesses of his heart and his soul.

So much so that he could say, Lord, now I can depart in peace.

In other words, Lord, I can go home.

Because I've seen the Messiah.

I have seen with my own eyes salvation.

Salvation is such a comprehensive word: rescue, redemption, freedom from sin and its consequences, freedom to live and according to his word.

I love salvation.

34, let's keep reading it.

Verse 34.

So 33, his father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

Ah, to be Mary and Joseph, I can't wait in glory to ask them all that they saw that day.

34, Simeon and Simeon blessed them, that's Mary and Joseph, and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

So now Simeon is a prophet.

He's appointed for a sign that is opposed.

Verse 35, and a sword that will pierce through your own soul also.

He's speaking to Mary here.

And I think he's referring to that day when she witnesses her son crucified.

35, you'll pierce your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Oh, there's so much going on here.

So Simeon recognizes this is salvation, and now he's prophesying.

He's telling Mary and Joseph, Mary in particular here, a little bit of the ministry of Jesus that is to come.

The rising and fall, or rather, the fall and rising of many in Israel.

How does Jesus, do you remember in our study of Matthew in particular, how does he begin his ministry?

Repent.

Turn around.

Enter this kingdom, this kingdom that I have come to inaugurate.

The fall and rising of many.

There are folks, there are people in the first century and today who will look at Jesus, the claims of Jesus, what we see in the Word, and they will say, I have seen salvation, and there are others who will reject.

The fall and rising of many.

Many hearts will be revealed.

This is a universal gospel offer that Jesus will make.

Some will reject and some will respond.

Verse 36.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, which in Hebrew would be Hannah, means grace.

A prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Faniel, the tribe of Asher, a tribe that would have been the tribe of the kingdom of Israel.

If you remember, there are two kingdoms split off after Solomon.

There's the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.

And I think what Luke is doing here is he's incorporating the testimony of both.

So we have both kingdoms coming together, witnessing to who this Jesus is.

Now she was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.

So if you do the math, you know, she was married at 13, 14, 15.

We're not sure exactly when, but she's likely well over a hundred years old.

Anna.

She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Just another way of saying waiting for the consolation of Israel.

This hundred year old worship leader named Anna.

We don't know exactly what she did.

Maybe she worked in the temple area, maybe she lived around the temple area.

That she was there every day.

We don't know, but she is a testament to someone who is faithful, who had been waiting and now recognizes the Christ has come.

And so Luke here gives us these two witnesses, Simeon and Anna.

39, we'll just finish this little section here.

And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned in Galilee to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong and filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

The grace of God was with Jesus, in other words.

I love the story of Simeon and Anna.

You know, in John's Gospel, Jesus tells the Pharisees, Abraham would be rejoicing to see the day of Jesus.

And here we have Anna doing exactly what Abraham would have done had he had the chance to see Jesus himself.

There's so much here.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux is a 12th-century believer who founded a monastery in the northeast of France, Clairvaux Abbey.

Our building is named after him, Saint Bernard.

In one of his more well-known sermons, he reflects on the Christmas season and the Christmas story, and he returns again and again and again to the idea that there really are three advents in the work and the movement of Christ in salvation history.

The first advent we're celebrating here this morning, in the incarnation.

The word became flesh to dwell among us.

The second advent, his presence among us and his ministry then and now through the pouring out of his Holy Spirit and his word, and I might add his rule and his reign.

It's the second advent.

And the third Advent is the one we're also familiar with: his promise to come again, to judge the earth, to bring final consolation, final comfort, the hopes and fears of all the years meeting their full fulfillment when he returns to set things right.

So three advents there.

Christ has come, Christ is with us in his word and spirit, and Christ will come again.

I love the three Advents that St.

Bernard summarizes there.

But Simeon and Anna, way before St.

Bernard, witnessed with their eyes the first Advent, and they looked forward expectantly to the second and to the third, the redemption of Jerusalem, the comfort or consolation of Israel, the light of revelation to all people.

In fact, if you look at the verse 32, your translation might have it differently there, but a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

Some scholars and translators will say the emphasis there rather should be on light.

It should say something like this: a light.

Next paragraph, for revelation to Gentiles and for the glory of Israel.

Let's love that.

The baby that Simeon held in his arms that day is the hope, is the light for all of us in this room here this morning.

And again, I don't know on what spectrum you might fall, or somewhere in the middle.

Is it boring?

Is it dull?

Are you indifferent, apathetic?

Let's consider for a few moments these three Advents that we can see here in this text.

Number one, the Advent one Christ has come.

Verse 29 and 30, Simeon says, This, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

Areine, according to your word.

Why?

For my eyes have seen your salvation.

In other words, Lord, I can come home now.

I have no reason to fear death any longer.

You have fulfilled your promise to me.

So Simeon did have a particular promise to him by the Holy Spirit.

We're not sure how he got that, but that's what the text tells us.

But this is also a promise here that the Lord made long ago in a garden, and then through Abraham, David, and many others.

This is really extraordinary that Simeon sees salvation in this child.

Because some in the first century, and I would say in the 21st century as well, we have a conception of Jesus as simply a good man, or a philosopher, or a social activist, or a good model to follow and nothing more.

Certainly not someone to bow to as Lord.

And here in this brief song, Simeon cuts to the quick.

Anna leaves no room for interpretation.

They see Jesus even before his preaching and teaching ministry, before his work on the cross and his resurrection.

They do look forward to it.

But before that, because of the work of the Holy Spirit by faith, they see the Christ child in his diapers and recognize with their own eyes that he is the salvation of the world, the one that they had been waiting.

So, my friends, this morning, I think the great question of history, the great question that's set before us today is who do you say that Jesus is?

Do you see the Jesus in the scriptures and say he is salvation?

We dare not ask the Lord of history to be our life coach.

But rather we should bow to him as Savior and King.

Can you say along with Simeon this morning?

Can you say along with Simeon, I can go home now.

I'm at peace because I've seen your salvation.

N.

T.

Wright tells us this the Gospels tell the story in such a way as to hold together the ancient promises and the urgent current context with Jesus in the middle of it all.

I think we see that here in the Gospel of Luke.

The second Advent, Christ is with us, whose ministry then his pouring out of the Spirit, and he's dwelling among us even here this morning.

When Simeon confesses that Jesus is the one who would bring salvation, he recognizes that Jesus would be the light, like I said before, that would bring a revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Israel.

So, in other words, Simeon looks expectantly forward and ahead to the work of Christ for the sake of all people.

And as a Gentile writer, Luke here would be very interested in that, as we should be here today.

For my eyes have seen your salvation prepared in the presence or in the sight of all peoples.

And I think that's a really important part of this text.

There is no neutrality with Jesus.

He is either the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, or He's not, and we should all just go home and pack it up.

As we read earlier, though, Jesus is the Prince of Peace, Isaiah said.

We read it in our call to worship.

But how does he bring this peace?

But through a cross.

Out of his depth of love for you and for me, he lays down his life to make a way so that you and I can have a true, lasting, satisfying, joy-giving peace.

And peace is multifaceted.

We're not just talking about one facet, we're talking about the whole enchilada.

Peace of God.

And that's a good thing.

But also peace with God.

Because of the work of Christ, he has made a way so that we're no longer enemies of Christ, but we're given his righteousness.

So that we can have peace with God, one who has been brought near to him by the blood of Christ.

I think Simeon is looking ahead to that.

His coming into the world touches every part of our life.

His coming to dwell among us, living a perfect life.

His work on the cross, and yes, his resurrection from the tomb are all part of the great act of salvation in history.

And it is comprehensive in scope.

And sometimes that's where I can get lost because it's so big.

You could even say it's cosmic.

There isn't a square inch of the universe that doesn't belong to him and that he doesn't intend to restore.

But at one and the same time, it's also personal.

Simeon held salvation in his arms.

The Christ child was in his arms.

The glory of the gospel, though, is Simeon held him in his arms, but Simeon is held fast in the grip of Christ, as are any who come to him in repentance and faith.

And all that's needed is to repent, to turn around in faith and in trust.

In other words, all you need is nothing.

But many don't have that.

Many haven't come to realize their desperation.

The rising and falling of many, many hearts will be revealed.

But the same spirit that moved in Simeon is at work today, calling all with ears to hear and eyes to see that Jesus is salvation.

The real government, Leslie Nubigan says this, the real government of the universe, the final reality which in the end confronts every human being is the crucified and risen Jesus.

The great missionary and missiologist Leslie Nubigan loved that.

So the third advent, Christ will come again.

Simeon tells Mary that the work of Jesus would lead to the rising and fall of many, that many hearts would be revealed, some would reject, some would respond in faith.

Some would say, My eyes have seen salvation.

Later, the work of Jesus and his resurrection, his conquering death.

If we look ahead to that, is the seal and promise that he will one day return.

This isn't on the slide, but I love this quote from Charles Spurgeon.

Those little arms in the manger will one day grapple with the monster death and destroy it.

And church, we can say amen to that.

Until then, like Simeon, we wait with hope.

Like Anna, we wait with hope.

The patience of God is a mystery.

But oh, I'm grateful for it.

I hope you are too.

The old story is a true story of God's work in history.

The story that Simeon and Anna knew very, very well.

And it fueled their hope because they knew the story.

It fueled their hope.

It strengthened their waiting.

It gave them joy in their waiting.

I just imagine, did Simeon, like every time he went to the temple each day, did he, you know, pull up the swaddling clothes on this baby?

I'm so sorry.

That's not the one.

The next day he comes, I'm sorry.

But that one day he finally recognizes it.

Friends, stay connected to the story.

This year, 2023, make it intentional to saturate yourself in the Bible.

And the story of the Word, the promises of the Word.

You could do nothing better for your soul than that.

The old story meets us in our need today.

You don't have to leave here cynical, disenchanted, without hope.

The offer of salvation is for any who struggle with doubt, with fear, with anger, with sadness, with addiction.

Every day we are given an invitation by competing kingdoms of this world to find our rest or our comfort, our consolation, even our redemption, in pleasure or power, success or wealth.

And all of those things can be good things, but they're not first things.

They're not ultimate things.

They can never satisfy the deep longings.

They're flimsy.

They're crushed under the weight of suffering and injustice.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in the person of Jesus.

The invitation of the gospel is an offer of rest, an offer, my friends, of ultimate comfort, consolation in Christ alone.

Fleming Rutledge said this: God is on the move toward us, not the other way around.

In the very midst of our confusion and incapacity, we are met by the oncoming Lord.

Hallelujah, I would add.

Like Simeon and Anna, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes and our ears.

May we see his son moving towards us.

Let's pray.

Lord, we give you thanks that you came.

We know you did not have to make a way, but you did.

Holy Spirit, we pray that you would do your work in this place.

This morning of opening hearts to the gospel of your son Jesus.

Wake me up from my own boredom, my own dullness, my own indifference.

Holy Spirit, open my eyes that I might see you as salvation.

As the one who meets me at my deepest hope, my deepest fear.

Lord, you have come to make a way.

Show us that way.

Spirit, move among us.

Plant seed, the seed of your word in our hearts.

In Jesus' name we all sin.