Luke 2:25-35

The reading today is from Luke chapter 2, verse 25 to 35.

Luke 2:25–35

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation 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.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom 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 according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

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

And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.

And a sword will pierce through your own soul or also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

And so reads God's Word.

Welcome to you.

My name is Mark.

I'm one of the leaders here at the church.

We uh we from time to time, we did this with our family carol service.

We keep the kids in during the whole time, uh, so they're worshiping with us and here participating in the talk from God's Word with us as well.

Welcome to you, everybody.

So, first thing that I need to know is did you all have a nice Christmas?

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Did you get lots of good presents?

Yeah.

Okay, tell me, tell me, what was the favorite thing that you got?

Um probably the wolves um wolves?

Yeah, the wolf football uh a wolves football jersey?

Yeah, amazing.

I thought you got a wolf.

Don't do that.

Maybe it's an Argentinian thing, not sure.

Uh Ayla, what was the favorite thing that you got?

Um the rabbit that can move and twitch.

A rabbit, not a real one.

A robot rabbit that can move and twitch his nose.

Give me another present.

Yes.

What did you get, Olivia?

You got what?

A doll.

A doll?

Oh, amazing.

You've wanted one for so many years?

Finally.

After so much waiting, thank you for that setup.

I appreciate that.

Yes.

Simply guitar subscription.

A simply guitar subscription?

One year.

One year?

See you next year up here.

Fantastic.

Did anybody have an advent calendar in their house?

A chocolate one or anything like that?

Did anybody have an advent calendar?

Do you hands up if you know what an advent calendar is?

Yeah?

So an advent calendar, we had one in our house, which was uh hanging beside our uh our kitchen table.

And every day we would uh we would do a little uh a little Bible devotional at dinner time, and there'd be chocolates in the little pockets.

And what you could see is actually the little devotional cards that were in there were getting fewer and fewer and fewer because we were counting down the days, and we knew that once we'd done 25 of them, that it was gonna be Christmas Day.

And so it was great to see it.

And Christmas was so far away at one point, and then before you knew it, there was only three, then two, and then one.

It was great to see that counting down.

Are you good at waiting?

No?

Who was up really early on Christmas morning?

How how early were you up?

Seven?

Seven's not too bad.

Anybody up earlier than seven?

I was still up at seven.

You were up at seven as well?

No.

Seven as well?

What what time did you guys get up at?

Should I ask Daddy what time did they get up at?

Eight or nine?

Goodness me, I'm coming to have Christmas in your house.

That sounds fantastic.

Uh I'm glad that yes, what time did you get up at?

Do you remember?

Six.

There you go.

Pray for Helen's parents.

Uh, but that that sounds more uh more right, doesn't it?

Because we're we're so eagerly anticipating, we're so excited from the wait for Christmas Day.

I'll come back to you in just a second.

And Simeon, who we read in our passage, was somebody who was waiting.

He was very old.

Actually, Nathan, if you remember, when we did our uh when we did our Christmas poem, he played Simeon and he came in as an old man on his walking stick.

Do you remember that just a few weeks ago?

Because he was waiting.

Why was he waiting?

Because God had made him a promise.

God had made him a promise that he would not die until he saw God's promised king come into the world.

And that's what our story is about.

He was made a promise and he had to wait.

Now, we're gonna play a quick game.

My kids have been wondering why I've had why I've been carrying this tube around.

Oh, and do you want to come down?

No?

Okay, fair enough.

So inside this tube, I'm gonna take out the uh the ends.

Inside this tube, I have a ball from our baby toy.

From a baby toy from our playroom.

It was just lying on the floor because the toy, because the playroom never gets tidied.

That's right.

Uh, and so daddy went down and he stole it.

Uh, so we have a ball and a tube.

Now, what I want you to do, Maxi, is I want you to stand up.

Um, sorry, Leon, and uh stand up on the chair.

Okay, and I want you to hold the tube really high.

Can you uh well, so can you reach the top?

Make sure you can reach the top to put the ball in, okay?

And don't put it in until I tell you.

Now, I need somebody else to stand below to get ready to catch it.

Why don't you come?

Okay, and you've got to stand below here, and at some point, Leon is going to drop the ball, so you don't tell him when, and you gotta catch it, okay?

So when you're ready, you drop it, and then you see if you can catch it.

Ah, you've got to make you put your hand a little bit further back.

So try it lower this time.

Do it again and try it lower.

Now you're looking.

You're looking.

Cheaters all.

Ah, see, and I was distracting you.

No, somebody else wanna try and catch it.

Ila, why don't you come and give it a go?

All right, do you want to try it?

Why don't you come with me to put the ball put her in her?

Since you're since you're taller, and so you can put it even higher.

And then, okay, so you drop it when you're ready.

Don't tell Aila, and then you're gonna try and catch it, Isla.

Oh, it seems hard, isn't it?

Try one more time.

Try one more time.

We can all play this game afterwards, okay?

When you when you're ready, Maxie?

Oh, good job.

No, because do you know what happens?

The tube, because you can't see rhyme the tube, you don't know when the ball's gonna come out.

You know that it will at some point, but you gotta wait, because you cannot see when the ball is gonna come out.

Simeon knew that God was going to keep his promise because God always keeps his promises, but he didn't know when it was going to happen, and so he had to wait, didn't he?

And then imagine how he felt.

How did you feel when you were waiting for the ball to come through?

How did you feel?

How'd you feel?

Bored?

Felt bored.

Maybe Simeon felt a little bit bored.

Maybe it was like, well, is God gonna keep his promises?

Is this ball ever going to come out?

Maybe, maybe he struggled, maybe he did.

How did you feel?

Been a little bit nervous, a little bit nervous, maybe a little bit excited as well, and maybe Simeon felt some of those emotions as well.

And then imagine that suddenly, one day, this young family comes walking into the temple in Jerusalem carrying this tiny baby, and he suddenly realizes the penny drops, doesn't it?

And he realizes that God has kept his promises.

There's Simeon there, he's just come in.

God has kept his promises.

How do you think, how do you think Simeon felt then when he saw the promise, baby?

Ina.

He probably felt very happy.

How do you think he felt?

Happy.

Yeah, happy?

Yeah, I probably did feel happy.

Any other any advances on happy?

Oh, I've got a joyful.

Joyful! Yeah, you probably did.

Like when you waited so long to get that doll, how did you feel on Christmas morning?

You felt joyful, excited, and I felt like I'm gonna dance all day.

Joyful, excited, and like I was gonna dance all day.

That's what I did on Christmas morning.

I was just dancing all day.

Maybe Simeon.

Yeah, maybe Simeon felt like that because when God keeps his promises, it is so exciting.

Yes, dar, how did you how do you think that Simeon felt?

He was excited because it's such an exciting thing when God keeps his promises, isn't it?

I'm gonna come back to you in a second.

No, I am going to read in plainer, simpler English what Simeon says, and then I'm gonna ask you some questions.

I hope the grown-ups are listening as well.

Don't chin out because I'm gonna come back to you in the end.

Now, this is what Simeon says, and then I'm gonna ask you some questions.

Are you listening?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't want bored faces now.

I know I'm not as exciting as wolves and things, but let's listen.

This is what Simeon says.

Simeon says, Now, Lord, you can let me go in peace because you have kept your promise.

For my eyes have seen your salvation.

You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples.

He is a light for the nations and glory for your people Israel.

Indeed, this child will cause the rise and fall of many people.

So here's question number one.

Who, and I want hands up rather than shouting out, okay.

Who did Simeon see?

He saw Jesus as a baby, and what did Simeon say that the baby Jesus would do or be?

Let me read again.

You can let me go in peace because you have kept your promise, for my eyes have seen your salvation.

You have prepared it in the presence of all people.

Who did Simeon say that the child would be or do?

What would he do?

What do you think he would do, Anna?

Um rescue people understand.

He'd rescue people.

That's right.

He would save people.

He says, My eyes have seen your salvation.

That is your plan to bring people who are far away from God, who are far away from God because of their sin.

Bring them back into relationship with God.

That's what salvation or rescue means.

And who is God's salvation for?

Is it just for me?

What do you think, Darren?

Who's it for?

It is for everyone.

That's right, because Simeon says that Jesus is a light to all nations.

That means everyone in the world.

And we represent that here in City Church, don't we?

Because we have lots of different nations.

We've got people almost from every continent on the world.

Uh, and everybody is invited into the salvation that Jesus offers.

He takes the sin of everyone who would trust in him and brings them back into relationship with God.

Now, final question Would everybody accept Jesus?

Darr is my is my uh student.

No.

And that's what he means when he says, indeed, this child will cause the rise and the fall of many people.

And we'll come back to that in a second and figure out what that means.

Simeon also says something else about Jesus.

He says that Jesus is a light.

Did you did you hear that?

That he's a light to the nations.

Have you ever had to run upstairs to get something from your room, but all the lights are off?

Oh, it's awful, isn't it?

Yeah.

Something might come out of nowhere.

Something something might come out of nowhere.

Like when you turn off the TV and you turn off the light and you go to the T T.

You turn off, yeah, yeah.

When you go to bed, you turn off the TV, you turn off the light, and you have to run as quickly as you can.

Because the darkness can feel a bit strange, can't it?

I'm scary.

Yeah, you do you ever do you ever walk into a room that's dark before you walk into you kind of put your hand around the wall just to turn on the light?

Yeah, that's I still do that.

You could just sleep on the stairs.

It would be a little bit uncomfortable though, wouldn't it?

Because it's because the darkness is a strange thing.

In the darkness, you can't really see where you're going.

You might trip over, especially if you're in our house where you've just got balls lying around, landings and things like that.

But Simeon here says that Jesus is a light.

He's saying that when Jesus came into the world as God's King, he shows us the way so that we can see how to get back to God.

How that it is that we can be part of God's family again.

That we're no longer in the darkness because Jesus has come.

Now, before Jesus came at Christmas time that we just celebrated and got presents for, it was like the whole world was the upstairs.

It's like the whole world was in darkness and it was really hard to see.

We couldn't figure out how it was that we're going to get back into relationship with the God who loves us.

But when Jesus came, Simeon says, and John says as well, it's like somebody turned on the lights.

And we could see, we could see how it is that we would go back to God.

He's the light who guides us back.

Now, Simeon, as we just noted, says that some people will see this light, some people will see Jesus and they'll push him away.

And other people will see Jesus and they will trust him and embrace him and love him.

What does embrace mean?

Oh, uh, what does embrace mean?

That's a very good question.

Uh Daddy does like to use big words, doesn't he?

Embrace just means uh take hold of, not want to let go of uh someone.

So if I embrace you, I'd give you a big hug.

Uh we can do that later.

Everybody else, once well, you can form an orderly cue.

Uh but what's strange about that is it's the same event.

Jesus comes into the world, and some people think it's brilliant, and some people think it's terrible.

Now, I have some little squares of paper here that I'm gonna make a mess with.

I know, I know.

Okay, and what I need now is I need the children to tidy them up.

So let's see, you got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Okay, so we'll do one team of four, one team of five.

So so why don't we do you three girls and the two boys over here?

You guys are gonna be the blue team, and then you guys over here are gonna be the yellow team, okay?

So you're the yellow, you're the yellow team, right?

And uh when I say go, I want the blue team to pick up all of the blue squares, and I want the yellow team to pick up all of the yellow squares.

Okay?

So you're you're the blue team?

Okay, so read the blue square.

You only pick only pick the blue squares, okay?

I'm gonna scatter these out a little bit more.

All right, three, two, one, go! You guys are just jealous now, aren't you?

Like, oh, came to church.

I thought I'd have a you're welcome, by the way.

We're now exhausting your children so that they sleep better tonight.

Maybe we got like ten seconds more, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Brilliant.

All right.

Okay.

So gather them all up, and I am going to pick.

There's Simon.

Hello, welcome.

Um, I am going to pick a winner at random.

I've got a blue square and a yellow square in my pockets.

All right.

So, the winner is the yellow team.

Yeah, the winner is the yellow team.

Okay, give me the cards.

We'll do it again.

Give me the tickets.

Well, okay, there you go.

You've scattered them.

So, no, don't pick them back up.

Don't pick them up.

Scatter them out.

Scatter them out.

Scatter them.

Scatter them, scatter.

Scatter, scatter, scatter.

Kill them all.

Whoops.

No.

We should have done a risk assessment.

All right.

Okay.

Now, same teams, put them down.

Scatter them out.

Go back to your seats.

Go back to your seats.

I don't want any cheating.

Now back to your seats.

All right.

We're gonna do one more time.

Same teams, collecting the blue and the yellow.

So we've got blue team over here, yellow team over here.

All right, three, two, one, go.

Yeah, there's some over here on the rug.

Hi drama.

If you're new to City Church, we do this every week.

Welcome.

Let them get one.

Let them again get one.

Fantastic.

No, gather them all up.

Alright, I've got them in my pockets again.

Let's see.

Who's the winner?

It is the Blue T.

Who'd have thought it?

Uh right, you can't have collected you.

You should have collected me, I know, right?

No.

Thank you so much for the card.

You can hang on to them or you can give them back to me.

It's rigged.

It's rigged.

The whole question of that.

The whole thing's rigged.

The whole thing is rigged.

Who would have thought it?

Thank you so much.

No, that's bright.

Now go sit back down for a second.

No.

The point of that very silly, very rigged game is this.

No, go on, sit back down for a second.

Now here's the thing.

We're listening?

Yep.

Here's the point.

I, at the end of the game, gave you the same news.

The first time it was that the yellow team won.

And the second time it was that the blue team won.

It was the same news.

But for one team, it was brilliant news.

You'd won! But for the other team, it was terrible news.

Terrible news that you might not get over for the rest of the day.

That you'd lost.

You'd worked so hard and yet you'd lost.

And then we switched it around, and again, it was the same news.

But for one team, it was wonderful.

Just made the day brighter.

But for the other team that time, it was awful.

Jesus coming into the world is the same news for everybody.

He offers salvation.

He says, Come into God's great family.

Let me forgive your sin.

I am the light that shows you the way back to God.

It's the same news.

But Simeon says that it will be great news for some people and terrible news for others.

Some will rise and some will fall.

And so, how do you think that we should respond?

Olivia.

We should be the we want to be those who rise, don't we?

So we want to be those who actually hear the news of Jesus.

And this is true for everybody here.

We want to be those who hear the news of Jesus, that he has come into the world to be the king forever, the king for everyone, the king who takes away our sin, and to hear that and think, gosh, that's the best news ever.

It'd be really sad, isn't it?

If we heard that news and we actually said, No, I want to push that away.

I don't want Jesus to be my king.

I don't want Jesus to take my sin.

And so it's really important, isn't it, that we ask God, we sang about our help by the Holy Spirit, asking Him to change our hearts so that when we hear the news of Jesus, we are those people who trust him and think that it is the best news ever.

Now, just for two minutes, I'm gonna talk to the grown-ups.

But thank you so much for your help.

And we can play more of the tube game and things like that afterwards.

But grown-ups, listen up to what Simeon says at the very start of his speech.

He says, Your servant can now depart or go in peace.

He had seen that God had kept his promises, and peace had filled his heart.

He had seen the salvation that God was bringing, that his people had long waited for, and he felt at peace.

Everything was now in place in his life.

As we enter into a new year, you need to ask yourself: am I entering to this new year with a peace, trusting in the promise keeping God?

Do I hear the news about Jesus?

Does my family hear the news about Jesus?

And do we hear that as a good thing, the best news ever?

Or is something that we want to push away?

And actually, sometimes even as Christians, we can say, yeah, best news ever, absolutely, but I need to prioritize this next year.

I need to focus on this thing.

Yes, it's the best news ever, but actually, in terms of what we give our time to, in terms of what we give our attentions to, there are other things that are more important, other things that take on higher priorities.

That could be our career, that could be our family, that could be any sorts of things.

But do you know what all of those things will take away from you?

They'll take away that sense of peace.

They'll take away that peace that comes from trusting ultimately in Jesus, embracing Him, relying upon Him more than anything else.

People and demands and expectations will always want our time and attention.

They promise much, and all they ask of us is peace.

That soul rest that assures us of who we are, loved by God, forgiven because of Jesus, the light of the world, who has come to take our sin away.

He takes our attention away from, or these things take our attention away from what really matters.

Simeon saw the salvation of the world and he took it in his arms.

He embraced it, and peace filled his old heart.

It put everything else in perspective and he could step into eternity, trusting God.

Question is, how will that shape your priorities for 2024?

Will you be somebody who is saying yes?

One of those people that Simeon says will rise because they're trusting in the one who has come?

Or will you either push him away because you actually don't want his salvation?

Or you'll be a Christian who just says, yes, Jesus is most important, but functionally, in terms of how your life is ordered, in terms of what you give your time to, in terms of your priorities, actually he's second best.

Simeon embraced the Christ child and found himself at peace.

I pray that we would all know that same peace in 2024.