Advent: Simeon

The third Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of joy.

Jesus told his disciples in John 15, verses 10 through 12, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandment and abide in his love.

John 15:10–12

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

We light this candle to remember that Christ is the source of our joy.

Today's scripture reading is from Luke chapter 2, verses 22 through 35.

Luke 2:22–35

And when the time came for the 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 sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

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 marveled 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 also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman, I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

We're so glad to gather together and worship with you.

We are in our third week of our Advent series, and uh today we are looking at the story of Simeon, who is one of those small, sort of almost hidden characters in the Gospels.

This is the only time that we see him.

He is introduced here, and we don't see him again.

But as we look into his story this morning, I think you'll find that this is a story that has been uh happening through throughout the whole of the scriptures.

And what Simeon gets to witness here has been the hope of the whole Old Testament.

And there are all sorts of stories which find their culmination in this moment when Jesus is born, brought to the temple, and held by Simeon.

And Simeon gets to confess that this is the Lord's Christ.

And he utters that famous phrase, um, which in in Latin is uh nuncdomitis.

Now I can depart in peace.

Um before we move into our text today, uh would you pray with me?

Our Father in heaven, we praise you for your loving kindness.

We thank you that you sent your son and that we get to celebrate his coming.

Lord, we praise you that you took on the punishment of our sins so that we might receive your righteousness.

Lord, we thank you that uh we get to trust in your salvation, and that only in trusting in your salvation could we possibly hope to depart this life in peace.

There is nothing that we can do to accomplish our own peace for ourselves.

There is no way which we could atone for ourselves before you.

But Lord, you freely have given to us your peace in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Lord, let us remember that in our hearts so that we might depart in peace.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, you know, our our culture is not as saturated with um uh biblical language as it once was, but uh the phrase nuncdemidis it by a show of hands, is this is this familiar to anyone?

Yeah, great.

Okay, so we're going to learn something um as I say this famous phrase, of course, the nuncdemidus, which is uttered this morning, and it's like, well, famous to who.

So uh in uh uh the it's it's the Latin, so as it would have been in the Vulgate, the the Latin uh of uh the prayer, which is the last of the the five hymns of Jesus.

And in the Gospel of Luke, uh uh in the birth narrative of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, five there are five occasions in which uh a hymn is made uh with regards to uh the newborn king.

And uh this is the fifth and final one of those, and it's uttered by Simeon, and it begins with, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

And that uh now you will let me depart in peace uh is the Latin nunc Dimitis.

And so it had become a uh that just the beginning of that uh hymn had become a sort of a shorthand for the whole hymn, but also this phrase of now I can depart in peace, which is something that you would say if uh, I mean, now we would probably say it like colloquially of like, you know, you have a wonderful uh bite of cheesecake or something, and you'd say nunc demidus, you know.

Um but it had been used perhaps more appropriately.

Uh so one of the uh famous instances of it, you can find this all on Wikipedia, it's free, uh, and uh was when Thomas Jefferson uh wrote a letter to Andrew Jackson uh in 1821.

Andrew Jackson was just a general then, and um Thomas Jefferson was writing about the founding of the University of Virginia, and he says, I think that this will be an institution uh uh which will be second to none.

And if I'm able to witness that happening in my lifetime, then I will be able to utter the famous the famous phrase of Simeon Nunctimatus.

Uh so you can see it's like the a life's work.

If I were able to accomplish a life's work, um slightly more recent and not recent enough to uh perhaps be as relevant as we would think, is John Coltrane.

My my examples get no earlier than this, or more recent than this.

And um, John Coltrane, um, his famous rendition of the Love Supreme.

Uh, after releasing that album, he did a concert where he uh performed the whole album.

And uh the legend is that after he had performed the album, he steps down from the stage, and you could hear him utter to himself, Nuncdemidis.

That he had finally written something so beautiful and wonderful and played it so perfectly that he would say, Now I could die in peace.

But of course, uh it is a question, you know, what is it that you would have to accomplish for real to be able to let yourself die in peace?

Where you could say the the purpose of my life was finally and utterly fulfilled.

You know, um I I have nothing uh particularly against the University of Virginia, but I wouldn't say that it that it is an institution of which uh it is second to none.

Um any University of Virginia grads in the room?

One.

I'm sorry.

Welcome.

Think it's your first time here.

I actually do this every week.

I make fun of the University of Virginia.

Um likewise, uh when was the last time any of you listened to Love Supreme?

You know, these things that these life's these life's works, could we say that they are uh things of which, okay, now this was enough to justify your life or to justify your existence?

And then I think it becomes especially clear the the difficulty of this reality when it when we look plainly back at our lives, um not just at our accomplishments, but at our sins as well, the relationships that are still broken, the things, of course, that we were unable to accomplish, or um perhaps even worse, are the things that uh we have accomplished and we've realized that this was a foolish pursuit.

Uh, this is not enough to justify a life, and certainly not before the Lord.

And so there's this reality that I think we all must face, which is that of our own works or our own efforts, we could never utter nuncdimitis for real.

We could we could never say, now, finally, I can depart in peace.

And this is the reality of what it means to be human.

Part of the strangeness and absurdity of our experience in this life is that it all ends in death.

And the narrative arcs of our lives are not clean narratives.

There are things which can crop up at the uh in the middle of our lives and towards the end of our lives, which would look back and it changes the contour of the whole story.

There are, we all die with lots of loose ends, things that are not fully accomplished and things that should have been rectified and aren't.

This is the reality of what it means to be human.

And so while we all experience in our hearts this deep desire to one day be able to utter nuncdomitis, and I think that you can know this because we all desire to have a real experience of peace, and you may be pursuing that by some sort of uh uh reaching to try and garner enough accomplishment to be able to experience that, or it might even manifest in, well, uh I can just rest and ignore uh the realities of my life for now, and in so doing, at least be able to borrow some of that future peace here for the present.

Uh but when we stand before the Lord, and when our lives are laid bare by him, we realize that the the ability to utter before our Creator, now you will let me depart in peace, is uh something that is perhaps so good, so wonderful, the hope of all of our lives, that's almost unimaginable to be able to participate in that.

And we hear that in today's text, uttered for real by Simeon.

So let's go ahead and enter today's text, and we will look at the uh uh context in which in which he's able to utter these words, and we'll look at what these words themselves mean.

In Luke 2, 22 through 35, it says, And when the time came for their per 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, as made famous in the song Two Turtle Doves.

So there are uh two things that that Mary and Joseph bring Joseph to the excuse me, bring Jesus to the temple for.

This is for their purification, and that is particularly a reference to Mary's purification.

Uh a woman after giving birth to a child is ceremonially unclean.

After giving birth to a male child, she's ceremonially unclean for 40 days.

And so on the 40th day, she would bring sacrifices to uh offer to the Lord to gain uh to regain fellowship into the temple.

And so they are going there for their purification, but it also says they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

And we hear that as just when you just hear the phrase to present him to the Lord, it sounds just like a nice thing, a nice thing to do.

But it is a it is a technical term.

He is being presented to the Lord because Jesus is born, uh, is the firstborn of Mary and Joseph.

And as the firstborn who is not a Levite, then it is the responsibility of the parents to redeem his life for the Lord, because the Lord at the Exodus lays a claim to all the firstborn of Israel.

And anyone who is the firstborn is it needs to be redeemed by uh that means a sacrifice is to be offered on their on their behalf to the Lord.

And so they go up to offer that sacrifice.

Now, this would have been a joyful occasion.

It is the first public presentation of their newborn son.

It is uh a time of celebration and regaining of fellowship.

You can picture when we baptize a child here and family's present, and it's a joyful occasion for the whole community.

And this would have had that sort of tone.

Now, some amazing things about this is that we would consider that the this means that the Redeemer Himself is being brought to the temple so that he might be redeemed.

Now, what this shows us is this reality that Christ was born under the law, and that he took on all of the requirements of the law, and he perfectly fulfills them.

That the one who would offer himself for all of us is offered to the Lord by his parents first.

And so this is a sort of picture of the first offering of Jesus.

And I think the text emphasizes this in sort of an interesting way.

Um and just the the and perhaps it was just from the practicality of their lives.

In Leviticus 12, the requirement that would have been offered for the redemption of the firstborn, or the required offering for the redemption of the firstborn, was a lamb and two turtle doves and two pigeons.

That was the fullness of the requirement.

Now, they only offer two turtle doves and two pigeons.

The text in Leviticus uh has sort of a caveat.

It says, if you can't afford a lamb, then it is sufficient to be able to offer only two turtle doves and two pigeons.

I think this is showing us a couple of things.

One is that Jesus is born into a state of poverty.

He does not come into a royal family, but he is born into the lowest place.

And that's why the offering that is made for the redemption of his life before the Lord at the temple is the offering of the poor.

But also throughout the story of Jesus, there's at least one other occasion in which it seems like there should be a lamb present and there isn't a lamb present.

So the next time we see something like this is at the Passover meal, when it would have been traditional for there to be a lamb present at the Passover meal, uh, but at the Passover meal of Christ, there is no lamb present.

And of course, I think what we're supposed to see in that occasion and this occasion is that there was a lamb present.

That the the requirement of the lamb is absolutely fulfilled in Christ.

And what's interesting about the two parts of the offering is that the the uh the offering of the lamb and the offering of the turtle dove are a double, they they they carry this double meaning.

One is that it is an offering for uh uh the forgiveness of sins, and the other is is an offering just to bless the Lord.

So we can consider this as there's like a negative aspect to these offerings and a positive aspect to these offerings.

The negative aspect of the offerings is that the sin would be atoned for, and the positive aspect of these offerings is a demonstration of righteousness, and Christ on our behalf fulfills both of those requirements on our behalf so that you might know because of the sacrifice of Christ that the sins which you have committed are atoned for, and the righteousness which you ought to have offered to the Lord, the Lord treats you as though you were as righteous as his son because of the offering of Christ.

And so when Mary and Joseph go to present their son, to redeem their son to the Lord, there is no Lamb present.

But we see that they there is, of course, a lamb presence.

The Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world is the one who is present.

And this offering of him at the temple gives us this image of what is to come, which is that Jesus will be the one who is offered on our behalf.

We see that the story of Jesus, as you look through the text, you see that everything culminates in the story of Jesus.

If you can pick up a thread in scripture, you will see, wow, this was about Jesus the whole time.

And we'll see that even more as the text goes on.

So that is the offering that they made, and that's the context.

And so as they're entering the temple, and June, excuse me, June, I don't know when it was, in in Luke 2, 25, it says, 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.

So enter a new character, one that we haven't heard of before.

And it's a man named Simeon is in the temple.

And what we know about him is he was a righteous and devout man.

So righteous, so it meant that he honored the Lord with his life.

Devout meaning he was committed to the Lord.

So it makes sense that he would be at the temple because he led a devout life which would have been centered around worship of God in the temple, probably even living in the temple and uh committing his life to uh a perpetual worship of the Lord.

And he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Now we can tell a bit about him just by his name.

His name is Simeon, and that uh that name means God hears.

So the the s and the sh in Hebrew are you're just changing a dot.

And the dots are kind of new.

So they are uh really the same letter.

So when you see a sim or a shim, um the the scripture that we recited together with Zach this morning, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Uh do you does anybody know what I don't I don't know why it's trivia this morning.

Does anybody know the uh um name of that or what that's traditionally called?

Shema.

The Shema.

So you hear the Shim?

Uh so that means hear, O Israel.

Hear, O Israel.

So that means hear.

And uh Simeon means God hears.

The shim, God hears, is what his name means.

It means that God hears.

And so the one who is waiting for, who is petitioning the Lord in the temple, he is devout.

His name means God hears.

And Jesus showing up to him is evidence of that.

Next week we'll continue on in this same section of scripture, and we'll meet another character that is less familiar to us, and her name is Anna.

Uh both of these names are important because Simeon, his name means God hears, but there is another man whose name means God hears that I think is uh uh really connected to this story, and that's Samuel.

Uh Samuel is the prophet in the uh books 1 and 2 Samuel.

He is the last judge of Israel, and he is the one who anoints uh King Saul and King David.

And uh Samuel has one of the famous birth stories in scripture, or several famous birth stories.

Um Isaac, uh born of Abraham, and uh Samuel, who is born to Hannah.

And interestingly, Samuel means God hears, and uh uh his mother was named Hannah.

And we are in we are now uh meeting Simeon, who is God hears, and the next person we will meet is Hannah.

And so the scripture is telling us think Samuel and Hannah.

And what is the story of Samuel and Hannah?

Hannah was a barren woman, and she was constantly pestered by her husband's other wife, who had lots of children.

Uh and she went.

Prayed at the temple.

Hannah did.

And as she was praying at the temple, uh, she was so overcome with grief and so so sad at her barrenness and her inability to conceive a child.

Uh, and she's just praying silently.

And Eli, uh, who oversaw the temple at that time, sees her praying on the steps, and uh he thinks that she's drunk uh because she's so overcome with grief.

And he says to her, Woman, come on, not here, so to speak.

It's not a direct quote.

Uh and and she uh she says, I'm I'm not drunk, um, I'm praying to the Lord.

And she he sees he sees the depth of her pouring out her heart to the Lord.

And Eli says to her, May the Lord grant your petition.

And she goes home and she conceives.

She says that if I am if the Lord gives me a son, I will give him back to the Lord all his days.

And when Samuel is born, she names him God Hears, because God heard and he provided the son.

And the next scene that we see with Samuel is him being brought to the temple as a young boy, uh, just after weaning, and he is raised in the temple.

And so this mother does this unthinkably courageous thing where she honors her promise to the Lord and she gives up her son to the Lord as an offering to him.

And Samuel is brought into the temple, and he becomes the judge of Israel and the high priest for uh the people of Israel overseeing the temple.

So the birth story of Samuel is about the dedication of a young boy to the Lord, and about God hearing and the prayers for the son of the people of God finally being truly answered.

And so, what is happening in this story now?

It is that Samuel, Simeon, whose name means the same thing, sees that God hears.

He is the one who will witness the consolation of Israel because God heard and God gave the Son, and now the Son is being brought to be presented in the temple, who will be the true high priest, who will be the true king, the final savior of God's people.

Now, you you you might ask, that's nice, and those are some fun games with names, but lots of people have the same name all the time.

Can you can you make a jump like that?

Here's why I'm willing to make a jump like that.

It's because that story of Samuel was written by the same person who is writing this story of Jesus.

And we see that it is the Holy Spirit who is working these events together.

And the Holy Spirit has been working these events the whole time so that we might see that the story of Samuel, which becomes an incomplete story, finds its fulfillment in Christ.

Because the way that Samuel's life ends is him being rejected by Israel and a bad king being installed on the throne.

That becomes basically the end of Samuel's career.

And so he's brought into the temple, and his life ends in this place where there's not this fulfillment.

This this promised son or this prayed-for son, which Samuel is in a sense, is not able to bring, he's not able to be the true high priest.

He's not able to be the true king.

But we see here that by Simeon the story is fulfilled.

It finds its completion where Christ arrives and the true high priest, the true king, finally arrives.

And the Holy Spirit is the reason that Simeon is able to see that, because in this verse, verse 25, we see that the Holy Spirit is all over it.

It says Simeon was righteous and devout, which is evidence of the Holy Spirit working in his heart.

Then it says he is waiting for the consolation of Israel.

That word consolation is the uh word paracolason, and the paraclete is the comforter, the helper, the consoler.

That is the very name that Jesus himself gives for the Holy Spirit.

So this word consolation is the very, very name which Jesus says the Holy Spirit will be for his people and his church, the one that draws close to us, he comforts us.

And so he is waiting for, in a sense, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon God's people.

And it says, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

So it is awaiting for the Holy Spirit, that Simeon is awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, and it is by the Holy Spirit that Simeon is able to wait, because the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And he had even by the Holy Spirit been given this particular promise from the Lord.

In verse 26, it says, 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.

Now that is an amazing promise.

You know, you think of the promise to Abraham and Sarah.

Abraham is given this promise that he will have the son and he will be the child of promise.

And so he spends his whole life looking forward to the child of promise.

And finally, Isaac is born as if from two people who the Hebrew says they were so old they might as well have been dead, which is I probably would have said it more gently, but they uh and yet they got to see the promised son be born.

But Isaac wasn't was not the final son, he was not the one who would be the redeemer of the world.

Simeon gets this promise that he will see with his own eyes the Lord's Christ before he dies.

There's a time stamp on it.

This will happen here.

And the Holy Spirit, I read one commentary and I I loved this image.

The Holy Spirit is like a proud father who can't help but tell everyone.

And so he wants to bring those who draw close to him close to the story that he's showing here.

And so he reveals to Simeon, you will see, your waiting will be rewarded, and finally your eyes will see it, and you will know as your name has proclaimed since you were born, that God hears.

God has heard the cries of his people.

We don't know Simeon's age.

It is traditional to think of him as elderly and nearing death, because it makes sense of the promise, and so I think that's probably true, that he is elderly and nearing death, and he's given this timestamp that he will see the Lord's Christ.

And so he goes into the temple expectantly and awaiting to see the fulfillment of this promise.

And in Luke 2, 27 to 28, it says, 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, We'll see what he says next, but one thing that I want to point out is that it says, and he came in the spirit into the temple.

Now we hear this very same phrase.

This is sort of I this phrase is used at the beginning of Revelation.

And it says that John was on the island of Patmos, he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and then he is given a vision.

And the vision that John is given then is of the risen Christ, Christ in his exalted state.

And it and so what he sees when he is in the Spirit and he is brought into the place of the Lord, it says of John what he saw.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.

This is John in Revelation.

And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

You can see the one like a son of man, like a like a person.

You can see examples all around you.

Clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two edged two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

In the Spirit, John beholds Christ, and he sees who Christ is.

How is he able to behold such wonder and the wonder of who the risen Christ is?

It is because the Holy Spirit equipped him to be able to see, because the Holy Spirit, working in his heart, opened his eyes to see the truth of who the risen Christ is.

Now, it is this very same Holy Spirit who opens the eyes of Simeon, so that when a young couple, Mary and Joseph, bring in in this ordinary process, this ordinary ritual, they bring in just another baby.

Jesus is not shining.

His eyes are not like a flame of fire.

Jesus is not performing an infant miracle.

He is simply a child brought in by this couple.

But Simeon, by the Holy Spirit, is able to look at this ordinary child on whose behalf was offered up an offering of the poor.

And he was able to see this is the Christ.

This is the same one who John also in the Spirit will see that his voice sounds like thunder, that his eyes are like a flame of fire, that from his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword.

By the Holy Spirit, Simeon was able to see the glory of Christ in this infant.

And then he says, Luke 29 through 32, 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.

We all have unfinished stories.

Because he had seen the Lord's Christ, and he saw that it is from him that he is able to witness the salvation of the Lord.

Our true rescue, our true help, is finally here.

And Simeon sees it just in the baby.

Says, Simeon goes on, he says, You have prepared in the presence, uh this 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.

See how far his vision stretches.

He's able to see that this baby, ordinary, is the light of revelation to the Gentiles.

This is why I think there's a real revelation thing going on here.

It's the same word, it's apocalypse, which is the name.

There is a there is uh this vision of Christ, it this same glorious Christ who rules and reigns in the heavens now is this infant boy.

And he is light for the Gentiles because all of the nations are wandering in darkness.

And what is the hope that any of those stories would reach any sort of completion?

The only hope is Christ, that the light would dawn on them.

And that happens in Jesus Christ.

And this glory which is given to the nation of Israel, because it is from the nation of Israel that our salvation enters the world.

That phrase, that nunctomidus, that that sort of theme of this, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

This is seen elsewhere in scripture, and it's seen in Genesis 15, 15.

In Genesis 15, Abraham uh has been promised that he would have a son.

And the chapter begins where Abraham is having a bit of an argument with God.

And he says, Uh I'm almost dead, and my servant is going to be my heir.

How is it, Lord, that you will bless me?

And the Lord tells him, You will, he actually says, Look at look at the ground, see the dusts.

Your children will outnumber the dusts of the earth.

Look up to the heavens.

Do you see the stars?

Your children will outnumber the stars of the heavens.

So the Lord surrounds him with this promise so that whether Abraham looks down or looks up, he is caused to remember the promise of the Lord.

But then when he looks out, he sees his barren wife who cannot conceive, and he considers their years of trying and fruitlessness.

But he has promised the child.

He has promised the child.

And in Genesis 15, 15, towards the end of the chapter, after God promises that this child will come, and Abraham receives that promise by faith, and it is counted to him as righteousness, God says, As for you, talking to Abraham, you shall go to your fathers in peace.

You shall be buried in a good old age.

This was the hope of Abraham's life.

Now, Abraham, who we looked at last week, we remember he did not live to see the fulfillment of what the Lord had promised him.

But as Hebrews says, he greeted it from afar.

It was something that he saw far off, and by faith he greeted the promise of the Lord.

But he received this promise.

He was able to die in peace because he understood that his life was connected to the promise of the Lord, and the Lord would see through to hold his promise.

Now that promise in the eyes of Simeon is fulfilled.

As Simeon looks down in his old age, and he says, Now I can depart in peace, like Abraham.

What Abraham saw by faith, Simeon saw with his own eyes, as the Christ child was there, present with him.

And Simeon blessed them in verses 34 and 35 and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

This is quite a quite a, you know, uh often visit folks after you have child a child or something, or see you come in.

I've never given a pastoral speech like this.

You know, this child.

This would be an amazing thing to hear as a new parents, I think.

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 peace through your own soul also, he says to Mary, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

There's that apocalypse again.

The word for rising here is the word resurrection.

And this one is appointed for the death and resurrection of many in Israel.

And for a sign that is opposed.

Jesus will be stood against.

The very thing that Simeon sees him to be, the Lord's Christ, the Messiah, the promised one, the Son of God, will be the reason that he is killed.

Because all of his claims to who he is will be viewed as mere blasphemy.

And how could you tell otherwise?

Jesus, this infant Jesus, this ordinary man, does not have eyes that are like flaming fire, his voice is not like thunder.

He is not something to look at that would capture your attention.

But if you had the Holy Spirit, you could see this ordinary Christ was the promised one.

He was a sign that would be opposed.

And then he tells Mary, and a sword will peace through your own soul also.

And this means, and I think we see this because she is there at the foot of the cross, bearing witness to the crucifixion of her son, this very baby, who one day she gathered the turtle doves and the pigeons together, brought into the temple, heard such wonders about, treasured them up in her heart.

She would stand at the foot of the cross and see him crucified.

But her hope would not be over then.

The thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.

What we see here is that Jesus, this child, will be the one who determines for all people whether or not they will be able to say nunc Dimitis.

Whether or not anyone would be able to say, Now you'll let me depart in peace.

Because the only peace that we have offered to us, the only possible means by which our lives can be connected to a story which has its true fulfillment, that we don't just end in death and absurdity, is if Christ Himself has purchased for us a resurrection.

So that when we meet our death, we do not just become another loose end, but we have a firm hope that we will be resurrected with him in glory.

Because he has gone before us, he has taken on the weight of our sins, that by faith in him we are placed in Christ.

We receive this very Holy Spirit that Simeon had that allows us to see who Christ really is, and we might be able to look forward to departing in peace, not regret, not shame, not tricking ourselves into a foolishness of thinking that something that we've accomplished here would have this ultimate meaning.

But in this child, in the Christ, that is where our hope lies.

So Jesus reveals the thoughts of your heart, reveals where it is that your heart is resting so that you might be able to depart in peace, in peace.

Remember the Christ.

Remember Jesus, his sacrifice, his atonement, his rescue.

That is where we have our peace.

Because he has done it.

So with that, are there any questions today, Tim?

Great.

Let's take communion.

First Corinthians 11, starting in verse 23, it says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So on the night before he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread and he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is broken for you.

And he took the cup, and he said, This is the cup of my blood.

This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

And he gives these to us in remembrance of his death.

And as we remember his death, we remember we will all die.

Death is coming for all of us.

How is it that we could depart in peace?

We depart in peace because Christ has purchased our peace for us.

We might rest in him because the Christ has come.

God has heard our sufferings, and he has taken on the punishment that we deserve and granted to us the righteousness that belongs to Christ by faith.

And so we receive freely as a gift from the Lord this peace.

That our departing might be only being drawn to himself.

Holy Father, we pray that you would bless this meal.

Lord God, that you would bless our time together this morning, that we would remember you have come.

You've been seen.

You've been offered up in the temple as a child, but you've been offered up on the mountain of Calvary so that we might have an eternal hope.

Father, let us remember that you sent your son.

Let us see the wonder and the glory of your gospel.

Lord, that the stirrings of our heart are only fulfilled in the peace that Jesus offers.

Let us savor and enjoy that peace that you've given to us.

As you invite us to share this meal together in remembrance of your sacrifice.

In Jesus' name, amen.