Simeon

I. Introduction
A. Before Mary had been told by Gabriel that she was going to bear the messiah, before the angel informed Zacharias in the temple, someone else had been told by God that the Messiah was about to appear. It was Simeon, and we’re going to read his story today.
B. But before we read this, let’s remember that God had this happen because He loves us. God had this recorded in His word because He loves us. God had this and all the rest of His word translated into our language because He loves us. And God has it here before our eyes this morning because He loves us. O let us not spurn the love of God. Let us receive this as a precious gift, and let it nourish our souls and strengthen our hands in His service.
C. Luke 2:22–33 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 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 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. 26 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. 27 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, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God & said,
1. 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
2. 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
D. Review story
1. A man named Simeon had been told by the Spirit of the Lord that he would see the Savior before he died.
2. He waited and waited – and grew very old. It didn’t look like anything was going to happen.
3. Apparently, he hadn’t heard about Zacharias and Elizabeth, he hadn’t heard about Mary and Joseph, he hadn’t heard of the promises given to them about the Messiah,
4. he hadn’t heard about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, he hadn’t heard about the angels told the shepherds about His birth, he hadn’t heard about the star that was at this time already leading the magi from the east to see the one born king of the Jews.
5. All he knew was that he had been told by God that before he died, he would see the messiah. And now he knew it had to be very soon, for he had grown very old. He couldn’t live much longer!
6. How many times he must have wondered, “Is it now?” No, not now. Later. Later. Always later.
a. Waiting on the Lord sometimes seems to go on forever. But the faithful don’t give up!
7. One day the Holy Spirit tells Simeon to go into the temple, and there he sees the fulfillment of Malachi 3:1, “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”
8. And the Holy Spirit says to Simeon, “See that young peasant girl with the baby in her arms. That’s Him. That’s the One. That baby is the Messiah.”
9. And so Simeon walks up to Mary and Joseph and takes the baby Jesus into his arms.
10. And he looks up to heaven and blesses God, saying, “Now Lord, You let Your servant die in peace, as You have said. For now my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
11. There are some very big things going on here. I would like to point out three.
II. In Simeon we see the OT recognizing and embracing the NT.
A. Let’s think about the history of God’s redemption of His people for a minute.
B. You know, as Christians, we must not only be interested in God’s actions and attitudes toward us, but in God’s actions and attitudes in the story of His courtship with His bride, His elect, His precious people.
C. And what we have here is a significant moment in the process of God saving His people in Christ.
D. What a scene we have here! The old, broken-down Jewish prophet holding the newborn incarnate Son of God.
E. Simeon was not old by accident (nor Anna, for that matter, but we’ll get to her next week). His numerous years symbolized the long time the OT saints had waited for the arrival of their savior.
F. Now the old things – including Simeon – could pass away; they had served their purpose of pointing to Jesus.
G. The Greek here literally says, “Now you dismiss your servant in peace.”
1. This is not a request, nor is it a recognition that God is now free to dismiss Simeon.
2. This is an announcement. It is an acknowledgment of what is about to happen.
3. This is because there is much more going on here than just the dismissal of Simeon.
4. Simeon is drawing attention to a significant moment of transition in redemptive history.
5. Simeon represents the old order, the old order which is now passing away.
6. For it was time for the new day to dawn (Luke 1:78-79). And that’s why he declares it.
H. You see, Simeon represents all the OT prophets who preceded Him.
1. (How is NT Simeon an OT prophet? He lived and died before the new covenant. We’re talking history here, not literature.)
2. He was “just and devout” – the OT ideal.
3. He was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” What does that mean? Consolation means comfort, of course. And here Luke is referring to a theme in the messianic prophecies of Isaiah. Isaiah 40-66 is the messianic section of Isaiah, the part that is more filled with messianic prophecies than any other portion of the OT. And how does it begin? What are the very first words of this section?
a. What is Isaiah 40:1? “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”
b. This is reinforced by other prophecies in Isaiah, such as the one Jesus Himself quotes at the beginning of His ministry, from Isaiah 61:1–2 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”
4. Because of these promises, Rabbis began to refer to the messiah by the name Menahem, which means comforter.
5. This was certainly connected to the fact that Jesus referred to Himself as comforter and the HS as “another comforter” in John 14:16.
I. When the prophets looked with prophetic eyes into the future, Jesus was the One they saw. He was the ultimate subject of their prophecies.
J. And now their era is ending because Christ has come – the One to whom they all pointed.
1. Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”
2. The prophets were part of the scaffolding God erected in the process of building His house.
3. But scaffolding isn’t designed to stay there permanently.
4. And now it was time to take down the scaffolding.
K. But before the OT prophets are ready to close up shop, they have one final assignment: no longer just to predict the coming of Christ, but to announce that He is, in fact, finally here.
1. And so, Luke tells us of six prophets and prophetesses whom God calls to declare the arrival:
a. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, John, and now Simeon and Anna.
b. And through the prophecies of these six, God declares that the messiah has now come, and is born the son of Mary.
c. And in case that’s not enough, God sends His angels to declare it: to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph, to the shepherds. And to top it all off, He sends a star to signal His coming to the magi.
d. This takes the interpretation of who the messiah is out of the realm of mere human interpretation.
e. And this is actually just the beginning: we’ve got miracles, we’ve got the resurrection, we’ve got hundreds of millions of changed lives, we’ve got the success of the church for 2000 years.
2. If all this is not sufficient to convince someone that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Jewish messiah, then they’re probably not going to be convinced even if they see it with their own eyes.
III. With Simeon’s words, the story of Christ’s birth becomes our story – those of us who are Gentiles, and thus signifies another important transition taking place in the unfolding of redemptive history.
A. Up till now, all of the references to the objects of Christ’s salvation have been to Israel (Luke 1:16, 32-33, 54-55, 68-75).
B. But that changes in Lk.2:30-32 “For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles...”
C. Now we know that the first thrust of the Christian mission was toward the Jews. But we also know that a little later, the Gentiles were welcomed in. “To the Jew first & also to the Greek.” (Rm.1:16)
D. And so, all of a sudden, we are in the story. All of a sudden Simeon is talking about us! We are those Gentiles. For the first time Luke makes clear that this is our story, not just a story of the Jews.
E. Nothing in Zechariah’s prophecy indicated this. Nothing in Elizabeth’s prophecy indicated this. Nothing in Mary’s prophecy indicated this. But now Simeon makes it clear: The messiah’s salvation is for all peoples, it is even a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
F. You see, Jesus is too great to just be the savior of the Jewish people. He had to be the savior of the whole world. That’s what God says to the future messiah in Is.49:6: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
G. You know, it’s easy to forget where we came from...
H. “Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh were...separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:11–13
I. Now this may seem like just a fine point of theology, but think of what this means.
1. This isn’t being rescued from being on the side of the road with a flat tire.
2. This isn’t being saved from a tight financial situation.
3. Did you read the story of the two little kids last week who sledded onto a lake and broke through the ice in NJ, and were saved by five young boy scouts who formed a human chain to reach them?
4. This isn’t even like that. It is about so much more. We can’t take the time to dig deep today into what we’ve been saved from, or what we’ve been saved to.
5. Either one is enough to take your breath away. Together, they’re almost too much to handle.
6. But for now, the point is that we’ve been included in the circle of those who are saved, the greatest privilege ever.
J. And the fact that salvation is now for all peoples is proof that salvation is by grace. It’s not by being Jew or Gentile, male or female, educated or un-, rich or poor, American, European, Asian, African, middle eastern. It’s for all.
IV. We see in Simeon’s declaration the meaning of life and the glory of death.
A. 29-30 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation.”
B. The word translated “letting depart” in v.29 means release, like a watchman who has a very long shift and finally finishes his watch and is relieved of duty.
1. After a long lifetime of being a watchman waiting for the messiah, Simeon is being dismissed.
C. “You are letting your servant depart IN PEACE” or “You dismiss your servant IN PEACE.”
1. Why does it say he’s being dismissed “in peace”?
2. You see, up until this moment Simeon has lived without seeing the vision he was destined to see, and so he was incomplete. He had not yet done what he was put here on earth to do.
3. Now in one sense every faithful Jew was without peace when it came to longing for salvation to come to Israel. But for Simeon it was more than just this.
4. Added to his waiting and yearning for the messiah as a faithful Jew was his special calling to behold the messiah before his departure from the earth. And until that was accomplished, there was an uneasiness at not having fulfilled his calling.
5. But once he takes Jesus in his arms, and prays, "Now Lord, You are dismissing Your servant in peace, according to your word; For my eyes have seen your salvation." he can finally say, “Now at last I’m done, now at last I’ve done what I was put here to do, now at last I am at peace and ready to depart.”
6. There is in our human make-up a mechanism of relief, when we have been tense and intensely focused on some problem. And when the danger is over, when the end has come, we experience a psychological sense of having that great burden lifted off our shoulders. E.g. after a big project, after a semester at college, the relief that comes at the end of a war, at the end of a close game. It’s over! This is something of what is happening here with Simeon.
7. But there is more than just this in Simeon’s peace. The One who has been placed into his arms is the answer to all human fears, all human sorrows, all human burdens.
8. He is the salvation not only of Simeon’s calling and of his very soul, but He is the salvation of mankind. He is the fulfillment not only of Simeon’s life, He is the fulfillment of life itself. He is the fulfillment of all human longings. He is the hope of mankind.
9. You know, it’s not just that Simeon died in peace, it’s almost that Simeon died of peace. Once he had Jesus in his arms, once he had proclaimed Him to others, there was nothing else, the world had nothing more to offer him.
D. This story is here for us. ALL these stories are here for us! God is saying something to us here.
1. And there is much delicious food here for us, if we’ll eat it.
2. God is recommending Jesus to us, just as He has done all through this nativity story.
3. An old prophet takes baby Jesus into his arms and says, “This is why I have lived, and now I am ready to go to my death.”
4. Most people want to prolong their lives on earth, for they view this life as the end-all.
5. But God’s people know that this life is given to us in order that we might come to see the salvation of God which comes through Jesus.
6. “He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything...having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” (Acts 17:25b-27)
7. Jesus told a very brief parable about a merchant who was looking for fine pearls (Matt.13:45-46). One day he found a pearl so valuable that he sold everything he owned in order to purchase it.
a. It was preferable to him to own that one pearl and nothing else rather than own all he had previously possessed.
b. When Simeon found Jesus, Simeon had found the pearl of great price – and nothing else mattered. When He found Jesus, he found everything.
8. Isn’t God saying something to us here about the importance of this salvation? Isn’t God saying here that there’s something much more important than the everyday affairs of our lives? There is something more important that your health and your financial security and your success and your house and your appearance.
9. Simeon understood what was truly important. Through Simeon God is calling us to live lives looking for Jesus, searching for His salvation, rejoicing in His coming.
10. Sadly, so many people die in such a way that it’s clear that they are still clinging to this earth. In so many ways, we still live as though we’re clinging to this earth. And when we do so, we disregard Simeon’s life, and we live as though Jesus doesn’t really make much difference!
E. There are many things in this world worth seeing, many things which leave a person awestruck.
1. But there is one thing everyone must see. Whatever you have to do, however much you have to sacrifice, you’ve simply got to see it. It is the salvation of God, which comes through Jesus Christ.
F. What a mind-boggling thing it is that it is even accessible to common, ordinary people like us!
G. Last week we talked about what a strange combination the shepherds and angels were on that first night outside Bethlehem.
H. Well, the combination we have here is even more strange. Think about this picture:
1. God in the flesh of a tiny, helpless, weak baby – placed into the arms of an old man about to die.
2. What a Treasure he had there in his arms! And what a strange person to be holding that Treasure.
3. There was nothing special about Simeon – from a worldly perspective – except that he was so old.
4. What an ironic pedestal he was for the Word of God made flesh!
5. And that’s the way it always is. “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” – 2Corinthians 4:7
6. This treasure is not for the cool, not for the clever, not for the self-assured.
7. It’s for the open-hearted and the humble. It’s for the needy.
I. And that’s our purpose in life. That’s why we’re here: to find and to hold this Treasure, so small as to be held by a frail old man, and yet bigger than the whole world.
1. And then to point Him out to others.
J. Do you think about the end of your life? You ought to. We ought to be preparing for this now. On that day, we’ll reap what we have sown throughout our lives. It’s coming whether we like it or not.
K. And once you’ve found Jesus, you don’t need to fear death. He takes the uncertainty away from it. For the believer, death has lost its sting. Death is gain (Phil.1:21). Death is rest. Death is relief. Death is more Jesus.
L. This is actually not the end of Simeon’s story. He then turns and speaks to Mary. But we’ll get to that in the final sermon of the series – next week.