Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you here this morning. Shall we open in prayer? A thankful Father at every remembrance of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If there's anyone here this morning who cannot say, He is my Savior. May that person have the light of your Spirit shine the grace of God into their hearts and minds, and that the need of that person be met. For Lord, we confess that we are all the same. We all need salvation.
And we know that it is only found in one name. It is only found in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth we are thinking about this morning. We pray that you would guide our thoughts and help us to focus our hearts and minds on the Lord Jesus this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.
You might turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. I find that this man, it is presumed that he was an aged man, but the Scriptures do not tell us that. I find that this man, Simeon, to be an admirable man, in that he was waiting. And I want to discuss this morning and talk about his expectant spirit and his good attitude in thinking about the Messiah.
Simeon was knowledgeable. He was full of faith. He was expectant. And he was pious.
Yes, I'll even use that word. A man who worshiped God in a systematic way. I think he's an example to all of us. And so let us consider Luke chapter 2, verses 25 to 35.
We've had in the material leading up to this point in Luke chapter 2. We've had the magnificat of Mary. We've had the prophecy of Zacharias. We've had the birth of Jesus in the manger, and we've had the angels over the shepherds.
And now it is 40 days. Jesus is a mere 40 days old, and he's brought to the temple. And various events occur at the temple. We have an interesting observation by Weers that you might say that Jesus met Moses before he met Simeon and Anna.
And this is significant. When we think of the arrival, the first advent, as we often say, the first advent of our Lord Jesus. We think of Simeon perhaps and how he spoke of the Lord Jesus. But we should also keep in mind the context.
And one of the reasons that we need to keep in mind the context is that in this day and age when there is so much pseudo information, pseudo means sort of. There is so much out there that's available for your viewing, your listening, and for your reading. You are going to be exposed to ideas and teachings from learned men who will seek and are seeking to undermine your faith. You and your children are in a generation and in a time when there has never been so much possibility to be misled, to be misled by so-called experts, people who will even draw into question whether Jesus was a historical person, which was not something that historically scholars even remotely considered.
There is far too much evidence of the historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, for it to be ignored. And yet you can easily find so-called experts who will undermine everything about him and his life and his works and the subsequent work of the disciples. But you see, Jesus was born a real Jew. He was born into a very religious religion.
And his parents were observant Jews. His parents, his parent, you might say, earthly father. His true father, of course, was God in heaven. But his earthly parents were observant Jews.
And as an observant Jew, and this has been established by thousands of years going back to Genesis 17 and Leviticus 12, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. And according to Leviticus 12, his mother Mary went through the purification period, the quarantine period, associated with issue of blood and the firstborn. And on the 40th day, he, as the firstborn male, an in remembrance of what happened in Egypt, was redeemed. And isn't it something that the one that we've been singing about as the king of kings, that his own parents were so poor?
They could not afford the lamb of Exodus 13. The allowance made for the poor was what they had to invoke. And they offered two turtle doves as the acknowledgment of Jesus being the firstborn male, very Jewish and symbolic and meaningful. And I would say adding a coherence and a texture to the entire biblical account.
I believe that when you take in the Bible, and when you take into context, and when you look at the coherence from multiple levels, you look at the historical coherence, our knowledge from other documents and from archeology, you have fundamental secular consistency with what you read in the Bible and what is known even by atheists. You also have a religion, a very well-established religion, which exists to this day. Paul said it as though there is a veil over the mind of the Jew so that he cannot see Jesus as the Messiah, but that veil will be lifted. But there is an established, pre-existing, historical, scholastically established religion called Judaism into which Jesus of Nazareth was born.
This is not open for discussion. It is a fact, but it gets better. Because all of these things are theologically and spiritually tied together. So now it is taken to a new level.
Not only are these things, from a secular point of view, coherent, not only are these things well-established from the point of view of religious practice historically, these things have spiritual coherence. And when you take in your Bible, and when you take in your New Testament, you find that not only is there spiritual coherence, there is the profundity that speaks to your soul about your need for salvation. And the Apostle Paul brings out the meaning of all these things this morning we considered for a short time from Hebrews, that a sacrificial system was a picture. There is a coherence here.
There is a theological link through the entire 66 books of the Bible. And so I can look the atheist in the eye and have a very good discussion with him and have absolute confidence that, you know what? I'm right and you're wrong. I won't say that to his faith.
But I have absolutely no fear in talking to anyone in any context we were praying not long ago about using opportunities. I digress here, but I was in the men's locker room yesterday with an ex-Muslim, and he's looking and he's searching. He was brought up a Muslim. And he, like many Iranians, many young Iranians, has abandoned that dark religion.
And of course, the human heart then begins to search, then begins to look. And after we had played about 12 games of squash and he's less than half my age, we are in there, me sort of getting over it and having a nice conversation about that he and I agree on some things that we are created in the image of God, that God's love extends to men, even to criminals we agreed, because we are created in his image. And so the conversation proceeded, and I will see him again. And I look forward to it.
You and I need to be strongly grounded in our knowledge of the truth. I marvel at Alfred Eiderstein. I'm a very eminent man who's written the life and times of Jesus the Messiah that may well be on your bookshelf. And I have here some observations that he made about the historical context of these things, but from a pseudo-theological perspective.
So let's go through these things. Because he points out that for every aspect of the first advent of the Lord Jesus and his life, that was humble. You might say shockingly humble. And you might wonder, well, he is God the Son, he is the Son of God.
And yet there is such a downside to his arrival and his life. Eiderstein points out for every one of those, you can find a parallel one that speaks of who this really is. Who this Jesus of Messiah really is. As per the prophecy of Isaiah, he was born of a virgin, of a maiden, a young woman.
And it was announced to her by Gabriel that she would bear the Messiah. And then her husband found out he wasn't quite her husband. But under Jewess betrothal, it was a very, very serious. Shall we say relationship with a great deal of legal implications?
It's not the kind of engagement you break in Jewish society. He found out that his wife is pregnant. And he must have been tortured in his soul, the love of his life, who seemed and was a very pure woman, is pregnant. How?
Why? How? Well, he needed an angel to tell him what to do. So although he was born a very, very humble circumstances, on the other side, who announced that?
An angel. He was in a manger. I was listening to a sermon by a learned man talking about the fact that it's actually, we often have the idea of what we call in Nova Scotia an outbuilding, that there is an inn, like a small motel or hotel, and that there was an outbuilding for the animals. But what is more likely is actually similar to the way that many cultures outside of North America organize themselves.
And that is, in a quadralateral type of building with an open courtyard in the middle. And when the animals needed to be kept safe at night, they were brought into the middle of that area. So it is quite likely that that was the arrangement of the building that the Lord Jesus was born under the stars in a manger, hard to imagine, a more humbled birth, but a shining host of heaven welcomed him. Later in his life, he would hunger and thirst in the wilderness, but angels would minister to him afterwards.
He submitted to baptism. Even the person who baptized him wasn't sure why he should do it or what justification there was for this. But Jesus had to fulfill all righteousness. And that humble experience was attested to by a voice from heaven and a dove descending.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Mary and Joseph, as I was saying, can only offer two little birds as part of the Judaism sacrifice associated with the firstborn male. And yet, you have the wonderful testimony of Simeon. And then we hear of the praise of Anna, the prophetess, a female prophet that associated that offering and that arrival at the temple when Jesus was 40 days old.
And that's what we're going to think about a little bit more this morning. So let's read through this. And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devote. I had used the word pious, looking forward to 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 by the Spirit unto the temple. And when the parents brought him, brought in, rather the child of Jesus, to carry out for him the custom of the law.
Then he took him in his arms and blessed God and said, now Lord, you are letting your bond serve and depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation, for the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, behold, this child is appointed for the fallen rise of many in Israel and as a sign to be opposed.
And a sword will pierce your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. A wonderfully profound passage. When that righteous man went to the temple, I'm sure he had no idea that the things that came out of his heart would become scripture and that people all over the world would appreciate and understand, especially Christians, the significance of these things for centuries. And now 2,000 years later, here we are, thinking about these things.
That little word, a consolation, it's interesting to think about that word. We often think of consolation as something that comes to you when there is grief. And certainly, Israel has experienced and had experienced a lot of grief. And that the Lord Jesus is there to console.
The word, interestingly, when you look it up, you find out that it is the same word from John 14, Paracletos, the comforter, the advocate. The comforter, the advocate. You see, God is a trinity. And when God acts, God acts as a trinity.
The Holy Spirit would come and dwell, the hearts indwell, the hearts of believers like you. The Holy Spirit could come and bring about a revolutionary change in Israel. And some Israelites received that comfort and received the testimony of that advocate, didn't they? People like Matthew, Mark, and John, and Paul, the testimony in the heart.
But Israel today is still a lost nation with that veil over their minds, not knowing that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah. When you read of the various prophecies, such as Isaiah 40 that's on the screen, you can think of a telescope. And when you read the various prophecies on Isaiah, even the one that Jesus quoted in Luke chapter four, when he read from Isaiah in the synagogue, do you know that he stopped mid-sentence? Because some of it is still to come.
When you look at these prophecies, the only way to make sense, if you will, of some of them is the idea that when you look through a telescope, as I do from my recreational room window out over the ocean, I'm in Herring Cove and I can look out and I like to see every ship that goes by. And if a ship, I see a ship, I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna see whether I can read the name of it and what the nature of it is, I saw the submarines coming and going a couple of weeks ago. And when you look out, I look over to my daughter-in-law's father's home, that direction in Lawrence Town, and halfway in between is McNabs Island. But it's all collapsed.
It looks like Lawrence Town is just a little bit beyond McNabs Island when I look through the telescope. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's a long way from McNabs Island to Lawrence Town Beach. It's a long way from my house to the tip of McNabs Island.
But when all of that is collapsed looking into the future, you see multiple things in the stages of God's plan. So some of the prophecies are fulfilled in the first advent, and some of them are fulfilled in the second advent, that Jesus will establish his kingdom on earth, and that will be a leader, he will be a leader that will never disappoint. I don't know about you, I found out that one of the men in leadership here at this church consciously avoids following the news. And on the one hand I kind of go, brother, you should follow the news.
And on the other hand I go, no, I know where you're coming from, it's all so depressing. If you don't wanna follow the news, I can understand that. There's no good news. And there's so many distortions and so many evil things that are being put forward and misinformation that's being put forward that you almost feel like, you know, turn it off.
My wife is all too familiar with that. Sometimes a certain voice will come on the car radio and I'll press that button and turn that thing off so fast it'll make your head swim. The age in which we live is very disconcerting. But we know that the Savior is going to be setting up his kingdom, and he will be faultless.
And the kingdom of God in all its fullness will be realized. And Israel's veil will be lifted from their mind. They, on the other hand, as we can see as interesting, shall I say, informational tidbits in the gospel. That's not a, in the gospel, that's not a very reverent way to describe it.
But when you see these details dropped in from time to time through scripture, and the writer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is including some of these details. It forms a coherent whole. When a judge listens to testimony in court, he is looking for a testimony which has an appropriate amount of detail. Not seemingly embellished and not leaving out things.
That's, that we wouldn't wonder why there left out there is an appropriate level of detail in eyewitness accounts. And Luke was a Gentile. And he's noting how the Jewishness of Jesus is manifested when he comes to the temple at age 40 days. But when we look through the life of Jesus and the fact that the Jews rejected him, we find statements like this.
So Jesus aware that they were, that they intended to come and take him by force to make him king with through by himself to amount and alone. Isn't that interesting? Luke, 1911, it says that because Jesus was near Jerusalem, they thought that the kingdom of God in the earthly sense was imminent. And so these tidbits, these pieces of information reveal to us the mentality of the people among whom Jesus moved and among whom Jesus taught and later among whom the apostles taught.
And they were wrong. They didn't understand the telescope principle. They thought that this should happen, that these things happen to have, have to happen. At the same time, if the Messiah comes, He's going to be political.
And He'll throw out Nero. And He'll throw out Tiberius and whoever, the emperor at the moment. And we won't be occupied by Rome anymore. No, that was not God's plan.
And it is not God's plan. But it is explanatory in terms of the history and in terms of your Old Testament. Let us quickly think about the virtues I like to call them of Simeon. We read in verse 25 that he was just and devout.
That he was a righteous man. That he went to the temple. I find it strange sometimes, you know, you may know of Christians. And they're definitely Christians.
I am not saying that I doubt their faith, that I doubt their salvation. I don't. But why aren't they here? Why aren't they here?
I know that in many cases, there are extenuating circumstances, often pertaining to health and pertaining to many issues. But, but, there are a lot of people here that are not here this morning. And you have to wonder why. Do you know the Lord?
Do you love the Lord? Is worship of the Lord meaningful to you? The Lord actually only instituted one meeting. And by the way, it isn't this one here happening right now, is it?
Where we have singing and we have a message. That actually isn't clearly describing your New Testament at all. The one that the Lord himself instituted, and that is clearly described and followed through on, you can read about in 1 Corinthians, following from John 16, is the breaking of the bread, right? The 930 service.
That's actually the only clearly described New Testament service. You should be there. Do you know the Lord? I love the Lord.
We have here a man. And I love these various pictures that I was able to grab of a, I'm going to say senior citizen. I'm going to say that this is a senior citizen with a baby in his arms. I find that to be an inherently touching image.
And this is, I would say, a kind of reward that this man received for being just and devout. You know, it had been 400 years since the revelation of Malachi. 3 16 of Malachi, you can read about how God pays attention to people who are watchful and waiting. Oh, yes, he knows.
He knows your practices. He knows your life. He knows your heart. More about that later.
And to wait expectantly. Now here this morning, what are we waiting expectantly for? We're not waiting expectantly for the first advent. We're waiting expectantly.
I hope for the second advent, for the return of Christ. Is that kind of the order of the day for you? The Lord might come today when you wake up. The Lord might come today.
Does that thrill your soul? Does that give you hope as we thought about this morning in the breaking of bread service? He is coming back. He said he would.
It was almost funny in Acts chapter 1. The angel said, why are you guys sort of in a days? This Jesus who has left is coming back. He says to say, get on with it.
The Lord Jesus gave his great commission in Matthew 28 to go into the world and make disciples of all the people in all the nations of the world. Get on with it. If you love the Lord, get on with it. And wait expectantly for his return.
And he was rewarded too. This baby is a Messiah. Wow. How did that happen?
It says in verse 27 that he was led by the Spirit. I trust that you as a believer know what that means. Do you think, and I stand before you guilty of having not recognized this multiple times in my life, do you think that God cannot guide you to go to a given place at a given time? That that's some kind of impossible miracle?
Not true. I'm here to tell you that's not true. Open your mind to that possibility. I won't go into my personal experiences where God changed my mind.
But I'll tell you that it's not true. God can direct your steps at a certain place, at a certain time to go somewhere and obedient to him. And you can be rewarded for that. And this man was a righteous and just man who was devout.
And he worshiped. We can see in 28 and 29. The worship of the Lord, here's the Messiah. He's laying eyes on the promised Messiah.
The promise of the Messiah is right before his eyes. And he has the privilege of worship. You have the privilege of worshiping the Messiah. Take advantage of it.
It should be an expression of your heart. It should be a natural thing. It should be something you love to do. May God guide you into it and encourage you into it.
He bore witness to all around of who this was. He spoke with the words. We need to speak. Sometimes we need to say it out loud.
Who Jesus really is? Who is this? You know who Jesus is. It's within your power to open your mouth and talk about it.
And bear witness of who he is. And then you can be even used above God. And you can read in this passage how this man, Simeon, this just and devout man revealed more truth. More truth came through him.
He never imagined that either. Would God speak through me? Would God reveal something through me? I bet he never imagined that.
He wasn't sure why he was going to the temple, but he saw the Messiah. And then he revealed very sobering truths about his country and the mother of the child. And so these became prophecies. In general, the word prophecy refers to the revealing of the mind of God.
But it also, of course, refers to revealing what is coming in the future. It might be in the distant future, or it might be in the near future. And so we have the example of Simeon. And it's delightful to meditate upon his depth of appreciation, of being able to hold the Lord's Christ.
I love those two words. The Lord's anointed one, crystals in Spanish, anointed one. But what is the meaning of this? Theologically, what is the greater and deeper and more significant meaning?
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, found in fashion as a man. And became obedient under death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name. You have to name of Jesus, every knee, you should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It speaks of the incarnation. And it speaks of that future day when everyone will bow the knee. Everyone will bow the knee.
Everyone will have to admit who this was and who this is. That is the greater and perhaps bigger significance. For us, we know we can look back at this time of year at the first Advent. But we are also people who should be looking for the return of Christ.
I love this verse in the future. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, not only to me, Paul, but also to all who love his appearing. Do you love his appearing? It's pretty easy to tell what you love, I think.
You can examine your own heart. You can examine your actions. You can examine your attitudes. And after you do that for a while, I think it becomes pretty evident what and whom you love.
Do you love his appearing? I love the verse in 1 John that says, we shall be like him before we shall see him as he is. Do you look forward to that? This body of 67 years old is still kind of moves pretty good, but it's getting creakier and creakier.
You get up in the locker room and you have these conversations and the other guy's not creaky and you're creaky. I look forward to the day when I'll be able to sing properly. I try to sing, you try to sing, some of you can really sing. I only try to sing.
One of the reasons why I'm looking for my physical redemption is because I'm quite sure that God will give you and give me a voice box that does justice, that does justice to who Jesus is. And so at this time of year, as we have opportunity and as we have understanding from the Scriptures and as we allow the Lord to lead us, God can use us. If you don't believe that God can use you, that is disbelief, isn't it? God can use you.
You don't need to be highly educated. You do need to know the word of God, so study it. You don't need to be an orator, but you do need to be obedient and you do need to be watchful and you do need to love his appearing. And so this morning, as we have briefly considered these things, I trust that the Lord will strengthen your hearts and his service.
And if you know not the Lord Jesus Christ and you say, David, I have to admit, I not only don't love his appearing, I just look at this Christmas season as sort of a thing with these funny nativity's over here and these songs that they sing over there on the sidewalk and I go, yeah, it's Christmas again, but it doesn't mean anything to me. I don't love his appearing either. Then you need to really examine your heart. You need to be saved in all probability.
And if you need to be saved because you don't love his appearing and you don't love his first advent either, and none of it makes much sense to you, it means much to you. You need to be saved. You need to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to repent.
You need to trust in the Lord Jesus for your salvation. And then you will love his appearing, shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that we would continue in it on our own, that we would meditate upon it and that you would strengthen your hearts and minds and use us in your service.
In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for your attention.