Sermon artwork

Luke 2:22-40

Preached by John Newell on 29th December 2024

Scripture

22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 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 and said,

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.”

33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 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 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
We're gonna have our Bible reading now, which is Luke chapter 2 verses 22 to 40. When the time came, for the purification rights required by the law of Moses. Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the lord. As it is written in the law of the lord, every first born male is to be consecrated to the lord. And to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the lord, a pair of doves or 2 young pigeons.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simmi simian, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the holy spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not die before he had seen the lord's Messiah. Moved by the spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, to do for him what the what the custom of the law required, Simyan took him in his arms and praise god saying, sovereign lord.

As you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the gentiles. And the glory of your people, Israel. The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him, then Simyan blessed them and said to Mary his mother. This child is destined to cause the fall falling and rising of many in Israel.

And to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of ASHA. She was very old. She had lived with her husband 7 years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was 84. She never left the temple but worship night and day.

Fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to god and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law of the lord. Their returns to galilee to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong. He is filled with wisdom and the grace of god was on him.

I brought my supplies. That's not gonna fit. That's ruined that 1. Not to worry. I'll put that there though for later.

Alright. Let's see if we've got power. Yes, we have excellent. Alright. We're looking at songs for Christmas.

This is the fourth and final 1 in the series, looking at the songs in Luke's gospel. We've looked in chapter 1 at Mary's song and Zacharia's song, and on Christmas Day, we looked at the angels song in chapter 2. And today, we look at Simyan's song where she read to the end of the section chapter 2 verse 40. So we're looking at Simyan Song today, the fourth in the series. But before we start, May I be the first to offer my thoughts, Mary Twicksmas, everybody, all familiar with Twicksmas.

I'm actually thinking of starting a card. Have you ever got just towards Christmas and you realize you haven't sent a card to somebody? You know, if it goes in the post, it isn't going to arrive till after Christmas. I suggest you send a Twyximus card instead. It's the period between, Christmas and New Year.

It's supposed to be a time of relaxation and re, re creation. It was for me until I became a teacher. And suddenly it changed. Twicks must changed. It's not a time for a break.

I remember when I was a teacher, I used to go in the study and there were a pile of unmarked mock examination scripts taunting me saying, Mark me. Have you forgotten us? Have you forgotten to Marcus? You need to Marcus. You need to write those reports.

And you need to get those parents evening appointments sorted out. Now, looking at this passage, I was reminded of parents' evenings for various reasons which I'll quickly go through. The passage starts with positive points, and it ends with what you might call negative points. And when I was a teacher at parents evening, I used to start with the positive points when the parents sat down, hopefully with their children. If you've been to parents' evenings as a child or as a parent, teachers always start with the positives, don't they?

And depending on the student, those can be, that can be quite a long section or quite a short section. You want the parents on-site. And often the parents would marvel, possibly because they didn't recognize their child from the description you gave, or they marveled because they'd say, mister Newall, All the other teachers have said the same thing about them and they marveled at the confirmation of what I was saying to them. And then many would step away from the table and go try and go away because they think, well, let's keep going while the going is good because the positive points be followed by the hard tough talking, the negative points, negative points, things that weren't happening, things that needed to happen for the student to progress, and often you'd make a prediction about their grade. So this in a way reminds me of Simyan's song, but it is different because Jesus is so preschool.

He's 40 days or so old. He's not even in school yet, and he's never met Simyan before. Simyan has no prior knowledge of this child and what he has done in the past. He's only been around 40 days. So we need to discover what Luke is talking about in this passage, what Simmian is saying and what it does for us how it applies to us.

So we're going to deep dive into this passage now in Luke 2 and we're going to see can we sing Simmian's song, so let's pray. Heavenly father, we bow in your presence. May your word be our rule, your spirit, our teacher, and your greater glory, our supreme concern. Through Jesus Christ, our lord, our man. So we need to set the context that the style of the passage that Naomi read, it talks about Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, and they have some appointments in Jerusalem at the temple.

They have 2 appointments to attend in the temple, and they didn't have to take Jesus to this appointment but it was good they did. And in the same way, I always felt as a teacher, it's great if the children are there at the parents even to hear what's said about them. So Mary and Jesus are metaphorically and literally gonna try and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. They're going to do 2 things at the temple at the same time. They're making a 5 mile journey and they need to go to the temple for purification and presentation.

Mary, a coin to the law needs to be purified, 40 days after the birth of a male son and present a sacrifice. Jesus had to be presented at the temple as a first born male, and it was a reminder of the passover in Exodus where the the firstborn of Israel were protected by the blood of lambs over the door posts, and the first born were always consecrated to the lord, but they could be in effect bought back by a small payment. And they go to the temple, and waiting there is Simmian. And I think it's really quite important that we actually learn a little bit about Symion, what does Luke tell us? If we look at the passage, he tells us several important things about Simion.

He says he's a righteous man. He's a just and not right person. He's trying to live a holy life and he's a god fearing man. He's a righteous man. He's devout.

He is careful in the way that he worshiped god and lives his life, tries to show honor of god in all he does. And he's waiting for this interesting term, waiting for the consolation or solace or comfort of Israel. And Luke also, if you look at the end of the passage, he says Anna is waiting for the redemption of Israel. All these our code for waiting for the Messiah. They're waiting for the Messiah to come and bring salvation.

Salvation from sin and salvation from enemies, and this was looked at in more detail by Bart last week in the Sermon Zechariah's song in Luke 1, which I recommend to you if you weren't here to listen to. And so Simien is waiting for the Messiah, the consolation of Israel. And he stands in a line. He's at the very end of a line of people who've been waiting for god's promised Messiah to come. And it's put so beautifully in the letter of Hebrews.

These people trying to keep on mic here, these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. There are a whole list of the people of god who've been waiting for the Messiah, but they died before he he arrived, Simyan is there to see him. Unlike them, he will physically see the lord's anointed the Messiah.

And we know that Syrian was not only a righteous devout, waiting. He was also gifted at that time with the Holy Spirit being upon him. And 4 things happen to him. He has the assurance that he will see the savior before he dies. He is under the direction of the Holy Spirit to go to the right place at the right time in the temple and be able to recognize god's Messiah.

I used to think that he probably went to the temple every day and waited outside for someone to come go home in the evening and his wife said, well, how was the temple today, dear? Messiahah didn't come. Oh, better luck tomorrow maybe. No, but the holy spirit said go there now and you can reckon I will make you able to recognize god's Messiah. He recognizes him.

He's assured, and he's about to give a prayer and a prophecy. We'll come back to those in a few minutes. So what can we take from this ourselves? Sorry to think about where do you stand when it comes to god's plan of salvation? Simple.

Simple time line is that X teach. I love diagrams. Let's see if this works. Okay. It's very simple.

I think it works. Old covenant, when all those people mentioned the Hebrews were living, Christ is born. Oh, there's a laser work on this. Oh, isn't it? Is there a laser?

Yes. All just about. Okay. That's even better. Excellent.

Like this, feel like I'm back at back at the classroom. Okay. So the old covenant people in Hebrews, the people of the Old Testament were the men and women of god were waiting for the Messiah and they die. Simyan is here. He actually sees the Christ is born.

40 days in, he actually physically sees the Messiah. So we are, we're in the new covenant, we're somewhere along here. Okay. We are not at the same point in history as Simyan. We are later on.

And unlike him, we're in the nuke, covenant. We haven't physically seen Jesus. Okay? He was given the, the ability to see the messiah at the end of the previous time. Okay?

We are standing later on. Simyun had the Holy Spirit upon him we have the holy spirit as Christians within us as our comfort or our comforter and our guide. So this this twixmastime, how are you doing? Waiting waiting for Jesus to return. We're living in the last days.

It's the term used in scripture, but the last days seem to be long or many. How are we keeping going? How are we being patient? We're being patient like Symion, we're too millennial almost in since Christ was born, and we're about to end of 20 25. Can I encourage you to remain steadfast like Simion and wait patiently, seeking like him to be just an upright seeking to be god fearing and careful in what we do in our worship of the lord and knowing that the lord keeps his promises?

If you're not a Christian, this timeline may not make much sense. It's interesting the, back in the day when I was at school, this was AD. So BC. Yeah. It's now BCE before the common era.

The world is rejecting this timeline. And this used to be AD, and now it's CE common era. The world is rejecting this timeline. They don't see it as relevant to them. The humanity will go on as far as they're concerned may be nuclear disaster, maybe environmental disaster may be inter- interplanetary travel, but they see the line going on.

They don't see Christ's return. Is that a wise thing to have as your timeline? So Simyan is in the temple. He recognizes Jesus. He takes him in his arms.

Now, I had a sudden flashback here when I was first when I was a new parent for the first time, strangers taking my child in their arms used to send alarm bells ringing? Did it for you? I don't know if you're a parent. I mean, people we barely knew used to come and ask to pick up the child. I really used to send my my my parents or sort of hairs on back of my neck going.

This guy's Simyon is not a temple official. They don't know him and he picks the child up. I mean, what's going on here? And then he issues this prayer of praise to god. So we're gonna look at Simyun's song.

Simyun praises God, and his song will be confirmed at the end of the passage. If you look at towards the end, Anna confirms his song by what she says, and we're we're told that the parents marvel at this. Marvel not because it's news to them. They've already been told a lot of this by angelic messengers, but now it's confirmed by earthly strangers. Now this song has a latin term.

I feel like Christmas quiz. Christmas quiz anyone? The monk Demitus. And Latin is not my first language, by the way. I actually made a spelling mistake which was found on this.

I forgot Demitus has 2 t's. So I I've been corrected on this, which is good. There's a lot of Latin stuff in Luke. 1, the songs all have Latin names. Mary has the magnificat.

Sakurai has the Benedictus. The angels have plural in its Chelsea, and Simion has the monk Demitus lord let thy servant depart in peace. So can we sing Simmyun's song? It's not actually a song. It is a prayer of praise, and it's full of references to Azar.

If you want to go home and say that, can I encourage you to do that? And many composers have set this prayer of praise to music of listening to purcell. Earlier in the week, his setting of this brilliant song. We could sing this song as a bit of a a Latin piece, a bit of a concert piece. I remember my school, when I my first school I taught him, they were so desperate for tenors, and I actually asked me to sing sing for Baldis Gloria.

It was amazing. The music's amazing. The words are in Latin. Latin is not my first language, but we can sing songs and the word sounds so good. We forget their meanings.

And we sing things that maybe we don't know what we're seeing or we don't really believe what we're seeing. It is so dangerous to sing and not to understand what we're saying. So what is Simion saying? He's saying some important stuff. That are built around his relationship with the lord and the Messiah.

He calls the lord sovereign. He calls god sovereign. It shows Simmons's relationship with god is 1 of master and servant. Can we identify with that? Can we sing that song?

The lord is our master, we are his servants. He sings in the song, the lord keeps his promises. Do we know that god keeps his promises. Are we ready to depart? Well, hang on.

I think you probably wouldn't me so far, sovereign lord and keeping promises, but he he is ready to depart. Is that a part of the song that we want to sing. We want to sing that flight swimming. We're ready to go, ready to leave this life. What's on your bucket list this morning?

What is on your bucket list? The bucket list is just again, the teacher in me wants to make sure we understand what we're talking about here is a number of experiences people put down in a list that they want to achieve. Individuals want to achieve during their lifetime. Simien only seems to have 1 thing on his list. He may have had other things.

May not, but there is 1 thing on his list. He's been promised and he wants to achieve it, and that is to see the lord's Messiah. We're almost into 20 25. And this is a time when people check a bucket list, don't they? But I don't think this year to take off the bucket list, or do I need to add new things?

It's often a time when people write things down or put ideas in their head about what they're gonna do. So can we sing Simien's song about being ready to depart this life? After all, he was old, and he'd probably had a full life in new testament terms. I don't know what the life expectancy was. He may have had an extensive bucket list and this was a very last thing on it.

So we may feel we're not ready to sing this part of the song because our bucket lists are still long. And, we want to finish going through them. We don't want death or the lord's return to overtake us before we've completed our long and full lives. What do I still want to visit? I actually looked at this and talked about this.

What do I still want to visit? I filled out 1 in. What do you still want to visit? Or where do you still want to visit? What do I still want to experience?

Again, what's on your list? What are the things that you still want to experience what do you want what do I still want to complete again? What's on your list of things complete? What's on your list? And so we go on.

We hopefully in those lists have good things that we want to do, but should they be our main focus, completing the things on our list? He had 1 thing, and that was to see the lord's messiah what is on your list this year. Should we instead be ready to speak like, John did at the end of Revelation where he says, come lord Jesus come. Or have the attitude of Paul when he wrote to the flick in church in chapter 1. He wrote these amazing words.

He said at the end of the chapter, I am torn. I'm torn between the 2. I desire to part, to part, and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Sunning for us to take away and reflect on as we, approach 20 25. Let's move on in Cymian Son.

He talks about salvation being prepared in the site of all nations and a light of revelation to the people. Sorry. And the and the glory of people, lights of revelation to the gentiles and the glory to the people of Israel. So can we sing this song? Yes, we can because salvation is available to all of us, to all nations.

It is it is available. We can sing his song. But the monk Demitus is not all that Simyan said. He's made a song of praise. He also gives a prophecy at the end of his time with the with the family.

So he moves from prayer to prophecy, prophecy about Jesus. He's praised god, the father, he will make a prophecy about god the sun. So we move on from praise to prophecy. Policy is not the same as religion. Policy involves a statement inspired by the Holy Spirit often a statement about the future.

Prediction is a forecast made based upon analysis and observation like my parents' evening predictions. So someone isn't finished, and he's gonna say something that's much less well known. And as as far as I'm aware, you can correct me at the end. I've not I've not come across it. This bit's set to music unlike the earlier part of what he'd said.

It's not said often at Christmas services, it's not sung. Perhaps it's left out because we don't want to ruin Christmas. Let's keep Christmas nice. But let's think very powerful and challenging in what Summian says to Mary. He speaks directly to Mary now, not speaking publicly about the child, He's speaking directly to her and a word of knowledge to prepare her for what is to come.

And again, he references Isaiah in what he has to say. And what he has to say reminds me of this. Don't worry it's being diffused. There's nothing in it. That's what some people say about it anyway, but, some people say it's really nasty stuff in it as well.

You know, Unilever's down the road, don't you? In Kingston. They've they've been uprooting the central Kingston for the last couple of years, building a new center unilever who owned brand Marmite used to like to make us think you either love it or you hate it. Okay? I'm actually I'm polite about marmite.

I'm polite. I I don't mind it. I mean, if there's something else there in the cupboard after Christmas, put on my toast, I'll have it. I'll eat it. It's fine.

It's not the first choice, but I will have it. I will take it. Okay. I'm polite about marmite. Oops.

I'm used to the shelf. How do you think to have? There is a thing in in marketing or in anything called the Marmite effect, something that some people care a great deal about while others hate it intensely. And the prophecy that Simmy makes is a little bit like that. He prophesies that Jesus will cause people to fall.

These people will consider the claims he makes about himself as king of king and lord of lords and the savior of the world, and that they should submit to him, and they will find those claims offensive, and they will reject and hate him. And others will, be caused to rise. Jesus will cause them to rise. The word in the Greek is related to resurrection and exaltation, which I find quite interesting. Other people will consider the claims that Jesus makes about himself as king and king and lord of lord and savor of the world, and they should submit to him.

And they will find those claims wonderful and they will accept and they will love him. And Tim Keller very helpful in that when he spoke on this passage says there are a lot of people in the world that try and stay in the middle and try and be polite about Jesus. Let's be polite about him. Let's avoid all this falling and rising, this lovey and hating. Let's try and say Jesus is alright.

He's He led a moral life and he gave moral teachings, and I find something in them that is attractive. I quite like them. I have other moral teachers and other moral leaders that I like as well, but I won't reject him. Nor will I fully accept him? I will I will be polite about him.

Well, you can be polite about Marmite as I am, but you cannot politely consider the claims of Jesus. You must either reject or accept. So how do we take stuff away here? How we respond to the claims of Jesus, the claims that he made about himself. I'm not gonna miss that.

Okay. Have you respond to claims of Jesus? As Christians, we respond to Jesus as our Savior and our lord. And he causes us to rise. The big question, though, and it was sort of alluded to in our prayers, is how will the community around us around Norway at school?

Respond to the gospel. That's the question we face at the end of 24 into 25. Will we find these types of responses? Will they be totally interested? Will they respond positively to Jesus?

Will they be totally uninterested? Will they reject Jesus? Or will they try? I always used to think disinterested meant uninterested, but it doesn't. Dis- to be disinterested means you have no view.

You're neutral. You're not really gonna take a position. You're trying to stay in the middle. What will be the response as we present the gospel in this area? Interest, total interest, total disinterest, total uninterest.

Simien ends his prophecy with a word particularly to marry about the opposition, the opposition that Jesus will face will lead to the cross. And Mary's heart will be pierced by that. Simyan warns her of that. So even in Christmas, we see Easter. So can we sing Simyan's song this morning?

Yes. So it feels like Bob the builder or Barack Obama. Yes, we can. We look forward. We can sing stimulus on because we look forward to Christ's return.

Simio look forward to Christ's birth. We look forward to his return. To simeon god was suffering and on his throne, god is still sovereign and on his throne. To simeon god kept his promises. God keeps his promises to his church.

And through Semin, we know that god has made salvation available to us. Let's pray. Heavenly father. We thank you for your living word maybe remain patient servants as we await Jesus' return. Give us the correct perspective about the things we want to achieve during our lifetimes on earth so that the come in line with your salvation plan.

And we ask you for strength to spend a good news of Jesus to those around us knowing that Jesus' claims bring division. He else is all in Jesus' name.