Simeon Sees the Savior (Luke 2:21-26)

Turn your Bibles, please, to Luke, chapter two.

Luke, chapter two.

And then we'll begin with a word of prayer.

Let's bow our heads.

Father, it is our desire and our expectation that you will speak to us in your word, that you would help us to

see things, wonderful things in your word, open our eyes and our hearts, and illuminate your word to us

so that we are able to see these things and we are able to obey them and appreciate Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Well, we are gonna be taking a break from Hebrews, chapter 11, at least for the most part of this month, the month of December.

We're gonna be in Luke, chapter two here for the next three Sundays.

I usually don't take a break from the normal course of preaching through a book of the Bible.

I came across this idea and thought, well, this is, we've been in Hebrews for a while.

You know that, I don't need to tell you that.

And so it may be good to have a little break for the Christmas season.

So that's what we're gonna do.

The idea for this series actually came to me from a friend.

He was invited, a friend of mine was invited to give a special message at a church that he normally does not attend.

And he texted me the text and his outline.

And he said, can you look this over and tell me what you think?

And so I looked it over and read the text and read his outline.

And I said, that's a really good outline.

It's not just those four points that you have, really each one of those is a sermon in itself.

It's quite daunting to take that whole passage.

The subject that he was given was, who is Jesus?

That's what he was supposed to tackle.

You could preach on that for probably 45 minutes at least, I would think.

So he chose this passage from Luke, chapter two that we're going to be looking at.

And a couple weeks later, he texted me not just the text, but he said, here's my whole sermon.

He emailed me his sermon after he had manuscripted it and I read through it.

And I said to him back, I'm more convinced than ever that this is not just one four point sermon.

This is actually four, I think really good sermons that you have here in seed form.

So would you mind if I just took this idea, this passage and used it for a series of sermons in the month of

December?

Since he didn't write the gospel of Luke, he was entirely fine with me using the passage.

So that's what we're going to do.

The series that we're going to be going through in the month of December, I have titled Simeon's Swan Song.

Now that title I actually borrowed from the title of a sermon preached by C .H. Spurgeon on this

passage.

So the idea I have borrowed from a friend, the title I have borrowed from Spurgeon.

And in totally unrelated news, our church is going to be joining the Southern Baptist denomination soon.

So I want to give credit where credit is due.

I have litanized the title.

I have litanized the idea.

But everything that happens from this point forward is entirely on me, and I'm the one to blame for the rest of this.

And it may be that the idea and the title is the best part of this whole series, in which case

you can thank somebody else for it.

So Luke chapter two, we're actually going to be looking today at verses 21 through 35 as a bit of an overview, and then

focusing in on verses 21 through 26.

This is a bit of a larger passage.

I need to set a little bit of context before we jump into this.

The author of this gospel is Luke.

He's not just the author of this gospel, he's also the author of the book of Acts.

Both of those books, Luke and Acts, were written to one person, Theophilus.

In Luke chapter one, Luke refers to him as the most excellent Theophilus, and then in Acts chapter one, he refers to him

just as Theophilus.

Other than his name, we really know nothing about Theophilus.

And it's very interesting, and always has been to me since I realized this, that a quarter of the text of our New Testament is written to a

man that we know nothing about.

Nothing about.

Not a quarter of the books, a quarter of the text of the New Testament between Luke and Acts.

That is a quarter of the text of the New Testament written to a man we know nothing about.

Now, the author of those two books, we know quite a bit more about him compared to what we know about Theophilus, but still

not very much.

We know that Luke was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.

Paul picked him up on his second missionary journey in Acts chapter 16.

Luke was a physician, Luke was a Gentile, and was probably saved as a result of Paul's ministry and then

joined Paul as he traveled for the rest of his missionary journeys.

And then Luke was with Paul all the way to the end of his life.

So that in 2 Timothy chapter four, as Paul was writing to Timothy from a prison cell expecting execution and

probably saw execution before Timothy ever got that letter that was written to him, the Apostle Paul is there

in the cold, winter is coming, he's writing to Timothy, he has run his race, he's finished his course, he's fought the good fight,

he says all of that.

And then at the end of that epistle, chapter four verse 10, Paul lists a number of his traveling companions, some of them had

abandoned him like Demas, he says, having loved this world has forsaken me and gone to Thessalonica.

But then there were other traveling companions whom he names who also had left him but at Paul's instruction to go to other

cities to minister.

So he has says Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, and then in the very next verse, Paul says,

2 Timothy chapter four verse 11, only Luke is with me.

Now that's one of those phrases in the New Testament, every time I read it, I just, I stop and it just hits me right in the fields.

Only Luke is with me.

I can't wait to meet Luke.

I can't wait to meet him.

He is, only Luke is with me, prisoned, imprisoned, and awaiting execution, and

Luke is with Paul all the way to the very end.

Now given that Luke was with Paul, we can assume that his writings, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts,

had the imprimatur of the Apostle Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles.

Luke is often regarded as Paul's Gospel since he would have written it under the auspices of the Apostle Paul and with that

apostolic endorsement.

The Gospel of Luke is an account of what Jesus began to do and to teach to his disciples.

The Book of Acts is the account of what Jesus continued to do and teach through his disciples.

It is a two -volume set that covers basically 60 years from the birth of Jesus at what we would call zero, A .D.,

B .C., whatever you want to call it, the year zero, all the way up till about 65 or 66 A .D.

The first couple chapters of Luke's Gospel follow an interesting pattern.

This book, the Gospel of Luke, which is really all about Jesus, doesn't begin with Jesus or the account of his birth.

It actually begins with the prediction of the birth of Jesus's cousin, John the Baptist, and Luke follows this

interesting pattern where he begins in chapter one about the promise of the

birth of John the Baptist to John's mother and father, Zacharias and Elizabeth.

Then he switches to the promise of Jesus's birth given by an angel.

Both of these promises given by an angel, by the way.

The second then to Jesus's parents by an angel, a promise of the birth of Jesus.

Then he switches back to the account of John's birth and then he switches back to the account of Jesus's birth.

So he goes back and forth between John the Baptist.

He starts with John, the promise of his birth, then the promise of Jesus's birth, then John's birth, then Jesus's birth.

Then he switched over to John's ministry, chapter three, and then you get to Jesus's ministry in chapter four.

So back and forth he goes with these little interludes.

So, we pick it up now in chapter 2, and in chapter 2 we have the account of Jesus' birth in verses 1

through 7.

And then what follows, interestingly enough, is a series of really four testimonies concerning the purpose, the nature, and

the significance of this one who was born.

The first one to give their testimony is the group of angels, and we're familiar with that passage.

The angels appear to the shepherds out in the fields surrounding Bethlehem, and they say, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great

joy, which will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ.

The Lord.

That's chapter 2, verses 10 and 11.

So, the first ones to give testimony concerning this one who has been born is the angels.

Then the shepherds add their testimony as they go into Bethlehem, out of the fields, they witness what the angels said, and they talk about what the

angels had told them, and then they come back praising God and thanking God for what it was that they had seen.

And all of that is familiar to us.

We get to the end of the shepherds and the angels, and the shepherds coming back out to the fields, praising God, and that is familiar

territory.

Those are the verses that you see written on the December page of your calendar and on the little trinkets that hang on your

tree, and on the Christmas cards that you send to.

Everybody.

All of that's familiar territory.

But most of us are not very familiar with the next two witnesses, that's Simeon and.

Anna.

Simeon, in verses 21 through verse 35, he adds his testimony, says something about the birth of Jesus,

this person whom he meets in the temple.

And then Anna in verses 36 through 38.

We're not going to be looking at Anna in verses 36 to 38.

We're focusing on Simeon's swan song.

I'm thankful that Spurgeon's dead so I don't have to pay a royalty for that title.

So let's read this passage together, and I will show you how it is that we're going to divide this over the weeks to come.

Today we're looking at verses 21 through 26.

We'll read this together.

In this, we are introduced to Simeon as he meets Jesus in the temple.

Verse 21, and when eight days had passed before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus, the name

given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

as it is written in the law of the Lord.

Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said

in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout looking 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.

Now that is the introduction to Simeon in the temple.

Then second, this is next week, we're going to see what Simeon says about Jesus, that he is God's salvation,

revelation, and glory.

Look at verse 27, and he came in the spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the

custom of the law, then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to 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 of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

He said Jesus is God's salvation, his revelation, salvation to his people, revelation to the Gentiles, and his glory.

And then in verses 33 through 35, we see that Simeon says that Jesus is going to bring a sifting, strife, and

sorrow, verse 33.

And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this

child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will

pierce even your own soul to the end that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

So that's our threefold outline, three messages there, today verses 21 to 26, and then two more Sundays in this

passage, and then on Christmas Eve, we'll wrap all of this up.

And I'm not sure exactly what that message is going to look like yet.

We'll probably just take all of the stuff that hit the editing room floor during the last three weeks and put it all together like a hoot -owl omelet and

serve it up with a little bow on top, and hopefully it'll be as good as a hoot -owl omelet.

But keep your expectations low.

So our focus today is on the person of Christ and the person of Simeon, these two who meet in the temple.

Now, there are other characters in this text.

There's Mary and Joseph, they are there, they're somewhat incidental to what is going on here in the grand scheme of things.

But there is also the Holy Spirit who is mentioned, I don't know if you noticed it or not, but in verse 25, 26, and 27, the Holy Spirit is

mentioned three times.

He is a central component of this, and we'll get to this more next week.

But the Spirit of God is orchestrating all of this that is going on around this encounter between

Simeon and the Lord Jesus.

So let's look first of all now at Jesus in the temple.

This encounter happened in the temple, you can see this in verse 27, Simeon came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought,

that is, into the temple, the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, then he took him into his arms.

So the encounter that is at the center of this entire passage now takes place in the temple.

Joseph and Mary were there to observe two lawful religious ceremonies that are mentioned in verses 22 through

24, namely to present Jesus to the Lord, and then second, to offer a sacrifice.

And both of these customs were according to the law of Moses.

In fact, I want you to notice how frequently and how much…how frequently Luke does this, mentions this, and how much

he emphasizes the law of God all the way through the passage.

In verse 21, when the mention of the eight days passing and then circumcising Jesus, that was according to the law.

Verse 22, the days for her purification, that was, you can see it, according to the law of Moses.

Down at the end of verse…at the beginning of verse 23, as it is written in the law of.

The Lord.

Verse 24, to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord.

Verse 27, when the parents brought the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the.

Law.

And then if you look down at verse 39 below our passage, then after the encounter with Simeon and Anna, the

prophetess, Luke writes this, when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to

their own city of Nazareth.

Now that is a lot of emphasis on the law.

Why so much mention of the law?

He reiterates it several times in this passage regarding Simeon, and then he wraps it all up by saying they had left Jerusalem

having accomplished and carried out everything for him that pertained to the law of God.

So much emphasis on the law, which is not what you would expect from a New Testament.

Book, right?

Especially a book about Jesus.

In the law we see truth, the law, we see the righteous requirements of God, in Jesus

Christ we see grace and truth.

Why does Luke spend so much time talking about the elements of the law?

The reason being is because, the reason being is actually because of verse 30, what Simeon says in verse 30, my eyes

have seen your salvation.

See the law and salvation, they meet in the person of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus had not fulfilled all of the requirements of the law, Simeon could have never said of him my

eyes have seen your salvation.

It is only because Jesus fulfilled every detail of the law here as an infant even in his

circumcision which was not something that he did, something done to him on the eighth day after his birth.

That righteous fulfillment of the law was something that was necessary for our salvation.

Let me put it this way, if Jesus had not been circumcised on the eighth day in fulfillment of the law of Moses,

then he could not be the Savior because he then would have been a lawbreaker.

He would not have been considered a descendant of Abraham or a son of David.

He would have been cut off from his people outside of the covenant.

Having not fulfilled that requirement of the law, he would have been guilty of violating the entire law, all the Old Testament

law.

Now whether Joseph and Mary understood the significance of this at that moment or not,

their act of having him circumcised on the eighth day was in fact an act of fulfilling that law so that he

could be God's salvation to us because we needed a Savior who could fulfill the righteous demands of the law.

And if Jesus had not been circumcised and therefore had violated that element of God's law, then he could

not have fulfilled the promises of the Abrahamic covenant.

He could not have taken the throne of his father David and ruled and reigned over the nations as the Old Testament Scriptures

promised.

He couldn't have fulfilled any of that because what was required was one who kept the law.

Fully.

So even being circumcised on the eighth day, being a fulfillment of the righteous demands of the law, that was something that

qualified him to be our Savior.

We can say it this way.

The fulfillment of the law by Jesus Christ was essential to your salvation.

And here's why.

The law demands of you righteousness.

Any of you fulfill that?

The law demands of you righteousness.

The law describes the life that we were required to live.

That's the standard.

As high, as holy, as perfect as that is, the law demands of you righteousness.

It describes the life that we were required to live.

And here's the catch.

We do not get credit for trying, and we do not get credit for coming close, and the truth is we have neither tried nor have we come

close.

Because everything that the law forbids we have done, and everything that the law requires of us we have failed to do.

We have failed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and all the things that the law forbid, lying, stealing,

blasphemy, covetousness, Sabbath keeping, honoring God with every breath and every intention of our being, heart,

soul, mind, and strength, all of those things that we are told not to do, we have done, all the things that we were told to do we have failed to

do.

So we have all violated the law.

We stand condemned underneath the law.

What we really needed was somebody to come and to live out perfectly the law on our behalf.

From the moment of His birth to the moment of His death, so that His perfect life could be credited to

our account.

We needed a Savior to stand in as our representative, and we talk about Jesus being our substitute.

We don't just mean that He was our substitute in His death, but rather also that He was our substitute in His life.

The life that He lived was a perfect life, without blemish, without spot, in perfect obedience to

the law of God and in perfect fulfillment of all the demands of the law, so that His perfect

life can be credited to you and I at the moment of faith.

Because we need not just our sins forgiven, but we need all of that righteousness that the law demands.

So that God treated Jesus on the cross as if He had lived the life that you and I have lived, so that He could then turn around

and treat us in this life as if we had lived the life that Jesus had lived.

So He takes all of our sin and we get all of His righteousness.

This is the exchange that takes place at the moment of imputation.

And if Jesus had not been a law keeper, even from the eighth day of His life here on earth, He would not have

qualified to do that, been qualified to do that.

Because James 2 .10 says, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he.

Is guilty of all.

Every last requirement of the law was demanded of us.

Every last requirement of the law was fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf.

There is no salvation for you without the righteous demands of the law being

lived perfectly in your place.

Therefore, if Simeon is going to say, my eyes have seen the Lord's salvation, he has

to be looking at one who would obey and meet every righteous requirement of the law and fulfill all of

its demands perfectly.

This is what Paul was describing in Galatians chapter 4, when Paul says that the fullness of time came, God sent forth

His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law and that we might receive

the adoption as sons.

Christ was born under the law, under the requirements of the law, and He fulfilled the law so that He could redeem us who were under the law, having fulfilled

the righteous requirements of the law on our behalf.

So that's why we are no longer under law, but we are under grace.

Now there are four ceremonies that are detailed here in verses 21 through 26, circumcision, ceremonial

purification, the presenting of Jesus to the Lord, and the sacrifice.

And we're going to look at those four ceremonies here.

The first we examine is circumcision, mentioned in verse 21.

Now you say, we're finally getting to the text, and yes, this is true.

We're finally getting to the text.

Now when the eight days had passed, verse 21 says, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given to Him by

the angel before He was conceived in.

The womb.

There is mention in verse 21 of both His circumcision and Him being named Jesus.

Being named on the eighth day was not a requirement of the law.

That was a traditional thing that the Jews did.

The law didn't demand that they name the children on the eighth day, but that was something that by the first century had become common practice

amongst the Jews.

The law did demand that a male child be circumcised on the eighth day, but the law did not demand that they be named at the same time.

That tradition went back to Moses.

Actually the Jews would trace it all the way back to Moses and to Abraham.

It was believed by tradition, not by Scripture, but by tradition, that Moses was baptized…sorry…circumcised.

For those of you who are covenant in here, that was not a Freudian slip in any way.

Not at all.

On the day that Moses was circumcised, he was also named on the same day.

That was what was assumed by the Jews.

Second, it goes back to Abraham who received the sign of circumcision, and we presume was circumcised, and he

received his new name from Abram to Abraham on the very same day.

So the Jews, in order to follow that, would wait until the eighth day when a male child was circumcised, then they would name him.

That's why we say…that's why it says here, when eight days had passed before his circumcision, his name was called Jesus, the name given by

the angel.

That goes back to chapter 1, which we read in the Scripture reading, chapter 1, verses 30 to 33.

The angel said, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and

ever, and his kingdom will have no end.

And I read all that stuff about the kingdom just to make up for the little slip about the covenant thing earlier.

Circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

God gave that to Abraham as a mark that would mark him and his descendants in perpetuity after that.

It was the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham, all those blessings that God unconditionally gave to Abraham in

Genesis chapter 17.

And in Genesis chapter 17, there was a warning that came with the promise of that blessing and with the sign of circumcision.

Genesis 17, 14, an uncircumcised male who was not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his

people.

He has broken my covenant.

You see why it was important that it be done on the eighth day?

If Jesus didn't win, he would have been a covenant violator, not a covenant keeper.

And if he was a covenant violator, he couldn't be our covenant representative.

He couldn't stand in our stead and fulfill all the demands of the Mosaic covenant on our behalf if he did not fulfill it at the very first

day, on day eight when he was circumcised.

So that had to be fulfilled concerning him.

Circumcision was more than just a sign of the Abrahamic covenant.

It was also a spiritual object lesson that would say to all of the Jews, all of the males and all of the Jews in perpetuity

that what really needed to happen was not the removal of a piece of flesh, but really the removal of sin from the heart.

Circumcision was always an object lesson of the need for cleansing.

And this is why Mary could have a virgin birth and have a…sorry, this sin was always passed down through the

male progeny, through the act of conception, and it was the sinful nature, the wickedness, the corruption, Adam's guilt

always came through the male seed.

And this is why Mary could have a sinless son if that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit and not from the result

of a normal man through normal sexual intercourse.

In marriage.

She could have a sinless son who was neither corrupted by nor influenced by the fall of Adam whatsoever

because what was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit and not passed down through the male.

So every Jewish male on the eighth day was to receive a sign, a mark in his flesh which was a perpetual reminder

of the sinful nature that was passed down through their progeny and also a reminder constantly of the fact that the heart

needed to be cleansed from sin.

What needed to be removed was the evil of the heart.

This was the object lesson from the very beginning, Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 16.

So circumcise your hearts and stiffen your neck no longer.

Deuteronomy 30 verse 6, moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with

all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live.

Jeremiah 4 verse 4, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your.

Heart.

You see, the physical act of circumcision was a spiritual object lesson that the real problem was not just something in the

flesh, not just a mark that we receive or a piece of skin in the flesh, but rather the real problem was the issue of the heart.

The heart needed to be cleansed from sin.

It was a reminder in the flesh of a Jewish male every single day all of the time that he had a wicked

and corrupt and vile heart that was irreparable and unredeemable in itself and

needed to be removed.

It needed to be changed from a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, if that's what circumcision symbolized, then why was Jesus

circumcised since he did not have a wicked heart?

It's for the same reason that he was baptized.

In Matthew chapter 3, do you remember when Jesus went to John the Baptist to be baptized, what John the Baptist said?

He said, hold on, time out, I have need to be baptized by you and you're coming to me?

And Jesus said to him, permitted at this time for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

See Jesus was baptized for the very same reason that he was circumcised, in order to identify with

sinners, not to identify as a sinner.

So when Jesus was baptized and he outwardly expressed the token of repentance alongside of his fellow

Israelites, it was not because he was identifying himself as a sinner in need of repentance, but because he was identifying himself

with the sinners who needed repentance.

Same thing with circumcision.

He was not, circumcision did not identify him as one whose heart needed to be purified from sin, but his

circumcision identified him with those whose hearts needed to be purified from sin, and in his circumcision he was

fulfilling the demands of righteousness that God had, so that he could do it on behalf of us, fulfill that law on

our behalf.

The second ceremony was purification, that's in verse 22, when the days for her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought

him up to Jerusalem to present.

Him to the Lord.

A circumcision was not the only ceremony that served as a reminder of sin, a sinfulness that needed to be

cleansed, the same purpose was served by this ceremonial uncleanliness that is described here in this passage or referred to in the

passage, it's described in Leviticus chapter 12, verses 1 to 6, then the Lord spoke to Moses, and listen to the details of

this because there's a lot to come here in just a moment.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel saying, when a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for

seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean.

On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised, then she shall remain in the blood of her purification

for 33 days, she shall not touch any consecrated thing nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her

purification are completed.

But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation,

and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for 66 days.

When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one -year

-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering.

For a male child, this was the pattern, the woman would be unclean for seven days, at the end of that on the eighth day they would circumcise the child and then she would

observe 33 more days of ceremonial uncleanliness.

The ceremonial uncleanliness was not because giving birth to children was sinful or conceiving children was sinful, the ceremonial

uncleanliness was due to what was issued in the birth of a child.

I know you didn't want all this when you signed up to come here this morning, but I'm just giving you all the details, okay?

So it was not the child that was unclean, it was the woman who was ceremonially unclean and it had nothing

necessarily to do with a sinfulness in and of herself.

It was something that made her unclean and the laws of ceremonial uncleanliness, which we've already looked at in the book of Hebrews,

they were reminders of how sin was transmitted and how easy it was to be defiled by sin.

All of the standards of ceremonial uncleanliness that the Jews observed were reminders of sinfulness and the need to

have sin dealt with.

It was all around them, that was what the point was.

Now, though Mary had not brought a sinner into the world, she did observe the

law regarding her own purification, which is why we read that, and the eighth day he was circumcised and then when the time of

her purification was over for the child after the 33 days, then she went up to the temple to offer the sacrifice.

The ceremonial uncleanliness that is associated with birth was a reminder to the woman

of the sinfulness of sin and the need to have sin dealt with.

You see, it served the same purpose as circumcision.

Now, just in case you're sitting here and you're thinking, okay, Jim, earlier you said that circumcision and baptism fulfill the same purpose.

I'm also saying that the ceremonial uncleanliness laws serve the same purpose as circumcision, namely as a reminder

of sin.

Yeah, you brought a child into the world and that is great and there's joy associated with this and happiness, but don't forget, this little

wretched, wicked, depraved sinner needs a savior.

The ceremonial uncleanliness attached to that was a constant reminder that, yeah, we brought a child into the world, but this child is a sinner,

just as wicked as we are and that sin has been passed down again to another generation.

Both the male and the female had reminders of sinfulness and the sinfulness associated with every child that

was born.

Now, just as an aside, you'll notice that the law that I read to you from Leviticus chapter 12, it mentions that a woman is unclean for 33 days if she had

a male child, is unclean for 66 days if she had a female child.

That's really perplexing.

Scripture does not answer why that is the case, why the difference between the sexes.

I can only speculate.

I will tell you this, some of you are smirking because you think I'm going to say something.

About women.

That's not it at all.

Now, listen, you need to think higher of me than that.

Scripture doesn't answer why that is the case.

I can speculate a little bit.

It's not because women are more sinful.

It's not because, I don't think, because women caused the fall in the Garden of Eden.

It wasn't because women are to blame for all of that.

It wasn't because women are of less value than men or it's nothing associated with any.

Of that.

I think that the issue with the female child is that since males were circumcised and that was a reminder with the male

child of the need for cleansing from sin, the extra 33 days was basically a parallel to

that for the female child that, again, we're observing an extra time for this.

We don't circumcise females, we circumcise males, but with females we're going to observe another period after that

that reminds us of sin and the reality of sin and how easily sin is transmitted.

That I think is the issue there.

Third one is the presentation of the firstborn.

This is in verse 20, the end of verse 22.

They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law.

Of the Lord.

Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

In keeping with the law of God, Jesus as the firstborn male of the home was presented before the Lord, dedicated to the Lord in the temple.

And though Luke doesn't quote exactly here from an Old Testament passage, in other words there's no single Old Testament text that this is an

exact quotation of, Luke is kind of combining together several passages from Exodus and Numbers, sort of paraphrasing the

demands of the law here.

Exodus chapter 13 verse 2 said, sanctify to me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel,

both of man and beast.

It belongs to me.

That was God's requirement.

Numbers 3 .13, for all the firstborn are mine.

On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel from man to

beast.

They shall be mine.

I am the Lord.

So this requirement to dedicate the firstborn to the Lord went back to the Passover, in the very first Passover when that lamb was

slain, when the children of Israel were in Egypt, and the blood was put on the doorpost of the house, and the death angel passed

over and God spared all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.

At that time, God said, I sanctified them and claimed them as myself.

And so then once they got out of Egypt after that, every firstborn male of animal and of a

woman was intended to be dedicated to the Lord.

And if it did not go into service to the Lord, like in the tribe of Levi, it was to be purchased back from the Lord for some shekels.

Numbers chapter 18, verses 15 to 17, every first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they

offer to the Lord, shall be yours.

Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.

As to the redemption price from a month old, you shall redeem them by your valuation.

So according to Exodus chapter 13, sorry, according to Numbers chapter 18, that price was

five shekels.

So though Luke doesn't mention it in the passage before us, we can assume that Joseph and Mary would have paid the five shekels in presenting the

Lord Jesus in the temple because that was what the law demanded.

So they would have done that in order in dedicating and recognizing that this firstborn one belonged to the Lord.

This was the Lord's.

And that this was to be done in every generation, serving as a constant reminder of what God did in Egypt.

So in Exodus 13, Moses says, or God says through Moses, when it comes to pass and generations

to come, and people say to you, why is it that you redeem the firstborn of every beast and of every family?

You may say it is because the Lord has brought us out with a strong arm out of Egypt and in doing so the Lord has claimed the

firstborn as His own.

And so the recognition that the firstborn belonged to God in the temple and the paying of those five shekels was nothing more than a

recognition that yes, God has done this.

And it was a reminder, listen, that not only had God claimed the firstborn for Himself out of all the tribes, but God had claimed the entire

nation.

It was His because He redeemed it.

The nation belonged to Him and the dedication of the firstborn was a way of recognizing that God was claiming that and that it

belonged to Him.

And do not miss the prophetic symbolism in this action.

Joseph and Mary could not have participated in that ceremony of dedicating the firstborn to the Lord without remembering

the dedication of that Passover lamb and the fact that that Passover lamb died so that the firstborn would be

spared.

And in doing that, they are dedicating their own firstborn who was the Passover lamb of God who died so that other people could be spared.

It's coming full circle, isn't it, with Jesus and the temple?

This very act of dedicating the firstborn was nothing more than a recognition that God owned this, that owns us all.

And then when they do this, they're offering up the Passover lamb, dedicating it to the Lord when Jesus is just

under two months old.

There's a fourth ceremony and that is the sacrifice that was offered.

At the end of that 33 -day period, Joseph and Mary would have gone to the temple to offer the Lord a sacrifice and dedicate Him to the Lord.

Those probably would have been done at the same time, though they are both two separate ceremonies.

Verse 24, and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

That's verse 24.

This was in keeping with Leviticus 12, which said at the end of that period of time, they went to the temple and would offer a lamb and

the law provided that if a couple was too poor to afford a lamb for that dedication, that sin offering or that atoning offering

after the birth of the child, that they could offer two young turtle doves.

And that is what Luke says that was offered.

A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

That's what Joseph and Mary offered, indicating that they were not wealthy people.

They did not have a lot of money.

If they did, they would have bought the lamb for that and offered a lamb, but instead they offered what the law provided for as the minimum offering

that they were required to offer to keep the law.

Not a wealthy couple.

This is yet another prophetic symbol as well.

The sacrifice was an acknowledgment of the sin and that sin was intended to be covered.

This was, according to Leviticus chapter 12, a sin, a sacrifice to make atonement.

There is an atoning element to this.

There is a symbolic element to this that is connected to sin.

So when Joseph and Mary offered the sacrifice, it was…they were not saying that this child was a sinner.

That's not what they were symbolizing.

They were instead offering a sacrifice, recognizing themselves as the sinners.

And here they were in the temple having dedicated the lamb of God, the Passover lamb of God who would die on Passover

so that others could be spared.

Having done that, they then offer a sacrifice right after that to the Lord, and a sacrifice itself was a

reminder of sin and the need for sin to be dealt with.

And they're doing this in the presence of the one who would offer the very final sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

The sacrifice that they're offering is merely a symbol of a sacrifice that would come roughly 33 years later when He would die on a cross and

end all sacrifices and fulfill all the symbols of the old covenant.

Did Mary and Joseph understand that at the time?

I don't think they understood what you and I understand.

Later on we find that Mary just is pondering these things in her heart and in her mind as these things are being revealed to

her later on.

So there's a lot there in those verses, isn't it?

I mean this is the kind of passage you read over and you think, okay, yeah, purification, days passed, eight days, circumcision, angel, law of

Moses, presenting Him, sacrifice.

Okay, now there's Simeon.

You kind of breeze over all of that.

And yet here we've gone through the sinfulness of man, our total depravity, the old covenant, substitutionary nature of Christ's life, need for

justification, imputed righteousness, the meaning of the sacrifices, and we've gone from the first Passover lamb to the last Passover.

Lamb.

All in these verses that we typically just blast through, right?

Let's look at Simeon.

Simeon is in the temple.

We've laid a lot of groundwork already this morning by briefly introducing the context of this and we have opportunity to return to some of these things

we're going to say, I'm going to say here about Simeon just in brief.

But he is described here in this passage, verse 25, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous

and devout looking for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

This is the only place in all Scripture that Simeon is mentioned.

We're not given a lot of details about him.

Some of these things, everything that is mentioned here is very important.

He apparently lived in Jerusalem.

We may even surmise that he was an older man and though the text does not say how old he was, it doesn't even say he was

older.

There's two little clues that are given to us.

In verse 26, it says that he was told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Messiah.

That seems to indicate that he had some reason to expect that death was in some measure imminent for him.

As he is assured by the Holy Spirit, don't worry, I mean you might be in God's waiting room right now, one foot in the grave,

another on a banana peel, but you are not going to die before you see the Lord's Christ.

That might indicate his age.

Second in verse 29, he says, now Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word.

So likely Simeon himself is expecting that his end has come, it's somewhat imminent, he can be expecting this and yet

he has been told by the Holy Spirit that he is not going to die before he sees the Lord's Christ.

Simeon is described in four ways, he is righteous, devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him, those

four statements.

The word righteous there does not mean that he was not a sinner, that he didn't need salvation, it didn't mean that he had any righteousness in and of

himself that would merit his acceptance.

Before God.

He is declared righteous here in the same sense that anybody is declared righteous, that is that he has a righteousness which is not his own

that comes to him on the basis of faith.

Like Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, like Abel trusted God and believed his word and

demonstrated that he was righteous because he was righteous by faith, so Simeon was a sinner who was devout, he is

pious, he is a believer in Yahweh, a worshiper of God, he is in the temple, he is a righteous man in the sense that he

has believed what God has said and that's going to come out here when we look at what he says next week and the week following.

He's believed what God has said and on the basis of his belief, his trust, his faith, the man is righteous.

And we covered this a couple weeks ago in the book of Hebrews.

We talk about the Old Testament saints, Abel, Noah, Enoch, Moses, David, those men that they were

righteous.

I asked you this question, whose righteousness did they have?

Did they have their own righteousness?

Whose righteousness did they have?

They had the righteousness of Christ.

There's only one person who has ever lived who has enough righteousness to impute

that perfect standing and that perfect life to any and all who will believe.

So Simeon had the same righteousness that Abel had, he had the same righteousness that Noah had and it is not his own,

it's the righteousness of Christ.

Do not miss the glory of this moment.

Simeon comes into the temple and he picks up and holds in his arms the very one who would live a life that would

credit him with righteousness.

He is a righteous man, but he is righteous on the basis of a life that would be lived.

You and I are righteous on the basis of a life that has been lived.

But we are both, Simeon and you and I, we are all righteous on the same terms, faith, and it is the same righteousness,

the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Simeon, a righteous man, imputed or credited that righteousness by God on the basis of faith is righteous not because of

anything he has done, he is righteous because of what Christ would eventually do.

It was credited to him as faith, Christ himself being that righteousness and Simeon is holding his very

righteousness in his arms when he praises God for this.

Second, he is called devout.

That word devout, its usage outside of the New Testament simply means cautious.

It's used to describe caution.

Interestingly, it is only found in Luke's writings once here and three times in the.

Book of Acts.

Acts chapter 2 verse 5, now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

Acts chapter 8 verse 2, some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

Acts 22 verse 12, a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the law and well -spoken by all the Jews who lived there.

It's translated all four times in the New Testament that it is used, translated as devout.

Outside of this, it is typically used to describe what is cautious or caution.

So when Luke says that Simeon was devout, he is not describing somebody who is cautious in the sense that

he doesn't take risks, he plays it safe, he doesn't take precautions, he wouldn't bet

on the Seahawks to win another game, things like that.

It's not that kind of caution.

Instead, he is describing somebody who is devout and careful and meticulous in his obedience to

God.

He is very cautious in what he does and how he lives so that he might please and obey.

God.

That's the type of caution that is described here.

It is a devoutness.

Third, he was looking for the consolation of Israel.

Put simply, he was waiting for the Messiah.

Consolation of Israel was a term that was used to describe the Messiah.

Consolation meaning solace or encouragement or comfort.

The Messiah was viewed by the Jews as a comforter.

A lot of that taken, obviously all of that taken, from the Old Testament where God promised that He would eventually comfort the nation.

The nation who had lived under the oppression of their enemies for years, they looked forward to the consolation, the comfort of the nation.

That comfort would come in the Messiah.

There is a long messianic section at the end of Isaiah, chapters 40 -66, where this word

comfort comes up over and over again in connection with the Messiah and what the Messiah would do for the nation.

In fact, Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 1, begins, Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

Who is that comforter?

He's described 10 verses later in verse 10 of Isaiah, chapter 40,.

Behold, the Lord your God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him.

Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.

The comforter was God Himself.

So when God showed up in the person of the Messiah, they viewed the Messiah as the one who would end up consoling and comforting the nation.

In fact, in Isaiah 61, there's a familiar passage that Jesus quotes.

Later on in Luke, chapter 4, when Jesus quotes from the book of Isaiah, He says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has

anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the

favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.

That was what Jesus said was actually, He fulfilled that passage.

To comfort all who mourn.

The afflicted, the downtrodden, the brokenhearted, He was the consolation of Israel, the comforter of Israel.

Simeon was waiting for that comfort of Israel, expecting and longing to see the Lord's Christ in his own life.

He was waiting for that.

And this goes back to Simeon's faith.

Why would Simeon be waiting for the comforter of Israel to come?

Because he believed what God said.

That's what faith is, remember?

It's not a blind leap into a dark chasm.

Faith is believing what God has said.

And God in the Old Testament has said, I'm sending the comforter.

He's going to come.

He's going to fulfill all of these things.

He's going to do everything He's described in the Old Testament.

And Simeon believed that.

He took God at His word.

This is why he was a righteous man, not because he was doing anything righteous.

He couldn't earn his righteousness any more than you and I can earn our righteousness.

But he was a righteous man because he believed what God had said.

And see, here you have his faith evident.

He goes to the temple.

He's longing, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

It had been revealed to him that he would see it.

And because the Spirit of God had revealed that to him, he believed it.

He believed that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Christ.

And he was expecting to see it.

Maybe it's possible, since we're studying the book of Daniel on and off in Sunday school, maybe it's possible that Simeon did the

math from the proclamation to rebuild the temple in Daniel, the book of Daniel, and he

counted forward the 62 weeks and kind of worked it out in his mind and thought, you know what, the Messiah should be coming here.

If what God said in Daniel is true, it should be any day.

He was waiting to see the Lord's Christ.

And fourth, the Holy Spirit was upon him.

The Holy Spirit was very active during the Old Testament when we're justified by faith,.

Just as we are.

The Spirit was a work in people's hearts, typically under the Old Covenant, the work of the Spirit is described in terms of coming upon a

person instead of being in and dwelling within a person.

And under the New Covenant, the work of the Spirit is intensified in the lives of God's people as he dwells within us, and that indwelling is permanent.

But for Simeon, the Spirit of God was upon him.

The Spirit is mentioned three times in these next three verses.

Verse 25, it was upon him, the Spirit revealed something to him, and then in some fashion the Spirit guided him or led him into the

temple.

Because the Spirit had revealed that he would not see death until he saw the Lord's Christ, Simeon was in the temple.

In some way, the Spirit of God revealed to him who this consolation was when the consolation of Israel showed up in the temple that day

with Mary and Joseph.

Now I wish we had at this point more detail than is given to us here.

What was Simeon expecting?

When the Spirit of God revealed to him that he would see the consolation of Israel before he tasted death, did Simeon

in that moment expect sort of the typical Jewish expectation of the day, which was that the Messiah would come out of the clouds

of heaven as a ruling and conquering king and establish and set up the throne of David and rule from the nations from Jerusalem

as the Old Testament promised?

Is that what Simeon was anticipating?

Was he expecting sort of at some point to bump into in the marketplace a rising political leader who was

real charismatic, who would eventually take the throne and kind of overthrow Rome and establish a kingdom?

Was Simeon expecting a baby?

Did Simeon wake up that morning going to the temple thinking today's the day, the Spirit of God revealed to me today's the day?

Did he go to the temple and just start thinking to himself, maybe I'm just going to start looking at every baby and see if I kind of get a little

liver quiver and get the feeling that this is the one, this is the consolation of Israel?

I don't know what he was expecting.

I don't know how he was expecting to see this.

But the only way he could have known that this baby was the consolation of Israel is because the Spirit of

God revealed it to him in that moment.

Do you think Simeon was expecting to walk into the temple and to see a baby being carried by a

young, unmarried Jewish couple, poor as poor can be?

Do you think that's what he was expecting?

I have a hard time believing that's what he was expecting, unless the Spirit of God revealed that that is what you should be looking for.

However it is that Simeon found the Christ child and however it is that he knew that this is the one.

It was obviously by revelation of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know what he was expecting when he woke up that morning, but when he walked into the temple he saw his

righteousness, he saw his salvation, and he saw the consolation.

Of Israel.

Now there's a lot about Simeon that we are not told.

We don't know who his parents were, we don't know if he had siblings, we don't know what tribe he came from, we don't know how old he was, what he did for a living, was

he retired, was he ill and failing health, was he married,

widowed, single his whole life, did he have kids, were they righteous, pious, and devout as

well?

We don't know any of those things about Simeon, do we?

But I think we know the four most important things that could ever be said about anybody, that he was

righteous, that he was devout in his obedience, that he was waiting to see Christ

and that the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Listen, if those four things can be said about you, that's pretty good.

If you can have those four things etched in your tombstone when they drop your casket in the ground, is there anything else that would matter more

than that?

Those are the four most important things that could ever be said about you, faithful, devout, waiting to see Christ, and

Holy Spirit was upon him.

Simeon is quite an intriguing man, isn't he?

We haven't even looked at anything that he's said yet, we'll do that next week, let's pray.

Father, we are so grateful for your word, so packed with truth and so packed with depth for us to

understand and appreciate.

We're just so grateful for this morning, for the reminder that you are righteous and that you have provided

righteousness in your son.

We thank you for the reminder that we are sinners in need of a savior and it is only by embracing Jesus Christ that we could ever

have hope to have that righteousness or our sins forgiven.

We praise you for your goodness and we are thankful that you have sent a savior to die in the stead, our Passover lamb,

to die in the stead of any and all who will believe.

And we thank you for the righteousness that brings us in the forgiveness of sins.

And we are grateful for this time, this opportunity to meditate upon these things, and we pray that you would encourage our hearts in them, in Jesus' name,

amen.