Luke 2:25-35 (December 22, 2024)

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What you can turn in your

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Bible is Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, you won't be surprised that on the

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Sunday closest to Christmas we're in Luke chapter 2, but we're going to skip ahead to verses 25 to 35 this morning.

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We're going to be in verses 25 to 35 this morning. Most of the time when we read the Christmas story, we begin in Luke chapter 2 verse 1 and we stop about verse 20.

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We stop about verse 20. And then when we tell the Christmas story, when we go past the events of the birth of Jesus, we usually skip ahead to the visit of the

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Magi, which didn't actually happen that night, but probably when Jesus was around two years old.

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So that being the case that we usually cover from the angel announcing to Mary or the angel announcing to Joseph about the birth of Christ and up through the birth and the angel singing to the shepherds and then we go on and skip ahead to the

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Magi. That being the case, I believe it's appropriate to count some of the in -between events that we read about in Luke chapter 2 that happened over the course of the next month or so after his birth to count those as part of the

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Christmas story. And so that's what we're going to do today. Today I want us to look at and read and consider the story of Simeon meeting the

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Christ. The Christ child in the temple in Jerusalem. This story actually begins in verse 22 of Luke chapter 2 and when 40 days of, 40 days after the birth of Christ, when her days of purification were completed,

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Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him and dedicate him at the temple in accordance with the law to offer a sacrifice of a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons in accordance with the law.

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And that's where we pick up the story in verse 25 of Luke chapter 2. Let me read God's word to us.

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And God's word says, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

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And this man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the

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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

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Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the

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Christ Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed

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God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant to part in peace according to your word.

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For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples alike to bring revelation to the

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Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.

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And then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.

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Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

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Amen. This is God's word to us this morning. I want to summarize what we just read and then

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I want to draw out four truths for us to remember and see this

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Christmas season. So in summary, we see that Simeon was an older man. He was just and devout.

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The Holy Spirit was upon him. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. That is, he was waiting for the coming

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Messiah. He was waiting for the one who was promised and the one who was anointed to come and restore

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God's people, Israel, and to sit on the throne of David and to make all things right again for Israel.

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That's the one he was waiting for. And the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he saw the

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Messiah. And so what we have here is this just and devout man enduring a religious society that is ignorant, idolatrous, immoral, and cruel in many ways.

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And here he is, he's just patiently waiting. He is trusting in the promise of God made known to him by the

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Holy Spirit. And then one day, one day into the temple walks

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Joseph and Mary holding a baby and he sees this child and he takes the baby in his arms and he blesses

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God, pronouncing that he could now die in peace because he had seen the salvation of the

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Lord. That in this child, he saw the salvation of the Lord. He proclaimed that Jesus was a light to the

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Gentiles, that Jesus was a glory for Israel. Mary and Joseph, of course, marveled at what was being said about their baby son.

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And again, Simeon spoke a blessing saying that this child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that would reveal the hearts of men.

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He also worked to prepare Mary and Joseph for the opposition that their son would spark, saying, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, which referred to the excruciating reality that Mary would see her own son crucified.

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So this is what the passage tells us. From that, I want to highlight four truths for us to see and remember this

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Christmas, four truths. And the first is this, God always keeps his promise. God always keeps his promises.

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God, the Holy Spirit, had promised Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the

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Lord's Christ. And what we see in this passage is God keeping his promise to Simeon by bringing the

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Christ child to him in the temple. This is but one of many promises of God in the

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Bible that he keeps. In fact, this very Christ, the Messiah, the anointed and promised one, this very

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Christ that Simeon sees and takes into his arm as a baby, this Christ is the fulfillment of the very first promise in the

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Bible and is the context for all the other promises in the Bible. So let's go back to Genesis chapter 3 for just a moment.

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In this chapter, we find the fall of man, which is what necessitates the need for a world savior in the first place, which necessitates the need for the incarnation in the first place, which is what we celebrate at Christmas.

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After Adam sins, God visits the garden and he pronounces curses upon the man, the woman, and the serpent.

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In Genesis 3 .15, he says to the serpent, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

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He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This verse here is known as the

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Proto -Evangelium, that is the first gospel. It's the first promise of redemption and salvation in the

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Bible, and it goes right after the fall of man into sin and corruption. See, he says there will be enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman.

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The serpent will bruise the seed's heel, but the seed shall crush the serpent's head.

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The Bible is one long story about the one who will come to crush the serpent's head.

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Jesus Christ, born of the virgin, was the seed of the woman who came to crush the head of the serpent, who came to crush the head of Satan.

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Yes, he was bruised at the cross, but he was not ultimately destroyed, but raised up.

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Satan, on the other hand, was crushed, utterly defeated, never to rise from the ash heap of defeat again.

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And through the death and resurrection of Jesus, all who are united to Christ by faith are saved from Satan's sin and death.

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This is the promise of God, and he always keeps his promises. You see, he promised a deliverer to crush

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Satan's head, and he sent that deliverer to crush Satan's head, that starry night in Bethlehem.

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God always keeps his promises. He promised a flood in the days of Noah, and he promised a way of salvation for Noah and his family if they trusted in him.

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He promised a way of salvation through the one door of the ark, and God always keeps his promises. He promised a land, a name, and a nation to Abraham, and that his family would bless all the families of the earth.

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And God gave Abraham and Sarah a son, even when they were old and barren, and God spared that son on the altar, providing a ram caught by his horns in the thicket.

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And God made Abraham's descendants into a great nation, giving him many sons, including,

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Paul tells us, all who have faith in Jesus, such that all of us Christians are true sons of Abraham.

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And through Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, God blessed all peoples with salvation in his name.

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God always keeps his promises. God promised to deliver his people, Israel, from slavery in Egypt, and he led them through the

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Red Sea on dry ground while drowning Pharaoh and his hosts in the waters. God always keeps his promises.

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God promised land to his people, Israel, and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, and he drove out the

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Canaanites and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the

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Jebusites. God always keeps his promises. God promised a kingdom to Israel, and he gave them

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David and his house. God always keeps his promises. God promised blessing if Israel obeyed him, and David won battles to secure their kingdom, and Solomon was the richest man in the world and had peace.

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God always keeps his promises. God promised curses if they disobeyed him, and Israel, when they disobeyed, was exiled into Babylon.

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God always keeps his promises. God promised a new covenant, a new people.

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He promised the Holy Spirit. He promised Emmanuel, God with us. He promised a son to be born from a virgin.

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He promised a scepter to rise out of little Bethlehem, small among Judah. God promised an eternal kingdom, an everlasting life, a heavenly country, a celestial city.

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He promised death and resurrection. He promised suffering and grace sufficient for suffering, and he promised himself.

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God always keeps his promises. That leads us to the second truth to see and remember this

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Christmas season, and that is that all of God's promises find their yes in Jesus Christ.

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All of God's promises find their yes in Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians 120 says this, for all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him, amen, to the glory of God through us.

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God always keeps his promises, and the promises of God are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Crushing Satan's head, that's

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Jesus. Salvation from the flood of judgment, from the wrath of God, that's

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Jesus. He is our ark and our one way of salvation. The sacrificial lamb whose death spares us, like Isaac, Jesus is the lamb of God.

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The whole earth, it belongs to Jesus. God had promised a name, and we have our name in Jesus.

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After all, we are called Christians. Becoming a people and nation, it's also

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Jesus. He unites us all to himself and makes the church a royal and priestly nation. Jesus is the eternal king that was promised.

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He is the one who brings blessing, what's referred to as rising in verse 34 here in Luke 2.

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He's the one who brings cursing, also there in verse 34, what's referred to as falling.

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Jesus is the one who brings this. He's the one born of a virgin. He is the one whose name is Emmanuel, God with us, who sent the

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Holy Spirit, who grants us eternal life, who prepares us a place in that heavenly country and celestial city.

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It's all Jesus. All the promises of God find their yes and amen in Jesus.

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When Simeon's eyes fell upon the baby boy in Mary's arms, he saw the salvation of the

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Lord. He saw the one whom God had promised. He saw the one whom Israel had waited for.

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He saw the one whom all creation had groaned for. He saw the one who would rescue us from Satan's sin and death, who would crush the head of that ancient dragon, the devil.

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When Simeon took the baby in his arms and held him, he held the one who would bring light to the

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Gentiles and glory to God's people, Israel. I want us to think about that for just a moment.

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You see, from the very beginning of the world, God had, God planned to fill the world with worshipers.

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That was his plan from the very beginning and he never gave up on it. You see, had Adam not sinned, had

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Adam been obedient to God's word and not fallen into sin and corruption, he and Eve would have been fruitful.

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They would have multiplied. They would have filled the earth with their descendants who would also have been obedient worshipers of God like Adam and Eve had

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Adam and Eve not sinned, right? That was the plan all along, fill the earth, multiply and fill the earth with obedient worshipers of God.

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Of course, Adam did sin and rebel. We know this from scripture. Still, he was fruitful and multiplied, but his offspring, every last one, including us, are sinful and corrupted by sin.

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And so, to make a long story short, God chose one man to make into one nation whom he chose to be a special people among all the peoples of the earth.

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This people would be the steward of the local presence of God on earth. They would be his priestly people representing

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God to the nations and the nations to God. But it wasn't that people from other nations could not be saved.

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They still had the Noahic covenant and scripture gives plenty of examples of Gentiles being saved, but they were not the priestly people of God.

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And most of the Gentiles and their nations remained in darkness. And then

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Jesus comes as a light to the Gentiles. Jesus comes as one who will bring them near to the sanctuary, granting them the

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Holy Spirit, giving them full standing among God's people, the same as the

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Israelites, grafting them in as full sons of God. And so fulfilling the promise to Abraham that through him, through one of his offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed, fulfilling that we have

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Jesus Christ. Jesus is the light to the Gentiles to bring all peoples to salvation, to bring all people eternal life and full access to God.

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And he is the glory of his people Israel. Jesus Christ is Israel. He is the true

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Israel. He is the head, the crown and the glory of Israel. And he brings Jew and Gentile together to the new people of God.

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How does he do this? Let's revisit verse 35, where it says a sword will pierce through your own soul also.

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This looks forward to the excruciating reality that Mary will face, that she will see her son crucified.

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And when Christ dies upon the cross, the veil of the temple is torn in two. And Christ, our high priest, grants us access to God.

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And the Spirit comes upon God's people at Pentecost, then upon the Gentiles shortly thereafter.

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And the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile is torn down. And all who are united to Christ by faith are one and welcomed into God's family as sons.

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And so why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Because what

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Hebrews 9 .22 tells us, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. The entire sacrificial system of the

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Old Testament taught Israel this truth. Every time they brought a lamb, every time they brought a bull, every time they brought a goat to the altar, they were confronted with the truth that something had to die.

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That something had to die and shed its blood in order for God to overlook their sins and their trespasses.

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The problem with the sacrificial system, however, was that it was not enough. The problem is that the blood of bulls and goats and sheep cannot actually atone for the sins of man.

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They were placeholders. They were done in faith that God would look upon the sacrifice and not hold their sins against them.

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But the blood of bulls and goats couldn't actually atone for the sins of man. Only the sins of man could do that. The sacrifices were placeholders.

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They were shadows. They were pointers to Christ who was to come. Christ is the true lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.

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And he did so by means of his death on the cross in our place, in your place, giving himself as a payment for sins.

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That leads us to the third truth to see and remember this Christmas, that Jesus Christ is appointed for the rising and falling of many.

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What does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus Christ is appointed for the fall and rising of many? Well, it means that Jesus is the crux of history.

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It means that Jesus is the central point on which the eternal destinies of men swing, either rising or falling, either heaven or hell.

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All depends on what one does with Jesus. You will either rise or fall with him.

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He will either be your solid rock on which your salvation is built, or he will be the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense, and the rock which your head dashes upon to crush you.

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It's one or the other. The most important thing any of us will ever do, thing that has the most significant lasting impact upon you and upon your children and your children's children after you is the question, who is

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Jesus? How do you answer that? Your answer to that question will say everything about you, and it will determine everything about your life and the life after.

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God has appointed it to be this way. You will either rise or fall with the baby that Simeon held in his arms, for he was destined for the rising and falling of many.

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And so let me ask you, will you rise or fall? How do you answer the question, who is

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Jesus? Do you say that he was a good man, a good teacher, someone to admire? Or do you say that he is very

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God, a very God, Lord and Savior, the one promised of old to come and slay the serpent and bring salvation to a lost and dying and corrupt and sinful world, including you?

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And how you answer that question will also affect how you answer another question, who are you? Do you see yourself as a basically good person, trying hard to do right?

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Do you see yourself as the Bible describes you? That is outside of faith in Jesus, every person is a son of wrath, a child of disobedience, a corrupt sinner with a darkened heart in need of a

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Savior. But those who rise with Jesus are transformed.

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So if you're trusting in Christ today, and I hope that is true for all of us, if you're trusting in Christ today, you have been saved by him, and the

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Bible says you've been changed. That what was once true of you is not true of you any longer. That you are now a son of God, capable and desirous of obedience, a child of light, one who is redeemed, and your fundamental identity is not sinner, but saint.

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Either rise or fall with Jesus. So I want you to think about these questions, who are you, who is

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Jesus, and how are those two questions related? And then the last truth to see and remember this

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Christmas season is this, the only way to die in peace is to see the salvation of the

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Lord. The only way to die in peace is to behold the salvation of the Lord. The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he saw the

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Lord's Christ, the Messiah, the consolation of Israel. And so Simeon endured and waited patiently.

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It must have often seemed like the world was just burning around him, and yet he had this promise from the Lord, and so he endured, he waited.

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And once he beheld the Christ child, he said, Lord, now, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.

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He could die in peace because he had seen the Messiah. What does it mean to die in peace? What means one has full composure of mind, having obtained all that he desires?

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He's at peace. Because of sin, those outside of Christ are never fully at peace. They're never fully composed in mind.

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They do not obtain all that God has designed them for. They're out of fellowship with God and out of fellowship with their fellow man.

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They're not at all at peace. The only way to die in peace is to behold the salvation of the

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Lord in Jesus Christ, to believe in him, to trust him for salvation, for deliverance, for forgiveness, and to place your loyalty and allegiance with him, in other words, to have faith.

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And so let me ask you, are you at peace with God? There's two answers to that question, yes or no.

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There really is no middle ground. The answer is no, that you're not at peace with God. I want you to know that you can be.

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I never assume in a crowd this size that everyone is a Christian, but you can be.

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See the Lord's salvation this morning. Behold the Christ, the long -promised one who brought long -promised deliverance from Satan, sin, and death.

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Confess your sin and your sinfulness to God, turn from your sins, giving them up and stopping them. Believe that Jesus is

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Lord, that he lived in your place, died in your place, was raised so you could be raised too, and ask God to forgive you of your sins, accepting the death of Jesus in your place, accepting his blood in the place of your own, and pledge and commit your loyalty to King Jesus and you shall be saved.

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If the answer is yes, that you are at peace with God, then you are saved.

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And my assumption is that in church service, most of us are Christian. And so to Christians, one, we never move past that gospel message, that Christ is the one who has delivered us.

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I want you to remember your salvation. Remember that deliverance that Jesus Christ gave you.

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Let it fill you with gratitude. Let it fill you with joy. Let it fit and fill every aspect of your life.

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And live at peace with God through holy living. Live at peace with your fellow man through love.

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And proclaim this message of rising and falling with Jesus to those around you.

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Proclaim Jesus Christ. God promised in the book of Hebrews that it is appointed to every man once to die and then comes the judgment.

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And as we said at the beginning, God always keeps his promises. That means you will die one day.

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And the only way to die in peace is to die having seen the salvation of the Lord. And so I beckon you all, come to Jesus Christ.

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He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Promised One. He is the

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Lord. He is the Savior of the world. Let's pray together.

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Our Father in Heaven, let us see and savor

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Jesus Christ this Christmas. Help us to glory in Him.

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Help us to rest in Him. Help us to find the meaning of Christmas and the meaning of all things in Him.

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Help us to remember that you always keep your promises. And that all of your promises find their yes and amen in Christ.

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Help us to remember that we will either rise or fall with what we do with Jesus. And that the only way to die in peace is to behold the salvation of the

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Lord in Jesus Christ. So I pray that each of us in this room would have true peace. True peace with you, with one another, and with our fellow man.

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May we love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength. And may we love our neighbors as ourselves.

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All to the glory of King Jesus we pray. And we ask it all in His name.