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Just have to wait for the stream to start so that I can just do it just says the video is
Private no it does that temporarily Okay, I just I have to wait for it to start so that I can turn the sound off So I don't get that weird feedback loop so It's live on YouTube now
Okay Let's see here. There we go.
That's all right All right was able to turn the sound off so I don't get that weird feedback loop and we are back over here
Resuming sure okay. We're gonna be following the order of divine service setting to today is a service of the word and Opening him it is the first Sunday after Christmas.
It is still Christmas. There are 12 days of Christmas the first him is 367
Right for all the Story Shepherds In their field, abiding, watching, o 'er yon flocks by night
God with us is now Residing yonder shines the infant light
Come and worship Come and worship Come and worship
Christ the new -born King Sages leave your contemplations brighter visions beam afar
Seek the great desire of nations ye have seen his natal star
Come and worship Come and worship Worship Christ the newborn
King Saints before the altar bending
Watching long in hope and fear Suddenly the love descending in his temple shall appear
King All creation join in praising
God's Son Evermore your voices raising to the eternal three in one
Come and worship Come and worship
Worship Christ the newborn King Divine service setting two and let me just disable a couple of things in the hang on a second here
Alright, Josh are you there with me? Yes. Alright, in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.
We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your
Holy Name. Amen. Almighty God in his mercy has given his Son to die for you and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins.
As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority I therefore forgive you all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We will be reading the
Intuit together by half verse. There we go.
Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house,
O Lord, forevermore. Your throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting.
The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed, he is put on strength as his belt.
Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. The floods have lifted up,
O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. Floods lift up their roaring.
Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
Amen. Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house,
In peace let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the
Lord. Lord, have mercy. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the
Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the
Lord. Lord, have mercy. For this
Holy House and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the
Lord. O Lord, have mercy.
Help, save, comfort and defend us, gracious Lord. Amen. This is the feast of victory for our
God. Alleluia.
Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who has set us free.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you. There we go. Let us pray. O God, our
Maker and Redeemer, you wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature.
Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen. Alright, give me a second here. I'm going to hit that for the...
The Old Testament reading for this the first Sunday after Christmas is taken from the prophet Isaiah chapter 11.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eye sees, or decide disputes by what his ears hear.
But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness the belt of his loins. This is the word of the
Lord. Thanks be to God. Our epistle is taken from Galatians chapter 4.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.
But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Holy Gospel according to St.
Luke, the second chapter. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought
Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the
Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
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. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the
Lord's Christ. And he came 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, he took him up in his arms and blessed
God, and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the
Gentiles, and for the glory of your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts will be revealed.
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, and then as a widow until she was eighty -four.
She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day, 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.
And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. The sermon hymn is 389.
His heavenly Father's throne is born, and infant small, and in a manger poor and lone lies in a humble stall, lies in a humble stall.
Within an earth -born form He hides His all -creating light.
To serve us all He humbly cloaks the splendor of His might, the splendor of His might.
He undertakes a great exchange, puts on our human frame, and in return gives us
His realm, His glory and His name, His glory and His name.
He is a servant by a Lord, how great a mystery!
How strong the tender Christ -child's love! No truer friend than He, no truer friend than He.
He is the key and He the door to blessed paradise.
The angel bars the way no more, to God our praises rise, to God our praises rise.
For grace and holiness reveal, for Jesus we adore, and praise to God the
Father yield, and Spirit evermore.
And we praise You evermore. Alright, give me a moment here to get a few things set up for this transition.
Spotlight for everybody. Alright, there we go. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Jesus is only a few days old, and you'll note something here. Normal practice is that when parents have children, their lives change, and a few weird things happen that are kind of normal.
But our Gospel text is far from normal. So you'll note here, Mary and Joseph, their lives have completely changed, and because Christ is born into a sinful world, things are not safe for Him.
And so there's gotta be a few things that happen in order to ensure Christ's safety, and God will make sure to take care of that.
Kind of sad if you think about it, that Jesus Christ, the very creator of all things, the one who spoke the universe into existence.
In fact, nothing that was created wasn't created apart from Him. He was there creating everything.
He is our creator. He comes to that which is His own, and His own don't even recognize Him. If it were not for the
Holy Spirit of God revealing to the people in Christ's time and to us, across the pages of time, who
Christ is, we would miss it. Because you'll note that in the darkness that we are born into, enslaved to the devil, enslaved to the world, enslaved to our own sinful passions, that slavery cannot be busted apart from somebody, a mighty one coming to save us.
And so God hears our prayers for deliverance, and He sends us exactly what we need.
He sends us a baby. And you'll note that at this point in Jesus' earthly life,
He's not really capable of doing very many things. He's capable of sleeping, crying, eating and feeding, and filling
His diapers. That's pretty much it. He's not even to that age where He can look really cute and kind of goo and gah and do things like that.
It's not quite there yet in His development. And as a result of it, everything is changed for Joseph and Mary.
Nighttime feedings, not getting enough sleep. And at the same time, in our
Gospel text, you'll note that they are busy doing something and that something is obeying
God's law. I must remind us, every time these texts come up, every single year, that God's law has commandments that must be obeyed actively.
You must choose to do either good or to do evil. You must make the decision to do something or to not do something.
This is called active obedience. Christ is perfectly actively obedient to God's law.
But you'll note that there's another feature of God's law, and that is there are commandments that have to be obeyed passively.
And we find Mary and Joseph doing exactly what is necessary for Christ to fulfill those passive commands, because He's not capable of actively obeying them.
And so, when we talk about Christ's sinless righteousness, we must note that He obeyed
God's law actively and passively, and needed the help of His parents. And if you were to kind of think through the history of Israel and the descendants of David, some kings who were descended from David were pretty good fellows, and the
Scripture has high praises for them. They followed in the steps of their father David, and they did what was right in the eyes of the
Lord. There was a whole other group of descendants of David who were kings, who didn't follow the ways of David.
They followed the ways of the world, and they worshipped all, and things like this. And they cannot be described in any way as being faithful or righteous.
They were wicked and unjust. And so, who is Joseph? Is Joseph the legal father of Christ?
Is he going to be one of these good guys or bad guys? And if he were a bad guy, then we've got a problem, because Christ will not be able to fulfill the passive requirements of the law, and thus fall short, and our salvation not be secured by him.
Keep that in mind. So, we'll work our way through this text, and then we'll get to kind of the weirder bits, because there's some strange things happening here.
So, when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present
Him to the Lord, as it is written, in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the
Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons.
So, this is a commandment that goes all the way back to the book of Exodus. And, in fact, this is the very same text that Robert Morris twists regarding, you know, his claim that we've got to tithe, and things like this, that we've got to give the first, the first of our fruits have to go, otherwise, you know, it's just crazy what he does with this text.
But this is not about tithing at all. This is about the fact that every single firstborn male who opens the womb of his mother is holy, must be consecrated before the
Lord, and they have to be redeemed, redeemed through a sacrifice. And the normal sacrifice would either be a sheep, or a goat, or maybe even a bull.
But you'll note that neither sheep, nor goats, nor bulls are mentioned here in this text.
Instead, what's mentioned is a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. This is where we have to consider the humbleness of Christ.
Christ, being God in human flesh, chose to be born to these parents. And Mary and Joseph are poor.
I mean, really poor. And you'll note that when you read the
Greek regarding Joseph, he's described in Scripture as a carpenter, a carpenter from Nazareth.
Here's the issue. The word carpenter in our modern -day parlance, when we think of a carpenter, we think of a guy who's studied under somebody who was a journeyman and became a carpenter himself, maybe a master carpenter.
And it's a high -skilled trade that can, well, yield a person a pretty decent living.
However, the Greek word that often gets translated as carpenter is probably better understood as construction worker.
Yeah, Joseph was one of these fellows. If he lived in Southern California, we have the
Home Depot in Southern California. I know we have it here in North Dakota, too. But, you know, Home Depot and Lowe's and places like this.
In Southern California, day laborers would hire themselves out on a daily basis.
And what they do is they gather in the Home Depot parking lot, and contractors looking for day laborers will hire guys on a daily basis, pick them up in their pickup trucks, and drive off to the construction site.
That's the kind of guy that Joseph is. He's not even a high -skilled carpenter.
He's a day laborer. And you'll note business hasn't been booming for him.
And that being the case, we have to keep this all in mind because they are not rich by any stretch of the imagination.
Instead, the only thing that they can offer to redeem Christ, the firstborn, is a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
And that kind of shows you just how bad the poverty is for them. Now, here's where things get a little bit interesting.
And we'll note that anybody who's had a child, when they are firstborn, newborn infants, and you take a newborn infant into the grocery store, you head over to Walmart, or maybe you go over to the mall, or you're at a restaurant or something like that, everybody wants to see the baby.
This is how this goes. And so perfect strangers will walk up and go, oh, let me see the baby!
And they act really weird. And so they, oh, this is so cute!
Oh, the baby! They'll say, oh, the baby looks just like the mother! Oh, the baby looks just like the father!
Oh, this is so great! And they fawn and all that kind of stuff. What's going to happen here isn't that.
In fact, we must note that what happens here is not normal at all. And shows us just how, well, how special Christ is.
If it were not for these two prophets, it's good to think of Simeon as a prophet. It's also good to think of Anna as a prophet.
In fact, she's mentioned as being a prophetess. The Holy Spirit had revealed certain things to them. Martin Luther, in his sermon on this text, likens them to the prophets of the
Old Testament, both of them being well -advanced in years. He sees it as symbolic of the fact that the prophets of old have finally seen the fulfillment of their prophecies, the things that they prophesied.
Oh, they long to see the fulfillment of it. And here, Simeon and Anna are kind of the stand -ins for them.
It's fascinating, reading Luther's sermon on this. But he goes, the text goes on, 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. A little bit of a note here. I don't normally key in on names that much, but I will note that the
Gospels have these very frequent little hyperlink callbacks to the
Old Testament stories. You'll note that Joseph, the legal father, not biological father of Christ, he has dreams.
Well, I know a guy in the book of Genesis whose name was Joseph, and he has dreams.
And what's really interesting is that Joseph's second dream is a warning to him to flee town because Herod wants to kill
Christ. And so that Joseph who has dreams ends up taking Jesus to Egypt.
You just sit there and go, what is going on here? The types and shadows are finding their fulfillment in Christ.
And I would note, Simeon's name here is just screaming for an interpretation, at least that fits with this text, because I think you can work it out.
And if you know the story of Jacob and his wives, Leah and Rachel, talk about a messed up family.
Holy smokes. I still keep coming back and thinking through the details of what had to take place at that first wedding.
If you remember the story, Jacob had to flee home because he had secured his brother's birthright and then stole the blessing from his father by dressing as his brother and deceiving his father.
Very interesting text. His brother is nursing a murderous grudge against him and his mother tells him to flee town because of course he's a mommy's boy.
He flees town and he heads back to his family, extended family in Paddan Aram. His eyes fall on a young gal by the name of Rachel, who happens to be a relative.
Boy, does he have the pitter -patter, heart -thumping love for her. He works for seven years in order to take her as his bride.
Because of his love for her, those seven years just flew by so quickly and the time came for the wedding.
The time came for the wedding and Uncle Laban, who's going to be his father -in -law, pulls the old switcheroo.
Although I would note here, I have never heard of switcheroo quite like this. You'll note that this is going to require
Rachel's compliance and Leah's compliance. Leah was not the gal that Jacob had the hots for.
In fact, Scripture describes Leah, although she was the older sister, describes her as having weak eyes, which is a polite and kind way of saying that she wasn't very aesthetically beautiful.
It was not easy to look at her. She was not a runway model.
In fact, quite the opposite. What Father does is he convinces Rachel to be quiet, convinces
Leah to put on the bridal gown and to put the veil over the face and walk the aisle.
You can just see Laban thinking, I'm hoping that Jacob doesn't lift that veil too high when it comes to the first kiss or the gig is up.
Of course, poor Jacob, he's completely unaware of the switcheroo until after he's consummated the marriage and in the morning when the sunlight is out, he can see what has happened and whoa.
It's crazy stuff, but this then leads to one of the most dysfunctional families of all of Scripture.
That is the family of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. They get into a baby -making war, and Leah is the one who's coming out on top on that particular war.
You'll note that because of the circumstances of that marriage, she wasn't loved.
As a result of it, she frequently, in that portion of Scripture, is crying out to God for justice, crying out to God to have mercy, crying out to God to hear her and to see her affliction in the hopes that God would open her womb so that her husband would finally love her.
Leah is the one who gives birth to Judah, which means praise, but Leah is also the woman who gives birth to Simeon, which is eerily similar to the
Hebrew word for he hears. That's kind of the meaning here, he hears.
Here, in our passage in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus being brought to the temple to fulfill for him the requirements he's required to fulfill, and the sacrifice is passive obedience to God's law.
There is a fellow who's one of the last of the Old Testament prophets, a fellow by the name of Simeon, alluding to the fact that God hears.
You just sit there and go, this totally preaches. You just sit there and go, of course. Because you and I, and all the world, we languish under sin.
You'll note that Satan is not a kind tyrant. Satan is a mean hearted tyrant.
I think back to the days when I was in Christian high school, there was a very popular tract that they would try to tell you to use for evangelism.
It was called the Four Spiritual Laws. The first sentence in the Four Spiritual Laws tract was,
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But the reality is that it's the opposite when it comes to Satan.
Satan hates you, and he has a terrible plan for your life, and for your eternity. And you'll note that the misery that we find ourselves in, the world that is right now, it really reflects the rebellion of Satan and the consequences of sin.
And all of us, every single one of us, experience these consequences, and the suffering, and the decay, and the death, and the disease, and the pain, and the sorrow that is brought on by our slavery to the dominion of darkness.
And so God has heard our prayers. He hears. And here we have Simeon. And he's righteous.
He's devout. Righteous means that he has faith in Christ. He has faith in the one who will take away the sins of the world.
And he's also devout. He has good works. That's how it normally works, by the way.
And he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him, which is a notable thing, because the
Holy Spirit hasn't been given generally to believers up to this point. That won't happen until Pentecost, after Christ's death, burial, and resurrection and ascension.
But this man, the Holy Spirit is upon him, which again shows the fact that he's acting prophetically. And it had been revealed to him by the
Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And so 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, and here's where it's interesting, he took
Jesus up in his arms, and he blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.
Good paraphrase is, Lord, now I can finally die. And not only die, but die in peace.
Die in peace. You're allowing me to depart in peace, not in conflict. Why? It says, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.
And you'll note that to the average onlooker there in Jerusalem on that day in the temple complex, on Mount Moriah there in Jerusalem, Jesus wouldn't have looked any different than any other boy.
Any other infant child that had just been newborn. Jesus probably still has the remains of his umbilical cord still attached to his belly.
And so all of that being said, if it were not for God speaking and showing this is no ordinary child, we wouldn't know.
And so you'll note, Simeon here is speaking to us as well. These words are written for our benefit so that we recognize who
Christ is and we do not despise his humble, meek, and mean beginnings here in the incarnation.
He doesn't show up fully grown swinging a sword. He shows up as a completely defenseless and helpless infant.
But because of the Holy Spirit, Simeon sees Christ for who he is, knows that he is the
Messiah, and knows that now he can depart in peace because his own eyes have seen the salvation of God.
And that's what salvation is. Salvation is a gift given by God. Salvation is something accomplished by God for us.
Salvation is not something that you do. You don't pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
Baron Munchausen style. You do not climb up the ladder to heaven.
You do not ascend by your good works and by your obedience to God's law and sit there and go, well,
I don't drink, smoke, or chew so I have earned my salvation. In fact, salvation isn't even something you make a decision for.
God makes that decision for you. The scripture is very clear on this. And so his own eyes,
Simeon has seen God's salvation and he goes on to begin to peel back the great mystery that Paul talks about in next week's text, in the
Epiphany text. And that is that the Gentiles are also included in the salvation.
Salvation is not merely for those who are the genetic descendants of Abraham. My own eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples and a light for revelation to the
Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel. Because we sing this so often,
Simeon's song, the Nocte Minis, we all want to at this point sing, glory be to the Father and to the
Son and to the Holy Spirit. Liturgically we are well trained to do so. And at this point, his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
Not marveling because they were shocked. You'll note that at this point, it's hard to shock Mary and Joseph.
They know exactly who Jesus is. And Joseph, he had a run in.
He had a conversation with an angel of God because when Mary came back from spending a few months with Elizabeth for the birth of John the
Baptist, she came back to Nazareth pregnant and showing. And he wanted to divorce her quietly.
And so an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and says, Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. And she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Yeshua because he will save his people from their sins.
And so Joseph takes Mary as his wife. And I'm sure an encounter with an angel, either in person or in a dream, is something that is a little bit memorable.
Leaves a mark. It kind of stands out. Joseph knows full well who Jesus is, and we don't even need to talk about Mary because she had a face -to -face conversation with Gabriel.
And Gabriel is an angel who stands in the very presence of God himself.
And so she knows full well who Jesus is and what he's come to do. But here now they're starting to get a little bit more information, marveling in the sense that other people are in on it as well.
You'll note Jesus being the Messiah is not a very well kept secret. And that not so well kept secret will eventually lead to Jesus having to leave for Egypt, but that's next week.
But all that being said, Simeon now prophesies something, and we need to pay attention to it.
So he blessed them, and then he says to Mary, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.
And we'll note this prophecy has absolutely come true and continues to come true even to this day.
Among the children of Israel, Christ is absolutely the most controversial
Jew in all of human history. And among their own, Jews today, they despise
Christ. And those who come to faith in Jesus find themselves unceremoniously, well, unfamilied is a good way to put it.
I recently had a conversation with a fellow who did a sojourn in Judaism.
Kind of a strange thing. You'll note that some of the people that come to us at Kongsvinger and Aletheia, they come to us through some very surreptitious journeyings and strange portions of religiosity and spirituality.
And this one fellow actually did a sojourn in Judaism, attending the synagogue. And then he realized he needed to be honest because he believed in Jesus.
And when he told his rabbi that he believed in Jesus, fireworks.
He was shown the door and told never to come back, basically, is the way to put it.
And that still continues to this day. Christ is a lightning rod within those who are the genetic descendants of Israel.
And then he says something very cryptic. And here's where we'll note where the gospel comes into play.
Simeon then gives a foreboding warning to Mary that a sword would pierce through her own soul as well.
Not a physical sword. You'll note this is a sword that will pierce through her own soul. And this is an allusion to the fact that she will be present when
Christ is crucified for her sins, for your sins, my sins, and the sins of the world.
And over and again, we are all familiar with movies or even people that we know in our own lives.
Parents who've lost children, whose children have died tragically or died young.
And it's over and again, I say it is never, it was God's intent that a parent would have to bury a child.
And it is a horrible thing to watch. It is terrible to see. And the lament, and the suffering, and the guilt, and the pain that goes with losing a child is huge and immense.
And Mary is going to experience that and more. Because she was there at the foot of the cross.
She heard the crowd jeering at Christ. You saved others.
If you're truly the Messiah, save yourself. Come down from the cross and we'll believe in you.
And she heard the crowd and the evil things that they were speaking about her son, knowing full well who he is.
And she watched as he suffered, bled, and died.
He, being the sacrifice for the whole world, fulfilling the prophecy of the angel
Gabriel, who said that he will be called, you will call his name Yeshua, Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
And he did so by laying down his life. And Mary being at the foot of the cross, seeing and watching all of this,
I cannot imagine the pain that she went through. We can get a little bit of a description of it here.
When Simeon prophetically warns her that this will result in a sword being pierced through her own soul, she was prepared by God for what she would face.
And still, it had to be painful to go through. In fact, in all of Christian art,
I think one of the most moving depictions of Christ in all of Christian art is not
Christ on the cross, but Christ's lifeless dead corpse in the arms of Mary after they removed his body from the cross.
It's called the Pieta. And that is a beautiful, beautiful and horrible piece of artwork, and one that shows the fulfillment of this prophecy of Simeon.
And then he says, a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts will be revealed.
Indeed, they are. But, now, another prophet speaks, prophetess
Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years. She's 84 years old, and when she was a young lady, she was married and then she was widowed seven years after her marriage, and then she remained as a widow for the rest of her years.
And at this point, she's 84 years old. And she does not depart from the temple. She is there worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day, 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.
And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.
And so, you'll note here, small things, big things, come in small packages.
Our salvation comes to us in an infant, this baby, helpless, and yet he's busy fulfilling
God's law and obeying God's commands, and Jesus departs to Nazareth after a sojourn in Egypt.
We get from the Gospel of Matthew that there was a little bit more to the story. There was an unexpected trip to Egypt.
They had to wait for Herod to die. But we don't know much else about Christ's childhood, and this is good that we don't, because what was
Jesus busy doing during his childhood? Answer? Obeying God's law.
And you'll note, the Scriptures are clear, that Christ is tempted in every way that you and I have been tempted, and yet is without sin.
And so, Christ, as part of His growing up, He was tempted to disobey
His parents when they told Him to take out the trash, but Christ took the trash out. Christ was tempted to do all kinds of evil and mischief, you know, from those who were around Him, tempting
Him to do evil, break the windows on old Mrs. McCreary's house, and things like that. But He didn't obey any of the false things, and He did exactly what was right.
He's busy obeying God's law, because in order to be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,
He must fulfill it perfectly, and this is what He's about the business of doing. And this is good news for you and I, because you and I, we've fallen short.
In fact, we were born and conceived in sin, already with Adam's sin against us.
And as a result of it, we cannot free ourselves, we cannot obey God's law perfectly, we cannot do enough to save ourselves.
But our salvation has arrived in Christ Jesus, and we see that the direct connection, even in this text, between Christ's manger and the cross itself, and the illusion to the suffering that Mary would go through when she watches
Christ bleed and suffer and die. And so we thank God, and we raise our voices with Simeon's voice, thanking
God for the salvation that He has revealed to us, a salvation that we would miss if it were not for the
Word of God. The Word of God that was inspired by the Holy Spirit to give us the inside look as to what's really going on with the life of Christ, because to the outside observer, it just looks like two parents raising a baby boy, just like everybody else does.
But it's not like anybody else. So I think a good way to end our text would be to consider the accolades here, given to us by the prophet
Isaiah, who gives us further insight into this amazing child that God has sent to us to save us from our sin.
Isaiah writes, And indeed, the stump of Jesse is a good way to describe what's happened to the
Davidic kingdom. It's gone. The stump of Jesse, oh, it's just a memory of the great tree that it was.
But all of a sudden, Christ arrives, a branch from its roots shall bear fruit, and he has.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord, and his delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear.
We learn from one of the gospel eyewitnesses that nobody needed to explain to Christ what a person was like, because he already knew what a person was like.
He could see all the way into their hearts, every single person. And he can see into your heart and to mine as well.
No point in putting on pretenses in front of Christ. And this is why we confess our sins, because rather than be pretentious and coy and act like that we've still got our act together or that we're good, we instead speak the truth about ourselves that Christ already knows that we are sinful and unclean.
And Christ then, upon that confession, gives us what we do not deserve. Forgiveness, mercy, life, salvation, inheritance in the world to come all out of his great love, his mercy as a gift.
So he doesn't decide disputes with his eyes or with his ears, but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. There's a day coming, a day of reckoning for those who persist in sin and unbelief, and continue to oppress us with the devil's ways.
Christ will bring that to an end someday because Christ grew. He grew and grew and became a man, and he went to the cross, bore your sins and mine, suffered, bled, and died, but he conquered death.
Rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, and he's made it clear there's a day coming when he will return and bring all this wickedness to an end.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, faithfulness the belt of his loins. What a great picture of Christ.
Hard to see it when all you see is a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and needing to nurse and to fill diapers, but it's all there.
But you have to see it with the eyes of faith. And the eyes of faith are found in your ears.
You can only hear it through the word of God. Merry Christmas. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Alright, give me a moment here. I have to do several things just to get us back on track here.
Alright. There we go. Okay. We continue now.
Let's see here. There we go. We continue with the ...
We will confess our faith together in the words of the Apostles' Creed. How's that? Just had to get my bearings.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only
Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the
Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the
Father almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen. We will continue with the prayers of the church, and today as I pray,
I will say these words. I will say Lord, in your mercy, and then together we will say, hear our prayer.
Eternal Lord God, in the fullness of time you sent forth your Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem us and to give us the adoption as your sons and heirs.
Hear us, Father, as we call to you in His name. Give us grace to rejoice in Christ's blessed incarnation and grant us a glad New Year.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Lead your church, Lord, to follow the example of blessed
Simeon that all baptized Christians would embrace the Christ child by word and faith, and so be ready to depart whenever they are called.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood on earth is named, bless
Christian families with your promises, give parents diligence and delight in their work, grant your favor on all children that they may grow in strength and wisdom.
Bless widows, orphans, and broken families also with your mercy, and give them joy in the redemption that you have won for us in Christ.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. O worthy Judge, from you proceeds the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel, and might.
Judge in fear of the Lord. Give wisdom to those who may administer and judge our laws, that they may serve faithfully in their tasks, according to your good pleasure, and for the benefit of our people.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Gracious Lord, receive our prayers for those who suffer from loneliness.
Comfort them with the sure and certain knowledge that you will never forsake them. Give them family and friends within the household of faith, and with whom they can find loving companionship.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Blessed Lord, help the sick and the suffering, especially those who desire our prayers.
Today we lift before you Elizabeth, Jeremy, Alan, Debbie, Paul, Carrie, Becky, Jim, Steve, Christopher, Sheila, Ron, Melba, Bill, Michael, Cameron, Troy, Jim, Chloe, Ellen, Brooks, Gary, Natalie, Deb, Taryn, Candy, Todd, Bonnie, Brent, Roger, Kevin, Mark, Jeff, Joan, Sarah, Jessica, Josh, Ryan, Tim, Lori, Mike, Shirley, and Carol.
We pray for Annie and Ethan, Sheila, David, Judy, Linda Jean, Tom, Dawson, Jim, Ellen, Pam, Chuck, Charmaine, Robin, Colin, Bill, Colleen, Heather, and Rich.
We also lift before you Martha, Susan, Una, Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna, the
Lang family, Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin, Caroline, Jack, Stephen, Robert, Hermano, Rich, Luis, Tim, Cam, Cindy, Barbara, Gloria, Karen, Tara, Robert, Linda, Charita, Robin, Luis, Patty, Jeff, Marco, Selena, Rachel, Mason, Aaron, Ashley, Elizabeth, Sain, Lou, Robin, Lauren, and Carrie.
We ask that you would surround them with your love in Christ and according to your gracious will heal them, comfort those who mourn, and fill their hearts with the certain hope of the resurrection.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, here we remember the sufferings and death of your dear
Son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation. Praising His victorious resurrection from the dead, we draw strength from His ascension before you where He ever stands for us as our own
High Priest. Gather us together, we pray, from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the
Lamb and His Kingdom which has no end. Graciously receive our prayers, deliver and preserve us, for to you alone we give all glory, honor, worship,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. We continue with the offertory.
What shall I do of salvation and will call on the name of the
Lord. Now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the midst of you,
O Jerusalem. Let's see here.
Hang on a second here. Our next hymn is 364. 364.
Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky look down where He lay.
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.
The cattle are lowing.
The baby awakes. But little
Lord Jesus no crying He makes.
I love Thee Lord Jesus. Look down from the sky and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.
Be near me Lord Jesus. I ask
Thee to stay close by me forever and love me
I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care.
And take us to heaven to live with Thee there.
Taught by our Lord and trusting in His promises we're bold to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen. Let us pray. Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.
Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them. That by patience and comfort of Your Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen. Closing hymn is 370.
What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping whom angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping
This this is Christ the
King whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Praise to bring Him long the
Babe the Son of Mary While I see
Him such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding
Good Christian fear for sinners here the silent word is pleading
Spear shall pierce Him through the cross be born for me for you
The Babe the
Son of Mary So bring
Him incense gold and myrrh come peasant king to own
Him The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone
Him He's the
Son of God The Babe the
Son of Mary Let's do this.
Hang on a second here. Let me make it so you guys can actually start your videos and I'm not gonna we'll do that as well.
Okay. Alright. So let's talk about what we're going to do here because I have to actually still head out to a manual but what
I'm going to do first is I'm going to end the YouTube stream. Hang on a second here. Do do do.