The Right Messiah - [Luke 2:21-32]

Can you say with confidence The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me

Can you say with certainty? I'm the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for me.

He is my mediator. He is my advocate. He's my friend He's my

Savior Do you have the assurance basically of knowing the

Lord Jesus and having him know you Sinclair Ferguson said that assurance of salvation is the assurance of knowing

Jesus and having him by faith This morning. I want to make sure dear

Christian that you are certain of your salvation That you know for sure that you believe

All of us have struggles and doubts You get a diagnosis from the doctor or something goes wrong and you sit and you think and the

Eternity's a long time Do I really believe am I trusting in the right Savior? Do I have saving faith?

Everyone struggles with that Things like that go through my mind And so we have to direct our minds back to Scripture and say what does the

Bible say? How can we know for certain? This morning

I have one main goal and that is that you would see from Scripture That in fact

Jesus is the right Savior and by trusting in him you can have eternal life

Would you open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2 today and I'm going to give you two more reasons

You can trust Jesus to forgive your sins designed To increase your assurance so that you know for sure so that when you are on your deathbed and you think to yourself

I am his and he is mine And in order to do that, you're going to need to have perfect law -keeping to get into heaven

Jesus said you have to be as perfect as the Heavenly Father's Perfect. So to get to heaven you have to be a perfect law keeper

Perfect law keeper your entire life And you're also going to need to have the right Savior and in passage today in Luke chapter 2 you're going to see

Jesus is the perfect law keeper and he's the right Savior R .C.

Sproul said if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Likewise assurance comes by hearing the

Word of God as I meditate on the scriptures. My assurance is Strengthened and that's what

I want you to do today. We are all prone to look inwardly Sometimes morbidly as we have this introspection and we say to ourselves

I wonder if I'm this I wonder if I'm that am I really trusting how much am I trusting? We have to be careful because the

Christian faith is an outward -looking faith. Yes, it's even an upward -looking faith It's not well

Have we done enough is my life changed enough is has Jesus paid it all and as he the one who has kept the law for me as the risen

Messiah Today, I want to make sure we focus back again on what does the

Bible say about Jesus? Do I want you to be faithful? Yes, but I want you to have faith in Jesus more than you think about being faithful.

Do you should you love God? Yes, but I want to make sure you understand that God loves you dear

Christian That's what we're after today. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus now

We're just marching through the book of Luke if you're just new to the church We're in the gospel of Luke and I think we've been here for maybe

I don't know 10 weeks 12 weeks something like that And we're just marching through long chapters long books, but we've been feasting every year every year

We're in feasting I'm saying about every year you go to the Passover feast. That's what I was thinking about Don't blame me if I'm thinking biblical thoughts

We've been feasting every week on the riches of Jesus and we get to see in this gospel of Jesus according to Luke all kinds

Of information we normally wouldn't see and sometimes even for our passage today you come to it and you think what's the big deal?

Yes, it's true. Yes, it's in the Bible, but I don't understand what the emphasis is What's the author trying to do and I think what happened to me this week will happen to you today

You'll think oh that means so much more to me now I see what Luke is doing perfectly putting this together so that I might be certain that I have the right

Jesus because I need A law keeper and I need to make sure I have the right Jesus Remember Luke chapter 2 verse 1 and following starts off with this decree

Remember the big honcho of the world was Caesar Augustus And he has a decree and he has a decree because he wants more taxes and that taxation decree says go home

Be registered in your hometown so that you can sign up for military service unless you're a

Jew you're exempt And you pay more taxes and of course the Messiah has to be born in Bethlehem as we know

And so how can you get Mary and Joseph from Nazareth down to Bethlehem to be born?

Well, God can take a king's heart and he moves it wherever he wishes and he turns Caesar Augustus his heart to make a decree and so Jesus it says is born verse 7

And he is born in Bethlehem and of course then we learned from even last week the

Shepherds show up It says in verse 9 the angel of the Lord appeared probably Gabriel and the glory of the

Lord shone around them And they were filled with great fear and as much as you have fear in the presence of an angel

There is joy because of the announcement. This is what the angel has been sent to say verse 10 fear not for behold

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Savior who's Christ the Lord and in the kindness of God the angel says I'll even give you a sign

Go to Bethlehem and find a baby in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger and the curtain goes up and Now there's not just one angel that they could possibly be afraid of what to say a multitude of heavenly hosts praising

God and saying Glory to God in the highest if there could be any glory. That's the highest in all the world.

That's not creation. It's redemption It's the salvation of sinners that gives God the most glory

And what does it do for us? What does it do for believers and on earth peace among those with whom he's well -pleased?

And they went with haste verse 15 to Bethlehem to see what was going on. They found

Mary they found Joseph They found the baby And they thought about it and Mary thought about it and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising

God So now we come to our passage today Luke 2 verses 21 through Sometimes I hate to tell you because then you're gonna hold me to it through thirst 32

Let's give it a try because then if I get farther, you'll think he did a better job than me He said he was going to do don't oversell things.

We're gonna look at Luke 2 verses 21 through 32 Simple outline two more reasons you can trust

Jesus to forgive your sins Because he's a perfect law keeper number one and because he's the right

Savior in a world of self -professed Saviors How do I know he's the right one? Democracy who can do things will find out why he's the right

Savior you can trust in Jesus because he's a perfect law keeper because you've got to keep the law to get in heaven or you're gonna have to know one who does and Jesus has been attested to be the right

Savior by someone. We'll just see in a moment I'm gonna read verses 22.

I'm going to read verses 22 through 27, and I want you to Kind of think through it as I'm reading and think about repeated words.

Think about what the writer is trying to tell you Because there's a theme here and you want to see the theme verse 22

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the

Lord 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 turtledoves 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 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 What happens let's keep reading.

He took him up into his arms and blessed him 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 were prepared in the presence of all people a

Light for the revelator light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel Now when

I read that and you're following along what goes through your mind? Well, this is what goes through my mind godly parents

Devout parents righteous parents. They wanted to do the right thing. They wanted to follow What God said to do that's certainly true.

But is there something more here than just the piety of Jesus family? Yes, and the answer is something that was repeated four times in this section.

Yes, even five It's the word what who found the word that was repeated over and over and over here in this section

Law very good. Some of you were looking down when I asked the question, but are your friends your neighbors?

Answered for you. That's good as a congregation. We think that's right law. There's law law law law law

Jesus here is discussed in the context of law Now keeping your finger here in a loop to would you go to Galatians chapter 4?

Because when you think of the nativity of Jesus when you think about his birth when you think about his life This is what you need to be thinking about is

Galatians chapter 4. This should be kind of your go -to verse This should be one of those verses if you have a paper

Bible that you just you you crease the Bible So it's easy to you easier for you to get there quickly to understand

Jesus and it's Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 We could probably summarize

Luke 1 and Luke 2 with these verses. I What's the story with this whole life?

Why does he have to be here for his entire? 30 years before his public ministry before even the cross and the answer is found right here in Galatians 4

And what you don't know that's happening right now, but I'll just telegraph it is we're not thinking about ourselves

We're not thinking about what we're doing and how we failed and all these other things the focus when we look at Luke spotlights on Jesus When I was a kid, we'd go to Ringling Brother Barnum and Bailey circuses and they had how many rings

Three rings as a three -ring circus and some of the things on the side They weren't really too good and you kind of look all around and they're clowns and you know all these things

But sometimes the two rings would go away and then the spotlights right in the center. That's exactly what's happening here

All eyes on Jesus and Luke and here we see from the epistle. What does Paul say? But when the fullness of time had come

I Mean when it was just perfect for Jesus to be born right time right parents right place right

Caesar Augustus Everything had been perfectly planned. This is the time God sent forth his son the pre -existent son the eternal son.

He existed before he was born and The word became flesh and dwelled among us here that God the

Father in love sends the son And it always been planned he's born of woman

We found out that was through Mary right and we knew Jesus was not tainted by sin because it was not

Joseph seed It was the Holy Spirit Hovering over with wonderful delicate language to make sure

Jesus was not tainted by any sin not Joseph sin not Mary's sin and he was born of a woman because he had to be like us if he's going to redeem us and Look at the next little segment there born under law

That's important born under law because that's Luke 2 Why was he born under law?

To redeem those who were under the law for other people so that we might receive adoption as sons

Here Jesus the eternal Son becomes flesh

Born of a woman it was a normal birth Normal birth canal normal afterbirth normal everything his conception was not normal, but everything else was normal And here

Jesus is born under law to redeem those under the law You know Jesus did not have to obey the law to qualify himself the

Savior some people say that well Jesus had to prove himself to be righteous as he obeyed the law

Was Jesus ever unrighteous was Jesus ever? unsanctified Jesus was under born under law for what reason it's right there in Galatians 4 to redeem those who were under the law

Jesus was born under the law for you for your credit as he kept the law not for himself

But like Adam he disobeys as a federal head We call him a public man because he's not just doing things privately

He's doing things as a representative as a federal head publicly Adam was a public man

And he disobeyed and Jesus is a public man. He's a federal head. He's a representative and he obeys for us

He's not having to obey the law so that he can somehow become the Savior People teach that he is obeying the law

What does Galatians say for you? Because you need to be perfect to get into heaven you need to have someone to perfectly obey for you

Because that's what God requires and to take away all your sins so Jesus is born under law

If I tell you law, what do you what goes through your mind when you think of law? Well for some of you, maybe it's speeding down 190.

I didn't say 190 though not 190 I said not 190 law with every law.

There's a precept positive and a penalty negative This is how you should think of biblical law

Precept if you do this, you'll live. This is the positive thing way to go You obey the law and there's a penalty you disobey the law

So there has to be a penalty and so Jesus it has to be human because Adam sins as a human and we need to Have his righteousness and we need to positively obey the law and we need somebody who pays the penalty for our disobeying the law

Jesus keeps the law not for himself, but for others For you, he's born righteous.

He's born sanctified. He's the God man Jesus didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets, but he came to what?

Fulfill them for who himself. No, he's already righteous Adam disobeyed for others and Jesus obeys for us.

So let's go back to Luke chapter 2 now We're thinking in the law frame because this has more law talked about in this section

Then in all the rest of the gospel of Luke five times law law law law law

What does it matter that Jesus is under the law because he has to redeem those who are under the law us

So if you don't understand law, it's hard to get this section by the way

When Jesus got baptized Was he a sinner? And that's why you're supposed to get baptized so far out of all the baptisms in 27 years that I've seen in that public baptismal

Right there for 26 years. It was not heated. It was just really cold whether it was cold or hot every person that went in there including pastor

Steve Who was the baptizer? Steve the baptizer Mike the baptizer they're all sinners

Why would Jesus get baptized The same reason we're gonna see he's under the law here and get circumcised because it's for others

He's gonna be the perfect Jew the perfect Israelite the perfect man. He does it to identify with you

You need to perfectly obey the law to get to heaven. We don't perfectly obey the law. So we need somebody to do that for us

Why would Jesus die on the cross? He he's a sinner. You put sinners on the cross bad sinners on the cross

Why does Jesus die on the cross? Because he's identifying with sinners. He's taking our wrath

We need Jesus's law -keeping And what we're gonna see right here

Even though it's not Jesus deciding it's his parents deciding for him to be under the law perfectly

Everything in the gospel of Matthew Mark Luke and John and those Gospels. Jesus is a law -keeper

He never sins. Look at the first law ceremony. There's three of them here. I alluded to it just a second ago

Verse 21 at the end of eight days when he was Circumcised Luke 2 21.

He was called Jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb So when did you get the names back in those days?

Well John the Baptist he was circumcised. They gave him the name John Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day.

We give him the name Jesus You say well the eighth day because there's more pop, you know potassium and this that and the other that's not the point

Really of circumcision if that's not the point of circumcision making sure the babies don't bleed out.

What is the point of circumcision? I? Mean didn't Genesis 17 say on the eighth day every male shall be circumcised

Is circumcision basically basically hygiene? Is it basically what what is circumcision?

It is an object lesson and here's the object lesson for the Jews They needed

Cleansing from their sins It's hard to circumcise your heart Internally so God gives them a sign externally to remind them that they are sinners and they produce sinners

This is a symbol of a spiritual cleansing that needs to take place on the inside, but they can see it on the outside Jesus were circumcised.

I Know what you're saying. Why would Jesus be circumcised if he never sinned? Sinners need to be circumcised because it needs to it reminds them

I've been circumcised externally as the foreskin has been cut away, but my heart needs to be circumcised

Why would Jesus be circumcised and I've already told you the answer right because he identifies with sinners from the very get -go even before Jesus decides to be circumcised

God places him in a devout family and Everything needed to make him be the perfect Jew.

The perfect law -keeping Jew is done for him and now he's circumcised He's identifying with sinners.

He identifies with you with me just like at baptism just like at the cross

Jesus identifies with sinners. He's the perfect Israelite Lest you think somehow he sins 2nd

Corinthians 521 for our sake God the Father made Jesus to be sin Who knew no what?

Who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God? Jesus came to seek and save the lost and he he wasn't a sinner.

I like what Jesus said could any of us say this? I guess we could but we'd be in the insane asylum Which one of you convicts me of sin?

Okay, who Jesus who can tell me I've sinned one time who? Of course Jesus never sinned.

So Jesus never sinned. So why is he circumcised answer because he's identifying with sinners

You as well as myself we need someone who identifies with us

Because we don't want to pay for our own sin. We need someone to pay for it instead of us

If there's no law -keeping, there's no salvation if Jesus doesn't keep the law for you

There's no salvation and everything in this passage shows Jesus fulfillment of the law not an abolishment

Spurgeon said it's very instructive to notice that he came under the law Jesus therefore had to be circumcised in Him the law was fulfilled in every point even to the

Jots and tittles Nothing was admitted Behold how perfect is the righteousness which he wrought out for his people.

I Know what you're saying? What's all this law -keeping have to do really with anything maybe even practical and you said

Mike this was going to be about assurance How is this about assurance? Did you know dear Christian When God gives you a new heart and you respond with saving faith

That is your trusting in and you're you understand who Jesus is and you believe

Do you know in that moment? You don't have to bear any of your sins

Jesus paid it all and You get the perfect law -keeping of Jesus the perfect human who never sinned

You're no longer condemned you're justified and right now There's no condemnation for you because Jesus kept it all everything.

He did he paid for everything. Yes, that's true, but he also obeyed You get the law -keeping which we call righteousness of Jesus the law -keeper

Now let's just push this a little farther Did you know when you're in heaven? You couldn't get any more righteous in God's eyes in terms of a declaration

What's there to give you already have Jesus's righteousness? credited to your account

You'll be glorified. That's true, but you won't be more righteous in the courtroom of God's eyes

It's it's done And by the way, this is what we're going to celebrate at the Lord's Supper Because what we tend to think and this is where it intersects with assurance

Well, I did some bad things this week and I didn't do the right things and I had anxiety and fear and I sinned and Didn't love like I should and didn't encourage like I should and the list you go on and on for all of our sins

And we should repent of those sins and we should say Lord, please forgive me I want to I want to walk in a manner worthy of my calling.

Would you grant me forgiveness? Would you grant me repentance? But it doesn't undo your adoption it doesn't undo your sonship it doesn't undo

Justification and so the Lord says come to the table. Yes, but I've sinned I know but my son has perfectly obeyed the law and you can look at his life and starting with Circumcision up to baptism up to the cross up to the cross

Yes, when Jesus was obeying the law in your behalf as he says To John behold your mother.

Did he not can you imagine Jesus is honoring his mother on the cross? Was it a good idea to do?

Yes, but he's doing it for you for all those who've never Perfectly honored father and mother

There's another part of the law here. It's found in verse 22 not just Circumcision but purification and by the way when you hear the word purification you ought to think

Sin, you don't need to be cleansed if you're pure But if you're not pure you need to be purified.

This is sin language according And when the time came for their purification According to the law of Moses they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the

Lord 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 This is for the purity thing According to what is said in the law of the

Lord If you're poor you can't afford a lamb. So what are you gonna get? Well a pair of turtle doves.

What if they're not worth they migrated away. Well, then you find yourself two young pigeons What the

Bible says in Leviticus is when there's a baby born the woman is ritually ceremonially unclean

If a woman conceives and bears a child Leviticus 12 says she shall be unclean seven days as At the time of her menstruation shall she be unclean

And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised Then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying

She shall not touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed

The account goes on and when the days of her purifying are completed whether for a son or a daughter she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering

He shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood

This is the law for her who bears a child either male or female And if she cannot afford a lamb then she shall take two turtle doves or two pigeons one for a burnt offering one for a sin offering and the priest shall make atonement for her and she shall be clean

This is all language that God has instituted in Leviticus for the Israelites to make sure they understand That they're sinners there needs to be cleansing there needs to be ritual cleansing, and there's another law here

It's kind of tucked away in the parenthesis of verse 23 Not just circumcision not just the purification for the newborn and for the for the mother, but also there's a presentation

And this one you probably didn't really know much about and I didn't either, but I'm excited about it Sometimes when

I meet Preachers and they had me critique their sermons And they're kind of the boring preachers you ever listen to boring preachers

And it just seems like they never talk are there as they'd like white knuckle this and everything's

Everything's looking down. They're reading their notes everything's Monotone they're not very excited

What they don't know when I'm zooming them is I'm taking screenshots of their face And of course

I'm thinking you better be sending a missionary to your face But I tricked them and I say to them before we record

I mean before we watch the their sermon together. Tell me what you like to do I Like archery

I got going with my son and daughter to our tree She just won first place this thing the other they're excited. They're talking they're smiling tell me about your newborn, baby

Oh, baby was born. We didn't know about this that of the other get twins. They're all excited I'm like you're excited about all that and you get up and teach the

Bible Praise the Lord oh my soul

And all that is in within me Side note when you teach your children the

Bible. I hope you're excited When you're teaching Sunday school, I hope you're excited up there something.

I mean it's serious. Yes, I get it But I'll tell those preachers, and I'll tell you as parents and Bible teachers

You're teaching through a passage like this. You're like what's in there? What's going on? I'm not gonna be excited about all this pigeons turtle doves and everything else

I think find a spot in there where you go. I learned something new I learned something good I was reminded of a good old truth and this is gonna make me excited and then

I'm gonna show the send the missionary to my face and I'm gonna act excited in Front of the congregation no, I'll be excited in front of the congregation

Well, this is one of those spots right here in verse 23 This is one of those preaching points where you go Hey, I'm really excited about this because I couldn't really figure it out before and now

I know It's called a presentation ceremony and what went on is the background is

Passover and Remember Pharaoh he's obstinate There's a bunch of plagues and the final plague is the first son is going to be killed unless you put the blood over the door posts

The death angel is going to come and kill the firstborn so you put the blood over the door post the death angel comes and passes over and And because the

Lord passed over that firstborn son You needed to give that son to God for temple service

You needed to say they you you spared that son. This is before the temple is tabernacle

But eventually up into the temple God you spared my son He's yours But but what if they're not

Levites and they can't serve in the tabernacle? What if they're from Judah? What if they're from another tribe?

What you do is you say here's my presentation to the Lord I pay the

Lord five shekels numbers 18 and I redeem him from ministry in the tabernacle or temple

So once again the death angel passes over my son my firstborn son.

He lives Exodus chapter 13 a number says I'm supposed to present him to God now.

He's God's he would have been dead I'll gladly give him to God But if he's not a Levite he can't serve in the tabernacle or temple, so I'll redeem him by paying five shekels

That's the background here. Well. Here's the amazing amazing thing

Jesus is about 40 years old. That's why I'm excited. He's 40 years old 40 days old excuse me and The Redeemer of the universe is redeemed

The Redeemer gets redeemed yes the one that will eventually say I didn't come to be served

But to serve and to give my life a ransom for many not five sec shekels ransom, but a life

Jesus is circumcised under the law the purification under the law and now he's presented

Under the law and he can't be a Levitical priest. He's a priest of a different order But he's of the line of the tribe of Judah, and he has to be redeemed

They said the ceremony went something like this the priest says to the father What would you rather do give up your firstborn son or redeem him for five shekels?

this is my firstborn answer the father take five shekels due to his redemption and Then the rabbi placed the head his hands on the head of the child and said the

Lord Bless thee and preserve thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace

Length of days years and peace be gathered to thee God keep thee from all evil and save thy soul

Jesus born under the law our eyes are on Jesus, and we see everything is perfectly set up for your salvation

Nothing's missed Everything is done. He's circumcised the purification thing the presentation

What if you were a Jew and you said ah who cares about circumcision where Joseph wasn't a godly man Mary didn't care

You dear Christian are as righteous as Jesus is righteous because you're in Christ Jesus And you have his righteousness

I'm very very thankful That when I struggle with assurance, and then

I begin to read the Bible I say to myself my assurance is not based on what

I've done who I am or anything else my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and Righteousness righteousness means he kept the law

Earning righteousness for you if you keep the law you do the right thing if you disobeyed the law you do the wrong thing and He's earning righteousness

Righteousness isn't floating around out there. It's law -keeping that Jesus does to give to you by faith freely

When God looks at you Christian he looks at you like you're righteous Because you're declared righteous, and you can come to the table freely well not only that But Jesus was attested as the

Messiah By none other than the Holy Spirit, that's what we're gonna see in this next section How do you know

Jesus is the right Jesus? Do we have to say you know what how do you pick a Messiah? Well, he's popular.

He's famous a bunch of Cardinals put some stuff in this this burning thing and when the white smoke comes up But that's how we know

Jesus is Jesus you want to know how who Jesus is That he's the real Jesus the

Holy Spirit himself Witness to the fact this is the right one This is the right one through two people one a man named

Simeon and another lady named Anna Now we have something in Massachusetts and across the states of course called real

ID And real ID you had to get last year, then it was pushed back to this year Then it's pushed back to next year and now it's pushed back to I looked it up May 7th 2025 you better have your real

ID if you want to fly around this country Without your passport and you're gonna need to go to the DMV RMV Whatever MV you want to go find and you need to have documentation and get the real

ID To make sure it's really you Do you know how many people say they're Messiahs even in our day?

David Koresh and Bhagwan Raj Rajneesh and sung young moon and all these people I mean you go to Israel today some of you went with me just a while ago and I'm like there's like It seems like there's a hundred

Messiahs walking around which one's The right Messiah the one with the long beard the one that I don't know.

What does he do? Here we have both Simeon and Anna The Spirit of God on them

Testifying he's the right one What in the world is Simeon doing here? Why is Anna here?

So we can talk about charismatic gifts and as the Holy Spirit leave us come upon us and dwell us

It has nothing to do with any of that It has to do with this Jesus is the right Messiah These two people know you should know too.

Am I trusting in the right Messiah because eternity is so long. I Think about that.

I think okay What happens when you die? Is this the right

Jesus? Have you ever done that? I mean, I'm this is this I shouldn't I mean, I'll say this because then you can identify with me and you can

Have a little schadenfreude if you want As I drive out of that driveway and I think is this all for real

Like what would kids say for reals? What do you mean for real? What? Jesus God sin death hell.

I mean 99 % of the world's saying it's just a bunch of nonsense Is this really real and then you begin to think and you begin to look around and you think

I don't think 90 billion years of evolution could do that You watch a baby born and you think

Evolution can't do that God's creation declares how wise he is how powerful he is

You say to yourself I'm a created being and before long you think you know what? I know I don't love

God like I should because I don't even love my neighbor like I should and I'm a sinner And I know

God who does this great brilliant creation is also something else Holy and if God's holy and he's a creator and he's a judge and I die

I stand before this judge He's not like my grandmother who? Raised me on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays and when

I disobey she'd tell me I was gonna get that yardstick that she got free at the at the hardware store and I'd take it.

I just take it one time I took it one time and just broke it over my knee and handed it to grandma and she still didn't spank me

She should have Sometimes I think even grandma should spank but Kim don't get any ideas

Amos is perfect and then

I have to tether my mind to Scripture who's like Jesus Who does what

Jesus does who says what Jesus says? Who touches people and they're healed who could say your sins are forgiven who can raise himself from the dead?

Well, it's at the perfect Jesus where he's circumcised. He's baptized. He dies on the cross

Nobody can accuse him of any kind of sin. They know he does these things And I think he's my only hope

Lord you have the words of eternal life Where else do I go and I begin to preach to myself and I begin to say yes, it's the right

Jesus He's the right one And by the way, this man and this woman godly man and godly woman are at the temple and they're telling everyone who's there

And they're telling you it's the right Jesus And if you don't believe you should and if you are believing keep believing he's the right

Jesus Congregation you're believing the right Jesus Why because I am enthusiastic and I'm this and I'm that what has nothing to do with me at all

Right here in Scripture. You can see this has to be the right Jesus and Simeon and Anna attest to the fact

This is the real identification of Jesus verse 25 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 He'd been revealed to him by this Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the

Lord's Christ He came into the spirit Came in the spirit of the end of the temple when the parents brought in the child

To do for him according to the custom of the law more law there He took him up in his arms and blessed

God and said I Mean this is all too wonderful The shepherds were at least told how do you find a child?

That's the Messiah? Well, normally you'll find a child inside and in the arms of a mother you find the child who's in a feeding trough

That's where you'll find the child. How is Simeon gonna know there's people coming in for presentations all the time

You have to present the the child This is all orchestrated perfectly by the

Lord You see the Holy Spirit in verse 25 you see the Holy Spirit in verse 26 you see in verse 27 spirit

Everything is here organized by the third person the Trinity the Holy Spirit first thing

I think of is In the midst of crazy sin chaos Everyone seemed to be an unbeliever

God has a remnant Pharisees running everything Sadducees running everything scribes all this kind of Extra law extra legalism, but there's people who are who are holy in God's eyes

There are people who are righteous He's righteous and about before men before God He was doing the right thing and what was he waiting for who was he waiting for and by the way most translations?

Don't have the word behold here some do but I don't think the ESV does and It should read something like this verse 25 behold with the meaning like in the middle of all this stuff going on around the temple and the precincts and the court of the

Gentiles and the court of the women and everything else Behold you wouldn't hardly believe that there's going to be a righteous person who's like this, but he is there behold look watch

Out of nowhere. It's like you're reading Genesis And there's a man named Melchizedek that just saunters onto the scene and you're like who is he what's his background?

Where'd he come from I have no idea, but his name is Melchizedek same thing here with Simeon And the worst place is

God has his remnant, and what is he waiting for? This is the other part of my sermon where I'm really excited about it because while we think about God is

Savior Redeemer Reconciler he assuaged he's assuages the wrath of God for us propitiation

He's the captain He's the author of salvation. He's a finisher of salvation He's my friend

He's a prophet. He's a priest. He's a king you go through all the things. He's Lord. He's Christ Well, you can put this into your praise arsenal of how to praise

God He's waiting for the consolation of Israel or the comfort you could translate it of Israel Yeah, I know the the

Romans are just you know they're just Suppressing the Jews, and it's just so awful and they're gonna need some comfort

True, but that has nothing to do with anything here This is comfort for sinners

When our children were little we had a book and it had pictures Probably had some pictures of Jesus, but we tore those out and it had

Adam and Eve kind of behind some trees happy smiling faces, they're created and The next picture is the snake the serpent the next picture is

Adam and Eve Eating the fruit and the next picture is the grossest most contorted faces of people who are angry full of angst full of despicable hatred for one another and the snake and I just think to myself the ugliness of sin

You probably know people who are unbelievers, and you think well they dress nicely and they do this that and the other but you just think

Just what sin does it wrecks it wrecks it destroys? What do sinners need well they need a lot of things they need forgiveness.

That's true, but they need comfort they need Consolation this is language right from Isaiah 40

Comfort comfort my people says your God Isaiah 49 sing for joy.

Oh heavens and exalt. Oh earth The Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted

Sinners need comfort he kept waiting for the day of the Lord where they comfort where the

Lord will comfort all who mourn Sin causes pain and destruction and mourning and they're waiting for the

Messiah Everything that Adam's fall did to be reversed is a consolation is a comfort

That's what God does when he saves the darkness to the light the comfort

And this man kept looking for that he kept looking for not just that although. It's true comfort, but for the one who gives comfort

And I think to myself By the way, that's pretty good advice for us, too Is it not the

Lord is going to come back and there's going to be total bliss total comfort total consolation

Lord Jesus come back today Jews used to pray this all the time may

I see the consolation of Israel may I see the consolation of Israel It's a good prayer for even now the ultimate return of the

Lord Jesus What a name for the Lord What a description of what he does the consolation of?

Israel there's a man named Charles Wesley and He thought of this first, and he was thinking like what

I was thinking so he writes this hymn come thou long -expected Jesus Come thou long -expected

Jesus born to set thy people free from our fears and sins release us Let us find our rest in thee

Israel's strength and Elaine Consolation there you go not constellation

Consolation Hope of all the earth thou art dear desire of every nation joy of every longing heart not just Simeon's Born my people to deliver born a child and yet a king

Born to reign in us forever now thy gracious kingdom bring by thine own eternal spirit rule in our hearts

Alone by thine all -sufficient merit our law keeping our righteousness Raise us to thy glorious throne and the

Holy Spirit worked perfectly to tell Simeon This is the one because Luke is putting together an account so that you would read it and you would say

I'm worshipping the right Jesus years ago,

I met a young man in a Jacuzzi up in York Beach, and he was in the jacuzzi, and he acted like he owned it

And I got in I acted like I owned it And I said, how are you today?

Oh, I'm doing well, and he said you know My dad's the police chief here in town.

I said oh great I Said I'm the mayor of the town I Said I was just kidding not really the mayor.

I'm a pastor. He goes the Bible's boring. I took him by the neck

I Said oh Yeah, I know.

It's hard to teach the Bible when it's boring. You know that bad guy Against the

Jews against God's people and the lady's like come in here to the tent I'll give you a little place to lay down.

I'll give you some milk. I'll give you a little a little Nice little blanket He laid down to sleep, and she picked up the hammer and she took the tent stake

And she drove it in through the guy's head through the temple into the ground that part. I know it's pretty boring

Because I'm just trying to think of something for young men, and he goes well, I guess he hadn't read that We talked a little more when

I read through Luke 2 I've read it But I haven't read it like that the lawkeeper perfectly everything circumcision purity presentation godly parents

And then that God would make sure we weren't left to ourselves to go. I wonder out of the 50

Messiah's Who's really the Messiah? Spirit of God upon Simeon saying that's the one that's the one so you can have assurance

So the whole time today, we weren't thinking about our problems our trials. They're real of course

We're thinking about the Messiah because when we look to ourself Luther said I don't know how I can be saved

But when I look to the Lord Jesus and what he shows me in Scripture I don't know how I can be lost Let's pray father.

Thank you for today. I Thank you that you're a good God Thank you that even later

At the baptism of Jesus you do exactly what you had Simeon do and Anna do this is my beloved son in whom

I'm well -pleased And to think that we could not be more righteous What an amazing truth, thank you for Jesus who was born of a woman born under law

That he might redeem us who are under the law. Thank you for that I pray for the Christians here today that you'd give them wonderful assurance

That they know that the Lord knows them and they know the Lord by faith and by faith alone and father

That's the only way we have acceptance in your eyes is by what the Lord Jesus has done and in light of that Help us to walk in a holy way and father for those that are here today that aren't

Christians They're trusting in their own law -keeping It doesn't take very long

For them to look back thinking how they've broken the law and if they've broken at once they've broken it

Many many times and so would you grant them what you granted to us? That is the perfect law -keeping of Jesus and the perfect Atonement that Jesus did for us