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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 is 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.
Eternity is 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 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 is 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 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? Has my life changed enough? It's has Jesus paid it all? And is 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.
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've been feasting. I was thinking 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 two, verse one 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' heart to make a decree. And so Jesus, it says, is born, verse seven, and he is born in Bethlehem. And of course, then we learn from even last week, the shepherds show up.
It says in verse nine, 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's 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.
And what does it 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, it's not creation, it's redemption.
It's the salvation of sinners. That gives God the most glory. 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 verse 32, let's give it a try. Because then if I get farther, you'll think he did a better job than he said he was going to do.
Don't wanna 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. We'll find out why He's the right Savior. You can trust in Jesus because He's a perfect law keeper.
Because you've gotta 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 wanna 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 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 are prepared in the presence of all people.
A 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 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 too, would you go to Galatians chapter four? 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 four.
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 crease the Bible so it's easier for you to get there quickly to understand Jesus.
And it's Galatians chapter four, verses four and five. We could probably summarize Luke one and Luke two with these verses. I mean, why did Jesus not just come on Friday, die for your sins and be raised on Sunday?
What's the story with his 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 four. 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, it's a three ring circus. And some of the things on the side, they weren't really too good. And you'd kind of look all around, they're clowns and you know all these things. But sometimes the two rings would go away and then the spotlight's right in the center.
That's exactly what's happening here. All eyes on Jesus in 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 preexistent Son, the eternal Son. He existed before he was born. And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. Here, God the Father in love sends the Son.
It had 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's seed. It was the Holy Spirit hovering over with wonderful, delicate language to make sure Jesus was not tainted by any sin.
Not Joseph's sin, not Mary's sin. And he was born of a woman because he had to be like us if he was 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 as Savior.
Some people say that. Well, Jesus had to prove himself to be righteous just as he obeyed the law. Was Jesus ever unrighteous? Was Jesus ever unsanctified? Jesus was 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 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, 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 obeyed the law.
And there's a penalty, you disobeyed the law, so there has to be a penalty. And so Jesus 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 2. Now we're thinking in the law frame because this has more law talked about in this section than 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?
I mean, 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's a sinner. He 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 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 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 the spiritual cleansing that needs to take place on the inside, but they can see it on the outside. Jesus was circumcised. I know what you're saying. Why would Jesus be circumcised if He never sinned?
Sinners need to be circumcised because 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 sinned, 2 Corinthians 5 .21, 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 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, Jesus said, 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 gonna 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, you're trusting and 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 done. And by the way, this is what we're gonna 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 I didn't love like I should and didn't encourage like I should.
And the list could 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 wanna 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. 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 going to get? Well, a pair of turtle doves.
What if 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 first 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 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 have 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 they like white knuckle this and 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 trick them and I say to them, before we record, I mean before we watch their sermon together, tell me what you like to do.
Oh, I like archery. I like going with my son and daughter to archery. She just won first place, this, that and 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 or the other. We've got 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.
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. 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? Am I 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 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. This is 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 doorposts, the death angel is gonna come and kill the firstborn.
So you put the blood over the doorpost. The death angel comes and passes over. And because the Lord passed over that firstborn son, you needed to give that son to God for temple service. You needed to say, you spared that son.
This is before the temple, this tabernacle, but eventually up into the temple. God, you spared my son, he's yours. 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 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 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 to the father.
Take five shekels due to his redemption. And then the rabbi placed 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 in 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? What if 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 disobey 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 going to 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 burning thing. And when the white smoke comes up, that's how we know Jesus is Jesus. You want to know who Jesus is? That He's the real Jesus?
The Holy Spirit Himself witnessed 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 was pushed back to next year, and now it's pushed back to... I looked it up. May 7, 2025, you better have your Real ID if you want to fly around this country without your passport.
And you're going to 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 Rajrajneesh and Sun Yung 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, and 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 does 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 and I think, okay, what happens when you die?
Is this the right Jesus? Have you ever done that? I mean, this is, 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 disobeyed, she'd tell me I was going to get that yardstick that she got free at the hardware store. And I'd 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 can say your sins are forgiven? Who can raise Himself from the dead?
It's 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 in the picture 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.
It 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 that 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. It had 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 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 or 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 going to know? There's people coming in for presentations all the time. You have to present 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 of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. First thing I think of is in the midst of crazy sin, chaos, everyone seems 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 holy in God's eyes. There are people who are righteous. He's righteous and devout.
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 most don't. I don't think the ESV does.
And it should read something like this. Verse 25. Behold. With a 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. In the worst places, 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 as Savior, Redeemer, Reconciler, He assuages the wrath of God for us, propitiation.
He's the Captain. He's the author of salvation. He's the 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 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 on the road and they're 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, O heavens, and exalt, O 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 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's gonna come back and there's gonna 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 was a man named Charles Wesley, and he thought of this verse, and he was thinking 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. We were 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 worshiping 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, no, I'm 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 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 is pretty boring. Because I was just trying to think of something for young men. And he goes, well, I guess you 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 law keeper, 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 Messiahs, 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 it 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, confirmed by the resurrection, received by faith and faith alone. And this is in his name we pray, amen.