Simeon's Song

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

This December we've been looking through the songs of Christmas We've been looking at all of the various songs that we've seen in Scripture that come around the incarnation of the

Christ And there's been this wonderful unity in every single one of those songs Every one of them have been about Getting to know who

God is once you know who God is it causes you to love God more fully that leads you to sing and that leads you to have great joy and peace in your life as your head is filled with knowledge your heart is filled with love your mouth is filled with song and your

Whole body soul and mind is filled with the peace of Christ We've seen that theme over and over and over again

We've seen it in the psalmist Who get to know who God is through the revelation of the Holy Spirit and it causes them to love

God David says that he lies on his bed at night Delighting in who God is and delighting in his law and then that causes him to sing.

So we've seen it all throughout the Psalms We've seen it with Mary The one who's not only happy that she's going to have a child but the one who's going to give birth to her

God and As she dwelled in and rested in that Knowledge, it caused her heart to fill with wonder as we've seen all over the passages and it caused her lips to sing

This beautiful song called the Magnificat that we examined a couple weeks ago We saw

Zacharias who began in doubt and then ended up in singing this wonderful song called the

Benedictus if you want to know the The old Latin term for it we saw it last night as the angels who sang

God's song We're singing out the glory of God because they among all of us know

God better than we do They've been with God in his presence singing his praises over and over and over again

Isn't it interesting that the ones who know God best praise him most?

There's a direct connection with knowledge and praise Today Why and we also saw the shepherds as well

Today, we're going to be looking at a man named Simeon This is after Jesus was born

He's now eight days old in this passage and Simeon is a man who's been waiting to see Jesus for his entire

Life and we're gonna see the same paradigm at play as he gets to know who Jesus is

His heart's gonna be filled with love. His mouth's gonna be filled with song and he's going to have unexplainable undeniable peace

Today we're gonna look at the background that the song was given in and we're gonna look at the six parts of the song

Which is it's a song of blessing It's a song of ending. It's a song of salvation.

It's a song to the nation's it's a song of light and it's a song of Glory, so with that Turn with me to Luke chapter 2 21 through 32 as we end this series today

Looking at the last song in our series the song of Simeon It's Luke chapter 2 verse 21 through 32.

The passage begins this way and When eight days had passed before his circumcision

His name was then called Jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb and When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were complete they brought him up to Jerusalem To present him to the

Lord as it was written in the law of the Lord Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the

Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons and there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

Simeon and this man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel and the

Holy Spirit was upon him and It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the

Lord's Christ And he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child

Jesus To carry out for him the custom of the law Then he took him into his arms and he blessed

God and he said now Lord you are releasing your bond servant to depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a

Light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel, let's pray

Lord we pray the same prayers that Zacharias sang That today we would see this great light that has shown for the last 2 ,000 years to the

Gentile world and a glory for your people Israel Both you and Greek male and female slave and free the

Israel of God that now unites around the risen Christ Lord we pray that your light would shine on us this morning

That we would get a deeper glimpse of who you are Lord, we've seen throughout this series that as a person grows in the knowledge of Jesus Christ that their heart swells with affection and their lips

Burst with song Lord we want that We want to love you more.

We want to sing praises in a more authentic Passionate and raptured way and Lord.

We also don't want to fake it Lord Would you open up our heart and our mind to understand you?

To understand your grace more deeply to understand your love more fully To understand our plight more truly and to understand your salvation more purely

It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen Before we jump into the song

I do want to give a little bit of background about why this song actually came about Now it begins with the naming of God's Son Which I think that is a fascinating background to the story

It says and when eight days had passed before his circumcision his name was then called

Jesus The name given to him by the angels before he was conceived in the womb now

This was actually a really common practice in Israel it's not so common today because you're usually have the birth certificate already filled out with the name already listed down usually

And have the name before the eighth day, but back then if you even if you had a good name

Even if you had a name that you're like, this is what his name is You would not name him until the eighth day.

That was a very common thing in first century Israel and that leads to the second thing.

It's not only just a common practice So Jesus is a very common name, but it's also a covenantal reason why this happened, which means he has a covenantal name

The covenantal reason for that goes all the way back to the man named Abraham Who was told these glorious and beautiful promises of God and he waited decades

Before he saw those promises come true. He was told you Abram Will have offspring that are more numerous than the stars more numerous than the sands and all the in all the seashores and all the deserts

So Abraham waited he waited for a son and when that son came he waited eight days and after he was circumcised

Then he was named that sort of proves just the point that the naming for a male child happened

After their circumcision and the reason for this this was not just just you know meaningless tradition

Circumcision for the male child meant that they were cut into the covenant if you remember in Genesis 15 the animals were cut in two and God Walked through the split animal pieces and God cut himself into the covenant meaning that I'm gonna make a covenant between you and I and I'm gonna be faithful to that covenant

And if I'm not may I be as these animals that were severed in half? That's what God was saying to Abraham God cut himself into the covenant, but Abram had not yet been cut in until Genesis 17

Where his son was cut into the covenant through circumcision on the eighth day

What this tells us is that according to Old Testament custom and according to the

Old Testament law You were not a member of the covenant people of God until you were cut in So, why would you have a name if you're not a member of the covenant yet God promises in Genesis 12.

This is the covenant. I will give you a great name This covenant is all about your name

So until you're cut in You're sort of nameless This is what we see in That practice and we see that in Zacharias and Elizabeth if you'll remember earlier in Luke chapter 2

They didn't name him John until the eighth day when he was circumcised and they came to Zacharias with a pad and pen and they're like What's his name?

He said John Zacharias could have told him that on day seven He had pad and pen on day six

He waited till day eight Because he wanted his son to be a child of the covenant cut in to the promises of Abraham then he would get his name

So you don't get a family name until you've got the covenant name. That's Sort of the point.

We also see that Jesus in this passage is not only named on the eighth day So then he was given that name, but he also has a heavenly name

Unlike many many children at that time. His name was directly chosen by Almighty God So it was very different than every other name

In fact, there's only nine times in the whole Bible when God chooses someone's name

Now God renames people. I'm not including those in this list, but when God directly chooses their first name

Adam is one Ishmael Abrams first son.

He was told by God to name his son Ishmael his second son Isaac. God said you shall name him Isaac Isaiah's son.

I'm gonna butcher this forgive me mahar shalom hashbaz Imagine if that was your name imagine like an ancient kindergarten.

I don't know spell my name He wouldn't learn until middle school Hosea had three sons one was

Jezreel, which was an omen of judgment. That's what his name meant. That's a sad name Then you've got his second son low

Ruhamah curse against Israel That's also kind of sad and then low Ami God will abandon his people

I was saying I was saying his children hadn't had sad names There's two in the

New Testament that's seven in the Old Testament There's two in the New Testament John the Baptist was specifically named by God He was told his father was told you shall name him

John. That was the angel Gabriel who told him and Jesus. That's it Nine or sir?

Yeah, nine people in the Old Testament or in New Testament that were specifically named by God and we see the point in that It's not for The average person in an average circumstance and an average calling to get named specifically by God Although in Christ all of us have been named by God.

We've been named Christian, which is a pretty amazing thing but we see that when this happens beyond just what

I just shared is that there's special occasions when God is going to do Very special things with special set -apart children that he gives them a name and it happens in two different Situations one is he gives the name to a child because he's going to do some kind of act of judgment

Hosea's kids Isaiah's child and then the other time he names them is when he's going to do some great act of salvation

Jesus His name even means God saves Yes, you are

So he is a divinely chosen name and that tells us something about who he is he's gonna be

Savior He's gonna be the one who brings salvation to the people of God So he not only has a common name a covenantal name, but he has a salvific name a divinely chosen name a

Whole sermon can be given on his name But we have to mention a couple of these just briefly.

I wish that we had more time He also has a Hebrew name You ever wondered why his name is

Jesus? Like there's no other name in the Bible By Jesus. So how did we get that?

Well in Greek, it's yes, Zeus. I Don't win you some trivia questions.

It's yes, Zeus now in Greek they didn't have a J sound or a

H sound so they had to sort of make it fit to the best of their ability And yes,

Zeus eventually turned into the Latin. Yes, ooh, which eventually became an English Jesus so now you've got the name which has been translated through three languages that we get

Jesus and Essentially, the point is when you transfer names from one language to another pronunciation sometimes changes

Spelling sometimes changes you think about even in Spanish today. Jesus is pronounced Jesus. I That's their word for America All my brothers and sisters who were in Iraq know this

But I want to I want you to understand that his name didn't come from Greek Greek was not the first time it was named.

It actually went through four language changes because his name actually was originally Hebrew it was

Yeshua and Yeshua means God saves it is actually the name of Joshua I remember the first time that I read a book that was sort of a theology book in it and it called

Jesus Joshua and I was like What kind of scholar is this? He doesn't even know his name Joke's on me

His name was Joshua Now that tells us a little bit about what his purpose was as well Not only has a divinely chosen name because he's

Savior. He has a warrior's name Who was Joshua in the Old Testament?

Joshua was the one who went in and made conquest with Canaan So God who gives

Jesus Joshua's name is saying something about his purpose He's saying my son

Has come to Israel that has been thoroughly paganized and he's gonna make war and he's gonna conquer it

And he's not only gonna conquer it little by little by one disciple to the next but he's gonna empower those disciples with the spirit to make war in Jerusalem in Judea in Samaria and to the ends of the earth

Just like the original Joshua was commanded to go in and and cast out all of the pagan

Peoples that were living in the land were sacrificing their children to the idols. Jesus has come into the pagan world

This is why he's better than Joshua Because he will eventually conquer all of it

Every square inch of this planet if you look around and you see things you don't like Amen give

Jesus time. He's working on it and he will win But unlike Joshua Jesus will not finish or will not stop until he's finished the job

Joshua at the end of his life was sort of alone. He said as for me in my house We will serve the Lord but his people Didn't do what he told them to do

They didn't cast out the people in the land we see in the book of Judges over and over and over there thrown into perpetual slavery

The Canaanites that they were supposed to cast out continue to rule over them and subjugate them and caused him to experience pain and brokenness

Jesus is not gonna leave the job unfinished Jesus will continue to conquer

Until the whole world belongs to him what a glorious promise and ultimately

Because this world is just a shadow of what's to come Imagine what heaven is gonna be like When there's no more curse no more sin no more stain no more evidence of the serpent and in his tyranny

Where we're with Christ in all perfection for all of eternity Jesus Christ wins

He has a customary name He has a covenantal name a divinely chosen name and a warrior's name.

Let us not feather Jesus's hair. He's a warrior He didn't come to lose

He came to make his victory known as far as the curse is found he came to have his government increase as Isaiah 9 says

He also has a new creation name, which I think is so fascinating He has a new creation name because he was named on the eighth day

Do you know that the eighth day in the Bible is a pretty special number? We often we often focus on seven and three and ten and forty

Those are those are numbers that mean something in the Bible, but the number eight is a glorious number in the biblical scriptures

Number eight is new creation If you remember there are seven days in the old creation and God rested on the seventh day and it doesn't list an eighth day not until the book of Exodus and What they say there is that the people of Israel after seven days of feasting at the

Passover on the eighth day Specifically the eighth day. They will have a holy Solemn assembly to the

Lord what they were told to do in that moment Was to don't go back to work. Don't do your tasks

We want you to reenact heaven here on earth a solemn assembly to imitate what's going to be happening in eternity the eighth day represented new creation

The eighth day was when circumcision happened if you think about it The old flesh of the old covenant was cut away so that new covenant flesh new life new creation could grow

Animals were pronounced clean on the eighth day. Did you know that for the first seven days of their life? They were considered unclean on the eighth day.

They were considered clean because they are now Set apart into God new creation flesh

Lepers were pronounced clean on the eighth day after seven days of going to the priest They would be set apart for seven days for uncleanliness on the eighth day

They were clean the tabernacle when it was first dedicated set for seven days unusable until the eighth day new creation

Jesus his first ministry week in the book of John John Explicitly lists out the first seven days before Jesus ministry begins and his ministry begins on the eighth day

Why because he's bringing new creation Why did he rise on the first day of the week?

Do you know what that means old week seven days first day the new week eighth day Jesus is the author of a new creation.

He's the first fruit of a new creation. He's the one who is bringing Healing and salvation to the world new creation and he's named on the eighth day

There has to be something there that that Luke is hinting to us at that Christ who was

Named on the eighth day like every other Jewish boy was not like every other Jewish boy because he's the one who's bringing new

Creation so we see Just in the customary covenantal divine

Hebrew warrior new creation name There's so much that we could say but his name is significant

Why is that important to us? Because you've been given his name The name above all names you've been marked as belonging to him you may

Have felt nameless you may have felt broken you may have felt wounded you may have felt guilty

You may have felt all manner of things, but now dear one. You've been given the name above all names You are

Christ you belong to him You can never be insignificant again

You can never be broken again. No matter what the enemy tells you in the end by the enemy.

I don't just mean Satan I mean the world the flesh and the devil No matter what your enemy tells you you are not insignificant in the eyes of God because you bear his name

The name that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that's the name you carry You've been marked and branded by the

Living God So hold your head up high You bear his name

You're not your past. You're not your sin. You're not your worst moment. You belong to Jesus Christ Amen Now again a more detailed sermon on this is certainly necessary, but we have to continue so let us continue in verse 22

And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were completed They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the

Lord. That's Jesus as It was the custom of the law and every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the

Lord and To offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord a pair of turtle doves and two pigeons

Jesus not only is providentially brought to Bethlehem to be born there according to Scripture He's providentially brought to the city of Jerusalem on the eighth day to the city of God to bring new creation to that dead town

That had abandoned her God He's providentially bought but brought because of the act of circumcision now you ask yourself could they not have done circumcision at home?

Yes, they could have but according to the law they would have done. So at the tabernacle This is what it says in Leviticus 12 2 through 3

When a woman gives birth and bears a male child Then she shall be unclean for seven days as in the days of her menstruation shall she she shall be unclean

But on the eighth day new creation day The flesh of the foreskin shall be circumcised go down to verse 6 and 8 with me of that Leviticus chapter 12 when the days of her purification are

Completed for a son or for a daughter. She shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tents of meeting a

One -year -old lamb for a burnt offering in a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering Then he shall offer it before the

Lord and make atonement for her and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood This is the law for who for her who bears a child whether a male or a female

But if she cannot afford a lamb then she shall take two turtle doves or two young pigeons the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering and The priest shall make atonement for her and she will be clean

So not only was Jesus brought to Jerusalem to be circumcised his mother Was brought so that she could offer sacrifice so that she could be pronounced clean from her pregnancy

Now what I find so beautiful in this is that she offered the secondary sacrifice

Which was turtle doves because she was poor. We've seen the theme over and over and over again

Jesus did not come to the rich and the powerful and the ones with great means we saw last night

Then he came to shepherds who offered sacrifice or who raised the sacrificial lambs that they could not even sacrifice

They raised the lambs that other people would sacrifice so that they could be in relationship with God But the shepherds were left on the outside It was the blue -collar the smelly the dirty the poor that Jesus came to he's those are the ones he came to restore relationship with God so the reason this is so important is because we as humans tend to think that if I can just do something if I can just Be something that could just grow into something if I can just perform

Then God will love me the question that we have to wrestle with is what do these people do? They did nothing

They were the bottom rung of society and God came to them The clear and obvious point is that there's nothing we can do for God to love us

It is because of his love that he loves us. It's because of his glory that he loves us. Nothing that we can do

So stop striving You'll go mad if you're trying to make

God love you by your effort you're not good enough He's good enough. That's why you're loved.

I find this so beautiful in this passage that the one Who wrote the law?

Christ through his spirit is the one now who's obeying the law Even as an infant he's sovereignly overseeing his mother bringing him to the temple

The one who was Invented circumcision the one who will circumcise our hearts is the one who's undergoing circumcision

The one who purifies his people is the one who's being purified under the Mosaic law The true high priest is being served by a shadow high priest

The true temple where the where the presence of God is pleased to dwell is coming to a building that is soon to be replaced 70 years from this day

The temple is going to be destroyed Because Jesus Christ is the true temple you and I don't have to travel to Jerusalem.

It's not our Mecca Because Christ lives in our hearts wherever two or three are gathered in his name even in a building like this

The presence of God is with us Christ is with us He is the

Shekinah glory wrapped in human flesh Lying as a baby in the arms of Mary.

He is the dwelling of God brought to man Isn't that a fascinating and beautiful thing?

He's the true sacrifice who is now being served by the sacrificial system. He's the true firstborn son of God Who now is the firstborn son of Mary Jesus is coming and doing all of these things

To show that the Thousand years that his people have been waiting the weights now over All the shadows are getting ready to be replaced the temple the priest the sacrifices the feast

The ceremonial law all of it is getting ready to be replaced and fulfilled by him

It is to this child That Simeon Was overjoyed to meet

We see that now in verses 25 through 28. It says and there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

Simeon and this man was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel and the

Holy Spirit was upon him and he had 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 and to the temple and When the parents brought in the child

Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law then he took him into his arms.

I Love this so much because Jesus not only came to the poor and the broken he came to the remnant

If you look in the text everyone that he's coming to are called righteous and devout people

They don't look like the successful well -dressed priest of the

Pharisaic party They're the humble faithful remnant of people who are waiting on the promises of God It doesn't matter your economic status.

It doesn't mental. It doesn't matter your mental aptitude It doesn't matter your theological acumen doesn't matter if you can say five -syllable words

It doesn't matter if you have your eschatology entirely hammered down. It doesn't matter

What Matters is is that you are loving God and waiting for his return?

We're on this side of the cross actually for you. It's this side We're waiting on the same promises

We're waiting on Christ to return and it does not matter what your wallet is like. It doesn't matter what your your career is like If you're in Christ, he has given you the favor and the pleasures of God No matter who you are

No matter if you feel like you're disappointed No matter if you feel like you haven't lived up to your own expectations you've been given the grace of Jesus Christ and You're more successful and more significant than Kings because the

King of Kings has called you his Amid a darkened nation

Simeon is a little bright light a little candle in the midst of the pitch -black darkness of Judah where the priest were

We're lovers of money where Herod was a man who was who was killing his own people and who was causing them to to die in starvation because of the

Extravagant taxes that he was paying where coldness and darkness had settled into Judah in a way that it hadn't before in The midst of that this light named

Simeon a righteous man Is waiting on the hope of Israel we see that with Mary a righteous woman we see that with Joseph He's called a righteous man

Zechariah and Elizabeth. They're called righteous people Jesus is visiting the little remnant in the

New Testament Which should tell us that As the church this little remnant there's more of us here tonight

Than the remnant that was in Luke chapter 1 and 2 Or today. Sorry, I preached last night, too

There's more of us the remnant here today than there was in Luke 1 and 2 and He will not forget us and he will not forsake us

Simeon is called devout which means that he was obedient to the law of God. It doesn't mean he was perfect It just means that he was faithful when he fought when he fell short of the law

He repented when he was told to do something. He did it. He was a dependable faithful man when it comes to the law

He was expectant the text tells us he was looking forward to the consolation of Israel. What does that mean?

Well, you're only needing to be consoled if you're hurt and if you're broken So he was waiting on Israel to be consoled

From her pain and her despair Think about his name Simeon His name is one of the twelve tribes of Israel one of the ten tribes that was destroyed by the

Assyrian Empire By the time of the New Testament, there isn't anybody left from the people of Simeon.

He has a name without a legacy What hope Christ was to this man a man that had no earthly legacy, but now has been given the inheritance of Almighty God a legacy that will never end

Christ was coming to console the people of Judah because they were in a broken state This is what the spirit -filled man was looking forward to it says in the text that he would not die until he saw the

Christ So he was basically materially immortal God had promised him you're not gonna die until you see the

Christ. Is there any difference between us and Simeon? Aren't we immortal until God is finished with us

We often tend to think about how can I preserve my life how can I protect my life? How can I get along so that no one notices me?

Look at Simeon. He's loud. He's bright. He's praying. He's singing. He's public He's doing all of these things because he has the confidence that nobody can kill him until he's seen the

Christ Well dear one, no one can kill you until God calls you home No matter how hard you try to protect yourself.

No matter how hard you try to keep quiet. So no one notices you You cannot be taken.

I remember it was George Whitfield who said man is immortal until God is finished with him.

Amen No matter what risk we take no matter how loud we herald the truth

No matter if we sing the roof right off of this building in the town of Chelmsford comes to investigate it I don't care what happens

God has got you in his hand until he's finished with you in the same way that he did with Simeon Now I want you to imagine the scene here.

We've done a little bit of background You have this old man who's been waiting for a really long time for the promises of Israel to come

You have an old man who's probably lived before The temple was under renovation by Herod.

We don't even know what that looks like It was the second temple by the time Jesus comes and you see the pictures of the temple.

That's the Herodian temple That's been 40 something years of renovations He saw it before that when it wasn't the great wonder of the world that Herod turned it into He's seen a lot in his life over 10 20 30 40 years however long it's been since God gave him this promise and then all of a sudden you have to imagine that after waiting decades like Abraham all of a sudden he sees

Mary coming into the temple complex with Joseph and Jesus and he gets kicked in the soul like John the

Baptist when Jesus showed up in Mary's womb and he sees his hope come

You have to imagine like we don't wait four minutes for things that we want. I Say this is a joke the other day who knows what floppy disks are anymore

Remember when you used to long into a well some messenger And we were like, this is great.

I'll just I'll make my coffee. I'll do this when we got back. You're like, it's still going. All right No one would wait that long anymore

He's been waiting 40 50 years for the hope of Israel to come and when Christ comes into the temple mount and he sees the child his heart explodes with praise it says that he even picked up the

Christ and Held him in his arms What rare privilege that must have been to hold in your hands the one who made you in your mother's womb?

He's filled with the knowledge of God because he saw Jesus Christ He saw the face of Jesus and therefore he saw

God in the flesh and by that knowledge He was filled with love affection song and peace

And this is the man who sang the song that we're gonna examine the song begins this way

Then he took him Jesus into his arms and he blessed God what we've seen over and over and over in these songs

Is that they don't start with us? Faithful singing is not about being called out on the waters and and about your oceans and everything faithful singing is

Us looking at Almighty God and saying blessed. Are you God? It's not about my experience my experience.

I was oriented towards him. He's God not me And now I have to acknowledge his godness in light of my finitude every song we've looked at has is

Heralded the praise of God looking away from us to God except the angel song

Which is God singing about himself and he's not singing at us. He's singing back to him

Zacharias was not adding to God's blessedness. He was acknowledging God's blessedness

And what I find so fascinating is how this impacts him He's blessed

Almighty God in the beginning of his song now watch what it does to him And the point that I think we should see is when we bless

God when we praise God when we sing to God it Changes us and it changes

Simeon there's a great book. Forgive me. It's it's that great

Actually, I have to be honest with you I've not read the book but the title The title is so good

That I think it's it sells for itself. The book is by Greg Beal. It's called we become what we worship

What a great title. You don't even need to read the book. We become what we worship Simeon We're gonna see becomes like the one he worships as he sings this song

It says now Lord you are releasing your bond servant. I mean slave

To depart in peace According to your word. This song is not only a song of blessing

This song is a song of one of a kind of ending for Simeon Simeon's at the end of his life and he's now made complete in Jesus All of his hopes all of his dreams all of the prophecies of the

Old Testament are now made full in the face of Jesus Christ and he says I'm done. I Don't need anything else.

I Will be happy That is the motivation of every Christian.

Is that not why Paul exclaimed to live as Christ and to die is gain Because when you know

Jesus Christ, you don't need anything else. I don't need this life and neither do you I don't need the stuff

I don't need the material. I don't need the money I don't need I don't need anything and that's true for all of us If you have

Jesus Christ, you can say with Paul to live as Christ Well, I'm here I'm gonna live for Jesus Christ, but to die is great game

I don't need this world. The roots of my life are severed from here and they were severed on the cross of Jesus Christ Paul is

Declaring along with Simeon My eyes have seen my Savior. My servant can depart in peace

That's true for you If for some reason and we don't hope this is true

But if for some reason there's someone here today who doesn't make it back next week for some reason If you know

Christ you've departed in peace There's nothing holding you here Except for what

God has called you to do and when you're finished with what God has called you to do just like Simeon Then you'll be done and you will depart in peace

No one else has that hope No other person on earth has that hope they're striving constantly to try to gain more time on their life

They're striving constantly to hold on to this pitiful existence that we have this to us is nothing

We're waiting for something better The question is are we are we in the same place as Simeon?

Are we ready? Are we still holding on and clinging to this this dusty place that we call earth?

Are we ready? I Tell you the truth When you look at your life

All of it the only part of it that truly matters is Christ everything else finds significance in him everything else finds

Fulfillment in him if you're holding on to anything, but Christ you're gonna lose it If your hands are open ready to receive

Christ will fill them Don't cling to this earth But be faithful while you wait

Sometimes the opposite can happen we get so fixated upon dying and being with Christ. I know this has happened

I've even felt this way before that you lose and you miss out on what God's called you to do in the moment The disciples were like that They saw

Jesus ascend to heaven and they were just like this And the angels came and said men of Galilee Get to work

He's gonna return in the same way that he came See there's two things you need to understand this life is not your own, but while you're here you belong to Christ So that we can be faithful while we're here.

Are you being faithful with what Christ has given you? Are you waiting for the hope that's coming in your future resurrection?

If you're holding those two things tightly You'll live a glory -filled life

You'll leave it all out on the field. You'll have no regrets and when you depart you'll depart in peace

He also sings a song of salvation He says for my eyes have seen your salvation.

I love that line. He doesn't see my eyes have seen my salvation He says I've seen your salvation Because it's a gift from you to me.

I didn't create it at an author to do anything to get it. It's your salvation. I Didn't even choose it.

You're the one who brought it in The eyes of this tiny

Nazarene baby Simeon saw his eternity He saw his destiny He saw that he the imperishable man was holding imperishable flesh

He saw the day of the Lord in the future I believe that he hoped for the day when everything would be made new in Jesus Christ's babe that he's holding in his hands would

Return to make all things new what a privilege that he had and even better for us We don't hold

Jesus in our hands. We've got him in our hearts He's closer to us than he was to Simeon He also sings a song to the nations

He says for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you've prepared in the presence of all peoples

He doesn't say all people are gonna be saved. He said that it's been prepared for all kinds of people all peoples

If he said that your salvation is for all people Then everyone would be saved that's called universalism and that's not true in the

Bible He says your salvation has been prepared for all peoples And that includes all who are in Christ You see

Jesus's salvation is special it's not like It's not like a buffet bar where everybody gets something for $7 .99

Buffets are not that cheap anymore. That was a memory from my past We were poor growing up so we went to Golden Corral every now and then it was special but buffets aren't special If something is given to everybody it's not special if everybody's awesome.

No one's awesome Christ's salvation is given to the people that he has chosen to give it to by his grace alone not from our merit and because of that It is a special glorious beautiful salvation that we've been given it's and it's been given not just to us in this room

It's been given to people all over the state all over this country all over this Continent and all over the world and it will continue until Christ is called the final one home

See what I love about Simeon is he's a man of Israel and he's singing salvation for the nations

That's a big deal in this time period when the Israelites were so proud of their own chosenness

They could not see a Gentile ever coming into the kingdom of God. Definitely not a Samaritan Simeon here under the influence of the

Holy Spirit says your salvation has come for all peoples We're here today because of that statement

It also says that it's a song of light Jesus he says a light of revelation to the

Gentiles. He's a light that awakens the nations He's a light that awakens the dead

He's a light who comes in and fills the darkness Which is good news for all of us because we were born in darkness.

We lived in darkness We were part of the kingdom of darkness. We served the Lord of darkness and now because of Jesus Christ being brought into the light

It says in the glory for the glory of your people

Israel He ends his song Juxtaposing nations the

Gentiles and Israel and if you have a little bit of biblical theology here What you'll realize is he's not talking about ethnic

Jews and Gentiles. He's talking about the people of God who've always existed God's people who are called by his name and as an

Ezekiel It says that that Israel and Judah will be united together The only problem is is when Ezekiel gave that prophecy

Israel had already passed away We as Paul said are the descendants of Abraham because of Christ the

Gentiles We are the Israel of God, which is Galatians chapter 6

So when Simeon is praying Glory for the people Israel He's not saying the glory is limited to biological and ethnic

Jews He's saying God's glory has been shared and has been made manifest with you

Because now you're a part of the Israel of God on that morning

Simeon held his creator And he saw that he was significant and his life was finished

In Jesus Christ that is my prayer for all of us is that we would see our worth because he's worthy and That we would see that our life is made complete in him

So every day that you have live it to the glory of God. It's not yours But it's been given to you to serve him.

Amen Let's pray Lord Jesus I pray

That like Simeon we would sing Lord I pray like the shepherds that we would leave this building singing

Lord, I pray that like the shepherds all the people who hear about what we've What we have to say the the

Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead for the sins of his people so that we could be Called the Israel of God that people would would wonder when they hear that message

Lord, I pray that message would impact us down to the bones So that we don't look at ourselves the way that we used to look at ourselves that we don't define

Ourselves in the way that we used to define ourselves, but Lord I pray That we would see our entire identity wrapped up in Jesus Christ That we would see our hope our future our fulfillment our purpose

Everything has been given by defined by him And Lord, let us like Simeon Live every day like it matters

And Lord, let us die in peace to go and be with you forever Let us have that hope