We're going to be in Luke chapter 2, actually picking up from when Pastor Olson was on Sunday. He finished at verse 20, and we're going to pick up in Luke chapter 2, verses 21 to 34. And I just need to give an opening, and this is personal from my heart because There's something that reminds me of this message, and it always brings tears to my eyes when I'm reading about it. First and foremost, years ago, Lisa and I were down Billy and Jane's house, and Billy introduced me and showed me a book from a man named R.C. Sproul. I'll never forget that. And ever since then, I read Billy and I, we prayed together a lot, and we talked a lot about R.C., and I had the privilege of meeting R.C. Sproul, and his favorite message the favorite character in the Bible who makes this little cameo appearance as a man by the name of Simeon. And R.C. died two years ago, right around this time, right before Christmas. And it was a real devastating shock to the Reformed Presbyterian world. And tonight I just... Remember all the wonderful times I've heard messages that He had given, and part of this message, there are some notes that I had taken when He preached it. So, let's go into the Scripture tonight and just see what the Lord has in store for us tonight, and just be thankful for everything that He's given us. In Luke 2, verse 21, we start out with here, And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. and He came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him after the custom of the law, then took He up in His arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against." This passage is what Christmas is all about. We see a lot of glitz and glitter, a lot of money, a lot of corporate things going on out there, and a lot of immunopresence and all the nice and a lot of the things that go on. But this is what it's all about. The fall and the rising of Israel, the suffering servant of Israel had come. We see in verses 21 to 24 that Mary and Joseph were there to present Jesus for the dedication of the Lord's service. And the question this evening we can ask is, how long have we been waiting for the promised Messiah? And how long have we been watching for him? Do we anticipate his coming? And it's as exciting in our hearts as it should be to look for the coming of the Messiah. Jesus came once and he's coming again. He was circumcised on the eighth day as the Jewish law prescribed and Christ was here to fulfill the law. We learned last Wednesday evening and we talked in the men's prayer breakfast about why was it requisite for Jesus Christ to come in the form of a man? In the form of a man, one of their answers was to fulfill the law, and to be here, and to lower himself, even lower than the angels, and to come here and to experience the trials and the tribulations that we have. But he came and he never sinned, and he fulfilled the law. Genesis 17, 12 says, So why would Jesus be circumcised? And we see that it's to fulfill the law. He was here to partake in the law, partake in the dominion mandates that were given through Moses, to obey and teach us that we have a standard, to teach us that we have a responsibility in the Christian faith to obey the law. And that is what Pastor Olson was talking about Sunday morning. He was talking about What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor. And that's what it means to love. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So because of being ceremonially unclean seven days after childbirth, the need for purification was required in the law, Leviticus 12, verses 2-4, for the woman where she would have to refrain from holy things for 33 days. In Leviticus 12, verses 2-4, we read, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman hath conceived seed, and born a man child, then she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of the preparation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And he shall then continue in the blood of her, purifying three, and thirty days she shall She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. The mother was then to offer up a lamb, or if perhaps the structure of their house was more humble and it was poor, then they were permitted to offer up a pigeon or a turtle dove. And this shows the humble nature of Jesus Christ coming in to parents that were very poor. And they were very humble. And so this brings up a real big question. Lisa and I were talking to some friends the other day, and one friend said that they were going to be going into Mass and praying to Mary for nine days. Once every evening, praying to Mary. And I'm here to encourage and just to make an understanding of If Mary was divinity, why did she have need for purification under the law? And that is a big question. And I'm here to tell you that I believe if Mary was still alive today, she would not accept prayer or worship to herself. And I'm trying to say that as kindly and as patiently as I can because today there are a lot of We have a lot of Catholic friends, and we've had very good discussions about this, but there's a real barrier there in trying to convey how important it is that Jesus Christ was God, and he accepted worship, but Mary did not. And so we see that the days of purification were necessary for her, but not for Christ. The first male was to be taken, be dedicated to the service of the Lord, sanctified unto him, set apart, and consecrated unto God. And we see how Christ was taken to the temple as a child. You see that later on he was baptized. Remember John the Baptist said, I can't baptize you. I just said, behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. How can I baptize you? What did he say? That's OK. You don't have to baptize me. You're right. No. He said, suffer it now. And here we see how Christ was fulfilling the law, He was obeying, and He gave such wonderful, beautiful homage and honor and reverence to God in heaven. And it's teaching us that's the kind of reverence that we need to have for God, the God that created us. where we live in a day and age where God is so blasphemous and so dumbed down, and people don't believe in God like they should. And so here we see, they come into the temple, and there's this man named Simeon. And perhaps I believe, and I've talked to a lot of people over the years about Simeon, and I've heard some people think he was young, some people think he was middle-aged, and I think the tenor of the words here that we've read in Scripture, I believe it dictates that he was an older man. and that he was well beyond perhaps his years of having children, perhaps his wife had died. We don't know a whole lot about him. It's just this little cameo appearance. But what a wonderful man that really loved the Lord. And we see the Spirit of God had come to the prophets of old, and we just read this Bible verse here about Simeon and how the Holy Spirit had brought him in. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost once again in verse 26. that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've been talking in a Vault Sunday School class in the book of Acts about the Spirit and how the Holy Spirit, we are in the age of the Holy Spirit. We're in the Old Testament, you hear the audible direction of God and we see in the New Testament where Jesus Christ is here on the earth. And now in the book of Acts we see we live in the age of the Holy Spirit and that's who speaks through us and teaches us through Scripture, and we see that Simeon was no stranger to the Holy Spirit, to the third person of the Trinity. He was given a promise, and he was given a promise, and he is told that Christ's child is coming soon. He is then told that it will happen soon, so soon that it will be in his lifetime. Wouldn't that be an incredible prophecy to be told, you will not see death until you see the Lord Jesus Christ? Wouldn't that be incredible? So you have a prophecy given that in no way will you leave this earth or die of any natural cause, any accidents, or nothing until you see Christ. And so here's how incredible it gets. Can you imagine what it was like for him to wait to see Christ and what he did in the meantime? What was it like for him? Going into the temple every day, looking and looking and looking. They said it would happen soon in his lifetime. Well, to us, 30 or 40 years might seem like an awful long time, but to the angels, to the prophets, to Christ, You know, a thousand years to the Lord is like, what, a second? And so we hear that it's going to be soon here. But can you imagine if that happened to you or me, and that we told others that we were waiting to see the Messiah, what would people say? What is the reaction that people give us when we tell them that Jesus Christ is coming again? Soon. Even if it was a thousand years. To Christ, to the Lord, that's not a long time. But don't they think we're crazy? Don't they think as Christians, they think you're crazy? What do you mean you're gonna see Jesus? He came once. People don't even believe in Jesus anymore, mainly. So can you imagine how crazy they thought dear Simeon was? What torment may Simeon had endured with this prophecy that he carried with him? We're not told in scriptures exactly what he went through, but if we use our imaginations, and if he was a little older, Perhaps what it was like, the ridicule and the scorn that he may have gotten, where marketplace goers, tourists, locals, even those who attended the sanctuary saw this older man perhaps coming in every day asking and saying, I am waiting to see the Messiah, I am waiting to see the Messiah. And then all of a sudden it happens. He delighted in the Lord. And I think that's just a beautiful encouragement for the Christmas holiday. Simeon delighted in the Lord. Psalm 37, verse 4 says, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. I think a lot of people have different ideas on what the desires of their hearts are today. But how would you like to be like Simeon, who delighted in the Lord, and delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart? That was his desire, to see Christ. That was his desire. He couldn't wait. And you can tell by what he said afterwards, and it actually is translated into a song, What does he say? He says, let thou thy servant depart in peace. I've seen it all. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get out of here. But what about the ridicule he may have faced in the meantime, like we faced? Perhaps many would have thought Simeon seeing Jesus would be foolish, but Israel had been waiting for a king to come. Our consolation. What a beautiful name for Jesus Christ. Do you ever think about all the names in Scripture about Christ? Lisa just went to, I think it was Kirkland's, and she saw this really neat sign. It's a really big painting. We have it hanging right in the foyer with a light on it. And it has these endless names of God or Christ there. There's, and I read them every day. When I'm going out the door, I read them and I try to remember them. There's King of the Earth, there's Son of God, there's Son of Man, there's names like the Suffering Servant of Israel, Suffering Servant of Jehovah, El Shaddai, the Shekinah God of Glory, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and there's so many of them, they're endless. But there's one that I think is just, it's just really sticks in my heart and in my mind. The Consolation of Israel. Look, Christ is called the consolation, but isn't that what we're looking for with the trials that we have in life every day is consolation? Just somebody to come up and to console you and to tell you everything is going to be okay? Well, it doesn't always happen with other people. It's no wonder you're reading the book of Psalms over and over again. Don't put your ultimate trust in man. But Christ is always there to console you and to comfort you. Remember John chapter 16 24 you'd say I got a paraphrase this I had it memorized But I just don't remember but the Lord said that he goes he said but by now you haven't asked anything in my name Ask in my name that your joy may be fulfilled They told the disciples ask in my name and I'll give you the desires of your heart. I And here, the consolation of Israel has come, and so few had realized it. Simeon was not counting on sorcery or magic. He wasn't counting on some kind of a big cataclysmic event, like, remember the herald camping thing with all the signs? Well, all these years, down through the years, herald camping settled, and such and such a day Christ would return, and then this day people were selling the titles to their homes, giving everything away and the dates would come by and it never happened. He wasn't counting on anything like that. He counted on the Word of God. And we see that some of the names of Jesus in the Bible, other ones, Son of Man, Sovereign or Adonai, Emmanuel, and this rare name, Consolation of Israel. And Israel had been tormented for years and they looked for a healing or a consolation. But the fact is they weren't ready. Only a handful realized the significance of Christ's birth. Most, including Simeon, either had an angelic message, special revelations, But what did the Lord Jesus Christ say over and over and over again? He would get frustrated. Remember the conversation with Nicodemus? And remember the conversation he had on the road to Emmaus when he asked what things? What did he tell Cleophas and his friend? And what did he tell Nicodemus? He said, you're a ruler. You have the Old Testament. Don't you remember what it says in Isaiah 53? What it says in Psalm 22. What it says in Deuteronomy 15, 18, where there will be a servant that will come and you better hearken unto him. Genesis 3, 15, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise his head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. There were some messianic prophecies all over the Old Testament. And he said, you need to be ready. And so we need to pay attention to them. And all of that, all of that is part of this Christmas message. Because it's a message leading up to our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to the earth to do what? Yes, bring good tidings of great joy. The greatest ministry there was ever on the earth. But He came to die. That's not what they thought at the triumphal entry, did they? They said, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord. They wanted a king now. They wanted an earthly king now. But that wasn't what Christ was here for. He was here to die, and he was here to resurrect, and he was here to wash our sins away. But what does the man do? He goes into the temple, and even there, he most likely had been growing old. Maybe his eyes had been growing very weak. He sees Mary and Joseph and takes the baby in his arms, and then what? Would he question this child being the Messiah? Would he say, this is a king? This little baby is a king? How can this king come from a pair of dirt poor parents? Where's the royalty? Where is the entourage? Where are the crowns? Where is the red carpet? Where is all of the glory? And this little humble baby, he grabs this baby up and says, let thou thy servant depart in peace. What would you have thought of if you were Mary? Ladies here, or men, if you were Joseph, and some old man comes up and grabs the baby out of your wife's arms, you have no idea who he is, and he just whisks the baby out of her arms, and she stands there in awe. Well, you read at the end of Luke chapter 2, what does it say? Mary pondered all these things in her heart. And she loved the Lord. Well, I think this message just gets absolutely incredible as it goes. And the drama, look at the drama that's going on here. He clenches the baby into his arms and breaks into a song. What could Mary and Joseph possibly have thought had this man taken their little baby? Well, we see He was rejoicing in Jesus. We need to rejoice in Christ. Psalm 32.11 says, "...be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart." What must they have thought? What must John have thought? What about Peter? What about Mary at the tomb? What about John 6? That's the one that gets me. all these people had seen the miracles. I mean, I've read a lot of commentary about this. Maybe you can correct me, anybody, that you've read commentaries if I'm wrong, but according to John chapter 6, those disciples that left Christ, that had been there for the first couple years of His ministry, that saw all these wonderful miracles, it was 120, no less than 120 disciples. And they said to Jesus, these are things that are hard sayings. They told him they were hard sayings. And then they left him. They never came back. And then Jesus looks through the twelve disciples, of course one that was a demon, and says, are you going to leave me? I mean, they had seen him raise people from the dead. They had seen all these magnificent miracles. Don't you see that today? The same thing, the falling away from the churches and the truth. Falling away from what's right. Falling away from what we know to be true in Scripture. The Lord said that would happen. He made that very clear. Not with Simeon. He loved every second of holding that little baby. He loved every second. And what I mean by a falling away is people just leave the churches and stop going. They don't even look for other churches. They don't look for any other worship. They don't look for Christ. It's so much out there in the culture to pull people away from being connected with Jesus. You read about somebody like Simeon, it just fills your heart with gladness to see such excitement. There are songs all through the Scriptures. And it's fascinating how in the Old Testament when King David would sing, the angels would sing, the prophets or other believers would sing, they would be praising the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There are other songs. Look in Luke chapter 1, the Magnificat, in chapter 1, verses 46 to 55, the prophecy of Zacharias is a song. chapter 1, verses 68 to 79 in Luke. Then the Song of the Angels in chapter 2, verse 14. And now we have the Song of Simeon, which is referred to as the Nunc dimittis in the Latin terms. It's a song of Simeon praising the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was very zealous for his Savior. This was a zealous expression of Simeon's extraordinary faith. And we read in Revelations a letter from John, the beloved, to the angels of the churches at Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea. The words of Christ in chapter 3, verse 19, And that's what these songs are all talking about, is repentance. and an honor to the Lord. And what do we do with our guilt? What do we do with it? And our consolation of Israel is where we go with it. I have a brother that died two years ago. And when I went over and I cleaned his apartment out and I went into his wallet, I was supposed to find information, important information for various reasons. And I found several cards and I looked at them. There was a whole stack of cards, must have been ten of them, maybe five, I don't remember, five to ten of them. And I thought about what he was looking for. in these cards were these 12-step processes. It was all about feeling good about yourself. It was all about doing this and doing that, physical things we do here on this earth. But what saddened my heart is not one of those cards said anything about looking for the consolation of Israel, and looking for Christ as the answer to the guilt and to the sin that comes from that kind of a lifestyle. And when I saw that, I mean, my brother had heard about the Lord many, many times. But when he went to these rehabilitations and these places, I'm not saying they have none effect. But if it's not with Christ, if the Comforter is not there and the consolation of Israel is not there, how hollow and how sad that is. Simeon sings what is referred to in Latin as the Nunc Diminis, named after the opening of Simeon's song, Blessed God, in verses 29 to 32. Its definition as a noun is translated in the sense that it's a prayer. It's a prayer of a song of Simeon, a canticle of Simeon. And look what he sings. He said he's had enough. He has seen the Messiah, the consolation of Israel. Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace. And Simeon was calling upon God and giving all praise and thanks by referring to the salvation who's in this little baby Jesus. Philippians 4, 6 we read, Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Simeon did not need to see anything else. Do we need to see anything else if we have Jesus? Is there something else out there? Are there greener pastures out there beyond Jesus? Is there anything beyond your relationship with Christ that's more important? There's so many ways people say there are to heaven. The sad thing, and I love what Pastor Steve Lawson said, there's one way to heaven. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. But he says, there's one way to heaven, but there are many ways to hell. Simeon did not need to see anything else. He was ready. What I love about that is he was not afraid of death. Oh, how we tenaciously hold on to every breath, don't we, and we're scared to death of the ultimate. I guess we can put it like this, and I'm not going to stand up here and be a hypocrite and say that death doesn't bother me. The death part's bad, that's tough, but that's not the part that bothers me. It's the dying part. It's getting to that point, you know? What's it going to be like? Is it going to be this way? Is it going to be sudden? Is it going to be long and lengthy? Is it going to be hard? Is it going to be sad? Is it going to be devastating? I mean, you just don't know. But Christ says, I have overcome the world. You have a sick loved one. I have overcome the world. Pray for them. You have problems, struggles in your own personal life. I do. We all do. Christ says, I have overcome the world. I am the consolation of Israel. Be of good cheer, he says, I have overcome the world. I can't say that verse enough. That verse has gotten me through so many hard times. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. Guarantee it. And if you're a Christian, you know that firsthand. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. The Pharisees with the Sadducees with desire of Christ to see a sign from heaven. They did not believe Christ. When the consolation of Israel was right there before them, they required a sign and Christ answered. Look at the Jewish council. Look at all those that were around. The Messiah was there. He had a little handful of people that knew it and recognized who this was. Matthew 16, verse 4, Christ said, "...a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas." Then he left them and departed. Simeon was filled with the Holy Spirit and he loved the Lord. Do we have to be reminded every day of our lives by some miracle to know that Christ is there? Hebrews 11 1-3 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. I love this about Simeon. He had faith. He hadn't seen Jesus yet. He was told by the angels that he wouldn't see death until he saw Jesus, and he never faltered. He wasn't perfect, but he had faith that he was going to see Him. That's where we need to be. We know one day we're going to see Him. Are we ready? I think sometimes we're so tripping over our own feet. struggling with our own assurance and struggling whether we really think we're saved or not, we have the security, but we miss the joy of the assurance of our salvation. There is such joy knowing that Christ will not let you go out of His hands. Remember in John chapter 16, he said he was talking about those that were given into his hands, but there are those that Thou wilt give into my hands, and I pray for them also. That's how he was praying for us. Isn't that wonderful? What a wonderful blessing. Well, we see verse 31, "...which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people." The gospel message has been prepared for all people, tongues, tribes, and cultures. And you know, it gets a little bit old when people are always trying to grade people on their culture, their race, their salvation, and all. People are always putting people into a box. Christ made this open to everyone. It wasn't a cult. It wasn't some little sect of people where we all meet in our own little catty combs and have our own little groups and our own little this and that. It's open to everyone. And as Christians, we should always be open to witnessing and loving our Roman Catholic friends, our Muslim friends, our Indian friends. and looking for that opportunity where we can give them the light and not pounding them down and making them look lower than us because they're not us. Were it not for the Lord, where would we be? We need to be an encouragement, a light to lighten the Gentiles. That was big for the Jew. The Jews, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees wanted nothing to do with the Gentiles. Thank the Lord for our Lord Jesus Christ opening it up for Jew and Greek and Gentile, because pretty much I believe all of us here are Gentiles, aren't we? Wouldn't that be horrible if Christianity was a segregated religion and Gentiles were not allowed in? That's Paul the Apostle's ministry. He was all for the Gentiles and the Greeks and opening it up to others. Thank the Lord for that. And Mary and Joseph marveled at this elderly man that whisked away their child and were astonished at his words and reaction. They did not treat him as some senile old man that needed help or to patronize him. They knew God was speaking to them and they loved him. I think that's really, really important. So Simeon blessed them, and no doubt he prayed with them and shared with them the joy he had in his heart. And so I think it's a lovely Christmas message tonight for Simeon. So let's close with prayer. We'll sing a few more songs and see where the Lord leads us after that. Our Heavenly Father, we just thank Thee and praise Thee, Lord, for all that Thou hast given us. We thank Thee for this lovely message, Lord, and the names that have been given Thee are such a blessing to our hearts. We think of the consolation of Israel and how the Great Comforter has come and now has sent us a Comforter that will teach us, that will speak through us, and that will lead us and guide us. And Lord, all thou ask us to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved. Just bless us and bless this church, and I pray that thou wilt help us to continue to go forward. We thank thee for the preservation of it, and just help us to have a nice evening and to get home safely and have a lovely day with our family tomorrow, all of our families. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, amen.