"Simeon's Vision of Christmas” – Consolation – Luke 2:25-35

Okay, are y’all ready?  Is everybody comfortable?  Anybody need anything before we get started?  If you’re cold, we have blankets in the back.  If you are hot, we have fans.  If you want something to eat or drink, you can find it in the Fellowship Hall.  Troy, do you need a pillow, maybe some slippers?  I want to make sure everybody is comfy. 

In fact, believe it or not, that is the point of this message today.  If you need to be comforted today, this message is for you.  But we all know that there is way more to being comforted than being physically comfortable. Some of the most physically comfortable people are the most in need of real comfort.  The question is, where do you find your comfort?

At the end of a long, hard, stressful day, what do you do to find comfort?  Maybe it’s the end of a long, hard, stressful month or even year.  What do you do to find the comfort you need?  Some people overeat.  Some turn to booze, drugs or cigarettes or some kind of prescription drug and I’m not here to hammer on you about any of that this morning.  Come back tonight and I’ll hammer on you then.

No, I’m kidding.  This message is not meant to step on toes, it is to bring you good news because every form of self-medication has side effects but the side effects of this good news I give you today are forgiveness, peace, joy and the promise of eternal life in Heaven.  It’s not just my opinion that it is good news either.  In Luke 2, the angel sent to the shepherds says, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the LORD. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Have you ever been comforted by a baby?  It’s usually the other way around isn’t it?  But this baby, the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord of all is a great comfort even today just as he was prophesied to be by a man named Simeon, also in Luke 2.  Go ahead and turn there to Luke chapter 2.  We are going to read verses 25-35 and for the next few weeks we are going to see what Simeon said about the baby Jesus and what he meant and what it means to us today.

Not much is known about Simeon except what is said in this passage.  Most people picture him as an old man because he speaks like somebody with some age on him but we don’t know that for sure.  We find Simeon in the temple when Mary and Joseph take Jesus there to be circumcised and dedicated when He was eight days old as was the custom.  Simeon probably spent a lot of time in the temple but just like so many other instances we see of God’s sovereignty, he is there at just the right time to see Jesus and have a promise fulfilled.

Let’s read it in Luke 2:25-35.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
    you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and the glory of your people Israel.”

33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Simeon says a whole lot in just a few sentences.  He glorifies God.  He thanks Him. He prays.  He speaks comforting and yet mysterious words to Mary and Joseph and prophesies about what Jesus will be and do.  In this passage, I want us to look for the next few weeks at three things Jesus is called here.  In verse 25 He is called the consolation of Israel.  In verse 30, He is “your salvation” and in verse 32, Simeon says Jesus will be a light for revelation.

Let’s focus on verse 25 today and see what is meant when it says Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Have you ever tried to console someone who needed it? Have you ever tried to come up with just the right words when somebody really needs it? If you find those words, would you please let me know?  Let me know what to say that will make everything better when somebody loses a loved one because the best I have found is, “I’m sorry and I love you.”

You know, Job’s friends were a bunch of self-righteous, pompous, ignorant blow-hards but I’ll give them this, they started off pretty well with their consoling of Job.  In Job 2:13, it says, “Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” That’s a good friend right there; someone who will just sit and share your grief with you without saying anything. The problem came when they tried to fix the problem.

But at some point, we all want our problems fixed and nobody knows how, including us.  That’s where Simeon was.  His beloved nation of Israel was promised by God to be a great and powerful nation; a nation from which the Messiah would come and would be a world power and a special people to God and specially blessed by God. But in Simeon’s day, it sure didn’t seem like that was true.

Their land had been taken.  Their freedom had been taken.  Their rights had been taken and all they had was the hope that the Messiah would one day come and save them.  We know today that the Jewish people never did recognize Jesus as the Messiah and therefore they are still waiting for the consolation of Israel but Simeon knew.  Simeon understood.  It says he was righteous and devout but what that means is that Simeon was right with God and close to God and therefore Simeon heard God speaking to him and God told him that this baby that just showed up in the temple…was the One.

Can you imagine the comfort and the relief Simeon had?  He knew it wouldn’t be in his lifetime and he was okay with that.  In fact, Simeon told God in his prayer that he was ready to die now because what God had promised had come true and was now cradled in his arms.  It was one of those “it don’t get no better than this” kind of moments for Simeon. 

Do you remember the first time you met Jesus?  Maybe you had heard of Him before.  You had heard others talk about Him and about what He had done and was going to do but do you remember when you really met Him; when you asked Him to come into your life and be the Lord of your life? 

I remember.  I was seven years old and while I was a pretty good kid, I guess, I knew I was a sinner in need of a Savior.  I remember my Dad explaining to me that sin was anything that displeased God and how the Bible says we are all sinners and what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell. He explained that Jesus died on the cross as payment for my sins and that if I would just ask, He would forgive me of that sin and I could live in Heaven when I died.

I prayed with my Dad that day back in 1975 and asked God to forgive me and do you know what? Even as a child, I think I could relate to Simeon. Simeon said in verse 29 that he could now die in peace. Simeon and I both had forgiveness.  We could live and die in peace.  We have joy even in the difficult times and while all of that is wonderful, the best news in this Good News is that I can now share with Simeon AND with Jesus all the wonderful things Heaven has in store!

Do you ever struggle with forgiveness?  I have found that people who love and forgive other people easiest are the ones who realize how much they have been loved and forgiven.  Later on in Luke 7 when Jesus had started His ministry, He is invited to dinner at a man’s house - a Pharisee’s house - and He goes and when He is reclining at the table, a woman is behind Him just bawling.  She is crying so hard she wets His feet with her tears and she wipes them with her hair and then pours perfume on His feet.

In that day it was quite a scandal, especially because it says she had lived a sinful life, but she didn’t care.  She had been forgiven by Jesus and she just loved Jesus so much, she wanted to show it. The homeowner made mention of it and Jesus told the man, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little."

When you realize just how much Jesus loves you and what all He has forgiven you for, it’s life-changing.  Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day! (Today in the Word, March 1989)

But how do we really know that we are forgiven?  Some of us have lived a sinful life just like that woman so it’s important to know for sure.  How can we know for sure that our many sins have been forgiven?  Well, if you offend somebody and you ask them for forgiveness for whatever you did, how do you know they have really forgiven you? 

You know because of not just what they say but what they do.  They might say they have forgiven you but what if they don’t act like it?  We know Jesus has forgiven us because it says so in the Bible. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But He proved it by what He did. 

All through the Old Testament, before Jesus came in the flesh, when there was sin, something had to die.  It’s why Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death.  But Jesus came and died on the cross for our sin so we wouldn’t have to sacrifice any animals or pay the price ourselves.  That’s a price we could never pay.  So, we know that we are forgiven.  What is that worth to you? For those of us that have been forgiven much, it’s priceless.

Do you know what else we get with a relationship with Jesus? Not just forgiveness, but forgiveness leads to peace.  In that passage in Luke 7 where Jesus is talking to the sinful woman, He tells her in verse 50, “Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace.”

Jesus forgave her and then told her to go in the peace that only God can give.  Go in peace with God and of God.  Peace that passes all understanding.  Peace, not just in the good times but especially in the bad times. Do you have that kind of peace?

In preparing this, I did some research about how the world finds peace (and by “research”, you know I just googled it).  This is what I found.  #1) Breathe.  Breathe deep from your belly and do this for 10 minutes a day.  I don’t know about you but I think I breath all day, but I hope that helps you. 

#2) Exercise.  This produces endorphins and serotonin and other happy chemicals in your brain.  I’m sure that’s good. #3) Get enough sunlight which produces Vitamin D.  Nothing wrong with that.  #4) Pursue the “flow state” (???).  I hope you know what that is but I don’t. I think the flow state maybe somewhere around Colorado or Wyoming or some state like that but I don’t know. 

Other ideas were to be generous and be grateful and to express yourself and all of those are fine and good, I guess. But is there any kind of peace that comes close to knowing that the little baby in Simeon’s arms that day grew up to live a sinless life, die on a cross for forgiveness of our sins, rose again on the third day and lives today and that He sits at the right hand of God the Father who loves us and is in control?

There is peace in that knowledge but ultimately, peace is a gift.  Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Did you see that?  He said it’s a gift but not like the world gives, where you have to breathe, exercise or find your flow.  You just accept God’s gift of peace and if you don’t have peace right now it’s because you have not accepted it by accepting the truth that God is in control and that He loves you.

How much is peace worth to you?  Forgiveness and peace are both priceless gifts from God and that ought to bring you comfort today.  But there is one other thing that Jesus gives us as a gift – another priceless gift – and that is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Turn there.  I want you to see this.  It will comfort you no matter what translation you have. 

The Thessalonian church Paul was writing to here was confused about how and when Jesus was going to come back.  They were afraid some of them had missed it already and they didn’t know how it was going to happen and so Paul wrote them this to comfort them and it comforts us today. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says, “Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the LORD's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the LORD, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the LORD himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And so we will be with the LORD forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Therefore comfort each other with these words from Paul.  This life is not all there is and this life is but a wisp of smoke compared to eternity that we will share with Jesus and Simeon and all your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

It ought to give you great comfort today in the midst of your difficulties to know that the same Jesus who once was a baby held by Simeon grew up, lived, died and rose again and waits anxiously to bring you to Him where He will say, “Well done my good and faithful servant!  I know it was hard and I know that life you led wasn’t fair and the people were against you and nature was against you and it seemed like everything was against you. But I was for you and I prayed for you and I can’t wait to show you around the place I have prepared just for you.  Come on in!”

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my Beloved One bringing
My Savior Jesus is mine

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He's coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day (Glorious Day)

Do you know for sure that He is coming for you?  Accept His forgiveness.  Accept His peace. Turn away from your sin and ask Him to be Lord of your life today and you, too, can be comforted.