Well, I invite you to turn in the Bible tonight to Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter 2, as we reflect on the song of Simeon and the context here of everything that's happening with this particular little gem here in Luke chapter 2 of Simeon and Anna, who really do represent the remnant of Israel who were looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 2, and if you're looking for that, that's found on page 1,090. We'll read it verse 25 through verse 35. 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. And 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, he took him up in his arms and blessed god and said lord now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that you've prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel and his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him and simeon blessed them and said to mary his Mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word. Well, since only two of the four Gospels address the birth of Christ, which is a very fascinating fact and thing to observe, I always like to go to Luke 2 and if I ever get a chance, I'm going to preach Simeon because he's one of my favorites. That's one of the benefits of being the pastor, I guess. You get to pick your favorites at Christmas time. But Simeon really is. Simeon has always been a marvel to me and somebody who I think teaches us a lot about waiting, waiting. And that should mean something to you now if you have been here for the morning sermons and you've heard for the past few weeks these sermons on Exodus, that has been a big problem for Israel, hasn't it? They really haven't been waiting for much of anything. in fact we just learned in exodus that their impatience brought the terrible problem of idolatry and discouragement so that their hearts had turned away from the lord that that's the first thing we saw and we could say that it's impatience that is the recipe for idolatry that turns our hearts quickly away from him israel felt like nothing was happening of course didn't they? Where are we going? What are we doing? Where's deliverance? Is this a life of deliverance? I mean, this doesn't look very glorious. This doesn't feel very glorious. I don't really seem to be experiencing that much deliverance. I don't see much of it. I'm discouraged, we might say, and things as we've been looking at don't often go as planned. And we've looked at all the struggle with that. It's interesting to say that because we live in one of the most restless ages I think we've ever, well, at least I've known since the time I live, but it's restless. We're just a restless people, aren't we? We can't sit still. You might say, speak for yourself, pastor, but I really can't sit still. We're not satisfied. We're always jumping around, jumping around. we're constantly trying to change our circumstances. If we just fix this, if we just change this, it'll go well for us. We'll get back on track. This is how we think. We just want a breather from all the restlessness, don't we? Especially at this time of year. Interesting comparison then to take up this figure in Simeon. One of the very special things that the Bible teaches over and over about the Christian life and about what the Christian life should be and how we have to look at the Christian life in the wilderness is that it is a waiting life. We don't like that. Struggle with that. It's a life of waiting upon the Lord. Psalm 27 ends. One of my favorite psalms, Psalm 27 ends by saying, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, wait on the Lord, and He shall strengthen your heart. I remember an older lady who had been dying for some time, and the Lord just didn't seem to take her. It just was a prolonged sickness, and on and on and on and on. And every time I went to visit, she'd say, Pastor, I just don't get this. I don't get it. and I'd always go back to the end of Psalm 27 and I'd say I'd read this passage. He's going to strengthen your heart. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. And those were the most comforting words to her. She clung to those words. Revelation calls it the patience of the saints. I've always found that a unique passage. Therefore, be patient, or something that James says, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Or this, the God of all grace who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you've suffered a while will himself perfect, establish, and strengthen you. You ever thought about what we're waiting for? You ever thought what is that we're called to wait on the Lord for? Seems to be the logical question, doesn't it? Well, we could answer that in a few different ways. We're waiting for the Lord of glory to return on the clouds of heaven and make everything right. And maybe tonight you say, well, Pastor, I'm going to be really honest with you. I struggle a little bit with that. I don't know that I'm really ready for that. I don't know that I really want to stand there and have to deal with that yet. Got to make a few things right. Got to make a few things right. The Bible holds it out as such a glorious thing, doesn't it? On that day when He comes, he is going to make every injustice right. Your champion's going to return in glory, blazing glory. Every sorrow that you've ever known, every hardship, every injustice in this sad world that you've experienced, he is going to make right. And all those tears that you've cried in the course of your life, all those hardships that you face in the course of your life, he's going to take and wipe them right away. It's so glorious, I can't even describe that day with words. They escaped me. Scripture tells us this. All this is going to happen. And then we enter into this new heavens and this new earth where righteousness shall dwell forever. God promises no more sin. God promises no more hatred. God promises you'll never have to lock your door again. Promises there'll be no thieves. God promises there'll be no more murder. No more destruction. No more terrorism. No more sorrow. Done. You'd think, if He promised all that, we'd be on our knees a lot more praying. Lord Jesus, come quickly. Come. restless, restless. All of us have been consumed this past week with the many details of life. You've been weighed down by sin. It's made you cold. You've been incredibly distracted. Is that right? I'm seeing nods. Are we anticipating anything? One of the things we're feeling a lot right now, particularly in this sad and fallen world, is, I think, a sort of lifting of restraint that previous generations have enjoyed. Some kind of lifting of restraint is happening in this world right now. Look at it. Well, I use all of that as some kind of way to make a segue into the text tonight To say that, we have a beautiful account that shows us something very encouraging for us tonight, don't we? Something to help you this season, this night. There was a man years ago whose name was Simeon. And through him, the Lord's giving us this wonderful testimony of what waiting looks like. Of what a life of real purpose looks like. Of what a life that is not restless looks like. And this kind of blessed life that he now has is described for us and gives us something here to hold on to because it really is something that encourages us to a right and true celebration of what we call Christmas, isn't it? He shows the patient weight of the saints. He shows childlike belief in the promises. He shows everything we've been studying in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus is after. And we get it right at his birth. you'll see it here in simeon's struggle his release and then the blessing that he leaves you see that in verse 25 the struggle that is presented to us where we read this man in jerusalem whose name was simeon and this man was righteous and devout highlighting the character of this man righteous in jesus yes but really a righteous man he was a a man who you could characterized his life and the remnant of believers and a man that that demonly demonstrated a righteous life. Righteous and God-fearing. What's fascinating to me here in this particular section is what it says about the Holy Spirit. You'll notice here he was righteous and devout and the Holy Spirit had enlightened Simeon. He was an object of the Spirit's work in stirring up his heart you notice what it says that the spirit had revealed to him that he would not taste death he had not see death before he had seen the lord's christ the messiah what a remarkable moment uh to think about this is really uh important for us i love to think about all of these figures that show up around the birth of Jesus because if you look at all of them, if you were to tally all of them up and put them in a list, you've got a bunch of nobodies. You have shepherds, nobodies, wise men. We still can't figure out much about them. You have lowly Mary. You have Zacharias and Elizabeth. You have a few shepherds in the field singing praises. And then you get these figures who, If you look at Simeon, what do we know about him? He's just a layman. He's just a layman. He's your little churchgoer who heads up into the church every week and he sits there and he listens and he listens to sermons and he believes the gospel and he seems totally insignificant in the kingdom, doesn't he? Meets Simeon. A layman. Although God had at his command all kinds of emperors and tetrarchs, he passed over all of them, and these are the people of low rank that we're dealing with at the coming of Jesus. Of no account, of no social status, of no greatness. And this, of course, is the very thing that had grabbed Mary when the good tidings of great joy had even been brought to her, that she would say that God in her song regards the lowly and it has mercy as with those who fear him. He scatters the proud, but he puts the mighty from their thrones. The Simeons, Mary's thinking of. Those who fear the Lord and trust in the Lord, he exalts. The text tells us that Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel. It's an interesting word. It's a little statement, but such a powerful thing to consider. You have this great period between the Old and the New Testaments and you had a period of complete silence from the Lord. Silence. I even think sometimes we think that the Old Testament, it was common for God to be speaking. The ways that God revealed Himself, we have a Bible that puts it all together, but it spans a long period of time. Between the Old and the New Testaments, there was a great period of silence. Nothing. Generation after generation did not hear from him. Isaiah tells us it was so bad that great darkness had fallen on the people. Uh-oh. Because when you get statements like that, you know something's going to come. That's how the Bible always tells us it's going to go. It's in these kind of dark, really dark moments that the Lord is ready to act. but when you think about the situation for a moment, there really was a kind of coldness of expectation, or at least expectation of all the wrong things. In some ways, we live in a very similar time to Israel in expectation, and if we do have expectation, you have seen the expectation in wanting to have all of the problems of America solved, haven't you? Israel had lost hope. Idolatry had overturned and overcome them. They had messianic expectation, but their expectations were wrong. They wanted a political king because they had lost independence. And so their entire religion became externalized. Their leaders in the days before Jesus, as one pastor said, could be characterized as a time leading in a time of great darkness, degradation, and despair. Isn't that somewhat familiar to us? Isn't the scene around the first coming somewhat similar to our time as we anticipate the second coming? Do you see a draw, a line here? We're concerned more about political repair than about the coming of the Savior. But how dark are things? What of the state of the church? I'm not going to answer all that. You can think about it. What's the state of the culture? Did Jesus, did he really mean it when he said, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold? You think that's now? Are we looking for him? Do we say he's coming? Do we look to have an end for all the sorrow and the sadness? it's in this environment that the Holy Spirit sets apart this man to show you what the celebration is of what we call Christmas. He was really waiting. This is encouragement to us. The word means comfort. So it reads like this, there was a devout follower of the Lord righteous who was waiting for the comfort of Israel. Waiting. The Holy Spirit had shown him in his lifetime that this comfort would come. That was Isaiah 40. Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem. Cry out to us. That's what we sang out a moment ago. That her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. Comfort. Simeon said to the Spirit, you're not going to die until you behold Him. So what we have before us tonight is a picture of an old faithful saint but waiting through this life of tribulation, through this life of struggle, through this life of discouragement, through this life of all the hardship that comes with it. He's waiting for release. Psalm 130, verse 6, I've waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. Interesting, you have another woman here, Anna, in the temple, who often never gets treated at Christmas, who was in there day and night waiting, praying. Waiting for His release. The burden and desire of His heart was that His King would come and that the great light that was promised all over the Scriptures would finally be realized. I can't get away from Revelation 14. Here is the call for the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. He wanted comfort and release. How many of you want that right now? Pete just put up his hand. I join you. Listen to the catechism on providence. Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God by which He upholds as with His hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and trout, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things come to us not by chance but from His fatherly hand. Okay? Everything. His fatherly hand. How does that help you? We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future. We can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be be moved did you hear that good confidence in the future patient in the present hope for the future it's all working for good i'm looking for the consolation of israel and until then i can have that kind of perspective well think of what's happened here the holy spirit reveals you're not going to die until you've seen it imagine that simeon comes by the spirit into the temple and lo and behold in providence there comes mary and joseph with the baby according to the custom of the law simeon sees the child the spirit saying there he is and he takes the child up in his arms imagine the scene it really is if i can't i can't uh really think of a more it's got to be one of the grandest scenes in all of the bible through all of this weight this old saint through many years of weight all of his life is holding in his arms as a revelation by the spirit god incarnate And He takes that baby. This is the one through whom everything was made. This is the eternal Word made flesh. This is the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth in His arms. This was the Savior. and simeon understands he's the remnant he gets isaiah 53 he knows that it's this child that will go and become what isaiah 53 describes he will carry my sorrows he will carry my burdens by his stripes i'll be healed and all of your sadness and grief those shoulders would carry he knows it the stripes would be on his back the child would one day be covered with blood a crown of thorns on him a robe of mockery the ridicule of the nations God's answer God's answer to your misery the one who's going forth are from old from everlasting in the harms of a needy sinner. You know what he says? Now I can go. Now I can go. Now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation. You set me free. I can die. I can die. It's just wonderful, isn't it? He was released. It's the whole Gospel story that's set in front of us. And as I said at the beginning of the sermon tonight, we don't pray often for the coming of the Lord because we struggle with whether the Lord is for us or whether He's against us. Well, you could live doubting that and rejecting that. And I heard two tragic stories this week. A well-known atheist said this, Death is certain. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely. We stumble and get up. We're sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more, but I want nothing more. What a tragedy of life. Imagine dying in complete loneliness and emptiness, never being released. You know who died today? Zsa Zsa Gabor. 99 years old. The older people here will really know her. 60 years. Here was the article. 60 years of playing herself helped pave the way for today's celebrity-obsessed culture has died. Gabor died Sunday in her Bel Air mansion. She's been on life support for five years. Awful. Doesn't Simeon shine? I can die. I can go. I'm free to go to be with the Lord. Now you're letting me go in peace for my eyes have seen it. This is for, and then he breaks out into the song, a song of songs and says, this is the light for the Gentiles. This is for you. Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Now I can go. You know, I don't know how many times I've read that. And I think I've looked at it only as some kind of revelation to Simeon. But it dawned on me, it's not just for Simeon. The message tonight is, this is the release that he gives anyone who has seen Jesus. This is the gift. The Holy Spirit will not let any of His people leave this life until they've seen Him, believe in Him. That's why this project's still going on. I've told you before, but I pray for my children. And one of the heartfelt, sincere prayers that I constantly say, and they're hearing it right now, but I pray for you too, is that they don't leave this life until they know Him. until they've seen Jesus. It was the Gentiles who come in Luke's Gospel and say, Sir, show us this Jesus. In fact, it's on a nameplate up here somewhere on this pulpit. Show us Him. Let us see Him. Has the Holy Spirit given you that gift? What a gift you have. That's what we're celebrating tonight. You have seen your salvation and you can go. You can go. But you know you'll never really live until you're ready to die. Well, Simeon says that in closing tonight. I have more, but I'm going to cut my sermon short for the program. I'm going to say this. Did you notice what he says to Mary? He blesses them. And then he says, this child is destined for the fall and the rise of many. in Israel. He's going to be a divider of mankind. And you know what that means? It means that you're in one place or the other. Your attitude and your belief in him, if you've come to him, well, you can share in the same joy as Simeon. This child is destined for the fall and the rise of many in Israel. The one having fallen on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. He's a divider. The most important issue tonight for you is what you're doing with this Jesus. And if you've believed in Him and trusted in Him and rested in Him, The same reality for Simeon is for you. And then you understand why we can pray with such confidence. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. I'm waiting upon the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait on the Lord. And if you can say that tonight, well, then you're ready to depart in peace. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for Your wondrous Word. And thank you that you encourage us with these things. And thank you for showing us a figure who so long ago waited and saw. And tonight, we see and wait, knowing that one day again, we will see with our eyes the risen Christ and be taken home. Make us a ready people. And so, Lord, as we enter into and close this year and enter into another one celebrating the coming of the King, we also look for the second coming. and we say with all sincerity of heart having seen jesus lord jesus come quickly in jesus name we pray amen