Waiting For Christmas

Waiting For Christmas

Luke 2:21-35

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.” vs. 25

Gray Thursday

So how was your Thanksgiving? I think this was the first year retailers, as a whole, actually decided to open on Thanksgiving night.  Every major store is trying to figure out how they can get the jump on the holiday shopping and how they can get people’s business. And, you could have chosen to try to avoid all of it but even if you turned on the news it seemed to be all they were reporting.  I have to admit, it’s amazing to see people rushing from place to place, all to get that big deal, and the attitude of some of them they show on TV was just crazy.  They show people fighting and pushing, stampeding, etc.

Some of it was pretty sad. Here are a few things that jumped out at me.

• Kmart got itself in a lot of hot water.  They thought they were being clever and avoiding hassles. They handed out vouchers at the door for the big TV deals so there wouldn’t be a rush.  Sounded good till you found out that they didn’t really tell the general public so some people stayed at the front of the store and got their voucher and eventually their TV but those who didn’t know and rushed to the electronic section looking to grab that TV, well they missed out and boy were they ticked.  The yelling and anger from some of them was just crazy.
• One sad story from Palo Alto where a family went shopping and they were out til all hours of the night.  It was a mom and dad and their four daughters. On the way home, the dad fell asleep at the wheel and ran into a police car parked on the shoulder of the road,; their car flipped. Tragically, two of the daughters died in the accident. It was a pretty weird scene seeing all the presents all over the freeway and the grief on the family’s faces.
• Then there was the Walmart workers.  They didn’t like having to go to work on Thanksgiving. Good for them. But they were basically forced to, so they called a strike. I think they made their point.  So much so they are now calling Thanksgiving “Gray Thursday.” I guess that will now be the lead up to “Black Friday.” Which will be followed by “Cyber Monday.” And it just keeps going. Wow!

The analysts came out with something that shows a large majority of people will now put off their major shopping until the last 5 days of Christmas because that is when the retailers will offer their next set of deep discounts to get all the business they can before Christmas.

But you know, you see people waiting for the stores to open, waiting in long lines, waiting for that next big deal. I waited. One place I wanted to get something said they would be offering their discounts on line at 12:01 a.m. So I waited. It clicked in at 12:01. The site was down;12:03, the site was down, 12:04, 12:07, 12:10, 12:12, 12:14, and finally at 12:17 the site came on. I guess in some ways I fell into the trap too.  But it got me thinking about waiting.  What are you waiting for this Christmas? Let’s read a story about a guy named Simeon. He waited a long time for Christmas to come. We waited and waited with great anticipation for that first Christmas.  If you are able, please stand with me as we read God’s Word from Luke 2:21-35

Read Passage – Luke 2:21-35

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. ²² When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵ 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 upon him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 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 now dismiss your servant in peace. ³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all people, ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to 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.”

What Are You Waiting For?

Let me ask you some questions. What are you waiting for this Christmas? Are you looking for anything special? What are you expecting to receive? What one gift is it that you anticipate will make a big difference for you?  Or what one thing is it you feel will just make your Christmas? A party, an event, a celebration? As I said, in the Gospel of Luke, we come across a man named Simeon. We don’t read about him anywhere else in the Bible. He’s not a major part of the Christmas story when we tell it to our children. In many ways, he is one of the forgotten parts of the Christmas story. But here is who he is, verse 25a;

^“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting…” vs. 25a

The passage identifies him as “a righteous and devout” man.  In other words, he’s a good guy. He was a guy who probably looked like he had it together. He was probably known for doing the right things, living a clean and even keeled life, a religious guy, and probably somewhat clean cut.  People saw him going to Temple regularly, probably seemed to be a nice enough guy with a clean mouth, a good family and an all round good guy.  Luke uses a Greek word of anticipation that identifies him as waiting with expectation for the coming of the Messiah (Savior). The word waiting in verse 25 literally means that he was to be “alert to His appearance, and ready to welcome Him.” He was not only watching but he was ready to act as soon as he sees this big event happening.

Simeon’s Ideal

Our text tells us that Simeon really had one thing in life he was looking for, verse 25b;

“He was waiting for the consolation of Israel…” vs. 25b

Things weren’t going real well for the nation of Israel. They hadn’t heard from God for many years and were under Roman rule. They had lost their political independence and some of their religious independence as well, they were living in fear of the cruel King Herod, and many were wondering if the Messiah would ever come. Now Simeon had a good reason for his anticipation, the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he wouldn’t die until he saw the Messiah with his own eyes. (vs. 26) How cool is that?

Side bar: Wouldn’t that be cool. You know you won’t die until you see a certain thing happen. It’s kind of like you’re invincible. I mean God always keeps his promise. But think about how you would feel once it really happened. Uh-oh!

On a certain day, at a certain time, the Holy Spirit prompted Simeon to go to the temple courts at just the right time on just the right day that Joseph and Mary were bringing their infant Jesus to the Temple. (vs. 27) When Simeon looked at the baby Jesus, now about 6 weeks old, he knew that God’s promise had been kept. Here was Immanuel, “God With Us,” to make everything right, to provide significance by His presence, and to eliminate rejection, fear, and loneliness; to free Israel and bring about their dominance again; and to rule. He was seeing God’s promise fulfilled right before his eyes and once he saw Jesus, he knew it right away.  And as the verb we talked about earlier said, he was ready to act on it.

What Seeing Jesus Brought Simeon

Today let’s dig into Simeon’s story a bit more because I think there are some great things we learn about how to live our life based on what Simeon did when he saw Jesus.

• Pardon

First, he realized the gift that God had sent in Jesus and interestingly, he knew Jesus was the way of salvation as soon as he was him; verse 31:

“For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people…” vs. 31

God had a plan, a plan to do away with all the sacrifices and rituals in the Old Testament. The people in this time had to sacrifice if they sinned, sacrifice if touched the wrong thing and were unclean, they had sacrifices for a lot of things.  It was hard to keep up with.  Mary and Joseph were at the temple to sacrifice because that’s what you did when you had a baby. SO they have come to the temple to sacrifice, to get right with God. But now, Simeon is seeing a shift. God is providing a new way of being right with Him. So God’s plan is to provide a sacrifice. One that you don’t have to pay for, one you don’t have to provide, one that costs you nothing but provides you with direct access to Him; and that was His Son. In fact, God tells us that this is the only way of salvation. Acts 4:12:

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

God has a clear plan. He set it out there for us to take. They old ways are gone. For some reason, many people still feel like they have to figure out a way to get right with God.  In many ways, they still want to make sacrifices. But God said, this is the way, the only way.

Ex. Example of people who think they need to be “good” to get to heaven.

• Peace

A second thing Simeon sees in Jesus is peace. Israel wanted peace so bad.  They hadn’t had peace in their land for hundreds of years.  He realizes when he sees Jesus that peace is here. Verse 29:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.” vs. 29

There are two thing going on here.  First, he realizes that when he dies, he will be at peace. But second, he sees that Jesus will bring peace for Israel and for all people. So all the turmoil and frustration will come to an end.

Ill. When I saw all the things happening on Thanksgiving night sales and black Friday, there wasn’t peace there, it was stress. The things people were fighting for might bring a temporary joy or relief, but not the peace we really seek.

Isn’t funny we spend most of Thanksgiving being thankful for what we have only to spend the next day pushing and fighting for what we don’t have and want!

Ex. I think we understand that Jesus brings peace.  Let me point it out.  One of the most popular saying at this time of year is…”Peace on earth.” We see it on cards, in store windows, signs at church and on people’s lawns, etc.  It is what we really want.  Simeon recognized that Jesus brought that peace we all want.  Let me follow that up with a verse from Col. 3:15:

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” Col. 3:15

We have a choice. We can live in expectation and anxiety or we can choose to live in the peace, that peace that comes from Christ. Going back to Simeon, who seemed to have some peace in his life; when he saw Jesus, he had more peace than he had before. You and I can choose to have that peace as well.

• Promise

Finally, Simeon sees promise, the fulfillment of God’s promise but also another definition of promise, the promise of hope for what the future holds. Verse 32:

“…a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” vs. 32

Without something to look forward to, we can fall into depression and despair.  Israel had been without a prophet for 400 years. They hadn’t heard from God in generations.  Those stories about what God had done in Egypt and in times past must have seemed like fairy tales in some ways to many of those Israelites. It would have been at least 15-20 generations of people since they had heard from God. But now, Simeon has heard from God, Mary had heard from God, Elizabeth had heard from God, and Joseph had heard from God. God was on the move and things were beginning to fall into place again. For Simeon, this was a sign of hope for the future. Remember we read that he was righteous and devout.  Now listen to David’s words in Psalm 37:37:

“…there is a future for the man of peace.” Psalm 37:37

Simeon was a man of peace who now had hope for the future, even if he were to die. He got a glimpse of the bigger picture from God. He saw salvation and he rested with God’s promise.
A Season of Hope

I started by asking you what you wanted most this year for Christmas. I think it’s interesting we wrap our gifts. Gift wrapping originated in the mid 1800’s in the Victorian times when people produced paper that would match their cards.  I think I might choose to look at it this way: Every gift is wrapped because you can’t know what is behind the paper. There is hope that the gift inside is the thing that you want. Give a child a wrapped gift and you’ll see the hope as they try to figure out what is inside. Maybe we should look at this season as a season of hope. We can let the wrapping paper remind us that there is hope and that we have the hope of Christ in a season of hope.