The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:00 today's scripture reading is taken from Luke 2: 22-35 when the time came for the purification rise required by the law of Moses Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord every firstborn male is to be consec consecrated to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the Lord a pair of doves of two young pigeons now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout he was waiting for
00:00:39 the consolation of Israel and the and the Holy Spirit was on him it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah 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 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying Sovereign Lord as you have promised you may now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared
00:01:15 in the sight of all Nations a light for Revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your People Israel the child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him 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 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too this is the word of God thank you Abigail for doing the scripture
00:01:58 reading uh abigil uh hails from the first light girls home and she studies upstairs at our Covenant Christian Center there not she told me she was shaking with nervousness I said don't worry girl I makes a mistake okay once again it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God we are in the midst of a series of sermons for the Advent season as a kind of a buildup um uh to Christmas in a week's time we are looking at this year's uh Christmas through the lens of a few New Testament
00:02:42 characters last uh two Sundays ago we focused on the character of uh Zechariah and uh that was two Sundays ago and last Sunday Mary as you can see on the screen next Sunday Elder Arnold's topic will be on the wise men and this series on the characters of Christmas will culminate um with the Christmas message by Dr Peter uh on Christmas uh at the Christmas service on 25th December the last sermon of the Year by Pastor palan will be on the missions um uh to be that will be just one day before the missions conference
00:03:25 uh on 1st January but today our we will exam in u the third character of Christmas namely Simeon with a text taken from Luke 2: 22 to35 it is a narrative about this elderly gentleman uh meeting M Joseph Mary and their newborn child at the temple in Jerusalem as shown in this opening slide it is a relatively short passage but it's Speck with a lot of stuff especially because beneath the uh surface of the narrative there runs a a parallel track a deeper story of of redemption which we shall unpack at the
00:04:13 same time in order to refresh our minds and hearts as we prepare to celebrate Christmas soon we have a lot of uh grounds to cover and we shall spend a bit more time on the background to the text before we uh discuss this characters Simeon and what he said but shall we uh start with a word of prayer Our Father in Heaven Christmas comes and Christmas goes as we commemorate the birth of your son this year refresh us with the reason for the season as we consider this portion of scripture from Luke Chapter 2 may your
00:04:59 word speak to us today and impact us Beyond Today and this we ask in the name of your son amen sometime ago I don't remember when someone I don't remember who sent me this uh image it is a News Bulletin dated 2nd November 1997 long time ago from a time when we were one Church with pantai Baptist Church in Petaling jaaya there was a section in the bulletin on subang news in which was an announcement that there would be a baby dedication service that Sunday lean and I were there with our baby son
00:05:50 Jeremy today Jeremy is a tall uh 26 year old young man I was about to say tall and handsome somehow I just can't find a picture of the event but we remember how proud we were standing there on the stage with our baby as we consecrated him to God baby dedication service is a is certainly a wondrous and joyous occasion we conducted one not too long ago and we shall have another one uh sometime next year our text today begin also with a baby dedication right from the onset we see Joseph and Mary taking baby Jesus to the
00:06:38 temple in Jerusalem to present him to God you can imagine their overflowing sense of pride and joy as they step into the temple but little did they expect the drama that was about to unfold but before we navigate through the verses let me show you the structure to the text it can be divided into five parts with clear demarcations one the cleansing of Mary versus 22 and 24 and two the consecration of Jesus versus 22 and 23 and these two events happened at the same time within these three first three
00:07:20 verses the writer Luke then gives us a a brief description on the character of Simeon 25 to 26 for followed by the Canticle of Simeon 27-32 before ending with simeon's conversation with mary: 33 to35 but as mentioned just now underneath this below this surface narrative there runs a deeper parallel structure which I will share with you now one the Prelude to Salvation two the person behind salvation three the precondition for salvation four the promise of Salvation and lastly the price of Salvation it's going to be a bit of a
00:08:14 roller coaster right as we shuttle back and forth between uh what's on the surface and what's below and between these two parallel structures first the cleansing or purification of Mary the first half of verse 22 says when the time came for the purification rights required by the law of Moses you might ask what purification rights it's important to know and for this we need to draw a line to connect this to Leviticus 12 in verses 2 and four a woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will
00:09:01 be ceremonially unclean for 7 days just as uh she is unclean during her monthly period Then the woman must wait 33 days before uh to be purified from a bleeding this is the background Mary wants to be obedient to the Mosaic law she has just given birth and according to the law she is deemed to be in a state of ceremonial uncleanness for 7 days just like a woman who has just had her menstration but in the case of child birth there is an additional 33 days of uncleanness 33 + 7 is 40 and so having
00:09:50 completed this 40-day period Mary is now at the temple for her purification which is where we we are at the beginning of the text by inference baby Jesus whom Mary is carrying with her is 40 days old it is 40 days after Christmas now as evident from verse 23 or rather verse 24 Mary's purification rights involve offering as sacrifice a pair of doves or two young pigeons but where does it say in the law again we double back to Leviticus 12 down in verse 6 it it stipulates that the woman is to offer as sacrifice a
00:10:39 one-year-old lamb and a young pigeon or Dove but if you are financially challenge if you cannot afford a lamb Lambs are expensive then the law grants you a concession of offering two pigeons or doves in replacement Joseph and Mary are poor the lamb is beyond them and hence in this picture we see the young couple with baby Jesus arriving at the temple gate and Joseph look carefully Joseph carrying the two birds now to continue as I as I said the first two parts of the text the cleansing of Mary and the consecration
00:11:21 of Jesus are taking place simultaneously and so they arrive at the temple not just for Mary's purification rights but also at the same time to present their baby son to God which is clear in the rest of these early verses two things are happening at the same time it's like killing two birds with one stone if you would pardon the P again this is done in obedience to the law which is quoted here in verse 23 every firstborn on male is to be consecrated to God now this is taken from Exodus 13:2 where God commanded the Israelites
00:12:08 through Moses cons consecrate to me every firstborn male and so once more to adhere to the law Joseph and Mary bring their baby son to cons to consecrate him to God now this is perhaps the the basis of a baby dedication service which I spoke about just now and we because we do likewise consecrating our children to God but this verse actually runs deeper you see the command to consecrate the eldest son to God is rooted in the Redemption story of the Israelites It came it came about just after the last and most terrible plague
00:12:54 against the Egyptians namely the destructions of all the first born of Egypt now this is detailed in the in the in the rest of uh Exodus 13 you can read about it God was like telling the the Egypt the Israelites I struck down all the first borns of Egypt all the firstborn males of Egypt especially but I Spar your firstborn males so the consecration of the firstborn males in this Exodus 13 was therefore instituted as a sign of God's Redeeming Grace and here a tempting question arises why did Jesus need to be
00:13:45 consecrated the Hebrews were consecrating their their old oldest Sons to God because he had just redeemed them but Jesus needed No Redemption hello he is the Redeemer himself again the same can be asked uh about Jesus baptism later in Matthew Matthew 3 by John the Baptist why the need for Jesus to be baptized the baptism conducted by John the Baptist was a baptism of repentance but what was there for Jesus to repent of none he is sinless the only person on Earth without sin so why did Jesus have to be consecrated later
00:14:30 baptized the short answer is that he wanted to be identified with us sinners the one who is sinless was to dwell among Sinners he was consecrated like all uh Israelite firstborn males who were all born in sin he grew up and lived among the Jews were all lost in sin Jesus came as a human lived as a human lived amongst humans so that as the only perfect human he will later bear the sins of humans Luke 19:10 says for the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost actually not only to seek the
00:15:18 lost but also to dwell among them and later to save them that's the significance behind the consecration of Jesus he is a redeemer who identifies with those he redeems our God is not a distant God he lived amongst us and hence as we examine the text we can already detect themes of sin and Redemption right from the start even in the consecration of Jesus and here we we dig a little bit deeper to examine what's below the the surface narrative and we do so by revisiting the cleansing of Mary in verses 22 and
00:16:05 24 some of you may wonder why Mary needed to be purified did she commit some sin now back to Leviticus 12 it says that a woman who has given birth must be purified from her bleeding now child birth is accompanied by a by a lot of blood flowing out and it is this discharge of blood that made Mary ceremonially unclean and the same with menstration and further down again blood is mentioned then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood now this backs the question why did the discharge of blood make Mary
00:16:59 very unclean what's wrong with blood now I did address this in my sermon back in the January D year I explained that in the Bible blood is something very very precious it says three times in Leviticus 17 that the life of the creature is in the blood blood is equated with life itself and hence when life when blood is expelled out from the body during menstruation or child birth it is like life leaving the body and it was seen as a reflection of death that woman is considered unclean Al bit ceremonially not that she did anything
00:17:47 wrong our God is the god of life in those days if you touch a copse or had anything to do with death you couldn't go near to God and for that back to Leviticus 12 she is to sacrifice two animals for her purification one as burnt offering and the other as Sin offering but what is this burnt offering and sin offering this is one huge topic but very briefly in ancient Biblical times God instituted a very complex system of sacrificial offerings basically there are five types which I've uh written at the bottom right
00:18:33 corner starting with uh burn offering if you are interested to explore further they are all elaborated in Leviticus chapters 1 to5 now without digressing too much take the example of the burnt offering and the sin offering for which Mary brought the two birds in each of these an animal is slain for the purpose of a in for the sin of the one bringing the sacrifice now when I say sin here it also includes unintentional sin and also ceremonial uncleanness but how does it work you see sin brings about separation from God and
00:19:21 ultimately death in other words sin has consequences and that's what the sacrifice of all about let's say you have brought a lamb to the temple for sacrifice now the creature has to be perfect and unblemished you take it to this altar in the temple Courtyard you place your hand on the Lamb's head to symbolically transfer your sin to the animal before it is killed and burned on the altar now of course logically the sin doesn't really get transferred to the animal it's only symbolic go but God instituted this to
00:20:10 remind the Israelites of the seriousness of sin because of your sin this poor lamb has to die on your behalf it is paying the price to absolve you of the penalty of your sin so that your broken relationship with God can be restored in other words the animal died a substitutionary death in your place now why am I telling you all this because our text begins with the purification of Mary in verse 22 which required the sacrifice of two animals in verse 24 which sets the stage for the entire text which is the
00:20:56 big issue of sin and this this is the deeper meaning of part one the cleansing of Mary it is alluding to the pre the Prelude to Salvation which is our sin which necessitated God's plan for our Salvation from the Prelude to Salvation we now look at the person behind salvation according to this parallel structure as I said just now the purpose of the animal sacrifice was to remind the Israelites of the seriousness of sin but there is a much much larger purpose that is the animal sacrifices were to serve as the
00:21:41 foreshadow of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross they were supposed to point to the atoning death of Jesus many centuries later I pointed out that the that the sin of the person bringing the animal for sacrifice that his sin wasn't actually transferred to the animal the entire ritual was purely symbolic and it was meant to be temporary you see for our sins to be dealt with permanently for us to be completely free from the cursed of sin God has had planned for his son the Lamb of God to be sacrificed Jesus was the only person who
00:22:23 could who could deliver our Salvation not Birds or lamb when we were discussing the the consecration of Jesus we saw that he was the only sinless human who identified with sinful humans who dwelt among sinful humans and who later bore their sins it follows that when Jesus was was consecrated at the temple he was at the same time being presented as the Lamb of God this is not so noticeable she he was at the same time not just consecrated but presented as the Lamb of God the person behind our Salvation Joseph and Mary when they
00:23:08 brought baby Jesus to the temple for consecration they did it of course in obedience to the law in Exodus 13 but I don't think they realize that the occasion was also the presentation of the Lamb of God and through Joseph was told by an Angel that he was to give this the child the name Jesus Jesus because he would save his people from their sins the name Jesus means God Saves but I cannot imagine Joseph and Mary having any idea how this salvation of mankind would unfold that their son would one day die
00:23:45 a sacrificial death to to on the cross as the Lamb of God in this respect it is kind of interesting if we look at this picture one more time Joseph and Mary arriving at the Temple Gate with a man carrying a pair of a pair of birds because they couldn't afford a lamb they might have wished that they they had a lamb for for sacrifice for her purification rights but it was too expensive for them but little did they realized that all along she was carrying a lamb but spelled with a capital l the Lamb of
00:24:34 God the two birs they brought were sacrificed accordingly of course but the Lamb of God she was carrying would be sacrificed 33 years later we will come back to this at the end okay we have expended a lot of time uh on these three verses we have examined in detail the background to the text which is useful as a has built up to the rest of the text we are now ready to introduce the character of Simeon from verse 25 the The Writer's pen seems to be diverted to a new topic to a person named Simeon now we know very little about
00:25:16 about this man from the text he only says that he lived in Jerusalem and that he was righteous and devout and upright and Pious man the kind of person whom you would have nothing bad to say about it further says that the Holy Spirit was upon was upon him and hence he was a Spirit-filled man with spiritual credentials notice I didn't say religious man because you can be religious but not uh spiritual more notably Simeon or Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel from the end of verse 25 now who is this
00:26:02 consolation of Israel the answer is in the next verse 26 he's the Messiah who is none other than Jesus Christ Christ means Messiah this title consolation of Israel referring to Jesus of course appears only once in the Bible and right here in our text the writer might have picked this up from Isaiah 49 which is a chapter pointing to Jesus Jus because Isaiah 49:13 has this phrase for the Lord Comforts his people and hence the title The consolation of Israel anyway as a devout person Simon must have spent much time studying the
00:26:44 Old Testament and therefore aware of the many prophecies for foretelling the coming of the Messiah But Not only was he aware but he was also waiting for the Messiah now actually waiting for the Messiah to come was nothing worthy of note because there must be other devout Jews also waiting for the Messiah but what is of interest to us is that the Holy Spirit had indicated to Simeon that he would get a chance to come face to face with the Messiah before the end of his life he gets to see the Messiah before
00:27:25 he dies now this this does suggest that Simeon was an old man this was later hinted late uh in the verse 29 when he finally encountered the Messiah allbit baby Jesus he he he let out a a cry of joy and he said to the effect that he was now ready to die now that he had seen what was promised to him now a younger person wouldn't say he's ready to die only an old person would possibly a very old man and so we have this profile that he was in now in his sermon two weeks ago our brother John Lee gave us a glimpse of what was going
00:28:12 on in that part of the world at that time now in those days the Jewish people were under Roman occupation and oppression the land of the Jews was just a tiny Province called Judea in the vast Roman Empire and the Romans were a brutal force that's on the political front on the spiritual on the religious front the religious Elites were terrible the Sadducees were were too preoccupied uh with worldly Pursuits or the Pharisees were too steep in their legalism and what is worse God had not spoken for 400 years
00:28:59 the last prophets who stood up and proclaimed thus says the Lord they hadn't shown up for four centuries God had been silent for too long those were dark times for the Jewish people in simeon's days they might have asked where is God where is God in these turbulent times a few days ago I was browsing through this website Israel today which I do so occasionally and I chance upon this headline where was God on October 7 October 7 was the day when Southern Israel was just a two months ago when Southern Israel was attacked by brutal
00:29:50 terrorists where is God I tell you where God is God showed up in the form of a baby human baby on the first Christmas Day and ministering to them when he left he sent his Spirit to dwell in the hearts of those who would believe and receive him which includes us read 1 Corinthians 3:16 that is where God is within us just like how the spirit was with Simeon now back to the character of uh of Simeon he was a devout upright man of God filled with the spirit but in the time of spiritual Darkness but he remained faithful and
00:30:47 steadfast during a time when his world seemed to have turned upside down he remained hopeful and watchful waiting to meet his Messiah now why am I saying all this because Simeon can be for us an example because in similar vein we live in darkness in a darken and troubled world people are increasingly turning away from God and turning against God we are bombarded daily with news of wars and pestilences covid-19 seems to be back but God is Not silent he's continuously working in us and through us like Simon let's remain faithful and
00:31:39 steadfast a light for Christ in a fallen World Jesus promised us that he will return soon now although he didn't promise that we will get we will live to the day uh to see him but like Simeon we should also remain hopeful and watchful now let's again dig deeper and draw what's below the surface narrative we've already seen uh Simeon as an old man a devout person but what is less explicit in the text is that he was an unknown character he's not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible he appears here in
00:32:25 Luke 2:25 we read all we can about about him over couple of verses and he disappears there is very little we know about him it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he's just an ordinary guy I think no different from any nice elderly gentleman in your neighborhood the Bible doesn't tell us a lot about Simeon but that's also very telling I think it tells us that God is Not partial to any particular group of people when it comes to opportunities to have an encounter with Jesus even an ordinary fellow like Simeon had a
00:33:08 chance in other words you too can have an encounter with Jesus no matter who you are salvation of Jesus is freely offered to all there is no exception we started with the with a Prelude to Salvation and then the person behind salvation and now the precondition to salvation is there any precondition for salvation none whatsoever and here is the good news of Jesus Christ we come to the climax of the text the tentacle of Simeon the fourth part verses uh 27-32 verse 27 tells us that at the spirit's prompting Simeon went to the
00:33:55 temple Courtyard at the precise moment when Joseph and Mary arrived with their child it was a Divine divinely arranged appointment now did Simeon not expect Jesus to be in fully grown adult what was his reaction when when he saw that the Messiah was was just a 40 day old infant well we have no idea and how did he know that the Messiah Mah was the baby that Mary was carrying of course it was the Holy Spirit leading him I didn't expect him to go around asking are you the Messiah are you the Messiah is this the Messiah
00:34:41 he went straight to baby Jesus what I find interesting is that it was at the temple that Simeon found the Messiah now if you allow me the latitude to imagine a little bit now since Simeon was a devout Jew je I imagine him going to the temple every day to pray and to worship after the Holy Spirit indicated to him that he would get get a chance to see the Messiah I imagine him staying longer and longer at the temple hoping to see the Messiah I think all the temple priests and the gods got to know him very well
00:35:21 oh hello Simeon you again they in day out Simeon was at the temple until the appoint appointed moment arrived you know it's good that Simeon didn't go around town looking for the Messiah unlike unlike the wise men who went around Jerusalem asking where they might find the king of the Jews which was not very wise of them because when King heral got win of their query he got very alarmed it sounds strange when I say that the wise men not so wise anyway to get on with the story Simon must have asked to be
00:36:06 allowed to carry the baby verse verse 28 says that he took the he took baby Jesus in his arms when she was asked I believe Mary was a bit reluctant perhaps thinking he be careful with my baby yeah he you look very old and frail remember that Simeon was a total stranger to the young couple coming to the climax of the whole episode when Simeon held the infant in his arms he was overwhelmed with joy it was as if he had found a priz treasure a precious Jewel nothing else mattered to him now that he encountered the Messiah all bit
00:37:06 a baby when we encountered Jesus at the point of our Salvation what was our reaction when we shall encounter Jesus physically when he returns what will be our reaction simeon's reaction was one of exceeding Joy so much so that he burst out praising God from verse 29 to 32 32 32 he addressed God directly and poured out what is now known as the tentacle of Simeon or simeon's song now we're not exactly sure if this was indeed a song but because the words are arranged in a song format it is possible that Simeon sang
00:37:54 this song now to digress a bit the writer Luke actually documented for us four songs in his Nativity account you may think of them as the first Christmas carols we have the Canticle of Mary by far the most well-known from Luke 1 then the tentacle of Zechariah also from Luke 1 and then Gloria and excelsis by the angels from Luke two and lastly the tentacle of Simeon which is what we are looking at now now this is just for your Bible knowledge the tentacle of Simeon itself consists of two halves the first half
00:38:35 about himself and the second half about Jesus in verse 26 he he starts by saying or singing Sovereign Lord as you have promised now he's referring to the promise that he will get to see the Messiah before he dies and then he continues you may dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation meaning now I finally come face to face with the Messiah who brings your salvation but what does he mean you may now dismiss your servant in peace now it's a poetic way of saying now that I've seen the face of the
00:39:19 Messiah it's enough for me this a best thing that's happened to me I can now die in peace from verse 32 Simeon goes on to focus on the object of his devotion namely the Messiah and he describes him using a technique known as parallelism a light for Revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your People Israel light passs with Glory Gentiles with Israel now this verse is is crucial because it tells us that God's salvation plan is to be expanded to include all peoples of the world God's Redemptive Rich will now be
00:40:08 extended to the Gentiles and not just the Jews the kingdom of God will now comprise Believers of all tribes and tongues which is a scene from Revelation 7:9 the tentacle of Simeon would later set the stage for the explosion of the Gospel throughout the vast Roman Empire this is well recorded in the book of Acts Gentiles came to Faith from Philippi to Ephesus from colos to Rome and much much later to subang Jaya and this squares with what we discussed earlier that the salvation of Jesus is now offered freely to all
00:41:02 regardless of your racial background and this is also this also aligns with our vision to have a multi-ethnic multi- lingual congregation which is why we also run the Tagalog taml BM and cany services and we hope to see more Believers from various Nations in this Hall moving on once again that's dig deeper to bring out the next point the promise of Salvation and we are still on the tentacle of Simeon and I wish to go back to verse 31 your salvation which you have prompt which you have prepared in the sight of
00:41:51 all Nations what does it mean in the sight of all Nations actually Simon's Proclamation here in verse 31 originates from Isaiah 5210 the Lord has be his holy arm before the eyes of all Nations and all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of our God all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of our God which makes things a little bit clearer the whole world will get to see the salvation of God which is the coming of Jesus the Messiah which is what we see now Christmas as the commemoration
00:42:27 of the birth of Christ is known throughout the Nations but what I really want to convey is that what Simon says here is not entirely new the birth of Jesus the coming of God's salvation was already prophesied in Isaiah 5210 in fact the whole book of Isaiah contains so many uh verses and passages pointing to Jesus in fact not only Isaiah but the whole the entire Old Testament is packed with numerous prophecies about God's Redemption plan to the person of Jesus and Simon must have read about them there are so many metaphors and and
00:43:17 foreshadows and signs throughout the Old Testament pointing to the day the Lamb of God will be sacrificed for our sake the system of animal sacrific we talked about earlier is one such example this is what I mean by the promise of Salvation we find it in the tentacle of Simeon we find we can discern it throughout the Old Testament God had already crafted his salvation Plan before the foundation of the world he he had already set into his Cosmic timetable the birth of Jesus his death and Resurrection talking about the promise
00:43:56 of Salvation you see in verse 26 God made a promise to Simeon which he kept throughout the Old Testament God also made a promise of Salvation to mankind which he has also kept finally the last part of the text the conversation with Mary the last three verses now after his tentacle Simeon turns to Joseph and Mary utters a blessing for them and starts to reveal amazing things to Mary but at first the couple Marvel at what the gentleman has said in his tacle they Marvel not because they were unaware of jesus' Destiny as a savior of
00:44:49 the of of mankind that they already know since an angel has already told Joseph I think they are surprised because they meet this complete stranger and he also knows about it but the key here is what Simeon discloses to Mary which is prophetic remember that the Holy Spirit was is upon him first he tells uh Mary in verse 34 this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel what is this falling and rising of many earlier a part on the on the precondition for salvation I I I've
00:45:31 already put across that God's salvation through Jesus is offered freely to all without exception but what I didn't mention is that not all will accept this offer although they might have heard about Jesus recall Isaiah 5210 all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of our God but only some will see and accept the offer While most others will see and reject it this is the painful reality the seeds of the Gospel are SED on various types of soil but they will only grow in one type of soil those in whose heart the seeds of
00:46:19 the Gospel flourish they will rise to eternal life while the rest will fall into condemnation and once again verse 34 this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many I know it sounds harsh but God is a tri holy God no one can come to God in his sin not even an iota of sin only those who sin has been washed away by the blood of the Lamb sorry in God's economy there is no middle ground no sitting on the fence either you're inside his kingdom or you're outside either you rise or you
00:47:14 fall to wrap up the last three lines are really the Cornerstone of the text Simeon is now pointing us to a specific event to a specific event not noticeable but there is something he wants to talk about what event the rest of verse 34 says this child is to be a sign that will be spoken against meaning there will be those who will speak against Jesus not only will people reject him many will oppose him challenge him and even plot against him Simeon is hinting at the religious Elites of his days it's not expit here but Simeon is
00:48:06 alluding to the crucifixion of Jesus the next line supports this the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed this can be understood as from those opposing Jesus and those plotting to kill him they are hypocrisy and deceit and hatred will be exposed I know our text is part of the Nativity account but Simeon is taking us to the crucifixion the last line is most somber the sword will pierce your soul sorry a a sword will pierce your own soul too he looks at Mary you see Mary a day will come when you'll be devastated to see your child
00:49:00 hanging on the cross your heart will be filled with so much pain seeing him dying on the cross is Ain to a sword piercing your soul now although Mary's reaction is not recorded here it is so remarkable that the text ends with an illusion to the cross within the last line within this last line is clearly embedded a sign pointing to the day the Lamb of God would be sacrific remember the Lamb of God that Mary was was carrying in verse 22 don't you see that the start and the end of the text are tied
00:49:47 together furthermore during her child birth Mary shed blood which made it unclean but at the cross Jesus shed blood that has made us clean also Mary went to be purified symbolically of course through the death through the sacrifice of of two animals in the end we all got purified permanently spiritually through the death of the Lamb of God this is digging deeper into the fifth and last part of the text you are talking we are talking about the price of salvation yes the salvation of God is offered
00:50:31 freely to all free free offer but it cost the life of his precious son all salvation has been purchased at a very high price let's not forget that and there you go we are done with 14 verses of the text with pack with a lot of details but I trust that these verses will resonate in your hearts in the days leading to Christmas in conclusion I leave you with a bit of reflection uh to serve as a point of uh of application in conclusion this I want to go back one more time to the top of the tentacle of uh of uh
00:51:22 Simeon it says Sovereign Lord you may now dismiss your servant in peace now I've already explained what this means but let me finish by elaborating a little bit I see these verse these words as Laden with emotions Simeon as we saw is was an ordinary man just like you and me he was an old man having experience all the ups and downs of life so let me attempt to rephrase what he was saying oh Lord hear me out I'm old I'm tired I've seen much but now that I've encountered Jesus that's all I really need I'm ready to
00:52:24 die take me home let me rest let me find Eternal rest in your bosom that's what I believe he was trying to say now how many of us are able to say that in the first place we are not ready to die we don't want to die but having encountered Jesus all of you if Jesus is your all in all at the point point of your death are you able to say I'm ready take me home in Simon's words Sovereign Lord you may now dismiss your servant in peace think about it shall we close in prayer Our Father in Heaven grant that
00:53:21 we have such an encounter with your son Jesus so that like see on our perspectives and priorities will be radically changed and that our joy multiplied especially in this season of Christmas we ask this in the name of your son amen amen shall We rise and sing our closing song together and declare that Christ is our all law all in all as a [Music] response You Are My Strength You Are My Strength when I am weak you are the treasure that I See You Are My All In All seeking you as a precious Jew Lord to
00:54:33 give up I be a You Are My All In All Jus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Jes Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your [Music] name taking my [Music] sin taking my sin my cross my shame Rising again I bless your name you are my all and all when I fall down you pick me up and when I am try you f my cup you are my all and all Jus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Jus Lamb of God Worthy is your name sing Jesus Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Jesus L of God Worthy is your name i s that chorus again just your voices oh
00:56:42 Jesus of God Worthy is your name Jesus Lamb of God Worthy [Music] is if you will all please remain standing people of God receive now the benediction in this season of Mirth and giving may you be thankful for the life you are Liv Liv in the midst of all this celebration may it be for you a time of elation because of God's Gift of a baby boy may you be filled with unsurpassed Joy our precious savior was sent from above may you always taste his power and love go now in the Peace of the Lord God bless you the service is over now please
00:58:00 do stay back uh for prayers if you want the pastors and Elders will be in front and please do join us uh In the Garden Cafe for a cup of coffee and fellowship
