Luke chapter 2 began in verse 21, this is God's word, eternal and true. 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. When the time of their purification, according to the law of Moses, had been completed, just been married to come to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two young pigeons. 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. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servants and peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him, then Simeon blessed them and said to marry 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. Herein's our reading, there's a response of thankfulness that's printed for us in our bulletin. The word of the Lord, thanks indeed. Thanks indeed. The Simeon's an interesting character, he speaks of the rising and the falling of some. We can think about our lives and different rising and falling that we have is watching Elf yesterday and James Khan says to his wife, I'm one bad pitch away from losing my job. His rising or his falling based on his work, perhaps if you're newly married and your in-laws come over on Christmas or Thanksgiving and you're making the meal, maybe you're rising and falling if you have maybe judgmental or less than gracious in-laws or maybe just hungry in-laws may fall on how well you do that, how well you do that meal, you may rise in their opinion or you may fall. I told a couple of you this morning already yesterday when I think what happened, I do get the stuffing ready first and then I do the turkey, I do the turkey on Christmas and when I turn the time, I just like preheat the oven and then I get the stuffing going up on the stove top and when I think when I turned off the timer for this stuffing after that five minutes I turned off the oven and so at the end of two and a half hours thanks to Reynolds oven bags, you know they make that cooking fat, those of you who cook turkeys, you know that's really fast because you put those bags around your turkey. So basically the last step when everything else is ready is you open the oven and you get the turkey out and put the rolls in which take 10 minutes and then you're ready to go and I open that oven and the turkey was white and I'm cooked and I noticed my forearm hairs had not been singed in the least when I opened up the oven there and so we had Thanksgiving meal, fortunately that was the lunch meal so we had Thanksgiving meal that was meatless there so we were hit and cool, we had vegetarian Thanksgiving meal and we just I just turned on the oven and the turkey was ready at about three o'clock later and we ate it then kind of sporadically throughout the rest of the rest of the day but fortunately my family they were not judgmental in laws or laws there to me and very gracious and so though I deserve to fall I did not fall. But when we look at Jesus we see Simeon what he says about Jesus is that Jesus causes the rising and falling of people. Jesus isn't just the cosmic fairy dust sprinkler over the whore earth and everybody's okay and we can say when someone dies he's in a better place now we can't say that and Simeon knew that from the start Jesus caused the rising and falling of people and that Jesus presents with reveal hearts even among very devout religious Jewish people during Simeon's day Jesus coming and being a king proclaiming his kingdom, pronouncing the forgiveness of sins upon various people usually those who were despised that it unveiled what was going on in people's hearts and some hearts rejoiced in Jesus and that caused their rise and some hearts were mad at Jesus and that caused their falling but our introduction here if you like to fill out blanks and an outline you're welcome to do that we start off with this this morning that looks point here through Simeon and what Simeon declares is that all persons eternal state all persons eternal state depends on what they do with Jesus so that's if you like to fill out those blanks there you go and your introduction there all persons eternal state depends on what they do with Jesus and we talked about before as we've been through the front part of Luke here Luke just in short Luke was probably a Roman governor of some kind he's called most excellent sorry theophilus to whom Luke wrote Luke writes his gospel to one person theophilus some say well that's just literally means God lover like Philadelphia city of brother we love well theophilus theo is God and and full us is love and so they say well maybe this is just generally to the one who loves God but but most consider this was really written to a person to the church secondarily but to a person and to someone who was not governing in Rome and Luke seems to be writing this as Paul is in prison in Rome and so perhaps theophilus is there in Rome and might have a say and and Paul's fate and maybe he did Paul was let go after after two years but one of the things as we look at the gospel Luke then we're always looking and saying what would this have meant to me if I were theophilus if I were a believing Roman governor what implication would this have for me and so a few things here that we see here number one through the words of Simeon we see from the get go at Jesus being brought to the temple here that Christianity is transnational and transcultural Christianity is transnational and transcultural we can see this in verses 31 and 32 look at verse 31 there in your Bibles of Luke chapter 2 Simeon there says in verse 31 that his eyes had seen the salvation which God had prepared in the sight of all people this is not just the Jews, not just Jerusalemites, not just Jewish people but for all people if theophilus is being told here you've rightly been included as a Gentile one with a Gentile name one who serves in the Roman government you've been included too but it also explains what's been going on for the past 30 years across the Roman Empire people all kinds of people have come to faith in Jesus all kinds of people were in the churches all over the Roman Empire there were Greeks and people from Asia Minor which was Turkey there were Italians there were people from all these various places who were not Jewish Simeon declares right here Jesus is come for all people of verse 32 he goes on and he says Jesus is a light for revelation or for information giving important information for to the Gentiles and so theophilus was told here that Christianity as you've observed in the Roman church which had Jews and Gentiles in it this is happened all over the kingdom and this was God's intent when he sent Jesus this was no mistake people who were Gentiles were not in the proper community of God known as the church by mistake or that they had snuck in and in the last day they wouldn't be accepted but from the get go Jesus was there for all people and for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews this is why Jesus says in the Matthew 28 to his disciples 11 Jewish guys make disciples of all nations Acts chapter 1 which Luke would write after the gospel of Luke he would repeat this and in Jesus last works to his disciples before he ascended to heaven after being with his disciples about 40 days after his resurrection he said the gospel will be preached this message will be preached to Jerusalem Judea which was the region around Jerusalem and Samaria which was a little bit north of that and to the ends of the earth and to everywhere to Samaria and the ends of the earth and so this is something on Luke's mind as he communicates with theophilus that the gospel was to all peoples now this for us means that we can be encouraged with the power of the church to be able to grow it doesn't matter to God if somebody's grown up in some environment where they haven't had Christianity whether that's somewhere in the United States where their parents and grandparents never went to church or whether that's somebody from a Muslim country that disallows all other religions besides Islam or God is not limited by that that was inconceivable to a Jew that God would open up to Romans there in the first century who were oppressing them in the promised land their enemies in the promised land that he would open up the gospel to them but he did and so God is doing that he's opening up salvation through Jesus revelation giving them the information they need to know to believe and to be and to be saved and so think about that with your unbelieving friends when we were and staff of campus crusade we were given very good training and support raising because all our livelihood was through support we had raised there were no central funds and so we went and talked to churches and individuals about support but we were taught to list out pretty much everybody we knew and put them in categories of most likely maybe and least likely and you called guess what you're most likely folks most likely to give to your ministry first and then when those rain out you called to the middle people and then finally got to your least likely but one thing we see with the gospel is that God often brings the least likely to faith that was the case with Paul the Pharisees would have said that of all Jesus disciples who followed him around they were the least likely as we talked about Christmas Eve if you were here in the least likely in the least likely for the shepherds you know they were the ones who were out with their sheep and probably couldn't attend worship services and so nobody of their day would have said that God would get this revelation to them that this Savior has been born in Bethlehem so people from every tribe and tongue and nation are with God in heaven we saw that scene at Jesus ascension as we read responsibly this morning in our colder worship revelation five people from every tribe and tongue and nation around Jesus thrown now and they have been since he ascended on high and people from every tribe and tongue and nation will continue to believe in our day and in the New Heavens and New Earth when Jesus comes back it will consist of people of all kinds from all the DNA that God created there will be all that variety there in the New Heavens and New Earth as well as it being in heaven today and so Christianity is transnational and transcultural it crosses all these things now number two number two why is Christian asking and answering the question here why is Christianity transnational and transcultural why isn't it just a thing that a certain particular people in some tribe or some nation somewhere believe in no one else why is Christianity in every nation and among all of every tribe Christianity transnational transcultural because it has a transnational and transcultural appeal it has an appeal to each person regardless of what nation he's in or what his culture is or subculture within a nation within a culture and here's the transcultural here's the transnational appeal it gives its members Christianity gives its members peace about death everybody's worried about death Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 says that to us that we as Christians the writer of Hebrews says to his readers who are also people in Rome most likely he says to his readers there that we lived all our lives before we knew Jesus under the fear of death and Jesus relieves us from that fear of death here's what the writer of Hebrews says Hebrews 2, 14 since the children that is us have flesh and blood Jesus too shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy Satan who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those us who believe free us who all our lives were held in slavery by our fear of death we have a fear of death because we know our sins Paul talks about in Romans 1 and 2 that every person believer unbeliever the god is imprinted in their soul that there is a god and that they're accountable to him and that their accountability to him is based on his law that's what Paul declares to us in Romans 1 and 2 so when someone says they don't believe that's what they're saying that's not what their heart is telling that you know it's like when someone won't face reality you know the person is about to die oh I'll be okay you guys go ahead you know those war movies or whatever you know and every they're not facing reality and people think I can tell myself over and over again something that's not true maybe if I say it enough time to myself it'll become true we know that from you know political history from from the world over you know lies that have been told by politicians and leaders over and over pretty soon people come to believe those things I remember as a history major in college did all my history classes in American history looking deeper into McCarthyism in the 50s and that was one of the you know decades after looks at things that you know Joe McCarthy said you know I hold in my hand a list of I forget how many said 297 communists who are you know it and he never revealed the list and we don't know if he just had a takeout menu in his hand or not but he said it so many times it became common belief and you keep that mind when elections come around and that's why we want to check facts and all but people can convince themselves they're okay with their death but their hearts are not saying that the reason guilt exists in a person and it's the great joke with sign felt sign felt is there always guilty all the time they're always doing sneaky things that are for their best and to the detriment of the other people around them. And so they're always feeling guilty and asking each other you know is it okay if I've done this is that acceptable you know they're just trying to stay above the other person and they don't want to get called out for not being okay. So you know I recent episode I watched Jerry cause Baboo across the street to convert his restaurant to all Pakistani and it's a big flop and so Jerry's across the street you are a bad man and he's across the street watching all the restaurant equipment being taken out and of course feeling very guilty but talking about something else so that he doesn't feel as guilty and making excuses for it but that's the case with our neighbors and our friends and it's the case with us prior to faith in Jesus but we see it in Simeon here and I love this I joke with this you ever hear me say this it's always a Simeon reference when something really trivial happens you know or someone says something to me that I absolutely don't care about I say oh good now I can die in peace. But Simeon says this look where he says in verse 29 sovereign Lord as you've promised you now dismiss your servants in peace. Now I can die happy sometimes we hear that expression now I can die happy now I can go in peace because what you've promised that I didn't see with my eyes but I believed that you would send a new son of David through whom my sins would be atoned for now my eyes have seen him and it was no longer completely by faith but now he has seen this child in the Holy Spirit within him and prompted him to go and see Jesus has brought into the temple there and he goes and he knows now I can die in peace God has been faithful to his promise those who die in faith in the mercy of God in Jesus will have life ever more so I can die I'm good I'm good to go Simeon says there Luke 229 sovereign Lord as you've promised you now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation and that's the case for us as believers we're okay with being killed we're okay with I mean dying is not fun I had a professor in seminary Steve Brown some of you have heard his radio shows and he said I just went on my death bed I just don't want to say anything embarrassing but we face death and many of you have had parents who have gone to be with the Lord or brother or sister who were ready to go you know I think about Linda sister and Alan's mom you know just saying why was the Lord in keeping me here I'm ready to go and I know it will be sad for you but they were they were like Simeon at peace I'm ready I can die in peace I'm not I'm not worried it will be better for me and they're only sorrow is for for you who they've left they've left behind so we're okay to die I think about this for the office you're dealing in Rome and they were not yet persecuting Christians for the fire of Rome that would come in just a couple of years but the office would know you know what he could say to Nero if you try to extinguish Christians they won't give up their faith because they're okay with dying you take them to something better if you persecute them so Nero don't think that's attractive that will work and perhaps the office could save some Christians from death on earth for a while to have a further ministry on earth like Paul talked about in Philippians 1 if the Lord keeps me here that just as for your sake that gives me more time to minister to others around me on this earth but this was the case Rome's bringing Christian martyrs putting Christians to death for their faith for real believers in the Lord it was not going to change things for them they'd say well I'd rather you know not that I get chewed apart by lions in the coliseum but when my heart takes that last beat I will be okay death for the Christian as Paul says in Philippians 1 23 to be is to be with Christ which is better by far as a Paul said when he contemplated whether his imprisonment would wind up in death number 3 number 3 so Christianity's transnational and transcultural because it's a it's a peel everybody's going to die everybody fears death and Christianity's appeal is you don't have to fear death if you believe in Jesus because he forgives your sins and to die in Christ is gain and it's to be with him with Christ in heaven so number three third thing for the office here and for us Christianity's message of Jesus will determine who rises and who falls for eternity not just in the temporary viewpoint of your your family or your in-laws or or your boss or whoever but it'll determine who rises and who falls for eternity we looked at Matthew 22 in the first 14 verses of that Jim read for us this morning the wedding banquet for the son all are invited Jesus speaks there of that the word going out in Old Testament times to the Jews they didn't care so he sent a servant the prophets out a second time to the same people and they said no thanks and he sends out Jesus they say no thanks by and large and so then he says okay invite anybody and they go out and it says there they gather all they can gather anyone is interested in sitting at what we know from Revelation 19 the wetting supper of the lamp anyone who wants to be with Jesus is invited is invited to come is invited to rise so all are invited but fewer are chosen few will come to honor the son that's what the feast is about and for those who aren't interested in honoring the son Jesus they don't come to the wedding banquet they say well I'd rather do my business I'd rather you know binge watch you know this new show I'm watching or whatever they're not interested in coming to honor the son but those who are that brings their their rising but those who aren't interested or who try to take the benefits without the faith that the guy who comes in he doesn't have the wedding clothes no respect for the son no respect for the father he just rolls out of bed like the guy saw in Walmart with his footplops and pajama pants I thought wow that took a lot of effort to get out they look kind of cool but but yeah those who come to honor the son those are those who don't fall but but those who don't care about honoring the son very they're not included at the beginning or they're cast out like this man and Jesus doesn't say oh but he'll be okay Jesus says cast amounts out of darkness where there will be weeping in the gnashing of teeth I'm a grinder I grind at night because I have this mouth guard that I wear and worn places on my teeth from years ago when I didn't wear but grinding it have you ever been are you I don't know if you're like me when I'm really in a very bad headache or migraine or flu or something like that sometimes I actually start grinding my teeth and it's just involuntary and I have to quit you know but I think maybe this is it you know just somebody in so much pain and but worse than having the flu or that grinds teeth so John 2031 we read nerd declaration the gospel this one you can look at that in the front page of your bolts and those who believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God by believing have life in his name that's your a point there in your three your three a some will rise through faith in Jesus Simeon's words verse 34 Simeon blessed them said to Mary's mother this job is just to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and a sign that will be spoken against so some rise through faith in Jesus and that's what John says at the end of his gospel I've written this whole gospel so that if you believe you'll have life in Jesus name but if you reject Jesus like you see all through my gospel that you know Jesus has really intense confrontations with the Pharisees the unbelieving Jews and they are the ones who fall Matthew 2534 Matthew writes then the king Jesus will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the king prepared for you since the creation of the world so there's some who rise when Jesus comes he calls them out it says come take the inheritance Sunday school people hear that word take the inheritance enter into the promise land the land of rest that have promised you the land flowing with milk and honey the land of fruitfulness so to speak but then be many will not many will not believe and will fall even though the reality that Christian tells salvation that's your blank salvation through Jesus solves everyone's problem with death so Christianity has an appeal to everybody regardless of their culture or subculture or nation geographical location on the earth is this universal appeal because it takes care of death and doesn't take care of death by works that you do by getting in the right mental state by Buddhism or take care of death by saying well you're a bad guy but you wiped out this many people through your jihad death or whatever or all the various ways various religions all throughout the history of mankind have said well maybe that will help you better if you're Hindu then you'll come back as a cow and that's not so bad as long as you live in a Hindu nation and there are no Wendy's but this is something that Christianity takes care of death and it's death from a just God everybody wants justice just not on them right I want justice on everybody else except those that I love most of time and but God takes care of death through justice we're talking about this morning Sunday school he justly puts his are the penalty for our sin he enact that on Jesus he says the sins that each of us did that affected other people in a negative way he's going to deal with that injustice because we violated someone who bears the image of God all of our sins have violated people and God says that matters because people bear my image and so he doesn't just say ah get over it even to the non-believer he doesn't say I'm not going to punish that sin that was again done against you the non-believer has no complaint against God in the final judgment that God has not been fair because God has in Jesus or will at final judgment punish every sin that's been done against any non-believer as he punishes every sin done against us as well but God accomplishes this overcoming of death through the cross he solves it he maintains his justice punishing all sin perfectly through the cross in Jesus so second Thessalonians 212 says that even though this appeal is universal solving your problem of death and judgment many will not believe but that is disaster for them Christianity the Bible is very clear that's disaster for someone who doesn't believe second Thessalonians 212 says all will be condemned to have not believed the truth Matthew 2541 the flip side of what Jesus says to those on his right where he says to those on his right you come take the inheritance that I prepared for you from the foundation of the world he says to those on his left depart from the you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels so what Simeon says here is true it's really rising and falling and Jesus in his adult life on earth confirms this and then he confirms it through his apostle Paul and other apostles who write the scriptures people rise and fall based on Jesus if they believe in Jesus they rise to eternal life to eternal inheritance if they don't believe in Jesus they fall to a place of weeping in gnashing of teeth they are condemned eternally and taken to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels now what about this life that's the future you know everyone rises and falls on Jesus and everyone rises and falls based on Jesus what are we to expect in this life and that was a valid question to ask in the first century okay so Jesus has come everyone rises and falls based on their belief and disbelief in him it's God going to dismantle the kingdoms of the world now and people will rise and fall if they're Christians so rise and take over the earth and if they're not they'll fall and God will wipe them out and we find out what to expect in Jesus parable in Matthew 13 right after the parable the soils and Jim read it for us this morning but here's your blank or here's your line here number four Luke communicates the office what the office is supposed to expect as he serves as a Roman governor expect that's your first word expect a mixture expect a mixture of believers a few Jesus said the road is narrow that leads to eternal life expect a mixture of believers and unbelievers that'll be most people until Jesus returns until Jesus returns so simian in verse 34 rising and falling that will exist until Jesus returns Matthew 13 verses 24 through 30 Jesus tells us parable about the wheat and the wheat or the tears if you like the old King James there and he says the sower goes out and so it's the king of heaven the gospel goes out and Jesus communicates it as gospels like a seed that's planted he had just said that in the first verses of Matthew 13 and the gospel goes out and it's like a seed that's sewn in the field and the world is God's field God is making disciples of all nations and he's throwing his seed out there to plant and believers start growing up but then in the night the enemy comes and he plants he goes and takes those fuzzy things of the top of dandy lions and he shakes those around all over or you know that workman sometimes says I'll send him a picture of a weed or he says that's evil get that out of your yard sometimes I send those to Carl to and Carl tells me what's going on with it but yeah he sprinkles weeds seeds all over the place and so all of a sudden the field is full of wheat and weeds and so the question comes up that Luke answers for the office what should we do should we do the crusades like the church and the 1100's, 1200's there, 10, 100's, whatever that you call that and the answer is no, the answer is no there is a harvest time Jesus teaches in that parable there's a harvest time which is final judgment but until that final judgment occurs there will be wheat and weeds side by side and are mixed even within a family that was especially the case in that first century where he had Jews, Jewish families and some believed in Jesus and some didn't but you have that today we've all come from background many of us have come from backgrounds where we have brothers and sisters or mom and dad who have not believed but it's good news that things will be mixed for us because that means they're still, so you're saying they've got a chance yes they've got a chance that they will still believe that Saul in our who's our mom or our dad or our brother or even our child may become Paul because there's a mixture this is an era until Jesus comes of grace God is graciously dealing with people and he just like you and we have to think back to our own selves we didn't probably none of us believe the first time we heard the gospel or at our first Christmas when we heard about Jesus being born in Bethlehem or in Bethlehem Savior has been born to you probably none of us is a three-year-old, four-year-old had that first response what do you mean a Savior? do I need to be saved? how can I get saved probably none of us had that response right? but God is patient with us and he was chipping away these various aspects of our disbelief and our lack of understanding that we had so it brought us to that place where then we heard the gospel for the umpteenth time and we said I did it now but that's for us to know we live in a mixed world and so this means for us one word of egregious with the people around us they may be our future brothers and sisters in Christ and we need to not despise people who are around us but be like Jesus and be compassionate and loving to people who don't think like we think or advocating things that are that we don't like like the University of Michigan or just you know whatever it is you know we're all born in different eras and so you know we've got you know a mis timing on groups we like I could I could Randy and Matt workman you know when they were liking music I was in a blackout of non-Christian music so you know I don't know a song that I can't name a Pearl Jam song I can't or Nirvana those were groups that were popular when I wasn't listening to that stuff at all but someone who likes journey you know I have to deal with the fact that I'm going to be in heaven with them but I won't stop believing for all that because Jesus arms are open to that okay enough bad jokes about a bad group okay onward but expect a mixture Lucas to expect this used to expect to be governing over a kingdom where some people were believers and some people weren't and that would be the case until Jesus returned and that's a message for us to just hold your horses be patient it's going to be this way here's Jesus words about when he comes back it'll be like the days of Noah how many people believed in the days of Noah you know the number shout it out eight eight people were of saving faith in the days of Noah and even as they saw him build that boat whether Noah was actually verbally preaching Peter talks about in second Peter Noah preached to those in his day first Peter three for first to this as well or whether it was just the ark itself was a testament that judgment is coming and you should talk to Noah and try to get on that boat and you would have been light on to that boat that there will be this mixture of mixture of people until that day Luke 17 26 or 30 is that and Jesus says but when I come will I find faith on earth and where to respond to that and say yes you will my faith and I'll talk the gospel to other people it's a motivational thing for us but expect a mixture of believers and unbelievers until Jesus returns and then he'll take care of all things don't try to pull weeds now Jesus teaching at the parable if you if you go after somebody who's not a believer now you're going to damage even to believers right you know how that is sometimes you pull a weed and it's earth you can't spray weed spray in the middle of your ornamental flowers right I don't know is there something made that's good for that Carl yeah okay talk to Carl about that but expect a mixture of things be patient and kind and loving with the people around you and just know that's the way things are until Jesus returns when Jesus returns and it's just all all wheat and we're all gathered in the barn fantastic that's what we're looking for but now you know Jesus could deal with that being surrounded by unbelievers and where to deal with that where to be like him in that way so conclusion conclusion Jesus and Christianity solved Jesus and Christianity solved the chief concern solved the chief concern of all people everywhere and that chief concern is having a good fate at death what will happen to me at death where will I be at death Christianity solves that problem the chief concern of all people everywhere and that's what simian declares glory to Israel but alike to revelation alike to revelation for the Gentiles as well and through faith and Jesus again what simian declares it's all based on Jesus whether somebody rises or somebody falls it's based on what they do with Jesus the person right through faith and Jesus is a person rises in salvation through faith and Jesus a person rises in salvation until then a believer lives in a world mixed with people who will fall and people who will rise that's our lay of the land let's pray