Would you take your Bibles, please, and open up to Luke, chapter 2, as we look today at this fourth and final canticle of Christ, these little songs of the nativity that are all about the birth and the significance of Jesus Christ. One of the things that we forget sometimes is that all of these great events that we read about in the Bible, especially those surrounding the life of Jesus Christ, all occurred in the regular warping roof of people's daily lives. People were saved in the old days just as we are, in the coming and going of our everyday routines, in the ins and outs and ups and downs of our lives, and all these things were divinely orchestrated by God, and in some ways, all these wonderful works of God, works of His grace and glory, always surprise people, as they surprise us today. And here's a story of an old man. We don't know anything about him. We don't know if he was a priest or a prophet or what, but he is an old man near death. We know his name is Simeon, a very common name, named after one of the twelve patriarchs of Israel, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, who was, according to the scripture, a righteous and devout man who was looking for the consolation or the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And Luke tells us this about him, beginning in Luke chapter 2, verse 22. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opened the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two pigeons. 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 frame according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother, behold this child is appointed for the fall and the 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. We're not really told how the Holy Spirit identified the Christ to this old man, but it appears that he went to the temple daily, sensing perhaps from the Holy Spirit that when the Messiah come he would visit his temple. I'm sure he was looking for a man, at least a significant religious figure, a priest or a prophet, or some great rabbi, or maybe a great military figure, another Solomon or David. But he knew that in this temple the Lord's Christ, as he's referred to in this passage, would come one day. One commentator describes how this scene may have looked. One day as he walked into the temple, Simeon saw a poor couple, a man who was a carpenter in Nazareth and his wife, both of them probably quite young. They had a child, a tiny one just a week old. Immediately the Holy Spirit bore testimony to Simeon that this was the Savior. Simeon did not look on the outward appearance, he did not say but God, how can this one, this little one be your Messiah? I expected someone much more important than this. No, he accepted the revelation as God gave it to him, so he walked over and I suppose introduced himself to Mary and Joseph and asked Mary, may I hold the child, and then holding the salvation of the world in his trembling hands, he broke forth into the words of this beautiful song of Christ. Well, that's a great description. Only one inaccuracy there. The child was not a week old. He was precisely 40 days old, because this event happens not at the circumcision of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 22 again, and when the time came for their purification or according to the law of Moses, if you would take a moment, we don't need you to do this often, but I want to do it this morning. I want you to put your finger in Luke chapter 2 and turn to the book of Leviticus back in the Old Testament. Leviticus chapter 12, and we'll read exactly what was happening in the temple and why it was happening according to the law or the Levitical standards of Moses, the laws of worship for the Old Testament church. Leviticus chapter 12 beginning in verse 1.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the people of Israel, saying, if a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean, and on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised, then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of your purifying. She shall not touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of a purifying are completed. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks as inter menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for 66 days. And when the days of a purifying are completed, whether for son or for daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turdler for a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female, and if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle loaves or two pigeons, one for burnt offering, the other for sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. I know a lot of times people nowadays look at they and they say, you know that is so sadistic, so paternalists, so chauvinistic, that a woman is considered unclean because she has a child. But these old testament legislations, these statutes and laws don't make any sense until they interpreted by Jesus Christ, and then they all fit together. Here's what Moses prescribed, that once a baby boy was born, they would wait for seven days. On the eighth day, the child would be circumcised. Then 32 days after the circumcision, they would go to the temple and they would do two things. They would present the child to the Lord and present an offering of five shackles to redeem the child, the first born boy or girl for their own, and to purify the woman so that she could join again in the fellowship of the church, whether in the temple or synagogue. Now here's why. The first born belonged to the Lord, the law of Moses said. It's very clear from Exodus, every first issue from the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the first born man, you shall surely redeem, and the first born and unclean animals, you shall surely redeem. As to their redemption price, from a month old, you shall redeem them by your value, five shackles in silver according to the shackle of the sanctuary, which is 20 garas. So what has happened is the first born who has a death sentence upon him, the first born male, carrying the guilt of Adam, is bought out of death, redeemed by money, and dedicated to the Lord. Meanwhile, the woman who is fulfilling the prophecy of the curse that out of pain and death, shall men and women come forth, is a symbol of a fallen humanity that needs to be purified and cleansed. It's all symbolic. It's nothing that's sexist or racist. The boy needs to be redeemed because he's a federal head bearing the guilt of Adam upon him. The woman needs to be redeemed because she symbolizes mankind who's fallen in sin and guilty, blood guilty of her own sins and needs to be purified. And so this is all taking place in the temple at the same time. Three things, one, Jesus Christ is being redeemed, not just because he's a male, and therefore a federal head of a future family, but because this boy bears on himself all the sins of the world. Number two, Mary is being purified of her guilt so that she once again joined in the fellowship and worship of the church, and thirdly, Jesus Christ is being dedicated to God, little did his parents know, dedicated for service as the Lord's Christ. All this is taking place according to the rituals and the laws and the traditions of Israel, but not according to their understanding. You know, we often ask questions, people do, why do you baptize infants? And what does this accomplish? And why don't you wait till they're old enough to make their own decision? And my answer simply is this, this is a sacrament. It's a mystery. I don't know everything that's happening when we take a baby and dedicate it to the Lord. I don't know what's going to happen in that child's life when the water goes overhead, a symbol of purification. I don't know when we baptize him in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the words of redemption, what's going to happen to him, but they didn't know that either would Jesus Christ, but God knows. And God has a great plan for them. In fact, Simeon will say, for all mankind. I belabor that point because sometimes we forget that the things that we do, attending church, listening to the word of God, taking the Lord's supper, being present at baptisms, fellowship, prayer, our worship all have a divine purpose in our life, even though at the moment they may not make sense, but in the warp and wound, the routine and ins and outs and ups and downs, every day life of every week, every Sunday, God is working redemptively, not just in us, but throughout the whole world. This song of Simeon is my favorite of the four because it is the most world affirming. It is expansive. Mary, Intermagnificat, is glorious as it is, only praises God for mercy to the oppressed people of Israel. Benedictus, by Zacharias, as beautiful as it is, only praises God for covenantal salvation for Israel. The Gloria, as majestic as it is in the angels, is rather the vague glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men with whom he is pleased, but it is Simeon who gives us the most comprehensive view of salvation for the whole world in his little song. Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. All peoples, the nations or Gentiles and Israel. I want us to see three things about this Messiah that Zacharias lays his hands on. First, he says, this is a Savior, all men can see. Look again at verse 29, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart. There we get the words, Nunk-Demithis, and Latin, now let me be dismissed. Now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. Zacharias takes in his hands the infant Christ and the Holy Spirit says, old man, you were holding in your hands the salvation of the world. I'm sure that little old Simeon said, Lord, why now and why me? Why such a wonderful privilege for an old man? But it was then and there because of what Paul had said in Galatians chapter 4 in the fullness of time, God brought forth his unborn of a woman, born under the law. Why was it the proper time? Well, God had prepared everything in that ancient world for the rapid dissemination and expansion of the gospel church. He had given a people chosen in a man named Abraham 2,000 years of practice. Now you read the Old Testament and all their ups and downs, all their fortifications with idolatry and all of their captivity and dispersions and sufferings are practice, kindergarten, elementary school for being faithful to one God. I want you to realize that at the time of Jesus Christ there was only one people who believed in one God and it was the Jews. They had had 2,000 years of God's revelation in the thing called the Bible, the Old Testament that prepared them to be faithful to one God. They'd learned the hard way what idolatry bought and now they were faithful to one God. They had even dispersed because of the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans throughout the Roman Empire. They were the only people group as far as we know that had representatives from Spain to India, from the Caspian Sea and southern Russia down to the Sudan. They were scattered all over the place and wherever they went, they took with them their one true God and their one holy book. They spoke not only Hebrew but in international language that the Greeks had given to mankind in the Mediterranean world. Not only that, but they took this international language of Greek and they translated their Old Testament into Greek, it's called the Septuages. So now, listen carefully, now Gentiles could read a book that ones could only be read by Hebrew-speaking people. They were experiencing something wonderful called the Pax Romana, the piece of Rome. They had Roman government and Roman laws, Roman roads, Roman privileges of citizenship and travel routes on the sea, cleared of pirates so that people could move under the auspices of Caesar all through this empire freely, carrying with them this Greek Bible, speaking international language to anybody they wanted to do about this one true God and his one true revelation and his one Messiah. And you know what, that's exactly, that is exactly what the Apostle Paul did. Calling upon his Roman citizenship, he took his Septuagint, he walked on these Roman roads, traveled on sea on these trade routes, speaking Greek, using his Septuagint from synagogue to synagogue, from temple to temple. It explains an amazing amount of religious freedom for the ancient world under the protection of Rome and spread the gospel. Are you ready for this? In 20 years, from Spain, to Asia Minor, from Rome to North Africa. It could never happen before this time, it happened at the proper time, and it happened at the right place. It happened in Judea. What we call even today the Middle East, the geopolitical and geographic center of the inhabited world, to the north, was Eurasia, to the west, was Europe, to the south, was Africa, to the east, was India and the Orient. And out from this city where Jesus Christ was circumcised and then dedicated and then bar mitzvahed and then crucified and then raised, would ripple throughout the world from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the other most parts of the earth, the story of Christ's life, death and resurrection. It came to the right people. There was no other people that were scattered as far and yet were together in mind and heart like the Jews. They were everywhere and they were together, everywhere geographically together spiritually in the one hope that God would send a Savior, not only for them but for all the people of the world. That's why. Simeon says, I have seen the salvation of Israel prepared in the presence of all peoples, into history and space and time, God dropped his son into the lap of what one commentator called a peculiar people with an unbelievable message that would absolutely transform the world. That is why we sing in our Christmas carols, long lay the world in sin and error-pining till he appeared in the soul felt its worth, a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious mourn, fall on your knees. Isaiah would put it this way, the Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. How do people see Jesus Christ? They see Him through this, being translated in their own language by their own indigenous pastors, speaking into their own unique culture and time and place. Jesus Christ comes to life and comes to light and people behold the Lamb of God, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is a Savior for all mankind. He's also a Savior, little Simian says, who enlightens all men. Verse 32, he is a light of revelation to the Gentiles. This is a marvelous fulfillment of a prophecy that was unique to Isaiah. Isaiah said, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and I will keep you. I will give you a covenant for the people to be a light for the nations, to open the eyes of those who are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon and from the prison, those who live in darkness. Is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up for the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel, for I will make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the very ends of the earth. This was such a powerful hope for Israel than when the Apostle Paul went on his very first missionary journey at his very first stop in Pesidian Antioch. When a Roman governor asked him what he was doing and what he was preaching, Paul said, for so the Lord has commanded us saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal light believed and the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. Simeon is not a narrow-minded and tunnel vision man. He proclaims with great joy and with great confidence that this prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled in his time. There is a revelation, a word, a story, a good news for all the people's of the earth. Just as Psalm 98 had said, he has remembered his steadfast love and faithful to send the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth will see it. They will see the salvation of our God and they will be glad. Notice how Simeon looks beyond his own self and his own people and realizes that the vast majority of people live in utter spiritual darkness and despair, but now the light of God. That's what these candles symbolize, the light of the world who takes away our darkness has been born into this very world of nations. We sing we have a savior to show to the nations who the path of Saros has trod that all of the world's great peoples might come to the truth of God for the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright and Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth that kingdom of love and light. There is a hint in this nunchdimentus in this song of the great mission to the world. Go therefore into all the nations and make disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, end of the Son, end of the Holy Spirit and teach them everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always listen even to the end of the world, even to the edge of humanity. There still remains a great and significant number of people who live in a press of the spiritual darkness, but the hope is this that the light has dawned and as John said, the darkness will not overpower it. It is the light of life and the light that comes into every single man. Here's the third thing little simian says this savior is the glory of Israel. He's not only a light to the nations, but he is for the glory of thy people Israel. Only the Jews really folks could appreciate this little phrase, the glory of thy people Israel, considering all they had been through and even so, more so today. There are four ways, I think at least, that Jesus Christ is the glory of the Jews. First of all, he is their checkina or shakina, however you pronounce that glory. Remember in the Old Testament when the Jews were moving on their way from Egypt to the promised line in this great thing called the Exodus, there was a pillar of fire by night and smoke by day, that the Jews called the shakina, the we call the shakina, the presence. It was sometimes referred to as simply as the glory. It dwelt on the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle and later dwelt in the temple that Solomon built. It was the glory of God going before them and that's what Jesus Christ now did. He took away that cloud and that fire that cloaked him and this pre-incarnate Christ and the Old Testament becomes a carnate man that we might see the glory of God in Jesus Christ. He is also their glorious message. All peoples now, when they come to God for salvation, will come through the message of a man who said salvation is of the Jews. He is their vindication. All of the things they were laughed at for, all of the things they were persecuted, everything that was their ridicule and their rejection and their ill treatment now have all been vindicated for the very ones that we often despise those Jews have born in their own flesh, the Savior of the world and all his promises for them are yes in Jesus Christ according to the Apostle Paul. Finally, when humanity has lifted out of the dregs of its sin and given the glimpse of its future glory, I want to remind you of something that that glorified humanity in heaven is a glorified Jew. God has become a Jew. A Jew is whom we worship. A Jew has saved us from our sins there. In my mind, folks, I don't think I'm wrong on this. There is no place for antisemitism. How could we not love Jerusalem? And how could we ever forget Israel? How could we despise the Jews, the mother believers, the apple of God's eye, the glory of God in salvation? That's why Paul would write that there is a temporary hardening of the Jews, but God who saved us by his grace will pour out that grace and all is ruleably saved. That the Jews have for a season and the mystery of God turned away from Christ that the Gentiles in the fullness of their time might come to him so that later on the Jews might turn to Christ and be saved by the same grace, or as Paul says, for God has consigned to all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all by his grace. They are, Paul says, our enemies when it comes to the gospel, the according to God's election, they are our brothers and sisters. Our salvation will not be complete until the Jews have come to Christ in massive numbers which they will before Jesus Christ comes a second time. It is in the salvation of the Jews that the glory of God is most perfectly revealed. That's why John writes, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glorious of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth, for John more witness about him cried out. This was he of whom I said, the one who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from this fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the only God who was in the bosom of the Father. He has made him the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son from the Father full of grace and truth. I want you to notice this just in closing, glory is a key concept in these four little canticles. The word glory is not mentioned by Mary or by Zacharias and the Magnificata of the Benedictus, but the fulfillment of his prophecy and the exalting of his name are. The angel's message is all about that glory to God in the highest. And here's how these little canticles come to an end. The Jesus Christ is a savior prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to us Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel. That my friends is the secret message of Christmas. I mentioned in the introduction of this message that God's great and glorious redemptive works kind of sneak up on us. They come to us in the coming and going of our daily lives and the routine of being an American in 2015 in the United States, going to work, raising kids, paying taxes, paying bills, worrying about retirement, worrying about puberty, worrying about toys, whatever is the worry of our face of life. But somehow in the midst of all that, we are brought day in and day out to the wonderful reality of God's goodness. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made. When theologians talk about the attributes or the characteristics of God, they elevate at the highest God's goodness. Listen to one theologian named Louis Burkhov. The moral attributes of God are generally regarded as the most glorious of the divine perfections. Not that one attribute of God is itself more perfect or more glorious than another, but relatively speaking, to man the moral perfections of God, shine with a splendor all their own. They are generally discussed under three heads, the goodness of God, the holiness of God and the righteousness of God. When we speak of something that is good, we say that it answers in all parts to the ideal. Hence, in our ascribing to God goodness, we have the fundamental idea that God is in every way everything that God should be, and therefore answers perfectly in every language to the word God. It is God's innate goodness, his mercy, his love, his grace, his forgiveness, his benevolence, his compassion, his patience. All these things that have to do with our relationship, how he reacts with mankind and brings them into salvation through his kindness and his goodness. These are the things that cause us to ascribe to God glory. You would agree with me, I think, that the only way ultimately for a human being to be happy in this life and happy forever is to know the goodness of God. Attendant to that truth is this reality. We will never, never be complete if we are seeking our own glory and not the glory of God. Jesus once said to the Jewish leaders, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is these that bear witness to me. But you are unwilling to come to me because you are seeking glory from men rather than the glory of God, and that is why you run able to believe. If we really looked into our own souls, we might find something very ugly in this Christmas season. The reality that we are not really looking for God's glory, but for our own. It happens in the most subtle ways in this warping roof of daily life. You worry about the growth of the church, the success of its building programs, its finances, its programs, so that you might feel successful as a pastor, translated that you might experience glory. It could be your children.
Their whole life is bent around making these children and the kind of people you want them to be, rather than what God wants them to be, making them go to the right schools whether you want to go there or not, getting them into this career so that they marry the right kind of person to have the right kind of life which all is about success and the glory of you when you're children. You don't want them to embarrass you. It could be bragging on the success of your marriage or the profitability of your investments or the growth of your business. It is very easy for men who were born for glory and who lost that glory in the fall and the Garden of Eden to pursue that glory by asking for something else from God except the one thing that is our salvation and that is the glory of God. What is our chief end? What is our primary purpose in life? It is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. God is most glorified when we enjoy Him most and He blesses us to His own glory. The two are inextricably linked together. God cannot be glorified if we do not rejoice in Him and we cannot rejoice in Him unless the glory of His goodness falls upon us in abundance which it has through Jesus Christ. J.I. Packer says, you know if you think about this, it sounds almost vain, glorious for God, egotistical to think about His glory as the chief end of man and the primary good of the creation. But Packer says it is not so. In this conjunction of God's glory and our happiness, the fellowship of love for which God's rational creatures were and are made and for which fallen human beings have now been redeemed, gives us this two-in-fro of seeing glory in God and giving glory to God as the true fulfillment of the human heart at its very basic point of nature. And it brings supreme joy to mankind just as it does to God through Jesus Christ. There is Jesus Christ's purpose. That is why He came to bring glory to God and goodness to mankind, to bring them together so that the glory of God in salvation became the very thing that men were glorified in. It's not wrong to seek glory. I want to tell you that. What's wrong is to seek it outside of Jesus Christ, outside of salvation, outside of the revelation of God and a man who has become a light to the nations and the glory of God's people. This coming year, what God wants from you is also what He wants for you and that is His glory. He wants you to glorify Him for one reason for Jesus Christ, whom He gave you for your salvation. And He wants you to receive this one thing, this Jesus Christ, whom He's given you for salvation. He wants you to enjoy Jesus Christ now and for ever, for that would bring Him great glory. That you see, that is the divine gift exchange at Christmas. God gives us Jesus Christ, our goodness. We give God praise and thanksgiving for Christ, His glory. And with that, God and men live happily ever after. And there is, you see, glory to God in the highest and well-being on earth, with those with whom God is pleased. Let's pray. Father, this coming year is we end 2014 together on this Sunday and begin next Sunday, a new year, a new measure of time in the routine of our short lives. We would ask you to give us and full measure your glory in Jesus Christ and a spirit to enjoy that glory and to refract it back to you in praise and adoration and faithful service. That is what we need most. We need you to be glorified so that we can be happy forever.
And that will only come about when we embrace in fullness Jesus Christ, everything He is for us, to save you to be seen by all the world, a light for all the nations to dispel our cultural spiritual, personal darkness and the glory of your chosen people, the church, and the fulfillment of all your promises and the magnification and exaltation of their own humanity and the guarantee of their wonderful and glorious destiny in the new world you have to come. Keep us this year from getting absorbed in and from losing sight of the greater picture that unfolds in surprising ways as we live with you in the church, in our synagogue, in our temple. That is that your glory is being revealed in Christ and in us, day in and day out to those who seek it first and foremost of all. Help us to teach that to our children and grandchildren. That their primary purpose in life is to glorify you and enjoy you forever. As we glorify you, give us this enjoyment as reinforcement, as existential evidence that this is indeed true, that our gladness comes from your goodness and your goodness is most manifested in your glory in Jesus Christ. Give us faith to repent of our sins and embrace him
with a reception that makes Christ our own and help us to share this message with other people that they do might be glad in God and give you great glory. This is what is right. This is what we owe you and this is why Jesus came to us to glorify you forever and so we would ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.