Seeing the Fulfilment • Luke 2:25-33
35:17 Teaching begins
Notes
Christmas, when you’re a kid, seems like it’s never going to happen. And then somehow it is days away, and then, it’s tomorrow. And then, it’s the Day! You lived to see it happen.
Christmas is important because it is the fulfilment of promises that God had written down hundreds and thousands of years in the past. God wrote what He was going to do and then He let people wait all that time. Wait and wait and wait and it looks like nothing is going to happen.
We are going to look at a day in the life of a man who lived to see the fulfilment of God’s promise. God said to him, “Do you see? There is the fulfilment.”
And we wish we could see something like that, the fulfilment of God’s promises. What I want to suggest to you today, is that it’s already happening, if you have eyes to see it, the beginning of God fulfilling His word that He spoke thousands of years ago. He is doing it right now, and it’s part of Christmas.
I’m reading in Luke 2 from verse 25.
1. Luke describes Simeon in these verses, and we see that he is a man of God.
A. It may be a coincidence, but the name “Simeon” means, “hearing”. He was named after one of the sons of Jacob. In Simeon’s case, he is really listening to God.
B. Because he is just and devout.
1. The word “devout” has the idea of the proper and rightful estimation of things, so that you receive them and are serious about them. In Simeon’s case, he was serious about the Scriptures and received them. He took them very seriously, as the word of God.
2. Simeon’s being righteous is a direct result of taking seriously the word of God. He conformed himself to what God said and commanded. He didn’t deviate to the right or to the left. He said, “That’s the way I’m going to live.”
C. Because he had received the word of God and was serious about living with it, he was also waiting for the Consolation of Israel.
1. That is, the Messiah. He is the Consolation of Israel, who would take away all sin from Israel and establish the kingdom of God. Anna the prophetess in verse 38 was looking for the redemption of Israel. Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God. This all refers to the same thing.
2. Waiting means to believe in the future occurrence of something. In this case, waiting means for God to fulfil His promises and prophecies that He spoke about Israel. To take away all their sins, bring in everlasting righteousness, so that God would dwell among them and they would be His people and He would be their God. Their relationship made perfect forever.
3. Simeon was actively waiting for this. He had received seriously the word of God, conformed his life to that, and expected that God would do what He said He would do in the future.
D. Not only that, the Holy Spirit was upon him.
1. This is how God enables people to serve Him and represent Him to others.
2. The Holy Spirit, God Himself, was with Simeon, living in him, and speaking to him.
3. That’s what happens when a person receives seriously the word of God, conforms his life to it, looks for God to do His word. You’re in step with God. You live with Him, you serve Him. That’s worship, to serve God.
E. The Holy Spirit at one point spoke to Simeon and revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ, that is, the Messiah. Those words written so long ago are going to be fulfilled while you are alive. It’s Christmas.
F. Don’t you wonder what Simeon was thinking? Wow! Is that the Lord? It’s really going to happen and I will see it? Well, now. That changes every day, doesn’t it? It might be today, who knows? But I will see it, because God the Holy Spirit told me specifically. So I think Simeon lived in even greater expectation. That took centre focus in his life. What is more important than seeing the Messiah, the Coming One, the Salvation of God? The Prince of peace? The Hope of Israel? This is all my hope now and forever. Nothing is more important than that.
2. On a certain day, Simeon sees the fulfilment of what was written and what was spoken to him personally.
A. Notice it says that he came by the Spirit into the temple.
1. On this day, the Holy Spirit impresses it upon him that he needs to go to the temple. So Simeon goes there in response to what the Holy Spirit is leading him to do. This is interesting about the Holy Spirit that He does not lay out the whole list of things to do. He takes it a step at a time. Just do that.
2. Simeon says, okay, here I am, in the temple, waiting. Things are rarely lined up with split second timing, so I can imagine it takes a while. That’s okay, because Simeon’s time is God’s time, to do whatever He wants to do with it. So, okay, God, I’m here. Next step.
B. Then Simeon sees a couple come into the temple to offer the sacrifices of purification after the birth of a baby boy.
1. This is after the first eight days of his life, and he is named and circumcised. Then a mother waits 33 more days, and then offers the sacrifice.
2. And he sees the couple offer a sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves. The law said to offer a lamb as a sacrifice, but if you couldn’t afford a lamb, then you could offer two turtledoves or pigeons. So Simeon knows this couple is poor to where they can’t afford a lamb.
3. And then the Holy Spirit says to him, “There is the Messiah.” And Simeon knows, this is the Day.
3. Think of all that is confirmed by God here.
A. First of all, those prophecies spoken by God, written down by Moses, David, Isaiah, the rest of the prophets. These are the Scriptures, they are there as a witness and a testimony that God said this, He will do it. They are being fulfilled right now.
B. And it’s the confirmation of what the Holy Spirit spoke to him personally. You will not die before you see My Messiah.
4. Simeon responds to God’s fulfilment with praise and thanksgiving.
A. It’s my time to go, and I’m okay with that. I get to depart in peace, happiness, wholeness, fullness. I have fullness of joy, lasting joy.
B. I have seen Your salvation.
1. We think of salvation as a concept, like a theological statement. It’s abstract, it’s like an equation, and it’s head-y, it’s not real.
2. Salvation is a person, a member of the human race. He’s alive, He thinks, He says, He does.
C. God’s salvation is light.
1. He’s a light to the Gentiles. That’s Isaiah 9:1-2 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. That’s Isaiah 42:6 “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations.
2. God’s salvation is also a light to Israel. That’s what the Apostle Paul says in Acts 26:22-23 “So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
5. Mary and Joseph are amazed.
A. Think about this, they have both spoken with angels. They know what is going on. Mary has just had a virgin birth.
B. But here is amazing confirmation from a man they have never met. He sees this baby as the Messiah, the Salvation of the Lord.
C. Simeon is also showing that clearly to Mary and Joseph so they see it, too. Wow!
6. You read that and you think, wouldn’t it be great to be able to see the word of God fulfilled like that in your lifetime?
7. There is a sign God is accomplishing right now that we can look at, just like Simeon. That is what God is doing through the nation of Israel. This is written in Ezekiel 37. I will summarise the three prophecies there.
A. Vv. 1-14 Israel will become alive as a nation again. There are two parts to this prophecy. First the nation will become physically alive. Then Israel will receive the Spirit of God and become spiritually alive.
B. Vv. 15-23 Israel will be one nation, not two, and will be spiritually restored to God.
C. Vv. 24-28 Israel will have David for its king forever, they will live in the land forever, God will make an everlasting covenant with them, and the nations will know the Lord.
D. God has already fulfilled half of the first and second prophecies.
1. Israel is a nation again after being destroyed and exiled from their land. The Roman Empire destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Jews have existed for 1,870 years without a national homeland. No nation so destroyed and scattered has ever survived three generations without being completely assimilated by the various cultures in which they live. So their survival alone is a miracle of God.
2. The history of how the nation came together again is extraordinary and exciting. In the middle of the 1800’s with various national groups coming together, rabbis began speaking out that the Jews also should think about their own homeland. Anti- Semitism in France and Russia started one Hungarian-born Jew, Theodor Herzl, thinking about the need for a sovereign Jewish homeland. He founded the World Zionist Organisation in 1896 and held its first congress in Basle, Switzerland in 1897. After this conference Herzl wrote in his diary: “Were I to sum up the Basle Congress in a word — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: At Basle I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.” Fifty-one years later, May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel. It was also immediately attacked by Arab nations, it was opposed by Russia and its Soviet bloc countries, and the United Nations. Israel has fought war after war for its very existence. And it still exists. This is a work of God fulfilling His promise in Ezekiel 37.
3. In Ezekiel’s second prophecy, Israel would come back as one nation and never be split again. After the reign of Solomon Israel split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was Israel, the southern kingdom was one tribe, Judah. They were separate kingdoms from that time on, the northern kingdom falling 200 years later. Judah was deported to Babylon 340 years later. When Israel again became a state in 1948, it was one nation, and will continue to be one nation, fulfilling this promise of God.
E. But half of Prophecy 1 and 2 and all of Prophecy 3 are not fulfilled just yet. These prophecies are based on Israel being revived spiritually, and most especially on Israel entering into the everlasting covenant with God.
1. Jesus the Messiah came and was rejected by the nation of Israel. As He was crucified He was establishing the new covenant in His blood. Because Israel rejected their Messiah, God partially hardened Israel and went to the Gentiles. He fulfilled the first part of what Simeon spoke about, that Jesus would be a light to the Gentiles. For nearly two thousand years, everyone who receives Jesus as Lord and Saviour enters into the New Covenant, this everlasting relationship of salvation. Jesus is a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
2. God is now about to turn His attention to the nation of Israel and bring them into His everlasting covenant. That will result in the second half of Prophecy 1 and 2 and all of Prophecy 3 being fulfilled. Israel will return to the Lord spiritually, they will no longer defile themselves, David will really be their king, they will dwell in the land forever, and all the nations will know that the Lord is God.
8. So what?
A. We are in the position of Simeon, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He saw the fulfilment of God’s promises in his lifetime. Those promises made so long ago, then, became fulfilled, now, in his lifetime.
1. All he saw was the beginning of the fulfilment. He saw a month-and-a-half old Baby. Jesus wasn’t grown up, He was doing no miracles, had no disciples, the new covenant had not yet been established.
2. But God had started His work in Simeon’s lifetime. What God starts, He finishes.
3. For the last 2000 years Jesus has become a light of revelation to the Gentiles.
4. Because Israel now exists again in our lifetime, we know that it will be very soon that Jesus will return as He promised and become the glory of God’s people Israel. He will redeem them, save them, bless them, and rule over them and the whole earth forever. What God starts, He finishes. We are going to see it, just like we are now seeing Israel as a nation. That is the promise that everything God has said He will do.
B. We are in Simeon’s position, but are you living like Simeon?
1. Have you received the word of God? You must receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour in order to receive the word of God.
2. Are you living according to the word of God?
3. Is the Holy Spirit upon you? There’s no reason why not. Ask and you shall receive.
4. Are you waiting for the return of Jesus? If Simeon were here now, that’s what he would be doing.
C. If you do as Simeon did, then you get to have peace. Simeon says, “Now You are letting Your servant depart in peace.”
1. That means Simeon is going to die. He’s not going to see everything that God is going to do, but he does get to depart in peace. God’s fulfilment is his own personal fulfilment. That’s what he was looking and waiting for, and he saw it.
2. We get afraid of dying. Some people want us to be very afraid of dying. Above all, you must not be infected with covid-19. We hear nothing about Alzheimer’s Disease, heart attacks, cancer, type-2 diabetes, which are still the major causes of death in the UK. So people are becoming more and more afraid of dying. But there’s a greater danger that people should fear. After death you have to stand before God and be judged for your sins. More than we need a vaccine we need forgiveness and restoration to God.
3. The important thing about Christmas and Jesus coming into the world is peace with God. Jesus made peace by dying for our sins on the cross. Simeon could depart in that peace. We also can have peace while we look and wait for the coming of Jesus just like Simeon did. Do you have that peace? Jesus came to give us peace. He is the Prince of Peace. If you are trusting in Jesus, and you have worries, anxieties, cares, fears, then you can have peace right now.
Let’s pray.