Sunday, December 25, 2022
Series: The First Songs of Christmas
Luke Morrison
Introduction
Light is a great thing.
We can see what we are doing. We can see the beauty of the world. We can move around without tripping on things or stubbing our toes.
With light we can make better decisions. As a story I read this week tells of a farmer.
Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. “Why,” he exclaimed, “when I went a-courtin’ I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark.” “Yes,” the hired man said wryly,” and look what you got!”
The light helps us to see more clearly and less likely to make the wrong decision.
I know in the dark I have put some clothing on backwards only to discover later in the light that I have. I have also put on two different pairs of boots and shoes before.
But if I have light this does not happen.
Well that light is great and it helps us to not make mistakes but the light that we will read about in a minute is a light that saves us from those mistakes even after we make them over and over.
But these mistakes are not putting on the wrong pair of shoes or clothing on backwards.
No this light saves us from sin, death, and hell. He is the consolation not only of Israel but of all peoples as we will read in a minute.
He came on a day nearly 2,000 years ago. The day we celebrate today. Whether it was actually this day or another does not matter. What matters is that He came back then in a humble way demonstrating that He came for all humanity.
He is our great consolation and hope. He is the one who has made consolation of our grief, frustration, and pain possible. He is the one who when He comes again will console us of all our grief, frustration, and pain.
He is the great consoler of our needs. He is the one who will help us.
But we must wait and endure until that time.
In Luke 2:25-27
25 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. 26 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. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law,
Luke 2:25–27 ESV
We see in this text the hope and ability to wait in an old man who had received a promise from the Lord. He was promised he would see the Lord’s Christ before death.
He waited patiently and remained righteous and devout to the Lord.
We can do the same thing as we wait for His second coming because we have the great promise of that because of His first coming. We have the assurance of hope and life in Him.
We too can sing great praises of the Lord as Simeon does. We can bless the Lord with these praises.
We too can take up Christ and sing as Simeon did in Luke 2:28-32
28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 2:28–32 ESV
We can because…
The Light and Glory Brings Hope
In verse 25 we read of the consolation of Israel is what Simeon was waiting for. In verse 26 we see that this is the Lord’s Christ. The Messiah.
The hope Simeon waited for was the Messiah. He is the only hope there is.
In this time there was great oppression and struggle. The nation Israel was persecuted and in control of the Roman empire as well as their own brethren.
They had zero hope in the world and all anxiously awaited the Messianic hope that would be their consolation.
Just imagine being in a dire situation and waiting.
There is a story from WWII that illustrates this waiting well.
During World War II, the Pacific Theater threw up a gauntlet of seemingly insurmountable challenges to the Allies. One of them was the Japanese prison camp near Cabanatuan City, where hundreds of American and Filipinos were incarcerated after the brutal Bataan Death March. Conditions inside the camp were dire, and as the war dragged on and the Japanese army began to execute prisoners in other camps, those who remained feared they, too, would be killed.
Then, the Sixth Army staged a rescue operation that was almost suicidal in scope. With the aid of Filipino guerrillas, Army Rangers managed to get 35 miles behind Japanese lines, only to learn that scouts hadn’t been able to scope out the camp itself because of heavy Japanese activity in the area. The locale was crawling with enemy forces, but Rangers snuck into the camp on January 30, 1945, overwhelmed the guards and managed to move the prisoners—many of whom were so sick or suspicious they wouldn’t come out. In all, 510 prisoners were released with just two Army casualties. Today, the daring rescue mission is known as “The Great Raid” and celebrated as one of the bravest of all time.
These men knew death was coming. They knew they would soon be executed too. But there was a plan and a mission to save them. They had nothing to do but wait and trust that their fellow soldiers would one day come for them.
Well this is nothing in comparison to the rescue mission that came for all mankind nearly 2,000 years ago.
Jesus came not only to free prisoners but to give prisoners life eternal with Him.
And because of this…
The Light and Glory Removes Fear of Death
Simeon blessed God when he saw the child.
He grabbed Him up and sang a praise that we all should be able to sing today.
He said in verse 29 that your servant can now depart in peace.
Depart means to be dismissed to be let go. Simeon is saying that he could now die in peace because the savior had come. The Messiah was here and now the consolation would happen.
He could depart in peace because the one who brings peace had arrived.
But this word depart has other connotations for us as believers.
As believers because of the consolation the Messianic hope. Jesus having come to earth and made a way for us to have this hope and deliverance,:
“We are not to be afraid of death because it only frees us from the burdens of this life and leads into the blessings of the next life” (Wiersbe, 178).
There is now hope because there is a tomorrow with perfect victory. We can have peace in life and death because we have hope for tomorrow.
As one commentator stated it, “Nothing is so bleak as a day without tomorrow. With God, however, every day has hope and good cheer. Neither old age nor grim circumstances should keep you from God’s comfort, sufficient for your needs today. Take Simeon’s example and look ahead to God’s great plan for you and the world.” (Barton et al., Luke, Life Application Bible Commentary, 50.)
In our waiting for the Lord’s return we can face all of life with this peace. We have a peace that the world cannot know because it does not know this amazing savior we know.
Christopher Ash wrote of this great hope and peace we have saying,
Simeon waited. He did not wait in vain, for he saw the Lord Jesus Christ and held him in his arms. We too wait. We look back, at Christmas, to the first coming of Christ as a tiny baby. We remember on Good Friday his death for sinners. We rejoice on Easter Sunday in his bodily resurrection. We celebrate on Ascension Day his glorious ascension to the Father’s right hand. We delight at Pentecost in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts as the down payment of eternal life. And we look forward at Advent to Jesus’ return. And we wait. And we wait. And just as Simeon did not wait in vain, we too will not wait in vain. People will mock; folk will doubt his return. But one day he will come back, not as a baby but in visible glory to judge the world and rescue his people.
(Ash, Christopher. Repeat the Sounding Joy: A daily Advent devotional on Luke 1–2 . Kindle Edition).
This is the great hope we have and the great peace we have and why we too can say we can now depart in peace.
We have the savior and we have this great hope of His return.
It is because of this savior why we can be like
Donald Cargill, a Scotsman martyred for his faith in 1681. [He] delivered a long, impassioned message from the steps of the scaffold where he would soon be hanged and beheaded. He called that day “the sweetest and most glorious day that ever my eyes did see…. Farewell reading and preaching, praying and believing, wanderings, reproaches, and sufferings. Welcome joy unspeakable and full of glory.
(Wolgemuth, Nancy DeMoss. The First Songs of Christmas (pp. 134-135). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.)
We can because…
The Light and Glory is For All People
Simeon went on and said that Jesus was the light of revelation to Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel.
This means that Jesus came for everyone and it is through Him alone that we have hope and life.
It is because of Him that we can see truth because He illuminates it for us.
He is the light. He is the truth. He is the way.
But as I just said it is because of the Easter Sunday why we have this hope and light.
As Simeon further states to Mary in verses Luke 2:34-35 “34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
This is telling Mary that many people will trip over Jesus. They will fall because they do not embrace Him. He is either your savior or your destruction. There is no neutrality. Either one will take Him as savior and believe in Him for life everlasting or they will fall because they reject Him.
Basically, This child will bring people down, humble them, and only then raise them up; he will cause some to die and then be raised. But their rising up can only come after being brought low. So it was in his lifetime, and so it is today. (Ash, Repeat the Sounding Joy, Kindle Edition.)
The sword that will pierce Mary is the fact that she will see her beloved child crucified on the cross for the sins of the world. She will feel that horrendous pain. She will see Him take the pain and punishment that we all deserve.
This led Alistair Begg to write,
And this is why the wooden food trough led to the wooden cross, and why you will never get to the heart of Christmas if you don’t grasp the meaning of Easter. Christianity is not good advice about what we should do. It is the good news of what Christ has done. Christianity does not proclaim that you are worth saving or able to save yourself. It announces that God is mighty to save.
(Christmas Playlist: Four Songs That Bring You to the Heart of Christmas (The Good Book Company, 2016), 61.)
He went to that cross from that wooden manger because Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, the Shepherds, and Simeon were sinners just like us. He went because He loves us and because we could not make it to Him without Him coming for us.
He is the Light and He is the glory and revelation of the Lord to Us.
Take him as such and be rescued like those WWII soldiers were, or reject Him and fall like so many have before.
Conclusion
So, today I ask all here if you have not embraced and been humbled by the amazing Savior we celebrate now, please do so before you fall too far.
Seek Him and He will be found. He is for you and if you do not think so go back and read this story of why He came to earth.
He came for you and me and if He was not for us, He would not have come to earth and suffered as He did.
He wants you to be His. He is the greatest gift you could receive. I pray today you receive Him before it is too late to do so.
Do not fall into an idea that you can do it later, you are not promised later. Do it today before it is too late.
But to all who have received Him as your savior, praise Jesus for all He has done.
Praise him by,
- Setting aside all your problems and complaints in order to celebrate God’s generosity.
- Thank God for his marvelous provision for your daily needs.
- Take time from business and leisure to focus on God’s magnificent power and love.
- Rehearse the splendid surprise of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
- Reorient your heart around God’s message and priorities.
He is worthy of praise because only He has come and was born in a lowly and humble manner to grow up to suffer and die for us so we can spend all eternity with Him in glory and majesty.
Praise His Holy Name.
