Text: Luke 2:21-35

In our text, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple 40 days after he was born. On our Calendar, that would be early February. Simeon’s Christmas wasn’t celebrated until well after the normal amount of time for Christmas celebrations in our culture. And yet, Simeon probably had a much greater joy. Today we look at Simeon’s Song of Salvation.

Part 1: Consider his joy

Today we see an example of a person who was dedicated to the Lord. Simeon is described as righteous and devout. He served God and he spent time in the temple of the Lord. Simeon received a blessing that was incredibly special. He got to see the Savior. He had been waiting his entire life for the promise to be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit had given Simeon a special revelation that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. On the day described in the text, he saw the fulfillment of that prophecy. Simeon was able to hold his Savior in his arms. Think about how special that was. Could you imagine the excitement he would have felt if the baby Jesus had extended his little arm and touched Simeon on the nose or cheek? He had the joy of seeing his Savior.

Simeon praised God for this event. We use his words of praise in various worship services. At times we use them right after we receive the Lord’s Supper. In addition to praising God, he also spoke directly to Mary and Joseph. He spoke to them with words that show his understanding of the work of Jesus. He spoke both warning and encouragement. He said. “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” (Luke 2:34-45).

These words show that the work of Jesus is both law and gospel. He reveals whether people believe in the true God or not. Many unbelievers speak out against him. There are people who do not want to hear that they are wicked sinners who need to repent of their sin. Jesus died even for their sin. He went to the cross to earn salvation. It was painful. It was especially painful for Mary. Think about how painful it is for any parent to lose a child. Mary was a very special mother in that she was the mother of God. It would be extremely painful when Jesus died. Simeon’s words warn her of that but they are also words of encouragement. Even though Jesus would die, he would save many, and many would believe in him.

The Holy Spirit has also blessed us with a special gift like he blessed Simeon with the information about seeing Jesus. We have received a gift that not everyone receives. The Holy Spirit revealed the truth of God’s Word to us. We believe this message about Jesus. When the Spirit revealed that to us, he also overcame that natural inclination of our sinful hearts to reject such a message. For many of us, this occurred at our baptism. On that day, through water and the word, the Holy Spirit miraculously entered our heart and gave us eternal life. On that day we got to hold the baby Jesus with arms of faith. We didn’t get to hold Jesus exactly like Simeon. Rather we hold Jesus in our heart.

The Holy Spirt gives us encouragement and warnings. He builds us up with the promises of the gospel. He points us to forgiveness and eternal life. He reminds us of all the blessings that God gives us on a daily basis. He assures us that God is working for our good regardless of what problems we are facing in this life. He does give us warnings about persecution that we will face in the world. He gives us these warnings so that we can stand firm when those persecutions happen. We will face opposition. The Spirt also warns us about the danger of falling away from the truth of God’s Word. How unfortunate it would be if we rejected this wonderful Gospel after having believed it.

Jesus warns us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:18-20). The sinful world will attack us because of our faith. There will be times that we feel hated and persecuted because we stand up for the truth and we stand up for God’s law. This shouldn’t be surprising since the sinful world did the same thing to Jesus.

This is painful to endure because just like Jesus we truly do want all people to be saved. We want them to see Jesus as their Savior and it hurts when they are so adamantly opposed to the Word of God. If we take it personally, we might be tempted to hide our faith rather than endure this opposition. We might be tempted to think that maybe there is something wrong with us and our faith. We might start to doubt our beliefs. This is what the devil wants. He wants us to question and doubt. He wants us to think that our best option is to turn away from Christ.

Even Christ, our perfect Savior was opposed by sinners. He laments that he wanted them to believe but they refused. He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). The sinful heart can be so evil that it can even resist the efforts of the Son of God. When we are hated or persecuted, people are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Christ. This can be tough for us to endure and when it happens, the best solution is for us to return to the joyous message of the gospel. Just like Simeon we take hold of Christ and see the joy of our salvation.

Part 2: Go in peace

Then we are built up and encouraged through that gospel of our Lord. Then we are able to depart in the peace of our God. Then we are built up again so that we can share our faith. That is exactly what Simeon did. He shared his faith and he didn’t care what other people thought about his joy and exuberance. He wanted to proclaim the message of the long awaited Savior who had finally arrived. This child would win salvation through his death and resurrection.

Think about ways that you share your joy about the Savior. One of the ways that comes to mind is our worship service. Our worship service should not be a somber or dreary event. We get to come to God’s House of Worship and hear his precious truths once again. This is fantastic. Some seasons of the church year are meant to be more somber, Lent for example, but even during those seasons, we are hearing all about our salvation. I love singing joyfully for our hymns. Christmas time is a great time for singing loudly and joyfully.

I want you to think about how you can continue your Christmas joy throughout the year. What are you personally going to do to let others know about the love of Jesus that you know? Are you going to show your dedication to your Savior by proclaiming his deeds to others? Perhaps you can be the one to share the gospel message with your friends and family. Maybe you can knock on doors and hand out invites to special services here at church. You could use your abilities in worship. You can ask your leadership how you can become more involved.

Perhaps you aren’t the one to be a public spokesperson for your Savior. Maybe your skills are encouraging others. Put those talents to good use. Encourage your pastors and teachers. Pray for us that we may boldly and confidently share our faith. Come to worship and encourage your fellow worshippers. It is encouraging to me when I hear the congregation joyfully singing the praises of God. It is encouraging to all of us when we know that we are surrounded by hundreds of fellow believers. We can share the word with each other and lift each other up. God will bless us through this and we will share our joy.

Conclusion

I talked about Simeon waiting to celebrate his Christmas until 40 days after the birth of Jesus. While that seems like a long time, his Advent season was actually quite a bit longer than ours. We have about a month to build our anticipation for Christmas. Simeon’s anticipation was building for his entire life. How fitting it is that we have his joyful song recorded for us on the pages of Scripture. He praised Jesus as the salvation that had come to mankind. May we continue to have that same joy as Simeon. As we prepare our hearts once more for the Christmas festival, we have the greatest peace. We have the peace of forgiveness and eternal life. We have this peace because of that child born 2000 years ago. Let’s share that joy so that many more may believe.