Advent: Simeon’s Song (Luke 2:22-35)

Angels had ministered to Mary and Joseph. Angels had announced His coming. His birth was miraculous in every way—and yet we see the holy family going up to worship the Lord. If anyone needed not go to Church it was this family, right? They had the closest possible relationship with the Lord. But they obeyed. They went up to the Temple.

My friends, to make Jesus the center of your life is to come into His presence in worship, not only privately but also as part of the congregation of the faithful. Some of you may need to recommit to making the Lord's House a priority in your life. Some of you may need to reexamine your motivation for coming to Church. All of us need to listen. "The Lord is in His Holy Temple." Let us go up to Jerusalem!

There Is a Lesson in the Servant Named Simeon (vv. 25-28)

When Jesus was born, religion was at a low ebb, to be sure. The faith of Israel was corrupted by a religious ruling-class that was made up of legalistic Pharisees on one side and worldly Sadducees on the other side. The Word of the Lord was silent. Prophecy was non-existent. Evil and ruthless rulers like Herod governed the land.

But even in seemingly God-forsaken times God is very much in control, and He still has His special servants on duty. We don’t know much about this strange figure encountered by the Holy Family in the court of the Temple, but Scripture tells us some things that are clues as we listen to God’s Word to us today:

(1) We know that Simeon was just and devout. We have seen the description of just—which may also be translated righteous— in such people as Mary's husband, Joseph, in Mary herself, in Zechariah and Elizabeth, and later in Joseph of Arimathea. The combination of just and devout speaks to his relationship with both man and God. Simeon was a man who is a model for all of us. You can be a godly man or woman even in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation. You can follow the Lord even in an ungodly workplace, or for that matter in an ungodly home, if you are filled with the Spirit of God and are seeking His glory in your life.

(2) We know that Simeon was waiting on the Messiah. This is what is meant when it says that he was waiting on the Consolation of Israel. Simeon was a holy waiter. He lived in a period of spiritual drought, but he believed God and waited for the Consolation. We need Simeons today who can improve our dry days in this country. We wait on the Lord to send revival, to raise up godly men and women, and to stir the Church in America to a renewed holiness of life and doctrine. If you read closely, you will find that Simeon didn’t just wait around by twiddling his thumbs. Rather, Simeon waited by praying, by walking with the Lord.

(3) We note that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and that the Spirit guided him into the Temple. The latter phrase is the same phrase that occurs in the Book of Revelation (1:10; and see also 4:2; 17:3; 21:10) when John of Patmos was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Simeon was under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit and, therefore, subject to being used by God, to being blessed by God, and to being led by God. How do we do that? We are told to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). The flesh speaks of the sensual. This man could have sensed all of the problems of his day and retreated from God. But he was a Spirit-filled man and therefore looked to God not to circumstances. Simeon was no doubt like Enoch who walked with God. This is how we must live our lives if we will be used of the Lord, and if we will be blessed by the Lord. We must follow Him, look to Him, resist what one writer has called reality and affirm the truth behind the earthly reality. The end of such faith, of private and public worship, of reading the Word and opening up your life to what the Spirit is saying, is to walk in the Holy Spirit and be an instrument of God. When we do we encounter the fullness of Jesus in our lives and blessings follow His presence.