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Our scripture today also comes from
Luke, it’s not the verses that are printed in our program or bulletin,
but it is from Luke 2:25-35. So I invite you to follow along in your
pew bibles. If you’d like to do that, that would be wonderful.
The word of God for us this day:
Now there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking
forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on
him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not
see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit,
Simeon came into the temple and when the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in
his arms and praised God saying, “Master now you are dismissing your
servant in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a
light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people
Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was
being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother,
Mary, “This child is destined for the rising and falling of many in
Israel, to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of
many will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
The word of God for us this day.
Let us pray.
We have seen a light, Lord God, and
it is your son, Jesus, shining bright within us, by the power of your
Holy Spirit. So Lord we ask that by the Holy Spirit you would quicken
our hearts to hear what you have to say to us this day. We ask it
because of Jesus. Amen.
Well there was a pizza place in town
that has since closed and gone away but it was probably one of my
favorite places of all time. I think it originated in Chicago; there
may still be some in Chicago, but I know the ones in the Cities have all
closed up because I checked. The place was called Edwardo’s. Edwardo’s
I think, I like pizza the regular kind of crust pizza and they had that,
but Edwardo’s had this kind of deep dish pizza that was kind of like
this much cheese with a little crust around it. And it was amazing,
with spinach and prosciutto; it was simply to die for. It was that
good. The only problem was that it took 50 minutes to cook one of these
pizzas. So when you came in and you ordered one, you kind of knew you
had to kind of wait and wait and wait as you are salivating. Lots of
times we couldn’t go to get an Edwardo’s deep dish because we didn’t
have the time. Because we had to be somewhere, we had to do something
and we just couldn’t take the time to wait for it. Doesn’t that seem
how it is in our world today. We just kind of keep going faster and
faster and we never seem to kind of catch up. And if we don’t slow
down, it seems as almost as if the world is going to run us over. I
think that’s why I love the story of Simeon so much. Simeon I think
would have for sure got run over by our world. But I think Simeon also
would have been the one to kind of step out in the middle of traffic and
go “Stop! Wait!” because Simeon knew the value of waiting.
This is the only place in scripture
where Simeon is mentioned and he is called a righteous and devout man.
I kind of think of that as kind of tuned in to God’s frequencies. If
you remember the old analog radios that had the big dial on them, you
know, how you could kind of turn it a little bit to get it to come in a
little better so it sounds a little better. Simeon had it right on the
screws. He was tuned in to what God was saying. And it says that he
was looking forward to the salvation of Israel through this child.
Simeon wanted Christ to come, right now, the same ways kids want
Christmas to be here right now as well. But he knew as much as he
wanted that Messiah to come that the Messiah would come in God’s timing
and not his. He knew that he would have to wait until that right time.
Simeon learned the value of ‘wait training’. No he didn’t go to the
gym. He learned the value of ‘W A I T training’. For when we wait on
God, we are privileged to see God do great things in our midst. Waiting
on God is a powerful thing because when we wait on God one of the things
that happens is that we become more open to the movement of the Holy
Spirit. Our text says that Simeon had the Holy Spirit resting on him,
really resting in him. And so do all of us as followers of Jesus
Christ; that’s one of the things we that we get when we make a
commitment to Christ, is the Holy Spirit to live in us. It says
that Simeon was guided by the Spirit to go to the temple that day. How
did he know? What did that look like? What did that mean? I think it
came as a result of practice, the practice of listening and learning
from the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is in a person, the Spirit
is always making overtures to that person. It may come in the form of a
thought, maybe a word; some people kind of get a picture in their mind,
others a scripture comes to mind. Whatever it is, the Spirit is
constantly speaking to us and I think I have talked about that here
before with us. But because of the pace of our lives we either chose
not to listen or we can’t hear it. But that was not the case with
Simeon. Simeon heard one of these overtures from the Spirit and he
acted on it. He acted on it because he had heard other leadings and
acted on them. He had learned to wait and to be quiet to hear what the
Spirit is saying. So when Simeon is prompted by the Spirit to go to the
temple, this was not an out of the blue kind of, all of a sudden kind
of, thing; this was the result of practice. This was the result of the
learning that took place in his life while he was waiting.
A friend of mine, a few years ago
now, was out running in his neighborhood. It was one of those you know
kind of perfect fall afternoons, where the leaves were in full color and
they were kind of doing the gentile kind of rain down that we see in the
fall. As he was running through his neighborhood, he past one house and
he noticed that the gutters were just overflowing with leaves. As he
was running by, he had a sense that he should stop and knock on the
door. And he thought, “Unh-unh, no way. I can’t do that.” And he kept
going. He kept fighting it. But the thought came again and he had
enough practice that he goes, “O.K. I know this is God wanting me to do
something.” So he turns around and he goes back to the door, completely
unsure of what’s going to happen, a little sheepish. He knocks on the
door. An old woman comes to the door and he says, “Can I do something
for you?” And she said, “Well my son was supposed to come over today
and clean my gutters but he called and said he couldn’t make it. Would
you clean my gutters?” He said, “Yeah, I can do that.” So he went into
the garage and got the ladder out, cleaned her gutters, put the ladder
away and then he resumed his run. He had received a leading from the
Spirit and acted on it. For when we wait on the Lord we are more open
to the movement of the Spirit and we hear it better as well.
Simeon learned to wait on the Lord
and it allowed him to see the movement of the Spirit but it also enabled
him to be able to see new things. Simeon was looking forward to the
salvation of Israel, wasn’t he? Well he wasn’t alone at that time in
that desire. There were many people who wanted to see Israel returned
to its glory and to kick the Romans out of the land. But when we look
at the song of blessing that he gives to Mary, we see him say that he
has seen the salvation. The salvation has come, not just for the Jews
but for all people, even those unclean Gentiles as the Jews referred to
them as. Now that was pretty earth shaking stuff in the first century
in Palestine. The Messiah was to come; the Messiah was to come and to
restore Israel to its glory. But all of a sudden, now all the other
people of the world get added into this saving act. That was new. That
was definitely unexpected. It came from the one that was what,
righteous and devout, the one who knew what it meant to wait on the
Lord. And even the prophecy that he gives to Mary and Joseph about what
would happen was new and unexpected at least to Joseph and Mary. They
were like, “Oh this is a little bigger than what we were thinking.” For
when we wait on the Lord, He will reveal new and, I think, possibly
unexpected things into our lives.
How many of you ever looked at those
magic pictures? You know what I’m talking about? They’re those kind of
posters that have like dots all over them; and you just look at them and
they don’t look like anything except dots. But they say, “O.K. Stare at
it.” You stare at it and all of a sudden this picture emerges, you
remember those? I hate them. I hate them because I can never see the
picture. (Laughter) Every time they go “Look right here. Look right
here and you will see the ship.” I’m like “I don’t see any ship.” When
we wait on God, He will lead us to new things; things that may seem
impossible for us to see. He might even in the process of that be
showing us something new and powerful in ways to expand his kingdom.
Waiting on God we will see new things.
When we wait on God we will also
receive blessings from God. Simeon knew that his life would not end
until he had seen the Christ child. When Simeon held that baby in his
arms he knew that he could die in peace because he knew that God had
kept his word by allowing him to see Jesus. Think about that moment.
Here’s a guy that has been waiting his whole life for this Messiah and
now he is holding it in his arms. How’s that for a blessing! How’s
that for a blessing! People for centuries have longed to see this
child. He not only gets to see it he gets to hold it and to feel it
breath in his arms. God revealed Himself in a physical way to this
devout and righteous man. Then add to that, he’s used by God to give a
word of prophecy to Mary to foreshadow Christ’s death and even the pain
that she would experience all to early in her life. Simeon received a
blessing from God. And the truth is that God wants to bless us too.
As we wait on God I believe that God
will bless us, and this is not a call to try to manipulate or try to
squeeze a blessing out of God. We are not talking about that at all.
What we are talking about is simply a gift; a gift from a good God, who
wants to give good things to His people who wait on Him. For when we
wait on the Lord, He honors us by blessing us. Those blessings can come
in many forms and in many ways. What might be seen as a blessing to one
person may be something very different to another. It’s one of those,
“Oh, what a blessing!” or it could be received “What, a blessing?” What
type of blessing might God give to you this Christmas season?
Perhaps it’s a reconciliation of a
family member. Maybe it is someone coming to faith that you have been
praying for, for a long time. Maybe it is a call to do something new.
What you may receive in the process of that may turn into a blessing;
but it turns into a blessing only after you take a couple of steps and
you start on it, and as you get down the road then you can look back and
go “Oh Lord, thank you, thank you.” I’ve had the opportunity to receive
lots of blessings in my life. One came from a guy who I worked with in
a ministry many years ago, we volunteered together. His name was Tom.
We worked with high school students together. We reached out to those
who didn’t know Christ in an outreach ministry. He sent this letter to
me a few years after we had served together. I want to read this to you
just as a way to show you kind of how I was blessed as a result of this.
Buck,
This is a letter of affirmation. If
anyone deserves it, it would be you. If I ever need to see Jesus in
someone’s life, you would be the person I would look for. God has
blessed you with so much; I’m envious. I wish there were more of you to
go around. Wherever you go I’m sure God uses you more than you can ever
imagine. You probably don’t realize what you have done for me, but my
God keeps on giving it. You came into my life at just the right time.
If there’s anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to let me know.
As for now, love and prayer most
abundantly.
That came out of the blue. It
wasn’t something I was looking for. It wasn’t something I thought
about, making an impact in his life. But I received a blessing from God
as a result of that.
We have been talking about meeting
Jesus this Christmas. So I want to invite you to think about another
way to meet Jesus this Christmas. Meet Jesus this Christmas by waiting
on the Lord, waiting on the Lord. You know the old saying that the Lord
may not always be on time, but his timing is always perfect. Wait on
the Lord. For when we wait on the Lord, I believe that we will see the
movement of the Holy Spirit in powerful new ways. We will see new
things open up that we will have missed before. We will be blessed by
God as a result of that.
Thanks be to God. Amen
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