SEROMON OUTLINE

Witnesses to the Incarnation of God

The Witness of Simeon

Introduction

The incarnation of God – God came to earth in human flesh and with a human nature, lived among us, gave himself to God as a sacrifice for sin, and is now ascended into heaven with a glorified body, soon to return with power and glory to get His own. (Romans 8.3; Hebrews 2.14, 17; Philippians 2.6-11)

Luke 2.21-24

1) Circumcision: On 8^th day (Genesis 17.3; Leviticus 12.3) Prothrombin and Vitamin K, highest blood coagulation properties on the eight day.

2) Redemption of firstborn male: (Exodus 13.2, 11-13; Numbers 18.14-16) Tribe of Levi then 5 shekels per male.

3) Ceremonial purification: 40 days after birth of a male. (Leviticus 12.1-8)

-Jesus fulfilled the Law to set us free from the Law. Galatians 4.4-5

Luke 2.25-32

-God’s  faithful remnant

-Simeon righteous (right with men) and devout (cautious in the things of God). Continually walking in the Spirit.

-Jesus, God’s salvation, a light to the Gentiles and glory to Israel  (Isaiah 49.3, 6b; 60.3; Zechariah 8.20-23)

-5 sayings/songs by Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, Angels, Simeon in response to the incarnation of Christ. (Ephesians 5.18-20)

Luke 2.33-35

1) Falling: Reject Christ and you will be excluded from the presence of God for eternity.

2) Rising: Humble yourself before Christ and confess that you are a sinner in need of grace and God will lift you up. (John 11.25-26)

3) A Sign: Christ points to the Holiness of God, sinfulness of man, and our need of Christ for salvation. No neutrality. Christ exposes hearts.

4) Identification: Rejection and persecution. Pain and suffering. Peace, Joy and Hope of eternal life

Conclusion

So what will you do about Jesus this morning? Are you like Herod, the teachers of the Law, or like Simeon?

SERMON NOTES

Incarnation (4)           The Witness of Simeon

-Our focus over the last three weeks has been on the incarnation of God in Christ. Incarnation means that God the eternal Son, the second person of the eternal Trinity, took a human body and human nature and lived with us. He gave himself to God as a sacrifice for sin, was buried, raised from the dead, resurrected, ascended to heaven and is standing in a glorified body on our behalf before the Father in heaven, and coming back in glory and power to bring us to live with him forever in heaven.

-Let me remind you of what the witnesses to the incarnation have told us so far. Through the angels we learned of John coming to prepare the way of the Lord; that Mary’s son was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was to be called the Son of the Most High, the Son of God, and the holy one, and that he is to receive the throne of David and will reign over Israel, and his kingdom will never end; that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us and that he is to be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins; that Jesus is the Savior who is Christ/Messiah, the Lord.

–Through the Magi we witnessed God’s Sovereign revelation, grace, protection, and intended world witness to the incarnation of His Son, the promised Messiah/Christ.

-This morning let us stand with Simeon as he witnesses to the incarnation of God in Christ. Let us read Luke 2.21-24 [Read]

–Three OT ceremonies are described in these verses. 1) The first ceremony is the circumcision of Jesus. The Law of Moses called for a male child to be circumcised on the 8^th day after birth. (Genesis 17.12; Leviticus 12.3) Circumcision on the 8^th day was commanded by God in Genesis and later recorded by Moses as part of the Law. Circumcision was as a sign of God’s covenant of grace with Abraham in which God promised to be His God and the God of His descendants. There is an interesting medical fact connected to circumcision on the 8^th day which confirms my confidence in both God as the Creator and in the authority of the Bible. For blood to coagulate an element known as prothrombin is needed in the blood. Prothrombin is produced when vitamin K interacts with the liver. Newborns aged 2 to 5 days old are susceptible to hemorrhaging because of low vitamin K. It is not until days 5 through 7 that sufficient vitamin K and prothrombin is built up to prevent hemorrhaging in a newborn. The interesting medical fact is that on the 8^th day the prothrombin present is elevated above one-hundred percent of normal and the newborn has the highest coagulating blood potential he will ever have for the rest of his life. The eight day is the perfect day to circumcise a newborn male. Abraham did not pick the eighth day after many centuries of trial-and-error experiments. It was not something Abraham adopted from his surrounding culture because they did not practice circumcision. It was not a result of evolution. It was the day picked by God the Creator of vitamin K. So on the eight day Jesus was circumcised and was officially named Jesus. 2) The second ceremony was the redemption of the first born male. (Exodus 13.2, 11-13; Numbers 18.14-16) After the Passover God declared that every firstborn male, both man and animal belonged to Him and either had to be redeemed with money or a substitute animal or be sacrificed to Him. Another interesting fact you may not be aware of is that after the Passover, God took the tribe of Levi to be His as a redemption for all the firstborn that left Egypt.  (Numbers 3.39-51; 8.16-18) When the firstborn were counted and the Levites were counted God was short 273 Levites. The 273 firstborn that were not redeemed by the Levites had to pay 5 shekels to the Aaron the high-priest to redeem themselves. From then on the redemption price of a firstborn male was 5 shekels and that is what Joseph would have had to pay to redeem Jesus as the firstborn son. 3) The last ceremony was ceremonial purification for the new mother’s bleeding at childbirth. This ceremonial purification was to take place 40 days after a boy was born and 80 days after a girl was born. The offering for purification was to be a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering or two pigeons if the woman could not afford a lamb. (Leviticus 12.1-8) Mary and Joseph at this time could only afford two pigeons. At this time they were living in a house but the wise men had not yet come nor had they been warned about Herod’s threat to kill the child or they would not have come to Jerusalem.

–Galatian 4.4-5 says that “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Jesus in his incarnation fully obeyed the Law of Moses to identify with all of us who were born under the Law of God, in order that he might through the cross deliver us from the condemnation of Law and bring us into a relationship of sonship with God as our Father through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

-Let’s continue to read. [Read Luke 2.25-32]

-God has always had a remnant of believers who have continued in fellowship with Him. Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, and Simeon and Anna were some of those righteous and devout women and men that were living at the birth of Jesus the Messiah/Christ.

-Simeon is described as righteous and devout which means that he was both right before men and right with God. The Greek word translated as devout means “cautious”. Simeon was careful to keep God’s law but he was not like the Pharisees who were so focused on the Law that they missed a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit was upon him. This phrase means that Simeon was continually walking in the Spirit. One aspect of his ongoing fellowship with God was that God had revealed to Simeon that “he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”. The coming Messiah is described as “the consolation of Israel”, the One Who would bring relief to His suffering people. Simeon was waiting and longing for the Messiah and knew by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before the Messiah came.

-As Joseph and Mary were going to the Temple to pay the 5 shekels for the redemption of Jesus the firstborn and to offer two pigeons for the purification of Mary, the Holy Spirit led Simeon to go to the court of the Temple. When Simeon saw baby Jesus, who would be a month and half old, he took him in his arms and blessed God.

-Simeon declared that the child he was holding was God’s salvation not only for Israel but also for the Gentiles. This child was God’s promised Messiah/Christ, God’s salvation, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel”. In this last statement, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed is beginning to be fulfilled. Israel was called by God through God’s call to Abraham to be a light to the nations, a witness of God to the Gentiles who were in darkness. Israel was now going to accomplish this purpose through Jesus the Messiah. God’s promise to Israel in Isaiah 49.6 is “I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” (see Isaiah 42.6, 49.3, 6b; 60.3; Zechariah 8.20-23

-In Luke there are five “sayings” associated with the incarnation of Christ. The Church has made these sayings into songs. These songs are responses to the news of the incarnation made by Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, Angels, and Simeon. Each saying declares the Glory and the Majesty of God and the fulfillment of His purposes in the incarnation of Christ. We are taught in Ephesians that this is how those who are filled with the Holy Spirit respond to God and God’s truth. Ephesians 5.18-20 says, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

-Finally let’s read Luke 2.33-35. [Read]

-Simeon, with prophetic insight, told the amazed parents something of destiny of this child and of their own part in that destiny. Let me sum up what Simeon said to Joseph and Mary about Jesus with four words.

1) Falling: Jesus is the cause of the falling of many. Many would reject Jesus and His claim to be the only way to God. Many would reject that they were sinners before a Holy God and that only Jesus has fully paid the penalty for man’s sin. Many continue to reject Christ as the only way to heaven today. Unless a person repents and calls Jesus Lord they will be excluded from the presence of God for eternity. There is no heaven for those who refuse to follow and trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

2) Rising: Jesus is also the cause of the raising of many to eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11.25-26) Have you come to Jesus with a load of sin on your back and asked Jesus to take away your sin and give you eternal life? Do you know for sure that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and are a child of God? If you humble yourself before Jesus, He will raise you up and give you eternal life.

3) A Sign: Jesus is a sign that points to the Holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the need for salvation in Him. Jesus exposes the true hearts of men and women and young people. Jesus is the great divider of humanity. You are for Jesus or against Jesus. There can be no neutrality before Jesus Christ. If you would expose the heart of those you are speaking with, point them to Jesus Christ and declare to them that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the only way they can get to God, and that Jesus will one day be their Judge, and see how they respond. Do they speak against Him or embrace Him. Jesus is a sign that exposes the heart.

4) Identification: If you choose to identify with Jesus you will also be spoken against and be persecuted as your Lord was. You will suffer the pain of rejection, the pain of living in an unrighteous and sinful world, loss, sacrifice, conflict. But in Jesus Christ you will also have peace and joy and the hope of eternal life.

–So what are you going to do about Jesus this morning? You are not likely to be like Herod and openly attack and seek to destroy the truth about Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. You are more likely to be like the Priests and teachers of the Law who know some things about Jesus but do not bother to seek Him and follow Him in order to worship him. You are content to just let the days pass and you hope for the best but have no passion and heart for Jesus. That approach will not get you to heaven. You need to be like Simeon and long for the coming of Jesus Christ. You nee to embrace Christ and live each day for Him, living in daily fellowship with Him and identifying yourself with Him. Will you make that decision now? Will you admit you are a sinner and in need of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ? Let’s bow together for a few moments before we close our service. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior pray quietly this prayer with me…