For the Glory of Your People

 ... for my eyes have seen your salvation Luke 2:30

Luke 2:29–32 – Advent: Come Light Our Hearts
Christmas Day (Observed) – December 26, 2021 (am)
   

When a child I’d get so excited on Christmas Eve that it would be very hard to get to sleep! For a couple weeks I’d been watching the presents stack up under the tree and I would just sit and stare at them for long periods of time wondering what might be inside. By Christmas Eve, my imagination had run wild! I just wanted to rip open those gifts and see what was in them. I truly wondered how I was going to make it ’til morning!

My parents had a rule that couldn’t get up until 7:00. I remember one year when I woke up at 6:03, I’ve told you before. I knew there was no way I’d get back to sleep, so I needed to fill the time somehow. It occurred to me that if I counted to sixty fifty-seven times, it should be 7:00! So, I began to count. And I did my best to wait a whole second between numbers. I also tried not to look at the clock while I counted. When I finished with all fifty-seven times, I checked the clock again. It was 6:21!

There’s little in human experience that fuels anticipation and excitement like waiting for a long-expected gift. The Jews had been looking forward to the promised Messiah for centuries! They’d been promised a Deliverer, a King Who’d reign in perfect righteousness and holiness. As time advanced, the excitement of anticipation just multiplied!

Then Zechariah heard from the angel Gabriel (Luk.1:11-20) that the forerunner, promised to come in the spirit and power of Elijah (Mal.4:5) to prepare the way for Messiah, would be born to him and his wife in their old age! Several months later Mary (Luk.1:26-33) and Joseph (Mat.1:20-21) each heard their part in the story, also from angels—Mary from Gabriel himself! Then on the actual night of Jesus’ birth, the shepherds heard it from an angel chorus! (Luk.2:9-15) Christ had arrived! He’d been born in Bethlehem just as the prophet foretold! (Mic.5:2)

The excitement was now at a frenzied level. 19 … Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned home glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen…. And as Mary and Joseph moved through the next few days with their perfect little Son, they meticulously observed the law (Lev.12:1-8), circumcising him on the eighth day and fulfilling the responsibilities of Mary’s purification following childbirth (22). Mary was supposed to bring a year-old lamb for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering (Lev.12:6). Lev.12:8 [But] if she [couldn’t] afford a lamb, then she [would] take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. … This is the verse Luke references here: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons (24). Mary and Joseph’s sacrifice exposed their poverty.

Now there was a man in the temple (25, 27) when they arrived there for the circumcision. His name was Simeon (25). He’d been anticipating God’s gift to Israel for what appears to have been a long, long time (cf. 26, 29). Somehow God’s Spirit had made it known to him that he’d not die until he’d seen the fulfillment of this promise. He’d made it through Christmas Eve to Christmas Day! It was the Spirit Who moved Simeon to go to the temple that day and to meet up with Mary and Joseph. And when he saw them, 28 he took [baby Jesus] up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, [I can die now; but more, I’m a slave who’s now freed (Morris 105)], according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, [Jesus has come, as] 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Mary and Joseph marveled at this statement. Then Simeon blessed them as well (34-35). But our focus this morning is on his identification of Jesus as a light, the light by which non-Jews could see that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, as the Nicene Creed says. But He’s also the glory of Israel, the fulfillment of all they’d been promised, all they’d hoped for. This was salvation for all the world—the [seed] of the woman bruising the serpent’s head! (Gen.3:15) The [seed] of Abram blessing all the families of the earth! (Gen.12:3; Gal.3:16) This was God’s glory come, just as Isaiah had written! Isa.60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; and, oh, it did; it does; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. That’s what’s just happened! 3 And nations shall come to your light, it’s for the whole world, all people, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Simeon is saying: This day has come! It’s arrived in Jesus!

Conclusion

Have you received Him this morning? If not, you know that you can do so right where you’re seated. The child who was born that night in Bethlehem was fully God, making Him capable of being a savior! And He was fully man, making Him suitable to be a savior!

He lived the sinlessly perfect life we could never live, and He died the death of judgment we were sentenced to die. He died as a Substitute for all who believe. Then He rose from the dead in victory over sin and death! He paid the penalty for our sin, enabling us to be cleansed, reconciled to God, and adopted into His family!

If you have received Christ as savior, then you glory in this day, and in the retelling of this story every year—the [coming] of God in the flesh as the only possible solution for our sin. You rejoice in the experience of sins forgiven! And you recognize that in the coming of Christ to earth, true joy has dawned in the world, for the Lord has come! This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing.

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Resources Cited:

Morris, Leon, ed. 1988. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 3 Luke, by Leon Morris. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

NEXT WEEK: When the Dissension became Violent, Acts 22:30–23:11