The Nunc Dimittis
This is a transcript. It may contain some inaccuracies.
For the past three Sundays, together, we have been considering what we have called the Christmas songs in the Gospel of Luke. And there are four of them, and we've studied each of them thus far, three of them particularly. The first, you remember, was Mary's song called the Magnificat, because of the first word in the Latin - my soul magnifies the Lord. The second was the Benedictus, Zechariah's song, because of the first word in Latin – blessed - Benedictus. The third was the song of the angels, the Gloria Dei - glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.
This morning we come to look at the Nunc Dimittis, the song of Simeon, bounded by verse 29 and verse 32. Simeon, this man of God, this God-fearer, was well known for a few things. Wherever he had grown up in Israel, wherever he had lived, wherever he had worked, it seemed that he wanted to finish his days at the center of worship, the place of worship.
So, he's made his home there and was known for or by these three adjectives in verse 25. “… behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” He was known to be righteous. Three adjectives. Simeon was righteous. Simeon was devout. And Simeon was waiting for the comfort of Israel.
First of all, he was righteous. ‘Dikaios’ is the word used under inspiration by Luke. Firstly, that means Simeon was a man who's in a right relationship with God. It means nothing less than the fact that he enjoyed imputed righteousness. That righteousness that is imputed to him, righteousness that was not his own, righteousness that was not his own doing, but it is a righteousness of another credited into his account.
And, so, he was a justified man before God. He had trusted in the provisions that God had made and believed in the God of Israel, so that his soul is essentially declared ‘just’ by God. He was no longer in any sense an enemy of God or unreconciled to God. And when the Bible says somebody is righteous, it means that God has declared them righteous.
And God only declares sinners righteous when they trust in God's provision for forgiveness - not in their own works, not in their own schemes, not in their own doings, not in their own rituals, but in what God had done on behalf of sinners. And God applied the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, which hadn't happened at that time, to Simeon, because Simeon knew his sinfulness and he knew he couldn't earn his salvation, and he believed in the promised Messiah.
He cast himself on the mercy of God. God declared him righteous on the basis of what Christ would do in bearing his sins in the future. And, so, he was a righteous man. And whenever the Bible says a man is righteous or a woman is righteous, it means before God they are considered just, because their sins have been paid for and they have been forgiven.
Well, not only he was a righteous man, but he was also, the Bible tells us, devout. ‘Eulabēs’ is the Greek word. Well, what does it mean? This word simply talks about the fact that this man was really concerned for the things of God. In fact, very often this word is translated ‘cautious’, and it's a really good word. It's a great word in this context.
He had been justified by God through faith, his faith in the promised messiah, and he was cautious, which is to say he was very careful as to how he treated God and responded to God's word. He didn't live a careless life. He lived a very careful, cautious life. He looked at God with sobriety. He took God seriously. He was careful to obey God, careful to honor God, to treat God as heavy weight, as glorious, so as to bring glory to God and be an example to others. This defines his character.
He was a man who had been justified. He was a man who had been sanctified. This is a true remnant, a true Jew. For not all Israel is Israel, not every Jew is a true Jew, Paul tells us in Romans 11. And here's a true one. Here's one who truly, indeed, knew God and feared God. He is one who has been declared righteous by God, who lives a life that's cautious, careful, careful to honor God, careful to obey God, careful to follow God. That's his character.
To be devout means one who takes seriously the obligations and duties of being justified. You see, that is to say - and mark it down, beloved - that is to say, he didn't just enjoy an imputed righteousness, he also enjoyed a real, practical righteousness. And that is always the case, always, always, always the case. Whenever, truly indeed, righteousness is imputed to the sinner, it will always manifest itself in practical righteousness.
This was a man whose religion was not just on show. It was not something that he just put on, as the Pharisees did, like a mask, whenever they were supposed to play the role before others. But he was one who truly believed, and he felt the things of God as a weight upon his heart. They were deeply and earnestly felt. He had reverence for God. He had healthy fear of God, a true inner love and joy in God. Simeon was devout.
But the text also tells us that he was waiting. ‘Prosdechomenos’ is the Greek word, meaning waiting. He was waiting for the comfort of Israel. This is the same word in the Septuagint. You'll find it taken concerning Messiah, waiting for Messiah from Isaiah 40, verses 1 to 3, Isaiah 49, 13. This word ‘prosdechomenos’, to look forward to, waiting expectantly, waiting eagerly.
Simeon had a deep longing to see the promise of God come to pass before his very eyes, particularly those promises concerning the Messiah of God. Prophecy and promise was not a hobby for Simeon. For Simeon, it was no side interest. It was not accidental. It lay at the heart of who he was, this man of God. That Israel's God was a promise-keeping God, a faithful God, a covenant-keeping God, a God who acts in history. All of Simeon's hopes were focused on the promised Messiah.
Now, with this triad of piety, righteous, devout and waiting, hoping, patiently hoping, he'd probably earned for himself quite a reputation in Jerusalem as a particularly godly man. After all, keep in mind the religion in Israel at this time had sunk to its lowest level - the decadence, dead Judaism. I mean, think about it.
On the one hand, you had the Sadducees, who were the priestly cast. They were the ones who mostly lived in Jerusalem. They were in charge of the priestly work, and they were wealthy - tied in with the Romans politically, often in the pay of the Romans, given to all kinds of corruption and bribery. And perhaps, worst of all, they didn't believe three quarters of the Hebrew Bible. They only held that the first five books of Moses were inspired, and everything else to them was basically irrelevant.
They were anti-supernaturalists. They didn't believe in miracles, spirits, heaven, hell, life after death. I mean, very little belief. We would compare them today, if you were to compare them today, we would compare them to liberal Christians today who believe that the Bible is just a
morality play, just a story book of fairy tales to tell you how to be a nicer person, but no belief in real realities behind these things. That's the Sadducees.
And then, the opposite side, the opposite side of the pole, you had the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not control the temple. They controlled the synagogues scattered throughout the nation. And instead of taking away from the Word, like the Sadducees, they added to the Word. They added to the Word with their own proud, hypocritical offenses around the law, adding regulation after regulation after regulation. They became narrower than the Scripture.
So, between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, when you'd found somebody who loved God in simplicity and truth, well, you'd found a diamond in the rough. Stand out.
Now, in the time before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers, He used to come upon people in different ways. Jesus actually told us in John 14 and verse 17, He said to His disciples, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him because He abides with you” - and here it is – “and will be in you” - future tense. He will be in you. In other words, the Spirit of God was not yet in them that was waiting for the time of Pentecost.
So, during this time, the Holy Spirit was with and upon Simeon in a very special way. We read this in verse 25. So much so, that we're told that the Spirit of God had revealed to him that he wouldn't die until he saw Messiah.
This is prophetic revelation. This was not a whim. This was not an inkling of some sort – no, no. It was not an impression that he had, a self-generated imagination which he then, you know, stuffed with optimism and told people, you know, it was a prophecy. No, it was not concocted by him. Verse 26 tells us, “…it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit” - and watch this in verse 29, look at this, he says, this was according to Your Word, Lord, according to your Word.
So, Simeon had prophetic revelation that the Messiah would be born in his lifetime. And the same Spirit who revealed this to him, led him to a particularly day up to the temple. And on that day, well, who should be there as well? This was no coincidence. There's no happenstance with God. Mary, Joseph and Jesus were there that day.
Jesus, as you know, was born in Bethlehem, eight kilometers south and Mary and Joseph stayed there for some time knowing that they needed to travel eight kilometers north to Jerusalem, to the temple in order to conduct some of the ceremonies that they were required to render according to the law.
There were at least three of them that you needed to do if you had a baby boy. And the first one, obviously, was circumcision. A boy eight days after birth was to be circumcised and that was the moment when he received his official name. And we saw that with John the Baptist. And every Hebrew boy undergoing this ceremony was being placed in the Abrahamic covenant. He was being placed publicly, spiritually, underneath this unconditional covenant by which Abraham received land, seed and blessing to all of his descendants. And this event probably took place in the house. He didn't need to go to the temple. It was not compulsory. And so, eight days later, they performed this probably in Bethlehem.
But there were two more, two more ceremonies. The second one you had to perform if you had a baby boy was to redeem the first boy, the first born boy. Leviticus, according to Leviticus 12 and verse 8, and Exodus 13, verse 2 and 12. So, if you had a first born son who is not a Levite, well, you had to go to the temple and, for the price of five shekels, 31 days after he was born, at the earliest you would redeem your first born son.
The third ceremony, under the law of Moses, was the purification of the mother, according to Leviticus 12. And in the case of a boy, it was 40 days after birth. In the case of a girl, it was 80 days after birth. Don't ask me why.
Mary and Joseph were there at the temple to do these latter two ceremonies. And what that meant is that, for her own purification, she needed to go and present a sacrifice. And if she was rich enough, well, she would present a lamb; if not, well, two turtle doves. And we know that, in Joseph and Mary's case, they were poor, verse 24 tells us.
What Mary would have done, then, is she would have gone into the court of the women. And in that court, there were 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles. Instead of actually bringing in the animal, what many people would do was simply they would drop the price of the sacrifice into one of those receptacles. So there, Mary would have gone into the third receptacle, which was the particular one for her sacrifice. And she would have dropped in the monetary contribution, which would have been used to take care of the sacrifice. Someone else would have done that on her behalf.
But, then, she remained in the temple, waiting for the sound of the musical instrument, which announced now that the incense was about to be offered. Remember, when we studied Zechariah's song, he had to do that. And as that incense was now being offered, all those being purified were to come forward. When the main ceremony was over, the only ones who would still be remaining in the temple area were those who had extra sacrifices, special sacrifices, and those who just simply loved to linger. Those who had made prayer and fasting and meditation their aim, their vocation, if you will.
And so having done that, Mary and Joseph would have now gone to having Jesus redeemed, and they would have formally presented him to a priest. The priest would have given two short benedictions, pronouncing a blessing, one for the law of redemption, and one for the gift of the first born son. Then they would have paid their five shekels, and then the ceremony is over.
At this moment, the text tells us, Simeon steps forward. Spirit-led, he came across Joseph and Mary there to dedicate baby Yehoshua. And Simeon saw them and saw the child, and his joy was complete.
You know, all parents with infants know that strangers kind of look and make funny faces and do the ‘awww’ thing and sometimes even ask to hold the baby. This was not like this. This was different. This was way different. Simeon was gripped by prophetic revelation.
This elderly man was not simply smiling at a baby that happens to be in the temple. Simeon was seeing and wanting to hold the ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ to all of God's promises. Verse 28 says, “then he took Him into his arms and blessed God…” These are the arms of faith stretched out. And here is Jesus, the Savior of mankind, resting in the arms of Simeon, who is resting in the salvation that Jesus is providing. The gracious arms of the Savior, who will be stretched out, dying on Calvary's Cross for sinners, the likes of Simeon.
And, as he held the infant Jesus, he spoke the words that had become known as the Nunc Dimittis, the Latin for ‘now you are dismissing, now you are releasing, now you are letting depart’. Mary's song is about grace, marvelous grace. Zechariah's song about promises, the promises of God. The angel's song was about glory to God in the highest, goodwill to man. Here, Simeon's song is all about Salvation, capital S. It's all about salvation.
Salvation, what it does for your soul, the pleasure of the salvation, how God prepared it for ages, and what its purpose really is. And, so, as we look at this delightful song, let's consider, in fact, let us let us revel in the truths of this so great a salvation bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We begin in verse 29. Look at what his first words are: “Now Master” - ‘despota’, master, sovereign, reigning ‘despota’ – “You are releasing Your slave in peace, According to Your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation.” And what I want us to see, first of all here in the Song of Simeon, is the pleasure of salvation, the pleasure of salvation. That's why we're here today - the pleasure of salvation.
When we're young, we want more years. We want more time, more time. We want to do more. We want to see more. We want to experience more. I remember, before I was married, I used to say, Lord, if you could just delay the rapture till she comes. Lord, I do want to go to heaven, but when we're old and worn with the body's pain and weakness. Well, when there has been enough sufferings and trials and pains and regrets, the mind's focus tends to shift to the idea of release.
I've heard more than one believer say to me on the hospital bed ‘Habib, I'm tired. I want to go home.’ And they didn't mean home in Markham or Toronto or wherever else. I want to go home. Perhaps Simeon was old enough, and I believe he was, that life had now become more of a struggle than a delight. Remember Psalm 90, verse 10, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to might, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and wickedness; For soon it is gone and we fly away.” He had a longing to go home. After all, Simeon, as we just saw, was righteous.
That means he trusted in God's forgiveness. He had accepted what Yahweh had revealed. He had placed his faith in the God of the Scripture and his promised Messiah. Yes, he presented the sacrifices as God had said he should, but he trusted in the God who makes atonement, and like Abraham before him had been declared righteous by God, and so he did not fear to die. He did not fear death. He was not afraid of what would happen next. He wasn't afraid of the next step. No, Simeon was like someone who wants to take a journey, eager to take a journey, but he's waiting for his passport to arrive, and he can't go until it does.
You see, he had been told that he would see Messiah before he died. Now, I don't know how much revelation he'd received and the details of that, but the text clearly tells us that he knew, if God's word is true and it is, that his life would go on until he'd seen the Messiah. And the sight of the Savior now in his arms was the arrival of the passport that he's been waiting for.
“Now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace” - in peace. Now, Lord, my pilgrimage finally ends. You've kept your promise. What I've hoped for, what I've waited for, what I believe for, it's here in physical form, in my arms. Lord, right now I could die. I'm ready to go, Lord. It's the moment I lived for. You told me I'd live until I saw the Christ. I've seen the Christ. I'm ready to go, Lord. Release me.
What a tremendous testimony. So firm is his testimony that he is now willing to die, ready to die. His life is so much behind him that there's not much left. And, certainly, you can't top this, can you? I've seen him, the Lord. I've held him. And in that contentment, in that confidence, release Your slave, Lord. Set me free from this world into your glorious presence. The waiting is over. The watching is over. The hoping is over. Messiah is here. His heart is settled and at peace. And he can go to the presence of God, the God whom he loves to serve, whom he loves to adore. For my eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen and held and embraced the Savior. Simeon's heart can rest.
He's not going to even live to see Messiah reach his teens. No. He will never live to see what Messiah will do to save his people. And it would, no doubt, have broken his heart, had he been there in Jerusalem that day. But he didn't need to, because God had promised and he believed the promise. And God had kept his promise. And God had lovingly comforted this old man with a sight of a little over one month old Savior.
But beloved, I want you to notice the pleasure that he has in his salvation. Don't miss that. Notice the pleasure that he has in this salvation. Notice how joyfully content this man is. He is not whining about the money he had never had. He is not complaining about how family or friends hurt him. He is not cynical about what he missed out on. He is not angry about experiences he had never had. He is not regretting that he didn't see more of the world, that he didn't have a healthier body, he hadn't been more well known. He is not depressed that he hasn't made his mark in the world or had more power or had more fame. He is not saddened that he didn't have a better education or he had been perhaps more intellectually astute. No, absolutely none of that. He says, in essence, my life is complete. I can go. I'm ready to be with you, God. I'm ready. Release me.
Let me ask you before we move forward, do you have that attitude today? Do you have that attitude today? Could you say, if your life is going to come to an end today, this afternoon, now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace?
You know, the only way you can say that is if, like Simeon, you have made God's salvation the theme of your life. The only way you could say that is if you have embraced with the arms of faith the Savior of the world. If the Gospel has been the beating heart of your existence, if God's Gospel and God's truth has been the lens through which you see all of life, then you can come to the end and say like Simeon, I have been saved, I am being saved, and I shall be saved. Now that I crossed this river and I finished the work you gave me to do. I have seen your salvation in my own life. I have sought your salvation for others. My life, Lord, is full. Now, You are releasing Your slave in peace.
Oh, friends, that's what you can have if you make God your salvation, Christ the center of your life. If the Gospel truly is central to you, then you have pleasure in salvation. Simeon is satisfied by this.
You remember the old saying that goes, ‘you never realize Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have’. You never realize that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have. You see, for some, for some, it requires God stripping down to almost nothing, taking away the scaffoldings, taking away relationships and reputation and health and money and privilege. And when they're finally down to just about nothing, they realize, in Christ, I am complete. I have salvation. I have Christ. I have all that I need for now and for eternity. And your heart rejoices in that salvation. And you sing, take the world, but give me Jesus. All its joy.
Young people, listen. All its joys, the joys, the pleasures of this world are but what? But a name. But His love, oh, His love, love so amazing, so divine. Oh, His love abides forever through eternal years the same. It doesn't fluctuate like the love of people that goes up and down. Take the world, but give me Jesus - sweetest comfort of my soul.
With my Savior watching over me, I can sing. I can sing when it's sunny, when I'm on the mountaintop. No, it says, I can sing through billows roll. Come what may, in the dungeon in shekels, I will sing, ‘blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Great is thy faithfulness, O God, unto me’. Take this world and give me Jesus. In His cross, my trust shall be. Take this world and give me Jesus. Till that day, my Lord, I see and see Him, I shall, because He who promised is faithful. He will also do it.
I can depart. I can depart and be with the Lord. But if He bids me stay, I'll work, I'll work, and I will labor while I can. Listen, you're not ready to live until you're ready to die. You're not ready to live until you're ready to die. Oh, the pleasure of salvation.
Simeon is satisfied by it, but he's also satisfied by it because he's amazed not only at the pleasure of it, but the preparation of it. Look, secondly, with me at the preparation of it, verse 31. Start with verse 30, “For my eyes have seen Your salvation”. And, now, he says simply of this salvation, verse 31, which You prepared, You prepared in the presence of all peoples - the preparation of salvation.
You see this word, this verb ‘prepared’, ‘ētoimasas’. It speaks of forethought. It speaks of foreplanning. It speaks of foreconcern. It's a salvation, Simeon says, which God had prepared, not man. God prepared it. God prepared it.
Simeon looks at this salvation provided, not as some sort of an afterthought in the mind of God. This salvation given is not a last-minute arrangement of God, because, you know, God has been caught off guard by sin and man's inability to save himself and something must be done. No, no, no. He looks at this salvation as the manifestation of God's deliberate forethought, God's fore-concern, God's fore-planning. And beloved, let me underscore this marvelous truth. We cannot look at Jesus of Nazareth and His mission apart from God's purposes rooted in eternity.
And Simeon also knew that this salvation that has so satisfied his soul was actually a global event that goes beyond ethnic Israel. This was not some hidden private spirituality. This is not the words that today where people say, well, you know, look, if Christianity works for you, that's great. Everyone needs to find their own thing. And if you found your own thing in Christianity, well, good for you. What works for me is this particular other thing, this other little spirituality that I do, and that works for me, and it makes me happy. And if it doesn't make you happy, then that's your truth. But this is my truth. Simeon doesn't speak that silly language.
Simeon says, this is something which God has been preparing for several thousands of years in the presence of all nations, all ethnicities. You say, well, how had he done that? How? What is he talking about?
Well, let me give you a few ways. Here are a few ways that God had done that in many, many ways. You go back to the garden right after the fall. God shows mercy and grace upon Adam
and Eve, and He gives what we call the ‘protevangelium’, the first gospel. Genesis 3.15, how the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head, that God will bring a deliverer.
And then 2,000 years BC just after the Tower of Babel, He plucked out one Mesopotamian idolater named Abram, and He set him apart, and He took him to the land of his own. And there He began working with him to make him a man of faith and to make his children children of faith, and began saving these people and working with them to make them a nation of faith and of holiness. And eventually through much struggle, He gives them a land of their own, He gives them a law code of their own, and most of all, He actually comes and abides with them in their land so that they could worship Him.
And to that people, Israel, He gives His special revelation. He gives all of His prophecy, because now these people, chosen by God, are going to be the hosts of this great salvation. They're going to be the receptacles. They're going to be those that host the Savior of the world. Theirs would be the family and ethnicity of the one who would save mankind.
That's not all He did to prepare the salvation, God. Without accident, without coincidence, with no mistake, He places Israel in the strip of land that was in the ancient world, the world's highway. Three continents, Asia, Europe, and Africa, all met and had to travel along the coast of Israel to trade, to buy and sell. This was where all the nations of the world would pass, so that if they want to go from one side of the world to the other, they would need to go along that highway that goes through Israel.
Israel didn't have to send missionaries because in that time Israel didn't go to the world, the world came to Israel. The world passed through Israel and along those coasts as they went and as they traveled and as they did business. And many of them wanted, in fact, to conquer it because it was so valuable and they would ask, so who lives here? What is that they believe? And who is their god? And what is their scripture? And who is their prophet? God prepared salvation that way.
But then He did some other things as well. This salvation that He prepared before the face of all ethnicities. Because these people were disobedient. In 580 BC, He started a period of time known as the time of the Gentiles. And successive world empires came to conquer Israel. First, you remember Babylon, and then Persia, and then Greece, and then after that Rome.
Now by the time Simeon is on the scene, the Roman Empire has reached a size unmatched by any other empire before. And Augustus, when Jesus was born, declared the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, which is across the world. And people can now travel and trade and move freely, communicate across a larger area than ever before. God prepared His salvation to spread.
And the Roman Empire, with its military ambition, devised an amazing communication, transportation system for their troops, all in preparation for the Gospel. And that meant, as Christ grew up and completed His ministry, His message could effectively go forth and reach across the Roman Empire from India to Britain.
And the Gospel would spread by means of roads that they had constructed. It would spread by means of ships that the Romans protected. And it would spread by means of the Roman postal system that allowed letters of the New Testament to spread throughout the Empire. He prepared salvation.
And God did also one other thing. Three centuries before Christ, Alexander the Great came on the scene. And he conquers the known world and, instead of having hundreds of thousands of languages, one language begins to spread across the entire region. And that is Greek. And, in about 250 BC, the Greeks requested a copy of the Bible, the Hebrew scripture. And, so, the Jewish people in Alexandria translated it, the LXX, the Septuagint. And now you had this Bible that was formerly a closed book, restricted to the Hebrews, was now in the language that has spread right across this empire.
And again, by the time of the New Testament, the Lingua Franca, the spoken language, the common language, is Greek. And the whole world now is speaking this language. And the New Testament, the whole of the New Testament, written in Greek. The life of Christ in Greek. The letters of Paul and Peter and James and John, written in Greek, spread across the Empire so that everyone, Gentiles of all, all of them of all the nations, could understand this glorious message of salvation.
That is why Simeon said, You prepare this salvation in the presence of all peoples. What an amazing God we have. Lord, you've been gathering world cultures and world history to now, in the fullest of time. This salvation now is taking place.
You know what I think? If you're in Christ, anyone, anyone in Christ who reflects on his or her salvation should marvel. You ought to be stunned at how empires were moved and nations were shaped and histories, entire histories were determined so that you could have a Savior, so that I could have a Savior.
Sometimes we think, well, oh yeah, I received Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. Yes. Isn't it a blessing that it's as simple as receiving a gift? As simple as that. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing it is as simple as receiving a gift? But, but, but, do you see the complexity of preparing that gift? Don't miss the complexity of preparing that gift, the complexity in wrapping that gift, the complexity in delivering that gift. Oh, child of God, be utterly dumbfounded. Be amazed.
Simeon rejoices not only in the pleasure of salvation that has satisfied his soul, not only in the preparation of salvation that amazes his heart, but thirdly, he rejoices in the purpose of salvation. Verse 32. Look at verse 32, “A light for revelation for the Gentiles And for the glory of Your people Israel.”
All Jewish people believed they were the chosen nation, but they didn't all agree as to how God would allow them to be the sovereign ruling nation of the world, especially since now they're under the thumb of the Romans. Some of them thought that an angelic champion would come down from heaven and would just squash their enemies and make it happen. Some of them thought that God would break through through supernatural means. Others of them thought, you know, someone through David's line would come and restore Solomon's glory. So you had different views.
Now, there were a few in the land, a few people known as the quiet in the land. And this is what is written about them. It says that they had no dreams of violence and of power, of armies and of banners. They believed in a life of constant prayer and quiet watchfulness until God should come. All their lives, they waited quietly, patiently upon Yahweh. Simeon was like that. He was one of the quiet of the land. In prayer, in worship, in humble, faithful expectation, he waited and waited for the day when God would comfort his people. He waited for the consolation of Israel.
Now Simeon understood the prophetic words. He understood prophecies. Remember, Messiah would restore Israel, he would rescue her, but the reason he would do that is because Israel was going to be his tool to reach the world. Ultimately, the Messiah was the Messiah for all people. Isaiah 9, verse 2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them.” And in Isaiah 42, verse 6, “I am Yahweh, I have called you in righteousness; I will also take hold of You by the hand and guard You, and I will give You as a covenant to the people,” - and watch this – “as a light to the nations.”
Now, because the king of the whole earth, the Messiah would be Jewish, that would necessarily be to the honor and the glory of God's people, Israel. After all, if the king reigns from Jerusalem, who gets the greatest honor under God? Israel. But it didn't come and wasn't to come through the Roman way of destroying those nations. It was going to come firstly through atonement, through sacrifice, through offering mercy.
Now do you know how much pain and hatred and suffering has come from people not understanding and missing the beautiful balance in Simeon's words? And this is especially fitting for our times. You see, many Gentiles have hated, despised the Jewish people, really out of jealousy for being the chosen people.
They've either tried to persecute the Jews or harm the Jews, or they've tried to explain away their chosen status, saying something like this, well, maybe they were chosen, but they're no longer chosen. They lost that. They've been rejected. They rejected Jesus and, so, they're no longer the chosen people. Or, even the more ridiculous theory, the Jews are behind conspiracies to take over the world. But all of it really amounted to jealousy and hatred.
On the other hand, many Jews have misunderstood their chosen status and have despised the Gentiles. They've seen Gentiles as unclean and, sometimes, they've assumed that chosen means superior or meritorious. In fact, their rabbis invented a story. The story was the reason God chose Israel, according to them, was that God offered the law to all nations of the world, but then Israel accepted it. And that's why he chose them, because they accepted it on their own, which is again very man-centered. Why did God choose me? Well, because I chose him first. That's man-centered.
The scripture is clear. God says, I chose you, and the reason He gives… Ready for this? Because I chose you. Because I chose you. If you need a deeper reason, you're in trouble. He says the reason I loved you is because I loved you. Purely sovereign. Purely His choice.
And many Jews have misunderstood this and have thought this. Well, if Gentiles want to be saved, they need to become Jews first. Or maybe there are separate ways of salvation. There's a Jewish way and there's a Gentile... No, no.
The balance is looking us in the face here in verse 32, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of Your people Israel.” That's the balance. A light for revelation - ‘Apokalupsin’ is the Greek word - revelation to the Gentiles. This word means to uncover, to unveil, to unveil what was hidden to the Gentiles. And he uses the word Gentiles, ‘ethnōn’, ‘ethnōn’ - the same word that our Lord uses later on in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verse 19. “Go therefore, and make disciples of all the – ‘ethnon’, Gentiles, nations, heathens, no racial, national, cultural distinctions, they're all broken down.
As someone like Simeon holds the infant Christ in his arms, he's given to see that this One is God's intended deliverer of a great multitude who no man can number out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Gentiles are equally the recipients of God's salvation. They participate in the millennial kingdom that will be set up as equals. They participate in eternal glory as equals, but not at the exclusion of Israel.
Look at the last part of verse 32, “And for the glory of Your people Israel.” Sad to say that Israel, in unbelief, regarded with great disdain and shame what God said is her greatest glory. He came to His own. His own received him not - John 1, 11. The Gentiles were grafted in, Romans 11, 17, but God isn't done with Israel yet. His covenant is still in place. “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;” - Isaiah 46, 13 – “and my salvation will not delay, and I will grant salvation in Zion, and My glory for Israel.”
And addressing this very concern, in Romans 11, Paul says in verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are what? Irrevocable. They are irrevocable. Simeon, in this wonderful prophetic Word, proclaims that the intended beneficiaries of the coming of Messiah is to the nations as well as Israel. The Savior of all ethnicities is a Jewish Savior. The Messiah is the greatest Jewish gift to the whole world and forever their greatest honor.
So, the Jewish people should be humbled that they were chosen, the chosen vessel to reveal God to the world, both the written word and the incarnate living word. Gentiles who see the light in Jesus should thank God for Israel and give her honor where honor is due, while gratefully receiving the Savior that doesn't require them from being saved for being Gentiles. He simply requires them to be saved from their sin. He doesn't require them to become Jewish, but they should receive the Jewish Savior as the Savior from their sins. They should honor the family and ethnicity of Jesus, thanking God that the Messiah came for all nations.
Alfred Edersheim was a Jewish believer, who wrote in the late 19th century, looked at the scene and said this about Simeon, and I quote, “with this infant in his arms, it was as if he stood on the mountain height of prophetic vision and watched the golden beams of sunrise far away of the aisles of the Gentiles and then gathering their full glow over His own beloved land and people.” That's what Simeon could see, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of Your people Israel.”
It's a pleasure to those who know it – salvation. It should amaze us with its detailed and massive glorious preparation and it should humble us in its purpose. A chosen nation brings forth its king to save all people from their sin.
Simeon was not done when he finished his song. Let me finish with this by way of application. He prophetically knew that the Messiah was not going to be universally loved and universally received, so he spoke a personal word to Mary and Joseph. Look at verse 33 and following, “…His father and mother were marveling at the things which were being said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed - and a sword will pierce through your own soul as well - that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Consider four things here about Messiah by way of application. Firstly, many are going to fall because of Him. Many are going to stumble and trip. Many are going to reject Him and condemn themselves. And He's going to bring a sword and households are going to divide. Tribes and rulers and even nations are going to divide about Jesus.
But secondly also, many are going to rise because of Him. Many will repent and come to believe in Him. Many will believe and many will be saved. Some have put the estimates of the Jewish people that believed in Jesus in the first century at one million. A million Jewish people who became, in many ways, the elders, the fathers of the early church. And today, many hundreds of millions of believers worldwide, a great number did rise.
But third, the third thing you should see here, He’s going to be spoken against. In verse 34, It says here, “and for a sign to be opposed”. ‘Antilegomenon’ is the Greek word - literally to be spoken against. The name of Jesus became to the Jewish religious establishment a curse word, a byword. He became a false prophet, a blasphemer, a deceiver. He is the cornerstone that has been rejected, the stone over which the builders stumble, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2, 8.
And in the same breath, Simeon says in verse 35, “a sword will pierce through your own soul as well” to Mary. Indeed, Mary stood at the foot of the cross, didn't she? She saw her son dying, the death of criminals.
And fourthly, he says “that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” ‘Dialogismoi’ is the Greek word - thoughts, referring to the innermost motives, the speculations deep down.
Messiah will be an instrument that reveals what men are really motivated by, what their treasures are, what their hopes are, what they really love, what they really live for.
The message of the Gospel pierces right to the core of every single man, woman, boy and girl, because it doesn't offer you another religion. It doesn't give you just another spirituality. No, no, this glorious Gospel that we've looked at this morning offers you another you, another life. It calls on you to forsake your gods, to forsake yourself, to forsake life lived for your own glory, for your own pleasure, to hand yourself over to God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And right now, these four things are true of you in one way or another. He's either your rise or your fall. You know He's spoken against. You know He's still mocked and ridiculed, even worse, patronized as a good moral man. But still, He reveals your thoughts today. What do you love most? What do you want most? What do you live for the most?
If you're like Simeon, then what you want most is a reconciled relationship with God. That was Simeon's pleasure. The gospel was the beating heart of his life. And that's why when he thought about it, he rejoiced in a salvation that had been prepared and had been delivered for the whole world, whose purpose was to save both Jews and Gentiles through a marvelous Savior.
So, let me ask you this morning, again, could you today depart in peace? Could God take you today and could you die absolutely satisfied that you are in Him and He is in you? That Jesus Christ, the reason for Christmas, has taken your sins away because you humbly asked for His payment to be applied to you. And your offenses against God have been all wiped away. And you know for sure that His righteousness was imputed. It was credited to you.
And that, should you die today, God would count Jesus to your favor and receive you in the Beloved. Can you say that? Can you? Don't brush me away. Don't, don't dismiss the question. Don't, don't sit and think, well, I came, it's Christmas service and I just want to, I just want to be happy and go home and open gifts.
This is serious. Can you really say today, now master, release me in peace? I'm ready. I'm ready. Whenever you call me to stand in your presence, I'm ready, because Jesus paid it all. He who knew no sin, God made to be sin for me, so that I in Him might become the righteousness of God. Can you say that?
What is it that's holding you back? The world? What is in the world that is drawing you? Its pleasures are like a sugar coated poison pill, sweet when you take it, but deadly. Turn to the One who's able to save to the uttermost, those who come to Him by faith.
Take this world - let that be your song - give me Jesus. And say with the psalmist, whom have I in heaven but You, and on earth I desire none beside You. I want nothing else. I want nothing else but You, Jesus. Now Master, let Your servant depart in peace. Let Your slave come to you in peace. I'm ready. And should You tarry and keep me here, I will labor, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that this morning, that You, only You, would enable us and bless us with eyes to see what Simeon could see. Your salvation, Your salvation, Your glorious salvation, so great salvation. And Father, I beg, I plead, let no one here walk out with a dismissive heart, with an indifferent heart to the promises of the Savior. But I pray that each one, everyone could say today, now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace, that your salvation would be near and dear, that we would have trusted in it and know it and beholding it close. And, so, Lord, I pray that you bless this Word to our heart. And we pray this in His name, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This morning we come to look at the Nunc Dimittis, the song of Simeon, bounded by verse 29 and verse 32. Simeon, this man of God, this God-fearer, was well known for a few things. Wherever he had grown up in Israel, wherever he had lived, wherever he had worked, it seemed that he wanted to finish his days at the center of worship, the place of worship.
So, he's made his home there and was known for or by these three adjectives in verse 25. “… behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” He was known to be righteous. Three adjectives. Simeon was righteous. Simeon was devout. And Simeon was waiting for the comfort of Israel.
First of all, he was righteous. ‘Dikaios’ is the word used under inspiration by Luke. Firstly, that means Simeon was a man who's in a right relationship with God. It means nothing less than the fact that he enjoyed imputed righteousness. That righteousness that is imputed to him, righteousness that was not his own, righteousness that was not his own doing, but it is a righteousness of another credited into his account.
And, so, he was a justified man before God. He had trusted in the provisions that God had made and believed in the God of Israel, so that his soul is essentially declared ‘just’ by God. He was no longer in any sense an enemy of God or unreconciled to God. And when the Bible says somebody is righteous, it means that God has declared them righteous.
And God only declares sinners righteous when they trust in God's provision for forgiveness - not in their own works, not in their own schemes, not in their own doings, not in their own rituals, but in what God had done on behalf of sinners. And God applied the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, which hadn't happened at that time, to Simeon, because Simeon knew his sinfulness and he knew he couldn't earn his salvation, and he believed in the promised Messiah.
He cast himself on the mercy of God. God declared him righteous on the basis of what Christ would do in bearing his sins in the future. And, so, he was a righteous man. And whenever the Bible says a man is righteous or a woman is righteous, it means before God they are considered just, because their sins have been paid for and they have been forgiven.
Well, not only he was a righteous man, but he was also, the Bible tells us, devout. ‘Eulabēs’ is the Greek word. Well, what does it mean? This word simply talks about the fact that this man was really concerned for the things of God. In fact, very often this word is translated ‘cautious’, and it's a really good word. It's a great word in this context.
He had been justified by God through faith, his faith in the promised messiah, and he was cautious, which is to say he was very careful as to how he treated God and responded to God's word. He didn't live a careless life. He lived a very careful, cautious life. He looked at God with sobriety. He took God seriously. He was careful to obey God, careful to honor God, to treat God as heavy weight, as glorious, so as to bring glory to God and be an example to others. This defines his character.
He was a man who had been justified. He was a man who had been sanctified. This is a true remnant, a true Jew. For not all Israel is Israel, not every Jew is a true Jew, Paul tells us in Romans 11. And here's a true one. Here's one who truly, indeed, knew God and feared God. He is one who has been declared righteous by God, who lives a life that's cautious, careful, careful to honor God, careful to obey God, careful to follow God. That's his character.
To be devout means one who takes seriously the obligations and duties of being justified. You see, that is to say - and mark it down, beloved - that is to say, he didn't just enjoy an imputed righteousness, he also enjoyed a real, practical righteousness. And that is always the case, always, always, always the case. Whenever, truly indeed, righteousness is imputed to the sinner, it will always manifest itself in practical righteousness.
This was a man whose religion was not just on show. It was not something that he just put on, as the Pharisees did, like a mask, whenever they were supposed to play the role before others. But he was one who truly believed, and he felt the things of God as a weight upon his heart. They were deeply and earnestly felt. He had reverence for God. He had healthy fear of God, a true inner love and joy in God. Simeon was devout.
But the text also tells us that he was waiting. ‘Prosdechomenos’ is the Greek word, meaning waiting. He was waiting for the comfort of Israel. This is the same word in the Septuagint. You'll find it taken concerning Messiah, waiting for Messiah from Isaiah 40, verses 1 to 3, Isaiah 49, 13. This word ‘prosdechomenos’, to look forward to, waiting expectantly, waiting eagerly.
Simeon had a deep longing to see the promise of God come to pass before his very eyes, particularly those promises concerning the Messiah of God. Prophecy and promise was not a hobby for Simeon. For Simeon, it was no side interest. It was not accidental. It lay at the heart of who he was, this man of God. That Israel's God was a promise-keeping God, a faithful God, a covenant-keeping God, a God who acts in history. All of Simeon's hopes were focused on the promised Messiah.
Now, with this triad of piety, righteous, devout and waiting, hoping, patiently hoping, he'd probably earned for himself quite a reputation in Jerusalem as a particularly godly man. After all, keep in mind the religion in Israel at this time had sunk to its lowest level - the decadence, dead Judaism. I mean, think about it.
On the one hand, you had the Sadducees, who were the priestly cast. They were the ones who mostly lived in Jerusalem. They were in charge of the priestly work, and they were wealthy - tied in with the Romans politically, often in the pay of the Romans, given to all kinds of corruption and bribery. And perhaps, worst of all, they didn't believe three quarters of the Hebrew Bible. They only held that the first five books of Moses were inspired, and everything else to them was basically irrelevant.
They were anti-supernaturalists. They didn't believe in miracles, spirits, heaven, hell, life after death. I mean, very little belief. We would compare them today, if you were to compare them today, we would compare them to liberal Christians today who believe that the Bible is just a
morality play, just a story book of fairy tales to tell you how to be a nicer person, but no belief in real realities behind these things. That's the Sadducees.
And then, the opposite side, the opposite side of the pole, you had the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not control the temple. They controlled the synagogues scattered throughout the nation. And instead of taking away from the Word, like the Sadducees, they added to the Word. They added to the Word with their own proud, hypocritical offenses around the law, adding regulation after regulation after regulation. They became narrower than the Scripture.
So, between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, when you'd found somebody who loved God in simplicity and truth, well, you'd found a diamond in the rough. Stand out.
Now, in the time before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers, He used to come upon people in different ways. Jesus actually told us in John 14 and verse 17, He said to His disciples, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him because He abides with you” - and here it is – “and will be in you” - future tense. He will be in you. In other words, the Spirit of God was not yet in them that was waiting for the time of Pentecost.
So, during this time, the Holy Spirit was with and upon Simeon in a very special way. We read this in verse 25. So much so, that we're told that the Spirit of God had revealed to him that he wouldn't die until he saw Messiah.
This is prophetic revelation. This was not a whim. This was not an inkling of some sort – no, no. It was not an impression that he had, a self-generated imagination which he then, you know, stuffed with optimism and told people, you know, it was a prophecy. No, it was not concocted by him. Verse 26 tells us, “…it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit” - and watch this in verse 29, look at this, he says, this was according to Your Word, Lord, according to your Word.
So, Simeon had prophetic revelation that the Messiah would be born in his lifetime. And the same Spirit who revealed this to him, led him to a particularly day up to the temple. And on that day, well, who should be there as well? This was no coincidence. There's no happenstance with God. Mary, Joseph and Jesus were there that day.
Jesus, as you know, was born in Bethlehem, eight kilometers south and Mary and Joseph stayed there for some time knowing that they needed to travel eight kilometers north to Jerusalem, to the temple in order to conduct some of the ceremonies that they were required to render according to the law.
There were at least three of them that you needed to do if you had a baby boy. And the first one, obviously, was circumcision. A boy eight days after birth was to be circumcised and that was the moment when he received his official name. And we saw that with John the Baptist. And every Hebrew boy undergoing this ceremony was being placed in the Abrahamic covenant. He was being placed publicly, spiritually, underneath this unconditional covenant by which Abraham received land, seed and blessing to all of his descendants. And this event probably took place in the house. He didn't need to go to the temple. It was not compulsory. And so, eight days later, they performed this probably in Bethlehem.
But there were two more, two more ceremonies. The second one you had to perform if you had a baby boy was to redeem the first boy, the first born boy. Leviticus, according to Leviticus 12 and verse 8, and Exodus 13, verse 2 and 12. So, if you had a first born son who is not a Levite, well, you had to go to the temple and, for the price of five shekels, 31 days after he was born, at the earliest you would redeem your first born son.
The third ceremony, under the law of Moses, was the purification of the mother, according to Leviticus 12. And in the case of a boy, it was 40 days after birth. In the case of a girl, it was 80 days after birth. Don't ask me why.
Mary and Joseph were there at the temple to do these latter two ceremonies. And what that meant is that, for her own purification, she needed to go and present a sacrifice. And if she was rich enough, well, she would present a lamb; if not, well, two turtle doves. And we know that, in Joseph and Mary's case, they were poor, verse 24 tells us.
What Mary would have done, then, is she would have gone into the court of the women. And in that court, there were 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles. Instead of actually bringing in the animal, what many people would do was simply they would drop the price of the sacrifice into one of those receptacles. So there, Mary would have gone into the third receptacle, which was the particular one for her sacrifice. And she would have dropped in the monetary contribution, which would have been used to take care of the sacrifice. Someone else would have done that on her behalf.
But, then, she remained in the temple, waiting for the sound of the musical instrument, which announced now that the incense was about to be offered. Remember, when we studied Zechariah's song, he had to do that. And as that incense was now being offered, all those being purified were to come forward. When the main ceremony was over, the only ones who would still be remaining in the temple area were those who had extra sacrifices, special sacrifices, and those who just simply loved to linger. Those who had made prayer and fasting and meditation their aim, their vocation, if you will.
And so having done that, Mary and Joseph would have now gone to having Jesus redeemed, and they would have formally presented him to a priest. The priest would have given two short benedictions, pronouncing a blessing, one for the law of redemption, and one for the gift of the first born son. Then they would have paid their five shekels, and then the ceremony is over.
At this moment, the text tells us, Simeon steps forward. Spirit-led, he came across Joseph and Mary there to dedicate baby Yehoshua. And Simeon saw them and saw the child, and his joy was complete.
You know, all parents with infants know that strangers kind of look and make funny faces and do the ‘awww’ thing and sometimes even ask to hold the baby. This was not like this. This was different. This was way different. Simeon was gripped by prophetic revelation.
This elderly man was not simply smiling at a baby that happens to be in the temple. Simeon was seeing and wanting to hold the ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ to all of God's promises. Verse 28 says, “then he took Him into his arms and blessed God…” These are the arms of faith stretched out. And here is Jesus, the Savior of mankind, resting in the arms of Simeon, who is resting in the salvation that Jesus is providing. The gracious arms of the Savior, who will be stretched out, dying on Calvary's Cross for sinners, the likes of Simeon.
And, as he held the infant Jesus, he spoke the words that had become known as the Nunc Dimittis, the Latin for ‘now you are dismissing, now you are releasing, now you are letting depart’. Mary's song is about grace, marvelous grace. Zechariah's song about promises, the promises of God. The angel's song was about glory to God in the highest, goodwill to man. Here, Simeon's song is all about Salvation, capital S. It's all about salvation.
Salvation, what it does for your soul, the pleasure of the salvation, how God prepared it for ages, and what its purpose really is. And, so, as we look at this delightful song, let's consider, in fact, let us let us revel in the truths of this so great a salvation bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We begin in verse 29. Look at what his first words are: “Now Master” - ‘despota’, master, sovereign, reigning ‘despota’ – “You are releasing Your slave in peace, According to Your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation.” And what I want us to see, first of all here in the Song of Simeon, is the pleasure of salvation, the pleasure of salvation. That's why we're here today - the pleasure of salvation.
When we're young, we want more years. We want more time, more time. We want to do more. We want to see more. We want to experience more. I remember, before I was married, I used to say, Lord, if you could just delay the rapture till she comes. Lord, I do want to go to heaven, but when we're old and worn with the body's pain and weakness. Well, when there has been enough sufferings and trials and pains and regrets, the mind's focus tends to shift to the idea of release.
I've heard more than one believer say to me on the hospital bed ‘Habib, I'm tired. I want to go home.’ And they didn't mean home in Markham or Toronto or wherever else. I want to go home. Perhaps Simeon was old enough, and I believe he was, that life had now become more of a struggle than a delight. Remember Psalm 90, verse 10, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to might, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and wickedness; For soon it is gone and we fly away.” He had a longing to go home. After all, Simeon, as we just saw, was righteous.
That means he trusted in God's forgiveness. He had accepted what Yahweh had revealed. He had placed his faith in the God of the Scripture and his promised Messiah. Yes, he presented the sacrifices as God had said he should, but he trusted in the God who makes atonement, and like Abraham before him had been declared righteous by God, and so he did not fear to die. He did not fear death. He was not afraid of what would happen next. He wasn't afraid of the next step. No, Simeon was like someone who wants to take a journey, eager to take a journey, but he's waiting for his passport to arrive, and he can't go until it does.
You see, he had been told that he would see Messiah before he died. Now, I don't know how much revelation he'd received and the details of that, but the text clearly tells us that he knew, if God's word is true and it is, that his life would go on until he'd seen the Messiah. And the sight of the Savior now in his arms was the arrival of the passport that he's been waiting for.
“Now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace” - in peace. Now, Lord, my pilgrimage finally ends. You've kept your promise. What I've hoped for, what I've waited for, what I believe for, it's here in physical form, in my arms. Lord, right now I could die. I'm ready to go, Lord. It's the moment I lived for. You told me I'd live until I saw the Christ. I've seen the Christ. I'm ready to go, Lord. Release me.
What a tremendous testimony. So firm is his testimony that he is now willing to die, ready to die. His life is so much behind him that there's not much left. And, certainly, you can't top this, can you? I've seen him, the Lord. I've held him. And in that contentment, in that confidence, release Your slave, Lord. Set me free from this world into your glorious presence. The waiting is over. The watching is over. The hoping is over. Messiah is here. His heart is settled and at peace. And he can go to the presence of God, the God whom he loves to serve, whom he loves to adore. For my eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen and held and embraced the Savior. Simeon's heart can rest.
He's not going to even live to see Messiah reach his teens. No. He will never live to see what Messiah will do to save his people. And it would, no doubt, have broken his heart, had he been there in Jerusalem that day. But he didn't need to, because God had promised and he believed the promise. And God had kept his promise. And God had lovingly comforted this old man with a sight of a little over one month old Savior.
But beloved, I want you to notice the pleasure that he has in his salvation. Don't miss that. Notice the pleasure that he has in this salvation. Notice how joyfully content this man is. He is not whining about the money he had never had. He is not complaining about how family or friends hurt him. He is not cynical about what he missed out on. He is not angry about experiences he had never had. He is not regretting that he didn't see more of the world, that he didn't have a healthier body, he hadn't been more well known. He is not depressed that he hasn't made his mark in the world or had more power or had more fame. He is not saddened that he didn't have a better education or he had been perhaps more intellectually astute. No, absolutely none of that. He says, in essence, my life is complete. I can go. I'm ready to be with you, God. I'm ready. Release me.
Let me ask you before we move forward, do you have that attitude today? Do you have that attitude today? Could you say, if your life is going to come to an end today, this afternoon, now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace?
You know, the only way you can say that is if, like Simeon, you have made God's salvation the theme of your life. The only way you could say that is if you have embraced with the arms of faith the Savior of the world. If the Gospel has been the beating heart of your existence, if God's Gospel and God's truth has been the lens through which you see all of life, then you can come to the end and say like Simeon, I have been saved, I am being saved, and I shall be saved. Now that I crossed this river and I finished the work you gave me to do. I have seen your salvation in my own life. I have sought your salvation for others. My life, Lord, is full. Now, You are releasing Your slave in peace.
Oh, friends, that's what you can have if you make God your salvation, Christ the center of your life. If the Gospel truly is central to you, then you have pleasure in salvation. Simeon is satisfied by this.
You remember the old saying that goes, ‘you never realize Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have’. You never realize that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have. You see, for some, for some, it requires God stripping down to almost nothing, taking away the scaffoldings, taking away relationships and reputation and health and money and privilege. And when they're finally down to just about nothing, they realize, in Christ, I am complete. I have salvation. I have Christ. I have all that I need for now and for eternity. And your heart rejoices in that salvation. And you sing, take the world, but give me Jesus. All its joy.
Young people, listen. All its joys, the joys, the pleasures of this world are but what? But a name. But His love, oh, His love, love so amazing, so divine. Oh, His love abides forever through eternal years the same. It doesn't fluctuate like the love of people that goes up and down. Take the world, but give me Jesus - sweetest comfort of my soul.
With my Savior watching over me, I can sing. I can sing when it's sunny, when I'm on the mountaintop. No, it says, I can sing through billows roll. Come what may, in the dungeon in shekels, I will sing, ‘blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Great is thy faithfulness, O God, unto me’. Take this world and give me Jesus. In His cross, my trust shall be. Take this world and give me Jesus. Till that day, my Lord, I see and see Him, I shall, because He who promised is faithful. He will also do it.
I can depart. I can depart and be with the Lord. But if He bids me stay, I'll work, I'll work, and I will labor while I can. Listen, you're not ready to live until you're ready to die. You're not ready to live until you're ready to die. Oh, the pleasure of salvation.
Simeon is satisfied by it, but he's also satisfied by it because he's amazed not only at the pleasure of it, but the preparation of it. Look, secondly, with me at the preparation of it, verse 31. Start with verse 30, “For my eyes have seen Your salvation”. And, now, he says simply of this salvation, verse 31, which You prepared, You prepared in the presence of all peoples - the preparation of salvation.
You see this word, this verb ‘prepared’, ‘ētoimasas’. It speaks of forethought. It speaks of foreplanning. It speaks of foreconcern. It's a salvation, Simeon says, which God had prepared, not man. God prepared it. God prepared it.
Simeon looks at this salvation provided, not as some sort of an afterthought in the mind of God. This salvation given is not a last-minute arrangement of God, because, you know, God has been caught off guard by sin and man's inability to save himself and something must be done. No, no, no. He looks at this salvation as the manifestation of God's deliberate forethought, God's fore-concern, God's fore-planning. And beloved, let me underscore this marvelous truth. We cannot look at Jesus of Nazareth and His mission apart from God's purposes rooted in eternity.
And Simeon also knew that this salvation that has so satisfied his soul was actually a global event that goes beyond ethnic Israel. This was not some hidden private spirituality. This is not the words that today where people say, well, you know, look, if Christianity works for you, that's great. Everyone needs to find their own thing. And if you found your own thing in Christianity, well, good for you. What works for me is this particular other thing, this other little spirituality that I do, and that works for me, and it makes me happy. And if it doesn't make you happy, then that's your truth. But this is my truth. Simeon doesn't speak that silly language.
Simeon says, this is something which God has been preparing for several thousands of years in the presence of all nations, all ethnicities. You say, well, how had he done that? How? What is he talking about?
Well, let me give you a few ways. Here are a few ways that God had done that in many, many ways. You go back to the garden right after the fall. God shows mercy and grace upon Adam
and Eve, and He gives what we call the ‘protevangelium’, the first gospel. Genesis 3.15, how the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head, that God will bring a deliverer.
And then 2,000 years BC just after the Tower of Babel, He plucked out one Mesopotamian idolater named Abram, and He set him apart, and He took him to the land of his own. And there He began working with him to make him a man of faith and to make his children children of faith, and began saving these people and working with them to make them a nation of faith and of holiness. And eventually through much struggle, He gives them a land of their own, He gives them a law code of their own, and most of all, He actually comes and abides with them in their land so that they could worship Him.
And to that people, Israel, He gives His special revelation. He gives all of His prophecy, because now these people, chosen by God, are going to be the hosts of this great salvation. They're going to be the receptacles. They're going to be those that host the Savior of the world. Theirs would be the family and ethnicity of the one who would save mankind.
That's not all He did to prepare the salvation, God. Without accident, without coincidence, with no mistake, He places Israel in the strip of land that was in the ancient world, the world's highway. Three continents, Asia, Europe, and Africa, all met and had to travel along the coast of Israel to trade, to buy and sell. This was where all the nations of the world would pass, so that if they want to go from one side of the world to the other, they would need to go along that highway that goes through Israel.
Israel didn't have to send missionaries because in that time Israel didn't go to the world, the world came to Israel. The world passed through Israel and along those coasts as they went and as they traveled and as they did business. And many of them wanted, in fact, to conquer it because it was so valuable and they would ask, so who lives here? What is that they believe? And who is their god? And what is their scripture? And who is their prophet? God prepared salvation that way.
But then He did some other things as well. This salvation that He prepared before the face of all ethnicities. Because these people were disobedient. In 580 BC, He started a period of time known as the time of the Gentiles. And successive world empires came to conquer Israel. First, you remember Babylon, and then Persia, and then Greece, and then after that Rome.
Now by the time Simeon is on the scene, the Roman Empire has reached a size unmatched by any other empire before. And Augustus, when Jesus was born, declared the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, which is across the world. And people can now travel and trade and move freely, communicate across a larger area than ever before. God prepared His salvation to spread.
And the Roman Empire, with its military ambition, devised an amazing communication, transportation system for their troops, all in preparation for the Gospel. And that meant, as Christ grew up and completed His ministry, His message could effectively go forth and reach across the Roman Empire from India to Britain.
And the Gospel would spread by means of roads that they had constructed. It would spread by means of ships that the Romans protected. And it would spread by means of the Roman postal system that allowed letters of the New Testament to spread throughout the Empire. He prepared salvation.
And God did also one other thing. Three centuries before Christ, Alexander the Great came on the scene. And he conquers the known world and, instead of having hundreds of thousands of languages, one language begins to spread across the entire region. And that is Greek. And, in about 250 BC, the Greeks requested a copy of the Bible, the Hebrew scripture. And, so, the Jewish people in Alexandria translated it, the LXX, the Septuagint. And now you had this Bible that was formerly a closed book, restricted to the Hebrews, was now in the language that has spread right across this empire.
And again, by the time of the New Testament, the Lingua Franca, the spoken language, the common language, is Greek. And the whole world now is speaking this language. And the New Testament, the whole of the New Testament, written in Greek. The life of Christ in Greek. The letters of Paul and Peter and James and John, written in Greek, spread across the Empire so that everyone, Gentiles of all, all of them of all the nations, could understand this glorious message of salvation.
That is why Simeon said, You prepare this salvation in the presence of all peoples. What an amazing God we have. Lord, you've been gathering world cultures and world history to now, in the fullest of time. This salvation now is taking place.
You know what I think? If you're in Christ, anyone, anyone in Christ who reflects on his or her salvation should marvel. You ought to be stunned at how empires were moved and nations were shaped and histories, entire histories were determined so that you could have a Savior, so that I could have a Savior.
Sometimes we think, well, oh yeah, I received Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. Yes. Isn't it a blessing that it's as simple as receiving a gift? As simple as that. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing it is as simple as receiving a gift? But, but, but, do you see the complexity of preparing that gift? Don't miss the complexity of preparing that gift, the complexity in wrapping that gift, the complexity in delivering that gift. Oh, child of God, be utterly dumbfounded. Be amazed.
Simeon rejoices not only in the pleasure of salvation that has satisfied his soul, not only in the preparation of salvation that amazes his heart, but thirdly, he rejoices in the purpose of salvation. Verse 32. Look at verse 32, “A light for revelation for the Gentiles And for the glory of Your people Israel.”
All Jewish people believed they were the chosen nation, but they didn't all agree as to how God would allow them to be the sovereign ruling nation of the world, especially since now they're under the thumb of the Romans. Some of them thought that an angelic champion would come down from heaven and would just squash their enemies and make it happen. Some of them thought that God would break through through supernatural means. Others of them thought, you know, someone through David's line would come and restore Solomon's glory. So you had different views.
Now, there were a few in the land, a few people known as the quiet in the land. And this is what is written about them. It says that they had no dreams of violence and of power, of armies and of banners. They believed in a life of constant prayer and quiet watchfulness until God should come. All their lives, they waited quietly, patiently upon Yahweh. Simeon was like that. He was one of the quiet of the land. In prayer, in worship, in humble, faithful expectation, he waited and waited for the day when God would comfort his people. He waited for the consolation of Israel.
Now Simeon understood the prophetic words. He understood prophecies. Remember, Messiah would restore Israel, he would rescue her, but the reason he would do that is because Israel was going to be his tool to reach the world. Ultimately, the Messiah was the Messiah for all people. Isaiah 9, verse 2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them.” And in Isaiah 42, verse 6, “I am Yahweh, I have called you in righteousness; I will also take hold of You by the hand and guard You, and I will give You as a covenant to the people,” - and watch this – “as a light to the nations.”
Now, because the king of the whole earth, the Messiah would be Jewish, that would necessarily be to the honor and the glory of God's people, Israel. After all, if the king reigns from Jerusalem, who gets the greatest honor under God? Israel. But it didn't come and wasn't to come through the Roman way of destroying those nations. It was going to come firstly through atonement, through sacrifice, through offering mercy.
Now do you know how much pain and hatred and suffering has come from people not understanding and missing the beautiful balance in Simeon's words? And this is especially fitting for our times. You see, many Gentiles have hated, despised the Jewish people, really out of jealousy for being the chosen people.
They've either tried to persecute the Jews or harm the Jews, or they've tried to explain away their chosen status, saying something like this, well, maybe they were chosen, but they're no longer chosen. They lost that. They've been rejected. They rejected Jesus and, so, they're no longer the chosen people. Or, even the more ridiculous theory, the Jews are behind conspiracies to take over the world. But all of it really amounted to jealousy and hatred.
On the other hand, many Jews have misunderstood their chosen status and have despised the Gentiles. They've seen Gentiles as unclean and, sometimes, they've assumed that chosen means superior or meritorious. In fact, their rabbis invented a story. The story was the reason God chose Israel, according to them, was that God offered the law to all nations of the world, but then Israel accepted it. And that's why he chose them, because they accepted it on their own, which is again very man-centered. Why did God choose me? Well, because I chose him first. That's man-centered.
The scripture is clear. God says, I chose you, and the reason He gives… Ready for this? Because I chose you. Because I chose you. If you need a deeper reason, you're in trouble. He says the reason I loved you is because I loved you. Purely sovereign. Purely His choice.
And many Jews have misunderstood this and have thought this. Well, if Gentiles want to be saved, they need to become Jews first. Or maybe there are separate ways of salvation. There's a Jewish way and there's a Gentile... No, no.
The balance is looking us in the face here in verse 32, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of Your people Israel.” That's the balance. A light for revelation - ‘Apokalupsin’ is the Greek word - revelation to the Gentiles. This word means to uncover, to unveil, to unveil what was hidden to the Gentiles. And he uses the word Gentiles, ‘ethnōn’, ‘ethnōn’ - the same word that our Lord uses later on in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verse 19. “Go therefore, and make disciples of all the – ‘ethnon’, Gentiles, nations, heathens, no racial, national, cultural distinctions, they're all broken down.
As someone like Simeon holds the infant Christ in his arms, he's given to see that this One is God's intended deliverer of a great multitude who no man can number out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Gentiles are equally the recipients of God's salvation. They participate in the millennial kingdom that will be set up as equals. They participate in eternal glory as equals, but not at the exclusion of Israel.
Look at the last part of verse 32, “And for the glory of Your people Israel.” Sad to say that Israel, in unbelief, regarded with great disdain and shame what God said is her greatest glory. He came to His own. His own received him not - John 1, 11. The Gentiles were grafted in, Romans 11, 17, but God isn't done with Israel yet. His covenant is still in place. “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;” - Isaiah 46, 13 – “and my salvation will not delay, and I will grant salvation in Zion, and My glory for Israel.”
And addressing this very concern, in Romans 11, Paul says in verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are what? Irrevocable. They are irrevocable. Simeon, in this wonderful prophetic Word, proclaims that the intended beneficiaries of the coming of Messiah is to the nations as well as Israel. The Savior of all ethnicities is a Jewish Savior. The Messiah is the greatest Jewish gift to the whole world and forever their greatest honor.
So, the Jewish people should be humbled that they were chosen, the chosen vessel to reveal God to the world, both the written word and the incarnate living word. Gentiles who see the light in Jesus should thank God for Israel and give her honor where honor is due, while gratefully receiving the Savior that doesn't require them from being saved for being Gentiles. He simply requires them to be saved from their sin. He doesn't require them to become Jewish, but they should receive the Jewish Savior as the Savior from their sins. They should honor the family and ethnicity of Jesus, thanking God that the Messiah came for all nations.
Alfred Edersheim was a Jewish believer, who wrote in the late 19th century, looked at the scene and said this about Simeon, and I quote, “with this infant in his arms, it was as if he stood on the mountain height of prophetic vision and watched the golden beams of sunrise far away of the aisles of the Gentiles and then gathering their full glow over His own beloved land and people.” That's what Simeon could see, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of Your people Israel.”
It's a pleasure to those who know it – salvation. It should amaze us with its detailed and massive glorious preparation and it should humble us in its purpose. A chosen nation brings forth its king to save all people from their sin.
Simeon was not done when he finished his song. Let me finish with this by way of application. He prophetically knew that the Messiah was not going to be universally loved and universally received, so he spoke a personal word to Mary and Joseph. Look at verse 33 and following, “…His father and mother were marveling at the things which were being said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed - and a sword will pierce through your own soul as well - that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Consider four things here about Messiah by way of application. Firstly, many are going to fall because of Him. Many are going to stumble and trip. Many are going to reject Him and condemn themselves. And He's going to bring a sword and households are going to divide. Tribes and rulers and even nations are going to divide about Jesus.
But secondly also, many are going to rise because of Him. Many will repent and come to believe in Him. Many will believe and many will be saved. Some have put the estimates of the Jewish people that believed in Jesus in the first century at one million. A million Jewish people who became, in many ways, the elders, the fathers of the early church. And today, many hundreds of millions of believers worldwide, a great number did rise.
But third, the third thing you should see here, He’s going to be spoken against. In verse 34, It says here, “and for a sign to be opposed”. ‘Antilegomenon’ is the Greek word - literally to be spoken against. The name of Jesus became to the Jewish religious establishment a curse word, a byword. He became a false prophet, a blasphemer, a deceiver. He is the cornerstone that has been rejected, the stone over which the builders stumble, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2, 8.
And in the same breath, Simeon says in verse 35, “a sword will pierce through your own soul as well” to Mary. Indeed, Mary stood at the foot of the cross, didn't she? She saw her son dying, the death of criminals.
And fourthly, he says “that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” ‘Dialogismoi’ is the Greek word - thoughts, referring to the innermost motives, the speculations deep down.
Messiah will be an instrument that reveals what men are really motivated by, what their treasures are, what their hopes are, what they really love, what they really live for.
The message of the Gospel pierces right to the core of every single man, woman, boy and girl, because it doesn't offer you another religion. It doesn't give you just another spirituality. No, no, this glorious Gospel that we've looked at this morning offers you another you, another life. It calls on you to forsake your gods, to forsake yourself, to forsake life lived for your own glory, for your own pleasure, to hand yourself over to God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And right now, these four things are true of you in one way or another. He's either your rise or your fall. You know He's spoken against. You know He's still mocked and ridiculed, even worse, patronized as a good moral man. But still, He reveals your thoughts today. What do you love most? What do you want most? What do you live for the most?
If you're like Simeon, then what you want most is a reconciled relationship with God. That was Simeon's pleasure. The gospel was the beating heart of his life. And that's why when he thought about it, he rejoiced in a salvation that had been prepared and had been delivered for the whole world, whose purpose was to save both Jews and Gentiles through a marvelous Savior.
So, let me ask you this morning, again, could you today depart in peace? Could God take you today and could you die absolutely satisfied that you are in Him and He is in you? That Jesus Christ, the reason for Christmas, has taken your sins away because you humbly asked for His payment to be applied to you. And your offenses against God have been all wiped away. And you know for sure that His righteousness was imputed. It was credited to you.
And that, should you die today, God would count Jesus to your favor and receive you in the Beloved. Can you say that? Can you? Don't brush me away. Don't, don't dismiss the question. Don't, don't sit and think, well, I came, it's Christmas service and I just want to, I just want to be happy and go home and open gifts.
This is serious. Can you really say today, now master, release me in peace? I'm ready. I'm ready. Whenever you call me to stand in your presence, I'm ready, because Jesus paid it all. He who knew no sin, God made to be sin for me, so that I in Him might become the righteousness of God. Can you say that?
What is it that's holding you back? The world? What is in the world that is drawing you? Its pleasures are like a sugar coated poison pill, sweet when you take it, but deadly. Turn to the One who's able to save to the uttermost, those who come to Him by faith.
Take this world - let that be your song - give me Jesus. And say with the psalmist, whom have I in heaven but You, and on earth I desire none beside You. I want nothing else. I want nothing else but You, Jesus. Now Master, let Your servant depart in peace. Let Your slave come to you in peace. I'm ready. And should You tarry and keep me here, I will labor, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that this morning, that You, only You, would enable us and bless us with eyes to see what Simeon could see. Your salvation, Your salvation, Your glorious salvation, so great salvation. And Father, I beg, I plead, let no one here walk out with a dismissive heart, with an indifferent heart to the promises of the Savior. But I pray that each one, everyone could say today, now Master, You are releasing Your slave in peace, that your salvation would be near and dear, that we would have trusted in it and know it and beholding it close. And, so, Lord, I pray that you bless this Word to our heart. And we pray this in His name, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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