Good evening, it's a delight to be with you this evening. My name is David and I'm on staff here at the church. Tonight we're going to continue our series in Luke. We've been walking through the gospel of Luke together and Jesus has been born and now we are in this presentation in the temple passage in Luke 2, starting in verse 22. We're going to be in Luke 2, 22 through 40. But as you turn there, let me run to the Lord in prayer. Gracious God and most holy heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy and inspired word, that you breathed it out for us, and it's useful for teaching and reproof and correction and training, that we, your people, might be made mature. And so we pray that it would have its effect upon us tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's give attention to God's word, Luke 2, starting in verse 22. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him, that's Jesus, up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Pheniel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Thanks be to God for his holy, inspired, and errant, and therefore authoritative word. I'm not sure if you've ever waited for something. I suspect you have. I'd be more interested in how you've waited for something. I struggled to wait, and when I was a young boy, 10, 11, 12, I could not wait for Christmas. I had asked somewhere in the early 90s for a pair of Charles Barkley basketball shoes. Charles Barkley was a power forward for the Philadelphia 76ers and then the Phoenix Suns, and he had these sweet basketball shoes. They were white and orange and blue, I think. recollecting they don't really sound very lovely, but I was excited about them and I'd asked for them. And so as a young boy, I really struggled waiting for these Christmas presents. So I looked all through the house. I've since been regenerated by the Lord, but I looked all through the house and in the attic, in my mom's closet, I couldn't find them anywhere. And so I decided that I'd just look under the tree. under the tree there was a rectangular looking box so I grabbed the box I shook it a little bit I still couldn't tell and so I delicately pulled off one little piece of tape and I pulled the box out of the wrapping paper so as not to mess up the wrapping paper and I saw this box that could hold a pair of shoes but I still didn't know for sure so I opened the box and And there they were, my Barclays. I pulled them out and smelled that new tennis shoe smell, put them on, jumped around the den just a little bit, put them back in the box, closed the box, gently put them back into the wrapping paper, taped it back up, and acted so surprised on Christmas Day. Tom Petty once wrote that the waiting is the hardest part. Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part. He actually said that that song was really hard for him to write. It took a long time, which is somewhat fitting. But it's about waiting for your dreams and just not knowing if you'll actually have them realized. That's why the waiting is hard, isn't it? You just don't know, will these dreams come to pass? But we are actually a waiting people. We are awaiting people. God's church, we're awaiting people. And Luke, I think, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has written this passage, as really Luke one to two, the whole both first chapters, to confirm in us, through the testimony of two reliable witnesses, that we can be assured that the Messiah really came. The one that we had waited for has really come, and it's worth the wait. There are actually a lot of things we could say about this text. I went back after I'd worked on mine some and listened to Dr. Ferguson's text on this passage, and he said he had two points, but he had nine. I'm gonna go with two tonight. First, I want us to think about a humble Savior, a humble Savior. Here in verses 22 through 24, Dr. Ralph Davis in his Luke Commentary says that God loves a covenant-keeping household. God loves a covenant-keeping household. Every time we stand, we have someone stand for baptism down here. And Dr. Thomas works them through the vows of baptism. One of those vows is that they would make a commitment to raise that child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And actually we as God's people stand and make that vow with them that we will help raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We're making covenant that we will be a covenant household and a covenant people. And Mary and Joseph have made a similar vow. And they showcase that here in this passage. They're fulfilling three Old Testament requirements here in 22 through 24. First, Mary's purification. The mother of a son was impure for 40 days. And so here at the end of her impurity, she comes to the temple and she is to bring with her a lamb to make a sacrifice according to Leviticus 12 for her impurity. But Mary and Joseph don't bring a lamb, they bring two turtle doves. Because the Lord had made provision for a family that couldn't actually afford a lamb, that they could just bring birds. Mary and Joseph are being faithful, and Jesus is being born into a poor covenant family. A poor covenant family. Secondly, Jesus is being presented before the Lord. They're presenting Jesus to the Lord. The firstborn was the Lord's. This comes from the Exodus story, Exodus 13, that when our children would ask, why are you presenting this firstborn to the Lord? They would say to that firstborn, because God brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a strong arm and saved us because of the blood on the doorpost that spared the firstborn. And now we give the firstborn back to the Lord, so to speak. And so they're presenting this firstborn back to the Lord and saying, he is yours. And then thirdly, they're dedicating Jesus to the Lord. It's a little different. The firstborn could be presented to the Lord, but then with a modest payment of five shekels, he could be redeemed back from the Lord so that they could have their firstborn back with five shekels. But Mary and Joseph don't actually pay that money. And so some commentators would point to the similarity between Hannah and Samuel as well, that perhaps Mary and Joseph were saying, no, no, we want to dedicate our son to you. He is yours. He will belong to you. He will serve you all the days of his life. And actually the next passage, you find him as a young man in the temple serving the Lord. But also there's the reality that Jesus doesn't need a redemption price because he didn't come to be redeemed, but to redeem. Jesus is the Redeemer of His people, and there's no ransom price paid for Him, because He's gonna pay the ransom. And the point is, in this first part of the text, is that our Savior will be a poor man, as Galatians 4.4 will say, born under the law. He's gonna be a poor man born under the law in a covenant family to redeem those who were also born under the law. And Luke is showing us in what an inglorious way he comes to us. He comes to us in humility. As a Presbyterian church, we subscribe to a confession, the Westminster Confession, the larger and shorter catechisms. And in our shorter catechism, which is just a question and answer, question 27 asks this, where in did Christ's humiliation consist? Where did Christ's humiliation consist? And the answer is this, Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born. The very fact that he would wrap himself with skin that he created is humiliating. He came down to do that. And that in a low condition. That he wasn't just born, but he was born to a poor family. And with an appearance that no one thought, wow, that's beautiful to gaze upon. in a poor and low condition, made under the law. He was put under the law that he might uphold it. Undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, the curse of death of the cross and remaining in that state for a time. The point is that he really did come down for us. He was humiliated for you and for me. He comes to us in a lowly way. He came down for us into the home of a law-abiding, covenant-keeping, poor family. And what humiliation our Savior comes to us in order to actively keep the law and passively, although it wasn't very passive, die for the curse of the law for us and for our salvation. As Charles Wesley sang, and we're gonna sing this hymn in closing tonight, in his great advent hymn, coming hymn, come thou long expected savior. He's saying, come to earth to taste our sadness. He whose glories knew no end. By his life he brings us gladness, our redeemer, shepherd, friend, leaving riches without number. Born within a cattle stall, this the everlasting wonder, Christ was born, the Lord of all. The wonder upon wonders is that the King of the universe would leave it all for you and for me. That He would come down. That He would be a humble Savior. But secondly, He would be a glorious Savior. And we're going to look at 25 through 38 and spend most of our time here. We won't have time to look at 39 and 40. What Paul's doing there in this sort of growth statement of growth, not gross, growth statement of Jesus is that he's telling us, he's been contrasting actually in Luke 1 and 2, John the Baptist and Jesus, John the Baptist and Jesus. And every time he talks about Jesus, what he's saying is, John was great, his story is phenomenal, but look how superior Jesus is. John grew up. But Jesus grew in wisdom and favor with God. He's superior in every way. But we won't have time to get into that as much. Let's look at 25 through 38, a glorious Savior. God really has a sense of humor, doesn't he? I'm terrible at waiting. I've already mentioned that before. Most of you, I know you well. You're terrible at waiting too. We're terrible at waiting in lines, in traffic, at work, for anything that we really desire. And yet, for me personally, the last 11 years or so, I've been in a waiting season. Two kids, two moves, a thousand jobs at this church, a dog, And yet in all of it, dabbling and then working hard to finish seminary and licensure, it's been a long, grueling wait for me and for my children. And I had a friend recently who asked me about something that I desired, and he said, have you patiently waited long enough? And I said, you know, I can honestly tell you I have waited long enough, but I can't tell you I've been patient. Patiently waiting is hard and for Simeon and Anna and for Israel, it's been 400 years of waiting. 400 years of silence. The second temple never was really quite what the first temple was. God never inhabited it with his Shekinah glory like he did his first temple. God hasn't written scripture since Malachi 400 years ago. There hasn't been a voice from the Lord that we know of in the last 400 years. And when Jesus comes onto the scene, the religious men are arrogant and legalistic. It's been a long 400 years and yet there's a Simeon. There's always a Simeon. There's a remnant people of God who are still waiting for him. And Simeon is that remnant here in this passage. He's like the remnant of the Old Testament. He's painted here with an idyllic picture, really. He's righteous and devout. That doesn't mean he's perfect and sinless. It really means that he loves Yahweh. And he loves obeying Yahweh and he loves pursuing godliness and he's great with waiting for the Lord because he loves the Lord. He's devout and pious. He has the Holy Spirit. He's filled with the Holy Spirit in some sort of unique way as the prophets of old were filled with the Holy Spirit. He's really an ideal believer waiting upon the Lord. But Simeon has also been waiting. God had made a promise to him that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Christ, before he saw Messiah, the anointed Savior. And we don't know what that promise looked like. Dr. Ferguson brings out the idea that it could have been that Simeon had studied the Scriptures and he had thought through Daniel's weeks, and thought through the time, and that maybe the time is about to be fulfilled for this Messiah to come, or maybe he had been hearing about the rumors of a baby born, and shepherds celebrating, and angels coming and worshiping him, or maybe the Holy Spirit had spoken to him, like the prophets of old. But how long did he wait? But more importantly, how did he wait? Did he wait with anxiety? Did he ever doubt the promises of God? waiting and here finally the Lord orchestrates this moment where Simeon happens to be at the temple and in this massive temple complex with the court of the Gentiles and Solomon's colonnade and the court of the women and the temple itself, he happens to come across this couple, Mary and Jesus and their baby and he happens to know this is the one. God's providence is remarkable, and he's brought them together in this scene, and he knows that this baby's the one, and he scoops him up, and he praises God with this song that we sing in the offertory. Nunc dimittis, now let depart. I don't know Latin, but Dr. Thomas comes up with the title, so I had to learn what that word meant. It's the starting point of this song that in the Latin Vulgate has been sung really since the fourth century by God's people. This song that we played has been sung, Simeon's song, from the very beginning. Now let depart, would have been the first words in the Latin Vulgate. He's saying, I can die now. Lord, you fulfilled your promise to me. I've waited, I've seen it, I've rejoiced. I'm happy to go now. but maybe even more pointed in the Greek. What it seems like he's saying actually is yes, I can die now, but really more so, I can be released from my station now. My whole life actually of service to you, Lord, was running to this one point where I would hold a baby up, not where I would see him die, not where I would see him be resurrected, not where I'd see him ascended, just hold a baby. That was the whole of my life's calling and ministry, and you can release me from my duty now. I'm satisfied, take me home. That's what Simeon is saying. Faithful, devout, and realizing the promise of God. And Anna's here too in verse 36. She's been waiting as well, but she's an old widow. She was married for seven years. At some point, probably if you do the math, she would have been married young, 12, 13, 14 years old. So she's been a widow since she was in her early 20s, 60 plus years. And actually in the Greek, there's a little ambiguity here. She might actually have been a widow for 84 years, not just be 84 years old, which would make her close to 105 years old now. Either way, she is an elderly widow who's been waiting and waiting and waiting. And what did she do in her waiting? She loved and served and remained faithful to the Lord. She was a beautiful picture of what Paul will talk about widows look like, serving the Lord with their years. She's practically living in the temple. She's fasting, she's praying, she's loving, she's serving the Lord. She too is a picture of the remnant, of the faithful, of the people of God. I remember when I first moved here, moved back here in 2015, people would ask me, what do you like about First Press? First Press is different than a lot of churches in Nashville. And what makes you keep going back there? Why do you love it there? And one of the things that I would often say is because the people are holy. And I don't mean that in some sort of pharisaical self-righteous way, but I mean that the people love to sit under God's word morning and evening every single week, and over time, they look more like Jesus. And I think I would say particularly our widows and our widowers, they remain faithful to Jesus. in their years, year in and year out, serving Him with all of their lives, even when the story might not have been written exactly like they thought it should have been written. And it's amazing to watch and be around and sit under and experience. Anne is one of those women. She's loving the Lord, she's serving the Lord, and she too happens to be at the temple at this moment. And she too happens upon Jesus at this very hour. At this very hour, she encounters him and she praises the Lord as well, but she praises the Lord to the people. She actually begins to witness for him immediately. It's like she can't stop herself. And what I think Luke is giving us here is he's giving us two reliable, trustworthy witnesses, as Deuteronomy says, that an account would be established based upon two trustworthy witnesses. And I think Luke's saying to Theophilus and to us, you can trust this account. Here are two faithful, the most faithful that Israel can muster. They're reliable, they're witnesses to the assurance that this baby really is the Messiah, that Jesus really did come. This is part of a section in Luke that really is a promise, waiting, fulfillment, rejoicing. Promise, waiting, fulfillment, rejoicing. God makes a promise to Mary, promise to Elizabeth and Zechariah. He makes a promise to these two. They wait for him, he fulfills it, they rejoice. Promise, waiting, fulfillment, rejoicing. It's a mini picture, a microcosm of our own lives. God has made promises to us. He calls us to wait for Him. He will fulfill them and we rejoice. And both Simeon and Anna are a picture of that. They experience that reality and they praise God. But why do they praise God? Do they praise Him simply because He fulfilled that direct promise to them? Do they praise Him because they hold the baby Jesus in their hand? Yes, they praise Him for those reasons. But specifically, they seem to hone in on two Old Testament promises that He fulfills. In 28 and 38 and then 32, He is the consolation of Israel. In 25 and 38, the consolation of Israel. Here in this baby is the one who will come and comfort his people. Consolation has the same idea as that word paraclete that describes the Holy Spirit, actually, in John, that the Spirit is the comforter, the consoler of our lives. Well, Jesus also comes to comfort his people, a people bereft of their former glory, a people under the control of a foreign nation, in Rome, a people by and large who actually have deserted Yahweh, but the remnant, the Simeons and the Annas, the Lord could not forget. And he has sent this Messiah, this suffering servant alluded to by Simeon that's spoken of in the latter parts of Isaiah. He sent this suffering servant to console Israel, or as Anna says, to redeem Jerusalem. It's similar, synonymous really with one another, consoling Israel and redeeming Jerusalem. For those who've waited for his presence, Jesus Christ is the greatest comfort that we could ever know. I don't know what you're waiting for just now, but Jesus Christ is the comfort that you need. He's not only a comfort for his people, his covenant, Israel, he also is something greater. He is the light of the nations. As our header verse points to us today, Isaiah 49, six, Jesus fulfills this servant song of Isaiah. Yahweh is speaking to his servant and he says this, it's too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel. You are a consoler and a comforter of Israel. You are that, but also I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. It's what Dr. Thomas spoke about all morning this morning, that Jesus is a light unto the nations. I remember spending two summers in Beirut, Lebanon. I was with a different ministry at the time and our job was to try to share the gospel with college students on their campuses. And I remember that at night I would sometimes walk out and stand on the balcony and look out at this beautiful city, this beautiful nation that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. And I would often think to myself, these are the Old Testament enemies of Israel. This nation is filled with descendants of the Old Testament enemies of Israel, and yet, Lord, you have said that you are sending your servant who will be a light to the nations, even enemies. And then I would think to myself, and I think now, I descend from a nation of Israel's Old Testament enemies. I'm a Gentile. Ethnos here, the word nations, means nations or Gentiles. I'm a Gentile. I descend from those Old Testament And Luke is putting on display this universal aspect of Messiah's redemption to enemies, to the nations. to the people that he shouldn't have made covenant with. He's a light, Jesus is, into the darkness, and Luke is proclaiming that to us. It's sort of like in Genesis 1, in new creation, in the old creation, there's darkness in the creation account, and then the Lord says, let there be light, and there's light. And here in this new creation account, there's the darkness of sin that pervades all of our hearts, and Luke, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is almost saying, let there be light. Or Isaiah's saying that through the servant songs, and Simeon's picking up on that and saying, there's now light to the multinational people of God. His humiliation will give way to his exaltation. But first, he has to die for my salvation. And Simeon's gonna tell Mary and Joseph what they're gonna go through. That the sword will pierce through their own souls, that Jesus is given, yes, for the rising of many, but also for the falling of all who don't look upon him in faith. And so his humiliation will give way to his exaltation, but first, he must be crucified for our salvation. What a glorious gospel we have. What a glorious story that a holy and wise and powerful God of providence would put together through redemptive history through a baby wrapped in skin and helpless, held in the air by Simeon and by Anna. And really though, we live on the other side of this advent. We wait too, don't we? They were waiting, they were longing, they experienced, they rejoiced, but we wait as well. We wait in our own hardship. We wait in our own old age. We wait in our own widower or widowhood. We wait in our circumstances of chaos without and turmoil within. We wait in our anxiety and our anger and our frustration. And Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, I think is telling us that this love story is worth waiting for. This is the love story that all the other ones are based off of. That some of you have actually been waiting your whole life. That maybe your mom walked out on you. Or your dad never came back. Or your husband or wife cheated on you. That you've experienced loss. So much so that you might even think that this real love doesn't actually exist and you've given up on the search for it. And I think Luke is saying, but here it is. Here it is. Who's ever actually seen a love like this before? That a love that would say, not, I won't unless you. A love that wouldn't say, you're not worthy, clean yourself up. A love that doesn't say, you should be so ashamed of yourself. A love that doesn't say, I'm out. But rather, A love that's what all those songs on your radio dial and all those movies on Netflix and all those books that you pick up are just trying to scratch the surface of. This is the real story. A love that would go to whatever lengths. As if Jesus is saying to us, whatever it takes to rescue my bride. Wrap myself in skin that I created? Deal. Come under the law? I'll obey it perfectly. Live in a poor family? Happy to not have a place to lay down my head. Suffer misery upon misery? Check. Die upon a cross for sins that I never committed but you did? I'll do all of it because I love you and I'm gonna have you. I'll do all of it for the glory of the Father and the rescue of my bride. And the question for us is, will we trust him? Will we wait for him? Will we love him? Will we serve him? Will we finally be able to say, this is it, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Simeon and Anna, I think, witnessed to us and Mary and Joseph marvel for us, they're amazed in verse 33 at what's happening, in order to teach us to love and trust and cling to and follow and rest in and serve the Lord Jesus. And to wait patiently and expectantly until this same God who promised a suffering servant and provided sends us not a suffering servant but an exalted king of the nations. to take us home and dwell with us forever. The waiting is the hardest part, but we're a waiting people. Will we wait? Wesley's gonna finish his hymn with these words. Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us. Let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art, dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. He's the consolation of Israel in the light of revelation to the Gentiles. And we can say with John, as Jesus will say, surely I'm coming soon. We can say with John, amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Let's go to him in prayer. Gracious Father, you who are covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, we who are unworthy of you, filled with sin, without sin within, constantly doubting you, anxious about whether you'll come through for us, resting in other loves that don't actually satisfy us, Lord, teach us to appreciate The greater love story of a humble Savior who comes in humiliation for us. A glorious Savior who will be exalted among the nations but who is willing to be crucified for our salvation and make us a patiently rejoicing and waiting people for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.