For our scripture reading, we turn to Luke chapter 2, this time starting at verse 21 and reading through the end of the chapter. Luke 2, we'll start at verse 21. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit in the temple, And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant be part in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, a daughter of Phenuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four score and four years. which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wished ye not that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not that saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So far we read from the Holy Scriptures this afternoon. In the text we consider verses 28 to 32. Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. Dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, we read in the scriptures of how the news concerning the birth of Christ spread There were only some that saw or heard certain things. Like for the shepherds, they were the ones that heard what the angel said to them and then what the other angels, what they spake, as they said, glory to God in the highest, there were just some that actually heard that. But then others would hear what was said as the news would spread. or there was what was made known to Mary, and what was made known to Joseph, or what Zacharias declared. There were some that would, there were revelations to certain people, and then the news concerning that would spread elsewhere. And others were hearing about who it was that had been born. Of course, in Matthew, we read that there were these people that came from a distance, and they came, and they were confident that the king of the Jews had been born, and they wanted to know where he was. And it speaks of Jerusalem being troubled, that the news was spreading. There are these people from a distance that are coming, and they say the king has been born, the king of the Jews. They've seen his star and they came to worship him. And then of course, record of this was put down in the scriptures and news of this has spread. And at this time of the year, we see how many are somewhat familiar with the story. Many that don't open the scriptures in their own personal life, know something about what the scriptures say or what they've heard the scriptures say. And many aren't interested. That's the way it was back when Jesus was born. Many weren't interested. And then there were others that rejoiced there were others that had that rejoiced with a great joy and in this passage we consider how simeon what simeon said who was guided by the spirit to be at the temple at the very time that mary and joseph come there at the very time that they come there with the babe there Simeon is. Again, one is struck by how you see the providence of God, that he was guided there. Of course, we read that God had spoke to Simeon and had told him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ and guided him that he was there at the time that they were there. And he picks up The Messiah, he picks him up in his arms, and he blessed God. He praised God. He gave thanks to God, and spoke the words that we have here in this text. Two witnesses. First you read of Simeon, and then you read of Anna, that Anna was there too. There was one Anna. She was also there, an elderly woman. and she coming in that instant. In the providence of God, she comes in that instance, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. There were those who were looking for redemption, who were longing for the coming Savior. Of course, that's in line with what we read throughout the Old Testament. Throughout the Old Testament, we read of how there were many that did not really follow, that did not really believe, that really rejected the word, and then there were those who longed for the coming of Christ, who looked forward to his coming, who were sorry for their sins. There were those from the different tribes. Anna was from the tribe of Asher. Well, that was one of the northern tribes. And that's good to remember. We talk about how the northern tribes are taken to Assyria. And then you don't read of the northern tribes coming back the way that Judah did. Judah went to Babylon and 70 years later they come back. What about those northern tribes? There were some. from the northern tribes. In Anna, it specifically makes reference to the fact that she was of the tribe of Asher. There were those who were looking for the promised Savior. And of course, in Matthew, you read of those coming from a distance who were interested in the birth of the Savior. Simeon was guided to find Christ and he held him, and he blessed God, and he made a statement about what he saw. He said that he saw God's salvation. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. he had seen God's salvation. That's what he confessed. Holding an infant, he confesses that what he has seen is God's salvation. And having seen God's salvation, he glorifies God, he blesses God, he praises him, and he speaks the words that are recorded in here. that he is God's salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel, that he confesses that in praise to God, he glorifies his Savior. And then lastly, we take note here that He not only speaks of what he sees and he praises God, thankful for the Savior and glorifying his God, but he also makes a reference to his departing, to Simeon's departing. In fact, he begins with those words, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace. according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. We consider this passage under the theme, Simeon seeing God's salvation. We consider, first of all, seeing him, secondly, glorifying him, and thirdly, departing in peace. First of all, with regard to seeing him. Joseph and Mary, they bring Jesus to the temple and it speaks, and we mentioned this briefly this morning, is what the occasion was. that when the days of your purification, according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they came to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. And then there was, we read about the, to offer the sacrifice according to what was written in the law. And then it is as they come to the temple, Simeon is guided by the spirit and he comes there at that time and he picks up the child and when it says that he took him up in his arms and that term for the arms there has the idea of a bent arm that he takes him up in his in his bent arms and he's holding the child and he speaks these words and makes reference to Jesus and refers to him as thy salvation. He is the savior that God had promised. From by physical sight, he was simply holding a baby. And he would have looked like other babies. And so from the viewpoint of what one could see with the eye of the body, well, you just see a baby there. You just see a man now holding a baby. And yet he's holding that baby and he makes this statement that mine eyes have seen thy salvation. This is the savior that God has promised. This again, we see this idea that we walk by faith. And what does that mean? It means believing what God has said. Similar to the shepherds, that when the shepherds got there and saw the baby in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger, they knew who he was. from God's word. God's word had told them who this baby was. So even though they just saw a baby in the manger, they knew who he was. And so also, even though it was just a baby that Simeon was holding, God's word had told, God had told Simeon who this was. And Simeon makes the statement that he does believing what God has told him. So it is today that we believe what God has told us concerning things we don't see with the eye of the body. We don't see with the eye of the body that when a saint dies that they go to glory. Yet we talk about that with confidence. We have no doubt that's true. And we talk about the one whom we love that has now gone on to glory, and we speak of the joy that they have with the saints in glory. We can't see that. Yet God has told us in his word. We know that, we know it for sure because God has told us. So we confess the truth concerning who Jesus is. We've never seen him with the eye of the body. That when you talk about seeing him from the viewpoint of his human nature, from the viewpoint of his human nature, his human nature is finite and his human nature is not here. We have never seen him with the eye of the body. But we do see him. We know, we believe in him, and we know who he is. And we know what he's done. And we know where he is. We don't have any doubt about that, where he is. We know for sure where he is. And we know what he's going to do, insofar as he's told us. We know he's going to come back, and we know something about what will happen when he comes back. And we know signs of his coming. We know what God has told us. And we recognize that there's more that he's told us that we don't yet understand. And the more that we search, the more we learn. There's more here. And that's with excitement we read because we know there's more here. And as we study, there are things that we continue to find out and we think, I never knew that. I never knew that. And God continues to guide us as we search. And then we see and we say, I see, I understand. We have spiritual eyes. that he has given us. He's enlightened us so that we see and yet we also confess there's so much we don't yet understand. As was the case here and we read of that too in the narrative that we read. People saying they didn't understand. They understood not that saying which he spake unto them. There's times when we read and we don't understand. And we continue to look to God to guide us. We come to understand and to confess what we know is reality. There are others that claim to see what is not real and do not see what is real. To confess the truth means to confess what's reality. And that when we say what we see, what we understand, when we're confessing the truth, we're confessing what reality is. Many people claim to see something which is not real. They say they see it. Many will say that they see there to be a lot of good in natural man. And at this time of the year, sometimes they'll talk about, look at all the people that are helping one another and that they see there really is a lot of good in the natural man. Now, on the one hand, when you talk about an individual helping this person or that person, we don't know the heart of this individual or that individual, but looking at it from the viewpoint rather of, is there a lot of good in the natural man? to say, I see that there's a lot of good. That isn't reality. That isn't real. That's one person claiming to see, many people claiming to see what is not real. The scriptures tell us what is real, that we are by nature prone to hate God and our neighbors. and that man by nature is totally depraved and he can do nothing good. And he needs a savior. He needs one to save him from his sin and to deliver him from bondage. Jesus came. That we might. Be set free. And he guides us by the spirit to grow an understanding of what he says. When we look at the different stories that we read of Joseph and Mary, they believed what God said concerning the virgin birth. They were both told about the virgin birth. As amazing as that is, they believed. that they saw a child that was born from her, that she really was a virgin giving birth, and that this child was the son of God. God had told them. The shepherds, the word explained to them who this child was. And certainly as time went on, one would imagine, we're not specifically told what their thoughts were, but they were told who he is and they were told where he would be. And then the question would be, why would he be there? Why was he there? And that is a question, to what degree the shepherds contemplated it, don't know, but that has been a question that has, as we read of it in his word, we consider to think, continue to think about as we did this morning. The wise men, they see a star. Well, God's word had spoken about there being a star. There shall come a star out of Jacob. Whether they knew about that passage in the book of Numbers, the question, but the Bible had spoken about star in connection with the coming savior. And then of course, we know that they went to Bethlehem guided by the word. when the Jewish leaders bring it up. In fact, that can happen still today. You can have people that don't even believe the word bring up a passage of scripture and you hear that and you take note of what the scriptures say and it's for your benefit. Then maybe even somebody that doesn't personally believe brought it up And then you think, oh, that passage, that passage is important in understanding whatever it is we may have been looking into at the time. Guided by the word of God. Well, Simeon was told who this child was. And he makes the statement concerning him based on what God has told him. And so is it still true today that the Spirit guides us. He speaks to us about Christ. Even as we've referred a number of times that in the book of Revelation, those letters to the different churches, the seven churches, that it says, he that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. What the Spirit says. He came by the Spirit into the temple, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death. So you read that and say, well, something was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost. Well, the Holy Ghost speaks to us. That's what we have in the Scriptures. what the Spirit says to the churches. And we see the glory of Christ. When it says, mine eyes have seen thy salvation, well, that brings to mind a passage in the end of 2 Corinthians 3 that speaks of what we see. What do we see? But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, we are beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. That's what's happening now. Beholding as in a glass, but beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That was 2 Corinthians 3 verse 8T. We see by the grace of God, confessing we have much to learn, but thankful for what we do see, thankful for our salvation in Christ, we praise him, we glorify his name. And that's what Simeon did. It says that he took Jesus up in his arms and he blessed God. And that term has the idea that one, to blessing God, he praises God. Out of thankfulness to God, he glorifies God's name. And he does so by addressing him, referring to him as Lord. Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace. And then speaking about this child as the promised Savior, he praises God, giving thanks to him. He sees in this child that this child is the promised Messiah. a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. This child that had just been born, this child he praises, a child that God had appointed. Notice, too, when it says, mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared. which thou hast prepared. This is the salvation God has prepared. Many today desire a different savior. That was the case at the time of the history we're reading of too. Many were looking for a Savior that was not the Savior that God, the salvation that God had prepared. They weren't looking for the one chosen of God and anointed with the Spirit. that Jesus is the Christ means that he is ordained of God the Father and anointed with the Spirit to be our prophet, priest, and king. Well, many did not want him. As they came to understand what he taught, many were coming around to him, seeing the miracles that he did. But as they heard what he taught, many had a different idea of salvation. Many today have a different idea of what salvation would be. Many, their idea of salvation is not a deliverance from sin. They want to continue on in their sin. And they want everybody to say that it's okay for them to continue on in their sin, as long as they're not hurting one another. that everyone can go ahead and do whatever they want, even if God has told us that it's not right to do what they're doing. Or deliverance from having to pay taxes to Rome. But a deliverance from sin, many do not want deliverance from sin. Many are not looking for that kind of a savior. But Simeon speaks of this one as thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. This Savior, we know, we know from the word of God that this Savior is both God and man. The human nature, we often say that the human nature veiled, was like a veil. You couldn't see. that he was also God from the physical eye, but noting it from the word. And God's people are guided to understand that the Messiah is a real man, a real righteous man, and that he is also God himself, that that's who this Messiah is. and that He is the Savior who saves from sin. Now what does that mean? That means He forgives our sins and He delivers us from them. What a comfort to hear that your sins are forgiven as we go forth to bring the word to others and as we talk to others about their sin. That man knows he's sinned. He knows he's guilty. To whom would we look for the forgiveness of sins? If we confess our sins, those who believe in Christ, confessing their sins, are forgiven. all the different sins we've committed, horrible things we've said and done that we're ashamed of, to hear Christ say, you're forgiven. You're washed, you're cleansed. That he laid down his life for us. He offered the perfect sacrifice, the comfort of the forgiveness of sins and also deliverance from sin, that he works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He works in us that we turn away from sin to him, that we want to praise him. We want to glorify his name and express our thankfulness to him. This is the Savior that had been promised. This is the Savior that God had said would come. And he would be one who would be a light to lighten the Gentiles. Now with Simeon, when we look at the things that Mary says and Zacharias says and Elizabeth and so on, when we get to what Simeon says, one thing we take note of here is that he makes a reference to how this light is going to go to the nations. The nations are going to hear. A light to lighten the Gentiles. The glory of thy people, Israel. God had promised his people that the Savior would come, the Son of David. Born in that line, from the line of Israel, from the line specifically of Judah, from the line specifically of David, so he would come. The Savior would come and he would be a light to lighten the Gentiles. The nations would hear this word. And of course it's, we read in Matthew, when you put this together with what we read in Matthew and you read about those from other places already, who are coming wanting to worship the one that is born King of the Jews. Simeon, in thankfulness to God, glorifies God. He has seen God's salvation and he glorifies him. He wants to praise him. Always there will be that Well, in this life, that is, it will continue to be in this life that there will be that twofold response. There were those that hated Christ. There were those that were indifferent and did show no interest in the promised Savior. There was Herod that wanted him dead. And then there were others. that praised him. There were the Jewish leaders, and as we go through, we're familiar with the fact that when we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of what it was like at the time and what it was like among what it would have been like to live at that time, as far as the leaders and how so many of them opposed Jesus and how they were stirring up the people wanting him crucified, how much opposition there was. And yet, even though that was the case, that Jesus was born in a time like that, there was a remnant that believed God preserves a remnant. And even in such times as this, that was still the case. Such times as it is today, we talk about the apostasy today, and the bounding lawlessness today, there's still a remnant. It still is the case today that the true gospel of the kingdom is preached. God continues to preserve his people from generation to generation, though that group may be relatively small. He continues to preserve them. And in Simeon and in Anna, we see examples of them. From what Simeon said, we can see what was important to him. As he talks about departing in peace, from what he said, we can see what was important to Simeon. You can see what was important to Anna, too, because it says that she talked to those. She was constantly in the temple, departing not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. She spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. That's what she was doing. It was an ongoing thing with her. And what she talked about showed what was important to her. And what Simeon was talking about here shows what was important to him. If someone was to hear what you talk about, what would I talk about? What would they say is important to us from what they can hear that we like to talk about? We show in the things that we talk about, we manifest what things we're thinking about. Well, we do talk about the things of God. None of us can say we do that, you know, that question. We would all feel convicted of that. None of us talks about the things of God the way we are. There isn't anybody here that can say that he or she does. Yet at the same time, we do talk about these things. They are important to us. We are looking forward to the coming of Christ. We do rejoice to know that the gospel is going forth to the nations. We are thankful to God for that. And we do honestly pray, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are desiring that. And with joy and gladness, we do confess and look to God for the grace more so to confess what we have seen and to glorify and praise our Savior. And finally, we look at it from the viewpoint of the fact that he departs in peace. That's actually how the statement begins. Now, it says, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace. Sometimes people are familiar with this portion of scripture as nunc diminis, nunc diminis. That's the Latin, that's the first two Latin words. If you looked at the Latin translation, the Vulgate, the first two Latin words are that, nunc diminis. And that's a translation of what we have here about now let depart or let be released, let depart thy servant, Lord, in peace. And so they named this section, which is sometimes called the Song of Simeon, they named this section after the first two words in the Latin vogue. But now looking at it from the viewpoint of what it means that he says, let thy servant depart in peace. Looking forward to the day that, the Bible does speak of us having a certain desire, we look forward to the day that we depart and we are with Christ. From a certain point of view, we do. Simeon, in this case, I mean, we know in this life, the Lord, it's God's will that we go through this life and there will be suffering and there will be trials in this life. And it's God's plan that there will be trials and difficulties that we'll go through in this life and then afterwards, however long that is, and it varies for different persons according to God's plan, then we go to glory. And then later our bodies are all raised together on the last day. Simeon talked about departing according to God's word. He was specifically told that he would not see death. He should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So having been told that, he makes this statement, Lord, now let thy servant be part in peace according to thy word. We don't actually know. There isn't anything that specifically says how old he was. It's kind of a thought that he would have been elderly. because he makes a statement about departing, and because it says he wouldn't taste, he wouldn't see death until he saw the Christ, and now when he sees the Christ, he says this, so we tend to think of him as being elderly, but it doesn't actually tell us his age. But it tells us that he was content. and was, and spoke of his departing in peace. How could one die in peace? Depart. It's a word that sometimes means like released. But here translated, translate the idea that when we die, we're absent from the body and present with the Lord. And he says, now let thy servant depart in peace. How can sinners depart in peace? How many there are, there's so many people that as they get older and as they die, whatever age it is that they die, they don't die, they don't die in peace. They may say, rest in peace. Many don't really have peace. Most don't have peace with God. They continue on in their sin, they don't listen to what God says, and then they die. And they don't have peace. Simeon had peace. He had seen the Savior. He believed in God. He believed that God had sent his Savior and the Savior would save us from our sins. When we have seen the Savior, then we die when we see and believe, those who see and believe in Him have peace when they die. We say that, we know that's true. You know that's true with regard to yourself, that if it was the case that you saw that quickly you're declining, looking like you're going to die and people are gathering around you and you're perceiving that it looks like it's about the time that you're going to go to glory. Will you have peace then? The believer says, yes, I know I'm a sinner. We can tend to look back at our life and all of our sin and feel horrible about things we've said and done. I'm such a sinner. Yet I believe, by God's grace, I believe in the Savior. I know He has come. I know He's offered the perfect sacrifice. I'm not going to glory on the basis of what I've done. Believing in the Christ, we have peace. We'll depart. in peace as those who have seen the Savior, not physically with the eye of the body, but beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. We see. We believe. And until that day comes that we go to glory, We've got work to do. And one of the things that we see here is how Anna, we know Anna was, it speaks of her being of great age and what she was doing. She had been married for a while, relatively short time considering how long it had been that she had been a widow. She was busy at work. We've got work to do. We have different stages of our life. We've got work to do in our childhood. And if we get married, we've got work to do, whether we have blood descendants or not. There's plenty of work to do. And if we do have children, and if the Lord gives us quite a few children, and we're so busy during those years, and then a little bit later, they're all out of the house. We've got work to do. There's plenty of work for us to do. Look at what Anna was doing. She was busy. So we have work to do. And it's work we delight to do. To talk to others. There are others who are looking. There are others who, as she talked to those who looked for redemption, well, we now know the Savior has come. We're looking forward to his return. We delight to talk to others and knowing that there's others too that desire to hear, to hear the good news. We've got work to do. Even in our later years of life, Even after our spouses gone to glory, which was the case for Anna. Her spouse had gone to glory quite a while ago. She got up in the day there was work for her to do. With joy. May we glorify our Savior. Thanking God for what we've seen and what we've heard. May we praise him, and conscious of the fact that Jesus is the light to lighten the nations, may we also as churches, too, in the work of missions, look to God to guide us in this work in our own country, and also in other lands, as God does guide us, to bring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior, honoring him and glorifying his most holy name. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God and our father, we are so thankful, Lord, for thy grace. Thankful thou dost open our eyes that we might see. And so thankful for our savior, our Lord, who has come. Lord, grant us the grace that we may faithfully bear witness to thy truth with joy. We're so thankful for the comfort that we have in life and in death, that we're not our own, that we know we believe in our Savior, Jesus Christ. So thankful for the comfort, for the peace we have in him. May we honor thy name, may we glorify thee, and may our children glorify thee. May we praise thee on this day, the Sabbath day, and going forward as well. Grant us this grace, we pray, for Christ's sake, amen.