Hear this reading from Luke chapter 2 as the story, the birth of Christ, continues. Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just 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. So he came by 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, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. Amen. Let's pray. Now, O Lord, in this brief time, seated beneath your word, we pray that our eyes would see the light of your salvation. We pray that of all the things on our hearts and minds in these next few moments, seeing the Christ would be our great and greatest joy. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Shortly after the birth of Christ, this text tells us that his parents brought him into the temple. We read that his parents brought him into the temple that they may do to him and have done to him all that was according to the custom of the law. Part of this would have been the presentation of Jesus. Jesus would have been circumcised, as all Jewish boys would have been, on the eighth day, in keeping with the law of God. You see, Jesus assumed flesh, but he came to his own, and his own received him not. But this little one would, even in his infancy, meet all of the requirements of God's law. We might think of it as simply a presentation, but what Mary and Joseph were doing that day was exactly what God's law required of them to do in the old covenant to have him presented to offer to God praise and thanksgiving. He being a firstborn, there was a pattern and his circumcision, that great circumcision to which all of previous circumcisions pointed to in a way. So they bring him into the temple, and boys and girls, they meet a very old man. His name is Simeon. Perhaps most, if not all, of you have heard the story. Simeon had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not physically die until he had seen God's salvation. So year after year, month after month, week after week, perhaps day after day, he waits. He knows that his death is imminent. He knows that it's coming, but God has promised to him. that he would not leave this earth, as the scripture says, quote, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Simeon lived every day of his life longing to see Christ, longing to see the Messiah. In fact, every day for Simeon was fixed on God's salvation. Maybe that day the Holy Spirit inclined his heart in a particular way that caused him to know that today would be the day? Or perhaps this was like every other day when he would go to the temple and there he meets Mary and Joseph. The scripture says in verse 27, he came by the Spirit in the temple. God was drawing Simeon to whom he had made a promise, you will not die until you see my salvation. God was drawing him to the temple. In verse 27 of Luke 2 says, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he, that is Simeon, took him up in his arms and blessed God. Now think of this. This Simeon is one of God's old covenant people. This Simeon is one that God fashioned in his own mother's womb. And now he holds the very fashioner of arms in his own arms. There he sees, perhaps with tears, perhaps with a smile, there he sees God's salvation. And he utters some words, which I think help us to see at least three things on this Christmas Eve. He begins holding this child. Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples." The first thing that we see in Simeon's words as he holds the baby Jesus is that God has kept his promises. Now, at first glance, we might think, well, yes, that's right. God kept his promise to Simeon. Simeon, you're not going to die. You're not going to go to the grave until you see the Messiah. And that promise indeed has been kept. But there are other promises, greater promises that Simeon alludes to. He says this, my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. Simeon, as a great, great, great, great grandson of Father Abraham, would have been like Jews in his day, remembering the promise. It's to our people that God made the promise that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And we have been looking for him. Think about what happened in Genesis chapter 12. God makes a promise to Abram. He changes his name to Abraham and makes him the father of many peoples. But there's a lot that happens between Genesis 12 and Luke 2. A lot of centuries happen. Decade after decade, generation after generation, century after century, the people of God waited. Some were born to them that look like maybe this would be the answer to God's promises. Maybe it was Isaac. Some thought. After all, he came with a lot of promises and a lot of divine aid. Maybe it was Jacob. Maybe as you read the Bible you think it's Joseph until we learn on his deathbed that his father actually says it's going to be through Judah. But Judah's life is anything but perfect. Eventually kings do come from Judah. David comes. Would it be possible that David, a man after God's own heart, would be the answer to the nations that God had promised to Abraham? And yet, of course, we know that David was a man of small sin and a man of great sin. A man after God's own heart is a man, David, who commits adultery and murder. And yet he, like all of the believers of the old covenant, had faith in the Messiah to come. But generation after generation after generation, Simeon's people were longing to see this day. They were longing to see God's salvation, which he has prepared before the face of all peoples to come. So Simeon, upon holding baby Jesus, utters words which, number one, remind us that the incarnation is about God keeping his promises. Yes to Simeon. You're not gonna die till you see him. But beyond that, keeping his promises of every single page of the Bible. Listen, maybe you're here tonight and it's Christmas, someone invited you, and this is the place to be. I mean, Christians can kind of sing halfway decently. We sing some carols. We're gonna Come to the church, that's what we do traditionally. this time of year. One of the things I would encourage you to do with Simeon is to look at all the promises of the scriptures of old. Just read through the Old Testament. Find me after this service. I'd love to show you some of them where promise after promise, yet hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ, promise after promise is fulfilled in Christ. See, the faith of Christians is not a blind faith. We, like Simeon, have said, we too have seen the salvation of God. And it is a salvation where God has kept his promises, the place where he was born, what he would do, who he would be, who he would be born from, the kind of animal that he would ride at a particular time in his life shortly before his death, what people would do to him. What his work would accomplish, it's all laid out in the Bible hundreds of years before he's even born. And Simeon, believing not only that God was going to give him the special promise of letting him see this one before he dies, Simeon can say, because the word has become flesh, I am holding the very fulfillment of all of God's promises in the past. There's a next lesson that we learn. Not only does the birth of Jesus point Simeon and all who can see to God's work in the past, but it points Simeon to the hope of the present. Notice what Simeon says. My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles. and the glory of your people, Israel." Now, the Israelites and the Gentiles didn't get along. Simeon is saying this in a temple that was kind of allowed to be a Jewish temple, but a temple in a land that was run and controlled by godless Gentiles. The Jews and the Gentiles, the non-Jews, did not like one another. And yet Simeon can say, not only am I holding God's answer to his promises in the past, to me and all who have faith to see it, but here in my hands is the hope of the present, that this little one will be the Savior. This one will bring light to Jew and Gentile alike. My people will get glory because the world will see that through us, the Hebrews, the Messiah of the nations has come. But the Gentiles who walked in darkness will see a great light. You know, up until the Holy Spirit of God awakens a person, they're in darkness. They're in sin. It's what the Bible teaches. But maybe you don't even need the Bible to see it in your own life, at least not initially. We're all born doing things that are not befitting of the God who made us. The thoughts that we think, the words that we say, the actions that we do. Perhaps even this Christmas Eve day, your life has been an utter mess. You've hated God and you've hated others. And this kind of life is a breaking of God's law, his standard, which he has written into the fabric of the universe, which he's made. But Simeon can say it's this one that is going to bring light to dark places. Now, what he means by light is what the scripture means. God is going to shine light in dark, sinful hearts and they are going to be awakened. And for the first time, they're going to see that they need a savior. That they are lost and that they're in their sins and that outside of God working from the outside to save them, they will remain in darkness. But the light has come on. And that blessed light, Paul says, shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Maybe you came here tonight and you have lived your life in darkness. Maybe you think it's so dark that there's no amount of light that will rid you of this darkness. Maybe you have come in here into this room and you say, I'm glad you all can celebrate, but there's nothing for me to celebrate. My life is a mess. Nobody knows it, but it's a mess. And there's absolutely no way that God will receive me to himself. Simeon holds in his arms the answer to your problem. This little one, the answer to God's promises in the past, is also the blessing of the present time. And today is still the present, friend. This little Messiah would grow and live a perfect life. In his early 30s, he would be crucified on a Gentile Roman cross, and there he would suffer for hours. And as he suffered, the babe of the manger, now the Lord of the cross, would be credited with the sins of all the people who would ever trust in him. Having lived a perfect and just life, the innocent one, the righteous one, offers himself as a substitute. This is why he came. This is the light that Simeon speaks of. And as he hangs there on this cross, God punishes him for the sins of all of his people. He exhausts his justice on Christ. And this one who is truly man and yet truly God. bears the weight of this horrible wrath and judgment for sin. He suffers according to his humanity, but because he's the eternal son of God, his suffering is of infinite value. And there, as he bleeds and dies, he pays for every sin of every person that trusts in him. Listen, Simeon's holding of a baby on that day. is no different than you, by the Spirit of God, seeing Christ before you even now. He shines light in dark places. Light not only to Jewish people who've been looking for his coming, but light to Gentiles lost in darkness. Simeon holds in his arms a baby, which is the answer to all the things that God has said in the past. It's the answer to the need of the present hour. Thirdly, Simeon's words remind us that the incarnation, the nativity, the coming of Christ is also our hope for the future. And for that, I want to take you to the cemetery. You see, Simeon begins the way that we're gonna end. Verse 28, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. Boys and girls, when he says depart, he doesn't just mean walking out the doors of the temple and going back home and having a sandwich for lunch. He means now, Lord, I can die in peace. I can die in peace. Because what you've said to me about not dying until I've seen him has happened. But there's something greater here. I don't think Simeon is saying, OK, God finally kept his word and I finally get to get out of here. Simeon can say, I can go to the grave in peace. Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. It's almost as if Simeon can say, I've seen the Lord's salvation and I can go right to the graveyard. This kind of salvation, this kind of peace can take me all the way to the grave. Now, let me ask you this. If you knew that you were dying, would you be able to say in those last few moments, perhaps hours, couple of days, maybe a few weeks, I can go to the grave in peace. Some of you might offer a variety of answers. Maybe some of you think, well, sure, after this life, there's nothing. Others of you will say, well, if I had a good life. Maybe some of you would say, if I've left my children and grandchildren enough of an inheritance, then sure, I can die in peace. You see, the kind of peace that Simeon has in mind is the kind of peace that every Christian and believer can have in mind. I can go to the grave in peace knowing that my soul is at peace with God. Paul would later say in Romans chapter five, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. You see, not only is this infant Messiah who would grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man, not only is he the answer to all of the promises of the past, Not only is he the answer to the questions of the present day, the needs before us, the hope of God, he's thirdly, the hope of the future. Listen, if Christmas Eve's keep coming 100 years from now, none of us will be here. Maybe the youngest among us by then will have reached elder age. But none of us will be here. A hundred years from now on Christmas Eve, I strongly believe there will be Christians somewhere in this world, if Jesus hasn't come back, who will be praising his name somewhere, maybe in a dark cave, maybe in a church, maybe in a cathedral. We don't know. Maybe great revival will happen and the great cathedrals of old will be filled with Christmas worshipers who love Jesus. Or maybe we'll all be underground. You and I, however, will not be. But there is no difference between Simeon's words and our hearts hope in the face of death if we know this Messiah. Because this Messiah is the one who brings peace between God and man. Listen. Can you literally say, I could go to my grave even tonight in peace? Because I have seen the salvation of the Lord. I have seen Christ. And not only have I seen him with my eyes, I believe with the eyes of my heart. It is him. And he's come, not just for everyone else. He's come for me. You know, one of the glories of the incarnation, the word putting on flesh. See, that's who Jesus is. He's always been. But in a moment in time, he assumed our flesh. One of the glories of the incarnation. is that God has shown he's faithful to all his promises. That in the midst of every generation's struggles and the darkness of the day, there is an answer. And when all of us look towards the door of the temple in which we are living, knowing that the grave is just a few steps away, we can say, because of the incarnation, Because of the Christ of Christmas, we can say, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. This little baby would grow and he would teach. He would die for sinners. He would be raised on the third day. But shortly before all of that would happen, this little one, as a young man, would say, anyone who hears my voice, anyone who wants to come to me can come to me. Anyone who wants me to be their substitute, to die in their place for their sins, anyone who wants my life as their life of perfect righteousness can come to me. And the scripture says that this Christ is offering his salvation. It's an offer. Simeon's words preached to you tonight is Christ being offered. Christ is offered to every sinner who hears every time his voice is heard in his word. So, like Simeon, have you seen the salvation? of the Lord. If so, then like Simeon, you can say, Lord, now I can depart in peace for my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, with the eyes of our hearts, we pray that we may have the same vision that Simeon had with his physical eyes, seeing and savoring your salvation in the face of Christ amidst all of the gifts and trappings and feasts over these next few hours of our lives. May the Christ of the manger, the suffering servant of the cross, the skull-crushing seed of the woman of the empty tomb, and the blessed, glorious King of Kings who has ascended. May he be our vision. And until we depart, give us the peace of faith in him. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand once more and sing together.