Luke chapter 2, verse 22. This is what God says. Now, when the time came for the purification rites required by the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present them to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of doves, or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him, what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many will be revealed and a sword will pierce your heart, will pierce your soul too. Amen, and we know God will bless. reading of his word. It's been said, Christmas is not so much about giving, but it's about swapping. If we give someone a fabulous gift, and they give us a gift that's not so fabulous, we still say, thank you very much. That's great. But when it comes the next year, we redress the balance when we choose their gift. I won't ask you to put up your hand, but who hasn't felt a little slighted at some poor gift you've received? Today's culture feeds the disappointment. Just think of the Christmas adverts on TV. That's just what I'll buy so-and-so. But then when you go to buy it, you change your mind because you can't afford the price that wasn't told on the TV advert. And along comes disappointment. You wake up on Christmas morning, hoping that at least one gift will measure up. You know what you want, and you hope someone will buy it for you. I mean, you've dropped enough hints, but you didn't get it. Disappointment. The problem is, at the end of Christmas Day, you look back and you think, that was a nice day. But I would have liked a little bit more from so-and-so. Or so-and-so could have splashed out a bit more than that. And when Christmas has come and gone, discontent is the order of the day. A day that was supposed to bring joy and happiness turned into a dark day of disappointment. And the disappointment was caused because of expectations that were set too high. Expectations that will never produce contentment. The apostle Paul said, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. What a statement to make. To have a heart of contentment is a tough target to achieve. No matter how many times you seem to hit it, something comes along to upset you and you start to want all over again. Especially when you see someone getting something you would like to have. I'm sure each of you could cite examples from your own life about your disappointments. I'm sure you could ask, I could ask you as your glass half full or half empty. Depending on how you view it, your contentment will be in proportion. Devotion is another factor. How devoted are you to someone or something will determine your commitment. One commentator wrote, I'm pretty sure that I know a life of devotion when I see it. It has to do with buckling in for the long haul, running all the way to the finish line, and all those other cliches that are made trivial because they tend to be timed by a stopwatch when they really require a calendar. Simeon was such a man. He was old, but he kept showing up He showed his devotion by coming to the temple day after day, year after year, looking for the promise to be fulfilled. Luke doesn't say much, but what he says is worth noting. Verse 25, now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was a righteous man and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. What a reputation. He was righteous, he was devoted, he was waiting, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Righteous refers to a person who is upright and virtuous, keeping the commands of God. It speaks of someone who is committed to living according to God's standards and not his own. It also refers to one who deals appropriately and fairly with others. To be called righteous certainly is worthy, to receive and to earn it. Devoted is a description of a person who reveres God and allows his reverence to have an impact on his life and his choices. Righteous has to do with obeying God. Devoted is consumed with honoring God. And that's quite a difference. Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel. That's a reference to the coming Messiah. There was an expectation in that day that because God hadn't spoken to his people for 400 years, something was going to happen soon. Simeon was living his life, waiting for the coming Messiah. Have you ever noticed how older people talk about the past? When I was younger, when I was a lad, I remember when, before I was married, not many seemed to say, I'm going home soon to be with the Lord. Simeon was looking to the future. The Holy Spirit was on him. Now that's an unusual statement. This is a New Testament phrase, one used after the crucifixion and after the Holy Spirit had descended on the disciples at Pentecost. yet Simeon experienced the Holy Spirit day by day. What a privilege! Even the prophets in the Old Testament couldn't claim that privilege, because the Holy Spirit came upon them and then departed again when the task was complete. These are four descriptions that show us what a man Simeon was. A man who was upright and virtuous, consumed with honoring God, looking for the coming Messiah, and with the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. If someone could use just a few words to describe you, what would they be? If you were to describe you, how would you do it? What would you say? Would it be truly how you actually live? would your description be how you want to be perceived? Simeon had hope. Now, this isn't the fluffy hope on which we base optimistic wishes for the future. The hope Simeon had, and which Christians have, is based on substance and confident expectation. That's what the hope of a Christian is, substance and confident expectation. And that's because our hope is attached to someone, the Lord Jesus Christ. Simeon didn't know his hope was in Jesus, but it was on someone God had promised he would see. Verse 26 said, "'It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.'" This wasn't a mere hope-so sentimentality. This hope is strong and powerful. Godly hope gives us the strength and the power to go through life with confidence day after day. It enables us to face the challenges life throws at us. It enables us to stand when Satan comes and shoots his fiery darts of accusation. It enables us to stop standing in the shadows and as the waves lap the seashore and strengthens us to launch out into the deep and follow God and do what he asks us to do. Simon's hope was based on a promise given to him by the Holy Spirit. He would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. That's why he devotedly waited in the temple courts where he expected the Messiah to come. Simeon's life was a line in the sand. If he died, the Messiah was alive somewhere on planet Earth. But the second part of the promise is astounding. Simeon would not just live until Messiah came. He would personally see the Messiah. No wonder he had hope, a strong and powerful substance with confident expectations. I was reminded of the hymn of old. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. When darkness fails his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, his blood, support me in the overwhelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. And it finishes with the chorus, when all around my soul gives way, then all is him. He then is all my hope and stand. The chorus is, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Now that's a hope, not based on sinking sand. Only the foolish man builds his house on sinking sand. But the wise man builds his house on the rock, the rock Christ Jesus. Not a fluffy hope so, but on sure substance and a solid confident expectation. Look at the reference to the Holy Spirit in this man's life. Excuse me. Verse 25 says the Holy Spirit was upon him. Verse 26, the Holy Spirit revealed to him he would see the Messiah. Verse 27, the Holy Spirit moved him to go to the temple. Is it any wonder this man had hope? Simon had heart. In America, there's a Mexican food chain, fast food chain called Taco Bell. They ran a series of adverts to promote their new super-sized 10-pound burrito and taco. That's some size of a taco. They had seemingly ordinary people sitting at the end of a table with the oversized taco. And at the end of the meal, they said, I'm full. The implication was that the only way to satisfy your hunger is Taco Bell. But another manufacturer argued that you don't need a 10-pound burrito to fill you up. All you need is a Snickers bar. And their slogan was, Snickers really satisfies. On the other hand, there are many, many other people who would agree with Mick Jagger. I can't get no satisfaction. Even Solomon, in all his glory, with all his wisdom and wealth, declared that all of life was vanity. Vanity, saith the preacher. After all his learning, his conclusion was, in Ezekiel 2, verse 17, I hated life. Towards the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, in John chapter 6, many of his followers started to desert him because his teaching was getting too hard. Jesus asked the disciples, will you too leave me?" And Peter said, Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. That's where you find true, deep down in your bowels satisfaction, eternal life. Jesus said to his disciples, I have come that you might have life and to have it more abundantly, full abundant, satisfying life, life with a capital L. And Simeon was one of the first to experience that in his heart. Now the time had come, the time he would see the Messiah. And when Mary and Joseph brought the infant into the temple to present him to the Lord, Simeon moved with the Holy Spirit, went into the temple courts, and took the child in his arms. Now imagine Mary and Joseph, A complete stranger come up to them and took their baby away from them. And it was the proclamation that shook them even more. Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people. That would have given them hope. What he just said was confirmation that what they had seen and heard from the angel coming to them both 10 months before to the shepherd's story of the angel just a week ago, it may have been a shock and a surprise, but welcome news all the same. Simeon's response was one of absolute satisfaction and contentment. He'd lived his life in the hope of seeing the Savior. Now that it happened, Messiah had arrived. It's most likely Simeon spent his life waiting to meet some great man of renown. Maybe he would arrive in some royal entourage with all the attendant pomp and ceremony. He certainly didn't expect to hold the Messiah in his arms. What a satisfied blessing to his heart. He had seen the Christ, he waited all his life, and now it had happened. And as a result, He could do nothing other than declare the goodness and the greatness of God. And he called out, it's enough. I don't need any more. I have seen the Christ. Now Lord, let me depart from this life in peace. That's a satisfied heart. Mary and Joseph and no standing around could only stand there in amazement and marveled at what was said about him. What a fantastic scene. It must have been in the temple that day. Mary and Joseph watched a completely satisfied, contented man with a heart that was full to overflowing with joy and praise, giving thanks to God for the Savior. A number of years ago, I went to the doctor with an abscess. He lanced it and took blood tests, and I had to go for other tests. I went back for the results a couple of weeks later, and he said, the good news is the abscess is healing well, but the tests have confirmed you've got diabetes. Very often when you get good news, bad news follows behind. And although the good news is welcome, the bad news brings a sudden thud in the pit of your stomach. And I'm sure we've all felt that. Good news first, and then the bad. What good news Simeon brought to Mary and Joseph? Wonderful, miraculous, extraordinary, great news. He confirmed all that had already been said about this Christ child. And then came the bad news. How could there be bad news to do with the Christ child? Well, Luke gives us the terrible answer in verse 34, 35. This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel. and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. Mary, in agreeing to be the mother of God's Son, was the fulfillment of many, many prophecies. Now, I don't intend to rehearse them here. I just want to note that although she was involved in fulfilling many prophecies, here's another new prophecy, which would directly involve her and her son. What a horrific thing to have to listen to. This child was going to be the cause of division in Israel, and indeed the whole world. People would speak about him for a long, long time, both for and against, because he would be the standard they would be judged against for their sin. and Mary would see the sadness as a result of being his mother. But that prophecy, horrific as it was, shows us that the joyous, glorious, miraculous birth of Christ was only one part of how he could save the world. And along with the good news comes the bad news. The good news is that the first steps of his wonderful journey brought the deepest of joy and happiness, but the final steps would be complete when Mary stood at the foot of a Roman cross, with a broken heart and with eyes full of tears as she watched her son, the Holy One of Israel, pay for the sins of the world. Simeon's bad news was indeed a bitter pill for Mary. One day, not many years later, the suffering of her son would cut like a sword into the very depths of her soul. Mary must have spent the next 33 years pondering that prediction. As Jesus grew, every time he fell or got into a scrape, she'd be wondering what the outcome would be. Maybe she was relieved when he grew into manhood and quietly got on with the job of being a local country carpenter like his father, Joseph. But then he started his public ministry. I can't start to understand her heart as he started to debate with religious leaders, leaders who were determined to kill him. I wonder how she felt when he did another miracle, provoking them to hatred. When crowds followed him and embarrassed the leaders. When crowds chanted, Hosanna in the highest, as he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. Or how she felt when the crowd chanted, crucify him, crucify him. Simeon had been waiting all his life to meet the Messiah, a life full of anticipation. Mary's life was also full of anticipation, but the dreaded day was coming. Simeon found joy and peace and satisfaction and contentment at the arrival of the Christ. Mary would one day feel loss and pain as her son, that same Christ, suffered and died on a Roman cross. Simeon's lifelong anticipation resulted in joy. Mary's ended in grief. Simeon's contentment offers us a joyous perspective on Christmas and the New Year. The promise has been fulfilled. Simeon had seen and held the Savior. His response was a depth of satisfaction, knowing the personal experience of meeting Christ. What about our New Year? Will 2025 give us the quiet peace and contentment that says, my beloved is mine and I am his? Can you say, I know Christ personally and I know he will never leave me? Or will it be discontent and disappointment? Will it be another year of looking back for possessions, bigger and better presents? The spirit of the age pulls us away from Christ and all that's ours in Him. But the heart of Simeon tells us there's more than just more. There's Christ, and it's promised for each of us in 2025. Be content with what you have, because God Himself has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. And knowing Christ in your life day after day, Until the end of the age, there'll be more than enough.