Longing Fulfilled

Intro: On this Christmas morning, I want to spend a little time on a character here in the birth narrative that I think we would do well to pay more attention to. On this day, we celebrate the Jesus has come, incarnation was fulfilled. We celebrate that He has come, that the first Advent, our longing has been fulfilled. But as we have been saying over and over again, the coming of Christ is further than a cute sweet baby being born in a manger. The implications of the birth of Jesus are staggering. We learned for the last month that Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us. This baby is God made flesh.

And we conclude our study of Jesus on this morning by focusing on the implications of Jesus’ coming, particulary in the phrase that Jesus is Savior. The longing of God’s people was this salvation. A man named Simeon and a woman named Anna had been waiting in the silence, promised that they would see the means of their own salvation one day. For this text today shows the day they were able to see the salvation of God with their own eyes. We have seen Jesus with our own eyes of faith this morning. We may have not seen him with our own eyes quite yet, but we have seen his revealed plan in His Word, his work in our lives and in the lives of others, and have experienced the promises that are found in his Word.

CTS: Our greatest longing has been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus our Savior.

Law Fulfilled (22-24)

Luke has written this gospel to give an account to Theophilus, and all that would read this gospel, of the life of Christ and his subsequent working in His church in the book of Acts. With this, Luke goes into great detail to show how Jesus fulfills the Law, fulfills His place as Messiah, and that those who read this account may know that Jesus is exactly whom the world needs as Savior.

With that, Jesus fulfills the law like every other child in Hebrew culture. There would be no way to criticize and doubt the legitimacy of Jesus as the true Jew that is the Messiah. No one could read this and go, but wait, he wasn’t circumcised and offered a sacrifice as the firstborn. Interestingly enough, his own dedication would point to him being the firstborn offered in place of Israel and the nations for their salvation. Again, Jesus is the perfect needed sacrifice for our salvation.

Longing Fulfilled (25-32)

Simeon longs

Luke then gives an account of a man named Simeon. All we understand of Simeon is his description in verse 25. His description reveals His desire to honor the Lord. He lived righteously (not perfect btw, but in humility trusted the Lord) and devout (he lived with God on the foremost of his mind, meditating and worshiping the Lord in all things). He also has been waiting. We don’t have an indication of how old Simeon is. He if often portrayed as old, but there really isn’t any indication other than maybe because of his phrase said in verse 29 about Letting your servant depart in peace.

Regardless, there must have been some sense of waiting, longing, and that longing has been fulfilled.

Illustration: We have been waiting, and do so every year, for Christmas morning. The longing of children as they await their presents. The longing of parents to see the joy of their children as they open and as they watch their spouses open their gifts that were directly asked for on Amazon. I kid a little bit there. But do you ever get those post-Christmas blues? After all the presents have been opened, the meals have been eaten, and everything has finished, and you sit and go, that was it? And even if it was a wonderful year, all of it doesn’t really seem to satisfy for long. Toys get played with for a little bit, thrown into a closet. The delicious food finally digests and is gone. The decorations are taken down. All of that. And that fulfillment that many look for this time of year is over.

That’s what happens when Christmas becomes about anything other than the one whom truly fulfills our longing, truly gives us live and peace that we long for. Simeon understood this. We was waiting for promise of God, and that drove him for however long it was. God told him he would see the Christ, the Savior. What if I told you today that you can see the Lord’s Christ today as well, and the joy of knowing Him goes beyond excitement, goes beyond the shallow Christmas songs on the radio, but is exemplified by the sufficient Scriptures and the songs of Advent we sing that point us to the reason of why we are here today. Christ is born!

Simeon is fulfilled

So he heads to the temple, Simeon, led by the Spirit, and he gets to take this child up in his arms. Again, we don’t get any indication that Simeon is

This baby is also Jesus the perfect and better prophet who reveals God’s truth in full because he is the truth.

This baby is the greater High Priest who makes intercession for us and makes us right before the Father through His own perfect sacrifice.

This baby is the King of Kings and Lord and of Lords, who rules and reigns in our hearts, bringing the kingdom in day by day, until one Day he will come again in full reign over all the earth.