Sermon Tone Analysis

Reading

Lk 2:22-35

Intro

Continuing to look through some of the familiar Christmas passages on the birth of Christ as we approach Christmas

Luke’s extensive, historical account of Jesus’ birth, told with different accounts, to Theophilus

To show their historicity

To point out the fulfillment of prophecies concerning Jesus, birth, life and death

To make the theological points he wishes to make

This familiar passage - the setting is the purification of Mary, forty days after the birth of Jesus, at which time they also presented/consecrated the firstborn to the Lord at the Temple, and the dedication to the Lord’s service

Simeon and Anna - two voices, one male, one female (humankind), waiting to affirm the Lordship of this baby boy and to give praise to God for his salvation which has appeared, Immanuel, God with Us

Simeon’s account noted for his longing for consolation of Israel and his readiness to die in peace once he had seen Christ

But the Simeon passage ends counter to the expectations of ‘peace’ and consolation/comfort - it talks about pain and the falling away of many and opposition to Jesus, a sword of division and hostility, and a sword that will pierce and pain the very soul of Mary

By carefully noting the entirety of Simeon’s prophecy to Mary (perhaps from Mary’s own account), Luke wants us to understand that there is something different about this Jesus, something different and unexpected about the consolation/comfort he brings

We are also longing for consolation and comfort but Luke wants us to ask, are we longing for the right consolation and the right comfort that is brought by Jesus?

Because his consolation goes contrary to what we want and expect, so that if we hold on to our ideas of what comfort is and what peace is, then we might miss Him and miss His consolation.

And if we are not willing to wrestle with this idea of true consolation and what it might mean and cost, then we might become opposed to the King of King and Lord of Lords, as many would in those days

Luke is saying yes this is God who is a baby boy but if you domesticate him, try to make him meet your expectations, instead of encountering him on his terms, then the thoughts of your heart will be revealed and brought to the surface and He will make you see that you are not on His side, you are opposed to Him, you are in conflict with Him

That is a hard message for Christmas but it is a necessary one.

Even for those of us who have known this baby boy as our Lord and Saviour, and we are waiting for his appearing once again, to take us home to be with him forevermore, this is a message that should cause us to pause and examine our own life and lifestyle of waiting for Immanuel to come once again

Three points

The Longing For True Consolation

The Identity Of True Consolation

The Cost Of True Consolation

The Longing For True Consolation

Three old people in Luke (Zecharias [advanced], Simeon and Anna [widowed, eighty four])

Shows the idea of waiting patiently - Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel, Anna did not depart from the temple

Waiting for God to act

On November 21, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter from Tegel Prison.

“A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent,” he said.

“One waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.”

Simeon was a layman, and the only character note that Luke gives of him is not his profession or his age but his spiritual condition of being a devout believer in God

True consolation and comfort is ultimately a matter of the spirit and not of the material aspects of this world (people, places, wealth)

It does not reside in the temporal, temporary things and institutions of this world but rather in God

The true consolation of Israel

Is 40:1-2

Is 52:9

At this time in Israel, political uprising/rebellion.

Like the Maccabees

But Simeon knew that Israel’s true consolation would not come from liberation from the Roman empire or to once again have their own kingdom, but from God’s redemption of His people from their sins

And when he looked at this baby boy of barely a month, he saw the promise of God fulfilled; the means by which God would redeem his people; that God had appeared in the flesh (the Lord’s Christ whom Simeon had been waiting for) to redeem his people from their sins

Whether you are in Christ or outside Him today, you will not find true comfort unless you find it in Jesus, and you are attuned to the spiritual needs of your soul, both for redemption from sin and for consolation from God

Ultimately, unless you are set right with God, nothing else matters, and no other comfort can suffice

That is the longing for true consolation that Simeon had, which ended when he laid his eyes on Jesus

The Identity Of True Consolation

Lk 2:27-33

Here Simeon is saying ‘My watch has ended Lord; my wait for your consolation has ended; it is time for me to die in peace’ because he has seen and identified the salvation of God

The identity of consolation

It is according to God’s Word; you cannot find God’s consolation apart from God’s promises in His Word

And those promises have come true in the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ

My eyes have seen your salvation

His father and mother marveled at what was said about him

So consolation is not an event or a result but a person, Jesus.

He is our true consolation, our true comfort.

And this consolation is salvation, our being set right with God, because our sins have been paid for, our iniquity pardoned; we have been redeemed from the bondage of sin

This Jesus came down onto this world in the presence of all peoples (wise men, shepherds, ethnicity, class, etc) to save all people, Jew and Gentile, from their sins and to give them eternal life

He is the light that reveals the salvation of God to the Gentiles Is 49:6

And He is the light that brings glory to Israel because it is through their heritage and history that the Messiah who would be the saviour of the world would come

And indeed has come now.

This baby boy resting in the hands of Mary is that Messiah, God come down in the flesh.

And we notice that for Simeon, it is enough to know that God has begun the fulfillment of his promise of salvation to declare that it is time for him to die peacefully.

He does not need to see the events that will bring about this salvation because he has seen the true consolation of God with his eyes, and he trusts in the sovereignty and faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his promises.

So he has peace

He probably did not live 33 more years to see how that promise would be realized through the sacrifice of this very same Jesus on the cross of Calvary but he portends it in his next saying.

So true consolation is not to be found in events or changed circumstances, but in a person: Jesus Christ, who has brought us and has become our salvation, to be made right with God and to have everlasting life.

The Cost Of True Consolation

If this passage had ended at the previous verses, and we skipped ahead to Anna, this would make what many would say is an ideal Christmas passage: all joy, peace, hope, promises fulfilled, waiting ended, expectations met.

But it does not end there.

Lk 2:34-35

Luke carefully placed this saying (probably heard from Mary herself or someone close to her) so that Simeon’s praise would be seen and evaluated in the context of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and most critically, Jesus’ claims about himself, what he taught, and the supreme obedience and unquestioned allegiance from his followers that he demanded and expected without compromise; as we will see in the rest of Luke

Luke (through Simeon) is saying that if you think the peace of Christ means some fluffy idea of peace and comfort and relaxation that you may have, well I want to rid you of any such false notions.

This comfort is going to come at great cost to those who follow this child.

So Simeon says to Mary “This child you are holding is appointed or is going to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, that is many will be saved through him but as many or more will be destroyed because of him.

Notice that Jesus is the cause of the rise and fall; the rise and fall is not the effect of Jesus but He himself is going to cause it.

In their responses to Him (and ours), either we rise or we fall.

There is no other option

He will be a sign from God but a sign that will be fiercely opposed by many, so that the deepest thoughts of the hearts of men and women will be revealed, laid bare, brought to the surface in their response to the Messiah, God’s salvation

In Simeon’s words, we see the complexity and the cost of knowing and following Jesus.

It is not simple; Jesus causes division and raging conflict between people

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Peace through Conflict (Christmas)

The answer is because in himself he combined both an overwhelming repulsiveness of his claims and the overwhelming attractiveness of his life.

If you understand both of those things: the overwhelming repulsiveness of his claims and the overwhelming attractiveness of his life, then you will see why he causes people to either rise or fall, but he leaves nobody alone.

He leaves nobody in the middle.

Jesus had an attractive life; he cared for the poor, he uplifted the downtrodden, he established a universal brotherhood of all men and women; he established a way that changed the lives of billions of people and the course of this world and human history; his morality and ethics laid the foundation of the modern world.

Hence, why many would like him just to offer the potential of human life or for how to be a leader or how to attract people to a cause

But then you consider what this man said about himself

John 14:6-7

Hold on Jesus, a Jew would have said, you are saying that everything we have done for a thousand years before you ever walked this earth is now not enough, that we can now only approach God through you.

More than that, we can only know God through you and that you are God and when we see you, we have seen God.

Lk 12:8-9

So now, you hold the power of life and death before God that only those who follow you are going to live but everyone else, regardless of their religion and their good deeds and their knowledge/ignorance, they are all going to be consigned to eternal damnation in hell.

We know these exclusive claims of Jesus to be the only way to salvation is no longer deemed polite or correct to say in society today but can you imagine the uproar this would have caused among the Jews in Israel those days, the people of God who claimed to know and be the only way to God? Now this Nazarene with questionable parentage and radical thoughts is claiming to be the Messiah, not offer any hint of political revolution and yet say that He is God and he holds the keys of life and death for all people, including the people of God?

You think Jesus was crucified because he clashed with Rome over taxes or revolution?

No, he was crucified because they could not stand what he said about himself, no matter how attractive his life was.

Their hostile thoughts were revealed and the result was his death on the cross.

That is one cost of following Jesus: the conflict he brings between people.

This conflict, no matter their differences, did not exist among the various Jewish sects until Jesus came and said ‘I am God, either you follow me or you are going to hell.’

You cannot escape it; the angels who proclaimed Jesus birth to the shepherds said that He is bringing peace on earth and goodwill to men, but Jesus said, before that happens Mt 10:34-36

He brought the sword of conflict and division to rupture the most basic and natural of human relationships by the exclusive claims he made about himself that would make enemies out of those who shared the same blood, the same womb, the same house.

And Simeon did not spare Mary.

He said to her “This sword will pierce your own soul, your very heart.”