The King is Here

“Just one before I die” as a sports fan

It’s a joke but a lot of us feel that if I could just have _____ then we would feel complete.

We want to feel a void that has always been present in man

Once you get that one thing you’re desperate for, it will be replaced by another thing.

Some people will entire lives without ever attaining the thing they desire.

Sometimes it just never happens, does that demean the thing you hope for? No

It is good to look forward, to look for something, to strive for something.

A lot of people lived and died looking forward to God fulfilling a promise that they never saw fulfilled.

God promised that He would rescue us from our sin, which separates us from God, all the way back at the very beginning.

In &2, God created everything and it was perfect......etc

In , God punished them. However, it wasn’t only bad news.

Right in the middle of it, God promised something great.

God didn’t give a lot of details, just told them that He would send a rescuer as an offspring of the woman.

Rescuer would crush the head of the enemy who had just brought down humankind.

we learn that He would descend from Abraham

So many lived and died waiting for this promise.

Favorite prophecy about the Messiah, about Jesus because it should clear up any confusion.

We learn here that He would be....

Thousands of years passed from the initial prophecies until Jesus arrived on the scene. They were desperate for it.

They knew that once He came, their lives would be complete.

Even though they didn’t experience it, they didn’t lose hope or faith that it would happen in the future.

And as we know, it did.

You know the Christmas story. Mary was a virgin, but God caused her to become pregnant, anyway.

God promised that would happen, too, in .

That baby, born of a virgin in , was Jesus, the Messiah, the one who had come to rescue His people from their sin. The promise had finally come.

Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple to be dedicated, as we’re going to read, and they met a man who clearly had waited for just one thing his entire life.

He knew his life would be complete once it happened.

Simeon was at the temple already. He spent a lot of time there. He was righteous and devout. That means he tried his best to do the right things, and he was faithful and did not waiver from his faith.

He was waiting for the rescuer. He wanted to see Him with his own eyes.

The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would see the rescuer. He wasn’t going to die until he saw the Lord’s Christ, the Messiah, God in the flesh.

And he did meet Him! When he met Jesus, as a newborn baby, he said something wonderful. “Now I can die in peace!”

Jesus’ coming was enough for Simeon. Meeting Jesus was enough for him.

He was ready to die a happy man, because he had received the one gift he had longed for his entire life.

He got to meet the Messiah, promised thousands of years before Simeon was born.

God’s Word and promise had come true, and Simeon was blessed enough to be one of the first to see the promise with his own eyes.

Would that be enough for you? Is Jesus enough?

Would that be enough for you? Is Jesus enough?

Sometimes it seems He’s not enough. He’s not enough for us at church. He’s not enough for us at Christmas.

Sometimes it seems He’s not enough. He’s not enough for us at church. He’s not enough for us at Christmas.

I am good with lights, sounds, presents, presentations, and just about everything else we do at church and at Christmas. But would we still be good if we didn’t have any of that?

I am good with lights, sounds, presents, presentations, and just about everything else we do at church and at Christmas. But would we still be good if we didn’t have any of that? What if we just had Jesus?

What if we just had Jesus?

Many of you in this room have already met Jesus. You’ve placed your faith in Him, accepted Him as God, believe He died for you and was raised from the dead.

You have received what was promised thousands of years ago. How does that make you feel?

Many of you in this room have already met Jesus. You’ve placed your faith in Him, accepted Him as God, believe He died for you and was raised from the dead. You have received what was promised thousands of years ago. How does that make you feel?

I know that the longer you’ve been saved, the easier it is to forget how wonderful it is.

I know that the longer you’ve been saved, the easier it is to forget how wonderful it is. I know that if you’ve grown up in church, it’s easy to feel like this is the way it’s always been, and you really weren’t saved from much. Of course, that’s not true. You needed Jesus just as much as the worst person you can think of, because our sin puts us all on level ground. No one needs Jesus more or less than the next person. I encourage you to think about what God has done for you by sending Jesus, by saving you through Him this Christmas season. I challenge you to not get over the joy of your salvation, and if that joy has already faded, really think about how wonderful it is, so you can get it back.

I know that if you’ve grown up in church, it’s easy to feel like this is the way it’s always been, and you really weren’t saved from much.

Of course, that’s not true. You needed Jesus just as much as the worst person you can think of, because our sin puts us all on level ground. No one needs Jesus more or less than the next person.

I encourage you to think about what God has done for you by sending Jesus, by saving you through Him this Christmas season.

I challenge you to not get over the joy of your salvation, and if that joy has already faded, really think about how wonderful it is, so you can get it back.