Simeon: A Song Of Hope

Jesus gives me hope for this life and for eternity.

 

Luke 2:25-32  At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

29 "Sovereign Lord, now let Your servant die in peace, as You have promised. 30 I have seen Your salvation, 31 which You have prepared for all people. 32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and He is the glory of Your people Israel!"

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The first two songs that are associated with the story begins with Mary's song of trust after she received the news of her pregnancy, her song is followed by the Angel's song declaring peace to the people that God is pleased with, the third song is a song of hope that is sung by Simeon.

We do not know very much about Simeon but what the Bible shares with us is enough. We know about the character and honor of this man, we know that God made a promise to him, and most importantly he believed the promise and God came through for him.

The Man's Character

He was a devout man that was right with God, from what we know of the other men of Jerusalem, he might have been the only one. Simeon was eagerly waiting, there was an expectation, for the arrival of the Messiah. I think that maybe he was like a kid that is waiting for Christmas morning.

We can see from these verses that Simeon's faith is mature, the fact that the Holy Spirit was upon him was an unusual occurrence at this time, this isn't said of many people before the Holy Spirit came to the early church after Jesus' resurrection.

Simeon endeavored to have a right relationship with God. He didn't go after God so that he would get something from God, he pursued God first before the promises came along, Simeon knew that he should seek the giver, not the gifts that he can provide.

The Promise Comes

Simeon is still living with the power of the Holy Spirit when Jesus is brought to the temple. Can you imagine the commotion that he must have made as he rushed to see Jesus? What did Jesus' parents think about this old guy rushing up to hold their son?

What did the people around them think about the prophecy that Simeon made about Jesus? It seems that nobody else in the temple that day had any idea what was happening. They must have been cold spiritually to ignore the excitement and the prophecy of this old man. The light of the world, the glory of God's people was here and yet there wasn't any response from anybody else.

My Source Of Hope
Romans 15:13  I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since I have been made right with God, I also have the same hope that Simeon had, this is the state of mind that all of God's children have. The righteousness of Jesus has been transferred onto me so that I am right with God and I have the hope of seeing the Messiah some day.

The hope that comes from God will give you peace and joy that will get you through the difficult times that you experience in this world. This hope will also give you peace and joy when you realize that the end of your life on earth is near, there will not be any reason to fret or worry about dying, this hope is good for today and will stay with you for eternity.

1 Peter 1:3  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

The resurrection of Jesus is proof that I will also rise. Praise God for such an awesome Christmas gift! I will rejoice despite the waiting for my hope to be realized. I will continue to live for Jesus each day out of gratitude for the hope that I could never deserve.

RELATED ARTICLE:

How Advent Teaches Us To Wait Well (crossway.org)

Angels: A Song Of Peace

Is there really peace on earth? Can you have peace despite your circumstances?

 

Luke 2:8-16  And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them,

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.

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The shepherds in the field watching their flock during the night were not very likely candidates to have such an amazing announcement made to them. God's Son has just made his entrance into the world that he created and the event is announced to some dirty, unlikable working class guys on the night shift.

The angels tell them that they don't need to be afraid, they are here with the best news that there has ever been, they announce that Jesus is born and tell the shepherds how to find him and then they break out into praise and worship.

How do you define peace? 

Most of us would say that it is a lack of trouble and the state of being where nobody is bothering us. That is a good idea but there is a deeper meaning that the Bible talks about.

In the praise and worship that the angels did in front of the shepherds they made it clear that peace comes to the people that please God. The world will try to help you have peace, it is usually a denial of your circumstances or a plan to get rid of the trouble around you, they might even tell you that you need just one more thing that money can buy.

God's Peace
Jeremiah 33:8-9 I will cleanse them of their sins against Me and forgive all their sins of rebellion. Then this city will bring Me joy, glory, and honor before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see all the good I do for My people, and they will tremble with awe at the peace and prosperity I provide for them.

God's children had a lot of people telling them how to have peace. Just like it is today, they had a lot of people telling them what it takes to have peace, but not all of these people knew what they were talking about.

A good relationship with God is the key. A sign of a false prophet in the Old Testament was their message of peace that came without any repentance. The real prophets message told the people that peace could never be achieved without righteousness and justice.

 Video: Casting Crowns - I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day

Even with great trials we can still be at peace. Consider the fact that Jesus told his disciples that he was giving them the gift of real peace just hours before he would calmly go on trial and be crucified. (John 14:27) And then there is Paul, a man that had plenty of sorrow and hardships, he told many of the churches that he started that followers of Jesus have peace with God despite the persecution. (Romans 5:1-3, Philippians 4:6-7)

Yes, there is peace on earth, you just have to look beyond the cheap peace of this world. You just have to know the Prince of Peace.

Mary: A Song Of Trust

Trusting God when I lack understanding and I don't have all of the answers.

 

Luke 1:38 Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her.

Luke 1:46-55 Mary responded, "Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For He took notice of His lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.

49 For the Mighty One is holy, and He has done great things for me. 50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear Him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.

54 He has helped His servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For He made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever."

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There are not very many people that can say that God has spoken so vividly as he did to Mary, I have not heard of anyone that has knowingly had a conversation with an angel from God, I have to wonder how you or I would respond.

Mary already knew what happens to unwed mothers and now through no fault of her own she is in that predicament.  This is a huge change in her life, Mary would never be the same, people would treat her differently, would they ever believe that she didn't do anything wrong? Would she ever have a husband, would Joseph go through with the wedding? Would all of the men shun her? Would she be allowed to live or would she have to run away from home to save her life?

The biggest question was how could she raise the Son of God? There are a lot of books on raising boys these days but they didn't have them in her day and this boy wasn't just any boy. The gospels say almost nothing about Jesus for thirty years of his life. We don't know anything about Mary's parenting skills or what happened to Joseph.

Mary's response to the angel was amazing, she must have still had plenty of questions and reasons to hold back her trust in God but she told the angel that she was willing to allow everything that he said to happen to her.

Mary's song has three sections:

✔  God Always Uses An Ordinary Person (Luke 1:46-49)

Mary's blessing was not something that she earned, just like you and I, she was unworthy and had no special goodness. God chose to favor her by his design, God has never been one to show respect for anyone because nobody has ever deserved it.

If Mary could come back to earth and tell us anything it would probably be to "call me blessed but don't go any further!" She doesn't have an super powers or special status with God, Mary is just another frail, imperfect human being just like all of us.

Mary’s song of praise reflects her total submission and deep gratitude to God for what he was doing through her despite her shortcomings and sin nature. Mary's song was similar to the song of Hannah whose son also came about under special circumstances and whose son would serve the people as a priest. (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

✔  God doesn't use the rich and powerful (Luke 1:50-53)

Mary expands her praise from God's goodness to her to his goodness and power in general to all mankind and especially for his people. Mary shows greater humility in the fact that she didn't dwell on herself but she went beyond herself to include all of us.

God's blessings are for everybody and we should celebrate everyday but especially at Christmas. Have you ever thought about the fact that God uses anybody, no matter what status that we put on people that doesn't make any difference, God will use anyone who trust him.

Video:  Mary Did You Know - Pentatonix

✔  God was being faithful to the promises he gave to Israel (Luke 1:54-56)

Israel didn't trust God to come through with his promises, if you were in their shoes and you had heard the promises from previous generations and you didn't see any evidence that they were about to come true during your lifetime then you wouldn't be any different. (Genesis 22:17-18)

Our human nature makes it difficult to let go and trust God despite the evidence, Noah, Abraham and so many others had to look beyond their own reasoning and believe the promise.

Trust is difficult but to trust with all of my heart is a new level of difficult, my own wisdom and understanding gets in the way, I start to analyze the situation and even though I want to trust with all of my heart my understanding makes me fearful and it gives me really good reasons to stop trusting.

My security and my God given reasoning abilities can work against me so that I hold back but I need to remember the next verse tells me that I better not be impressed with my own wisdom. God may ask you to do the unreasonable, my wisdom may clash with his plans to redeem the world and display his glory, his plans may not include me living a safe life to a ripe old age. Mary's plans for her life were so much easier that God's plans!

God has announced great news and promises to me, I need to respond with complete trust despite what my head may think, I need to follow with all of my heart. God's blessings to me are mind blowing. I know that I will inherit a glorious home in heaven someday so I need to trust him and not be focused on having the best life now.

What is your response? Are you blessed or entitled? Can you truly trust God with all of your heart?