Song of Simeon

We read in Luke's Gospel that Jesus' parents took Him to the temple to be circumcised. Simeon went over, interrupted Mary and Joseph, and he took the baby from them into his arm and under the influence of the Holy Spirit began to sing a new song, one of the greatest of the New Testament hymns celebrating God's salvation. It must have been a great encouragement to Mary and Joseph to hear Simeon's song. Angels had appeared to them before Jesus' birth, proclaiming Him to be the Messiah. They may have been plagued with many questions, but there in the temple on the eighth day of Jesus' life, a prophecy from an old man confirmed everything they had heard about their young son.

Today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. R.C. Sproul continues his study of Luke chapter 2. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Now, when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord, in the law of the Lord, every male who opens the womb shall be called holy for the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your Word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. Joseph and his mother marveled at those things that were spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.

Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and this woman was a widow about eighty-four years who did not depart from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Sometimes I approach the border of insanity. Some of you think that I frequently transgressed that border, but taking all of this text and try to preach on it in one sermon is a testimony to my mental weakness.

I'll probably not make it through all of this today, but I will endeavor to do it. This is a glorious text that the Lord has given us through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and it concludes within it a portrait of one of my favorite characters in all of the Bible, Simeon, who sings in this text the fifth of the infancy songs that Luke gives us that attest to the glory of the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. This is God's Word for you, the people of God.

Receive it with all of your heart. Let us pray. Now, our Father, as we look at this passage that describes this moment in the history of the life of Jesus, which is a moment full of significance for the life of Your church, we pray that we may be enlightened and edified by the words we read in it, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. His name was Indian Joe, not a character conceived by Mark Twain, but this fellow named Indian Joe was an integral part of the folklore of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the decade of the 40s and into the 50s. Now, as part of the mythology surrounding this personage, he was known as Indian Joe, but in all likelihood he was not an Indian and probably was not even named Joe. I have to interrupt myself here and say, have you ever heard of him? You're from Pittsburgh and not aware of this character.

Now, the McCanns are away this weekend, and I'm sure that they remember Indian Joe. He was an institution in the city of Pittsburgh in that day. Now, what Indian Joe did was he directed traffic on Route 51 at an intersection just past the Liberty Tubes that connected downtown Pittsburgh to the southern hills of that municipality. He was a harmless man who stood by this traffic light at an intersection every afternoon at rush hour, helping the traffic to make the right moves. He didn't stand out in the road. He stood beside the road by the traffic light, and when the light turned green, Indian Joe was standing in front of the traffic light. When the light turned green, Indian Joe would motion to the traffic to come on now.

It's time, and he would just keep the traffic moving, and when the light turned red, he would raise his hand and stop the traffic along the road. He wasn't breaking any law. Nobody bothered him.

The police let him alone. The city officials spoke not against him, but everybody assumed Indian Joe was crazy as a bed bug. I saw him many, many times as a boy, and all the visitors who passed that way would inquire about this strange fellow. And then one day, Joe wasn't there. He was gone. He was gone, and we never saw him again. And as a boy, I used to scratch my head and say, I wonder whatever happened to Indian Joe. You know, I still don't know whatever happened to Indian Joe. Now what does that have to do with the text that we've just read?

Well, I'll tell you what it has to do with. Every time I read this text about Simeon, who's one of my favorite characters, as I said, I think of Indian Joe. The Bible doesn't tell us everything associated with Simeon, only that he was a man of great devotion, that he was a righteous man, and that God had given him special revelation that as a layperson God was pleased to say to this presumably elderly man that he would not die until first he laid eyes upon the promised Messiah. And if you'll give me the preacher's license to use my imagination a little bit this morning, I don't know how often he came to the temple to check things out, but I assume that Simeon came almost every day looking for the Messiah, looking for what the Scriptures tell us was the consolation of Israel.

Notice this is another one of those titles that is given to Jesus here in the early chapters of the gospel according to St. Luke, that Jesus was called the Messiah, who would bring God's consolation to a suffering people. And I'm sure that after several years of waiting, as Abraham had to wait for the fulfillment of the promise that he would have a son with his wife Sarah, that Simeon became a fixture and part of the folklore of first century Jerusalem. You know, in the first century Jerusalem was already over a thousand years old, and it was already a major tourist destination in the whole world, sporting one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple built by Herod. And so multitudes, thousands, tens of thousands of people would come as pilgrims into Jerusalem to look at the Holy City and to look at this temple. And they had tour guides.

They didn't have buses, maybe special chariots that were multi-seated that people could take tours of the city of Jerusalem at that time. But I'm sure that the tour guides would go along, and they would point out that the great building edifice that had been accomplished by Herod, the great, and then people would say, but who's that fellow over there? Who's that old man that's hanging around the temple? And they would laugh and say, well, he's not exactly Indian Joe, but he's kind of a forerunner of that poor fellow.

This guy's a little bit touched in the head. He comes around here every day thinking that he's going to actually see the Messiah, the consolation of Israel. I don't know if that's true, but I'm convinced that he was an object of derision, of scorn. That people laughed at this old man, said, Simeon, what are you doing? I'm going to see the Messiah, the consolation of Israel.

Well, why are you doing that? Well, because God told me that I was not going to die until I actually laid eyes upon His anointed One. And finally, the day came when the Spirit of God came upon Simeon and brought him to the temple at exactly the same time that Mary and Joseph brought their infant child for his presentation at the end of the forty days of purification for Mary after childbirth. But before we look at what happened that day when we see this meeting between Simeon and Mary and Joseph, let's backpedal just for a second and say, why were they there in the first place? We look here at the beginning of the section that I read that when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. That one simple statement, one sentence tells us that first of all, eight days after the birth of Jesus, he was circumcised. People raise their eyebrows at that, and they say, why in the world would the Lord Jesus Christ have to submit to this ritual, this Old Testament ritual of circumcision? That what was given to Abraham and to his seed as a sign of God's covenant promise. The Apostle Paul tells us in the fourth chapter of Romans that the sign of circumcision included among other things the sign of that righteousness, which was by faith.

In this ritual, which was a cutting rite, it had a two-fold significance. On the one hand, those who were circumcised symbolically were cut off from the rest of the world, the world of paganism, the world of idolatry, and set apart and consecrated to be a part of the covenant people of God. But also, the sign of circumcision was a sign of a person through the grace of this covenant having his sin removed from himself, just as the foreskin of his flesh had been removed ceremonially. And that raises the question, why should Jesus be circumcised? He wasn't born with original sin.

Jesus was perfectly sinless from the moment of His conception to the moment of His death. But the Scriptures tell us that the Lord Jesus was born under the law, and everything that the law required of Israel was required of Israel's redeemer and Israel's champion. And so it was necessary as devout parents to be saved that Joseph and Mary would see to it that their firstborn son would be circumcised. Just in passing, I remind you that in the old covenant, which among other things was a sign of salvation which came only through faith, circumcision did not automatically confer salvation. Again, Paul labors that point in his letter to the Romans. Many Jews believed that just because they were circumcised, they were automatically saved.

Faith or no faith, no. The doctrine of justification by faith, Paul tells us, was not an innovation in the New Testament, but it was the same way Abraham was saved in the Old Testament. And that covenant promise came to adults in the Old Testament only after they made a profession of faith. But God mandated that that same sign be given to their children before their children were even capable of professing faith, because the sign was not a sign of their faith. It was a sign of God's promise of salvation to all who believe. That's why for 2,000 years the children of Old Testament believers were included in receiving the sign of the covenant. And that didn't change in the New Testament. God gave a new covenant and a new sign, the sign of baptism, and required that only those and required that only those who made profession of faith as adults could receive that sign, but their children were to receive it.

As we see in the book of Acts, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, with the household baptism, that principle of family solidarity remained intact and was never abrogated, never repealed. That's why we think it's very important, not just optional, that the children of believers receive the sign of the new covenant, which is the sign of the promise of salvation to all who believe. And no more does baptism convey salvation than circumcision did in the Old Testament. But it's a sign of the promise of God in our own Lord, and our own Lord as an infant received the sign of the covenant of circumcision in His time. The circumcision wasn't the only thing that had to be followed in Old Testament law, but also there had to be what was called the presentation of the firstborn Son in the temple, which was accompanied by the giving of sacrifices, usually the slaying of a lamb, and only in cases of extreme poverty could the birds be substituted as a sacrifice. And you might draw the conclusion since birds are used here in the presentation of Jesus at the temple that Joseph was living in abject poverty, not necessarily so. But it was probably very expensive for him to come and bring his child and his wife for this time of presentation in Jerusalem, and he was allowed to use this principle of offering the birds instead of the lamb. But this presentation was a sign of the redeeming of the people. Think of it, that symbolically before he redeemed his people from sins, the baby Jesus experienced the sign of that redemption Himself.

The Redeemer in following the law had to be redeemed before he could ever save anyone. So, those were the legal circumstances, the requirements of the law that brought Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus to the temple. And they came there and the same moment Simeon comes. And we read, when the parents brought the child Jesus to do according to the custom of the law, Simeon went over, interrupted Mary and Joseph, and he took the baby from them into his arm, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit began to sing a new song, the Nook de Midas, one of the greatest of the New Testament hymns celebrating God's salvation.

Again, the beginning words of the song in Latin are taken from the original words of the song itself. This old man Simeon is holding the baby to his breast, and he's singing the song, Now, now, let us thou, thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen your salvation which you've prepared before the face of all people. Mine eyes have seen that light which will be a revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. Do you see what he's saying? I've seen it. I've seen Him. I've looked into the face of my Savior. I don't have to wait to watch Him grow in nurture and admonition of the Lord. I don't need to watch Him in His public ministry, listening to His teaching, watching the miracles that He performed.

I don't need to see the transfiguration. I don't have to be an eyewitness of the atoning death on the cross or of His resurrection from the dead. I've seen all I ever need to see, and in His face I see the light of salvation that God has promised His people, that consolation that we've been waiting for. And that's the kind of faith we all should have.

We have not seen Christ, but we believe in Him. We've heard some great encouragement today as Dr. R. C. Sproul continues his series from the Gospel of Luke. I'm Lee Webb, and we're glad you've joined us on this Lord's Day edition of Renewing Your Mind. Each Sunday we're making our way through this Gospel account of Jesus' life and ministry. It's a series that comprises more than 100 sermons, all mining the depths of this great book. And when you contact us today with a donation of any amount, we'll provide a helpful study companion for you as you continue your study of Luke.

It's a digital download of R. C.'s expositional commentary. You'll find almost 600 pages of helpful insight, and you can request it with your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries today. Our offices are closed today, but you can give your gift online at renewingyourmind.org, and we do hope to hear from you. You'll also find great teaching and encouragement on RefNet. I hope you've had an opportunity to join us there. Every day, RefNet features a fresh playlist of trustworthy teaching, Bible readings, and music. And you can listen at any time for free.

Just download the RefNet app to your phone or tablet, or you can listen on your computer at refnet.fm. Well, next week we will continue Dr. Sproul's sermon series from Luke. We'll learn about the boy Jesus talking to the teachers in the temple. It's an amazing account, and I hope you'll be with us here on Renewing Your Mind. you