The Song of Simeon (Part 1 of 2)

When an old man named Simeon identified the infant Jesus as the people's long-awaited Messiah, not everyone rejoiced. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg walks us through the song of Simeon and explains why many struggled to accept his prophecy and why many still reject Jesus as Savior today. We're continuing our study in the Gospel of Luke. What are you going to be doing today, Mr. Simeon?

Someone might have asked him. Well, said Simeon, I'm going to spend today waiting. Come now, Mr. Simeon, isn't that what you were doing yesterday? Yes, said Simeon, that's actually what I do every day. You just wait?

Well, it's not all I do, but it's part of what I do. Oh, it must be great to be retired. Oh, it's wonderful to be retired. Mr. Simeon, what is it exactly that you are waiting for? Well, I'm waiting for the consolation of Israel. Or, if you like, I'm waiting for the salvation of Israel. Mr. Simeon, do you think you'll recognize this when it happens?

Oh yes. When I see him, I will know that it is him. And Luke says, And when Jesus' parents brought the child in, he, Simeon, took him up in his arms, blessed God, and said, May I have your permission to die in peace, Lord? For with my own eyes I have seen your salvation. I don't know how many places there are in the Bible either where people ask for permission to die.

Well, that's essentially what he's saying. Lord, will you now let me die in peace? Let me depart in peace.

It is a request. And the reason that I am glad now to anticipate going on is because I have seen your salvation. Incidentally, one should never pray the first part of that prayer unless the second part is applicable to us and we have understood and embraced it. Now, the context in which this dramatic scene unfolds is one of obedience on the part of Mary and Joseph to the requirements of the Jewish law. They, as a good young Jewish couple, would ensure that they were doing everything according to the book—both in terms of bringing Christ to be circumcised on the eighth day and also in terms of the fulfillment of the purification rites which had been delineated all these years before in the book of Leviticus. Now, it would be possible for us—and it certainly wouldn't be worthless—to spend time analyzing the details of verses 21 through 24, and we're not going to do that.

Let me say enough about it, I hope, to further your own personal study. But I want simply to identify for you that the central issue, the key element in verses 21–24, is the identification of Jesus with those he has come to save. It is the identification of Jesus with those he has come to save. Now, that may not immediately mean very much to some of you or, indeed, to all of you. So let me encourage you to turn to four verses of Scripture with me, and I'm going to read them, and if you choose to follow along, you will be the better for it.

If you choose not to, that's okay, and if I lose you along the way, I apologize for moving too quickly. Romans chapter 8 and verse 3, for what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man, to be a sin offering. And the reason for turning there is because of that phrase, God did, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man. Then, if you go to Galatians and to chapter 4 and verse 4, but when the time had fully come, we mentioned that phrase back in Luke 2, the time came for the baby to be born, and we said that it was more than simply a reference to the duration of gestation, and here in Galatians 4, you have that articulated. But when the time had fully come, in the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 17, for this reason he, that is Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. That verse is as good as any that I've quoted so far in tying in this point of the identification of Christ with those whom he came to save. So although Jesus is without sin or guilt—you say, well, there's a fourth one, hang on, it's coming—so although Jesus is without sin or guilt, in identifying with those whom he came to save, he must perform all the obligations of the law. And that takes me to Matthew chapter 3 and verse 15, and is explaining the statement, a somewhat enigmatic statement, in the fifteenth verse of Matthew 3, where when Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by John, you may recall, John says, Wait a minute, don't we have this the wrong way around?

I should be being baptized by you, and you're coming, and I'm supposed to baptize you? And Jesus replied, Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all righteousness. And that is an express statement regarding the obligation of Christ to fulfill the requirements of the law—an obligation which came about as a result of his identification with those whom he came to save. Now, the circumcision and the purification customs, which are referred to in these four verses, reference the state of sin into which everyone is born. And the purification pictures and the circumcision picture, etc., is directly related to the fact of sinfulness. But, says someone, Jesus was without sin. Jesus was stainless. Jesus was the Holy One.

Correct. Then why, they say, would he undergo these things? Surely it was unnecessary for him by dint of his sinlessness to go through the obligations of the law which were prescribed for those who'd been born in sin. Well, it was not unnecessary, because he did so not on his own account but as a sign that he voluntarily is placing himself under the law and taking upon himself this obligation—an obligation which fell to his people so as to procure their redemption.

Now, as I say, there is a great deal in that, and there are many journeys you can take from there, and I invite you to go ahead and take them in due course. Let me suggest to you that the emphasis of this section—the total section—is on salvation. Is on salvation. Simeon prophesies it is about the nature of Christ bringing salvation.

What is it that he prays? It is about his eyes having seen salvation. Why the reference to his name Jesus?

Because of the fact of the significance of the name, in the line of Joshua, essentially the same name, this Jesus is the great deliverer. And indeed, in Matthew, in chapter 1 and verse 21, you have the explanatory comment after this statement, and you will give him the name Jesus, and then comes the explanation, For he shall save his people from their sins. So I want, essentially, to think through these verses by means of the prism of salvation.

We take them up, as it were, and we could turn them at a number of angles. We're going to turn them at this angle, and we're going to look back into them through this section of the prism that is marked—the facet that has over it, if you like, salvation. I want you to notice what would have been most striking to the Jewish mind—namely, that this salvation that this Christ has come to bring is not nationalistic as it relates to Israel, per se, but is universal, having been prepared in the sight of all the people. And it is, according to verse 32, revelation to the Gentiles as well as glory to the people of Israel. And all of the nations are to be the recipient of this message.

Why? Because all of the nations are filled with men and women of a variety of colors, convictions, religious predilections, and they need to hear the story of Christ. Now, if you think about that for a moment, that is staggering. It is staggering.

And indeed, it is so staggering that many of our friends and neighbors balk at the very thought of it, because this is what they'll say. When they discover that we have an involvement with people around the world, in different places, whether it is in Guatemala or whether it is in Bolivia or in Germany or in France or in Japan or in Southeast Asia, wherever it might be, and they say to us, Well, what are the people doing over there? Are they building buildings? Are they putting in plumbing systems?

Which, of course, would be a valid use of time. No, no, we say they're not doing that. In many cases, they are translating the Bible. Translating the Bible. I thought everyone had the Bible.

Oh, no! In fact, one of our missionary families just finished the New Testament in a very remote language, and it's a wonderful achievement, and we rejoice in that. Why would they ever want to do that, say our friends? Because it is imperative that they are introduced to Jesus. Well, why do they have to be introduced to Jesus? Don't they have a religion of their own down there? Don't they have some way of meeting God? You see? Who does Jesus think he is, you find them saying?

That's the question of the ages. Not, Who does Jesus think he is? That's the smug approach of Jesus Christ Superstar. Jesus Christ Superstar, do you think you're who they say you are?

No, no. Who is Jesus? If Jesus was merely a philanthropist, if Jesus was merely a social activist, if Jesus was merely a kind of jazzed-up Galilean carpenter who did a bunch of good things while he was around, and the end of his life was in a Palestinian tomb, and that represented the cul-de-sac of it all, why would anybody take a minute in time to go anywhere in the world to talk about this Christ? There would be no reason.

Indeed, there is no reason. And that, you see, is where men and women's minds are this morning. They say, Well, I don't understand why people would be so concerned about this Jesus.

After all, who is this Jesus? We have a story to tell to the nations that will turn their hearts to the right, a story of peace and gladness, a story of love and light, for the darkness will turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright, and God's great kingdom will come on earth, a kingdom of love and light. And how will that be accomplished?

It will be accomplished as a result of men and women being prepared to give up their small ambitions and go to the uttermost parts of the earth with this good news of salvation. If it is an unpalatable notion amongst our neighbors, it is an equally unpalatable notion in the realm of academia today. For pluralism and syncretism is so embedded in the minds of people that the idea that there could ever be one way to God—namely, through Christ—is abhorrent. And the prevailing notion is that there is no one revelation of divine reality, that there is no one unique way to discover divine reality, and presumably, if we take all of the attempts of man and syncretize them in some fashion, then we will be able to get as good a grasp of it as we possibly can. And that all sounds so high-minded, and it sounds so politically correct, and it sounds so absorbable until you think about it, and it's absolutely facile. And the one person to be afraid of in these days, says our culture, is the individual who is dogmatic. You don't want to hang around with people like Peter.

You don't want to listen to the Proclamations of Paul. You want to go somewhere where the person will say, This is just my opinion, and I'm sorry to interrupt you, and I didn't mean to impose upon you. What a waste of time! Can you imagine somebody going out tomorrow morning to sell shower doors?

And that's as much conviction as he has. Good morning, here I am, and I know you probably don't like my shower doors, and I know you probably don't need a shower door, and I know you've probably got all the shower doors you could ever want, and I'm sorry to be here, and I'm really a pathetic piece of humanity, and… What? You sell shower doors, what do you do?

Why don't you just bang a shower door over your head and chuck it? And in theological circumstances, and in theological environments, the notion of the universal appeal of the gospel is increasingly being eroded. And from theological schools within the Western world, you hear the bleating of people saying, You know, maybe we shouldn't be as strident about this as we have been in the past. Maybe there is no need for us to go to these places. Maybe the Muslim will meet God by being a good Muslim. Maybe the Buddhist will meet God by being a good Buddhist. Why should we be so concerned about that?

You hear people saying that. The fringes of evangelical scholarship is even writing learned articles about that. We are a far, far distant removed from Peter in Acts 4 as he stands and declares, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. And that, you see, is the story that is unfolding here at the beginning of Luke's Gospel. Salvation and the word and the notion is not theoretical, and it's not religious jargon.

We talk about being saved all the time. People talk about saving par in playing golf. They managed to drop the putt, so they took four, so they saved par.

Another one, and it would have been a bogey. In ecological terms, they talk about saving the rainforests. In economic terms, they talk about saving the economy of Brazil. So we're not unfamiliar with the concept. But the question is this. What is this salvation for which Simeon was waiting? My eyes, he says, have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people. What was the expectation of Israel at the time of the birth of Christ? Now, we can answer that.

It's not conjecture. We know what it was. The people who were alert, who were tuned in, who were reading their Bibles, who were thinking, had one word in mind, and the word was deliverance or redemption. And their expectation—and if you look back to Zechariah's song and to the seventy-first verse of chapter 1, they were looking forward to salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.

So they're sitting around, and they're saying, You know what? The day is going to come when we will be liberated once again from the hand of the enemy, and those who hate us will be vanquished. Now, Atkinson, in a purple passage talking about redemption in the Old Testament, makes the point, he says, the Israelites, in reviewing their history, acknowledged that they were delivered from bondage without a war, that they were delivered from the Red Sea without a boat, that they were delivered from hunger and thirst when there was neither food nor water in the wilderness. They were delivered from their enemies without any armed forces. I mean, if we have no other picture of that, we have the story of Gideon, don't we? The gradual reduction of the numbers to some paltry force with a few lamps and one or two swords. Why? So that the small group, regarding themselves as high-powered marines, may be able to say, And we did it!

No! So that the small group, when they saw the extent of the victory in which their sword played zero part, would acknowledge what the whole history of redemption makes clear—namely, that it is God who saves, whether by many or by few. And therefore, the alert Jewish mind—the Simeons, the Annas, the Zacharias of the time—were expecting the deliverance of Israel. Look, for example, at the thirty-eighth verse here in chapter 2 of those to whom Anna spoke.

She spoke about the child, notice, to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. And again, if you cross-reference this with Zacharias' song and go back to the seventy-fourth verse, what was this they were looking for? They were looking to be rescued from the hand of our enemies and to be enabled to serve God without fear. In other words, the assumption would be that God would come and liberate Jerusalem and its people from the domination of these horrible Romans. So when they listened to Zacharias' prophecy, they would have articulated it or rearticulated it, reframed it, in light of all that they'd known of redemption history from that point.

And God had a pattern of coming and intervening on behalf of his people and moving them out from underneath the domination of these foreign powers. But if they listened carefully to Zacharias' song, then they would have realized that the Holy Spirit was moving their minds in a different direction. And in verse 76 of chapter 1, speaking of the role of John the Baptist, he will be called a prophet of the Most High. He will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him. Then verse 77, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Well, that must have been a bit of a hammer blow, don't you think?

What is this about? They must have nudged one another and said, Did you get that? Did you get that piece about the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of our sins? I didn't think we needed our sins forgiven. If there's anyone around here that needs our sins forgiven, it's these lousy Romans that are making our lives so miserable.

We're not in need of the forgiveness of our sins. John the Baptist steps out of the wilderness, and how shocked they must have been at the way in which he addressed them as they came to the baptism service. Look at what he says to them in verse 7 of chapter 3. You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, you bunch of snakes coming out here to get baptized? You say you've turned around, produced fruit in keeping with your turnaround. And don't start saying to yourselves again, We have Abraham as our father.

You get the picture? See, they're thinking nationalistically. They're thinking in terms of a national deliverance. They're thinking of the fact that God will come, show himself strong, and that they will be what they desire to be. And God comes, and he says, I am going to bring a deliverance for you, but not along the lines that you're anticipating.

We live in a world that suggests there are many ways to God, but the Bible makes it clear, Jesus is the only way. You're listening to Truth for Life, and that is Alistair Begg explaining that everyone needs to hear the gospel because the salvation that Jesus offers is universal. That's what we're all about here at Truth for Life, bringing the gospel to all the nations. We trust that God works through his word as it reaches a worldwide audience through this daily program. Our prayer is that many will come to trust in Jesus, and that those who already know Jesus will grow in their faith by studying the Bible with us each day here on Truth for Life. Teaching the Bible with clarity and relevance is our mission, and your prayerful and financial partnership is what makes it all possible. So on behalf of all who listen and benefit from Alistair's teaching from every corner of the globe, to those of you who support this ministry, a very sincere thank you.

And if you make a donation today, we want to invite you to request a book you may have heard me talk about. It's titled Every Moment Holy. This is a book filled with prayers that you can pray to acknowledge God's presence during the routine moments of life, like when you're heading off to work, or you're having a meal with friends, or you're doing chores around the house. There are nearly 100 prayers in the book to use for all kinds of occasions and events. Every Moment Holy provides prayers for the not so joyful moments like times of sadness or loss or difficulty. It's a tremendously helpful book that reminds us that in every minute of life we should be giving thanks and praise to God. You want to keep a copy of this book handy whether you pray alone or you lead your family or your small group in prayer, even your congregation. The book Every Moment Holy is yours by request when you support the ministry of Truth for Life today.

You can give online at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us today. Sometimes when we pray, our expectations can obscure our understanding and our acceptance of God's answers. Tomorrow we'll find out why. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.