No Ordinary Child (Part 1 of 2)

Music Playing Bring a newborn baby into almost any room and watch how that child immediately becomes the center of attention and how new parents are given unsolicited advice. Today on the Christmas Day edition of Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explores an extraordinary response that Mary and Joseph heard after one man's life-changing encounter with their infant son, Jesus. Luke chapter 2, beginning at verse 25 and reading to verse 35. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. Amen. And now, gracious God, as we turn to the Bible, we humbly pray for your help so that that divine dialogue that we cannot fully articulate but truly understand when it happens might take place—that you, the Spirit of God, take the written Word of God and bring it home to our hearts and minds in a way that is unmistakable. We are powerless to affect this, and we look alone to you together to accomplish this for your glory and for our good. And we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, I decided that this morning we would look together at what is a dramatic encounter that takes place in the everyday events of life. The narrative that we have just read is in the context of Mary and Joseph doing for Jesus as a Jewish male what the regulations of Judaism demanded. And as they went about the business of fulfilling God's purposes for them as a young family, so, in the temple of Jerusalem, they ran into this particular individual. I find myself, when I read Luke's Gospel, turning back again and again to his opening statement. And you may like to turn a page back just to remind yourself of Luke's stated purpose in writing this Gospel—not only his purpose but also his methodology. And he says in verse one that he has undertaken, as others have done, to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled—that word is very important, fulfilled among us, we'll come back to it—just as they were handed down to us by those who were from the first eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. In other words, he says, we haven't cobbled this material together, we haven't sat down and let our imaginations run wild, but we have been carefully investigating that which has been given to us by the eyewitnesses. And, verse 3, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write, notice, an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.

And then he tells us why he's doing so. Verse 4, So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. And then he goes on throughout all of the Gospel to give to us these accounts of the birth and the life and the teaching and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And all these stories, if you like, concerning Jesus, make up the great overarching story which, along with all that has proceeded in what we refer to as the Old Testament, gives to us the intervention of God in time. We have, over these last couple of Sundays, been thinking very much about the incarnation. And some of us have stumbled, as children have asked us, to try and do a better job than hitherto in just giving some kind of explanation.

And we've stumbled around in our attempts to do so. One of the ways in which we might think of things is to imagine just for a moment that we had lived our entire lives in this room, that this assembled group had been born in this room, and we had never left the room, and furthermore, that all the doors were closed and that there was absolutely no access to the outside. There was nothing that came to us from the outside in. We were entirely in an enclosed space without an opportunity to know what was beyond. How would we then know what was beyond? The answer, we couldn't. We could only guess.

We could only surmise. People could put up their hands and say, I think when you get outside of here, there's just a large and roaring furnace. Someone said, I think if you get out of here, you'll find a beautiful place, and so on. But in actual fact, if we had lived our entire lives in this enclosed space, the only way that we could know what is on the outside is if someone came from the outside inside and told us what was going on in that place that we had never yet encountered. Now, as marvelous as it sounds and as spectacular as it sounds, Jesus is actually the man from outside. Jesus is the one who comes from beyond into time. And he is the one who ultimately, finally explains to us the narrative, the story of our lives. In the eternal Word, the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, as John puts it, in that Word, God has disclosed himself, has made himself known finally and savingly. Now, when we read the gospel narratives concerning the Christmas story, much of it may just seem to us out of the blue—I mean, the angelic visitation, the personal visitation of the angel, and so on—especially if we're skeptical at all.

We say to ourselves, Well, this just seems to be so far-fetched. And I understand. It's one of the reasons that I wanted to come to chapter 2 this morning and to a more mature individual, somebody who had lived a long time, and to this individual Simeon. Because there's a sense in which chapter 2 seems, if you like, a little more down to earth.

Oh, admittedly, the only way to understand it is in terms of the dimensions from beyond. This man had been advised, he'd been indwelled by the Spirit of God, sufficient to know that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And his life-changing, if you would like, his life-ending experience is set within the context of a promised deliverance. If you like, the moment that is described for us here in all of its wonderful dimensions has to be understood, is understood by Simeon, not as a sort of existential experience in a moment in time, but one that has been predicted, one that for him has been anticipated.

And now, in this encounter with Mary and Joseph and the Christ child, he finally says, finally says, Aha, this is it, my eyes have seen your salvation. You see, for Simeon, he had a narrative that made sense of his existence. He was aware of history. He was aware of the history of God's dealings with his people. He would have been quite happy with Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, when he sings that song, Tradition, Tradition, and he stops every so often, and he editorializes. And at one point he says, Tradition teaches us who we are and what God expects of us. And Simeon was exactly there.

He knew who he was, and he knew exactly what God expected and what God was doing. You say, Well, that's very interesting, but it's a long time ago. Does it really have any impact on us today? Well, I think it does. I think all you need to do is keep reading your newspaper and keep reading your Bible, and you will see that the way in which the story of the Bible intersects with your everyday events of life is unmistakable, if you have eyes to see.

I'm not going to embarrass anyone by asking you to put up your hand. If you're going to turn sixty-five in 2011. But if you are going to turn sixty-five in 2011, then you know that you are at the forefront of the baby boomer generation. And if you were reading The New York Times yesterday, you would have read the article with the headline, Boomers Hit Another Milestone of Self-Absorption.

The boomers hit another milestone of self-absorption. So here we are. I am part of this group.

I'm bringing up somewhere towards the back end, like I always was in cross-country running, but I'm in the group, and I understand it. This is the comment that was made by the journalist Dan Barry. Of these individuals, some of whom—a significant number of whom—are present this morning.

They are living longer, working longer, and researchers say nursing some disappointment at how their lives have turned out. The self-aware or self-absorbed feel less self-fulfilled and thus are wracked with self-pity. Self-aware, self-absorbed, less self-fulfilled, wracked with self-pity. Now, even when we allow for all of the poetic license that is wrapped up in Barry's journalism there, still he puts his finger on something of the pulse. Here, then, is Simeon, a man who has reached this very significant point in his life. He is clearly not self-absorbed. He is not wracked with self-pity. He actually is able to say, My life makes perfect sense, and I am now ready to die. How unlike contemporary men and women! And he, in taking this child in his arms and making the statements he makes, presents us with a Jesus vastly different—vastly different—from the one who is easily accommodated or cursorily dismissed by a polite or an impolite Western culture.

This Jesus is unavoidable. And I want to show you why, in four words. The first word is the word light.

Light. And we'll notice that it is there. He takes the child in his arms, and he says of him that he is, verse 32, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. It's interesting that the Gentiles come before the Jews in this statement. It's one of God's reversals of things. What he's saying is simply this—that this child brings salvation for the whole world. For the whole world.

There's nothing exclusive about this. This is not a salvation for a certain group. This is salvation for the entire world—for Gentile people, for Jewish people. His light shines out across the world. Now remember, keep in mind that Luke is writing here not a biography.

He's not writing a history. He's writing a gospel. And what he's doing is he's writing in such a way as to awaken our interest, to answer our questions, and to lead us to faith.

Awaken our interest, answer our questions, and to lead us to faith. So that when we bump up against this word light, a light for the Gentiles, we then say to ourselves, Well, didn't I hear something about that in the last few weeks? Wasn't there something read in one of those readings on Christmas Eve about how the people who were walking in darkness have seen a great light? Didn't I get that somewhere from the Messiah or somewhere else?

That's exactly right. That's from the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 9. Who are the people walking in darkness? Who were they?

Who are they? We are the people. We live our lives in darkness. That's why when John writes and begins his prologue, he says of John that John wasn't the light. He was merely the one pointing to the light, preceding the light—the true light that gives light to every man—was coming into the world. So Jesus stands up, and he says, I am the light of the world. And he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

That's why the Christian is described as someone who has been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of the Son, who is himself the light. Now, this is not too difficult to understand, is it? We understand this picture. We have walked around in the darkness and said to somebody, Could you turn a light on in here?

It makes all the difference to the environment. The metaphor is straightforward. A child can understand it. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

We who by nature live in darkness and embrace darkness remain in darkness until, if you like, we are plugged in to the source of power and the source of light, and then we in turn bring light to the world—not in ourselves but a reflected light—for he who is a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel. The second word is stone. Stone. Now, you'll look in vain for it, because the word stone is not there. But the reference to a stone is there.

You'll have to trust me on this and then look it up later. This child, verse 34, he said to Mary, is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against. Now, once again, this is a quote from the Old Testament, from Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 14, speaking of the one who is to come. He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

Many of them will stumble, they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured. That's Isaiah 8.14. Now, remember what Luke is doing. Luke is not hanging out somewhere at the beginning of everything, in the beginning of this story, hauling off from nowhere all kinds of bright ideas.

No! He is searching diligently, he is putting the pieces together, and he is now making it clear, as he brings the story of the Old Testament prophets into line with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, aha, that is now beginning to make sense of the reference in Isaiah 8 concerning this stone that causes people to stumble. There is nowhere, actually, in the New Testament where this is picked up and used to greater effect than actually in 1 Peter, when Peter, writing to the scattered believers of his day, refers to them in these building terms. And in 1 Peter chapter 2 and in verse 4, he writes as follows, As you come to him, the living stone… Okay?

Who is this living stone? This is Jesus. What does he tell us about him? He's rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.

Okay? He says, Here you are, the scattered believers, facing the persecution of Nero. But don't forget that you have been fitted in to Christ who is the living stone. You're being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

In other words, here's your identity, he says, and here is your significance. Here is the distinguishing feature of a baby boomer who's turning sixty-five this year. If you are a sixty-five-year-old baby boomer, you now have a wonderful opportunity to go out and shine as a light in the darkness.

Take the article from the front page of The New York Times, take it to your favorite coffee shop or wherever it is you sit around and forget where you left your car keys, and sit in there and sit in there and wait for the opportunity to say, Do you see that thing about the baby boomers? Do you think we're self-fulfilled? Do you think we're self-absorbed? Do you think we're full of self-pity? Do you? And some will say, Well, I don't know.

Perhaps, to some degree. And then they'll ask you. And they'll say to you, And so what is it that allows you, at the age of sixty-five, facing your own demise, confronted by your own mortality, realizing you've got less in front of you than you have behind you? What is it that makes sense for you? And you can tell them, I am being built in to a spiritual house. Now, they'll think you're slightly crazy when you say that, but you can go on and explain to them. My significance is found in what God has given in Jesus, who is this cornerstone, this special stone, which is the occasion for a rock and a refuge about which we sang in Newton's hymn, and it is simultaneously the occasion of a stumbling and a falling for those who reject Jesus.

It's true, isn't it? Men and women, I don't find, are particularly stumbling over issues of spirituality. I was just listening to a song the other day that had been written by George Harrison, and George Harrison has obviously been watching the television and not enjoying the TV preachers that he has been hearing. And that's something that he and I have actually in common. And as he listens to this, he shouts out, as it were, to the TV, and he says, Can we have a little less of that stuff and a little more of, quote, God consciousness?

I understand that his background was essentially now in Hinduism, and all he wanted to do was have some kind of consciousness of God. People are perfectly happy with that. They're not concerned about you having a God consciousness. They're not gonna stumble over questions of spirituality. They won't care if you take a little Buddha and put it up on your desk in the Cleveland Clinic.

None of that will be a problem to them at all. I'll tell you where they'll stumble. Over Jesus. Over Jesus. They'll trip over Christ.

Because he is like a rock on the Pacific Coast Highway when it has fallen in as a result of a mudslide. And the road is no longer navigable. And someone has taken and put in its place just gigantic boulders. And those boulders actually exist to warn and to create a walkway over the chasm.

Those who are careless or scornful reject the warning, refuse the way, and stumble to their own destruction. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with the message he's titled No Ordinary Child. We'll hear more about Simeon's dramatic encounter with Jesus tomorrow. Our mission here at Truth for Life is to tell the world about Jesus. And since today is the day we celebrate his birth, Alistair is here with a special greeting. Today as we celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus, may we grow in awe of the fact that when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son to dwell with us, to save us from our sins, and to redeem us so that we might dwell with him forever. It's truly marvelous. And on behalf of all of us here at Truth for Life, we wish you and your family a blessed and joyous Christmas. Indeed we do.

Thank you, Alistair. If you'd like to tell others about Jesus, the Gospel of John is an excellent book of the Bible to begin with. It explains God's love and his plan of salvation so clearly. And that's why we put together a three-pack of Gospel of John booklets. These contain the complete Gospel of John. They're pocket-sized Gospels, perfect for sharing. So as you celebrate Jesus' birth today, prayerfully consider the people you'd like to talk to about Jesus in the coming year, and then begin to look for opportunities to put a Gospel of John booklet in their hands. Find out more about the Gospel of John three-pack when you visit our website at truthforlife.org.

I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for sharing part of your Christmas Day with us. It is easy on a day like today for believers to be amazed at all that God has done for us. Why is it so many people reject the offer of salvation? We'll look at the answer tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.