[Machine transcription]
Simeon took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now You are letting Your
Servant depart in peace.
Amen.
You may be seated.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Steve and Darla and Tay and Soren, dear saints of God, Jesus is now forty days old
and he’s being brought into the temple to be presented to the Lord and for the holy
family to make an offering for Mary’s purification according to the law of Moses.
They bring two turtledoves for that particular offering.
And this, by the way, there’s maybe just a couple of things to note as we pass this
by.
This is a key to understanding the code of the stained glass windows here.
here.
The four windows and the transepts are the four hymns that are in the gospel of Luke,
and you see the two turtle doves there right below the temple, and so you know that that’s
the nuntamentus window, the window of this particular hymn.
This two turtle doves is also an indication that the holy family was poor.
Instead of bringing a goat or a bull to make as an offering, they brought the lowest possible
offering that was acceptable.
This also is one of the reasons why we know that the visit of the wise men happened after
forty days.
If they would have had the gold, they would have bought a bigger, more impressive sacrifice
to bring.
And as the holy family brings Jesus into the temple, we meet two curious people, Simeon
and Anna.
They both probably deserve our consideration, but I’d like to really focus this morning
on Simeon.
Listen to how he’s described in the text, “‘There was a man in Jerusalem whose name
was Simeon, and this man was righteous 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 saw the Lord’s Christ.”
Now that is an amazing thing, and Simeon is unique in all of history.
We don’t know anyone else quite like this man.
Now there’s a couple of things for us to consider as we begin thinking about Simeon.
The first is, normally when we think back in the days of Jesus and the time when Jesus
came, and especially when we think of Jesus in the midst of His ministry, we see how He
He was opposed by so many people, and we see the Pharisees and the Sadducees, all that
stood against Him, and we wonder if anybody was faithful at all.
But the beginning of Luke reminds us, here’s Simeon, faithful, trusting in the Lord’s Word,
and waiting for the consolation of Israel.
That word waiting is probably a key, and in the beginning of Luke we not only meet Simeon,
we meet Anna, Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and all these other faithful people
that are waiting.
Now it’s probably not that much different for us too, and I sometimes lament this fact,
but that the Lord describes His people as a waiting people.
Those who wait on the Lord shall mount up on wings like an eagle, and we wish it could
be something different, like call on the Lord or trust in the Lord, but no, the Lord calls
us to a life of waiting.
And why?
It’s because our life is built on the Lord’s promises, and we are always standing between
the Lord’s promises and the fulfillment of the promise, the giving of the promise and
the keeping of the promise.
Now this is true for all Christians and for all who are waiting, that we are waiting for
the Lord to fulfill these promises, as in a general way, but for Simeon it’s very specific,
and this is one of the unique things about him.
The Lord had come to this man, and for whatever reason, in His grace and in His wisdom, the
Lord had decided that this one, Simeon, would receive a very specific and direct promise,
that he would be alive when the Messiah came, that he wouldn’t die until he had seen with
His own eyes the promised Messiah of the Lord’s people.
Now it turns out that this is quite a gift from God that He gave to Simeon, but it’s
also a gift for us because we get to see how Simeon looked at Jesus and how he responded
to it.
The Holy Spirit, the text says, brought Simeon into the temple on the same day that Jesus
has brought into the temple, 40 days after his birth, so that he could see this promise
kept.
The text says it like this, and he came in the Spirit into the temple when the parents
brought in the child Jesus.
So Simeon is there in the temple, and he’s led by the Spirit to this place and to this
particular person, and with the insight of God, the Holy Spirit, Simeon sees the holy
family, and He sees the child Jesus, and He scoops Him up into His arms, and He breaks
into song, Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace.
We call this song of Simeon, the Nunc Dimentis, that’s the Latin for the first two words,
Lord dismiss, and I’d like for us really to focus on this hymn, and I’d like to focus
on it under the theme, being ready to die.
This, by the way, is the purpose of the church, at least one of the purposes, and it should
be one of the goals of every sermon, that we are more ready to die.
In fact, I remember one time when I was a baby pastor, someone came to meet me, and I think
they were like a⦠was itâ¦
I don’t know, it was before Thrive, back in the old days, something, and they were
doing some sort of insurance, and they said, pastor, what’s your vision for the church?
And I said, well, I don’t know if I really have a vision for the church, I’m not a prophet
or false prophet, you know, that’s who has visions, but I don’t really have a vision
for the church.
And the guy said, oh, come on, you know, tell me what’s your vision.
I said, well, all right, if you want to force my hand, it’s this.
My vision is that we would all die and go to heaven.
And the guy said, well, how does that help me sell insurance?
But this is the point, we come to church to be ready to die.
We listen to the sermon to be ready to die.
We pray the liturgy so that we’re ready to die.
I remember when I was growing up, I was in the ELCA and we had the liturgy from the old
green hymnal, some of you are familiar with it, but it has a similar liturgy, kind of
a, it has a Divine Service 1 service in there, Divine Service 2, and I remember singing this
hymn from Simeon in the liturgy, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
And I always knew when I was a kid that it meant we were getting towards the end of the
service.
In fact, I just figured that it meant â I mean, I think this is â when we were singing,
Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, what I was hearing in my own mind was, church
is almost over and it’s time for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
That the dismissal, and this is the point, that the dismissal that Simeon was praying
about was being over, being able to leave, being able to leave the church service.
But this was really missing the point, because when Simeon says, Lord, now let Your servant
depart in peace, he’s saying this, Lord, now I’m ready to die.
I’m ready now.
I need nothing else.
Lord, let Your servant depart in peace.
Now one of the blessings that the Scripture gives to us, dear saints, is this.
it.
It has a list of names for death, and they’re quite nice.
The old theologians called them the dulce nomine morte, the candy sweet names of death,
that the Scripture teaches us how to look rightly at death, the death of our loved ones
and the death of ourselves.
For example, in the Old Testament it calls death being gathered to the fathers.
Now, that’s quite nice.
Or St. Paul says this, this is really wonderful.
St. Paul says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
Do you know how whenever we’re mourning, people will come and they’ll say to us, I’m sorry
for your loss, which it is for us, it’s a loss, but for the one who dies, it’s gain.
Or perhaps one of the sweetest names of all is invented by Jesus.
Twice he uses it and twice the Apostle Paul picks it up.
He calls death a sleep.
He says, don’t mourn, the girl is just sleeping.
And when you sleep, what happens?
You go and you wake up.
So that we call death resting, rest in peace.
In fact, the Revelation gives it that name, blessed are those who rest from their labors,
their works will follow them.
Or how about this for a sweet name of death?
Jesus calls it, John tells us about this, that death is passing from death to life.
That when we die, look, we can look at those who die in the Lord and we could say, they’re
not dead, they’re finally now, finally alive.
They’ve passed from death to life.
And Simeon adds to this list of the sweet names of death.
He calls it in his hymn, departing in peace.
Now for us, this is what we need to consider.
I mean, how can we get to this place where Simeon is?
How can we get to the place where we can be ready for death?
How can we look at our own death, impending death, or the death of those that we love,
and how can we call it, with Simeon, departing in peace?
This is really the question is, how can we die the good death?
Death.
Step one, we’ve got to know where death came from.
There’s a lotâ¦our culture has a kind of a threefold problem with death.
It ignores it, and it revels in it, and it misinterprets it.
And one of the things that our culture is always telling us about death is this, that
death is natural.
That is a lie.
We have to know where death came from, that death is the punishment for sin.
The wages of sin is death.
death, on the day that you eat of it you will surely die.
We know this.
Death is not natural.
Death is the supernatural punishment from God for our sin.
And this is why death is bad.
Because number one, you’re not supposed to die, and because number two, on the other
side of death is judgment.
We know that.
I don’t know if the world knows that, but at least they can’t articulate it, but they
know that there’s something wrong about dying.
And you look at the possibility of dying and it makes you afraid.
This is why.
It’s because it’s appointed for man once to die and then to be judged.
And we realize this, third, that if this is the problem, then death is not really where
our fear comes from, but rather it’s sin.
Sin is the real problem.
Sin is the reason why death is scary.
Sin is the reason that we deserve God’s wrath.
Sin is the reason that our own death terrifies us.
And this is where we begin to find comfort, because Jesus has taken care of your sin.
Jesus has died for you, and in that death, in His death on the cross, Jesus has taken
away the power of sin.
In His death, Jesus has taken away the fear of death.
Let me see if I can give you a picture.
Here, first the verse, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, the sting of death is sin, and the power
of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let’s try this picture on.
I hope I haven’t told you this before.
If I have, you’ll have to indulge me.
Just imagine that we’re all sitting here, and let’s just pretend like all of us have
a bee allergy.
You know, if you get bitten by a bee,
you swell up and become poofy,
and then your lungs constrict,
and then you die, okay?
It’s a bad one.
And let’s just pretend as we’re sitting in here
and singing one of the hymns,
in through the window flies a bee,
and not just a normal bee,
a huge, big, fat, nine-inch bee,
like a loaf of bread with wings and it’s got this huge big stinger and it’s
dripping with poison and it starts flying and buzzing all around now you’re
not singing anymore you’re just ducking for cover you’re under the pew you’re
trying to you know you’re getting behind the elders and pushing them in front of
you. Anything you can to avoid this this bee flying around it’s terrifying and it
It comes close to you, and buzzes right around you, and it looks you in the eye, and it comes
at you, and then it’s off to someone else, huh.
This is where we find ourselves in this life, with death flying around.
Can you see it?
Where St. Paul says, the sting of death is sin.
So this bee is death, and the stinger is sin, and the poison is the law, and God’s judgment
is there waiting for you, and it’s frightening you.
but into the room, into the room comes Jesus.
And instead of running for cover, Jesus stands in front of the bee and He holds out His hand
so that this bee comes and stings Him, right there, nine-inch stinger, right through both
hands and both feet, right into His side, and all of the sting goes into Him.
Now, you know what happens, I learned this, when a bee stings you, I mean, the stinger
falls off.
And so now it’s not really, it’s flying around, and this is the situation where we are.
It’s still flying around, but it’s got no stinger.
It’s just like a giant housefly.
It’s annoying, but it’s not scary.
It, shoo fly, don’t bother me.
This is how death is.
And someone told me that when a bee stings someone, eventually they die.
They don’t grow the stinger back, they die.
Jesus has taken the sting of death for you.
And by doing that, he’s knocked the teeth out of death.
He’s knocked the fear out of death.
He’s knocked the frightfulness out of death.
So now it’s simply a minor annoyance until the last day when death is swallowed up in
victory.
That’s what Paul says.
That’s the rest of the verse, right?
1 Corinthians 15, he says this,
death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh death, where is your victory?
Oh death, where is your sting?
Dear saints, listen.
There is no judgment for you in death.
The sting is gone.
Life is what waits for you.
Jesus waits for you.
The smile of God waits for you.
the other side of death. And this is how Simeon can be ready. He knows very
specifically that Jesus is the Savior from sin. That’s the key word in the hymn
that he sings. The word is salvation. Listen to how it goes,
Lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word
Lord, for mine eyes have seen your salvation that you prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.”
Do you see, dear saints, it’s not just that Simeon held the Son of God in his hands, he
held the salvation of God in his hands.
He held God’s forgiveness in his hands, God’s mercy in his hands, God’s life in his hands,
God’s kindness in His hands, and after holding Him in His hands, He is ready to die.
Now you say, well, pastor, that’s good for Simeon, and after all, he was there on the
day when Jesus came into the temple.
But what about us?
We don’t get to hold the baby Jesus in our own hands?
Really?
See, dear saints, this is stunningly beautiful, that in just a few minutes the Lord Jesus
is going to put His true body and His true blood on your lips, physically on your lips,
and He is going to put into His ears this promise given and poured out for you for the
forgiveness of your sins.
And you know what we’re going to do after the Lord does that for us?
We are going to sing the same song that Simeon sang.
Because just as Simeon held the Lord Jesus in his hands, you are going to hold the Lord
Jesus in your hands and on your lips.
And you, just like Simeon, are going to see the salvation of God.
Just as true.
Just as sure.
and so you can pray with just as much confidence. Lord, let your servant depart
in peace. Lord, now I am ready to die. Lord, you’ve done it all for me, taken my
sin, taken my sorrow, taken the wrath that I deserve, and you have opened up to me
the way of everlasting life. Dear Saints, we marvel that the Holy Spirit brought
Simeon into the temple that day, but we should marvel that the Holy Spirit has
brought us here today for the same exact reason and with the same intent in mind.
God be praised. Amen. And the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
