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Good morning, Christchurch.
My name is Jocelyn Fidiga, and I'm a part of the team that prepares the element on the second Sunday.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.
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 on him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple's 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 may now dismiss your servant in peace,
for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of 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.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Good morning.
You might notice there's a stranger up here.
I'm Andrew Ong's long-lost brother.
My name is Jesse.
We're spiritual brothers.
I'm a pastor here in the Bay Area in Castro Valley at a church called,
this is her church of yours called Indelible Grace.
And Andrew and I got to go to seminary together on the East Coast,
where there is real winter.
And it is, it's the first Sunday of the new year.
I just want to ask a couple questions.
How are you entering into the new year?
How are you entering into it?
Any resolutions?
Hopes?
Dreams?
Anxieties?
Or maybe to put it differently,
what are you waiting for this year?
What do you see in the next year?
Our scripture passage today is actually about waiting and seeing.
It's really appropriate for a Sunday like this,
where we're on the brink of Christmas and the new year.
And right in the middle of our passage,
Simeon sings out.
He says,
For my eyes have seen your salvation.
He is seeing something.
Now for many of us,
Christianity doesn't naturally register as a way of seeing.
Maybe you don't,
you're not a Christian,
you're here with family or you're seeking.
Maybe you know that Christianity is something about belief, right?
Faith.
Isn't faith not seeing?
So how and why does Simeon say,
My eyes have seen your salvation?
Let's pause that question.
But don't you want to see salvation in your life?
Like, don't you want some sort of redemption?
Maybe it's some ailment that you're suffering from.
Maybe it's a relationship that's estranged.
Maybe you feel the emptiness of life.
You want something more.
You want to see salvation.
Isn't that beautiful?
Not just to believe in salvation,
but to see it.
To see it.
That's our question today.
How do we see like Simeon?
And here's the big idea.
Salvation is not just something we believe in.
Salvation is seen.
Salvation is not just something we believe in.
Salvation is seen.
Would you pray with me as we ask God to open our eyes
so we might see him?
Let's pray.
Oh, Father in heaven, thank you.
We thank you that we are here safely
on a rainy, winery day.
Thank you that we are in your presence, oh Lord.
And I want to boldly ask,
Spirit of God,
the same Spirit who led Simeon to see Jesus,
would you lead us into the throne room of Jesus?
Would we see salvation, oh God?
We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So first we need to do some work.
Right?
Isn't faith about believing what we can't see?
Right?
Salvation is by faith.
Right?
Not sight.
But just to back up in Luke's gospel,
Luke's gospel actually opens on sight.
The opening verses of chapter one,
like a good scholar,
Luke reports his sources for this gospel.
And he says,
hey, I interviewed eyewitnesses,
people who saw.
Eyewitness,
those who saw with their own eyes.
And then Luke's gospel unfolds with miraculous appearances or sights.
Right?
An angel appears to Zechariah in the temple.
Then Mary sees an angel.
Joseph sees an angel in Matthew.
And then the angels appear to the shepherds and give them a visual sign.
They say, hey, look for a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths.
And the shepherds say, hey, let's go to Bethlehem and do what?
See this thing.
Do you hear the sight?
It's about visual.
Christmas is all about seeing.
Christianity is about sight.
And Simeon's story is chock full of visuals as well.
Did you see it?
Our reading?
His hymn has eyes, light, sight, presence, glory.
And again in the middle,
for my eyes have seen your salvation.
And this only makes sense because what the Christian claim is,
is that the invisible God has become visible in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The immortal, the transcendent God who made all things,
has become a person with flesh.
The Word made flesh.
That's the miracle of Christmas.
So how do we see salvation?
I'm going to ask two questions for the rest of this sermon.
How do we see?
That's the first half.
How do we see salvation?
And secondly, how do we know that we've seen salvation?
Okay?
How do we see salvation?
And how do we know that we've seen salvation?
So the first thing we see in Simeon are two keys to his sight.
The first key, you must see the desolation.
You must see the desolation.
Luke introduces Simeon like this.
He says,
This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And that phrase, the consolation of Israel, is the first key.
Consolation.
What does that mean?
It means this deep comfort after loss.
Right?
There is no consolation unless there has first been desolation.
Desolation.
Some of you in a couple weeks will be looking for consolation whenever the 49ers are beat.
And are out of the playoffs.
You'll need some sort of consolation.
Right?
Well, at least we still have Steph Curry on the Golden State Warriors.
For now.
Consolation comes after.
We see consolation in desolation, don't we?
And Israel knew desolation.
They knew desolation.
Centuries of conquest.
The Babylonians.
The Persians.
The Greeks.
The Romans.
Time after time.
Taking over the country.
Exile.
Occupation.
Humiliation.
And we don't even know the story of Simeon.
We get so little about Simeon.
Precious little.
All we know is that he's righteous and waiting and devout.
We don't know the ways that desolation has hit him.
Why is he waiting for the consolation of Israel?
Do you see the desolation?
Only if you see the desolation will you begin to see salvation.
Jesus says it this way.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Who sees salvation?
It's those who see the desolation.
And it's not just out there in the world.
There's plenty of desolation you can see out there.
It's also in here.
Right?
In us.
In every one of us.
Simeon says in verse 35 that this child will reveal, quote, the thoughts of many hearts.
Jesus exposes us.
He exposes our personal desolations.
I moved to the Bay Area about two and a half years ago.
And I'm a historian by training.
And so I like to look up a bunch of old pictures of San Francisco right after the big earthquake.
earthquake.
In the early 1900s.
And it's incredible.
Just, it wasn't the earthquake.
It was the fires.
The earthquake caused.
They just burned.
This thriving.
The biggest city on the West Coast at that time.
It was like the New York City of the West Coast.
It just demolished it.
Devastated it.
It's the desolation.
And you see these ruins.
These ruins.
People just standing, looking at the crumbling walls.
And friends, some of us, like that's our hearts.
That we're like a city that's been ravaged.
First by an earthquake.
And then the fire.
There's some part of our being and our life that we'd rather not admit that it is desolate.
We don't want to think about that.
Do you see the desolation?
Because only those that see the desolation will want something different.
We'll want something.
We'll want salvation.
If you're comfortable here this morning, that's great.
That's great.
But Jesus is offering us something different.
Something for the uncomfortable.
I have a friend who says, who calls life in the Bay Area.
He says it fosters a cruise ship mentality.
A cruise ship mentality.
The weather's good.
Well, most of the time.
Weather's good, right?
The jobs are good.
The food is good.
The amenities are endless.
I had to buy a new pair of pants recently.
And I realized, as I was trying to figure out what size I am,
I've not bought non-elastic pants since moving to the Bay Area.
The Bay Area is elastic pant land, right?
It just, that's how good life is.
You never have to wear a belt.
Never have to wear a belt here.
But for those of you who are, who see the desolation, there is comfort.
There is comfort.
Seeing salvation begins with seeing the desolation.
But the second thing that Simeon sees is God.
Seeing desolation alone leads to cynicism.
Plenty of people see what's wrong and become bitter.
Just go on social media.
But Simeon sees something else.
It says he's waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And that phrase comes straight from Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40, which says, comfort.
Comfort my people, says your God.
Isaiah has spent 39 chapters telling about the destruction and the desolation that Israel is going to go through
because of their own sin, their own turning against God.
And then all of a sudden, in Isaiah 40, God speaks a new note.
And he says, comfort.
Comfort.
Consolation.
It's the same Greek word.
Comfort.
My people, says your God.
I'm going to come and I'm going to bring consolation.
And so Simeon is waiting on this promise in Isaiah 40.
And what you wait for shapes what you see.
Waiting is a type of seeing.
Right?
If you're stuck on the 80 and late for a meeting, all you see is the clock.
Right?
If you're waiting for a vacation, you see suitcases everywhere.
Simeon waits for consolation until he sees it coming.
He knows, he trusts that God is bringing something else.
Comfort is coming.
Redemption is coming.
Some of us see the promises so, some of us don't see the promises.
Right?
We see the desolation so clearly that it eclipses the promise.
But can we see the promises of God as bigger, better, more bold, and clear in our vision?
His promises are the coming sunrise.
But even more than God's promises, Simeon sees God's presence with him.
Luke emphasizes the Spirit three times.
Trying to get the point here.
Verse 25 says,
The Holy Spirit was upon him.
Verse 26,
The Holy Spirit revealed the promise.
And then verse 27,
The Spirit moves him into the temple.
Simeon sees the Spirit, the very presence of God with him.
And some of you here,
you know the past promises of God.
You know your Bible.
But you don't see the Spirit with you now.
Do you see God now?
In the here and the now.
Not just his promises.
His presence.
That's what Timon sees.
Part of the problem
is what Charles Taylor, a religious philosopher,
calls the imminent frame.
He says,
We Western moderns,
we live in an imminent frame.
Imminent,
as in the opposite of the transcendent.
We don't see a transcendent reality.
All of our cultural life
emphasizes this worldly life.
This worldly life.
He's trying to diagnose,
Why is it so hard to believe in God
when it wasn't 70 years ago?
Why is it so hard?
Because everything in our culture
tries to tell us
that there's not some transcendence.
That we live in a frame,
like a house,
that cuts off the outside,
the outer transcendent supernatural world.
The imminent frame
is the modern habit
of seeing the world
as closed to God.
But listen,
the gospel opens our eyes
to a world alive
with his presence.
Against the imminent frame
is the Holy Spirit
that Simeon sees.
And you see,
it's the Spirit
who enables sight.
In the Christian doctrine
of the Trinity,
each person of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
all perfectly and equally God,
each one of them
has a different role,
a different job
in salvation.
And the Holy Spirit
does two main things
regarding vision.
first,
the Spirit heals
our vision.
The Spirit is an ophthalmologist,
an optical surgeon.
He removes our cataracts,
and He cuts out
our natural lenses
to give us new eyes.
But second,
the Spirit leads us
to Jesus.
Like a theater,
spotlight operator,
the Spirit's job
is not to draw attention
to Himself,
but to illuminate Christ.
And that's exactly
what the Spirit does
for Simeon.
The Spirit speaks to Simeon
first about the Lord's Messiah,
and then He leads him
to the temple
where Jesus is,
where He can behold Jesus
with His own eyes.
Luke is telling us
something about
what the Spirit does.
The Spirit leads us
to see Jesus.
Simeon doesn't technically
see the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit,
but Simeon is moved
by the Spirit,
and he sees Jesus,
which is seeing
the Holy Spirit.
So friends,
let me ask you a question.
Do you see the Spirit?
Do you see the Spirit
moving in your life now?
So how do we see salvation?
We must first see
the desolation,
and we must see
God's promise
and presence with Him.
But here's another question.
How do we know
that we've seen it?
How do we know
that we've seen salvation?
Three fruits that we know.
First, praise.
When you see salvation,
praise comes out.
When Simeon sees Jesus
finally in the temple,
he doesn't say silence.
He sings.
He says,
My soul,
my eyes,
have seen your salvation.
Seeing leads to speaking
and singing.
You know this instinctively.
The things that you love,
the things that you enjoy,
the things that you see
and are beautiful.
You speak them.
You tell others about them.
Hey, I went to this restaurant.
It was so good.
You got to go there
and see it yourself.
Taste it yourself.
Speaking,
complete seeing.
And sitting in sight, though,
it's not only praise.
It actually leads
to a grander vision of God.
You see,
as Simeon is seeing this,
this is not just about
the consolation of Israel.
God is not coming.
Jesus is not coming
for just this one little people.
God is coming
to save the whole world.
Isn't that a bigger
and more beautiful picture
of who God is
and who his salvation is?
We have such little views
of God
and what he's doing.
We naturally
are selfish.
We're blinkered
in our vision.
We so often
just see God
doing this one little thing.
And God,
when we see him,
when we see him
in his spirit,
he wants to blow that up
and say,
hey, I am not only
the God of you,
I'm the God of the world.
The God of the universe.
And I'm doing something
in the world
that's going to have,
it's going to utterly
transform it.
It says in verse 31,
which you have prepared
in the sight
of all nations,
a light for revelation
to the Gentiles
and the glory
of your people Israel.
This is actually
the larger narrative point
of Simeon's song.
This salvation
that God is bringing,
it's for the whole world.
And verse 33,
it says that Mary
and Joseph marveled
at what was said
about Jesus.
You see,
the angels told him
a lot about
who Jesus would be
and what he'd do,
but it was all
about Israel.
Simeon comes
and tells him
that Jesus
is the Savior
of the world.
So when we see Jesus,
when we see salvation,
we praise.
We praise a bigger God
than we thought existed.
second fruit.
When we see salvation,
we see the price.
Simeon's initial prayer
of praise
is full of triumph
and victory.
It's beautiful.
But there's unfortunately
more.
He gives a prophecy
in verses 34 and 35,
like a post-credits scene,
like a Marvel movie.
Right?
The story is not all roses.
The villain is still afoot.
But Simeon lowers his voice
and he says,
hey,
this child
will be opposed.
When he speaks to Mary,
he says,
your sword
will pierce
your soul.
Pierced.
Stabbed.
Run through.
And for Mary,
it's metaphorical.
Right?
It's her soul.
But for her son,
for her son,
this is the price
of this great salvation
that Simeon has just sung about.
It is piercing,
not only of his soul,
but of his body.
This baby,
this infant
that Simeon is holding
and looking at,
his little hands
are going to get pierced.
His side,
his little bulging infant side,
is going to get
stabbed
with the spear.
That's the price.
The soft head
of this infant
drenched
by blood
someday
as thorns
are hammered
into the scalp
as a mocked up crown.
This is the price
of salvation
that God
who comes
to be seen
will be crucified.
Jesus
on the cross
for you
and for me.
Entering in,
this God
entering in
to the desolation
of our lives.
He will know
our desolation.
He will feel it
intimately
on his suffering,
in his suffering.
Do you see
the price
of your salvation?
Do you see
the love
that God has
for you,
friends?
God loves you.
that this is
the price
of that love.
It's the Lord Jesus.
And finally,
the fruit.
When we see
salvation,
peace comes.
Verse 29,
Simeon says,
Sovereign Lord,
as you have promised,
you may now
dismiss your servant
in peace.
We don't know
for sure
how old
Simeon is.
The text doesn't tell us.
Church tradition
infers that he's
quite old.
His story
is paired with Anna,
who's at least
in her 80s.
One church tradition
says that he's
112 years old.
But it's also
inferred because
Simeon's song
is amusing
on death.
Now that he has
seen and held
salvation,
he is at peace
in his life.
And in a sense,
he says,
Hey, Lord,
now you can take me.
Now you are
letting your servant
depart.
Dismissal.
Dismiss,
depart.
That means death.
He's saying,
Hey, I have seen
salvation,
and you can
dismiss me in peace.
There's nothing
more in this earth
that I want
or need.
I have everything
I need.
Friends,
when we have seen
salvation,
we have this
peace.
It surpasses
understanding.
standing.
A pastor,
a friend of mine
in his early
40s,
passed away
from cancer
this last year.
He had two
kids under
seven years old
and a wife
and they miss
him dearly.
One of the most
beautiful testimonies
about that death
is he had
this firm
peace.
He knew
where he was
going.
He had seen
Jesus.
He had seen
his salvation.
Even if
Simeon is,
let's pretend
Simeon is not
old.
Maybe he is in
his 40s.
And he is saying,
Hey,
if I have nothing
else in this life,
I don't need to do
anything else
because I have
seen God.
I have seen
God's love
and that's
everything that
I need.
There is a
peace that
comes when
we have seen
God and seen
his salvation
that we can
actually face
the darkest
desolation
because we
know
because we've
seen God.
And actually,
if you know
Jesus,
that's the end.
Do you realize
that?
When you die,
the highest
good,
the beatific
vision is how
the ancient
theologians
and Christians
called it,
is that you
see Jesus.
That's
everything.
That's
everything.
It's the
highest good.
It's when you
will be most
at peace
and most
happy.
So friends,
summing up,
let me just
make a couple
quick
meditations.
Three
applications.
Do you
see like
Simeon?
Do you
see God?
Are you
looking for
God?
Simeon's
story is
unique.
He's
promised a
beautiful
promise to
see the
Messiah of
close and
personal.
But at the
same time,
his very
message is
that he's
not unique.
He says
all of us
can see the
Lord's
salvation.
This is
for the
nations,
the world.
This is
the light
of the
world.
Come in.
And so
he wants
you,
Simeon wants
everyone to
see what
he's seen.
And you
can.
You can.
This is
meant for
the world.
And some
of you
think that
God is
hiding,
that he
doesn't
want to
be seen
by you.
But don't
you see
the efforts
and the
lengths that
God wants?
You too
see him?
Right?
God is like
a dad of a
two-year-old boy
playing hide
and seek.
When he
hides,
he's just
around the
corner and
he peeks
his foot
out so
his little
two-year-old
can see
exactly where
he is.
because the
joy of
that is
for him
to grab
his son
and hug
him.
He wants
to be
seen.
Your
God wants
you to
see him.
Open
your eyes.
But
Simeon also
ends with
something crucial.
It says
Simeon took
him up in
his arms.
You see
salvation is
not an
it to be
seen.
It's a
he.
It's a
person.
And
seeing is
not enough.
You have
to hold
it.
You have
to take
it into
your own
hands.
There's
this
beautiful
delicate
way.
I love
when new
mothers are
holding their
newborns.
And when
they hand
them off
to you,
it's like
this is
the most
precious
thing.
You have
to remember
how to
hold a
baby.
It's weird.
This head's
going to
fall off.
And you
have to
very tenderly
take it
to you
and hold
it.
that's
what our
salvation
is.
It's
given to
you.
You have
to take
Jesus
into your
own hands
and hold
him to
your chest.
Some of
you see
salvation.
You understand
the claims
of Christianity,
but you've
never held
it.
You've
never
taken it
into your
arms.
And you
have to
take it
into your
arms every
day.
No one
picks up a
newborn once
when they've
been born
to them.
They take
them up
every day,
every hour.
That is
what it
is.
That's
what it
is to
know the
gospel,
to hold
the gospel,
to see
the gospel.
And
finally,
we have
to train
our eyes
to see.
And the
way we
train
sight is
through
prayer.
The
Son of
Simeon
has long
been a
beloved
prayer and
song in
the church.
And you
know where
the principal
place the
church has
used this
prayer?
Every
evening.
Every
evening,
when you
look at
the liturgical
prayers,
the evening
prayers,
they always
end,
going back
to the
fourth
century,
the church
has said
this is
one of
the best
ways to
end your
day in
prayer.
Why?
Lord,
now you
can dismiss
your servant
in peace,
for my
eyes have
seen your
salvation.
You see what
that's saying
every day?
Every day it's
saying, hey,
I can go to
bed in
peace.
Why?
Because I've
seen my
Savior today.
I've seen
salvation today.
And that
trains our
hearts and
our minds
to look
back over
every day
and say,
where did I
see God
work today?
Oh, I
have a
Savior.
I have a
Savior.
Sometimes
it's easy,
right?
Lord, I've
seen your
salvation today.
I've walked
with your
spirit today.
Other days,
we say this
prayer in
faith.
We don't
feel saved.
We're in
need of
salvation.
It's been
a terrible
day.
We've yelled
at our
kids.
We've yelled
at our
spouse.
We've
been grumpy.
And we
pray it less
as a
statement and
more as a
hope, a
question.
My eyes
have seen
your salvation.
And yet,
even in that
midst, God
meets us in
that prayer.
Oh, let me
give you more
salvation.
I am your
Savior.
And therefore,
we can depart
in peace.
We can go to
bed and go to
sleep.
So let me
challenge you
this new year.
pray the
prayer of
Simeon.
Every night.
Every evening.
And as you
go about your
year, ask
God, may
your fundamental
prayer this
year, for
year, 2026,
be, may I
see you.
May I see
your salvation.
In X, I see
your salvation
in this
relationship, in
my family.
May I see
your salvation
at work.
May that be
your prayer.
Father, friends,
salvation is
not just
something we
believe in.
It's something
we see and
hold.
Would you
pray with me?
Oh, Father
in heaven,
again, I want
to pray a very
simple prayer.
May we see
with Simeon's
eyes.
May we see
you, oh,
Lord.
Lord, if there's
anyone in here
that sees you
and is not
held you,
Lord, would you
work in their
hearts, work
in their minds,
and may they
take you as
their own.
May they hold
you, the
Savior, close
to their chest.
And Lord, would
you train us
to be a people
who see you,
who don't miss
out, oh, God.
Give us the
peace.
Give us the
praise, oh,
Lord, of having
been with you,
of having seen
you.
We pray this in
Christ's name.
Amen.