WEBVTT

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 A very quick look tonight at this story, Luke chapter two.

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 It's a story that is an annunciation, a pronouncement of who Jesus is, but it's not a very common

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 one.

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 So we often read the annunciation stories, the pronouncement from Angel Gabriel and others,

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 Mary's song about this little baby boy.

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 Simeon song is one that we don't often look at in the Christmas season.

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 Maybe that's because at the very end of Simeon's song, he adds a couple more lines of comment

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 and verse 34, he says, behold, this boy is appointed for the fall and the rising of many

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 in Israel.

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 Now I have been around the school nativities this year.

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 I have been in the department stores, Marks and Spencer as of late, and I've heard the

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 songs, Hark the Herald, Angel Singh coming through the speakers, being sung in the nativity

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 play at the school.

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 Hark the Herald, Angel Singh, Glory to the newborn king, peace on earth, mercy mild, God

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 and sinners reconciled.

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 And we say in the department stores, when we hear it, as modern people, isn't that a

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 nice song?

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 Isn't the nativity a nice story?

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 It's a sweet time of life.

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 It's a sweet season.

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 And boy, when you read Simeon's song, when you've really listened to Hark the Herald,

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 Angel Singh, you realize that Christmas is all about conflict.

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 Christmas is about conflict.

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 Simeon says, this son was born for the rising and the falling of many.

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 And Hark the Herald, Angel Singh, it says God and sinner reconciled that at the heart of

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 Christmas, the incarnation, there's a conflict.

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 God and sinner, not at peace.

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 There's a reconciliation that's needed.

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 And so Christmas, the song of Simeon here tells you that there's a conflict at the heart

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 of Christmas.

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 Only one point tonight, but two types of conflict.

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 So actually two points.

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 It's a disguise, a one point sermon with two types of conflict means it's actually two

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 points.

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 So let me show you two types of conflict that are here in the Christmas story.

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 Simeon says, this baby boy will cause the fall and the rise of many.

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 Division conflict.

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 What kind?

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 First, in the scene, Jesus is a newborn.

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 He's 40 days old.

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 And he's brought by his mother Mary and his earthly father, Joseph, to the temple on the

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 40th day.

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 This is a ceremony of purification of dedication that was required by the law of Moses in the

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 Old Testament.

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 And we're told here that the Holy Spirit was upon this man.

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 We know nothing about him.

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 Simeon, he's an old man.

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 And the Holy Spirit says, Simeon, you will not die before you see, quote, the consolation

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 of Israel come.

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 Now we don't know how long Simeon's been waiting at the temple to see whatever it is that has

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 been told to him.

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 He will see.

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 But he knows it when he sees it.

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 And this hope of consolation, consolation is just the Greek word being translated here,

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 the word comfort.

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 And it's the same word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Pericleat,

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 it's that word.

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 It's the same exact word.

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 And it has a background in the Old Testament where Simeon longs for the comfort that an

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 anointed one, a Messiah, would bring.

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 And that's because the people of Israel have been exiled.

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 They have gone through it from the time of Babylon all the way to this first century

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 moment.

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 They are under Roman occupation.

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 Their land is not theirs.

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 And he wants to see the comfort.

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 Isaiah 40, God says, Comfort, Comfort, my people.

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 The land is in darkness.

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 But could they ever see the light and the prophecies of the Messiah that was to come?

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 And here that's what Simeon's looking for.

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 The comfort of Israel.

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 The hope of Israel's Messiah that was promised in the Old Testament.

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 He looks up, he sees Jesus.

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 It actually says that he took the baby, the 40-day-old Jesus, in his arms.

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 This is a unique moment in history.

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 It's not to be advised to take a stranger to take a baby in a public place like this.

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 But Simeon does it.

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 He had the Holy Spirit.

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 And then it says he blessed God.

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 That's the Greek word eulogy.

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 He eulogized God.

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 Like we give praise to someone, a eulogy.

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 He praised God and he sings this song out.

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 Let's take one minute and walk through this song together and just listen to this very,

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 what we call this full Christology.

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 Christology, what we believe, what we say, what we study about Jesus, his person and

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 his work.

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 Listen to what Simeon says about a 40-day-old baby.

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 This is into this Christology.

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 He says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

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 Meaning now that I have seen this baby, I can die and know that death is not the end.

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 There's peace in my life.

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 That even the baby Jesus brings peace to me.

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 And then he says, it's according to your word, meaning this is the moment that the prophecies

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 of the Old Testament are being fulfilled.

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 And he says, for my eyes have seen salvation, your salvation.

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 Meaning that when I look at this little one, I don't just, I see salvation itself.

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 Anna the prophet test right after this, 84 years old.

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 She says, when she looks at the babies, she says, I see redemption.

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 Then that you have prepared this salvation in the presence of all people, a light of

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 revelation to the Gentiles and to Israel.

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 And that this boy is salvation for all people groups, not just Israel, but for the Gentiles,

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 for every type of person there is in all the world.

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 Now this is a very full Christology.

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 Simeon was not trained in Christology.

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 He never went to seminary.

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 He sees this baby boy at 40 days old and is able to sing a song like this, moved by the

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 Holy Spirit.

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 And that means that, well, let me put it like this.

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 When Simeon sees 40 day-year-old Jesus and sings this song, he doesn't say, you know,

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 I get the sense that this baby will grow up and be a very great moral teacher.

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 He will really be an inspiration.

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 He will probably be the backdrop to the best parts of Western civilization.

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 You know, we will really build great cities because of him.

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 He doesn't say that.

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 He doesn't say, I imagine that this little baby is going to be a wonderful example to

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 so many to really clean their lives up and have better moral posture.

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 He says, I see this baby and I see salvation.

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 I see redemption.

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 He says, I see God.

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 He gives you this Christology.

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 Now that means to bring it to the point.

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 When he says that this baby comes today to be the fall in the rising of many, what he's

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 saying is, is at Christmas, the conflict that needs to take place in every single one

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 of our lives is a conceptual conflict.

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 And the conceptual conflict at first is this.

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 The Bible will not allow you to be indifferent about who he is.

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 Simeon looks at a baby and says, that is God.

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 That is salvation.

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 He.

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 He tells you about his person.

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 He doesn't look and say, look, you can be inspired by him.

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 You can think he's a great example.

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 He comes and says, there's a conceptual conflict that has to take place.

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 You've got to say, this child is God or he isn't.

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 You got to trip over that.

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 You've got to either be lifted up by that or you've got to trip over that.

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 There's no space at Christmas, according to the gospel, to be indifferent about who this

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 little one is.

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 He comes and says, he is God.

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 All of the gospels were written within 30 years of Jesus's death and resurrection.

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 And that means that when a text like this is floating around, Luke says, I've sought

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 the eyewitnesses.

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 When a text like this is floating around, there is no ability in a generation where

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 most of the people that knew Jesus in the flesh are still there, are still alive to

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 write this unless it's true.

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 And here he is saying, when I saw the baby, the 40-day-year-old baby, 40-day-old, not

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 year old, 40-day-old baby, I saw God himself.

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 I think, friends, the question before us, do you come to Christmas this year indifferent

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 about Jesus Christ?

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 And Simeon says, the gospels won't let you do that.

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 Jesus Christ, the Christmas child, does not ask to be merely respected.

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 He doesn't ask to be liked.

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 He doesn't ask to be thought of as a great teacher.

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 He doesn't ask to be your inspiration.

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 He commands to be worshiped.

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 He commands that you give your whole life away to Him, every part of yourself.

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 And so there's no, the conflict at Christmas.

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 Do you believe what the gospel say about Him?

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 Now the second conflict, final conflict is this.

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 That's a conceptual conflict.

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 There's a conflict, though, more fundamental in the heart that takes place.

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 And this is really the heartbeat of what Simeon's talking about here.

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 It's a conflict in the heart that leads to peace.

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 And so you see in verse 35, Simeon says, Mary, he turns to Mary, Mary, a sword will pierce

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 through your soul as well, so that the thoughts of many hearts can be revealed.

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 So he turns and says, the conflict, the coming of Christ brings conflict.

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 What does it bring?

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 The thoughts of many hearts have to be revealed.

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 There's a conflict that's got to take place down in the soul.

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 And that's when we realize what he's saying.

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 He said, Jesus come, came, so that many would fall and rise.

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 And he's talking about a process.

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 He's talking about something that has to take place in the heart, in the life of the soul.

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 He says, Mary, this is going to happen to you.

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 This sword is going to stab your soul as well, the fall and then the rise.

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 The baby has come so that many hearts would be revealed, that many would fall but then

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 rise.

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 And Mary, you're a case study in that.

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 This is going to happen in your life as well.

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 Now he's working with Old Testament language here from Isaiah chapter 8.

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 Isaiah chapter 8, this prophecy, and he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense

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 and a rock of stumbling to both the houses of Israel, a trap, a snare to the inhabitants

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 of Jerusalem, and many will stumble before him.

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 So this is the Old Testament idea of the stumbling stone.

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 The Messiah would come and be a stumbling stone.

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 He will cause us to fall.

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 I've used this illustration before here, but I'll use it again.

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 You don't remember it.

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 I was in Frankfurt in 2017 in Germany and I tripped over.

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 I tripped and I looked down and there's a little stone above the pavement risen in

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 interest of.

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 And in 1996, I read the story after 1996, all across Germany, these little stones were

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 put in the pavement that are lifted a little bit higher than the normal pavement.

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 D'stolpersteine.

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 Let me get my German shot.

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 Yeah, good.

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 D'stolpersteine.

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 I've got lots of German friends in the room that can help me.

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 These are 10 centimeter, about 10 centimeter stones and they're called stumbling stones.

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 It's a biblical idea.

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 And in Germany, they're there and they're put out in front of the houses where they

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 know where Jewish people were ripped up from their homes and sent to death camps.

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 And so you're bent to trip over them.

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 It's a health and safety nightmare, but such an important memorial, a memorial, right, where

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 you remember that even in times of so-called progress, like the modern era, great evils,

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 the evils of humanity continue to arise from our hearts.

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 And you trip over them.

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 You remember.

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 You remember who you are.

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 You remember what you're capable of when you trip over this D'stolpersteine.

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 That's exactly the same idea that's coming up out of this text.

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 It's a biblical idea.

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 What is it saying?

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 Jesus came for the first of the fall.

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 Mary, your heart has to be exposed.

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 Many hearts have to be revealed.

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 He's saying first, the Song of Simeon, every single one of us, the conflict that needs

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 to take place at Christmas is that we need, we must trip over him.

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 Our hearts are exposed in the moment that the Son of God became flesh.

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 The very first proclamation of God in the incarnation is we as human beings are judged.

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 Jesus Christ came into the world because we are not who we are supposed to be.

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 And so this Christmas, the conflict that has to take place is the conflict that happens

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 when you look deep down in your soul and you look at him and you see him as a mirror and

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 you realize who you really are.

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 The sins beneath the sin, the selfishness beneath the selfishness, the depths all the

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 way to the bottom.

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 We have to stumble.

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 We have to trip over him.

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 He is a stumbling stone.

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 And then, but what does Simeon say?

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 He says, he will cause the fall and the rise of many.

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 And it's a process.

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 And this word rise is the Greek word anesthesis that's usually used in the New Testament for

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 the word resurrection.

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 You go back to not only Isaiah 8, the prophecy of the Messiah coming as a stumbling stone,

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 but Isaiah 28.

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 And realize there's two meanings to this stone in the Old Testament.

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 He's a stone of offense, a rock of stumbling Isaiah 8 and then Isaiah 28.

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 See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious corner stone for a sure foundation.

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 And the one who relies on it will never be stricken with pandas.

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 And Simeon is looking at this 40 day old baby and saying, this baby is the stumbling

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 stone and the resurrection stone.

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 He will cause the falling and the rising of many.

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 And you, Mary, are the great case study.

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 He will pierce your heart.

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 Mary, the commentators will say, you know, Mary, what's Simeon saying?

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 Mary would see her son murdered by the hands of the nation.

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 She would feel pain upon pain throughout his life as she watched him become our bleeding

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 savior.

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 But I think it's talking about something more than that.

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 Mary, you know, she struggled with him, with who he really is, just like every other sinner

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 in this world.

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 She too had to trip over him in order to rise.

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 She too had to have her heart exposed.

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 A sword appears.

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 You see what it's talking about at Christmas?

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 Jesus Christ is coming into the world to cut, to cut, to cut deep down into the heart.

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 But how?

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 Not, not like the warrior sword, not at all.

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 How do you, when a nation, when a great injustice is happening in, in a nation, what has to

00:15:58.680 --> 00:15:59.840
 happen?

00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:04.440
 Another power has to rise and bring justice through conflict.

00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:06.940
 War.

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 How, how do you get, how do you bring a person who has a wicked evil tumor deep down in the

00:16:11.420 --> 00:16:13.720
 bottom of their, of their gut?

00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:14.860
 How do you heal them?

00:16:14.860 --> 00:16:17.620
 The surgeon has to go in and he has to cut them.

00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:19.780
 And he has to make them bleed.

00:16:19.780 --> 00:16:22.940
 And he has to pull out the disease in order to heal them.

00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:28.380
 Jesus Christ came to cut us not as a warrior, but as a surgeon.

00:16:28.380 --> 00:16:30.580
 He came to cause us to fall.

00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:32.740
 He came to expose us.

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 But not so that we would fall forever, so that we would be, being exposed.

00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:41.580
 Have the tumor ripped out in order that he could bring us resurrection, anesthetics.

00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:42.580
 We would rise.

00:16:42.580 --> 00:16:43.580
 We would, we would come back.

00:16:43.580 --> 00:16:44.780
 He would dust us off.

00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:46.660
 He would lift us back up.

00:16:46.660 --> 00:16:47.899
 How does he do it?

00:16:47.899 --> 00:16:51.580
 The painful surgery that we need this Christmas.

00:16:51.580 --> 00:16:55.060
 It's handed out in verse 23, verse 24.

00:16:55.060 --> 00:17:01.620
 Remember this is, as we close, this is the event where Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to

00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:05.840
 be consecrated on the 40th day as required in the law of Moses.

00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:10.159
 And we read in verse 24 that one of the ways you could, you could do this sacrifice was

00:17:10.159 --> 00:17:14.059
 through the use of turtledoves or young pigeons.

00:17:14.059 --> 00:17:22.099
 Pigeons in Leviticus 5 and Leviticus 12, we learned that this sacrifice is required after

00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:29.799
 a birth and that if you are absolutely poor, then you are allowed to use pigeons, turtledoves

00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:33.279
 and pigeons instead of a lamb.

00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:40.859
 And we realize here that when Mary brings Jesus to the temple for purification, his

00:17:40.859 --> 00:17:43.180
 family is poor.

00:17:43.180 --> 00:17:45.519
 They don't have the money to use the normal sacrifice.

00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:51.599
 And so they do it in a way that's for those who are poor.

00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:52.599
 That's the beginning.

00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:58.720
 Jesus Christ came into this world and it started in utter humiliation.

00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:05.559
 He came and was born in a, in a, in a stable, in a trough amongst the muck of the animals.

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 He was poor.

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 He was homeless.

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 He lived his whole life instead of humiliation.

00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:11.600
 He was rejected.

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 He came ultimately, this is a sign, a sign that he came to the cross to be utterly and

00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:21.160
 ultimately humiliated in our place for us.

00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:26.680
 He came to receive the warrior sword, the sort of judgment so that when we're exposed

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 by him, he could dust us off, lift us up and say, now go, I'll offer you peace.

00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:34.840
 Christmas peace.

00:18:34.840 --> 00:18:37.840
 It comes through a Christmas conflict.

00:18:37.840 --> 00:18:43.039
 And that conflict is the conflict he ultimately endured, the humiliated son, when he went

00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:45.240
 to the cross for us.

00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:47.120
 He is born this day.

00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:52.279
 He is a 40 year old baby to take the sort of judgment that we deserved so that you,

00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:56.200
 this Christmas, could have the surgeon's scalpel.

00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:01.519
 And that means I just want to leave you with this, this very week, this very week as Christmas

00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:10.920
 approaches, will you allow the sting of repentance to become part of your life?

00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:13.000
 Will you allow the sting of repentance?

00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:19.200
 You know, repentant stains and then it brings peace and then it heals.

00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.080
 Martin Luther, this is not just for, look, if you're not a Christian today, you need

00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:23.080
 repentance.

00:19:23.080 --> 00:19:24.799
 If you're a Christian today, you need repentance.

00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:29.399
 Martin Luther, the 95th Theses, the very first one, he said, when our Lord and Master

00:19:29.399 --> 00:19:35.440
 Jesus Christ said, repent in Matthew 4.17, he willed the entire life of believers to

00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:39.319
 be one of repentance.

00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:46.000
 The way that you can have peace this Christmas and in 2025 is to really embrace the daily,

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:50.879
 weekly rhythms of the sting of repentance in your life.

00:19:50.879 --> 00:19:51.879
 What is it?

00:19:51.879 --> 00:19:52.879
 It's a sword in your soul.

00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:59.400
 It's really looking deep within and it's trying to locate the selfishness underneath the selfishness.

00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:05.360
 Trying to really look at the depths of the soul and say, this is who I really am.

00:20:05.360 --> 00:20:07.960
 And then it's saying, I've got nothing to, I can't fix it.

00:20:07.960 --> 00:20:09.440
 I cannot do anything about it.

00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:15.760
 I need the sheer mercy of this 40-day-year-old baby who came to die for me.

00:20:15.760 --> 00:20:17.880
 That's the sting of repentance.

00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:23.920
 Real Christian repentance is when we come and say, it's my son, it's my heart to deny

00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.160
 Lord that you even love me.

00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:33.200
 And then Jesus comes and he says, now rise, Anastasis, let me lift you up.

00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:38.360
 I think that there's nothing that will raise the corporate life of our church community,

00:20:38.360 --> 00:20:40.280
 St. Columbus, in 2025.

00:20:40.280 --> 00:20:45.120
 There was nothing that will make your life as a Christian more radiant, more glorious,

00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:56.599
 more joyful, more peaceful in the coming year than having a daily rhythm of repenting

00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:58.000
 and coming back to Jesus.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.279
 Let us pray.

00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:04.759
 Father, we ask that you would give us hearts of repentance and we pray, Lord, that we would

00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:12.399
 see the conflict, that in the incarnation we see our judgment and in the incarnation

00:21:12.399 --> 00:21:14.199
 we see our peace.

00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:22.400
 And so Lord, point us to the fact that the surgeon has come tonight and give us hearts

00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:24.400
 that long for true repentance.

00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:30.480
 And we pray, Lord, in that power of the Christ who has come and died and rose again for us.

00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.080
 And so we pray that in Jesus' name.

00:21:32.080 --> 00:21:32.400
 Amen.