Jesus is enough!
Isaiah 49:1-7
Luke 2:22-38
This is our second week in our new series in the book of Luke.
I have entitled this series…..Jesus meets……..
We saw last week what happened when Jesus met John the Baptist for the first time. While Jesus was still in his mother’s womb, and John was still in his mother’s womb, as Jesus came near, John was so overwhelmed with Joy, that he leapt for Joy in his mother’s womb.
Now, I don’t know what that literally looked like.
Whether John did a summersault, whether he just kicked his mum, whether he did a cartwheel, I don’t know what that literally may have looked like, but we do know this, John’s response to meeting Jesus, was one of extreme Joy.
A joyful response to Jesus is to leap for Joy.
Friends, if you ever want to leap for Joy at knowing Jesus, please do, if you come into church doing summersaults in Joy for Jesus- please do. Because that is what we do here, we enjoy Jesus Together, and that Joy can be expressed in many different ways.
Jesus had not yet been born, and yet John was still overcome with Joy with Jesus.
When we find our Joy in Jesus, we actually Glorify Him- because we show others where our hope, where our peace, where our Joy lies.
Today, we are going to look at another bloke who was overcome with Joy when he first met Jesus, but this time, Jesus was not in his mother’s womb, but Jesus was perhaps 40 days old when he first met this bloke- Simeon. And even though Jesus was still just a baby, Simeon, an old man, was still able to rejoice over meeting Jesus for the first time.
And so, whether you are 1 or 91, you can still have joy in Jesus.
When this old timer, this prophet Simeon met Jesus for the first time, even though Jesus was just still a helpless little baby, still dependent on his mother, Simeon was still able to be overcome with Joy, because he knew by the Holy Spirit working through him, that this baby that lay in his arms, was not just any baby, but he was in fact the saviour of the world.
Now, I have had the Joy of holding 5 new born babies in my arms, I have had the Joy of having my babies wee on me, poo on me, make that first cry at me, and yet I don’t think this Joy would have come close to the Joy that Simeon felt that day, as he held baby Jesus, the saviour of the world in his arms.
So let us have a look at how this meeting of baby Jesus and Simeon came about.
Look at verses 22-24 with me:
22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
The story of this meeting between Simeon and Jesus starts with the fact that Mary and Joseph, the mother and father of Jesus did not only show obedience to the authority of the Roman Empire as they returned home for the census, but they were also obedient to the authority of the law of Moses.
Moses was the one whom God gave the law to.
According to the law of Moses in Leviticus 12:1-8, after Mary had given birth to Jesus, she was considered ceremonially unclean for 7 days, and therefore could not enter the tabernacle or temple. In fact, she could not enter the temple for another 33 days on top of that. But after 40 days of giving birth to Jesus, Mary could then go to the temple and offer a lamb (if she was wealthy) or two pigeons or two turtle doves (if she wasn’t as wealthy) as a sacrifice which would be accepted by the priest and she would be declared clean again.
And so according to the law of Moses, it was Mary who had to go to the temple to be made ceremonially clean, so she could worship with God’s people again.
In Luke 2:27 it also tells us that Jesus was also brought to the priest.
Now there doesn’t seem to be any law of Moses which commands this, although it does say in Exodus 13:1-2 that the first born of all the Israelites were to be consecrated to the Lord, and so perhaps Mary and Joseph, thought that as the priest prayed for Jesus, he was setting him apart for the Lord.
Now, on the one hand, we can think that Mary and Joseph’s obedience to the law of Moses was unnecessary, since we know from other parts of the bible, that this baby Jesus didn’t need this priest Simeon to consecrate him, since we know that Jesus was always set apart for his father’s work, even before the world began.
We may even think that Mary’s purification sacrifices were unnecessary since we know that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we no longer need to go to a priest with our animal sacrifices to be purified- Jesus came to change all of that.
However, the obedience of Mary and Joseph to the law of Moses and to the law of the Roman Emperor- teach us two things.
1. Jesus came not to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfil it.
It was necessary that Mary at that time, had to be purified by an animal sacrifice, because it was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus which was to come.
It was necessary to present Jesus before the priest to be consecrated, because it was pointing to the fact that Jesus wasn’t just given as a gift to Mary and Joseph from God, but Jesus was given as a gift to the whole world from God.
Jesus did not come to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfil it, and fulfil it- He did.
The second thing we can learn from Mary and Joseph’s obedience is this:
2. As Christians, were possible- if it doesn’t directly oppose the word of God- the bible, we should obey the laws of our lands.
I think the main reason we should obey the laws of our land where possible, is because we know that God often works his purposes through the laws of the land, even if we think those laws, make no sense.
It was the laws of the Roman Empire, which caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the same town where king David was born, in order for the prophecies of old to be fulfilled.
Anyway, here we have the first part of the meeting, between Jesus and Simeon. Jesus is presented by his law-abiding parents to the priest Simeon in the temple. He is there because his parents were keen to obey the law of Moses.
Look at verses 25-28 with me:
25 Now 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. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said
There are a few vital things we need to know about Simeon before he actually met Jesus.
First:
The Holy Spirit was working in Simeon’s heart before he met Jesus.
It tells us in verse 26 that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the promised Messiah. This is the Messiah that God had promised the Jews would come to rescue them. The Messiah that all the prophets had written about.
This was the promised Messiah that Isaiah prophesied about in Isaiah chapter 49- the one whom is called the Holy one, the anointed one, the one who would be a light to all the nations, the one who would be the redeemer of Israel.
Simeon, that prophet wasn’t the only prophet whom the Holy Spirit worked in. It tells us in 1 Peter 1:11, that the spirit of Christ was working in all the prophets of the past as they looked forward to this salvation. Prophet Zechariah, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and more had the spirit of Christ working in them, as they too were looking forward to that salvation- they were looking forward to this day, when salvation would not be some theory, or concept, or an act of obedience, but this salvation was the wrapped up in the person of Jesus, whom that day was just a baby in the arms of Simeon.
As we have just gone through the first two chapters of Luke, you may have noticed that as people responded with Joy to meeting Jesus, it was always done with the Holy Spirit being right there with them.
Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist jumped for Joy at knowing Jesus was near him because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Mary sang for Joy by the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah sang for Joy as he was filled with the Holy Spirit
Elizabeth was full of the Holy spirit as she heard the news of Jesus.
Friends, we Presbyterians are often labelled as people who quench the spirit, we perhaps are often labelled as all “thought” and no spirit, and yet I think that is hugely inaccurate.
Listen to what the Westminster Confession of faith chapter 10 part 2 says about the Holy Spirit.
This part is about people coming to faith in Jesus
“This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it”
In layman’s terms it means this:
People can only respond with Joy to Jesus, respond with a heart that acknowledges that Jesus is Lord and saviour only because the Holy Spirit first works in their hearts.
And so, you won’t respond with Joy to Jesus because you are a good person, you won’t respond with Joy to Jesus because I can give a clever presentation, NO, we can only respond with Joy to Jesus because, God graciously, and freely gives us his Holy Spirit.
As Presbyterians, we believe we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit, we cannot believe in the first place, without God first working in our heart. And from what we have seen so far in the book of Luke, this is clearly the case, everyone who has responded to Jesus in Joy so far, has done so because the Spirit has been working in their hearts.
Now, as the Holy Spirit was working in the heart of Simeon, the Holy Spirit gave Simeon hope, hope that God would keep his promises he made to his prophets, hope that Israel would be comforted. After 400 years of no prophets to speak to Israel, after the nation was a brought to a shadow of its former self, Simeon was still waiting for the consolation of his people. He hadn’t given up hope, as the Holy Spirit was upon him.
And when that hope came, because the Holy Spirit was with him, he was able to recognise that hope, even though it was wrapped in a little baby in his arms, and not some mighty warrior or clever politician……..but a helpless baby in his arms.
Look at what Simeon said when he held Jesus in his arms.
Look at verses 29-32 with me:
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;for my eyes have seen your salvationthat you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
Simeon who was filled with the spirit, knew that this baby that Jesus held in his arms was not only the glory of Israel, but he would be a light to the world.
And as Simeon held the light of the world in his arms, he knew that was enough for him.
He knew that he could die in peace, he knew that Jesus was enough.
He had seen the salvation of the Lord and that was enough.
Friends, is Jesus enough for you?
Could you say with Simeon, I have seen the salvation of Jesus, I know that Jesus is my Lord and saviour and that is enough. If I die tomorrow, that is OK, because, I know Jesus.
Could we say with the apostle Paul- to live is Christ, to die is gain?
Could we say that we count all things as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus?
Is Jesus enough?
For William Borden- Jesus was enough!
In 1912, at the age of 25, William Borden sailed to China from America in order to spread the good news of Jesus to the Muslims who lived in China. On his way to China, Borden stopped at Egypt to study Arabic. During his stay in Egypt he contracted spinal meningitis and died.
Borden never made it to China.
He was a student of Yale University and Princeton theological college, he was a smart boy from a rich family.
Did this man waste his life?
Not according to Borden.
This is what he wrote in the back of his bible
1. No reserves
2. No retreats
3. No regrets
Jesus was enough for William Borden.
Is Jesus enough for you?
Let us pray