#14 Lu. 2:29-35; THE PROPHEIES OF SIMEON
ABOUT JESUS
Introduction:
In our previous text we saw a prophet by the name of
Simeon as he sat in the temple at
pretty much on a daily basis waiting for
the coming of the
Christ.
God had promised him that he would not die until he
had seen the Christ.
When Simeon saw Joseph and Mary walk in carrying Jesus
he knew instantly that this was the one he
had long been
waiting for. This little baby is the Christ of God.
Simeon took Jesus into his arms and he burst forth in
praise to God. He praised God for sending the Christ as He
had promised to do. He praised God for allowing him to live
long enough to see the Christ, as He had
promised that He
would do.
In this text we will hear Simeon utter several
prophecies about Jesus.
I He prophecied
that Jesus is the Christ , V. 29
In our text today we are going to back up and take in
two of the verses that we read and studied
last Sunday. We
will look again at verses 29 and 30. V. 29-30, "Lord, now
lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy
word: For mine eyes have seen thy
salvation." In the latter
part of verse 30 Simeon utters his first
prophecy about
Jesus.
That is, it is the first of the prophecies uttered on
this particular occasion.
In this first prophecy he proclaims the child Jesus,
whom he holds in his arms, to be the
Christ, the Savior. You
will note that he does not use the word,
Savior. The word
that Simeon uses is
"salvation." He told God the
Father,
"Mine eyes have seen thy
Salvation." The meaning is that the
babe which he held in his arms is the
Savior. He is the one
who brings salvation to mankind. God the Heavenly Father had
sent this child to be the Savior of men.
II.
He prophecied that Jesus is the Savior of the
whole
world, V. 30-31
In his next statement Simeon clarifies that Jesus is the
Savior of the world. V. 31, "Which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people." God had not only sent Jesus to be
the Savior, but He is the Savior for all
people. He will not
save all people, but He will be a Savior
for all people. He
has provided salvation for all people and
offered salvation
to all people.
This prophecy is in direct contradiction to the
teachings of some people today. They teach that God has
picked out certain people to be saved and
that nobody else in
the world has any opportunity to get
saved. But the Bible
teaches that God has provided salvation
for everybody in the
world and that God has offered salvation
to all people of the
world.
III.
He prophecied specifically about Jesus being a
Light
to the Gentiles, V. 32
In his next statement, Simeon speaks specifically about
us Gentiles. V. 32, "A light to lighten the
Gentiles..."
This statement is in direct conflict with
what the Jews
believed.
They believed that God would provide salvation for
nobody but the Jews. They thought that the Jews had it made
because they had Abraham as their
father. They thought that
God would save all Jews and take them to
heaven. On the
other hand, they thought that God would
save only Jews.
Since a Gentile is not a Jew, they thought
that the only way
a Gentile would make it to heaven was to
join the Jewish
religion.
They knew that a Gentile could notbecome a Jew
as
far as the blood line is concerned. But they thought that by
joining the Jewish faith he could become a
convert to the
Jewish faith and that by this means he
could make it to
heaven.
Thus they thought that a Gentile was going to have
to become a proselyte Jew in order to make
it to heaven.
But Simeon declares that Jesus is a light to the
Gentiles.
Jesus is a Savior to the Gentiles just as much as
He is a Savior to the Jews. A Gentile does not have to
join the Jewish religion in order to go to
heaven. All that
he has to do is to repent of his sins and
trust in Jesus
Christ to save his soul and he can be
saved, Acts
Let me say to you that I get a special joy out of this
prophecy by Simeon. You see I am a Gentile. If Jesus were
not a Savior to the Gentiles, I would
still be lost in my
sins and on the road to hell. Thank God the Heavenly Father
that when He sent Jesus to the world, He
sent Him to be the
Savior of all men and that includes us
Gentiles.
God has sent a Savior who will save people of all
nations of the world if they would only
accept Him. He would
save the Englishman, the Frenchman, the
German, the Scotch,
the Irish, the Russian, the negro, and the
Indian. He would
even save ole Saddam Hussein if he would
only repent and
trust Jesus Christ as his Savior.
IV.
He prophecied that Jesus will be the glory of
(V. 32), "...and the glory of thy people
is not only a light to the Gentiles, but
He is the glory of
ones of their ancestors. They take great pride in having
Abraham as their forefather. They take great pride in having
Jacob as the father of the twelve
tribes. They take great
pride in having Moses as their deliverer
from Egyptian
bondage.
They take great pride as having had David and
Solomon as kings in their land. These were indeed
outstanding men in the history of
never a man like Jesus. All of these other men fade into
insignificance in comparison to
Jesus. Jesus is the very Son
of God. One of these days He is going to
sit upon the throne
in
rule the world. At that time every Jew in the world will
take great pride that Jesus was born an
Israelite. Jesus is
the glory--the future glory of
V.
Joseph and Mary marvel at his prophecies, V. 33
V. 33, "And Joseph and his mother marvelled
at those
things which were spoken of
him." For a moment Luke turns
his attention away from the prophecies of
Simeon and turns
his attention to the impact that his
prophecies made on
Joseph and Mary. They marveled at the things that Simeon had
to say about Jesus. I think we could say that what he said
was a great thrill to them.
It was not that they were hearing these things for the
first time. The prophets of old had prophesied that the
Christ would be the Savior. They had even prophesied that He
would be a Savior to the Gentiles. They had prophesied of
the millennial reign of Christ and that He
would indeed be
the glory of the people of Israel. I think that most of all
Joseph and Mary marvelled
that they were privileged to have a
special role in all of this coming to
pass. It was a marvel
that God would send the Christ to be born
in their home.
They had the privilege of bringing Him up
as a child. They
did not understand all that God intended
to accomplish
through Him, but they knew it was going to
be great and they
marvelled
at it all.
VI.
He uttered prophetic blessings on Joseph and Mary, V. 34
V. 34, "And Simeon blessed them..." Simeon himself at
this point gave his attention to Joseph
and Mary. Luke said
that he blessed them. This means that he prayed for them and
he asked God to help them and to do good
for them. Yet being
a prophet of God, there was more to it
than that. He was
pronouncing the blessings of God upon
them. He was informing
them that they would have the leadership
of God upon them and
they would have the blessings of God upon
them.
They were going to need God's help.
Every parent needs
the help of God. But having Jesus Christ, the very Son of
God, in their home meant that they would
need the very
special help of God. Simeon assured them that they would
have it.
VII. He prophecied
of the fall and rise of many in Israel, V.
34
Having blessed both Joseph and Mary, Simeon then turns
his attention to Mary, the mother of
Jesus. Simeon informed
Mary that this child is going to play an
important part in
the future of the nation of Israel. (V. 34), "...and said
unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child
is set for the fall
and rising again of many in
Israel..." The word, again, is
not in the original Greek writing of
Scripture. Neither is
it found in any of the modern
translations. It is an
interpretive idea which was added by the
King James
translators.
In a broad sense, this prophecy fortells the
whole
future of the nation of Israel. Israel would fall in 70 A.D.
to the invading armies of Rome. Then in the millennium, when
the Christ is their king, the nation will
rise to great
prominence in the world. But the real message of what Simeon
is saying applies not to the nation as a
whole, but to the
individual persons within the nation.
Since it was not in the original we can get a more
accurate meaning of the original writing
if we leave it out.
Thus, what Simeon said was that Jesus is
set for the fall and
rising of many in Israel. Thus, some will fall because of
Him and some will rise because of
Him. The idea is that some
will reject Him and they will fall. Some will accept Him and
trust in Him and they will rise.
Somewhat the same idea is set forth in Romans 9:33.
Rom. 9:33 reads, "As it is written,
Behold, I lay in Sion a
stumblingstone
and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed." In this verse Jesus is
compared to a stone which is in the
pathway. To some this
stone will be a stumblingblock
which will cause them to fall.
But to others the same stone will b a
stepping stone to help
them along the path. Whoever would reject Him and refuse to
believe in Him would stumble and
fall. Whoever would believe
in Him would never be ashamed. To put it another way,
whoever would reject Him and refuse to
believe in Him would
go on to hell. That is where they were headed anyway. But
whoever would believe in Him and trust in
Him would be
saved.
They will never be ashamed of the fact that they have
trusted in Jesus. When they enter into heaven and enjoy
everlasting bliss they well be extremely
glad that they
trusted in Jesus. The same thing could be said of Gentiles.
So it is not that some will fall and then rise again.
The word, again, is not in the original
Scripture. Rather
some will fall because they have not
trusted Jesus and some
will rise because they have trusted in
Jesus.
VIII.
He prophecied of Trouble ahead for Jesus, V. 34
(V. 34), "...and for a sign which shall be spoken
against." Yet not everything in the future of Jesus and
in
the future of Mary is going to be all
sunshine, roses and
sweet music. Simeon warns that there is trouble ahead for
this little boy. Men would speak bitterly against Him. The
implication is that they would work
against Him.
The trouble would start even while He is a little baby.
While He is but a babe, there will be an
attempt on His life.
Herod will give an order to kill all the
male babies in the
vicinity of Bethlehem. All of those babies will be killed
just to try and make sure that this one
baby is killed.
The trouble would start again once He begins His
ministry.
The scribes and Pharisees would be His bitter
enemies.
They would be the chief spokesmen against Him.
They would continue their onslaught
against Him until even
the great masses of people are persuaded
to cry out against
Him.
The people would eventually shout to the top of their
voices and say, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
Crucify Him!"
Even now men still speak against Him.
They speak
against the Bible, but they are not really
against the Book
as much as they are against Him. They speak against His
church, but they are really against the
church as much as
they are against Him. They speak against His preachers, but
they are really against the preachers so
much as they are
against Him. They speak against all Christians, but it is
not really that they are against the
Christians as much as
they are against Him.
IX.
He prophecied that trouble was ahead for Mary,
V. 35
No, it's not all going to be easy as pie ahead for
Jesus.
But neither is it going to be all easy for Mary.
Simeon informed Mary that trouble and
sorrow was ahead even
for her.
V. 35, "(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own
soul also),..." Simeon was not talking about a literal
sword, of course. What he was talking about was the
emotional pain and sorrow that Mary would
experience when she
witnessed her son, Jesus crucified by an
angry mob. No,
Simeon was not talking about a literal
sword. But I believe
that it could not have been more painful
to her if a literal
sword had pierced her heart. This must have been the very
worst day of Mary's whole life.
By the way, did you notice that Simeon says nothing
whatsoever about Joseph experiencing this
pain. I wonder---I
just wonder if God through Simeon was not
trying to forewarn
Mary that Joseph would not be around to
help her in that
terrible hour. Joseph would, himself, be dead before the
crucifixion. Mary would not have Joseph to lean on. She was
going to have to lean entirely on God to
see her through this
trying experience.
I do think that God was trying to give Mary a special
forewarning at this time. She should remember what Simeon
had said and think upon it from time to
time down through the
years.
If she did, then I am sure that this forewarning
given when Jesus was but a babe made
things just a little bit
easier for her when the time of the
crucifixion should come.
But let us take a look at what he said and let us see if
we, too, cannot get some benefit from what
he said. First of
all, let us see that in order for Jesus to
be our Savior, He
had to suffer. Our personal guilt of sin had to be paid for.
We have sinned and come short of the glory
of God. We have
all sinned. God cannot just erase our sins. God cannot just
ignore that we have transgressed His
laws. The holiness of
God and the justice of God required that
our sins be dealt
with and that our sins be paid for. Sin requires punishment
and in order of Jesus to set us free from
that punishment He
had to take our punishment on Himself.
That is why Jesus went to the cross. That is why He
suffered there on the cross. That is why He shed His blood.
It was for us. Without the shedding of blood there is no
remission of sin and He shed His blood so
that we could go
free.
I said earlier that the words of Simeon were a
forewarning to Mary. I hope that you can also see that they
are a forewarning to you. God has sent a Savior to the
world.
He is the Savior for all the people of the world.
If you will repent of your sin and trust
in Jesus then Jesus
will save your soul. But if you will not repent of your sins
and trust in Jesus then you will
fall. You will fall into
the fires of the pits of hell. You will suffer in the fires
of hell forever and forever.
X. He prophecied
that Jesus is a revealer of the thoughts
of
the heart, V. 34
(V. 34), "...that the
thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed." The condition of one's heart is revealed by
what
he or she does with Jesus Christ. If one repents of his sin
and trust in Jesus Christ, this reveals a
heart that is
changed.
It reveals a heart that not against Jesus any more.
It reveals a heart that now is for
Jesus. It reveals a heart
that is born again and is prepared for
eternity.
But if one will not repent and trust in Jesus, then this
reveals a heart that is still steeped in
sin. It reveals a
wicked heart. It reveals a heart that is against God. It
reveals a heart that is unprepared to meet
God.
Conclusion:
Won't you put your faith and trust in Jesus as your
Savior right now? Won't you get your heart right with God
right not?