The Long-Expected Jesus

Sermon Transcript

Many of you, I trust, recently celebrated Christmas, and also derived a good deal of joy from doing so. Kids, perhaps you received some new toys you’re enjoying. It’s a common lament of parents by now, though, that some of the toys they bought their children have already been permanently consigned to the toy bin. What seemed so life-giving once the wrapping paper was off and the box was opened is now of little interest just a week or so later. As you get older, you tend to learn that material things, while nice, don’t satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. What does, though? In the passage on which we are focusing today, we are going to encounter characters with longing hearts, and two in particular, one a man named Simeon, the other a woman named Anna. And in this passage both of them will encounter something, or rather someone, that so satisfies their longing hearts that it leads them to sing and tell of him to others. In this passage they will see Jesus, at about a month old, and realize that he is the one for whom they long. As one hymn puts it, he is the joy of their longing hearts, and they show us that Jesus is the joy of every longing heart. He consoles the longing heart, he reveals the longings of the heart, and he redeems the longing heart.

 

He consoles the longing heart

 

Our passage today begins with Jesus’ parents bringing him to the temple in Jerusalem in accordance with the law of Moses, and there were two reasons the law of Moses compelled them to do so: First, a woman after giving birth was ceremonially unclean, and had to offer sacrifice for her purification. Second, God claimed every firstborn child as his own, and Jesus was the firstborn son of Mary and Joseph. So they came to dedicate him to the Lord’s service. As a brief aside, sometimes modern Baptist churches that practice child dedications will appeal to this text for support, but if this text were the grounding for the practice of child dedications, only firstborn children should be dedicated, and women should also be bringing a pair of turtledoves and pigeons to sacrifice at the temple for their purification. Thankfully I’m not aware of any church that does that, because all Christian churches recognize that with the coming of Christ, we are no longer under the Law of Moses, as it’s called here, and therefore we should be content with the ceremonies of baptism and the Lord’s Supper that Jesus has given us under the New Covenant, rather than selectively altering the ceremonies Moses gave Israel under the Old Covenant.

 

Nonetheless, Jesus was born under the law of Moses, the law the Lord gave through Moses, and we see the phrase “The law of Moses” or “the law of the Lord” repeated three times in these first three verses of our passage. Luke is emphasizing to us that all this happened exactly according to the law of the Lord. In the verse just before this passage, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, also in accordance with the law of Moses. The reason we are no longer under the law of Moses is because Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf by his perfect obedience to it, and here we can see that even in his infancy, all happened according to the law of the Lord. Recall that Jesus, the eternal son of God, is himself the Lord who gave this law in the first place. What love, what mercy is there in Jesus that he who gave the law would come for those who broke his law and willingly put himself under that law for their sake? Though we are no longer under the ceremonies of Moses, the moral essence of the law, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, is a law of which we still fall so far short, but part of the reason Jesus is the joy of every longing heart is because he is the perfect righteousness for which our hearts long.

 

His presentation at the temple, though, is mostly the setting for the two main scenes of this passage, the first of which begins in verse 25 when Luke introduces us to a man named Simeon, who was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Simeon wasn’t a priest or a ruler in Israel; he was just an ordinary, righteous Israelite, and his basic posture in life was of one who was waiting for something, something this passage calls the consolation of Israel. For the past 500 years or so, Israel had been under the rule of foreign powers, beginning with the time they were defeated by the mighty nation of Babylon when God sent Babylon in judgment on them because of their sins. But around that time God also sent prophets, one of whom, Isaiah, received this commission from God: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2). That word there for comfort is the same word that’s translated here consolation. So we could just as easily translate Isaiah 40:1 as saying, “Console, console my people,” and the consolation is their return from exile, the end of their warfare, and the forgiveness of their sins. Their consolation is to return to their home together, enjoy their kingdom, live at peace, and be reconciled to their God.

 

Brothers and sisters, aren’t these the same things for which our heart longs? To arrive at our heavenly home, to be together with one another and with our brothers and sisters from every tribe and language and people and nation, to live under the authority of the kingdom of God alone, for wars to cease, for sin to be no more, and to be forever with our Lord, seeing him face to face? For how long are you willing to wait for it? That consolation is nearer to us now than when we first believed, but we are still waiting for it. To belong to God’s people in the present age is to belong to a waiting people, but when we get impatient, these longings of our hearts easily get snuffed out.

 

One way they can get snuffed out is by getting misdirected. We get tired of waiting for the true consolation of Israel, and so we settle for lesser consolations: Money, sensual pleasures, entertainment. These things offer a quicker consolation, no doubt, but also a shallower one, and one that doesn’t actually satisfy the longings of our heart. Where do you turn when looking for consolation? Or we may give up the hope of consolation, and instead give ourselves to concerns of this world alone: Work, health, family. If there is no consolation coming, might as well make the best of this life, and in America the vision we’re generally being sold is early retirement giving way to a life of leisure, a kind of pseudo-heaven filled with the things God made rather than with God himself.

 

But here we meet Simeon, a man righteous and devout, who after hundreds of years since the Lord promised consolation to Israel, was still patiently waiting for it. To him the Holy Spirit revealed, verse 26 tells us, that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Amid all the consolation Isaiah promised, he also talked a lot about a certain “servant of the Lord,” a person, through whom this consolation would come, and this servant was said to be anointed for his task (Isaiah 61:1-30. Christ comes from the Greek word christos, which means, “anointed one.” So when the Spirit tells Simeon he won’t see death before he sees the Lord’s Christ, he means he won’t see death until he sees that promised servant of the Lord, that anointed one, through whom consolation would come to Israel.

 

And we, as readers of Luke’s Gospel, already know who that anointed one, that Christ, that servant of the Lord is, don’t we? I mean, this story even began with Jesus being presented to the Lord for his service. And on that day, the day that Mary and Joseph happened to be presenting him to the Lord at the temple, the Spirit led Simeon into the temple, and when Simeon saw Jesus, Simeon knew: This is the one. This is the consolation of Israel for whom I’ve been waiting, this is the Lord’s Christ, this is the one who will fulfill the longings of my heart. So of course, he rejoices. He takes the child up in his arms, he blesses God, and look at what he says of him: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

 

The Lord told him by his Spirt that he wouldn’t see death before he saw the Lord’s Christ, and now he’s seen him! At this point Jesus is still just a baby, but when Simeon sees him, he says in verse 30 that his eyes have seen the Lord’s salvation that he has prepared in the presence of all peoples. This child didn’t come out of nowhere. This was the long-expected savior, the one God promised to send to bring consolation to Israel, the servant of the Lord. And so now, Simeon says, he can depart in peace. This child was the joy of his longing heart. But he wasn’t just the joy of his longing heart, because look at what he says next in verse 32: He says this child is a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

 

The Gentiles was just a catch-all term for non-Jewish peoples, which is most of us in this room today, and which means that this salvation, this consolation, is not just for the Jews, but for all the peoples of the earth. To all who long for the kingdom of God, Jesus is the joy of that longing heart, and so if you get him, you too can depart in peace. He’s no longer a 1-month-old baby; the end of our passage even begins to describe his ongoing development. He’s no longer on earth, even, to be seen by human eyes the way Simeon saw him, but he is now risen and ascended into heaven, and offers himself to any who will turn from their sins and believe in him, that they might then depart in peace. Apart from him, you can never really depart in peace. Your heart will keep looking for something to fill it as you go from hobby to hobby, relationship to relationship, experience to experience.

 

And as you face the reality of death, you can never have any solid assurance of good beyond it apart from Jesus. If you’re here today and you aren’t yet a Christian, perhaps when you consider death you hope for some continuation of consciousness, perhaps you’ve resigned yourself to a total loss of it, or perhaps you believe there is a God, and you’re hopeful that he will judge you on the basis of your best motives. But none of these guesses really enable you to depart in peace. It’s only when you face reality head on, the reality that there is a real God who you and I haven’t loved with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, who has every right to condemn us, but who has provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ for all the nations of the earth, and you receive Jesus as the salvation God has provided, that you can depart in real peace, knowing that just as he died and now lives, you too, though you die, will live forever with him.

 

Now, who wouldn’t want that? What heart doesn’t long for these things? Well, in what Simeon says next, we will find that there will be plenty who don’t want this, whose hearts don’t quite long for the consolation Jesus offers. Next we’ll see that Jesus not only consoles the longing heart; he also reveals the longings of the heart.

 

He reveals the longings of the heart

 

After hearing Simeon say these things, verse 33 tells us that Joseph and Mary marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary in particular, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword that will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Now again, this is the child who is the consolation of Israel, this is the child who is the salvation that God has prepared as a light of revelation to the Gentiles and glory for his people Israel, so why would he be appointed not only for the rising, but for the fall, of many in Israel? And why would he be appointed for a sign that is opposed? Why would anyone oppose consolation? Why would anyone oppose salvation?

 

Well, as it turns out, not every heart longs for this consolation, and not every heart longs for this salvation. Jesus here is presented as bringing a sword that will pierce souls in such a way that what is really in our hearts will be revealed. Simeon says that even Mary will be tested in this way, and we’ll see that testing begin in the next passage when it becomes clear that Jesus’ ultimate allegiance is to God, and not to her. But the point is that Jesus himself, because he is the consolation of Israel and the salvation God has prepared, reveals whether people actually want that consolation and that salvation. Those who do will receive him and rise with him—that’s what Simeon is doing now. But those who do not, no matter how Israelite they may be, no matter how high they are now, whether priests or kings or prophets, they will oppose him, and fall into condemnation as a result of him.

 

So let’s get back into this idea of the longings of the heart and the consolation God promised. The consolation promised was a return to our home, to be together forever again, to be at peace, to live in a prosperous kingdom, and to be reconciled to our God. Now again, what heart doesn’t long for that? Well, there is a problem in our hearts actually, a problem we inherited from our first parents, that obscures these longings. Under the dominion of sin, we will long for a home, a people to be together with, a cessation of wars and conflicts, and prosperity, but we want it all without God at the center. Under sin we want the blessings, but not the blesser, the gifts, but not the giver, the new creation, but not the creator.

 

So C.S. Lewis once said that the man who goes to the brothel is looking for God, and he meant by that the man has been created with a longing for God in his heart, and he’s looking for some way to satisfy it. That’s true as far as it goes, but there’s another important sense in which we must say that the man going to the brothel is going precisely because he is looking for anything but God, and doing everything he can to fulfill the longings of his heart without having to turn to God for that fulfillment. So I could tell you, and some false teachers will tell you, that if you just receive Jesus, he will give you all the longings of your heart: A home, a family, prosperity, peace, and again, there’s an element of truth to that: These were all promised as the consolation of Israel, but they were promised as blessings of the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom in which God is still at the center, and in which he himself is still our greatest blessing. And furthermore, all who receive Christ will still be waiting for the full realization of those blessings.

 

So if what your heart is still stuck on is the home, the family, the prosperity, the peace, and not God, then you simply won’t receive the real Jesus. Most fundamentally, the real Jesus came to bring you to God, and if you don’t want God, you won’t want him. To the contrary, you’ll oppose him, and that’s why many in Israel did end up opposing Jesus. But receive him for his sake, receive his salvation so that you can be restored to God himself, and you will find that he is himself the joy of every longing heart. The home into which he will bring you is not the nostalgic comfort of your hometown; it’s something better: The heavenly home for which you were created, in which righteousness dwells. The family which he will gather you together with is not the family into which you were born, but something better: A family made up of people from every tribe and language and nation, united by a far deeper bond than marriage or birth, and a far deeper love than the natural love we feel toward our families. The peace which he gives is not merely the end of the war in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, or any war possibly coming to this nation. It’s a better peace: The reconciliation, and love of people from those nations united in Christ, cleansed of their sin, never to fight again. The prosperity will not just be a load of money in your bank account, or the house of your dreams—it will be a world in which no savings are necessary, because there is no more poverty, no more sickness, no more hunger. It will be a world in which even spending is not necessary, because the greatest desire of our hearts will be ours: God himself, at the center of his kingdom.

 

That’s the consolation Jesus came to bring; that’s the salvation Jesus came to give, and that’s precisely why many oppose him. It reveals that in their heart, they want God’s blessings more than they want God the blesser. And in this life, they may obtain some material blessings, and they may rise in this world, but that will be their only consolation. If you are here today and you are not a Christian, can’t you see how all that will eventually run out? Don’t you feel how it fails to satisfy even now? What will it profit you to gain all that, and in the end face God’s judgment? Oppose Christ, and you will fall, but receive Christ, and you will rise. Brothers and sisters, how are you doing waiting for God’s promised blessings? I’m not talking about waiting another year until God gets you that house or prospers your business. I’m talking about waiting for the return of Christ, the only time when our consolation will be complete. Do you still feel like you need to check a lot of items off your bucket list before you can depart in peace, or do you look at Jesus and say, “Yes; there he is. He’s the joy of my longing heart. As long as I have him, I can depart in peace”? If you can’t say that, if you still feel like you need to accomplish certain goals on earth or obtain certain things on earth before you can have real peace, here’s a simple question to consider before the Lord: What does that reveal about what your heart is really longing for? That’s a question to talk about over lunch today—tell a brother or sister what you feel like you need, and ask them to help you identify what it reveals about your longings.

 

Those who long for God and his kingdom, those who are waiting for the real consolation of Israel that God actually promised…they receive Jesus. Those who just want the blessings of the kingdom, but not the king…they oppose him. Jesus reveals the longings of the heart. And, finally, he redeems the longing heart.

 

He redeems the longing heart

 

After Simeon finishes his speech to Mary, the scene shifts to a prophetess named Anna. We’re told that she was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. The original language is a bit confusing there—it could mean she’s 84 now, or that she had lived as a widow for 84 years, which would put her in her early 100s. In either case, she’s what we might call a senior saint, and she’s lived most of her life now as a widow. Widows had the option to remarry in the Bible, and younger widows were even encouraged to do so (Rom 7:2-3, 1 Tim 5:14). Nonetheless, remaining in a state of singleness is also held out as a good option to the unmarried and widows because of the greater flexibility it gives for service to the Lord. Thus Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, “The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.” Now he is clear elsewhere in that same chapter that if you still have a sex drive that tempts you to sin, it is better for you to marry than remain single (1 Cor 7:9), and that’s why he elsewhere encourages younger widows to marry (1 Tim 5:11-14).

 

Anna apparently did not burn with passion, though, and so she opted to remain single once she was widowed, and had remained in that state for decades by the time we encounter her in this passage. And what did she do with the increased flexibility that single life provided her? She did what we saw Paul describing: She was anxious about the things of the Lord. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. If you remember back to Luke chapter 1, we read there of how Zechariah went into the temple to burn incense, and how at that time the whole multitude of the people were praying outside. There were two times per day the Lord ordained for that to happen along with the offering of the burnt offering, and probably what this description of Anna is saying is that she was among those multitudes both morning and evening, day in and day out…for decades. She’s the sister who’s at pre-service prayer, at the worship gathering, at the evening prayer service, week-in and week-out, or even day-in and day-out, in her case. And on most of the days, she didn’t see Jesus. In fact, this was the only day on which that happened, and still, she kept coming back, she kept fasting, and she kept praying, night and day. Why? Because she too had not given up waiting for the consolation of Israel.

 

I’m reminded of Holly Lankford, mother of Mark, one of the brothers here who died at the age of 67 earlier this year of a stroke. You know what she was doing when the stroke occurred? She was at the evening service of Trinity Presbyterian Church, which she faithfully attended along with the morning service week-in and week-out for decades of her life, worshiping the Lord and praying with the saints. That’s part of what it looks like for us to wait, brothers and sisters: We persevere with worship, prayer, and fasting, continuing in prayer as Jesus taught us to pray: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Come, Lord Jesus. The worship God has ordained under the New Covenant is not the burning of incense at a temple, morning and evening, every day. It is simpler, requiring only the weekly gathering of churches on Sundays, and leaving other times for worship, prayer, and fasting to churches and individual Christians to order according to their varying circumstances. Many churches have found it wise to begin and end the Lord’s Day with worship gatherings, and we are seeking to slowly incorporate that wisdom by holding evening services 7 times this year. That’s a lot less than 52 times, but it’s a lot more than zero. Many Christians also find it helpful to begin and end every day with prayer. If you have a family or roommates, it’s often helpful to spend at least one of those prayer times with them. And if you don’t have a family or roommates, having people to pray with regularly would be a good reason to get some.

 

A number of you here today are single, whether by choice or by providence, and I hope you’ll see here the incredible opportunity you have to devote time to worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. Anna had seven years of marriage, and when it ended, she remained single and enjoyed the privilege of devoting herself to worship with fasting and prayer night and day! I understand that singleness can be hard especially when it is not chosen and I don’t want to minimize that, but I also don’t want you to miss the opportunities singleness provides. There are other kinds of hardship that are also genuine hardships, but that may provide unique opportunities to serve the Lord. A season of joblessness comes to mind. Married people with kids and jobs are no less responsible to make time to worship the Lord in the assembly of his people and to pray, but if you find you have time already that you don’t have to spend working for your boss or keeping a child alive, do you see how much time you could give to worshiping the Lord with fasting and prayer?

 

I mentioned Mark’s mom; another senior saint that comes to mind is named Edie Shrock, who I got the privilege of knowing from the church in which my wife grew up: New Danville Mennonite Church. Edie was a widow when I met her, and on the rare occasions my wife and I would get to worship with the saints at New Danville, Edie always made it a point to track down Lorielle, to tell her of ways she was praying for her, and to get updates so she could pray for her better in the future. If you have the flexibility, what if you just committed a certain amount of time, say even a half hour or an hour, each morning and evening, to prayer? You’d still have 23 or 22 hours left in the day if you did that, and do you really think you’d get to the end of your life, look back, and wish you’d spent less time worshiping the Lord with fasting and prayer? Members here get a members’ directory mainly as a prayer guide—you could create a document, and tabulate on it ways you’re praying for each member as you work through it. Then when you come to church, you’re tracking people down and updating your list. Or you’re calling them during the week to learn ways to pray for them. You could pray for an unreached people group each day of the week, you could pray for governing officials one day, kids of the city another day, the elders and deacons of your church another day, unbelieving neighbors another day, you could use the Westminster larger catechism’s treatment of the Lord’s Prayer and just pray through an article each day…the possibilities are endless. We use a 7-page document in our pre-service prayer meetings based on the Lord’s prayer to get ideas for prayer, and there are so many more that aren’t on that document!

 

Anna was exemplary in this regard, and on this day, as she came up at that same hour that Simeon held Jesus in his arms, she too began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. She’s not bitter about 84 years of widowhood, she’s not looking for the blessings of God more than the blesser. Instead, she sees the blesser now, the ultimate blessing, the consolation of Israel himself, and she gives thanks to God. Jesus was the joy of her longing heart too. And what does that joy and thanksgiving tend to do? It tends to overflow. So we read that she also spoke of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. If you find you struggle to speak of him, go back to giving thanks for him. Remember, and ask others to remind you, why it is that he is the joy of every longing heart, and telling others will tend to overflow.

 

Those she tells here are described as those who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem, which probably refers to those who were gathered with her morning and evening at the hour of incense to offer prayer. She’s a prophetess, and so she tells the others what the Lord revealed to her: That that baby, that 1-month-old baby, is the salvation that the Lord has prepared for all the peoples of the earth. Here rather than describing them as waiting for the consolation of Israel, Luke describes them as waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem, which is basically just another way of saying the same thing, but the added word does help color what kind of consolation they were waiting for: Their consolation required redemption. Their consolation was redemption. You might console someone who is merely hurting, but you redeem someone who is a slave—that’s what that word meant in the Bible: To buy someone back from captivity. Israel and the Gentiles, all God’s people, didn’t just need consolation in their suffering; they needed redemption from their sins, and so do we.

 

Don’t you long for that, brothers and sisters? To be free from all the petty pride that always seems to find its way back into our hearts, to be free from the anger that so often comes out of our mouths before we even realize it, to be free from the wandering eyes, the anxiety over money, and the unbelief that eclipses the glory of Jesus from our sight? To be free also from the sufferings, the opposition, and the burdens of the present age? Our hearts long for redemption, and Jesus redeems the longing heart. That’s what the prophetess Anna wanted those waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem to hear that day, and that’s what the Lord wants you to hear today.

 

And so our passage ends with one more scene: When they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to their hometown of Nazareth, and there the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Though Simeon saw the salvation of the Lord that he had prepared on that day in the 1-month-old child, that child would have to grow further to accomplish that salvation. He would go from here to continue to do all things required in the law, to continue to grow in strength and wisdom, and the favor of God would never depart from him until he went to the cross, to pay the price for our redemption. The only way to redeem us from our slavery to sin and death would be for him to go through sin and death as the sinless substitute on our behalf. Having lived his whole life according to the Law of the Lord, he had no sins of his own for which to die, but he died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people, to redeem those whose hearts so often long for the wrong things, so that we could be set free from sin’s power and penalty, and brought back to the one for whom we were made. And though he went as low as the grave, the Lord raised him up, free from all sin and death, so that now in him is all the consolation, salvation, and redemption we need. He is the one Simeon and Anna had waited for, he is the one all those waiting for the consolation and redemption of Israel waited for, and he is the only one who can fulfill the longings of the human heart.

 

Our longings are fallen, so that we often long for the wrong things—the creation, rather than the creator, his blessings, without the blesser, the gifts, without the giver. But Jesus is able to change us, to reorder our longings back toward our creator, and then to satisfy them. Receive him today, rejoice in him, and wait patiently, in lives of righteousness and devotion, with fasting and prayer, for him to come again. He is Israel’s strength and consolation, the hope of all the earth. He is the dear desire of every nation, and the joy of every longing heart.