All Signs Point to Jesus

Text: Luke 2:22-40

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Sometimes the things most difficult to see are the things that are staring us right in the face. I’ll admit that I’ve been looking for certain things and run around like a madman trying to find them and then return to a place I’ve looked a dozen times and there they are sitting right out in the open. Which is why I can’t place too much blame on the kids for the things they miss when sweeping the dining room floor. Even though they seem glaring to me.

And then there’s those 3-D hidden pictures. When you first look at it, it’s just a bunch of dots, usually blue and red or maybe some lines on a page that make no sense at all. But the more you stare, as your eyes begin to water and you begin to go cross-eyed, a picture starts to emerge, and it looks as if there’s a 3-D image of an elephant or sailboat right in front of you. Sure, it’s covered in blue and red dots, but it clearly looks like the shape of a sailboat. The image was right in front of you all the time, but at first it wasn’t easy to recognize.

Sometimes even more difficult to recognize is a sign of what God’s doing right in front of you. There’s nothing wrong with the sign. God put it right there in front of you. And at this joyous time of the year, we can surely guess what the chief sign is.

ALL SIGNS POINT US TO JESUS – IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US

The problem is, on our own, we often can’t recognize what that sign means for us. What’s more, when people do see it, many don’t want to.

Being able to see what God is doing and how he fulfills his promises isn’t an easy thing, but God’s Word teaches us that it’s not really contingent on us. You don’t have to go cross-eyed to see it. The recognition happens through and because of God’s Holy Spirit.

Simeon was given a simple but powerful promise that he would see the Christ before he dies. It would be really easy to get caught up right there and think, “Wow, God, why don’t you give me that promise? Wouldn’t it be great to see Jesus coming again just like Simeon saw Jesus the first time around before he died?” Let’s not get caught up in that though, because this wasn’t a blanket promise to God’s people; this was a very specific promise to one individual in time. Simeon alone was given this promise of seeing the Christ in the person of Jesus before he died, and God fulfilled his promise. But the thing to note here is that Simeon recognized it: “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. 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, he took him up in his arms and blessed God”

Before we get into what Simeon said, did you catch that? The reason Simeon recognized this sign that God was fulfilling in Jesus was because he “came in the Spirit.” I don’t think we can fully describe what that must have looked or felt like, but we do know that in some way, Simeon was connected with the Holy Spirit. He was described in v 25 as “righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”

Is that where you reside? In the Holy Spirit? Whether you believe it and whether it feels like it or not, the answer is Yes! In Christ, we’re given the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to be our Comforter, to be our Counselor, to be the One who walks with us daily. God gave you His Holy Spirit at your baptism. Every time you hear the Word of God proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is active, working in your heart, opening your eyes. At the Lord’s Table, it’s the Holy Spirit who assures you Christ’s body and blood really do give you forgiveness and eternal life.

Simeon didn’t have the Holy Spirit because he was righteous and devout. But Simeon was righteous and devout because he had the Holy Spirit. Simeon responded to the Holy Spirit’s presence through a life of listening, responding, and recognizing God’s works through the Holy Spirit. He listened to God’s Word and listened to the Holy Spirit as it moved him to go to the temple that day. He responded to the Spirit’s prompting by going and doing what the Spirit said. And he recognized what God was doing because the Holy Spirit revealed it to him.

And here’s what he says in response to this revelation. “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 Spirit revealed his action and work in Jesus Christ to Simeon. And that revelation opened Simeon’s eyes and his heart, allowing him to respond in faithfulness, obedience, and devotion. That’s an important distinction. It’s God’s work and action that always comes before our response. God has revealed this sign of Jesus to us, his Spirit has worked this faith in us, and we respond with thanks and praise in a way similar to Simeon.

But sometimes God’s action doesn’t provoke such a positive response. Where Simeon responds with this amazing praise to God, so that even Mary and Joseph marvel, Simeon points out that Jesus is salvation to some but to others He can be a stumbling block. “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’”

The apostle Paul later saw this as well—that Jesus is the source of salvation, but some would respond like Simeon, while others would not. Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” That’s the Pauls and Simeons, and hopefully you and me, but Paul goes on to say, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, [while] to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Whenever the truth is preached, some will believe, and some won’t. Even when the same sign from God is right there in front of them.

When some see this sign from God, Jesus Christ in the flesh, Christ crucified, Jesus resurrected from the dead, some will respond with disbelief, disgust, skepticism, and scoffing. You and I might not understand why some people are hesitant to believe after hearing what God has done for them. Maybe it’s the way we’re presenting the message. Maybe we’re not stating it as clearly as we think we are. Maybe we’re not responding to the message with that same conviction Simeon had that would make others believe what we say, because we might not believe it ourselves. But no matter what the cause is, the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection are stumbling blocks to people. And it’s largely because it makes us pause and take a look at our own sin.

When we see such a great work that God has done for us, we come to realize that we can’t save ourselves. It’s God’s work and action that does this. It takes the control out of our hands. It takes the power of salvation out of our abilities. It brings us to a point where we have to admit that we can’t do it, we can’t save ourselves, and we stand in need of God. We get to a point of dependence on him, and it hurts a little. It’s not easy to admit that you’re wrong or that you need someone else, especially God.

But Simeon’s point speaks perfectly to this. You don’t have to do this on your own. It’s okay to be dependent on God. That’s how he designed it all along. Even in the Garden of Eden when everything was perfect, it was perfect because Adam and Eve rested in God and relied on him to provide and take care of them. It’s once they turned toward themselves, thinking that they could find wisdom in their own thoughts and knowledge, that things got all messed up. But the Gospel, the message that Simeon proclaimed, pointed back to God’s salvation and work in Jesus. Not only did Adam and Eve’s salvation come in Jesus, but their daily sustenance, their daily walk, their daily leading, counseling, consolation, and redemption came from Jesus through his Holy Spirit.

It’s easy to get caught up in searching for signs and looking for God to give us explicit instructions in what to do next, what job to take, what girl or guy to date and marry, and how we’re going to get through the next month or week financially. It’s also easy to miss the signs that are right in front of our faces. But in all these things God is giving us this assurance that He is here providing for us daily. We needn’t look to anything or anyone else for this. So, rest in Him. Know that you do have the Holy Spirit so that you can recognize what God is doing right in front of you. See that the sign you need more than anything has already been given and fulfilled in Immanuel, God with us. Hear his calling and His prompting, and respond to His goodness by resting and being dependent on Him. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.