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Sermon for Christmas 1

Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

Although most of the world has moved on, it’s still Christmas today, the fifth day of Christmas, to be exact. It’s good to celebrate Christmas. It’s good to think of Jesus as a tiny baby, lying in a manger, surrounded by Mary and Joseph and the shepherds of Bethlehem. It’s good to sing Silent Night, and to think of baby Jesus sleeping in heavenly peace on the day He was born. The Lord God approves of such a celebration. He must, because He inspired the story of it to be recorded in Holy Scripture, which He wants us to read and hear and ponder. But He doesn’t want us to get “stuck” on Christmas, as many do. Even among those who actually celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas, many refuse to move on from it. Many are happy to think of Jesus as a baby lying in a manger, and that’s it. They don’t want to think too hard about the ramifications of Jesus’ birth, why He was born, what He would say and do, how His birth must have an effect on their lives. But God wants us to turn our thoughts from the Child’s birth to the Child’s future, as the Scriptures immediately do and as the calendar of the Church also does. In today’s Gospel, the Lord directs our attention to Simeon and Anna—two elderly, outstanding Old Testament saints who help us celebrate Christmas, without getting stuck on the manger, to celebrate Christmas while keeping an expectant eye on the future.

Our text begins, And Joseph and his mother were amazed at the things which were spoken about him. Let’s make sure we know the context. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. When He was 8 days old, He was circumcised, and now a month has passed since then. Jesus is 40 days old, still a little baby. Mary and Joseph have brought Him to the temple in Jerusalem for His presentation, and for Mary’s ceremonial purification after childbirth. An old, respected man in Jerusalem named Simeon has been directed by God the Holy Spirit to the temple on this same day and has been enabled by the Holy Spirit to recognize baby Jesus as the promised Christ. He has just taken the baby in his arms and has spoken the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis, praising God for allowing him to see the long-awaited Savior with his own eyes. We’ll talk more about all that in February when we celebrate the Festival of our Lord’s Presentation. For now, understand that it’s Simeon’s words in the Nunc Dimittis that have left Mary and Joseph in utter amazement.

But Simeon isn’t done talking to them yet. Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel,

Not a single one of us knows, when our children are born, what they’re appointed for. We may have hopes and dreams and aspirations for them, maybe some expectation of which opportunities they may or may not have. But God alone knows the plans He has for our future, and for that of our children. That was not true about Jesus. God had already revealed much about the coming Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures, not only the passages that are specifically Messianic but also all the prophecies about what God would do for Israel, and also for the Gentiles. All His plans, all His promises, and also all His judgments revolved around the coming of His Son into the world, and the impact that the Christ would have on the world. Simeon knows those Scriptures especially well. How does he sum up for Mary and Joseph the future that lay ahead?

This child is appointed for the fall…of many in Israel. Not the political fall. Not the physical fall. But the spiritual fall of many in Israel. Think of the high and mighty Pharisees and priests in Israel who fell from favor in the eyes of the people as Jesus revealed them for the hypocrites and frauds they were. Think of Judas, who fell from grace all the way down to betrayal and suicide. Think of all the people in Israel who fell away from the faith of Abraham, and from the inheritance promised to Abraham, by rejecting Jesus, the true Son of Abraham. Think of that whole people group known as the Jews, who were once God’s chosen people, but who have fallen from grace and have made themselves enemies of the Gospel of Christ.

But think, too, of all people who live in sin and impenitence, and in willful ignorance of the doctrine of Christ, refusing to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, refusing to listen to His Word. They’ve all fallen, and they will fall even harder when Christ comes again in judgment.

But, Simeon also says, This child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel. Think of the thieving tax collectors and sinners who encountered Jesus and were brought to repentance and faith, and who went on to live a new life of obedience to God. Think of Mary Magdalene, and of all who had already fallen, because of their sin, or who fell when they heard Jesus, but then, like the Apostle Paul, eventually found God’s forgiveness and salvation in Christ. Think of all those among the Jews and Gentiles who have been rescued from eternal condemnation and brought into God’s family by hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of that lay hidden in the future of the child that Simeon held.

He also says, This child is appointed…for a sign that will be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Already as an infant, Jesus’ future was clear. If He was the Christ, then the Old Testament foretold His future clearly: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. Or in the words of the prophet Isaiah, He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. The Christ was appointed for rejection, for being spoken against. Think of the Pharisees, constantly speaking against Him for “dishonoring the Sabbath Day,” or for working with Beelzebub, or for criticizing their godless traditions. Think of the crowds on Good Friday, demanding that Jesus be crucified, or the soldiers at the foot of the cross, mocking Him as He died.

Still today, Jesus is spoken against, more vehemently than at any time. Just last week I read the words of a woman who was musing about how much better the world might have been if Jesus had been aborted, or if Jesus had been killed as a little baby. The people who cry about “white supremacy” usually find a way to blame Jesus (or at least His Christians) for every bad thing that has ever happened in Western civilization. But there are other ways of speaking against Him. Every expression of belief in the theory of evolution is a denial of Jesus. Every prayer uttered to a saint is a “speaking against” Jesus as the one Mediator between God and man. Every suggestion that you don’t have to believe in Jesus in order to go to heaven, or that you don’t have to listen to Jesus in order to be a child of God—that’s speaking against Jesus, too.

Finally, Simeon, even as he celebrates Christmas, points Mary to the future of her Son, (yes, a sword will pierce your own soul, too). Speaking by the Holy Spirit, Simeon points her ahead to the terrible pain she would suffer one day, the pain of sitting at the foot of her Son’s cross, watching Him suffer and die.

In all these things, God used Simeon to point not only Mary and Joseph but you and me to the whole life of Christ, so that we can celebrate Christmas intelligently, so that we’re pondering who the baby was who once lay in a manger, and why He came, and how it will affect our lives.

Now, Simeon gets more of our time, because his words about Jesus are actually recorded for us. But we don’t want to neglect Anna, who was also a faithful child of God whom the Lord used to keep our eyes on the future of the baby named Jesus.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well-advanced in years and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and was a widow of about eighty-four years, who never left the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

The fact that Luke is able to give us so many details about Anna speaks to how highly regarded she was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ birth. And with good reason! She had spent over five decades of her life, ever since her husband died, basically living in the temple in Jerusalem, fasting, praying, meditating on the temple ministry and its significance, and surely also interacting with the priests and with the Jews who came regularly to the temple. She had devoted her whole life to God’s service, and God had a special reward for her for her faithfulness.

She came at that very moment and gave thanks to the Lord and spoke about him to all those in Jerusalem who were looking for redemption. It was no accident that Anna showed up at just that moment, or that she was able to recognize Jesus for who He was. Whether she learned it from Simeon or by direct revelation from God, she knew. And she celebrated Christmas! She celebrated the birth and the arrival of Jesus. She gave thanks to God, and she also made sure to tell others in Jerusalem about Him.

And what did she tell them, exactly? Not about how cute the baby was, or about the wondrous circumstances of His birth. No, Luke tells us what her message was. She spoke about Him to “all those who were looking for redemption.” Redemption is one of those big words in the Bible. It means “purchase.” It also means a radical rescue from a dire situation. Redemption is what God did when He brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. It’s what He promised to do through the coming Christ, saying through the prophet Isaiah, The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the LORD. It’s what St. Paul was talking about in today’s Epistle: When we were children, were enslaved under the principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. This is the word that Anna so faithfully spread to all in Jerusalem who would listen, to all who worshiped the God of Israel, not for tradition’s sake, not to fulfill some obligation, but because they trusted in God to send the Redeemer, to rescue them from their sins and to make them acceptable to God. “Christ, the Redeemer, has come!”

Yes, Christ, the Redeemer, has come! Don’t stop celebrating His birth, especially while we remain in the Christmas season. But, as you celebrate, keep an eye on the future of that baby, why He came, what He would accomplish, how it affects your life to believe in Him. That child is your Redeemer. That child is your Lord, and your King. He didn’t come to make your life easy. He came to give you life, and life to the fullest, because without Him you are dead. But with Him as your Redeemer, you have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and a future of your own as a beloved child of God. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas

Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

On Monday, we celebrated the fact of Christ’s birth and the identity of the Child who lay in the manger. In today’s Epistle, we learn the reason why Christ was born. As St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, Christ was born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law. He was born of a woman, just like everyone in the world. And He was born under law, just like everyone in the world. Jews, at that time, were still under the Law of Moses. But everyone in the world since the beginning of creation is born under the moral law, under God’s requirement that we should be righteous and behave righteously, and with the threat of eternal condemnation for being unrighteous and for living unrighteously. In other words, Christ was born just as everyone is born, born as one of us men—why? To redeem those who were under law. To redeem us, because no man in history, except for Jesus, has lived righteously under God’s law, so we needed to be redeemed, rescued, saved from the condemnation that God’s law threatens against sinful men. We were born enemies of God and slaves to sin. But Christ was born the Son of God and the Son of Man, free from sin, in order to redeem us from sin, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Believers in Christ already know this. It’s the reason why we rejoice at Christmas time, no matter what the other circumstances of your life may be, because we have been included in Christ’s redemption through faith and have received the adoption of sons. Unbelievers still need to be told the reason why Christ was born, that they, too, may come into the light of Christ by faith and be saved.

Now, what do you do with this knowledge? You spend your life seeking and serving the Christ who was born to save. What does it look like for a son of God, or a daughter of God, to spend his or her life seeking Christ and serving Christ? We have an example before us in today’s Gospel: two Old Testament saints, Simeon and Anna, who had spent their long lives seeking the coming Christ and serving Him while they waited.

First, we meet Simeon in the Temple, 40 days after Jesus’ birth. We know the timing, because Luke tells us the holy family was visiting the temple that day for Mary’s ceremonial purification and for Jesus’ presentation as the firstborn son, according to Old Testament law, 40 days after his birth. In the verses before our text, Luke tells us that old Simeon had been “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” The Old Testament prophecies about the timing of the Christ’s birth were all pointing to about this time. All the signs were in place, including a ruler in Judea—King Herod—who was not of the tribe of Judah (or an Israelite at all, for that matter). There were rumors floating around the area about shepherds in nearby Bethlehem who had recently told an incredible story about the birth of a very special Child. And Luke tells us that Simeon was somehow informed by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Christ before he died—God’s gracious reward to him for a long life of seeking and serving. When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus entered the Temple that day, Simeon recognized Jesus and rejoiced at seeing Him, prompting him to speak the words which we know as the Song of Simeon, that is, the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon gave thanks to God and told Him, I’m ready to go now, ready to depart in peace, because the Lord had fulfilled His Word. He had allowed Simeon to see the promised Messiah, the Savior sent from God for all people, the Light who would enlighten the Gentiles and bring glory to the people of Israel.

That’s where our Gospel begins. It says that Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken about Him. Mary and Joseph knew that the baby they had brought to the temple was special. But clearly they didn’t fully grasp all the Old Testament prophecies that their Son would fulfill, nor did they expect strangers like Simeon to recognize Jesus for who He was.

But Simeon had more to say: He blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined to cause the fall and rising of many in Israel. Christ was, as the Prophet Isaiah had said, a sanctuary for some—a hiding place, a place of refuge. But also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken. Many in Israel—and many outside of Israel, too—would stumble and fall, later on, over Jesus’ claim to be the world’s only Savior, His claim to be able to forgive sins, His claim to be sent from God and to be God. They would stumble over His humility and over His suffering and over His refusal to set up an earthly kingdom. They would stumble over the cross, and they would stumble over the resurrection. Those who stumbled over Him fell into everlasting death. But those who found a sanctuary in Him from God’s wrath and from the righteous condemnation of the Law—tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners of every kind—Jesus would cause them to rise up from death to life, from being alienated from God to the adoption of sons. All of that lay in the future of the little baby lying in Simeon’s arms.

Destined to be a sign which will be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. No mother wants to consider that her little baby will one day be hated, mocked, ridiculed, and slandered. But Simeon informed Mary that all such things were in the future for her little baby, and it’s still going on to this day. Jesus would be then and still is now spoken against, both as He reveals sin, which people don’t want to be revealed, and as He claims to be the Lord and Savior of all, which people don’t want to believe. And so the thoughts of people’s hearts are revealed: that they are and remain the devil’s children.

Finally, Simeon warned Mary, a sword will pierce through your own soul, too. What pierces through a mother’s soul more sharply than when her dear child suffers, or worse yet, is tortured and killed? As Mary sat there, thirty-three years later, at the foot of Jesus’ cross, one wonders if she thought of Simeon at that moment and of his terrible prophecy. What was the point of it? Why tell her this now, when her Son is still just a baby? Well, it prepared Mary for the kind of life her Son would lead. What’s more, it was God being utterly truthful and up-front with her, as He has also been with us, that seeking Him and serving Him will not mean a peaceful, comfortable life on earth, for you or for your children, but a life of being hated by the world, even as Christ was hated, and a life of bearing shame and the cross in His name.

All that was taught to Mary and Joseph and to us by the elderly believer Simeon.

Then in our Gospel we meet Anna, a prophetess, and apparently a very well-known one. She was an old woman—either an 84-year-old widow or a roughly 105-year-old woman who had been a widow for 84 years (it’s hard to tell from the wording in the text). The point is, she was very old and had been a widow for many decades. For seven years of her young life she had lived as a dutiful wife, probably into her early twenties. But from her mid-to-latetwenties on, she spent her life, not chasing after men, not dwelling on her loneliness, not engaging in worldly activities, but never departing from the temple, serving God with fastings and prayers night and day. (That doesn’t sound like what young ladies are expected to do today, does it?) At some point she had become a prophetess, chosen by God to reveal God’s Word to Israel, apparently right there in the Temple in Jerusalem, urging people to look forward to the redemption that the Christ would soon bring.

Then she, too, was rewarded for her many decades of faithful service to the Lord. The baby who is God arrives at the Temple to meet her, and, like Simeon, she recognizes Him. She gave thanks to the Lord, and then she spoke of the Child to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. All those decades serving the Lord day and night in His Temple—imagine the people Anna knew, the regular attendees at the sacrifices, the ones who had believed the Lord’s promises to Israel about redemption through the Christ, not from earthly slavery and oppression, but from sin, death, and the devil. To them she was now able to say, “Christ, the promised Redeemer, has been born! And His name is Jesus!”

So what do we learn from Simeon and Anna? We learn a few important things about Jesus Himself: His identity as the promised Christ, His future suffering and its purpose: for the redemption of all people, both Jews and Gentiles. In addition, we learn how to live a long life of seeking and serving the Lord, a long life of faithfulness, of devotion, of studying and clinging to God’s Word, a long life of trusting in His promises; a long life of waiting for the Christ to be revealed (they the first time, we the second time), never giving up hope, never abandoning God’s service, even if the world around us has abandoned it. We learn to keep praying, to keep attending the Divine Service, not as an occasional practice, but as a lifelong, regular habit. We learn to speak the Word of Christ to the people we know, to tell them of the redemption He’s already won, of the redemption He has yet to bring, and of the urgency of seeking Him now in this time of grace. And we learn to give thanks to God for revealing His salvation to us in Christ, whether early or late in life.

What a wonderful example to take with us into the new year! And if you spend the new year seeking Christ in His Church and eagerly waiting for His coming, if you spend the new year serving the Lord in all these ways, you will be rewarded, too, just as Simeon and Anna were, whether your life is long or short. You’ll be rewarded with a strengthened faith, with the strength to meet each new challenge that the year will bring. And, like Simeon and Anna, you’ll get to meet Jesus in person one day, not in terror with the rest of the world, but in thankfulness and joy, to take part in His glorious and eternal redemption. Amen.

Source: Sermons