Sermon Tone Analysis

*God here, but I didn’t know it!*

It is good to be out here again, for what might well be the last time for the year.

We come out at the end of the month and it seems that we miss out on coming in December as things wind down for Christmas~/New Year.

So I thought I’d take a look at a bit of the Christmas story tonight – it’s a bit early but they’ve been advertising it in the shops for weeks already.

But first I want to tell the story of a couple of rather insignificant people – I like stories of ordinary people.

Often we hear of the heroes, the mighty, the brave, the skillful, the super-intellects; the people with power and influence who have changed our world.

I like the stories of ordinary people – because that is what I am.

Someone said God must love the poor because He made so many of them.

I reckon the same is true of the ordinary – that is what most of us are.

We are not going to be prime-minister, be well known – most of us just get on with the business of living – we are not out to make and shake the world.

These two were ordinary people, furthermore they were old – and don’t we overlook the elderly?

– their time of significance is over, they are just finishing out their days.

One was a man and the other was a woman.

Both were ordinary but both were godly.

They loved the LORD and had been faithful to Him all their life long.

The man was a good man, he feared God.

He had read God’s Word and took seriously the promises that were written in it.

He was a Jew and his people had suffered – at present they were under military occupation.

Here they were supposed to be God’s special people but they were down-trodden and oppressed.

But he wasn’t despondent because God had promised that He would send a deliverer, a King would come who would restore the nation of Israel and rule it with justice and righteousness.

Evil would not always have the upper hand.

The Messiah was coming!

– God had promised it in His Word.

This old man believed – everything looked to the contrary but he believed that what God said was true.

He held to the promise and he held God to His promise.

And God spoke to him!

He heard from God and God assured him, that old as he was he would see this Messiah with his very own eyes before his days on earth were over!

This had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.

He may have been old, he may have just been an ordinary person but God’s Spirit spoke to him.

Just as He can to ordinary people like you and me.

In fact He seems to delight in ordinary people.

This old man was godly and in the habit of going to the temple to pray and worship his God.

God had told him that the fulfillment of His great promise was imminent – within his life-time!

As I said, this man heard from the Holy Spirit, was sensitive to the Spirit, and Spirit prompted him to go to the temple – so he went.

He came into the temple – the temple was a busy place, not like church where you sit down for a meeting and listen to someone speak.

There were people coming and going, sacrifices being made.

And there happened to come a husband and wife with their 1 month old baby to offer a sacrifice.

This was routine – every woman had to offer a sacrifice after child birth, for ritual cleansing.

Of course many women had babies so every day there would be women coming in to have this ceremony performed.

This was no special or unusual thing – but this man knew that this day there was something special about this family and in particular about this baby.

He took the baby into his arms and gave a prophetic utterance over this child.

He knew it was the One!

The long promised One, the Messiah, the One that God had told him that he would see before he died.

How did he know?! It was just a one month old baby – and despite medieval paintings to the contrary, He did not have some golden halo hovering above His head!

Simeon saw this baby and recognized that it was the Messiah, God’s promised Deliverer!

This was God Himself!

God had come and was born as a baby.

God appeared as man on earth!

In human form!

Staggering!

Amazing!

There he was holding God Himself in human form in his arms!

This is the Son of God!

The One who was there from the beginning with God – not one thing was made without Him!

The One who has dwelt from eternity past in glory – the One who is God!

This is what John said of Him: [*John 1:1-4* /In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

From the very beginning the Word was with God.

Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without Him.

The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to humanity/.]

*Philippians 2:6* says: /He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God/.

*Colossians 1:15-17* says: /Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God.

He is the firstborn Son, superior to all created things.

For through Him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities.

God created the whole universe through Him and for Him.

Christ existed before all things, and in union with Him all things have their proper place/.

*Hebrews 1:2-3** *says: /In these last days he has spoken to us through His Son.

He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end.

He reflects the brightness of God’s glory and is the exact likeness of God’s own being, sustaining the universe with His powerful word./

Jesus Himself said: “/I and the Father are one/” Make no doubt, this was God! Right there in their midst!

This is totally amazing!

We have got used to the Christmas story – but what actually took place blows the mind!

God actually living as part of His creation, as a human being!

But who, that day recognized Him? Who saw that this tiny baby was God?

This old man had an inkling.

So too did an old lady.

She too heard from God – she was a prophet.

She was totally devoted to God – she never left the temple – day and night she was there worshipping God.

Tragically her husband died only a few years after they were married – ever since then she spent her time in the temple, delighting to be in the presence of God.

She was now 84 years old.

Funny thing, she too turned up exactly at the time that this family arrived at the temple.

She gave thanks to God – He had given what He had promised.

She told other people who were also waiting for this hope.

Let’s read the account of this story: [*Luke 2:22-38* /The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded.

So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male is to be dedicated to the Lord.”

They also went to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the law of the Lord.

At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem.

He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved.

The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah.

Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple.

When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God: “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.

With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at the things Simeon said about him.

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel.

He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against and so reveal their secret thoughts.

And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart.”

There was a very old prophet, a widow named Anna, daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She had been married for only seven years and was now 84 years old.

She never left the Temple; day and night she worshipped God, fasting and praying.

That very same hour she arrived and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were waiting for God to set Jerusalem free./

] But look! – here was God and only two old and insignificant people recognized who He was.