SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Phelps family.
SPEAKER_01: Great to have that time, and I pray you'll take some time during the week to pray over those scriptures and kind of follow that theme as we are preparing for Christmas and worshiping Jesus for coming as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're going to talk about today as we continue our theme, the joy of Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: There is something unique about this Christmas time because we really think about Jesus coming as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: But there is something that should happen in us.
SPEAKER_01: That joy should produce a response in all of us.
SPEAKER_01: In every one of the Christmas stories, including the one we'll look at in just a moment, you see people respond because of the joy of discovering that the Savior had come, and they can't help but express that joy to other people.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as we've seen in our Advent preparation this morning, and as we'll talk about in this next passage of Scripture, the joy of Christmas, that joy of salvation in us, should motivate us to tell others about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If we are excited about the fact that Jesus came to be the Savior, then it should drive us to share that with others.
SPEAKER_01: It should motivate us.
SPEAKER_01: That joy in us should explode out of us and just slosh out on other people all during this Christmas season.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to look at an interesting character in the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this particular guy is a really interesting guy.
SPEAKER_01: And most of what we know about him is really just in these few verses.
SPEAKER_01: But it speaks to us a lot about the joy of salvation that came because Jesus came for that purpose to provide salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the Bible says, Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: When the days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember that when they met with his parents, they gave them clear instructions about who Jesus would be and how to name him.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 22, when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
SPEAKER_01: There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
SPEAKER_01: This man was righteous and devout, and looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
SPEAKER_01: Now that phrase Israel's consolation is a term that comes out of Isaiah, and it is a prophecy of the salvation that God would send through the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: So very clearly, this man is looking for the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Then you receive that even more clearly in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: So he had gotten in his quiet time, in his time with the Lord, the Holy Spirit impressed on him, you will see the Messiah before you die.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's pretty profound revelation to someone right there.
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about the context of this, as Matt talked a little bit about last week, it had been over 400 years since God had officially spoken through the prophet in Malachi.
SPEAKER_01: And so here, all of this time, generation after generation after generation, they're going to the temple, they're doing Passover, they're doing sacrifices, they're trying to follow the law, they're training their children all the time looking for the Messiah, and yet he has not come.
SPEAKER_01: And yet here is a man named Simeon who gets a clear word from God, now it's time.
SPEAKER_01: He is going to come.
SPEAKER_01: And so he is waiting, and you can imagine what that does to someone when you get a word like that from the Lord, and you are focused and pursuing, and you are waiting, and you can imagine how it stirs his heart and his vision throughout the course of his life and what he's doing as he is looking for that Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in this moment, when they have brought Jesus as the baby to the temple, guided by the Holy Spirit, in other words, the Holy Spirit comes to Simeon and says, Son, it's time.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple complex.
SPEAKER_01: When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said, Now get this picture here.
SPEAKER_01: Simeon is not a priest.
SPEAKER_01: He's just a dude, right?
SPEAKER_01: So he's just a man who loves the Lord, following the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They come in, they have a very clear expectation about why they're there, what they're going to do, and some old guy comes running up and grabs their baby.
SPEAKER_01: Now you get this moment?
SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a powerful moment, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you think about like you walk into Walmart with your brand new baby or your grand new grandchild, and these people come running up, want to talk to your baby, and they're reaching over and they're trying to touch them and all that, and you're like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, this is that moment right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And Simeon takes Jesus up in his arms, praises God, and says, Now, Master, you can dismiss your slave in peace as you promised.
SPEAKER_01: For my eyes have seen your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory to your people Israel.
SPEAKER_01: His mother and father were amazed at what was being said about him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I mean, you can imagine that, right?
SPEAKER_01: This incredible moment.
SPEAKER_01: Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.
SPEAKER_01: And then he speaks to Mary, and he says, A sword will pierce your own soul.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes back to his thought, and to be a sign that will be opposed, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
SPEAKER_01: Now you just got to get this moment.
SPEAKER_01: This is mind-boggling to me that here we are, we're walking in in the temple, and this guy just comes running up in this exuberance and this excitement.
SPEAKER_01: Now you have to understand that excitement and what is driving Simeon.
SPEAKER_01: He has received a clear word from the Lord that he will not die until he sees the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And then he is waiting and he is waiting and he is praying and he is asking and he is watching for all this, and he's going back and exploring the scriptures, I'm sure, about the prophecies of the Messiah and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And here, all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit impresses him.
SPEAKER_01: Get up, we're going to the temple.
SPEAKER_01: It is time.
SPEAKER_01: He walks into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: He is looking, he is excited, he is anxious, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit draws his attention to this young family.
SPEAKER_01: And they are bringing in this baby.
SPEAKER_01: And he rushes over in excitement.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there was no excuse me or pardon me or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: He is this is the Messiah that God has promised and sent.
SPEAKER_01: And he rushes over and takes up this baby in his arms and pronounces this blessing over the baby.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen, this is more than just excitement about babies, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now, babies are exciting, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have a new appreciation of how exciting babies are.
SPEAKER_01: Like, let me show you the greatest baby child that you've ever seen in your life, right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you see his little t-shirt says, Don't make me use my lawyer voice.
SPEAKER_01: I heard his lawyer voice yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's good to know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you want your kids to get your best traits, and what he got from me was my lawyer voice.
SPEAKER_01: So we are having fun.
SPEAKER_01: It is so much fun.
SPEAKER_01: Is it not fun?
SPEAKER_01: What's been really fun is we've shown this picture, and I've had people this morning show me their brand new grandbabies, their brand new great-grandbabies, and all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody loves babies, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we're excited about babies.
SPEAKER_01: And it's especially wonderful when he does whatever he does in his diaper, and you can hand him back to his father, and he has to deal with it.
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Babies are awesome, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it is so much fun.
SPEAKER_01: We are having such a great time.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone loves babies.
SPEAKER_01: And even Christmas is involved with babies.
SPEAKER_01: You see angels, and half the time they make them look like a baby or whatever, which we know that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: That's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01: But everybody loves babies.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody loves that.
SPEAKER_01: And you see these major scenes and they major, they major on the baby Jesus and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, the nativity scenes never show him crying or making a dirty diaper or any of that kind of stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's never the things that are difficult about babies.
SPEAKER_01: We have this pristine, wonderful child because babies are wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, here's what's important Simeon was not moved and excited because he loved babies.
SPEAKER_01: It was not the fact that Jesus was a baby that got him excited.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't grab him and hug him so that he could feel his little fingers and toes and all of that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't about a baby, it was about a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Simeon was joyful because he recognized the truth that Jesus was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He recognized that in this moment, the process of accomplishing the promised salvation had begun.
SPEAKER_01: God had been faithful to his promise.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what stirred this incredible joy and exuberance in this man's life and his heart.
SPEAKER_01: That he would break all convention, he would risk offending these parents and everything else, that he would not be bothered with what spectacle he created in the courtyard of the temple as some strange man grabs a baby and parents react and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: He grabs this baby and out of his heart expresses this incredibly powerful pronouncement of joy.
SPEAKER_01: And he speaks these truths over Jesus, and these truths that he reveals that we'll look at in a moment, they should stir us to have the same joy that Simeon had when he saw Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And in the same way he was excited to speak in front of everyone and to make this prophetic pronouncement over the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We should have an exuberance and a joy that drives us to speak of the person of Jesus with freedom and with passion and with joy and with a clear truth of who Jesus is as our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I want to just highlight three truths that Simeon speaks of.
SPEAKER_01: And as we think about these three truths, I want you to see that they are flowing out of the joy in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Seeing God accomplish his promised salvation just explodes out of his heart and out of his life.
SPEAKER_01: First, I want you to see that Simeon was joyful because Jesus came as the Savior for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple complex.
SPEAKER_01: What the Holy Spirit has told him is, I am about to reveal to you the Messiah that I have promised.
SPEAKER_01: He understands and recognizes as a man who loves the Lord, as a Jewish man who understands the prophecies and has studied the scripture that the Messiah means this is the one who has come to accomplish salvation.
SPEAKER_01: This is the promised Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world that God has promised.
SPEAKER_01: And he sees the baby and explodes with joy, and he praises God, it says in verse 28, and says this.
SPEAKER_01: Now you can dismiss your slave in peace as you have promised, for my eyes have seen your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You have prepared in the presence of all people a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory to your people, Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He is very clear, and he is so impassioned that God has now provided a way of salvation for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: When you go to the book of Revelation and you see that moment where we are reunited with our Savior in heaven, the Bible says that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be there praising Jesus as the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: We are given this incredible understanding that God has create has provided a way of salvation for everyone to be forgiven of their sins, to be placed in the path that God has created for them from their birth.
SPEAKER_01: A opportunity to know the person of Jesus and walk with him because the barrier of sin has been removed from between them and God.
SPEAKER_01: They are now reunited in a relationship with him, and they can walk with him here, and they have the promise and hope of heaven for all of eternity, and that has happened because God made a way of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other means of forgiveness of sin, of healing all that sin has broken, or knowing that you understand what happens to you when you die.
SPEAKER_01: You have a testimony that when this body dies, I will be present with the Lord because of the salvation that only Jesus provides.
SPEAKER_01: Now you think about this.
SPEAKER_01: This man has been looking forward to this.
SPEAKER_01: He's been asking this question.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know at what time in his life the Holy Spirit spoke to him and told him this would come, but we do know he is a Jewish man living in that area.
SPEAKER_01: And so he has been raised as a Jewish man, being taught the things that Jewish boys and children are taught.
SPEAKER_01: He has been taught about the stories of creation and Adam and Eve and sin and we are separated from God in the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: He has been taught that from that first moment God promised to provide a means of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He has been taught the heritage of his people as they were established under the covenant promises with Abraham, and included in that promise is the promise of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They have learned and he has understood from a child as he has learned the story of when Abraham was led to take his son Isaac, who is a miraculously born child, as a foreshadowing of the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he knows the story of how Isaac would say, Father, what are we going to sacrifice?
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham would say, Son, God will provide a way.
SPEAKER_01: And he heard the story and he understood the story of how Abraham and Isaac went up into the mountain, and Isaac was laid there on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And as Adam raised that knife to sacrifice him to the Lord according to the instructions of the Lord, just as Adam's faith had told Isaac, God provided a ram in the woods, its horns caught in the thicket right there where they were.
SPEAKER_01: And they took that ram together and they sacrificed that as a picture of Jesus, who would be the miraculous provision as the God, as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He understood the story of the Passover, and he had been to Passover meals with his parents and with his family.
SPEAKER_01: And he had learned how God had built the picture of the provision of salvation into the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: And all throughout those experiences, every time his family would go and they would bring their sacrifices, every time they would understand that the Lamb was sacrificed by the high priest for the sins of the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He had always been taught that is a picture.
SPEAKER_01: One day God will provide a means of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: One day, our God Jehovah will do as he promised and provided this means of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And at some point in his life, the Holy Spirit speaks and says, It's now time.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: And Simeon, you will see the salvation of the Lord provided.
SPEAKER_01: We as a people should always be moved by just the fact that God has created salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Most everyone in this room is old enough.
SPEAKER_01: Most people watching on television today, you're old enough to know what sin is.
SPEAKER_01: You're old enough to have a conscience that has told you when you've done wrong.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have in our lives, if you've lived any amount of time at all, a regret and a guilt.
SPEAKER_01: And I wish I had done that, and I wish I hadn't done that.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone understands what that means at an existential human experience.
SPEAKER_01: And then to understand that God has provided a means of salvation to forgive us of those sins and to bury them in the bottom of the ocean, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: It says that when He saves us, it washes all of that stuff away from us and we become white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: The salvation of God, the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: Every people, every tongue, every tribe, every epoch of time, every people group everywhere on this planet has always lived with the existential question of what happens to us when we die.
SPEAKER_01: If you ever study anything in history, you understand that every people and culture that you study throughout all of time, all of them have rituals that were developed trying to answer the question of what happens to us when we die.
SPEAKER_01: It is a fundamental issue in life.
SPEAKER_01: And we walk through life in our modern culture and we try to avoid that and walk through it as much as we can, but on occasion, we have to deal with it with a friend or a family member.
SPEAKER_01: And in those moments, it should always remind us to be incredibly joyful of the fact that Jesus provided an answer to the question.
SPEAKER_01: He came to take away our sin and to give us eternal life so that in those moments we can approach them through faith in Jesus with an understanding that we will never be separated from God.
SPEAKER_01: It does not matter what happens to us, that we will always be in his presence because of the salvation that Jesus provides.
SPEAKER_01: Man, we should walk around with a never-ending joy regardless of whatever goes on.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the truth of it.
SPEAKER_01: If we know that those questions can be answered, the forgiveness of sin, the healing of what's broken, the answer to the question of eternity, how can we not exuberantly and joyfully share that message with everyone with whom we come in contact?
SPEAKER_01: It should drive us out of just an excitement to tell people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We should be thrilled.
SPEAKER_01: We have the answer.
SPEAKER_01: We have the answer that God has revealed to us in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want to remind you of a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: One thing that we are trying to build into our church life as a church family is that understanding of your love list.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a list of three people that you know that are lost.
SPEAKER_01: Just as this morning in our little advent time that we had.
SPEAKER_01: Where you were challenged to think of that name, allow the Holy Spirit to put a person's name on your heart that you know needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Man, most of us, a name on your love list should have popped up.
SPEAKER_01: All of us should have three people that we know are lost and need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we should be praying three things for them.
SPEAKER_01: We should be praying that they will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: We should be praying for an opportunity to share our testimony with them so we can share with them how to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And we should be praying for an opportunity to invite them to church and they come to church.
SPEAKER_01: To make that easy during the Christmas season, we have provided these little business-sized cards that you can use to invite someone to church.
SPEAKER_01: And on the back side and the front side, it talks about the joy of Christmas and the theme that we have, and on the back side it gives the details of our Christmas Eve candlelight service that we'll be having that morning during the morning worship time.
SPEAKER_01: It is an opportunity for you to invite someone to come to church with you.
SPEAKER_01: People are looking for an opportunity to come to church, you invite them to church.
SPEAKER_01: Pray over those three names and invite them to church.
SPEAKER_01: Why should I do that, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: Because you are excited that you know that God has provided salvation.
SPEAKER_01: The second truth that Simeon is excited about.
SPEAKER_01: He is joyful, not just because Jesus came to be the Savior, but he is joyful for the personal way that God revealed Jesus to him.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what this says.
SPEAKER_01: This is such an incredible story when you understand that here he is at some point in his life, as we've just described, God tells him, the Holy Spirit impresses on him, you will see Jesus before you die.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're gonna you will see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine what that does to you.
SPEAKER_01: All of that prophecy all comes together.
SPEAKER_01: All of that you've been taught your whole life.
SPEAKER_01: And after that moment, every time he goes to the temple, every time he prays, every time he goes and takes a sacrifice, every time those moments happen, those worship services happen, he knows I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna see the culmination of all that we're worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna see it come to life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna see those stories in Scripture fulfilled in real time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to see the Messiah because God has promised me that.
SPEAKER_01: And then you see how the Holy Spirit tells him to go to the temple and where to go.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit points out to him who Jesus is, who the Messiah is.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't know what he thought he was looking for, but I'm telling you, when he saw that baby Jesus, and the Holy Spirit pointed out to him, then he knew not because there was anything remarkable or wonderful about that baby, but because the Holy Spirit told him what was remarkable about the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then he expresses the joy over all that, and all of that comes from this heart of worship where he is praising God because God has shown him.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, creator of the universe, has intervened in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, this is a beautiful picture of what happened to you and me when we got saved.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know anybody who was smart enough and spiritual enough on their own that they just decided one day, you know, I have these existential questions in my life, and I'm just smart enough to figure out, well, there must be a God out there, and there must be a means of salvation, and this is sin, and this must be wrong, and I don't like that, and this is that, so I'm gonna go find it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna go out and explore all this, and I'm gonna find it.
SPEAKER_01: That is not how it happens.
SPEAKER_01: It happens when the Holy Spirit intervenes in your life and speaks to you and says, You need a Savior.
SPEAKER_01: You are a sinner, but Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: You are separated from me, but I love you, and I don't want to be in this condition of us separated, and I want you to meet Jesus, the means of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It is an incredible picture here to see.
SPEAKER_01: If you are watching on television or you're here and you've never given your life to Christ, you've never made that decision to follow Him as your Savior, God has orchestrated the moments in your life and put you right here so that you can hear the Holy Spirit and you can hear the word of God and the description of Jesus as Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He has done that in your life because he loves you and he is calling to you to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: For those of us who've accepted Christ as our Savior, take a moment and remember when you were saved.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what happened in your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Take some time this week and share your salvation testimony with someone and let it remind you of the miracle of what God did when he worked in your life and he told you that he loved you and he called you to himself, and you trusted him as your Savior, and you had that sense of salvation and peace and completeness and forgiveness, and you recognized that the person of God had intervened into your life.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I've shared my testimony before, and I want to do it again just to keep reminding you and stir you to share yours and to think about yours.
SPEAKER_01: When I was raised in our home, mom and dad were Christians, and not everybody's home or testimony is the same, and whatever your testimony is, it is special and it is unique, and it explains how Jesus intervened in your life as an individual.
SPEAKER_01: And in my life, growing up, my parents, and make it short, would tell us all the time, son, you lied to your mom, you disrespected your mom, you didn't clean your room, you didn't do what we asked you to do, you beat upon your little brother, he deserved it.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter, it was still wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't understand this yet, but that's called sin.
SPEAKER_01: And I have to punish you to help you understand what sin is.
SPEAKER_01: Because God will punish sin.
SPEAKER_01: But son, one day I want you to understand in the way that you're receiving punishment now, Jesus loved you so much that he stepped out of heaven and he died on the cross to take God's punishment for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And one day you'll be old enough to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: When I was a nine and a half-year-old boy in church on a Sunday morning, I was sitting in the balcony.
SPEAKER_01: There's my people.
SPEAKER_01: I was sitting in the balcony.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you what Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Rogers preached about.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you what the music was.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you any of that.
SPEAKER_01: But man, I can tell you when it got to the invitation time, and my pastor said, no one's ever loved you as much as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus took your punishment on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit showed up and he made all that make sense, and he made all those tumblers fall into place.
SPEAKER_01: And in my heart, I understood that Jesus loved me and that he died for me, and he took my punishment for my sin on himself on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And I walked down that aisle and I found Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Dewey Burton, who was one of the deacons in our church, one of my dad's friends, and I said, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Dewey, nobody ever loved me as much as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want to trust Jesus as my Savior because he paid the price for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I want my story to stir your story a little bit for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Right there, you you just think about and attach to when Jesus talked to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to take this story of Simeon right here.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke to him.
SPEAKER_01: God guided him.
SPEAKER_01: God showed him Jesus and stirred his faith.
SPEAKER_01: If that doesn't stir some joy in you, you need to spend some time in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: When you attach to that joy and God loved me this much, the personal love of God, what it means that he cares about you, that he intervenes in your life, what it means when all of those tumblers fall in place, and you think back to Scripture when it says that you were fearfully and wonderfully made before you were formed in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: God knew you and had a plan for you.
SPEAKER_01: And in all of that, he had designed the moment and designed the ways and designed the people who would bring the message of Jesus into your life, all the ways that he would share with you the gospel, all the ways that he would intervene and show you that he loved you, not the world, you.
SPEAKER_01: He loved you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died for you.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning, he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, in a moment, we're going to have an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But if you are saved, I want you to understand those people that you are grateful for that brought Jesus into your life, you are that person in someone else's life that needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the joy of what it means is that he loves you so personally.
SPEAKER_01: The people that you know, the people that you care about, you should share Jesus with them because you care about them and the joy that you have that Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_01: You want them to know that he loves them too.
SPEAKER_01: That person.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, he was joyous that God had provided salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He was joyful in how he had been introduced to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But man, I love this last statement.
SPEAKER_01: He was joyful because Jesus came to deal with the heart needs in people.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Rogers, my pastor where I grew up, used to say all the time when there's something in Scripture, you have to think, why is it there?
SPEAKER_01: Because God put it there on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of interesting in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: He expresses all this joy and he gives this pronouncement that Jesus is a revelation to the Gentiles and a glory to the people of Israel, and he's the salvation for all those people.
SPEAKER_01: Mary and Joseph were amazed, it says in verse 33, and then it says he blessed them, and then this doesn't really sound much like a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He blessed them, and then he told his Mother Mary, indeed, this child is destined to cause the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how's that a blessing?
SPEAKER_01: That's a little bit of a shock.
SPEAKER_01: Your baby's gonna grow up and people are gonna be against him, and there's gonna be all kinds of chaos that goes around him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, and oh, by the way, a sword will pierce your own soul.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that gets you excited about being a mom, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
SPEAKER_01: That's another way in this moment that we understand that Simeon knew exactly who Jesus would be, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He understood, based on his study of Scripture and his understanding of Isaiah and the prophecies about the Messiah, he had already quoted with the consolation of Israel phrase from Isaiah, and he understood that Isaiah also pronounced not just the birth of Jesus, but the death of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: He remembered where Isaiah said he will be beaten beyond recognition.
SPEAKER_01: The government will be upon his shoulders and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: He'll be oppressed, he'll be beaten, he'll be sacrificed, he is the Lamb of God, he will take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And he understood the magnitude of the ministry that Jesus would have.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't necessarily know he'd end up on a cross or whatever, but he may have because of all the crucifixions that he had seen throughout the course of his life.
SPEAKER_01: And the prophecy in Psalm 22, where David wrote an incredibly precise and specific song that described the medical death of a person on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever he knew, he understood that Jesus would be someone who separated people because of the truth of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: And because he came to deal with sin, he would reflect the sin in men's hearts.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that sin is why there must be a sacrifice, why salvation was, this picture of salvation was built on sacrifices to pay the price for sin.
SPEAKER_01: He understood all of that.
SPEAKER_01: He understood that Jesus came to deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in an incredible moment of spiritual wisdom, he understands and he warns them listen, when Jesus starts going out in holiness and righteousness and truth, and he starts explaining salvation to deal with the sin in men and women's lives, there's going to be opposition to that.
SPEAKER_01: There will be rejection.
SPEAKER_01: In order to be the Lamb of God, he must die to pay the price for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he will separate, and there will be reactions and there will be responses, some of them good as they see him as the Savior, and some of them negative as they reject who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: In every call to the gospel, what happens is this people react.
SPEAKER_01: When you share Jesus, you understand that people immediately begin to recoil.
SPEAKER_01: Because everyone who knows anything about the gospel or this story understands that now they're going to have a mirror applied to their heart and their sin is going to be pointed out.
SPEAKER_01: In love, because Jesus came to deal with that sin.
SPEAKER_01: He came to forgive that sin.
SPEAKER_01: He came to heal that broken heart.
SPEAKER_01: But yet that sin must be dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: Simeon was joyful because in confronting that sin, he knew that Jesus was the salvation to that sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is a powerful prophecy that connects Christmas and Easter.
SPEAKER_01: When he tells Mary, a sword will pierce your own soul.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, in that spiritual wisdom, the word of the Lord speaks through him, and he recognizes as a mother, you will watch this.
SPEAKER_01: And in hindsight, we can now look back at Mary at the foot of the cross, watching Jesus be sacrificed for her sin and ours.
SPEAKER_01: On the way to church this morning, I listened to the song Mary, did you know?
SPEAKER_01: And it's an incredible description of working through the truth that she would have to understand that her son came to save us and what he would go through.
SPEAKER_01: As we close this morning, I want you to know that Jesus died on the cross to deal with your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, here's the truth of Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He came to die because we all are sinners.
SPEAKER_01: And someone is going to pay the price for your sin, and someone is going to have to deal with your sin.
SPEAKER_01: You and I will pay the price for our sins if we do not trust Jesus as our Savior to do that for us.
SPEAKER_01: Again, my testimony.
SPEAKER_01: So many people in the room who know Jesus were reviewing their testimony as I was sharing mine, and all of us have the same testimony.
SPEAKER_01: We recognize that we were sinners and we recognize that Jesus stepped out of heaven just as Simeon acknowledged God had promised him to do.
SPEAKER_01: And he went to the cross and he took your sin and he died there on the cross to pay the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: No one can heal your broken heart and no one can forgive your sin but Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior and being confronted with that sin, know that Jesus does that so that he can call you to himself so that you can trust him as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I want to invite you to come in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bow your heads, and as we prepare for this moment, in a moment, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_01: God's people are going to stand and sing an invitation, and we're going to invite you to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching online or by television, we want to invite you right there in your home.
SPEAKER_01: Give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Just talk to him about forgiving your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him you believe that he paid the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: There's no magic in this, it is the spiritual reality and truth of what we've read in Scripture and how God speaks to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Respond to Him this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.