Good morning, I can't think of a better hymn to go along with what I'm seeking to do this morning, which is consider the expectation that the people had of the coming Messiah and what they were hoping for. So I want you to take your copy of the word of God with me and go to Luke chapter two. 

And we're actually going to We're gonna do this out of chronological order if you're looking at the storyline of the Gospel of Luke, because the text I wanna look at comes after the Lord is born. You say, but the way we're celebrating, he's not born until next week. You should talk about that next week. We will talk about that next week. 

But I wanna look at the words of Simeon in Luke chapter two. So I'm gonna consider verses 25 through 32, and we're gonna use this as a bit of a point of reference to look back at the people's messianic hope. And we'll spend a fair bit of time sort of cherry picking verses out of the last half of Isaiah because this Christmas season is where we anticipate the Lord's coming. sort of rehearse what the people would have been feeling in their anticipation of the coming of the Lord. 

And Simeon's words, when Christ is presented to the temple in order for the ceremonial cleansing of the newborn baby and his mother, And Simeon is there and what he says about the Lord tells us a lot about what the people were hoping for. And it's really helpful for us. because Christmas comes around and it's been passed down in the church calendar. There's nothing in scripture that commands us to observe Christmastime. Some people have taken that to mean we shouldn't observe it. That's not my persuasion, as you could tell. 

But it's a useful yearly reminder for us to think about what we're hoping in and what we're hoping for. And that hymn, one of my favorites that we just sang, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, it's just chock full of scripture and Old Testament doctrine of looking for the coming of the Messiah, or the coming of Christ, as that word means. 

So, turn with me to Luke chapter two, verses 25 to 32, and we're going to see Four aspects of the expectation of the Messiah. Four aspects of the expectation of the Messiah. There's probably more aspects of a messianic hope, a messianic expectation that we could consider, but this text gives us four that I want to consider. And I'll just give them to you right now, and then I'll read these verses, and I'll give them to you as we go along. So if you're taking notes, don't feel pressed right now, but here's what they're gonna be. 

One is the consolation or comfort of Israel. That'll be verses 25 and 26. 
Second will be the Lord's salvation, verses 27 through 31. 
Third will be the light to the Gentiles, in the first part of verse 32. And lastly, number four will be the glory of Israel. And that'll be the last part of verse 32. 

Let me read these verses for us, starting in verse 25. There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. 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 carry out for him the custom of the law, then he took him into his arms and blessed God and said, now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people, Israel. 

Before we go through this, please bow with me for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, We praise you that you sent your son, the Lord Jesus, to be the Christ. And we praise you for his birth. We praise you for his work. We praise you for his resurrection, his exaltation, and for his continued work now as he sits at your right hand and as he is before you interceding for us on our behalf. I pray, Lord, that you would Equip us in his name that we might worship him and worship you rightly in considering this text. Equip us by your spirit unto that end. In Christ's name we pray, amen. 

So four aspects of the expectation of the Messiah and the expectation of Christ. Those are just the Hebrew word is Messiah. The Greek word is Christ. Both of them mean the anointed one or the chosen one, the one appointed by God to be the savior of the world and who would accomplish the work of God in bringing about the Well, the end of all things, the justification of his people, the one who would be the means by which the Lord would return to his people Israel, the one who would bring the kingdom into being, who would judge all the wicked. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. 

What were the people hoping for? We'll look at verse 25 and 26. You're going to see first the way it's phrased here is the consolation of Israel or the comfort of Israel. It's the Greek word perikletos and it means comfort or comforter. or even advocate, and it's used in a couple different ways throughout Scripture, but here it's used really as an allusion back to the Old Testament, where the Lord is promising for his people comfort. 

You say comfort for what? Or comfort in light of what? And we'll just jump around a little bit. If you will, you can look at the first two verses of Isaiah 40. We'll be returning to Luke 2, so maybe put a bookmark there. But in Isaiah 40, verses one and two, The Lord says this, and just to give you the breakdown of Isaiah, it's in two parts, chapters one through 39 are the first part, and a lot of that is Isaiah speaking and bringing the word of the Lord in a historical context. He'll be talking to Isaiah, or he'll be talking to the kings of Israel. And there's bits in there that look at future messianic kingdom, that look at the future coming Messiah. In chapter nine, you have chapter seven, and then chapter nine, you have the famous, his name shall be called, or in the words of the Messiah, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. So you have those messianic moments in the first part of Isaiah, but from chapter 40 and on, it really looks at the coming of this servant, who we know of as the Messiah, who will save his people. 

And you say, save them from what? And in the next, in a few points from here, and just later on the sermon, we'll consider exactly what it is that salvation is for. But these chapters all have reference back to this coming one, this coming servant. And what does the Lord say here in chapter 40, verses one and two? Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem. Call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed. that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And if you look at the next verse, which is not talking about comfort, but is talking about preparing the way for the Lord to come, you'll recognize that this is, the New Testament locates the fulfillment of this prophecy with the coming of the Lord Jesus. A voice is calling. clear the way of the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

And John the Baptist is the messenger, the herald that comes before the Lord Jesus, whose ministry goes away when the Lord Jesus' ministry begins. His whole purpose is to prepare the people to meet the Messiah.

And the New Testament writers apply verse three of Isaiah 40 to John the Baptist, which would then help us understand that how is this comfort coming? What is this consolation that the people are looking for? Well, it comes in the form of the, or comes with the Messiah. That's more clear in other chapters. If you look at chapter 49 of Isaiah, You'll see this quite clearly, and we could read this whole chapter and see it very clearly. But I'll highlight for you, we'll be returning to these same chapters too again and again as we go through, but I'll highlight to you verse 13, where he says, shout for joy, O heavens, rejoice, O earth, break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people. and he will have compassion on his afflicted.

This chapter is talking about this coming servant. You see that in verse three. He said to me, if you have a New American Standard Bible, it'll capitalize the me because it's the servant who's speaking here. So the Lord speaks to him. We know the servant is the son of God. You are my servant, Israel. He names him Israel, Jesus Christ has represented his people and lived as Israel ought to have. In whom I will show my glory. But I said, I've toiled in vain, I've spent my strength for nothing of vanity, yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord and my reward with my God.

And now says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him. When you look at this whole context, you see that the hope that's connected to this coming servant, the comfort that's expected, the consolation of Israel that's expected is the ministry of the Messiah to bring Israel back to God.

You see this in chapter 51, verse three. Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places, and her wilderness he will make like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of melody. And here goes on a very similar theme as you would keep reading.

The Lord, that here's the expectation, the Lord will send his servant, his anointed one, who will come to comfort his people. And that comfort will take the form of bringing the people back to the Lord and establishing them as the covenant people that they were supposed to be. the fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant by giving them the land and returning this land to the blessing that was expected if they obeyed in the Old Testament. but that they didn't see except for little snippets throughout their history because of their, on account of their sin.

This will become even more clear as we move on, but you'll see what characterized this comfort and consolation. Well, in 51 verse three, it's restoration of the land, bringing the land back to Eden-like conditions, which is restoration of the people as well. In chapter 40, verse one and two, it's removing Israel's sins. And in chapter 49, verses one to 13, It's bringing Israel back as the covenant nation it was supposed to be under this servant, this Messiah, this son of David,

 if we were to put the rest of scripture together, the rest of the Old Testament together and say, who is this Messiah going to be? He's going to be a son of David, of David's line. So Simeon, he's waiting for this coming servant who will be the means that the Lord uses to comfort his people. He was looking for the consolation of Israel. 

There's a lesson here for us. We don't expect the first coming, or you could say the first phase of the coming of the Lord. He came 2,000 years ago, but we look for the fulfillment. of all things. We look for the kingdom to come. We look for the Lord to come and rescue us from the wrath to come and then to deliver the wrath upon the wicked to return to his people Israel and save his elect and to judge the wicked and to establish his kingdom. over this whole world from Jerusalem over the whole world. That's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for the Lord to appear. 

One of my favorite hymns lately, and I've been singing it as a Christmas hymn, even though it's really about a second coming, but so is Joy to the World. It's, lo, he comes with clouds descending. And there's a line in there that says, every eye, it says we'll see him coming or we'll then behold him, I think is the term. Every eye will then behold him. He's coming. That's what we're looking for, is the appearing of the Lord. 

There's a lesson in how Simeon, a righteous and devout man, is behaving in his day. He's looking for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting for the Lord to act and to send this servant. This is helpful for today because in our current day, there are I don't want to exaggerate, but there are a huge number of calls to action that come at us, even every day. You just flip on the news or you hop on any social media site and you'll get the message that the world is falling apart. Everybody is destroying everybody else. And in order to stop it, you need to, and really it's insert anything here, whether it's sending money or sharing the video or the blog article with somebody else, or even if it's just existing in a state of perpetual anxiety. That's what we're told to do. 

Simeon, a righteous and devout man, was depending upon not what he was doing, but what the Lord would soon do in sending this servant to be the consolation of Israel, the comforter. There's a huge lesson for us, a huge encouragement for us. Maybe a rebuke, but certainly an encouragement. 

Let's look at the second thing here is that the Lord was sending, and the hope of the people was the Lord sending his salvation, the Lord providing his salvation. You see this when Simeon comes to the temple and he's been led there by the Spirit, and he'd been told that he would see the Lord's Christ, that he then comes and he beholds the child Jesus, and he takes him, and he blesses the Lord and says, in verse 29 here, now Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. 

This is another way of looking at the same text that we considered, which is this, the Messiah, this servant is coming to bring salvation. And it's even salvation personified in the Lord Jesus himself. that when Simeon picks up this little child and looks at him, he says, this is salvation. I'm seeing salvation here in this child. He said, well, he hadn't accomplished his work of salvation. He hadn't done anything. He wasn't even old enough to choose to do good and choose not to do evil. He's just a little 40 day old little baby. What is this salvation?

This is another problem for us is that salvation is such a common church word that it's one of those words we read past and just skip over without really considering what does it mean? What is it? It is salvation, it's being saved from what? For what? You say salvation for whom? Who's being saved?

Salvation was a rescuing from sin and its consequences. You'll see this if you were to read any of the commentaries or the Old Testament theologies. You see that so often times they'll remind you that salvation was expected not just for not just in a spiritual sense, which is how we usually think about it, that salvation from sin period, but connected to that was a restoration of the kingdom of Israel. That's what they were hoping for. They were hoping for a king to sit on David's throne, not just one who would deal with their iniquities. And that was so politicized at the time of the Lord's birth and at the time of his ministry that they really weren't thinking about being saved from their sins. They were thinking more about being saved from Roman oppression. That was the dominant way of thinking was that there would be a Messiah to come who would free us from these Gentiles who've conquered us and would restore us back to the glory that we used to have.

When we look through the Old Testament, it's sin that the Messiah is providing salvation for, but also its consequences. Why do I emphasize that? Because they were a conquered people who were under the oppression of foreign nations for this reason. They'd sinned and violated God's law, violated his covenant. The reason that they went to exile, the Northern Kingdom to Assyria, the Southern Kingdom to Babylon, and even when they came back, the Southern Kingdom and then some of the tribes of the Northern Kingdom came back and rebuilt the city and rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the wall, even when that happened, they weren't all of a sudden free of Gentile oppression. They did it under the rule of the empire that they were now just a vassal state in.

But all of the Messianic prophecies Maybe all is too strong. If you look at the messianic prophecies, you see it's not just iniquities that are being promised as to be dealt with by the Messiah. It's not just their sin that will be dealt with. It is that they will be restored. And so we shouldn't necessarily disregard the political hope they had because of their overemphasis on it. But we should recognize that the hope they had of a return to being a nation under a Davidic king that God was blessing was promised and it's a desire that they had, an expectation they had for the consequences of their sins in the past to be dealt with and to be removed.

So what is this servant going to do Well, you'll see this, that in chapter 42, he's gonna rule over Israel and all the earth. In chapter 42, verses one to four especially, I'll read this. Behold, my servant, is the Lord speaking, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law.

This coming servant is going to be not just a world ruler, the world ruler.

In chapter 51, verses four to eight, and we were just in chapter 51, but go there again, of Isaiah, he says, pay attention to me, O my people, give ear to me, O my nation, for a law will go forth from me. I will set my justice for a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth. My arms will judge the peoples, the coastlands will wait for me, and for my arm they will wait expectantly.

Lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath, for the sky will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, its inhabitants will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not wane.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the grub will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.

And look at chapter 53, and we'll see this. How is it that this coming Messiah will rule over the whole world and over Israel as the covenant people of God, and even the nations, which we'll see here in the next phrase, next part of Simeon's blessing, that even the nations will look to this servant and will see the light of the Lord. And obviously the implication here and the meaning here is that the nations will also be saved.

How is that possible? Well, also because of the work of the Messiah, and I want you to see both that he's dealing with sin and its consequences.

In chapter 53, I'm gonna read the whole chapter, so bear with me.

Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty. This is about that servant that's coming, remember this. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. For he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living? For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence. nor was there any deceit in his mouth. 

But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great. He will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. 

The coming Messiah is going to provide salvation for the people by dealing with their sin. And any national political kingdom hope is going to be accomplished because those are the consequences of their sin, of their being removed from being the kingdom of God, will be dealt with and the Lord will return to them because he will deal with their sin. That is the salvation that Simeon and the other righteous and devout people at the time were looking for. They were looking for this coming servant who would provide salvation, who would be the means of salvation for all the people. 

You notice that in Isaiah 53, verse 12, on account of the work of bearing the sins of his people, it says in the first phrase, therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong. That sounds an awful lot like Philippians chapter two, where the apostle Paul, in considering the work of the Lord Jesus, says, that on account of the Lord Jesus's humiliation, which is his coming, his incarnations, coming as a man, and then bearing the sins of many and providing perfect righteousness, for His people, His humiliation, which was being obedient to the Lord to the point of going to die on the cross, because that was the mission that He came to accomplish for His people. That was what the Father had given Him to do. 

It says in Philippians 2, verse 9, for this reason also, God highly exalted Him. and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

The Lord Jesus came as Israel's Messiah, as the Christ, and he came to accomplish their salvation. And the people were hoping in this coming servant who would come and fully accomplish their salvation and remove from them the consequences of their sins, which even included their present circumstances that they found themselves in under Gentile rule. 

Notice that the Lord Jesus, the servant came to fully accomplish his people's salvation. He also comes, this is number three, as the light of the Gentiles. This is an allusion to Old Testament theology, and we've already read a few places that have a phrase very similar to this. But the Messiah was not promised in the Old Testament as only being the people of Israel's savior. He's the savior of the whole world. And let me just skip around and read a couple verses for you. And you'll see that this is just the witness of the Old Testament. These are all from Isaiah as well. 

Isaiah 9, verses one and two says, there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish in earlier times. He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea. On the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. The Lord Jesus fulfilled that when after his temptation, he went and lived in Capernaum in Galilee near the Gentiles. And there was a Gentile region and he was the, minister to the people there. And he's also the savior of the Gentiles.

In chapter 42 of Isaiah, verse six, he says, I am the Lord. I've called you in righteousness. This is him talking to the servant. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, that's Israel, as a light to the nations. That's Isaiah. the Gentile nations, those who are not Israel.

In chapter 49, verse 6, He says, is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel? I will also make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

In chapter 51, verse four. We read this one just a few minutes ago, where he says that he will set his justice for a light of the peoples. And in chapter 60, verses one to three, arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you. And he's speaking to Jerusalem here. And his glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light. and kings to the brightness of your rising.

The glorification of Jerusalem will be even to the salvation of the whole world, and that will happen under the rule and reign of Christ our Lord. So salvation from sin and its consequences is not just located for Israel. This is really good news for you and me because We, at least I'm speaking for myself here, and I think most of us, are outside the people of Israel. And yet the Lord promised to send his savior, this suffering servant, through the people of Israel, for Israel, and for the whole world. No one is excluded from the offer.

You can say it this way. This is how men like Thomas Boston in church history would say it. They would say that Christ is your Savior. He's in the office of Savior right now. There's nobody else who occupies that office. In the same way that you might have a Surgeon General. over the whole nation or over the state. And you'd say, well, he is my surgeon. You might not ever call upon his services, but nevertheless, he exists in the office for you. The Lord Jesus is in the office of savior for you. There's nothing that will exclude you from coming to him for faith as the Messiah.

The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 15 says that Christ came for two reasons. He came to fulfill all the promises that were given to the fathers, and that's the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons. And he came to, so that the Gentiles would glorify God for his mercy. And the Apostle Paul then quotes from every major section of the Bible, from the law, from the prophets, and from the writings, in order to show that it was always been the plan of God to save all people, everybody who will come to him. It's not, you are not ethnically restricted. from coming to God. Salvation is available to all.

Finally, the Lord Jesus comes as the glory of Israel. I think we can understand this in two ways, which is this, that Israel has a great privilege in that the Messiah comes from her. Israel has a great privilege. To her was given God's law. To her was given David, Moses, to her was given the Messiah.

I also think this, that it's not just that Israel has a great privilege and so can be considered glorious, but that she has Christ reigning over her as her king. And therefore, he is in a sense the glory of Israel personified.

Let me just read you just a couple of quick passages in Micah 5, verse 2. If I can get there. It says, and you'll recognize this verse, as for you Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. "'cause goings forth are from long ago, "'from the days of eternity.'"

You know, Bethlehem, this little town near Jerusalem, within the tribal limits of Judah, is where David was from, and it's not really much to consider, but yet the Lord has chosen that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago from the days of eternity. And so you see he's this eternal Lord who's going to come from Bethlehem as well.

What could be more, what could be a greater privilege for Israel than to be chosen to receive the word of God, the prophets of God, the Messiah of God? the savior of the world.

In Isaiah 61, I won't read the whole thing, but it makes the point, and this is what the first few verses, or first two verses are what the Lord reads when he's in the synagogue, and that's recorded in Luke chapter four, I believe, where he says, he asked for the scroll of Isaiah to be given to him, and he sits down, and he opens it, and he reads it, and he says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus is the glory of Israel, and Israel could receive no greater privilege or could be considered no more glorious than to have the Lord Jesus as their savior.

These are four expectations of the coming of the Messiah. Let me just read them to you one more time. They were looking for the comfort or the consolation of Israel. They were looking for the salvation of the Lord. They were looking for the light to the Gentiles. and they were looking for the glory of Israel. These are what your Lord, Jesus, is and accomplished.

We don't see the fulfillment of the kingdom right now, but know for certain, Christ Jesus is the Lord. He's the savior of the world.

Next week, We'll look at his birth properly and we'll see everything that is proclaimed about him at that time and we'll glory in the reality that God was faithful to his promises and the hope that he had given in the Old Testament, the hope that he'd given to the world, to Israel properly considered, he provided. in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is your Lord and mine. And he fully accomplished the salvation of his people. And he is calling you. to be among his people. He stands ready to forgive you as the Messiah, the Christ, who fully accomplished the will of his Father in providing justification for sins for all those who will call upon him for forgiveness. And he is coming to judge the living and the dead. This is our Lord.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we praise you for our Lord. We praise you that he came, that he ministered, that he died, that he rose victorious over the grave. We praise you that he's coming. we ask that he would come quickly, and until then, Lord, teach us to be like Simeon, and like the righteous and devout of the time, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, like Joseph and Mary, and the others who aren't even mentioned, like Anna, the prophetess, who longed for the coming of the Lord, and who eagerly, eagerly looked for it. I pray that you would teach us to long and look for your Lord's appearing, and we ask that he would come. And it's in his name we pray, amen.