December 27, 2014

Do You Recognize Your Savior?

1st Sunday after Christmas, 12/28/14
Luke 2:25-40


Do You Recognize Your Savior?
I. The Holy Spirit reveals him to us.
II. The Holy Spirit uses us to reveal him to others.


It happens to us more times than we care to admit. We see a person and we’re hit immediately with the feeling that we’ve met them before. Our minds run through a quick list of names, but none of them seems correct. So, rather than risk the embarrassment of calling them by a name you’re not sure is correct, we say nothing and the person passes by us. And we continue with our mental gymnastics. “I think I’ve met that person before. I should know their name.” We just failed to recognize them in the moment.

I’m going to assume that didn’t happen to you on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The fact that you’re here in worship this morning indicates that you weren’t the victim of Christmas amnesia. You had no trouble recognizing that you were celebrating the birth of Jesus, your Savior from sin. And, spiritually speaking, that makes all the difference in the world.

Since it’s so critical, since it’s the very truth by which we are saved, it would be good to review it on this Sunday after Christmas. How blessed we are when we cement that truth in our hearts, minds and souls! Let’s not take the obvious for granted. Do you recognize your Savior? I surely hope and pray so. But let’s ask that question this morning nonetheless.

Part I.

How is it that you meet people? There are situations in which you or the other person simply takes the initiative and introduces yourself. But it’s more likely that someone introduced you. You both happen to know the same person and that person realizes it would be good for the two of you to know each other, so they do you the favor of introducing you. Many long-time friendships and even many marriages have occurred that very way.

Did you catch the introduction that occurred here in this morning’s sermon text? It’s one of the most astounding introductions in the Bible. Luke tells us, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms.” Jesus was just 40 days old. Holding such an infant in your arms always brings joy, how much more so this infant Jesus! Just as amazing is how Simeon knew this infant was his Savior. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit had informed him that he wouldn’t die before seeing his Savior. Most Bible readers assume that Simeon was an elderly man at this point, but the text doesn’t specify. When he praises God by stating, “Lord, you now dismiss your servant,” he isn’t necessarily stating that he’s ready to die. It seems better to take his words to mean that, as the Lord’s servant, he can now live in peace now that he has seen his Savior.

We’re left to wonder how the Holy Spirit shared this information with him. How long ago had the Holy Spirit made this promise to him? How did the Holy Spirit convey this information to him? Was it in a vision or a dream? Did he speak to Simeon directly? Just as critical, with all those infants and their parents coming and going from the temple in observing this rite of purification, how did the Holy Spirit indicate to Simeon on that day that this infant was the One? We just don’t know the details. We do know that the Holy Spirit caused him to recognize his Savior.

Likewise with the other biblical character in this event, the prophetess Anna. Her situation was somewhat different. We’re not told that the Holy Spirit had made the same promise to her that he had to Simeon. We’re not told that the Holy Spirit revealed to her that on that day she would see her Savior. So how did she know that this infant was any different from all the others? The method might have been different, but the agent was still the same. When any sinner at any point in history recognizes that Jesus is his or her Savior, that is always the work of the Holy Spirit and it always involves a miracle. It’s likely that Anna, who was patiently waiting for the Lord to fulfill his promise to send her a Savior, heard what Simeon had been saying about Jesus to Mary and Joseph. The Holy Spirit used that proclamation to convince Anna that this Child was her Savior.

And that’s nothing new. That sounds all too familiar. No, you and I have not had the blessed privilege to eyeball our Savior. We have not had the blessed privilege of holding the holy infant in our arms. But we recognize him nonetheless. We confess just as Simeon did that he is our Savior from sin. We trust that he is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to send a Savior. We know and believe that Jesus lived and died for us. We are confident of our forgiveness and our eternal life because of what Jesus did for us. We know we are saved by God’s grace and not by our own good works. Jesus, true man and also the Son of God is our Savior. And we know the Bible’s truth, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). If you recognize that Jesus is your Savior, it’s not due to your own exhaustive investigation and research. It’s not your superior human reason and mental acumen. It’s not even blind luck. It’s the powerful working of God the Holy Spirit. Let’s never forget that!

Do you recognize your Savior? The Holy Spirit reveals him to us.

If you recognize Jesus as your Savior, praise God! That’s the greatest truth any sinner can know and believe. But let me offer two warnings and an encouragement. First, the road to hell has been walked by far too many souls who, at one time, recognized their Savior, but their spiritual “memory” went bad. The lures of life and wealth caused their recognition of Christ to become foggy and they finally lost it altogether. They allowed their own human reason to erase the recognition of their Savior. Don’t let that happen to you. Second, don’t let despair drive that recognition from your heart and mind. What do I mean? If Satan can’t convince you to drive Christ out of your life, then he’ll use your sins and guilt against you. He’s a master at it. First, he’ll lead you to think that a certain sin will actually bring you happiness. Then after you commit it, he pounds you with guilt. He loads your heart with so much guilt that you have a hard time recognizing Jesus. What’s the solution in both cases? Stay connected to the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to wait around for him to speak to you as Simeon did. You have his word. Listen to it. Read it. Fill your hearts and minds with it. And receive your Savior’s body and blood for the assurance of your forgiveness and the strengthening of your faith so that you recognize your Savior in every situation of your life. Do you recognize your Savior? By the working of the Holy Spirit you do!


Part II.

A few minutes ago we discussed how you meet other people. Often someone introduces the two of you. Who introduced you to Jesus? If it was your parents, then praise God! No one ever had a perfect parent, but if your parents made sure that you came to know Jesus as your Savior, they have done the most important thing any parent can do. It’s the only thing they did for you which will last forever.

What they did for you is what the Holy Spirit wants to use you to do for others. Simeon didn’t keep his mouth shut after he had held the Savior. He broke out into one of the most familiar hymns in the Bible known in New Testament times as the Nunc Dimittis, which is Latin for, “now dismiss.” He followed that by telling Mary and Joseph just what Jesus would face as he did his work and what his work would do: it would bring peace but it would also bring strife and even death. He proclaimed God’s word to others.

Likewise with Anna. She was a prophetess at the temple. She pointed people to God’s word and especially to his promises of a Savior. It was a special spiritual gift that God gave her and with God’s help she developed it. She “worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.” Her life as a believer was on display 24-7.

And don’t miss her reaction to seeing her Savior. “Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” She didn’t take the news of the Savior being born and bury it. She shared it with everyone who would listen to her. She did what came naturally—she introduced others to Jesus.

God’s plan for causing others to recognize their Savior hasn’t changed at all in 2000 years. Simeon and Anna were just ordinary Jewish people. They simply took what they knew and shared it. They knew others who needed to know Jesus and they introduced them. That’s still the way it works. The Holy Spirit uses us—you and me.

I mentioned that Anna did what came natural to her in introducing Jesus to others. Why is it that it isn’t so natural for us? Why do we find it difficult to tell others what we know about Jesus? Perhaps we fear rejection or ridicule. We convince ourselves it’s someone else’s responsibility or that we’re not qualified to do it. We’re not sure what to say.

Those are exactly the things our Adult Bible Class has been talking about the past 4 weeks. Just as much as that class has been a study of some basic Bible truths about sharing your faith with others, it’s perhaps even more a support group. It’s a loving, trusting, comfortable setting with people who have Christian love for each other sharing their failures and their successes, their joys and frustrations, their issues and solutions as they attempt to do what God wants them to do—share their faith with others.

Do you recognize your Savior? Thank God you do! Who do you know that still needs to recognize him? May God the Holy Spirit fill you with strength and wisdom to introduce that person to Jesus! Amen.