I was tasked with delivering the Christmas Eve message at church this year. We covered the Song of Simeon, or Luke 2:29-32. While it has been recorded, it has not been uploaded to the church website. I am uploading it here with a study outline, as there are some complicated lessons to be learned from this song.
The song can be split into three points:
- Verse 29: Simeon is ready to die because God has fulfilled His promise to Simeon.
- Verses 30-31: That promise was to see God’s Salvation, Jesus Christ; prepared for the world, not in secret but out in the open.
- Verse 32: This Salvation will be a light to the lost (Gentile) and a glory to the found (Church/Israel/God’s People).
From this, we can then deduce an application in three parts corresponding to the three points above:
- Like Simeon, the Christian is ready for death upon seeing the Author of his salvation. Because of this readiness, the Christian can freely give up on all the self-centered trappings of life in order to focus on sacrificially loving those around him, in particular his spouse, children and church.
- This sacrificial love, when lived out loud and publicly, is seen by the world.
- When the world (and our brothers and sisters) see this loving obedience to Christ, it is a light to the lost and a glory to the found; it sheds light on our sins but it also demonstrates the glory of God in the obedience of His children.
In the application, there are hard truths to hear. As the man delivering the message, I wish to make it 100% clear that I have not always lived these truths as well as I should. It is my desire to live them, and that is the change that God provides in the heart of the Christian. I desire obedience; I seek obedience, but I do not always find it. The moment that we are converted by the Holy Spirit, we are at war with our fleshly nature. This is a war that will not be won until Christ gives us our new bodies.
So, these tough points.
- Men are not men if they leave their families to fend for themselves.
- More accurately, I state that a man who seeks his personal ambitions over his family’s spiritual development is no man at all.
- I stand by this.
- Ephesians 5:25-27 makes it abundantly clear that the man’s primary task in a marriage is his wife’s spiritual nurturing. The wife may be more discerning, the wife may be have a better memory for scripture, the wife may remember to pray more often; all good, but the man must lead. It is his primary job in the home, especially in regard to spiritual matters.
- If the man is to lead his wife spiritually, there can be no doubt that this leadership extends to his children. Thus, any man who would take on personal ambitions or pleasures to the detriment of his family’s spiritual leadership/nurturing is no man.
- Wives were made for their husbands. Full stop.
- We can look back to Eden to see this, or see it in 1 Corinthians 11:9.
- There is an incredible relationship between husband and wife that can be summarized as “sacrificial.”
- I stand by this.
- Men are to sacrifice their personal ambitions for the spiritual good of the family. Women are to sacrifice their personal ambitions for the physical good of the family (Proverbs 31:10-31).
- This “spiritual good” and “physical good” in no way removes the responsibility for that sort of care from the opposite person; it just says that their personal ambitions stop where that care begins.
- Single people are to serve the church.
- In our hedonistic culture, this is a shocking statement. But it is true.
- I stand by this.
- 1 Corinthians 7:7 is an obvious statement; Paul wishes that all could be celibate and working to build the church. But not all are because it is a gift.
- We can deduce from this that singleness is a gift to the single person and the church. While the person is waiting for their spouse to arrive in their life, they are to devote themselves to God. This service will likely be to the local church; it could be missions, but that would require a longer conversation.
- Our culture sees the single period before marriage as the time to “live it up” before getting “tied down” by a family. This is an unholy, ugly way to look at marriage and family life. I don’t have time to look up all the verses, but for men a full quiver of children and the wife of our youth are blessings to be enjoyed.
- We will be judged for our service to our spouses.
- To be fair, this is a point I borrowed from brother Paul Washer.
- I stand by this.
- The point is defensible.
- First, regarding men, the passage in Ephesians makes it abundantly clear that we cannot save our wives, but we can nurture them and care for them in the Lord. If this is laid upon us as an expectation, we can anticipate reporting to our Lord on our day of reckoning. Men, your job is to sacrifice for the goal of getting your family across the spiritual finish line holier than you found them.
- Second, regarding women; the Bible is replete with passages about the role of the wife. She is the helpmate of her husband. I simply do not have the time right now to list everything, but the outline at creation holds: Adam was given work to do, it was best he not be alone, God gave him Eve to help complete it. Women, your sacrificial goal is to see your husband complete the work given to him as diligently as he can; be it raising children, maintaining a home, or working a career.
Those are my notes. The message follows.