Of All Peoples

A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on January 7, 2024.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting 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 do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

                                    according to your word;

                        for my eyes have seen your salvation

                        that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

                        a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

                        and for glory to your people Israel.”[1]

            And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him (Luke 2:22–33).

He who said that he came to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15) did, in perfect obedience to the Law of God, not only as an adult but as an infant, as we see in our passage today. According to the law, as the firstborn male, he was to be presented to the Lord, harking back to the Egyptian captivity and God’s preservation of Israel’s firstborn sons by the blood of the lamb. Jesus’ presentation also included his mother’s ceremonial purification, following childbirth, and a required sacrifice of a lamb or “a pair of turtledoves, or two you young pigeons” (2:24), the offering of a family of meager means. It is a humble yet beautiful picture of covenant faithfulness, obedience, and the early blessings of a godly home.

But into this ordinary picture, the Holy Spirit inserts Simeon, a righteous, devout, and likely elderly man of God. Nothing is known of Simeon beyond what Luke reveals, but what is revealed is remarkable. His reason for being was in “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” a curious echo of God’s messianic promise through Isaiah, who prophesied,

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned … (Isa. 40:1-2a).

For the LORD comforts Zion;

he comforts all her waste places

and makes her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the garden of the LORD;

joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the voice of song (Isa. 51:3).

Such promises of consolation sustained Simeon, as did the presence of the Holy Spirit, who had revealed to him that he “would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). It is an extraordinary divine promise filled with hopeful expectation. And so, Simeon “came in the Spirit into the temple” on the day of Jesus’ presentation.

One can only imagine Simeon’s excitement in seeing the child and hearing his given name, Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves.” Everything that Simeon had waited for, he held in his arms, the offspring of woman, the Son of God, salvation himself. And then, carried along by the Holy Spirit, he blessed God saying,

            Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

                        according to your word;

            for my eyes have seen your salvation

                        that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

            a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

                        and for glory to your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32).

Often referred to by the Latin name Nunc Dimittis, meaning “now you dismiss,” Simeon’s blessing is not only a personal confession but a declaration.

As a personal confession, Simeon reveals that he has beheld what God promised by his Word, the Christ. He also does not fear death but as the Lord’s “servant,” he will die, departing his service in peace. What Simeon confesses is a Christian confession, for we do not fear death but know that it is merely a conclusion of earthly service to the Lord. In Christ, we do not depart with life in fear or angst but peace, knowing that our departure is to be in the presence of our salvation and Lord. And so, Simeon rejoices at the arrival of Christ, but his confession is more than personal; it is a declaration of God’s salvation of all peoples.

God’s Salvation

In the fourth chapter of Galatians, the apostle Paul uses an expression to describe the completion of God’s redemptive preparation: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). It was a fulfillment of God’s protoevangelic promise in the curse upon the serpent, when God said,

            And I will put enmity

                        between you and the woman,

                        and between your offspring and hers;

            he will crush your head,

                        and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3:15 NIV).

God in his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, for his own glory, foreordained salvation through a suffering yet victorious Savior. And the story of Scripture onward describes God’s preparation, through the means of his appointment, to save from all peoples a people for his own possession.

For example, consider God’s calling of and promise to Abraham, that through him “all the families of the earth” would be blessed. And onward through the patriarchs to Israel, where we get glimpses of God’s grace bestowed upon the likes of Rahab, the pagan prostitute, on to the prophets, such as Isaiah, who prophesied that out of Israel would come “a light for the nations” that God’s salvation would “reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6b). And so, the Savior had come, in the fullness of time, as God sovereignly prepared, not only in the presence of Israel, but “in the present of all peoples,” not only a light for revelation to the Jews but “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”

Simeon beheld and held in his arms him whom God sent forth, a light shining in the darkness, and indeed “the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Though the world is darkened by sin, Jesus came to shine the light of his gospel even into the darkest corners of unbelief. Jesus came proclaiming the gospel of God’s salvation and in his life, death, and resurrection became its fulfillment. He not only saves but is salvation, and so there is no salvation apart from him. He is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and apart from him there is no communion with God, no salvation from God’s wrath and curse, and continue “liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.”[2] But through faith in Christ, there is salvation unto eternal life, good news for all peoples, for Jew and Gentile alike.

To the Gentiles

When Simeon concluded his prayer, Luke records, “And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him” (Luke 22:33). Surely, the moment was unexpected. Who wouldn’t marvel at the presence of an old, Spirit-filled saint, whose last breath hung upon the arrival of your son? But let’s not forget that these were parents who had encountered angels and received direct, special revelation from God. This was a couple who welcomed worshiping shepherds and visiting magi bearing gifts for a king. Indeed, they marveled, but they did not marvel that a pious old man held up, rejoiced, and exalted their child. They marveled at what he said.

For, what Simeon said was contrary to prevalent thought of their day. What Simeon said was that he had seen with his own eyes the Lord’s salvation, a salvation not only for Israel but all peoples, for not only Jew but Gentile too. Marvel, they did indeed, as do we! Jesus, after all, was a Jew and made clear during his earthly ministry that he was delivering the gospel first to the children of Israel (Matt. 15:24). There were of course exceptions, but Jesus’ itinerant ministry was quite narrow and almost exclusively to Israel. But following his resurrection, he commissioned his apostles to fulfill what the prophets had proclaimed, to go beyond the boundaries of their nation, “making disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18-20).

Now, consider the fulfillment of this in your own story. How would you have heard the gospel if no one had shared it with you? Maybe it was a parent, a grandparent, or sibling; maybe it was a friend or maybe even a stranger, but to be saved you heard and believed through someone else. And how did that someone else hear the gospel? And how did their someone else hear it? And if we go back far enough, we will find the origin here, in Jerusalem. If you have faith in Christ today, then thank God that he commissioned his church and sent forth his gospel that we too might rejoice, as did Simeon. And let us not hoard it but share it too, of all peoples, both near and far.

In reading the book of Acts we learn that the revelation of God’s salvation of all peoples through Israel’s Messiah surprised both Jew and Gentile alike. For example, when the apostle Paul preached the gospel at the synagogue of Antioch, they listened intently. But the following week, when “almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord” (Acts 13:44), the Jews became jealous and turned immediately against Paul, contradicting and reviling him. And so, Paul, and Barnabas with him, said to them, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

            “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,

                        that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’”

                        (Acts 13:46-47).

Paul and Barnabas were simply quoting Israel’s prophets to them, but their hearts were hardened against the gospel. But the hearts of the Gentiles were not. Luke records, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Such good news is indeed worthy of rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord, in the first and twenty-first century.

For Israel’s Glory

Simeon’s blessing to God concludes with a helpful distinction of glory, “salvation … for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Israel is not a place but a people, to whom were entrusted the oracles of God and through whom God “gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). But just as the Jews in Antioch refused to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul explains in the eleventh chapter of Romans that God is at work in this too. The apostle to the Gentiles writes, “So I ask, did [Israel] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” (Rom. 11:11-12).

Paul goes on to explain how God has grafted in Gentiles into Israel through faith in Christ, and then cautions against arrogance, saying, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

 “and this will be my covenant with them

when I take away their sins” (Rom. 11:25-27).

What Paul describes is the fulfillment of Simeon’s blessing, God’s salvation to the Gentiles for Israel’s glory.

Contrary to unorthodox and heretical beliefs, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for Gentiles but Jews too. Everyone, whether Gentile or Jew, who dies apart from faith in Christ, will go not to heaven but hell and will know only an eternity or suffering and torment, for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). In his Expository Thoughts on Luke, J.C. Ryle writes,

Christ was indeed ‘the glory of Israel.’ The descent from Abraham, –the covenants, –the promises, –the law of Moses, –the divinely ordered Temple service, –all these were mighty privileges. But all were as nothing compared to the mighty fact, that out of Israel was born the Saviour of the world.[3]

We seek then to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ near and far, “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” and pray for the salvation of the people Israel, many of whom live in our own country, that they will believe in the true Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessing of Simeon will be complete. For, by faith we too have seen God’s salvation that he has prepared in the presence of all peoples. And let us tell others that they may see him too!

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[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 19, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 366.

[3] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 53.