Christian Quotes

INTRODUCTION

I want to speak about a MAN.

He is only mentioned in one place in the Bible.

His whole biography takes up a mere 11 verses.

Only six verses of his actual words are recorded in the Bible—just six!

We know hardly anything about him.

He was not a king or a political leader.

He was not a prophet—at least not in any official sense.

He was not a priest as far as we know.

We don’t know what his occupation was; whether he was rich or poor; or whether he was married or had children.

But we do at least know his name: his name was SIMEON.

Let’s read together his short biography. It’s found in Luke 2:25-35.

Here we have the extremely short biography of an ordinary man walking in total obedience to the Spirit of God and as a result being a partner with God in His purposes at a very important juncture in the history of the world.

He’s a bit like the Old Testament character Melchizedek. Remember him? He just suddenly appears on the pages of the Old Testament, and then just as quickly—he’s gone. The writer to the Hebrews said, “Without father, without mother, without descent (or pedigree)”—we know so little about him that we don’t even know who his parents were. That’s a bit like Simeon.

One of the lessons that we can learn from Simeon’s life is that sometimes God prepares a vessel for one particular purpose, and then they’re gone. They flash onto the scene like a meteor, and then just as quickly—they’re gone!

Another example would be Ananias—the one who laid hands on Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 9. We know little or nothing about him, except that he was a Christian brother whose life was being controlled by the Spirit of God. We remember him for one specific task, which in all probability was the most important thing he ever did.

Maybe you are that person. Maybe God has some important task for you to do that only you can do. Maybe your whole life is a preparation for the task of a moment.

Remember that in God’s eyes the preparation is as important as the task itself.

Simeon, then, stands on the boundary between two dispensations.

He has one foot in the OLD and one foot in the NEW.

His faith reaches out to the NEW THING that God is about to do; he is full of hope for the coming of MESSIAH.

His whole life revolves around the Coming One. Does ours?

4 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GODLY MAN OR WOMAN

(1) JUST AND DEVOUT

The first thing that Luke tells us about Simeon is that he was “just and devout.

“Just” means that he was righteous in heart before God. He respected and obeyed God’s law.

“Devout” describes his conduct in relation to other men—he had a reputation for godliness; he had a good name.

This is rather different from the gospel that we find preached in America in the 21^st century. “Be saved and be happy” seems to be the message. But God says, “Be saved and be holy.”

So that’s the first characteristic of Simeon that we need to emulate if we want to be pleasing to God: we must be righteous in heart before God and have the testimony of a holy life before men.

(2) HE KNEW HOW TO WAIT GOD’S TIME

This always characterises a man who is in tune with the purposes of God.

None of us are born patient, but God puts us through a process whereby we can attain it: “tribulation worketh patience.”

I know we’re in days of instant everything. We don’t want to wait for anything, and we must be really careful that this attitude doesn’t creep into our spiritual lives.

The Scriptures are full of examples of people who had to wait.

Look at Abraham waiting for a child!

Look at Joseph waiting in prison for the fulfilment of his dreams—there must have been times when his faith was sorely tried.

Look at David–anointed to be king and then chased by Saul “like a partridge in the mountains.”

Look at Moses, tending sheep for forty years on the backside of the desert, and yet he became the meekest man on earth. Heb. 11:27 says that “He endured as seeing him who is invisible.”

Simeon also endured because he had a vision.

Many in Jerusalem had become discouraged; some even mocked and scoffed as they do today. “Where is the promise of His coming?”

Patience is the crowning grace, according to James 1:4: “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” But it’s one of the hardest to attain.

Simeon must have found it very difficult as the days kept going on and on. But he found strength from God. In Col. 1:11, Paul prays that those believers would be “strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto…” what? “all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”

May the Lord help us learn to wait God’s time.

(3) HE HAD VISION

v. 30 “mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”

What had his eyes seen? He had seen a babe in arms with his physical eyes; but he saw something beyond that.

His spiritual eyes saw something that no one else in the temple saw, with the exception of Anna.

He had been prepared by God for this day, he had been longing and waiting for this day, and when it came, he just knew–

knew that he was holding in his arms

God incarnate

God contracted to a span

A child who, though fresh from his mother’s womb, was eternal years old

A child which was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel

and a sign to be spoken against

A child which would grow up, live a sinless life, and be put to death

He saw the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world

–the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world

He saw and knew that God’s ultimate plan for all the ages was wrapped up in that tiny helpless babe. What vision!

He saw beyond the here and now, beyond today, into the vast stretches of the future and God’s ultimate purpose for mankind.

It was that which gave him strength to carry on.

We need vision in this day if we are to carry on for God and accomplish His purposes for our generation.

The religious leaders of Simeon’s day were not looking for the kind of Messiah that Simeon was looking for. They were looking for an emancipator, an earthly king who would be a deliverer for the Jewish nation primarily. And yet here is Simeon, recognizing that this Messiah is also a deliverer for the Gentiles—verse 32: “A light to lighten the Gentiles.”

He recognized that this Messiah would suffer: “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against.” This was not popular theology in Jerusalem! This is not the kind of Messiah that the religious leaders of that day were talking about and expecting.

We, too, need vision that will enable us to help fulfill God’s purpose for our generation.

(4) HE WAS A BONDSERVANT

V. 29 “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.”

The underlying Greek for the words “Lord” and “servant” are very significant.

“Lord” is a translation of the Greek word despotes, which is where we get our English word “DESPOT.”

Now the usual word for Lord in the New Testament is kurios, which simply means Lord, or master.

This word DESPOTES or DESPOT only occurs about five times in the entire New Testament, and I believe that for that reason alone, it’s use here becomes very significant.

The word DESPOT has a very unsavoury connotation for us, but it really just means ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY, someone to whom unquestioning obedience and submission is rendered.

Now let’s look at the underlying Greek for “Servant”: it’s the word “doulos” which means bondslave.

So there you have it. This is how Simeon viewed his relationship to God—the BONDSLAVE of a DESPOT.

He recognized and accepted that he was God’s absolute property, to do with as He pleased.

This is normal, NT Christianity.

Paul calls it our “reasonable service.”

Not hard bondage, but the only true liberty. Real bondage is when the devil is our master, or self is our master.

Paul uses this same word “slave” of himself in Rom. 1:1 and Titus 1:1. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Again, it’s that same word that Simeon used: DOULOS, which means slave.

James, Peter, and Jude also all use it of themselves.

We can’t truly be men and women of God without this total, utter subjection to God as supreme ruler over our lives, our property, our time—everything!

It was Hudson Taylor who said: “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”

Many professing Christians live distracted, divided, unmeaningful lives because of divided interests—having more than one master spells disaster.

Our lives can only become meaningful, definite, effective for God if we have ONE MASTER.

Christ demands utterness of devotion not because he is a tyrant, but He knows that a man cannot serve two masters.

His bondservice is sweet: “Take my yoke upon you…my burden is easy….my burden light.”

If God is going to do any work through us, we must give up our rights to ourselves.

I think one of the other occurrences of this word DESPOT helps us to understand the relatioship. 2 Peter 2:1 says, “But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the DESPOT that bought them.”

He is our DESPOT, our ABSOLUTE MASTER, our ABSOLUTE LORD because He bought us with His precious blood. He’s our Lord because He paid the price—not with silver and gold, but with His own precious blood. And He bought us because He loves us.

Conclusion

So there we have it: one of the shortest biographies in the Word of God, and yet this man Simeon, of whom we know so little, has so much to teach us. May God help us to be men and women who are just and devout, patient, possessing spiritual vision, and totally surrendered to God as his bondslaves.

Amen.