Welcome on this snowy Sunday morning.
Here's we close off November going to ask you to turn in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 verses 25 to 35.
It is our first Sunday. This is the first Sunday of
Advent. So as you've already heard this
morning we're going to be looking at the theme of hope in
the life of Simeon. Some of you are like, wait,
didn't we just finish Luke chapter 6?
Are we actually going backwards in Luke?
It just so happens that three of the four stories and many of the
stories that surround Jesus's birth, the individuals that are
part of the story of the birth of the Christ child are in Luke.
Some of you are like, how long, O Lord, until we finish Luke?
You are in the Advent spirit because Advent is about waiting.
It's about longing. It's about expectation.
And I don't know about you, but I stink at waiting.
I am not. I'm not a good waiter.
I like at the doctor's office. You know the doctor's office
where you wait in the waiting room and then it's past your
appointment time. So then they bring you back and
then you go into a room and then you wait in the room, right?
And it's like you're sitting, you're looking at your watch. 10
minutes, 20 minutes go past. You're pretty sure that the
doctor has retired and no one is rescuing you from this room.
At this point. When you phone up to Bell or
Rogers or any other company really right to customer service
and it says, and you know, you know the script if you've called
due to higher than expected call volume, which is apparently all
the time, they just don't expect any calls.
All of our agents are currently unavailable.
Please wait for the next available agent.
And I'm like, I do not want to wait.
Maybe you've been at that spot where you're at the the airport
gate and it says on the board that your plane is going to
depart on time and you're looking at your gate.
There's no plane at the gate and you're supposed to leave in 15
minutes. And so then they switch it right
delayed and they push it back. There's a standard amount.
They push it back and, and, and then they delay it again.
And you get to the point where instead of having prayers that
are Lord, not not my will, but your will be done.
Your prayer is instead, Lord, oh Lord, how long?
How long would you, would you allow your servant to suffer
smite Air Canada? The worst for me though, is
traffic. The traffic, I'm not, I'm not,
I'm not good. Especially when you're in that
spot where you don't know why you're waiting in the traffic.
And then and then of course, you come and, and after like 30
minutes of stop and go traffic, it just starts going and there's
nothing there. And you think what, what was
what was the waiting about? We don't like to wait.
There's a feeling that comes in waiting.
It's the feeling of powerlessness, right?
That's that mean. That's why I get so frustrated
on the I just want to know as if knowing what would be causing
the waiting would make it any better.
But I feel so powerless. I feel so in the dark and, and
when we're in that spot where we just feel like we've got no
control, we can feel anxiety in US rise up, fear in US rise up.
Sometimes anger in US rise up because ultimately that is the
issue. It's an issue that we want
control and we don't have it. And, and it's one thing to be
stuck waiting for a doctor or for a plane or for an accident,
but it's a whole other thing when we're waiting for what some
of us in this room are watching online or listen to this later,
what you're waiting for. It's a whole nother thing when
you're waiting for healing, isn't it?
It's a whole nother thing when you're waiting on a job or on a
dream or on a spouse for a child.
In the waiting, when we just feel and sense that things are
out of our control, that's when the whispers start to click in.
And you know the whispers, I'm talking about whispers.
Like what if nothing in this ever changes?
What if this is just it? What if God's not listening
anymore? What if there's no hope?
And if you're struggling with waiting when those whispers get
loud in your ear, the Holy Spirit wants you to hear a
different word this morning. He wants you to understand that
hope is not gone. Hope is coming.
Today's story is about a guy who spent an entire life waiting.
As Mike said, it's the story of a guy by the name of Simeon.
And this story is a reminder that those who wait on God never
wait in vain. No matter how long you're
waiting. The hope for all those who wait
on God is that you never wait in vain.
So let's let's read this story together.
Let's work our way through it and and see what we can learn
about hope today. Verse 25 starts.
It says there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout.
He was looking forward to Israel's consolation, and the
Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by
the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the
Lord's Messiah. Simeon had been waiting a long
time. He'd been waiting his whole life
through circumstances that quite honestly, didn't offer a lot in
the way of hope. See, for 400 years now, God has
appeared to go silent. There's been no prophetic word
to the people of Israel. They were in the waiting and
they were in the waiting through first a Greek occupation of the
of the land of Israel, and now Roman occupation.
And they were both brutal occupations of oppression.
It was so easy to think in the midst of all of that, that God
had given up on Israel, that God maybe had moved on, or maybe
he'd forgotten his promises. And it's easy for us to get in
that spot too, isn't it? Where we start to wonder, God,
are you still out there? Because God seemed to go silent.
God, do you remember the promises of your word?
Because I'm not seeing them in action.
And then we start to think, well, if God's moved on, maybe I
should move on too. Maybe I should just give up on
prayer. Maybe I should get angry.
Maybe I should allow bitterness to sink in.
If God's not going to do anything to take control here,
maybe I need to take matters into my own hands.
But that's not Simeon's story. Simeon in the midst of this
waiting, it says he was righteous and devout.
He was steadfast and faithful, trusting in order.
That doesn't mean Simeon didn't have doubts.
I can almost assure you Simeon had moments where he was
doubting, where he was struggling.
But he stood firm in the midst of his doubts.
He doesn't get bitter. He doesn't get cynical, he
doesn't get jaded. He remains faithful.
He remains holding on to the hope of the truth of the promise
that God had given him. So how does Simeon do that?
How does Simeon hold on in the waiting?
How does he not give up? How does he not lose hope?
Well, I think there's a few things that we see here about
the nature of a hope that can hold firm in the midst of the
waiting. The 1st is this hope looks
forward in faith. If you're going to have a hope
that holds on, you need a hope that looks forward in faith.
Simeon is not in this passage, waiting with folded arms,
tapping his foot right. He was waiting with eyes open,
looking forward. Look what it says.
He's looking forward to Israel's consolation.
There's something out there that he can see that he holds on to.
It's Israel's consolation. His hope is not based on his
current situation. His hope is rooted in God's
promise. The God would send a Messiah.
He would send a rescuer. He would save his people.
He was rooted in that person, in the reality of the Messiah, that
that's what we're talking when when it says he looked forward
to Israel's consolation. He's looking forward to this
promise of the Messiah, the promise that there is a rescuer
coming who would bring an end to Israel's grief, who would bring
an end to God's people in in in their suffering.
It's the promise that comfort is coming.
That's consolation. Is is the word comfort?
It's this promise that that reversal is coming, that hope
isn't lost. A lot of people talk about hope.
I hope that John doesn't get my name in the gift exchange
because I know the type of gift that he gets.
So let it be anyone else. Lord, I hope when I go to the
Christmas gathering this year that grandma doesn't ask if I'm
seeing anybody yet or when are you 2 going to have a baby?
A lot of people come into a new year.
We're going to come into 2026 and a lot of people are going to
have hope right there. A man, I hope 2026 is better
than 2025, but that's not the hope That that's that's that's
wishing, that's wanting. That's not hope.
Biblical hope is anchored in reality.
It's anchored in truth. It's anchored in the promises of
God. It's not.
It's not found in our current predicament or circumstances.
Our faith is in the promise of God and that is rooted in the
person of God. It's rooted in his character.
It's rooted in who he is, in his unchanging nature.
We've sung about it today. The God is faithful.
That's where hope is found in the faithfulness of God to his
word and to his promises. And I know for some of you this
is really hard because you had a lot of people in your life make
you promises that turned out to be pretty empty.
And, and, and even as human beings, when we make promises,
even with the best of intentions of keeping those promises, we
don't have full ability to ensure the outcome of them, do
we? Right.
But a year ago, in fact, it'll be a year ago, I think this
coming week, I made a commitment that I was going to do my best
to get healthier. I, I recognize, man, I'm, I'm
last year I was sitting there, I'm like, I'm 45.
If I want to love and serve my family for as long as I can, if
I want to love and serve my God and his church for as long as I,
I need to do some things. I need to get healthy, but I
can't ensure how long I'll live. I can ensure the effort that I
put into that, but I can't ensure the ending.
And this is what sets God apart. Because when God makes a
promise, he's in control of everything.
He's not just making a promise to put in his best efforts to
give it his best shot. When he makes a promise, he can
ensure that that promise is kept.
He gets to ensure the ending of it.
And because he's he's unchanging, he also never
changed it. It's not like he's like, I made
that promise. But you know, I've been thinking
about it a little bit. You know, I told, I told them
that if they place their faith in Jesus, they're saved.
But I didn't really know what I was getting into with that
person. And when he makes a promise,
because he loves us, his promises are always for our
best. This is so so our our hope is
rooted in the promises of God, and those promises are rooted in
the person of God. And God never fails.
And that's why we can have hope. Simeon knew all of this about
God. He knew that God was a promise
keeper. And God by his spirit had spoken
a promise to Simeon. And the promise was this, that
he would not see death before the Lord's Messiah came.
And so every morning, old Simeon would open his eyes.
Maybe he'd sit there, and he'd stretch the stiffness out that
comes when the number strikes, strikes four in the beginning of
your age and has another number after it.
He'd walk towards the temple, and he'd think to himself,
Hope's not gone. Hope's coming because my God has
promised and he's faithful to his promises.
So here's my question for you this morning.
What are you waiting for? Right?
Let's, let's, let's make this real to our lives.
What are you waiting for? Some of you, I know in this room
today, have test results that you're waiting on.
Some of you are waiting on a marriage to get healed.
Some of you are waiting on a prodigal son to come home.
Some of you are just waiting there for the the loneliness and
the grief and the despair to lift.
Some of you are waiting for God to just say something.
Just show up. Just show that you're real.
The question is, will you trust God in the waiting?
Is he worthy of your trust? Do you believe that he's
faithful? Will you take him at His word
when he says that he is a healer and that if you know Jesus, and
Jesus knows you, that whether on this side of death or the next,
you'll be healed? That's the promise of God to all
God's people. Will you trust God that where
the Holy Spirit is present and working and repentance is real
and forgiveness is made available, that no matter what
has happened, reconciliation and restoration and redemption is
possible? Will you place your hope in a
God who loves your son or your daughter even more than you love
them and he loves you? Will you believe in the hope
that when God promises in Hebrews 135I will never leave
you, I will never forsake you, that you are never alone, no
matter how loneliness might, how much loneliness might creep in?
In your grief? Will you look forward in hope to
the truth that God speaks in Revelation 21 when He promises
that He will wipe away every tear from their eyes?
Death will be no more, grief, crying and pain will be no more.
Will you hold on in hope to your consolation in that and when God
seems silent and by the way we all go through those moments.
If you think I feel like every day because I'm a pastor every
day I just I'm hearing the voice of the Lord man.
I know what it's like to go through seasons where I just
wonder God, where are you, but I'm reminded of James 4/8 this
promise. Draw near to God and he will
draw near to you. God is not absent.
He's there. See, the question isn't are you
waiting? It's not even what are you
waiting for? The question is this.
Who are you waiting on? Where's your hope found?
Because of those who wait on God.
They never wait in vain. And when we know that, we know
hope isn't gone. It's coming.
He goes on and says that he was guided by the spirit and he
entered the temple. You know, it's, it's one of the
things that strikes me about this passage is it's nothing
special in, you know, we get the earlier in Luke 2.
We've got angels appearing to shepherds.
There's heavenly choirs. Nothing, nothing really special
happens. Simeon gets a nudge from the
Spirit says hey, do what you regularly do go to the temple.
He goes to the temple, he obeys and and and what would have been
taking place is this there would have been a whole bunch of
families just like every day at the temple who were obeying
God's command from Exodus chapter 13 to bring their first
born to be consecrated at the temple.
That's what Mary and Joseph are doing.
They're they're just another tired.
Young family with a baby in arm, right?
We all know what it looks like. If we've been, if you've been
there, I mean, you know what it looks like.
It's just two exhausted looking human beings with one tiny
infant who's running everything. That's that's what's happening.
But Simeon in this time, in this moment, says this is it.
That baby, that's the one. It's the moment that he has been
waiting his whole life for. But there's no trumpets there,
there's no Halo, there's no angelic chorus.
And he reaches out as they would bring this baby forward to be
consecrated by him. And I can just imagine him with
trembling arms holding that little baby Jesus in his arms.
And he says this. He says, now Master, you can
dismiss your servant in peace as you promised, for my eyes have
seen your salvation. I've got the promise right here
in my arms in this average looking little baby.
I know you're faithful. You've done it.
And here's something that I think we miss about hope.
Hope sees God in the ordinary. I think a lot of us struggle
with this. We miss God because we're
looking for God only in the flashing lights, a big LED sign,
the lightning bolts, right? But God's faithfulness, his
promise keeping is so often found in the everyday, in the
ordinary. We, we're, we're desperate in
our lives And, and, and this is a good desperation, but we want
God to show up in a mirror. I want dramatic change in my
life. I want God to just come in and
switch everything around. And so often God shows up in
slow, steady growth. When we want lightning bolts,
it's so often that God shows up with just a little light in the
midst of the darkness. I think that's part of what
Simeon's story teaches us. It teaches us that God isn't
always flashy in how he fulfills his promise, but he's always
faithful in fulfilling his promises.
If, if, if Simeon had been like Lord, that can't be it.
It, it has to be more impressive than this.
There. There has to be something with a
a bit more of a whiff of the miraculous on this.
If he had demanded for signs to prove that this is the Messiah,
he would have missed out on the fulfillment of God's promise.
And I just wonder how many of us are losing hope today because
we're we're missing or discounting the areas where God
is already fulfilling his promises to us, bringing his
hope. If you demand that God fulfills
His promises in flashy ways, you're going to so often miss
out on His faithful provision. In the book of Lamentations,
Lamentations 322 to 24, the the the prophet Jeremiah writes
these words. Because of the Lord's faithful
love, we do not perish, for his mercies never end there.
New every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
I say the Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in
Him. What's actually the most
stunning about these verses to me are the 21 verses that
precede these 3 verses because this is how this section of
Scripture starts. Jeremiah says, I'm a man who's
seen the Lord's afflictions, and then it is 20 more verses of
talking about the pain and the suffering and the difficulty of
what he has seen and is experiencing.
And So what he's really saying here is even in the midst of all
of these painful circumstances, all of these difficulties, there
is mercy. God is faithful.
I can see His love. So I have hope because of those
who wait on God. Never wait in vain, even in the
waiting. Are you right now, as you look
for your salvation out of the moment and the big problem that
you're in, are you missing out on His small provisions, on His
hope in the ordinary? Maybe it was just in the
kindness of a neighbor who shoveled your driveway
yesterday. I know that I had experienced.
I had shoveled the whole driveway.
And then you know what happens, right?
We live in Canada. The plow comes, and the worst
part of the shoveling is still ahead.
And I had gone out to run some errands, and I was just dreading
coming back to those clumps of ice and everything poured in
front of my driveway. And I showed up and I was
driving my car up and it was gone.
One of my neighbors had come along and he cleared it out for
me and I just said, thank you, Lord, man, you're good to me.
So good. Maybe it's just in a word of
encouragement. Maybe it's in a handshake or a
welcome or a hug that you're going to get today.
And that's the Lord's. And it's not the big flashy
answer to everything you're hoping for right now, but it's
God's sustaining mercy in your life.
Maybe it's in waking up and recognizing, hey, I've still got
breath in my lungs today, or in a moment of joy in the midst of
all the pain, and you can say, Lord, you are merciful.
I'm going to trust you because you're faithful in this and
you're faithful to get me through.
And if you're faithful to get me through, you'll get me to the
other side. I know that hope isn't gone.
I know that hope is coming because I get glimpses of it
now. The last thing I want you to see
is this hope endures even through pain.
Last bit of the passage here says as as Simeon sharing after
he says my eyes have seen your salvation.
He says you prepared it in the presence of all peoples.
It's a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your
people. Israel, his father and mother.
So Mary and Joseph were amazed at what was being said about
him, about Jesus. And then Simeon bless them and
he told his mother, Mary, indeed, this child is destined
to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign
that will be opposed. So Simeon speaks these words of
of hope and a blessing and the salvation has come and it's
salvation for all people and and and he's here and and parents,
Mary, Joseph aren't you'd be blessed in this.
But then he gives a little bit at the end.
That isn't what generally works its way into anybody's Hallmark
Christmas card. He says to Mary, and a sword
will Pierce your own soul. It says salvation has come.
Salvation is coming. But Mary, that does not mean
it's not going to be painful because here's some of that's
true. Salvation always comes at a
cost. Salvation comes, but it comes at
a cost. Some of us, we hear the word
hope and we start to roll our eyes because life has made us
cynical and we think the entire idea of hope just feels like
this naive, childish, unrealistic reality.
But this is what I love about Christian hope.
It's not a denial of pain. It's not a like just pretend
like everything is better. It's a confidence that pain in
the end does not win. SIM in here by the Holy Spirit.
He's sharing a glimpse of the cross with Mary.
He's looking forward to where Jesus is going to end up.
He says, Mary, Mary, this child, he will walk a road that leads
to the cross and it's going to tear your heart out, but it'll
save the world. I, I don't, I don't know about
you, but I need the type of hope that recognizes the type of
world we live in. I, I need a hope that doesn't
deny the pain and the difficulty and the harshness of this world,
but a hope that can hold up in the midst of it.
A hope that says my circumstances aren't easy, but
my God is faithful. I I can't see the whole story,
but I believe that the author of that story is good, that
suffering may come. In fact, suffering will come,
but salvation is assured. And I know that because because
those who wait on God never wait in vain.
So hope's not gone, It's coming. Here's my Advent invitation to
you as we come to a close this morning.
I want to invite you to bring the hope of Jesus into the
middle of your waiting. See.
Because if God has kept his promise and did keep his promise
to Israel and to Simeon after centuries of silence, after
Roman and Greek oppression, if empires rising and falling,
generations coming and going, He will keep his promise to you no
matter how long you feel like you've been waiting at this
point. Because what he started in your
life, He will bring to a conclusion, to an end, to a
fulfillment. What He promises to do, He does.
What He declares, He brings to pass.
You might not see it yet. You might not feel it yet.
You may not understand the waiting right now.
But those who wait on God never wait in vain.
And hope is coming. There's three groups of people
in this room today. First, there's people who you
need to recognize that Jesus has come to be your consolation.
He's come to be your hope and salvation.
Maybe you came here today and maybe you braved you.
You, you got the snow shoveled out of your driveway.
You thought, I don't know why I'm doing this, but I just need
to be here today. I just need to go somewhere.
I, I don't have hope in my life right now.
I need to find a place where maybe I could find some hope.
That's what Jesus came to bring. That's why he brought you here
today. He, he, he nudged you to get out
the door and to be here. Maybe you've been calling out
for God to show himself and he led you here today, just like he
led Simeon to that temple that fateful day.
So that you could say upon looking at Jesus, my eyes have
seen your salvation. Jesus came not just to alter
your circumstances, but to give you life, to give you a future,
to give you hope. That that's the invitation of
the gospel, that anyone who would trust in Jesus for the
forgiveness of their sins, who would say Jesus died so that I
could be set free from sin, and he rose again to prove that sin
has been defeated. When you place your hope and
faith on him, he gives you life and he never disappoints.
And all you have to do is call out to him and ask him to come
in to make you new, to forgive you and give you that life, give
you that hope, and he does it. He answers that prayer every
time. For some of you, you're here
today and you're, you're in the group of people that I would say
you've grown, grown really weary in the waiting.
You know Jesus, you've trusted in Jesus, but you feel like
Jesus has maybe forgotten you. Maybe you're, you're, you're
feeling stuck in your spiritual life.
Maybe you're sitting there and you've been praying the same
prayers day after day, week after week, month after month,
year after year. It just feels like God's not
answering. He's not fulfilling His promises
to you, and you're struggling to hope.
Today it's God's invitation to you to place yourself back in
His hands, to raise your eyes up off of your circumstances.
Stop looking at this current reality and start looking at the
God who is worthy of your trust because He's faithful, and to
choose that trust over despair. Today to to allow the Holy
Spirit to use a message like this to whisper to you.
Hope isn't God, it's coming. Would you lay that back into His
hands and trust Him? And you might have to lay it
back into his hands tomorrow and the day after that and the day
after that, just like Simeon did until it came to pass.
There's a third group. There's people here today who
need to bring the hope of Jesus into the waiting of others.
I think God has orchestrated a number of things in the service
today. When we put these together,
sometimes we think really intentionally and sometimes God
just does some things we didn't originally choose to have.
This and the call to think about how you might participate in
calling our government to reconsider allowing MADE to be
used for those who are dealing with mental illness.
But when people choose made, I would argue to you that it's
death by lack of hope. We're called to be people who
bring. It's not enough to write a
letter if if the church isn't going to be the people who bring
hope, we're just going to ask somebody else to do something,
then we're not doing what the Lord has called us to do.
We need to be the people who bring hope out into the world so
people know there's more. We're called to bring hope.
You, you heard Kate talk about the fact that those houses,
we're an answer. That house was an answer to that
woman's prayer. You know, when we bring hope, we
get to be the answer of people who are calling out for hope.
Sometimes God wants to use you to be the answer in Nicaragua or
in the project that we're hoping to engage in in Bangladesh.
Or when food is brought to the front lines and generators are
brought to the people who are living on the front lines in
conflict in Ukraine, or when meals are made at the cleaners
just down the road. They We have the opportunity to
be people who bring hope and we have the opportunity to be
people who bring hope in Saint George, in Air, in Guelph, in
Kitchener, in Galt, in Preston, in Hessler, in Blair.
God's people are called to be hope bringers because we have
received hope through Him. Simeon held the fulfillment of a
lifetime of waiting in his arms. Christ had come.
God had fulfilled His promises, and the fulfillment of that
promise is a reminder that God always fulfills every promise He
makes. If He said it, He is faithful to
do it. If He came the first time, he'll
come again. And when he does, it's not going
to be as a newborn baby. It's going to be as a conquering
king who sets all things right. The work that he started on the
cross is a work that will be completed at his second coming.
And sin and sorrow and death and grief and all the heartache and
heartbreak of this world. They don't get the final say.
They'll be defeated forever because hope isn't God.
Hope's coming. And those who wait in the Lord,
they never wait in vain. Let's pray, God, thank you that
you are faithful to your promises.
Thank You that You promise that when we cry out to you, you hear
us. Lord, there's some prayers that
have been cried out to you in this room even today.
Lord, there's been some prayers that have been cried out for
decades. Lord, would you answer those
prayers even today? But in the midst of the waiting,
would you continue to give glimmers of hope that you
haven't forgotten? That you aren't slow to fulfill
Your promises as some would say, but in your due time, in your
good time, in your good plan, you are working all things to
the good for those who know and trust you.
God, I thank you that you promised that when an individual
cries out to you for salvation through Jesus Christ, you are
faithful in answering that promise.
I thank you that yesterday at our Alpha at our Alpha Holy
Spirit Saturday, 4 different individuals cried out for
salvation and those individuals are now brothers and sisters in
the Kingdom. I thank you for those who cried
out for release from from addictions who cried out for you
to be real. I thank you that you hear those
cries. But I pray even today there
would be others who would cry out and say, Lord save me and
you would save them and your Holy Spirit would descend on
them in power and make them new today.
And God, I pray that for those of us who don't feel as if we're
in the middle, middle and midst of of a deep waiting right now,
that you would prompt and prod us this week.
We'd be led by your Holy Spirit, just like Simeon was in the
things that makes him really ordinary in the moment to bring
hope to a world that is in such desperate need of hope.
Let us be hope bringers, God, let us have seen the hope that
you've brought to us and be those who light a little bit of
hope in this world around us. Would we shine brighter than the
Christmas lights on trees and on the houses?
Would we shine the light of Christmas so brightly no one
could miss Jesus? I pray in his name, Amen.