Redeemer Community Church

Speaker 1: 00:00

Today's scripture is from Luke 2 22 through 35. And when the time came for the 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 turtle doves or 2 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.

Speaker 1: 00:36

And he 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. And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.

Speaker 1: 01:22

And a sword will pierce through your own soul also. So that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Speaker 2: 01:30

And this is John 1925 to 27. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of clothe Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

Speaker 2: 01:56

This is the word of the lord.

Joel Brooks: 02:01

Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your word. And I pray that just in the reading of that, we would be convicted and we would be encouraged. We'd be strengthened. And I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, not be remembered anymore, but Lord let your words remain.

Joel Brooks: 02:22

And may they change us. In the strong name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I wanna do things a little different tonight. I knew we would we'd have a very intimate group, with it being Thanksgiving weekend.

Joel Brooks: 02:38

And so we're gonna take some time after the message actually to break up and we're gonna pray. And this message is kind of leading towards some of the things that I want us to be praying towards. In Luke 2, we find a passage that rejoices in the birth of Jesus, and then at the same time right after this happiness you have it this turn and Simeon's talk to language of sorrow and opposition and rejection, a sword. And with this being our monthly meditation on the cross, and also the 1st week of Advent, I thought this would be an appropriate passage of scripture for us to look at. Jesus has just been born to the chorus of all of these angels in Bethlehem and shepherds coming and bowing down to Him.

Joel Brooks: 03:32

And then 40 days after you're born, the Mosaic law requires that you go and you pay ransom or you make a sacrifice for your firstborn male. And so Joseph, Mary, and Jesus they head to Jerusalem. This has been 40 days after He was born. We know that they're really poor because they can't sacrifice a lamb. It says they sacrifice 2 turtle doves or 2 pigeons, and that was, and the Levitical law said that could be a poor man's offering if you can't afford a lamb.

Joel Brooks: 04:03

And so Jesus is, his mother and his father are very poor. This had to be a joyful time for Joseph and Mary. It was joyful when Lauren and I, we dedicated to each of our children, we would have a lunch that day and we'd have family over and it was just it was a real celebratory time and I'm sure that was the same thing, for this young married couple as they're presenting their child there. And after their sacrifice and this jubilation, they're leaving the temple and this old man heads straight for them. And his eyes are just intense, and they're full of purpose, and he comes up and says, can I hold your baby?

Joel Brooks: 04:45

Can I hold your baby? And Luke tells us that this man was devout, that he was righteous, that he had been waiting for the consolation of Israel, and that the Holy Spirit was upon him. And I'm sure that his life has been consumed with praying for these things. The glory of Israel. The consolation of Israel.

Joel Brooks: 05:05

And in the morning, he would pray for these things. In the evening, he would pray for these things. And here, finally, he's seeing the answer. If you want to understand Advent, understand Simeon. A life filled with hope and expectation and waiting for the savior.

Joel Brooks: 05:23

Waiting. One time during Simeon's prayer, the Holy Spirit says, Simeon, I'm gonna grant you your request. Before you die, I will let you see your King. I will let you see the King before you leave this earth. And from that moment on, I bet with intense anticipation, Simeon prayed, and he sought, and he looked at every child, and every couple that came by with a child, wondering, is this the one?

Joel Brooks: 05:56

Is this going to be the king? And and finally he sees this young couple that's about to leave the temple, and the Holy Spirit says, That's the one. There's your king. And he beelines right there, and Mary can see fire in this man's eyes, and he says, can I hold your baby? Now I mean Lauren and I, when we take Georgia around, everybody wants to hold babies.

Joel Brooks: 06:22

And as as parents are always kind of like, okay, you know, draw your baby's so juicy, you know, or just I just want to hold. And and you know, we're always thinking germs or, you know, we don't know you're a total stranger. And here's this old man, very passionate, and he comes up says, let me hold your baby. And there's something about him Mary doesn't refuse. And so she gives her baby to this stranger, and he he lifts up this child, and this is the one he's been waiting for for so many years and he prophesies in verse 29.

Joel Brooks: 07:00

Let's read it again. It says, 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 the glory to your people Israel. And it says, and Mary and Joseph, they marveled at these words. Words of tremendous hope.

Joel Brooks: 07:28

I mean their child's called salvation. It's gonna bring glory, a light to the Gentiles. Their child is gonna change the world. That would make you feel pretty good as parents. If you were to come up to Lauren and me and you, you know, you were just to say, oh your child's got the most beautiful eyes, your child, you know, oh gosh, destined for great things, you're gonna win us over.

Joel Brooks: 07:49

We're gonna be beaming. And I'm sure that as young parents they're absolutely beaming. And then they can see Simeon's countenance change. His face darkens. And I'm sure Mary wants to get her child back at this point, and he still holds on.

Joel Brooks: 08:11

Then he says this in verse 34, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, be he's going to be a king, but people are going to oppose this king. He is going to divide the world, and a sword is gonna pierce through you. And she's probably thinking, I wish I got the child back earlier. What would cause him to say this? What does this mean?

Joel Brooks: 09:03

The last phrase is something that I've been mulling over for a while that the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed. Now if I were to prophesy about Jesus, and and and talk about the purpose, what His life is leading up to, I would talk about forgiveness, I'd talk about hope, you know, I would do the light unto the Gentiles, all of that all of that stuff. I wouldn't say the purpose of his death is to expose what's in man's hearts. That's the purpose. People are going to rise and fall because of him.

Joel Brooks: 09:36

There's going to be a sword and it's going to divide and it's going to show what is in man. And you actually hear remarkably similar words to this from Jesus's own lips and Luke 12 when he says, do you think that I came to bring peace to the world? No. I tell you, I came to bring division. Houses will be divided.

Joel Brooks: 10:07

Fathers will be against their sons. Mothers will be against their daughters. Jesus says, I'm a sword. A month ago, we looked at our meditation on the cross, Psalm 22, and we looked at how all of the gospel accounts when recording the life of Jesus, they all make it a point to pull out the mocking, to tell of the mocking of Jesus. Every gospel pulls it.

Joel Brooks: 10:35

They don't focus on the physical details, but they they focus on what people say in the mocking and the humiliation. And they didn't mock Jesus because of the Sermon on the Mount. They didn't mock Him because of His teachings. They didn't mock Him because He was kind. They didn't mock Him because He had a heart for the poor.

Joel Brooks: 10:51

They mocked Him because of His claims. He claimed to be the Son of God. That's the only reason they mocked Him was because what He claimed to be, who He claimed to be. And because of this one claim, He's divisive. You will either mock Him or you will worship Him, but you can't be neutral concerning Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 11:15

He hasn't given you that option. In Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, she tells of this bandit who's killing off a family 1 by 1. And you would take, you know, one of them in another room, kill them, come back and get another. And there's this mother who's left and she's just trying to talk and say anything to this bandit to keep from being killed. And so she brings up Jesus, you know, let's get the religious talk in there.

Joel Brooks: 11:42

Let's talk about, you know, certainly you're not going to do this because of Jesus, you know. What would Jesus do, you know. And he has this interesting comment. It says, when she mentioned Jesus, the bandit replied, Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead. The misfit continued, and he shouldn't have done it.

Joel Brooks: 12:04

He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow him. And if he didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody, or burning down his house, or doing some other meanness to him. There's no pleasure but meanness. And he said this, and his voice had become almost a snarl.

Joel Brooks: 12:34

Now Flannery O'Connor, she wrote this as a criticism of professing Christians. Profession professing Christians who treat their faith with such casualness. The misfit understood Christianity, and that if Jesus did what he said he did, it throws everything off. You know, the the generation is coming up is the worst generation, and we're always living in the worst times. Everybody always thinks that, and so they would ask, Joel, what do you think is the the worst problem with this generation?

Joel Brooks: 13:14

You know, with of professing Christians, what's their biggest problem? And I would always respond, their problem is the exact same as your problem. As all of our problems is that we don't believe what we say we believe. That's the biggest thing that I see wrong with this generation. We don't believe what we say we believe.

Joel Brooks: 13:35

Have you ever thought of the absurd claims that we believe? That the God who spoke the universe into existence became man, and he walked on this earth, and he ate, and he talked, and he played, and we crucified him. And then he rose again from the dead, and now he gives his Holy Spirit to all who believe. And if you listen to that, just someone to just come up and tell you that off the street you say, it's absurd, or as Paul tells the Corinthians, it says that the Greeks say madness, and the Jews say, that's foolishness. It's divisive.

Joel Brooks: 14:18

It is absurd, but if you believe it, if you really believe what you say you believe, it changes everything. If you believe God became man, it changes it all. The claim of Jesus is a sword, and it exposes our rebellion because we don't want the Lord to walk this earth. We want to be our own Lord. And what Simeon is saying here is that Jesus is going to be this divisive figure, and he's gonna act as a sword.

Joel Brooks: 14:55

He's gonna cut through people's hearts. He's gonna expose what's in them, and then he looks at Mary and he says, Mary, this is gonna be particularly painful for you. For you. He says this is gonna be a sword, and the Greek word there is this a double edged sword. This is a big broad double edged sword, and obviously he's talking about the crucifixion.

Joel Brooks: 15:21

But I would consider that one blade of the sword, and the other blade is simply how Mary is going to have to learn to relate to Jesus. How she's going to have to learn to relate to him. She cannot relate to him as a blood mother. She's going to have to relate to him in faith as the Son of God, and that is gonna pierce her. In Luke 8, Jesus's brothers tried to speak with him, and and Jesus's mother tried to speak with him, and Jesus, he says, okay.

Joel Brooks: 15:58

I know they're out there, but who is my mother? Who are my brothers? It's whoever does the will of the Lord. Can you imagine how much that must have stung Mary, who's out there and Jesus won't come and talk to her? His own mother's out there and he says, who is my mother?

Joel Brooks: 16:18

You're my mother. You're my brothers and my sisters. And he's not devaluing her role as a mother. What he's doing is he's exalting the role of a spiritual family. He's saying that that takes precedence.

Joel Brooks: 16:34

Jesus would later say things like, He who does not hate his father and mother is not worthy of Me or is not My disciple. Can you imagine if that got back to Mary? Your son is going around saying that you've got to hate your mother. Divisive, pierces her. Now let's look at this sword of the crucifixion.

Joel Brooks: 17:03

Turn to John 19. It was provenance that God allowed Mary to be here at the cross when her son was executed. Most of us don't really think about this, but you know, Mary didn't live in Jerusalem, and Jesus, he was arrested at around midnight. He was tried early in the morning. He was executed by midday.

Joel Brooks: 17:25

So there's really about a 12 hour period in which he was caught, tried, executed, and yet Mary was allowed to be there because it was Passover. God in his providence made sure Mary was there. His brothers were there, and I'm sure when she heard the news, she rushed to Golgotha just in time for the last moments of Jesus's life, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight that she saw. There's her son beaten, bloody, nails in his hands and feet hanging up naked, humiliated in front of everyone. People mocking him, Insults at him.

Joel Brooks: 18:18

And then Jesus looks at her and he says he looks at her and he looks at the disciple and he says, behold your mother. He says, woman behold your son. And these are remarkable words because at this moment, Jesus is experiencing hell. We've looked at that in our monthly meditations on the cross. Jesus is experiencing hell, total abandonment, yet here he's looking out for the needs of others, from hell.

Joel Brooks: 18:53

And he's looking out for the needs of his mom. And he looks at John, who's the the disciple here, and he says, John, this is your mother. This is your mother. Now as an eldest son, Jesus would have been responsible for Mary. She was a widow.

Joel Brooks: 19:11

Joseph had likely been dead for a number of years. You know, Jesus waited till he was 30 years old to enter into ministry and likely a lot of that was because he was having to take care of Mary during this time. He was doing the role of an eldest son and taking care of her. And so it's his job to to bequeath at his death that role of responsibility to somebody else and really to give all of his inheritance some to somebody else. It's interesting, I find that in the life of Jesus, if you study it, the concern that he has for widows.

Joel Brooks: 19:49

We have 3 resurrection. Jesus raised 3 people from the dead. A little girl raised Lazarus from the dead, And those were from request. People asked for Jesus's help. But there's one other time he raised somebody from the dead, and it's when he was just walking into town and a funeral met him, and he saw a widow weeping over her only son going by.

Joel Brooks: 20:15

And Jesus stopped the funeral, and he gave the woman back her son. There's something about seeing the widow weeping that broke Jesus, and he stopped it, and he gave her back a son. And Jesus is always looking after the way. He's always looked after his mom, and you see this here. Mary depended upon him.

Joel Brooks: 20:37

You saw that that in John chapter 2 at the wedding of Canaan in which there's a need. What's the first thing that Mary does when we've run out of wine? Goes to Jesus. She's so used to going to Jesus. Jesus, I've got a problem.

Joel Brooks: 20:51

Will you help me out? And actually, the the gospel writer John here, he wants you to see that story and this story connected. It's the only time he ever addresses his mom. Both times he says, calls her woman, and both times he's talking about the cross. And you see at the wedding of Cana, Mary comes to Jesus and says, will you help me out with this?

Joel Brooks: 21:13

And he says, woman, what why are you bothering me? Don't you know my hour has not come? Or don't you know I'm not dying on the cross? You want me to meet a need? I can't meet my hour.

Joel Brooks: 21:30

I'll meet the need on the cross. And here you have on the cross, he sees his mother and he says, woman, and he meets her need, her ultimate need this time, and providing salvation for her. Her. That's the need above all her other needs. One can also hear in Jesus's words here when he says, behold your son and behold your mother, a rebuke against Eastern and Western thoughts on family.

Joel Brooks: 22:05

It's actually a pretty subtle rebuke, but it is definitely there. Because here you have, Jesus who's in the midst of hell, and he doesn't think of himself. He actually thinks of his family. That that's against what Eastern thought is about their family, which which which holds up the individual above all else. Above all family ties, and he says, no.

Joel Brooks: 22:29

At this moment, even when I should be just thinking about myself, I'm gonna think of family and taking care of my family. But yet it also goes against Western thought, which holds the family as the is the central, the central thing in life. Everything revolves around your family. If you've been around any of any Asian families, in which they hold their their parents with such honor and esteem, and they live for the glory and the honor of their parents. Here, Jesus, he goes against that because he says, yes, family is important, but it's not blood family.

Joel Brooks: 23:06

And he says, I form a new family here. And so he he both he holds the the to, yes, it's not the individual, it's the corporate, it's the family, but it's not blood. It's my spirit that forms this family. That is what is most important right here. And what's interesting is that Jesus doesn't ask his brothers to take care of Mary, and they're certainly there at the cross, there's your blood kin, and Jesus looks at them, and then he goes to John.

Joel Brooks: 23:39

He says, take care of my mom. This was not a traditional thing to do. Also notice John, he's probably extremely young. I don't know what picture you have of John. He's probably like the kid brother of the disciples.

Joel Brooks: 23:58

He's really really young, and we know this for a number of reasons. One, he he lives really long. The gospel John is written much later. Even little things like, when he was running back from the tomb, he outran Peter by a long shot. But here he's actually at the cross.

Joel Brooks: 24:17

If you notice, John mentions all these women. There's 3 Marys and somebody else, and then there's John. Now Jesus was crucified as a revolutionary. He claimed to be king. It was treason.

Joel Brooks: 24:29

Any one of his followers would have also been executed and yet here's John, and he's not being arrested. And the reason he's not arrested is because John is too young for that. He's not seen as a threat. He's not seen as though this person is going to carry on Jesus's revolution. Craig Keener has a great commentary on John says, John at this point, he couldn't even grow a beard.

Joel Brooks: 24:52

He's young. Which makes us even more just just amazing, is that here you have older, or you have these these siblings, they're younger than Jesus, but they're probably older than John, capable. And Jesus looks at this young inexperienced disciple of his. And says, you take care of my mom. And one of the things you should walk away with this is if Jesus calls you to do something and you claim inexperience and you claim I'm too young, that's such a pathetic excuse.

Joel Brooks: 25:29

Jesus got this young disciple to take care of his own mother. He calls us. He doesn't care about the age, what he wants his faithfulness to his call. Jesus exalts the bonds that we have through the spirit. They're stronger than any other bonds, stronger than blood, stronger than the, the bonds of marriage, because these are the bonds that we take for all eternity.

Joel Brooks: 25:59

It's what Christian family is. I'm reminded of Peter's words in Luke 18, and Jesus just told the story of the rich young ruler. And Peter as always, know, he says something goes, well Jesus, we've left our houses and all these things to follow you. And I always picture Jesus's response as being slightly sarcastic. Slightly.

Joel Brooks: 26:21

Said with a smile. He goes, oh, have you Peter really left all? I tell you, you will receive 100 more brothers and sisters and homes in this life and the life to come. And obviously, he's talking about kingdom of God when it comes, but he says, in this life, and what he's talking about is your Christian family. Yeah, Peter, you gave it one home and you gained 100.

Joel Brooks: 26:54

You left one family and you gained an enormous family, and that bond is deeper than your blood family. It's stronger. And you find all through Paul's letters, he calls his fellow Christians brothers and sisters, and even calls Timothy his child. And I think we use that language so much, we've just kind of gotten callous to it. It's pretty remarkable that we can call one another brother or sister.

Joel Brooks: 27:24

That's remarkable. I want you to notice just a few things from here. 1, Jesus makes the family we don't. Honestly, I probably wouldn't pick everybody in this room just cause I'm a mean guy. And if I had to pick family, there's some people I get along with really well, some people I'm like, yeah, yeah, okay, you know.

Joel Brooks: 27:44

I know God, you want me to love them, you know, and we are all that way. We all have family that we probably don't like. Blood family, we probably don't like, but do you love them? Absolutely. You didn't choose them, but they're part of your family.

Joel Brooks: 28:02

God here makes the family. He makes the church family. He puts people together, and I've said this before, it's almost like an experiment. Let me get, you know, this person here and this person here, they're totally opposite in every way. Now let's put them together and they have to worship side by side me.

Joel Brooks: 28:17

How glorious. How glorious. God makes the family. We're not a country club in which we're all have the, you know, the same ideas, the same values, we all look alike, have the same income. God says none of that.

Joel Brooks: 28:31

That's a country club. This is a church, a church family, and I do the picking. One final thing we learned from the word of the Jesus's last words here on the cross is we learn what it means to be a disciple. Jesus says, from that hour or from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. The disciple took her to his own home.

Joel Brooks: 28:58

John is really, in the Greek, it's very strong and that he he took her to himself and he takes the concerns of Jesus and he makes them his own concerns. And that's what being a disciple is. A disciple takes those concerns and we make them our own. His passions become our passions.