The Promise - Christmas 2025

Because the kids are here with us. I'm going to take advantage of that and I'm going to have them do the Bible readings for our message today. So I'm going to hand over to Izzy. Isaiah 40, verse 3 to 5 Listen. It is the voice of someone shouting, Clear the way for the wilderness for the lord.

Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God. Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken.

Luke 2:25 35 at that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there.

He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace as you have promised. I have seen your salvation which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people, Israel. Jesus parents were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed him and he said to Mary, the baby's mother, this child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall and many others to rise.

He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result. The deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your very soul. John 14:1 3 Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me.

There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that I will always be with me where I am. If you've ever been out in public with a baby, you will have undoubtedly experienced what it's like to attract the attention of strangers. Certainly this happens when your baby starts screaming and everyone looks at you.

But perhaps it happens even more so when the baby isn't screaming, when it's just sitting there in the pram looking cute, taking in the world around them. You quickly discover that people are no longer interested in you. They're interested in your baby. I never thought I'd become one of those people. But I found myself a couple of weeks ago, sitting in a cafe, trying to do some work, distracted by the baby that was sitting in the high chair opposite me.

I remember not well, a long time ago, not long after our eldest was born, that Cindy and I were chatting about this very thing, that babies attract all kinds of people, including strangers who will randomly ask you, perhaps at the shops, to hold your child. I hadn't encountered that at the time, but I'd heard of friends and people that that had happened to, where strangers had come up to them and said, can I have a cuddle? And so Cindy and I were discussing what we would say if ever we were faced with that situation. I wonder if on a quiet night at home, Joseph ever turned to Mary and said, mary, what would you do if a stranger asks to hold baby Jesus? What would you say to them?

I'm not sure they ever had that conversation. And yet we find ourselves in Luke's gospel this afternoon where that very thing happens. Mary and Joseph arrive at the temple, they have baby Jesus with them and an old man, a stranger, Simeon, comes and takes Jesus in his arms and makes an incredible declaration about him. Simeon is a person in the Christmas story that we don't know much about, and we don't know much about him, even though, and this might shock you, it might ruin your nativity sets. He meets Jesus way, way, way before the wise men do.

And we seem to talk about them a lot. In fact, everything we know about Simeon comes from just two verses. We know that he lived in Jerusalem, that he was righteous and devout, and that he was eagerly waiting for the Messiah, the Saviour, to come and to rescue Israel. Now, this description of Simeon is actually quite remarkable when you think about it, because it had been 400 years, 400 years since God had last sent a prophet to speak to his people. Four centuries of waiting and hoping that the promises of God in the Hebrew scriptures would be fulfilled.

On top of that, it had been nearly 70 years. 70 years since Simeon, probably as a young boy, had watched as the Romans marched into Jerusalem, as the Roman army killed many of the inhabitants there as they established their power over the Jews, who now suffered under occupation. And yet, even in this long season of silence, of persecution and of waiting, some of the Jews held on to hope. They kept on hoping. Nothing in their circumstances suggested that the rescue was just around the corner.

And still they eagerly waited. They clung on to these ancient promises from the prophets that God would send a messiah, that one would come who would rescue God's people. We have three promises. I wonder if you saw them in those three passages as we read. The first of these is the one that we read in that first reading.

They're from Isaiah 40. It was written about 700 years before Christ comes from a section of Isaiah called the Book of Comfort. It's a part of the Book of Isaiah that is full of prophetic declarations given to God's people at a time where they felt defeated, exhausted and forgotten. We read it there in Isaiah 43. Listen as the voice of someone shouting, clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord.

Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God. Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all the people will see it together. The Lord has spoken.

You see, anyone in the ancient world knew exactly what the words of Isaiah were describing here. Because when a king traveled in those times, the roads weren't left as they were. A crew went before the king to prepare the way. They would clear debris, they would fill in potholes, they would smooth out rough ground. They would even straighten winding paths.

If it was possible. If you're planning a driving holiday, maybe you would wish that you had a crew in front of you as well. But Isaiah's message was simple. It was, get ready our king, the Lord is coming. Make space for him.

Remove whatever stands in the way. In the midst of your darkness, your suffering and your despair, even if you are feeling hopeless, there is hope because God is coming to rescue you. Simeon held on to this promise. For someone like Simeon, wading through these long decades where it looked like nothing was happened, I bet the words of Isaiah were like breath to his lungs. It was like a life giving gift to him.

Every time they heard these words read, it reminded them that God had not forgotten them, that God was still coming. And Luke tells us that Simeon didn't just know those promises. He lived eagerly expecting the Messiah was going to come. Come and rescue Israel. I want us to imagine that for a moment there in the midst of political, where it felt like for centuries God had been silent, where it must have been so hard for them even to see a glimpse of.

Of God's hand at work. Still, Simeon believed that God would do exactly as he promised. And Luke tells us something more than that. He says there in verse 26, God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. I can imagine the prayer of a faithful man like Simeon would have been Something like, lord, let me see him.

Let me see the one I've been waiting for. Let me see the salvation that you've promised. And God, in his kindness, he answers that prayer. Luke tells specific day the Spirit led to the temple. I suspect Simeon was a familiar face around the temple courts, a man who kept showing up, who kept looking to see, who kept waiting and hoping.

On this particular day, we read that the Holy Spirit stirs in his heart to go, nudges him, maybe quietly, maybe urgently, Simeon, today is the day. You need to get to the temple. And Simeon obeys and he goes. And so I picture him there, this man. He's probably old, he's excited.

He's staring at families as they come in, saying, lord, is this the one? Is this the one? And then Mary and Joseph come. I wonder what Simeon had pictured, because there's no royal robes on their shoulders, there's no crowd of followers with them. There's no servants.

There is nothing that shows wealth or power. It's just a poor young couple with their baby boy only a handful of weeks old. By every earthly measure. Nothing about them stood out. But Simeon sees what no one else sees.

The Holy Spirit prompts in his heart, Simeon, this is the one. And so he comes forward and he takes the baby Jesus in his arms, and he declares there in verse 29, Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation which you have prepared for all people. He is the light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people, Israel. Isn't it incredible that Simeon saw in the baby Jesus in that moment something that took the disciples a really long time to see later on.

And this is our second promise, that God's salvation was not hidden away or reserved only for Israel, but Jesus had come as a light to all nations. Luke tells us that as Simeon declares this, Mary and Joseph are amazed as they are standing there, amazed at his words of praise for Jesus. Simeon turns to Mary with a prophetic word that carries a deep truth and an emotional weight. He says, mary, God's salvation has come. But, Mary, the journey ahead won't be simple.

Jesus will cause many in Israel to fall and to rise. And Simeon is saying, jesus is going to divide opinion. You see, meeting Jesus or hearing his words exposed what was in people's hearts. Some welcomed him as their Lord and yet others resisted him fiercely. It still has the same effect today, doesn't it?

We hear about Jesus, we either have to reject what we hear or we accept it.

As I was reflecting on this passage during the week, I was struck by this incredible hope and faith that Simeon had. It would have been so easy for him to forget God's promises, would have been so easy to be disappointed by the silence, to get distracted trying to survive as a Jew under Roman rule, would have been easy to become so familiar with what he had heard in the Hebrew scriptures that he had let the wonder fade, that he stopped believing that God was actually going to do what he'd promised.

I'm sure many of the people that Simeon knew had done that. They had stopped looking, they had stopped hoping. And yet Simeon didn't. He kept on believing. He kept waiting with a sense of expectation.

He was full of faith and hope, convinced that God was going to keep his word. And that brings us to our third promise today. There in our third reading in John 14. This one takes us forward in Jesus life. He's no longer the baby in the temple held in the arms of Simeon.

Now Jesus, the grown man, heading towards the cross and speaking with his disciples. And he says to them, similar to what Simeon told Mary, the cost to me of God's promise is going to be greater than what you expect. I'm leaving. But here is a promise for you. When everything is ready, I'll come and get you so that you'll always be where I am.

And this is what Jesus is saying to his disciples in John 14, just as the prophet Isaiah had said to God's people, get ready, the king is coming now. Jesus says to his disciples, be ready. I am coming again.

And this is the challenge for us today at the center of Christmas. It isn't decorations. It's not presents. It's not even a nice story. It's a promise.

A promise that God sees us, that he knows us, and that he hasn't forgotten us. For Simeon, he saw the fulfilment of God's promise when he had Jesus in his arms. God had kept his promise in the most unexpected way. Way. And what strikes me is that Simeon didn't have everything worked out.

He didn't know how the story would unfold. He simply recognized that God was at work. And that's what Christmas invites you and me to consider as well.

Whether you've been part of church for a long time or maybe this is all fairly new to you and you're here today and you're not quite sure what you believe. Christmas invites us to pause, to consider. What if God really has come near? What if hope isn't an idea or a feeling, but Instead, it's a person, it's Jesus. And you see the promise.

For you and me, it doesn't stop with a manger. As we saw Jesus declare, God is not finished yet. So Christmas is both a reminder and it's an invitation. A reminder that God keeps his promises and an invitation to trust him that he will keep them again.

So I wonder where that sits with you today. And I invite you this Christmas to consider how you might respond if you believe that Jesus is coming again. Would you examine your life and see whether or not it reflects that reality?

And if you're not sure where you sit with it today, would you consider not just letting these words resonate in your heart and then getting lost in the busyness of Christmas and the new Year, but would you come to Jesus in prayer, softly, there's no right or wrong words, and ask that you too might know the hope that God has promised to us through Jesus. Let's pray. Our God, we thank youk for the promise of Christmas. We thank youk that it is not just a story, but instead it's an invitation. It's an invitation to trust, just like Simeon did, that you are going to keep your promises, that you are still at work, that even in the darkness of this world, at times where we might feel hopeless, that you offer us a deep hope that comes from knowing that, Jesus, you're going to return, you're coming again, and that all those who know you are promised an incredible eternity.

And so, God, we pray that you would speak to our hearts, that you would help us this Christmas to respond to that promise that Jesus declares that I'm going, but I'm coming back.

We pray that that would resonate in our hearts, that we might know Jesus, each one of us, in a personal way this Christmas, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.