the presence of the holy spirit (luke 2:22–35) · 22/12/2019 · the presence of the holy spirit...

THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

(LUKE 2:22–35)

Message 4 of 5 in the Series

“Christmas Presence”

A Sermon by Dr. Jeremy Roberts


PUBLISHED BY DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Jeremy Roberts

Preached at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL

22 December 2019

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of

Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.

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Luke 2:22–35 says, 22 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 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 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. 26 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. 27 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, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 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 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

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Some people have an extraordinary capacity to wait for a significant life changing situation.1 Anatoli Sharansky was such a person.2 That activist Russian Jew was released after twelve years of being detained because of his convictions. His wife waited for him to be released for a dozen years. He received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Israel, and the world wondered at his willingness and ability to wait expectantly for a significant event for twelve long years.

In quite a different way, Jack and Gladys Tipps of Seymour, Texas learned how to wait. Their story was told several years ago in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.3 Their son, Gene, a college student, was returning home from attending a rodeo. When his car slipped on the road, there was an accident. He was injured and went into an impenetrable coma for 30 days. Finally, he woke up out of that coma in a semi-conscious stupor. He continued in that state for eight long years. All of the professionals told Jack and his wife he would never be any better. They did not know what to do. They continued to exercise, and feed, and talk to Gene.

After eight years, he had to have a routine medical operation. 65 hours after he had that operation, he set up in his bed wide awake, alert, and questioning for the first time in eight years saying, “I’ve got to get back to college.” It was as if his life had been placed on hold for eight years. No one could believe it. No one has explained it yet.

1 Joel C. Gregory, Gregory’s Sermon Synopsis (Nashville: Baptist Sunday School Board, 1992), 150. 2 Geoffrey Bould, ed., Conscience Be My Guide: An Anthology of Prison Writings (New York: Weaver Press, 1991), 192–193. 3 Melody McDonald, “Thirty Years Ago, West Texan Awoke to a New World,” Fort Worth Star Telegram. May 16, 2005.

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Suddenly, he was awake, alive and alert when he resumed his life again. Jack and Gladys Tipps were so pleased that they had waited with expectancy for that day.

Some of you may be waiting with expectancy for some life changing event. The reason we’re looking at Simeon today is because he shared with Anatoli Sharansky, and Jack and Gene Tipps, and with some of you the ability to wait with a sense of expectancy. These folks believed that God was about to intervene in their lives in a decisive way.

Christmas is a time that reminds us of waiting. In fact, it’s the very heart of Christmas for children, that interminable period of having to wait for the day itself to come. For those of us as adults, we should wait for Christmas with a different dimension, waiting with expectancy that God will do something.

Simeon’s entire life had been one prolonged waiting with a white heat of intensity and energetic anticipation that God was going to intervene before he died. As every page of the calendar turned, or as the shadow advanced on the hourglass in Jerusalem, Simeon said “God is about to intervene in my life in a decisive way.”

I recognize that Simeon belongs to the minor characters of the Christmas story. You might think on the Sunday before Christmas, I ought to be preaching from the life of one of the major leaguers like Joseph or Mary. However, even though Simeon belongs to that cast of minor characters, best of all, he teaches you how to wait with expectancy for what God will do at Christmas. Simeon reveals both


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the character and the conduct, the heart and the mind that waits with preparation for the coming of Christmas. Those who wait for Christmas do so with a certain character and he reveals that.

Most of the people in Jerusalem and in Judea missed that first Christmas. Those who were the somebodies never knew what happened. Those who were the nobodies were in the very center of it. The powerful were oblivious to the fact that the greatest event in history was happening under their very nose. The powerless people were central actors in God’s drama. Those who belonged to the religious and political establishment never knew that it happened. And those who had no political or religious power were the only ones who did recognize that it happened.

Simeon was an unknown, anonymous, and unnoticed older man in Jerusalem, and yet he belonged to those who recognize what God was doing at that Christmas time.

I. Be A Person of Character this Christmas

Would you look with me at Simeon’s character for some clues about how to wait for Christmas this week? When you look at Simeon’s character, you find first of all that we ought to wait with integrity for Christmas.

A. Integrity

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Luke 2:25 says, 25 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.

The emphasis does not rest on who he was, for he was an unknown man. The emphasis rests on what he was. He was a man who waited for God with integrity, righteousness and devotion.

The word righteous here means someone who was exact, precise, lawful and upright in corresponding to God’s will for his life.4 It is interesting how often you find that word used in the cast of characters in the Christmas story. You see it when you look at the very first page of Luke’s Gospel with the coming of the message to Elizabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist as Luke 1:6 says, 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

Blameless were those who experienced that first Christmas. When I read of Simeon in the Bible, or Elizabeth and Zechariah, I’m reminded of the words of Proverbs 4:18, 18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

The hearts of Mary and Joseph were clear before dawn.

4 John A. Martin, “Luke,” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 209.


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Matthew 1:19 says, 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Joseph was a man who was precise, exact, and upright in his walk.

Wait with an integrity of heart. Need I remind you that God does not suspend the rules at Christmas. It’s the same Christmas as all year long. Those with impure eyes do not see Christmas. Those with unclean hands cannot touch Christmas. Those with stained hearts cannot experience what God wants to do at Christmas. God doesn’t play the game by a different set of rules at Christmas. Now is as great a time as any time for self-examination. It is time to apply Psalm 139:23–24, 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Would you like to get ready for Christmas in the same way? Simeon was ready for Christmas in the exact way as Zechariah, and Elizabeth, and Joseph. Their hearts were ready for Christmas.

Christmas is a time when you want to examine your heart for the presence of any grudges, bitterness, contentiousness, impurities, or anything that would cause you to fall short of the Lord Jesus Christ and His first place in your life.

I have on my study desk something I retrieved this week. It is a four-page set of heart-searching questions from the Word of God. I intend to spend these days before Christmas this coming Wednesday,

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applying those questions to my heart, so that when that day comes, I will have eyes ready to see it, hands ready to touch it, and a heart ready to be open to it because I’m standing before God with integrity.

Simeon waited for Christmas with integrity. I want you to notice also the character of those who wait for Christmas with intensity.

B. Intensity

Luke 2:25 says, 25 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.

Everything we read about that first century is one of darkness, despair and depression for the people of God in Israel. They were a subjugated nation, having been conquered by the Roman General Pompey in 63 B.C.5 It appeared that the sun had set and the music would be in a minor key forever. But there was at least one person in Jerusalem who lived on the edge of expectancy that God was about to intervene in a redeeming way. Simeon lived out the truth of Isaiah 40:1, which says, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Consequently, Simeon must have been old, according to one of the

5 Leo G. Perdue and Warren Carter, Israel and Empire: A Postcolonial History of Israel and Early Judaism (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015), 223.


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apocryphal gospels.6 It places his age at 113 years. We don’t know, but he appears to have been an old man. He was one man for whom every day was a life lived in the energy of anticipation and in the white heat of expectancy that God was going to intervene before his life was over. And because of that, he was the first one, literally, to receive and to hold the infant Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you move into this season expecting anything? Do you expect anything more than buying a bunch of presents on Amazon? Or a few days off from work? Or a hangover? Or incredible credit card bills coming in January? Do you have a sense of anticipation that this very week God might break into your life in a way that you did not anticipate?

The very center of the message of Christmas is to stand with Simeon with expectant energy that God could, this very week, break into my life in a way that He has never done before.

You know what I’ve learned in pastoring people these nearly 12 years? You will have just as much of God as you expect you’ll have.

Everyone I’ve ever pastored and known has experienced just as much of the presence and reality of God as he or she expected. If you expect mediocrity, you will have a mediocre experience with God. If you expect a routine, your experience with God will be routine. If you expect a dull and insipid relationship with God, then your

6 Sir William Smith, A Concise Dictionary of the Bible: Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography, and Natural History (London: Albermarle Street, 1875), 883.

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experience with God will be dull and insipid.

But if you would prepare waiting for Christmas with Simeon, you would find that to just the extent you live with an intensity of expectation that this Christmas week, God will move into your life in a new dimension. You can and will experience that.

I’ve covenanted with God this week not only to examine the integrity of my heart, waiting for Christmas, but to look at the intensity of my heart. And I will confess in covenant with you that I expect God to break into Jeremy Roberts’ life this week.

Simeon also waited for Christmas with an inspiration.

C. Inspiration

The most significant and decisive thing about Simeon is that he sustained an unusual relationship with the Holy Spirit. We read in the latter part of verse 25, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

You may say, “So what? The Holy Spirit is upon every Christian,” but keep in mind this was not the Christian era yet. The Holy Spirit came selectively from certain individuals who were aware of and open to His influence.


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And this old man, Simeon, sustained an unusual communion with the Spirit of God. The Christmas story is, if anything, a renewal of the activity of God’s Holy Spirit, which seemed to have been absent across more than three silent centuries. There was a moving of God’s Spirit in the life of Elizabeth and Zechariah in the conception of John the Baptist. There was a movement of the Holy Spirit over the womb of Mary at the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a movement of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Mary, she broke out into song and said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Yes, there was a renewal of the activity of the Holy Spirit. It took place in two ways: It gave him a specific revelation about his life, and it gave him a definite direction for his life.

i. The Holy Spirit Gives Specific Revelation (v. 26)

Luke 2:26 says, 26 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.

You may wonder, “How did God tell him that?” I don’t know. Maybe it was a meditation on Scripture and a passage leaped up out of the pages of Scripture, and convinced him he would not die until the silencing. Maybe it was in a vision by day or a dream by night or an audible voice of God that spoke to him and said, “Simeon, you will live until the Messiah comes.” All I know is that the Holy Spirit gave him specific revelation.

I believe God the Holy Spirit reveals stuff to me all the time without me even knowing it is God doing it. I want to share something with you, and it is a true burden on my heart. I am a Baptist, and have

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been since resting in my mother’s womb. I know Baptists. My academic and vocational background have all been Baptist.

The Baptist church has drifted further and further from mentioning the Holy Spirit and He is quenched in too many Baptist churches. We almost think we have to be stoic to be spiritual or proper. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak into your life and enjoy Him. For crying out loud, He indwells us!

ii. The Holy Spirit Gives Definite Direction (v. 27)

Luke 2:27 says, 27 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,

The Holy Spirit desires to give you consistent personal revelation of the will of God for your life. We’re only playing with these stories and making them religious fairy tales if we leave them a half a world away and 20 centuries ago. The meaning of Christmas is that that same Holy Spirit desires to consistently reveal to us personally and precisely what the Word and will of God is for our lives.

But not only that, to give us the same kind of direction. Just as that Spirit moves Simeon from his home to the outer court of the temple, it is the will of the Spirit of God in your life this week. I mean before Christmas. To move you into contact with certain people with definite places and in precise situations where God will speak and move through your life. Would you be open to that revelation and


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that direction, which always comes from the Spirit of God?

I hope that no one misses Christmas. By that loss of integrity or intensity or inspiration that comes from the Spirit of God. You recognize some people have missed Christmas.

In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in colonial America, the rigid and rigorous Puritans actually outlawed the observance of Christmas.7 From 1659 to 1681, for 22 years Christmas was illegal in Massachusetts. There was to be no feast or festivity. There was to be no frolicking, or joy, or exchange of presence. There would have been no trees or ornaments. It was made illegal for 22 years.

We don’t belong to a place where there are any laws against the observance of Christmas. My plea to you is that you do experience it, and that you do so with the integrity, and intensity, and inspiration that ought to belong to the character of those who have a full experience of Christmas.

II. Be a Comforting Person this Christmas

In this passage, we find the kind of comfort that ought to belong to those who wait for Christmas arrived. It is the comfort that comes from the certain knowledge of the reception of the Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, Christmas Traditions in Boston (Stroud, UK: Fonthill Media, 2017).

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And the comfort that comes from a sense of personal satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the comfort that comes from reception of the Lord.

A. Reception of the Lord Jesus

Simeon literally became the first individual on record—personally, literally—to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He was moved by the Spirit to go into the temple courts. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him what the customer of the law required, Simeon took Him in his arms, and praised God. It was an awesome moment.

Here was this old man who on a day was suddenly propelled, guided, and moved by the Holy Spirit to leave his home and to go to the outer court of the temple in Jerusalem. At precisely that same time, Joseph and Mary were moved by the same Spirit to bring the infant Savior up the steps of that outer court to present Him at the temple.

There, in the temple, was an intersection between Simeon and the Holy Family. You say, “Well, how did he know what was happening?” Well, religious art notwithstanding, there was no halo over the head of the infant Jesus.8 There was no aura around Mary and Joseph. In fact, scholars tell us that there would have been dozens or scores of young couples bringing infants on exactly the

8 Richard Bernheimer, Religion and Art (University of Illinois: Art Treasures of the World, 1954), 9.


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same errand to present children at the temple.9

But in some mysterious way, unerringly this aged Simeon was guided to exactly the right family, and there was a speechless moment of mystery when Mary was willing to surrender the baby Jesus to the hands of this unknown old stranger. It was a rendezvous that had been arranged by the Holy Spirit of God.

Do you recognize that this is simply a symbol of what the Holy Spirit of God has been doing? Ever since that day, for every single one of you who has ever come to meet Jesus Christ, have you’ve been part of a rendezvous with God that was arranged by the Holy Spirit. What began that day mysteriously on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem has continued every day since then, in Christian history.

You see it in the book of Acts. There was that Ethiopian returning to his country in Acts 8, in the middle of the desert and suddenly, one of the seven deacons of the early church was led by the Holy Spirit to be joined to him. At that moment, there was an intersection where that Ethiopian met the Spirit of God in a rendezvous with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was the same in Acts 10 when Peter was in his house and Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was in his house, and by the movement of the Holy Spirit of God, the two of them are brought together with a rendezvous with the Lord Jesus Christ.

9 Martin, 209.

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It was the same in Acts 16 when that traveling single adult business-woman, Lydia, was down by Philippi, and she was moved by the same Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul was also there. At that time, there was a rendezvous with Paul, and Lydia, and the Holy Spirit.

And the mystery of the message of Christ is that Sunday by Sunday when we meet here at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, that same Holy Spirit that led to a rendezvous between Simeon and the Holy Family, is also the Holy Spirit who meets with us. And almost every time we meet in the house of God, it leads someone to an intersection of life with the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s one thing to read about that in the life of Simeon. It’s another thing to experience it personally.

The very central question of this Christmas time is whether or not you yourself have ever had that same kind of intersection of life with the Lord of Christmas. Just as Simeon was impelled, guided, and directed by the Holy Spirit to a place and time when he literally received the infant Savior and cradles Him in the crook of his arm, can you look back to a time and a place in the leadership of the Spirit of God in your life when you literally, actually received the Holy Spirit of the Living God in and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ?

B. Satisfaction from the Lord Jesus

The comfort of Christmas is in that reception of Christ. But it is also in the satisfaction of life that comes from that reception. I suppose


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there is no sentence in the Word of God that speaks more beautifully of satisfaction, then do these words of Simeon.

The little speech that Simeon made in Luke 2:29–32 has been given a name in Christian history. The name is Nunc Dimittis.10 It comes from the first two words in the Latin version. It has been set apart as one of the beautiful statements of faith anywhere to be found in the Word of God. It is a statement of restrained ecstasy, as Simeon expresses his satisfaction of life, having seen the infant Savior, where he said in verse 29, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;

Simeon came to a point that many listening to me have never reached. He could say, “I have experienced the ultimate in personal well-being. I have reached absolute satisfaction. I have come to a climax of purposefulness in my life. And God, you can take me now because I know I have total satisfaction.”

In the language of Scripture, the first word in the text of the Greek in verse 29 is the word, “Now . . . let me depart.”11 He had come to a moment in his life where he could say, “Lord, now I’ve touched fullness. I’ve moved from anticipation into fulfillment. I’ve moved from that which is partial to that which is total. I’ve moved from

10 Raniero Cantalamessa, The Mystery of Christmas: A Comment on the Magnificat, Gloria, Nunc Dimittis (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1988). 11 Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 114.

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waiting with expectancy to fulfillment.” He said, “Now, Lord, take me.” The language is literally the language of a slave who says, “All sovereign master of this slave. You can release me now.” Language points to a slave who had been posted by his master to wait through the night for the approach of a certain star.12 And when that star suddenly appeared, the weary slave goes to the master and says, “I’ve waited. The star has appeared. Now, release me for rest.” Simeon was able to look at that infancy here, cradled in his arms, and look up to God and say, “You can take me now; I have reached a moment that is saturated with absolute satisfaction.”

We would be wise to listen to someone who may have lived as long as a century, and at the end of that long life of wisdom, finally expressed satisfaction when he was able to say, “My eyes have seen the salvation of God.”

For some of you listening to me, this Christmas could mean more than any Christmas that ever meant to you because in this week for the first time, you could receive Christ. Then, you could say with Simeon, “I have found that ultimate sense of well-being and satisfaction that comes from receiving the Lord Christ.”

Is there anything else that characterizes this as we wait? Yes. We are to be people of character, driven by integrity, intensity, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We also know the comfort that comes from receiving Christ and that satisfaction.

12 Ibid.


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III. Be A Concerned Person this Christmas

But finally, there are two concerns that often characterized us as we wait for Christmas.

A. Certainty of God’s Faithfulness

The first of those concerns is the certainty of God’s faithfulness. Simeon was able to proclaim this brief word, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, my eyes have seen your salvation more than any other event in biblical history.” Christmas screams out the message, “We serve a God who is able and willing to keep His promise.”

How do you know that God has forgiven you? You don’t have a receipt. The only way you know that God has forgiven you is because you believe that He keeps his promise. How are you certain that you have the gift of God that lasts forever? You don’t have a page with God’s signature on the bottom of it. It’s because you believe that God keeps His promises.

How can we confess at a funeral service that these decadent and corrupting bodies will indeed be resurrected on the last day when Christ returns? Only because we believe God keeps his promise.

How do we know that? I would put the following as exhibit A that God keeps his promises: I have reviewed this week 73 promises from the Old Testament that were kept in the first advent of our Lord

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Jesus Christ.13 The Old Testament closes with at least 73 promises hanging in the air, having never been fulfilled.

Genesis 3:15

The first one was spoken just outside the gates of Eden in Genesis 3:15, when God promised that first pair that He was going to call them to crush the head of the serpent.

Nehemiah 9:7

It was renewed with Abraham and Ur of the Chaldees 4,000 years ago when God told that old man, “Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Deuteronomy 18:18

God renewed it to Moses in Deuteronomy when he said, “I’m going to send another one like you, Moses.”

Psalm 2:7

God continued in the song when in Psalm two, He promised he would send His glorious son.

Psalm 22

13 Herbert Lockyer, All the Promises of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962).


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In Psalm 22, He gave the details of the crucifixion of Christ.

Psalm 118:22

In Psalm 118, He promised a great Cornerstone, which even though it was rejected by men, it would be honored by God.

Job 19

Job the patriarch, who suffered in chapter 19, received the promise from God that there would be a coming Redeemer, a mediator, One who would stand between God and man.

Hosea

Hosea was given the promise that there would be one who would be a second Moses, a second David, who would begin a second Israel.

Isaiah

The prophecy of Isaiah, to which we turn at Christmas-time, is replete with the promises of God. In Isaiah 7, we were promised that the Redeemer would come born of a virgin. In Isaiah 9 we were promised that he would be a wonderful counselor. In Isaiah 11, we’re told that out of the dead stump of the family of David, a shoot of light would come.

Out of those great chapters in Isaiah 40, 49, 50 and 52, we were promised that a suffering servant would be born, who would carry on

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himself the very deepest needs of our life.

Malachi 3

We’re told that a new messenger, of a new covenant, a son of righteousness would come.

In the whole of the Old Testament, God screams out with dominance, saying, “I promise that I am going to intervene.”

What does Christmas mean? It means for you, as much as anything else, God is not only able, but willing to keep His promise. I know I am forgiven. I have a gift of life that is everlasting. It’s ok that this body may decay, because even yet in another and newer edition, stand in God’s promise because I see the evidence that God keeps His promise.

B. Universality of God’s Salvation

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about the fallacious theology of universalim. Here’s what I mean:

This old Jew is standing in the temple at Jerusalem, and he saw a distant horizon. And he said, “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people. It’s a light of revelation to the Gentiles.”


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Here is an old Jew who may never have left the environment of Jerusalem his whole life. He is standing face-to-face with a peasant couple, Joseph and Mary. They’re holding an infant, and looking at that infant and taking it into his own arms. He said, “God will rescue humanity through this baby.” And he dared to say, “He will be the central figure of the human race. He has been prepared in the sight of all of the peoples.” And then, in a moment of inspiration, he said, “He will be a light to the Gentiles.”

That was nothing but an act of God if later on, 33 years later, Jesus would look at Simon Peter, and say, “Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” How much more so this word that Simeon spoke.

Looking at a peasant couple and an infant, that for all the world, looked like any other baby being brought to the temple, and looking at Him, saying, “Look at this One, a flash of light will penetrate the darkness of the world.”

And in that moment was the light streams from the life of Jesus Christ, flashing forth from those steps of the court of Gentiles in the temple was that light that that would catch the Apostle Paul those years later on the road to Damascus. Flashing forth was that light would catch on churches at Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. It was that flashing that was light of Christ. That very moment when Simeon cradled that infant in his arms, there was another in Corinth, a devotee of Aphrodite, cradling a baby in her arms that one day would be set free by the message of Jesus. There was mother in Ephesus, cradling in our arms, a baby boy, who would have worshipped Diana

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of Ephesus, but that boy would be set free because of the message of Jesus. At that very moment when Simeon held the infant Jesus in His arms, a father held his daughter on the banks of the Tiber in Rome, who would one day be set free, because that was a light of revelation to the Gentiles. And that light would shine until it fell over a boy in North Africa named Augustine, and he would become a mighty spokesman for that light.14 That light would shine until it fell over a Wycliffe in England or a Jan Hus in Bohemia, or until it fell over a Luther in Germany, and a Zwingli in Switzerland, and a John Knox in England, or over a Wesley or a Whitfield, that light would shine through the ages, and cross the Atlantic when it shook this nation and a great awakening would break forth. Congregation, that light would shine, and then it would shine all the way across the ages in the years to this very church at 3131 Thomasville Road where I believe a fresh revival is about to break forth. This is a light of revelation for the Gentiles. The meaning of Christmas time is that that light flashes down to this very moment around all the earth.

We boast about how much light we’re able to produce in the 21st century. Our community’s hydroelectric facility on Lake Talquin at Jackson Bluff is seeking to triple its solar generating capacity within the next two years.15 To have lights here, and at your house, Tallahassee captures moving water from the Ochlockonee River and

14 Bryan M. Litfin, Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017). If you are looking for a robust analysis of the light shining forth throughout the historic leaders of Christendom, sift through this tome. 15 James Call, “Tallahassee Gives Up a Dam for the Sun,” July 22, 2017. Accessed December 19, 2019. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/07/22/tallahassee-wants-give-up-dam-harness-sun/496855001/.


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the C. H. Corn Hydroelectric Generation Station to create up to 11 megawatts of electricity an hour. We boast about the ability to create incredibly intense, physical life, but that life is not to be compared with that light of revelation for the whole world that streams forth from that one hill by Jesus with Simeon.

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ABOUT THE PREACHER | DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Dr. Jeremy Roberts is Senior Pastor at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL. With over 2,600 members, Thomasville

Road is a thriving inter-generational church in the heart of Florida’s capital city. Additionally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at Liberty

University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Roberts has a D.Min. from Liberty University. He and his wife, Charity, and their two daughters, Autumn and Lily, live in the Tallahassee area.

Connect with Dr. Roberts online:

Instagram: @JeremyPRoberts

Facebook.com/DrJeremyRoberts Thomasville Road Baptist Church: ThomasvilleRoad.org

the presence of the holy spirit (luke 2:22–35) · 22/12/2019 · the presence of the holy spirit...

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