This is a study of Jesus as the cause of the fall and rise of many and this prediction was fulfilled.

1. JESUS WAS SET FOR THE FALL AND RISE OF MANY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
“And Simeon blessedthem and said unto Mary His
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be
spoken against.”Luke 2:34.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessedthem and said to Mary His mother, "Behold,
this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to
be opposed--
• blessed:Ge 14:19 47:7 Ex 39:43 Lev 9:22,23 Heb 7:1,7
• appointed: Isa 8:14,15 Ho 14:9 Mt 21:44 Joh 3:20 9:29 Ro 9:32 1Co 1:23
2Co 2:15 1Pe 2:7
• and rising: Ac 2:36-41 3:15-19 6:7 9:1-20
• for a sign: Ps 22:6-8 69:9-12 Isa 8:18 Mt 11:19 26:65-67 27:40-45,63Joh
5:18 8:48-52 9:24-28 Ac 4:26 13:45 17:6 24:5 28:22 1Co 1:23 Heb 12:1-3
1Pe 4:14
• Luke 2 Resources- Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
SIMEON'S PROPHECYOF JESUS:
"THE MAGNET OF THE AGES"
Have you ever pushed two magnets togetherand watchedas they either
attractedor repelled? Mostof us have and this gives us a perfect picture of the
effectthe "Child" Jesus wouldhave on the hearts of every man and woman
born in Adam - either they would be attractedto Him and be transferred

2. supernaturally from in Adam to in Christ, or they would be repelled by Him
and suffer loss not only in time but in eternity.
And Simeon blessedthem and said to Mary His mother - The verb blessedis
the same used in Lk 2:28 (eulogeo)so first Simon blessedGod and then he
blessedthe parents. He spoke wellof them is the literal sense. Notice he directs
his warning to Mary, who would witness the ultimate rejection of her Sonon
the Cross. Josephpresumably had died by the time of His crucifixion as their
is no recordof his presence atCalvary. So in that sense Mary would need to
be the one who was prepared for the oppositionto her Son. To be forewarned
is to be forearmed, but clearlyMary could never be fully prepared for what
lay aheadfor Jesus. No mother could!
Lenski writes "When Simeon now turns to Mary alone and leaves out Joseph,
this is done because ofthe prophetic insight that Josephwill no longer be
among the living when the things that are now statedshall come to pass.
Josephdied long before Jesus beganhis ministry."
Ryle - From this expressionsome have supposedthat Simeon was at leasta
chief priest, if not the high priest. There is nothing to justify the supposition.
As one speciallyinspired by the Holy Ghost to prophesy, Simeon was doing
nothing more, in blessing them, than any prophet would have done, whether a
priest or not.
Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for
a sign to be opposed-- Simeon stopped praising and startedprophesying. After
the blessing comes the warning.
Lenski on appointed - "this one is set,” i.e., by God himself, for the double
purpose indicated by the εἰς phrase:“for a falling and a rising up of many in
Israel,” to which is added anotherεἰς phrase in elucidation: “and for a sign
spokenagainst.” It is God’s intention in placing Jesus among Israel that he
shall cause many to fall and perish and many to rise up and be saved. This is
the so-calledvoluntas consequens that rests on the infallible foreknowledge
and takes into accountthe effectof grace in men’s hearts. When men reject
that grace in unbelief they fall, and it is God’s will that they perish (Mark
16:16;Isa. 8:14; Matt. 21:42, 44;Rom. 9:33). On the other hand, when God’s
grace in Christ wins men and makes them rise up from sin and death in a
spiritual resurrection(Eph. 2:5, 6), this is againthe effectof his consequent
will but at the same time the executionof his voluntas antecedens which,
disregarding all else, took into accountonly man’s fallen estate and sent grace
and a Saviorfor all alike (John 3:16; Rom. 9:33b; Acts 4:12). (The
Interpretation of St Luke)

3. Behold (2400)(idou)is a particle which draws attention to what follows.
"Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you" is the idea.
Appointed (2749)(keimai)means literally to be in a recumbent position,
to lie down, to be laid down. The rootmeaning refers to lying down or
reclining and came to be used of an official appointment as here in Lk
2:34 (cf similar use in Php 1:16HYPERLINK
"https://www.preceptaustin.org/philippians_112-17#1:16"+)Inthe
military keimai was usedof a specialassignment, suchas guard duty or
defense of a strategic position - the soldierwas placed(set) on duty.
Keimai is present tense expressing continuous activity. Jesus is still to
this day appointed for the fall of rise of many, but not just in Israelbut
in the entire world - as a result of Jesus some would fall and some would
rise.
NET Note - The phrase the falling and rising of many emphasizes that Jesus
will bring division in the nation, as some will be judged (falling) and others
blessed(rising) because ofhow they respond to him. The language is like Isa
8:14–15 and conceptuallylike Isa 28:13–16. Here is the first hint that Jesus'
coming will be accompaniedwith some difficulties.
Rise (386)(anastasisfrom ana = up, again+ histemi = to cause to stand)
literally means “to stand again" or "to cause to stand again" and most
NT uses refer to a physical body rising from the dead or coming back to
life after having once died. Indeed, those who are dead in their
trespassesandsins (Eph 2:1), dead in Adam (Ro 5:12), who place their
faith in the Messiahwill come back to life as Adam knew it before the
fall but even a better life for it "shallalso be in the likeness ofHis
resurrection(anastasis)(Ro 6:5) for He is "the resurrection (anastasis)
and the life" (Jn 11:25)! Hallelujah! Luke's uses of anastasis -Lk. 2:34;
Lk. 14:14; Lk. 20:27;Lk. 20:33; Lk. 20:35; Lk. 20:36;Acts 1:22; Acts
2:31; Acts 4:2; Acts 4:33; Acts 17:18;Acts 17:32; Acts 23:6; Acts 23:8;
Acts 24:15;Acts 24:21; Acts 26:23
THOUGHT - Jesus is history’s watershed, its dividing ridge: our
relation to him is decisive for woe or weal, for bane or blessing.
(Hendriksen)
A T Robertson- He will be a stumbling-block to some (Isa. 8:14; Matt. 21:42,
44; Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:16f.) who love darkness rather than light (Jn 3:19), he
will be the cause ofrising for others (Ro 6:4, 9; Eph. 2:6). “Judas despairs,
Peterrepents: one robber blasphemes, the other confesses”(Plummer). Jesus

4. is the magnetof the ages. He draws some, He repels others. This is true of all
epoch-making men to some extent.
Vincent - For the fall, because he will be a stumbling-block to many (Isaiah
8:14; Matthew 21:42, Matthew 21:44; Acts 4:11; Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians
1:23). Forthe rising, because many will be raised up through him to life and
glory (Romans 6:4, Romans 6:9; Ephesians 2:6).
The prophet Isaiahhad spokenof Jesus as a Stone in two passages - the
imagery is that Jesus is a "Stone" overwhich people will stumble and fall.
One will either stumble over Christ and be eternally lost or stand upon Him
by grace through faith and be eternally saved.
“Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a
stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. “Manywill stumble over them, Then they
will fall and be broken; They will even be snaredand caught.” (Isa
8:14,15)
So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Orderon order, order on
order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they
may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive. 14
Therefore, hearthe word of the LORD, O scoffers, Who rule this people
who are in Jerusalem, 15 Because youhave said, “We have made a
covenantwith death, And with Sheolwe have made a pact. The
overwhelming scourge willnot reachus when it passes by, For we have
made falsehoodour refuge and we have concealedourselves with
deception.” 16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying
in Zion a stone, a testedstone (MESSIAH), A costlycornerstone for the
foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed
(THIS IS THE ONE WHO RISES TO HEAVEN!). (Isa 28:13-16)
See also Matt. 21:42, 44; Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 1:23; 1 Pet. 2:8
For a sign to be opposed - The KJV is more literal reading "a sign which shall
be spokenagainst(antilego)". Opposedis presenttense signifying that Jesus
would be continually spokenagainstand this has happened for 2000 years!He
was initially insulted, mocked, and hated in Israel, this opposition culminating
in His crucifixion. Israel’s opposition to Jesus Christ is a repeatedtheme in
Luke’s gospel(Luke 4:28–30;Luke 13:31–35;Luke 19:47;Luke 20:14–20).
And the unregenerate world still opposes Him which of course means His true
followers will also be opposed(Mt 10:22, Lk 6:22, Jn 15:18, 19, 17:14)!
What was this sign? Ultimately Jesus and His coming and His pointing men to
God and to how they could getto God. It was not by their works of

5. righteousness, but by believing in Him. And this "narrow way" would be
opposedby many in Israelin Jesus'day and by men throughout the world
ever since. How often we are opposedwhen we share the Gospelof Jesus
Christ and hear "You are being narrow minded and bigoted!" "There are
many ways to God!" "How canyou be so arrogantas to think you have the
truth and no other religionhas the truth?" And on and on it goes. Jesusonly
Name by which men may be saved (Acts 4:12) in America today is used more
as a profanity on television, movies, music, books, etc.
Spurgeonon a sign to be opposed- How true has this been. The cross has been
to many a stumbling block, and to the worldly wise it has been foolishness;
and so will it be to the world’s end. Christ and his gospelwill always be
spokenagainst. If you know a gospelwhich is approved by the age, and
patronized by the learned, that gospelis a lie. You may be sure of that; but if
it be spokenagainst, if it be slandered, if it be calledabsurd, unscientific, and I
know not what, all that is in its favor.
Guzik - Sign is literally “a targetthat people shoot at.” Jesus would be the
targetof greatevil.
Bob Utley - One of the evidences whichaffirms Jesus’Messiahshipis His
rejection. This may be an allusion to OT texts like Isa. 6:9–10, of which Jesus
says is the purpose of parables (i.e. to hide meaning, cf. Luke 8:10; Matt.
13:13;Mark 4:12; John 12:36b–43). The OT predicts againand againthat
only a faith remnant will be saved(delivered).
Lenski - Simeoncalls Jesus “a sign,” for his personand his work shall signify
salvationfor Israelas, indeed, also for all men (v. 32). Israelshall see this
“sign” and all it signifies for them but shall raise only objectionto it. This is
dreadful and inexplicable but a factnonetheless. Unbelief is the height of
irrationality, and no reasonable explanationcan be given for an unreasonable
act. Men fall solelyby their own guilt (Acts 7:51, 52; 28:25–27);men rise up
solelyby grace (Eph. 2:4–9).
Ryle - Christ was to be “a sign spokenagainst.” He was to be a mark for all
the fiery darts of the wickedone. He was to be “despisedand rejectedof
men.” He and His people were to be a “city setupon a hill,” assailedon every
side, and hated by all sorts of enemies. And so it proved. Men who agreedin
nothing else have agreedin hating Christ. From the very first, thousands have
been persecutors and unbelievers.
Sign (4592)(semeion)means a distinguishing mark by which something
is know. Jesus would serves as a pointer to aid perception or insight, but

6. sadly this little baby Mary is holding will grow up to be the most
opposedand hated Personin all of human history!
Opposed(483)(antilego from anti = over against, opposite, insteadof, in
place of + lego = speak)(gainsayers in KJV {gainsay= deny, contradict,
speak against})means literally to say againstor to speak againstand so
to contradict (assertthe contrary of, take issue with, implying open or
flat denial), to speak in oppositionto or to oppose (place over against
something so as to provide resistance), to gainsay(declare to be untrue
or invalid and implies disputing the truth of what another has said), to
deny, to refute (to deny the truth or accuracyof). In secularGreek
antilego was used to mean "rejecta writing as spurious". Continually
contradicting an authority = obstinate. Robertsonsays "Spokenagainst
(antilegomenon)is a present passive participle, continuous action. It is
going on today. Nietzsche regardedJesus Christas the curse of the race
because He spared the weak."(Woe!That's not what Nietzsche thinks
today!) Vincent - The participle is the present; and the expressiondoes
not voice a prophecy, but describes an inherent characteristic ofthe
sign: a sign of which it is the characterto experience contradictionfrom
the world. In the beginning, as a babe, Jesus experiencedthis at the
hands of Herod; so all through his earthly ministry and on the cross;
and so it will be to the end, until he shall have put all enemies under his
feet. Compare Hebrews 12:3.
The opposition which would mark the entire life of Christ would begin with
His birth, as Herod would seek, unsuccessfully, to slay Him (Mt 2:16-18+).
Many would fall over this "rock of offense" in Israel(1 Pe 2:8), but many
would rise again.
Ryle - Christ was to be the occasionof “the fall of many in Israel” He was to
be a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to many proud and self-righteous
Jews, who would rejectHim and perish in their sins. And so it proved. To
multitudes among them Christ crucified was a stumbling-block, and His
Gospel“a savorof death.” (1 Cor. 1:23; 2 Cor. 2:16.) Christ was to be the
occasionof“rising againto many in Israel.” He was to prove the Saviour of
many who, at one time, rejected, blasphemed, and reviled Him, but
afterwards repented and believed. And so it proved. When the thousands who
crucified Him repented, and Saul who persecutedHim was converted, there
was nothing less than a rising againfrom the dead.
Henry Morris - "The fall and rising of many" indicates that those who reject
the Messiahwillbe castdown, while those who acceptHim will rise through
salvation.

7. Spurgeon- There were many who fell through their offences againstJesus:
but blessedbe his name, there are still many who rise through him, rise first
to newness oflife on earth and afterwards to resurrection life in glory. Jesus is
setfor both, he must be to one the savorof death unto death, and to another
he must be the savor of life unto life.
Spurgeonon for the fall and rise of many - Do you understand that?
Whenever Christ comes to a man, there is a fall first, and a rising again
afterwards. You never knew the Lord aright if he did not give you a fall first.
He pulls us down from our pride and self-sufficiency, and then he lifts us up to
a position of eternal safety. He is “set” forthis purpose; this is the greatdesign
of Christ’s coming: “This child is setfor the fall and rising againof many in
Israel.”
Spurgeonon rise and fall of many - The greatpracticaldoctrine before us is
this, that wherever Jesus Christcomes, with whomsoeverhe may come in
contact, he is never without influence, never inoperative, but in every case a
weighty result is produced. There is about the holy child Jesus a power which
is always in operation. He is not set to be an unobserved, inactive, slumbering
personage in the midst of Israel;but he is setfor the falling or for the rising of
the many to whom he is known. Never does a man hear the gospelbut he
either rises or falls under that hearing. There is never a proclamation of Jesus
Christ (and this is the spiritual coming forth of Christ himself) which leaves
men preciselywhere they were; the gospelis sure to have some effectupon
those who hear it. Moreover, the text informs us that mankind, when they
understand the messageandwork of Christ, do not regard them with
indifference; but when they hear the truth as it is in Jesus, theyeither take it
joyfully in their arms with Simeon, or else it becomes to them a sign that shall
be spokenagainst. He that is not with Christ is againsthim, and he that
gatherethnot with him scatterethabroad. Where Christ is no man remains a
neutral; he decides either for Christ or againsthim. Given a mind that
understands the gospel, you have before you also a mind that either stumbles
at this stumbling-stone, being scandalisedthereby, or else you have a mind
that rejoices in a foundation upon which it delights to build all its hopes for
time and for eternity. Observe, then, the two sides of the truth—Jesus always
working upon men with marked effect;and on the other hand, man treating
the Lord Jesus with warmth either of affection or opposition; an action and a
reactionbeing evermore produced. (Christ - The Rise and Fall of Many) BY
Bruce Hurt,MD

8. Great Texts of the Bible
A Touchstone of Character
Behold, this child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel; and for a sign which is
spoken against; yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many
hearts may be revealed.—Luke 2:34-35.
1. There are choice spirits selected by God, when the times are changing, to stand upon the ridge
between two worlds, and to unite in themselves, so to speak, the best promise of the age that is
passing by and the first gladness of the age that is coming. Now Simeon the Prophet was one of
these men. It was his proud privilege to see the ancient prophecies fulfilled. It was his pathetic
privilege to bid the new era welcome, and then himself to depart in peace. He saw the morning
clouds crimsoning, and he told his generation what he saw. It was not given him to see the
glorious noontide. But for one sublime moment he stood upon the mountain top. And it is well
for us, even in this wise age, to know something of what he saw.
Simeon, bravely patient, outlasts the time of silence: while the winds of God blow where they
list, and gently stir the surface of his soul, breathing deep to sources of emotion, springs of
thought, centres of will, and faculties of being, which all receptive and expectant wait for
impulses of life, co-operant with the touch of the Divine. Intuition waits on growing
consciousness: things seen afar become defined in detail: thought expands, impression greatens
into form and shape: the Christ hath come, the morning breathes, the shadows flee away. Thus
there comes a day when he is led under the impulse of the Holy Ghost into the Sanctuary of God.
There he sees, he feels, he holds the Christ in likeness of an infant come, the Babe of Bethlehem.
He bows before the Vision of the Lord: joyous yet awed he sings of Glory and of Light,
Salvation for the World and Israel’s Hope enthroned. And so he saw not death but Christ: and
holding Him passed into Life, and felt within his soul the waters rise which satisfy, and fail us
not but spring eternally.1 [Note: A. Daintree, Studies in Hope, 76.]
The first pastor of Craigdam—Rev. William Brown, ordained in 1752—was enough to give
character to any church.… His grandson, Principal Brown, remembers an old man describing a
service conducted by the first minister of Craigdam at Knock, near Portsoy. One thing in the
sermon which came to him and was indelibly imprinted upon his memory was the vivid and
fervid way in which the preacher used the historical incident of Simeon holding the child Jesus in
his arms:—“There did not appear to be much in the old man’s arms, and yet the salvation of the
world was dependent upon what was there—all was wrapt up in that Jesus held by Simeon.”
Then, holding out his own arms as if embracing that which Simeon esteemed to be so precious,
Mr. Brown with tearful urgency of voice cried to the people assembled—“Have you, my freens,
taken a grip o’ Jesus?”1 [Note: J. Stark, The Lights of the North, 288.]
Simeon the just and the devout,
Who frequent in the fane
Had for the Saviour waited long,

9. But waited still in vain,—
Came Heaven-directed at the hour
When Mary held her Son;
He stretched forth his aged arms,
While tears of gladness run:
With holy joy upon his face
The good old father smiled,
While fondly in his wither’d arms
He clasp’d the promised Child.
And then he lifted up to Heaven
An earnest asking eye;
“My joy is full, my hour is come;
Lord, let Thy servant die.
At last my arms embrace my Lord;
Now let their vigour cease;
At last my eyes my Saviour see,
Now let them close in peace!
The Star and Glory of the land
Hath now begun to shine;
The morning that shall gild the globe
Breaks on these eyes of mine!”2 [Note: Michael Bruce.]
2. Simeon looked far into the future, and saw the final goal of Christ’s mission. He regarded
Christ’s coming as “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” and the consolation and glory of Israel. But
he also foresaw its nearer and more immediate effects. This Child, he says, who is to be the light
of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel is also to be as a rock over which many will fall and on

10. which many will rise, a signal for strife and gainsaying, a sword piercing and dividing the very
soul, even where the soul is purest, and a touchstone revealing the inward thoughts of many
hearts and showing how evil they are. Now, large as the contradiction looks between these two
conceptions of the immediate and the ultimate results of Christ’s influence on the world, is there
any real contradiction between them? For if the Light is to shine into a dark world, or a dark
heart, it must struggle with and disperse; the darkness before it can shed order and fruitfulness
and gladness into it. In such a world as this there can be no victory without conflict, no
achievement without strenuous effort, no joy without pain, no perfection except through
suffering.
I
An Appointed Test
“This child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel.”
The expression is figurative and suggests to our minds a stone or step in a man’s pathway, which
becomes to him, according; as he treats it, either a stumbling-block over which he falls, or a
means of elevation by which he rises to a higher plane, and which is so placed before him that he
cannot avoid it.
1. Jesus Christ is thus inevitable. He is obtrusive. He is there. He forces Himself upon our
attention as every universal fact and law must. He is set as fixedly in the firmament of our
spiritual and moral life as the sun is set in the heavens. He rides into every world of human
interest and concern just as gloriously as the sun comes over the mountains at the break of day.
You tell me you know nothing at all about astronomical law. You believe what wise men tell you
about the stately march of the seasons and the procession of the planets in regular orbit, and you
disavow any knowledge of the inner mysteries of science. In your knowledge or ignorance you
accept the fact you cannot alter, the fact that this world owes light and heat and colour and
beauty to the sun which God has set to rule our day and night. Jesus Christ is as obtrusive and
fixed a fact.
God “prepared” Him: pre-arranged, fore-ordained, and took steps beforehand for His coming;
made ready the way before Him by His Law and by His prophets, by a gradual education of the
world to desire Him and to find its need of Him; and at last brought Him into it “before the
face”—in the sight—“of all the peoples,” of all the races and nations of mankind, so as to be as
much “a light to lighten the Gentiles”—a light (more literally) unto the unveiling of the Gentiles;
that is, for the purpose of taking off from the Gentiles that “veil” of which Isaiah speaks as
“spread over all nations,” the veil of indifference and blindness and hardness of heart—as “the
glory of God’s own people Israel.” The eye of the faithful old man was opened to see beyond the
confines of his own nation; to embrace in one glance all the kingdoms of the earth in all time and
in every place; and to declare that to each and to all Christ comes—comes to take off from them
the veil of sin; and to fulfil at last the glorious prediction, “All flesh shall see the salvation of
God.”
Freeman, the historian, in speaking about the fall of the Roman Empire and the overturning of

11. the throne of Cæsar Augustus by the triumph of Christianity, finds in that event something which
he calls more miraculous even than the resurrection of Christ. And certainly it was an
extraordinary triumph. Within eighty years of the day Jesus was put to death as a common
malefactor, a governor of one of the Provinces of the Roman Empire writes to his Imperial
master, and asks, “What in the world am I to do? People are deserting the pagan temple, and are
gathering in illegal conventicles to worship somebody who, it was always understood, had a
name of infamy—one Christus who had been put to an ignominious death years before.” Would
you believe that before another three hundred years had passed, sitting in the seat of Cæsar was a
Christian Emperor, and surrounding him a body-guard of Christian stalwarts, men bearing the
stigma of Jesus, for they had been tortured and mutilated for their faith. Before another hundred
years had gone, the throne had vanished altogether, and in the seat of Cæsar there sat one, and
there still sits one, whose only right to be there is that he claims to be there as the Vicar and
Vicegerent of Jesus Christ. That was the historic triumph in the early ages. It is a triumph that is
repeated every day. Through storm and earthquake and eclipse, through the coming and the
going of the generations of men, through the founding and the overturning of Empires, through
the migrations of the peoples, Jesus Christ moves steadily on.1 [Note: A. Connell.]
2. Christ’s influence on men corresponds to their attitude towards Him. This is only to say that
the spiritual world is not ruled mechanically. If Christ had come from heaven as a resistless
influence for good, so that men could not but be bettered by Him, the result would have been
mechanical—just as mechanical as anything which is set going by steam-power or by water-
power. And yet, even in vegetable or brute nature, some conditions are requisite if physical
reinforcements of vital power are to be of real use. The sun and the rain can do little for the
sickly or withered tree. The greenest pasturage cannot tempt the dying hind. There must be an
existing capacity for being nourished, in the tree and in the animal, if there is to be improvement.
Much more does this law obtain in the spiritual world. For, being a spirit, man is free; he can
accept or reject even the highest gifts of God. He is never coerced into excellence, any more than
he is coerced into wickedness; he is, in the highest sense, master of his destiny. The truth and
grace of God act upon him with good results only so far as he is willing that they should do so.
God has made man free. He does not withdraw this prerogative of freedom, even when it is used
against Himself; and the exercise of this freedom by man to accept or reject even his own highest
good, explains the different results of Christ’s coming in different souls.
A departure from the perfect will of God was an absolute necessity if God wished to make a
perfect or a good race of men. It is true God could have made men who would have had no
choice but to serve Him, whose love would have been the result of law, whose worship a
necessity of their condition; but would you care for a man who was made to love you, compelled
to serve you? How then could God be satisfied with service that would not even satisfy the wants
of our human nature? If love is to be real love, service real service, it must be voluntary and
spontaneous; men must be free to give or withhold it. Now even Omnipotence cannot reconcile
two absolutely antagonistic thin. It is past even the power of God to let a man have free will and
yet not have it, to make men free and yet slaves; and if God gave men free will, then in the long
run it was a dead certainty that some one so endowed would put up his own self-will again the
will of his Father and exercise the gift which might make him worthy to be a son of God in a
way that would drag him down to be impure and evil.1 [Note: Quintin Hogg: A Biography, 309.]

12. II
A Signal for Contradiction
“A sign which is spoken against.”
A sign is a signal. In the Scripture use, it denotes something or some one pointing to God; to
God’s being, and to God’s working. Thus a miracle is a sign. It points to God. It says, God is at
work: this hath God spoken, for this hath God done. And thus Christ Himself is a sign. He came
upon earth to point to God. He came to say by His words, and by His works, and by His
character, and by His sufferings, “Behold your God!” But the sign, like every other, may be, and
commonly is, gainsaid spoken against. For one who accepts it—for one who, because Christ,
sees and believes in and lives for God—many cavil; many reject and many neglect the Gospel.
This has been so always, by most of all, when He was Himself amongst men. Then indeed
gainsaying ran into open violence; and the Son of Man, despise and rejected of men, was at last
given up into the hands of wicke men, to suffer death upon a cross of anguish and infamy.
1. Jesus roused the bitterest opposition of those whose falsit He exposed. Do you think it likely
that Pharisaism and Jewis intolerance, the pagan gods and the thousands whose living depended
on idolatrous worship, or the existing schools of thought the Stoics and Epicureans, liked being
pushed out of the way A vast amount of interested selfishness and of honest conservatism
necessarily opposed Christ—fought and died to keep Him out Compare Jesus washing His
disciples’ feet with the mood Tiberius surrounded by an army of informers and abandoned to vile
debauchery, and think what must inevitably happen before Christ is received as the King of
Rome. Call to mind the amphitheatres of the Roman Empire, the hosts of slaves, and think what
changes must take place before the cross could be elevated as the divinest of symbols. Read the
description of the immorality then common, not in the lines of indignant satirists but in the
admitted antecedents of the people who formed the first converts to Christianity, and think what
changes in public opinion, what open collisions between classes, what terrible inner struggles in
the individual soul, must needs occur before one soul could turn to Him who puts duty for
pleasure, self-control for indulgence, self-surrender for self-gratification; who tells each one of
us that we must die to live, die to our lusts, die to our tempers, die to our self-importance, die to
the flattering idea of our own righteousness and goodness.
There came a man, whence, none could tell,
Bearing a touchstone in his hand;
And tested all things in the land,
By its unerring spell.
And lo, what sudden changes smote
The fair to foul, the foul to fair!

13. Purple nor ermine did he spare
Nor scorn the dusty coat.
Of heirloom jewels prized so much
Many were changed to chips and clods,
And even statues of the gods
Crumbled beneath its touch.
Then angrily the people cried,
“The loss outweighs the profit far,
Our goods suffice us as they are,
We will not have them tried.”
And since they could not so avail
To check his unrelenting quest
They seized him saying, “Let him test
How real is our jail.”
But though they slew him with a sword
And in a fire his touchstone burned,
Its doings could not be o’erturned,
Its undoings restored.
2. He offered Himself as a Saviour under an aspect incredible and offensive. He demanded an
utter renunciation of human righteousness; He asked them to give their whole confidence to One
who should die in weakness and agony upon the shameful tree.
For nearly three centuries, of course with varying intensity, the name of Jesus of Nazareth and
His followers was a name of shame, hateful and despised. Not only among the Roman idolaters
was “the Name” spoken against with intense bitterness (see the expressions used by men like
Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny), but also among His own nation, the Jews, was Jesus known as
“the Deceiver,” “that Man,” “the Hung.” These were common expressions used in the great
Rabbinical schools which flourished in the early days of Christianity. How different is it all now!

14. “Where can we find a name so holy as that we may surrender our whole souls to it, before which
obedience, reverence without measure, intense humility, most unreserved adoration may all be
fully rendered?” was the earnest inquiry of his whole nature, intellectual and moral no less than
religious. And the answer to it in like manner expressed what he endeavoured to make the rule of
his own personal conduct, and the centre of all his moral and religious convictions: “One name
there is, and one alone, one alone in heaven and earth—not truth, not justice, not benevolence,
not Christ’s mother, not His holiest servants, not His blessed sacraments, nor His very mystical
body the Church, but Himself only who died for us and rose again, Jesus Christ, both God and
man.”1 [Note: A. P. Stanley, Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, i. 34.]
III
A Sword in the Soul
“Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul.”
1. Simeon saw that the work of salvation would in some mysterious way be the work of a
warrior, and that the same sword as wounded Him would pierce the heart of His mother also.
This vision of a coming battle did not lessen his faith in victory, but it moved him to speak of
things which were not in the salutation of the angel to Mary, or in the song which the shepherds
heard by night. Jesus is the prepared Saviour, and will finish the work given Him to do; but He
will not be welcomed by all Israel. He will not fail nor be discouraged, but He must first suffer
many things and be despised and rejected of men. Mary is highly favoured among women, and
all generations will call her blessed, but the highest favour she will receive is to be a partaker in
the anguish of her Son. The greatness of her privilege, and the exaltation of her hopes are the
measure of her future dismay, while her Son advances to His goal through contradiction and
death. “Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts
may be revealed.”
In the huge temple, deck’d by Herod’s pride,
Who fain would bribe a God he ne’er believed,
Kneels a meek woman, that hath once conceived,
Tho’ she was never like an earthly bride.
And yet the stainless would be purified,
And wash away the stain that yet was none,
And for the birth of her immaculate Son
With the stern rigour of the law complied:

15. The duty paid received its due reward
When Simeon bless’d the Baby on her arm;
And though he plainly told her that a sword
Must pierce her soul, she felt no weak alarm,
For that for which a Prophet thank’d the Lord
Once to have seen, could never end in harm.1 [Note: Hartley Coleridge.]
2. Must not the prediction that a sword would pierce through her soul also be a reminder that her
unique position as the mother of the Saviour did not exempt her from the probation through
which all had to pass who listened to the teaching and beheld the mighty works of her Son? But
the commentators, with a unanimity which is unusual, resort to another interpretation. From
Origen to Sir William Ramsay, they bid us find in the simile of the sword a picture of the
sufferings which the career of the Christ would of necessity entail upon His mother. There is
more difference of opinion when the attempt is made to determine the special nature of the
sufferings which are foretold, the particular incident of her career to which the words apply.
Some, with reason, as it would seem, leave the reference vague and undefined. The Christ was a
great Reformer. He was the leader of a religious revolution. He was therefore certain to meet
with fierce opposition from the votaries of the ancient traditions and the ancient faith. He was a
sign which would be spoken against. His life would inevitably be one of sorrow; and, with every
anguish of her Son, the mother’s heart would be torn. Others becoming a little more precise,
would have us think of some unknown eclipse of faith, by which the Virgin’s confidence in the
Divine mission of her Son was clouded. Epiphanius, with no less imagination, will have it that
Simeon foresees her martyrdom. But the dominant view, stereotyped in the words of one of the
few Sequences which still remain in the Roman Missal, finds in the mention of the sword
piercing her soul an allusion to the agony of the Mother as she watched her Divine Son hanging
upon the cross, and dying the malefactor’s death—
Stabat Mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lacrimosa,
Qua pendebat Filius,
Cuius animam gementem
Contristantem et dolentem
Pertransiuit gladius.
3. The higher the privilege, the deeper will be the wound. “The nearer to Christ, the nearer,”
from the very first, “to the sword.” The more real her title to be the “Blessed among women,” the

16. more real the anguish which would crush her spirit as she awoke to the cross which was to be the
crown of His mission. The more genuine the love which treasured up the angels’ song as she
“kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart,” the more intense the disappointment
which “sought him sorrowing,” not once, but again and again, and failed to find Him in His true
being till Calvary and the opened sepulchre have made all things plain.
Those who have seen Holman Hunt’s “Shadow of the Cross,” will remember how Mary is
employed when she gets the first awful premonition of what her Child’s fate is to be. She is
engaged—so the painter fancies her—looking into a coffer, where the gifts of the wise men are
preserved, feasting her eyes on the beautiful crowns and bracelets and jewels, so prophetic, as
she thinks, of what her Son’s after-destiny is to be. And then she turns, and what a contrast!
There, in shadow on the wall, imprinted by the western light, she sees her Son stretched on a
cross! What a sight for a mother to see! As she looks, the solemn, mysterious words of Simeon
flash through her heart, “Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul.” Against that
awful destiny her mother’s heart rises up in arms, and it was, I believe, this love, this misguided
love, that led her to seek to keep back her Child from His mission, and point Him into a path of
glory, not of shame; of royalty, not of sacrifice; of a crown, not of a cross.1 [Note: W. M.
Mackay, Bible Types of Modern Women, 325.]
O Holy Mother, pierced with awful grief,
Oppressed with agonizing, nameless fears,
Beyond all human power of relief
Are these thy tears.
Thy tender, spotless, holy Babe lies there—
Is He unconscious of thine agony?
Doth He not even now thy burden share,
Thy sorrow see?
His Body sleeps; but ah! that sacred Heart
Is to His loved one’s anguish still awake;
He only consolation can impart
To hearts that break.
The holy Babe awakes! In mute surprise
(As He would say—“Mine hour is not yet come”);

17. He gazes in His blessed Mother’s eyes
In pity dumb.
And once again her heart doth magnify
Rejoicingly, her Saviour and her Lord:
Yea! e’en before her tearful cheeks are dry
Is He adored!
Almighty Father, Thou hast veiled our sight,
The future Thou hast hidden from our eyes,
Great is Thy mercy! Lead us in Thy light
To willing sacrifice!2 [Note: M. Hitchin-Kemp, The Ideal of Sympathy, 19.]
4. The pierced soul is at length healed. That is the thought Titian so beautifully renders in his
glorious “Assumption of the Madonna” in the great Venetian Gallery. The framework of the
picture is but legend; its truth is eternal. It depicts the soul of Mary as it passes, after life’s
sorrows, into the presence of God. The artist has painted her upturned face as it first catches sight
of her Lord. It is a face of exquisite sweetness and beauty. And it is the face of the first Mary, the
Mary of the Magnificat. Perfect faith is there, perfect joy, unsullied gladness. The piercing of the
sword is now for ever past. But what most of all shines out from it is its sweet adoring love—the
love no more of a mother for her child, but of a ransomed soul for its Saviour. The lips, as they
open in rapture, seem to be framing the words sung long ago, but now uttered with a deeper,
richer melody than was possible to her then: “My spirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour.”
O Lady Mary, thy bright crown
Is no mere crown of majesty;
For with the reflex of His own
Resplendent thorns Christ circled thee.
The red rose of this passion tide
Doth take a deeper hue from thee,
In the five Wounds of Jesus dyed,

18. And in Thy bleeding thoughts, Mary.
The soldier struck a triple stroke
That smote thy Jesus on the tree;
He broke the Heart of hearts, and broke
The Saint’s and Mother’s hearts in thee.
Thy Son went up the Angels’ ways,
His passion ended; but, ah me!
Thou found’st the road of further days
A longer way of Calvary.
On the hard cross of hopes deferred
Thou hung’st in loving agony,
Until the mortal dreaded word,
Which chills our mirth, spake mirth to thee.
The Angel Death from this cold tomb
Of life did roll the stone away;
And He thou barest in thy womb
Caught thee at last into the day—
Before the living throne of whom
The lights of heaven burning pray.1 [Note: Francis Thompson.]
IV
A Revelation of the Heart
“That thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”
1. Men’s inner life cannot be hid in Christ’s presence. By their treatment of Christ Himself, men
will show what they are. The veil will be stripped off them—such is the figure—by their own

19. language and their own conduct towards Christ. By their estimate of His character, by their
appreciation or disparagement of His holy life and mighty works and Divine doctrine—by their
acceptance or rejection of Him whose appeal was ever to the conscience of man, as in the sight
of a heart-searching God—men will disclose their true disposition; will show whether they love
the world, whether they echo its lying voice, whether they desire darkness lest their deeds should
be reproved, or whether, on the, other hand, they are brave to see, and bold to confess the truth,
whether they have an ear to hear the voice of God, and a will to follow Him whithersoever He
goeth.
The artist Rossetti has a picture in the foreground of which is a modest Oriental house, Jesus
sitting in its room, His face just visible through a window. Along the street in which it stands is
merrily hurrying that other Mary. I mean the Magdalene. She is arrayed in loosely-flowing
garments, and her hair hangs dishevelled about her shoulders. With her is a troop of rollicking
and revelling companions. The picture has all the suggestion of complete abandonment. But, just
as she is to rush past, the woman’s eye meets—what? Through the window the eye of Christ,
clear as crystal, and cutting as any knife. It holds her, and tortures her. On her face is graven
blank horror and dismay. The harlot is filled with self-loathing and self-contempt. Through Jesus
the thoughts of her heart are revealed in their hideous and revolting shape. “She trembles like a
guilty thing surprised.”1 [Note: F. Y. Leggatt.]
2. Christ comes to heal as well as to reveal. His coming to men in His humanity, as Jesus of
Nazareth, or coming to men in a preached Gospel, as the Living Saviour, is the one great test of
men’s moral condition, of their attitude towards God. He is the revealer of all hearts; and, for the
most part, the revelation is humbling—it would be hopelessly humbling were it not that the
revealer is also the Redeemer; and He reveals and humbles only as a necessary preparatory
condition to redeeming. The sterner side of Christ’s work is necessary; but the necessity arises
from His persistently carrying out the purposes of Divine love. A man must be brought to “know
himself,” as only Christ can show him himself, before he will even care to know what Christ can
be, and would be, to him. Blessed are all they who have stood in the testing light of Christ and
been shown up to themselves. He who falls in presence of Christ is surely raised up by the hand
of Christ. He who probes also heals.
Lockwood had a religious mind, and retained through life his faith in the Christianity his parents
had taught him. The chatter in the magazines about such matters had never interested him, and
not even the symposia of eminent men, paid three guineas a sheet, about immortality had
engaged his attention. He knew enough about human nature to know it was deeply wounded
somewhere, and sorely stood in need of a healer.2 [Note: A. Birrell, Sir Frank Lockwood, 192.]
I was reading a while ago a little book in which the author told the story of his own life, and in
the preface he had written: “This is a book with but one intention—that in being read, it may
read you.” That is what might be said of the influence of the Gospels. They are the story of a life;
but, in being read, they read you. They report to you, not only the story of Jesus, but the story of
your own experience. It is not only you that find their meaning; but, as Coleridge said, they “find
you.” In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul tells the same story in a striking figure. It
is, he writes, as though the Christian were set before a wonder-working mirror, in which was
reflected the glory of God. At first the image of this glory dazzles the beholder, and he puts a veil

20. between it and himself; but gradually, as he looks again into the mirror, he discerns his own
features reflected back to him, but touched with something of that glory which was itself too
bright to bear, until at last his own image is changed into the image of the Divine likeness, so
that the looker-on becomes like that on which he looks. “Beholding,” the Apostle says, “as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image … by the spirit of the Lord.”
That, he thinks, is what may happen as one looks steadily into the mirror of God. It is not that he
shall be all at once made perfect, but that by degrees the veil shall be drawn away before the
magic glass, and he shall see his imperfect thoughts touched with the glory of God’s intention,
until that which he is changes before him into that which he prays to be, as by the Spirit of the
Lord.1 [Note: F. G. Peabody, Sunday Evenings in the College Chapel, 28.]
JOHN MACARTHUR
Testifying to Jesus: Simeon, Part 2
• Sermons
• Luke 2:31–35
• 42-30
• Oct 10, 1999
T e s t i f y i n g t o J e s u s : S i m e o n , P a r t 2
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You may open your Bible to the second chapter of Luke as we return to this incredibly important
portion of Scripture, which chronicles for us the arrival of the Son of God, the Messiah, the
Savior of the world, the birth of Jesus Christ. We are looking at Luke chapter 2 and verses 21
through 39, in which Luke produces testimony to the identity of the child, testimony from His
parents, Joseph and Mary, testimony from an old man named Simeon, and an old lady named
Anna. And this is important for this testimony to be given because the Old Testament law
required that all truth be confirmed by two or three witnesses, credible, trustworthy witnesses,
and that is what Luke does in this section. He brings, as it were, into the courtroom three
witnesses who can be trusted. Righteous Joseph and Mary, righteous Simeon, and righteous
Anna, to give testimony to the fact that the child born in Bethlehem is indeed the Messiah, the
Savior of the world, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and so we're looking at this testimony.

21. Now let me back up a little bit and sort of get you into the flow of thought here. The Old
Testament is a collection of promises. It's a collection of promises from the one true and living
God, the Creator, the Controller, the Consummator of the universe and the Redeemer of
humanity. At the heart of all of these promises which fill the Old Testament is the primary
promise that God would send His Son, the Savior, into the world, that He would come to redeem
sinners from death and hell, and to establish His glorious kingdom on earth. And in that
kingdom, all the promises of God would be fulfilled; promises of blessing and peace and joy and
prosperity and satisfaction and righteousness and salvation. And that that earthly kingdom would
then be transformed into an eternal kingdom in which all of those promises in absolute and
sinless perfection would forever come to pass.
Now all of these promises from the one true and living God are contained in the Old Testament
only. There is no other holy or sacred ancient book that contains the promises of God. That Old
Testament, as we call it, is the single place where God gave all the promises regarding the
coming of the Christ, the Savior and the Messiah. And so there is a very narrow amount of
literature, thirty-nine books that make up the Old Testament which contain all that God has
revealed about the wonders of the coming of the Savior of the world.
Not only is there a very narrow amount of material in all that's been written throughout antiquity,
but that revelation itself was given to a very small group of people. The Jews make up a small
nation; always have made up a small nation. They were a people who didn't ever conquer the
world, didn't make some major mark on history by their power or their prowess. They seem to be
a smallish people, a people of no great consequence as God unfolded this marvelous revelation to
them. So one book, given to one small group of people.
Even more amazingly, among the Jews there has always been only a very small remnant who
actually believed the Old Testament. Certainly not all Jews today do, nor have Jews in history
accepted the Old Testament literally as it is written. There has always been but a remnant, a
small remnant in the midst of Israel who took the Old Testament seriously. The same is true
today. There's always been a small remnant who believed that the promises of God were actual,
real, literal promises that would be fulfilled in history, that the Messiah would come and do
exactly what the prophets said He would do. The Bible identifies these as "true Israel," as the
true Jews, the spiritual ones. And by spiritual you don't mean somebody who's metaphysical,
somebody who's mystical, somebody who thinks he has or she has spiritual connections. No, by
spiritual you mean one who takes the Old Testament seriously and literally. Even today, only 30
percent of Jews belong even to a synagogue, and of those 30 percent who belong to a synagogue,
very few of them belong to an orthodox synagogue. Most of them are either conservative or
reformed. Only the orthodox take the Old Testament literally and seriously.
It is a small, small remnant today. Even in the land of Israel, 11 percent of the population of the
nation Israel would be classified as those who are literalists in interpreting the Old Testament,
who take the promises of God and the laws of God seriously.
God, sending to the world the greatest message the world has ever known, a message of salvation
and redemption, puts it in one book. All the promises in one book, gives it to one small nation
and in that nation but a small, small remnant even believe it and perpetuate it. It was that way at
the time of the birth of Christ, just a small remnant. In fact, when the ministry of Jesus ended
thirty-three years after His birth, and all of those in Jerusalem who had embraced the Messiah
gathered together in the upper room, there were 120 of them. And on the day of Pentecost to

22. follow there were 3,000 converted to Christ who believed, just a very small remnant of that
nation.
At the time of the birth of Jesus there was a little remnant. They're defined in this text for us.
Verse 25: "They were those looking for the consolation of Israel." Looking, I told you last time,
for the Menachem, looking for the Consoler, looking for the great Comforter, the Messiah. That
was a rabbinic name for Messiah. They are further defined down in verse 38 as looking for the
redemption of Jerusalem. They were looking for the Messiah and His redemption, or salvation
that He would bring. There was a small remnant.
Among that little remnant who took the Old Testament seriously and believed it literally and
really did expect God to do what He said and fulfill His promises, was an old couple. Their
names were Zacharias and Elizabeth. He was a priest and she was his wife. They were part of
that believing remnant. And also a part of that very small believing remnant was a very young
couple. In fact, they hadn't even really begun their marriage. They were Joseph and Mary, just
teen-agers. They were a part of that remnant as well. God chose Zacharias and Elizabeth out of
that believing remnant to father John, who would be the great prophet to announce the arrival of
Messiah. And God chose Mary out of that remnant, just a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl to be
the mother, the virgin in whom the Holy Spirit would plant the Messiah and He would be born
out of her womb. And He chose Joseph out of that remnant, just a teen-age boy, to be the earthly
adopted father of the Messiah.
Luke also tells us about some shepherds, shepherds who also must have been among the remnant
waiting for the Messiah, who were given the special privilege of the angelic announcement that
He had been born and hurry immediately to Bethlehem to see the child.
Now whether you look at the shepherds who were at the lowest level of the socio-economic
ladder, or whether you look at Joseph and Mary — Joseph and Mary just teen-aged kids, Joseph
at best would be nothing more than an apprentice in a carpenter shop — or you look at old
Zacharias and Elizabeth, who really were the commonest of the common. There were thousands
of priests in the land of Israel at that time and he was a very obscure one, somewhere out in the
hill country of Judea in a small little village area. They were the nobodies, the non-descript
people. They had nothing to do with the mainstream of Jewish thought, education or religion.
Shepherds were really outcasts. Priests only had two weeks a year, really, a couple times a year
when they came down to the temple and did their service. The rest of the time they just resided in
a little village in obscurity, and so it was with Zacharias and Elizabeth. And what could be said
about two teen-aged kids 13 and 14 years old who hadn't made a mark on anything? But they
were all a part of that remnant and so they were chosen for monumental service at the time of the
birth of the Messiah.
And this sort of suits the Lord, to pick the commonest of the common and the lowliest of the
low. Zacharias and Elizabeth were from the sticks, out of town. And Joseph and Mary, from all
places, the non-descript and lowly and despised place called Nazareth of whom it was said, "Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?" But this fits, because the gospel predominantly comes to
the lowly, the not many noble, not many mighty, the base and the lowly things God has chosen
to confound the wise and the mighty. It doesn't mean that the wealthy were utterly excluded.
After all, there were wise men, magi, king makers, the literate, the nobles of Persia. They were
there, too. But predominantly it was the common people.

23. Now in our text we meet a few more of them. Beyond the shepherds and beyond Zacharias and
Elizabeth and beyond Joseph and Mary we meet Simeon and Anna, old people. But Simeon was
in the remnant because he was looking for the Menachem, he was looking for the consolation,
the Messiah of Israel. And Anna was part of the remnant. She was among those looking for the
redemption, the salvation Messiah would bring. God doesn't need the famous, He doesn't need
the mainstream people and education or politics, the power brokers, doesn't need the religious
leaders, He just chose the simplest and the common folks.
Now we know, of course, the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth already, and Joseph and Mary and
the shepherds. But now we come to these rather obscure people, sad to say, Simeon and Anna.
Their stories are included by Luke because he wants some eyewitnesses to attest to who this
child is. There wasn't any halo surrounding Jesus, there wasn't anything visible to indicate that
this was the Son of God. So testimony needs to be corroborated. And so, Luke selects three
witnesses: First the parents, then Simeon, then Anna, to give really unimpeachable testimony to
the identity of the child.
First of all, in verses 21 to 24, the testimony of the parents, the testimony of Joseph and Mary.
We've already covered that. We won't go into it again. They are the first witnesses as it were
called into the court to affirm the identity of the child. And the second is Simeon. And we started
to look at him last week, and we'll finish it this morning. Simeon is a remarkable man. His part
comes in verse 25 to 35. And, first of all, as we saw last time, it is important to establish his
credibility as a witness. That was true with Joseph and Mary also. No question about Joseph as to
his credibility because the Bible tells us he was a righteous man. There's no question about the
righteous character of Mary either. That is evident from the Magnificat of Mary back in chapter
1 verse 46 and following. They were righteous, they were right before God, they were godly
young people. Their testimony had integrity, it's unimpeachable. That was important to establish.
And the same would be true of the next witness, the next eyewitness to the Messiah, Simeon.
And so no one is mistaken about his character, this man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon
was righteous. That is he was right with God, he was a converted man, he was a justified man.
He was devout. I told you the word means cautious or careful in obedience to God's law which
means he was not only a justified man but a sanctified man. He was looking for the Menachem,
the consolation, the consoler, the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. You can't ask for
more than that. Here his credibility is established.
In fact, verse 26 says, "Even divine revelation had come to him by the Holy Spirit that he would
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Amazing, amazing revelation came to this
man that he would be alive until Messiah arrived and he would see the Messiah.
Well, it all came to pass in verse 27. The Holy Spirit draws him down to the temple where, no
doubt, he spent a lot of time and there he met the parents, Joseph and Mary, who had brought in
the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law. Remember we talked about the fact
that after forty days the woman who had given birth to a male child had to come and offer
sacrifice, and she had come to do that, and also to pay the five silver shekels to redeem the
firstborn child, according to the Old Testament law. And they had come to the temple for that.
And God providentially worked out a meeting. As I said, it would be fascinating to know what
happened. It doesn't say. But in verse 28 it says that Simeon took him into his arms. Well at that
point Simeon must have known who the child was. And how did that happen? Well between
verses 27 and 28 there must have been a rather long conversation.

24. Simeon didn't know he was looking for Joseph and Mary. Simeon didn't come looking for the
Messiah. They weren't looking for Simeon. But God brought them together and somehow at the
right moment the Spirit of God prompted a conversation in the melee of thousands of people
milling around in the temple court. And they began to talk and Joseph and Mary began to unfold
the amazing story of how Gabriel had come to Mary and how an angel had come to Joseph in a
dream and told them what was going on, and that she would conceive and bear the Messiah, the
Son of the Most High God, the Son of David who would have a kingdom that would last forever
and ever and He would be named Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. The
whole story about how the barren Zacharias and Elizabeth in their 70s or 80s were able to
conceive a son who would be the prophecy...the prophet of the Messiah and a whole story
unfolded. And the angels in the field telling the shepherds and the shepherds reporting to them
and all of this and Simeon heard it, believed it.
Somebody would say, "Well why did he believe it?" And the answer would be, because he was
being led by the Spirit. It tells us in verse 25 the Holy Spirit was upon him. Verse 26, it had been
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit he wouldn't die until he saw the Lord, Messiah. And verse 27,
he came in the Spirit to the temple. I mean, the imprint of the Holy Spirit is all over this man and
certainly the confirmation of the Holy Spirit came when he heard the story, the miraculous
conception without a male father, the planting of this Messiah in the womb of this young girl, all
of this wondrous story was told to Simeon. And in verse 28 he took Him into his arms, picked up
that little baby and blessed God. And you can only imagine what all was in that blessing. He
launches into his blessing in verses 29 down to verse 32 and it's called the Nunc Dimittis, Latin
for the first two words, "Now Lord." They...the Latin terms are used to identify also the
Benedictus of Zacharias, that's what that great praise at the end of chapter 1 is called, and the
Magnificat of Mary earlier in the chapter.
Nothing about the child was visibly different. But he knew who the child was, the Spirit of God
confirming the testimony of these parents. He was allowed by God to have this incredible
moment, the great moment when the Menachem, the Savior, the King, the Messiah of the world
was in his arms. And as I said last time, he pressed his face and kissed the face of God. Here was
the one who was the fulfillment of all God's promises, here was the one who fulfilled all the Old
Testament and here was a man, Simeon, who believed the promises, who believed what the Old
Testament said, believed it literally, was faithful to those promises and waited for God to fulfill
them. And God did.
He was an old man. We don't know how long he had known the Messiah would come in his
lifetime and he would see Him. We don't know how long he had hoped. But certainly this is what
drove his life. This was the passion of his whole life. From the time he got the revelation that he
would see the Messiah before he died, he must have gone into every single day wondering: Is
this the day? Is this the day? Is this the day? He believed the promises that God had given to
Abraham and he believed the promises of blessing that God had given to Moses. And he
believed the promises that god had given to David, and that God had reiterated through all the
prophets. He believed all of that. He believed the promises that are...that are captured in the
majesty of the Psalms which he no doubt had recited and sung since a child. He believed God
would keep His word and make good on His promises.
We don't know what he expected. I mean, maybe he was looking for a king. Maybe he was
looking for a...maybe he was looking for a heavenly king. Maybe he was looking to the skies
some days when he looked at the open courtyard of the temple and saw a sort of a darkened sky

25. and somewhere a crack in the clouds appeared and a sunbeam came through and maybe he
thought that might be the sunbeam on which the King would ride. Maybe he thought one day the
clouds would part. Or maybe he thought one night in the midst of the darkness a great light
would shine and down would come the great King. There were certainly people among his
remnant that had that thought. Or maybe he thought that the Messiah would come as a great
soldier, a great conqueror, a great warrior and he wouldn't come out of the sky, he'd come
through the Eastern Gate, as the prophet had said, with great conquering power to shatter the
Romans and establish the promise of Abraham.
We don't know what he thought, but we do know what he got. What he got was a little, tiny baby
that looked like any other baby, held in the arms of a little couple that was so poor they couldn't
buy a lamb for the purification sacrifice, they had to use a bird, a little family that came from that
lowly and despised place called Nazareth that was always being crisscrossed by Gentiles and was
so far away from temple influence as to be on the borders of paganism. Simeon took Him into
his arms... If I can read Simeon's mind, he was thrilled to embrace the child but maybe more
thrilled to know that the child would embrace him. That was really all he needed. He had seen
the Messiah come and so he says, verse 29, "Now, Lord, Thou dost let Thy bondservant depart in
peace according to Thy word." You told me I'd live until I saw the Messiah. I've seen Him, let
me die. I have nothing left to live for. My hope is fulfilled. My joy is complete. My heart is at
peace. I'm ready to go.
So this dear Simeon serves as a crucial, divinely inspired, faithful, righteous witness to the
identity of this little baby. He was waiting for the Messiah. When he heard the story, the Spirit of
God confirmed in his heart and he gives testimony that he can die. That's how sure he was. If this
is what he had waited for all his life, the coming of Messiah as a part of the remnant, if this is
what he waited for, even more intensely when the Spirit of God revealed that he would actually
see Him, then believe me, he wouldn't say "I can die" unless he was convinced this was the
Messiah.
His task, though brief — just this little picture in Scripture — this task though brief was very
much like John's, John the Baptist, because both of them gave testimony to the Messiah and then
died. As far as we can tell, Simeon...the Lord just took him and John the Baptist had his head cut
off. But Simeon God used as a powerful, powerful witness to point to the reality that this was the
Messiah.
Why is he content to die? He knows that. Verse 30 he says it, "For my eyes have seen Thy
salvation." Don't ever think for a moment that God is not a saving God. "God, our Savior, who
will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth," 1 Timothy 4. Three times
in the book of Titus: "God our Savior, God our Savior, God our Savior." He is a saving God.
“God who is the Savior of all men,” 1 Timothy 4:10. It is God who is the Savior. It is God's
salvation that he sees in the Messiah. God has sent His salvation because God has sent, as
Zacharias called Him, the horn of salvation, who is the Messiah.
When the Messiah comes, who is the Savior, salvation comes. "And neither is there salvation in
any other," says Acts 4:12. So his praise flows because God's salvation has come because God's
Savior has come.
Now he had a full-orbed understanding of salvation. He understood that salvation was the word
for deliverance and it could mean deliverance from your enemies and those who oppress you.
Zacharias in his Benedictus in chapter 1 affirmed that and discussed that, talked about that. That's

26. part of the Davidic Covenant, temporal, earthy deliverance from earthly enemies and invaders
and oppressors.
But it didn't end at that. It wasn't just deliverance from other nations in time and space. It wasn't
just the extension of the borders to fit the original covenant of God with Abraham. Zacharias, the
high priest, knew; Mary knew that this child would not just extend the borders of Israel, would
not just bring sovereignty back to Israel over all its enemies, but would bring forgiveness of sin
and eternal salvation with it. That's all embodied in that word because when Jesus was named
Jesus, it was not because He would save His people from their enemies it was because He would
save His people from their sins. Yes there will be a national deliverance through the Messiah, the
kingdom will be established in Israel, the Messiah will rule over Israel. They will be a sovereign
state ruled by the sovereign Lord. And they will not only have a sovereign Lord ruling them, but
they will be the sovereign nation ruling the world as Messiah mediates His rule through Israel.
There will be sovereignty. All their enemies and oppressors will be destroyed and broken. There
will be an earthly extension of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, but even more than that,
there will be eternal salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Messiah will save His people from
their sins.
And so here is this man, one of a small, small remnant. Even after Jesus' ministry is complete,
there's only 130 in the upper room in Jerusalem who identify with Jesus Christ and are tarrying,
waiting for the Holy Spirit. Small, little group, but he has seen all he needs to see, the salvation
of God has arrived because the Savior has arrived. He knows in his heart that this means all
messianic promise, all covenant promise, all the promises of the Old Testament are going to be
fulfilled because, as Paul said, all the promises of the Old Testament are in Christ, yes and amen.
All Old Testament promises are ultimately fulfilled in Christ, all of them. Simeon knew that and
believed it. He was a literalist. He interpreted the Old Testament literally and accurately and
believed in the promises of God. And as I said earlier, that has always been the small, minority
view in Israel and it is today, even among Jews in our own country it is. Very few take the Old
Testament seriously and really believe its promises. He was one.
But you know what? He said some shocking things. If he had ended everything there, it wouldn't
have advanced the amazing story of the Messiah any further than Joseph and Mary had already
heard and the readers had already heard because Mary talked about God, our Savior. And
Zacharias talked about how God would save His people through the Messiah. But there's
something here added that is really shattering the standard belief of the Israelites. Look at it in
verse 31.
He says, "My eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all
peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." This is
astonishing. The Jews believed that the Messiah would come and be their Messiah and establish
their kingdom and with the establishment of that kingdom they would rule over the infidel
Gentile world. But this says God has brought a Savior and prepared salvation in the presence of
all peoples to be a light of revelation to the Gentiles as well as the glory of Israel. This is
shocking information.
You know, even the remnant of Israel, even the serious students of the Old Testament, the
believers, had animosity toward Gentiles. I don't mean by that they had animosity toward an
individual Gentile, but they hated what Gentile stood for, anti-God, anti-Scripture, desecration of
the true and living God, violation of the first and great commandment to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, violators of the first commandment to have any

27. other gods, violators of making images, making no images commandment. They were...they saw
them as violators of God's commands. They saw them as blasphemers. They resented them for
their idols, and the purer the remnant was the more that resentment grew.
Because what happened? If you go back in the history of Israel, what do you see? The Gentile
nations bringing idols in and corrupting Israel. It was the invasion of Gentile idols, you
remember, that ultimately ended in the deportation of the northern kingdom, Israel. It was the
importation of idols; it was the desecration of the worship of God that ultimately ended in the
Babylonian captivity of the southern kingdom, Judah. All idolatry, all Gentile religion, Gentile
viewpoints had ever done was corrupt and attack and assault and kill and destroy. That's all they
knew. And so there was this...this understandable resentment because they were this very small
little group of people who had been hammered and battered and attacked and killed and
massacred and taken into captivity. And behind all of that were idolatrous nations doing it all,
perpetrating it all against them. I mean, that's even gone on through history to today. They can go
back, they can, and they can identify a Gentile Germany and a Gentile Russia and they can see
horrible, horrible massacre of people. Even those who are righteous remnant Jews in the midst
have a reasonable antipathy toward what Gentile nations have done to their people by way of
physical attack and by way of religious corruption.
And so, Simeon and probably Joseph and Mary just had a sort of normal view that Gentiles were
the enemy. They were outside the pale of God's provision and Simeon says, "No, God has
brought with the Messiah a salvation that has been prepared in the presence of all peoples and
the Messiah is called a light of revelation to the Gentiles." And that is an amazing statement,
amazing.
But you know something? Shouldn't be shocked because that's what the Old Testament
promised. And I'm sure when Simeon said it he realized it was right out of the Old Testament.
Salvation has been prepared by God but it's been prepared for the whole world because God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life. And that message rings throughout all the Scripture. The Great
Commission: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” God is not willing
that any should perish but all should come to repentance.
The plan of redemption when it reaches its culmination in the book of Revelation has people
from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. Salvation is for the whole world and yet
when it all started out they heard...the shepherds heard this from the angels, the angels even said,
"There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord," and
"for you" to them would mean for us who are a part of Israel.
And when Mary heard and Joseph heard "name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from
their sins," “His people” to them would mean Israel. And then Simeon says this, that God has
prepared a salvation through the Messiah in the presence of all peoples? Laos, all the peoples.
And the Messiah is a light of revelation to the Gentiles? But that's what Isaiah said. Back in
Isaiah 9 verse 2...well, verse 1 talks about when the Messiah comes. He's going to go to the other
side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. Now this is such a direct prophecy and Jesus did do that,
He went to the other side of the Jordan, other side of the Dead Sea...of the Galilee Sea to the
Galilee of the Gentiles, He did that. And he says, "He's going to go to the Galilee of the
Gentiles," Isaiah 9:2, "the people who walk in darkness," that's the Gentiles, "will see a great
light." And that's where...that's where Simeon is...is drawing that statement, "He's a light of
revelation to the Gentiles," right out of Isaiah 9:2. The Gentiles are going to...the Gentiles, the

28. peoples, simply the Gentiles, who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a
dark land, the light will shine on them.
So Isaiah told them the Messiah is going to be for the nations as well. You know, the Jews didn't
like that. I mean, look at Jonah. He's the class illustration, right? God says, "Jonah, go to Nineveh
and preach repentance." And in Jonah's mind he's saying, "You know, if there's anything I can't
stomach it's Gentile conversion. I can't stomach...I can't tolerate that. They have done everything
all along to blaspheme God, to assault Israel, to dishonor God. They are oppressive, etc., etc. I
just can't deal with that. I'm not going to do it, God." And so he heads for Tarshish. He gets on a
boat and through a detour through the belly of a great fish and finally getting vomited out on the
shore. He comes to his senses and says, "Okay, God, if You're going to deal with me like this, I'll
do it. I mean, what do You want me to do?"
He goes to Nineveh. He preaches and has the greatest revival in the Old Testament. The whole
city repents. And what does he do? He goes out of town, he gets real morose. He's peeved to the
core. He's really mad at God. And he says, "Kill me, God, I cannot stand this, Gentile
repentance. Take my life. It's more than I can bear."
Now that was a pervasive attitude. And yet Isaiah says in Isaiah 42, "I am the Lord,” verse 6, “I
have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, I will
appoint you as a covenant to the people and a light to the nations." He's talking to the Messiah.
That's a conversation between God the Father and God the Son. And God the Father says to the
Son who is called the servant in this chapter, "I will appoint you as a light to the nations." That
too is where Simeon could have drawn this, "To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the
dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison." Again, the Messiah is going to be a
light to the nations, a light to the Gentiles. Chapter 49 of Isaiah, it's not as if this is obscure, it's
not. Isaiah 49 verse 6, again He's talking to His servant, the Messiah, He says, "I'm going to raise
up the tribes of Jacob,” verse 6, “and restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make You a
light of the nations." There's that same statement used by Simeon for the third time, "That My
salvation may reach to the end of the earth." To the end of the earth.
Chapter 51 verse 4, "Pay attention to me, oh My people, and give ear to Me, oh My nation, for a
law will go forth from Me and I will set My justice for a light of the peoples, or a light of the
nations." Same phrase again, a light of the nations, that's the fourth time we've heard it.
Chapter 52 verse 10, "The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations that all the
ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God." There it is again. And that, too, was behind
the statement of Simeon.
And then, wonderful passage in chapter 60, "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory
of the Lord has risen upon you, for behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the
peoples,” or nations, “but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you and
nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising." He's talking to the
Messiah. "Arise, Messiah, shine, Messiah, and the nations will come to Your light."
Well go back to Luke. That's all behind that statement. That's...that's that rich part of Isaiah. So
Simeon is in his praise extending the saving work of Messiah to the ends of the earth. Gentiles
participate in salvation as equals. They participate in the Millennial Kingdom as equals. They
participate in eternal glory as equals. Not to the exclusion of Israel, look at the end of verse 32,
"And the glory of Thy people, Israel." And you've heard me read several times that Israel, of
course, is going to be saved, but two passages, just note this, Isaiah... You don't have to turn to

29. them. You can write them down if you care to. Isaiah 46:13, "I bring near My righteousness, it's
not far off, and My salvation will not delay. I will grant salvation in Zion and My glory for
Israel," Isaiah 46:13. You could also include 45:25; it says essentially the same thing.
Glory is another word for light. In fact, in the Old Testament God reveals Himself as light, and
He calls it His Shekinah glory. So light to the Gentiles means the Messiah, who is the light of
salvation to the Gentiles. Glory to Israel means the glory of Messiah, who is salvation to Israel.
What is going to happen then, Israel is going to be saved and Gentiles are going to be saved from
the ends of the earth. The word "glory" is a special word to the Jew, a special meaning. In the
Old Testament God appeared in the Garden in His glory, showed His glory which is called the
Shekinah. God showed His glory to Moses on the mount. He showed it in the sky through the
pillar of cloud and fire. He showed His glory at the building of the tabernacle. He showed it at
the building of the temple. The glory of God was synonymous with the radiating light of God's
saving, leading, guiding, protecting power. And the Gentiles are going to see the light of
salvation and Israel is going to see the glory of salvation.
The promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promises of the Davidic Covenant, the promises
of the New Covenant are for Israel but beyond they're going to touch the whole world. And when
all Abrahamic Covenant promises are fulfilled in the earthly Millennium, we'll be there enjoying
them. And when all Davidic promises are fulfilled in the earthly Millennium, we'll be there
enjoying them. And we are already enjoying the pledges and promises of the New Covenant
which is in Christ Jesus. Salvation is for Israel but not just Israel, it's for the whole world.
Wow, what...this is...this is new. And look at verse 33, the reaction, "The father and mother were
amazed at the things which were being said about Him." I mean, they're standing there in the
temple ground, they're already so full of wonder, they've got this little baby that looks like any
other little baby. I'm sure this little baby functioned like any little baby, like a normal human
baby. They were dealing with it as parents would normally deal with a little baby. Looking into
the face of this little baby, they realized they've got the Son of the Most High God, the Messiah,
the Savior of the world and this expands through the words of Simeon and it's beyond their
comprehension. Two teen-agers, non-descript, not prominent, not well-known, and God has put
in their hands the redemption of the world.
The amazement must just have continued and continued to explode on their frail, human
understanding. They knew their child was the virgin-born Son of God. They knew He was the
Son of David. They knew He would reign on David's throne forever and ever. They knew He
was the Son of Abraham who would fulfill all of the promises to Abraham. They knew He was
Israel's Savior who would fulfill all the covenants and all testament promises. They knew He
would bring the kingdom of God on earth with peace and joy and righteousness. They knew He
would be a child for the redemption of His people and a horn of salvation for them, but for the
whole world? This was way beyond their understanding. The whole thing was just beyond their
grasp.
Their perceptions now are enlarged as they think of the influence of this silent, nursing, little,
forty-day-old boy. Yeah, they knew the Savior had been born for them, but for the world?
They're amazed, astounded. And it's in the euphoria of that moment as Zacharias ends his hymn
of praise that something shocking is said. Verses 34 and 35, "And Simeon blessed them and said
to Mary, His mother, 'Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and
for a sign to be opposed and a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that thoughts of
many hearts may be revealed.'" And Simeon is gone.

30. Now wait a minute. Fall? Opposed? Sword? We've never heard anything like that. It's all been
fulfillment of all the promises of God, it's all been covenantal fulfillment, it's all been hope and
peace and joy and salvation and righteousness and glory and what is this?
This is the first negative note in Luke's gospel. The marvelous, miraculous glorious birth of the
Messiah, Savior, wonderful full of all the anticipated joy; but that's not all. There's going to be
fall, opposition and piercing. What does all this mean?
Well, it was important that they hear this, particularly for Mary, that nothing would surprise her
when the hostility began. Look at verse 34, "And Simon blessed them," simply means that
he...he affirmed that the favor of God was on them. I mean, the favor of God was more on that
young couple than it had ever been on anyone. The goodness of God on them was unique. And
so he affirms that you have been blessed, you have been favored by God like no one ever.
But he doesn't stop there. He turns to Mary and, "He said to Mary, His mother," now why? The
reason is because what he is describing there Joseph wouldn't experience. You know why? Very
likely he wasn't alive. After the age of 12 and Joseph and Mary had left Jesus in the temple,
Joseph disappears. And when Jesus starts His ministry, he never is around. When Mary appears,
she's without Joseph. Sometimes it's Mary and her children, never Joseph. And when it comes to
the cross and Jesus is dying, He didn't say much on the cross but what He did say was critical.
And one of the things He said was He saw His mother and He saw the apostle John and He said
to His mother, "This is your son," and He said to John, "This is your mother." What He was
doing was handing over the care of His mother to John, which was necessary because He had
done that up to then and it's obvious that there was no Joseph to care for her or that would have
been unnecessary. There's nothing to say to Joseph because Joseph died somewhere along the
way, perhaps even before Jesus began His ministry. For Joseph it would have been a life of
watching this miracle grow in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man, it would all be
positive and wonderful, encouraging, blessed, joyous, perfect. Not Mary. She would be there
when the rejection started.
And so, Simeon says to her, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in
Israel." The first word I want you to mark in your mind, separation, separation. Trouble is going
to come, Mary, down the way, and suffering, and conflict and pain. And the first thing to
describe is separation. Jesus is going to be a dividing line. He's going to be a point of
demarcation. Jesus is going to be a turning point. And based upon how people respond to Him,
some are going to rise and some are going to fall, but He's going to be the determiner of destiny.
In fact, the word "appointed" is the word "destined." This child is destined to determine the fall
and rise of many in Israel and many really can be extensive. It can mean everyone.
What is being introduced here is that there're going to be some people who are not going to rise
to the glories of salvation, are not going to rise to the realities of kingdom blessing, they're not
going to rise to joy and peace and prosperity and righteousness. They're going to fall. And that's
new. This is... Not only are Gentiles going to be saved, but Jews are going to be lost. That adds a
whole new perspective. And he, meaning Simeon, knew Isaiah. This is right out of Isaiah chapter
8, the prophet had said so. Listen to what he wrote, Isaiah 8:14, "He” Messiah “shall become a
sanctuary but to both the houses of Israel a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over and a snare
and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem and many will stumble over them, then they will fall
and be broken. They will even be snared and caught." Wow, the prophet Isaiah said, right there
in Jerusalem, right among the people of Israel there's going to be a...there's going to be a
stumbling and a falling. The Messiah will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and

31. many shall stumble and fall and be broken or shattered. The prophet said it would happen. John
put it this way, "He would come unto His own and His own would (what?) receive Him not."
This is new.
You mean, the Messiah is going to come and all the Old Testament hope is going to be brought
to fulfillment and all the promises of the Old Testament are going to come together and He's
going to be the Savior and He's here and I hold Him in my arms and the first shock is that He's
going to be the Savior of Gentiles and the second shock is that...that Israel is going to be divided
over Him? And many are going to fall? Few are going to rise?
Irretrievable fall is intended here, a fall away from salvation into judgment and damnation. The
language of Scripture is so vivid here. And that's exactly what happened. If you follow the career
of Jesus Christ and what happens? The whole nation turns against Him and conspires with the
Romans to have Him executed and only a small little group believed. Only that little faithful
remnant would rise and the rest would fall over the rock of offense and the stone of stumbling.
Not only will there be separation but there’ll be opposition. It isn't just that people will be
divided over Him. It's not that they'll sort of just categorically line up on one side or another in a
sort of moderately indifferent way, not at all. There not only will be separation, there will be
opposition. In fact, look at the end of verse 34, "This child will be a sign to be opposed." He will
represent, He will signify what people hate. Wow. What do they hate? They hate righteousness.
Men don't love the light, they love what? Darkness. To be opposed is the Greek verb
antilegomenon, which means “to contest.” There's going to be...it's not going to go smooth,
Mary. His life is going to be held up and they're going to contest it. It's going to come from
insults. It will start out with indifference. It will be insults, mockery, abuse, hatred, venomous
vilification, plotting, physical torture, and execution.
This...this is hard enough for us to believe today that this could happen in Israel, but for Mary, all
she knew was her heart was overwhelmed with the joy of the arrival of Messiah. And now all of
a sudden, this? They're going to reject Him. They're going to oppose Him violently. Amazing.
The long-awaited salvation of God, the long-awaited fulfillment of Abrahamic, Davidic promise,
the long-awaited New Covenant ratified salvation, the long-awaited fulfillment of every Old
Testament promise in the Messiah and you're telling me, first of all, the nation is going to be
divided over the Messiah? Yes, and if she only knew at that time, divided, the tiny little group
would rise. The mass would cry for His blood and fall into perdition. And opposition against the
Messiah? Not from the Gentiles but from His own people? Unthinkable.
I'm in the process of putting a book together called The Murder of Jesus. It's a fairly provocative
title, be out at the first of the year. There's a lot of interesting courts and trials today, sentences,
even executions. The greatest travesty of justice in the history of the human race occurred in the
city of Jerusalem against Jesus. Never did a more perfect individual live. It was the most trumped
up trial ever. It was the greatest miscarriage of justice to find Him guilty and to execute Him
ever. That's how He was opposed.
Wonderfully behind it all was God with His sovereign, redemptive purpose, which in no way
lessons the culpability of those who rejected and cried for His blood. Even a remnant Jew, even a
true-believing Jew, would have wondered about Isaiah 53, "He was bruised for our iniquities."
They would have wondered about there being no comeliness that we should desire Him and
wondered how the Messiah could be considered as not beautiful and not desirable and how He
could actually die. And here they're hearing it will be the opposition of His own people. He will

32. divide these people like with a sword as He Himself said. And He will generate opposition to
Himself against His messiahship, His salvation and His kingdom. So much so that His kingdom
has been postponed and it still hasn't come. But this is all very confirming testimony because this
is exactly what Isaiah 53 says would happen.
There's another word, affliction. Separation, opposition, affliction. He turns from talking to the
nations to talking to Mary personally. And I think the translators knew that, they set it apart with
little dashes. But this phrase in verse 35: "A sword will pierce even your own soul." Mary, it's
going to be real personal. Mary has been called in the Latin through the years of the church
mater doloroso, mother of sorrows. We can't imagine a mother loving a child more than she
loved Jesus. Can't imagine how hard it was when Jesus began to push her away on the human
level. At twelve years of age He had to be about His Father's business, and in a sense He pushed
her aside. Later when He was doing His first miracle in Cana He didn't call her "mother," He
called her "woman." When she came to visit Him with His half-brothers and sisters on occasion,
He was told that His mother and His brothers and sisters were outside and He said, "Who is My
mother, who is My brothers except those who believe in Me." And He was moving Mary from
being His mother to needing Him as a Savior. That would be something for her to deal with as
He distanced Himself and yet she would love Him for His perfections.
I can't imagine any...loving anyone more than she would love Him. No child would be more
lovable, obviously. And when it came time for Him to be hated and ridiculed and mocked and
pierced and executed, according to John 19:25, there she is standing at the foot of the cross
watching the whole scenario unfold in front of her and certainly that would have rammed a
sword through her mother's heart.
The distancing would have been hard to bear. The suffering of her Son, unimaginable torture for
this woman, who by then was in her 40s and had grown not only to love Jesus as a Son, but
Savior. But there was even more than that, I think. Mary was, of all things, a believing Jew who
loved the Messiah and the promises of God and would have been pierced through the heart to see
her nation reject her Son, to see the people turn against Him, to see the people of Israel forfeit the
salvation of God and the kingdom that had been promised to them. So much grief, so much
affliction. She was an ordinary woman of flesh and blood like all of us, bearing enormous strain
just being the mother of the Son of God, certainly from time to time bewildered and certainly cut
to the heart with pain.
So, we're introduced to separation, opposition and affliction and then finally, revelation. The end
of verse 35, and we'll close with this, going past the parenthesis, "This is a sign to be opposed”
skip the parenthesis “to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." When Jesus
stands up, He's going to be a sign and people are going to oppose Him. And in opposing Him,
there's going to be a revelation.
I remember reading years ago about a guy who took a friend on a tour through Paris, took him to
the Louvre and showed him all the pictures, and took him to a concert hall in Paris that night to
hear a great symphony. At the end of the day he said, "What do you think?" And he said, "I
wasn't that impressed." To which his friend said, "If it's any consolation to you, the museum and
its art were not on trial and neither was the symphony. You were on trial. History has already
judged the greatness of those works of art and the greatness of that music. All that is revealed by
your attitude is the smallness of your own appreciation."

33. Jesus isn't on trial, but every soul is. And what happens is, He's raised up as a sign, and by
opposing Him, the wickedness of the heart is surfaced. Somebody might think, "You know,
when the Messiah comes, they're going to throw lilies at His feet and when the Messiah comes
there's going to be hearts and flowers, there's going to be peace and joy and happiness
everywhere. When the Messiah comes, you know, Jesus was really a good man, He would come
into the world and there would be goodness trailing out of Him and everyone would feel happy
and He'd be just a...just a person who engendered happiness and joy and peace."
You know what happened when the Messiah came? He engendered hostility. And what came to
the surface was bitterness and anger and hatred and venom and death because when the Messiah
comes His holiness confronts wickedness and produces the revelation of apostasy. It reveals...
What Jesus did was reveal the apostate nature of the religion of Judaism, didn't He? He literally
revealed the hypocrisy of it all, the shallowness of it all, the legalism of it all, the self-
righteousness of it all. And they hated Him for that exposure.
Let me tell you something. To be saved by Jesus, to enter into Jesus' kingdom, your sin has to be
exposed. If you acknowledge that and embrace that exposure and come to Him for forgiveness,
you'll be saved and enter His kingdom. If you hate that exposure and resent Jesus for doing it,
you'll go to hell in your sins. So, His life was a revelation. How people responded reveals the
condition of their heart.
Jesus isn't on trial but you are. And I'm sure that Mary, and many of the remnant must have
thought, you know, when the Messiah comes it's all going to be wonderful and everybody will
fall in love with Him. He'll be irresistible. He'll be so wonderful and so gentle and so meek and
so mild.
And that's the Jesus people would like. But the fact of the matter is, He walked into their
apostasy, called it what it was, brought their sin to the fore, condemned them for their sin and
they hated Him for it and it surfaced the wretched condition of their hearts. For some of them,
they fell on their faces, repented, believed and were saved. For most of them, they cursed Jesus
and put Him on a cross.
It says their thoughts, the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. The word "thoughts" here
is dialogismos, it's beliefs, it's used eight times in the New Testament, always negatively. It
always has a bad connotation. You're going to bring up the filth. You cannot have a ministry like
Jesus and make everybody feel good. Even Jesus didn't do that. He created such hostility they
killed Him. You see, when you come with the truth of holiness, you expose the evil of the heart.
And that's what Jesus did.
Messiah came and found a people full of sin, who loved their sin. They loved darkness rather
than what? Light. So, Simeon, the righteous man, is content that Jesus is born the Messiah. And
with Him the hope of Israel and the world is fulfilled and salvation has come and He can die.
That doesn't mean it's all going to go the way you think. Many will receive Him, but His life is
going to unmask those who love their sin and hate God. And so there’ll be separation,
opposition, affliction and the revelation of the wickedness of the human heart. That is a
tremendous unfolding of the picture of what we'll see when we go through Luke and watch
separation, opposition, affliction, and the revelation of the wickedness of the human heart unfold
until the climax of the crucifixion.
Father, we thank You for the insight into this great text. Thank You for giving us time to go over
it this morning. Thank You that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom we are