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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
Luke two verses 22 through 33.
And when the time came
for the purification according to the law
of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present it to the Lord.
As it is written in the law of the Lord.
Every male who first opens
the womb shall be called holy to the Lord,
and to offer a sacrifice according to
what is said in the law of the Lord.
A pair of turtledoves
or two young pigeons.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon.
And this man was righteous and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel
and the Holy Spirit was upon him,
and it had been revealed to him
by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came in the spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do for him
according to the custom of the law,
he took him up in his arms and blessed
God, and said, Lord, now you are letting
your servant depart in peace
according to your word.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
that you have prepared in the presence
of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.
And his father and his mother marveled
at what was said about him.
Well,
good morning and welcome to the weekly
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
My name is Zach.
I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm
so glad you're here with us this weekend
and that we get to be part
of your Christmas season.
We have been in a sermon series
this Christmas or Advent series.
We're talking about waiting.
That's
what these chairs are meant to represent.
The waiting rooms that so often
we find ourselves in, in life
waiting to see what's going to happen,
waiting to see if God is going to show up.
Life is full of waiting rooms, and waiting
rooms are full of questions.
Questions about whether or not God loves
us, whether or not God
can be trusted,
whether or not God is involved.
Those waiting rooms and those questions
pop up in the Bible, very often.
So we've been looking at this
Christmas season are the different times
God's people are waiting and asking,
what can we learn about those times
for our own waiting?
You know, you guys are great
about giving encouraging feedback to Joe
and I when we preach.
My my favorite encouragement
that anyone can give
after a sermon is when someone says, Zach.
It felt like you were talking right to me.
It felt like that sermon was just for me.
I love hearing that because you need
to know that is not a compliment to me.
That is an encouragement
because of the Bible itself.
After all, God made you.
God knows you.
So of course he can speak directly into
your life, directly into your experience.
Without knowing it.
You're acknowledging that God sees you
and that God cares about you.
And I love being part of that.
I've heard that feedback a lot
this series, and that makes sense
because you talk about waiting.
We all can resonate with that.
We talk about waiting and suffering,
waiting in despair, waiting in silence.
Unfortunately, those are experiences
that we are all pretty familiar with.
And so when we hear talks about them,
it it can feel very relevant.
Actually, I've been terrified this week
that this one would be
the least relevant to you, because today
we're talking about waiting in hope.
The reason I say that is
because if you're coming in this weekend
in the midst of a difficult season,
it probably resonates with you.
If I talk about suffering or despair or
silence, that's your current experience.
But when I talk about hope,
you might find that a little detached,
a little hard to touch,
and what you might hear me saying,
and I hope that is not the case,
is that I'm calling you
to some kind of plucky optimism.
You know, we all have that friend
who's relentlessly positive
and relentlessly optimistic, like,
you get a flat tire
and you pull over to the side of the road
and they look at you and say, well,
at least we have time to talk.
And the truth is, that person
is always very nice,
but also a little annoying, right?
Because not every situation is optimistic.
Makes me think of a story
I heard once about a dad who had two sons.
One was a pessimist
and one was an optimist, and he decided
to use Christmas to regulate them both.
So Christmas Eve, he puts them to bed
and after they go to sleep, he sneaks
into their room and in the pessimist room
he fills it with presents,
and in the optimist room
he dumps a big pile of horse manure
right in the middle of the floor,
and the next morning, Christmas morning,
he sneaks to their room
to watch their response,
and he opens the pessimist door
and he's just staring at the presents,
saying, who put these here?
What do they want from me?
He closes the door.
I think, well, that didn't work.
He goes, the optimist room
and the boy is digging in the manure.
Big smile on his face.
He says, son, what are you doing?
He says, dad, with this much manure, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere.
So my concern is, when I talk
about waiting and hope
you will think that's what I mean.
But it isn't.
It isn't.
Here's what I want you to know.
Hope is most necessary
when it makes the least sense.
Hope is most necessary
when it makes the least sense.
If things are going well for you right
now, you don't need a sermon on hope.
You might need a sermon on gratitude,
right?
You don't need a sermon on hope.
If you're here
and you're not doing well, it's
absolutely the right time
to talk to you about hope.
Let me let me show you what I mean.
If you have a Bible,
would you open it to Luke chapter two?
We're going to look at the passage on
Simeon that was just read so beautifully.
If your phone, your tablet, totally
okay to take that out.
The verses that I quote
are going to be on the screen behind me.
Hey, if you're here
and you want to follow along in the Bible,
you don't have a Bible.
There's one in the pew in front of you
or in the back of the room over
in East Hall, and you can find
today's reading on page 805.
This passage is about a man named Simeon.
Simeon is waiting in hope,
but not because things are going so well.
Remember, hope is most necessary
when it makes the least sense.
Simeon is an older Jewish guy
living in a time
when Israel is under Roman oppression,
so politically he is being oppressed.
Religiously, Judaism is a mess.
The Pharisees are fighting
with the Sadducees.
There's hypocrisy everywhere.
So politically, religiously,
socially, morally, things
are falling apart around Simeon,
and Simeon is old.
So the thing is, even if things are going
to get better, he isn't going to see it.
Simeon is in a circumstance
in which hope doesn't
make a lot of sense,
but that's when it's most necessary.
But what you will find in
this pages is Simeon is hopeful,
and the reason he's hopeful is because
he believes the story of the Bible.
He believes the story of the Bible,
the Bible is a story
that is meant to give us hope.
Now, let me say two things for this.
One is, what I mean is that
the Bible comes to us in narrative form.
If God had wanted to give us a text book,
he could have, if God had wanted us to
give us a collection of of witty sayings,
he could have, he gave us a story.
Now, when I say story,
I don't mean fiction.
I hope you know that
if you were to go to dinner, your spouse
and you with my wife and I, we sat down
and we didn't know each other very well.
I know
my wife would lead with this question.
Tell me the story of how you met
the. She
doesn't mean make something up
unless your story's boring.
Then do us all a favor.
Make something up.
No, she means tell me the actual story.
If I came in from a crazy weekend,
I come in the office on Monday
and I'll say, boy, have
I got a story for you.
I don't mean I'm making it up.
I mean, I'm going to tell you
what happened in narrative form.
The Bible is the story of what God is
doing in human history, and it is a story.
He meant to give us hope.
Simeon understood this.
That's where his hope came from.
It wasn't internal or intrinsic.
It came from the story of the Bible.
In fact, let me show
you three things that Simeon understood
about stories
that gave him hope in a difficult time.
Three things. Here they are.
Number one, stories have arcs.
Number two stories have heroes,
and number three stories have room for us.
Stories have arcs.
Stories have heroes.
Stories have room for us.
Let's start with the first one.
Stories have arcs.
Now, by this I mean arcs.
They have narrative trajectories,
not big boats,
although some stories do have big boats.
But that's not the point.
Every story is going somewhere,
right?
There's a plot, there's a through line,
there's a direction.
A story
is moving in a particular direction.
And here's what's true.
Good stories are headed somewhere good.
Good stories are headed somewhere good.
And Simeon knew that the
the story of the Bible, the story of
what God is doing in human
history, is a good story.
And he knew it was headed somewhere good.
Look with me at verse 25.
This is what it says now there was a man
in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
and this man was righteous and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him.
The words righteous
and devout there mean that
Simeon believes the story of the Bible.
But I want you to notice it's a story,
he believes of consolation, of good news,
for hurting people, of encouragement,
for people who need it.
He's read the story.
He knows it's a good story,
headed somewhere good.
And you know this about stories that Luke
Skywalker will bring down the Empire.
Frodo will bring down Sauron,
throw the ring
into Mordor,
Paula traders will bring down the harken.
And somebody likes science fiction.
Good stories are headed somewhere good.
But here's what Simeon also knew
stories make sense of hard moments.
Stories make sense of hard moments.
Simeon is in a difficult scene.
The world around him is not good,
but he knows this.
You don't understand the story
through one scene.
You understand a scene
in the context of the larger story.
Like, let me give you an example.
When you watch a movie with a little kid,
like a little little kid,
always early on in the movie,
the bad guy is winning.
That's what builds
the plot tension, right?
And sometimes a little kid
will get really distressed by that because
they're worried where you're headed
is that the bad guy is going to win.
And so the little kid, one of my kids,
for instance, will stop it and say, whoa,
wait, wait,
I don't want to watch this anymore.
I don't like this
movie. I don't want to watch.
Because in their minds, if
we pause it right now, the bad thing
that's coming won't happen.
And what you have to say
to that kid in that moment is, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hang in there.
The story keeps going.
This scene will make sense
in the larger story.
Sometimes to keep that kid going,
you got to call them over and say,
you want me to tell you what happens,
and they'll say.
Because you know that
the power of the story will help them
get through that scene.
Listen,
if I'm the pastor here long enough,
it will be my privilege to sit with you
in hospital rooms.
And funeral homes.
In living rooms
where we're mourning the loss of a family.
Or the disintegration
of your of your family.
We're grieving a bankruptcy.
You're struggling through an addiction.
And in those moments,
you will probably want me
to explain
why that particular scene is happening.
And I have to tell you,
I won't be able to do it.
In fact, more than that,
you should run from anybody who tries.
You see, the hope that Simeon had
didn't come from having all the answers
of his particular scene.
The hope that Simeon had was knowing
where the story was
going.
It's the story
that gives us hope in the scene.
It's the trajectory,
the arc, the direction.
Simeon knew that God had promised
to put the world back together.
God had promised to right
the wrongs to the good, would defeat evil.
That in the end
we would be with him forever.
And Simeon was saying to God,
I just need a glimpse of the story
so that I can
keep moving through my scene.
In fact, he
understood that we need glimpses
of the ending
to get through the story.
Is that not true?
Is that what you're telling that
little kid?
Hey, you want me to tell you what happens?
Simeon says to God,
just give me a glimpse and I can die.
Because then I know
the story is bigger than my scene.
Listen, the hope of Christmas, friends,
is not that you'll get all the answers
to your particular scene.
The hope of Christmas
is that it is a reminder
that it is just a scene.
If there is a larger story of what
God is doing in the universe,
it was happening long before you.
It will continue long after you
and you can have a part in it.
Stories have arcs
and the arcs help us find a hope.
Even if, like Simeon,
we are in the midst of a difficult scene.
I don't know what this week holds for you.
Whether it
will be an amazing week or an awful one,
whether you want the minutes
to go by slowly or as quickly as possible.
But this week is just a brief moment
in the story that God is writing.
Here's the other thing
Simeon understood about stories.
Stories don't just have arcs.
They have heroes.
Stories have heroes.
You know, the great thing
about the great stories is that heroes
carry the story forward.
You know, when I
when I read Lord of the rings, well,
not when I read it,
because I think those books are boring.
But when I watch it.
I don't want to be Frodo.
That seems stressful
and I'm not sure I would accomplish it.
I don't want the weight of the story
to be on me.
I don't want the plot to move forward
on my bravery
or my strength
that would feel crushing to me.
I want to be like Hobbit 712,
just minding my own business, right?
Raising my crops
back in the Shire, saying,
tell me when Frodo gets the job done.
Heroes carry the story forward.
Paula tradies brings down the Harkin owns
Larry.
Larry, I called Larry Skywalker.
That's the guy with high school with
Luke Skywalker.
He defeats the Empire.
You see, heroes carry the story forward.
Let's get what it says in verse 26.
Simeon, this is his prayer now,
and it had been revealed to him, verse 26,
by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death
before he had seen
the Lord's Christ.
Simeon says, I'm old,
I I'm not changing anything.
I need to know, God, that there's a hero.
I need to know you're sending someone
who will carry this story forward.
Here's what Simeon knows.
It's not just that heroes carry this story
forward, it's that everyone else
finds their success,
their hope in the hero's success.
Is that not true?
When Luke Skywalker
brings down the Empire, we all win.
When Frodo throws the ring into Mordor,
we all are
set free from the evil of Sauron.
Simeon knows that the hope of the Bible,
the hope of the story,
is not that he's heroic,
but that God will send the hero, and that
Simeon can link himself to the hero
so that when the hero wins, he wins.
Look at what he says. Verse 29,
Lord, now you are holding Jesus right?
And he says, Lord, now you are letting
your servant depart in peace.
That's a really romantic
way of saying, what
now I can die,
now I can die
according to your word.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
that you have prepared in the presence
of all peoples, a light for revelation
to the Gentiles, and for glory
to your people, people, Israel.
Simeon says, now I know there's a hero,
so it's okay if my scene is over.
It's okay if my chapter end.
It's okay
if my little bit part in this play is over
because the hero is here,
and when he wins, I will win.
Listen, the Bible isn't just a story.
Jesus.
Jesus is our hero.
Now, I know some of you are here
because it's Christmas
and you came for grandma or grandpa
or mom or dad or your aunt or your uncle.
And by the way,
I think that's awesome of you.
That's incredibly kind
for you to step out of your comfort zone
and come to something that's not really
your thing because you love them so much.
I'm really
that's an amazing thing for you to do.
And I know we might not see each other
for another year,
and that's okay.
But while you're away,
I want to make sure that as you think
about Christianity,
you're thinking about it rightly.
Christianity is not the idea
that if you will get serious
about fixing your life, God will help you.
It is not the idea
that God has given you a path and
and you need to walk down it and you need
to, you know, the Lord will help those
who help themselves
get your life together, get sober,
get clean, get serious,
get right, and God will show up.
Christianity is the belief
that the hero Jesus does for us
what we could never do for ourselves.
It's not my life, but he is.
That is righteous.
It's not my death,
but his that pays for my sin.
It's not my resurrection,
but his that gives me hope, his ascension,
his authority in heaven, his coming again.
Simeon is holding Jesus
in the midst of a world that is broken
under Roman oppression with a broken
religion, a world decaying around him.
Politics are a mess.
Religion is a mess.
Stop me if this sounds familiar
and he's holding Jesus and he's saying,
now I can die
because I'm just Hobbit 712.
But this is the hero.
And friends, you need to hear this
because it's possible that this week
is going to be awful for you
and it's your fault.
That you'll be alone
because of the choices you have made.
That you'll be struggling
because of the decisions
you are making now.
But the hope of the biblical story
is not that you get your act together.
The hope of the biblical story
is you say to God,
is there any way you could do for me
what I could never do
for my self?
And the answer to that is Jesus.
That's
what God is saying to you every Christmas.
Don't you see?
Every Christmas you come
and we seem to say, you know.
So you come back once a year.
You think not much is changed.
We sing the same songs,
we tell the same story.
We say the same things.
Because every year God is saying to you,
would you stop trying to be the hero
and just let me do it?
My story is headed somewhere good.
Just grab hold of Jesus and let him do
for you what you cannot do for yourself.
That brings me to the third thing
that Simeon knew about stories,
which is that stories have room for us.
Stories have room for us.
In fact, great stories include us.
That's why.
That's why It's a Wonderful Life
resonates more with us than Die Hard,
even though both are Christmas movies.
I said, why?
I said.
It's because, listen, it's
because I can't resonate with going up
Nakatomi Plaza to rescue my wife
from the terrorist that decided
for whatever reason, her staff Christmas
party was the right party to crash.
I would be dead in the first sweep, or
I'd be hiding in the bathroom shivering.
Right?
I'm not John McClane,
but when I watched George Bailey deal
with broken dreams,
when I watch his life not quite
become what maybe he had hoped when I.
When I see him buckling under the weight
of pressure and expectation and
and when I see him fail and and deal
with failure, I can resonate with that.
That's why
the end of Die Hard, I just go to bed.
But at the end of It's a Wonderful Life,
when his brother holds up
that stupid cop and says to my brother
George, you know what?
How what? He say? The richest man in town.
I cry like a baby every time
because I want people to say
that about me.
Because great stories always include us.
Simeon gets a promise from God.
Simeon, you won't die until
you see the hero, until you know for sure.
But I believe he gets that promise
because he won't stop asking for it.
Simeon says,
the God of you're doing something.
If there's a story you're writing,
if there's a hero who's coming, can I just
get a glimpse?
Can I
just know for sure there's a place for me?
It makes me think of a time
I was on a work trip.
I don't even remember where I was
by myself.
And I went to see a movie.
It was one of those times
where I was just trying to kill time.
So I just bought a ticket
for the next movie.
Whatever it was ended up
being this movie about a mom and her son
and their relationship in the midst
of some pretty difficult circumstances,
and it was a good movie, not a great one.
But at the end, there was
this powerful scene that wrapped the movie
up, and this little boy said
something to his mom that just wrecked me.
When I say it wrecked me,
I don't mean like the single tear
that goes down here,
guys that we wipe away and say allergies.
I mean, like for five minutes.
I'm the only one in the theater.
I am just crying.
Like the guy
who came to pick up the popcorn.
Probably left
because it was awkward for both of us,
like I was.
I mean, I was just wrecked.
I went back this week
to watch the scene of that movie
because I was thinking
I would tell you more about it,
or I would show it to you
even to bring the point home.
And you know, what's crazy is
I watched it like five times.
That little boy never said the line.
I heard.
I mean, it's the sentiment of the scene.
It's the point they're making.
But he never
I mean, I can remember hearing him say it,
but he never actually said it.
Do you know why? Because
I heard it.
Because it hooked into my own story.
Friends, Christmas points
to a larger story.
It's a promise God is keeping,
and it invites you to go backwards.
Well, why did God make that promise
and invite you to go forward?
Well, does he keep it?
What happens to the little boy?
Who does he grow up to be?
What does he grow up to do?
Christmas invites you into a larger story,
but more than that,
Christmas
is your invitation into that story.
It's your chance to hear the line
that is just for you.
But if I think about it long enough,
I can put myself in that theater.
I can feel the moment that little boy says
that.
I can remember why I cried.
I can remember what I was longing for.
I can remember how vividly it hit me.
But it was. It didn't even happen.
And I've
come this weekend to tell you that
I think that God wants to speak
to many of you in just the same way.
As though you're the only one in the room.
As though you're the only one.
Hearing the line of him saying,
I know your scene is hard,
but there's a place for you in the story
that I'm writing.
You do not have to accomplish it.
Jesus will grab Ahold of him and watch
where he takes you.
I want to end by reading you
a section from one of my favorite books,
The Jesus Storybook Bible.
I talk about this all the time.
I hope you know I love this.
If you're still looking for Christmas
gifts, buy this.
Buy it for your kids.
Buy it for your grandkids.
52 stories, one a week. They're awesome.
But even if you don't have
kids, buy it for yourself.
I mean it, buy it for yourself.
But this is how Sally Lloyd-Jones,
the author of this book, puts this.
I'm going to end with this, she says,
man, and if you're just here
for Christmas, you need to hear this.
No, the Bible isn't a book of rules
or a book of heroes.
The Bible is most of all a story.
It's an adventure story about a young hero
who comes from a far country
to win back his lost treasure.
It's a love story about a brave prince
who leaves his palace,
his throne,
everything to rescue the one he loves.
It's like the most wonderful of fairy
tales that has come true in real life.
You see, the best thing about
this story is it's true.
There are a lot
of stories in the Bible, but
all the stories are telling one big story,
the story of how God loves his children
and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible
to tell this story.
And at the center of the story,
there is a baby.
In every story in the Bible
whispers his name.
He is like the missing piece in a puzzle.
The piece that makes all the other pieces
fit together, and suddenly
you can see a beautiful picture in this.
This is no ordinary baby.
This is the child
upon whom everything would depend.
There is no hope in a story
that is about you.
Simeon knew that.
But there is hope that transcends
even your own death.
In Jesus.
Let me pray for us.
Father God,
thank you so much for the story
that you are writing in human history.
Thank you even more that right now
your Holy Spirit is whispering his name.
As the book says to people in this room,
some of them for the first time
somewhere,
there's somebody in this room saying,
I can't believe I did this for grandma,
grandpa, mom, dad.
And and here I am
actually connecting with God.
I don't make that about.
It's not about the sermon.
Let them know that just as you wanted
Simeon to know, he had a part in the story
you were writing.
You want them to know that even now,
some of us are hearing this
for the thousandth time.
But amidst the busyness of Christmas,
we need to be reminded that
our hope is that there's a larger story.
We are not the hero. Jesus, you are.
And we win because you have won.
In your name we pray. Amen.