What it means to let Jesus be your answer?
Excerpts from sermon preached by Pastor Aimée Simpierre on Dec. 24, 2023
Watch the full service + sermon here.
How many times in the space of our own lives have we found ourselves asking questions, “will He ever speak again?” “Will He ever talk to me again like He spoke to me that time when I was on the mountain top?” Who knew if He would ever fulfill the promises written so long ago? Who even still remembers the promises of long ago?
We have to address this because as much as this is a joyous season and full of hope, we know that this is also a time when many struggle against the pull of despair. And despair can be deceptive because it can almost feel like peace. It is an end to the constantly troubled spirit. Despair comes when we stop asking questions, when we stop wondering when and why and how and just resign ourselves to hopelessness. Despair is the enemy’s attack in a season of hope.
And too often during this season the enemy wants us to actually see giving up as a comfortable alternative. And what with all that has happened and is happening in the world and with all the things that happen in our own lives that we may feel powerless to change, it is a prime time to slip into the pseudo-fake-comfort and the pseudo-peace that comes if we just stop give into despair. Just stop asking if the healing is coming, stop striving for better for the family, stop looking for a way to end the injustice, stop wondering if there’s a better way and stop believing that the change and the better days and the answers are all just around the corner.
But there was one person who refused to despair. His name was Simeon. And all we know about him is that he was righteous and devout. He was looking forward to Israel's consolation, the Holy Spirit was on him and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Messiah. Can you imagine, It was on this day that the infant body of the One who would later say” destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” was brought into the temple in His mother’s arms. The One who came to make all of our bodies living temples, was carried into the temple to be presented to the Father. I can only imagine the questions the angels were asking, is this how God is going to restore His relationship with man? Is this how God will free Israel from the oppression of Rome and the oppression of the accuser? With a baby? Simeon go to see it for Himself. Can you imagine the joy that swept over him - so profoundly that he walked up to this young first time mom as a complete stranger and grabbed her baby out of her arms - obviously this was a different age and time - and held the firstborn Son of God up against his chest! That’s a worshipper, sometimes you have to excuse us worshippers, sometimes we just have to break all conventions, and just don’t care what it looks like just to get as close to Jesus as humanly possible. We Just want to hold Him, to see Him, to embrace Him, to look upon His face. That’s the right question to have in your spirit forever, that’s the priority of a worshiper, to spend your days expecting to find your answer in the face of God’s Son.
Would that we dedicated our lives to that pursuit! God help us to push past every discomfort and trial and challenge that the enemy throws at us simply and make our first priority and our determination to embrace our Savior and find the answers to all of our longings in His presence.
My God help us live our lives for those moments when we see you all the more clearly, when You are all the more near, when the hope of You and the embrace of You pushes back every form of despair.
Simeon’s prophecy teaches us that all the while Simeon was waiting for his answer. God was preparing Simeon to deliver this message. Which let’s me know that your questions are important because our ministry is connected to your questions. We may not know all the reasons God chose Simeon to deliver this prophecy, but we can know that it had something to do with the question he had been asking. When God? When will your comforter come? God entrusts revelation to those who are asking questions. To those whose heart longs to see Him, the Holy Spirit will reveal where He is – and your personal ministry - since every believer is a minister and part of the royal priesthood, - and your prophecy is related to the questions that spring from the longings of your heart. And your answer will always be Jesus.
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