Catching of God

26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see

death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

You know, I just love what it says here in the text. It speaks very much of our consolation and hope seen at the last. How many of you know that our God has been there all along. In all our wandering and searching, he has not changed. Nor has he gone far from us it seems. At times like this you must wonder where has he been. After the creation of man, it has been many hundreds of thousands of years. Finally just now, our God shows on the scene. There have been many letters from home and more than a few long-distance calls. Yet here as in now at the first, the love of the Father comes through. Could not this then be the reason that our God had shown up. See it now as a taking of all things formerly found in the text. Remember the taxation, those missing, and them traveling far as we heard once before. It is not that the Lord heard of our misery and came bearing with him sticks and stones. Nor is he the absent Father that some of us knew. Instead, to such a scene as this has he come. See, The Lord in his mercy, just will not leave us alone. Rather, our sins and our sorrows have obstructed the view. Here, in all the goings back to the hometowns, the situation ushers in that of the Lord. Simeon, it seems was one such a man waiting long in his faith. Look at this scene with me for a moment, if you will. Indeed, remember how Israel too crowded the view. Perhaps once you heard of the forefather Jacob seized by the Lord. See, in Genesis how it tells that for the blessing he once strove. An angel came on the scene with whom he wrestled until the break of day. He would have prevailed would he not, had not the angel touched only his thigh. With that, it was placed out of joint, changing his name to Israel, for which he limped to this day. How many of you know the calling of God. He makes no mistake. It seems that man just might but seldom the Lord. So then were there his friends and neighbors, his brother and nephew left out of the house or they would have been were it not for the Lord. How many of you know our God always provides for his people. Is this not what it has been about all along. Herein the age-old struggle between the calling of man and the providing of God even found. Jacob wanted the blessing so bad from his Father Isaac that he tried to obtain it by force. See, his deception might have fooled his father for a short time. But nothing could come close to fooling the Lord. Does he not know all even the end from the beginning and so tells it well. It is not for nothing that Isaiah 51:6 speaks of all that was created waxing “old as does a garment.” At times like these you might wonder why it was even made. But do not the ages bring forth his praise. Is it not for his pleasure that all this was made. See, Revelation 4:11 uses the terms “are and were created” as seen in the text. Here, it should be seen that our God does nothing by force. Rather, he is a gentleman that does all very well. You can either accept him or reject him along with his rightful place in your life but he will not force you, my friends. Still, there remains a rest for the people of God as Hebrews once said. So then is rest for his people still to be had. Simeon puts it best when he says this of the Lord. Look now with me at Simeon’s experience. It goes from from outside to moving within. You know how some of you do who hear sounds in your heaD. Then again, must you ask yourself if it is you or the Lord. Just as Samuel once found he has an awful lot left to say. For this cause to him it came in the sound of a voice when he lay down as though in a dream. To Moses he spoke from a bush in the sounds of a voice, the rush of the fire, and the whisper of wind. My, it seems to me all this is what you would call hearing from God. Now, the text says not in what shape this voice came only what had been said. That is why some of us must be so careful when it comes to the voice of the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God indeed. For when you do not trust him and obey, he has another thing planned. Sometimes it works out the way you want and sometimes not. But in all this can you trust and believe that it is all for your good. Through it all our God does his work unbeknownst to all else. So too is the warning given to taste and see ought of the Lord. Indeed it is not for no reason he says to try the spirits to see if they be of God for there are many false teachers gone out into the world. and so be wanting found. It is a thing that speaks of a heavenly perspective as King Belshazzar once found As he saw the words written. Into such a scene as this the Lord as a light to the Gentiles, as Simeon says, now appear. How many of you know it would be all too easy to get lost without having a light. Then again, in the darkness some might even stumble and fall or make a mistake. Yet God in his goodness just will not leave us alone. How we all know of the Son that will not smite us by day. Yet herein is the what has been prepared “before the face of all peoples” to be seen in the text. It is going down whether you like it or not, right here, right now, whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not. For so has not our God also prepared it. Of that, you can be sure, is some good. So then have the preparations come in the form of his Son. You know how some of you with children do. When you are in another room and there is no noise, you start growing concerned since they are not playing. Now by now means am I saying that the Spirit is a maker of noise. You know, the first thing some do when they think of that word is envision a white sheet floating aimlessly round in the room. Some even make noise like an “oooooooooh” or at least they do according to you. What sacrilege to think of reducing our Lord to the shape of our fears. Here, Simeon had much that he feared to be sure such as death or growing so old at the least. The Lord had promised him a glimpse of Messiah though and with it the hope of just a little bit more. See, the “light to lighten the Gentiles” has proceeded inside. Along with it has come “the glory of your people Israel,” Finally, after all this time of wrestling the things of the Lord. How often would he have gathered them as a mother hen gathers her chickens under her wings only to find they had wrestled that too. Little wonder that the end of time is often termed as Jacob’s struggle defining a man who could no longer wrestle or run from the Lord. How many of you know of some in the wrong. God is just as our consolation then too is he not. Indeed, he is the best consoler that ever there was. My, it is just like a consulate, meeting place, and counselor all in one. See now the all things hid of the Lord. Herein has the light of the Gentiles proceeded inside to lighten the face. Now is come the hope and light and love to all peoples found within, my friends. Does it not sound like God’s Son formed in me indeed. So too does Simeon, even as an old man, know as if by instinct just where to go. It is very much as though his consolation has came along and lightened the load. Now he need not fear ever growing so old. It has taken the harms of the house and righted the wrongs. It guides and provides for each which way to go along with some words of comfort and cheer. It is a form very much like that of the Son being in mission and purpose found of the same. Nor can the term comforter quite express the one and the same. So too Simeon once found as his knowledge of such a being moved on within. It affected him by changing his life. Now was this being known to him only as the Spirit being that of the Son. What a wonderful thing to see the God who is found of his people. Come on inside, there is nowhere to run. For so has our God finally shown up to the house being present within for all of it’s days nor absent for long. How many of you know despite all that has come, we are living this life with the help of his Son.