EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/10/2026 9:34 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“Simeon 2:25-35”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke 2:25-35
Message
of the verses: “25 And
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man
was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of
Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he
came [b]by the Spirit into the temple; and
when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the
custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him in his arms, and
blessed God, and said, 29 “Now, Lord, You are letting Your
bond-servant depart in peace, According to Your word;30 For my
eyes have seen Your salvation,31 Which You have prepared
in the presence of all the peoples:32 A light for
revelation for the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”33 And
His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said
about Him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to His
mother Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the
fall and [e]rise of many in Israel, and as a sign
to be [opposed— 35 and a sword will pierce
your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
This SD will be a bit different than my regular SD’s as
John MacArthur writes the following to show us where He is going here: “Luke’s account of his testimony to Jesus
reveals five things about Simeon: his character, theology, anointing,
proclamation, and warning.”
Now in
this evening’s SD we will look at “Simeon’s Character” which are seen in Luke
2:25a “And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man
was righteous and devout,”
“Simeon,
who appears only here in Scripture, evidently lived in
Jerusalem and was most likely an old man (cf. vv. 26, 29).”
(cf.
vv. 26, 29)
“ 26 And it
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”
“29 “Now, Lord, You
are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, According to Your word;”
“His name, which means, “God has heard” (cf. Gen.
29:33), was a common name, one he shared with one of the twelve sons of Jacob
(Gen. 34:25)) and the tribe name after him (Num. 1:23), an ancestor of Jesus
(Luke 3:30), one of the teachers in the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1), and
Peter, whose Hebrew name was Simeon (Acts 15:14).” Now we want to look at the Simeon who Luke
writes about in this section.
What
is known about this Simeon reals he to have a spiritually qualified to testify
about the Messiah. Luke’s description of
him as he writes he was righteous and devout is really loaded with
meaning. Now to say that Simeon was righteous
means that he, like Abraham in Genesis 15:6, had righteousness imputed to
him by faith. “6 And he (Abraham)
believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” In
MacArthur’s commentary he gives a fairly long list of verses that talk about
having imputed righteousness given by faith (Cf. 1:6; 14:14 Matt. 13:49; 25:46;
Acts 10:22; 24:15; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 12:23). He goes on to write “Eulabes (devout)
has the meaning of ‘cautious’ in classical Greek. It appears in the New Testament only in Luke’s
writings (cf. Acts 2:5; 8:2; 22:12), where it describes those who are ‘reverent
toward God,’ ‘God fearing,’ or ‘pious.’
It conveys the idea of being careful to obey and honor God so as to lead
an exemplary life before others. Those
two terms indicate that Simeon not only was justified, but also
sanctified. The two are inseparably
linked since, as John Calvin put it, ‘Christ…justifies no man without also
sanctifying him’ (Institutes, ILL, 16, 1).
In the words of the apostle Paul, Simeon was ‘not a Jew who is only
outwardly…[but]a Jew who is one inwardly’ (Rom. 2:28-29). Simeon had received the salvation benefits
promised in the prophet Isaiah 55:6-7: ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found;
call upon Him while He is near. Let the
wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return
to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon’ (cf. Mic. 7:18-19).”
(cf.
Mic. 7:18-19)
“18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and
passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not
retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will
tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of
the sea.”
4/10/2026 10:01 PM
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