EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/11/2026 8:03 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“Simeon’s Anointing”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke 2:25c-27
Message of the verse: “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 carry out for Him the custom of the Law,
MacArthur brings out a great point as he begins this SD: “A common misconception about the Holy Spirit
is that His ministry in the lives of God’s people began on the day of Pentecost. That is not the case, however. All those who were saved before the cross and
Pentecost were saved in the same way as those who were saved afterward-by grace
through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). And no
sinner, ‘dead in…trespasses and sins’ (Eph. 2:1), can come to repentance and
faith apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
‘The heart is more deceitful than all else, ‘ wrote Jeremiah, ‘and is
desperately sick; who can understand it?(Jer. 17:9)’” That is a wonderful question to ask yourself,
for as mentioned in earlier SD’s a person has to realize that they are lost
before they can come to Christ for salvation, realize you, as Jeremiah states “desperately
sick.” “Sinners can no more change their
hearts by their own efforts than people can change their skin color, or animals
the pattern of their fur (Jer. 12:23). ‘Who
can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my son?’ Solomon asked
rhetorically (Prov. 20:9). The obvious
answer is no one, since ‘there is none righteous, not even one; there is none
who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together
they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one’ (Rom.
3:10-12; cf. Job 15:14; 1 Kings 8:46; Ecc. 7:20; Rom. 3:23).
“The Holy Spirit convicted people in
the Old Testament of their sin, prompted repentance, gave life, elicited faith,
and drew them to God. Apart from His
work, no person in any age can ever be justified, sanctified, empowered for
service and witness, understand Scripture, or pray in the will of God. There is, however, a new dimension to the
Spirit’s work in the lives of believers after Pentecost. As Jesus told the disciples in John 14:17
concerning the increased degree of the Spirit’s ministry to them, ‘He abides
with you and will be in you.’ Under the
old covenant, the Spirit was present in power and person with believers. But under the New Covenant, His presence with
in those who believed and expressed in an unprecedented way (cf. Ezek.
36:26-27). There was to come for
believers a giving of the Spirit which unique power would be provided for
ministry and evangelism. That happened
on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was given to believers in a new
fullness that became normative for all believers since (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13).”
(Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13)
“9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have
the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
“13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one
Spirit.”
“Luke’s note that the Holy Spirit
was upon Simeon reflects the Spirit’s pre-Pentecost empowering of people to
serve and speak for God (cf. Ex. 31:2-3; Num. 11:25; 27:18; Judg. 3:9-10;
11:29; 13:24-25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sam. 16:13; 2 Chron. 15:1; 20:14-17; 24:20; Mic. 3:8; Zech. 7:12). He has already recorded the Holy Spirit’s
filling of John the Baptist (1:15), Elizabeth 1:41), and Zacharias (1:67). As a result of the Spirit’s coming upon
Simeon it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see
death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (i.e., the Messiah). A revelation from God had granted a very
unusual privilege to this noble saint.
That revelation must have heightened Simeon’s messianic hope to a fever
pitch, since he knew that it would be realized in his lifetime. He must have
lived in a constant state of joyous expectation, knowing that each new day
might bring the Messiah he longed to see.
The knowledge must also have had a sobering effect on him, motivating
him to lead a godly life.
“On the divinely appointed day,
forty days after Jesus’ birth, Simeon came in the Spirit (that is, under
the Spirit’s leading; cf. Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10) into the temple. Unlike naos, which refers to the
inner sanctuary, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (cf. its use in 1:9, 21,
22), hieron (temple) refers to the temple complex as a
whole. It was there, most likely in the Court
of the women, that Simeon met Joseph and Mary when they brought in the child
Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law (cf. the exposition of
2:22-24 in the previous chapter of this volume). Luke does not give the details of how they
met, since neither party was looking for or knew the other. The temple, where
God met with His people, was a fitting location for Him to providentially
arrange for Simeon to meet the God-man, Jesus Christ.”
4/11/2026
8:39 PM
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