◄ Luke 2:25 ►
Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
Study Bible
Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon,

Simeon is introduced as a resident of Jerusalem, the religious and cultural center of Jewish life. Jerusalem is significant as the location of the Temple, where Jewish worship and sacrifices were conducted. Simeon's presence in Jerusalem places him at the heart of Jewish religious activity. His name, Simeon, is a common Jewish name, meaning "he has heard," which may imply his attentiveness to God's promises.

Act 13:1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets…
Jhn 3:1-2 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus…
Gen 29:33 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son…

who was righteous and devout.

Simeon is described as righteous and devout, indicating his adherence to the Law of Moses and his piety in religious practices. Righteousness in the biblical sense often refers to living in accordance with God's commandments, while devoutness suggests a deep commitment to worship and prayer. This characterization aligns Simeon with other biblical figures who are commended for their faithfulness, such as Noah and Abraham.

Act 10:2 He and all his household were devout and…
Luk 1:6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God…
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job…

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel,

The "consolation of Israel" refers to the anticipated comfort and redemption that the Messiah would bring to the Jewish people. This expectation is rooted in Old Testament prophecies, such as those found in Isaiah, which speak of a coming deliverer who would restore Israel. Simeon's waiting reflects the hope and longing of many Jews of his time for the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies.

Isa 40:1-2 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.…
Isa 52:9 Break forth in joy, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem,…
Psa 130:5-8 I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word…

and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

The presence of the Holy Spirit upon Simeon indicates divine favor and guidance. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon individuals to empower them for specific tasks or to deliver messages from God. This phrase suggests that Simeon was under the influence of the Holy Spirit, enabling him to recognize the significance of Jesus' arrival. The Holy Spirit's role here foreshadows the more widespread outpouring of the Spirit in the New Testament, particularly at Pentecost.

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD…
1Sa 16:13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him…
Num 11:25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him,…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Simeon
A righteous and devout man in Jerusalem, known for his piety and anticipation of the Messiah. His life exemplifies faithfulness and hope in God's promises.

2. Jerusalem
The central city of Jewish worship and the location of the Temple, where Simeon encounters Jesus. It symbolizes the heart of Jewish religious life and expectation.

3. The Consolation of Israel
A term referring to the anticipated coming of the Messiah, who would bring comfort and redemption to the people of Israel.

4. The Holy Spirit
The third person of the Trinity, who was upon Simeon, guiding and revealing God's promises to him.
Teaching Points
Righteousness and Devotion
Simeon's life challenges us to pursue righteousness and devotion in our walk with God. His example encourages believers to live in a way that is pleasing to God, marked by faithfulness and integrity.

Waiting on God's Promises
Simeon's patient waiting for the Messiah teaches us the importance of trusting in God's timing. We are reminded to hold onto God's promises, even when fulfillment seems distant.

The Role of the Holy Spirit
The presence of the Holy Spirit in Simeon's life highlights the Spirit's role in guiding and revealing truth to believers. We are encouraged to seek the Spirit's guidance in our daily lives.

Hope in Christ
Simeon's anticipation of the "consolation of Israel" points us to the hope we have in Christ. As believers, we are called to live with an expectant hope in the return of Jesus and the fulfillment of God's kingdom.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does Simeon's righteousness and devotion inspire you in your own spiritual journey?

2. In what ways can you actively wait on God's promises in your life, as Simeon did for the Messiah?

3. How can you cultivate a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, similar to Simeon's experience?

4. What are some promises from Scripture that you are currently holding onto, and how do they provide hope and encouragement?

5. How does the concept of the "consolation of Israel" relate to the hope we have in Christ today, and how can this hope impact your daily life?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Isaiah 40:1-2
This passage speaks of comfort for God's people, which aligns with Simeon's expectation of the "consolation of Israel."

Acts 2:17-18
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early church reflects the Spirit's presence and activity in Simeon's life.

Hebrews 11:1
Simeon's faith in the unseen promise of the Messiah is an example of the faith described in this verse.
Sermons
The Circumcision and Presentation of JesusR.M. Edgar Luke 2:21-40
A Satisfied Human SpiritW. Clarkson Luke 2:25-30
A Representative ManJ. Parker, D. D.Luke 2:25-35
Aged EvangelistsC. Stanford, D. D.Luke 2:25-35
Christ Our ConsolationH. Alford, M. A.Luke 2:25-35
It is Hard to Wait, and Few Can Do it WellStopford A. Brooke.Luke 2:25-35
Patient WaitingBishop Wm. Alexander.Luke 2:25-35
Readiness for God's WillNew Cyclopaedia of AnecdoteLuke 2:25-35
Scripture Biography of SimeonC. H. Spurgeon.Luke 2:25-35
Simeon and AnnaA. Whyte, D. D.Luke 2:25-35
Simeon and the Child JesusE. D. Rogers, D. D.Luke 2:25-35
Simeon: a Sermon for ChristmasE. Bersier, D. D.Luke 2:25-35
Simeon: Saint, Singer, and SeerF. Hastings.Luke 2:25-35
Simeon's Blessed HopeC. H. Spurgeon.Luke 2:25-35
The Consolation of IsraelG. Swinnock.Luke 2:25-35
The Consolation of IsraelJ. Jowett, M. A.Luke 2:25-35
The Expectant SimeonCanon Hoare.Luke 2:25-35
The Same Man was Just and DevoutStopford A. Brooke.Luke 2:25-35
The Waiting ChurchC. H. Spurgeon.Luke 2:25-35
Waiting for the ChariotLuke 2:25-35
Waiting for the LordAugustus Hare.Luke 2:25-35
Waiting is Good But Hard ServiceH. C. Trumbull.Luke 2:25-35
Waiting is Harder than DoingSunday School TimesLuke 2:25-35
People
Anna, Aser, Asher, Augustus, Cyrenius, David, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, Phanuel, Simeon
Places
Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea, Nazareth, Rome, Syria
Topics
Awaiting, Behold, Comfort, Comforting, Consolation, Devout, Fearing, Ghost, God-fearing, Holy, Jerusalem, Pious, Righteous, Simeon, Spirit, Symeon, Upright, Waiting
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Luke 2:25

     2203   Christ, titles of
     3233   Holy Spirit, and sanctification
     5977   waiting
     7145   remnant
     8158   righteousness, of believers
     8265   godliness
     8493   watchfulness, believers
     8678   waiting on God

Luke 2:1-40

     5652   babies

Luke 2:22-35

     2520   Christ, childhood

Luke 2:25-27

     3257   Holy Spirit, gift of
     3281   Holy Spirit, inspiration
     4018   life, spiritual

Luke 2:25-28

     8665   praise, reasons

Luke 2:25-32

     6704   peace, divine NT
     8352   thankfulness

Library
December 25. "I Bring You Glad Tidings" (Luke ii. 10).
"I bring you glad tidings" (Luke ii. 10). A Christmas spirit should be a spirit of humanity. Beside that beautiful object lesson on the Manger, the Cradle, and the lowly little child, what Christian heart can ever wish to be proud? It is a spirit of joy. It is right that these should be glad tidings, for, "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." It is a spirit of love. It should be the joy that comes from giving joy to others. The central fact of Christmas is …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Was, Is, is to Come
'... The babe lying in a manger...'--LUKE ii. 16. '... While He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven...'--LUKE xxiv. 51. 'This same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go...'--ACTS I. 11. These three fragments, which I have ventured to isolate and bring together, are all found in one author's writings. Luke's biography of Jesus stretches from the cradle in Bethlehem to the Ascension from Olivet. He narrates the Ascension twice, because it has two …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Boy in the Temple
'And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me! wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' --LUKE ii. 49. A number of spurious gospels have come down to us, which are full of stories, most of them absurd and some of them worse, about the infancy of Jesus Christ. Their puerilities bring out more distinctly the simplicity, the nobleness, the worthiness of this one solitary incident of His early days, which has been preserved for us. How has it been preserved? If you will look over …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Simeon's Swan-Song
'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: 30. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.'--LUKE ii. 29,30. That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, is one of the most picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. Simeon's whole life appears, in its later years, to have been under the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very remarkable to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the operation of that divine Spirit …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Shepherds and Angels
'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. 10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Angel's Message and Song
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the LORD came upon them, and the glory of the LORD shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the LORD . And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

December the Nineteenth the Sun of Righteousness
"A light to lighten the Gentiles." --LUKE ii. 25-40. That was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its glory upon a world. The "people that sat in darkness" are now to see "a great light." New regions are to be occupied; there is to be daybreak everywhere! "The Sun of Righteousness …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

December the Twenty-Fifth Christmas Cheer
"Good will toward men!" --LUKE ii. 8-20. The heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the corner to catch me at the fall. That "eye," placed in the sky of many a picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a chilling fear. That God was …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Religious Joy.
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."--Luke ii. 10, 11. There are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the acceptableness in God's sight of that state which …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Wilderness: Temptation. Matthew 4:1-11. Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13.
The University of Arabia: Jesus' naturalness--the Spirit's presence--intensity, Luke 2:45-51.--a true perspective--- the temptation's path--sin's path--John's grouping, 1 John 2:16.--the Spirit's plan--why--the devil's weakness--the Spirit's leading--a wilderness for every God-used man, Moses, Elijah, Paul. Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar: Jesus the only one led up to be tempted--the wilderness--its history, Genesis 13:10-13. 18:16-19:38.--Jesus really tempted--no wrong here in inner response--every …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Joy Born at Bethlehem
In our text we have before us the sermon of the first evangelist under the gospel dispensation. The preacher was an angel, and it was meet it should be so, for the grandest and last of all evangels will be proclaimed by an angel when he shall sound the trumpet of the resurrection, and the children of the regeneration shall rise into the fullness of their joy. The key-note of this angelic gospel is joy--"I bring unto you good tidings of great joy." Nature fears in the presence of God--the shepherds …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

"Nunc Dimittis"
We shall note, this morning, first, that every believer may be assured of departing in peace; but that, secondly, some believers feel a special readiness to depart now: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace;" and, thirdly, that there are words of encouragement to produce in us the like readiness: "according to thy word." There are words of Holy Writ which afford richest consolation in prospect of departure. I. First, then, let us start with the great general principle, which is full of comfort; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Christ About his Father's Business
But now I shall invite your attention, first, to the spirit of the Saviour, as breathed in these words, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and then, secondly, I shall exhort the children of God, with all the earnestness which I can command, with all the intensity of power which I can summon to the point, to labour after the same spirit, that they too may unfeignedly say, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? " I. First, then note THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. It was …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

The First Christmas Carol
Let us turn aside, having just thought of angels for a moment, to think rather of this song, than of the angels themselves. Their song was brief, but as Kitto excellently remarks, it was "well worthy of angels expressing the greatest and most blessed truths, in words so few, that they become to an acute apprehension, almost oppressive by the pregnant fulness of their meaning"--"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." We shall, hoping to be assisted by the Holy Spirit, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Christ's Boyhood
LUKE ii. 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour both with God and man. I do not pretend to understand these words. I preach on them because the Church has appointed them for this day. And most fitly. At Christmas we think of our Lord's birth. What more reasonable, than that we should go on to think of our Lord's boyhood? To think of this aright, even if we do not altogether understand it, ought to help us to understand rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Christ Child (Christmas Day. )
LUKE ii. 7. And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapt him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Mother and child.--Think of it, my friends, on Christmas day. What more beautiful sight is there in the world? What more beautiful sight, and what more wonderful sight? What more beautiful? That man must be very far from the kingdom of God--he is not worthy to be called a man at all--whose heart has not been touched by the sight of his first child in its mother's bosom. The greatest …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Music (Christmas Day. )
LUKE ii. 13, 14. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. You have been just singing Christmas hymns; and my text speaks of the first Christmas hymn. Now what the words of that hymn meant; what Peace on earth and good-will towards man meant, I have often told you. To-day I want you, for once, to think of this--that it was a hymn; that these angels were singing, even as …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Of Having Confidence in God when Evil Words are Cast at Us
"My Son, stand fast and believe in Me. For what are words but words? They fly through the air, but they bruise no stone. If thou are guilty, think how thou wouldst gladly amend thyself; if thou knowest nothing against thyself, consider that thou wilt gladly bear this for God's sake. It is little enough that thou sometimes hast to bear hard words, for thou art not yet able to bear hard blows. And wherefore do such trivial matters go to thine heart, except that thou art yet carnal, and regardest …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Birth of Jesus.
(at Bethlehem of Judæa, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 1-7. ^c 1 Now it came to pass in those days [the days of the birth of John the Baptist], there went out a decree [a law] from Cæsar Augustus [Octavius, or Augustus, Cæsar was the nephew of and successor to Julius Cæsar. He took the name Augustus in compliment to his own greatness; and our month August is named for him; its old name being Sextilis], that all the world should be enrolled. [This enrollment or census was the first step …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Circumcision, Temple Service, and Naming of Jesus.
(the Temple at Jerusalem, b.c. 4) ^C Luke II. 21-39. ^c 21 And when eight days [Gen. xvii. 12] were fulfilled for circumcising him [The rite was doubtless performed by Joseph. By this rite Jesus was "made like unto his brethren" (Heb. ii. 16, 17); that is, he became a member of the covenant nation, and became a debtor to the law--Gal. v. 3] , his name was called JESUS [see Luke i. 59], which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. [Luke i. 31.] 22 And when the days of their …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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