WAITING, LOOKING, AND PURSUING
E. E. Hoyte
Luke 2: 25–32; Philippians 3: 13, 14
I have not much to say, just a simple impression as to these two persons; Simeon is a man who is waiting for something, and Paul in the epistle is pursuing and looking. This man Simeon, to say just a few words on him, is spoken of as a man in Jerusalem as if he is identified with his locality where he is. He is there in Jerusalem, “a man in Jerusalem”; that is all that is said about him in that regard. It is a remarkable setting, Luke’s gospel, about the incoming of our Lord Jesus—a remarkable setting as to certain persons who are waiting, looking, but in the meantime they are going on in holy conditions. For instance. Zacharias and his wife, they were advanced in years but were continuing. Then there are others; I do not go into it, but in the setting in which Luke presents the Lord Jesus coming in, there is a looking for Him and expectation.
But this man, Simeon, what a person he must have been in the place where he was; it was in Jerusalem. Well, we are each one in our localities so we should endeavour to grace our localities where we are. But this man had a definite word by the Spirit that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Why was it given to him?, you might say, That is what is said about him, that it was divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit. You see the atmosphere in Luke’s setting. It is quite different from Matthew; there is no murderer here destroying children—that is Matthew. Here is an atmosphere for the
reception of Jesus, and it was communicated to Simeon that he should not see death until he had seen Christ.
Now he comes in when the child is brought into the temple to do according to the custom of the law. I do not go into that, but he came in at that time. “As the parents brought in the child Jesus”—what a touching expression “the child Jesus”—“that they might do for him according to the custom of the law, he received him into his arms, and blessed God”. What he was waiting for had arrived and he received Him into his arms and blessed God. What a word this was coming from his lips as he blessed God—“Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples”. He is talking about Christ. “Thy salvation”, that is God’s salvation that He is bringing in for His people. The Person of Christ involves that.
“Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples”. His heart expands; he says, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. What a man to have in a locality, who is able rightly to represent what is of God and to appreciate Christ and speak of Him thus. He was waiting for it, “awaiting the consolation of Israel”, that is, the incoming of Christ. Think of that: Well, I just want to whet our thoughts, dear brethren; it is Christ who was before him. He took Him in his arms. What a reception! John tells us in his gospel, “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1: 11), but not so in Luke, the setting is different, there are persons who are waiting for His incoming.
Now the next passage I read is about a man who is pursuing. We have to wait; Paul preached to the Thessalonians that they should wait for His
Son from the heavens, Jesus, our Deliverer from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1: 10).
He preached the gospel to them. He was with them three Sabbath days and preached to them and fixed their gaze on Christ in heaven, and they were to wait for Him. Now Paul here is waiting too and here he is saying to us that he is pursuing, that means he is continuing in his course. He says, I do not claim to have reached the end, “Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue”. In other words, dear brethren, while we are left here we are to continue; if we are waiting we wait. In the meantime we are engaged in something. So he says, “I pursue, if also I may get possession of it”. That is the prize he is speaking of. What is this prize? He gives it to us lower down. He says, I have not obtained it yet; “Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus”.
Then he goes on, “Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—
forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before ...”. You see what he is doing, forgetting the things behind. How much we have to forget, dear brethren, our failures; the time comes when we judge ourselves and we set it behind. “Forgetting the things behind”; how much the apostle had to forget; how could he do it? What sufferings were his! What great sufferings this man passed through. He gives it to us in Corinthians. He says,
“forgetting the things behind”. It is good if we can forget certain things. I am just saying this, dear brethren, because it has struck me a bit, “forgetting the things behind”; we are not constantly repeating something that has happened, going over it; we forget it, we reach a point where we can forget it;
“forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”. That is a great thing, dear brethren, we want to be pursuing. We are not quiescent, we do not cease to continue in the pathway of the will of God and in the service, you have to pursue. He says, “I pursue, looking towards the goal”. What is the goal? He tells us what he is looking for.
Simeon was looking for the coming in of Christ and here Paul is looking towards the goal.
What is the goal he refers to? He says, “for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. That is what he was waiting for. Simeon was waiting for His incoming, Paul is waiting to have his part with Him.
What is the calling on high? God has called us to sonship; we are to be associated with His Son; we are eventually to be in the image of His Son. He speaks further, “We await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”; that is the end in view, these bodies will be changed. But the prize is this calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. God has called us to this. In the meantime we wait and we are to walk worthy of the calling. It is a high calling, the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. I do not go into it. What is it? It is sonship, that we should be in the likeness of His Son, and the apostle is waiting for it—“I pursue”. He has that before him, his objective. Well, dear brethren, we must have an objective before us or we are just beating about the air. What is our objective? Paul presented an objective to the Thessalonians, as I said; they were to wait for His Son from heaven. We are still waiting, but in the meantime we are to walk worthy of the calling. That is another exhortation, “to walk worthy of the calling”, Ephesians 4: 1. That is like those persons I referred to in Luke, waiting in a good state.
May the Lord help us, dear brethren, to be in this attitude of pursuing. Pursuing means you do not give up; you do not give up what is of God. It becomes brighter and brighter; the path becomes brighter and brighter, the path of the just, “going on and brightening until the day be fully come”, Proverbs 4: 18. But we are to pursue, dear brethren; we cannot give up. The enemy would divert us, but Paul says, “I pursue”. May the Lord help us.
Word in meeting for ministry, Brooklyn, N.Y.
8 January 1980