LUKE 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 103] LUKE 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem Although Simeon was not an official priest, he was a spiritual one.
CAC The Spirit’s day seems anticipated in Simeon. “The Holy Spirit was upon him” (verse 25); things were “communicated to him by the Holy Spirit” (verse 26); he was moved by the Spirit.
Rem The Spirit of God has a great place in these early chapters.
CAC God prepares spiritual conditions. The chapter is full of holy exercises and affections. The suitability of all the persons is obvious. God prepares conditions when He is going to move, especially when He is about to move in a new way, as now — it is a spiritual and priestly character of things here in Luke.
Rem The shepherds found “the babe lying in the manger” (verse 16) and here Simeon “received him into his arms” (verse 28).
CAC The great sign is “a babe” (verse 12). It is the great sign in the New Testament. “And this is the sign to you: ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger”. In the Old Testament the sign is “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son” (Isaiah 7: 14), but in the New Testament it is “a babe”. How the grace of God was coming down to the lowest point to meet man, that God might shine out in His grace!
Rem Simeon “received him into his arms, and blessed God”.
Ques Why did he bless God, and not the Babe?
CAC You would not expect him to bless Jesus because the Babe was not the Source of all blessing. When we embrace the Lord Jesus we are put in priestly relations with God and have something to offer to God.
[p. 104] It is important to give place to the Spirit of God. We see in Simeon, beforehand, a beautiful intimation of the activities of the Spirit.
Ques Was not Mary a priest, and are not sisters priests?
CAC Any one who is near to God is a priest — that is the designation of a priest. We read, “And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah” before Aaron was consecrated (Exodus 19: 22). Here, there were a number of persons near to God who understood the character of the day that was dawning — “the dayspring from on high has visited us” (Luke 1: 78).
Rem We are told the way He came in here.
CAC Yes, and it gives you a key to what you are to look for. That is, the most insignificant things outwardly. We have to be consistent with the manger sign. It is suitable to God, for if God comes into a scene of disorder, He must come in at the bottom and bring in His salvation! It is the intervention of God in grace in God’s anointed One, the Christ. He would come in at the top if all were in order, and will do. He has come in flesh and at the very lowest point; Adam began as a full-grown man, but the Babe comes in in the greatest weakness.
Rem Here the sign is that He is actually and truly a Babe. How we love the manger!
CAC It is the character of things that God would have faith look for. It is the great sign that God would have us consider. You look for the greatest things spiritually but not pretentious, and you do not expect to see many grand people connected with the testimony. “For consider your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born” (1 Corinthians 1: 26). You go along with the lowly (Romans 12: 16). You look for what is spiritually great, persons greatly dignified by Christ becoming the power and wisdom of God to them.
“A light for revelation of the Gentiles”; there are a few here tonight! “And the glory of thy people Israel”; when they have lost all their own glory. In chapter 7 the Gentile is [p. 105] brought to light for blessing in the centurion who evidences “so great faith”. “For revelation of the Gentiles” means that they should come into view as having faith; and then, the woman gets a new glory — there is “nothing to pay”, and she finds her glory in the “certain creditor” (Luke 7: 41). You can understand her laying her glory at His feet; it works that way, and God has visited His people that way, a way suitable to Himself and suitable to us. He becomes our glory. Salvation, forgiveness and all that His lost and guilty creature needs are brought in for him.
Simeon understood by the Spirit that the Lord was going to be rejected; else, he would have said, ‘Let me stay and see the kingdom glory’. He really gives up the earth because he realises that although the glory and blessing of God are coming in, they are not yet to have any place here, so he says, ‘Let me go’.
Rem These are the lines on which the Spirit moves today. Spirituality lies in the knowledge of God and in the appreciation of Christ, as bringing in the light of God. Ignorance of that brings in the confusion which is existing today.
CAC Simeon is a beautiful character for us to study. His soul was filled with all the blessedness that had really come in. The salvation of God was there.
Rem There are four indications of His death in this chapter. He came to die. All heaven is moved here, but in Matthew all Jerusalem is moved to put Him to death.
Rem The Lord said, “I praise thee, Father, ... thou ... hast revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11: 25).
CAC Glory belongs to God. If God brings in what is of Himself, His anointed One, He does not make anything of man.
Ques Will you tell us further as to “alight for revelation of the Gentiles”?
CAC Luke, a Gentile, and writing to a Gentile, makes a great point of that. God was going to bring the Gentiles into view for blessing as having appreciation of Christ — as [p. 106] Simeon has here — for the pleasure of God. The promises did not extend to the Gentiles, generally speaking; but God’s salvation could not be limited to Israel.
Rem You get expanded when near God.
CAC There is nothing like getting near to God for expansion. The meaning of the two names Simeon and Anna is interesting. Simeon means ‘one who hears’, Anna means ‘one who gives’. Those two things must always go together. The Lord had spoken to Simeon, and Anna’s mouth is opened to speak. She is the spreader abroad of the Light that had come in. We must hear first before we speak. It was true even as regards the Lord. He says in the prophetic scriptures, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. Every day He entered on His service having been instructed as a Learner. “The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to succour by a word him that is weary” (Isaiah 50: 4). The tongue was dependent upon the ear.
Rem We have a dumb priest in chapter I but praising priests in chapter 24, “continually in the temple praising and blessing God”.
Ques Would you connect verse 35, “and even a sword shall go through thine own soul”, with Genesis 3: 16?
CAC It indicates the deep exercise through which light and blessing must come in. It is very deep exercise to realise that Christ must be rejected. Everything turned on that Child. “Lo, this child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against”. He becomes the turning point of everything. He is either “a stone of stumbling” or “for a sanctuary” (Isaiah 8: 14). Some stumbled over Him but He is set for a sanctuary for others. Christ is still the great test; He brings to light the thoughts of many hearts. You bring Christ in and everything is exposed. What a change there is in a family when God comes in and converts one of them. Ishmael is a mocker when Isaac is honoured. Everyone is tested and measured by Christ. The features of [p. 107] the righteous One coming out in Abel brought out the hatred in Cain. You will get some reproach if the ways of Christ come out in you. It is the beauty and ways of Christ that bring out the hatred in man’s heart. The Man of God’s delight and the man after the flesh could not be brought into partnership. “That the thoughts may be revealed from many hearts”, the thoughts of God’s heart and of man’s heart and the thoughts of faith. Ishmael is the man that does not appreciate Christ; that is the character of my flesh, I have that in me that is like that. It gives me a great shock when I find that out.
Rem The best part of us hates Christ worst of all.
CAC It would have been a fine thing for Peter if he had kept up his first convictions. “I am a sinful man, Lord”. We do not maintain our first convictions, and that leads to all sorts of trouble. Repentance deepens all through the lifetime of a saint; you cannot get over it as you would measles. With increased light of God, we judge ourselves but we are enriched in Another. Simeon and Anna were enriched in Another. God has brought in what delights His own heart. I have thought that, perhaps, one reason why Christ was brought in as a Babe was that man in every feature of his development was thus presented before God according to His pleasure. Increasing development of perfection was brought before God in Christ from the Babe to the Man. Always perfect but yet there was development. “First the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear” (Mark 4: 28). That is maturity. “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” (Luke 3: 22), is said of all the thirty years. And that Person is God’s salvation for us, a salvation without a flaw. There should be growth with us. We begin with a sense of the perfection of Christ as God’s salvation for us but the Spirit continually develops in our souls new apprehensions of Christ, that we may be, as Peter says, “neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1: 8). We are thinking a little more [p. 108] of the preciousness of Christ this week than we did last week. The Lord is spoken of as “the Branch”, in the footnote in Zechariah 3: 8, the ‘Sprout’. A new Shoot of an entirely new character. There is development of perfection in Him. Wherever you look elsewhere you will find a flaw but the more you consider Him, the more His beauty shines out. And there is a company developing after the same order. “There shall be abundance of corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon” (Psalm 72: 16). Saints will come out in the world to come with appreciation of Christ; there is nothing like it. And here in these chapters (Luke 1 and 2) they come one after another, in secret cherishing Christ, with beautiful utterances, filled with appreciation of Christ. It would, and will, separate us from this present evil world. Deliverance is to be occupied with Christ, and devoted to His interests. When I am occupied with Christ in secret, at that moment I am holy and in my responsible pathway I am devoted to His interests. All that the disciples found in themselves made them appreciate all that they found in Him. Just as God had prepared a suitable company then to receive Him, so now He is forming the saints’ affections on Christ. It would not be suitable to God for the Lord to return without there being a people prepared to receive Him. I know the character of the Spirit’s movement in all the hearts of His own by how He moves in my heart. God is going to maintain the devotion of Christ’s heart before His saints. My confidence is in God. His movements are great. One would not look for great things outwardly, but for the greatest possible things spiritually; not externally, but content to realise the most wonderful things ever known by the hearts of men. Simeon was moved by the Spirit. If we cultivate what is spiritual, we shall not want ‘pleasant Sunday afternoons’. They are like wine and strong drink, stimulating nature; they spoil your appreciation of Christ. I would not like anything to spoil my appreciation of Christ.