Center for Evangelists

The Christmas story did not end with the birth of Jesus. That was just the beginning. The Bible records little about baby Jesus. We know He was taken to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord when Mary’s time of purification was over as the law of Moses commanded. A sacrifice of a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

While at the temple Mary and Joseph met two people. Today we will talk about Simeon. 

He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. Luke 2:29-32

At the time Jesus was born, sheep farmers were seen as low or little value by other people. The sheep that they bred would have probably been used as sacrifice animals in the temple in near-by Jerusalem. They were quietly getting on with their own business when suddenly Angels appeared to them. It is not surprising they were afraid!

The angels words to them told them of Jesus and his amazing birth and how they could recognise him in a very crowded town. This is only the second time in the whole Bible that a group of angels rather than one angel had appeared to people, so this proved that they had a very important message to give to them. We don’t know the names of the angels or how many there were of them, but in the Bible it says that there are millions of angels – so it would have been an amazing experience!

Being curious as to what the angels meant, they went down into Bethlehem, maybe leaving a shepherd or two behind to keep guard on the sheep.

When they had found and told Mary and Joseph what had happened to them, it says that ‘The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.’ The people they told probably weren’t just the people they saw on the way back to hills, but friends and relatives in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and the people they met in the temple when they took their sheep to be sold.

Luke 2:15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.