Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you.
Enjoy.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Silent night Holy night.
A manger in a stable in the middle of nowhere.
It's dark, cold, the unlikeliest of places for the King of Kings to lay his head.
Yet he came.
No audience, no entourage.
The light of the world who came for you and for me.
This is the story of Christmas.
That night, everything changed.
Heaven touched earth and love entered. With a tiny breath, the cry of a newborn king echoed through all eternity.
I am with you.
This is the story of Christmas.
A star appeared in the heavens that night.
A star so bright, astronomers began to follow.
Angels filled the skies with songs of praise, calling shepherds to leave their flocks and see for themselves what had transpired. And when they arrived, they were so compelled, they bowed down in awe and worshiped him. This is the story of Christmas.
Jesus arrival brought the fulfillment of promises to a people who had lost all faith.
To a people living in despair, hope was born. In the midst of strife and division, the Prince of peace came to silence our storms. In a world of hate, love won and broke through the darkness. This is the story of Christmas. This is no ordinary story. This is the greatest story ever told. The Savior of the world, Emmanuel. God with us who stepped down from heaven to earth. Born for you and for me.
This is the story of Christmas.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: You know what? I should just let him preach.
Should have just let him preach. Such a great job. Well, hey. Merry Christmas.
Hey, you made it. You made it. Tomorrow's Christmas. You made it. And you're still talking to your relatives. At least some of you. At least some of you. Hey. Glad you're here. Glad you're here. I'll tell you what, though. I want to take the time to just Remind us about what? I believe that the Christmas story, how it affects you tonight. Because, you know, the Christmas story is so profound because it affects us in so many ways. But as I was thinking about this, I thought, you know, I think what we need to be reminded of, that there's a particular part of the Christmas story that we need to understand, and that is that the birth of Jesus reminds us this. That we should never allow what we have lost, keep us from what we could find.
See, some of us, you know what I'm talking about. Because this year, you lost a few things.
You lost your mind, you lost your peace. You lost a little bit of faith, a little bit of trust. But we can't allow what we've lost, keep us from what we could find. See, some of us are so consumed with the grief of something that we've lost a relationship. That you're not opened up to find what's next, what's new in your life. And so the Christmas story actually reminds us that even though you and I are waiting on something, we should never allow ourselves to be so consumed with our loss that we can't gain what God has for us. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna talk about this idea of losing things, first of all. Now, have we ever lost anything? Anybody lost anything? Anybody? Anybody? Yes. Yes. You're okay. Okay. I'll tell you what. I couldn't believe I did this the other day. I kid you not, friends. I was in my neighborhood at night, walking around, listening to a podcast. I took my headphones off and I looked around my neighborhood and I went, I don't know where I am.
I have no idea how to get home. You think I'm joking? I'm not.
I'd asked Siri to help me find home. I was like, where am I?
I was like, maps, find home.
I was like, oh, okay. That's how you get there. See, I lost my way, but then I found a new way in my own neighborhood. How to get to my house. Ridiculous. But I've lost all kinds of things. You've lost your phone, right? Anybody? Yes. Right now you're like, I don't know where it is, actually.
Remote control, keys. You lose all kinds of things. You get lost in things sometimes. Have you ever gotten lost in a relationship?
You know what I'm talking about? Like, you're in a relationship with someone and you're like, I don't know where we are right now.
Do you know what I'm saying? Because you're in a situation in that Relationship. And now that relationship is actually a situationship. Cause you're lost. That's what a situation is. A situationship is when two people are in a relationship, totally lost. We don't know where we're going, we don't know what's going on, what's happening. And so what I wanna do is I wanna find us this nugget of truth in the scriptures that there are two people that find themselves kind of lost a little bit, kinda lost because they've been waiting for a very long time.
Now, the major characters in the Christmas story, okay, the couple, that is the, you know, the stars of the show. The stupple, the couple, the married couple. Stouple, what did I just say the couple is? Who's the couple?
Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph. Super important, of course, Baby Jesus. Yes. But the couple, there's another couple, though. So there's another couple. For those of you who grew up in, you know, in church, you were made to go to church, you maybe know there's another couple that's part of the Christmas story. Anybody know for extra credit, it's Elizabeth and Zechariah, like something with a Z. I don't know, Ziggy, I'm not quite sure who. But yes, yes, that's another couple. Because Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist and they're part of the Christmas story and all that. But there is another couple.
They're not technically together. They're not, but they are work co workers, actually. Okay, the first one is Simeon. Simeon is a guy who is an older guy who's been working at the temple for a very, very long time. He dedicates babies, he does all the stuff and then one day something happens. So let's pick up the story and find out what's going on with Simeon and how can he speak to us tonight? It says here, it says at the time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. Simeon. He was righteous, devout and eagerly waiting the Messiah to come. And what's that word? Rescue Israel. Rescue. Important word there. It says the Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die. He would not die. He was not gonna die until he had what, seen the Lord's Messiah. So God told him back in the day, I don't know when, I mean, I don't know how old he is right now. I think he's in retirement age. But back in the day, in his 20s, God said, hey, listen, I'm telling you, you're not gonna die until you see the Messiah. And so he's been waiting and waiting and waiting and doing all kinds of things in the temple. And so what happens here, what happens is this guy has been waiting for so long because we'll find out, is that I think he's waiting for a rescue. Why? Why, why? Why is he waiting for rescue? Well, because he lived in a time where he was considered to be slave. A slave. He was under the Roman Empire. And the Roman Empire believed that they were it. They were authoritarian. They believed that humans could be trafficked. And so he was one of them. He was a Jewish guy in the temple, the Rome.
Rome just covers everybody and is in control of everybody. And this guy is just doing his thing, trying, trying to keep the Jewish faith alive. Here's why he's been waiting for so long. Because the Old Testament, we got the Old Testament and then we got the what New Testament. There's about 400 years of silence. There's a 400 years of like, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening? Nothing's happening. All kinds of prophets, all kinds of cool Old Testament stories. Boom. 400 years. Generations have passed. No. In silence. So he is in. Is in the front end of this, like the beginning of something's happening. So he's been waiting around because his, his granddad and his great grand granddad, everybody was waiting around, but he's still waiting. And he believed that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. Which is interesting because at some point, I'm sure he looked around and went, oh, my gosh, God, are you going to do something? Have you done that? Can you relate to him? You look around, you go, am I supposed to be waiting for something? Because this is getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. Because, see, what happens is when you wait so long, you lose your mind, you lose your faith, you lose your hope, you lose trust. You lose so many things. When people say they're going to show up and they don't, you lose.
Or they lose.
You lose relationships when it's just. You just wait and wait for someone to just kind of get better. Have you ever done that? And they don't. He's waiting and waiting and waiting. And so here he is. He's an older guy. We'll find out.
But, man, maybe for some of us, we've been waiting. This year we lost something. And then we thought a couple of years ago, and we thought this year would be the year, and you just waited and waited and shoot, what's the date today?
Right? You're like, I'm still in that I'm still there. I was hoping I would be a little bit more stable. I was hoping I would be a little bit more healthier. I was hoping I'd be in a relationship and not a situationship.
I was hoping. I was hoping. I was hoping. And you're waiting and waiting. And when you wait, you just lose a lot of things, but maybe you even lose a little bit of yourself when you wait too long.
So what happens with Simeon? Well, Simeon had a particular day. So he gets up in the morning and does his thing, and he's gonna go, and there's a couple who's gonna. Supposed to come and give a baby, and he's gonna do the same old thing that he did all the time.
But.
But Luke. Luke is an interesting guy because he writes. When he writes this thing, he's not like all the other writers. Luke likes details. So he's like, that day.
He puts in that day, that day. What happened, bro? What happened? Calm down. What happened? He says that day the spirit led him to the temple. I think it was his job. He had to show up. But anyways, okay. Led him to the temple. Could you imagine me led to work? I just was led to work.
That's great, because you're gonna be fired if you don't. Anyways, so then what happened? So when Mary and Joseph came to be present, to present the baby to Jesus to the Lord, as required, who was there?
Simeon was there. Okay. Simeon was there. What's interesting, though, is that the reason why they came is because in Jewish culture at that time, it was the eighth day. You get circumcised, and then you get dedicated.
Okay, so eighth day was important. What's also important, Jewish culture, is this, is that there was how many days of creation?
7 or 6? 7. 7. God rested. He counts that. He counts that. He counts that. But then the eighth day was like, okay, now it's all done. Now it's happening. Now the. It's the next day. It's. It is the day after everything is. Is completed. This is now the beginning of something.
So the eighth day is very important.
What's interesting is, I think some of us, we are kind of stuck in the seven, and the eighth day hasn't come for us.
So that day, when Luke says that day, he actually means the eighth day.
The eighth day.
How many of us, maybe, maybe, just maybe, are waiting for the eighth day to step into? Here's why I say this, because what happened is. So when Simeon was there, he took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, sovereign Lord, now let your servant. What?
Die in peace as you have been promised. Now, that's why I know he's old.
He's like, finally, I can retire. I mean, like. Like, that's not how we do baby dedications at Mosaic, by the way. We don't go, finally, we can die another baby. No, we don't do that. But he.
He has a moment. Why? Because what God had promised him is. Just take it. He's gone through the seven days, and now the. On the eighth day, it happens. The eighth day happened for him. And that is. He actually experienced. He saw it. He's like, oh, my gosh. And when he says this, like, now your servant may die. It's funny, because in other translations down the ages, it's actually become a Christian tradition.
In Latin, it's the word nunc diminis. Nunc diminis, which actually means, now I'm dismissed. Like, I'm done. Now I'm done.
It became a daily prayer. It was like, not this resignation. Not this. Like, I finally can leave my job. No, no. It was like this. This is a completion of a promise that had been promised to me.
They're like, I can see this. I can see this.
So, okay, he's having a moment, and then he keeps on going. He says, as you promised, I have seen your salvation which you have prepared.
He's talking to God now. The couple is still there going, okay, what's happening?
Do you do this with every baby dedication? Is this happening? No, it doesn't. No. He says, I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is. And he's looking at Jesus. He's like. He is this guy right here. He is the light to reveal God to the who nations? No, no, no. Not just Jewish people. To the nations.
And he is the glory of your people, Israel. So he says he is number one, the light to all the nations. Which he's saying this rescue mission, which the word rescue there you talked about is the word ransom, meaning someone who is going to buy back our freedom.
So the Jewish people believe that. They're like, we are under slavery. Someone needs to buy our freedom.
He said the Messiah was going to come and pay the ultimate price for that. And if you read more of the passage, Simeon actually goes into that. But before we get there, he says. He says he is a light to reveal God to the nations. That means Jesus.
For regardless what you have heard, Jesus is not tribal.
He is not national. He is not exclusive.
With Jesus, there is never hope for some.
It's always hope for all. It's always been. It's always been. He's gonna be the light to all the nations. All the nations, the world. We're going global here. And then he says he's going to be the glory. He's going to remind the people of Israel. And the reason why this is important because in this moment in history, the Jewish people are their lowest level.
They're like, we're the worst.
We're the marginalized. We are nothing, nothing, no one. He says, and God, he is the glory. He is the one who's gonna give you worth. Which means is that he tells us that God is the God who picks people who feel like no one else would. Pick God. He says, and he'll be the glory. He'll be the one thing that actually puts us back to us being human again. Because these Romans think that we're not.
No, this is giving us our glory back, the glory of being human. He says, he is going to be the glory of Israel, that Israel is going to be used.
And so it reminds us that God picks us. He picks us not because we are talented necessarily. No humanity does that. The world systems do that. But God picks us based on who we are. He says, I'm gonna pick you. So if you find yourself a little lost, I just want you to know it's not connected to maybe, just maybe, all you are worthy of. It's just what it is. It is what it is. You're like, no, no, no name. I've done this, and I'm not special enough, and I'm not good enough, and I'm not this. And maybe God's for other people and he fixes other people or he finds people. He just. He answers prayers. No, no, no. I just want you to know he is the light to all the nations and he is the glory of the people who feel marginalized. And maybe, maybe you just feel like that, too.
And so what happens there? Well, what happens there is that he gets interrupted. Yeah, he gets interrupted. We read here he gets interrupted by the second person in that couple. The couple.
The person is Anna. So Anna, like I said, Anna is a person who's been working at the temple as well. And Luke, again, loves what he loves, what details. So he puts it in there. No other writer mentions the story, but this guy is like, I'm putting this couple in the Christmas story, by the way. So he goes on, he says in Anna. He goes in, he says, anna, a prophet Was what also there in the temple? Okay, Luke. All right, he was also there, and she was. And then he nerds out, he goes. And she was the daughter. She was the daughter of a guy named Pha Neue El.
And we're like. And we don't care, like what?
And also. Guys, guys, guys. And it was from the tribe of Asher. Okay? And guys, she was very old.
I'm glad Anna didn't read this, right? She'd be low key, offended. She was like, listen, mature. I'm not old. Mature senior citizen. Don't call me old, okay?
And then he goes on. He goes on. But just want you to know before.
But why does he.
It's so funny. It's kind of talking about nerding out. He uses that word. He mentions the daughter of this guy named Fanuel.
The word Fanuel literally means face of God.
Someone who's going to see the face of God.
Okay, that's interesting, because what happens right after that? Well, Luke gets in, but he wants to tell us a little bit more detail about all the things that she has lost.
She's been there for a while, okay? Going to work with Simeon. That's a trip every day.
And then she says her husband died when they had been married only seven years.
Then she lived as a widow to the age of 84.
But, guys, she never. She never left the temple, but stayed there day and night.
She worshiping God, fasting, prayer. I just want you to know, this woman had lost so much.
She's lost so much. And she had been waiting for a long, long time. Waiting for the same thing that Simeon was waiting for. Waiting for all things. While other people in their world was going about their business, she was like, no, no, no, no, no. I. I'm going to do this. I'm gonna wait and wait and wait. And you know and I know, and we've talked about this, right? When we wait long enough, we start losing all kinds of things. We lose our mind, we lose our faith, we lose our hope, we lose our trust. We lose everything. And so these two people find themselves on the eighth day. Simeon just had an eighth day. Luke says, this woman was there. Okay, this woman was there. Great. What happened? Okay, this woman was there. What happened is, guess what? He goes on, he says, and she, she, she, she. Guys, this is what happened. She came along just as what Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God.
So she just happens to come by the same time.
He's doing his thing, he's getting serious. He's doing his Baby dedication. And all of a sudden, she interrupts a baby dedication shows up, and obviously, I guess it turns into a musical, and she's praising God. Okay, okay. Have you ever, by the way, watched the movie? It just happened to me the other day, watching a movie. I didn't realize it was a musical. And the person started singing. I was like, what are you doing, Ryan Reynolds? What are you doing? Why are you singing? What is happening? I didn't know. I didn't sign up for a musical. I was just like, I just didn't know. You know what I'm saying? Wicked. I get we're singing everything, but this is not it.
So I don't know. Again, when we do baby dedications, we. We don't start singing. Okay? There's no. It's not musical. It's not musical. But she. She is singing. Why is she singing? She's singing because she's experienced the same thing, Simeon. She saw the face of God.
Her.
I mean, who the. Like, she. The fa. Knew El. She saw the face. She was like, this is it.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: This is.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: It is him. It is him. And I'm sure Simeon's like, I know, I know.
But why would Luke mention this? Why would Luke put this in there?
Luke puts it in there. Because, see, besides Jewish people, women were considered second class.
And so to mention them in stories was just, back in that day, useless. It was like, you don't count.
Like, even now.
I grew up in the Middle East. Even now, in the court. In the religious court systems, there are two women's witnesses equal, one male.
They don't count.
And so when you put women in stories like this, like the Easter story and all that, you realize that every story about Jesus involves women. Women are the first to find out.
So here.
She's in there.
Why? Because Luke's kind of telling us, hey, if you feel like you're marginalized, if you feel like you're not chosen, if you feel like a second class all of a sudden on the eighth day that God prepares for you, you step into that, and I'm gonna make sure someone writes this down for you. And here's the other wonderful, amazing thing that she did. When she stepped into that moment, she actually.
She, in fact, satisfied a Jewish testimony structure. Let me explain. Basically, in Judaism, when someone calls to be a witness, if there were two people that confirmed the same thing, it was legitimate.
She became the second witness to the miracle. Simeon's like, this is the Messiah. She comes back and goes, this is the Messiah. Let me sing a song. Okay? She does that. She has just played an important role in her culture. She is the second person. She, in fact, didn't just realize this thing. She legitimized the Christmas story, which is such an honor.
So what does this say to us?
Well, are you waiting for your eighth day?
And are you waiting long enough or have been waiting long enough that you, in fact, have lost your way?
And the truth is that we have.
We do. We lose a part of ourselves.
And she obviously. And he obviously waited so long, long.
So I wonder if you wait so long and you lose so much, you end up losing yourself.
You just feel like you're just lost.
Maybe some of you, you just feel like you're lost in your faith with God. You're just lost in the world. You just lost. I mean, everything is going kind of according to plan, but, you know, you've lost passion, you lost vision, you've lost love, you've lost a lot. And you just find yourself lost in faith. You just don't even know why. Because when you lose something, the trauma of those things cause you to act a certain way, and you end up losing your way in all the ways, in all the areas of your life.
And there was a guy who lost his way.
There was a guy in the New Testament that kind of lost his way. He was a Jewish guy, but he ended up being a guy who kind of lost his. His. He lost faith in. In the Messiah, he lost faith in the Jewish teachings, he lost faith in the church, he lost faith in all things, and he just end up working for the Romans. In fact, he became a tax collector. He would tax his own.
He would tax his own people and, and also skim some and get some for himself because he just, like, you know what? I'm not putting my hope in a Messiah. I'm putting my hope in money.
And I'm just gonna do that.
And so what's interesting about that is that I think he kind of shows up after Jesus is now being a light to the world and all that, talking to people about having lived a life where you begin to lose your way.
Cause I don't know if, you know, this Jesus messages were all about that, about us losing our way or finding our way back.
In fact, Jesus tells a story, and it's actually three stories, but it's only one story. And here's why. Because if I tell you, hey, do you know the story of the. You know the shepherd who lost.
Who had 99 sheep and he lost how many?
One. And he leaves the 99 for the. You remember that story? Well, that's part of the story. It's not actually the full story.
Let me explain. So in different cultures, storytelling is interesting because sometimes they use a pattern and sometimes they use a phrase. So, like, my language, okay? My language, I'm Pakistani. And so when my mom, my dad, or my uncle or an auntie or whatever, like people who want to get my attention. If you want to get someone's attention, you go, hey, hey, hey.
So when you say you're like, cheese, I hear cheese. It's not cheese, okay? Cheese actually means thing. Anyways, Anyways. So when you say so, you could be in conversation and all of a sudden my dad would be like.
Which means, hey, listen up, this is about to get serious. This is no jokes of all. This is a real thing. It's facts. This is facts of life. Okay, well, in Jewish culture, if you wanted to make a point, you tell three stories.
The three always kind of work together. Three, three, three, three, three. Okay, so when Jesus starts off and he talks about the sheep, right?
He goes, hundred sheep lost one. How many got nine? So it's 100 to what?
One? You're like, no name. That's five. Okay? You know what I'm talking about. It's 100 to one.
Right? After that, he doesn't even finish the story. He goes, and by the way, there was a woman.
There's a woman actually, and she had 10 coins, guys, and she lost one. And she went around crazy looking for it. And when she found it, oh, my gosh, she was so excited. She's so excited. Now it's not hundred to one. Now it's what, ten to one? And then he keeps on going. He does not finish the story. He's not done with that story. He goes, and you know what? There was a guy, he had two sons.
You know what the two son story is?
The prodigal son story, which we think it's a standalone. It is not a standalone.
No, no, it was part of the conversation.
He didn't start there. He was like. And yeah, yeah, there's a guy now, he's not 100 to 1, not 10 to 1. Now it's what, 2 to 1? It's just he lost one. And he tells the story and all along he's saying this, God, who knows you are lost, who knows you've been waiting, who knows you have lost so many things. Hope, trust, faith and all that. He is the guy who understands that sometimes life is so rough and hard that it causes us to wander off. But not all who wander are lost.
And he is.
He knows this. And he is the God who leaves the 99 to find the one who leaves. Who understand, who leaves a tent to find the one and then even goes after the one son who he has lost.
And that's why the story ends with this. It ends with what? He ends with him explaining to the older brother, hey, hey, hey. What are you talking about? We've got to celebrate. Here's why. Because your brother was lost, but now he is found.
See, if you find yourself lost, I just want you to know that God is looking for you.
If you ever wondered, does anybody care? Does anybody know that I'm even lost?
Yes. And he's been looking for you. You know, after he told the story, they encountered that guy that I talked to you about, the guy who kind of lost his way, who was the tax guy. Right. His name was actually Zacchaeus.
So Jesus is walking around, and Zacchaeus is a shorter guy. And so he jumps up on a tree and he's looking, and Barnes wants to see Jesus, and everybody else is like, yeah, you stay up there, you tax collector. Because he knows that people don't like him. Why? Because he's lost his way. He's lost his tradition. He's lost his morals. He's lost everything. He is to them a loser.
He's lost everything. And then Jesus walks by, sees him, and goes, yo, Zacchaeus, some of you guys know the story. He goes, hey, man, we gotta do dinner.
And everybody's like, you know who you're pointing to?
He goes, we gotta do dinner. And if you know a story, they go have dinner. And he turns around his life around, and his people, even his disciples are criticizing him. And. And you know what Jesus says? He says something that all along he's been saying the whole time through, and this is it. He says this. He says, for the Son of man. He says, I'll tell you what I came to. What? To do what?
To seek and save those who are lost. What do you think I'm coming I came here for?
As if he was saying, what do you think I was born for?
Why do you think they call me God?
Emmanuel?
God with us.
God who wants to be with humanity.
So if you and I find ourselves lost, we cannot lose. We cannot allow what we've lost.
Keep us from Jesus finding us.
So can I pray for you?
Maybe you relate maybe pretty pretty intensely to this, and you've allowed trauma and grief to just take over.
Maybe today God wants to remind you, hey, the Christmas story is really about me coming to find you.
It's really about me creating an eighth day for you where you.
Where I line everything up and you step into a moment that you could never create for yourself.
It's to tell some of you might feel like 84 years and you've lost the love of your life. And you've. You've been waiting and waiting.
This Christmas story is about, yes, God, making that eighth day for you, finding you.
So would you allow yourself to be found by him?
That's the.
That's the.
That's the question.
Let's pray together.
You pray for us, Lord God, I thank you so much. So much.
I thank you that you are the God who is looking for us. You're the God who invites us into hope and possibility.
You're the God who reminds us with Christmas that you have come to seek and save, that history has been lost.
And so, God, I pray that as we end tonight and before we sing and light candles and all that, I pray that we take our time reminding us, God, that you are the light in our world.
You are the light that creates space for us and shows us and clears the path to our way.
God, I thank you that you made your way to us so we could make our way back home.
You are truly the light of the world.
So God, would you speak to us as we.
As we respond to you in this song?
God, some of us might want to receive communion.
Some of us might go to the cross, might light a candle.
God, I pray that we do whatever we need to do to remind our souls, God, that you are looking for us and you will find us.
Let's stand together.
Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
