Joy In The Waiting

December 29th, 2025

Joy In The Waiting

Sermon Series: The Best Christmas Ever!

The final Sunday of the year carries a peculiar weight. The Christmas decorations are coming down, pine needles litter our floors, and we're already mentally pivoting toward New Year's resolutions and the return to normal routines. In this transitional moment, we face a spiritual temptation: to compartmentalize Jesus into the Christmas season we're leaving behind, relegating Him to a four-week celebration rather than the center of our everyday lives.
But what if we approached the end of the Christmas season differently? What if, instead of moving on from Jesus, we moved deeper into the reality of what His birth, life, death, and resurrection mean for our daily existence?

The Man Who Waited
In Luke 2:25-35, we encounter a man named Simeon whose story offers profound insight into what it means to live with joyful expectation. Scripture describes him as "righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel." The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before seeing the Lord's Christ.
When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple, Simeon, led by the Spirit, took the child in his arms and blessed God with words that overflow with satisfaction and peace: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation."
This moment captures something essential about the Christian life. Simeon's joy wasn't rooted in his circumstances, his achievements, or even the best experiences life had to offer. His joy was anchored entirely in God's faithfulness to keep His promises. When he finally saw the promised Messiah—though just a baby—nothing else mattered. He was ready to depart in peace because he had witnessed what he'd been waiting for.

Four Dimensions of Lasting Joy
Simeon's encounter with Jesus reveals four dimensions of joy that sustain us far beyond fleeting happiness.

Joy in Our Salvation

Simeon demonstrates that true joy is found in nothing other than the reality that God's salvation has come. Even the greatest joys we experience in relationships, possessions, and experiences pale in comparison to the reality of a God who has come to save us, to free us, to give us life.

This isn't abstract theology. It's an invitation to examine where we actually place our joy. Are we constantly chasing the next experience, relationship, or achievement, hoping it will finally satisfy? Or have we discovered the bottomless well of joy found in Christ alone?

For those who don't yet trust in Jesus, this is the fundamental invitation: nothing this life offers—no level of success, pleasure, or experience—can come close to what only Jesus provides. Stop running from one fleeting pleasure to the next. Come to the One who knows you deeper than you know yourself and says, "I love you, and I've come to save you."

Joy in Truth

Simeon's words to Mary reveal a harder dimension of the gospel: "This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed." The message of salvation confronts us with uncomfortable truth—we are guilty and in need of saving.

We resist this message because it pushes against our pride and exposes the shame and guilt we try to hide. We love the idea of a God who loves us, but we're less enthusiastic about submitting to Him as Lord and King.

Yet consider this: perhaps the God who spoke creation into existence, who gives us our very breath, who was willing to be born like us and die for us—perhaps this God can be trusted. Even when His truth is difficult. Even when it means letting go of things we hold dear.

The Christian faith isn't about earning God's favor through perfect obedience. When we come humbly to God, He doesn't crush us or wag a finger saying "I told you so." He takes us up in His loving arms and walks with us, guiding us step by step into the life He's designed for us.

Joy in Trials and Persecution

Simeon warned that Jesus would be "a sign that is opposed." Those who follow Christ will face opposition. If our Savior experienced hatred to the point of suffering and death, we should expect opposition too.

For most of us, that opposition looks like awkward conversations, strained relationships, or social discomfort. We won't face the imprisonment, torture, or death that believers in hostile regions experience. Yet somehow we remain silent about our faith, preferring comfort over boldness.

This reality should convict us. How much more boldly should we live when the worst that might happen is someone doesn't like us? How freely should we speak when we're not walking in the face of death?

We've been brought from eternal death to everlasting life. Everything has changed about who we are. Yet we try to keep God compartmentalized—bold on Sunday mornings, silent in our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.

The call is clear: be willing to trust that every conversation, every moment in our day is an opportunity to honor God and share His love. Your neighbors, coworkers, and classmates may never enter a church building, but God has placed you in their lives. Will you be a light, even when it's uncomfortable?

Joy in What Awaits

Simeon waited for the birth of the Savior. We wait for something even greater—the return of our risen Savior to bring us home.

Simeon waited for comfort in the midst of sin. We wait for Jesus to return and bring everlasting freedom from sin, death, guilt, shame, pain, and sorrow. Simeon took that baby in his arms with joy. One day, our Savior will take us up in His arms, welcoming us home.

This is the call: to long for that day more than anything else in this life. To pray with John at the end of Revelation, "Come, Lord Jesus." To let the reality of our circumstances make us desire Him even more, not less.

Living with Joyful Expectation
As we step into a new year, the invitation isn't to make Jesus one item on our list of goals and resolutions. It's to give our entire lives to Him—every moment, every conversation, every decision.
Stop trying to live life safely and comfortably, coasting through while keeping everything simple and easy. That's not living. Real life is found in trusting that where God leads us, He will empower and strengthen us.
The joy we have in Christ isn't meant to be private or individual. It's a joy we share with one another, a joy that overflows into every relationship and interaction.
There is joy in the sorrow of waiting. There is hope in His love alone. Until the day when all our waiting is over and our faith becomes sight, we live for the joy that is already ours—the joy of a Savior who came, who is with us now, and who is coming again.

Posted in Sunday Morning Messages