Waiting to Sing: Simeon’s Joy in Advent

Devotional

Day 1: Waiting with holy hope like Simeon

Advent is about what we do in our waiting. Simeon shows a long, patient hope, returning to the place of worship day after day, guided by the Spirit. He did not know the timing or the form, yet he kept showing up with expectant trust. You, too, can keep showing up—in prayer, in Scripture, and in simple faithfulness—believing the Consolation of Israel meets you in ordinary places. Waiting is not empty; it is where desire becomes surrendered and hope becomes durable. Keep watch, because God loves to meet you in the hallway between promise and fulfillment [39:02].

Luke 2:25–28: In Jerusalem lived a faithful, devout man named Simeon who was waiting for Israel to be comforted; God’s Spirit rested on him and had shown him he would see the Anointed One before he died. Led by the Spirit into the temple, he met the parents as they brought in Jesus, gathered the child into his arms, and poured out praise to God.

Reflection: Where are you most tempted to grab a “marshmallow” now instead of waiting for God’s better gift, and what small practice could help you keep showing up to him this week?

Day 2: Joy is a Person: Jesus doesn’t leave the room

Real joy isn’t a product to acquire; joy is a Person to receive. Simeon’s peace rose not from outcomes but from holding Emmanuel—God with us. Before any miracle, sermon, or follower, the presence of Jesus was enough to make a song rise. In your in‑between places, practice receiving his nearness rather than chasing spiritual “results.” Breathe this truth: Jesus has come, and he doesn’t leave the room [51:42].

Luke 2:29–32: “Master, you can let me go in peace now, just as you promised, because I’ve seen with my own eyes the rescue you prepared for everyone—a light that opens truth to the nations and an honor for your people Israel.”

Reflection: When prayer feels thin and results are scarce, how will you practice awareness of Jesus’ nearness during a specific routine today (for example, your commute, dishes, or bedtime)?

Day 3: A light for the Gentiles, glory for Israel

The song Simeon sings breaks open the borders of hope. Messiah comes not only to console Israel but to shine truth on the nations and gather outsiders in. That means your street, your workplace, and your city are places for his light to be seen. Receive his love, and then reflect it in tangible kindness, partnership, and justice. Joy grows when it is shared outward. Step toward someone different from you and carry the light you’ve been given [46:06].

Isaiah 42:6–7: The Lord says, “I have called you to what is right and will take your hand. I am making you a covenant for the people and a light for the nations—opening blind eyes, bringing captives out, and releasing those who sit in darkness.”

Reflection: Name one person or group in our city who feels “outside.” What is one concrete act this week by which you could reflect Christ’s light toward them?

Day 4: Singing while we wait through presence, purpose, and pain

Simeon blesses Mary and foresees a sword that will pierce her soul. Following Jesus often brings consolation through what feels like invasive surgery—he lovingly opens what is wounded in order to heal it. In that disruption, you are not alone; his presence sustains and his purposes steady you. You can sing while you wait, even with tears, because he is near and he is at work. Let your lament become a low, honest harmony of trust [59:53].

Luke 2:34–35: Simeon told Mary, “This child will be the cause of many falling and rising in Israel, a sign that will face opposition, so that what lives in many hearts will be uncovered—and a sword will pass through your own soul as well.”

Reflection: Where is Jesus’ healing work currently disruptive in you, and how might you cooperate gently—through confession, counseling, or a needed conversation—rather than resist?

Day 5: Between the Advents: endurance, joy, generous love

We live between the Advents—the already and the not yet. Jesus endured the cross for the joy of giving life to us, and he waited in the tomb so we could feast on grace. That love reshapes our waiting from grasping to generosity, like the child who saves the second marshmallow to share. Endurance becomes hope when it is directed toward someone else’s good. Fix your eyes on the One who never leaves the room, and take the next faithful step of generous waiting [58:54].

Hebrews 12:2: We look to Jesus—the pioneer and completer of our faith—who, because of the joy ahead, accepted the cross and its shame, and now sits in honor at God’s right hand.

Reflection: What is one specific act of generous waiting you can choose this week—delaying a purchase to give, leaving the last word unsaid to keep peace, or pausing to pray for a rival?

Sermon Summary

Advent teaches us to wait well. I opened with the marshmallow test because it names the tension we all feel: do I grab a quick sweetness now, or do I trust something better is coming? Simeon helps us. He is devout, a little eccentric, led by the Spirit, and he waits—year after year—for the “consolation of Israel.” When Mary and Joseph enter the temple with eight-day-old Jesus, Simeon takes the child in his arms and sings. He hasn’t seen a single miracle, heard a single sermon, or watched a single follower gather—yet he erupts with joy. Why? Because joy is not a product; joy is a Person. Joy is the presence of God in the flesh.

That’s the heart of Advent. We live in the “already and not yet”—between Advents—where Christ has come, and Christ will come again. So we learn to sing while we wait, and we also wait to sing, holding this bifocal vision: the world as it is, and the world as it will be under the healing reign of Jesus. Simeon’s song shows the wideness of God’s mercy: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Israel. Salvation is not tribal. It’s global, cosmic—“as far as the curse is found.”

But Simeon also speaks hard truth to Mary: a sword will pierce your soul too. Consolation comes through surgery. Jesus exposes hearts, undoes the world’s false orders, and brings healing that hurts before it helps. Following him is disruptive; it reorders loves, loyalties, and lives. Still, the cross tells us this: for the joy set before him, he endured. He has entered our pain, not stood aloof from it. That is why we can wait without numbing ourselves with substitute marshmallows—religious fluff, quick fixes, or counterfeit joys. Jesus doesn’t leave the room. His presence is the melody underneath the griefs, the estrangements, and the unfinished stories. So we practice Simeon’s holy hope: we show up, watch for God, and when we glimpse him—even in small, infant ways—we sing.

Key Takeaways

1. Joy is the presence, not product. Simeon sings before any “results” because the sheer presence of God-with-us is the gift. Joy isn’t a feeling we manufacture or a spiritual commodity we collect; it is the fruit of abiding in the One who abides with us. Beware the counterfeits that promise a quick sugar rush but cannot console a long ache. Receive the Giver, and the gift of joy follows. [53:51]
2. We live between the Advents. Christ has come, and Christ will come again—so our worship carries both cradle and crown, manger and renewal of all things. This “already and not yet” sharpens our prayers and steadies our patience; we lament honestly while holding a bright horizon. Learning to sing while we wait keeps our hope anchored in God’s promises rather than in our timelines. [50:13]
3. Holy waiting sharpens spiritual sight. Simeon’s Spirit-led, even “eccentric,” faith trains him to see what others overlook—salvation in swaddling clothes. Waiting isn’t passive; it attunes us to the subtle movements of God, making us seers in a distracted age. When presence is prized over outcomes, we begin to recognize grace in small, hidden arrivals. [47:52]
4. Consolation comes through invasive surgery. Simeon foresees both rising and falling, a pierced soul, and a Lord who reveals hearts—healing by cutting away what harms us. Jesus’ consolation disrupts before it comforts, but his wounds tell us the Surgeon is trustworthy. We can endure the hard work of transformation because his love holds us through pain into wholeness. [60:51]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[24:43] - Connect cards, gift, and help
[26:05] - Love Out Loud spotlight
[27:58] - Christmas for the City invite
[36:22] - Prayer and Advent focus
[36:47] - Marshmallow test: learning to wait
[39:02] - Meeting Simeon in Luke 2
[44:21] - Simeon holds Jesus and sings
[46:06] - Light for the Gentiles explained
[50:13] - Living between the Advents
[51:42] - Presence over product of joy
[56:46] - Consolation and Christ’s purposes
[59:53] - Joy alongside piercing pain
[62:35] - Jesus’ suffering and our hope
[64:32] - Closing prayer and sending

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
- Luke 2:25–35

Observation questions

In Luke 2:25–27, what concrete words and actions describe Simeon’s long waiting and Spirit-led expectancy?
In Luke 2:29–32, what images does Simeon use to describe what he has seen, and how do those images set a wider hope than just Israel?
Simeon took the infant in his arms, praised God, and sang even though no ministry or miracles had yet unfolded. How does this response differ from expecting visible results before praising God? [51:42]
What does Simeon’s warning to Mary—“a sword will pierce your soul”—reveal about the cost and the way salvation will work in people’s lives (Luke 2:34–35)?

Interpretation questions

How does living “between the Advents” (Christ has come; Christ will come again) shape a person’s expectations about present suffering and future joy? [50:13]
What is the difference between treating joy as a product to be acquired and treating joy as the presence of God? What follows theologically and practically from identifying joy as a Person rather than a commodity? [53:51]
What is meant by the claim that “consolation comes through invasive surgery”? How does the idea that healing sometimes hurts affect pastoral care and personal patience in sanctification? [01:00:51]
How does Spirit-led, even eccentric, waiting sharpen spiritual sight so a person can recognize small, hidden arrivals of grace? [47:52]

Application questions

Where do you typically reach for quick comforts or “marshmallows” instead of waiting on God’s presence? Give one recent example and one small next step to choose waiting instead this week. [36:47]
Name a concrete way you will “show up” and watch for God in the coming days (a place to be present, a habit to start, a person to visit) so you become more attentive to ordinary signs of grace. [47:52]
Identify an area in your life where God’s “surgery” feels like it’s happening (exposed pain, a relationship being reordered, a hard conviction). What is one practical action you can take to cooperate with healing (confession, counseling, a difficult conversation, specific prayer)? [01:00:51]
What is a simple practice (a hymn, a short prayer, lighting a candle, journaling gratitude) you will try this week to “sing while you wait” and to keep the melody of God’s presence alive amid grief or impatience? [56:10]
Who in your neighborhood, workplace, or family most needs to hear or see that God’s salvation is wider than any single tribe or group? What specific step will you take to show that wideness of mercy in the next month? [46:06]

(Spend time reading Luke 2:25–35 together before you discuss. Let the Scripture shape the answers, and allow honest sharing about both the waiting and the small ways God’s presence is already at work.)

Sermon Clips

Here the radical nature of the Simeon song, Jewish thinking at the time was that Messiah would come to free the people from Roman oppression, which is true, but not true in the way that they were thinking. The mind-blowing reality is that Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles, people like you and me, unless you have Jewish descent. People like us. [00:46:06] (24 seconds) #LightToTheNations

Now, Simeon is like these guys, but healthy. None of those guys ended well. But they did see things. They're important for us to see, and Simeon is in that camp. He's a seer of things through his kind of eccentricity. He is either eccentric because he sees things, or because he's eccentric, he sees things. And it's really important. Something he sees is more clear than we can. He waits with a holy hope. And when that hope is fulfilled, he sings. [00:47:21] (41 seconds) #SeerOfHope

Always, Advent has this two-fold vision. We live between Advent and Advent, Antirite says. That's why Advent is sometimes quite confusing. Preparing for the birth of Jesus at the same time preparing for the time when God makes things all new. When the whole cosmos has its exodus from slavery. This is really where we are. Simeon, Redeemer. We share this same perspective. Whatever Simeon's perspective or whatever he can see, he's ready to die now. With the song on his lips and the peace in his being. Dying in peace while singing with joy. [00:50:13] (62 seconds) #LivingBetweenAdvents

Advent teaches that the Christ has come into this world. That God himself is with us. And Jesus, unlike the psychologist, never leaves the room. The joy of our salvation, Jesus himself doesn't leave the room. The consolation of Israel is not just a description of his effect. We'll talk about his effect in a second or his purpose in a second. But it's a title. It's a person. [00:52:08] (40 seconds) #EmmanuelIsHere

So we don't need to be thinking about peace or joy like a marshmallow as it's a commodity. The presence of Jesus and the experience of being consoled are not separable. He is that peace. He is that joy. It's abiding in Christ because he has come to abide with us. We're not acquiring the product of what Jesus has done. We are acquiring him by his grace and his gift. That is what Simeon sings to us. [00:53:31] (32 seconds) #AbideInChrist

Joy is not a concept. It's God. You don't get joy by training the muscles of joy. There are lots of things to train about waiting and patience and all that stuff. But if the Spirit doesn't show up and bring us Jesus, there is no joy. There is no consolation of Israel. You get joy because of your presence in the living God. You know this. I know this. [00:54:03] (36 seconds) #JoyIsPresence

So we sit and wait. And we wait to sing, but we can sing while we wait. Because of the presence of God. You really can wait to sing, and you really can't sing while you wait. Even sometimes when the song feels faint, it is there, and it is the melody of our lives. And the bitter ache of estrangement in your family, the utter chaos of this world amid sorrow, amid relationships broken, marriages adrift. God's come to be with us in this. It's his presence that helps us sing. [00:56:02] (44 seconds) #SingWhileWeWait

And yet, there is a product. There is a consolation that's not a title. And we have to realize that what he's talking about, that he has seen, his eyes have seen God's salvation, prepared for in the sight of all people, light and revelation to the Gentiles and glory for his own people, that there is something really beautiful in the consolation, not just him, but in his work, in his purpose, that he's come to wipe every tear from our eyes. [00:56:46] (44 seconds) #WipeEveryTear

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