Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2293
“Lord, now Jet You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation.” Luke 2:29,30.
IF we are believers in Christ, we shall one day use words like these. Perhaps not just at present and yet, possibly, sooner than some of us think, we shall gather up our feet in our bed and we shall say with all composure, “Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word.”
See what death is to the Believer. It is only a departure! It is a departure after a day of service. “Lord, now let You Your servant depart. My day’s work is done. Let me now go Home.” With us who believe it will be a departure to a higher service, for we shall still be the Lord’s servants even when we depart from this present sphere of labor. We shall go to do yet higher and more perfect work in the nearer Presence of our Master. “His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face.” Death to the Believer is only a departure from one form of service to another. And, note, that it is a departing “in peace.” We are at peace with God. We have—
“Peace! Perfect peace! In this dark world of sin,
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within!” As many as have believed in Jesus, have entered into rest. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” We have joy and peace in believing and, as we live in peace, we shall also die in peace. We shall remain in peace and we shall depart in peace. A deep and holy calm will fill up our dying moments—
“It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus call to Heaven’s perfect peace!” We shall be able to say, perhaps, when we come to die, what a dear friend of mine once said to me, when I went in to see him on his dying bed. A part of his affliction consisted in total blindness from what they call the breaking of the eye-strings. Sitting up, although he could not see me, he moved his hand and said—
“And when you see my eye-strings break,
How sweet my minutes roll!
A mortal paleness on my cheek,
But glory in my soul!”
So will it be with us—we shall depart in peace. To the Believer, death is not a thing to be dreaded—he even asks for it, “Lord, now let You, permit You, Your servant to depart in peace. Grant it as a gift, vouchsafe it as a favor.” Death to the sinner is a curse, but to the Believer it is a form of benediction, it is the gate of life. To the sinner, it is a chain dragging him down to the unutterable darkness of Hell, but to the saint, it is a chariot of fire bearing him aloft to the Heaven of light and love!
Note, also, that Simeon said, “Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word.” Did you not notice, in our reading, what Luke says about Simeon in the 26th verse? “It was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” The prophecy had been fulfilled! He had seen the Lord’s Anointed. There was nothing more for him to desire upon earth, so he said, “Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation.” The reason for Simeon’s holy calm, the cause of his finding death to be nothing but a departure out of this world, lies in this fact, that he could say, “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” It is of that blessed fact that I am going to talk tonight as the Spirit shall help me.
I do not suppose that everybody here can say, “Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace.” Some of you would not depart in peace if death came to you as you now are. Dear Friend, if you are not prepared for death and judgment, you had better pray, “Lord, let me stay here till I have found peace with You; and then let me depart in peace whenever
You will.”
I shall at this time take the innermost sense of the text, dwelling upon these words of Simeon, “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” There were others who had seen the Baby Christ with their natural eyes, but Simeon had seen, in the Babe, Christ, the salvation of God, not with his outward eyes, but with the inward perceptions of his spirit! I hope that many here present can say that they have seen, and do see, in Christ, God’s salvation, and their salvation given to them of God. If so, I am sure that they feel ready to live, or ready to die. But if it is not so with any of you—if you cannot say, “My eyes have seen Your salvation,” you cannot pray, “Lord, let Your servant depart in peace.”
What, then, do these words mean, “My eyes have seen Your salvation”? I will try to explain their meaning in my discourse tonight and, when I have finished, I think you will see that there are these five things included in this utterance of old Simeon. First, here is clear perception. Next, perfect satisfaction. Then, happy unbinding. Then, dauntless courage. And finally, joyful appropriation.