A benediction is a blessing. Often we use a blessing to end an activity that has to do with our God. Any gathering of Christians, the most obvious being a public worship service, ends with a blessing. One example is after the Lord’s Supper. The Nunc Dimitis is a Latin phrase that means now depart. These are words from the Song of Simeon. Lord now you let your servant depart… Why could Simeon depart – that is – die in peace?! I suppose now we say, Take me now, Lord! If you were an Old Testament Christian, all of your worship life was wrapped up in the promises of God – specifically the promise of the coming Messiah. These Old Testament Christians were different from us only in the sense of perspective. They believed in a Savior who would come to forgive their sins. We believe in a Savior who did come. We have more information about Jesus, but the faith of an Old Testament Christian was no less valid than ours.
So if you’re Simeon, you walk into the temple like any other day prepared to worship your God. Some how the Spirit communicates to you that the Messiah is in the area. You find this teenage mother and ask to hold her newborn son. She agrees and all of the sudden you realize that you don’t just believe what your God says, you are holding the fulfillment of the promise of your God in your arms. IN FACT – as your mind races through the Scripture – you are holding God in your arms. The emotions wash over you like a flood and your first words are… take me now, Lord.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s lesson – Benediction from our study, Worship Windows.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.
Please click HERE for the other lessons from our series Worship Windows.