God’s Time Series

Theme: Time of God

Text: Luke 1:21-31

Greetings: The Lord is good and His love endures forever. I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Message from the Text: This passage talks about the time of God in the lives of Israel as a Nation, in the lives of Mary, Zacharias, and Elizabeth. Luke says that when the time of Zacharias’ service was completed in the temple, Elizabeth became pregnant, in the sixth month God sent his angel to Nazareth, and the child Jesus will reign over the house of Israel forever. Kindly note the words such as Completed, five months, the sixth month, and forever. These words refer to the sequences of the time frame in the lives of the children of God. God anointed the time for every individual as well as with a group.

Let us think of how God deals with us by reading the times, redeeming the times, and reacting to the times of God.

1. READ THE TIMES

Define time: We normally refer to time as the Duration from point to point of the travel of the two hands in a clock. The small hand represents the hours and the tall hand to represent the minutes. Then we call it as a day, week, month, and year. The hours we conveniently say morning, noon, and evening. We call by the hour, minutes, and seconds. Bible refers to the times with different words namely ‘eth (Daniel 11:24), and Chronos (Acts 18:23). “Eth” is the Hebrew word in Old Testament, and “Chronos” is a Greek word for that. It refers to a particular moment of time (Genesis 21:22 - at that time), (Mathew 2:7 - what time the star appeared).

The Jews use the word Mahar to refer to the Past, and future, which means a set time for seasons. The equivalent word in Greek is “Kairos.” It refers to the time limit to fulfill certain missions of God. The New Testament uses the word Kairos for Eschatological time (1 Peter 1:5 in the last time-Kairos) and Chronos for at the end of the times (1 Peter 1:20, Chronos). Kairos is used to refer to the concept of Time being fulfilled, and time is near (Kairos - Mark 1:15, Revelations 1:3). For the Bible writers, time is the continuum.

Time and God: We live in a physical world with four space dimensions of length, width, height (or depth), and time. But, God dwells in the spirit realm, beyond the perception of our physical. Though God is real but not controlled by times and seasons. He has no age, HE is Eternal. But Physical matter is controlled by the physical laws and dimensions that govern our world. God is not controlled by time but God controls time.

This is beautifully expressed by Moses in his Psalm 90. Moses compares the timeless God with a timeline of men (Psalm 90:1,4). Scripture reveals that God lives outside the bounds of time as we know it. The Lord does not count time as we do. He is above and outside of the sphere of time. God sees all of eternity’s past and eternity’s future. The time that passes on earth is of no consequence from God’s timeless perspective. A second is no different from ages, and a billion years pass like seconds to the eternal God.

However, there is a time plan for the world ‘God has a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’ (Ephesians 1:10). For Coffman, the fullness of time means "At God's appointed time." All of the grand events of God's plan for the redemption of mankind were scheduled in advance, and from the beginning, even the final judgment itself was a planned and scheduled event. "God has appointed a day” for judgment (Acts 17:31).

But many ask why God delayed 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist. Barnes the Bible commentator says, ‘this delay of redemption was in entire accordance with the whole system of divine arrangements, and with all the divine interpositions in favor of men.’ (Barnes). Warren Wiersbe says, “The old religions were dying; the old philosophies were empty and powerless to change men’s lives. Strange new mystery religions were invading the empire. Religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger were everywhere. God was preparing the world for the arrival of His Son.” (Warren Wiersbe).

‘The period was a most remarkable one--such as could only have been brought around by the revolutions and convulsions of many centuries. The Roman power had spread itself over all the nations of the then known world; and thus, all those petty states, whose jostling and opposing interests might have withstood the propagation of Christianity, were swallowed up in one great empire.’ (Austin Precept).