Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Introduction:

• Come, Thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

• You don’t have to look just in the Gospels to find the importance of the birth of the Savior. All of the Old Testament looks forward and all the New Testament from the book of Acts on looks back to His First Coming.

• Luke 2:14 says that the angels proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.” In a period where there was no peace and there was no good will, a baby in a manger brought peace and good will.

• When Jesus came to this earth, the Jews were looking for Him to deliver from the oppression of the Roman government. Jesus came to deliver from oppression; not from the Roman government, but from the law.

• Paul writes, here in Galatians to a group of people who had bought in to the lie that the Law must still be kept. Paul reminded them that they had been freed from the law.

• Not only had they been freed from the law, but they had been adopted into the family of God. He’s freed us all and brought us into the Family of God.

I. The Anticipation of the Servant (vs. 1-3)

A. His Immaturity

 Here, Paul uses the analogy of a child who has been promised an inheritance, but is not yet of age, to help us understand what it was like for the Israelites living under the law.

 When a Roman father had a son who was his heir, the father would predetermine a time when the son was ready to accept that inheritance.

 The word for child (Gr. nepios) is a legal term that speaks of one who is not yet of age. Paul says that this child “differeth nothing” from a slave. There is no freedom to be had.

 Paul’s example reminds us that God had predetermined a time when He would send His Son. All eyes were on Bethlehem waiting for His arrival.

 Romans 8:3 teaches “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

B. His Inability

 How does this pertain to us as Gentiles? Notice that in verse three Paul says even believing Gentiles were at one time in bondage under the elements of the world.

 What are the elements of the world? Paul teaches us in several of his letters that those who don’t know Jesus are under the sway of the Devil.

 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

 Paul teaches us that there was a time when we were in bondage, but God had predetermined a time when the Glorious Light of the Gospel would shine into our hearts and show us our lost condition.

 It’s a reminder to us that God is the initiator of salvation, not man; and when He so chooses to shine the Light into the heart of man it does not matter how lost you are or how wretched your soul is, the Light of Life can change you.

 The problem with the Law was not that it was unjust, but the problem was that there was no permanant remedy. The Law tells us what is wrong in us, but it doesn’t tell us how to be right with God.

II. The Assignment of the Savior (vs. 4-5a)

A. His Appointment

 Verse four reminds us that where there is a spiritual problem, God always provides a spiritual answer. The answer to this dilemma was found in the Baby Jesus Christ.

 The word “fullness” (Gr. pleroma) indicates that the time of waiting was over. God had predetermined the appropriate time to send the Savior and that time was now.

 Hebrews 10:7 says “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”

 Just as Paul used the illustration of the son coming of age and the father “here it is, it’s all yours,” God sent His Son into the world so that there might be hope, and He says to all who would believe “here it is, it’s all yours.”