Galatians 4:1-7
One man sent his parents a microwave oven one Christmas. Here's how he recalls the experience: "They were excited that now they, too, could be a part of the instant generation. When Dad unpacked the microwave and plugged it in, literally within seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frown! Even after reading the directions, they couldn't make it work. "Two days later, my mother was playing bridge with a friend and confessed her inability to get hat microwave oven even to boil water.’To get this silly thing to work,' she exclaimed, 'I really don't need better directions; I just needed my son to come along with the gift!'" When God gave the gift of salvation, he didn't send a booklet of complicated instructions for us to figure out; he sent his Son.
Christmas means that:
He descended that we might ascend. He became poor that we might become rich. He was born that we might be born again. He became a servant that we might become sons. He had no home that we might have a home in heaven. He was hungry that we might be fed. He was thirsty that we might be satisfied. He was stripped that we might be clothed. He was forsaken that we might not be forsaken. He was sad that we might become glad. He was bound that we might go free. He was made sin that we might be made righteous. He died that we might live. He came down that we might be caught up.
God is never late. God is always on time. He never misses a deadline. He sent His Son into the world right on time. God's timetable is always correct. My timetable and God's timetable are not always the same. There are times when I want God to act right now. I might pray "God give me this patience right now... God get me out of this trouble right now... God make others change so my work will be better right now!" I understand that in His great wisdom, God chooses not to answer those prayers. He created everything from nothing and sees the end from the beginning, who represents all wisdom and knowledge has never been late. He's has always been on time. It may not be my time, but it is His time.
The question that comes to me is how do we know it was the fullness of time for Jesus to come when He did? The fact is that God sent His Son to the earth at just the right time.
"When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman."
That's an amazing statement! There was one time, a right time in all of history when all things were perfectly right for Jesus to be born. Jesus came at exactly the right time. So Christmas should remind me of God's perfect timing. Just as God's timing was perfect in the coming of Jesus, His timing is perfect in your life. Just as the people of Jesus' day didn't understand God's timing then, you may not understand it now, however, it is perfect timing. Maybe today is the right time in your life for God to move in a special way. Today may be the perfect timing for you to let Christ come as Savior into your heart. We will learn today how He works His plans in our lives.
I. We see the Preparation For His Coming. Verses1-3 “Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves great wealth for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. And that's the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to the spiritual powers of this world.” The coming of Christ to earth happened in "the fullness of the time." In the Old Testament we find many prophecies telling us that the Messiah will come. There were prophecies concerning the manner of His birth that He would be born of a virgin, and he would be born in Bethlehem.
“One Solitary Life”
“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.” [Attributed to James Allen Francis]
II. we see There was a religious preparation. It was the right time spiritually. Israel had not heard from God for over 400 years. They had immersed themselves in empty religion. The people were hungry to hear from God. All through the Old Testament, God dealt with Israel, His chosen people. It was through them that He promised the Messiah would come. But Israel was always going away from God. They were always following after the gods of other nations around them. God judged Israel for this idolatry many times in their history. This concluded in their being taken into Babylonian captivity. God allowed the entire nation to be conquered by Babylon and taken from their homeland into that country. It was during the Babylonian Captivity that the canon of Old Testament Scripture was completed under Ezra. The body of Old Testament literature was brought together and this opened the way for the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. The Jewish synagogue came into being. The Jews had always worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem. Now, they could not go to the temple so the Jews assembled to worship in the synagogue. The synagogue is the worship pattern for the Christian Church. All of these events had a role in to put in order the coming of Christ.
III. we see There was also a cultural preparation.
In 350 BC Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world in twelve years. Under Alexander's influence, the world became Greek in culture, philosophy, institutions, art, drama, literature, architecture, thought and language. Greek influence was so widespread that even ordinary people become familiar with a style of Greek known as common Greek. Greek became an international language. This was important because in 280 BC, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek. This is called the Septuagint. Everything was ready for the preaching of the Gospel. Religiously, the Old Testament Scriptures were gathered into one language and culturally, the lines of communication were opened. The time was right.
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.
Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust. But giving the gift of love will endure.
IV. we see There was also a political preparation. It was the right time Politically. -Under Roman rule -After Greeks had build roads for easy transportation. The people were looking for the Messiah to come. By the time Jesus was born, Rome ruled the world. The Romans had conquered all the nations around them. They built roads that would link the entire Roman Empire. They suppressed criminal acts, and created a postal system. God determined those who would ascend to power in the Roman Empire. At the coming of Christ, Caesar Augustus was the emperor. Little did he know that when he called for a census, that he was doing God's will? Because of his decree requiring all of the people to return to their place of origin and be taxed and counted, a pregnant woman and her husband made a historic journey to Bethlehem. Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, was guided by the hand of God to the place prophesied in the Old Testament where Christ would be born.
V. we see there was a spiritual preparation. It was the right time Scripturally. God had promised that Messiah would come. When the fullness of time was come, GOD sent forth His son.
God prepared people's hearts to receive the Messiah. The Bible says "the Scripture has confined all under sin." It is by reading the Bible we come to know that we are sinners. Verse 23 says that "before faith came we kept under guard by the law." Before Jesus came, people tried to keep all God's Old Testament laws, and of course, they couldn't. Verse 24 says “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ." Now we know that keeping the law can't save us, and we know we need a Savior, Jesus Christ!
God's timing tells us that we are no longer under the law. "The fullness of the time" means that we now live in the full inheritance of God's spiritual blessings! Jesus came in the "fullness" of time to fulfill the work of the Lord. There was so much more to that night in Bethlehem almost 2,000 years ago than merely a babe in a manger. God "sent forth His Son." Jesus left His place of prominence and privilege in heaven to dwell in the womb of a young woman from Nazareth. The Creator of the Universe was carried in a woman's womb. He was "born of a woman." This speaks of His humanity. He was the offspring of the Holy Spirit and had no human father, and He is absolutely divine. In his mother He is absolutely human. He often referred to Himself as the "Son of Man." This is vital.
Jesus understood what it was like to be a man. He knows the hurts, the hardships and the grief of mankind. He knows what it's like to be human. Jesus was "born under the law." But Jesus was different from all other men. The law didn't point out His sin and His failures because He had none. The Law pointed out His perfection! The Law proved that Jesus was qualified to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Jesus said in Mat.5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." God had a great purpose for Christ's coming. God had planned this event before the world was created. Now the time was right. And Christ came. Jesus not only came to "fulfill" the law and prophets, He came "to redeem those who were under the law." Many people think that God will accept them on the basis of their good works. They believe that God will measure their good deeds against their bad deeds and that ultimately their good deeds will be greater than their bad deeds. But the Bible tells us that no one is good enough. Isaiah 64:6 says, "All our righteousness are like filthy rags." That is the point of the Old Testament law. It is our teacher that shows us that the best that we can do will never be good enough. It points us to our need of a Savior. We were under the law, and could not keep the Law. So we stood condemned by our own inadequacy. Our own works testify to the fact that we cannot be righteous in ourselves. Then Jesus came! He bore our humanity. He bore our iniquity. He died on the cross in our place. In His death, He accepted the full measure of God's punishment for our sin. We have one of two choices: We can choose to live our lives in our own strength, taking our chances that we can live righteously enough to earn our way to heaven. And we cannot ever earn our way to heaven. On the other hand, we can accept God's great salvation by faith in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is how we can have eternal life. This is the best Christmas gift we could ever have. When you came to Jesus, you were saved; God received you into His heavenly family. He has forgiven you of your sins, and has assured you of a home in heaven. Christmas means, "I'm a child of the King." Jesus was born in a manger not only to pay for my sins, but also to adopt me into God's heavenly family! Over 2,000 years ago, in "the fullness of the time" Jesus came. In the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son. Angels proclaimed with jubilation, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men." The fullness of time Jesus came! And He is ready to come into your heart right now!
God didn’t make the decision to send Jesus on the spur of the moment. He carefully orchestrated the events and nations to prepare for the incarnation of Christ. When the time was just right, He sent His only begotten Son into the world. Consider how God coordinated the events to prepare for Jesus' birth
The Babylonian captivity prepared the Jewish people by eradicating idolatry among them. During this time, Ezra compiled the canon of the Old Testament Scripture into a single volume. When the Greek empire arose to power, they brought common culture, philosophy and language. The Greek language became the language of the common man. The Old Testament would later be translated into Greek to give wider access to people. Greek culture broke down some of the barriers of nationalism. People from other cultures were more readily accepted and their beliefs more readily entertained. Then came the Roman Empire, and with it a cessation of war. This was a time of infrastructure development such as the building of roads. At the appointed time, Caesar Augustus ordered a census and taxing causing Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem where Micah prophesied that Christ would be born. Every detail was prearranged, every circumstance perfect, every event happened right on cue. If God can so govern the global affairs of nations, you can trust Him and His timing for my life.
