Sermon: Fullness of Time

Turn open to Galatians four, Galatians four, verses four and five this evening for our text.

But when the fullness of time had come,

God sent forth a son, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. It says the word of the Lord.

Time is a interesting thing. Uh, we all know it. We live our lives by it. We live in it. We keep track of time in our culture today. We're obsessed with it. We have it on our microwaves, in our ovens, and we have it in our cars, and we have it on our walls, and we have it on our wrists, and we have it on our nightstands and it dominates the little world that we live in, that we live in time, that we live in seconds and we live in minutes, and we live in days.

We live in weeks. We live in years and decades and centuries. Physicists define it time as the progress of events in the past to the present and into the future. And as Christians, we can agree with that. We agree with modern day thought that time had a beginning. We just may disagree about how it began. As the scripture say, God formed all things out of nothing, created the heavens and the earth, and he separated the light from the darkness.

And so everything began. Time began in a very real sense. The the clock was set ticking as soon as he created and it didn't stop. Now, some moments in time were more important than other moments in time. May 12th, 1977 is an important moment in time. Well, it is for me. It's the day I was born, but maybe not so much for you. But we could say that July 21st, 1969, when, when man said, this is one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.

It was a moment in time that affected everyone living then and would affect everyone living beyond that moment.

But there's one moment in time that not only affects the people living in that moment, and not only those that come after, but it's affected all people at all times, all those that came before and all those that were in the present and all those that would come after. And that's what Paul is speaking about here. He says, in the fullness of time

that word time is the word chronos in Greek, you can hear it, we get the word chronology from it, and it has the idea of minutes and hours and and days and the fullness of time. He says, when the fullness of time had come fullness, now we can mean fullness in different ways. Fullness can refer to the fact of quantity, fullness and quantity. I want a fullness in quantity in my stocking tonight. Many gifts. There's fullness that

Shirley Paul is speaking about in one sense, but it's not quantity that he has in mind here. It's not a certain number of minutes. It's not a certain number of hours or days that was fulfilled. Rather what he's speaking about is fullness of quality. But my wife once in her stocking tonight, quality, fullness, completeness. But Paul is saying is that the days were complete, this was the the the perfect time,

the time that everything came to be. This is it. A perfect time had come when God sent forth a son, born of a woman born under the law and it changed everything and it changed everything for everyone.

Before we get there, I wanna consider how this was the right time, the perfect time for God the father, to send God the Son into the world through the ages. Historians have often spoke about this in church history and this sense that it was a perfect time. Culturally, the Mediterranean world had been united by the Greek empire under Alexander the Great and as it had been united under Alexander the Great, it was united culturally

and throughout the Mediterranean world, there was a a common language, a common language of commerce and a common language of trade. And so people all the way from Persia to Spain, from the British Isles to Egypt spoke coin a Greek. And so it was easy for a new message, a new word to go out and to spread around the Mediterranean world. This could have never happened before, but it wasn't just culturally, philosophically there was a commonality.

Greek logic and reasoning had spread. So that discourse and public discussion was welcome. People were used to thinking about arguments and they were actually open to new ideas and thinking things through together,

culturally, philosophically, also religiously. The time was perfect. And the first century world, the though there were Roman and Greek gods and there were a myriad of Greek and Roman gods that could be worshiped. They were all locally gods. And so this entire Mediterranean world being united for the first time under the Greek Empire and then the Roman Empire, there was a commonality where people were searching for something

that was greater than just their local deity. And so you had the rise of what were called mystery religions in the first century.

And you have people actually exploring the idea of monotheism outside of Judaism. But most importantly the Jews. The Jews have been scattered throughout the Mediterranean world with the Babylonian and the Syrian Captivities and have been dispersed throughout the Mediterranean world. And as they had been dispersed and they had been so far and so long away from the promised Land, they had started synagogues in all of these places.

And so you had synagogues in places like Damascus and like Alexandria, like Rome.

So it's no mistake that when Paul goes out and he shares the faith with gentiles and new places, the first thing that he does is he walks into his synagogue and he reads the scriptures and he teaches from the scriptures. And it was in these synagogues where you had Jews who knew the Old Testament prophecies, many of them that we read this evening. And you had God fears gentiles who were drawn to this one true God, and yet didn't want to accept the

cultural things of Judaism. Some of them are the very first converts to Christianity. We'll establish a foundation for the growth of the Christian faith throughout the Mediterranean world, culturally, philosophically, religiously, also politically, the world was ripe. Rome had ushered in what was called the P Romana. There was true peace throughout the Mediterranean world. And so really for the first time in history, you could travel roads

and you could travel across the Mediterranean sea and relative safety.

And so you had evangelists and missionaries and just everyday travelers and traitors that could carry the word for

it was the right time, the perfect time, the fullness of time. But it's not just that it was the perfect time for the spread of the gospel. Paul, here he, he's speaking about fulfillment in an absolute sense.

He uses the same word in Ephesians one when he says this. He said, God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. And in this sense,

it's absolutely the fulfillment of time.

And the son of God was born into this world. We could translate it this way. It is the the time of time.

It's what all time was pointed towards.

It's what everything was moving towards. It's the time of fullness, the time that the father and the son had covenanted together and eternity past to act decisively for the redemption of sinners who were trapped in darkness, whose lives hung in the balance, who were dusted for hell, who were ruled over by the prince of the power of the air

to unite all things in him and heaven on earth. As he said in Colossians, it is the time of times that is the time of the world by virtue of the birth of Christ. It's come to an end. But Paul is saying is that the new creation has dawned with the birth of Christ coming into the world. The the new day, the new world, the new age has been inaugurated

the time of times.

Jesus himself says in his very first words that he speaks on the gospel of Mark as he goes out to preach, he says this, he says, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

Here's what I want you to understand this evening and want us to think about together. Everything changed in that moment.

We often sentimentalize uh, sentimentalize, uh, Christmas Eve. We view it as a kind of nativity set. And there you have this little barn. And in the barn you have cows, lowing, whatever lowing is. And you have angels in the sky and you have shepherds that are surrounding. And there's Joseph and there's Mary, and there's that little baby Jesus lying in a manger. It's cute, it's picturesque,

but it's more than that.

It was more than simply one personal life that began that evening when Christ was born into the world. The new world was born. It began started.

The darkness of this world, the sin that grips it, the prince who rules it, the death that overshadows it, all that that darkness. It was pierced the night the son of God was born into the world recreation and the person of Christ was inaugurated. Time was fulfilled. The kingdom of God was at hand.

I like to think about another passage in this regard, uh, Paul in second Corinthians five 17. It's a verse that many of us have memorized. And Paul is picking up the same idea there. He says there, he says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold the new has come. And we often take that as meaning, that he's speaking about you and I being a new creation as an individual in Christ.

And, and that's true, but that's not what he's talking about. In that passage in two Corinthians five 17, his point is that we are part of the new creation. That when we come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, he who was the first, you and I are implanted in him. And we are united to him. And in him. We are part of the new creation. We're part of the new world, the recreation that was inaugurated with the birth of Christ.

And that will be ushered in with his resurrection from the dead, the time of fulfillment.

All history has been moving towards that moment.

As Paul says in Colossians, and we read this evening, pastor Kevin did, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. He's the beginning, not just an order. He's the beginning. In that he pioneers, he opens the way for others to follow. The king has come. And when the king has come, his kingdom has come.

It's come.

That changes everything.

Everything for every single one of us.

Notice Jesus said the implication of that when he went out to preach and mark, he says, the kingdom has come and then there's an implication.

Repent and believe.

Why? Because there's another time of fulfillment to come.

He's coming again.

And the next time that he comes, he's not coming as a baby in the darkness of night, he's coming as the king of glory and will shine like the sun

and all will recognize this king.

And in that moment when he comes and he descends from the clouds with the angels and the archangels, and he's shining as bright as the sun,

that kingdom will be fully consummated

and the new creation will be ushered in in all of its splendor.

It was inaugurated in his first coming. It's consummated in his second coming.

You see, what we celebrate tonight is a king board king and that king brought his kingdom in the fullness of time. Time has not just come kind of meandering river that's just flowing along. Time is not circular. Something that just kind of repeats all have time has been moving forward by God's ordination, by his plan, and according to his purposes, that Christ would be born into this world.

That darkness might be set back and defeated, that sinners might be saved to be made children of the living God, that we might dwell with him for all of eternity.

Jesus is the fullness of time

and in a very real sense, he is the fullness of everything.

He's the fullness of joy. He's the fullness of peace. He's the fullness of love. He is the fullness of life. He's to be the fullness of your heart is to be first. In all things

Has implications for all of us. Christ is the one who came in the fullness of time and the one appointed by our father to save us, that we might enjoy him in fullness, forevermore.

And when he returns and that second fullness of time comes at appointed time, as Paul will preach about there and acts at the ogus, he will say at that appointed time, when he comes and he returns upon the clouds, you and I will enjoy him for the fullness of time day after day after day for all of eternity and all of his fullness. And the glory of the Father, if we have repented and believed, gives us adoption as sons the great Savior.

We have been given a great gift. We have been given you live even now in his kingdom.

I pray it. So with faith, let's pray.

Father, we are thankful that you are God to ordained all things the glory of your person, that you gifted your son to be a savior of sinners, and that he came in the fullness of time.

Truly, the kingdom is at hand. We all find that we are repenting and believing upon this great gift that is given in your son that we might know fullness beyond fullness forevermore. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Christ, the Son given for sinners. Amen.