In the fullness of time, God sent His Son.

This Sermon was preached in a Marshall church in December of 2006.
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 42: 1-9
1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him;

He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break,

And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”
5 Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “ I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
I am the LORD, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 1: 18-24

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”[d] which is translated, “God with us.”
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.[e] And he called His name JESUS.

THE SERMON

In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia, there is a statement that I think is appropriate for our topic this morning. In chapter 4, verse 4, he says
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

That whole chapter is very interesting and we might, at some future date explore it further, however, at this time I want to concentrate on just this one idea in this verse, that idea being: “. . . when the fullness of the time had come . . .”

Paul indicates that when time passed, and a precise mix of world events took place--certain nations rose to power and others fell into oblivion and rulers gained power and rulers lost power. Political ideologies and philosophical viewpoints shaped leader’s thoughts and ambitions. Infrastructure was designed and built. Language changed. Armies and military might conquer and then maintained the status quo—all of this and then the time was right. The time was full. In the fullness of time—God stepped upon the stage of the world He created and intervened in the affairs of mankind.

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born a little human baby, born a Jew, at a time when the Law of Moses was in effect, when the temple sacrifices and the Judaic law were still binding on the Jews…God sent His son, to redeem those who were under the law, so that now, we might receive the adoption as sons. When world events were at just a certain point, God sent his son, so that God could be the Father, and we, as believers, could become family members.

The actual point in history, as we now count time was some where between four and one BC, which may be confusing to some since the designation BC refers to a moment in time, before Christ. However, since Gregory made a miscalculation in the forth Century, we can conclude that the Christ was born before the time that Gregory had determined for the event. The actual time--figured by those who spend their days figuring such on such things--is determined by the actual date of the death of Herod the Great, remember he’s the guy who talked to the wise men and had all the male babies in Bethlehem, two years and under killed in a fearful and desperate attempt to snuff out the threat of this new king on the scene.

Anyway, God determined that the fullness of time had come at that point, the point of Jesus’ birth into the physical realm.

It may help our understanding of this idea if we go back a bit in history. We are probably all familiar with the Hebrew history to this point, Abraham, the promise that all nations would be blessed through his lineage, the twelve tribes, the 430 years in Egypt, Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua and the conquering of the promised land, the formation and growth of a great nation known as Israel, the kings, the rent of the kingdom with 10 going north and Judah and Benjamin becoming Judea, thus, the Jews and Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the captivity of 70 years in Babylonia, the return and the rebuilding of the temple and then about 400 years of time we call the inter-testament period where there were writings not considered canonical. During this time, Judea was acquired by Rome and ruled by a puppet King, Herod, whom we have already mentioned.

The Roman Empire had been in existence for 500 years and had, by the time of Jesus’ birth, gained control of most of the known world. Much of this expansion had been accomplished by a man by the name of Octavian a nephew of Julius Caesar.

Forty years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar had been given the title of perpetual dictator of the empire. However, things were going bad and there was a lot of infighting and scrambling for power—a lot like today.

Thanks to an English playwright named Shakespeare, you all know the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar and about Mark Anthony and Brutus. So, by the time the body of Julius with nineteen stab wounds was put on display at his funeral, his will was read. He had appointed his nephew Octavian, as his successor, as well as posthumously adopted him as his son, giving him the title of Caesar.

This, of course, did not sit well with some of the higher ups, but after several years and lots of blood being shed, Octavious as Caesar Augustus was in charge of the empire. He had already annexed Egypt and a lot of other territory so that the Roman government controlled most of the known world at that time.

Thus by the time of Jesus’ birth, Rome ruled the earth. Caesar Augustus was very ambitions and not only had he conquered lands, countries and territories, but he had built roads to everywhere and had his soldiers garrisoned in every place. Greek was the official language of the empire, so communication world wide was possible.

Looking at the map in four BC, Rome ruled from northern Africa, Egypt, all of what we call the mid-east today, up to Greece and into what is now known as the Balkans and Italy and up into the European continent, and Spain.

So, there was a vast territory, there was an available a police force and military for keeping things peaceful. Every body was familiar with the Greek language, even if some spoke in their own regional dialects, business was conducted in Greek. Travel was relatively safe with the military presence and good roads.

If we think about it, never in the history of the world had these conditions existed. If we think about it, that particular phenomenon has not existed since either.
Add to all this, in almost the center of this Roman Empire was the little nation of Judea, ruled by Herod the Great, a puppet for Rome.

Part of Caesar’s plan was to determine just how many citizens he had to deal with, for taxing purposes. The Gospel of Luke’s second chapter begins: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,[a] who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

This was the fullness of time. The time for the event of all time to take place. The precise moment in history when all the elements were in place for the entrance of the Son of God into the world, the precise moment for the introduction of the Good News, the Savior is here! God Loves! God is merciful. God’s great grace is abundant Shout the message of the Gospel, “go ye unto all the world and preach this good news!”

Now, let’s look for a moment at our Old Testament scripture for today. 700 years before the birth of the promised Christ, Isaiah, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us these words from the mouth of God, himself: “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!”

I think God must be talking about Jesus here. He goes on: “I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.”

Note that the reference to the “Gentiles” is a reference to folks who are not Jews, it’s a reference to the “all nations” who would be blessed in the promise to Abraham in Genesis fifteen. I believe that’s us!

Let’s us move on down to verse five: “Thus says God the LORD” It would be pretty hard to misunderstand this statement. Here are the words of God, himself. And He goes on to further identify himself as the ONE WHO: “…created the heavens and stretched them out, …spread forth the earth and that which comes from it . . . .gives breath to the people on it. . . .And (who also gives) spirit to those who walk on it”

Is there a possibility that you and I could be included somehow in this, being people who breathe air and walk on the earth?

Next, God speaks to Jesus. He states that He has called Jesus in righteousness. This righteousness is in contrast to the sinful folks who breathe and walk upon the earth, those Gentiles.

Next He says that He is going to “. .. . hold the hand (of Jesus) and He is going to “give (Jesus) as a covenant to the people (who breathe air and walk upon the earth).”
The next verses, to paraphrase: the covenant will be as a light to the Gentiles, and it will open their (our?) blind eyes and release them (us?) from prison, captivity, bondage of sin and death. I read somewhere, that if the Christ sets us free, we will be free indeed! Jesus is going to be able to turn on the light and free those in bondage. And then, in verse nine, God is telling us these new things, even before they occur--seven hundred years before they occur! There is a lot more to that passage, however, we must press on.

In the New Testament, only the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke give us any information about the birth of Jesus.

Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were engaged and Mary became with child by the power of the Holy Spirit and the baby was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Somehow a star led some wise men, or magi from somewhere in the east to seek for a king. They stopped by to see the local King (Herod) to find out just where this King might be born. After some research in the scriptures, they were directed to the city of Bethlehem.

They gave some expensive gifts to the new king, who was in a house, in Bethlehem, being by now, a small child, as opposed to an infant. We can see this since after Herod was not told where Jesus was by the magi, I can imagine he went into a rage and ordered all male children two years old and under, who lived in and near Bethlehem, slain, the two years old statement being significant in this argument.

The new family was advised by angelic messengers to seek safety in Egypt. Remember that Caesar Augustus had annexed Egypt earlier, so it was not like they went to a foreign country, and it was just down the road from Bethlehem. They came back up that way after Herod had died, but decided to go on to Nazareth.

Luke gives us some more details. Luke was written somewhat later and if we look at tradition as to where these different people finally settled, Luke, a companion of Paul could very well have had contact with Mary, the mother of Jesus and could have gotten much of his detail from her. Anyway, the words came by divine inspiration, so however God saw fit to inform Luke for his gospel, so be it.

Luke establishes the relationship between the families of John the Baptist and Jesus, tells of the census ordered by the emperor, Caesar Augustus, bringing the family down from Nazareth to Bethlehem, giving us the no-room-in-the-inn story and the shepherds-watching-their-flocks story.

So, if we put the two accounts together, we get them coming from their original home in Nazareth, going to Bethlehem to be counted, staying in a manger, the baby being born, shepherds coming by, moving into a house, going to the temple on the twelfth day, staying in Bethlehem for some time, the magi coming by, fleeing to Egypt and then returning to Nazareth some two years later.

I know it is a nitpicking thing, but most nativity scenes put those wise men and the shepherds and the cows and sheep and the manger all in the barn at the very same time. And we all know that it really did not happen that way. But, I guess it doesn’t really make that much difference. We like our nativity scenes.

As we have said before, not a lot of emphasis is placed on the birth of the Lord in the scriptures. However, I believe it is important to know that he was born a human being, just like any other baby that has ever come into this world. He was fully human. However it is also important to know that his conception was not normal.

Somehow, the Holy Spirit caused the baby to be formed in the womb without the benefit of the normal human process. The result was a child born into the world, but a child born without the Adamic sin attached, a child born in pure righteousness with no sin whatsoever. I admit to you that I do not understand it, or how it happened, but I believe it did happen. And that’s enough.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent His son into the earth, born of woman, sinless, perfect and fully human.

I like to think about that the angelic choir, singing to the shepherds watching over their flocks by night, probably all the angels in heaven singing “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Those angels were singing about heaven’s joy, as if the deed was already done, the ministry, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension and the King of Kings with work accomplished, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven. They were singing that the deed was done, and all they really had at that moment was a tiny baby in a manger. But, know this. When God speaks, worlds move, things change and what He says, He will, in fact, do.

It is kind of like that time when Elijah was praying for it to rain and he asked his servant if he saw any clouds and the servant said, he saw a small cloud, as big a man’s hand. And Elijah said, “That’s big enough!” and it rained and rained that day.

They had a tiny new-born boy wrapped in swaddling clothes, but that was enough, the fullness of time had come and that day they had a regime change.

And from that day on, the Devil, Satan, that old serpent . . . never had a chance.