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Advent 2 – The Fullness of Time
A Sermon Preached by Dr. James Flamming
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va.
December 5, 2004
Scripture: Galatians 4:4-6
“In the fullness of time God sent his Son . . . .”
“The Fullness of time. . . .” Let’s talk about time. It
reminds me of a reporter who was interviewing a lady who was 103 years old. The
interviewer asked her if there were any advantages to being 103? She replied,
“Sure there are.” Surprised the reporter asked, “What could they be?” She
replied, “No peer pressure!”
Time. To use an expression from the west, “Time is one
bucking bronco that not one of us has truly tamed.” Have you ever noticed how
often we attach a word to time, as if we are trying to put a saddle on it so we
can ride it. You can pick it up in the way we talk.
Someone asks us, “What cha doing?” We reply, “Just killing
time.” Or, “Why are you going this way?” “It’s shorter – saves time.” Or“I’m
so far behind, I’ll never catch up!” “Well, you’d get a lot more done if you
didn’t waste so much time.”
I was listening to some white-hairs the other day converse.
“How did we get this old?” The answer came, “Time flies.”
We have a need to saddle time with a word so we can
bring it down to size.
But there is a time we can’t really bring down to size. It
is God’s time.
That is what Paul means when he says, “In the fullness of
time God sent his Son. . .” The NIV translates it, “When the time had fully
come. . .” The Contemporary English Version translates it, “When the time was
right. . .” The fullness of time is God’s time. In Psalm 75:2, God says, “I
choose the appointed time.”
God’s Time Has a Tough Time in Our Kind of World
God’s time has a tough time in our world. Ours is the age
of the consumer. The consumer runs the economy. We are all consumers. Anyone
present who did not buy anything this week? No food, no gas, no candy, no
hamburgers? Let’s be seasonal. Is there anyone here who will not buy anything
for anyone this Christmas? See, we are all consumers.
Here is the rub. Consumerism is all about us. It is what I
buy, what I choose, what I want, what I need. Or it is buying for what someone
else wants, or needs, or asks for. Being a consumer is all about us.
Remember the beginning words of Rick Warren’s book, The
Purpose Driven Life? “It’s not about you.” How ironic that Christmas would
become the peak consumer time of the year. Because you see, being a follower of
Christ is not all about us. To be a Christian is not about us. It is about
Christ our Lord. To be a Christian in a consumer culture is a tough walk.
In a consumer culture, God’s time has a tough time. That is
why worship, fellowship, Bible reading, service and mission are so important.
When these occur in our lives, God’s time has a chance. When a person says to
me, “I believe in God but I don’t go to church,” I know this about him or her –
God’s time has no time in their lives.
Appropriate Time
There is an appropriateness about God’s appointed time.
“When the time was right. . .”, says the Word. Ecclesiastes says it so well in
chapter 3, There is:
a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up,
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to laugh and a time to weep;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep silence and a time to speak;
a time for war and a time for peace.
I think the appropriate time for us is often when God sends
people into our lives that make a difference. Almost always, as you look back,
they are not people you would expect. But God uses them and our lives turn a
corner. As I look back on those whom God has used to change or enrich my life I
do not think any of them were aware of what they were doing. But God was using
them to accomplish my “fullness of time.”
One night Eugene Peterson was with Christian friends. The
host had baked fresh bread and served homemade soup. Over coffee the host said,
“I want everyone here to talk about a person who made a difference in your life,
someone whose words or actions shaped your life in a spiritually formative
ways.” For Eugene it was a businessman named Chet Ellington He knew Peterson’s
father, knew his father didn’t hunt and Eugene wanted to. Peterson was a
teenager at the time. Chet had no major role in the church because he had been
divorced and the rules of their church were that no divorced person could be a
leader. But Chet was faithful in attendance and loved sports. He would come by
at an early morning hour and take Eugene hunting. They would get out to the duck
blind in the frigid chill of the morning. During the hours they were together he
didn’t give advice or share his profound insights about life or faith.. Peterson
described Chet Ellington later as the bridge on which he crossed from immaturity
to maturity, on his way to becoming “fully developed within and without, fully
alive in Christ.” (Eph. 4:13)
God has an uncanny way of sending people into our lives at
just the right time, just the right moment. God’s people often fulfill God’s
timing in our lives.
Just in Time
One more thing. We have a phrase we use some. We say, “so
and so happened just in the nick of time.” God’s timing is often just in the
nick of time. We might paraphrase Galatians 4:4: “In the nick of time God sent
his Son.” Once when our deacons were having a prayer meeting with the deacons at
First African, their leader that night said, “God is never early, but he is
always right on time.”
That is the way with the coming of our Lord. For just fifty
years later and the Christmas story would have been forgotten and lost. You see,
in the year 66 A.D. revolution broke out in the Holy Land. Hot-blooded patriots
were determined to drive the Roman Yoke from their lands. Titus, the Roman
General, was dispatched by the Caesar to settle what they called, “the Jewish
problem,” once and for all. Titus went, he laid siege to Jerusalem, he
conquered.
If you are ever in Rome and visit the ancient Roman Forum
where the ancient coliseum still stands, you will see the Titus arch. It was
erected in celebration of the Roman victory over Judea. Etched in stone is the
picture of Titus holding high the golden candlesticks from the Temple at
Jerusalem which he destroyed in A.D. 70. Here is the awesome reality. There was
no Jewish nation from the year 70 until the year 1948, when modern Israel came
into being. God’s appointed and appropriate time for the coming of the Messiah
was not early, but it was just in time.
As one looks at the armies that sweep through the world,
As one looks at the revolutions of the first century,
One thing confronts us. Jesus came just at the right time.
Jesus came at just the right time for the spreading of the Gospel.
For instance, check out God’s timing as the Gospel spreads
from Palestine to Rome and even to England. It was a crucial forty years from
roughly 30 A.D. to 70 A.D. Those were years when the Roman Law, the Roman Peace,
and the Roman Ways (or roads) were at their peak. While the Gospel was contested
everywhere it went, it was able to get there. The New Testament was being
written. The Holy Spirit took those who did respond and little Gospel roots
sprung up everywhere, in Asia, in Greece, in Macedonia, in Rome, in Spain, in
England. Tradition says that Thomas was the Apostle sent to India. Which means
that in 40 years, the only transportation being by foot and by horseback, the
Gospel spread from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
I can’t imagine it. It was God’s timing fulfilled by
ordinary men and women.
John MacArthur’s book on the 12 Apostles comes to mind. He
calls it Twelve Ordinary Men. Of the twelve Apostles he writes that
before they met Jesus they had no spiritual understanding, no humility, no
faith, no commitment, and no power.
You say to me, “Wait a minute Pastor. These are the 12
Apostles. These are the ones who have Saint in front of their name. St. Peter.
St. Andrew. St. James. St. John. St. Matthew. St. Thomas. Churches are named
after these heroes of our faith. Yes. And it was these guys, laymen all of them,
to which Jesus entrusted his Kingdom. I know. I know. But here is the
unvarnished, unpainted, unsanctified truth – before they met the Lord they had
no spiritual understanding to speak of, no humility, no faith, no commitment,
and no power. And if you doubt my word read the four gospels. They tell it like
it was. These guys and gals were as ordinary as we are.
What this says it that when God’s time enters our hearts,
everything begins to change. Ordinary people become extraordinary carriers of
hope.
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