At Just the Right Time

Connection/Tension

Open with prayer guide...

Read Galatians 4:4-7

In the late 1950’s a new way to manage inventory was developed in Japan, called Just In Time. It was quickly adopted in the US by the 70s. The idea behind the JIT method was to help keep inventories small. Warehouses full of parts were expensive to keep and maintain, while at the same time they kept large quantities of capital tied up in parts that may not be used any time soon. With improvements in transportation and communication, the ability had finally arrived to make JIT feasible.

JIT, in theory, works very well until something like, say, a global pandemic disrupts the supply chain. Then we are reduced to fist-fighting over toilet paper. Julie and I have especially felt the brunt of these supply chain disruptions this past year. Tell about problems in getting car fixed… “When will it be ready, Is it ready now?”

Of course, in perspective, these are really first-world problems. But by and large JIT has trained us all in how NOT to wait well. We have become used to everything being essentially at our fingertips. Amazon has conditioned me that I can have almost anything in the world shipped to me in 2 days.

And, so, waiting has become hard. I think one reason waiting is so hard is that it reminds us that, in the end, we are not in control. There are a lot of things that can have a direct bearing on our life that we can do nothing about. We ask “when?” and “now?”, but have no way to influence the answer.

I think this is why this week’s passage is so encouraging. By the time of Christ, the Jewish people have been asking “When?” and “Now?” for centuries. The nation was taken away into exile in Babylon in 526 BC. For seventy years they cried out for a return to their land, asking “when” and “now”. They were finally released to go home, but they remained under the control of the Persians. And they asked “now?” Then the Persians were conquered by the Alexander and the Greeks, and they asked “now?” After Alexander died and his kingdom was broken up, they were ruled out of Egypt. And then later out of Syria. Each time the people of Israel asking “now, Lord, is it time to restore and save your people?” Then came the Maccabean revolt, and for a short time they experienced something like true freedom. But then came the legions of Rome, and by the birth of Jesus two more generations of Jews have lived under foreign oppression, asking “when?” and “now?” How would God finally respond to their longings? How will he respond to ours?

Text and Context

Then we read, Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son...” Another way to say this would be “At just the right time...” We don’t know why this was the right time. Many have speculated. Maybe because there was a common language most people spoke. Maybe because a system of roads had been sufficiently developed to allow the gospel message to spread. We don’t actually know.

What we do know is that is was the “right” time. And in this we are reminded that, while we may often feel out of control, the good news is that our God never is. He is never late, but arrives precisely when he means to. That God is in control does not mean that he sends bad things your way. He doesn’t give you cancer or cataracts. He does cause careers to end or car wrecks. But because he is in control, he is able to redeem the worst that can happen to us.

Some of us here, like Israel in Jesus’ time, have spent a long time asking “When, Lord, now?” Some have struggled a long time with chronic pain and illness. Some are still waiting for estranged family members to come home. Many are wondering if their marriage or their financial situation will ever get better. “Now, Lord?”

Some of you, like Julie and I, have been waiting a long time to see loved ones come to the Lord - spouses, children, family members, friends. Nothing has dominated my prayer life as much as praying for our two lost sheep to come back into the fold. Still we wait and wonder if next year is “when the fullness of time” will come.

That is why this passage in Galatians is so hopeful. For Christ has now come, at just the right time. He is the fulfillment of the longings of the Jewish nation - though sadly even to this day many are unaware it. They looked for a Messiah who would save them from oppressive nations; he came as a Messiah that would save them from the oppression of sin and death. He was without sin, yet he fully entered into our sinful condition, taking the curse of sin and its effects upon himself. And he has done this so that he might redeem us fully. As the apostle Paul wrote, 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.”

That means, for those who are in Christ, we have been adopted into God’s family, as Paul says. This is a legal term. For those of you who have been adopted or have adopted family members, you understand that this makes you just as much a child as biology. But it is more than that. God is not some cold, distant deity to us, but he has poured his Spirit into our hearts which gives us the right to call him “Abba” - Dad. We’ve been invited into the same kind of close relationships he share’s with Jesus. And, if we are now children, then we are also heirs Paul says of all things that God has promised. In Jesus, all of God’s promises are “yes” to us as well.

Because God kept his promises to the Jewish people, it means that He will keep his promises to you as well. The things you have been praying about - your health, your finances, your loved ones - these are the things that concern God as well. And they are things that he loves to be able to say “yes” to “when the fullness of time” comes.

Gospel/Response

Tonight at midnight we enter 2024. Some of us may look forward with high expectations. Others with trepidation. If the last few years has taught us anything, it’s that we should expect the unexpected. We are not in control, but the One who is in control has already gone before us, and whatever we face, we will not face it alone.

This calls for trust, faith, and hope:

Trust in the One who has come for us to save us, and who is redeeming all things even as we speak. Maybe the Lord is calling someone to begin the new year with him… (next steps slide)

Faith as in faithfulness. Even though we are not in control, in the power of the Holy Spirit we can remain faithful in the next year to He who is.

And hope. Jesus’ last words to us in the NT are Revelation 21:5 “See, I am making all things new.” We may not always see him at work, but we can enter 2024 in full confidence and hope that he is.

And for those of us who have been asking for a long time “When, Lord”, this coming year may be when we hear him finally say, “Now”. And it will be at just the right time. Amen.

I feel it is important to be honest with God about the things we are still waiting on. Take a moment to acknowledge these things and lift them to the Lord in trust, faithfulness, and hope...