IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME

Introduction

-{Galatians 4}

-Christmas is definitely a magical time of year that quite often brings us warmth and comfort from a normally hectic and harsh life throughout the rest of the year.

~It has been called the Most Wonderful Time of the year. In fact, back in the 1960’s, Andy Williams sang a song about it.

~The reasons that Andy Williams gave for it being a most wonderful time of year are numerous. He says that it’s the most wonderful time of the year because it includes:

Kids jingle belling

And everyone telling you be of good cheer

There’s holiday greetings and gay happy feelings

When friends come to call

There’s parties for hosting

Marshmallows for toasting

And caroling out in the snow

There’ll be scary ghost stories (think Scrooge)

And tales of the glories of the

Christmases long, long ago

-Andy lists all those as reasons that this is the most wonderful time of the year. While those most certainly are positive, uplifting things, there is obviously even better reasons to think that this is the most wonderful time of the year, and it all centers on a baby born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.

~That was a time decreed by God for the salvation of mankind to be brought to bear on a rebellious and sinful humanity. God’s work in Jesus makes it the most wonderful time of the year. But the effects are not just for this time, but now also for all of time.

-In the passage I am looking at today, Paul reminded his readers that there was a not-so-wonderful time in their lives when they followed the ways of the world. But through Jesus Christ it is a new time and a new season in their life with benefits that reach out for eternity.

~We can relate, because there was a time when we were of the world, and if you are a Christian it is a new time in your life. That doesn’t mean it’s a time without hardship or trials, but because of the time that you are in you can still celebrate who you are in Christ.

~So, what I want us to think about today is that Christmas makes for a great time of year to pause and consider the wonderful work that the eternal God has done for us, making us new people living in light of great truths and promises

READ Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 ESV

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

According to Paul, what makes this time of year special and how can we use the time for our spiritual benefit? First, Paul says that it is…

1) A time to remember God’s sovereignty

-Paul says that at the fullness of time, God sent His Son. The fullness of time might also be translated the completeness of time. Paul reminds us that our God is completely sovereign over all the events that happen in space and time, and He directs them according to His plans and purposes.

~Ultimately, God was guiding the events of the world to lead to the perfect time that the Son would take on full humanity, which we celebrate at Christmas.

-Quite often, we humans suffer from cases of bad timing. It could be something like spilling something all over yourself in the office the moment right before an important client comes in. Or it might be something ironic like a story I read. The video game developer Activision sent out commemorative drumsticks sponsored by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker that were emblazoned with the motto PLAY WITH FIRE to promote the release of their latest Guitar Hero video game. Unfortunately, not long after Activision sent out the PLAY WITH FIRE drumsticks to fans, Travis Barker survived a fiery plane crash in which 2 people were killed—most definitely bad timing for a PLAY WITH FIRE marketing campaign.

-While we humans suffer from bad timing, God never does. Things happen and world events occur as God times them, and the coming of Jesus Christ is no different.

~God had been setting the stage for Christ since the beginning, when it was prophesied that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. And now the time finally came—or as Paul says it, in the fullness of time God sent His Son.

-Scholars say that there were several factors that made that particular time a suitable time for Christ’s appearance. They list things like the worldwide peace secured by the Roman Empire, the excellent road system for easier travel from city to city, the common language of Greek that was shared by all cultures across the empire, etc. It was the perfect time for the Savior to come and for the gospel message to spread throughout the world.

-While you might credit the Roman Empire for those advances, it was the sovereign God who guided things along to make that right time possible.

-And this is important for us for two reasons.

(a) First, that means that God is behind the scenes guiding the events of our own lives. That doesn’t mean that God guides us away from hardship or trials. But it does mean that God is allowing the times of hardships and trials because it serves a greater purpose in the future of which we are unaware.

~God is in control of our time, and He is moving our time along toward something meaningful and purposeful for the kingdom. Just when you think that your life is out of control, it is good to remember that while it might be out of your control, it is not out of His control.

(b) A second reason of importance is that God is sovereignly guiding time toward the second coming of Christ. Christ will return in the fullness of time, whenever that might be.

~I know that due to world events everyone thinks that the time is now. It could be. Christ could come back today. But, then again, Christ could return 5000 years from now.

~We have to be careful interpreting every event as a sign of Christ’s return. Guess what, this is not the first time a plague has hit the world. There have been worse one’s in the past. This isn’t the first time there have been wars and rumors of wars. That has happened throughout history. This isn’t the first time there has been civil unrest. Nations of come and gone.

~As King Solomon says, there is nothing new under the sun, and so every event is not a sign of Christ’s return. We can’t spend our time obsessing over whether every human event is a sign of Christ’s return. We serve God better using our time spiritually preparing ourselves and others for when it will eventually occur. Because God alone is sovereign over the timing.

-So, in this most wonderful time, use your time to remember God is sovereign over all the events that happen in time. But it is also…

2) A time to reflect on God’s gift

-Christmas time is a time for gifts. Under the tree lay beautifully wrapped boxes with ribbons and bows that contain toys and goodies that we have dreamt over for weeks or months. It’s as much fun giving as it is receiving gifts, seeing the happiness that comes across the faces and dispositions of young ones as the tear off the paper. We all love receiving gifts, and we love giving gifts, and tis the season for those gifts.

-But Paul talks about a better gift. Paul says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Christmas marks the time when God gave humanity its greatest gift. No, it did not come in pretty paper or perfectly placed bows. No, it did not contain a new toy or gift. And yet, no better gift had been given. And as we open our gifts this next week, it does us good to reflect on this gift from God.

-Look at what Paul tells us about this gift.

(a) First, he says that the gift God sent was God’s own Son. Jesus was the Son before He even became human. This statement confirms the deity of Christ, meaning that Christ was fully God, sharing in the same nature and character as the Father. In the beginning was the Word/Son, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

~Jesus is God. Jesus is Creator. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is full of all perfections. Jesus is holy and just and loving. Everything that the Father is, the Son is as well. And God gave the Son to us so that we would understand Him better. Jesus is the greatest of all divine revelation. If you want to know God, then you need to know Jesus. Use your time to reflect on that—if I want to know God, I need to know Jesus. But he also says…

(b) Secondly, that the gift God sent was born of a woman. We know the Christmas story of the virgin endowed with child by the Holy Spirit, trekking to Bethlehem, giving birth, having shepherds tell a wonderful story of angels, and a year or so later wise men from the east worshipping the child, giving Him gifts.

~But the Son was born of a woman. He looked like a real, honest-to-goodness baby—because He was a real baby. This divine Son took on humanity. He was born like a human. He grew up like a human. He learned like a human. He was completely and utterly human, and yet He was also so much more.

~But we need to reflect on this because we forget that Jesus understands what we are going through having been fully human. He understands the pressures. He understands the temptations of lust and anger. He understands dark nights of the soul because he experienced the pulls like we do. The only difference is, He experienced these things and yet did not sin. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Jesus gets you. He understands you. He doesn’t merely wink at your sin or overlook it, but He knows the struggle, and He offers something better. But then Paul says…

(c) Thirdly, Jesus was born under the law. This partially means that He was Jewish—He was under the Mosaic covenant. But the law of God is universal. This mean that the same standards that God set for all of humanity were in place for Christ. And He followed the law perfectly. We don’t and can’t. But He did. And this made Him the unblemished sacrifice for sin. Under Jewish law, animals brought for sacrifice had to be without defect and without blemish. All of us other humans are defective and blemished. But not Christ.

~So, this is the time of year we reflect on the greatest gift—the divine Son who took on humanity to be the unblemished sacrifice for a very defective humanity.

3) A time to rejoice in God’s blessings

-There is a phrase that talks about the gift that keeps on giving, and that is so true with Jesus, our true Christmas gift. The apostle John in his gospel says there’s not enough room on this earth to contain a book of all that Jesus said and did, and the same could be true of everything that Jesus accomplished—the spiritual blessings for believers.

-But Paul does his best to describe some of those blessings:

(a) First, he talks about the fact that Christ redeems believers. We use that word REDEEM to talk about redeeming coupons and things like that. For Paul’s day, the word comes from the world of slavery. A slave was in servitude to someone due to a debt that was owed. If the slave or someone else could pay the debt, the slave was freed. By saying that through Christ we have been redeemed means that our sin-debt was paid, and we have been set free. We no longer are under the power of sin.

~We all love a good redemption story—the bad guy turning good and making up for the bad that he or she has done or for a mistake that they have made. Whether its Darth Vader turning back to the light side or Oskar Schindler turning from being a friend to the Nazis to a savior of Jews.While it is compelling storytelling, you notice that all of these stories are about someone redeeming themselves.

~The problem is that, in reality, we are so rebellious and have such a twisted nature that we aren’t able to redeem ourselves. That is why this is such a blessing. God the Son, born of a woman, born under the law, paid the price to redeem us lawbreakers. We can be free.

(b) We are adopted as God’s own children. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, the statement that all humans are God’s children is a lie. All humans are God’s creation. All humans are image bearers. But not all humans are God’s children. All humans are lawbreakers and slaves to sin, not children.

~But when we receive the gift of the Son of God, we are blessed to be adopted into the family. Just like what we think of as adoption, where people may not be family by birth but they become family by law and receive all the blessings and privileges of that relationship, so too we are not born as part of God’s family but we are legally brought into the family and we receive all the blessings and privileges of being brought into that relationship.

~What we couldn’t do before or receive before, now we can. Being adopted into God’s family allows us to call God Abba! Father! Terms of relationship and endearment. Before, all we were going to receive was judgment, but now we are heirs through God. We are going to inherit everything.

-This is the time to rejoice that, though we were once slaves, we have been bought and adopted and now enjoy being children and heirs of God.

Conclusion

-Christmas time is the most wonderful time of the year. There’s another song called CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE by the Vince Guaraldi Trio that we are more familiar with being from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. It too talks about Christmas time being a wonderful time, saying:

Christmas time is here

Happiness and cheer

Fun for all that children call

Their favorite time of year

Snowflakes in the air

Carols everywhere

Olden time and ancient rhymes

Of love and dreams to share

-Yes, Christmas time almost seems magical. But it’s not because of silver bells and decking hall, it’s because of Christ.

~This wonderful time of the year is best spent as a time of remembering God’s sovereignty, reflecting on God’s gift, and rejoicing in God’s blessings.

~Christians, come to the altar and remember and reflect and rejoice…

~But if not Christian, now is the time of your salvation…