Introduction To The Life Of Christ

I appreciate your patience with me as I continue with this podcast. I’ve been thinking a lot over the last three weeks about what direction I want this study to go. As I look back over the last year or two it appears to me that I might have gotten away from the “kids” and “family study” part of the podcast and was doing “much too deep” of a study then young kids would be able to follow. I suppose it might be because my kids are now older and I was naturally going deeper with them in their studies. Whatever the reason, I want to get back to the original intention of this podcast and I pray for your patience, encouragement, and helpful critics. So with this in mind today we are going to begin a new series on “The Life of Christ.” I’ve been preaching through this on Sunday mornings and have been so blessed by those studies. I think there is no one worth studying more than our Lord and Savior so as to draw closer to our God. Our text for today will be from Galatians 4:4.

Galatians 4:4 ESV

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

What is the “fullness of time?” In Genesis 3 we find Adam and Eve had sinned. And when God came down to the garden, which apparently he had done before, he began to talk with Adam and Eve about the damage their sin had caused. It caused Adam, and all men from here on out, to not have it near as easy farming as he had in the Garden of Eden. Eve, and all women from her eon out, would have an “increased” in pain when delivering children and a longing or need for man to rule over them. But before God tells them the consequences of their sins he tells Satan, the serpent, this in Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 3:15 NKJV

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

In other words, God was going to send someone that would crush the head of Satan, which as you and I know would be Jesus.

However, before Jesus could come, God needed to do a lot of things to make for the “perfect time” for Jesus to be born to Mary. In other words, God needed to fulfill all that needed to be fulfilled “fulness of time” on earth for Jesus to come at just the right moment. So what were some of the things God did?

God made the Jewish people from Abraham (Genesis 12) so that they could be his “chosen people” to keep the Law of Moses (Galatians 3:24) which would point to Jesus the Messiah. The word Messiah means “savior of the world.”

God made each empire, the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman play a vital role in “the fulness of time.”

The Babylonians spread the Jews all over the world so that people everywhere would know of the “one God of the Jews.”

The Medo-Persians established a military system that allowed those they conquered to keep worshiping their “god of choice” which would keep the Jews safe and people hearing about the “Jewish God.”

The Greeks established a universal langue, making the entire world know Greek, so that when the gospel was spread everyone could hear it, read it, and understand it.

The Romans had the safest empire and the best roads for quick travel allowing Jesus and later the church to go so many places quickly.

God also had the Jews create synagogues where Gentiles could come hear God’s word read and discussed each Sabbath day, all over the world.

All this and more was done to bring about the “fulness of time” when Jesus could come and the church could spread the most effective way.

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.