You're listening to the 10-minute Bible number podcast. It's best unfree daily deep minute Bible. And right now we're talking about Galatians.
SPEAKER_00I was lucky enough to know all of my grandparents and have really good relationships with all of my grandparents, and my granddads in particular taught me a bunch of stuff. My grandpa on the one side was a marksmanship instructor in the Air Force, and he was very keen on showing me how to do very practical things like shoot guns, fix stuff. My granddad on the other side was very gifted at relationship stuff. He was one of those dudes who didn't say a lot of words and just knew what to do. He was also really good at building a family and good at running a business, organizing things up. So I learned a ton from both of my grandads, but one thing they both said to me in common when I would joke with them and I wouldn't joke harshly with them, my respect with them was too great. But I remember a few times that each of them reminded me that I don't get the people in my life forever. This is a season, this is a time. And I think more than once, if I slacked off a little bit or just wasn't as attentive as I should have been to what they were trying to teach me or show me, they would remind me that I might not be able to come back forever and get that lesson again, but that rather there was something unique about this moment. Pay attention, this isn't forever, Matt. And of course, now that they're gone, that stings my heart, and I remember it absolutely vividly. There was a very special moment in time there, even a fullness of time kind of moment, if you will. Well, we've been talking about this fullness of time moment in Galatians chapter four that Paul references. In the fullness of time, he talks about Christ coming into the world. And over the last three days, I've been in the process of giving you my three reasons, going from least certain to most certain, as to why I think, yep, God knocked it out of the park with picking exactly the right time to send Jesus. And isn't it important that he have my approval on that? That's not the point. The point of the exercise is what does he mean fullness of time? And why could this possibly mean fullness of time? Well, point number one, if you just look at the big picture of history, the moment Jesus showed up was the best moment of all of the moments up until that moment. And maybe you could make the argument that it was the best moment even up until now. It sure seems like it. It sure worked out. Nothing has ever happened like what's happened with the gospel. So even if my estimation of it all isn't perfect, history seems to vindicate the point that historically that was the right time for Jesus to show up, and God knew what he was doing, and indeed that's the fullness of time. The second reason that we talked about yesterday is the pregnancy of the Old Testament coming out of the Old Testament and into the New Testament. It's begging for a completion. It gives us this whole story arc that demonstrates the need of humanity and our inability to fix our own problems. It gives us all of this prophecy that points right to Jesus like smoking gun prophecy. It points right to Jesus. And further, the whole narrative, everything, the prophecy, the plot, the loose ends that are still flapping around out there in the wind coming out of the Old Testament, all of it is like a dun dun dun dun dun, just begging for the dun dun to come along. And in Jesus we get the dun dun. So two days ago we did the historical argument for the fullness of time being right when it was with Jesus. Yesterday, you got the argument for why the Old Testament points to this arrival of Jesus' time being the fullness of time. And now finally, I just want to briefly consider what Jesus says about the fullness of time. It's a subtle thing, but if you work your way through the Gospels, you will notice a whole bunch of little moments here and there where Jesus doesn't speak for all time. He speaks to the moment. He speaks to this little pivot point when he is there, present, God in the flesh, God with us. Maybe it's the B C A D thing, but we tend to think in terms of there's a part one, it's done. Now there's an ongoing part two. And it pivoted on, I don't know, a single snap, a single moment. But it didn't. The pivot point was thirty some years, with three years of that time being really high action transition time. So there's really three ages so far. There's part one, there's dramatic transition time, which corresponds exactly to the lifetime of Jesus, and then there's part two, which is what we're in now. Jesus acted like that transition window when he was physically here doing the stuff he was doing was very, very special. Where do we see it? Starting in Matthew chapter 11. Jesus had a hype man, a forerunner, his cousin, John the Baptist, who went around baptizing people and saying stuff like, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, which is exactly what the message of Jesus was throughout his ministry, especially in his early ministry. John got arrested, and in Matthew 11, a bunch of John the Baptist disciples are coming to Jesus, representative of John, who was no doubt in despair. I mean, he's in a Herodian jail. And these followers of John the Baptist were like, hey, we just wanted to check and see, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? And I think probably they were just getting a little impatient with Jesus not coming out and saying all of the divinity and messiahship stuff early in his ministry. He seemed very content to let people do the math on that and gradually figure out, wait a second, he forgives sins, he commands the winds and the waves, he can defeat distance and disease, he's more powerful than death, he fulfills all the prophecy. Wait a dang minute. He's the Messiah. You have said it is so. That seems to be how Jesus wants to approach it. So John's disciples understandably are kind of rushing things a little bit, and Jesus replies in the usual fashion, What do you see? And he replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is a man who doesn't fall away on account of me. He's spelling it out, he's saying it without saying it. But then Jesus makes this remark to the crowd. I tell you the truth, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he than John the Baptist. So he's intoning that John the Baptist is awesome, but you all are here right now. Some of you are in the kingdom of heaven, and even the least of you who are here right now to see what's happening in this moment at the advent of the kingdom with the king in front of you. Yeah, that's a higher position of honor than even John the Baptist, who is really the last prophet of era number one. But now we're into the transition to era number two. There's a lot of theology going on there. Let's hit one that's a little bit simpler, then we can just get through a little bit quicker and just make it that much more clear. Let's go to well, how about Matthew 16? I mean, they you go have a campfire or whatever, and Jesus is like, Who do you say I am? And the disciples kind of you know duck and dodge around that, but finally Peter's like, You're the Christ, the Son of the living God, you know, you're the Messiah. And Jesus is like, yeah, that's exactly the case. And here's exactly what's going to happen next. And some of it you all aren't going to like, but this is what is happening right now. There's something very eternal in what Jesus is saying about that, but there's also something very right now about what Jesus is saying, and the importance of that confession in that moment right then in Matthew 16. More clearly yet, in Luke chapter 10, you get a deal where Jesus is hanging out with Mary and Martha. And Martha goes and is like, I'm gonna cook you up some food. And Martha's sister, Mary, is like, yeah, I'm gonna just sit right here at Jesus' feet and listen to what he has to say. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Jesus and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. And Jesus replies, Martha, Martha, you're worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. What did Mary get right? She understood the moment. Jesus is in my house, the son of David, the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Christ. She was sniffing around the same realization that Peter made back there in Matthew 16. She knew the moment was special, and though it would mean a lot to go and cook up that meal or whatever, she felt that the more important thing to do with that one opportunity right then was to plant herself at the feet of God with us in this one little brief transitional window, this one unique thing that is happening in the fullness of time. Here's another one, Mark 14. While he was in Bethany reclining at a table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. I I don't know exactly what that is. It doesn't sound like a great thing, but apparently it was very valuable and it was very precious. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head, not a drop or two. The whole dang thing. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages, and the money could have been given to the poor, and they rebuked her harshly. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She's done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Again, Jesus has the long view backwards into part one, the kid era, the law era. He has the long view forward into the air era, the era of the church, but he's also very present in this transition fullness of time moment that is just happening right here during the reigns of Caesar Augustus and Tiberius, right at the front end of the Roman Empire. This little window of time was special because it was ordained to be so by God, because God took on flesh right there. The incarnation happened, God with us. Final example, and this one isn't from Jesus. This is what a couple of old people said about Jesus when they met him when he was a baby. Luke 2, verse 25, final thought on this fullness of time thing. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Dang, that's very flattering language from the Bible towards Simeon. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required. Circumcision. Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Listen to this. Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. And then Simeon blesses the family, and a prophetess named Anna communicates a similar sentiment, but to the larger point about the fullness of time. Both Simeon and Anna are held out in the Bible as getting this moment. This isn't business as usual. This is a very special, unique, singular time in the history of everything that God has carefully ordained and crafted and done a whole bunch of almost maybeing and counterfactuals and this, not that, and two inches that way instead of four inches that waying over the course of history, directing the hearts of kings like watercourses in this decision and another, directing the pens of prophets in this way or another, causing the fate of battle to turn this way or another, all to bring it together to this point with this little baby coming into the world, God in the flesh, God with us. And that's something the Christians have remembered for a very long time when they repeat this ancient blessing of Simeon. I don't know how you pronounce it, but the nunx dimetis, or however you say it's Latin. And it's basically a repetition of what Simeon said right there, that gets said in churches of all different expressions of Christianity. Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people, Israel. That's the fullness of time. Simeon knew it, Anna knew it, Jesus obviously knew it, Peter knew it, Mary, mother of Jesus, knew it, Mary at Jesus' feet knew it, the woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany knew it, Paul knew it, and you and I have the luxury of history in the Bible in front of us, so we can know it as well, that indeed there was something special about this moment that's being referenced in Galatians four, something very special about this confluence that God had orchestrated, something very important about this fullness of time. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons. When Paul talks about the fullness of time here in Galatians 4, it is a nod to a masterpiece on the part of God. It is a nod to his providence, it is a nod to how complex and complete and perfect and perfectly timed the grand design of his redemptive plan is. And he's trying to urge the readers in Galatia to understand this is what you have. This is what God has gifted you by his grace. Don't trade it out for anything. Thanks for gaming out the fullness of time thing with me. Forward through Galatians 4 next time around.