Galatians 4:4, "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,"

There are four Greek words in the text that I read to you that would immediately grab a reader's attention.

They are "To pleroma tou kronou."

They mean literally "when the full number of days had arrived, when full preparation was made"

At the end of the time of preparation, God would send forth His Son, in the fullness of time, at just the right time. Jesus Christ came to the world, and He arrived at the right time to purchase us who were under the law.

At the end of the preparation, God gave His only begotten Son, born of a virgin, made under the law to be the Savior of the whole world.

There was an exact time known by God, chosen by God for when Christ should be born. There was an exact time when He should die.

There was an exact time when He should be raised from the dead.
There was an exact time when He would ascend into the Heavens.
There was an exact time when He will split the eastern sky and call us home!

When the fulness of time had come…
God had been preparing to ensure that everything was just right; he was preparing for the fullness of time. He was preparing everything to be able to send the Savior.

1.) Spiritually
a. God had to prepare the people of God spiritually for the coming birth of Jesus Christ.

b. How would God begin to prepare them by putting them into captivity? God sent the Babylonians to take the people of God captive. In this captivity, these people were displaced, and then while displaced, they witnessed their Temple be destroyed, they witnessed their Holy City
going up in flames and then witnessed its destruction. Then they were carried off to captivity away from their homeland. (Lam1:12)

c. To these people, this was the ultimate disaster; everything that they loved was destroyed.

Look at the Psalm 137

That captivity was a tragedy, but out of that tragedy came three very vital things.

1. From this moment on, the Jewish people were monotheistic.

a. They had struggled with worshipping other Gods, but after this, they never worshipped or believed in other gods.
b. The Persians were monotheistic, and under Persian guidance, the people of God were allowed to return home. The Magi were Persian, and they came a vast distance to bow down before the Newborn King.
c. Out of Babylonian Captivity God used this captivity to get rid of the idols, and they worshipped as they had been instructed in Deuteronomy 6:4.

2. Out of the Babylonian Captivity came the Holy Scriptures. Under Ezra, the members of the Synagogue and the Holy Writings of God were gathered together and taught to the people and reverenced by the nation.

3. Out of the Babylonian Captivity came the institution of the Synagogue.
It is that kind of service and that type of gathering that we are enjoying even right now. All over the world, the Synagogues would gather, and the Holy Scriptures would be taught.

From those teachings and in those Synagogue services, there was an expectancy that a Savior, a Redeemer, and a Deliverer of all mankind was coming.

In the tears and sorrow of the captivity of Babylon and the loss of their homeland, God was using it to set it all up for the right time.

They were taken into captivity for the fullness of time to come. So they would be prepared spiritually. They were looking for a Messiah instead of worshipping a Golden Calf. God was preparing them. And out of the tragedy came a blessing.

2. He was preparing them Culturally.

In about 350 BC, a man arose who was the son of the Macedonian King Philip. This man's name was Alexander, and inside of this young man was a desire and ambition to conquer the whole world.

He achieved that ambition in just 12 short years. Whenever Alexander would move his armies to conquer a new land, he would bring along the great philosopher Aristotle.

The impact and significance of this conquest was immeasurable. The culture of the whole world became Greek; its philosophies, institutions, art, drama, literature, architecture, thought patterns, and it's language all became Greek.

Little did Alexander the Great know that through his conquest, he was preparing a way for the Gospel to be preached to all men everywhere.

See 400 years from the book of Malachi into the Gospel of Matthew – we call those the silent years, but in fact, God was at work preparing for the right time for Jesus to appear.

Alexander then divided up the Alexandrian Empire into four quadrants and gave one to each of His four generals. They continued the culture of the Greeks.

In 280 B.C the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrews was translated into Greek, called the Septuagint. sep-too-uh-jint

That version was the Bible that the First Apostles used to preach the Gospel to the world.

When Paul wrote Romans – He wrote in Greek.
John wrote the Revelation in Greek.

God was preparing for the right time.

3. God prepared it politically.

When you look at a globe or a map, you will see this little Peninsula that looks like a boot. Out on that little peninsula was a little town called Roma.

It was the capital of a small Province; despite their smallness, the Romans were tremendous warriors. They were disciplined and fierce. The Romans began to conquer lands in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Not only were they fierce, but they had a knack for government. They could diplomatically bring cultures together and coexist with each other.

They built roads over the entire civilized world. The Roman roads are still traveled today.

The Romans destroyed the pirates on the seas and the robbers on the land. So, one could travel without fear from one side of the empire to the other. The Romans instituted the first postal system so that letters could be written and then distributed.

The Romans created the "Pax Romana" – the universal peace.

In Rome, they had a shrine to their god, "Janus" (January). When there was peace, the door to Janus' shrine would be closed. At Christ's birth, the doors to her shrine were closed. There was universal peace, so men could travel preaching, teaching, proclaiming, and announcing the good
news of the Birth of Jesus Christ.

Little did the Romans know that in creating their empire, they were paving the path and setting up the right time.

Luke says that God sent Gabriel to give Mary a message while she was in Galilee in the town of Nazareth that she would carry the Christ Child.

Mary was in Nazareth at the time of the announcement. However, 700 years earlier (Micah 5), Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in Judea.

How would God move Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem? He used the Romans.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

When they got moved, the fullness of time came…

6 So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

This is the sovereign work of a sovereign God. God was at work, Caesar didn't realize that when he sent out that decree, He was orchestrating the fulness of God's timing. Even your enemies are getting ready to orchestrate a blessing into your life.

4. Personally being prepared.

Often, it is hard for us to understand God; even with all of our knowledge, we still only see in part. To try and understand the mind of God and the ways of God is nearly impossible.

For instance, the Scriptures state that Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world.

So before the stars were hung, before the planets were made, before all of that… God had a plan, the plan was John 3:16, even before the foundation of the world.

The plan of salvation, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, was planned long before the foundations were laid. You could say that before God thought about the stars, He was thinking about you.

The plan was to send Jesus in the form of man, not in the form of an angel. He took it upon Himself to become the seed of Abraham even though Jesus would state before Abraham, "I am!
(John 8:58)

We became the seed of Abraham, yet He was before Abraham. So he took the form of us, He became like us so that we could become like Him.

God was working this plan out through the centuries and generations of man upon the earth.

In Genesis 3, the Lord said that the Messiah would be born of a woman. And that the seed of the woman would crush the head of Satan.

In Genesis 12, the Messiah would be from the seed of Abraham.

In Genesis 49, we see Jacob turn to His fourth son, Judah, and declare

So, the Savior would be Born from the tribe of Judah.

2 Samuel 7, we learn that God promised David a son that would sit upon his throne and reign
forever and ever.

"and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33, Isaiah 9:7)

Micah 5 declares that He would be born in the little City of David, Bethlehem.

Days upon days, nights upon nights, when the fullness of time had come. God sent forth His son, made of a woman under the law.

According to the mandate of the government, Joseph took his wife Mary, great with child, and made their way to Bethlehem. And on that night, the fullness of time came; the exact moment was prepared, and everything was now ready. This was the moment that Heaven was waiting upon, this is the moment that God had been working towards.

Then God sent… the heavens opened, the angels declared, to those shepherds out in the field, they could announce to the ones who were afar off.

11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a
manger."

When the right time came, God sent, God moved, and God exposed what He had been working
on all along.

Maybe you are, and you feel as though God is silent or that God isn't working on your behalf.

You feel as though somewhere along the line, you missed it.

Could it be that what you feel is the silence of God is actually the preparation of God?

Maybe God is preparing you spiritually – getting all the junk in the trunk out so he can put into you what you don't have space for now.

Maybe God is preparing you culturally – maybe God is using
circumstances of your life to set the stage for you to have the most impact.

Maybe God is preparing you politically (Putting you in right circles of influence)

Maybe God is preparing you personally – getting you ready to be able to handle the person God has called you to be.

You want it now, but the time just isn't right.

God, in the fullness of time, when the time is just right, God will send it. He will bring about what He was working on all along.

Methuselah – when He Is gone, it will come.

The Man laid by the Gate called Beautiful…

The woman with the issue of Blood …

2 For He says:
"In an acceptable time, I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation, I have helped you."
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

This I know that when the time comes, God will move and it will be the right time for you!