JESUS’ ARRIVAL IS THE REDEMPTIVE TURNING POINT IN ALL OF HISTORY.
Among those who seem to know nothing of the Bible, this is the verse that seems to be most popular. Yet most the people who quote this verse don’t understand what Jesus said. They seem to think (or hope) that Jesus commanded a universal acceptance of any lifestyle or teaching. Just a little later in this same sermon (Matthew 7:15-16), Jesus commanded us to know ourselves and others by the fruit of their life, and some sort of assessment is necessary for that. The Christian is called to show unconditional love, but the Christian is not called to unconditional approval. We really can love people who do things that should not be approved of.
DAVID GUZIK
Christianity has been the driving force behind some of the major events of world history including the Christianization of Western and Central Europe and Latin America, the spreading of literacy and the foundation of the universities, hospitals, the development of art and music, literature, architecture, contributions to the scientific method, just war theory and trial by jury.
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
C.S. LEWIS
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"
JOHN 14:6
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
JOHN 6:35
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
JOHN 6:40
If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that He said; if He didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what He said?
TIM KELLER
3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles[b] of the world. 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.
GALATIANS 4:3-6
Pleroma: that which has been filled; a ship inasmuch as it is filled (i.e. manned) with sailors, rowers, and soldiers
THE FINE TUNE ARGUMENT
WHAT MAKES JESUS’ ARRIVAL THE FULLNESS OF TIME?
Israel could not produce its own Savior. Instead, Jesus is born of Mary as the result of God’s gracious intervention into Israel’s history through the creative action of the Holy Spirit. In the fullness of time God provided what human history by itself could not.
DAVID HOLWERDA
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
PSALM 139
24 “Seventy weeks[c] are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.[d] 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again[e] with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
DANIEL 9:24-26
A century ago in his book The Coming Prince, Sir Robert Anderson gave detailed calculations of the sixty-nine weeks, using ‘prophetic years,’ allowing for leap years, errors in the calendar, the change from B.C. to A.D., etc., and figured that the sixty-nine weeks ended on the very day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, five days before His death. Whether one uses this timetable or not, the point is that the timing of Christ’s incarnation ties in with this detailed prophecy recorded by Daniel over five hundred years beforehand.
GOT QUESTIONS
Hellenization: “greekifying” of the whole world
“It was a time when the pax Romana extended over most of the civilized earth and when travel and commerce were therefore possible in a way that had formerly been impossible. Great roads linked the empire of the Caesars, and its diverse regions were linked far more significantly by the all-pervasive language of the Greeks. Add the fact that the world was sunk in a moral abyss so low that even the pagan cried out against it and that spiritual hunger was everywhere evident, and one has a perfect time for the coming of Christ and for the early expansion of the Christian gospel.”
BOICE
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose.
ROMANS 8:28
JESUS’ ARRIVAL BEGS THE QUESTION:
“WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?” AND “WILL YOU FOLLOW ME?”
