Well, we are in the fourth of five in this little series I'm doing between books on Jesus, looking at the different W questions that we can think about. We've looked at who he is, what he's done, and where he's done it, and today we're going to look at when, the when question. And so, for whatever reason, my mind started thinking about fairy tales and how they begin. Once upon a time, right? Every fairy tale begins that way. And then I thought about the Star Wars crawl that starts a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. So why would a fairy tale begin this way? It begins this way because it's a fairy tale. It's not real. And why would Star Wars begin this way? It's because it's a story. It's not meant to be taken as real history. even though some of the people at the Comic-Con next to you might think differently, right? But in fact, from Hesiod to Tolkien and everyone in between who tell stories, the stories that they tell give you these feelings both of reality and also of fiction. In fact, I was reading Tolkien this week talk about that. He said that he wanted his work to be, quote, cohesion, a consistency, and illusion of historicity. My brother once asked me about the Lord of the Rings. He goes, why does it feel like it actually happened? That's what he was going for. Okay? Well, there's different genres of this kind of storytelling. You can talk about fairy tales or science fiction or legend or myth. to name a few. So let's think about some of these. I don't know of anyone who argues that Snow White or Shrek are true, except for maybe one of my girls when they were like five. Science fiction is often an attempt to be prophetic about the future, sometimes for fun, sometimes with dead seriousness, by telling a story that at the present time is not true at all. It's like Orwell's 1984 might be true today, but it wasn't when he wrote it. And legends, they're a little bit different still. Often like with Paul Bunyan, the legend is simply a tall tale. Other times, a legend might include a real person like Buffalo Bill, but it may tell you something ridiculous about him. And then there's myth, which I want to talk about for a little bit longer. In most people's minds, myth is of the very same nature as these other things, especially a fairy tale. It is totally, in every possible way, historically untrue. Now it might teach you something about human psychology or morality like an Aesop fable, but that's about the most you can say about them that is true. So if I was preaching this 180 years ago, Troy was obviously not a real city because it's a myth. And then somebody went out in the 1860s and found the city in the sands of Turkey. But just because Troy was real, it does not follow that all the stories in mythology are. In fact, throughout the stories of the pagans, you have contradictory tales such that some couldn't possibly be true, no matter how generous you are with them. But that doesn't mean that they're all utter historical nonsense either. Francis Schaeffer has a very interesting quote where he says, more and more, we're finding that mythology in general, though greatly contorted, very often has some historical base. Tolkien was of the very same opinion and he did that for a living. But this is hardly the way most people think about mythology. So most conservatives actually agree with liberals on one thing. You go, we agree with them on what? No, yes. One of the great liberal attacks on scripture has been to call the Bible mythology. And by this, I do not mean what C.S. Lewis said when he said, the story of Christ is simply a true myth, a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with the tremendous difference that it really happened. No, when a liberal says it, she means exactly the same way you probably hear it, that the Bible is a book of folklore and fairy tales, a world of make believe that never actually happened. Like when a professor of Hebrew and ancient religion recently told ABC News, quote, Moses didn't exist, Jonah was never swallowed by a big fish, the exodus never happened. All that matters for the liberal is, as Frederick Schleiermacher said over a century ago, that the real thing in the story is an imparting of the religious consciousness. The history doesn't make any difference. What matters is the experiences that you gain after you read about it. So, as I said, today we're in the fourth of five parts of a series on Jesus. We've asked the who, what, and where questions, and now I want to look at the when question. As far as it concerns apologetics, this might be the most important of the W questions, because if the Bible purports to be actual history, but it isn't, then really nothing else matters. You can have all the experiences that you want. All that means is that God never chose a people for himself, never prophesied anything through saints in the Old Testament, and most important, never came in the flesh to die for your sins. Now I'm gonna address that question to some degree, but the focus will be on thinking about the wind as it concerns Jesus Christ, not just apologetics. So this means looking at his past, present, and future. So unfortunately, we live in a day where many deny the wind question, if not altogether, then at least as something relatively unimportant compared to other more real things. For example, In an article for Christianity Today, Richard Foster, whose work on spiritual disciplines has been extremely influential in the seminary that I graduated from, writes this. He says, quote, the most important, most real, most lasting work is accomplished in the depths of our heart. The work is solitary and interior. It cannot be seen by anyone, not even ourselves. It is a work known only to God. It is the work of heart purity, of soul conversion, of inward transformation, of life formation. Of course, God's work in our hearts is an important, real, and lasting work. It is not okay to minimize this work, which some do to their own peril, as if there is no true inward transformation that God brings about in the hearts of His elect. I just heard Stan pray about this very thing in his own life. It's very important. But to say that this is the most important, most real, and most lasting of God's works is very, very dangerous. This is the essence of the liberal gospel that we saw above, even if it comes from an evangelical. It's so dangerous because it minimizes, perhaps even assaults the foundation, the very thing that makes the inward work possible. So here's some texts on scripture's own take on the events that it speaks about. So Deuteronomy 32, seven. Remember the days of old, Moses said. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father. He will show you your elders and they will tell you. Psalm 78, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children, but tell to the coming generations the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. Exodus 12, you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. First Corinthians 10, now these things happened to them, Paul says. Jeremiah 1, 5, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. First John 1, 1 that we've seen in several of these sermons, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. You see, from the beginning to the end of scripture, it purports to be actual history. Theologians call it the Historia Salutis, literally the history of salvation, especially the historical events of Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of his spirit and his second coming. So Michael Horton comments on Foster, and he says this. The most important, most real, most lasting work is not accomplished in the depths of our heart, but in the depths of history, under Pontius Pilate. It is precisely because of that accomplishment that we have every reason to meditate on the riches of an inheritance each day. And because of Christ's work outside in history, we're not only justified, but we are being transformed from the inside out. OK, so that's kind of the base baseline of talking about the win. You have to know that the Bible says this happened and you have to know that is its claim. And so you can do what you want to with the claim, but that's its claim. All right. So I wanna move into thinking about the foundational when of Jesus himself. As with the who question, where we considered that Jesus is God, and then the what question, where we considered that he's omnipotent, and then the where question, where we thought about his omnipresence, the what question must first be considered from the point of view of eternity. So put it succinctly, Jesus Christ is Lord of time, all right? In the words of Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's a time sort of idea. It's a when question. So what does it mean that he's Lord of time? Well, this is one of the most difficult questions in the philosophy of religion. I'm going to try and keep it as simple as I can. At the very least, what it means is that he created time as we know it. That is, for the material universe, time had a beginning. In the beginning, God created. Now, what was there before the beginning? There was God. Now, there's a good chance that Hebrews is taking its ideas from the sameness of Jesus, yesterday, today, and forever, from the Psalms. Psalm 122, or Psalm 102, 27, says this, but you are the same and your years have no end. All right? It explicitly applies this psalm to Jesus at the beginning of Hebrews. And Psalm 90 verse 2 is even more to the point I'm making. It says, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And thus, Colossians says, He is before all things and in him all things hold together. Unfortunately, eternity is not something that we can fully grasp. How can it be that Jesus was always the Logos? How can there be someone uncreated, eternal, existing before all things? So I know that it's logically possible. I also believe it's the only possible logic. The only other alternative is that everything is an accident of nothing creating everything through the power of nothing. which is nonsense. As Maria in the Sound of Music sings, nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could, right? Other than the creator of time as we know it, what does it mean about God's relationship to time? So this is a question I've gone back and forth on over the years. The basic options are that God, and hence Jesus, is outside of time. Altogether, this is kind of the classic view of the last 1500 years, that God's existence is an eternal succession of moments whereby his nature or essence doesn't change. Or that somehow the person subjected themselves to time once God created time. I'm not going to answer that question today. I don't really care about it today. However you want to slice it, the vital thing is that God and Christ are the Lord of time. Time is subject to Christ. He is its sovereign master and time does his bidding. That should be a great comfort to you because it means whatever happens to you in time, Whatever happens in this country in time, whatever happens to judges in time, is in the total control of the God of time. He isn't taken by surprise. He isn't powerless against the ravages of the future or anything else. So that's the foundation. But I want you to know that the Bible does not present this doctrine so that smart people can go to a philosophy meeting and read heady papers to each other. In fact, it seems to me that it raises this point only so far as it relates to a practical level. Listen to how it does this in Malachi. I, the Lord, do not change. Now that's the idea of time. Same yesterday, today, and forever. Why would he tell you that? Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. This immutability of God, his changelessness, is directly related to his name, I Am. And this name seems to point straight at his relationship to creation and time. He does not change. As we saw in the who question, the name is Christ, it's talking about him. And why does that matter? It's because he's made promises to you. These promises are in the form of both curses and blessings. So since he does not change, he will judge the nations. But since he also does not change according to his grace, he will not consume his people. Christ's relationship to time is a powerful grounding for your assurance in the faith. Theology helps us in very practical ways. In fact, it's being grounded in theology that it's the source of so much tossing and turning and blowing about by emotions when people are not grounded in it. So I want you to listen to a few more of these kind of practical things with this. This one is from Isaiah 42. Thus says God, the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. In other words, he says, behave yourselves, do what I've commanded you, walk in my statutes, because I've come to you in grace, and I'm the God of time. Hebrews 13, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You wouldn't think that that statement of him being the same comes right after the statement of imitate their faith. Okay, I, I the Lord, I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior, he says. So being the Lord of time means Jesus will save you to the uttermost. Jude, now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forevermore, amen. Okay. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first. I am the last. Beside me there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what it is to come and what will happen." The point is don't trust in created creatures. Put your hope in the God of time, in Christ alone. So I want to move from Christ's relationship before he created things to time, kind of that wind question, to now, what is his relationship as the Lord in time? So let's turn again to our familiar John 1 10 passage. We've seen this in almost every one of these sermons. John 1.10, he was in the world. Now, was is a past tense verb. In other words, it's history. He was in the world. As we have seen, this refers to Christ being in the world in the Old Testament. Verse 11, he came to his own, his own people did not receive him. When did he come? Let's take a brief recap of where we've already come from in earlier sermons. We saw that he came to his own in the Garden of Eden when we were talking about the where question. Now we're talking about the when question. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Notice what they did. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. Why? Because he was coming in judgment because they didn't receive him or obey his words. What does John say? They did not receive him. We've seen he probably comes in the flood at Noah. What is the point of the flood? It's a judgment upon the world because every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. They rejected him so he punished them by killing all but eight people whom he saved in the ark. He came to Abraham. The word came to Abraham in a vision in Genesis 15 or Genesis 12. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. This is now Christ covenanting with Abram in a great promise that he would one day extend all the peoples of the earth, but first they had to come through a family that came from Abram's own body, the Israelites. The Israelites had the Lord come to them many times, first through the patriarchs, especially Abram and Jacob, then to Moses and the elders who beheld him on top of the mountain. Then he came to all the people who heard the sound and were afraid as Adam when he gave them the law. Then he came to them in judgment, in judges at Bakim, because they had broken covenant with him. They rejected him as their king in Samuel. And finally, after many long centuries of handing them over, then delivering them because they cried out, Christ sent them into exile far away from their homes. This was the ultimate proof that they did not receive him, even though he came to them. And for it, he sent them a certificate of divorce, Isaiah and Jeremiah say. This meant that the covenant had been broken. Though he would eventually bring them back from exile, things were never to be the same for the Jews again. Something else had to be done. So it is here that we come to the defining moment of history. Galatians puts it this way. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. This is a remarkable statement, and it's worth spending the rest of our time on together. What does it mean, the fullness of time? Have you ever wondered that? I've thought about this a lot, okay? I'm gonna give you three things from the text itself that explains what that means. So first, the translation, fullness of time. I found one translation that rendered it as the appointed time, and I really like that. This is better than like the Living Bible's the right time, which is undoubtedly true, but it doesn't really explain why. Appointed time explains why this is the fullness of time. So let me explain this from Ephesians. This is Ephesians 3, sorry, 1, 3 through 14. So these, what is it, 12 verses, is well known, are well known for two reasons. The first is that this is most likely the longest sentence in the Bible, in the Greek, okay? That's a long sentence. He would get an F if he was in a modern English class. Second, the content of these verses is mind-blowing for the exalted view of the sovereignty of God. Other than Romans 9, this is probably the densest, richest mine full of predestined theological nuggets of gold in the entire Bible. So let's just look at it very quickly. It begins with a blessing on God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because, verse 3, He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. How did that come about? Verse 4, because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. There's a little bit of time going on there, right? Why did he do this? Verse 4 again, that we should be holy and blameless before him. There's those ethics coming to the forefront again, with theology. Even predestination is not given as an abstract doctrine, it's one that is meant to spur you on to good works. Well, this predestination is not merely to good works, though, as Armenians sometimes teach. If it was only to good works with no guarantee of salvation, no one would ever do good works, because as we've seen, every inclination of our hearts is only evil all the time. And so predestination is also to salvation, verse five. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. This was according to the purpose of his will, not ours. He did this, we didn't do this. This is why Paul says, it is in verse six, to the praise of his glorious grace. And what is the grace? It is his love for the elect in verse six, which he has blessed us in the beloved, that is in Christ. The riches of this love are then demonstrated in specifics, verse seven. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses. This comes through his blood, which he shed for us. This is the riches of his grace, which he has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, in verse eight. See, God knew what he was doing. He is Lord of time, even as he chose these things for us before there was such a thing as time. But it comes to us in time and not before time. Predestination and election and choosing are not themselves the bestowal of the gifts. I could preach a whole sermon on this one because people confuse this all the time. Those things are the insurance and the plan that the gifts will be bestowed. to bestow them, verse nine, he had to make known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose. And the mystery of his will is set forth in Christ. So it's all about Jesus Christ. You must know about Jesus to receive these lavish gifts. And then finally we come to the big win question here in verse 10. The works of Jesus are the mystery of his will and they come to us quote, as a plan for the fullness of time. So that's the Galatians 4.4 phrase that we just translated as the appointed time. And I hope in seeing Ephesians connecting to Galatians that way, you can see how appointed time is a biblical idea, because Ephesians is all about God's appointing of things, OK? And that includes the coming of Jesus Christ. And so the fullness of time means in part that God chose the perfect time in history to send Jesus. It was predestined according to the purpose of his will. And so it had to be perfect in that way. The rejection of Christ by the Jews and the subsequent 400 years of silence when the angel did not come to the people or the prophets between Malachi and Matthew is part of that timing. That leads to the second point in Galatians. It says he was born of woman. So the fullness of time, born of woman. Here we have the historical importance of the birth of Jesus brought to the front and center. Jesus was born of woman. So who was this woman? Two things. Her name is Mary, and she's a virgin when she conceives our Lord. The name Mary roots her in sober, ordinary history. Curiously, I just looked up her name for I don't even know what reason, but I found out Mary means rebellious, obstinate, and bitterness. So be careful about naming your child Mary. But isn't that fascinating that the name of the mother of our Lord is that, all right? We know about her betrothed, Joseph. We know about the lineage from the line of the kings. We know where she lived, Nazareth. We know about her cousin, Elizabeth. We know about her son, John the Baptist, and her husband, the priest named Zechariah. Some have argued that Luke's genealogy of Jesus goes through Mary's side of the family. The point is, this is not a goddess from prehistorical mythical ages gone by. And that leads to the second point. It's quite common to find claims of virgin births in the ancient world. I don't know if you've ever run across this on the internet or in apologetics or something like that. But did you know Alexander the Great was said to be born of a virgin? Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were said to be born of virgins. Alexander wasn't. We actually know his mother was Olympias, daughter of King Neoptolemus I. For Remulus and Romulus, those are mythology, which means we've kind of come full circle here. And it restates why it's so important that scripture is claiming to give us actual history. and not some dim mythical origin story that is not in history, okay? That doesn't mean the story of Jesus' birth isn't fantastic. It is. In fact, the whole thing is, from his virgin conception to even what I'm gonna say here is the timing of it. The timing part of this fits in with the whole wind question, and so I wish this would have happened two weeks ago, but it didn't. So, I'm going to do it here again. Some of you have not heard this before, and I found this absolutely fascinating when I first came across it a couple of years ago. In the earliest centuries of the church, the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. It wasn't until around the time of Constantine that a firm date was even attempted. Ever since, his birth has been celebrated on December 25th in the West and between January 6th and 7th in the East. This is where we get the 12 days of Christmas from, by the way, is the difference between the two. This date was perhaps and even probably chosen because this was the timing of the winter solstice under the Julian calendar. And so, if that's true, then this was one of the many attempts by the church to basically Christianize a pagan festival, albeit a God-ordained event, the solstice. In this case, with the birth of the son for the new year, because after all, Jesus is called the son of righteousness in Malachi. But there's nothing in the early church that suggests anyone thought he was born in December. There are clues in the scripture that he could have been born at a couple of different dates, with spring and early fall being the two most likely. But nothing in December, though he might have been conceived at that time, as we'll think about in a minute. So this leads to something I find particularly fascinating about what scripture may very well teach about his birth, and it's quite stunning. And I mention it here because it reinforces, at the very least, an illustrative way, if not an actual historical way, what just the right time means. So there were some fathers and a host of reformers and Puritans that speculated that Jesus was born in September. This is derived from historical facts that we know from scripture such as the timing of Herod's death, the relationship between Easter and Jesus' birth, the birth of John the Baptist, the typology of the Feast of Tabernacles, and a probable comment on this regarding Jesus' coming into the world to tabernacle among us. Just to highlight this yet again, it is acceptable in my mind to try and figure out when Jesus was born because everything hangs on the fact that he was born And that we know basically when he was born as it is just within plus or minus five years of history, okay? So it's not like it's a thousand years that people are guessing when Jesus was born. So this leads to a fascinating study that scholars have proposed regarding Revelation 12 and the birth of Jesus. So I want you to remember the Magi. Remember those guys? came to Jesus, saw the star of the Messiah, and somehow they knew exactly when and where to come to his birth, even though they had no internet, no telephones, and were 1,000 miles away. What in the world, right? Well, this star has puzzled many people. Some propose something like, Haley's Comet went over. Doesn't really do much for me. Others, something like an angel somehow floated over their heads for 1,000 miles and led them right to the manger. Okay? But what if it was all very much more mundane than that, at least to people like you and I? So it's helpful in this regard to know some things about these magi. First of all, they came from the East, probably Babylon. Babylon is significant as a center of astral arts, and that includes both good, like astronomy, and bad, like what we would call astrology. So there's some good things to it. Second, their job was to study the constellations and the workings of the heavens in minute detail because they believed the heavens told them about things on the earth. In fact, this is a practice that's found all over the world and you even find it in Jewish synagogues and you find it in the church fathers. Third, the Jews were in Babylon for 70 years and their cultures certainly mixed together. And then fourth, this one might really surprise you, Daniel was at one time, quote, the chief of the magicians. Did you know that? And had been appointed their leader by Nebuchadnezzar himself. In other words, what they did was not totally opposed to a godly Christian way of thinking. Daniel did it, all right? Now, if you wonder how the magic could have even known about a star of Messiah, look no further than Daniel, who certainly knew something like Numbers 24, 17. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. And Isaiah 7, 14, he obviously knew a virgin will conceive and bear a son. But if you wonder about the timing of it all, Revelation 12 may very well answer the problem. The passage describes a great sign. It says the sign appeared in heaven. The language for a sign is astronomical language if you look it up in the lexicon and obviously heaven is up there too. So it says that a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars is the sign. So there's a constellation called Virgo. Interestingly, she's the Virgin, all right, which has 12 stars above its head that are associated with her. For 20 days, Virgo is clothed with the sun, and all that means is that as the constellations go from our point of view kind of around the Earth and the sun rises in a different place throughout the year, it means that the sun rises in the constellation of Virgo for 20 days of the year. That's all that means, okay? She's clothed with the sun, all right? This happens every year, even as it happens in every one of the other constellations as well. So its importance is explained in the next verse. As the sun goes through Virgo, she becomes pregnant. Jesus, of course, is the child who is born, and Jesus is the star of Jacob, as Balaam put it, and the lion of Judah, as Jesus put it. He's the king. His star would almost certainly be fixed, not to a comet or an angel, but to Jupiter, which is called the king of the planets, and to Regulus, which is called the king star. Now, curiously, this is where it starts getting even weirder. Leo, the constellation, is just above Virgo, like literally right above it, and Leo's biggest star is Regulus, the king star, all right? So the imagery continues with the moon at her feet. As the heavenly bodies rotate around, the moon is seen in different places, just like the sun is. You all know this. Look up at the sky one night, it's over here. Another night, it's over here. It's moving around. There is an 80-minute window during the 20 days when the sun is in Virgo when the moon would appear to be at Virgo's feet. This doesn't happen every year. It only happened once within any kind of a time from even close to Jesus. There's a second heavenly sign, verse 3. This one involves a red dragon. Now, curiously, the constellation at the foot of Virgo is Libra, all right? In the ancient mind, Libra was combined with Scorpio to give you the dragon, all right? The importance of this sign is that it moves the woman from heaven to earth in the text. In other words, it's talking about a royal birth. Strangely and almost fantastically, there is only one time in all the ancient world when the sun and the moon could be in Virgo like this and when Jupiter would have aligned perfectly with Regulus. This was in the year 3 BC between 615 and 745 PM on September the 11th around nine months before December 25th, September the 11th. Not only is that date creepy when the Twin Towers fell, it also just so happens to be the date of Tishiri 1 on the Jewish calendar. That is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the day of trumpets, which occurs just two weeks before the Feast of Tabernacles. And even more strange, this is the very day in the Mishnah that it says Adam and Eve were created, and that the Bible says Noah came out of the ark. So the point here is, and you can go see the scholarship on this if you want to, I'm not making this up, it's not coming from a horoscope or something, alright? The point here is not to be sensational or speculative. I think that there's good biblical support behind this. Jews thought like this. It's also orthodox, okay? It's not reading your horoscope. The point is, I want to show you in a remarkable way that the Bible presupposes in great detail what just the right time means as it regards the historical birth of Jesus. If this is correct, then the heavens themselves were ordained from the foundations of the earth to show this sign at just that time, the time of God's own choosing. There's a third element that we need to consider with the Galatians. It says Jesus was born under law to redeem those who were under law so that we might receive adoption as sons. In other words, this is the third thing the fullness of time means. And this gets to the heart of it all, in my mind, the very purpose for which Jesus came. So we must start with something Paul says in Romans about this. The law, he teaches, is good and beautiful and a reflection of his very glory. It also is something that makes us his enemies because we break it. That is when the law comes, sins brings to life, and we die. This is terribly important as it regards just the right time, and we read this twice this morning in Romans 5. Because it says, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. And then again, it says two verses later, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then again, just two verses later, for if when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? So what I want you to notice in these verses is the timing of it all. just the right time or the fullness of time necessarily includes the most helpless, worthless state we could possibly be in. Who does that include? It includes everyone, Jew and Gentile. The Jews were an absolute wreck at the turn of the Common Era. They were subjects of Rome. They were no longer an autonomous nation, much less one ruled by Yahweh their king. No, they gave that up a long time ago. They were full of speculation, full of political intrigue. Sheep without a shepherd, as Jesus put it. What about the Gentiles? Well, Paul says they're going about in their allotted periods and boundaries, groping around in darkness, cut off from the light. This is true individually as well. All desperately needed redemption. And so now, the time had come for God to finally put things right, which we so long ago in our gross desires to be rid of his wise and good rule, as we fled to the fallen gods in our own lust made wrong. And make it right he did. Luke 9, 9, Jesus told them of a new wind. Today, salvation has come to this house. because he's a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and save the lost. And the apostle tells the Greeks, behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. That's the time. Peter and Stephen recount these events of their own recent days in the early sermons in the book of Acts, and they root it all in the history of Israel, past things. They root it all in the prophecies of the future, the things that they saw fulfilled before their very eyes in the days of Jesus, when he came at just the right time in the fullness of time. When men and women and children were cut to the heart and they asked, brothers, what shall we do? Okay? What are these guys saying? Both Peter and Stephen both say, look, here's what happened. They recount the history and then they say, just like 40 days ago, you put him to death. Remember that? Okay? Well, what shall we do then? What shall we do with the evils we have perpetrated upon the Lord Jesus? What shall we do for our rebellion and our active participation in his death? Well, they were told the answer. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul, speaking of the same things, added something about the future when of the equation. He says, he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. When did that happen? Three days after he died. We have the exact win. We celebrate it every year. Future judgment is a future win and it's very important to the gospel because it shows God will be vindicated and he will not let sin win. This is to be a warning to everyone who might hear the things I'm saying and not listen to it. Then it says, Now when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We'll hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Aragapite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. And I thought that's interesting because two more names of real people in real time in a real city who believe the gospel rooting it in the wind of real history as our entire faith is. Beloved, truly it is the case that Jesus has died. More than that, has been raised and is at the right hand of God, interceding for us. These things have happened. They are real. They're not fairy stories, they're not legends, and they're not myths. They are the reason you have any hope at all for eternal life. For indeed, if the most important historical event of all, as Paul says, Take this very seriously too. If the dead are not raised, then even Christ, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He begins that chapter by telling you that he proved it by appearing to all these people whom they could have gone and asked if they wanted to. If this didn't happen, then the apostle says, you're still in your sins. That's why the most important, most real, most lasting work is not accomplished in the depth of your heart, but in the depth of history under Pontius Pilate. This wind question is thus deadly serious and vitally important because the stories of God in our faith are not mythical, ahistoric, timeless principles or morals. They are historical manifestations with real people down here on earth at various places at various times. That is what the Bible tells us it is saying. That is what we believe and this is what all our creeds confess and without them we are undone. For real people commit real sins, and real parent committed a first sin in a real place at a real time on planet Earth, and that has to be dealt with. Those sins all needed to be atoned for here in space and time. That is what has happened in Jesus coming here, and trusting it is true, is the only way that you're gonna have eternal life. I pray you will believe that message today. Let's pray. Father, thank you for sending the Lord Jesus at just the right time. I probably didn't even do justice to that phrase this morning. It's such a remarkable thing to just contemplate what in the world that means. You had it all planned out. And because of who you are, you're able to bring it to pass exactly as you want it, even leading Magi to the place of the birth of Jesus. Even having Jesus die at the perfect moment in time, having him come here at the perfect moment in time, and thinking about ourselves in that regard as we are so weak and helpless and sinful. If it wasn't you sending a Savior at that time, it's all over for the world. But you've done it, and you've proven yourself, and you've proven yourself even in the lives of people here, as you have indeed changed many people in this room, giving them, in your power and your works, a real change of heart that is on the inside. And we don't want to minimize that, but it's because of what Jesus did that you were able to do that. So we thank you for this. I pray, Lord, if there are those who don't trust these things, that you might have them contemplate and consider like the Athenians did. And we want to hear you again on this subject. Pray that you might even bring belief to their hearts, opening them up, drawing them to yourself. in an effectual way so that they might know the joys of salvation and eternal life. I pray your people would be encouraged by these words today to go out from here and tell others about the wind that Jesus came. He was born. He lived his life here. He died for our sins. He was raised from the dead. He ascended to heaven and he's coming again to judge the living and the dead. Help this to be something that changes our hearts and our lives, the way we live, the way we think. We ask in Christ's name, amen.