1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,120 Well, I wanted to start this morning by actually talking 2 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:06,800 about the season itself before we dive into scripture. 3 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:08,960 Have you ever noticed when you open up the New Testament 4 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,160 or the Old Testament and you read about Judaism, 5 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:16,120 you find over and over again God laying out for his people 6 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:22,320 seasons and feasts and festivals and all kinds of symbols, 7 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:26,680 all provided to Israel as points of remembrance for them 8 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,000 and points of instruction to remind them of Yahweh's 9 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,080 faithfulness and steadfast love. 10 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:33,400 It's all over the Old Testament. 11 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,640 But then when you examine the evangelical church in the West 12 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:39,200 today, you don't see much of a hunger 13 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,840 for those types of things, other than the fact 14 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,840 that we observe Easter in the spring 15 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:46,720 and Christmas in the winter. 16 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:49,720 And that's pretty much the way most of us were raised. 17 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:52,100 But if you haven't noticed yet, if you're newer to Oak Hill, 18 00:00:52,100 --> 00:00:54,920 here we believe that it's very, very important 19 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,200 that we make sure that we don't become isolated or disconnected 20 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:01,240 from our spiritual past. 21 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,280 That's a weakness that I've seen personally 22 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:05,640 in the church over the last 40 years. 23 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,040 And I think we're worse for it. 24 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,320 So what I think we should do is embrace and enjoy 25 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:13,640 the types of seasons and holidays and symbols 26 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:15,560 that God has given to the church, 27 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,480 provided we employ them in the right way. 28 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,840 And that's key, that we employ them in the right way. 29 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:24,440 It's not enough just to have traditions. 30 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:27,520 We want to have distinctly Christian traditions that 31 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:30,960 strengthen our faith, increase our worship, 32 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:33,360 and build our community life together. 33 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,780 And I'm not really talking about the American aspect 34 00:01:35,780 --> 00:01:39,640 of our holidays, although we're free to enjoy that. 35 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:41,080 And a lot of us do at Thanksgiving. 36 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,160 I'm talking about the distinctly Christian aspects 37 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:48,720 of the seasons that are built into the church calendar. 38 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:50,760 And the fact is, God has hardwired us. 39 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,440 We are creatures of habit. 40 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,360 We like that type of flow in our calendar. 41 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:58,560 Sometimes good habits, sometimes bad habits. 42 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,160 But an important part of being redeemed in Christ 43 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,920 is by the Spirit's power, creating new habits over time. 44 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:06,360 And think about this for a second. 45 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:10,560 First of all, daily habits of holiness, 46 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:12,360 daily habits of reading God's word 47 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,520 and abiding with Christ in prayer. 48 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,320 And then we have weekly habits of a day like this, 49 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,320 coming together each and every week 50 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:21,560 to fellowship in the body. 51 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,440 And then monthly habits of coming around the Lord's table 52 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:25,440 together. 53 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:27,840 And then, of course, there are yearly habits as well. 54 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,600 Annual seasons and dates in the flow of church life 55 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:34,760 that we can embrace and use as a way 56 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,720 to anticipate and prepare our hearts for the work 57 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,200 that God has done in our lives. 58 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,960 So whether it's Reformation Sunday, which we just came out 59 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,960 of, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Good Friday, 60 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,680 or Easter, or Pentecost, we should always 61 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,440 ask the question, what can we learn and apply 62 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,840 from those distinctly Christian aspects of those holidays 63 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:55,360 and symbols? 64 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:56,720 What can we learn from them? 65 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:58,920 How can we apply them in our life together? 66 00:02:58,920 --> 00:03:02,640 And I want to say, friends, it's not just about you and I. 67 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:06,240 If you have kids, if you have grandkids, 68 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:07,480 you need to think about this. 69 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,240 Because we need to pass those types of uniquely 70 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,240 Christian traditions onto the next generation. 71 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,440 We're called to train them up and to raise them 72 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:16,720 in the ways of the Lord. 73 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:18,640 So for our kids and grandkids, we 74 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:21,400 have to make sure that holidays aren't just about the feels, 75 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:21,900 right? 76 00:03:21,900 --> 00:03:22,400 That's nice. 77 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:23,840 But it's more than that. 78 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:27,080 The biblical truth behind these days 79 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,560 that we are given to celebrate. 80 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,040 To ask, are we doing a good job of modeling Christian 81 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,280 distinctives and the right traditions each year that 82 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,440 will point our kids and our grandkids toward Christ? 83 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,520 And not just the whole seasonal feels. 84 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,440 And as the world continues to grow more and more secular, 85 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,160 I'm telling you, passing along biblical traditions 86 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,760 to the next generation is going to become 87 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,120 more and more important. 88 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,160 Now, with that in mind, let's talk about this season 89 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:57,200 that we call Advent. 90 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:58,680 Because I know some of you may not 91 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:00,480 have grown up with this particular season 92 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:02,720 or tradition in your life. 93 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,700 In its earliest forms, Advent dates all the way back 94 00:04:06,700 --> 00:04:08,400 to the fourth century. 95 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:10,480 So it's very, very old. 96 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,360 And from there, it spread in popularity 97 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:14,920 during the sixth and seventh centuries. 98 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,520 And a whole bunch of great traditions 99 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,280 arose with it, the idea of the Advent wreath 100 00:04:20,280 --> 00:04:24,000 and the lighting of a candle each and every week, 101 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,720 and the use of nativity scenes in churches and private homes, 102 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,600 and great music being written, songs 103 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,320 being written for the saints to help them 104 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:33,760 worship during the season. 105 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:35,760 So that's been developed from ancient times. 106 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:40,240 Now, as I say that, somebody just recently said to me, 107 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,520 you know, Jeff, I kind of like the idea of Advent, 108 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:47,200 but it feels a little bit too Catholic to me. 109 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:48,760 A little too Catholic, right? 110 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:50,760 It's OK if you want to admit that you're like, eh, 111 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:54,160 I didn't grow up with this, but it feels a little bit Catholic. 112 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,360 I want to make sure you don't fall into that kind of a trap. 113 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:58,080 OK? 114 00:04:58,080 --> 00:04:59,720 Again, if you're raised evangelical, 115 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,160 you might have been taught that any kind of, quote, 116 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:06,040 tradition is automatically suspect. 117 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,120 But that's obviously not true, because actually, 118 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,040 every church and every denomination 119 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:12,760 has its own set of traditions. 120 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:14,760 It comes down to what you were raised in 121 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,120 and what feels familiar to you. 122 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:20,200 And while it's true that Advent has been observed 123 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,080 over the centuries by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, 124 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,400 Advent has nothing to do with the false doctrines that 125 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:27,840 are taught by Rome. 126 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:29,720 There's no connection whatsoever. 127 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:33,320 Advent is simply a way for us to focus our hearts and minds 128 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:36,520 on the biblical account of the nativity 129 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:38,080 and to celebrate the goodness of God 130 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:40,680 in sending His one and only Son to the earth 131 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,040 to take on flesh for our sake. 132 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:44,520 OK? 133 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,800 That is not uniquely Catholic, not even close. 134 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,200 So Advent is good for us, because it 135 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,680 helps us to slow down as a church family. 136 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:56,000 It helps us to learn how to prepare our hearts. 137 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,520 In fact, I've heard it said, and this is a great quote, 138 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,480 Advent is slow on purpose. 139 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:02,400 Slow on purpose. 140 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:06,920 It's drawn out over four weeks to increase our anticipation 141 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:11,680 and excitement over recognizing that, yeah, our Savior came 142 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:15,280 and took on flesh, that He was incarnated in the flesh 143 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:16,760 for our sake. 144 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,040 In a way, it's designed to mirror the unfolding drama 145 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,080 of how God's people in the Old Testament constantly waited 146 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,400 for the arrival of the Messiah. 147 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,240 So each month or each year in our month of waiting, 148 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:31,840 it gives us just a small inkling of how 149 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:35,280 we can step into their sandals and we get to wait, 150 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:38,320 not for centuries, but for four weeks. 151 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:40,240 But it gives us a little bit of a taste of that. 152 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,600 So we start by singing, oh come, oh come, Emmanuel, right? 153 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:45,000 In sort of these dark tones. 154 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,680 And by the time we get to Christmas Day, 155 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:48,960 we're singing bright tunes. 156 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:50,080 We're shouting what? 157 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,280 Joy to the world, because Christ has come. 158 00:06:52,280 --> 00:06:53,720 That's the purpose of Advent. 159 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:55,200 Does that make sense? 160 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:56,840 OK, grab your Bibles. 161 00:06:56,840 --> 00:06:59,300 I just wanted to lay that out at the beginning of the series, 162 00:06:59,300 --> 00:07:00,840 because I think that's important for us. 163 00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:02,200 And if you had any questions about this, 164 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:03,920 like, oh, it feels Catholic, or there's 165 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:07,240 something just kind of stuck in your craw about this, please, 166 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:10,440 please don't hesitate to ask me a question. 167 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:11,160 Grab your Bibles. 168 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,120 We're going to Galatians. 169 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:15,320 Galatians chapter 3. 170 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:27,280 Now we have titled this series In the Fullness of Time, right? 171 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:31,720 Which is an important phrase from Galatians 4. 172 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:33,960 You probably heard it in our call to worship already 173 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:35,000 this morning. 174 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,400 And it speaks to a very unique time in human history. 175 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:42,160 I think you can make the case it's the single most unique 176 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:45,760 moment in the history of the universe. 177 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:48,120 And I don't think I'm overstating that, right? 178 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:50,840 The most unique moment of all time. 179 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:54,040 But it comes to us wrapped in a particular season, 180 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,080 in a specific era, and rooted in a very 181 00:07:57,080 --> 00:07:58,960 precise historical setting. 182 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,480 And that's the focus of today's message. 183 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,960 We are laying the foundation for the rest of this series. 184 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:06,600 So let me just share with you where we're headed. 185 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:08,240 These four Sundays of Advent, we're 186 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:09,920 going to look at four sets of characters 187 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:12,680 in the biblical drama of the birth of Christ, 188 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,640 and sort of draw out the profiles of those characters 189 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:17,520 so that we can better understand the story. 190 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:18,640 Here's what it's going to look like. 191 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,520 Today we're talking about the heavyweights in the story. 192 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:23,720 The people in the world at that time 193 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,840 that Christ was born who had very real power in the world. 194 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:29,040 The heavyweights. 195 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,200 Next Sunday we're talking about the opposite, the nobodies. 196 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:33,240 Next week is the nobodies. 197 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:35,520 Joseph and Mary and the shepherds. 198 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:37,640 The third week we're going to talk about the heralds 199 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:41,160 in the story, the magi and the angelic host. 200 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,360 And then in our Christmas Sunday, which is on the 22nd, 201 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:46,560 we'll talk about the prophets. 202 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:48,480 Both those who were looking forward 203 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:50,320 to the coming of Christ in the Old Testament, 204 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,440 but also the New Testament prophets in the present, 205 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:55,800 Simeon and Anna. 206 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:57,120 So we have lots to talk about. 207 00:08:57,120 --> 00:08:58,320 So that's where we're headed. 208 00:08:58,320 --> 00:08:59,480 Make sense? 209 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:00,440 OK, good. 210 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:01,680 I'll remind you of that later. 211 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:02,180 All right. 212 00:09:02,180 --> 00:09:02,960 Galatians 3. 213 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:05,040 Let's go to verse 15. 214 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,600 Now, we're moving towards chapter 4. 215 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:12,520 In particular, our key verse, which is Galatians 4.4. 216 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,360 But I want to start back in chapter 3. 217 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,400 And Paul gives us a pretty complex argument here 218 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:20,520 that leads up to Galatians 4.4. 219 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:23,920 So what I want to do, I'm going to read from verses 15 to 26. 220 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:25,480 We'll read that straight through. 221 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:28,200 Then I'll come back and try to summarize for you 222 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,800 the argument that he's making before we get to chapter 4. 223 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:32,920 So Galatians 3, beginning in verse 15, 224 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,360 hear the word of the Lord. 225 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,800 Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations. 226 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:42,200 Even though it is only man's covenant, 227 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,520 yet when it's been ratified, no one sets it aside 228 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,960 or adds conditions to it. 229 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,720 Now, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. 230 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:55,680 He does not say, and to seeds, plural, as referring to many, 231 00:09:55,680 --> 00:09:57,320 but rather to one. 232 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,800 And to your seed, that is Christ. 233 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:01,880 What I'm saying is this. 234 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:05,400 The law, which came 430 years later, 235 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:09,480 does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God 236 00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:12,000 so as to nullify the promise. 237 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,520 For if the inheritance is based on law, 238 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:16,800 it is no longer based on a promise, 239 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:20,880 but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. 240 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:22,520 Why the law then? 241 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,080 It was added because of transgressions, 242 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:27,680 having been ordained through angels by the agency 243 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:31,120 of a mediator until the seed would come 244 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,280 to whom the promise had been made. 245 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:36,480 Now, a mediator is not for one party only, 246 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:38,480 whereas God is only one. 247 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:41,080 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? 248 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,160 May it never be. 249 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:46,640 For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, 250 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:50,800 then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 251 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:53,960 But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin 252 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:56,800 so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ 253 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,160 might be given to those who believe. 254 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:03,440 Verse 23, but before faith came, 255 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:05,880 we were kept in custody under the law, 256 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:09,240 being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 257 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:11,880 Therefore, the law has become our tutor 258 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:16,840 to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by what? 259 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:18,440 Faith. 260 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,120 Now that faith has come. 261 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:22,160 We are no longer under a tutor. 262 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:26,520 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 263 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:27,880 Stop there. 264 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:29,680 So here's Paul's logic. 265 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:32,360 First of all, he's using human relations here 266 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:36,360 to affirm principles about a covenant. 267 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:39,480 And he says, look, covenants cannot be invalidated 268 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,760 or changed or attitude once the parties ratify it. 269 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:44,640 It cannot be broken. 270 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,400 So he reasons God's covenant with Abraham 271 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,520 was in no way affected by the giving of the law 272 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,560 through Moses that happened centuries later. 273 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:58,560 The covenant and the promises given to Abraham remain. 274 00:11:58,560 --> 00:12:00,120 That's important. 275 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:04,400 And that means the promise of blessing to Abraham's seed, 276 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:07,240 which is ultimately his ultimate descendant, the Messiah, 277 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,760 was still in effect at the time the law came. 278 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:12,160 Understand that? 279 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,360 And that promise, Paul says, comes on the basis of faith, 280 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,680 not on the law because it predates the law. 281 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:22,320 And in Genesis 15, we're told that Abraham believed God 282 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:23,520 and it was what? 283 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:25,360 Credited to him as righteousness. 284 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:28,400 So that is a statement of faith, not by law. 285 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,720 So if that's true, Paul asks the logical question. 286 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:35,000 Well, why then was the law given through Moses 287 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,600 430 years after the promise given to Abraham? 288 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,200 And he answers his own question in verse 19. 289 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,200 He says it was added because of transgressions. 290 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:45,880 Now what does that mean? 291 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:47,280 Well, based on what Paul writes here, 292 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:49,880 and in other parts of the New Testament, 293 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:51,680 particularly the book of Romans, 294 00:12:51,680 --> 00:12:56,200 we know that Paul saw the laws having two important functions. 295 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,920 First of all, it restrained sin among God's people 296 00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:02,720 so that they became distinct among the surrounding nations 297 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:04,360 of the ancient Near East. 298 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:06,080 It had a restraining effect. 299 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:08,360 But in saying that, it's important to note, 300 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,120 Paul affirms over and over again 301 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,120 that the law can only restrain sin. 302 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:17,360 It cannot justify anybody in God's sight. 303 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:19,760 It can't say, but it can restrain. 304 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:22,400 But the second and higher purpose of the law 305 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,120 was to function as a tutor or a teacher 306 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,080 that would show Israel the depth of their sinfulness 307 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,280 and make sure they understand that their only hope 308 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:35,160 to be redeemed is through something 309 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,560 that God must do for them, 310 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:39,320 that they cannot be saved by the law. 311 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:41,680 Specifically to show them that their only hope 312 00:13:41,680 --> 00:13:45,120 is in this promised seed of Abraham, 313 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:47,680 who they would understand as the Messiah. 314 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:48,880 That's why they were looking for him 315 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,240 at the time of Christ's birth. 316 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:52,640 Now Paul was a trained rabbi. 317 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:54,440 He had great respect for the law. 318 00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:56,960 So in verse 21, he takes a moment to defend it, 319 00:13:56,960 --> 00:13:59,320 and he says, look, the law isn't contrary 320 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:00,720 to the promises of God. 321 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:01,920 It's just incomplete. 322 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:03,960 It can't save. 323 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:06,720 So he says in effect, look, don't get confused. 324 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,520 There's no conflict between the two covenants 325 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:10,840 that God has established. 326 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:13,440 First through Abraham and then through Moses. 327 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,320 Because if the law could save the one given through Moses, 328 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,280 then righteousness would be based on works. 329 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,480 But because salvation is by faith alone, 330 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:27,280 we have to go back to what God promised to Abraham. 331 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:28,240 Does that make sense? 332 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:30,400 Now for our purposes today, 333 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:32,040 let me reread the key passage. 334 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:34,800 It's verses 23 to 25. 335 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,480 It says, before faith came, 336 00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,280 we were kept in custody under the law. 337 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:41,560 Notice that term custody. 338 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,120 It's gonna become important in chapter four. 339 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,400 We were kept in custody under the law, 340 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,200 being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 341 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:53,400 Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ 342 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:55,480 so that we may be justified by faith. 343 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:56,760 And now that faith has come, 344 00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,480 we're no longer under that tutor. 345 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:00,840 Good? 346 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:02,160 So he's talking about the Jews. 347 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:05,760 They were under custody under the law, Paul says, 348 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:10,160 until the day arrived when the object of God's promise, 349 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,880 who is Christ, was revealed. 350 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:14,600 And now that Christ has come, 351 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:17,560 the function of the law as a tutor or teacher 352 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:18,800 is no longer needed. 353 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,160 In fact, according to Hebrews eight, 354 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,360 in the new covenant found in Christ, 355 00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:26,560 the law gets rendered obsolete. 356 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,320 So what Paul says and what Hebrews eight says 357 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:32,040 come together in that. 358 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:33,560 Okay, now turn over to chapter four. 359 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:35,720 It's all gonna make sense. 360 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:36,880 Galatians four, verse one, 361 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:38,640 Paul keeps going with this argument. 362 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:40,640 Remember the breaks in the chapters are manmade. 363 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,520 They're not inspired. 364 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,240 So Paul's continuing his argument here in verse one. 365 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:50,040 He says, now I say as long as the heir is a child, 366 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,680 he does not differ at all from a slave, 367 00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,240 although he is the owner of everything. 368 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,200 But he's under guardians and managers 369 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,120 until the date set by who? 370 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:00,960 The father. 371 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:02,640 And this is obvious. 372 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:05,000 This is a basic principle of human history, 373 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,520 especially among powerful people and kings even. 374 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:11,680 When a child comes to the throne of a kingdom, 375 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,120 a child because his father died young, right? 376 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:16,720 He technically comes to power. 377 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,400 He's technically the rightful heir to the throne 378 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:20,760 and the ruler of the kingdom. 379 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:22,680 Therefore he owns everything, 380 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:24,760 but he's still a child. 381 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:27,120 And at that point he lacks understanding and wisdom. 382 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:31,440 So nature puts a limitation on his power. 383 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,960 He's under the supervision of a guardian. 384 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:37,080 Or in the ancient world they called them regents. 385 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:38,680 He's under supervision. 386 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:40,200 Until he comes of age, 387 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:43,840 he is strictly under control of that overseer, 388 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,120 which in effect puts him on the same functional level 389 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,080 as a slave because he can't just do what he wants. 390 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:52,360 He has to do what his guardian says. 391 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:53,920 Until what? 392 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,640 Until a future time when he grows up 393 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,000 and he's able to wield power. 394 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:00,880 So that's the analogy that Paul is making here. 395 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:02,080 Now look at verse three. 396 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:04,720 Paul takes that analogy now 397 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:08,880 and applies it to his audience who's reading the letter. 398 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:10,280 Just as in that analogy, 399 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:15,120 God determines that all mankind would be held like slaves 400 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:19,120 in custody until a specific time in the future 401 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:23,240 which God ordains as part of his eternal plan, right? 402 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:24,080 Verse three. 403 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,960 So also we, while we were children, 404 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,480 were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 405 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:32,160 Okay, so what's going on? 406 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,320 Paul says, look, all of mankind has been placed 407 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:37,400 under a guardianship, 408 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:39,480 under the elemental things of this world. 409 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:41,640 For the Jew, that meant the law of Moses. 410 00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:43,560 Restrained sin. 411 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:46,080 For the Gentile, it would mean a combination 412 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,080 of his conscience plus all of his manmade rituals 413 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,400 and regulations, all primitive things 414 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,360 that might restrain sin but they cannot save. 415 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,200 But as long as we're children, 416 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,640 Paul says we're in custody to those things. 417 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,160 That is until a particular moment comes, 418 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,760 the date that the father has set. 419 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:09,000 That's what unfolds in verse four. 420 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,280 What is the date that the father has set 421 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:13,320 for all that to change? 422 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,080 But when the fullness of the time came, 423 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,320 God sent forth his son, 424 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,680 born of a woman, born under the law. 425 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:26,880 Hapleroma tancranas, the fullness of the time. 426 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,800 A beautiful, it is a beautiful statement in Greek 427 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:32,240 but basically, plain English, we would say, 428 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:36,520 well, at the appointed time or at the exact right time, 429 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:37,480 God moved. 430 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:42,360 That's when God unleashed his redemptive plan for mankind 431 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:44,760 by sending forth his son into the world 432 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,600 to fulfill that promise he made to Abraham 433 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,320 way back in the day. 434 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:51,400 And notice the specific language. 435 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,240 God didn't create a son to go into the world, 436 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,680 he sent his son forth, which means what? 437 00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,720 He already existed. 438 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:00,800 That's really, really important. 439 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:01,640 He already existed. 440 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:03,360 It's a very subtle but important statement 441 00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:06,040 about the eternal nature of that child 442 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:10,160 who's gonna be born in a cattle stall in Bethlehem. 443 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:11,400 Right? 444 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,080 He already was, at the moment he was sent forth, 445 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:17,480 having existed in the beginning with God 446 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,720 as the logos or the word. 447 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:21,160 We know that from John one. 448 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,280 Now that phrase born of a woman in verse four 449 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:27,360 is not a throwaway phrase, it tells us something else 450 00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:29,360 very important about Jesus. 451 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:32,560 The word, the fully divine son of God 452 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:37,560 came into being in the world as any human being would. 453 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:38,800 Right? 454 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,440 Through the birth process of his mother. 455 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:43,200 But notice no mention of a father. 456 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:45,640 Poor Joseph, right? 457 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,280 Guy gets short shrift everywhere. 458 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:49,120 No Joseph, right? 459 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:49,960 Why? 460 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,360 Because confirming again that Mary conceived as a virgin 461 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:57,040 in a supernatural move of the Holy Spirit. 462 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,480 And of course being that she was Israelite by race 463 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:01,000 and Jewish in her faith, 464 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,800 Mary's son was born under the same custody of the law. 465 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:06,640 Born of a woman, born under the law. 466 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:08,200 But look at verse five, 467 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,480 look at the relation that this son has to the law. 468 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:12,360 Verse five. 469 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:14,000 So that he might what? 470 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:15,960 Redeem those who were under, 471 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,080 so he's born under the law but born for this purpose 472 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:24,080 to redeem those who are also in custody under this law. 473 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:25,600 For this reason. 474 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:29,360 That we might receive the adoption as sons. 475 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:31,960 And because you are sons, 476 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:35,520 God has sent forth the spirit of a son into our hearts, 477 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:37,840 crying Abba, father. 478 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:40,200 And there it is. 479 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:41,560 You wanna know the ultimate purpose 480 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:43,360 of Jesus's first coming. 481 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,240 The fulfillment of the promise seed through Abraham. 482 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,680 The redemption of those enslaved 483 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:52,600 under the elemental things of this world. 484 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:54,200 That's what it is. 485 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,040 That word redeem in the Greek, 486 00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:00,880 exegorazzo, was used to describe the paying of a ransom. 487 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:02,560 It was described to, 488 00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:04,800 it describes a price paid 489 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:08,120 to restore somebody's position in society. 490 00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:10,480 In a practical sense, 491 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,840 it was the normal word used to describe 492 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,200 how slaves were purchased out of the slave market 493 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:17,800 so they could be set free. 494 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,280 So it's all kinds of amazing meaning 495 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,160 in that particular word. 496 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,120 So God the son was sent forth into the world, 497 00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:28,120 took on flesh in order to pay the ransom 498 00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:30,520 for those who were slaves 499 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:31,880 to the elemental things of the world. 500 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:33,480 Whether it was under the Jewish law 501 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:35,720 or it's under the Gentile conscience 502 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,360 and manmade regulations. 503 00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:39,200 That was the purpose. 504 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,680 And by the way, being purchased out of the world, 505 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:43,000 being bought as a slave, 506 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,640 would that not be blessing enough for us? 507 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:48,800 But look at verse, in verse five. 508 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,200 God's love doesn't stop at that. 509 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:52,720 Not only are we set free, 510 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,240 he says, oh by the way, 511 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:55,720 you're a son or a daughter. 512 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,960 The father adopts us as his own 513 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,600 and gives us a status that we haven't earned 514 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,400 and a status that we don't deserve. 515 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:05,680 That's amazing stuff. 516 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,040 And then the whole consummation of that sonship 517 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:10,280 or daughtership is found in verse seven. 518 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,880 Therefore, you're no longer a slave, 519 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,440 but a son and if a son then an heir through God. 520 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,560 Not only set free, 521 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:22,040 not only adopted as a son or daughter, 522 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:23,960 but made an heir to a fortune 523 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,160 that's greater than anything you can imagine. 524 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:30,400 All things are yours because all things are Christ's 525 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:32,400 and you are joint heirs with him. 526 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,000 Actually, it's a great restoration. 527 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,000 You are restored to the sonship 528 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,640 that was lost long ago at the fall. 529 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,920 A son of God, a daughter of God. 530 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:47,800 So that's the argument that Paul makes in Galatians 4.4. 531 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,200 We oftentimes isolate that at Christmas, 532 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:51,160 which I understand why 533 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,400 because it's a very important statement, 534 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:55,240 but his argument is very complex 535 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,960 and it gives us the whole purpose of Christmas. 536 00:22:57,960 --> 00:22:59,680 It gives us the whole reason 537 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,000 that we should start to slow down 538 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,120 and prepare our hearts to celebrate 539 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:06,480 because God has done a great thing, is he not? 540 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,120 Okay, are you still awake out there? 541 00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:11,360 I know that was technical. 542 00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:13,480 Good, TJ, you're awake. 543 00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:14,680 Thanks, man. 544 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:18,000 Yeah, anytime you wanna shoot up your hand, that's good. 545 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,320 Or shout hallelujah, somebody. 546 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:21,720 My wife's always good for that. 547 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:24,440 Okay, so here's where I wanna finish today. 548 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,400 Having said all that, okay, 549 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:27,800 we talked about the purpose of Advent, 550 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,520 why it's good, why it's something that we should embrace. 551 00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:31,960 We've talked about Galatians 4.4 552 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,800 and the purpose of Christmas. 553 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,120 Now we get to do some history. 554 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:38,240 And you know what that means? 555 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:39,080 That means maps. 556 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:40,120 Of course it means maps. 557 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:41,560 Pictures and maps. 558 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:43,280 So, but as we do that, 559 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:46,080 here's why we're gonna do this today. 560 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:47,160 We have to ask the question, 561 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,200 if this was the right time 562 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,120 from God's perspective to send Jesus into the world, 563 00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:55,120 well what kind of world was he being born into? 564 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:57,320 And why does God say that it's the right time? 565 00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,480 It's the fullness of the times. 566 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,960 Well, let's think about this for a second. 567 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:03,360 We know this from our lives today 568 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:06,240 that the people that govern us 569 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,000 have a major impact on our lives. 570 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:10,400 Don't they? 571 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,240 I'm talking both nationally and locally. 572 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:14,840 Their policies affect us. 573 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:15,800 We feel it every day. 574 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,400 Think about how just the last four years 575 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,040 of the Biden administration affected our lives. 576 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:23,840 And you might then look forward and say, 577 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,760 well what's this new administration gonna bring, right? 578 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:28,920 Because we know there's a real impact there. 579 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,920 You and I are affected by our state governor 580 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:34,520 and by our local city council 581 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,040 and by the DA who gets put into place 582 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:38,840 in our particular city. 583 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,760 Their policies spill into our lives. 584 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,280 And that was true of the biblical characters 585 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,160 in the Christmas story. 586 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:47,480 Mary and Joseph and all of them, 587 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,560 they were affected by this, right? 588 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:53,280 First of all, the laws and regulations coming out of Rome 589 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:55,280 affected them. 590 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:57,680 And locally, they were affected by the temperament 591 00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:01,520 of the king of Judea and by the Sanhedrin 592 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:03,840 who ruled their religious lives. 593 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,400 So the world that Jesus was being born into 594 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,920 was a world of heavyweights, 595 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:10,840 people with very real power 596 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,040 over the lives of the common people. 597 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,000 So today what I want to do in the time we have left 598 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,280 is give you some of the profiles of those people 599 00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,200 so that when next week we get to the nobodies, 600 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,040 you'll understand the historical context 601 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:23,320 and what they were dealing with. 602 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,800 So let's start with the heaviest of the heavyweights, okay? 603 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:27,120 Let's talk about this guy. 604 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:32,720 The Caesar who ruled most of the known world 605 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:37,320 from 1,400 miles away from Galilee in the city of Rome. 606 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:38,440 What do we know about Caesar? 607 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:41,680 Well, the second chapter of Luke's gospel, 608 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,040 by the way, Luke two is our primary text for Christmas. 609 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:48,560 Luke two begins like this, in those days, 610 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,640 a decree went out from Caesar Augustus 611 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,240 that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 612 00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:59,800 Now, if you're a history lover like me, 613 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:01,920 this is a real grace, 614 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,560 that Luke would put this little historical detail 615 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,160 in the text of scripture, and why not? 616 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:08,320 He's a good historian, right? 617 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:09,720 He claims to be so. 618 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,480 But he gave us a framework for the story of Christ's birth 619 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,360 based on a guy who's well documented 620 00:26:18,360 --> 00:26:20,520 in history outside of the Bible, 621 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,160 which is a major grace, right? 622 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,880 It helps to corroborate the veracity 623 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:26,560 of the New Testament scriptures. 624 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,200 It's just one of the tools that God has used to show us, 625 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,960 yeah, everything that's been written in this gospel 626 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:36,160 is actually historically true, which is a grace, right? 627 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,840 Now, it's safe to say that this guy 628 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:40,320 was one of the most powerful men 629 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,400 to ever rule any kingdom in all of human history. 630 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,200 And his story is quite remarkable. 631 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,120 I don't know if you've ever read any books on his life, 632 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:50,640 but it's worth your while. 633 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,400 He has a remarkable story. 634 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,760 Now, his life takes about a 500, 600 page book, 635 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:58,360 so I have to pick out just a few things 636 00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:00,080 to talk about today. 637 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:01,880 But the first thing you have to know 638 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:06,560 is his rise to power makes almost no sense whatsoever 639 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,720 based on the customs and norms of ancient succession. 640 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:15,720 His coming to power in Rome points to the sovereignty of God. 641 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,080 God had a plan to put the right man in place, 642 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:22,640 again, 1,400 miles away from the Holy Land in Rome 643 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,080 in order to set his eternal plan in motion. 644 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:27,480 It makes almost no sense at all, 645 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,280 so let me explain just what I mean by that. 646 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,120 The reign of Augustus, by the way, 647 00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:33,560 anybody know his real name? 648 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:38,480 Okay, good, Octavius, very good. 649 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,560 Gaius Octavius was his birth name, 650 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:47,000 and his reign follows the very dictatorial reign 651 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,920 of a man we all know, Julius Caesar. 652 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,640 Julius Caesar was the man responsible 653 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,800 for basically dismantling the Roman Republic, 654 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,640 which was more democratic in its ways, 655 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:00,320 and sets the stage for the coming 656 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,200 of what we call the Roman Empire, 657 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,080 which is ruled by a single man, 658 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:07,560 beginning with Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire. 659 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:12,560 Now, Octavius was Caesar's grand nephew, 660 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:14,960 which is kind of a weird connection, 661 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,520 but Caesar saw something in this young man early on 662 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:23,320 that made him declare Octavius to be his heir apparent, 663 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,240 and he adopted Octavius as his son, 664 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:27,840 giving him this very prominent name, 665 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,280 but also putting a target on his back, 666 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,120 because when you get named to Caesar, 667 00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:35,480 the whole spotlight of the world shifts to you, 668 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,080 and all this could have worked out really well 669 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,680 if Caesar had grown old and handed off the throne 670 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:45,680 to Octavius, but he was assassinated in the year 44 BC. 671 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:47,960 How old was Octavius at the time? 672 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,840 Only 19, which made him extremely vulnerable. 673 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,120 He was still being trained as an emperor. 674 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:58,480 He had absolutely no troops to lead, 675 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,560 and that's a very dangerous place to be 676 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,560 when you are the successor. 677 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:06,520 There were all kinds of older, experienced generals in Rome 678 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:11,120 who had very loyal legions that they could sic on you, 679 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,000 and it would have been, honestly, in the ancient world, 680 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,880 the first thing you would do if you wanted to seize power 681 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:18,920 is you would put Octavius to death, 682 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,080 because he's the named successor, but he's only a teenager, 683 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:24,720 and you have all these troops, 684 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,400 and the throne is now open to whoever's the strongest. 685 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,240 So by all accounts, if God were not sovereign, 686 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,160 Octavius would have been a dead man. 687 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:34,880 He just would not have made it, 688 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:38,200 but Octavius was extremely shrewd 689 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,400 in the way he navigated these political waters, 690 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:42,800 and I'll make a, honestly, this is a story 691 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,360 that would take hundreds of pages to relay. 692 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,320 To make that long story short, 693 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:51,200 Octavius formed all the right alliances, very smart. 694 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,960 He secured the loyalty of Julius Caesar's legions 695 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,080 and got them to fight for him, 696 00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:01,520 and over a 12-year period, supported all the right factions, 697 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:03,680 navigated all the right power dynamics, 698 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,280 and defeated every single rival for the throne, 699 00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:10,880 including the very experienced Mark Antony 700 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,240 and his ally Cleopatra of Egypt. 701 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,120 So amazing story. 702 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,840 So in the year 27 BC, he's now 36, 703 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:24,000 he becomes the sole master of the vast Roman Empire, 704 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,000 and he rules for 28 years, all the way to his death, 705 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,520 and no Roman emperor will ever come close to Augustus 706 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,880 in terms of success and popularity among the people. 707 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,240 He is a truly remarkable leader. 708 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,760 Now, how did he do that? 709 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:41,640 Well, he was a master of propaganda 710 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,400 and a master of public perception. 711 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,040 Among the powerful senators of the day, 712 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:52,040 he went and decided, I'm gonna take the exact opposite tack 713 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,120 that Julius Caesar took. 714 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,680 What Caesar did was he boasted, he was proud, 715 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,000 he was aggressive, and Octavius said, 716 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,160 that didn't work out so well for him 717 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:02,720 because he got assassinated. 718 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,320 So Octavius resisted titles. 719 00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,640 The Senate would try to give him titles, 720 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:09,880 oh, I'm not worthy of that. 721 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,680 And they would say, well, take these extraordinary powers, 722 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:13,720 we think you're so gifted. 723 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:15,400 No, I'm not worthy of it. 724 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,120 So he was constantly giving stuff back 725 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,960 to the very people he wanted to dominate. 726 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:22,600 Very, very smart. 727 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,560 And so he took the title Princeps. 728 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,040 All I wanna be is the first citizen of Rome, 729 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,360 the first among equals, but that's all, 730 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,240 because I'm just one of, I'm a common man. 731 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:34,480 Okay, so he's just playing a game, 732 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,040 but he was very good at it. 733 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:37,880 That's how the title Augustus came about. 734 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,160 It was thrust upon him by the Senate, 735 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:41,640 and at first he resisted. 736 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:42,760 No, I don't wanna be called that. 737 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:44,320 The word means exalted. 738 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,960 So he basically got deified over time 739 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,560 by the Roman Senate, by the citizenry, 740 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:52,360 because of the level of success 741 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,400 that he brought to Roman society. 742 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,120 So his rise is remarkable. 743 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,880 And again, it can only be explained by God's sovereign hand. 744 00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:02,280 So what did Augustus actually do 745 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,400 that would have impacted Joseph and Mary 746 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,200 and people in Galilee? 747 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,320 Well, overall, the most important thing he accomplished 748 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:11,680 was the establishment of what historians 749 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,800 called the Pax Romana. 750 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,600 Anybody heard of it? 751 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:17,640 Some of you guys have taken history, right? 752 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:19,920 What does it mean? 753 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:22,200 The Peace of Rome. 754 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:24,920 Remember, he's coming to power 755 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,640 out of a very chaotic time. 756 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:29,680 Extremely chaotic. 757 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,200 All kinds of turmoil amongst the leaders of Rome. 758 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,520 Civil wars, Romans fighting Romans. 759 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:39,840 And so the citizens are just exhausted by all of it. 760 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,640 What they need most is stability. 761 00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,920 And Augustus came and he gave them stability. 762 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:48,440 He started to rebuild and reorganize the Roman state. 763 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:51,960 He strengthened all the frontier boundaries of the empire. 764 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:53,040 And at the same time, he said, 765 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:56,200 you know, we're gonna pull back on aggressive wars 766 00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,680 to give the legions a break as well. 767 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:00,760 So he did all of the right things. 768 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:01,880 Basically what he did, 769 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:06,120 he did what so many Americans are crying out for today. 770 00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,320 Can we just focus on Rome? 771 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,240 Can we just, you know, make Rome great again? 772 00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:15,080 Really bad, right? 773 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:17,440 Rome first. 774 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,280 I mean, all of these things that we sort of feel today, 775 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,640 like can we, we're a mess. 776 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,520 Can we just look, can we get some stability here 777 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:27,400 and start building internally? 778 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,320 Well, that's exactly what Augustus tapped into. 779 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,560 His economic policies were aimed at reducing social unrest 780 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:38,000 that had marked the Republic in the last 50 years. 781 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,080 He addressed all kinds of economic disparities 782 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,120 that had led to class conflicts 783 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,520 between the common people and the elites. 784 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,680 And so trade and commerce flourished. 785 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,120 Basically the Mediterranean Sea became known 786 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,920 as the Roman Lake because they owned it. 787 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,120 All of the trade and commerce in the area 788 00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:57,800 made Rome very, very wealthy. 789 00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:59,920 Cities began to thrive again. 790 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:02,240 Cultural achievements reached new heights. 791 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,320 Basically the Pax Romana was a testament 792 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,520 to Augustus's skillful governance, 793 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:12,360 his ability to bring stability in a very chaotic time. 794 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:13,840 So Augustus ruled the empire. 795 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,240 He had been ruling for 20 years, 796 00:34:16,240 --> 00:34:17,840 actually a little more than that, 797 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,600 at the time that Christ was sent forth 798 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:24,480 and took on flesh in Bethlehem, about 20 years. 799 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,480 So Jesus is being born into a world 800 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,000 that in many ways had been stabilized, 801 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:30,680 which is gonna help the spread of the gospel, 802 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,480 and we'll get to that at the end. 803 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,800 And in God's sovereignty, it's this very famous emperor 804 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,920 who is the one who decrees that we should take a census 805 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,140 of the entire known world, which is kind of strange, 806 00:34:42,140 --> 00:34:43,840 but he was big on taxation. 807 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:44,680 So he said, you know what, 808 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,000 let's go out to all these places that we run 809 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,120 and let's start taxing the people as we should. 810 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,680 And that's what causes Joseph and Mary 811 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,480 to have to leave Nazareth and travel to their ancestral 812 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,560 homeland, which was Bethlehem of Judea, 813 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:01,060 which had been prophesied in Micah chapter five, right? 814 00:35:01,060 --> 00:35:02,640 So it had to happen this way, 815 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,640 and God is orchestrating all this. 816 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,660 By the time Augustus dies in the year 14, 817 00:35:08,660 --> 00:35:11,600 Jesus is in his late teens 818 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:14,640 and is still likely living in Nazareth. 819 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,680 So just to get the timelines right on this. 820 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:21,280 Now, don't forget, Israel was on the far eastern edge 821 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:22,760 of the Roman Empire. 822 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:27,560 It is unlikely that Caesar Augustus had a single moment 823 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:31,640 to care about Galilee or Judea. 824 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,480 It just wasn't on his radar. 825 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:34,680 Here's our map. 826 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:36,200 So if you look at that purple area, 827 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,080 that's the height of the Roman Empire. 828 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:40,080 It is vast. 829 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,560 It surrounds the entire Mediterranean Sea. 830 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:44,880 The red dot, of course, is Rome, 831 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,720 and the blue dot is where Judea is. 832 00:35:47,720 --> 00:35:50,440 The only thing that really mattered to Rome about this area 833 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:52,360 was it was the sliver of land 834 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,160 that connected two much more valuable territories, 835 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,720 Syria in the north and Egypt in the south. 836 00:35:57,720 --> 00:35:59,480 Other than that, to the Romans, 837 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,640 Jews were just crazy people. 838 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:03,000 Didn't understand their religion, 839 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,800 didn't understand their culture, didn't care. 840 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,400 So it's unlikely that Caesar Augustus 841 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,120 would have known whatsoever. 842 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,640 But before we move on to our other heavyweight, 843 00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:16,280 I want you to catch the divine contrast in this. 844 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:19,040 One of the most powerful men to ever walk the earth 845 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,640 in a human sense, 846 00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:24,080 a man who would never know the name Jesus of Nazareth, 847 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:24,920 would never know that name, 848 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:28,200 would never care to know that name. 849 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,000 At the end of the day, when the history books are written, 850 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,800 the Roman heavyweight becomes a nobody 851 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,120 compared to the god man from Galilee. 852 00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:37,440 And what I love about that story, 853 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:40,200 it's sort of God's sense of irony, 854 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,000 the juxtaposition of what we think is elite, 855 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,600 what we think is noble, 856 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,440 what we think is wealthy, 857 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,080 compared to what true wealth actually looks like. 858 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,480 The god man is the one who goes down in history 859 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:55,320 as the most dominant person in the history of mankind. 860 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:56,160 Amen. 861 00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,400 Okay, let's talk about heavyweight number two. 862 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:01,640 This is Herod the Great. 863 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:05,800 Did somebody say yay? 864 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:07,440 No. 865 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,240 Okay, but to me, Herod, 866 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:15,880 Herod is one of the most fascinating characters in history. 867 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,800 Again, strongly recommend, read some books about this guy. 868 00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:20,240 Not only is he interesting, 869 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:22,360 but his life really does impact 870 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,680 so much of the New Testament background. 871 00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:28,480 If you've been to Israel, 872 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,120 you know Herod has left a huge imprint on the land, 873 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:32,360 still to this day. 874 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:33,840 Half the things you go see in Israel 875 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:35,880 were built by this man. 876 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:37,320 And what makes him really interesting 877 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,480 is he is half psychotic, half brilliant. 878 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:42,680 And I mean that in every way, 879 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:44,040 which we'll get to in a second. 880 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,960 Now, we don't actually know what Herod the Great looked like. 881 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:49,200 Unlike Caesar Augustus, 882 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,800 there are absolutely zero portraits of Herod the Great. 883 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:54,920 Not in statues, not on coins. 884 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:55,760 Why? 885 00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:57,440 Grave and images. 886 00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,560 In Jewish society, you didn't create statues of people 887 00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,760 or put even faces on coins. 888 00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:03,920 So we don't know what he looked like. 889 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:07,040 This just happens to be the actor 890 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,120 in a great movie called The Nativity. 891 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:11,480 And I just, I thought he played the part so well 892 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:15,640 and so looked the part that I still use him as my example. 893 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:18,440 Because you know I have to put pictures on the screen. 894 00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,240 Now, the name Herod is all over the New Testament. 895 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:23,200 47 times you see the name Herod, 896 00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,600 but you always have to remember, 897 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,800 how many Herods are there in the Bible? 898 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:28,920 There's five different, 899 00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:30,880 there's more than five Herods in the family, 900 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:32,800 but five of them get mentioned in Scripture, 901 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,560 so it can be a little confusing. 902 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:36,440 But in terms of the birth of Christ, 903 00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,400 Herod the Great is the most important person to understand. 904 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,320 In terms of the ministry and the life of Christ as an adult, 905 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,480 it's Herod Antipas, who you need to know about, 906 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,160 but that's for another day. 907 00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:51,360 Now, where does this dynastic family come from? 908 00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:54,520 Well, the Herodian family comes to power 909 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:58,440 out of the Maccabean period of the intertestamental time. 910 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:00,200 That era between the old and new, 911 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,160 from Malachi to Matthew, 430 years, 912 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,200 that they rise out of the Maccabean period. 913 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,360 Herod's father was a man named Antipater, 914 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,960 and he was a wealthy noble 915 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,680 who became a loyal friend of Julius Caesar. 916 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,640 In fact, when Julius Caesar campaigned in Egypt 917 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,000 to conquer Egypt, Antipater, Herod's father, 918 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,280 gave him resources and troops to help him in that campaign. 919 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,240 So Herod's family, dating even before him, 920 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:30,960 had deep connections with Rome. 921 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,640 But they also had to cozy up to the local independent king, 922 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:36,880 what's known as the Hasmonean king, 923 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:38,920 in order to sort of live their lives 924 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:40,720 in that particular region. 925 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:43,520 But in the year 41 BC, something interesting happens. 926 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:46,080 The Hasmonean king, who's ruling in Judea, 927 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:49,000 rises up in rebellion against Rome, 928 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:50,800 tries to cut themselves off, 929 00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,320 and now Antipater is in the middle 930 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:55,040 of this weird push and pull. 931 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,360 He supported both sides in the past. 932 00:39:57,360 --> 00:39:59,320 He's now got to pick a side. 933 00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:00,880 And who does he choose? 934 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:02,720 He picks Rome. 935 00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:03,960 Good choice. 936 00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:05,800 He picks Rome in that battle, 937 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:09,440 and he offers his assistance to the Roman Senate to help. 938 00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,760 Now Antipater actually dies soon after that. 939 00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:12,920 He's poisoned. 940 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,360 But his son Herod goes to the Roman Senate and says, 941 00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,440 if you give me enough cash and enough troops, 942 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,920 I will put down this rebellion in Judea 943 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,040 and rule as your client king. 944 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,360 And that's exactly what happens. 945 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,120 Rome gives him enough money and troops 946 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:30,040 to put down this rebellion. 947 00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,320 It takes three years, puts down the rebellion, 948 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,840 and at the end of it, he is in control of all of Israel, 949 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:41,840 and the Roman Senate declares him king of the Jews. 950 00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:43,680 That's how he comes to power. 951 00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:46,560 And Herod is gonna rule then for 33 more years 952 00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:51,560 until the year 4 BC, right up until the time of Christ's birth. 953 00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:54,640 Now, some of you know this about Herod. 954 00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:55,840 He had a real problem 955 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,680 when it came to ruling the Jewish people. 956 00:40:58,680 --> 00:40:59,520 What was it? 957 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:02,160 They hated him. 958 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:03,560 Why? That's true. 959 00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:05,640 Because he wasn't Jewish. 960 00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:06,960 So here's the king of the Jews 961 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,560 who wasn't technically Jewish. 962 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,440 He and his father were Edomites. 963 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,320 Remember your biblical history now. 964 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:17,280 That's from the line of Esau, not from the line of Jacob. 965 00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:19,280 So they're related to the Jews, 966 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,640 but not from the line of promise. 967 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,000 Now the Romans, who don't care about Jewish history, 968 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,080 don't care about the name Edomite, 969 00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:31,600 actually know this group of people as Ijumeans. 970 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,600 They were a group of people who came from the land of Edom, 971 00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,400 but then they intermarried with both Jews and other tribes. 972 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,120 So they were sort of a mut race is the best way to explain it. 973 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,600 And that's what Herod was a part of. 974 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:45,160 During the inter-testamental period, 975 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:47,160 the Ijumeans were pushed out of their homeland 976 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:48,560 by the Nabatean tribes. 977 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:52,840 And eventually they settled just south of Judea. 978 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:54,520 The blue dot is Jerusalem, 979 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:56,840 and that area in purple there is Ijumea. 980 00:41:56,840 --> 00:41:59,360 That's where Herod comes from. 981 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:01,160 He is not Jewish. 982 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:02,960 He's an Ijumean. 983 00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,680 But King Herod publicly identified himself as a Jew 984 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:10,320 because he wanted to win the favor of his subjects, 985 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,360 which they never actually gave to him. 986 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:14,040 But he did everything he could. 987 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:14,880 By the way, there's no evidence 988 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:16,800 he actually followed Jewish law. 989 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,120 But again, he would say that he was Jewish. 990 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:22,080 He tried to foster goodwill, tried to win their affection, 991 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:25,280 but it never worked because they could not accept 992 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:26,920 his mixed lineage. 993 00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:29,440 Not only was he Edomite on his father's side, 994 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:32,000 he was Arab on his mother's side. 995 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:33,440 And they rejected him completely. 996 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:35,120 What did that cause Herod to do? 997 00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:37,640 Clamp down, become more of a tyrant, 998 00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:38,960 rule with an iron fist, 999 00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:42,240 and the hatred of the people grew against him. 1000 00:42:42,240 --> 00:42:43,800 Now, why do I say he was brilliant? 1001 00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,280 Well, first of all, he ruled for 33 years 1002 00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:49,280 in a very chaotic area of the world. 1003 00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:53,440 If you rule for 33 years in ancient Israel, 1004 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,760 you have done a good job of controlling your environment. 1005 00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:58,960 That is a very hard thing to do. 1006 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,960 But as I said, he's one of the great visionaries 1007 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,040 and builders of the ancient world. 1008 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:04,240 And most of you know this, 1009 00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:06,800 but he was the one who expanded 1010 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,280 the great temple in Jerusalem, okay, 1011 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:11,480 to look something like this, 1012 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,840 even bigger and more glorious than the temple 1013 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,440 that Solomon had built a thousand years before. 1014 00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:19,400 This was Herod's doing. 1015 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,880 In fact, the temple was still being constructed 1016 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:23,640 at the time that Christ was crucified. 1017 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:25,800 It was still being built. 1018 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:27,880 It's a massive project. 1019 00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,720 Go to Israel, go down below the ground level 1020 00:43:30,720 --> 00:43:33,960 and see the foundation stones that Herod put in place. 1021 00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:37,800 You will be amazed at what the type of builder that he was. 1022 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:38,720 That's the first thing. 1023 00:43:38,720 --> 00:43:41,480 He also built the coastal city of Caesarea 1024 00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:43,480 as a Roman city, built it from scratch, 1025 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:46,520 as a Roman city, built an artificial harbor 1026 00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,520 out of some kind of ancient form of concrete 1027 00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:52,880 that historians still don't fully understand, 1028 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:57,880 dropped it in the ocean and created a harbor. 1029 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,480 We're talking hundreds of years ahead 1030 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,240 of any technology that followed that. 1031 00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:04,400 He built Masada. 1032 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,240 How many of you guys have been to the top of Masada? 1033 00:44:06,240 --> 00:44:09,440 Amazing fortress structure that he built 1034 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,240 as his escape plan if he ever had to get away 1035 00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:15,240 from a rebellion where he could live for decades 1036 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:20,520 up on this amazing fortress that could not be accessed. 1037 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:22,120 It's an amazing place to be. 1038 00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,240 Then he built his own summer palace called Herodium 1039 00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:27,720 where he went to a mountain and scooped it out, 1040 00:44:27,720 --> 00:44:30,400 carved out, scooped out the top of the hill 1041 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:34,720 and built himself a palace in the plains of Bethlehem. 1042 00:44:34,720 --> 00:44:36,440 And it's an amazing place to visit. 1043 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:39,040 By the way, this is where he was eventually buried. 1044 00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,240 His tomb was hidden for thousands of years. 1045 00:44:43,240 --> 00:44:45,280 It was discovered in 2007. 1046 00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:47,680 They finally found where Herod was buried 1047 00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:51,600 right in the middle of that hillside in a secret tomb. 1048 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:52,600 Amazing stuff. 1049 00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:56,360 Anyway, so he's a brilliant guy, 1050 00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,360 but let's talk about his psychosis. 1051 00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:04,920 He was as paranoid a king as you will ever find in history. 1052 00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:07,400 Probably why he ruled for 33 years. 1053 00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:09,200 Because he killed everybody. 1054 00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:11,200 Anybody that was a threat, he killed them. 1055 00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:12,880 Listen to this record. 1056 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:16,240 During his reign, he put to death 46 members 1057 00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:21,960 of the Sanhedrin because they got too powerful. 1058 00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,920 He married 10 different women during his reign, 1059 00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:28,120 murdered at least one, maybe two of his mothers-in-law. 1060 00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:35,120 No comment. 1061 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:39,840 He had two of his own sons murdered. 1062 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:43,800 He murdered two of his own flesh and blood 1063 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,440 because he believed his spies who whispered in his ear 1064 00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:50,160 that his sons would betray him. 1065 00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:51,760 Can you imagine? 1066 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:53,440 In the most tragic of all situations, 1067 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:55,560 he had his favorite wife of the 10. 1068 00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:57,080 Her name was Miriam. 1069 00:45:57,080 --> 00:45:59,880 Had her executed because he, again, 1070 00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:02,560 believed a spy that she was cheating on him. 1071 00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:06,520 Now Miriam was a beloved member of the kingdom. 1072 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:08,400 She was from the royal line of David. 1073 00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,960 She was a Hasmonean princess and he executed her. 1074 00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,360 And then to make up for it, 1075 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:17,360 to make up for it because the public was furious, 1076 00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,840 he named her brother the High Priest, 1077 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:23,880 which was against everything that the law talks about, 1078 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,400 made him High Priest and then just months later 1079 00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:29,520 regretted that and had him drowned in his pool 1080 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:30,720 at his summer palace. 1081 00:46:31,720 --> 00:46:33,760 This is the type of guy he was. 1082 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,400 His paranoia was so bad that Augustus, 1083 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,480 Augustus once said, it's better to be Herod's dog 1084 00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,080 than to be one of his children. 1085 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:47,080 Now here's why I tell you this about this man. 1086 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:48,120 First of all, he's just interesting, 1087 00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:52,120 but let me tell you, when you read the story in Matthew 2 1088 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,920 of the Magi coming to Judea, 1089 00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:59,000 remember they meet with Herod and what do they do? 1090 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:00,600 They say too much, don't they? 1091 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:02,760 They say, we have traveled from the East, 1092 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:05,800 we've traveled this long distance to do what? 1093 00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:10,800 To locate the child who is called King of the Jews. 1094 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:12,560 Uh oh. 1095 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:16,160 So does this surprise you based on that track record 1096 00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:18,920 that he would be very, very upset 1097 00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:22,480 that any wise man from the East would be looking for 1098 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,000 a child called King of the Jews? 1099 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:24,840 Obviously not. 1100 00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,120 Obviously he would be very, very upset about it 1101 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:30,560 and we'll get to that story later in the series. 1102 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:32,360 And it's interesting, scholars for years 1103 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,160 have tried to deny the slaughter of the infants 1104 00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:37,800 later in Matthew 2 because Herod sets out 1105 00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:40,920 to kill all the babies two years and under in Bethlehem 1106 00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:44,600 because he knows, he finds out the prophecy of Micah 5 1107 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:45,960 that that's where the child's gonna be born. 1108 00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:47,200 He slaughters the infants. 1109 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,120 Well, scholars don't like that story 1110 00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:52,080 because A, it's extremely dark, but B, they say, 1111 00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:54,640 well, there's no corroboration of that story 1112 00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:56,040 outside of the Bible. 1113 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:59,080 But again, look at the man's track record. 1114 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,520 Is there any doubt that he would do something like that 1115 00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,320 in order to preserve his own power? 1116 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:08,080 Clearly, he would. 1117 00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,400 Now, history does tell us that he died in the year 4 BC 1118 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,200 after a long and painful illness. 1119 00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:17,480 I'm okay with that. 1120 00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,360 But of course, by that time, Mary and Joseph 1121 00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,280 had fled to Egypt, right, with their baby to get away 1122 00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:24,760 and then they're told by an angel 1123 00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,520 that Herod has passed away so they can return. 1124 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:28,880 And so from that point forward, 1125 00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:31,360 then Jesus is raised in Nazareth 1126 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,600 and he's raised in Nazareth in this interesting atmosphere, 1127 00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:40,200 this milieu of tight Roman control on his life 1128 00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:45,200 and also the irreligious dysfunction of the Herodian family. 1129 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,280 And that's what he grows up in. 1130 00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,360 Which may cause you to ask the question, 1131 00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,720 and I'll end with this, well then why, Lord, 1132 00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:53,560 based on these crazy people, 1133 00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:56,640 why would you send your son into the world at this time? 1134 00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:59,320 I'm gonna give you a brief list and we'll do this quickly. 1135 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:01,680 How we doing on time, Grant? 1136 00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:04,480 Good. 1137 00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:08,320 Okay, if you look at this from a purely strategic perspective 1138 00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:10,320 on the timing of Christ's birth, 1139 00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,280 I'm gonna give you seven reasons why it makes sense. 1140 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:15,160 The first, whoop, here's Herod again. 1141 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:19,120 The first is he comes after the exile 1142 00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:22,240 and after the purge of idolatry in Israel. 1143 00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:23,080 You have to understand this. 1144 00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:25,400 When Israel is sent into exile in Babylon, 1145 00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,040 it cures them of their idolatry problem 1146 00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:29,240 and that needed to happen. 1147 00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:32,280 So at the very least, what you could say about the Jews 1148 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:34,240 at the time of Jesus's birth 1149 00:49:34,240 --> 00:49:36,760 was they were focused on Yahweh once again 1150 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,000 and looking for the Messiah. 1151 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,400 Although very skewed in their understanding 1152 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:43,280 of what form he would take, right? 1153 00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:44,160 We know that as well. 1154 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,240 But being post-exilic was very, very important. 1155 00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:48,980 Second, at this point in history, 1156 00:49:48,980 --> 00:49:51,640 the Old Testament canon has been established 1157 00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:53,600 for more than 400 years. 1158 00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:55,200 So there are no doubts. 1159 00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:57,080 Nobody's out there going, well, is that scripture? 1160 00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:58,160 Is this scripture? 1161 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,800 There is no doubt about God's promise of sending a redeemer 1162 00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:03,800 and for those who were paying attention, 1163 00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:07,360 they were actually watching for the Messiah 1164 00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:09,040 because the canon was set. 1165 00:50:09,940 --> 00:50:11,480 The third thing which is very interesting 1166 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,500 is the synagogue had been established by this point. 1167 00:50:14,500 --> 00:50:15,640 Look at your Old Testament. 1168 00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:17,200 You're not gonna find synagogues. 1169 00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:18,400 Have you noticed this? 1170 00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,000 Because they developed later on. 1171 00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,520 They developed during the intertestamental period. 1172 00:50:24,520 --> 00:50:29,320 And so now you have these smaller structures, 1173 00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,920 these smaller communities for Torah study and for worship. 1174 00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:34,640 And this becomes very important. 1175 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:37,400 By the time Jesus is doing his adult ministry, 1176 00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:39,640 there are synagogues all over Israel 1177 00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,400 and spread into the Gentile world. 1178 00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,360 Where does Paul always go to when he visits a new city 1179 00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:46,400 in the Greek world? 1180 00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:47,560 To the synagogue. 1181 00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:50,040 All the places that Jews were scattered, 1182 00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:51,480 synagogues had popped up. 1183 00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:54,760 And that is going to assist in the spread of the gospel. 1184 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,080 That's number three. 1185 00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:58,380 Fourth, and we touched on this already, 1186 00:50:58,380 --> 00:51:02,720 the global reach and power and stability of Rome 1187 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:06,520 had a huge impact on the establishment of the gospel 1188 00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:09,520 in the Greek world and the spread of the gospel. 1189 00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,640 Again, Israel has united east and west together 1190 00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:14,600 across this vast region. 1191 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:16,400 So now there is a common culture 1192 00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:18,360 everywhere missionaries go. 1193 00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:19,600 Very important. 1194 00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:22,440 The world is a safer place to travel in 1195 00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:24,800 because the control that Rome has over it. 1196 00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:29,240 The roads that Augustus builds all throughout his empire 1197 00:51:29,240 --> 00:51:32,560 facilitate cultural exchange that didn't happen 1198 00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:34,080 before he came to power. 1199 00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:35,640 And of course, missionaries like Paul 1200 00:51:35,640 --> 00:51:38,640 are going to use all of those routes and roads 1201 00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:40,560 in order to spread the gospel. 1202 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:42,480 That's very important. 1203 00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:46,520 Number five, and we'll give this one to Alexander the Great. 1204 00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:48,800 In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great 1205 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:52,800 swept through this whole region before Rome came to power 1206 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,560 and he Hellenized everything he touched. 1207 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,520 And because of his reign at that time, 1208 00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:01,120 the Greek, Koine Greek language is established 1209 00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,720 as the common language of the day. 1210 00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:06,440 We call it the language of commerce. 1211 00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:08,400 Just sort of like English today. 1212 00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:10,900 If you're going to do trade in the world internationally, 1213 00:52:10,900 --> 00:52:12,800 you just have to speak English. 1214 00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:15,320 And the same thing was true of Greek in that day. 1215 00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:16,860 That's because of Alexander. 1216 00:52:16,860 --> 00:52:20,240 So diverse nations and people groups and regions 1217 00:52:20,240 --> 00:52:24,760 could now be communicated with because everybody spoke Greek. 1218 00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:25,560 Very important. 1219 00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:30,160 Number six, at this point, the Hebrew Old Testament 1220 00:52:30,160 --> 00:52:33,120 has been translated into Greek. 1221 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:35,440 That happened around the year 250 BC. 1222 00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:37,600 We call it the Septuagint. 1223 00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:41,600 So the Hebrew Old Testament was now translated and being 1224 00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:45,600 disseminated in the common language of the day. 1225 00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:46,480 Very, very important. 1226 00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:50,040 So now imagine somebody in Rome or somebody in Asia Minor, 1227 00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:53,760 somebody in Greece could actually read about Yahweh 1228 00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:56,960 and about the history of Israel and the promise of a Messiah. 1229 00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,000 And that is going to help with the spread of the gospel 1230 00:52:59,000 --> 00:52:59,960 as well. 1231 00:52:59,960 --> 00:53:01,680 And finally, the last reason has to do 1232 00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:05,080 with the moral and religious climate of that day. 1233 00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:06,640 Listen, the Roman Empire was built 1234 00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:09,880 on a whole bunch of things and they weren't pretty. 1235 00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:14,760 Decadence and gluttony and blood sport and violence 1236 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,720 and sexual debauchery, all these things. 1237 00:53:17,720 --> 00:53:20,120 And even though they talked about Roman religion, right, 1238 00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:22,880 which was this weird pantheon of old gods 1239 00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:25,440 and the cult of the emperor, none of that 1240 00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:26,640 satisfied the people. 1241 00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:28,880 So at this point in history, there 1242 00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:32,400 is a great spiritual emptiness and a void 1243 00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:36,120 that is longing to be filled by the good news of the gospel, 1244 00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:39,360 by things like compassion and peace and joy and love 1245 00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:43,920 and, of course, hope, especially among the common people. 1246 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:46,600 So there's just seven and we could go on and on with this, 1247 00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:50,720 but this is why God says, in the fullness of the times, 1248 00:53:50,720 --> 00:53:54,120 the fullness at the right time, I sent forth my Son. 1249 00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,440 So I'm going to have you pray in just a second, 1250 00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:58,640 but that sets the context for what's coming over 1251 00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:00,120 the next three Sundays. 1252 00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:03,400 Guys, let's start taking a deep breath 1253 00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:06,120 as I rush through this message. 1254 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,400 Take a deep breath and slow down and begin 1255 00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,080 to prepare your hearts to celebrate 1256 00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:13,520 the coming of our Savior. 1257 00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:15,080 Amen.