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I look forward to more of that this evening at 6 o'clock in Bethlehem.

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Over the course of 25 years in ministry, I have gathered little gifts and objects that people have given me through the years.

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One is always grateful for gifts that are given, but it is those gifts that are made by hand

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that are especially appreciated. I don't have the ability to do that sort of thing.

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Some of you are able to do needlework or woodworking, other kinds of crafts.

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Some of you can cook very well, and I've appreciated those gifts from time to time, and others have.

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When we take time to put ourselves into a gift, when we take time to prepare it personally and carefully, it means so much more.

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That's the kind of a gift that God gave us. When God gives, He gives the very best.

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Long ages ago, He promised the gift that the race of Adam most needed, a Savior who would destroy the serpent

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and rescue the descendants of Adam and Eve. Through the centuries, He sent periodic reminders of His promise,

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and through the prophets, delivered information so that we would be sure to recognize that gift when He came.

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We were told beforehand about His character. We knew in advance what His works would be.

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We even were given information as to where He would be born in the city of David, Bethlehem.

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And we were given information about the circumstances surrounding His coming.

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And then it was time for the gift itself.

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I invite you to open your Bible to Galatians chapter 4, as we see the Apostle Paul's commentary on what I'm describing.

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Where in verse 4 he says, but when the time had fully come.

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Notice that phrase, but when the time had fully come, God sent His Son.

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This fullness of time that is described by the Apostle in Galatians 4 verse 4 refers to a completion of a period of time

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that was ordered beforehand and appointed.

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In other words, there was a period of time in which God ordained certain things to take place,

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and when those things had been done, God sent His Son.

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So we can say that God was at work in the world events to prepare for the arrival of His special gift, Jesus Christ.

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This morning I'd like for us to explore that thought a bit.

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What does this mean, the fullness of time?

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How did God prepare for the arrival of His gift?

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Well, in the first place we can say that God prepared the time politically.

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And if you remember but one word, you'll understand essentially how He prepared it politically, and that is the word Rome.

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Rome as a city was founded in 753 B.C. near the Tiber River, 17 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea.

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But it was nearly 600 years before that city-state began to form an empire, which became known as the Roman Empire.

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That was in 146 B.C.

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Its power spread to the western Mediterranean area, and then in 64 B.C. its power spread eastward under Pompeii,

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and finally encompassed Palestine.

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Then in 31 B.C., Octavian became the sole ruler and was named Augustus, and the Roman Empire came to its full.

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Augustus Caesar ruled from 31 A.B.C. until 14 A.D.

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It is to his reign that Luke ties the birth of Jesus Christ, for he says it was during the reign of Augustus Caesar

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that there was sent out a decree that all of the world should be taxed, a census should be taken.

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Luke 2, verse 1.

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God prepared the time politically by the rise of Rome as a world power.

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God had predicted this through Daniel, both in the second and the seventh chapter of Daniel.

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That prophet is given information about a succession of world empires.

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The fourth of them would be Rome.

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Rome's contribution to the fullness of time includes two important things.

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First of all, there is the peace that Rome brought to the world.

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Until Rome ruled, there were many different empires and countries and tribes and peoples who fought among themselves,

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especially in the Middle East.

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But Rome brought what was called a Pax Romana, the Roman peace.

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With their legions of soldiers, they marched over these other countries and peoples and tribes and subdued them.

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And with those legions, they enforced a peace in that part of the world.

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This peace was very important for the arrival and then the dissemination of the message of the gift of God.

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But tied together with the Roman peace were the Roman roads.

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They were amazing engineers.

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And some of the stone roads that they built in those days are still being used today in parts of Asia Minor.

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Some of the roads are still today deeply rotted with chariot tracks.

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If you can imagine driving a chariot over one of these roads and getting into the ruts,

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you can imagine what a challenge it must have been for those horse-pulled wagons to be able to navigate the Roman roads.

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And yet the roads were marvelous. They were the interstates of their day.

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They allowed for commerce and transportation.

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And again for the speedy dissemination of the gospel.

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Both the Roman peace and the Roman road allowed for the gospel of Jesus Christ to spread rapidly throughout the known world,

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so that within a relatively brief period of time the entire empire had heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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John MacArthur summarizes it this way.

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Rome instituted the Pax Romana, Roman peace, which provided economic and political stability.

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The apostles and other early preachers and teachers could travel freely and safely throughout the empire

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and could do so on the magnificent system of roads built by the Romans.

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And so when it says that God waited until the fullness of time before he sent his son,

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it means that God allowed Rome to rise as a power over hundreds of years to bring about a military peace

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and to establish a road system that was unparalleled in its day.

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That was part of the fullness of time.

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Secondly, we think of Greece and the fact that God prepared the time culturally.

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The Greek Empire actually preceded the Roman Empire.

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Alexander the Great in the third century B.C. conquered the known world in a few years.

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He spread the Greek culture and Greek language from the Greek peninsula all the way over into India,

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encompassing all of what is now called Iraq and Iran, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, and over into India.

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All of that was under the control of Alexander the Great by the time he was 33 years of age.

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He wept because there was nothing more for him to conquer.

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Alexander was not a Christian.

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He was not a believer in the true God, and yet God raised him up.

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Indeed, Daniel also prophesied of him in the seventh chapter,

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where he foresees a beast like a leopard with four wings,

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describing the swiftness with which this empire would reach out and conquer its enemies.

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That's exactly what Alexander did by his military genius.

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And as he did this, he spread what was called Hellenism.

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Hellenism applies to that period in history of civilization when Greek culture extended over the world.

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The chief characteristics of this Hellenism were great unity and close identity of interests in many fields.

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Many independent small states and cities had been incorporated into larger states or units,

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such as Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, and later on the Roman Empire with Rome as its center.

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A strong sense of cosmopolitanism developed.

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Trade and traffic assumed unprecedented dimensions.

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An extremely important factor in the growth of unity was the universal use of the Koine form of Greek,

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the language of economic, scientific, and official exchanges.

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That's from the Encyclopedia of the Bible published by Prentice Hall.

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You see, the Greek influence, this Hellenistic influence, brought a couple of important things.

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First, it brought the Greek culture itself, and accompanying that was the Greek language,

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which became widely used.

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Though there were many different languages and dialects throughout that region of the world,

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it unified the people by its culture and by the use of the Koine Greek language.

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That Koine Greek is the Greek of the New Testament.

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It is fairly significantly different than modern-day Greek,

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although someone from Greece is able to pick up a New Testament and have some understanding of what it says.

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But the Koine Greek in that day was the popular language. It was the trade language.

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Everyone, including the Jews, who spoke Hebrew naturally, spoke Greek

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because of the influence of Alexander the Great and the Greek Empire.

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You say, well, what difference does all of this make?

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Well, it makes a good deal of difference in that the New Testament being written in the Greek language

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was understood by everyone.

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Furthermore, as the people preached in the Greek language,

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they could speak to people from all different countries

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because nearly everyone had an understanding of Koine Greek.

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Again, I'm quoting as a summary John MacArthur's statement,

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and Christians who propagated the gospel during the first several centuries

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had a common language with those to whom they witnessed and with whom they worshiped.

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Alexander the Great had thoroughly established Greek culture and language throughout the known world,

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and these continued their dominating influence long after Rome succeeded Greece as world ruler.

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Now, by the time of Jesus' birth, the Hellenistic Roman culture was disintegrating badly, morally at least,

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so much so that even the pagans of that day were denouncing society because of its low morals.

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All of that produced a spiritual vacuum and hunger in the hearts of people as well.

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So when we talk about the fullness of time coming and then God sending His Son,

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we have to realize there's this Greek influence too.

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God raised up the Greek empire in part so that its culture would unify the peoples,

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its language would unify them, and prepare them spiritually for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So He prepared the time culturally through Greece.

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I've touched upon the fact that there was a spiritual vacuum.

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That brings us to the third idea that is found in this statement when the fullness of time had come,

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and that is that God prepared the time spiritually.

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But if when we think of politics, we think of Rome, and culture we think of Greece,

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when we think of God's spiritual preparation, we should think of the Jews.

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Well, there are two things that the Jews brought to that period of time that were very important

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to the coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the New Testament Church.

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One was the creation of the synagogue.

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The word synagogue means together, together.

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It's used in a variety of ways, even in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament,

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called the Septuagint.

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But the primary way I'm thinking of the synagogue now is the way that we think of it today,

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a meeting place for the Jewish people to practice their faith.

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You see, when they were carried as exiles into Babylon, they no longer had a priesthood.

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There was no longer a temple with its sacrifices in Jerusalem.

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They could no longer make pilgrimages to the city of Jerusalem.

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How were they to carry out their faith?

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How were they going to preserve the Torah, the books of Moses?

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Well, the answer is that they developed Torah studies, similar to our Bible studies.

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And they would gather in small groups to study the Torah, but this became more sophisticated

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and more organized as time passed, until they developed official synagogues or meeting places

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where they would study the Torah.

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Eventually, synagogues became schools and courts, as well as places of worship.

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The synagogues became points that bridged into the Gentile culture, because as the Jews

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worshiped together, there were some Gentiles attracted, who became Jewish proselytes.

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The New Testament talks about such people.

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And so the synagogue became an important preparation point for the coming of Christ.

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You see, now, in what way would that be?

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Well, I think we probably don't realize how much what happened in the synagogue in that day

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relates to what we're doing this morning.

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In the synagogue, there came to be a fixed liturgy, in which there was what was called the Shema,

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which was a declaration of their faith, something like the apostolic creed for Christians,

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that some churches use very formally.

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There was the Shemona Esre, which was a pronunciation of 18 benedictions upon the people who were gathered.

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And then there were the priest's blessings that were pronounced.

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Once that was done, they then had an instructional part of the service, when someone would open

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the Torah to a text, would read it, and then would make comments about it.

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In the course of time, other prayers and songs were added, so that the liturgy developed

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fine distinctions according to the synagogue year.

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Now, if you stop to think about it, we have prayers, and we have singing of songs, and

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we have the reading of the Torah, and we have someone standing up to talk about it,

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you can see the elements of Christian worship coming together in the synagogue.

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Now, in order for the Christian faith to spread, it had to go beyond Temple, it had to go beyond Jerusalem,

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and so God in His wisdom allowed for that to be set aside.

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And for the development of synagogues that were still meeting in the days of Jesus,

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even though by that time there was a worship that had been reinstituted in Jerusalem.

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Jesus worshiped at the synagogue in Nazareth.

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You may recall, He came one day as a guest, and as the custom was, was invited to open

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the Torah and to read it, which He did.

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And then He sat down to teach them, which was the custom.

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Everybody else stood up.

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Sometimes I think that would be a good idea for me to sit and everybody else here to stand.

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It would help sleeping in church.

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And as He began to explain His thoughts about that, they became very agitated, you remember,

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and were going to drive Him over the hill because they considered Him to have committed blasphemy.

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He also worshiped at a synagogue in Capernaum. Those of us who are going on the tour to Israel

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in a couple of months will stand on that spot in Capernaum, where there is a synagogue

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that has been uncovered by archaeologists.

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Not the one Jesus was in, but a second century synagogue built most likely upon the very same foundation

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as that synagogue that Jesus worshiped in, in Capernaum.

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So synagogue worship became a very central part of the Jewish faith, and what became

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the New Testament church developed right out of that.

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They used that form.

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But undoubtedly the most important contribution of the Jews was the Law of Moses, which they

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had received and which they preserved.

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In fact, here in the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul talks about the purpose of the Law.

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He says, for example, in chapter 3, verse 23,

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Before this faith came, this faith in Jesus Christ, we were held prisoners by the Law,

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locked up until faith should be revealed.

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So the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

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And so he explains there that God gave the Law to prepare us spiritually for the coming of the Christ.

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We became prisoners of the Law in the sense that it demanded righteousness of us,

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which we could not, because of our sin, fulfill.

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Its curse then came upon us.

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We became prisoners to it because of our sin.

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Not that the Law was bad, we were bad.

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And that was God's plan.

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He gave the Law not so that people could keep it and become righteous,

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but so that we could all see how unrighteous we are and how in need of a Savior we are.

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And so you see, the Law, which came through the Jewish people, was part of the fullness of time as well.

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It was part of God's preparation, His spiritual preparation, for the coming of His Son.

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John Stott says, At the same time the old mythological gods of Greece and Rome were losing their hold on the common people,

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so that the hearts and minds of men everywhere were hungry for a religion that was real and satisfying.

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His point is that as the Law was being proclaimed, at the same time there was a diminishing of the traditional pagan religions of Greece and Rome,

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so that once again there was a spiritual thirst and hunger, a search for reality.

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That was the fullness of time when God sent His Son.

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I want to get on to a fourth way in which God prepared the time.

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He prepared it personally.

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You notice that it says, When the fullness of time had come, or when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman.

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Now we have already studied for two weeks the necessity of that, and I hope have some understanding of it.

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What I want to point out this morning is how God not only prepared for the coming of His Son by the contributions of the Roman Empire

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with their peace and their road system, and Greece through its unifying culture and language,

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and the Jews by the synagogue of worship and the Law they proclaimed,

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but there were some steps that God took to personally prepare for the coming of His Son.

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These had to be carried out.

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For example, in the book of Isaiah, He prophesied the coming of one who would be the forerunner of the Lord,

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who would appear in the Judean wilderness and would cry out for the people of God to turn to Him.

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Malachi joins in with that, and he says that before the Lord comes, Elijah will come to prepare the people spiritually.

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Now some of you know that both of those prophecies were fulfilled in John the Baptist.

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John the Baptist is the one that Isaiah foresaw who stood in the wilderness preaching, proclaiming repentance,

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commanding the people to repent and be baptized as indication of the repentance.

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He is the one who came in the spirit and the power of Elijah.

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He wasn't Elijah himself personally, I think, that that coming of Elijah personally will precede the second coming of Jesus Christ.

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I believe that he will be one of the two prophets who will appear in Jerusalem

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and will prophesy as predicted in the book of Revelation.

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But John the Baptist had about him that spirit of Elijah, according to the New Testament,

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and was a fulfillment of what Malachi had prophesied.

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Now I'd like you to turn to the Gospel of Luke for a moment and notice how God went about the preparation for the coming of John the Baptist.

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Some of you already know that his father's name was Zechariah, his mother's name was Elizabeth.

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Elizabeth just happened to be a relative of a maiden named Mary who lived in Nazareth.

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Zechariah was a priest and it just so happened that on a certain day his opportunity came to serve in the temple.

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This was something that happened probably once in the lifetime of a priest to have this privilege to go into the temple and do this particular work.

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And of course God is behind the scenes preparing all of this.

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And there he is given an announcement by an angel whose name is Gabriel.

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Verse 19 of Luke 1, I am Gabriel, the angel answered.

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I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

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And now you will be silent and not be able to speak until the day this happens.

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What he's talking about is the news he had just given to Zechariah that he would be given a boy, a baby.

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He and Elizabeth were barren. They were infertile. They had no children.

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God said you're going to have a son. I want you to name him John.

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And Zechariah did not believe that and so his speech was taken away until the day came that the boy was born.

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So God was working you see to prepare for the coming of the Messiah in a personal way.

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He sent an angel to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist who had to come first.

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Now after Elizabeth had been pregnant for six months, Gabriel was sent again by God to make another personal announcement.

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This time he goes to the city of Nazareth, a town in Galilee, verse 26, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

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The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.

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Of course she was troubled by this and wondered what this was all about.

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And the angel said, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.

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You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus.

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And so a very similar announcement to the one six months before. You are going to have a baby, a son, and here is what you are to name him.

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Except this time the name is Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.

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The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end.

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And Mary asked the obvious question, How can this be? I am a virgin. How can I have a child?

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The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

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So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

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Notice that the Holy One who is to be born. Remember I said last week that Jesus did not have a human father

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so that he would not be contaminated by Adam's sin passed down through the male seed.

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And now Mary is told that she will bear a son and he will be holy without sin.

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Now this does present another question. How was Jesus protected from Mary's sin? How did he not inherit her sin?

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As I mentioned last week, the Roman Catholic Church answers that by backing up the problem one generation.

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They say that Mary was born without sin. In the little town where I grew up in Kansas we had a Catholic church.

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It was called the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Once I got old enough to pronounce it and then to understand what the words meant

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I thought it was talking about the conception of Jesus. The Immaculate, the sinless conception.

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But it's not. It's talking about Mary's conception.

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The name refers to the fact that she was immaculately conceived without sin according to their teaching.

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But you still run into the same problem, don't you? How then was Mary born without sin?

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It seems to me that the Bible has a much clearer answer about that.

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The part that is very clear is that Mary was a sinner. She was not immaculately conceived at all.

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In fact, she speaks of God her Savior here in verse 47.

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My soul rejoices in God my Savior. She was not sinless. She needed a Savior.

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She herself acknowledges that.

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Now the part that is still mysterious to us is how was it that Jesus was protected from Mary's sin?

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The answer to that is locked up in this somewhat poetic phrase where it says,

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the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

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There in that word overshadow there seems to be some way in which God protected the seed that Mary produced in her womb from her sin.

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So that when the Holy Spirit caused that seed to be fully human without male participation,

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that fetus, that baby was conceived wholly sinless, completely without sin,

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even protected from Mary's sin being passed on to him.

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Mary rejoices in this though she does not fully understand it. The angels bottom line explanation is,

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verse 37, nothing is impossible with God.

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She says, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said.

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And so she accepted the assignment from God without fully understanding what it was all about yet,

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but submitting herself to the plan of her Lord.

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Even though Mary was a sinner, she was a godly young woman,

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the kind of a young woman that any of us would want to exemplify.

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She was pure. She was submissive to what the Lord wanted her to do in life.

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It goes on to record in Luke how Mary went to visit Elizabeth, her relative.

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And even as Mary entered the room, she is now with child, even as she entered the room where Elizabeth is,

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John, within Elizabeth, jumps.

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He recognizes in utero, within the womb, the presence of this Holy One that is within Mary.

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And then she gives a beautiful statement, a song, in which she glorifies God

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for the role that she is filling and for His plan for them.

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And Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then it says, returned home.

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And then it records the birth of John the Baptist and how he is named.

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And actually that's the first thing that Zachariah is able to say is what his name is to be.

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Remember now, he's not been able to speak for nine months.

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And they're about to name the boy at the time that he is dedicated and circumcised.

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And they're going to name him Zachariah, like the father.

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He says, no, call him John.

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First thing he said in nine months, because that's what the angel wanted him called.

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And then Zachariah begins to speak, beautiful poetic language.

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The Luke records for us beginning in verse 67, and he says regarding his son John,

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look at verse 76 just to summarize it, and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high,

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for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him.

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Zachariah understood the role that his son was to play, even as Mary now had the news.

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And so did Joseph by this time of what their role was in the fullness of time.

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Now maybe the explanation we've given this morning helps all of us understand a little bit more.

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When we see this amazing phrase back in Galatians chapter 4,

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but when the time had fully come, why is it that God so carefully prepared

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for the arrival of this gift, Jesus Christ?

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Well, first it was because of the wonder of the gift itself.

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The wonder of the gift.

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Notice what it says here exactly in verse 4, God sent his son, born of a woman.

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In those two phrases we see the wonder of it.

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First of all, this child is God's son.

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There is his deity.

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But he is also born of a woman.

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There's his humanity.

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He had to be both.

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He is not part deity and part humanity.

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He is full deity and full humanity.

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Undiminished deity, uncompromised humanity in one person.

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That's the wonder of the gift.

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He had to be God in order to possess the power to be our Savior.

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But he also had to be man in order to fill the position as our substitute on the cross.

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The wonder of the gift.

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You see, there's never been a gift like this in the history of the world.

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It's totally unique.

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It can never happen again.

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When God became man.

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But God also prepared for the arrival of the gift for a second reason.

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And that is the wonder of the gift's purpose.

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Because his purpose was to be born under the law, like us,

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to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons.

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God wonderfully prepared for the coming of this gift

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because of the wonder of the gift itself and the wonder of what that gift would mean to us.

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It would mean for us that we would be purchased from our slavery to sin.

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That the price that the law demanded, death for sinners,

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might be paid and we might be let out free from that slavery.

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And then, not only that, but we might also be placed as sons in the family of God.

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The Jews, the Romans, the Greeks, all had a coming of age ceremony for their boys.

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It occurred at different ages and different things happened.

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But there was a clear delineation in those days between childhood and adulthood.

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Today that delineation is sort of lost and I think it's kind of too bad, don't you?

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Children become adults way too young in our world.

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At least the knowledge they have comes way too young.

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In those days there was childhood up to a point and from that point on a clear delineation,

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the person was considered an adult with all of the privileges and the rights that go with being an adult.

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What it's saying here is that God not only rescued us from the law's condemnation,

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but He gave to us the rights to be His full-grown adult children.

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All of the privileges that belong to God's children belong to each one of us in Christ.

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Oh, what a wonderful gift God gave us.

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A gift He carefully prepared.

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Now just a word in closing to apply to our lives.

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Do you notice how God prepared through history for the coming of His Son?

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Can you trust a God who can orchestrate history to be wise enough to know what He's composing in your life?

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Don't you think a God who can orchestrate the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, the influence of the Jews,

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and bring that all to a focal point in the arrival of His Son Jesus Christ can compose beautiful music in your life?

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Sometimes when we hear the individual notes pounded out in the circumstances we're in,

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we say, wow, is that off-key?

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How could that ever fit in?

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That doesn't make any sense.

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That sounds terrible.

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But all the time God is at work in that composition of your life.

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And someday when He puts it all together, it's going to be a beautiful orchestration of a tune that's just you.

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Just you.

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It'll be your song.

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And it'll be the song that through the ages will be played to the glory and praise of God.

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And so wherever this message of preparation catches you today,

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understand that you too are in preparation as a child of God.

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And you may not be able to hear the full orchestra playing.

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You may be hearing one note just pounded out monotonously right now,

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and it's getting a little old, but can't you trust God, the great orchestrator?

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Can't you trust Him to put the music together in your life in a way that's going to honor Him

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and ultimately be pleasing to you?

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I think you can.

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So this morning I want to call upon you to trust.

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Just to relax.

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To not be so agitated and concerned and anxious.

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But to say, Lord, if you can prepare for the coming of your Son in such an amazing way,

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I'm going to trust that what's happening right now in my life is you at work.

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Because you know something?

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It is.

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It is.

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Let's pray together.

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What do you need to say to the Lord about His work in your life on this 18th of December?

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How's it going, my friend?

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Are you able to pick up the tune yet of what God is doing?

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Or does there seem to be dissonance, a lack of harmony,

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not much sense in the rhythm of things?

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Rather than trying to write the music yourself,

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will you yield and surrender to the Lord?

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That's what Mary did.

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That's what Joseph did.

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That's what Zechariah did.

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They didn't understand at the time.

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But they said, Yes, Lord, be it unto me according to your word.

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What a great way to live.

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Will you tell that to the Lord today, God?

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Let it be to me according to what pleases you.

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Father, I pray that we may see someday the result of the work you are doing right now in our lives.

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Let us hear someday the orchestration of it all.

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But today I pray that you will give us patience and faith

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to believe that you are at work composing a unique and beautiful tune

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and composition in the life of each of us.

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Help us to be quiet, to be yielded as you do your work.

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In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.