JESUS' PERFECT TIMING

Galatians 4:4 – But when the time had fully come, God sent his son.

Let’s consider the timing of Jesus' coming to earth. The Greeks and Romans had opened the door for trade and travel and the mixing of languages and cultures. The Jewish nation was about to be dispersed as their nation was destroyed for their rebellion, so this was the last opportunity for Jesus to come while the temple was still present and testify to the Jews in Israel with the temple and the synagogues and the traditions still in place. By 70 A.D., that was all gone. The timing of Jesus' coming gave the church time to solidify and grow first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria and then to the rest of the world.

When the Jews were attacked by the Romans and their culture was destroyed, the Romans also attacked the church, probably because the Romans viewed Christians as a sect of the hated Jews – which it was at the time. The persecution was used to spread the Gospel. First, the Gospel was preached in Jerusalem and Judea, then in Samaria, then out to the known limits of the world.

The Gospel and the church spread very quickly. Traders and merchants and slaves took the gospel on the trade routes throughout the known world. The Pax Romana enabled unrestricted travel and proliferation of the Gospel.

In addition to political and geographic timing, Jesus coming was at a crucial philosophical time. The Jewish faith was reacting to the influence of Greek thought from Socrates and Plato and Stoic philosophers. Jews learned Greek and translated the Old Testament into Greek, creating a ready ability for gentile Christians to understand Old Testament principles and history. Greek thinkers explored the ideas of one true God, of a natural created order and of universal values. These were all ideas used by the early church to help gentiles come to understand the one holy almighty eternal God of the Gospel. Thus, in every sense, the coming of Jesus was exactly at the right confluence of events for the maximum spread of the Gospel and the maximum growth of the church.