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[0:00] Hello, my name is Pastor Tyler. I am the worship and tech pastor here at First Christian Church.! And I'm just so excited to be able to share with you the sermon that Jerry Holdman, one of our elders here at FCC, has prepared for you.

[0:12] Today on this special Sunday, we actually have our children's choir program. And Jerry has very graciously accepted the invitation to step in and actually give the sermon for our eight o'clock traditional service here at FCC this week.

[0:30] So you're in for a treat. You get to hear directly from Jerry here in just a moment. But I just want to invite you, if you are someone who would like some answers about who Jesus is, if you'd like to talk to somebody, you can call us at 812-663-8488.

[0:46] Or you can also email me at Tyler at FCCGreensburg.com or our lead pastor Ray at Ray at FCCGreensburg.com. But in any case, I am so happy to introduce you to Jerry Holdman.

[1:01] He's preaching this awesome sermon and your infantry, as I already mentioned. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Jerry. Good morning. My name is Jerry Holdman, and I'm preaching this Sunday on the topic of the birth of the king at the right time.

[1:20] And this is very interesting because the Bible tells about this someone who would be the king. And he would come and his kingdom would be in with him.

[1:36] Well, in Genesis 315, there's a curse that God gave to Satan.

[1:49] Whenever the woman was tempted to eat the fruit and she ate it and sinned, she disobeyed God. And he said to him, he said, you will bruise his heel, but he will crush your skull.

[2:10] Now that's not the King James Version, but that's what it means. And what that was a prophecy was that this special someone who was going to come, who would be able to redeem man from his sin, was going to be wounded.

[2:28] He was going to hurt his foot. And he did that when he died on the cross. But when he became alive again three days later and resurrected, he crushed the skull of the devil.

[2:44] And so the devil today is a defeated entity. He is not going to live forever except in the abode that God has planned for him called hell.

[2:59] Now there's another scripture that's very important. That is Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. And he says it this way. But when the time was fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

[3:24] So he gave a prophecy. That's the second prophecy. And this tells about a redeemer that would come to save them. And then there's a third scripture.

[3:36] And this is one that you learned when you were a child. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

[3:54] And so these scriptures are very important because these are four prophecy scriptures that tell about God's plan for the ages in a nutshell.

[4:06] The right time. The right time. Well, the first part I want to mention is that the right time is called the fullness of time in this text.

[4:17] Now, the fullness of time from the time God pronounced the promise of a redeemer in Genesis to the time when Jesus was born was about 4,000 years of recorded history.

[4:33] 4,000 years. 4,000 years. 4,000 years. 4,000 years. It was going to take some time. And so God said time has to be filled. And I want to in this message, talk about some of those things that indicate God's fullness.

[4:50] The first of all, the fullness of time was took a spiritual preparation. And that was done through the prophecies primarily.

[5:03] Well, I mean, there's 330 prophecies in the Old Testament prophesying about the Messiah, the Christ, the special someone who would be the redeemer.

[5:16] And in the book Science Books, Peter Stoner, who has much to say about mathematics, he's figured this out mathematically that the odds against one person fulfilling just eight of those 330 prophecies, just eight of them, are the number one with 17 zeros.

[5:45] And he rose behind it to one. And the way I figured it out, that means one quadrillion to one against that person being able to do it.

[5:57] So really, folks, it's just unreal. In fact, many people are hooked on the lottery. And they want to get a bunch of that money that's available at that time.

[6:12] But I don't know what the odds are on that. But the odds there are miniature, minuscule compared to these odds of prophecies coming true like this.

[6:24] Well, one is not only the prophecies, but the miracles were going to be performed. And in the Bible, there's basically three time periods when miracles happened.

[6:36] One of them was at the time of Moses, when he became the leader of the Jewish people out of bondage. Another time was the times of the prophets.

[6:47] And this is what seven, eight hundred years before Jesus was born. And the third time for miracles was with Jesus and the beginnings of the church.

[6:58] So those are some things that would indicate that this is so important. Now, also, mankind had a problem.

[7:10] He had to realize what sin was. He knew it was disobedience to God, obviously. But he had to realize how exceedingly sinful it is.

[7:23] That it's terrible to commit a sin. Because sin cannot exist in the presence of God. God is a holy God. And if we want to be with God, we have to be holy.

[7:37] And that's why we have the blood of Christ, folks. That's what the blood of Christ does. It takes away our sins. And so we have to live that life as best we can, relying on the holiness of Jesus Christ to take us of our sins.

[7:54] Also, people need to understand some religious terms. A religious vocabulary had to be developed. I mean, words like forgiveness, salvation, redemption, atonement.

[8:13] I mean, these scriptures are in the Old Testament. And these were scriptures that taught what God would do with the special someone that he sent. The special someone would be anointed.

[8:28] And they called him the Messiah. They called him the Christ. And we called him Jesus, our Savior. So that's the fullness of time was reached.

[8:41] And it took, like I said, about 4,000 years of recorded history. Well, there's also the physical preparation. Now that was the spiritual preparation.

[8:53] But physically, things had to happen. For instance, the world was left to its own devices to prove that it couldn't save itself.

[9:04] It could not do that. And so there was good things that happened in culture. There was art. There was things that were nice.

[9:16] But there was also violence. And there was war. In fact, you can trace human history with the wars that have been fought. I didn't realize that until just recently, you know.

[9:30] But you go back and you think of the Greeks and the Romans and all the people in the centuries before that. They were fighting continually. There were wars all going on.

[9:41] It was violence. The world left its own devices. It was on a road to destruction. Well, pagan religions developed. They were spraying out of misusing God's plan.

[9:57] And people started worshiping idols. And in their worship of idols, they went into all kinds of gross immorality. And so with all of that, pagan religions did not satisfy.

[10:10] People could not find real meaning to life. And even the Jews, whenever they had the time of whenever being punished for the Jews, they were being punished for their disobedience.

[10:21] And they were in bondage. They went and they were away from the temple. And they realized how important it was that they had some center, some place to go to learn the things of God and learn about the law.

[10:35] And so they developed what they were called synagogues. And the word synagogue simply means to come together to teach.

[10:46] So it was a place for them to come together to learn and keep alive the God's law in their minds. And civilization, well, we look back on civilization.

[10:58] We look back on the Romans and the Greeks and those centuries. And they developed great things with the arts, culture, a lot of things that really developed. But they did not satisfy.

[11:13] Except one way that I think stands out is Roman law. Whenever Jesus was born, the Romans ruled the world.

[11:26] And Roman law was strong and it was powerful. But people who were Roman citizens had special privileges. And the Apostle Paul just happened to be a Roman citizen as well as a Jewish man.

[11:41] And so when he got converted and became a Christian and became a missionary and he went traveling all over Asia Minor. Whenever he would go to a city, the first place he went was the synagogue, the local synagogue, because it was open.

[11:58] And part of their service, they ask anybody that has some words of encouragement to come and give them. And so he popped right up and he'd give them the gospel of Christ. He preached to them.

[12:10] And churches were established in cities at that time. Well, the right time for events for the coming of the king are fulfilled in the gospel accounts.

[12:21] And the advent events confirm that that right person came at the right time. Well, we call it Christmas time.

[12:34] Whenever Jesus made his appearance into the world. And he was born, as the Bible said, born of a virgin. He was born and he grew up. And before he grew up, he had angels and he had a unique birth.

[12:49] And he had the early years. And the wise men even came to visit him. And these things were all part of that coming of this Messiah, of this someone who would take away the sins of the people.

[13:03] Now, the combined results of his whole life just overwhelm us. I mean, folks, you think of the revelation of God's nature. Jesus pictured it.

[13:17] Jesus was what it was all about. The love of God. The grace of God. The peace of God. The sacrifice for sin. The way of salvation.

[13:28] The resurrection from the dead. The promise of the future. I mean, we could go on and on. Naming the blessings that we have today because of Jesus.

[13:40] This special one. This one who came to take away our sins. And thirdly, the right time reveals the eternal purpose of Jesus the King.

[13:54] The human race is the reason that Jesus came to be our King. To be our Savior. To be our Redeemer. The only way for redemption is by the power of that King.

[14:10] That one who lived the perfect life. Who fulfilled the prophecies. Who was the body of our Savior. He prepared for the establishment of his kingdom.

[14:25] He had men picked. That were his disciples. And they were to go on and carry on his work after he was gone. After he did his redeeming work here on the earth.

[14:38] And he did that when he died on the cross. Just like the Bible said. In fact, as we talk about the prophets. If you want to read some very interesting things.

[14:50] Read Isaiah chapter 53. That chapter. Just that chapter. Is sometimes called the Gospel of Isaiah. Now it was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

[15:07] But it reads like Isaiah was right there. Seeing it. God revealed that to him. That great prophecy. Well, he prepared for the establishment of his kingdom.

[15:21] And then he ascended back into heaven. He went back to be with God. And he went. As he left. He gave the promise of returning again.

[15:33] In fact, as he ascended into heaven. That's one thing that the people standing there. His disciples were there. And they were staring just gawking up into heaven. And all of a sudden two men stood by him in white apparel.

[15:46] And they said, The same Jesus who you see leave. Is going to return. So you go back. And you will be find out what you're supposed to do.

[15:57] And so they went back. Jesus ascended into heaven. And then the great thing happened on the day of Pentecost. Now that was a Jewish feast day.

[16:08] And so the town was crowded with Jewish people. And they were there to remember the Passover. And that was something they did on an annual basis.

[16:19] And this is how they kept alive their Jewish faith in so many ways. But as they were gathered there. The apostles had been together for 40 days.

[16:34] And they had been talking with Jesus. And Jesus told them, Well, you wait. And so they went there after he ascended into heaven. And on the day of Pentecost, it says they were all in one place. And the big crowd was there.

[16:46] And then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit came. They received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And it says they began speaking in other languages.

[16:57] And the people at the time, they said, Well, these guys, they're drunk. They've been drinking too much. And he said, No, it's only 9 o'clock in the morning. Nobody gets drunk that early. This is that.

[17:09] And he talked about what Jesus had done. He preached the first gospel sermon. That was Peter, one of the apostles. And when he got done preaching, he got up to the end of the sermon.

[17:22] And he said, This same Jesus who you crucified has become Lord and Christ. Lord and the Messiah. And the people cried out, What shall we do?

[17:34] And Peter told them. He said, You've got to repent of your sin. You've got to repent of your sin. You've got to be immersed into Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

[17:46] And the scriptures say that that same day, 3,000 people obeyed. And the church began. And so this is a part of what him returning to come back then.

[18:00] But he's going to return and come back again today for us. He will come. And until that time, we carry on the same work that the apostles were given to do.

[18:15] And that is to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone. And to give them, to let them know that God wants them to be saved.

[18:28] He wants them to be with him forever in heaven. And so whenever we talk about that, we say, You must have faith. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

[18:41] And so this is one thing that we do. We meet together in the church. And we exercise our faith and our trust and our belief in God. He says we have to repent of our sins.

[18:53] Yeah, we know we're sinners. We know we've done wrong. The scripture says all of them have sinned and cost short of the glory of God. And that all includes you and it includes me.

[19:04] But he says there was a way to take care of that. And he says whenever you repent of your sins and you confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and you're immersed in him for the remission of sins, you are joining the ranks of the redeemed.

[19:23] The reason that Jesus came in the first place was to save you. And so as I come to the end of this sermon, I mean, he started his kingdom on the day of Pentecost.

[19:38] And today his kingdom is here on earth. But it's not finished. It's unfinished, folks. The church is not complete until Jesus returns on that glorious day whenever everything is wound up and eternity begins.

[20:01] And so right now we have a little taste of the kingdom in the church. But we're going to have the whole glorious meal that he has prepared for us when he comes again.

[20:16] And so I have to say there's a great day coming. You know, when I was growing up in our church, in our hymnal, we had a song that we sang every once in a while.

[20:29] And I think it kind of states, it puts it all together. What the purpose of Jesus was doing, what the king coming at the right time was all about. And I'm not going to sing the song for you.

[20:42] You'll be glad about that. But I am going to read the song. There's a great day coming. There's a great day coming. There's a great day coming by and by.

[20:55] When the saints and the sinners will be parted right and left. Are you ready for that day to come? There's a bright day coming.

[21:07] A bright day coming. There's a bright day coming by and by. But his brightness shall only come to them that love the Lord. Are you ready for that day to come?

[21:20] And then the third verse. There's a sad day coming. There's a sad day coming. There's a sad day coming by and by. When the sinner shall hear his doom.

[21:34] Depart. I know you not. Are you ready for that day to come? You can make that decision today.

[21:45]  And I pray God that you will. God bless you.