History Of The Church
Lesson 3: “In The Fullness Of Time”

Speaker: John Phillis
Date: June 23^rd and 30th, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class

In our previous lessons, we have seen how that the church has always been a part of God’s divine plan—it has always been in the mind of God, and He has always had a key role for the church in the salvation of mankind. The church was foreseen in prophecy in the long ago. Prophets such as Daniel and Isaiah and Joel and others, all prophesied in regard to this coming kingdom, to the church that would come.

We saw as well that Jesus, during His earthly ministry, promised to build His church, Matthew 16:18, and that it would come to pass even in that generation, Mark 9:1.

Then we saw that all of these things came together and they were fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. This was the first Pentecost following the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in the long ago. And all of these things came to pass in the city of Jerusalem, just as it had been prophesied by Isaiah. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles with power, and Peter confirmed that this event, which the people were witnessing there in Jerusalem on that occasion, was what the prophet Joel had prophesied concerning, Joel 2:28.

And it came to pass, then, as Peter preached the first Gospel sermon, that three thousand souls responded and they were baptized for the remission, for the forgiveness, of their sins. The infant church had its beginning. We see that the Lord continued to add daily those who were being saved, adding them to His church, Acts 2:47.

We’ve also noted that this church, this church which was promised, which came to pass and was built, was built on none other than Christ Jesus. He is the foundation of the church, the church that belongs to Christ. His church was built upon the very fact, the very acknowledgement, that He IS the Son of God, that He IS the Christ, THE Christ, the Son of God, Matthew 16:16-18. And any organization, any structure, any institution, claiming to be “the church,” which is not built upon Christ is NOT the church. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 3:11. It is the church that belongs to Christ. It is the church that is identified by His Name, and His Name ONLY.

That is what we have accomplished in our two previous lessons. In this lesson, I want to do a little bit more “spade work.” We’re not going to go back and repeat and revisit these things, but we do have, maybe, more “spade work” to do.

Go to Galatians, chapter 4. I want us to notice something there that Paul writes in Galatians 4:4: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law….” Here is a passage of Scripture that is laden with information. It is overflowing with information that is important to us. Now, of course, specifically, what Paul has in view here is the coming of Christ at just the right time. At just the right moment in history God brought forth His Son, born of a woman. That is what is specifically in view. However, there are some other things which are in view here, as well.

Included in this broader implication is, specifically, the coming of the church, because we can look at that as almost being synonymous with the coming of Christ. Also, included is the spread of Christianity. There again, that is synonymous with the coming of Christ, with the establishment of the church—all of those things go together.

So, we want to spend some time in this lesson thinking about what this expression means—“…when the fullness of time had come,”—“In the Fullness of Time.”

Again, I will mention something that I mentioned in Lesson 1, and that is the notion that many have, and have had through the generations and even have now, that the church was simply an afterthought of God, that God’s original plan was to send Jesus into the midst of His Own people, that He would be embraced, that He would set up an earthly kingdom and He would reign over that earthly kingdom on the literal throne of David in the city of Jerusalem. However, He was rejected, He was killed. And so, God had to hurriedly put together a plan, an interim plan, and the original plan to bring the kingdom, to establish that earthly reign, is now sometime in the future.

Well, we debunked that idea, that notion, in our first lesson, because, once again, we went back and looked at all of the Old Testament prophecy concerning the establishment of the church. Everything that God does, He does according to His divine timetable. Regardless of what that is, God has a plan in mind. God has a purpose in mind, and He is going to make things happen according that plan and that purpose.

But there were some other things that were taking place in history, as well. And on God’s Own divine timetable, all of these things came together at just the right moment in time, at just the right moment in history, leading up to the birth of Jesus, eventually the establishing of the church, the spread of Christianity, and so on.

Many factors had to be brought together. The establishing of the church was not just an arbitrary thing. It wasn’t one of those things where God “threw a dart into the big dartboard in the sky” and, well, it just happened to hit on this particular time. No, there were many, many factors which all worked together in human history and in the providential oversight of God to make it just the right time when the church was established. God was working to prepare the soil, so to speak. He was working to prepare the ground so that all of these things would work out just as He had planned for them to do. In summation, the church of Christ came upon the scene according to God’s divine timetable, when everything had been properly prepared.