When the Time had Fully Come (the Birth of Jesus Christ)

Galatians
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Galatians 4:1-5
December 15, 2024

Sermon Notes

Galatians 4:1-5, NIV: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

Galatians 4:1-5, ESV: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Outline:

1. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

  • The Father behind the Christmas story

  • God moved toward us

2. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

  • Doctrine of the Holy Trinity

  • Relationship of love

  • Relationship of likeness

  • The self-existent Son

3. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

4. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

  • God sent His Son when He alone knew the time was perfect

  • God sent His Son when the means were in place to spread the good news

  • God sent His Son when the felt need for Him had ripened

  • God sent His Son when the time had fully come

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

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