When John the Beloved recorded the Great Commission, he remembered the words of Jesus stating that He was sending the church into the world in the same way that the Father sent Him.
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (verses 20:19-23)
There may be many ways to interpret exactly what He meant by this statement, but I would like to suggest that we can find some powerful meaning for the wording by looking at Paul’s writings in Galatians 4:4-5:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Although these verses are packed with great theological truths, let’s limit our discussion to the one phrase, “in the fullness of time” because this phrase actually speaks of the way in which the Father sent His Son. Before we actually turn to the study of the concept of the fullness of time, I’d like to lay just a bit of groundwork. Why did God wait so long to provide a way of salvation for all mankind if He had a plan all along? While I can’t say that I have a real answer to that question, this verse helps us to understand that there was a specific season that the Father had in mind for His intervention in the human saga—a point in history when the times would have come to their fullness. Scriptures also indicate that He had this whole agenda orchestrated even before He created the earth. (Matthew 13:35, 25:34; John 17:24; Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 4:3; I Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8, 17:8)
When we look at the world condition at the time of Jesus, we see that so many factors came into perfect convergence at that one pinpoint in history. The Roman Empire, which ruled the world at that time, had imposed one political system throughout the civilized world—Pax Romana. This system allowed the countries under Rome’s control to exercise a certain amount of autonomy as long as they did not violate the general authority of the empire. One of the provisions of Pax Romana was free passage between the individual cities, states, and regions under Roman rule. There were no visas or passports required as travelers made their way through the empire. In addition, the Romans built the most elaborate road system known up until that time. This extensive roadway system connected even the most remote parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe in a network so expansive that the proverb, “All roads lead to Rome,” has endured to modern times. The superior quality of the construction technique of the Romans is evident today in roads and bridges that are still usable some twenty centuries later. I have personally ridden on two-thousand-year-old roads that are still in service in Israel and crossed a two-millennia-old bridge in Rome that today carries modern vehicular traffic safely from central Rome into the Vatican. God was waiting for the caesars to unify the nations and connect them with an outstanding transportation network, providing safe and dependable passage to the very ends of the world. Had He sent His Son before the rise of the Roman Empire, the possibility of the spread of the gospel to the far reaches of the globe would be hampered by lack of transportation and innumerable border restrictions. As it was, the gospel was able to spread rapidly because the Roman Empire had eliminated almost all such hindrances.
When Alexander the Great died in a drunken stupor in 323 BC, he was lamenting that at the age of thirty-three there were no more worlds for him to conquer. No other military or political leader in all of human history has ever made such a claim or left such a legacy of bringing the total civilized world under the control of one individual in a single lifetime. As his armies swept their way around the Mediterranean and into regions of India and Africa, one deposit they left behind was the Greek language. Every territory that came under their power was required to adopt Alexander’s tongue and become part of the unified language system he imposed. The genius of this language is that it is the most precise tongue ever spoken on the planet. With the intricate conjugation structure of the verbs and the elaborate declination system for the nouns, there is no question as to what a sentence is intended to say; the precise meaning of each statement is contained not only in the definitions of the specific words used but also in the forms in which those words are used. The Father used this uniquely fitted language to be the universal medium through which the message of His Son would be communicated. Even though Jesus did not personally speak the Greek language, those who recorded His sayings and documented His life took what they knew and communicated it with accuracy in Greek and then went forth to proclaim it in the one universally accepted tongue understood in all regions of the earth.
At the same time that Jesus was living on the planet, the entire world of religion was going through a state of flux. Even though Hinduism predates Christianity by almost a thousand years, it was in the same time frame that the Christian faith was spreading around the world that the Hindu religion was actually defining itself and codifying its teachings. Even though Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, lived some five hundred years before Jesus, it was only at the time of Christ that his teachings were being collected and organized. The religions of the Greeks and Romans were in the process of shifting from actual deity worship to a more philosophical interpretation as myth and legend rather than absolute factual interpretations. The Jewish faith as it had existed for centuries was also going through a major change so that the teachings of the rabbis rather than the Old Testament scriptures were actually becoming the measure of the faith. What the rabbis said about the scriptures became more authoritative than the scriptures themselves. It was at this exact period of history that such teachings were being recorded and preserved in the Talmud, Mishnah, and Midrash. God specifically timed the coming of His Son to be at a time when men all around the world from every form of religion were reevaluating what they really believed. Their hearts were ready and their souls were ripe for a new word from God—the Living Word. Both Jews and pagans were questioning what they had traditionally believed, and they were ready to respond quickly to the gospel. (Acts 6:7, 14:1, 19:27)
One other factor that figured into the rapid spread of the gospel is that God sent His Son just at the time of the great dispersion of the Jewish race from Israel. The Jews had already been scattered among all the nations of the earth to the point that the first century BC geographer Stabo said that there was no single place that had not received Jews. This spread of the race escalated with the Roman Empire’s conquest of Palestine and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in AD 70. At that time, the Jews were forcibly evicted in what has become known as the diaspora, or the dispersing of the race throughout the world. Because the Jewish faith and practice were essentially omnipresent, there was a ready platform upon which the Christian message could be presented around the world. Notice how the book of Acts repeatedly attests that the gospel was first introduced in the synagogues as it spread from city to city. (verses 13:14, 14:1, 16:13, 17:1, 17:10, 17:17, 18:4, 18:19, 18:26, 19:8, 22:19, 26:11) Paul clearly states that it was his deliberate plan of operation to go first to the Jewish community before moving to the gentiles. (Romans 1:16)
On another level, and likely the most important level, the Father was waiting to send His Son at the precise moment in which the message would be recorded with the unique quality that makes the New Testament truly the Word of God. Because of the unique timing of the coming of Jesus, it was years after His life, death, and resurrection that the gospels were written down. There were several reasons why people, particularly the Jews, did not write their life stories during the period of the early church. First of all, not much of anything was written down at that time because most of the learning in this period was oral since most of the people were illiterate. First Corinthians 1:26-27 confirms that not many of the early Christian believers were educated. In fact, it is only in recent history that education has become widely accessible, a reality that Daniel spoke of as a sign of the last days. (verse 12:4) Secondly, Jewish scholars were cautious about writing down their teachings for fear that they would be considered to be attempting to equate themselves with the prophets and their work which was written in the Bible. The Jews said, “The last prophet was Malachi, and there are not any prophets in the world today.” In addition, oral teaching was considered more noble than teaching communicated second-hand in written format. Scholars of the time said that the living voice was much richer. Memorizing and reciting the works of the ancients and the teachings of the contemporaries was considered an honorable activity. One of the contemporaries of Jesus boasted to have learned forty-eight books of Homer by memory. When a rabbi would give a teaching, the students would memorize it word-for-word. They memorized everything he was saying as he said it. After the class, two students would get together and quote the lessons back and forth to each other. If one of the students said one word different from the way the other one remembered it, they would stop and discuss the point until they both came into agreement of exactly what that rabbi said word-for-word. Another reason that the gospels were not immediately written down was because printing was very expensive. Until the invention of the printing press some fourteen hundred years later, books had to be handwritten one at a time. At the time of Jesus, it cost twenty to twenty-five denarii to transcribe one hundred stichoi (about sixteen syllables). To get a perspective on what that meant, we can turn to the story that Jesus told in Matthew chapter twenty where vineyard workers earned a denarus for a day’s wage. In other words, hiring a scribe was like hiring a highly skilled professional who got many times more than an average working man’s daily wage. Another factor that kept the early Christians from recording the gospel stories immediately was their belief that Jesus was coming back in the Second Coming almost immediately. They took certain statements of Jesus such as Matthew 16:28 and Matthew 10:23 to mean that He would return so soon that there was not any reason to make copies of his story when they could just repeat the message by word of mouth. They felt that it was a better use of their time to go out and proclaim the message rather than to take the time to sit down and write it out.
However, within a few years, things began to change. The church realized that they needed reading material for their church services. The first century church took its form of worship directly from the Jewish synagogue because most of the first-century Christians came from Jewish backgrounds. In the synagogue worship, one of the most important parts was the reading of the Torah, the Old Testament Law. Since the church followed the pattern of the Jew ceremony, they needed a written part of the scriptures to read. They would read the Old Testament, but they also wanted the teachings of the apostles and of Jesus Himself. As early as 67 AD, Justin Martyr referred to reading the letters of the apostles for such church functions. There was also a missionary intent behind the writing down of the gospels. Try to read the gospels through as though you had never heard the story before. Just sit down and read them like they are a new novel you just picked up at the bookstore. Do not think about all the sermons that you have heard about Jesus. As you read, you will become enthralled with the life of the man. You will want to know more and more about Him. You will find that He always demands you to make a decision. You will either say, “This guy is a lunatic. He’s absolutely crazy. He’s berserk!” or you will decide, “These people are liars to make up such erroneous lies about such a man!” or you will say, “He has to be Lord.” Out of the American Revolution grew the expression, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” It was this same reality that drove the early believers to take the time to record this sharper-than-a-two-edged-sword message. Additionally, the church needed a source for catechetical teachings. The Old Testament leaders set up landmarks so children could ask questions and receive instruction. (Joshua 4:6) In the Jewish sedar service each Passover, the Jewish children always ask questions of the elders for the purpose of instruction, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” Christians realized that they needed a similar codified way of prompting children to learn about the faith of their fathers. The gospels were to be for answering the questions raised about Jesus. Heresy among adults was just as important a factor as was inquisitiveness among children. The gospels were to guard against heresy that was developing in relationship to the life story of Jesus. The pseudepigrapha, or imitation gospels that began to be circulated at this period, was full of examples of fantasy stories that soon began to be circulated as if they were the true gospel stories. One other motivating factor was the need to establish a direct link to the men who personally knew Jesus. (I John 1:1) The church needed to establish a direct chain with as few links as possible between Jesus and the existing church; therefore, the gospels were recorded by apostles who directly knew Jesus or disciples of these apostles.
The result of this lag in the production of the written gospels was that when the written product did appear, it was reflective history inspired by the Holy Spirit rather than historical documentation of news events. Some people conceive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working in the gospel writers as though the authors were in a trance. Some view it like an instrument—as a man blowing a trumpet. These people believe that the gospel writers were like the trumpets and that they had nothing to do with what came out of them as the breath of God flowed through them. However, the inspiration was not of this nature as can be seen when we read through the different gospels. You’ll see that there are different points and different influences in each book. This is because of the human nature of the person who was writing. The same Word of God was given by each writer, yet you can tell characteristics of different personalities as they bring forth the message. The writers were writing about a historical event. They were the eyewitnesses who had seen it and experienced it, yet the Holy Spirit helped bring to their remembrance what went into the gospel at this point. (John 14:26) The Holy Spirit chose what was significant and gave the interpretation for it. To emphasize that one writer’s personality shows up here or there does not in any way detract from the fact that the Holy Spirit inspired it. The Holy Spirit did inspire it. There are no errors in the gospels because everything was Holy Spirit inspired. But because the gospels were not written the day after the events occurred, the accounts are not history in the sense of a newspaper report of an event. It is not like a television news reporter’s “on the spot” news. It is a spiritual understanding of the event, written years later by men who have had time to reflect and years for the Holy Spirit to quicken them to really know what that event was all about. If you think about something that happened to you years ago, you will only remember what that event was all about but not the minute details. God knew the exact moment in history to send His Son so that His story would be more than history; it would be the Word of God. The contemporary philosophy of oral as opposed to written teaching guaranteed that the gospel would not become a textbook history lesson, but a message of God’s mercy reported after years of reflection in the writer’s lives.
God sent His Son in the fullness of time when all aspects of politics, engineering, religion, and philosophy were totally lined up so that the message of the gospel would have the maximum impact in the shortest amount of time. Just as history was in the crosshairs when God sent His Son, Jesus sent His disciples out when all the conditions were exactly right for their success as well.
Two intriguing verses in the story of Jesus seem to focus on the concept that He entered human history at a very specific moment in time. In Luke 1:36 we read Gabriel’s message to Mary concerning the conception of John the Baptist. He mentions Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and says that she was called barren. Notice that he does not say that she was barren, only that people considered her so. The message behind the angel’s wording is that there was a specific time at which John the Baptist was to be born. Since he was to be the forerunner of Jesus, he could not be born until it was almost time for Jesus to come on the scene. Therefore, Elizabeth had to wait until an advanced age to give birth to him. In other words, even though she was not barren, she could not give birth until the fullness of time. The other intriguing verse is John 4:4 where it is recorded that Jesus “must needs pass through Samaria” on His way from Judaea to the Galilee. The truth is that He actually didn’t have to pass through Samaria at all. In fact, most Jews at this time in history had such animosity against the Samaritans that they avoided traveling through Samaria even though it was the most direct route between Judaea and the Galilee. They regularly traveled through the Jordan River Valley in order to bypass Samaria. Jesus could have easily followed this well-established route; however, there was something else at play in His decision that day. It was the fullness of time. There was a Samaritan woman who would be at the well at the exact time Jesus’ journey would bring Him to that exact spot. The Father knew that she would be there and that she would be ready to hear what Jesus would have to say to her. He also knew that she would become a catalyst to bring revival to the whole city. Because of that, the Father compelled the Son to take that specific route at that specific time. Convergence was destined because it was the fullness of time for the woman at the well and for the city of Samaria.
When we are sent out to take part in the Great Commission, we can be assured that He is orchestrating everything in His precise timing; there is nothing that will happen by accident or random luck. When the football team is in the huddle, the quarterback may tell one of the runners to go down the sideline and turn around when he reaches the twenty-yard line. That’s because he knows exactly what’s in his mind for the next play. If the other player will only follow the quarterback’s instructions, he will discover that just as he turns around at the twenty-yard line, the ball will be ready to fall into his arms. When it comes to the Great Commission, God has each play planned out in even more detail than the world’s best quarterback. When He says that He’s sending us, He has a doable plan in mind.