God’s Perfect Timing

God is the master planner of Creation and the resurrection of Jesus is a great example of God’s perfect timing.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Downloads and Links

Watch the video of this teaching at https://www.celllifechurch.tv/gods-perfect-timing/ or on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/ZJJM0l4gOKU

Introduction

He is risen! He is risen indeed! That was the traditional first-century greeting between believers and has become a traditional Easter greeting. Happy Easter! The most important holiday on the Christian calendar. It is the Sunday following Passover that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is His resurrection that gives us hope eternally that what He teaches is true and He will return for us, just as He has promised, in God’s perfect timing.

Timing is a very important thing. We need to be sure to be focused on God’s perfect timing for things in our lives. God is the master planner and knows when each part of his plan is ready to be implemented. Imagine a builder who is building a house with a few apprentices and other workers. The builder has the building plans and everyone else must rely on him to share the part of the plan they need to accomplish their task.

The plumber needs to know where piping needs to go and the electrician needs to know where to run wire for lights and power outlets. But imagine if the electrician is there before the walls are put up. Imagine if the carpenters are there before the concrete is poured for the foundation. Timing is important and as we look at God’s plan for humanity we see we need God’s perfect timing.

We’re going to look at Luke 24: 46-49 and talk about God’s perfect timing today. Let’s read that passage.

Luke 24:46-49

(46)  He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,  (47)  and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  (48)  You are witnesses of these things.  (49)  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Let’s break that passage down as we talk about God’s perfect timing.

God’s Timing is Exact

The first aspect of God’s perfect timing is that it is exact. God is the master planner of all Creation. The universe works because God planned it and set it in motion. We read in the creation account in Genesis that God set the sun and moon in the sky and set the earth to rotate around the sun all to give us night and day along with the seasons. Timing is important. If it were not, God would not have given us these things to measure time by.

Jesus quotes the Old Testament prophets when he says, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” The lesson here is not that Jesus was in the grave for three days and then raised from the dead. What is important here is that for hundreds of years, God had foretold that the Messiah would suffer and be raised on the third day.

God consistently follows the plan he put into motion thousands of years ago and does not contradict himself in it. We must follow the same. We must know what we are doing, and more importantly, when we are doing it. We cannot work in our own timing. All we do must be done in God’s timing, not our own.

God’s perfect timing is necessary to also spread the gospel.

The World Was Ready

Jesus’ entry into the world, ministry, death, and resurrection was timed perfectly. God had set everything in motion for the world to have the best chance of knowing the Messiah and responding to him accordingly. God used man’s devices to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. The Greeks had spread a common language and the Romans had created fairly safe passage and travel throughout the known world. This was the perfect time for the Messiah to come, die, and be raised for the salvation of all people forever.

If Jesus had come before a common language or ease of travel, the gospel may not have taken root and spread the way it did. But God knew the perfect time to send his son for the ultimate ministry; the salvation of mankind.

In our passage Jesus goes on to say, “repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” In verse 47. John the Baptist prepared people to hear Jesus’ simple message of salvation through grace in love and forgiveness. Salvation had to come from God’s chosen people according to the prophets and John prepared Israel to hear and experience the Messiah before the rest of the world.

After Jesus’ resurrection, he tells his disciples that repentance and forgiveness will be preached to all nations in his name. That is part of what we are doing today. We believe God has chosen another perfect time to further spread the gospel of Jesus Christ with another great crossroads of perfect timing.

This video is reaching you and can be understood by many people because, over the last 300 years, the British spread the English language around the globe. It is said that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire. The good from that is that the English language is understood around the world. The second great thing is the Internet. The Internet was created in the last 40 years to first link universities together, then commerce. The internet has become the information superhighway.

God uses these two things to further spread the good news of Jesus Christ to places not reachable any other way. I think of all the countries where it is illegal to preach Jesus, yet every day or every week people from some of these places can watch our videos on YouTube or our website.

The world was ready for Jesus 2000 years ago, and the world is ready again for the gospel to be preached to even more. It is important to wait for God’s perfect timing, though.

Waiting on God

The difficult thing to do as Christians is to wait on God. Jesus gives this final instruction to his disciples found in verse 49, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” It is so easy to get excited about what God is doing in your life. Human nature sees what others are doing in and with their faith and then we desire to do the same. Our sinful nature battles our faith in Christ.

We see many people with good intentions wanting to head out and plant a church or build an orphanage or school, but they have not been called by God or been prepared yet for that. We are all susceptible to getting ahead of things. We all want to do many things for God. But we must wait for God to call us and prepare us. If we do something God has not called us to do, we do it under our own power and we are going to fail.

We cannot do anything for God under our own power. Acts 1:7-8 says:

Acts 1:7-8

(7)  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  (8)  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.“

We must listen to Jesus’ instructions before he ascended to Heaven. We must wait for the Holy Spirit to equip us and empower us to do what God calls us to do, in the way he asks us to do it. It is God’s plan, God’s way, in God’s perfect timing. Nothing else will work.

God has not even shared when Jesus’ triumphal return to us will happen with Jesus. Jesus is waiting for God to send him back to us. We must wait on God, too, and cannot go out in our own power.

Conclusion

God’s timing is perfect. We only need to trust Him and do what He tells us to do, when He tells us to do it, and how He tells us to do it. When we operate within the power of the Lord in his perfect timing, there is nothing that can stop us. The devil’s schemes cannot overcome God’s perfect timing.

We are all called to minister to others. We are all called to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. The timing and method of doing that is special for each one of us. Some are called to stand in front of large crowds and make their living by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Others are called to and empowered to share with a handful of people in their small sphere of influence and help them learn to serve others throughout their whole life. The important thing is to not get ahead of God’s perfect timing and to only do what God has called and empowered you to do. God is the one with the plans for creation and humanity and his timing is perfect.

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