AT THE PROPER
TIME: de kairois idiois: (Da
8:23; 9:24, 25, 26 27; 10:1; 11:27; Hab 2:3; Acts 17:26; Ro 5:6; Gal
4:4; Eph 1:10; 1Ti 2:6; 2Ti 1:10)
"in His own
seasons" (Vine, Vincent)
"at his appointed season" (NIV)
"In
his own good time"
(Barclay)
"now at the right
time" (NLT)
"in its own due season" (Darby)
"now
in his own good time"
(TLB)
"And
[now] in His own appointed time"
(Amp)
This phrase (see below also) refers
to the seasons or periods appointed by God as appropriate for the
manifestation.
Crucial events in God’s program occur at His designated times in history as determined
by God in His perfect wisdom and omniscience. This was the time God intended and
His time is always the best time. All preceding ages had pointed to this "time".
God had not
previously fully revealed the plan of salvation in the Old Testament
time or "seasons". Believers then had a "hazy" idea of life after
death. But the vagueness disappeared with the coming of Jesus Who
“brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2Ti 1:10-note)
God caused
the Gospel to be
published in that time
in which it would have the greatest effect. The thought of the
incarnation taking place at the right moment in the history of the world
is a favorite thought with Paul (Acts 17:26; Ro 5:6; Gal 4:4; Ep 1:10). In Paul's first letter to Timothy he used the identical
phrase to describe
Christ's first coming to give
"Himself as a ransom for all, the
testimony borne at
the proper time" (1Ti 2:6)
Later in the same book
Paul writing about Christ's second coming describes it as the
"appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time--
He Who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of
lords" (1Ti 6:14, 15)
Proper (2398)
(idios) which refers to that
which is one’s own peculiar, private, unique possession.
Time
(2540)
(kairos
[word study]) refers to those strategic times in the
calendar of God during which events come to a culmination and ripen to
usher in a new age. Kairos which
refers to a season, a decisive epoch or a fixed, definitive period of
time when events are brought to a crisis.
Paul uses "kairos"
to describe our condition before Christ came as "still helpless"
but then "at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly."
Trench defines
kairos
as
“a critical, epoch-making period
foreordained of God when all that has been slowly, and often without
observation, ripening through long ages, is mature and comes to the
birth in grand decisive events, which constitute at once the close of
one period and the commencement of another.”
Since there is no good English equivalent to
kairos,
the essence of it's meaning can be somewhat difficult to grasp. Study
the following verses and see if you can discern the window of
opportunity aspect in each verse to help give you a "feel" for the
meaning of
kairos
(Mt
13:30, 21:34, Mk11:13,13:33, Lk 4:13,19:44, Lk 21:24, Ac 1:7, 17:26, 2Co
6:2, Gal 6:9, Eph 2:12, 2Th 2:6, Rev 1:3).
The following quote from Napoleon illustrates the idea inherent in
kairos:
“There is in the midst of every great battle a ten
to fifteen minute period that is the crucial point. Take that period and
you win the battle; lose it and you will be defeated.”
The word in
the proclamation
came into the world at "the
proper time" for 5 elements existed which facilitated the spread of the
Gospel
(1) Greek was spoken by nearly everyone for it was the language
of trade, commerce and literature. Thus most of the civilized pagan
world was bilingual and the missionaries had no major language barrier.
(2) There were no frontiers meaning that wherever the missionary
went, he was within the Roman Empire and did not need a passport, nor
was he held up at borders waiting for a visa to enter the country. Thus
the missionary could move about from one end of the known world to the
other without major hindrances.
(3) Travel albeit slow was easy (compared to prior ages) for the
Romans had built great roads from country to country and had, for the
most part, cleared the land of bandits and the sea of pirates.
(4) The first
century world was largely at peace, for the pax Romana
(the Roman peace) held sway and thus the missionary could move about within
the Roman Empire in relative safety.
(5) Finally as William Barclay notes the first century
was a
"world which was conscious of its needs. The old faiths had
broken down and the new philosophies were beyond the mind of simple
people. Men were looking, as Seneca said, ad salutem, towards
salvation. They were increasingly conscious of “their weakness in
necessary things.” They were searching for “a hand let down to lift them
up.” They were looking for “a peace, not of Caesar’s proclamation, but
of God’s.” There never was a time when the hearts of men were more open
to receive the message of salvation which the Christian missionaries
brought." (Barclay,
W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster
Press)
Barclay rightly concludes
"It was no accident
that Christianity came when it did. It came in God’s own time; all
history had been a preparation for it; and the circumstances were such
that the way was open for the tide to spread." (Ibid)
MANIFESTED
EVEN HIS WORD IN THE PROCLAMATION WITH WHICH I WAS ENTRUSTED: ephanerosen
(3SAAI) ...ton
logon autou en kerugmati ho episteuthen
(API): (Mk 13:10;
16:15; Acts 10:36; Ro 10:14 15; 15:19; 16:26; Eph 2:17; Eph 3:5; 3:6 3:7
3:8 Php 1:13; Col 1:6; 1:23 1Ti 2:5; Rev 14:16) (1Cor 9:17; 1Th 2:4; 1Ti
1:11; 2:7; 2Ti 1:11)
"he has made
his message evident through the preaching I was entrusted with"
(NET)
"he
has revealed this Good News and permits me to tell it to everyone"
(TLB)
"He
has made manifest (made known) His Word and revealed it as His message
through the preaching entrusted to me"
(Amp)
"he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted
to me" (NIV)
"He
clearly made known His Message in the preaching with which I was
entrusted"
(Weymouth)
"God let the world know about that life through
preaching. He trusted me with that work" (ICB)
"God
set forth his message plain for all to see in the proclamation with
which I have been entrusted"
(Barclay)
Manifested
(5319)
(phaneroo
[word study]) means to make visible that which has been hidden. God’s secret purposes in
salvation have in the preaching of the apostle been brought to light.
Phaneroo describes an external manifestation to the senses hence open to
all and means more than "to appear". A person may appear in a false
guise or without a disclosure of what he truly is but when he is "phaneroo"
he is revealed in his true character. By "His Word" Paul is not
referring to the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ as some
commentators suggest but is referring to the Gospel in which the promise
was embodied.
Word (3056)
(logos for in depth word study
click here)
Proclamation
(2782)
(kerugma
where
–ma means the result of <> from kerusso = to
proclaim or announce in public)
means not so much the act but the content or the result
of preaching, that which is cried by the herald (an
officer sent by a king or other high official to proclaim a message or
announce good news) or public crier. It can have such senses as “news,”
“declaration,” “decree,” “announcement,” etc.
In Classical Greek the kerux (noun from kerusso)
was a public servant of supreme power both in peace and in war, one who
summoned the ekklesia (1577)
(later used for the Church), the town gathering. The kerux
was the public crier and reader of state messages such as the conveyor
of a declaration of war or as well as the “publication” of honors or
victories.
TDNT adds that kerugma
"has a twofold sense like the word proclamation, signifying both the
result of proclamation (what is proclaimed) and the actual proclaiming.
In other words, it denotes both the act and the content. In many
cases it is hard to say where the emphasis falls." (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
Kerugma is used 8
times in the NT in the NASB (Mt;
Lk;
Ro;
1Co
3x;
2Ti;
Titus)
and is translated: message preached, 1; preaching, 5; proclamation, 2.
Kerugma is the
official message a herald would give on
behalf of the ruler or town council under whom he served.
In the NT kerugma is always used of the
public proclamation of God’s Word, which, as the apostle has just
pointed out, brings men to saving faith, builds them up in divine truth,
and strengthens them for godly living.
The most famous OT use of
kerugma (in the
Septuagint - LXX) is found
in Jonah where Jehovah addresses his reluctant "herald" and commands him
to
"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim (kerusso
- aorist imperative - do this now! conveys urgency) to it the
proclamation (kerugma) which I am going to tell you. 3 So Jonah
arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh
was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.4 Then Jonah began to
go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet
forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown. 5 Then the people of Nineveh
believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the
greatest to the least of them." (Jonah
3:2-5)
Although the full gospel truth had not yet been revealed in Jonah’s day,
Jesus said that it was through
“the preaching”
(kerugma) of that ancient prophet that “the men of Nineveh … repented”
(Mt 12:41).
God made known His eternal
purpose through the preaching of the gospel,
"for
since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to
know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached [kerugma]
to save those who believe." (1Cor 1:21).
It is for that reason that expository preaching —
preaching that systematically and thoroughly explains the meaning of
Scripture—is the only legitimate way to preach. The preacher’s
responsibility is not to create messages from his own wisdom or
cleverness or to manipulate or sway his listeners by means of his own
persuasiveness or charisma but to interpret, explain, and apply God’s
Word as clearly and completely as possible.
As Paul wrote to the Romans
"How
then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they
believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without
a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is
written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF
GOOD THINGS!" (see notes
Romans 10:14;
15)
Throughout
Paul's first imprisonment and trial in Rome he affirmed that...
“The
Lord stood with me (His Presence), and strengthened me (His Power),” Paul testified, “in order that
through me the proclamation [kerugma] might be fully
accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear” (note
2Ti 4:17).
Paul reminded
the Corinthians that his
“message and [his]
preaching [kerugma] were not in persuasive
(Persuasive, winning) words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of (intrinsic) power” (1Cor 2:4).
John MacArthur commenting on Paul's preaching methodology writes that
"Human
words of wisdom, no matter how impressive and persuasive, would have
robbed the gospel of its power. He saw no place for calculated theatrics
and techniques to manipulate response. Many have responded to an
emotional appeal, without a true knowledge and conviction of God. Paul
did not do that kind of preaching. He surely would have gotten a wider
and more receptive heating, but his hearers would have been left in
their sins and without a Savior. Some have said that the great preacher
Jonathan Edwards read his sermons so that he would not be guilty of
using human persuasive techniques to gain a response. He wanted only the
message to bring the results." (MacArthur,
J: 1Corinthians. Chicago: Moody Press)
At the beginning of Jesus' public
ministry His message was an exact echo of what John the Baptist
preached, Matthew recording that
"from that time Jesus began to
preach [kerugma] and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.” (Mt 4:17).
The Lord called His earliest followers
to
“proclaim
everywhere the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:60).
After Pentecost,
the apostles “kept right on teaching and preaching
(euaggelizo) Jesus as the Christ”
(Acts 5:42), just as the Lord had instructed (Acts 10:42).
Paul told Timothy
to “preach (kerusso) the Word” (2Ti 4:2, cf 4:3, 4:4).
ACCORDING TO
THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD OUR SAVIOR: kat epitagen tou soteros hemon theou:
(Titus 2:10; 2:13 Titus 3:4, 3:5, 3:6 Isa 12:2; 45:15;45:21 1Ti 1:1;
2:3; 4:10)
"by the order of
God our Saviour" (BBE)
"by
the royal command of God our Saviour" (Barclay)
Paul stresses the authoritativeness of the command.
Paul's ministry of the gospel was not a matter of his own choice, but
was divinely committed to him. No one has a right to regard what is
termed “the ministry” as a sort of profession which a person has to
choose as an alternative to another profession or occupation.
Proclamation of the gospel was a trust divinely committed to him and
which he was compelled to complete writing for example to the
Corinthians
"woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." (1Cor
9:16).
How all of us as God's servants need to be constrained by this sense of
inescapable responsibility. Spiritual
ministry is barren if it is not committed by God to him who engages in
it. In the final analysis ministry is not so much what we do for God but
what He does through those who are willing, sanctified vessels.
Savior
(4990)
(soter
[word study]) which describes God as
our Deliverer, Preserver, Protector,
Healer and the One Who rescues us from danger or destruction bringing us into state of
prosperity. So Paul received a special order from God Who conveyed the
trust of the Gospel message.
Soter - 24x
in 24v - Luke 1:47; 2:11; John 4:42; Acts 5:31; 13:23; Eph 5:23; Phil
3:20; 1 Tim 1:1; 2:3; 4:10; 2 Tim 1:10; Titus 1:3f; 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6; 2
Pet 1:1, 11; 2:20; 3:2, 18; 1 John 4:14; Jude 1:25
In his excellent book Toward an Exegetical Theology, Walter C. Kaiser
writes:
"It
is no secret that Christ’s Church is not at all in good health in many
places of the world. She has been languishing because she has been fed,
as the current line has it, “junk food”; all kinds of artificial
preservatives and all sorts of unnatural substitutes have been served up
to her. As a result, theological and Biblical malnutrition has afflicted
the very generation that has taken such giant steps to make sure its
physical health is not damaged by using foods or products that are
carcinogenic or otherwise harmful to their physical bodies.
Simultaneously, a worldwide spiritual famine resulting from the absence
of any genuine publication of the Word of God (Amos 8:11)
continues to run wild and almost unabated in most quarters of the
Church.
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981, page 7)
