Hawaii 4 – The Greatest Promise

[music]Uh, good evening everybody.>> I just want to avoid the possibility offeedback while I'm standing up here.[clears throat] What a beautiful weekit's been. Yes, this has been my firstever week in Hawaii. Uh my wife and Ihave been truly blessed to get to meetsome wonderfully warm people uh umbeautiful friendships and see thebeautiful nature that God has blessedyou with here. I'd like to say thankyou, brother Danny, for that beautifulsong pointing us to that beautiful daywhen uh the dead in Christ will risefirst. Thank you for sharing that songwith us tonight.

And so uh so far we'vehad what three nights is it so fartogether. Uh the first night we werelooking at uh the prophecy of Daniel 2which tells us that God is in control ofthe flow of history. Can you say amen tothat?>> And there is a coming kingdom and Godwants everybody to be a part of thatkingdom regardless of the passport theyhold on this planet. We can all havecitizenship in heaven above. And then onthe second night we saw the the realitywe call it Star Wars that there's astruggle going on between Christ andSatan.

And Christ has never lost abattle with Satan. And he's willing tobe your champion if you ask him to fightyour battles for you. And uh then theother the third night we looked at lastnight, how do we protect ourselves fromthe attacks of Satan? So tonight I'mgoing to kind of shift gears somewhat.I'm going to talk about what I considerto be perhaps the most um profoundprophecy in all of the Old Testament.And it's a prophecy about the coming ofthe Messiah and what the Messiah wasgoing to do when he came. And so um[clears throat] uh let me ask you aquestion.

Um are promises important toyou?Yes. When somebody makes a promise, youyou you have to rely upon that promise.You know, when I asked my wife to marryher, she had to decide whether shetrusted me before she said yes to me.All right?And so, uh, when you accept a promise,you have to accept that the personmaking the promise is trustworthy andtheir words can be trusted and you canbelieve what they're going to say. So,tonight we're going to look at perhapsthe most important promise ever made.That's going to be an outline of ourjourney here this evening. And here's avery famous promise made by an Americanpresident, made by Lyndon B. Johnson in1964.This was just before he opened thefloodgates of sending American soldiersto Vietnam.

And what he said to theAmerican public was, "We are not aboutto ascend American boys 9,000 or 10,000miles away from home to do what Asianboys ought to be doing for themselves."That was 1964.And shortly thereafter, he sent uh many,many thousands of American soldiers intoVietnam. Maybe the most famous promisemade by a politician, at least in mylifetime, was this one here. Read mylips, no new taxes. And so, of course,we know that didn't quite work out sowell for President George H. Bush.

But,uh, in the Garden of Eden, this promisewas made. God said to the serpent, toSatan, God said, "I will put enmitybetween you and the woman and betweenyour offspring and hers, and I willstrike your head, and you will strikehis heel." So, if a serpent strikes youon the heel, does it kill younecessarily?No, it doesn't. But if you strike aserpent on the head, what happens to theserpent?>> It's going to die. So in the garden ofEden, there was a promise that God wouldsend a redeemer to save humanity fromthe problem of sin. And not only to savehumanity, but to deal with Satan as thesource of all human suffering.

So we'regoing to look at maybe the mostimpressive promise that there is in theOld Testament tonight, Old Testament,and ask ourselves, how does this applyto us? And as we begin, I invite you tobow your heads with me and invite thepresence of the Holy Spirit. Our dearheavenly father, we thank you for theblessings of life. We thank you for thepromise of eternal life. We thank youthat the Sabbath hours are now upon us,a day of rest, a day of worship, a daywhen we can reconnect with you.

Father,as we step into these sacred hours and asanctuary of time, I pray that the voicewe hear tonight will be the voice ofyour Holy Spirit speaking to each of ourhearts, bringing us conviction for howwe are to live our lives and bringing usjoy and bringing us to the place ofworship as we realize just what theMessiah means for each one of us. So,thank you, Father, for hearing thisprayer. Please speak through me and forme. In the name of Jesus, I ask. Amen.All right.

So, let's go back to the umthis [clears throat] promise that wefind in the Old Testament. Now, this isthe Ishtar Gate of Babylon. And thisthis is an artist's impression. But ifyou actually go to the German city ofBerlin into the Berlin Museum, theyactually carried brick by brick thisgate from ancient Babylon to Germanyover 100 years ago. And the Ishtar Gate,as it's known, was literally covered inblue glazed bricks.

and they've rebuiltit brick by brick in Berlin. And if youwant a great place to go for a holiday,I'd recommend the Berlin Museum. Um, andyou just see the Ishtar Gates ofBabylon. So, these artists impressionsaren't that far off what it was reallylike. And we're going to pick up thestory in the year 538 BC.

And this isthe prophet Daniel speaking. And he saysthis in the first year of Das son ofAhazerasum I Daniel perceived in the books thenumber of years that according to thethe Lord to the the word of the Lord tothe prophet Jeremiah must be fulfilledfor the devastation of Jerusalem namelyhow many years?70 years. All right. So what prophecywas Daniel reading? Daniel was readingfrom this prophecy that you now see onthe screen.

Jeremiah was a prophet whowas a contemporary of Daniel. WhenDaniel was in Babylon, Jeremiah was backwith the the Jewish the remnants inJerusalem. And Ezekiel, the thirdprophet, was with the captives out inthe fields of Babylon. So God had threeprophets at the same time at the time ofthe Babylonian captivity. Now become aruin and a waste.

And these nationsshall serve the king of Babylon and thatnation, the land of the Calaldanss, fortheir iniquity, says the Lord. So why isDaniel reading this prophecy? Well, themath is simply this. Nebuchadnezzarcaptured Daniel in 6 Jerusalem in 605BC. That's when he took Daniel captive.And this chapter Daniel 9 is written in538 BC, which means Daniel has been incaptivity for 67 years.And there's a prophecy that after sevenum um country house every week and theydo these Irish jigs and my grandma inher 80s and 90s would do this um countrydancing and she was the hospital theysaid Mrs.

Hill they said would you likea walking frame and she said a walkingframe? She says what do you think I amold? Well she had a certain spirit toher. So Daniel, you might say had acertain spirit to him and he's now inhis early 80s. The 70 years are almostup and Daniel is no doubt thinking,maybe when the 70 years are up, I canget to go back to my homeland, the landof my birth.

I can go back to Jerusalemand see it one last time before I die.So Daniel is personally invested in thisprophecy of Jeremiahand he's praying about this[clears throat] and God sends a prophetGabriel to give Daniel as the text says,"I've now come out to give you wisdomand understanding." And what the prophetGabriel gives to Daniel is not an answerto Daniel's unspoken question, which is,"Am I going to go back to Jerusalembefore I die?" As it happens, he neverdoes. But the prophet Gabriel gives hima prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.And this is what the prophet ga theangel Gabriel says to Daniel. Gabrielsays, "70 weeks are decreed for yourpeople and your holy city to finish atransgression, to put an end to sin, toatone for iniquity, to bring ineverlasting righteousness, to seal bothvision and profit, and to anoint a mostholy place." And that's the summary ofthe prophecy. There's a few more detailswe'll get into in a few more minutes,but this is the summary of the prophecyhere. So, how are we going to understandthis?

Well, the first thing is let'slook at the time element. And when welook at um these apocalyptic prophecies,there is something called the yeardayprinciple, which means that a literalday um um in in prophetic terms is ayear as we experience it today. Andthere are two verses in the OldTestament that establish the yeardayprinciple in prophecy. The first is inEzekiel 4:6. 40 days I assigned to you,one day for each what year.

And thenafter the spies came back from Canaan inNumbers 12 14:34,and God says to them, according to thenumber of days in which you spied outthe land, 40 days, for every day a year,you shall bear your iniquity, 40 years,and you shall know my displeasure. Sothere is a principle in the OldTestament prophecies that a day equals ayear. So if you come back to thisprophecy of Daniel 9, it starts out witha time period. It says 70 weeks. And soat the bottom I' I've can put someexplanatory notes there.

70 weeks is 77sbecause there are seven days in a week.So 77s is 490.And so 490 days of prophetic time equals490 years of human time. You followingme on this so far everybody? That's 490years. Now the prophecy is divided intothree couplets in the Hebrew. There's uhthere's A, B, and C in the prophecy.

Thefirst part of the prophecy, the firstcouplet is on the screen. It says this,to finish transgression and to put anend to sin. What does this mean? ThatGod was charging the Jewish people um toput away sin and develop a righteoussociety. And God was giving them 490years to take care of the sin withintheir society.You know, if God is God is patient,he doesn't work in four-year electioncycles.He gives his people 490 years to gettheir spiritual house in order.

Thesecond um the second of these parts ofthe Hebrew poetry, it says this, andthis is God's responsibility, it is toatone for iniquity and to bring ineverlasting righteousness. So if thefirst phrase to finish transgression andput an end to sin was the responsibilityof God's people, the Jews, the secondpart is this is what God is going to do.God is going to atone for iniquity andto bring in everlasting righteousnesssometime during these this 70 yearperiod or 490 years which was actuallythe coming of Christ. And Hebrews 9:26talks about the coming of Christ. And itsays, "But as it is, he that is Jesushas appeared once for all at the end ofthe age to remove sin by the sacrificeof himself." And so this is how Godatones for iniquity by sending theMessiah. And the third couplet um twoactions in this prophecy.

So the firstcouplet number one on the screen is theresponsibility of God's people. Thesecond couplet is responsibility of Godhimself. And the third couplet which isto seal both vision and prophet and toanoint the most holy place. That is thethat is the result. If if the first twothings are complete, if God's peopletake care of their side of the bargainand God takes care of his side of thebargain, then the outcome for this willbe the sealing up of both vision andprophet or prophecy and to anoint a mostholy place.

And uh this actuallyhappened in the time of Steven. Stevenwas um he spoke to the Jewish Sanhedrin3 and a half years after the death ofChrist. Um they were so upset with himthey put their fingers in their ears.They nashed their teeth and they rushedat him and they dragged him outside thecity walls and they stoned him to death.And he was the last of the prophets ofthe Jewish people. And from that momenton, God's prophets and apostles went tothe entire world, Jews and Gentiles,rather than primarily being up untilthen to the Jewish people. And theanointing, the most holy place, um thatwould refer to when Christ ascended toheaven.

Um the he inaugurated the highpriestly ministry in heaven abovebecause there was no earthly tabernacleleft after AD.70 when the Romansdestroyed Jerusalem.So the prophecy gives us a summary sofar and then it goes into a time elementand this is a time element here. It saysknow therefore and understand from thetime that the word went out to restoreand rebuild Jerusalem until the time ofan anointed the word in Hebrew isMessiah. The anointed prince. Messiah wesay in English is the Messiah. So thatfrom the time to the command to rebuildand restore Jerusalem until the time ofthe Messiah prince, that's when thethat's when the prophecy begins.

Soaccording to this uh this prophecy,there's a 490ear period and it beginswith a command to restore and rebuildJerusalem. And if you do yourarchaeology and you know your history,you know that in the book of Ezra, thereare three commands given. The first isin Ezra chapter 1:es 2 and 4. That waswhen Cyrus the Great sent the Jews backto Jerusalem. But he didn't send themback to rebuild the city.

He sent themback to rebuild the temple. So thatdoesn't meet the criteria. The seconddecree that we find in Ezra 6 um was adecree from the Persian Emperor Das I in520 BC and that was again emphasizing Ineed you to rebuild the temple. Sothat's not the starting point for theprophecy. But the starting point for theprophecy is in Ezra chapter 7 where thePersian emperor Artiserxesgave the command to rebuild the city,not just the temple.

So the startingpoint for the 490-year prophecy is in457 BC that was the time for the commandto rebuild and to restore Jerusalem. Areyou all with me on this so far? Somebodysay yes out there. Yes. All right.

So,and then the prophecy says, "Until thetime of an anointed prince, that meansthe Messiah prince, there shall be sevenweeks, and for 62 weeks it shall bebuilt again with streets and moat, butin a troubled time." So, this means thatin this verse here, there's two timeelements. There's seven weeks andthere's um 62 weeks. And if you add 7weeks and 62 weeks, those are the timeelements. That's 69 weeks. And 69 weekstime 7 days is 483 prophetic days or 483literal years.

So you say, well, is thatwhat happened in history? And well,would you believe it? That's exactlywhat happened. Because if you take thestarting point of the prophecy of thecommand to rebuild and restoreJerusalem, which was 457 BC, and you add483 literal years to it, what do youget?27 AD. That would be the time for thecoming of the Messiah prince.

So this isa prophecy given actually about 500years before the coming of Christ. Andit says that the coming of the Messiahprince will be in AD27.Now,I hope I know what's going to happentomorrow.I'm going to get up. I'm going to go tochurch. I'm going to preach. Going tocome home, then come here.

Going topreach again. That's what my day lookslike tomorrow. That's what I hope isgoing to happen, but I don't know it'sgoing to happen. I trust God that itwill happen, but I know for certain it'sgoing to happen. But this prophecy, itsays um almost 500 years out from thefrom 538 BC when Daniel receives thisvision that go all the way forward to 27AD.

That will be the year that theMessiah prince will arrive. So let's askourselves the question, what year didJesus begin his ministry?27 AD. And how do we know that? Well, inLuke's Gospel chapter 3, it starts outwith a bunch of historical detail. Andwhen I was a kid, I would read this andmy eyes would just glaze over.

I say,why did Luke give us all this historicalinformation? says, "In the 15th year ofthe reign of Emperor Tiberius, whenPontius Pilate was governor of Judea,and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and hisbrother Philip, ruler of the region ofIta and Trachonitis, and Lysanius, theruler of Abene during the highpriesthood of Annus and Caiaphas. Theword of God came to John the son ofZachariah in the wilderness, that isJohn the Baptist. And he went into allthe region around the Jordan proclaiminga baptism of repentance and for theforgiveness of sins. And in thischapter, he goes on to baptize Jesus.So, how do we know that this event, thebaptism of Jesus, took place in AD27,which is exactly when the prophecy saidthat Jesus will be baptized?

Well, ifyou noticed all the bits of red on thescreen, those are historical figures,and we know when they ruled.So in those days they didn't haveregular calendars like we have today butum they would say you were born in thecertain year um of the reign of acertain king. So let's say that you wereborn in February 2009 hypotheticallywasn't that um when was President BarackObama inaugurated as a president?January 2009.>> Yes. So if you were born in February2009, you would say back in those days,I was born in the first year ofPresident Obama.And if you were born in 9, 10, 11, 12, 12 3 4. If you were born in 2014,October, you were born in the eighthyear of President Obama.Is that right? I hope so.

Um, if youwere born and and so forth. And so whatthey would do is your birth date wascalculated by what year the king sat onthe throne of your country. And whatLuke is doing us here because he's ahistorian, he's wanting to pin downexactly the year that Jesus was baptizedto show that the baptism of Jesus in 8happened in AD27 in exact fulfillment ofthe prophecy of Daniel 9. And so thefirst detail he gives is emperorTiberius and it says John the Baptistwas baptizing says in the 15th year ofEmperor Tiberius and Emperor Tiberiuswas the co-regent the co-ruler of theRoman Empire from 12 AD. So if you add15 years to the year 12 AD what do youget?

You get 27 AD. And so the apostleat Luke, he includes all this historicaldetail. So if you lived in Judea, youknew when Pontius Pilate was governor.And when you lived in Galilee, you knewwhen Herod was the ruler. And if youlived in Ita and Trackitis, you knewwhen Philip was the ruler. And if youlived in Abalene, you knew when Lyseniuswas the ruler and so forth.

Andessentially, Luke is doing atriangulation.He's putting lots of historicalreference points. And when all of thesehistorical reference points are takeninto account, this tells us that Jesuswas baptized in the fall of AD27exactly on time according to the 490earprophecy of the prophet Daniel. That'spretty amazing, isn't it?>> That's pretty amazing that Jesus came asthe Apostle Paul said to the church ofGalatia, in the fullness of time, Godsent his son. So the prophecy tells us483 years in advance to the to the theseason of the year when Jesus was goingto begin his ministry.But [clears throat] if the 20 if the um70th week began the last week of that490ear prophecy, if the last seven yearsbegan in AD27,that means that they finished in AD.34.Does that does that make sense? Add 7years to 27, what do you get?

34. I knowit's Friday night, okay? I know ourbrains are tired, but work with me onthis, okay? Normally on Friday night, mybrain is like mush. All right?

Andthere's no intelligent thought going onup there. And so my wife knows not toask me a hard question on Friday nightsbecause she's just going to get a blankstare in response. But um just work withme on this. So if the if the final sevenweeks or 7 days or 7 years started inAD27 that means that the 490ear prophecythe end of the 70th week is in AD.34.And what happens in AD.34?The stoning of Steven.Now [clears throat] does the book ofActs chapter 8 tell us that Steven wasstoned in AD.34?No, it doesn't. So, how can we figureout the year that Steven was stoned?

Wehave to a bit of um like um it's like ajigsaw puzzle working through heretonight. When Steven was stoned, who waspresent there holding the coats of themen who were killing Steven?>> Saul who became Paul. So, the stoning ofSteven happens just before the Paulmeets Jesus on the road to Damascus.Okay, we know that from Acts chapter 8.And Paul meets Jesus on the road toDamascus in Acts chapter 9. So[clears throat] Paul was present at thestoning of Steven. And the stoning ofSteven happened just before Paul'sconversion on the road to Damascus.

Sothen you want to know, well, when wasthe road to Damascus experience? Whatyear did that take place in? Becausethat's the key to the jigsaw puzzle.Well, you have to look at the book ofGalatians. And Paul is speakingautobiographically about his life. Andin Galatians 1:18Paul says this after 3 years that isafter his conversion I did go up toJerusalem to visit Cphus that is Peterand stayed with him 15 days.

So Paul'sfirst visit to Jerusalem after meetingChrist on the road to Damascuswas 3 years after his conversion.Then his second visit to Jerusalem hereferences in Galatians 2 verse one hesays then after 14 years I went up againto Jerusalem with Barnabas. So thesecond visit to Jerusalem was 17 yearsafter his conversion. Are you followingme on this? It's 17 years. Now[clears throat] on in the secondmissionary journey of Paul in Actschapter 18 we read this verse here.

Itsays when Gallo was the proconsul orgovernor of Aaya that is ancient Greecethe Jews made an attack on Paul andbrought him before the tribunal.Now Gallalo was the Roman governor ofGreece in 51 AD. We know that from Romanrecords and archaeology.And that second missionary journey tookplace 17 years after Paul's conversion.So if Paul met Gallo on the secondmissionary journey as the governor ofGreece in AD51 and that's 17 years afterhis conversion, you take away 17 from 51and what do you get? AD 30. That'sexactly at the end of the final week ofthe 490ear prophecy. It's prettyamazing, isn't it?

How how God just laysout the future in advance. And this iswhy when Christ was born, there were somany people claiming to be the Messiah.Because in Judaism, people understoodthis prophecy. In fact, there were somany people claiming to be the Messiahthat when the wise men came from theeast following the star of Bethlehem,they come to Jerusalem and they say tothe chief priests, "Where is he that isborn king of the Jews?" They said,"Well, the prophet says in Bethlehem."The prophet Micah says that in Micah 5.and and Bethlehem is 3 mi walk fromJerusalem.And you think, well, why didn't thechief priest just walk three miles tosee if this was the Messiah? Becausethere were so many people claiming to bethe Messiah because people understoodthis time prophecy.So Jesus was uh his ministry beganexactly on time.What would happen in the middle of that70th week?The prophecy goes on to say this. Afterthe 62 weeks, that is in the middle ofthe 70th week because you got 9 and 62.So after the 62 weeks, the anointed oneor the Messiah shall be cut off andshall have nothing.That idiom to be cut off means he'sgoing to be killed.

And that phrase andshall have nothing can either betranslated in the Hebrew as he will havenothing that is he died in poverty or itcan be translated there shall be nobodyfor him which means he died rejected byhis people. And either one of thoseinterpretationsapplies to the death of Jesus Christ. Hedied in poverty. He was betrayed byJudas. He was denied by Peter.

And theother disciples fled when Jesus wasarrested. and they went and hid in anupper room of Jerusalem. The story sothe text tells us that the Messiah wouldbe killed in the 70th week between 27 ADand 34 AD. He would die in poverty andhe would be rejected by men. But the theprophecy gives you a bit morespecificity about the time.

We're goingto come to that in a few minutes. Thenit says, "And the troops or the peopleof the prince who is to come shalldestroy the city and the sanctuary. Itsend shall come with a flood and to theend there shall be war. Desolations aredecreed. So what is this verse talkingabout?

Um is the prince who is to comethe Roman generals who destroyedJerusalem or is the prince of this worldof this verse the messiah prince who isto come. Well when you look at um Daniel9:25the Hebrew speaks about the messian nagthat is the anointed one that is theruler that is Jesus. In chapter chapter9:26A, the first half of that verse, itspeaks about just the Messiah or theMessiah, the anointed one that isChrist. And in 9:26B, it refers to justthe the ruler or the prince. And again,it's referring to Jesus Christ.

So thispassage here, and the troops or thepeople, the prince who is to come shalldestroy the city in the sanctuary. We'retalking about God's own people becauseof their failure to develop a righteoussociety. Because of their failure to putaway sin from the midst of themselves,because of their failure to to um todevelop the level of righteousness thatGod wanted among his people and live inharmony with the law of God. Soultimately the people of the prince whenthey rejected the Messiah when Jesuscame that ultimately led to thedestruction of Jerusalem by Rome inAD.70.In the passage, the prophecy goes on tosay, "He shall confirm a strong covenantwith many for one week." So this is the70th week of the prophecy. This ishappening from AD 27 when Jesus wasbaptized to AD.34 when Steven, the lastof the prophets of the people of Israel,when he was stoned.

And then the textgoes on to say, "And in the midst of the70th week, he shall cause sacrifice andthe ablation to cease."What is this telling us?It's telling us that in the middle ofthe 70th week,the Messiah is going to cause allsacrifices to come to a complete end.If the 70th week began in AD 27 in thefall and you add three and a half yearsto that because that's halfway throughseven, you get to spring AD.31.And what happened in spring AD31?That was the crucifixion of Christ. Sothe prophecy says, and in the midst ofthe 70th week, we're in the middle ofthat week, that's three and a half yearsinto that final seven seven-yearprophecy, the Messiah, he's going todie. He'll die like die in poverty. He'sgoing to there'll be nobody for him.He'll be rejected by his people. And itsays he shall cause the sacrifice andthe ablation to cease.

That is thetemple services are going to come to anend when Jesus dies on the cross ofCalvary. Now, this is pretty impressivestuff. 490 years before it happened. DGod gives Daniel a prophecy that saysthe Messiah is going to be born in AD 20be baptized in the fall of AD27 and 3and a half years later of his ministryhe's going to be killed or cut off inpoverty and rejected by his people andwhen he dies he's going to cause thesacrificial system in the tabernacle tocome to a complete end. Like I struggleto know what's going to happen tomorrow.This tells me that God is in control ofhistory.He is in control of history and heinvites us to allow him to be the Lordof our lives because God does no harm tohis children.When Christ died on the cross of Calvaryas Jesus cried again with a loud voiceand breathed his last, at that momentthe curtain of the temple was torn intwo from top to bottom.

Now that templecurtain was about five stories high. Itwas like a curtain as you know higherthan this here. It was not cut withhuman hands. The text says it was cutfrom top to bottom which means that Godhimself cut that temple uh that curtain.And when the temple curtain was cut inhalf behind the temple curtain wherethere should have been the shikinaglory. The shikina glory is like thisfiery presence of God himself over thethe the the ark of the covenant.

Whatthe priests saw when the temple curtainwas taken away was that the shikinaglory was gone. The sacrificial systemhad come to an end. God was no longerdwelling among his people, which was thewhole reason why they built thetabernacle and the temple in the firstplace. And so from that moment on, theJewish priests and rulers knew that eventhough they went through the religiousrituals of the Jewish religious year ofPassover and tabernacles and and firstfruits and all the sanctuary festivalsthat they had, they all knew that thetemple had been torn aside by God andthe the presence of God was no longerpresent in that temple.And they kept it going all the waythrough to AD.70 knowing that the systemhad basically ceased.They were so invested in their ritualsand their forms of religion that theactual meaning had disappeared.And the final verse of this prophecysays this, "Upon the wing of abominationshall come the desolator until the endthat is decreed is poured out on him."And I'm not going to go through all theHebrew of this tonight,but we interpret this as the Romans,they brought their abominations, theirpagan standards. They brought it toJerusalem.

They besieged the city inAD66.Then they withdrew and the Christiansall escaped from Jerusalem because theyaccepted the warnings of Jesus inMatthew 24. And then the Romans cameback and they built some walls aroundthe city of Jerusalem. And they foughtfor two years to beat down the walls ofJerusalem. And when they finally gotinto Jerusalem, they burnt the temple tothe ground. And it's estimated that twomillion people lost their lives in thatsiege.And they sold so many slaves in theslave markets of Alexandria.

They wereselling them in batches of 30because they had to get rid of so manypeople Romans as they conqueredJerusalem and wanted to destroyJerusalem forever more. What you see onthe slide there is a summary of thistime prophecy. You see there that fromthis a 490ear prophecy of Daniel9:24-27.And it starts with a command to rebuildand restore Jerusalem until the time ofthe Messiah prince is going to be 7 and62 weeks or 483 days. So from 457 BC to27 AD is exactly 483 years. And then inthat final seven years, that final week,um halfway through it, the Messiah wasgoing to be cut off.

He would die a lifeof poverty. He would die rejected bymen. He would cause sacrifice to come toan end because his was the once and forall sacrifice for humanity. And but Godwould still be merciful to the Jewishpeople and he would still send theapostles to them. And finally Steven andwhen Steven was stoned by the Jewishruling council, the Sanhedrin from thatmoment on the gospel went to theGentiles.

And you see on the screenthere um a kind of a schematic of howthis prophecy works out. This is anamazing prophecy.Like if you want to know, does God knowthe future? Absolutely he does.So, we're not going to look at any otherprophecies here tonight or uh maybemaybe through this series together, butthere are plenty of prophecies aboutwhat God wants to do for his peopleand they're pretty beautiful. They'reamazing. What God wants for you, whatGod wants for me, we can trust himbecause we see the fulfillment of theseprophecies um throughout history.

If youwant to summarize this Daniel 9 prophecyof the Messiah, you see it on the screenthere. In Daniel 9:24 part C says theMessiah would make a great atonement forthe sins of the world. Somebody say amento that. And Daniel 9:24D, it says theMessiah's atonement would bring ineverlasting righteousness. Praise Godfor that.

In Daniel 9:24 part E says theheavenly sanctuary will be anointed whenChrist ascended to heaven after hisearthly ministry and he started hisheavenly high priestly ministry. InDaniel 9:25 says the Messiah would beginhis ministry in 27 AD after his baptismby John the Baptist. Daniel 9:26 thefirst part A says the Messiah would bekilled. The second part of 9:26 sayshe'll be rejected at his death and diein poverty. 927A says the Messiah wouldmake a final offer of mercy within theold covenant, the Mosaic covenant to theJewish people for another three and ahalf years, the apostles and thenSteven.

And in 9:27, it says the Messiahwould bring the sacrificial system to anend through his once and for allsacrifice in AD.31,Passover AD31, right slam back in themiddle of the 70th week of thisprophecy. It's an amazing prophecy,brothers and sisters.Are you wonder if God is in control theflow of history? We saw it in genericdetail in in Daniel chapter 2 on ouropening night. And this prophecy tellsus that God's plans, God's purposes,God's intent is was very precise. Godwas going to send his son as the Messiahwith one purpose and one purpose only tosave me and to save you.We read John 3:16, "For God so loved theworld that he gave his only begotten sonthat whosoever believeth in him shouldnot perish but have what?

Everlastinglife." And the next verse says, "Indeed,God did not send his son into the worldto condemn the world, but that throughhim the world might be what? Saved." Andso God's purpose in sending the Messiahand giving us these prophecies so we canpinpoint exactly how and when and whereand what was going to happen in theministry of Jesus Christ. It was allgiven for one purpose that throughbelieving in the Messiah we might haveeternal life.And that is why in Revelation chapter 5,[clears throat] it says, "Worthy is thelamb that was slaughtered to receivepower and wealth and wisdom and mightand honor and glory and blessing."And so we sit here tonight[clears throat]and we say, "Well, what does this meanfor us today?"So I want to talk aboutthe invitation.Why is this significant for us today?Well, the New Testament says this. ForChrist, for our Passover lamb, Christhas been sacrificed.Jesus died during the Passover festival.He died as the Passover lamb of God thatcame to take away the sins of the world.And so the Bible describes the death ofChrist in terms of the Passover storywhen God led the Israelite slaves out ofslavery in Egypt out to the promisedland under the leadership of Moses. Andmany of you are familiar with the storyhow the Jewish people were enslaved andtheir baby boys were being thrown intothe Nile to kill them off and they wereforced to build the storehouses ofancient Egypt.

And we know we know wherethose storehouses are today. Rammesesand Python. And uh we read the story ofhow a little a mother a Jewish motherhid her baby boy in the rushes in a bullrushes in a little um uh little basket.And the and the Egyptian princess foundthat baby boy and she suspected it was aJewish boy and she saved that baby boyand she called him Moses because shesays, "I have drawn him out of thewater." and how that baby boygrew up to be a prince of Egypt. Andthen he became a shepherd in the Arabianwilderness and how God spoke to him fromthe fiery bush and he said, "I'm goingto send you back to is to Egypt and Iwant you to set my people free and leadthem to freedom in the promised land."And how Moses went back to Pharaoh. Andthe Pharaoh of the Exodus was a powerfulPharaoh.

Um, and he was not going to letthose slaves go. And every time that Godbrought a a plague upon Egypt, Pharaohwould say, "Okay, I'll let the peoplego." And then when the plague stopped,Pharaoh would say, "Oh, no. You're notgoing." And so there was this back andforth between God and Pharaoh. This is apicture of the first plague. The waterof the Nile turned into blood.

Uh, oneof the other plagues was the land wasfilled with frogs. Another of theplagues was that um um God sent hailupon the land and it destroyed all thestanding crops. And finally, God led thepeople out through the Red Sea when theywere trapped by the Egyptian army. Manyof us are very familiar with this story.This is the story that was the the thethe inspiration for the for the um thethe Negro spirituals of the Americandeep south when they were living underslavery. It was the story of the Exodusthat inspired the African-Americanslaves in the deep south of America.

Andmany of their negro spirituals are basedon the story of Moses and how God ledhis people out of slavery. But in themiddle of that story,you have this scene here,and it's the [clears throat] night ofthe Passover. And this was the 10th andfinal plague on Egypt. And God said toPharaoh, said, "Okay, if you're notgoing to let my people go, then tonightthe angel of the Lord is going to passover the land of Egypt, and he's goingto slay the firstborn in every child,every firstborn in every home in theland." And so Moses, so you will knowthe power of God. And so God said toMoses, "Tell the Israelites there totake a lamb and they had to sacrificethe lamb.

They had to collect the bloodof the lamb and they had to put the theblood of the lamb on the doorposts andthe lintils of their homes. They're toblot out whatever's on the doorpost andthe lintils. And when the angel of deathpasses over, then the angel of deathwill not slay the the firstborn of thatchild because they have faith in theMessiah of God.And so we ask ourselves,why did Moses tell them to put the bloodon the lintil of the doors and thedoorposts? Why not on the door itself?Why did Moses tell him to put the bloodon the lintils and on the doors?There's a reason for it. A veryparticular reason.[clears throat] You know of the Egyptianmummies.

Yes.Well, the Egyptians believe that if youwere to live in the afterlife, fivethings had to survive.The first thing they believed had tosurvive was your shadow because they shthey believed the shadow never liedabout you.I guess it's true. You may kid yourselfwhen you look in the mirror, but whenyou see the sun shining down on theground, it's altogether a differentview.The shadow doesn't lie. The the ancientEgyptians in the book of the dead, asthey called it, spoke about the car. Thecar was the life force similar to thebreath of life of Genesis 2. And thatlife force was supposed to dwell withinthe mummified body in the tomb.

and whoeats the food offerings that were leftwith the deceased person when they wereburied. Then there was what theEgyptians called the bar. Those were thecharacter traits of the individual andthey would leave the body at night andthey'd roam the area around. Then they'dcome back to the body at night beforethe morning. Then you had the physicalbody.

The body had to be preserved forthat person to live into the afterlife.So they would take out all the internalorgans and they would um put them intojars of clay. They had mixed them with asalty mineral that pickled the body.They then smothered the body in linenbang bandages and they dorbed it withresin, beeswax or bumen. And the Persianword for bumen because they had bumenback there is mamia. That's where we getthe word mummy from because they werecovered with bumen. That's how theypreserved and intombed those bodies thatwere all wrapped up there.

And then themost important thing if you wanted tosurvive in the afterlife was your namehad to be recorded.That's why in Exodus chapter 1, it saysPharaoh was trying to kill all theHebrew boys, but it doesn't givePharaoh's name because as far as Mosesis concerned, Moses Pharaoh isn't goingto survive into the afterlife. He's awicked man. But we do get the names ofthe Hebrew midwives who saved the boys.Moses gives us their names, but doesn'tgive us the name of Pharaoh because asfar as Moses is concerned, those womenare worthy of the the afterlife, but notPharaoh himself. And so in the ancientEgyptian world, if you ever heavy go toEgypt today, there were certain kingsthat put their names everywhere acrossEgypt. They chiseled their names on thetops of cliffs.

They chisel their nameson on on obelisks. They chisel theirnames on the pyramids. They put theirnames in in the valley of the kings andthe underground tombs. There werecertain kings and queens who were sodesperate to survive into the afterlife,they chiseled their names everywhere.And there was one famous queencalled Hatchepsut. Maybe you've heard ofher.Her son hated her.And when she died, he became Pharaoh.He sent stonemasons all across the landof Egypt, chiseling out her namewherever they could find it.

He waserasing his wife, his mother's memory,erasing her name from Egypt so that shewould die in the afterlife. That's howthe Egyptians viewed the importance ofthe name. Well, again, why did Mosestell them to put the blood on the doorlintils and on the and on the doorposts?Well, it's simply this. The the Hebrewswere slaves. Their homes were mostlymade of mud, but we know fromarchaeology that there was one thingmade of stone in the Egyptian in theIsraelite homes, and it was thedoorposts and the door lintils.Everything else was made of mud.

Andwhen the Nile flooded every year, thehomes would be washed away. They'd haveto rebuild them. But the thing thatwould survive was the doorpost, thedoorframe.And the Egyp the Israelites at the timeof Moses were basically pagan. And manyof them had chiseled their names ontothe doorposts and the door lintils.They' adopted the pagan beliefs that iftheir names were written somewhere, theywere going to survive in the Egyptianafterlife.So Moses says to them, "This is the acidtest of your trust in the lamb of God toguarantee you eternal life." He says, "Iwant you to blot out your names on thedoor lintils and the doorposts with theblood of the lamb."So your name's no longer visible.And when you blot out th your names onthe door lintils and the doorposts,you're saying to the world, you'resaying to the Egyptians and you'resaying to God, we trust the blood of thelamb of God for our eternal salvationand not the Egyptian gods. It was theacid test of faith.

If you put yourblood, the blood of the lamb aroundthose doorposts, you expressing faiththat the lamb of God was the guaranteeof your eternal life, not the pagan godsof Egypt. And so the Israelites, theyall blotted out their names with thelamb's blood.None of them perished that night. EveryEgyptian home lost their firstborn.But in that process of the Exodus story,God was inviting the Israelites to showin a tangible way their rejection of thegods of Egypt and their trust in thelamb of God for eternal life.putting the blood of the Passover lambon the lintils and doorposts, smearingout the names of themselves and theirchildren was the acid test of theirtrust in God for eternal life.So why am I talking about this?Because even today in 2026,it matters where your name is written.My name, all of our names are ongovernment databases. social security,driver's licenses,passports, maybe the patent office,maybe your name is in a criminal justicesystem somewhere on some database. Idon't know.

But there is one place whereyou do want your name to be written. Thebook of Revelation says this, "Anyonenot found written in the book of lifewas cast into the fire." Revelation 3:5speaks about the lamb's book of life. Itsays, "If you conquer, you will beclothed like them in white robes, and Iwill not blot out your name out of thebook of life. I will confess your namebefore my father and before his angels."This book in Revelation is referred toin Revelation 21:27as the lamb's book of life.It matters where your name is written.It matters where your name is written.The prophecy of Daniel 9 was fulfilledum it was given in 538 BC and it foundan exact fulfillment exactly on time inAD27 the baptism of Christ um springAD31 the crucifixion of Christ and AD.34the the stoning of Steven and the gospelgoes to the Gentiles. That prophecytells us that God is in control ofhistory.That his Messiah, what his Messiah wasgoing to do, the Messiah came on time inthe fullness of time.

And he died onCalvary exactly as foretold in prophecyin order to cause sacrifice to come to acomplete end because the ultimatesacrifice for my sins and your sons hadbeen paid once and for all.And that lamb of God that takes away thesin of the world,he has the book of life in heaven above.And it matters where your name iswritten.I have two minutes left.I need to bring this home.Your name is written in many places.We can't stop that as we go throughlife. But what really matters is whetheryour name is in the lamb's book of lifeor not.You can't control where the governmentput you into what databases. Buteverybody here has a choice. Everybodyhere can make a choice tonight that theywill accept the sacrifice of the lamb ofGod on Calvary who came exactly on timein the fullness of time in the rightplace. And he died in the fullness oftime at the right time.

and he died forme and for you in order that my name andyour name might be in the Lamb's book oflife.It's an amazing prophecy. Daniel 9. AndI don't want you to go home tonight andsay, "Yeah, that's an amazing prophecy."And just get on with life. I want toinvite you to think about this. Theseprophecies are given so that we maybelieve that Jesus is the Messiah ofGod.

and that through believing in himas Jesus said to doubting Thomas, wemight have eternal life.We've saw we saw last night that Jesushas authority over Satan and he canfight the battles against Satan that wecannot fight. We see tonight that Jesuspaid the penalty for my sin and foryours. He did a once and for allsacrifice and if we accept his sacrificeon our behalf, we have the promise ofeternal life with him.So, if you want the lamb of God, if youwant Jesus to make sure that your nameis in the lamb's book of life, maybe youwant to raise your hand tonight. It's alamb's book of eternal life. It's notjust life today.

It's not just lifetomorrow. The lamb's book of life is theregister. And everybody who's to receiveeternal life is found in that book. Soif you want to be if you want your nameto be the lamb's book of life and youwant to accept the death of the Messiahforetold over hundreds of years in greatprecision you want to say that his deathisn't just historical curiosity but itwas for me personally may just raiseyour hand tonight and praise God andpraise God you know I gave my life toJesus when I was 13 years of age it wasthe best decision I ever made in my lifeand he's done me no harm calm all theyears I followed him and whatever lifethrows at me and some of you know I'msaying through a particular storm in mylife right now I don't worry about thosestorms because if my name is in thelamb's book of life I'm going to livefor eternity and this life and all itstroubles is but the blink of an eyeletbut when you know and you have theassurance of eternal life of the lamb ofGod who loved us and handed himself overfor us then today's problems fade intoinsignificance and God gives gives you apeace in your heart that this worldcannot give you, you cannot buy, andmore importantly, this world cannot takeaway from us.So, next Sabbath, I'm hoping and prayingwe have a baptism.I'm hoping and praying that we're goingto have people saying, "I'm going tofollow the Lamb of God. I'm going tofollow him wherever he leads.

I'm goingto follow him what through whatever lifethrows at me because if I follow thelamb of God who is the good shepherd, hewill lead me ultimately by still watersand green pastures. And one day in the23rd Psalm, if I follow the goodshepherd, I will dwell in the house ofthe Lord forever, which means I willreceive eternal life.Life is too short to mess around withthese questions of eternal significance.So, if you're interested in baptism,we're going to talk about baptism maybeSunday night. But if you're interestedin in going through the waters ofbaptism, I'd invite you to speak to meor brother Doug or pastor uh that'sstanding at the back there waving hishand. Um speak to us tonight, speak tous tomorrow, maybe on Sunday as well.And we want to talk with you about whatit means to follow Jesus through thewaters of baptism and have our names putin the Lamb's Book of Life. Jesus'promise in Mark 16:16 is this.

He thatbelieveth and is baptized shall besaved. And it's a simple promise. Andnobody can undo that promise of theMessiah to you or to me. So I invite youto bow your heads with me now. We'regoing to close this evening with a aprayer, a prayer of consecration.

And aswe go through these Sabbath hours, Iwant to invite you to be thinking aboutthese questions. Do I want my name inthe Lamb's Book of Life? And if so, um,am I willing to follow Jesus through thewaters of baptism? Let's bow our headsand close with a word of prayer.Our heavenly father,we thank you for this incredible promiseof the coming of the Messiah.Father, given over 500 years before itcame about,we thank you, Father, that you are theLord of history. You're in control ofthe passage of time.And you did not send your son into theworld to condemn the world, but thateveryone in Maui might be saved throughfaith in him.Tonight, Father, we've heard[clears throat] the story of theMessiah.We've seen the significance of theblood.And I pray, Father, that everyone whosehead is bowed here tonight, that eachand every one of us will respond infaith and say that Jesus of Nazareth isnot just a historical figure for me, buthe's my Savior and he's my Lord and he'smy good shepherd and he's my sooncomingSavior.

And I pray Lord that everyonewhose head is bowed here tonight thatour names and those of our loved onesand our family members and our childrenand our parents that all the names ofthose who are near and dear to each oneof us will be found on the lamb in thelamb's book of life when Jesus comesagain. And Jesus, when you come again inthe clouds of glory, we humbly ask,please come looking for me. And pleasecome looking for every head head that isbowed here tonight. In your name, wehumbly ask. Amen.Amen.

So, tomorrow morning, we have aregular church service at the CalvaryChapel down in Kihei. Uh the Bible studystarts at 9:30. Everybody's welcome tocome to