Cut Off 2025
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Title
I’ve had the privilege of witnessing two solar eclipses; one in August, 2017 and the other in May, 2024. Solar eclipses are an incredible experience that you simply have to be there to understand. For those of you who haven’t experienced one, the best way to help you understand it is probably through the experience of Dr. Derek Muller who recorded his experience during the 2017 total eclipse. I’ve truncated his video a tiny bit. If you’d like to watch the whole thing you can find it on the Veritasium youtube channel.
video
eclipse
Did you notice how the sky got dark and there was a 360 degree sunrise look? The air temperature drops by 10 to 20 degrees. But unlike at sunset, during a total eclipse the sun disappears rapidly as the shadow of the moon passes over the earth at a rate of 1,000 miles per hour.
path of totality
Not everyone on the earth can see a total solar eclipse. What you see on the screen is the 2024 total eclipse that my family was able to see from Thompsonville, Illinois. You have to be in the path of totality which is only around 100 miles wide and 10,000 miles long. If you’re outside that area and you didn’t know an eclipse was happening, then you wouldn’t see anything different than any other normal day.
Its critical that you’re in the right place at the right time.
In Galatians 4:4 Paul used a similar phrase to describe Jesus. He said,
…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…
Have you ever noticed all the time references around Jesus’ birth?
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In Luke 2:1-2 we find that Ceasar Augustus was doing a census of the empire
In Matthew 2:1 we’re told that Jesus was born in the days of Herod the king, who ruled in Judea until his death in 4 BC.
In Luke 3:1-2 we find that Jesus’ cousin who was six months older than Jesus was conceived in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, and that Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea at the time.
Luke 3:21-23 tells us that Jesus was about 30 years old when he was baptized.
What does time have to do with the story of Jesus?
Just like the solar eclipse has a specific place and time, the Messiah was prophesied to come to a specific place at a specific time.
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That’s what Daniel 9 is all about.
Remember that apocalyptic prophecy is chiefly concerned with God’s plan to save humanity from rebellion and evil. So far we’ve been talking about Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome and the Papacy. These nations have impacted God’s people in significant ways, and God’s promise is that there will be judgment. But what will save us from that same judgment?
Right in the middle of all of this talk about kingdoms and judgment, God introduced Daniel to the promise of the anointed one—that’s what Messiah means—and gave him a very specific timeline.
Let’s turn to the last verse of Daniel 8 to lead us into the Daniel 9 story.
The angel wraps up the Daniel 8 vision by saying,
The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”
I love this little synopsis because it ensures we can’t just assume a quick fulfillment, and it reminds us that the important stuff that’s happening here is about time.
After the vision of Daniel 8, Daniel was in distress.
And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward I arose and went about the king’s business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it.
It says he didn’t understand it, but based on Daniel 9, it seems that Daniel thought he knew what it was about. But Daniel had it all wrong.
This vision of Daniel 9 came in the same year that Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. He was still processing the dream from Daniel 8 and so we find Daniel with his face bowed to the ground weeping and praying with deep concern.
Daniel 9:2 (ESV)
I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Notice that Daniel 8 started with direction as the key focus of its prophecy, but then it shifts to focus on time—the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. Daniel 9 starts of with time—the prophecy from Jeremiah that Israel would be refugees in the country of Babylon for 70 years. Just like the eclipse, knowing the place and time are integral to understanding prophecy.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel goes on for 12 more verses explaining the extent of the sins that had caused God to send Israel into exile in Babylon. Then Daniel says this:
“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.
Not only is this prayer about the time of the 70 years of captivity, but its also focusing our attention on a specific place, the sanctuary. There’s no escaping the conclusion, Daniel thought that the angel in Daniel 8 was saying that instead of 70 years, God was going to extend their captivity in Babylon and the keep the temple or sanctuary desolate for 2,300 years!
Daniel 9:19 (ESV)
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
Lord, forgive. Lord have mercy. Delay not.
While Daniel was in the middle of praying, Gabriel came to him to make him “understand, speaking… and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.” (Daniel 9:22)
I hope you can see clearly that Daniel 9 is a continuation of the explanation of Daniel 8—this is not a brand new vision but rather new details about the Daniel 8 vision with additional clarification by the angel. What Daniel 9 has to say will help us understand the timeline in Daniel 8.
“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering…
There are lots of details here that we don’t have time to unpack today. Let’s stick to the bigger picture and try to understand how this prophecy clarifies the last time period.
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Look at that first phrase in verse 24, “seventy weeks are cut off.” That word “cut off” could be translated, “decreed,” but the Hebrew word is more like a knife’s work than a piece of paper with a king’s decree. In fact, the only other place this particular Hebrew word is used is when the king issued the decree to kill Daniel and the other wise men. “Cut them off!” he could have said.
The angel was saying “70 weeks are cut off from the 2,300 days in the vision you had a few months ago.”
Understanding this is important. Without the angel’s explanation in Daniel 9 we’re left to the confusion that Daniel came to at the end of Daniel 8. Daniel was trying to make sense out of it by reading Jeremiah, but that was only making him more confused. He needed this additional information to make sense of the vision from chapter 8.
time in Dan 7 & 8
Quick reminder: in Daniel 7 and 8 we learned that there would be a little horn that would persecute God’s people, but at the end of 2,300 years, there would be a judgment and then after the judgment God’s people would inherit the kingdom of God. Daniel thought the vision about place and time was talking about the temple in Jerusalem in his day. But the angel in Daniel 8 told Daniel that the vision was for a future time. It wasn’t at all about Israel in Babylonian captivity.
Many people today are getting the story in Daniel 9 wrong, and its all because they misunderstand the place and the time.
Let’s consider the angel’s correction of Daniel’s thinking and find the right place and time for this prophecy.
70 Weeks
70 Weeks
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First of all, notice that the prophecy is specifically for Daniel’s people and Daniel’s Holy City — that is Israel and Jerusalem. Secondly, look at what would happen at the end of the 70 weeks:
finish the transgression
put an end to sin
atone for iniquity
bring in everlasting righteousness
and Anoint the most Holy
These words could have been straight out of the book of Jeremiah, not about the Babylonian captivity, but about the coming of the Messiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
What, or more specifically who, is Daniel 9 talking about? JESUS!
Jesus:
Was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism
forgave sins.
was the only truly righteous human in history
And He became the atonement for our iniquity by his death on the cross
now, let’s lay out this 70 week timeline:
Timeline
There would be a decree that would complete the promise in Jeremiah that Israel would leave Babylonian captivity after 70 years. The city of Jerusalem would be restored. The walls and the streets and the temple would be rebuilt.
The people were sent back to Jerusalem in 538 BC to work on rebuilding the temple, but it wasn’t until a later decree in 457 that the walls and street were rebuilt too, so let’s start our timeline in 457 BC.
If we’re counting 70 prophetic weeks—that’s 70 x 7 days or 490 prophetic days—then we’re talking about 490 years. It’s pretty easy math to take 457 and subtract 490 years from it, but we run into a wrinkle. There is no zero year between 1 bc and 1 ad. So, 457 BC begins this 70 week prophecy, and 483 years later is:
27AD
That’s the beginning of the final week—the final 7 years of the 490 year prophecy. It’s 27 AD that the prophecy predicts that the Messiah would be anointed.
It’s amazing to nail this down in history. Luke and Matthew both provide an incredible amount of detail from the roman government that allows us to pinpoint with pretty good accuracy when Jesus would have been born, baptized and crucified. History confirms that Jesus was born around 4 bc, that He was baptised and began his ministry about 27 AD, right on time, and that he was crucified about 3 1/2 years later.
Notice verse 27
Daniel 9:27 (NKJV)
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering...
The covenant that God made was with Israel—Daniel’s people. God would confirm that covenant with them for 7 years after 27 AD — 3 1/2 years through Jesus, and 3 1/2 more years through the work of His disciples bringing the gospel to Jerusalem.
God had called Israel a nation of priests and commissioned them to take the gospel through the sanctuary services to the world. But in the middle of that prophetic week Jesus would be cut off and bring a new beginning to the gospel message. There’s no ambiguity here. Jesus would die in the middle of that week. And his death would end the sacrificial system.
It makes me sad to think that many read this prophecy and attribute it to the antichrist of Revelation 13. This is one of the most beautiful and specific prophecies that point to the messiah, Jesus. It’s no surprise that the Devil has inserted false teachings to obscure the truth of the gospel. The key to understanding it put this prophecy in the correct time of earth’s history and in the correct place. Modern interpreters put this last 7 days of the 490 prophecy way down at the end of time and say that it refers to 7 years of tribulation. They say that in the middle of the prophetic week — after 3 1/2 years — the antichrist will bring an end to the sacrifices at a new Temple that has yet to be built. But this cannot be true. First because this is part of a 490 year prophecy that starts in 457 BC and you can’t take a timeline and rip off the last 7 years and just plot it down wherever you feel like it in history. The last 7 years follow the first 483 in direct succession. Secondly, no antichrist could accomplish the end of transgression, the atonement for iniquity and bringing in everlasting righteousness. Only Jesus can do those things.
Since we already know that the 70 weeks are part of the bigger prophecy in Daniel 8, we need to remember that the evil the little horn would perpetrate against God and His people would be answered in the judgment—also called the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8. God’s promised judgment is a beautiful and necessary promise. Without judgment there is no justice, and there must be justice on this pompous power that perverts God’s law and destroys God’s people.
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In Daniel 8:14 we were introduced to a 2,300 year prophecy, and in Daniel 9 we’re told that there is a 490 year prophecy that is cut off from that 2,300 year period. Since the angel gives us a starting point—the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem in 457 BC—we can safely assume that this is also the starting point for the 2,300 year prophecy. These two prophecies point to the biggest movements in earth’s history related to God’s plan of salvation. The first was Jesus’ death and resurrection near the end of the 490 years, and the second would be the judgment on the little horn that would bring an end to the awful persecution of God’s people, get things ready for Christ’s return, and vindicate God’s people. According to this timeline, Jesus’ final, heavenly judgment has begun in 1844 and when that judgment is ended Jesus will come.
Conclusion
Conclusion
That means we’re sitting right in the middle of one of the biggest events in earth’s history. Isn’t that exciting!? Jesus is wrapping up all that’s necessary to end evil forever.
While it’s exciting, it’s also sobering. You and I should be a lot like Daniel in the first part of chapter 9. We have no rights to God’s kingdom. The promise that the saints will inherit the kingdom that we found in Daniel 7 and 8 is absolutely bonkers. Our inheritance is sin and death thanks to Adam and Eve. And to add to their rebellion, every single one of us has doubled down with our own sin-saturated hearts. We’ve got nothing to offer God that would clear our names.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
It is by the love and grace of Jesus that you and I can stand, forgiven and cleansed and righteous before the Father.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
If God brings judgment on that little horn power without providing an atonement for our iniquity at the cross, then every one of us would be condemned.
Everything changed in the middle of that last week of the 70 week prophecy. All who believe in Jesus have been set free from the law of sin and death and now we are called children of God. We can pray and say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” And one day soon, Jesus will bring an end to the judgment and we will inherit His kingdom forever.
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Our righteousness is like filthy rags, but Messiah the Prince is The Lord our Righteousness.
Communion
Communion
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Today we’re going to do a special ceremony that reminds us that Jesus came right on time to fulfill this prophecy and die in our place. Some call it the Lord’s supper or the Eucharist. We call it the Communion Service. We practice an open communion, so no matter what your faith background is, as long as you believe that Jesus is your savior, we invite you to participate in this special ceremony.
Before we pass out the bread and the grape juice, we remember the Bible’s advice to not participate in this while there is something between you and your fellow believers. Like Jesus did for the disciples at the last supper, we will wash each other’s feet. I would encourage you, if there is someone here that you have a problem with, or some relationship break that has happened, take this opportunity to seek them out and ask for their forgiveness, and wash their feet.
The men will go down the hall to the children’s wing, the women to the gathering place, and families that would like to stay together can go to the fireside rooms.
communion
Communion Service
Communion Service
Jason Will say a few words
Kneel together
Marilyn will pray a blessing on the bread.
Enio will pray a blessing on the grape juice.
Rise and break the bread, then hand it to the deacons.
Marilyn will read Matth 26:26 and the people will eat the bread
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
Then Enio will read Matt 26:27 and the people will drink the grape juice
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,
Jason will say a few closing words, including:
As you leave the sanctuary the deacons will be collecting a special love offering that will be used by the deacons and deaconesses to help people in our congregation who have emergency needs.
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hymn
Please stand with us as we sing our hymn of gratitude:
nothing but the blood
