Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Miracle and the Mystery # 2*

*(The Mystery)*

*February 7th, 2004** and **February 8th, 2004*

 

 

 

-One of the most controversial subjects is the end times.

There are so many strong opinions that it pays to stick to what the Bible clearly says and then sometimes to say, this is my opinion and interpretation of that.

Then most of all, love those who see it differently.

*Illustration*

*There is a cartoon of a man phoning his pastor during a crisis.

With a fraught look he says; “My wife has left me, my kids are on drugs, and my life is falling apart.

Can you explain the difference between amillenialism, postmillennialism, and premillenialism?”*

* *

-It is very important in the study of last things or end times that we don’t let it keep us from present things.

A proper understanding of what is to come should make us live better now.

Review Last Week

In part one of the Miracle and the Mystery we talked about the miracle of the nation of Israel complete with clips from their founding in May, 1948.

We talked about the fact that sin brought an individual problem for which an individual was needed-Jesus.

It also produced an international problem for which a nation was needed.

Israel had and still has a role to play in being a light to the nations.

The Bible talks about a future restoration of Israel to her land and then like Joseph, He will reveal Himself to His brothers.

It says they will look on Him who they pierced.

We looked at the three categories of people according to God, the Jews, the Gentiles (nations), and the Church of God.

The key is for everyone both Jew and Gentile to be a part of the Church of God.

All men should be born again and receive Jesus as Messiah, whether they are Jew or Gentile.

In Genesis 13 it says Abraham’s seed will be like the */dust of the earth/*-that is the nation of Israel-they will have a witness to the nations.

In Genesis 15 it says Abraham’s seed will be like the */stars in the sky/*-that is the followers of Jesus-they have a witness to the universe for eternity of the goodness of God.

 

* *

-It is very important in the study of last things or end times that we don’t let it keep us from present things.

A proper understanding of what is to come should make us live better now.

*Solving The Mystery*

* *

*(Sherlock Holmes or Columbo)*

* *

* *

Daniel 9

*/In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes a (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian b kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

/*

*/4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: /*

This is followed by a great prayer where Daniel identifies with Israel in its sin and appeals to God for deliverance for Israel.

*/20 /**/While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.

23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.

Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: /*

*/24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ a are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish b transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

c /*

*/25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree d to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, e the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’

It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.

f The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’

g In the middle of the ‘seven’ h he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.

And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

i” j *[1]*/*

*/ /*

-In approximately 538 B.C., Daniel received a visit from the angel Gabriel.

He laid out the future events for Israel which even included when the Anointed One or Messiah would first appear.

-Remember the temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar.

70 years of captivity had been decreed for Judah.

-The angel says 70 sevens or 490 years are decreed for “your people” and “your holy city”.

The word for week means a period of seven and the context determines whether it means a days, weeks, or years.

*/7620 /**שָׁבוּעַ**/, /**שְׁבוּעָה**/ [shabuwa`, shabua`, shâbu`ah ~/shaw·boo·ah~/] n m.

Properly, pass part of 7650 as a denom. of 7651; TWOT 2318d; GK 8651 and 8652; 20 occurrences; AV translates as “week” 19 times, and “seven” once. 1 seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week.

1a period of seven days, a week.

1a1 Feast of Weeks.

1b heptad, seven (of years).*[2]*

/*

*/ /*

*/7620/**/.

/*שָׁבוּעַ*/ /**/shabua/**/ (988d); from 7651; a period of seven (days, years), heptad, week:— seven(1), week(4), Weeks(5), weeks(14).*[3]*

/*

 

-Artaxerxes issued that decree in 444B.C.

-From the issuing of this decree would be 69 weeks (62 plus 7 weeks) for a total of 483 years until Messiah would be cut off.

-That would be 33 A.D. using the formula of 360 days per year given by Gabriel (476 solar years).

-That happened.

-He said that the temple would be destroyed again, it happened.

-Before the final seven year period there is a hole or a gap.

-We are living in that gap.

-God was doing something even more significant and eternal at the same time He was dealing with Israel.

 

2 Corinthians 2

*/6 /**/We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 However, as it is written: /*

*/“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”*[4]*/*

-Before the serpent saw the trap, his head was in the noose!

-There is something we know know by the Spirit of God through the Bible that satan didn’t have access to.

-If he had known he would have done things differently.

-The best way to look at the mystery is to look at it from the point of view of satan.

Revelation 13

*/8 /**/All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

a *[5]* /*

*/ /*

Ephesians 1

*/4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

/*

*/1 Peter 1/*

*20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

*[6]* *

Ephesians 3

*/2 /**/Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.

4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.

6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with /**/Israel/**/, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

/*

*/7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.

8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

/*

*/*[7]*/**/ /*

-From the vantage point of satan he knew that a man-the seed of a woman-would be sent to crush his head.

-Cain kills Abel.

-More and more clues are given through history as to who this seed will be.

-He is the seed of Abraham.

-He is from the tribe of Judah.

-He will be born in Bethlehem according to Micah.

-I think the devil was trying to kill him when the Hebrew boys were killed in Moses’ time.

-We see that again at the time of Jesus.

The little boys are killed to get the one that had been born King of the Jews according to the wise men.