Palm Sunday

set the stage...

Dr. William Lane Craig quotes...

Historical event unquestioned...

More than two early accounts… secular history attests to the validity...

Josephus...

now turn to

Daniel 9:24–27 NKJV

“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. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

pray...

now why do I read this on Palm Sunday? Why are we in Daniel? the OT? why are we looking at an ancient calendar...

well just because it really happened as a historical event, why should we believe something super natural was occurring?

A REMARKABLE prophecy of Jesus Christ (Messiah) ...

   “He (Messiah)

     will be revealed

     7 weeks + 62 weeks

     (= 69 weeks of years)

     after the commandment

     to rebuild Jerusalem

and its walls,

then He (Messiah)

     will be cut-off.”

     ()

This is a MATHEMATICAL prophecy

- Week of years (shabua or shabu’im) = 7 years

- ‘Cut-off’... Hebrew karath = “executed!”

-  The 70th Week is a future 7 years (Apocalypse!)

This prophecy of the coming Messiah is both remarkable and extremely precise.  God gave the Jews the most sophisticated calendar on Earth.  It is both a Lunar and a Solar calendar.  The Jewish calendar uses a 360 day lunar (and prophetic) year and then adds a 'Leap Month' on specific years to accurately coincide with the Solar cycle we use on our 'Julian' calendar ...

The Bible uses 360 day years for prophecies and expects us to add the appropriate 'leap months' on schedule.  So, the easiest way to unravel this prophecy is to first convert this prophecy into days:

- Add 7 + 62 weeks  =  69 weeks of years

- Multiply 69 (weeks) x 7 (years) = 483 years

- Multiply 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days

So, the prophet Daniel, who lived 500 years before Jesus (Yeshua) wrote that from the day of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls, until the coming Messiah would be 173,880 days!  Remember ... this mathematical prophecy was also translated from Hebrew into Greek in the Septuagint around 300 years before Jesus made His prophetic entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey!              

To convert the 173,880 days found in this prophecy into our 365.25 day solar years (the .25 adjusts for leap years) ...

173,880 days ÷ 365.25 (days per year)  =  476 yrs

So, the prophet Daniel told us it would be 476 years from the "commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls" to the time the Messiah of Israel would first be revealed to Israel (and to the world.)

The Commandment ...

Nehimiah-Artexeres, Esther...

This prophecy of the coming Messiah is both remarkable and extremely precise.  There were other orders to rebuild the Temple, but, there was only one commandment to restore Jerusalem and its wall.  On March 14th, 445 BC, as confirmed by modern archaeology, King Artexerxes I of Persia issued the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and specifically included its wall ( records and details all the events surrounding the rebuilding of this wall.)

(As a note, in 2007 archeologists in Israel found, uncovered, and excavated this ancient wall, sometimes translated "moat," which Nehemiah rebuilt around Jerusalem.)

 Prophecy fulfilled ...

So, the prophet Daniel, who lived 500 years before Jesus (Yeshua) wrote that from the day of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls, until the coming Messiah would be 173,880 days!  Remember ... this mathematical prophecy was also translated from Hebrew into Greek in the Septuagint around 300 years before Jesus made His prophetic entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey!         

Josephus says Christ entered on April 6th, 32 AD

476x365=173,740

Close enough right?

God is Perfect and EXACT...

To convert the 173,880 days found in this prophecy into our 365.25 day solar years (the .25 adjusts for leap years) ...

Jewish year is 360 days...

To convert the 173,880 days found in this prophecy into our 365.25 (365.242199) day solar years (the .25 adjusts for leap years) ...

476/4-Leap years, 119 days-3(century years)=116 days

173,880 days ÷ 365.25 (days per year)  =  476 yrs

So, the prophet Daniel told us it would be 476 years from the "commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls" to the time the Messiah of Israel would first be revealed to Israel (and to the world.)

Now take the 476 years in this prophecy and simply start counting from March 14, 445 B.C. (when the command to rebuild the city Jerusalem and its wall was given) and you end on the exact year (even the very day) Jesus (Yeshua) rode 'triumphantly' into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), being praised as King and Messiah by thousands upon thousands of the Jewish people who had gathered from all over for the Passover Holidays.  Honored, yet lowly, riding on a donkey - exactly as another prophet, the prophet Zechariah, said He would ...

   "Rejoice greatly,

     O daughter of Zion (Israel)!

Behold, your King (Messiah)

     is coming to you;

     He is just and having salvation,

yet He is lowly and riding on a donkey."

     ( ... written around 500 B.C.)

Thus, on the 10th day of Nisan ("Palm Sunday") 32 AD ... 476 years after the command was given to rebuild the city and its wall ... Jesus (Yeshua) made His famous "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey.  It was the only day that He ever allowed Himself to be honored as Messiah or King () as the people of Israel cried out and sang "Hosanna to the Son of David (this is a Psalm of the Messiah), blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" from ... (and all this took place just a few days before He was "executed" exactly as Daniel's prophecy said He would!)

A remarkable prophecy ...

Simply count the years!

March 14, 445 BC  (Artexerxes command)

to  April 6, 32 AD  (Palm Sunday - Messiah!!)

Remember that 173,740+116+24 (March 14-April 6)=173,880 Days

   =  477  years

    -       1  year       (Subtract one for no "0" A.D. or B.C.)

   =  476  years       (Exactly!!!)

Who else around 32 A.D. fulfilled all these many prophecies? 

No one!!!  Only Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, in the line of King David ...

The promised Messiah!

This prophecy in the Book of Daniel (written over 500 years before Jesus was born) ALSO warned Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple ("Sanctuary") would be destroyed after Messiah (Jesus Christ) would be executed ...

   "And the people  (a prophecy of Rome)

     of the prince who shall come   (Antichrist)

     shall destroy the CITY (Jerusalem)

and the TEMPLE ("Sanctuary")

     ()     

Don't miss this ... the Bible warned the Jewish Temple would be destroyed AFTER Messiah was revealed and executed!

Jesus then reveals a NEW prophecy that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed ... (this prophecy was fulfilled by the Romans in 70 AD) ...

Right after the "Triumphal Entry," Jesus (Yeshua) wept over Jerusalem, knowing the children of Israel would ignore this prophecy (and all the other prophecies of Messiah) which were so specific that God held them accountable!  This is why the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were dispersed and scattered around the world ...

So you have all the people waiting, so here is why...

Geographical Journey, Mark, Luke and John… Jericho (Bart&Zach), Bethany, Bethphage...

Mark 11:1–11 NKJV

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?” And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

John

John 12:12–19 NKJV

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!” Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

The Pharisees wanted Him to shut the people up… the very rocks… Jesus has just moved the pieces...

Passion week, crucifixion, Good Wednesday...

Nissan 14-Passover sacrifice...

Jesus is the Lamb, and He can triumphantly enter your life...

Worship team Back...

Salvation...

Trusting the Lord...

Faith...