One day soon every individual will have to
stand before God, the Creator of heaven and earth. In
2 Corinthians 5:10 we read, “For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad.”
Did you notice that statement? “For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” When you stop to
think of it, that is a very solemn text.
All Must Stand Before God
Yes, every individual in this building today
must stand before God. Every businessman in this city must one day
face the record of his business dealings. Every student that has
sat an examination will have it made clear to him whether he was
honest or not as he sat for that examination. For soon now he will
have to sit for the final examination of eternity. One day soon
the record of every politician must stand, revealed in the
heavens. For we are told that “we must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ.”
The Judgment Day is Fixed
St Paul tells us that there is a special time
appointed for the judgment.
Acts
17:31 says, “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath
ordained….”
I want you to notice. Speaking of His own
return, Jesus says, “No man knoweth the day nor the hour.” But St
Paul says that as far as the Judgment Day is concerned, that it is
already fixed, that is already appointed.
Jesus
Said We Should Study Daniel
In
Matthew 24 Jesus said plainly that we ought to read, to
study, and to understand the Book of Daniel. It is a Book that God
has given to His people dealing with the prophecies of the last
days.
In Daniel
chapter 8 Daniel was given a vision not only of the rise
and fall of ancient empires, but of the work of God for a long
time to come. We find it starting there with Medo-Persia, then on
to Grecia, next Rome and then he pictures the amazing rise of the
Papacy and how it continued to grow stronger and stronger right on
to the End of Time.
2300
Day Vision
Then Daniel heard a voice saying these words.
Daniel 8:13 says,”…How long shall be the vision concerning
the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give
both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?”
In other words, “How long will it be until
these events take place?” How long will it be until the question
of the sanctuary and these things are cleared up?” The answer came
very quickly right from the lips of the angel.
Verse 14 says, “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and
three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
Daniel
Troubled by Vision
This prophecy greatly troubled Daniel. He
just could not make it out. It worried him, it haunted him for
days. What did it mean? Somehow he had a feeling that it wasn’t a
very encouraging prophecy as far as his own people were concerned.
What did it mean? What did God mean by the statement “Unto 2300
days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed?” He was so greatly
disturbed about it that he set himself to earnest prayer that the
God of Heaven would make clear His will and His wish for His
people.
Daniel 9:21-25 says, “21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the
beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time
of the evening oblation.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I
am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came
forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved:
therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to
anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks...”
Angel
Gabriel Answers Daniel's Prayer
While Daniel was in prayer all of a sudden a
hand rests upon his shoulder. He looks up. It is the angel
Gabriel. He said, “Daniel your prayer has been heard.” He had only
been praying about two and one-half minute’s time.
It will give you a little idea of how quickly
God can answer prayer. He said “God has commanded me to fly
swiftly and to come to you with a special message because you are
greatly beloved.”
Now isn’t that wonderful? God says of Daniel
that he is greatly beloved. I tell you that anyone who will do the
will of God and just humbly obey Him is beloved.
Now the angel begins to explain this great
prophecy, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people”. Seventy
weeks or 490 days is measured off for God’s people.
One Day
= One Year
Now right from the start we must get this
very clear. When the Bible is dealing with Prophecy it often
speaks in symbols. And in prophecy a day becomes a year. I want to
give you proof of this.
Numbers 14:34 says, “After the number of the days in
which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year,
shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know
my breach of promise.”
The Jewish writers understood this for in the
Talmud we read “One week” in Daniel means a week of years. Again I
read from the Talmud, “This prophecy was uttered at the beginning
of the seventy years captivity in Babylon, From the restoration to
the second destruction is said to have been 420 years, making in
all 490, ie seventy weeks of years.”
So now we have the key. A prophetic day
equals a prophetic year. And the angel Gabriel says that 490 years
will be reckoned off for the Jews.
490
Years of Probation
He (Gabriel) is anxious that Daniel
understand that this is not the principle message, but that this
time is a period that the Jews as a people are going to have in
which to repent. Just a period of time that is measured off to
them in which they might be saved as a Commonwealth of Israel.
He says, “I want you to know that during this
490 year period some great things are going to take place. It is
during this period of time that the Messiah will come.” Yes, this
prophecy is great because it locates the coming of the Messiah. It
lifts up Jesus Christ.
Start
of 2300 Year Prophecy
Now when does this prophecy start? He
(Gabriel) says to Daniel, “Know this, that you can commence this
period of 490 years from the time of the decree to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem.”
Daniel 9:25
Jerusalem was in ruins at this stage. That is
why Daniel was a captive, because his own country had been invaded
by the enemy and Jerusalem was in shambles. Effort after effort
had been made to rebuild and to restore Jerusalem.
Several decrees had been given but they had
failed. But finally a decree was given that was honoured and you
can find it in
Ezra 7:13,
“I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of
his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their
own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.”
And friends I want to tell you this decree is
not only written in the Bible, but has actually been found on the
record books of the history of these people at that time. An
official record of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
gives the year as 457 BC.
I want to assure you that King Artaxerxes was
no mean ruler; he was a prominent man and his name has been
written in the pages of history. So it is quite easy to determine
that date 457 BC, is the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes.
The angel says to Daniel, “Take out your
pencil Daniel, this prophecy is so simple that even a child can
figure it out.”
Division of 490 Weeks
Let us take the starting date 457 BC.
First we have 7 weeks, 7 x 7 = 49 years
In 406 BC Jerusalem was rebuilt.
Now the next period is 62 weeks, unto the
Messiah the Prince, 62 x 7 = 434 years.
Now seeing that we are dealing with BC time
we subtract 483 years from 457 BC remembering that there is no
year 0, ie there is one year from 1 BC to 1 AD. Don’t forget that
or else you will come out with an extra year.
Coming
of Messiah the Prince
Now that brings us to the year 27 AD. And
according to Bible prophecy the Messiah should appear in this
year.
What did happen in that year? In that year of
history, as predicted by prophecy, the Messiah presented Himself
down at the banks of the river Jordan.
John the Baptist was preaching, appealing to
the people to turn from their sins, when Jesus Christ came forward
as a candidate for baptism. He said to John, “I wish to be
baptised.” John was amazed for he had been preaching about this
very One, the coming Messiah. He had said, “I am the forerunner of
the coming King.” But now he stopped short in his sermon and said,
“There He is. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world.”
It was right there and then that John the
Baptist presented to the world Jesus Christ, the world’s redeemer.
At last He had come. And John took Jesus down into the watery
grave, a symbol of His coming death and burial and resurrection.
In the presence of those assembled Jesus was buried in His own
coming death. As He arose, the Holy Spirit was sent by the
Father in a visible form resting down upon the head of Jesus, and
a voice that shook the heavens cried out “This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased.”
Christ
Anointed
And friends, remember that the Messiah means
the Anointed. Jesus was that day publicly Anointed by the Holy
Spirit, receiving the Testimony of His heavenly Father to His
Messiahship.
Remember this that there is only One date in
all history that the Messiah could be presented to the world and
that year is 27 AD. It is interesting to realize that Jesus was 30
years of age.
69 weeks or 483 years after the decree to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem reaches down to the year 27 AD, and
that is the very year that Jesus Christ appeared for baptism, was
anointed and presented as the Messiah.
Even the Jews from that time on still had 7
years of probation.
Cut Off
in the Midst of the Week
The 70th week started 27 AD and
concluded in 34 AD, but the prophecy tells us that something
terrible is to happen in the midst of that week. The Messiah was
to be cut off. He would cause the sacrifice to cease by His own
sacrifice. He comes as the Lamb of God. He comes as the Anointed
of Heaven, the Anointed One, and after carrying on His ministerial
work for 3 ½ years He is cut off. His life is cut short. And all
the rites and ceremonies of the Old Testament times come to an end
as Jesus hangs upon the Cross that fateful Friday afternoon, and
cries out “it is finished.”
All the ceremonies, all the rituals, the meat
offerings, the drink offerings, the new moon feats, the annual
Sabbath days, all were abolished, being a shadow of things to
come. Christ the ante type had come and had fulfilled all of those
things which pointed forward to Him, the Lamb of God, and as He
hung upon the Cross He cried out “it is finished.”
An unseen hand, the hand of God, rent the
temple veil from top to bottom, tearing asunder that veil that
separated the Holy from the Most Holy Place, now laying it bare to
the eyes of anyone who wished to gaze upon it. Why? Because God
Plainly stated in this act that the sacrificial service was nailed
to the Cross. Behold the Lamb of God.
Friends, the Bible tells me that there is a
great prophetic clock in heaven.
Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fulness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman…”
When the great prophetic clock struck up in
heaven that fateful Friday afternoon, the Bible prediction that in
the midst of the week the Messiah should be cut off was sealed by
those words, “it is finished.”
Surely This Was the
Son of God
He fell back in death, His head bowed, the
earth began to reel to and fro. The Roman Centurion cried out
“surely this was the Son of God.”
What a pity the Jews could not have seen it.
What a pity the preachers did not see it. What a pity that their
pride kept them from seeing it, fighting against the very message
of God. Why? Because it went contrary to their Tradition. They did
not want the people to come out and hear the message. So they
drove Him up Calvary’s hillside determined to crush His message.
And yet a pagan, a neutral observer cries out “surely this must be
the Son of God.”
My friends, it was the Son of God. He died
exactly on time, 31 AD, the only date that the Messiah could give
his life for His people.
3 ½ years left for the Jews, the people of
God.
End of
70th Week
34 AD. And it was at this time that they were
cast off forever. Stephen, the martyr, one of the earliest of
Christian martyrs was stoned to death. And do you know who was
watching that death? None other than Saul of Tarsus, a highly
educated man. He was a combination of a politician, a preacher,
and a university professor all in one. He was a very rich man too.
A man who stood very highly in the Jewish social circles. But he
did not accept Jesus Christ. He was wrongly trained. He protested
“it doesn’t bother me. I feel that I have the truth. I have a
clear conscience.”
Yes, I want to tell you that he was fighting
Jesus Christ. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” It was this
very man, Saul of better known as Paul, who uttered these words:
Acts
13:46, “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken
to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
When? In the year 34 AD. And from that time
the Gospel work went to the Gentles.
End of
2300 Year Prophecy
Now as we have examined every date so far we
can rest assured of the accuracy of the last, 1844.
After the death, burial. Resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ, about fifty years later John the
Revelator was given a vision of heaven and in heaven he said, “I
saw heaven opened. I saw a temple opened in heaven. He saw the
great High Priest officiating on our behalf.”
Friends are you ready to let Jesus Christ
officiate on your behalf? He died for your sins and He died for
mine. He paid the price. Are you ready to accept that sacrifice,
that great sacrifice of the man of Calvary. Are you ready to say
“surely this must be the Son of God” Friends, God help us to
accept His Son as our personal Saviour right now, so that He can
cover us with His righteousness in the Judgment.
