Well we just got through
talking about how this 70 weeks
00:00:05.00\00:00:07.84
is really some good math
to help assure you that Jesus
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is indeed the
Messiah of the world.
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So now the angel gives
Daniel, the angel Gabriel,
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gives Daniel a starting point.
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Where does this
start? How do we know?
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If you don't know when
it starts, the rest of it
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won't make any sense.
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But the angel is very clear.
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In Daniel 9:25 the angels says,
"Know therefore and understand
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that from the going
forth of the commandment
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to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
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until Messiah the
Prince shall be..."
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And then the angel,
of course, divides it up
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just like I
talked about earlier.
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7 weeks, 62 weeks,
and finally 1 week.
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Which added
together makes 70 weeks.
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70 weeks, of course, of years.
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Or 490 years.
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But we're talking about
the 70 weeks because it's
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so easy to
understand it that way.
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So let's go back to this.
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When did that decree happen?
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When was it that
this decree was given?
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Well as you know,
Babylon passed off the scene.
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And as Babylon
passed off the scene
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the Medo-Persia
empire came into being.
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And the great first king
of the Medo-Persian empire
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was Cyrus the Great.
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The book of Isaiah
actually predicted him by name
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that he would let God's
people go back to Jerusalem.
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Because they'd been scattered
after the Babylonian captivity.
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So Cyrus, believe it or
not, actually made a decree
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in 536 BC, Before
Christ, to send Israel back
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or to allow them to go
back and to rebuild the temple.
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But he died a few years later.
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And after he died, and
this is where the story gets
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really interesting,
after Cyrus the Great died
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another king, about two
kings later, came on the throne
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and he was called the
false king or the false Smerdis.
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There he was, and
wouldn't you know it,
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the enemies of Israel...
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And oh yes, they had enemies.
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In fact, the prophecy
said that it would all be done
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in troublous
times, difficult times.
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We live in a troubled world.
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But thank the
Lord we have a Messiah.
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That's what we're
going to get back to here.
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To show how indeed He is
the Messiah of the world.
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So he comes on the scene,
and Israel's enemies go to him
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and they groan and moan and
complain, and say all kinds of
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things that aren't true to
accuse the Jews of these things.
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And he stops the building.
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He stops the building.
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Well, so everything ceased.
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Things were kind of
in a difficult time.
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Israel decided to
try to get going again.
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And a new king came on
and he gave them permission
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to at least rebuild the temple.
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But that wasn't the decree
either because they had enemies,
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and these enemies pushed back.
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And another king
came on the scene.
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And these enemies went to
this king and they said to him,
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"Look, these Jews
are very difficult.
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You need to make them stop."
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They did not want
Jerusalem rebuilt,
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they did not want
the temple rebuilt.
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But this king did
something very interesting.
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He said, "Okay, I've
heard your complaint.
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But I will search the records."
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And believe it or not,
he found in the records
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the first king of Persia, the
great Cyrus, Cyrus the Great,
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he had actually made the
declaration giving permission
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for the Jews to go back.
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So in contrary to these
complaints of their enemies,
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this king issues a decree
and says they are to be allowed
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to not only rebuild
the temple and the wall,
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but the whole city of Jerusalem.
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He allows them to put their
Jewish laws back into place.
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He allows them a
certain amount of self-autonomy.
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He basically restores
the nation that had not
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been really done before.
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And he even orders
the enemies to help them.
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This time that's the decree,
457 BC, that gets the job done.
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And when that first
7 weeks is finished,
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not only do we
have the temple rebuilt,
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but the wall has been rebuilt.
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And of course, you know
the story of Ezra and Nehemiah.
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And you can find that
story, wonderful Nehemiah,
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who the Holy Spirit moved on
his heart there with the king.
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He was the king's cup bearer.
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And he went to the king
and he pled with the king
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to allow him, after
the king opened the door
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and asked him
why he looked so sad.
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He asked the king, he
said, "I want to go back
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and finish the
wall of Jerusalem."
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I'm putting this in my words.
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And the king gave him not
only permission, but gave him
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financial
resources to get it done.
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So Nehemiah goes back.
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He's one of the great men
of the ancient Old Testament.
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He did the almost impossible.
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You can read the story there.
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Completing the wall
in just about 50 days.
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It's an amazing story.
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But it was done.
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The temple is
rebuilt, the wall is rebuilt,
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and Israel is
restored as a nation.
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"Know therefore and
understand from the going forth
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of the commandment..."
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So now we have
the starting date.
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457 BC.
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So just as the
prophecy said, from 457 BC,
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that first 7
weeks, it's finished.
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But now it says something that
must really get our attention.
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It says, "...until
Messiah the Prince..."
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That means there's 62 more
weeks until Messiah shows up.
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Messiah.
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Been the hope and
the hearts of Israelites
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all for hundreds
and hundreds of years;
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the hope of the world.
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62 more weeks.
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That would bring
us to the year AD 27.
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Now that's a very well
established date in Scripture.
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AD 27.
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And AD 27 is the time
when Jesus was baptized
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by the prophet John the Baptist.
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So He's been kind
of in the background
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working as a
carpenter for 30 years.
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But now He goes to the
preaching of John the Baptist
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who was to
prepare the way for Jesus
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to make the
ministry of Jesus possible.
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And He goes to John, He says,
"I would like to be baptized."
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John is taken back; he says,
"I need to be baptized by You."
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He could see that
this man was a perfect man,
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a godly man.
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And Jesus says,
"No, let Me be baptized."
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So He can fulfill
all righteousness.
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When John sees Jesus
he calls Him, he says to
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everybody around him,
"Look, the Lamb of God
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that takes away
the sin of the world."
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In other words, this
is indeed the Messiah.
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John had been raised up to
prepare the way for the Messiah
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and to tell the startling news.
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And this is startling news.
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And this is why
John's preaching was so
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captivating to the nation.
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He says, "The
Messiah is already here."
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And He was.
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So AD 27, just as
the prophecy said,
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just as the math said,
Jesus appeared on the scene
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as the Messiah of the world.
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He started His three and
a half years of ministry.
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Now we've got 1
week, 1 week left.
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And AD 27 starts that last week.
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One week, 7 years.
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Jesus' ministry lasted
for three and a half years.
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And the prophecy said
that in the midst of the week
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the Messiah would be cut off.
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In other words, He would die.
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But not for Himself.
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He died for you. He died for me.
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He died for the whole world.
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He died so that He
could get the world
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out of the mess that it's in.
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And He died on time.
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He came on time, AD 27,
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and He died on time,
in the midst of the week.
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But there is still
another half of that week left.
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This is the week
that changed the world.
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This is the week that
changed human civilization.
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This is the week that's
changed your life and my life.
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I'm telling you, the
United States of America
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wouldn't exist
without this week.
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Christianity wouldn't
exist without this week.
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Without the death and
the resurrection of Jesus
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in the midst of this
week, all the hopes and dreams
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we have of a future
life would have all vanished.
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But it hasn't vanished.
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It's a reality.
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Jesus did die, and
He was resurrected.
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We'll talk more about
that resurrection next time.
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But I want to come back
to the end of that week.
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Because with that 70
weeks Jesus had made a covenant
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with His people.
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And He was
keeping that covenant.
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And so at the end of
that 70th week, that last week
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that changed the world,
something very special happened.
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In AD 34, at the
end of that 70th week,
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the Sanhedrin
gathered to try a man,
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a man by the name of Stephen.
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One of the greatest
apostles, if you please.
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He was actually ordained
as a deacon, but I think he
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certainly had
the apostolic gift.
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And he was a powerful preacher.
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He converted a lot of
people to Christianity.
00:09:47.68\00:09:50.42
And they were
very angry about it.
00:09:50.55\00:09:52.59
This is three and a
half years after Jesus'
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death and resurrection, in the
midst of that 70th last week.
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And so they brought
Stephen in for the trial.
00:10:01.70\00:10:04.47
And Stephen did
something very fascinating.
00:10:04.77\00:10:07.70
He began to trace
the history of Israel
00:10:07.84\00:10:11.91
down from Abraham through Moses,
how God has protected them,
00:10:12.97\00:10:17.81
how they had been stubborn.
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You know, it's not a good thing
to be stubborn with the truth.
00:10:20.38\00:10:23.79
They had been stubborn.
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And how they had
resisted the Holy Spirit.
00:10:26.76\00:10:29.39
And he brought them all the
way down to the Messiah, Jesus.
00:10:29.69\00:10:34.06
And as he got to that part, they
couldn't stand it any longer.
00:10:34.40\00:10:38.13
They were so angry.
00:10:38.17\00:10:39.50
These were the same
people that put Jesus to death
00:10:39.53\00:10:44.11
on Calvary's cross.
00:10:44.14\00:10:45.67
And as Stephen said to
them that they had crucified
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or put to death the Son of God,
they really became disturbed.
00:10:49.38\00:10:54.45
When he said that God
doesn't live in a temple
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made with hands,
they became outraged.
00:10:57.82\00:11:00.76
And they rushed on
Stephen, took him out,
00:11:00.79\00:11:03.93
and stoned him to death.
00:11:03.96\00:11:05.69
The same Sanhedrin that
had put Jesus Himself to death.
00:11:05.73\00:11:10.53
The Jewish nation, as
a nation at this point,
00:11:10.90\00:11:13.67
had finished its covenant.
00:11:14.14\00:11:16.57
Jesus had kept His
covenant with them,
00:11:16.60\00:11:19.37
but they had not kept
their covenant with Him.
00:11:19.41\00:11:21.68
And so now the gospel
would go to the world,
00:11:22.04\00:11:25.01
not through the Jewish nation,
00:11:25.05\00:11:26.78
but through the
Christian church.
00:11:26.88\00:11:28.62
So there's been a
great change here.
00:11:29.25\00:11:31.05
It was a week, it was a
week that changed the world.
00:11:31.09\00:11:35.09
It certainly
has changed my life,
00:11:35.32\00:11:37.09
and the life of
countless millions ever since.
00:11:37.29\00:11:40.56
And just to add to this, the
reason I don't need to go back
00:11:41.16\00:11:46.50
and worship on those feast
days and go through the old
00:11:47.20\00:11:51.47
tabernacle service is because
Jesus fulfilled all of that.
00:11:51.51\00:11:55.78
When He was cut off
in the midst of the week,
00:11:55.88\00:11:58.05
the scripture said, prophecy
said, he would put an end
00:11:58.25\00:12:01.95
to the tabernacle services.
00:12:02.05\00:12:03.49
And that's what the
Jewish leadership was so
00:12:03.52\00:12:06.02
concerned about and so afraid.
00:12:06.05\00:12:08.06
So the 70th week, it's finished.
00:12:08.32\00:12:10.76
Mathematical proof that Jesus is
indeed the Messiah of the world.
00:12:11.29\00:12:15.76
The Messiah the world needs.
00:12:16.10\00:12:18.03
The Messiah that should
not be made fun of or mocked.
00:12:18.27\00:12:21.47
The Messiah that is changing
and has changed the world.
00:12:21.74\00:12:26.17
He injected new life
and new power in the world.
00:12:26.21\00:12:30.01
I hate to think what the last
2000 years would have been like
00:12:30.41\00:12:33.35
if we had not had
Jesus in that last week,
00:12:33.52\00:12:37.39
the week that changed the world.
00:12:37.75\00:12:39.55
So the question for all of
us is, Jesus keeps His covenant.
00:12:39.85\00:12:44.23
He keeps it
through thick and thin,
00:12:44.36\00:12:46.43
through difficulty and trial,
through hardship to Himself.
00:12:46.46\00:12:50.87
Self-sacrificing
Jesus keeps His covenant.
00:12:50.97\00:12:54.97
And He makes a
covenant with everyone
00:12:55.54\00:12:57.44
that's willing to
make a covenant with Him.
00:12:57.61\00:12:59.51
If you've made a covenant with
Jesus to make Him your Savior
00:12:59.87\00:13:02.58
and your Messiah,
the question now is,
00:13:02.61\00:13:05.55
are you keeping your covenant?
00:13:05.71\00:13:07.38
By the way, He has power.
00:13:07.48\00:13:08.92
He has power, not
only to forgive your sins,
00:13:08.95\00:13:11.19
but He has power to
make a new person out of you,
00:13:11.25\00:13:13.76
and to resurrect you
from the dead when He comes
00:13:13.86\00:13:16.42
in the clouds of glory.
00:13:16.46\00:13:17.79
This Messiah has the power
to deliver on all your hopes
00:13:17.89\00:13:23.97
and all your dreams.
00:13:24.00\00:13:25.67
This Messiah who has
been proved from Scripture,
00:13:25.70\00:13:29.60
mathematically, is
indeed the Messiah of the world.
00:13:29.64\00:13:33.34
He's your Messiah,
00:13:33.71\00:13:35.04
He's my Messiah,
00:13:35.11\00:13:36.44
if we want Him to be
our hope and our dream.
00:13:36.58\00:13:41.35