{"id":18410,"date":"2017-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-10T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-035-gods-perfect-timing\/"},"modified":"2017-09-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-035-gods-perfect-timing","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-035-gods-perfect-timing\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 035 – God’s Perfect Timing"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18410","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 035 - God's Perfect Timing","sermon_date":"20170910","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":4921,"sermon_mp3":4923,"sermon_id":"910171017366","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"9:24-27","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nGod\u2019s Perfect Timing\n\n9-10-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 9:25-27\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 35\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could take our Bibles and open them to Daniel, chapter 9 and verse 25.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re finding ourselves the last several Sundays in the 9th<\/sup> chapter of Daniel.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is God\u2019s Perfect Timing.\u00a0\u00a0 If there\u2019s anything that we learn about God\u2019s character from God\u2019s Word is He\u2019s right on time.\u00a0 He\u2019s not too early; He\u2019s not too late, and if He\u2019s right on time He\u2019s going to be right on time in your life too, and my life.\n\nAnd there probably is nothing that better illustrates the timing of God than the prophecy that we\u2019re working our way through here at the seventy weeks Prophecy.\u00a0 Daniel had been studying his Bible; this is always a good thing, right?\u00a0 And consequently he knew that the seventy year captivity that this nation was in was winding down.\u00a0 The year is about 538 B.C.\u00a0 Keep a mental note of that; that will be a big deal a little bit later.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s in his early 80s, and consequently he begins to seek God for the future.\u00a0 What does the future hold for the nation now that the captivity is ending?\n\nHe offers, probably one of the greatest prayers in the whole Bible, verses 3-19 and praying is one thing and as wonderful as it is but God answering is even better.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 He gets an answer to the future of the nation and in fact the future to the history of the world.\u00a0 As that answer is given in verses 20-23 the content of the answer is described in what is called the prophecy of the seventy sevens, the seventy weeks prophecy.\n\nIt is so tempting for people to just rush through this prophecy and not really grasp what it\u2019s saying.\u00a0 Well, I have made up my mind that I will not do that; I\u2019m going to take as long as it takes to\u00a0 mine the depths of this prophecy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll take me seventy weeks to do it.\u00a0 And the reason I feel as strongly as I do about this prophecy is if you will labor with me and try to understand this, perhaps not the easiest thing in the Bible to understand but if you labor with me as I seek to peel back the layers and explain it you\u2019re going to walk away from this study with two blessings.\n\nNumber 1, you\u2019re going to understand that this Book is God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to believe it not because someone tells you to believe it; you\u2019re going to believe it because you see proof in it. and we\u2019re going to look at some of that proof today.\n\nThe second thing you\u2019re going to walk away with is something that most of Christendom doesn\u2019t have; most Christians don\u2019t have it but it\u2019s a blueprint for the end, a big picture for what God is going to do in the end times.\u00a0 Why do we believe in a seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 It\u2019s right here in the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 \u00a0Why do we believe that the church will not be inserted into that seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 It\u2019s right here in the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 Why, as we saw in Sunday School this morning, do we at Sugar Land Bible Church take prophecy in a normal or literal way, just like we would take other parts of the Bible in a normal or literal way.\u00a0 It\u2019s right here in the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 Why are strange things that seem obscure to us happening in the New Testament.\u00a0 It\u2019s right here in the seventy weeks prophecy.\n\nA proper understanding of the seventy weeks prophecy does so much in terms of opening up one\u2019s understanding to God, God\u2019s character, God\u2019s nature, God\u2019s revelation.\u00a0 And because this seventy weeks prophecy is one of the deeper subjects of the Word of God I have decided to break it down into ten parts.\u00a0 In the prior sermon we went through parts one through four; these parts are logically arranged.\u00a0 Part two builds on part one, part three builds on parts one and two, etc.\u00a0 So therefore it\u2019s imperative that you try to stay with me for each of these sections because if you get lost the other sections won\u2019t make any sense.\n\nWe introduced, did we not, the seventy weeks prophecy last time; ten things to understand.\u00a0 The first thing we saw is this prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\u00a0 \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed\u201d for Sugar Land Bible Church\u2026 I wish it said that, it doesn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 But it says, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city,\u201d the whole focus of the prophecy revolves around the nation of Israel.\n\nBy the way, a lot of Christians today are going to try to tell you that we will be in the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 Well how can that be when the seven year tribulation period, which is part of this prophecy, concerns who?\u00a0 Israel, not the church.\u00a0 When you understand that then you begin to understand why the church is conspicuously absent from any passage of the Bible dealing with the tribulation period.\u00a0 A proper understanding of that starts right here with fact number 1, the prophecy concerns Israel.\u00a0 Fact number 2 we covered is the prophecy concerns the time period of how many years?\u00a0 490, seventy sevens have been decreed for Your people and Your holy city.\u00a0 The word \u201cweek,\u201d sometimes translated seven, refers to a unit of seven, a unit of seven years.\n\nLast week I think I misspoke, I think I said Isaac served for seven years to gain Rebecca, I think I had that wrong didn\u2019t I, I think it\u2019s Jacob who served Laban for seven years to gain the hand of Rachael.\u00a0 Genesis 29:27.\u00a0 [Genesis 29:27, \u201cComplete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In Genesis 29:27 you\u2019ll see that seven year period described as a \u201cweek\u201d or \u201cseven,\u201d it\u2019s the same Hebrew word that\u2019s used here.\u00a0 A seven refers to a seven year period of time; seventy sevens would be a time period of how long?\u00a0\u00a0 Any mathematicians\u2026 I see some yawns; what\u2019s seventy times seven?\u00a0 490.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what the angel Gabriel gave to Daniel; he gave to Daniel a stop watch with 490 years on it.\u00a0 Every stop watch has start button, a pause button and a stop button.\u00a0 That, in essence, is what has been put into Daniel\u2019s lap here in this seventy weeks prophecy.\n\nNumber three, each year of the prophecy consists of how many days?\u00a0 Not 365.25 days the way the Gregorian calendar works but 366.\u00a0 As I tried to demonstrate that that\u2019s how God thinks in terms of judgment both in the flood and in the future tribulation period itself.\n\nFact number 4 is what is going to happen when this clock gets to the end.\u00a0 Once we hit year 490, the end of that year, what can be expected to happen?\u00a0 Well, six prophecies that we looked at last time, and there they are.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1, \u201cto finish transgression\u201d [2] \u201cto make an end of sin\u201d [3] \u201cto make atonement for iniquity\u201d [4] \u201cto bring in everlasting righteousness\u201d [5] \u201cto seal up vision and prophecy\u201d [6] \u201cto anoint the most holy place\u201d]\u00a0 You can sum all those up as the political and spiritual restoration of Israel.\u00a0 The political and spiritual restoration of the nation of Israel will be accomplished at the end of this 490 year period.\n\nYou know, in Sunday School a couple of weeks ago we were studying Martin Luther and how Martin Luther became, in a sense, upset with a lack of progress that he was making with the Jewish people, how the Jewish people were not accepting rapidly his doctrine of justification by faith alone.\u00a0 And he became frustrated with them and made several comments towards the end of his life against the Jewish people.\u00a0 And yet if Martin Luther had been a student of this prophecy he would have seen that the conversion of Israel is something that cannot and will not happen until Daniel\u2019s clock has run its course.\n\nAnd this is one of the reasons I like the study of prophecy, it tells us what\u2019s realistic in this age and what is not.\u00a0 The wide scale conversion of the nation of Israel in the present age is something that is out of whack, out of proportion when you understand God\u2019s prophetic blueprint given here in the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 So the focus of the prophecy is Israel; the time period is 490 years.\u00a0 Each year of the prophecy consists of\u00a0 360 days and at the conclusion of the prophecy you\u2019ll have a political and spiritual reborn Israel.\n\nThis takes us to fact number 5 and this fact deals with when does the prophecy clock start?\u00a0 When does the divine finger move onto the start button and the clock begins to run.\u00a0 Now many, many people have come up with very confused understandings of the beginning of the clock, in terms of the elapsing of time, because they run into the Book of Ezra, and I have all of the Scripture there under item number B, and they try to locate the beginning of this time period with the restoration to rebuild the temple, the temple, not Jerusalem.\u00a0 The temple.\n\nAnd they try to locate the beginning of this time period with the restoration to rebuild the temple\u2026 the temple not Jerusalem, the temple. And the Book of Ezra records about three decrees that were given at certain times to rebuild the temple.\u00a0 The Jews started rebuilding the temple as they came back from the exile; they got discouraged; God raised up Zechariah, Haggai to get the project started again.\u00a0 So the Book of Ezra is a start\/stop, start\/stop sort of effort to get the temple rebuilt.\n\nAnd many people try to locate these various decrees concerning the temple in the Book of Ezra and they come up with what I think are dates that are incorrect.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they don\u2019t pay attention to what the prophecy says.\u00a0 The prophecy never says that the clock would run from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild the temple but to restore and rebuild what?\u00a0 Jerusalem.\u00a0 When did this happen exactly?\u00a0 Well, we have a book in our Bible called The Book of Nehemiah, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 The Book of Nehemiah is the story of a Jew who loved God, who was living in Persia.\u00a0 Remember the Babylonians had been conquered by the Persians, many of the Jews stayed behind and did not return after the seventy year captivity had ended.\u00a0 And one of those guys was a Nehemiah, living in a Persian area that the Persians had conquered called Susa, working for his boss named Artaxerxes, a Persian king.\n\nAnd Nehemiah 2 records the desire of Nehemiah to return to the land of Israel to rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem because we\u2019re dealing\u00a0 here with the ancient near east.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have a wall you don\u2019t have a city.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because you have no defenses.\u00a0 So he becomes burdened that the city of God, the city of Jerusalem, has no walls around it.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice what is said here in Nehemiah 2:3, 5, 8 and 11.\u00a0 Verse 3 says, \u201cI said to the king, \u2018Let the king live forever\u2019\u201d speaking of Artaxerxes, \u201cWhy should my face not be sad when the\u201d what? \u201ccity,\u201d see his mind is on the city, \u201cthe place of my forefathers lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?\u201d \u00a0Verse 5, \u201cI said to the king, \u201cIf it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city\u201d the second reference, \u201cof my fathers\u2019 tombs, that I may rebuild it.\u201d Verse 8, \u00a0\u201cAnd a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king\u2019s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the\u201d what\u2019s the next word? \u201ccity and for the house to which I will go.\u2019 And the king granted them<\/em> to me because the good hand of my God was<\/em> on me.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 11, now there\u2019s been three references to \u201cthe city.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 11 says, \u201cSo I came to\u201d where? \u201cJerusalem\u2026.\u201d\n\nSee, Nehemiah had a burden, not for the temple, that had already been rebuilt in the Book of Ezra, but a city and its natural fortifications, and its natural protections.\u00a0 And the Book of Nehemiah is all about Nehemiah rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, despite great opposition.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tremendous book of the Bible to study and to read.\u00a0 And because he keeps saying city, city, city, over and over again, the moment his boss, Artaxerxes, the Persian king, said to Nehemiah, gave him a word, said okay, go back and rebuild the walls around your city, the moment that happened a divine finger put His finger on the start button and the 490\u00a0 year clock given to Daniel started to tick at that point.\n\nAnd in fact, when you read the rest of Daniel 9:25 it starts to make sense.\u00a0 It says, \u201cit\u201d that\u2019s the city, \u201cwill be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a tremendous prophecy given about the time of Nehemiah and the opposition that he would encounter as he would experience distress rebuilding the walls around this broken-down city.\n\nNow what\u2019s interesting about this is we can pinpoint the exact day, I believe, when this decree was given.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Nehemiah 2:1, it says, \u201cAnd it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s always a good thing to do when you want to get\u00a0 your boss to agree to something give him a little bit of wine, \u201cNow I had not been sad in his presence.\u201d\u00a0 So Nehemiah 2:1 is giving you the exact moment in time when the decree was issued, thereby starting Daniel\u2019s clock.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that this chapter takes place \u201cin the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.\u201d\u00a0 Now we know from extra biblical evidence exactly when Artaxerxes father left the throne.\u00a0 Artaxerxes father left the throne December 17, 465, at the very end of the year 465. So Artaxerxes came to the throne in 464 B.C.\u00a0 Now notice very specifically that this happened \u201cin the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes\u201d so now we go 464 B.C., twenty years into the future, that takes us to 444 B.C.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty specific, isn\u2019t it.\n\nAnd then this information goes on and it says this happened \u201cin the month of Nisan.\u201d\u00a0 Now most people when you mention \u201cNisan\u201d they think you\u2019re talking about an automobile or a car; that is not what Nisan means in the Bible.\u00a0 The month of Nisan is a Jewish month.\u00a0 In fact, here is a Jewish calendar, it gives you the different months of the year. One of those is named Nissan and when you overlay it with a Gentile calendar what you\u2019ll discover is Nisan, for the most part, is the month of March. Now it\u2019s generally believed that these Persian kings issued their decrees the first of the month. And if that\u2019s true, as we go from a Jewish calendar month to a Gentile calendar month and look at it very carefully, and chronologists have looked at this very carefully, you can actually figure out the exact moment that this decree was entered into, March 5, 444 B.C.\u00a0 In other words, March 5, 444 B.C., the moment Artaxerxes said to Nehemiah go back and rebuild the walls around the city is the moment a divine hand put His finger on the 490 year clock and pushed the start button and the thing started to run at that point.\n\nNow remember I asked\u00a0 you to memorize the date when Daniel received this vision.\u00a0 Anybody remember the date?\u00a0 538.\u00a0 So this is something that would take place and begin to take place after Daniel was off the scene.\u00a0 This initiation of the prophecy wouldn\u2019t take place for close to a century, perhaps a little under a century.\u00a0 And this is why there are so many statements in the Book of Daniel where Daniel is saying when he receives the visions, I heard but I didn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 \u00a0He says this over and over again in the Book of Daniel. We\u2019ve seen some examples of it: Daniel 7:28, we saw it in Daniel 8:27, we saw it finally at the end of the Book of Daniel, it says, \u201cBut as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time, many will go back and forth, knowledge will increase.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 9 of Daniel 12, \u201cGo your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.\u201d\n\nIn other words, Daniel, you don\u2019t need to understand it.\u00a0 You did your job.\u00a0 You faithfully recorded the vision in the Book of Daniel and now leave it up to the timing of God and the providence of God for this to transpire in subsequent generations.\u00a0 So Daniel dies, and God (who cannot lie) remembers what He said almost a century later; the decree of Nehemiah 2 is entered into and immediately when that happened March 5, 444 B.C. the clock starts running.\n\nNumber 1, the prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Israel!\u00a0 Number 2, the prophecy has how many years in it?\u00a0 490.\u00a0 Number 3, the prophecy consists of how many days per year?\u00a0 360.\u00a0 Number 4, what\u2019s going to happen when the prophecy reaches its completion?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to have the political and the spiritual restoration of Israel.\u00a0 Number 5, when did the prophecy start running?\u00a0 March 5, 444 B.C.\n\nThis takes us to fact number 6 and this is big here.\u00a0 In fact, you might want to buckle\u00a0 your seat belts for this because many of you are going to listen to me talk and you probably won\u2019t believe it when I explain it to you, but I will be sending you to sources where you can do your own investigation and I think as you begin to see this, not only will you understand that this book has to be from God but this prophecy has to be understood to make sense of the New Testament.\n\nSo the sixth fact is this; exactly 483 years will elapse between the beginning of the prophecy, Nehemiah 2, and Palm Sunday.\u00a0 Where am I getting this from?\u00a0 Let\u2019s go back to Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem\u201d that\u2019s what started the count, \u201cuntil Messiah the Prince\u201d who would that be?\u00a0 Jesus Christ, \u201cthere will be seven sevens and sixty-two weeks;\u201d now seven plus sixty-two is what? Sixty-nine.\u00a0 And why in the world does it not just say sixty-nine, why does it divide it up into seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.\u00a0 I asked the greatest expert in the world, prior to his death on this, Dr. Harold Hoehner, and I\u2019ll make reference to him in just a minute, and this was his answer.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know!\u201d\u00a0 So if he doesn\u2019t know I don\u2019t know either.\u00a0 Maybe it took seven sevens to rebuild the wall and another sixty-two sevens for the Messiah to show up.\u00a0 Maybe it took seven sevens for the canon to close and another sixty-two sevens for the Messiah to come.\u00a0 I have no idea why it\u2019s divided that way, into seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.\u00a0 But here\u2019s what I do know; seven plus sixty-two is what?\u00a0 Sixty-nine.\u00a0 I can guarantee you that\u2019s true.\n\nWhat is being said here is in between the decree of Artaxerxes and the coming of Jesus Christ there is going to be sixty-nine sevens, a seven is a seven year period of time, so sixty-nine times seven is how many years.\u00a0 Four hundred and eighty three years.\u00a0 But wait a minute; didn\u2019t we study earlier and I told you when we were looking at this you\u2019re not going to think it\u2019s important but it would pay dividends later, remember we said that last time?\n\nWe said that under fact number three each year of the prophecy consists of how many days?\u00a0 360 and I said you\u2019ll say so what, those will become a big deal later.\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 It\u2019s later, now it\u2019s\u00a0 a big deal because if each year of this prophecy is 360 days we can multiply 483 times 360 and get the exact day count as to the coming of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In other words, in between the decree of Artaxerxes and the coming of Jesus Christ there will be sixty-nine sevens, or better said, 483 years, or better said, 173,880 days.\n\nNow we make a big deal about how you can\u2019t set dates for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and I\u2019m on board with that.\u00a0 No man knows the day or the hour but what I\u2019m showing you here is you could have set a date, in fact, God gave a date, not for the Second Coming of Christ but for the what? First coming of Christ.\u00a0 Now your Bible says \u201cto whom much is given much is\u201d what? \u201crequired.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus, and I\u2019ll be showing\u00a0 you the passages in a minute, when He showed up expected the nation of Israel to understand this.\n\nSo the question becomes well, when did Jesus show up?\u00a0 What was the specific time in history where He formally presented His Messianic credentials to the nation and said to them here is your opportunity to enthrone me as\u00a0 your King.\u00a0 And the answer to that is Palm Sunday.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the whole thing is about.\u00a0 Palm Sunday, just prior to Christ\u2019s crucifixion and resurrection, was the golden opportunity for the nation of Israel to enthrone the King and not just be the owner but the what?\u00a0 Possessor of her blessings and the kingdom of God would have arrived.\n\nSo now the question becomes well when did Palm Sunday take place?\u00a0 And I want to refer you to a book called The Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/em> by Harold Hoehner.\u00a0 Harold Hoehner was one of my professors at Dallas Theological Seminary, he was one of the readers on my dissertation, and Harold Hoehner had graduated from Cambridge, not exactly academia light, and part of his Cambridge dissertation was proving when certain things happened related to the calendar of Jesus Christ and the final events of his life.\u00a0 Dr. Hoehner, in this book, establishes that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ took place April 3, A.D. 33.\u00a0 Now you can quibble with him if you want, the man had two doctorates, I felt he knew a little something about what he was talking about.\u00a0 Then Dr. Hoehner backs up on the calendar, which you can do, and goes back to the triumphal entry the week before and comes up with the following date for the triumphal entry, March 30, A.D. 33.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice what we have here, we\u2019ve got two dates; we\u2019ve got the decree of Artaxerxes which started the count, March 5, 444 B.C. and then we have this date for the triumphal entry, March 20, A.D. 33.\u00a0 And so the $20.00 question becomes (it\u2019s actually worth far more than $20.00) are there exactly 173,880 days between those two events?\u00a0 Now because Harold Hoehner was on my dissertation committee I had a chance to talk to him a lot about this because this has always been a tremendous area of interest of mine.\u00a0 And I said Dr. Hoehner, I think what you did is you came up with those two dates first and then you went back to make it fit the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 And he assures me that he did not do that; he came up with the dates independent of the seventy weeks prophecy, these two dates that I\u2019m giving you, March 5, 444 B.C. when it started, and April 30, A.D. 33 when the triumphal entry takes place.\n\nHe came up with those two dates and he said just for fun let\u2019s see if it fits Daniel\u2019s timeline, not really expecting it to work out.\u00a0 And in his book, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/em> you\u2019ll see he makes a statement to that effect, not expecting it to work mathematically.\u00a0 But then he says the results were better than anticipated.\u00a0 Talk about the understatement of the year.\u00a0\u00a0 What he explains is this prophecy was fulfilled EXACTLY to the day.\u00a0 Now how does he get that?\u00a0 Well, he starts with the year 444 when the decree was issued, and the year A.D. 33 when the triumphal entry takes place.\u00a0 Now hos much of a difference is there between 444 and A.D. 33?\u00a0 According to my \u00a0old math that\u2019s 477 years.\u00a0 But we have to subtract a\u00a0 year because the difference between 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. is counted as one\u00a0 year rather than two. \u00a0So we subtract 1 from 477 and we come to the year 476.\u00a0 Now we have to multiply 476 times 365 because March 5th<\/sup> and March 30th<\/sup> is a Gentile calendar so he does the math and he multiplies 476 times 365 and he gets the following days between those two events, 173,740.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s a problem because how many days do we need?\u00a0 173, 880.\u00a0 And we\u2019re just a tad short, aren\u2019t we.\n\nBut wait a minute, in between March 5, the decree, and March 30, triumphal entry, \u00a0is how many days?\u00a0 25 days.\u00a0 So to make up for that difference let\u2019s add 25 days to 173,740 years and we come to 173,765 days.\u00a0 Close but no cigar!\u00a0 Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, right. We still don\u2019t have our magic number of 173,880 days\u2026 but wait a minute, there\u2019s something called leap years.\u00a0\u00a0 You all know what leap years are, right?\u00a0 The Gregorian calendar is 365 days .25, a quarter in other words, so we have to make up all of those quarters. So consequently Harold Hoehner adds to the number 173, 765 days, he adds 115 days to compensate for leap years and oh my goodness, what\u2019s the count at the bottom, 173,880 days.\n\nThis conclusion shocked Hoehner more than anything else; he never really expected to work out to the exact day but if you\u2019re following me on this and if you get his book, The Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/em>, what he is showing is the prophecy given to Daniel was fulfilled exactly on time, to the exact day.\u00a0 You know, God, what we know of Him, is perfect in His timing.\u00a0 Did you know, for example, that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple on the exact same day the Romans destroyed the temple in A.D. 70.\u00a0 God is a God of precision; God is a God of mathematics, God is a God of perfect timing.\n\nAnd see, if we don\u2019t understand this part of God\u2019s character then we become frustrated with God because we feel like He\u2019s not listening to us when we pray, because we don\u2019t get immediate answers.\u00a0 And we need to remember that God is the God of perfect timing, for marriage, job, promotion, death, whatever it may be.\u00a0 And because we\u2019re sort of oblivious to who God is we\u2019re not resting or trusting in His character.\u00a0 A prophecy like this reveals His perfect character.\u00a0 What Hoehner is showing is the prophecy of the seventy sevens, the first sixty-nine of the seventy was fulfilled exactly on time, to the exact day.\n\nTo my knowledge there is nothing like this in the Quran.\u00a0 There is nothing like this in the Book of Mormon.\u00a0 There is nothing like this in any other alleged holy book; it is unique to the Bible and we need to understand this because we\u2019re living in an environment where people are telling us the Bible can\u2019t be God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 How could it not be God\u2019s Word when you see something like this?\n\nWhat is answered in the seventy weeks prophecy is not just the what question; there\u2019s a lot of what\u2019s out there, what is Christ going to do when he comes the first time?\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be born in Bethlehem, He\u2019s going to be pierced, those are \u201cwhat\u201d issues.\u00a0 The Bible predicted the \u201cwhat\u201d issues.\u00a0 What is being shown to Daniel is the answer to those \u201cwhen\u201d questions; when is this supposed to happen.\n\nNow Harold Hoehner is not the first man that has attempted this.\u00a0 The first man that attempted this calculation is a man named Sir Robert Anderson who wrote a book called The Coming Prince<\/em>.\u00a0 Who was Sir Robert Anderson?\u00a0 He was a committed Christian and he was very gifted intellect\u00adually.\u00a0 In fact, Sir Robert Anderson worked for the Scotland Yard, he was an attorney, he was into forensics, he was into criminal investigation.\u00a0 In fact, the history books tell us that Sir Robert Anderson was instrumental in the resolution of the Jack the Ripper case.\u00a0 You remember that from history?\u00a0 This mad man going throughout London and just splitting people\u2019s throats wide open, sort of like the hillside strangler, no one could figure out who this person was.\u00a0 Well, Sir Robert Anderson figured it out.\u00a0 That\u2019s what kind of mind you\u2019re dealing with.\n\nSir Robert Anderson took the mind\u00a0 that God gave him and wrote many, many books, probably his most famous is The Coming Prince<\/em>, which is an analysis of the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 Now his starting dates and stopping dates are a little bit different than Hoehner\u2019s. Anderson charts the decree of Artaxerxes in March14, 445 B.C. and the triumphal entry April 6, 32 A.D.\u00a0 why is it different?\u00a0 And I asked Dr. Hoehner about this and he said because there was archeological evidence available to Hoehner that was not available to Anderson, concerning the year that Artaxerxes came to the throne.\u00a0 Hoehner had information Anderson didn\u2019t.\u00a0 So what Hoehner has done is he took Anderson\u2019s numbers and just adjusted them or updated them to keep up with archeological discoveries.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the point: both of these men, intellectual giants, Harold Hoehner with his two doctorates, Sir Robert Anderson, the Scotland\u00a0 yard who helped resolve the Jack the Ripper case, both men have shown that this prophecy has the potential of being fulfilled to the exact day.\n\nYou say well who cares.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand this there\u2019s pages of the New Testament and many of the things that Jesus Christ says will never make any sense to you, but with the background of this precise time clock suddenly the things that Christ is saying fall sharply into focus.\u00a0 For example, on Palm Sunday, as recorded in Luke 19, Jesus starts making certain statements.\u00a0 For example, notice if you will Luke 19:37-38, \u201cAs soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,\u00a0 [38] shouting: \u201cBLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;\u00a0 Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!\u201d What\u2019s in quotations is Psalm 118:26 which is a Messianic Psalm. [Psalm 118:26, \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.\u201d ]\n\nWhy is it He\u2019s riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, on Palm Sunday, and there are people taking Psalm 118:26 and applying it to Christ as the Messiah?\u00a0 Why were they doing that?\u00a0 Because some knew what day it was. \u00a0Some didn\u2019t.\u00a0 The ones that knew what day it was knew the right verse to apply to the right situation, Jesus as the Messiah.\u00a0 Now the Pharisees don\u2019t like this, they never like praise going to Christ so it says this:\u00a0 \u201cSome of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, \u2018Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 19:39]\u00a0 Shut these people up.\u00a0 [40] \u201cBut Jesus answered, \u2018I tell you, if these become silent, the stones themselves will cry out!\u201d\u00a0 Why would He make a statement like that?\u00a0 Because this is a special day that Daniel predicted.\u00a0 God is going to be praised one way or the other and if the praise isn\u2019t going to out of the mouth of the disciples God will get the rocks and the stones to praise Him.\n\nThen a little bit later, in Luke 19:42 Jesus, in response makes this statement, \u201csaying, \u2018If you had known in this\u201d what? \u201cday, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Why in the world would Jesus Christ on Palm Sunday make an issue out of the day?\u00a0 Well it makes sense if you understand that this is the day that Daniel said would come.\n\nLuke 19:44, it says, \u201cand they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the\u201d what? \u201ctime of your visitation.\u2019\u201d kairos<\/em>, time, season, you should have known what day it is because \u201cto whom much is given, much is\u201d what? \u00a0Expected.\u00a0 [Luke 12:48, \u201cFrom everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.\u201d]\n\nSee the Palm Sunday statements start to fall into focus if you understand the background of the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 It begins to make sense why Jesus would hold that generation accountable for the time that they were living in.\u00a0 Remember what He said in Matthew 16:1-3, \u201cThe Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.\u00a0 [2] He replied, \u201cWhen evening comes, you say, \u2018It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,\u2019 [3] and in the morning, \u2018Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.\u2019 You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the\u201d what? \u201ctimes\u201d\u00a0 You all know how to figure out weather, red sky in the morning, what? sailor take warning, we\u2019ve seen a lot of that recently, haven\u2019t we, with floods and meteorologists and predictions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And yet this was the generation that could not see the prophetic signs happening right in front of their face and they were held accountable for the information.\n\nNow our generation is not given a date but we\u2019re given an awful lot of information to look for, I\u2019ll tell you that much.\u00a0 And there are Christians today, they can tell you about the baseball stats, the basketball stats, they can tell you about the stock market, they can tell you about the price of gold, they can tell you about interest rates, they can give you all kinds of rattling facts and figures throughout world history or American history, and yet they know almost nothing about the season of the Lord\u2019s return.\u00a0 Let me tell you something folks, we\u2019re not held accountable for a date but we\u2019re held account\u00adable for understanding this Book and what it says, just like Jesus held first century Israel accountable.\n\nWhy was Jesus born at the time He was born?\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself that?\u00a0 Why was He born under the reign of the Romans?\u00a0 Why not the reign of the Greeks, or the Persians?\u00a0 Why does the Apostle Paul, in Galatians 4:4 says, \u201cwhen the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of woman and under law.\u201d\u00a0 Why does Paul, in the Book of Galatians say that Jesus was dropped into history at the right time.\u00a0 The answer to that is he had to be dropped into history at the right time so he could grow up and become a man at the right time to present His Messianic credentials to the nation of Israel at the right time.\u00a0 Everything\u2019s on the time table.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Christ, as He\u2019s interacting with his brothers and they\u2019re saying show yourself now and He says for you any time is right, you don\u2019t understand the clock or the sequence that\u2019s happening here.\n\nHave you ever asked yourself this: you go into early Luke and you run into these two, one is a prophet, one is a prophetess; one is named Simeon, the other one is named Anna.\u00a0 And Simeon is told\u2026 it says of Simeon, Luke 2:25-26, Simeon is in the temple waiting for the consolation of Israel.\u00a0 Of Anna, it says she\u2019s waiting in the temple, waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.\u00a0 What are they doing in this temple or what are they waiting for?\u00a0 [Luke 2:25, \u201cAnd there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. [26] And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord\u2019s Christ.\u201d\n\nSee, there\u2019s always a remnant; there\u2019s always people that understand the signs of the times.\u00a0 And they can figure out from a clock the triumphal entry, they not have known it as such, is coming and it\u2019s been a few decades and so the Messiah has to be born, so they\u2019re waiting for Him.\u00a0 There are fools, like the Pharisees, who ignore the signs of the times.\u00a0 There are the wise remnant, like Simeon and Anna who\u2019s taken prophecy at face value, recognizing the season they were in.\u00a0 Who are you like?\u00a0 Are you like Simeon and Anna?\u00a0 Or are you like the Pharisees that had just ignored the whole thing and had become wrapped up in worldly pursuits.\n\nNow on virtually every Christmas card it\u2019s something that looks like that. [shows picture of Jerusalem\/bright star in the distance with three magi on camels going towards it]\u00a0 I like what it says at the bottom: \u201cWise men still seek Him.\u201d\u00a0 The magi.\u00a0 They show up in Matthew 2.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[Matthew 2:1-2, \u201cNow after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, [2] \u2018Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.\u201d\u2019]\u00a0 Who were these guys?\u00a0 Where did they come from?\u00a0 Well, we\u2019re told in Matthew 2:2 that they came from the east; do a word study on \u201ceast\u201d and what you\u2019re going to discover is east always refers to Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and the Tigris, an area called Shinar in Hebrew, Babylon or what today is known as modern day Iraq.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the Garden of Eden was and it\u2019s also where the tower of Babel once stood.\n\nSo these guys are coming from the east looking at a star.\u00a0 Now why would these magi be curious about information about a coming Messiah at this time in history?\u00a0 Well, they knew the triumphal entry, they didn\u2019t know it by that name, was coming up in a few decades and so the Messiah has got to be born pretty quick here.\u00a0 And they began to go from Babylon to the land of Israel to pay homage to the king; they made a 350 mile trek, it\u2019s on all of our Christmas cards.\u00a0 And what people don\u2019t tell you is why they were coming.\n\nThink back for a moment in our study of the Book of Daniel. What happened to Daniel when he interpreted, as a teenager, the statue for Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2.\u00a0 Anybody remember?\u00a0 He was elevated by Nebuchadnezzar into the ranks of the who?\u00a0 The magi?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say magi, it says the sorcerers and the magicians of Babylon who were precursors of the magi.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:2, \u201cThen the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams.\u201d]\n\nDaniel 2:48 says, \u201cThen the king\u201d that\u2019s Nebuchadnezzar, \u201cpromoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon,\u201d that\u2019s the forerunner, six centuries in advance of the magi.\u00a0 The magi, I believe, had the seventy weeks prophecy; they had some kind of knowledge of it, awareness of it because that prophecy had been given by Daniel, Daniel was one of their own.\u00a0 This is why they\u2019re intellectually curious about a Messiah coming at a specific season. See that?\n\nNow they had something else, they had another prophecy that God had given them around 800 years earlier, before Daniel was on the scene, and that\u2019s Balaam\u2019s prophecy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll recall that the nation, as it was making its\u00a0 way into Canaan through the Transjordan, east of the Jordan there\u2019s this guy named Balaam; Balak, the King of Moab, hired Balaam to curse Israel, which is a dumb thing to do because every time Balaam cursed Israel what came out of his mouth was a blessing.\u00a0 And there are seven times when Balaam tries to curse Israel and he ends up blessing Israel.\u00a0 And we know there are seven because it says picked up his oracle and he said\u2026, he says that seven times, Numbers 23 and 24.\n\nNow you get to oracle number 4, right in the middle, and this is what it says,\u00a0 \u201cI see him but not now; I behold him, but not near; A\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cA star\u2026\u201d \u201cA star shall come forth from\u201d the Southern Baptist Church?\u00a0 No, \u201cA star shall come forth from Jacob,\u201d so the Messiah must be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he must be what?\u00a0 Jewish.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s not clear enough, \u201cA scepter\u201d that\u2019s authority of the Messiah, \u201cshall rise from\u201d what? \u201cIsrael\u2026.\u201d\n\nNow this man, Balaam, where did he live.\u00a0 Anybody want to take a wild guess?\u00a0 He lived in Babylon.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because it says that in Deuteronomy 23:4, it says of Balaam, the guy who gave this oracle about the star, \u201cthe son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia,\u201d between the rivers. [Deuteronomy 23:4, \u201cbecause they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.\u201d]\n\nWhat is going on with these magi coming from Babylon?\u00a0 They had two pieces of information that God had given them.\u00a0 Number 1, they knew the general time because of the seventy weeks prophecy, because one of their own predicted the exact day that the Messiah would publicly proclaim his credentials to the nation and number 2, they had, going back to the time of Moses another prophecy connecting the whole thing to a star.\n\nAnd what Matthew is doing is these pagans have figured it out and yet the chosen people, with a full canon of Scripture, with a lot more information, are blind to the time period they\u2019re living in.\u00a0 What a rebuke it is that pagans coming from notorious Babylon, same place where the nation was taken in captivity, they\u2019ve got it figured out and yet My chosen people, who have far greater revelation are blind to the whole thing.\n\nWho are you more like in this exchange?\u00a0 Are you more like the magi, functioning by faith on a few pieces of information?\u00a0 Or are you like the Pharisees who have a full complete understand\u00ading and yet just choose to ignore it.\u00a0 May God help us to understand the significance of prophetic truth, how God holds leaders and generations accountable for understanding the things that He has disclosed.\n\nHow about this\u2014the Messianic secret.\u00a0 Do you know what the Messianic secret is?\u00a0 It\u2019s all of the times when Jesus tells people don\u2019t tell anybody who I am.\u00a0 He performs a miracle, people say You\u2019re the Messiah and He says shhhhh, don\u2019t spread that around.\u00a0\u00a0 Mark 8:29-30, it says of Him, \u201cAnd He continued<\/em> by questioning them, \u2018But who do you say that I am?\u2019 Peter answered and said to Him, You are the Christ.\u2019\u00a0 [30] And He\u201d that\u2019s Jesus \u201cwarned them to tell no one about Him.\u201d\u00a0 Why does it keep saying that in the Bible?\u00a0 It says this over and over again; scholars write books on this, they write journal articles on this, they spill ink about the size of the flood itself on this trying to understand this.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that little ole me and little ole you at Sugar Land Bible Church understand the whole thing\u2026 because it wasn\u2019t time\u00a0 yet for the Messiah to proclaim Himself as the Messiah.\u00a0 That had to come exactly 173,880 days after the decree of Nehemiah.\n\nAnd because it wasn\u2019t time\u00a0 yet for his public disclosure to the nation he\u2019s constantly telling people to keep it under wraps for now.\u00a0 It is fascinating the things that start to fall into place, whether it be Palm Sunday statements, the desire of Christ to hold people accountable for the season of His return, the time of His birth, the Messianic secret, all this starts making sense when we begin to understand the clock that was ticking.\n\nClosing question: if the first sixty-nine weeks, the first 483 years, the first 173,880 days were fulfilled literally, then how do you think God is going to fulfill the remaining seven years that haven\u2019t elapsed yet?\u00a0 Any wild guesses?\u00a0 Why would God switch horses in midstream and say 483 years is literal but the rest of it just do whatever you want with it.\u00a0 What a ridiculous thing to think.\n\nSir Robert Anderson, I referenced him earlier, this is my closing quote here, from the book The Coming Prince<\/em>, page 147-148, \u201cThere is not a single prophecy, of which the fulfillment is recorded in Scripture, that was not realized with absolute accuracy, and in every detail; and it is wholly unjustifiable to assume that a new system of fulfillment was inaugurated after the sacred canon closed\u2026 Literalness of fulfillment may therefore be accepted as an axiom to guide us in the study of prophecy.\u201d\u00a0 [The Coming Prince<\/em>, p.147-148]\n\nThe prophets said Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, not Las Vegas and there He was, born in Bethlehem.\u00a0 The prophets said when He dies He\u2019s going to be pierced to death, not stoned to death; that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u00a0 The prophets said he\u2019d be born of a virgin; that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u00a0 On and on I could go and we say well, I guess we can just spiritualize away the rest of the prophecy.\u00a0 You can\u2019t if you want to be faithful to God.\n\nAnd we\u2019ll continue on marching in our study of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy the next time we\u2019re together.\u00a0 All of this to say that maybe you\u2019re here today encountering God for the first time.\u00a0 There is a Creator and a Redeemer of perfection and perfect timing who has made a claim on you.\u00a0 Have\u00a0 you responded to that claim by faith alone?\u00a0 Have\u00a0 you received, by way of faith, the free offer that He gives, which is the gospel or good news, meaning He paid for all of it and He asks us to trust in what He has done.\u00a0 Well, I just need a little bit more proof\u2026 my goodness, how much more proof do you need?\n\nIf what we\u2019ve presented today is not enough proof then you\u2019re just making excuses and no amount of proof will ever satisfy you.\u00a0 \u201cTo whom much is given much is required,\u201d the requirement of God on anybody here that\u2019s unsaved is to get saved.\u00a0 The requirement of God on people in here that are saved, which I would think would be most of us, is to start trusting Him with the details of your life.\u00a0 Stop fretting and worrying and being anxiety ridden about this and that.\u00a0 If God is the God of perfect timing He\u2019s got your life under control just like He\u2019s got the seventy weeks prophecy under control.\u00a0 So a challenge for the unbeliever, a challenge for the believer, based on the revelation of God\u2019s character as revealed through an ancient prophecy.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we are grateful for what You have revealed in history and the things it opens up to us.\u00a0 Make us, we pray, good stewards of these things; we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said \u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t