Participants: Pastor Shawn Boonstra
Series Code: RSP
Program Code: RSP000007A
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01:21 Announcer: Revelation. The time of the end.
01:24 Mysterious signs. 01:25 Strange happenings. 01:27 Confusing numbers. 01:29 Are we facing a new world order and the mark of the beast? 01:34 Are we living on a planet in upheaval? 01:36 Are we on the verge of Armageddon? 01:45 Revelation, what do all the signs in this mysterious book mean? 01:52 Discover real answers. 01:54 Revelation Speaks Peace, with Shawn Boonstra. 01:59 + 02:01 Good evening, everybody. What is the best way to study the Bible? Well, my answer would be, read 02:09 the whole thing. That's my first piece of advice. Read the whole thing. Now, if you've never 02:16 really given Bible study any serious thought before, here's what I would recommend. First 02:20 of all, always pray before you study the Word of God. Why? Well, the Bible tells us it was 02:25 inspired by the Holy Spirit. Holy men of God wrote as they were inspired by the Holy 02:30 Spirit. God authored the Book. He's the one Who knows the content best, and He knows His 02:34 intent best. And I always start with prayer. "Lord, this is Your Book and I need my mind to be 02:40 clear and I need You to guide me." So always pray before you study the Bible. Now, if you're 02:45 just getting started, I would recommend, start with one of the four gospels. That would be my 02:49 recommendation for getting started. My personal favourite is Matthew because you've got 02:54 the Sermon on the Mount and a whole bunch of parables and that kind of thing. Matthew or John, 02:58 perhaps. And pay attention to Jesus and things He says and the things He teaches, and 03:04 particularly, what He does for you at the cross of Calvary. Get there because that is the focal 03:08 point of the whole Bible, and then the rest of it kind of falls into place, the prophecies 03:12 and so on. But get to know Jesus and the gospels first. Find a good reading plan. You can just 03:17 look for a Bible reading plan online and you'll find one. But I think I have one that shows 03:23 how you can read from the four major sections of the Bible, you know, the history sections, the 03:30 poetry and wisdom, the gospels, the letters in the New Testament, and read a little 03:35 from each of those sections every day. And what you find is that it connects you on similar 03:42 topics in all four sections, and that's a good one. The other one that you want to do is read the 03:46 Bible subject by subject. You want to read through it chronologically and read the 03:50 whole thing, but the other thing you might want to do is avail yourself of a good concordance. 03:56 There are four major ones: Strong's Concordance; Young's Concordance; Walker's 04:00 Concordance; and Cruden's Concordance. And the founder of the Voice of Prophecy, H. M. S. 04:05 Richards, had a priority on those. He said, "Strong's for the strong; Young's for the 04:09 young; Cruden's for the crude; and walk with Walker." That's the way he sort of recommended 04:14 it. But nowadays, you can go to, like, bibleinfo.com or any of those places, and you can really 04:22 look up every - you know, for example, you want to study the temple, so you look up every 04:26 verse that deals with the temple and you go through the whole Bible and read them all. And 04:31 when you do that, you suddenly get the big picture. So those are some of the things, but 04:34 always, always pray, because it's not just information; you're looking to where, "God, 04:39 can this apply to my heart and my walk with Jesus today?" Alright. Our topic tonight, 04:45 "The time of the end, part two." We'll be studying God's Word, and we're going to take a moment 04:52 to prepare our hearts for that and let's bow our heads for prayer. Father in heaven, I know 05:00 who I am and where I've come from. To imagine that any sinful human being could open the Bible 05:13 and be faithful with it, it takes a miracle. And I'm asking that You would take a call from 05:23 heaven's altar tonight and touch my lips with it, so that what I speak is truth from Your Word, 05:30 and that I'm faithful to what is in this Book, that I represent Christ faithfully, and that our 05:41 attention would be on Him, not merely on prophetic symbols, but on Jesus. May our hearts be 05:52 changed by Him again tonight. May we feel that we are drawn closer to Him. May our 05:59 characters become more like His because we have spent time in the Bible. Forgive my sin. Make 06:06 me fit to speak. And tonight, Lord, I ask that Your angels would be walking through this 06:11 auditorium, that the evil one would not be permitted anywhere here, there would be no 06:16 distraction, but that we could focus on Christ and hear Him speak. And when He does, Lord, 06:26 we will follow. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Tonight, I want to pick up where I left off 06:36 last night, and if you were here last night, you know that we covered a lot of material. And 06:43 if you found it to be quite a bit to chew on, take heart; we're going to review some of it 06:49 tonight as we keep going. And then when we come to the end, I'm going to present something 06:53 that I think you're going to find fascinating. But before we get into the very heart of what 06:58 we're going to study tonight, I want to set the table with a couple of important principles 07:03 for understanding Bible prophecy, or for interpreting Bible prophecy. And the first 07:09 one is a math lesson. This, let's say, it is a number line. Remember number lines from, 07:15 like, the second or third grade? And you remember telling your teacher you would never, ever 07:20 use this in real life? And here you are, forty-some years later, at "Revelation Speaks Peace" and 07:25 you need a number line. Here. Let's pretend that this is a number line and that all the 07:30 numbers on the left are negative numbers. Now, there's no zero in my number line; do you see that? 07:35 So the blue line will be zero. What does the blue line represent? It's zero. All the 07:40 numbers on the right will be positive numbers. Now, let's give you a math problem. Not a 07:47 hard one. What is negative two plus three? It is one. The answer would be one. You start 07:55 at negative two, and you add three: one; the blue line is zero, so two; three. You end up 08:03 in one. It's really, really simple math. The number line helps. Now, let's pretend this 08:06 is no longer a number line. Let's pretend that this is actually a date line, and 08:12 everything on the left represents all the dates B.C., and all the numbers on the right 08:19 of the blue line represent A.D. And let's do the same problem. Let's say it's two B.C., and you 08:26 add three years. What year will it be? How many say it's one? That is not the correct answer. 08:33 Why? Why? It is two. And here's the reason why. I have absolutely played you tonight. 08:40 There is no year zero. There never was. One A.D. came right after one B.C. There never was a 08:47 year zero. That's why I don't have a zero in there, just the blue line. One B.C. was followed 08:54 by one A.D. So if you start in two B.C. and add three years, one, two, three. The answer is 09:02 two. It's the one time - you wish you'd known that in second grade. "Teacher, I can prove 09:08 that minus two plus three is two." I even got that wrong. Did I get that wrong? No, I got that 09:15 right. It is two. Here's the reason. There just is no year zero, and so anytime you're 09:21 calculating something - say somebody is born in twenty B.C., and they live to be eighty years 09:29 old, what year did they die? Well, you'd automatically say, "Oh, they died in sixty A.D." 09:32 No, they didn't. They died in sixty-one A.D. The rule is, every time you cross this line - 09:36 you're going to see why we need this - just add one to the total and it corrects for you. So what 09:41 do you add every time you cross the line between B.C. and A.D.? You add one and it solves the 09:46 problem. Now, here's the second principle. The second principle that we're going to use tonight 09:52 is that in Bible prophecy, a day represents a year. But only in Bible prophecy. Everywhere else, 09:59 if it says it's a day, you know, that was the end of the day, it means a day. But in Bible 10:04 prophecy, a day represents a year. How do I know that? Well, the other night, we talked about 10:08 the persecution that happened under Diocletian, right? Diocletian issued an edict - he 10:14 was under duress to do it - he issued an edict against the Christians in 303 A.D. In the 10:20 prophecy, the letter to the church of Smyrna that predicted the persecution that would 10:26 happen, God tells the Christians that are being persecuted by the Roman empire, "You will have 10:32 tribulation ten days." Well, ten days isn't very long. But the decree was issued in 303; 10:40 Constantine reverses the decree in 313, ten years later. Meets with Diocletian and has it 10:46 overturned. Ten days represents ten years. A day in prophecy is a year. And you find that all 10:53 through the Bible. Here's an explicit example of it in the book of Ezekiel. Judah has been 10:58 sinning against God for forty years, and God is going to tell them about it, and He tells 11:03 Ezekiel., "Look, you have to lay on your side for forty days. I have laid on you each day for a 11:11 year." 11:13 So there are the two principles. Every time you cross from B.C. to A.D., you add one to the 11:18 total. And in Bible prophecy, a day represents what? You should've gotten that one right 11:24 because it's still up there on the screen. When you cross from B.C. to A.D., how much do you 11:30 add to the total? One. And a day represents a year. Now let's review what we looked at last 11:35 night, and we covered a lot of ground. Last night, we looked at Daniel chapter 8, which we 11:41 discovered was parallel to Daniel chapter 2. And in Daniel chapter 2, we had the head of 11:46 gold, Babylon; chest and arms of silver, Persia; belly and thighs of brass or bronze, depending on 11:53 the translation into English, brass or bronze, that was Greece; the legs of iron, that 11:58 is Rome; and then some of the iron continues into the feet, but they're feet mixed with 12:03 clay, and that represented the divided Roman empire. That was Daniel 2. And what we discovered 12:09 last night is that many of the prophecies of the Bible are parallel. They go over the same 12:15 ground, but they add more detail every time they go over it. And that was true of Daniel chapter 12:21 8. It opens with Belshazzar, Babylon. He only gets a brief mention, because as you know, 12:26 the empire collapses shortly after Belshazzar sits on the throne, and Babylon is gone. 12:31 Then Daniel has a vision and he sees a ram with two horns. And were the horns the same size? 12:39 Yes or no. No. One horn bigger than the other. It is the Medo-Persian empire. And we knew 12:46 that because Gabriel goes and explains and he says, "That's the Medes and the Persians," the 12:51 ram with two horns. Then a goat, a he-goat, comes from the west with one big horn on his head. 12:58 The horn is broken off, and four more horns come up behind it, and we saw that represented 13:03 Greece. And we knew it was Greece because Gabriel says, "Hey, that's Greece." It doesn't 13:09 get any simpler than when Gabriel says, "Hey, it's Greece." And then we looked at 13:14 the little horn, and there was mind-boggling detail, and I cheated - I didn't cover it in 13:18 explicit detail - but we'll come back to it. It represented the united and divided Roman empire. 13:24 Runs parallel with the legs and feet of the statue. And in every instance in this prophecy, 13:30 Gabriel gives all kinds of detail, even naming names at times. But then there was one 13:36 more part to the prophecy. You remember what that was. It was a prophecy of 2,300 days, verse 13:44 14. "He said to me, 'For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be 13:52 [what?] cleansed.'" Now, this part was completely different. There are no beasts. There are 13:57 no horns. Nobody's conquering territory. It's just 2,300 days 'til the sanctuary is cleansed. 14:05 And this is the only part of the vision that Gabriel doesn't give details on. He doesn't explain 14:11 it. He says, "Daniel, that part about the evenings and mornings, that part about the days, it's 14:17 true. It's for way off in the future, so seal it up." And that's it; that's all he says. 14:23 And if you remember from last night, Daniel gets really upset. He faints. He gets sick. He's 14:30 astonished, he says, and he knows it's important, but he doesn't understand it. Did that 14:35 mean that it's inexplicable? We can't understand it? Not at all. We actually started to look for 14:42 clues and we found some right in Daniel chapter 8. Clue number one came from verse 17. 14:46 "Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end." This is a last-day 14:54 prophecy. It points us to the time of the end. No question about it. We found another clue 14:58 in verse 19. "For at the time appointed, the end shall be." An appointed time. We went and 15:07 looked at the preaching of Paul in the book of Acts and we discovered, he did preach a time 15:10 that's been appointed in the last days. "He [God] has appointed a day on which He will 15:16 judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained." Jesus, of course, as 15:20 we discovered too, last night, is the Judge. That's good news Jesus is my judge. Clue number 15:26 three, we found in the text itself. It referred to the cleansing of the sanctuary. So 15:32 we had three major clues: the time of the end; a time that's appointed - and we know that the 15:37 judgement's been appointed - and the sanctuary is cleansed. And we started to put the pieces 15:42 together last night to see if we could figure out exactly what this means. We looked for what 15:48 we could discover. And as we started to examine, there was no doubt that God is pointing us to 15:53 the Old Testament sanctuary. The Old Testament sanctuary is one of the biggest keys to unlock 15:58 Bible prophecy. In fact, the language of Daniel 8 itself is a major, major clue. All the 16:06 language in Daniel 8 is sanctuary language. Not only does it mention a sanctuary 16:12 outright; not only does it talk about sacrifices and so on, but it also uses clean animals to 16:19 describe the nations. A ram and a goat; those are animals used in the sanctuary. Now, that's 16:25 not always true. In Daniel 7, you'll see that God uses animals that are not used in the 16:30 sanctuary, like a lion and a leopard and a bear and so on. But it's all clean animals here. 16:35 There is no doubt God is saying, "Hey, look at the sanctuary." He has to say it like that to us, 16:43 but in Daniel's day, they knew. They knew exactly where this was pointing. So last night, we went 16:49 on a tour of the sanctuary. We started in the outer courtyard. It's all review now. But it's 16:53 important to review this. We started at the altar of burnt offering where the animals were 16:58 sacrificed - their lives were laid down - sinners would symbolically - book of Hebrews 17:03 is clear. No animal saved anybody. They were looking forward in faith to Jesus 17:07 Christ, Who is our only Path to heaven. "No other name under heaven given among men, whereby 17:11 you may be saved," Acts chapter 4. But they symbolically confessed their sin over the 17:17 lamb, and the lamb pointed forward to Jesus. And then he takes their sins from them, just 17:22 like Jesus. Our sins are put on Jesus. The Bible teaches, "He becomes sin for us." And the 17:28 animal is sacrificed. The altar is a prophecy of the cross of Christ. Jesus takes our sins for 17:34 us. Then there is the laver, and we studied that last night. The priests had to wash themselves 17:40 before they could go inside the tabernacle, because inside the tabernacle was the very presence 17:45 of God. And you cannot go into the presence of God without being cleansed by Jesus Christ. 17:52 It's not possible. That's why the Bible says that when we confess our sins, God is 17:59 faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That was 18:08 outside in the courtyard. Then we went inside and we looked inside the sanctuary. All review 18:10 still. We saw the seven-branched candlestick, the only source of light. Jesus said, "I am the 18:15 light of the world." We saw the table of show bread with the twelve loaves, one for each of 18:19 the tribes of Israel. Jesus said, "I am the Bread that came down from heaven. I am the Bread 18:23 of life." The priest represents Jesus. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our High 18:28 Priest. Jesus said, "No one takes My life from Me. I lay down My life Myself." He's not 18:34 only the Sacrificial Victim; He is the Priest. He gave his life willingly. Nobody abducted Jesus 18:40 and hung Him on a cross. He gave His life for us willingly because He wants us in the 18:46 kingdom of heaven. Then we had the altar of burnt incense up against the veil. This room was 18:53 called the holy place - behind the veil called the most holy place - and the altar of burnt 18:59 incense, the smoke came from sweet-smelling spices that were offered, and it went up over the 19:02 veil into the most holy place. And in Revelation 8 - I know I'm moving fast 19:05 But we want to cover it to make sure we're 19:08 following along. It represents the prayers of God's people going before the throne of God. 19:14 The ark of the covenant represented the throne of God. And actually, when they pitched 19:18 camp, the very presence of God would come down and take up residence between these two 19:23 cherubim, these two angels, on the ark of the covenant. How do I know that the presence of God 19:29 would be there? Well, the Bible tells me. Exodus chapter 25, God's speaking to Moses. "I 19:35 will speak with you from above the mercy seat." I love that His throne is called the mercy seat. 19:41 "I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which 19:47 are on the ark of the Testimony." All through the Bible, especially in the book of 19:52 Psalms, the Old Testament, God says, "I dwell between the cherubim." The ark represents 19:58 God's throne in heaven. Now, here's something really interesting. When Ezekiel 20:02 chapter 28 talks about Lucifer falling from grace - there are two key passages that do that: 20:07 Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 - it calls Lucifer "the covering cherub." These are covering cherubs on 20:18 the ark of the covenant. They cover the Shekinah glory of God with their wings. Lucifer 20:26 apparently fell from a very high position. He stood right next to the throne of God. It's 20:33 fascinating. He's called "the covering cherub." Now, the sanctuary is very important. It 20:41 is one of the keys that unlocks the book of Revelation. Let me just show you how prevalent the 20:45 sanctuary is in the book of Revelation. If you don't study the sanctuary, you'll never 20:49 understand Revelation, period. Revelation 11:19: "Then the temple of God was opened [where? 20:56 Where is it?] in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple." Here's the ark of 21:03 the covenant in heaven. It's the throne of God in heaven's sanctuary. Remember, the one on 21:09 earth we studied, God showed Moses a plan, said, "Build this," and the book of Hebrews 21:14 said that it was a copy and shadow of heavenly things. Revelation 1:13, at the 21:20 beginning of the book. "In the midst of the seven lamp stands [John sees] One like the Son of 21:25 Man." Jesus appears with seven candlesticks right at the beginning of the book. And if 21:30 you read the language, He's dressed like an Old Testament priest. It's sanctuary language. 21:38 Revelation 5 verse 6, we studied this one a few nights ago. "I looked, and behold, in the midst 21:45 of the throne [there's the throne] and of the fourth living creatures, and in the midst of 21:51 the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain." Where did they slay lambs? In the 21:55 sanctuary. You need this background to really dig into this language. Revelation 8: 21:59 "Then another angel, having a golden censor, came and stood at the [what?] altar. [Sanctuary 22:06 language.] He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints 22:11 upon the golden altar which was before the throne." That's that small altar right in front of 22:20 the veil where they burned the incense and it went up over the drapes. It's the golden altar 22:26 before the throne. There was a veil in between, but its function was with the throne. 22:29 The smoke went to the throne of God. Revelation 14: "Another angel came out of the" - where? 22:37 I don't want to lose you yet. These are important. Another angel came out of where? - "the 22:42 temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, 'Thrust in Your sickle and reap, 22:48 for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'" It's the second 22:56 coming, and it uses sanctuary language. How? Well, do you remember the feast of first 23:01 fruits, right, where they waved one sheaf of grain before the Lord? We talked about it last 23:07 night. "They found the first bit that was ripe, and they waved it before the Lord, thanking Him 23:12 that the rest of the harvest would come." The second coming is often described as a harvest 23:18 in the New Testament. In First Corinthians 15:23, the Bible tells us, "Christ is our first 23:25 fruits, and afterwards, the rest of us will be in the harvest when Jesus comes again." It's 23:31 all sanctuary - it's all sanctuary language. Revelation 14 again: "Then another angel 23:37 came out of the temple which is [where? Where is it? It's in heaven], he also having a sharp 23:43 sickle. And another angel came out from the altar [more sanctuary language], who had 23:49 power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, 23:54 'Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vines of the earth.'" It's harvest 23:58 language for the second coming. When Jesus is about to come, they make an announcement in 24:05 heaven's sanctuary. This is one of the biggest keys to the book of Revelation. I cannot 24:10 underline this enough. You have to study the sanctuary because there is a sanctuary in heaven. 24:17 The earthly one, the Bible is explicit, was built according to a blueprint, and it was a copy 24:23 and a shadow of heavenly things. This language is not just in the book of Revelation either. 24:29 Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the throne of God. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord 24:35 sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the [what?] temple." 24:44 Where is God sitting on His throne? In heaven's temple. It was there again tonight in Psalm 24:49 11. This is one of the most dominant themes in the Bible. Now, last night, we studied the 24:57 temple; we looked at the furniture, but we also studied the feasts and festivals. 25:03 Anybody remember how many major festivals there were? Anybody? There were seven. You could 25:07 almost guess at "Revelation Speaks Peace" it's seven and be right most of the time. There 25:12 were seven special feasts held every year. And those seven feasts showed us the complete 25:17 work of Jesus for us. It gives us the work of Jesus for us from the day He dies on the cross and 25:23 pays our penalty, to the day that He comes again for His people. We're going to go 25:29 quickly now. We did it in detail last night. There was the passover feast. Christ, our 25:33 passover, is sacrificed. It is Jesus Christ giving His life for us. On the second day of the 25:40 passover was the feast of unleavened bread. They had to remove all the yeast, all the 25:44 leavening agents, from their home because it was a symbol of sin. And when Jesus gives His 25:49 life for us, He cleanses us of sin. On the third day, they had the feast of first fruits. 25:55 That's where they did that wave sheaf offering. "Thank you for the first bit of the harvest. 25:59 The rest will come." It's Jesus rising from the dead. He's the first fruits of them that slept, 26:05 Paul says. Then we had the feast of Pentecost, which celebrated Mount Sinai, the 26:11 Israelites getting to Mount Sinai and receiving God's ten commandment law, and fire comes 26:15 down on that mountain. On the day of Pentecost, in the New Testament, as they're 26:18 celebrating that, fire falls on the head of the disciples, and they preach the gospel in the 26:23 languages of all those present. It's the beginning of the New Testament church. Then we had a 26:27 big, big break, because there were no festivals through the summer months, just like 26:34 historically, we went through a long period of centuries where not much happens. We plunge into 26:38 the Dark Ages, frankly. Then there was the feast of trumpets in the fall. They blew the 26:43 trumpets and said, "You've got ten days left." Ten days left. Why? Because in ten days, they 26:51 had the day of atonement, which was a solemn day of judgement. You had to have everything right 26:55 with God or you were removed from the people of God forever. Then you had the feast of 27:01 tabernacles which celebrated God bringing His people successfully into the promised land, just 27:06 like He will when Jesus comes, and it's the second coming of Christ. It is the whole ministry 27:11 of Jesus. Now, that's all review. Then we slowed down and looked at the day of atonement. 27:19 Yom Kippur. Here's what happened on that day. As we just mentioned, they blew the trumpet 27:26 ten days before. And everybody was supposed to search their hearts because you only had ten 27:33 days left 'til judgement. Leviticus 23:29: "For any person who is not afflicted in soul on 27:39 that same day shall be cut off from His people." Removed forever. Everything had to be 27:46 right there, or you were removed from the camp. It was your final chance. It was a moment that you 27:50 had to come clean. And they had a special ceremony to cleanse the temple. That is described in 27:58 Leviticus 16. "Then he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make 28:06 atonement for the tabernacle of meeting." Now, wait a minute. Why would a building need 28:14 atonement? Buildings don't sin. People sin. People need atonement. So why a building? 28:23 Leviticus 16 actually says they needed to cleanse it of the uncleanness of the children of 28:29 Israel. Why? Well, when they offered those animals, the little lamb, and confessed their 28:35 sins, it symbolically, the lamb took their sins from them, and it's carried inside day after 28:41 day after day, the priest takes the blood into the temple. The uncleanness, it says in 28:46 Leviticus 16, had to be cleansed once a year. It's symbolic. But even symbolically, sin does not 28:53 dwell in the presence of God, so they cleansed it. How did that happen? One day a year, the high 28:58 priest actually went into the most holy place. One day a year. On that day, they took two 29:06 goats. One was called the Lord's goat, and they sacrificed the goat, and they took that blood 29:11 into the sanctuary. The priest went right into the most holy place. Nobody does that but the 29:16 high priest one day a year. There's an old legend - probably not true, but at least it 29:22 reflects how seriously they took it - there's a legend that says that they actually attached a 29:27 bell to the hem of the garment and a rope to his leg, and they would listen. "Is everything 29:32 okay in there?" Because if everything wasn't right in the camp of Israel, the high priest 29:35 would die, and nobody wants to go in and get him, so they want to pull him out with a rope. 29:40 They took it that seriously. One day a year. This is mentioned in the book of Hebrews too. Hebrews 29:49 9 verse 7. "But into the second [the second apartment, the most holy place] into the second part 29:55 the high priest went alone once a year not without blood [you can't get there without the 30:02 blood of Jesus], which he offered for himself and for the people's sins." He went in once 30:10 a year to cleanse the sanctuary of all that sin, and he does it on Yom Kippur, the time of 30:15 judgement. And that ritual goes on year after year after year after year after year after 30:22 year, and then Jesus dies on the cross. And on the day Jesus dies on the cross, there is a great 30:28 earthquake, and an unseen hand rips the veil in two that hangs between the holy and the most 30:36 holy place. Ripped in two. Why? Why would God reach in and rip that veil in two? It's because 30:45 you don't need it anymore. The real Lamb of God has come and given His life at the cross of 30:52 Calvary. You don't need the symbols anymore. It's like a boarding pass, right? You pay 30:58 four hundred bucks for a boarding pass and all you get is a piece of paper out of your 31:02 ink-jet printer. It's not worth anything. It's just a symbol of a plane ride. When you get on 31:08 the plane and they close the door and take off, you can rip it up. You don't need your 31:11 boarding pass anymore because they're not going to kick you off the plane for not having it. 31:15 I think. Right? It's a symbol of - hand rips the veil in two. We don't need it now. We have 31:26 the real Lamb, the real High Priest, and all the attention is about to go to the real 31:31 sanctuary. It was just a symbol. We have the real one in heaven. Hebrews 9: "For Christ has not 31:37 entered the holy places made with hands [that's the one the Israelites built], which are 31:42 copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us." We 31:48 have the real Lamb and the real sanctuary. Now let's go back to the prophecy. Daniel 8:14: "He 31:56 said to me, 'For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.'" 32:01 When do they do that? On the day of judgement. What in the world is Daniel getting at? Buckle 32:10 your seatbelts. Because Gabriel doesn't explain anything in Daniel 8, but he comes back in 32:21 Daniel 9. You gotta remember, there were no chapters and verses in the original 32:27 manuscript. We read to the end of a chapter and stop because somebody put a number there in 32:34 the Middle Ages. You've got to read the whole thing. And sure enough, Gabriel comes back. 32:40 Daniel 9 opens with Daniel praying for understanding. He's astonished. "I don't get it." 32:46 And when he's finished praying, he gets a visitor. Guess who? "Gabriel, whom I had seen in the 32:51 vision at the beginning [what vision? The one he just had in Daniel chapter 8], being caused 32:56 to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering." More sanctuary 33:01 language. "And he informed me and talked with me and said, 'O Daniel, I have now come forth to 33:06 give you skill to understand.'" "I'm going to explain it now." Don't you wish we had seen this 33:10 last night? Read the whole thing. You should've gone home and read the whole book. "I'm 33:14 now going to help you. Daniel, I know you didn't get it." "I saw you pass out, man. I saw you get 33:19 sick and pass out and you were astonished, but now I've come to explain it." And how does 33:24 Gabriel explain it? Gabriel explains it by giving Daniel something he can hang his hat 33:30 on. He gives him something to digest. He gives him something that modern-day Christians refer 33:38 to as the "seventy-week prophecy." Now, before we dig into what Gabriel's about to 33:44 say, let's remember our principles. When you cross the line from B.C. to A.D., how many 33:50 do you add? One. What does a day represent in Bible prophecy? A year. How many days are there in 33:55 a week? Seven. Some of you had to think about that and you were counting your toes and you only 34:01 had five and I saw you switch feet. Seven days in a week. So a week would be how many years? 34:07 Seven years. We have to move methodically and carefully tonight and let the Bible speak 34:14 for itself because we're about to look at something that, for the last couple of generations, 34:17 has been tossed around in Christianity. Tossed around left and right. There's a thousand 34:22 books on it. But for the most part, we've lost track of how our ancestors, for 1800 years, 34:29 read this. Tonight I'm going to show you how, for nearly 2000 years, Christians read this. For 34:32 the most part, in recent generations, we've been reading it out of context, and so we're 34:36 going to go slowly. We're going to look at it carefully. Daniel 9 and verse 24. Going to be a 34:41 lot of math tonight. "Seventy weeks," says Gabriel. How many weeks? Seventy. How many days 34:48 would that be, in seventy weeks? Anybody know? Four hundred and ninety. I did hear somebody say 34:54 it over there. Four hundred and ninety. That would be how many years? Four hundred and ninety 35:00 years, right? A day is a? Year. Just a test. Here we go. "Seventy weeks are determined 35:07 for your people and your holy city." Daniel, seventy weeks are set aside for your people. Who 35:11 are Daniel's people? The Jews. Which is Daniel's city? Jerusalem, right. And he says, 35:18 "They are determined for your people and your city." And that word "determined" in Hebrew? Oh, 35:24 the Hebrew - this is going to be on TV and Hebrew scholars are always appalled at how I handle 35:28 Hebrew. "Chafuk." That's the word, or a reasonable facsimile of the word. Do you know what it 35:34 means? Set aside from. Cut off of something else. He says, "Seventy weeks are cut off of 35:41 something else for your people." Well, what are they cut off of? What did he come to explain? He 35:46 came to explain the bigger prophecy of Daniel 8. He said, "I've now come to give you skill 35:51 and understanding, and out of those 2300 days, seventy weeks are cut out of it for your 35:58 people," the Jews, Daniel's holy city Jerusalem. Seventy weeks, four hundred and ninety days. A 36:05 day represents what? A year. Here's what we've got so far. It looks like this: there's a 36:12 2300-day prophecy Daniel doesn't understand. So Gabriel comes back and says, "I'll help you 36:18 with this now." "Four hundred and ninety of those are for your people and your city." That's 36:25 pretty useful. But what we don't know is when it begins or when it ends. We've got no reference 36:31 point. How do we figure it out? No problem. Gabriel's happy to help. "Know, therefore, and 36:38 understand," he says to Daniel, "that from the going-forth of the commandment to restore and 36:44 to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the prince," who's Messiah the prince? That's Jesus. "From the 36:52 command to rebuild Jerusalem 'til Jesus shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Now, 36:59 that's important. what's seven plus sixty-two? You had to think about that. That's not a hard 37:05 problem. There's no trick in it. What's seven plus sixty-two? Sixty-nine, it's sixty-nine 37:09 weeks. "The streets shall be built again and the wall, even in troublesome times." I want 37:14 you to remember that sixty-two weeks 'cause you're going to see that language in a moment. He's 37:18 saying, from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah will be sixty-nine weeks. This 37:25 is unbelievable. What's sixty-nine times seven? Just take seven off the other total. 37:30 It's four hundred eighty-three. What's he saying? There'll be four hundred eighty-three years 37:35 from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince. You can't fake this 37:42 stuff. We know exactly when that decree came out. We know it historically. It's the seventh 37:48 year of Artaxerxes, it says. Seventh year was 457 B.C. The command to rebuild Jerusalem. 37:56 Now we have the beginning. Now it really is time, if you didn't buckle your seatbelts, to get 38:00 them buckled. This is going to blow your hair straight back. 457 B.C. We know when it starts, 38:07 and it says 483 years, or the sixty-nine weeks, takes us down to, go ahead, 27 A.D. 27 A.D. 38:20 What is 27 A.D.? That happens to be the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. And what 38:29 happens in Tiberius Caesar's fifteenth year? In Luke chapter 3, Jesus is baptized at the 38:36 Jordan River and begins His public ministry right on schedule. People have often 38:42 said, "Why didn't Jesus do anything for the first thirty years of His life?" And there's 38:45 these conspiracy theories. "Oh, He went to India and hid there." Nonsense. Everyone in Jerusalem 38:52 said, "We know this guy. It's the carpenter's son. We grew up with Him." People say, "Well, He 38:56 wasn't the age of majority yet." That is true. But there's another reason that He doesn't 39:01 begin His public ministry until 27 A.D. It's because it's not time yet. He steps into the 39:05 river, the heavens open, and God says, "This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased." And 39:10 John points to Him and says, "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin" - He shows up exactly 39:15 on time. Everybody could know that Messiah had come. It was exactly the right time, and 39:20 there were people in those days that knew it was time. 27 A.D. Now, that's 483 years. It gets 39:26 it exactly right. But the whole thing is not 483 years; the whole thing is 490 years, and 39:34 that would take us down to 34 A.D. Anything happen in 34 A.D.? You'd have to expect something. 39:42 And the answer is yes. In that year, the national council rejects the final appeal of a 39:50 deacon by the name of Stephen who, in his sermon, points them to the heavenly sanctuary. Read 39:57 it. It's in Acts chapter 7. He describes it, and he describes the whole history of God with 40:02 His people, and they stone him to death and they reject his final appeal. And a great 40:07 persecution starts, it says, and the believers are scattered all over the place. And there's a 40:13 young guy sitting there holding the coats: Saul of Tarsus. And he's knocked off his horse by 40:20 Jesus one day and becomes the apostle not to Jerusalem, but to the Gentile nations. 490 years 40:31 are set aside for your people, Daniel. At the very close of it, suddenly the gospel goes with 40:35 power to the whole Gentile world. Jesus said in Matthew 21, He warned everybody, "You're 40:41 running out of time." He knew the prophecy of Daniel 9. "The vineyard is going to be rented 40:47 out to someone else," is His language. Matthew 21 verse 43, He's pleading with tears in His 40:51 eyes, "Please. The kingdom of God is going to be taken to you and given to a nation that'll 40:57 bear the fruit." Now the gospel goes directly to the Gentiles. I mean, it was always what God 41:02 intended. In Isaiah, it says, "You're to be a light to the Gentiles," He said to Israel, 41:06 and it wasn't happening, so God just bypasses it and picks Saul of Tarsus, the least likely 41:11 candidate on earth to carry the gospel to the whole world. And today, because of that, we can 41:16 all be Israelites, all of us. It's not a genetic thing anymore. You can be a descendant 41:21 of Abraham. You can get in on the covenant. Galatians 3:29: "If you are Christ's, then you 41:29 are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." If you're in Jesus, you are 41:32 Abraham's descendant. That's what the Bible says. Romans 2 verse 28: "For he is not a Jew 41:40 who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is 41:46 a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart." Look, Israel's always 41:51 going to have a special place in God's heart. But the distinction between Jew and Gentile is not 41:56 there. We are all now, in Christ, God's people. Israel was supposed to bring the gentiles 42:03 into the covenant family, and now God just went and did exactly that. We have all been, 42:08 in the language of Paul, grafted in. Romans 10: "For there is no difference between Jew and 42:15 Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." Distinction is gone. 42:19 The 490 years for Daniel's people have come to a close, and it goes out. The time was up. 42:25 Stephen is stoned, and the gospel goes out. So here's what we have so far. The 490 years 42:32 happened exactly right. From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem 'til Messiah the prince, bang on 42:37 schedule, to the close of the time of Daniel's people, right on schedule. But there's more 42:42 detail. It gets even better. Daniel 9:26: "After the sixty-two weeks [do you 42:47 remember, it was seven plus sixty-two? Do you remember that? Sometime after that] Messiah 42:52 [who's Messiah? Jesus], shall be cut off, but not for Himself." When was Jesus cut off for other 43:01 people? I mean, it literally says he was - his life is taken. That's at the cross of Calvary. 43:05 "And the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." Now, 43:11 you want to read this very, very carefully. It said that sometime after that sixty-two weeks, 43:16 Messiah would be cut off, crucified. And then sometime after that, someone would come 43:22 and destroy the city and the sanctuary. Did that happen after the crucifixion of Jesus? 43:27 Absolutely. Jesus said, "Not one stone will be left upon another," and sure enough, and 43:34 outside people did come - the Romans under Titus - and took the whole temple apart. After 43:39 that, Messiah will be crucified. Then the temple comes down. It's easy. When was Messiah cut off 43:46 after the sixty-two weeks? At the cross of Calvary. It's absolutely right. Sometime after 43:51 those first 483 years, the sixty-nine weeks, after the sixty-two, because it's seven 43:57 plus sixty-two. It happens exactly right. Jesus is crucified sometime after that. 44:02 But it gets even more specific. How much time is there between 27 A.D. and 34? Seven years. One 44:12 week, right? Seven years. Now I want you to listen to this. "Then he shall confirm a 44:19 covenant with many for one week." Let me ask you this, because there's a lot of 44:23 confusion today about this that has come up in recent generations. Who is the subject 44:28 of this prophecy? Jesus, Messiah the prince. "He shall confirm a covenant with many for one 44:36 week." It's the final stretch in this time for Daniel's people. "But in the middle of the week, 44:43 He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering." Who brought the sacrificial system 44:49 to an end? The day He died on the cross, the veil was torn in two and it wasn't needed 44:53 anymore. Right in the middle of the week, spring of 31 A.D. We know that's bang-on accurate. 45:04 Jesus brings an end to the sacrifice. His disciples stay in Jerusalem for the next 45:09 three-and-a-half years, and then the gospel goes to the Gentile nations. It all happens right on 45:15 time. Now let me address something, because I know there's some questions in some 45:19 minds, 'cause I had the very same question once upon a time. In recent generations, just in 45:24 recent generations, by the way, some people have taken the seventieth week and they've 45:29 chopped it all from the prophecy, stuck it down at the end of time, and said it's the 45:33 Antichrist who makes a covenant with God's people. When does Antichrist ever make a covenant 45:38 with God's people? The subject is Messiah the prince. There's no question about it. Some 45:45 people say, "The seventieth week, we're going to chop that off and stick it way down at the 45:48 very end of time." But let me ask you a really simple question. What number comes 45:57 after sixty-nine, normally? Seventy. Let's say, let's say, that I invite you to come visit 46:02 me at my house and I live - what's the interstate here? Thirty-five. I live seventy 46:07 miles down thirty-five. And what you want to do is get off at Easy Street, the exit. Not Easy 46:13 Street; I don't live on Easy Street. Straight Street. That's where I want to live. Alright? 46:17 And you say, "Okay, I'm going to come." And you know that if you're going to drive seventy 46:20 miles, it should take, what, forty-five minutes? Roughly? We're out on the prairie here. 46:29 Things happen, you pick up speed. Alright, an hour. It's going to take an hour to get out 46:34 there. And you drive and you drive and you drive and you've been driving for three hours and 46:37 you still haven't seen the exit for Straight Street. So you give me a call on the cell phone. 46:40 "Hey, Shawn, I thought you said you were seventy miles out." I said, "I am, but the part I 46:44 didn't tell you, is that there's two thousand miles between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth 46:48 mile." Doesn't make sense. And what we've done to this doesn't make sense. We've only done it 46:56 in recent generations. There is nothing in the language that says, "Chop it up and spread it 47:02 out." Seventy still comes after sixty-nine. The seventieth week And the amazing thing is, it 47:08 fits. You don't have to do violence to it. It describes exactly what happened. But let's 47:14 finish it, because there's still some people who think the Antichrist is in the very last 47:18 verse. Daniel 9:27: "And on the wing of abominations [that sounds rough] shall be one who 47:24 makes [what? What will he do? Make what?] desolate, even until the consummation, which is 47:32 determined, is poured out on the desolate." What was left desolate? The temple was left 47:38 desolate. Matthew 23, in a final appeal, Jesus is weeping over the city of Jerusalem. "How 47:42 often I've sent My prophets to you. I have tried and tried. Behold, your house is left to 47:48 you." Desolate. Who did that? The Romans did that. Look, it fits exactly the way it reads. 47:57 There's a parallel structure there. The prophecy tells us that at some point after those 48:02 sixty-two weeks, Messiah would be cut off. Crucifixion. Happened right on time. After 48:07 that, a people, a prince and a people would come and destroy the temple. Happened exactly the 48:12 way that it was predicted. It says those two points. But in the Bible, often we have 48:16 parallel things. You see it in the book of Psalms a lot. Point A, point B, and then it repeats 48:22 itself. The next thing it says is, Messiah puts an end to the sacrifices. He's the One Who 48:28 confirms the covenant. God had a covenant with Israel, nobody else. He confirms the covenant, 48:30 He puts an end to sacrifices, and after that, someone comes and makes the temple desolate. 48:32 That's exactly how it reads. It predicts the crucifixion and then the destruction of the 48:37 temple, and the whole thing. I mean, we don't even need the temple now anymore because the 48:43 real temple is heaven. And the real priest has come. The real Lamb of God has come, and all of 48:48 our attention ought to be on Jesus in heaven's sanctuary. This is a prophecy where Gabriel 48:53 says to Daniel, "There's only 490 years left for your people," and after that, the temple even 48:58 came down. There is no need to chop this in pieces because it makes sense. I had a preacher 49:06 friend who used to tell me, "If the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, or 49:13 you end up with nonsense." Look at it carefully. here's the whole thing. Predicts Jesus, 490 49:24 years for Daniel's people in Daniel's city. All happens right on schedule. Gabriel has come 49:30 back and solved the problem for us. And he told us that that section of it was cut out from 49:36 the 2300 years. Now the math is easy. Remember to add one when you cross zero, and it takes you 49:48 down to the middle of the 19th century, 1844, in fact. That probably shouldn't come as a 49:56 surprise. When we looked at the seven seals, the last sign fell in 1833. Do you know what it 50:03 means? We're already there. Already underway. The books are open, the angels are getting 50:13 ready. We're already in the last phase. It's described in Daniel 7. Daniel 7 has Babylon, 50:21 Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, divided Roman empire, and then it inserts something: the 50:26 judgement hour. Here's what it says: "I beheld 'til the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient 50:31 of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool. 50:37 His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and 50:42 came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times 50:47 ten thousand stood before him." It's the number of angels. Read it in Revelation. "The judgement 50:54 was set and the books were opened." At some point, the judgement begins, and it begins 51:02 when Jesus comes. When I grew up, I was always told Jesus would come, drag you off, and 51:07 stick you in the judgement. It's not that way at all. Judgement is done when Jesus comes, 51:12 because in Daniel 7, the very next event is Jesus receiving His kingdom. "I saw the night 51:17 visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came [oh, I'm so glad it's the Son of man, that 51:22 Jesus identifies with us], one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to 51:28 the ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, 51:32 and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him. His 51:36 dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which 51:42 shall not be destroyed." That's the stone. And he gets it right after the judgement. God's 51:48 kingdom lasts forever. Jesus receives it when the books are closed. We're almost done. Earth 51:57 is on borrowed time. After the judgement hour, Jesus comes. We don't know the day or hour. But 52:08 you must be sensing that we're running out of time. History is over. When Jesus comes, the 52:16 Bible says, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according 52:20 as his work shall be." How could Jesus bring all the rewards? It's because when He comes, the 52:25 judgement is done. Over. At some moment, the world will know that the judgement has begun, 52:31 Revelation 14, a final message to the world. "And I saw another angel fly in the midst 52:38 of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 52:41 earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, 'Fear 52:46 God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgement [will come? No], has come.'" The world 52:58 can know. At some point, the world will know. Folks, there really is a last moment. There 53:04 really is a final phase. There really is a time of the end. And we're already there. And Jesus' 53:14 kingdom is coming, no pain, no suffering, no death. It's all true. Jesus came the first time 53:26 exactly as predicted. There are hundreds of prophecies of the first coming of Christ. 53:33 Everybody in his day could've easily known it was Him. We just saw another compelling one 53:40 tonight. Everything predicted in the sanctuary has come to pass. All of the predictions of Jesus 53:48 have come to pass. Everything we've seen so far - Daniel 2, Revelation 6 - it's all to pass. 53:56 It's all been accurate and right. Jesus came the first time exactly as predicted. And I 54:03 promise you, He's coming the second time exactly as predicted. He's really coming 54:13 again. God is not going to let suffering last forever. You're His child. He sees it. My 54:25 question for you tonight is simple: Where are you with Jesus at this moment? Where are you 54:32 with Him? You need the blood of Christ. There's no other way home. Where are you with Him? 54:40 You need to know that, because at some point, they're going to close the books, and it's done. 54:53 There's a trumpet blast in this world tonight. You're running out of time. It's already 55:02 underway. And we're almost home. Where are you with Jesus There's a reason that Jesus 55:15 lingers just a little longer before He comes. Peter writes that God is not willing that any 55:22 should perish. He's waiting on you, because heaven wouldn't be heaven without you, in His 55:34 opinion. He loves you. I'm going to ask that you pray with me. Father in Heaven, when we see 55:47 the detail that You have poured into the plan of salvation, and all of the lights that You 55:57 turned on along the way so that we wouldn't miss it. That temple in the Old Testament, year after 56:06 year, pointing forward to Jesus. And Jesus, God in human flesh, walking among us and giving His 56:14 life for us. The ultimate sacrifice. Jesus the first fruits. Lord, I know that in 56:26 Your heart, You long for everyone here to be in the kingdom. I'm going to ask 56:34 tonight, does your heart belong to Jesus? There's no sin He can't forgive. If Jesus, if you 56:46 are determined that He is your Lord, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand, let the angels 56:51 of heaven see it. Father, You see these hands and You smile. These are your children, Your 56:59 sons and Your daughters. Tonight, You're smiling because it's almost time to come and get 57:05 us. And these people will be home, Your children, Your family. Come quickly, Lord 57:12 Jesus, we love You. And we pray it in Jesus' name, amen >>Announcer: Today you have 57:23 watched just one in a series of "Revelation Speaks Peace" presentations. The entire 57:30 series is available on DVD. Find out how you can order a copy at www.vop.com/rsp Or Call.. 57:37 877-955-2525 Or if you wish you may request the series by writing to Voice of Prophecy PO 57:46 Box 999 Loveland, CO 80539 Our world is in turmoil. War. Hate. Catastrophe. And a battle for 57:56 your mind. What on Earth is next? Order the entire Revelation Speaks Peace series 58:01 from the Voice of Prophecy. 24 powerful episodes on DVD. Pastor Shawn Boonstra 58:08 will clearly unlock prophecies in Daniel and Revelation -- using the Bible as the key. 58:14 Experience hope for your future. Decode secrets of prophecy in episodes, such as A New World 58:20 Order, The Ultimate Mind Game, and How to Postpone Your Funeral. The world is changing 58:27 so quickly. Learn how to read Bible prophecy for yourself! With the complete DVD series 58:34 "Revelation Speaks Peace" You can also find answers to life's toughest questions, by ordering 58:41 Voice of Prophecy's free Discover Bible Guides. Where is God when you suffer? Does your 58:47 life really matter? How does Bible prophecy affect my life? The Discover Bible guides will 58:53 help you find answers to these question in the Bible We'll take you step by step to what you 58:59 care about most. Study online, or have us send them strait to your mail box. To order your 59:06 DVD set or Discover Bible Guides go to www.vop.com/rsp, again that's www.vop.com/rsp or call 59:17 877-955-2525. You may also send us a request by mail to: Voice of Prophecy PO Box 999 Loveland, 59:27 CO 80539 59:30 + |
Revised 2016-07-12