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Daniel 9:24-27 Sermon Outline

Here’s my outline for a sermon I preached on Daniel 9:20-27 (mostly 9:24-27), which I preached at Cross of Christ Fellowship, our church in Naperville. It was a very tough text to preach, but full of wonderful insights and pronouncements of God’s mercy and grace.( If you want to hear it, you can find it on our sermon audio page).

Daniel 9:20-27: THE GOSPEL OF 70 WEEKS

Intro: When you think of God’s heart toward you, His disposition, what is your impression? Do you view Him as a loving Father? Do you believe He is for you? Do you believe He is kind and merciful? Do you see Him as one who is generous and gives you good gifts? Maybe life is not going the way you expected, maybe the hardships you are facing have made you wonder if God loves or cares for you. You know He is in control, but in your heart wonder if He loves you.
I’m sure God’s people may have felt that way in Daniel’s time as they went into Babylonian exile. To assure them of his love for them, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah right before the exile occurred: “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jere 29:11). This was God’s word to His people who were about to experience the discipline of being in exile for 70 years in Babylon. It was going to be difficult to be in Babylon, but God had not abandoned them; He still had good plans for them and a FUTURE.
We are in Daniel 9:20-27 today, and in the timeline of the book the 70 years of Israel being in exile are nearly up. Last week we saw how Daniel recognized this and prayed for God to show mercy and bring about the end of the exile. And this week we see God’s response to Daniel’s prayer. God sends his angel Gabriel to confirm that Daniel’s prayer has been heard and to give a message about a future display of God’s mercy to His people. The exile was indeed going to come to end, but something far better than the end the exile was coming too: God was going to bring about an end to sin itself and bring in everlasting righteousness!
Christians have different views on how to best interpret this prophecy we are looking today—some people say this is the most difficult passage to interpret in the whole Bible. But one thing is clear to all who believe this passage: here we have a VERY clear prediction of God showing mercy to his people to rescue them from their sins, a prediction which finds its fulfillment in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Friends I hope today you will see me the merciful heart of God toward sinners. The God of the Bible is a God of mercy, a mercy that is better than we can even imagine.  This is his heart toward you who have placed your faith in Jesus.


REMEMBER CONTEXT:
God’s people have been in exile about 70 years and Daniel has just prayed for God to show mercy. Now we see the response: the arrival of the angel Gabriel and hearing Gabriel’s message of 70 weeks.
God Sends the Angel Gabriel (20-23)
-This occurred in the context of Daniel’s prayer (20-21)
-God has heard Daniel’s prayer, and has “a word” that Gabriel has come to tell Daniel, a word which is a “vision” (22-23)

The Content of God’s Word to Daniel through Gabriel: The GOSPEL of 70 Weeks (24-27)
OVERVIEW: 70 “weeks” are decreed which bring about many wonderful things for God’s people. These 70 weeks will include the return of Israel to back to the land, along with pain and suffering; yet something far greater than a return from exile was in store: God was going to act powerfully in mercy to bring about the end of sin and to defeat evil.
GOSPEL OF 70 WEEKS: God is going to do more than end the exile, He was going to deal with the sin that brought them into the exile in the first place. Here we see the GOSPEL—God is holy and our sin has estranged us from Him, but God is merciful and acts in love to save his people from their sins, not because they deserve it, but because He is gracious and merciful.
-TIMELINE: 70 WEEKS (24a) -Specific period of time: “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city,”
HOW TO INTERPRET 70 WEEKS?Some believe this refers to a week of years. So 70 X 7 years, which is 490 years.
-Another way to take it, and this is how I would view it, is symbolic and theological. We’re in apocalyptic literature, and numbers are mainly symbolic. 70 weeks is a period of time, but not PRECISELY 490 years. The 490 weeks is designating a period of time that these events will occur with an eye to fulfilling another event in the OT.
-BACKGROUND FOR 490 NUMBER in LEV 25:8-12.
     -At end of 49 years, it is the year of JUBILEE: on the Day of Atonement trumpet sounds (25:9) and on 50 year “proclaim liberty throughout the land” returning property and celebrating (25:10-11).
-Poythress, Storms, and others have noted that the 70 weeks of Daniel is the equivalent of 10 Jubilees!
     -God is bringing about the ultimate JUBILEE deliverance and atonement and freeing of His people.6 THINGS WILL TAKE PLACE:
1. “to finish the transgression,”: Transgression led Israel into exile. It would be done away with.2. “to put an end to sin,”: God is going to deal decisively with sin (end it).3.  “and to atone for iniquity,”: ATONE, means to deal with the consequences of sins which led to our estrangement from God. Specifically, the sin which makes us unclean before him (iniquity) would be atoned for.4.  “to bring in everlasting righteousness,”: POSITIVE side. EVERLASTING form of RIGHTEOUSNESS, where God’s people would experience a wholeness and rightness before God and with each other.5. “to seal both vision and prophet,”: This means that the vision and prophecies of the OT would experience some kind of completion and it would be made known to God’s people (sealing)6.  “and to anoint a most holy place.”: Come back to this.
OVERVIEW: over 70 weeks, God was going to do something dramatic for His people: defeating sin, bringing in righteousness, fulfilling the prophecy.
See the GOSPEL—GOD is holy and our sin is our big problem, but God acts in mercy to deal with our sin.
APP: Sometimes you hear the view the God of OT and NT are very different; it is said that in the OT we see an angry God concerning with punishing evil, but in the NT we see a God who is full of mercy and grace. The fact of the matter is that we see the same God in the OT and the NT: one who is holy, just, and merciful. And this passage is a good example of this. It is an OT passage which very clearly shows God showing His mercy toward sinners.
The God of the Bible is a God of mercy, a mercy that is better than we can even imagine. 
     HERE: A mercy that not only delivers from exile, but from sin itself!

-BEGINNING OF 70 WEEKS (25): begins at the “going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem” (538 B.C. King Cyrus)
-COMING OF AN ANNOINTED ONE (25): “coming of an anointed one”
    
Jesus: Commentators note anointing at baptism: “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38).
     –Anointed One arrives end of 70 weeks: Punctuation in ESV is confusing here, better understood this way: “From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’
                 TIMELINE: 1. First Week begins at Cyrus’ decree. 2. 62 weeks of building. 3. Final week
                             -Rebuilding took place in stages, and with difficulty (troubled time). Then Messiah comes.
PROPHECY OF COMING MESSIAH=God’s mercy is even better than we could have hoped for!

THE 70TH WEEK (26-27) read 26-27
-Commentators argue best to interpret these two verses as PARALLEL rather than SEQUENTIAL. Verse 26 and 27 are happening at the same time, rather than one after the other.
3 things: ANNOINTED ONE, SUFFERING of JERUSALEM, GOD DEFEATS EVIL

ANNOINTED ONE:And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing” (26)
     –Jesus was “cut off” at his death on the cross. He was forsaken for us. And died in our place. Same as Isaiah 53:4-6
“And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.”
    
Jesus made a “strong covenant,”: NEW COVENANT. Matt 26:28
                 -“for one week”=week symbolic for age of the church.
                             –“half of week he shall put an end to sacrifice”=end of OT sacrifices or destruction of temple at 70
                                         -Jesus is ultimate sacrifice that all OT sacrifices pointed to.
APP: In Jesus being cut and making a covenant, we see the MERCY of God. A mercy that combines with GRACE. Jesus is cut off for us, he makes an everlasting covenant with us. This is his heart toward his people: LOVE.
The God of the Bible is a God of mercy, a mercy that is better than we can even imagine. 

SUFFERING of JERUSALEM
– “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.” =Roman general Titus came and destroyed the temple in 70 A.D.
-“And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate,” Some kind of future antichrist, who works great evil against God’s people.

GOD DEFEATS EVIL:  “until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”  

     -A “decreed end” is coming, and God’s enemies will be finally and utterly defeated. Just like we saw back in Daniel 8:14 with the 2,300 evenings of Antiochus wreaking havoc. Satan and his influence will one day be utterly defeated.
APP: In the end, GOD wins. Evil will be defeated and God’s people will enjoy life with him forever on new earth.
GOSPEL OF THE 70 WEEKS: God has promised to bring about an end to sin and bring in an everlasting righteousness.
            -THIS HAS BEGUN WITH JESUS life, death, and resurrection.
                        -Those who are Christians are experiencing the beginning of its sweetness.
            -THIS WILL BE COMPLETED AT JESUS’ SECOND RETURN: evil will be utterly done away with.

UNBELIEVER APPLICATION—You need God’s mercy, and it is available to you in Christ. Now is the day of repentance. Turn from your sin and trust in God’s mercy shown to us in Christ. God will defeat evil, including the evil in your heart. In the gospel you can have your sins take away in Christ. Turn from sin and trust in Jesus.

BELIEVER: When life gets hard or doesn’t go the way we think it should, we can look back to the gospel of Jesus and see that God’s heart toward us is one of mercy, grace, and love. See His heart toward you this morning. See His kindness: He gives us things even better than we could even ask for or imagine in Christ. He has done this in the past, is doing this in the present, and will do so in the future.
1 Cor 2:9 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
The God of the Bible is a God of mercy, a mercy that is better than we can even imagine.

By Tom Schmidt

Christian, husband of Rach, Church Planter,musician,

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