70 Weeks

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 6:1-7
• Hymn — Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Belgic Confession, Article 1
• Scripture Reading — Luke 6:1-19
• Hymn — All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Preparation
• Hymn — Speak, O Lord
• Sermon
• Hymn — Jesus Paid It All
• Benediction
• Doxology

Sermon Title: Seventy Weeks and the Coming of Messiah

Scripture: Daniel 9:20-27

I. The Context of the Prophecy: A Response to Daniel's Confession

• A. Gabriel's visit comes in direct response to Daniel's prayer of confession in Daniel 9:1-19, establishing that this prophecy is fundamentally about how God will deal with sin.
• B. Daniel marks time by the evening sacrifice (Daniel 9:21), even though no temple exists.
  1. The evening sacrifice was a daily perpetual burnt offering symbolizing Israel's consecration to the Lord and their atonement for sin.
  2. Daniel, in exile with the temple in ruins, still orients his life around Jerusalem time — he is "in but not of Babylon."
  3. Application: Believers are pilgrims and exiles who orient their lives around the citizenship and calendar of heaven, not the secular world.
• C. The word of comfort accompanying the vision — "you are greatly loved" (Daniel 9:23) — is addressed to a broken, contrite sinner pleading for mercy; this prophecy is a balm to sinners' souls.

II. The Purpose of the Prophecy: Six Redemptive Goals (Verse 24)

• A. The 70 weeks (literally 70 units of seven) represent 490 years, but are best understood theologically and christocentrically rather than as a strict chronological formula.
  1. Jesus uses the same language in Matthew 18:22 ("seventy times seven") to mean unlimited, perfect forgiveness — not a literal count.
  2. The number builds on the Jubilee principle of Leviticus 25:8-17: seven Sabbath years (49 years) culminating in the year of release and restoration.
  3. The land rested for 70 years of exile (2 Chronicles 36:20-21) — 10 Sabbath years; the prophecy of 490 years represents 10 Jubilee cycles, pointing to ultimate and everlasting redemption.
  4. Jesus announces the fulfillment of Jubilee in Luke 4:18-21, quoting Isaiah 61: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled."
• B. Three negative goals: finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity.
• C. Three positive goals: bring in everlasting righteousness, seal both vision and prophecy, and anoint a most holy (place/person — fulfilled in Christ).

III. The Unfolding of the Prophecy: Verses 25–27

• A. Verse 25 — The 69 weeks (7 + 62) run from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Anointed One.
  1. The decree most likely refers to the decree of Cyrus of Persia (Isaiah 44:28), issued shortly after Daniel received this vision in 538 BC.
  2. The city is rebuilt in a troubled time, confirmed in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah by Samaritan opposition and internal strife.
• B. Verse 26a — After the 69th week, the Anointed One (Messiah) is "cut off and shall have nothing."
  1. "Cut off" is the language of covenant curse and exile; circumcision symbolized this — disobedience meant being cut off from covenant blessing.
  2. Colossians 2:11 — Christ takes the negative side of covenant curse (being cut off) so that his people receive the positive side (covenant blessing and everlasting life).
  3. The Anointed One of verse 26 is identified with the anointed place of verse 24: Jesus is the true temple (John 2, John 1:14, John 14), the meeting place between God and man, as confirmed in Hebrews 10:19-20.
• C. Verse 26b — The destruction of the city and sanctuary refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 by the Roman general Titus.
  1. Jesus applies the language of desolation to Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-38.
  2. Whether the "prince and his people" refers to Titus or to Christ and his new covenant people, it confirms the judgment Christ had already pronounced on the old covenant temple system.
• D. Verse 27a — The Messiah makes a strong covenant with many for one week; in the midst of the week he puts an end to sacrifice and offering through his perfect sacrifice on the cross.
  1. "It is finished" (John 19:30) — Christ fulfills and ends the old covenant sacrificial system.
  2. Hebrews 9:26 — Christ appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
  3. Hebrews 8:13 — The new covenant makes the first obsolete; Hebrews was written c. AD 68, two years before the temple's physical destruction confirmed this reality.
• E. Verse 27b — "On the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate" refers to the pinnacle of the temple, filled to the extremity with abomination, upon which God's decreed judgment falls.
  1. The Hebrew word for "wing" refers to an extremity; the Greek word for "pinnacle" in Matthew 4:5 and Luke 4:9 literally means "little wing."
  2. God uses Titus and the Roman army as his instrument of judgment — as he repeatedly used pagan empires to judge his covenant people — to confirm what Christ had already enacted against the old covenant system.
  3. EJ Young: the Messiah having ended sacrifices, devastation continues upon the temple "until a full determined end pours forth upon the desolation."

IV. The Fulfillment: All Six Goals Accomplished in Christ

• A. Transgression, sin, and iniquity are once and for all atoned for at the cross.
• B. Everlasting righteousness is found in Christ — Romans 5:17-18 — a righteousness that leads to justification and life.
• C. Vision and prophecy are sealed: God now speaks through his Son in these last days — Hebrews 1:1-2.
• D. Christ, the Anointed One, pours out the Spirit without measure upon his new covenant people, writing the law on their hearts rather than on tablets of stone, making them the living temple of God.
• E. Application: This prophecy is not fodder for speculation about end-times chronology, but comfort and assurance for all who cry out for God's mercy — the Messiah has come, sin is fully atoned for, and the Spirit has been poured out.