I just got back some notes from the professor of my class. I’m pretty excited that the last two projects I’ve landed A’s on.

Here I was starting to wonder if he was processing paperwork to get me tossed out or something and then he had some nice things to say about my work. I am pleased with myself. That’ll go on my fridge!

I just got back form my weekly trip to the lunches at RHS. As strange as it sounds for a 28 year old guy to say… I really enjoy spending time with the students.

There was an initial round of “popularity” as the novelty of my being there was so fresh. But in the last year or so I’ve just started to become a staple for the students Thursday lunch. I’m not quite as interesting as the Bosco sticks… But I am something that is different for them.

It has been incredible to have the school staff be so welcoming to me. Moving to the community last summer I was terrified that I wouldn’t be allowed to do anything on campus because of seperation of church and state fears. I have never encountered that here. To the contrary, as long as I stay within the boundaries of what the principal and I talked about, everyone seems extremely happy that I care enough to invest in their students.

Today’s lunch topics:

A lunch: Clothes, future wedding plans, childhood embarrassing moments.

B lunch: Babies, odd family members

C lunch: German class, Light Force road trips, Ireland trip

On the Ireland front. I sent out a massive e-mail today to all the parents. Basically this was done to get the ball rolling and to give them information. I announced it to the whole group last night and I always like to head off rumors at the pass.

Note: This is the talk for Light Force tonight. By far, this is the biggest and heaviest talk I have ever attempted with students. I am giving it to them in one massive chunk because I think it is a little easier to understand that way.

Daniel 9: 24-27



“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.



Introduction:



Two weeks ago we looked at the beginning part of this passage to look at patterns for how Daniel prayed. Now we are going to look at the results of Daniel’s prayer life.

Tonight, we are only going to look at 4 verses from God’s Word. But my challenge to you tonight is clear.

If God’s Word is 100% true in the prophesy we are going to look at, are you willing to follow God until it’s 100% fulfilled?



Personal story:



I’ve shared many times that I grew up knowing about God, but not really knowing Him. The same is true with Scripture. I knew about God’s Word… but I never really knew it. It wasn’t until I was about 16 that I started to explore the Bible and even read it looking for God. Up until then, I just looked at it as happy stories and history of Israel. I never really thought it had much to do with me.

When I was a junior in high school, there was an event on TV that caused me to read Revelation for the first time. David Koresh and his cult were hauled up on their compound in Waco, Texas and his voice was all over CNN proclaiming that the end of the world was upon us. He kept quoting from Revelation… so I decided I would read Revelation for myself.

When I was done. I just closed it, and decided that I had no clue what I had just read. There were parts of it that were scary, parts of it that didn’t make sense, parts of it that were beautiful, parts of it I had heard before, and parts of it that were obscure.



To help you out:

I don’t want the same to be true of this prophesy we are going to look at from Daniel for you. I want to help you read it as clearly as you can. It’s written in a language that uses a lot of symbolism, so we’ll try to swap out the symbols for regular old nouns when we can figure them out… but we’re mostly going to let the Bible teach itself tonight.

Read v. 24.



1. First we’ve got 70 sevens. 70 sets of seven years

– How do we know a “seven” is years and not weeks?

o Literally translated, it means a “group of seven”

o Daniel has already told us that he was studying Jeremiah’s prophesy

§ 2 Chronicles 36:20-22

§ He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

2. The holy city is Jerusalem. From the time the Jews were exiled until now… the city has laid in ruins.

– Nehemiah describes the city and his desire to go back to rebuild!

o Nehemiah 2: 1-6

1 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” 6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.



3. There are 6 purposes are laid out for this period of 70 sevens

a. Finish transgressions

b. Put an end to sin

c. Atone for wickedness

d. Establishment of everlasting righteousness

e. Complete fulfillment of prophesy/vision

f. Anointing of most holy

A pit-stop to find our date stamp!



It’s important that we take a look at the date of this happening. If we go back to the Nehemiah passage, we will see that “the decree” was made in the month of Nisan, the 20th year of King Artexexres reign.

– Nisan in the Jewish calendar is March-April

– Antiquity has taught us that the the 20th year of Artexexes reign would have been 444 BC.

– We know for 100% certain that the Jews were exile in 512 BC.

This date, March-April 444 BC is very important. Write it down!

Back to the passage

v. 25

a. From the issuing of the decree (444 BC) there will be 7 sevens and 62 sevens

The 7 sevens (49 years)

– This probably refers to how long it took to rebuild and restore Jerusalem.

– Look at Ezra and Nehemiah for more on this

The 62 sevens (434 years)

b. From the moment of the decree until the Messiah come there will be 69 sevens (483 years)

Interact with the numbers: To do this, we will need a volunteer who is willing to help with a calculator to do the math.



Let’s do a little math to find out exactly where this takes us.

What year is the starting point? 444 BC

How many years are in the prophesy? 483

How many days are there is a prophetic year? 360

How many prophetic days between decree/anointed one? 173,880

How many days per calendar year? (Divide to translate into lunar years) 365

How many lunar years is that? 476 years, 18.25 days

What is the starting point? 444 BC

Add the years of the prophesy to it 476

What year? (Don’t forget the AD/BC change… 1 year) 33 AD

What month? Nisan (March-April)

What day? 18 days after the decree



According to the prophesy of Daniel, what day will the messiah comes?

Roughly AD 33 Mid-March to early April



What about scholarly sources:



According to scholars, what day was Christ crucified on? No one knows for sure since the Jewish calendar was actually decided as they went. (Seasons decided which month you were in!) But most agree that he was crucified somewhere between Nisan 8-24.

This is in line with the gospel accounts since it would place the Messiah around the Passover time.

Read Luke 22:7



7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9″Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. 10He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.” 13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.



So, when was did the Last Supper happen according to the gospel accounts?

If this isn’t the exact date that Daniel predicted it would be… it is within a matter of 1-2 days.

This is pretty exciting isn’t it?



We are excited because it is so clear that God’s Word isn’t only acceptable as a religious book… we’re starting to a glimpse of this amazing books accuracy.

But let’s not lose sight of Daniel’s entire prophesy.

When we look at the 6 purposes for the period of 70 sevens… we can see that there is still some work left to do. Christ’s coming to earth and even his crusifiction, burial, and resurrection don’t fulfill all that Daniel has prophesied!

a. Finish transgressions – Done (Jerusalem restored)

b. Put an end to sin – Done (Jesus paid it all!)

c. Atone for wickedness – Done (Jesus’s blood covered [atoned] all sins)

d. Establishment of everlasting righteousness

e. Complete fulfillment of prophesy/vision

f. Anointing of most holy

Since it’s clear that not all of those 6 purposes have been yet fulfilled. What we have here is a prophesy that has only partially been fulfilled. The rest of the 2 verses are referring to a time to come!

v. 26



After the 62 “sevens,” the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.

– This is referring to Christ’s Ascension from the earth and entering the Church Age.

– This is the time we are in now. Between Christ’s Ascension into heaven and him imminent return.

The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

– Who are the people of the ruler?

o Maybe referring to Titus, who ordered Jerusalem destroyed in AD 70

o More likely a person like Titus who rules people today

o As we continue in studying Daniel we will learn that this is the antichrist.

§ There is a confusing word play with the word “ruler” in the NIV, see the NASB for a clearer picture.

§ The word “ruler” in v. 25 is a Prince of God

§ The word “ruler” in v. 26 is a prince of the people

The end will come like a flood (Once a flood starts, we are powerless to stop it)



War will continue (True until today)

Desolations decreed (True to today) [Meaning state of wretchedness, misery]

v. 27

He (the ruler of the people) will confirm a covenant with many for one seven.

– Remember Daniel’s prophesy said there would be 70 sevens, and up until Christ’s crucifixion we’ve only experienced 69 of them!

– Since this hasn’t happened, it is safe to say that we are now talking about a future time.

Ø What is this covenant?

o It’s not a covenant from God since it will be broken. God can’t break a promise, it’s contrary to His nature!

o The language implies that it is a forced covenant. (Firm covenant) God can’t force man to do that, it is against man’s free will!

o It is a covenant made with the “ruler” of this age. A satanic figure.

Ø In the middle of this “seven” he (the ruler) will put an end to sacrifice and offerings.

o Are sacrifices currently being offered in Jerusalem?

§ Christ’s death made sacrifices unnecessary, but they did not stop until Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70.

§ Since there is no temple currently, this prophesy teaches that in the future there will be a restored temple in Jerusalem.

Ø In a wing on the temple, the ruler will set up a way to mock God.

o We don’t know exactly what this means.

o We do know that it is worship completely unacceptable to God.

o We do know that it is so bad that it causes abandonment.

Wrap-up



I realize that I’ve given you more information in one night than I have ever given you before. I wanted to make sure I gave all of this to you at one sitting because I think it will help you get a big understanding of one of the most important passages in all of the Bible.

Ø We can never forget that Christ is returning soon!

Ø We may not know the time or the date, but we must be prepared for Him to come back and start fulfilling the last 3 purposes of Daniel’s prophesy.

o When he establishes everlasting righteousness, all who are unrighteous in his eyes will be judged!

§ Are you ready to be judged if this happens today?

§ Are your friends aware that this could happen at any time?

o The rest of this prophesy will be fulfilled!

§ Are you ready?

§ Have you told people?

o Jesus will be anointed as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords

§ Are you ready to serve him?

§ Are your friends ready for what will happen if they aren’t ready?

I don’t say these things to scare you, but to rather encourage us. Passages like this remind us that we must act now. We don’t know when Daniel’s 70 “seven” begins. We are just told to be ready for it.

Let me challenge you one more time:

If God’s Word is 100% true in the prophesy we are going to look at, are you willing to follow God until it’s 100% fulfilled?

Pray

Last night we had a good “family pow-wow” with all the Cranky ass high school students to discuss what has been going on. It went really well. Though not 100% of the nastiness came out I clearly saw that the lines of communication had been reopened enough for the issues to be resolved eventually.

We used the old illustration of the elephant in the room to guide our conversation. It’s a cliche` because it works!

Hot 5 Contributions



1. Leader Talk



I wish I had good scholastic reasoning for this, (I don’t) but the reality for me is that I just lean towards personal experience in youth ministry as the supreme tool. Even after doing some sifting of possible other factors playing into each scenario offered, I appreciated these insights more than the general study due to the ‘validation’ of reality. (plus…I like a good story…it makes it easier for me to remember what I learned down the road J) I especially enjoyed reading Dave Ambroses submissions.

2. The Curriculum



31 meetings…(can I get that to go?!) O.K. I’m a sucker for pre-made stuff…especially if it is on a specific topic such as student leadership. I make a decision to work on developing student leadership, I find a book like this (with a ‘yes, I’ll give you everything you want kind of title’) and then I get to completely ignore the amount time and or days they suggest I use, and use all the prefab stuff I get however I want to. Sounds good to me!

3. The Mini-Prayer Retreat



I have a number of youth leaders and leaders of other ministries within our church who have been seeking to hold an overnight prayer retreat with the youth. While the version presented here seemed to be designed of simply the 2-hour variety, I plan to use it for an overnight, just spreading out the segments with breaks and other programming. It also seems to be a good resource to give to youth leaders who might be able to customize it for their own small group retreat.

4. Speaking of prayer…



If there seemed to be one consistent topic weaved into most all lessons, it was that of prayer. There was a definite principal of the need to seek God’ s assistance in all endeavors that was hammered home. I love the way that this encourages students (and leaders for that matter) to continue to rely on God to work in their lives.

5. What Pumps You Up?



I really appreciated the way that this session (#6) meets the students’ where they live. It took what can be a very difficult area to address with students (feelings – without it just being a runaway blab seesion), and gives a good deal of direction to a discussion on this area.



Cold 5 Contributions

1. Helping friends in crisis…

I like the idea, but I’m fairly concerned that we are dealing with very dangerous topics in the life of adolescence and seem to be empowering students to play the role of counselor with a miniature lesson. It’s not that I don’t believe that it is a worthy subject, but don’t believe it is a subject that should be included as standard teaching in student leadership.

2. Time With God Contract…Bad Idea. (pg.105)

I wish I could temper my feelings on this one, but this just feels like an exercise in the school of young Pharisees. What kind of consequences do we really want to put on the peers of students for failing to live-up to the ‘prescribed’ amount of quiet time with God. This is not the message I want to send to my student leaders. It seems to reinforce the idea that you have to hold to a certain level of religiosity to be a true student leader.

3. Making Decisions as a Team seems idealistic.

As much as I appreciate the idea trying to make good group decisions, this session seems to be at odds with one of the other principals we are working so hard at developing in student leaders which is being able to make hard decisions even when others don’t understand and/or agree with what we are doing. This seems to be a ‘teach students how to create a feel good atmosphere’, when in the end, it would be self-defeating.

4. Fonts are terribly distracting.

More is not always more. And even if you came with the argument that we are passing out some of these as handouts to students, I would still suggest that creating handouts that are of this nature actually disrespect the students into the idea that they must be ‘lured’ into work by catchy designs. They are being trained in this realm, likely because they have chosen to dig deeper. The sell is unnecessary and distracting.

5. Sort of tailing on my last cold…

I can’t figure out in what order the chapters are supposed to be read. The content is good, but you have to be really committed to make it through, because it leaves you looking for a map…are we still reading from top to bottom, left to right, or not?

No, this isn’t about the Adam Sandler box office flop. (Which I thought was a pretty stupid movie!)

8 Crazy Nights is actually a Light Force event that I’ve been working on and thinking of for quite a while.

It all started with a cranky parent last January who said that his student was a little disappointed because I took the holidays off. How dare I! But, after I got over the anger I decided that there was probably some truth to it and maybe we could do something over the Christmas break for the students who aren’t going to Grandma’s house.

Even though I am working on the details still, I have about 4 firms ideas that I want to do.

Curling: I’m already in contact with the Detroit Curling Club

Bocce: In nearby Lake Orion there is a cool spot called the Palazzo di Bocce

Movie: I think we are going to see Flight of the Pheonix

Bowling: The Summit Bowl in town totally hooked us up last time and it was a lot of fun.

Beyond that, we just have some ideas. Feather bowling. Roller skating at the Silverdome. Video game night. On and on and on. The rest is just ideas right now.

Overall, I think this is a fun little idea and I’m having a blast putting it together.

Am I the only one excited about this movie due out December 22nd? DeNiro, Stiller, Hoffman, Streisand! I am so there. 

Yeah, I have a lot of plates spinning. But it’s always nice to get the reminder that I am here to minister to students.

Mission trips. Research papers. Fun events. None of that matters without the core reality of people ministry.

Amist all that is going on we have some perfect illustrations of students who are starting to see opportunities to share Christ with their friends. They are really starting to see a difference between who’s a circle and who’s a square because they’d prayed about it. Because they’ve made it a priority to seek out opportunities they are starting to see opportunities.

Right now I’ve got a student who has just figured out that her best friend may not be saved and is looking for ways she can take what they normally talk about and turn it into a conversation about the Lord. Tuesday afternoon, we’ll be having a conversation between about 5 students where we’ll seek to reconcile some broken relationships. It’ll be hard, but it is awesome to see God be proclaimed into a nasty situation.

This is the heart of ministry. Students seeking to please the Lord with their friendships, their personal relationships, their school work, their service hours, their future plans, and their day-to-day time.

Thanks Lord for reminding me again why I do what I do.