THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST
"In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." Dan. 9:27.
THE RENT VEIL
"The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." Mark 15:38.
The Messiah was to "confirm the covenant with many for one week," filling out the seventy weeks allotted in God's merciful patience especially to the people of the Jews. Three and a half years of Christ's personal ministry on earth had been devoted to the chosen people. Now, after His ascension, He was still, in the persons of His disciples, to press the gospel of the new covenant especially upon the Jewish people—"to the Jew first," and "beginning at Jerusalem."
PETER PREACHING IN THE HOUSE OF CORNELIUS
"They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." Acts 8:4.
This last seven-year period, beginning in A.D. 27, ended in A.D. 34. By that time the opposition of the Jews was becoming exceedingly bitter. As a people they were rejecting again the divine invitation extended by the risen Christ through His witnesses. About A.D. 34 Stephen was martyred. The same council that, against all evidence, had rejected the Messiah, again rejected the appeal of the Holy Ghost shining visibly on Stephen's countenance.
The believers in Jerusalem were driven out by persecution; and "they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." Acts 8:4. The Gentiles gave heed in Samaria, and the Ethiopian received the gospel on the road to Gaza. The gospel message had fairly passed the boundaries of Jerusalem and was on its way to the "uttermost parts of the earth."
Though the seventy weeks cut off upon the Jewish people and upon the holy city had ended, to the world's end the gospel of Christ's salvation is for that people as well as for all other nations.