What does Acts 3:24 mean?

The coming of the Jewish Messiah is prophesied in many Old Testament passages. God, through Nathan, promised that David would have an heir with an eternal kingdom (2 Samuel 7:16). Jeremiah recorded God saying that God would make a new covenant with Israel; He said, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). Psalm 118:22 predicts that the Jews would reject their own Savior.

The most powerful, and yet confusing, prophecy about Jesus and the times in which Peter is speaking is from Daniel 9:24–27. It speaks of seventy "weeks" or seventy sets of seven years each—490 years total. The first "week" started "from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:25). This is taken to mean when King Artaxerxes of Persia ordered that the wall of Jerusalem was to be rebuilt around 445 BC (Nehemiah 2:1–8). It would take seven "weeks" to completely rebuild Jerusalem. After another 62 weeks, or 434 years, "an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing" (Daniel 9:26). This reaches AD 30, the year of Jesus' recognition as the Anointed One, such as by Mary of Bethany (John 12:1–8), and His crucifixion.

The initial seven "weeks" plus the sixty-two "weeks" adds up to sixty-nine "weeks." Daniel 9:26 seems to be a double-prophecy. It was initially fulfilled in AD 70 when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. But there is a larger gap between Jesus' final year on earth and the beginning of the seventieth "week." The church age is not found in very many prophecies; prophecy is generally for Israel and the nations around Israel. The second fulfillment of Daniel 9:26 and the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27 will be during the seven-year tribulation when the Antichrist makes a covenant with Israel and her enemies for seven years and the defiles the temple.

It's amazing to think even the year of Jesus' crucifixion was prophesied of in the Old Testament.