Matthew 24:36 (NIV) 36. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

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1 October 25, Chris Dolson Series: Thrive: the Book of Daniel Sermon: Be Hopeful Scripture: Daniel 7 Purpose: To encourage the congregation there is light at the end of the tunnel. Main Idea: We should always be hopeful no matter how dark it gets, because in the end God wins. I. Introduction Chris shared the story of a pastor in Shreveport who preached a message about the end of the world and referenced a book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will Happen in The author was a former NASA rocket engineer who predicted that the Rapture would happen sometime during the Jewish holiday of Rosh-Hashanah in It is clear in the Bible that no one knows when the end will take place. There are several verses including: Matthew 24:36 (NIV) 36 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. When someone showed the author this verse he agreed that no one could know the day or the hour, but that doesn t keep anyone from knowing the week, month, and year. When the predicted dates passed, the author predicted new dates. He kept predicting new dates until his death. God is coming back, but no one can know when. Because prophesy and verses about the end times can lead to misinterpretation many people steer clear from prophesy in the Bible. However, a lot of the Bible is about the end times. If we avoid this literature in the Bible we are in danger of falling into one of two errors. We can either become overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. 1. Overly optimistic about the world and the future: Tomorrow will always be better than today. We re going to make the world better one day. With just the right new discoveries the world s social and economic problems are going to be solved. 2. Overly pessimistic: We are going to just all blow ourselves up one day; and it doesn t really matter. We re going to destroy the earth there is no hope. The Bible teaches something different: As Christ followers we should be both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. We should be more pessimistic about the idea that humans are going to be able to solve the problems in this world, and more optimistic about the material world s future than any other worldview. When we dismiss prophecy and apocalyptic literature we miss that. This sermon will review what one chapter in the Bible says about what s going to happen at the end. II. Explaining Daniel 7:1-8 Chapter 7 starts a new direction for the book of Daniel. Chapters 1-6 are a historical narrative. Daniel is a wise sage and has risen to power because of his Godly character traits. In Chapters 7-12 Daniel is no longer a wise sage, but someone who is emotionally caught up in apocalyptic visions. This brings out the human side of him. Daniel is stunned and silenced by what he sees. Chapter 7 covers most of the visions in the remaining chapters of the book of Daniel, which is why it will be addressed in only one sermon. This is typical of apocalyptic literature in the Bible: the middle chapter is the end and the remaining chapters tell the story in different ways. Read 7:1-2a. (Stop after Daniel said in v. 2) The first year of Belshazzar would be 552/551 BC, over fifty years since Daniel s deportation to Babylon. Chronologically this is before Chapter 5. The book is not put in chronological order to place this chapter in the middle of the book for emphasis. Daniel said. These words end the editorial introduction, and the rest of the book is presented as an extract from Daniel s memoirs. 1

2 Read Daniel 7:2b-8 Daniel s report of the vision begins with the setting. He is on the coast of the sea where the winds are whipping the waves into a turbulent frenzy. This all speaks of danger. Daniel is terrified and frightened, especially of the fourth beast. Apocalyptic creatures like this were not uncommon in the literature and the myths of those times and days in Asyria and Babylon. III. Explaining 7:9-14 Verse 9 is an abrupt transition from the scene by the sea to a courtroom. From its description, this is no ordinary courtroom, but the vision speaks in images. The scene and character change is complete and instantaneous. Thrones were placed but only one was occupied, and the seer s attention is riveted by the only one that mattered. He is seeing heaven. The balanced poetry conveys the order and beauty, which surround the divine judge as opposed to the chaos of the sea and its beasts. The throne is alive with fire. Fire normally represents some kind of judgment. There are beings around the throne. Note: Thousand was the largest number that they had. The court was seated and the books were opened. Judgment was about ready to happen. Read Daniel That s the entire vision and dream. The rest of the chapter is explanation. In summary: o Horrible and awful frightening things are going to happen. o God shows up and pronounces judgment nothing can stop that. o The Son of man is the hero and rules forever and ever and is worshiped by a multi ethnic mass of humanity. One story ends and another brand new story begins. For all of us that think all of our current situation is the whole story think again. The Bible doesn t teach that. There is a brand new day coming. IV. Explanation of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man Three figures are prominent in that vision: The little horn, the Ancient of Days, and the Son of man. Ancient of Days: Most scholars agree that this is a rare theophany: a vision of God himself. He is the one who judges. This looks to be a courtroom scene and this is a picture of a great judgment. One like a Son of Man: Son of Man is another way of saying human being. The phrase is often used that way to simply denote a person. Gabriel refers to Daniel himself as a son of man in In Ezekiel, it refers to a human being 93 times. In the gospels, Jesus describes himself as the son of Man more than 80 times. Jesus cites this verse specifically at least two times. Matthew 24:30 (NIV) and Mark Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. The second time is the night that he was betrayed and after he had been deserted by all of his disciples (Matthew 26.56). He is on trial before the Jewish court of the Sanhedrin. The High Priest has this dialogue with him. Mark 14:60 64 (NIV) 60 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? 61 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? 62 I am, said Jesus. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. 63 The high priest tore his clothes. Why do we need any more witnesses? he asked. 64 You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? They all condemned him as worthy of death. 2

3 V. Reading and Explaining 7:15-26 Read Daniel 7: I approached one of those standing there Daniel is referring to this vision he had and he is referring to one of the thousands of beings, which could be angels (maybe it is Gabriel since we see Gabriel identified by Daniel in 8:16 cf. 9:21). Note: Verse 17-18, the center of this chapter, summarizes everything in two short sentences. The repetition at the end, yes, forever and ever indicates this is not the end; this is the beginning of something new and wonderful. Read Daniel 7: Daniel wants more explanation because this fourth beast of power and pride bothered him. What bothered him was that it seemed that this little horn was defeating God s people. Then the Ancient of Days (note NOT the Son of man) ended the whole thing with Judgment. Read Daniel 7: The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom. This is different from verse 7:17 where the beasts were kings. This is typical of apocalyptic literature. Just when things are getting clear, it gets more complicated. Apparently at least one of the beasts is both a king and a kingdom. At the end of verse 7:28: I kept the matter to myself. He kept the matter to himself for a while, but eventually shared it with the author of Daniel. The point is that all of this was greatly troubling to Daniel. The little horn : Most scholars recognize that this ruler or king shows up in the next few chapters in Daniel. Daniel 8:11 12 (NIV) 11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the LORD s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground. Daniel 8:23 25 (NIV) 23 In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a fierce-looking king, a master of intrigue, will arise. 24 He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. 25 He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power. Daniel 11:36 (NIV) 36 The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. The identity of this person is the subject of a lot of discussion. Some identify him with a horrible king named Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a crazy Syrian ruler ( BC) who hated the Jews. He called himself a god and desecrated the temple. Some see this as both the historical Antiochus and as someone who is called the man of lawlessness or more popularly the Anti-Christ (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-12; Revelation 13:5-6). It is far beyond the purpose of this sermon to spend much time on him. Note: The author s purpose here should not lead us into debate about the identity of these different beasts and their kingdoms. The point the author is trying to make is that a lot of bad and frightening things will happen but God will win in the end. It is going to get worse before it gets better. This will be very encouraging for Daniel and his people because they will go back to Judea, and it looks like it is going to get better; but it doesn t. They are overrun again by evil kings. Then Rome sets up Herod the Great to rule them, and he was a disaster. It should be encouraging to us because this runs completely counter to the popular worldview around us. VI. Lesson for Our lives 3

4 For the most part when it comes to entertainment, we love the drama, discovery, and excitement of not knowing. Because it is just entertainment. But when it comes to real life it can give us hope to know how things are going to end. When it comes to the horrible reality of so much death and injustice in the world, we want to know if this is the way it is always going to be. The Bible says it will not end horribly. There will be a day of justice. There is meaning to life. We are heading someplace where God judges the world, and where God has final victory over the world. This is one of the big main ideas of the Bible and it keeps repeating itself over and over again. This is a huge contrast to one of the dominant cultural narratives of our time: Make up your own meaning for life. For example, to have a great and good society we should all make up our own individual meanings in life. If what is ultimately important to you is family then that is great, you should live for family. If what is ultimately meaningful to you is self-expression then you should live for that. There is not one ultimate meaning for all and we are free to make up our own meaning. As long as we are not hurting someone else everyone should determine what is important to them. The late Harvard scholar and professor Stephen Jay Gould wrote: What is the meaning of life? We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures We may yearn for a higher answer but none exists. This explanation, though superficially troubling, is ultimately liberating We must construct these answers for ourselves. Stephen Jay Gould Gould is saying that if we are left to construct our own narrative about the ultimate meaning in life it is liberating. This frees us. We can all decide what is meaningful and what is not meaningful. Even though it is presented as a rational idea, it doesn t seem very rational. It is a western way of thinking. If there is no God and this is all going to just end anyway, what ultimate difference would it make if you wrote a great work of literature that would to be read for thousands of years? Eventually it wouldn t matter if you ever existed. Ultimately, right or wrong actions don t ever count. As Christ followers we draw meaning from life to think that what we do now does matter now and it matters eternally. There are implications for what we do. Right actions count. We are heading someplace. A righteous God will judge and hold people accountable. We are not creating meaning for ourselves. There is a God and this world is heading some place. We are on our way to something far greater than we can possibly imagine. We should find our meaning as we are connected to this greater narrative. VII. Conclusion Even though the details are obscure, the main idea of the chapter should be clear. We are heading towards a final victory of God and nothing can stop that. God is going to win in the end and a brand new story will begin for his people. God s kingdom will replace every other kingdom. Illustration: Julia Ward Howe ( ) was a New York City writer and poet. During the Civil War she and her husband published an anti-slavery newspaper. President Lincoln, aware of her beliefs and talent, invited her to visit an encampment of Union troops outside Washington. There she heard soldiers singing the old camp song John Browns Body and someone suggested that she write new more meaningful words for the tune. That night she woke up from her sleep and wrote down 6 lines of poetry. The words were put to the song and a version of it was later published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 as The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The magazine paid her $5 for that poem. She wrote the poem to inspire troops with the ultimate victory of God. Unfortunately it was turned into a US nationalistic song, but it doesn t have to be American. Winston Churchill had it played at his funeral since he loved the song and the idea behind it. Here are the words that she originally wrote (some of the words won t be familiar): Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the wine press, where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of his terrible swift sword, 4

5 His truth is marching on. I have seen him in the watchfires of an hundred circling camps They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps, I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps, His day is marching on. I have read a burning Gospel writ in fiery rows of steel, As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal, Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat, He has waked the earth's dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat, Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet! In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me, As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, He is wisdom to the mighty, he is succour to the brave, So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. This is the message of Daniel 7. We are heading to a final victory of God and nothing, no matter how evil or horrible, can stop that from taking place. That should give us incredible hope. Going Deeper In apocalyptic literature, the vision is not the message but the occasion for the message. John Walton and Andrew Hill, Old Testament Today, 242 5