A Resilient Remnant (Daniel 2 pt 3): Looking Towards a Better King & Kingdom

Intro

Big Idea: The Lord is Sovereign over human history. Ultimately, every human king answers to Him and rules only within the parameters He sets up. One day soon, He will establish His kingdom on earth. It will be a different sort of kingdom, not the sort of kingdom a man would build or expect. It won’t be flashy with gold, silver or bronze. It will appear as stone, seemingly common to many, but powerful and strong. This eternal kingdom will crush all other powers and authorities. To the extent that you march with the Great King, you will overcome. All who have risen against Him will be crushed alongside their kings and kingdoms.

A resilient remnant people acknowledges this world, even participates in this world to the extent that we can, but our heart’s desire is the Kingdom of God. We see what is around us, but as peripheral vision. We are focused on His kingdom.

Problem

We find ourselves today trapped within the tension between a Kingdom Christ has inaugurated but not fully consummated, and the kingdoms of this world which continue to attempt to assert their dominance.

It is difficult to live as a citizen of Christ’s kingdom while also trying to be good citizens of this worldly kingdom but that is exactly what God charges His people to do.

“See the welfare of the city to which I have sent you” (Jer 29).

Many people will find themselves teetering and falling into either the worldly kingdom, or removing themselves from the world entirely in an attempt to focus on God. Only through Christ can we possibly be citizens of this world and citizens of the Kingdom simultaneously.

Today we will see in the life of Daniel, a man who remained fully committed to God and His Kingdom while using the systems of this world’s kingdoms for God’s glory. With Christ’s help, we can embrace our role in this too. We can remain unstained by the world while living squarely in it and effecting it for the Kingdom and the glory of God.

Truth

The Dream (31-35)

I. Even the greatest human kingdoms are only temporary.

Each of these represent real kingdoms in real time, but they are also symbolic of the entirety of man’s strivings to carve out for ourselves something lasting and permanent in this world apart from God.

Babylon (36-38)

Represents the head, the peak of human kingdoms and authority. This kingdom is both glorious, and extremely strong.

Persia/Greece (39)

Represents kingdoms with the reach of the first, but lacking the glory of the first. It is the body of the structure, a center for much of the culture and wisdom of the world even to this day.

Rome (40-43)

Represents the peak of human strength and conquest, but with a major weakness. It is the base of the structure.

The feet of iron mixed with clay symbolizes the division of Rome, which was its greatest weakness.

The division worked its way also into the church partially because the church got into bed with political leaders.

This division serves to show that the best humanity can produce is still too weak to stand the test of time.

Revelation 17:12–18 NASB 2020

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

John gives us some symbolism that is similar to what Daniel saw but gives us a little more insight into what is going on behind the scenes.

We know the Beast ultimately represents the Enemy. The ten horns represent the governments, or kingdoms, of this world. The harlot represents human culture divorced from Christ.

Notice how the governments use culture, but this always eventually self-destructs.

Rome and every other principality had the same problem. Not being rooted in God, they went after every whim which they think makes them happy.

Each of these attempts is destined to fail because each is an attempt to quench a deep thirst from a dry well.

When the well is discovered to be dry, it is tossed aside and the next one is pursued. It is a never ending cycle.

"The lesson from Roman times can be generalized: idolatrous states end up destroying the very powers, riches, privileges, and people that they originally supported. False worship is self-destructive." -R.C. Sproul

The world can’t help itself. The wicked will always turn their wrath inward due to envy, power struggles, and having no real root.

We were made for God and as Augustine said, our souls are restless until they are at rest in God.

II. The Kingdom of God is Forever (44-45)

Indestructible

At no point will this kingdom ever be destroyed. No one can stand against it.

Unconquerable

Unlike current human kingdoms, no other kingdom will ever conquer God’s kingdom and its people will never agin be taken into exile.

Crushing

Whereas God’s kingdom is a place of sanctuary for God’s people, it is a weight that crushes all others.

Even today, for the sons of this world the kingdom may seem oppressive, but to we who are being redeemed it is enlightening.

Enduring

There will never be a time at which God’s kingdom will end.

Whereas the kingdoms of this world destroy one another, God’s kingdom will always stand. His people are united around His glory.

This is because when we are in Christ, we are finally at rest in the place we were designed to reside within. We were made for God. In Him we are truly at home and at rest.

If you are with Christ, then you and you alone are on the right side of history.

I will reiterate that there is and can only be one right side of history, and it is not the side of secular culture.

Luke 1:32–33 NASB 2020

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Filling

Not only does God’s kingdom crush the kingdoms of this world, it displaces, replaces, and grows up to fill all of their lands entirely.

Amos 4:1–2 NASB 2020

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who exploit the poor, who oppress the needy, And say to their husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!” The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, “For behold, the days are coming upon you When they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks.

God’s kingdom will be a global kingdom united under one king, Christ.

Christ then fulfills the original commission given to Adam, to fill the earth and subdue it. His Great Commission is indeed a restatement of this first commission, only focusing on recovering lost souls and teaching them to live as children of the Father.

Matthew 13:31–33 NASB 2020

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a person took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.” He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sata of flour until it was all leavened.”

Ultimately, Christ’s kingdom will overwhelm and totally displace these worldly kingdoms for good.

Application

Hebrews 11:8–10 NASB 2020

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

God’s kingdom is worth giving up everything else in order to pursue.

The enemy loves to get us distracted with the gold, bronze, iron, clay, and etc. Truly, we are easily distracted.

If we find ourselves distracted by the things of this world, placing our confidence in what man produces rather than on who God is, we will one day find ourselves utterly crushed under the weight of God’s glorious kingdom.

To close, I would like to draw our attention to a set of parables Jesus told demonstrating this principle.

Matthew 13:44–52 NASB 2020

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they pulled it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age: the angels will come forth and remove the wicked from among the righteous, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes.” And Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure new things and old.”

The Kingdom is worth pursuing at all costs.

Mark 8:35–37 NASB 2020

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?

There is no lasting kingdom, or lasting inheritance in this world, apart from Christ.

Nothing you have now is worth holding onto if it means you lose the kingdom.

What does it look like to reorient my life so that I look like the sort of person who actually believes this is true?

Not everyone is going to make it.

If in your heart you choose to prefer this world, its riches, and its kingdoms over Christ; know that you stand to be crushed when His kingdom comes.

In the end the only people who will inherit this world, are those who repent of their sin and come to Christ. Those will be the only ones who remain.

Malachi 1:11 NASB 2020

For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place frankincense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the Lord of armies.