Confident In Christ's Dominion

Who’s In Charge?

11.26.23 [Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14] River of Life (Christ The King Sunday)

Rev. 1:4b Grace & peace to you from him who is, & who was, & who is to come. Amen.

“Who’s in charge?” It’s a question we ask out loud when we’re mad when things are going wrong. We want someone to step up and accept responsibility and ultimately fix things.

But that’s not the only time we wonder about who is really in charge. Maybe we wonder who is really in charge at our job. A supervisor may say the nicest things about you to your face, but what does your boss’s boss think? And is that person really in charge, or is it the accounting team and the profit & loss statement?

Perhaps your questions are bigger. Perhaps you wonder who’s really in charge of our country, or pulling the strings at an even higher level.

We don’t just ask who is in charge when we’re mad. We wonder it when we’re worried or scared. And it’s not because we are crazy. You can’t have peace without knowing who is really in control.

That’s something the prophet Daniel was wrestling with, too. He had grown up in Jerusalem. He was smart and good-looking. Young men like that often have aspirations of being in charge. Then everything changed. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, marched to Jerusalem and threw his weight around. He took everything and everyone he wanted. He seemed to be in charge.

Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel and his friends back to Babylon and tried to change them. He taught them a new language. He made them read new books. He fed them new food. And he gave them new names. It seemed like Nebuchadnezzar was in total control.

Until he had a troubling dream. Nebuchadnezzar saw a giant statue that was made of descendingly precious metals—gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Then a rock was cut out, but not by human hands and it struck the base of the statue and broke it to pieces. Then the rock became a huge mountain and filled the earth. He wanted to know what it meant. But he wouldn’t tell anyone what he had seen in his dream.

God blessed Daniel with the ability to know and interpret this dream. Four kingdoms would arise. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon were the first—the golden head. The rest would be lesser. They all would be destroyed by the rock, a kingdom that would endure forever.

Then a while later Nebuchadnezzar had another dream where God warned him about how his own pride would be his downfall. God was calling him to repentance, but Nebuchadnezzar didn’t think he needed to do that. One day, Nebuchadnezzar was boasting to himself about how great Babylon and he was. Then God stepped in. Nebuchadnezzar was driven away from the people and he lived with the wild animals like a wild animal until he repented and acknowledged that the Lord was Most High over all and gave power to whomever he wished.

Then, after Belshazzar replaced Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon, it was Daniel who had the troubling dreams. That’s what is happening in chapter 7. Daniel sees four frightening beasts. A lion with the wings of an eagle, a bear, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and an unrecognizable beast with 10 horns and iron teeth. Most terrifying of all is that one of the horns was talking.

Daniel’s dream was a different perspective on Nebuchadnezzar’s. Both had four kingdoms represented in different ways. And in both God revealed who was really in charge. God the Father. The Ancient of Days. And the Son of Man. Jesus Christ.

Why did Daniel need to know this? Because you can’t have peace if you don’t know who is really in control.

Daniel and his fellow Israelites were tempted to wonder if God was really in charge. Everything they had known had changed. Their jobs, their names, their very lives. Soon there would be a big change in the world. Overnight the kingdom would shift from gold to silver, from Babylon to the Medes and Persians.

Then Alexander the Great would try to conquer the known world. He nearly succeeded, too. But when he died his kingdom was torn into four pieces. What he did succeed in doing was spreading the Greek language, culture, ideas and religion. Then came Rome’s terrifying iron fist. They stamped out any opposition. God knew it would be a challenge for his faithful people to be certain that he was really in charge when so many ungodly people and leaders seemed to be doing as they pleased.

The same is true for us, isn’t it? We wonder how God can allow sinful, God-hating people and ideas to rule the day. Who’s in charge…really? We wonder and worry. We wonder even more when we encounter sin and its culture. Sin tempts us to soften our position. They demand us to change. Keep up with the times. When we don’t, we’re ostracized. When we do, we’re celebrated as progressive. Who’s really in charge?

It seems easier to just give in a little. Let the authorities of this day rule, while they are in charge. Maybe we don’t put a stamp of approval on gay marriage or abortion, but we soften our beliefs.

We get a little quieter in calling a sin a sin, and not just a lifestyle choice. We entertain hypothetical situations where a life maybe isn’t really a life yet, or not worth living still. We empathize with moral quandaries and give sin a pass. We bend over backwards to try to understand and demonstrate sympathy so that we may be accepted.  Who is in charge in our lives…really? Do those who know us, work with us, live around us know that Christ is the king of our hearts, our lives, our all? Or do they wonder?

Who’s in charge…really? We wonder. God tells us and Daniel.

Think about why God gave Daniel that vision. It wasn’t really for him. He would see two of the kingdoms, not five. But God wanted Daniel and us to see that he is always and ultimately in charge. Even wicked kingdoms can serve God's purpose. When they no longer do,l God serves notice that their time is up. Things changed. Quickly.

Then the Son of Man appeared. Jesus as King. More powerful. Less terrifying. He’s in charge. King of the lands where leaders & officials reward sin. Make it acceptable, even preferable. He is ruling even in hearts tempted to soften or change. God works through all this evil, in spite of all this deliberate sin, to accomplish his will.

This is God’s power. He can overcome even the most fierce enemy. You could look at the history that Daniel prophesied in chapter 7. Or you could look at yourself. Your own life. Your own heart & mind.

When you were born, there was a terrible reign within you. A violent leader. Your old Adam. He hated God. You hated God. You made boastful claims. You felt like you could handle things on your own. You didn’t need God. Maybe you didn’t say such things out loud, but you lived that way. Until God destroyed that power.

His King appeared in your life. Jesus, the Son of Man, announced himself as the King, the leader, the ruler of your life.  Christ Jesus called you by his grace, through his Word, to be a part of his kingdom. He changed you. Not by threats, demands, or fear-tactics. But by love. He loved you unlike any other. He showed you love by becoming like you. The Son of Man born of the Virgin Mary, put himself into a world that hated him. It wasn’t just the Roman government. It was his countrymen & neighbors. They despised him. Killed him. Hanging on the cross, he didn’t look like much of a King. If left on our own, we would have thought nothing of what happened on Golgotha. Even if we had remembered him, we would have dismissed him as just another rebel crunched by the iron teeth of Rome. Even if we had hung next to him—dying the criminal’s death we deserved—we would have only mocked him.

That’s what would have happened if our King did not rule. But our King does rule. He reigns in our world and in our hearts. We know who we were. We were just like that criminal who hung next to Jesus. We demanded Jesus show us his power by saving himself. But God’s love wouldn’t let him. And so he showed us his power by dying & saving us.

That’s why we see Golgotha as the place of victory. The King of kings died on the cross, to set us free from the tyranny of sin, the dominion of the devil, and the fear of death. Love transforms us. Faith gives us clarity. Our King was & is in charge. We don’t have to wonder or worry.

Jesus was in charge during the life of Daniel. When they were carried off into exile, Daniel was challenged by the king to change. He didn’t. God blessed him for it. When he didn’t eat the meat sacrificed to idols like everyone else, he and his buddies actually became healthier. God reigned in Babylon. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were demanded to worship an idol or die, God rescued them from the fiery furnace. He rescued Daniel from the lions’ den, too. Christ the King was in charge. When Belshazzar misused the temple vessels, his life was taken from him that night. God was in charge.

Jesus was in charge even as Alexander thought he was so great, and Rome thought she was so powerful. Alexander’s attempts at Hellenizing the known-world paved the way for spreading the Gospel. God used the Greek language to proclaim Christ as King everywhere in the known world. The Pax Romana existed so that Peace could be declared to people on whom God’s favor rests. Christ is still in charge. Now & forever.

That’s the message we share with the world. Even in lands and places where it seems like Christ isn’t ruling right now. We share with them the peace our King brings. And God will work powerfully through us. He will bring others to the knowledge that Christ the King reigns. He is in charge. We don’t have to wonder or worry.

Someday we will see what we know by faith. When we join together all the saints and crown our King with many crowns. We will sing of his glory. That heavenly anthem will swell with joy. We will hail him as our matchless King through all eternity. And there will never be a doubt in anyone’s mind who’s really in charge. Christ the King of all. Amen.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and power for ever and ever!  Amen! Revelation 1:5b