Fearless: Part 2

Introduction

Well, good evening!

If you’d take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Daniel…we’re gonna in the last parts of chapter three this evening.

If you remember the story, the great king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, he sets up this huge image on the plains of Dura. It was 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. It was made out of gold, at least on the outside. And he commanded that all of his government officials and no doubt many of the citizens of his kingdom, gather together there on the plains of Dura, for this amazing dedication ceremony for this statue. And listen, they had all the media support you could imagine. The had the spoken word going forth from the herald. They had all this elaborate music. They had all these crazy instruments we’ve never heard of. It would’ve been something like what we think of as an opening or closing ceremony for an Olympic Games. Listen, this was a great production. And this command goes forth, that at this dedication ceremony, when the music began, everyone was commanded to bow down to this statue. And listen, when the music started, everybody bowed…except for three men, three Jewish exiles named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow.

And listen, that didn’t fly with those that had conformed to Nebuchadnezzar’s demands and so they bring it to his attention. Remember who brought it forth, right? A bunch of jealous government officials who honestly probably didn’t like how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were being promoted. And so when it was brought to Nebuchadnezzar’s attention, he brought the boys in and in sort of a fatherly manner he spoke to them and he said, “Boys, listen, I’m afraid you don’t understand how things run around here. I’m Nebuchadnezzar and I’m the king and if I say bow down to a statue, you’re gonna bow down to a statue.” And these Jewish men absolutely refused. And so Nebuchadnezzar becomes angry and you guys remember what happened…He says, “Listen, if you guys don’t bow down, I’m gonna cast you into a blazing fire and who is this God that can rescue you from me?”

And listen, that gave these three Jewish men the opportunity to say something that I believe is one of the greatest statements in all of Scripture, “We serve the God of Israel, and our God is perfectly capable of delivering us from your hands. But even if He doesn’t deliver us, we still won’t bow down to your statue because we’re gonna do what’s right in the sight of God.”

And that brings us all the way up to verse 19, where we’ll begin this evening.

I. Jesus Stands Amid Your Furnace (vv. 19-25)

Verse 19, “19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, 20 and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.”

Listen, when we looked at this last week, the first time Nebuchadnezzar speaks to these young men, it kind of comes out in this fatherly tone, right? He was like, “Now boys, let me tell you what’s best for you.” Listen, as we come to this text this evening, that fatherly tone, its completely gone. They were insubordinate to the mighty Nebuchadnezzar’s command. And he began, as it says there in verse 19, full of fury and rage. I like what it says in verse 19. It says that the expression on his face changed. Once fatherly, now filled with anger. And in his fury, he commanded, “HEAT UP THAT FURNACE SEVEN TIMES HOTTER”.

Now, listen, I always kind of think weird thoughts when I read the Bible. I’m thinking, why heat it up more? That just means they’re gonna get burn up quicker and there’s gonna be a whole lot less suffering. Like, why not cool down the fire and then they’ll roast a little while longer, right? It doesn’t seem Nebuchadnezzar’s really thinking logically at this point. He just says, “HEAT IT UP SEVEN TIMES MORE! We’re gonna burn these guys to a cider even quicker!”

And then it says, he commanded, verse 20, some of the best soldiers in his army, to bind them.

Again, my mind thinks, like, why tie them up? I mean like what’s the big deal? Are they gonna run around there in the furnace? I mean what is it? He says, “Bind them up, tie them up tightly, throw them into this fire that’s seven times hotter than before.” And listen, he gets his special forces, his Seal Team 6, out there to tie them up and throw them into this blazing furnace.

Verse 21, “21 So these men, in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes, were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Since the king’s command was so urgent and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.”

Tightly tied and fully clothed…they were thrown into the furnace. And listen, verse 23 says, they were thrown in bound into the midst of the fire. And the flames of this fire were so hot, verse 22, it says, that it killed the members of Seal Team 6, Nebuchadnezzar’s best soldiers, who threw them into the fire. That’s a hot fire isn’t it??? Listen, when you go to the door of the fire and the flames are leaping out so hot that it killed the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fire, that’s one incredibly hot fire and these guys should’ve burnt to a crisp immediately.

And then what happens? Verse 24, “24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?” “Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” they replied to the king. 25 He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Verse 24 says, the king, Nebuchadnezzar, was astonished! And, listen, no doubt he was. He was astonished because he saw something in the furnace and of course we don’t have any idea on how this furnace was constructed. We don’t know how he could look into the furnace exactly but we know he could. And he looked into this furnace and he saw, not three figures (that alone would’ve astonished him…anything that could survive for two seconds in that fire would be an astonishment.). But not only did he see three figures walking around, but he saw a fourth figure walking around in the fire. And they all seemed just fine.

I mean, look at the phrasing there. It says, “They’re walking around and they’re not hurt.” Listen, I have no idea what they’re doing. Maybe they’re taking a leisurely stroll, you knowwww, looking at their watches waiting for lunchtime? Rubbing a little sun tan lotion on themselves. I don’t know what they’re doing but they seemed just fine…they’re walking around!

And listen, there’s an ancient translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint (Sep tu a gent). And the Septuagint, its a Greek translation written about a hundred years prior to Jesus. And it’s interesting because sometimes it adds or it takes away from different things that are just of interest to scholars. And in the Septuagint of Daniel chapter three verse twenty-four, it says that Nebuchadnezzar’s attention was caught when he heard the men singing praises to God in the furnace.

Now I wanna be clear…that’s the Septuagint, that’s not our translations of the Hebrew manuscripts. Please don’t misquote me here…I don’t wanna act like that’s exactly what the Bible says here…but listen, isn’t that an interesting thought? I have it in my mind, if it were a movie. They tie these three young men up, they heat this fire up seven times hotter, they throw these young men into the blazing furnace, they fall down dead, Nebuchadnezzar turns around, he says, “That’s done!”, and then he hears singing coming from the furnace. “Singing….from the furnace?” No wonder he was astonished. He turns…he looks into the furnace and what’s he see? At a safe distance from this raging heat, he peers into this fire and he sees four men loose, walking in the midsts of it.

I wanna address something before we move on. It would be easy to read this and think, “This is obviously a fairytale! Things like this just don’t happen.” I mean, I think about someone just coming to the Bible cold. Maybe they’re not church-a-fied, they don’t know all the lingo, maybe they didn’t grow up in Sunday school hearing these stories, and they say, “Come on, that just sounds like a fairytale to me! What’s next? They come out of the fire with magic beans?” Listen, I get the skepticism, I get it. Because this is entirely out of the ordinary. People just don’t survive being casts into blazing furnaces…they definitely don’t walk around…certainly additional people, they don’t just show up with them in the midst of a fire. This sounds totally crazy and unnatural. Listen, I get it…but I’m gonna give you a gentle objection. Let me give you a biblical objection, and it’s a simple one. Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If you believe that, you can believe this. If you don’t believe that, well then, you’re probably not gonna believe anything else throughout the rest of this book.

But if you believe there’s a God in heaven, who’s mighty enough to create the heavens and the earth. If you believe there’s a God that created all the properties that we observe…then you can believe there’s a God that can choose to suspend the properties of that fire to save these boys.

And listen, if you can settle yourself with the fact that this is entirely possible for a God of impossible things, then you can accept that there’s a God that willingly places Himself in the midsts of your furnaces.

Listen, I love verse 25. It says, “I see four men and one of them looks like the son of the gods.” Nebuchadnezzar, himself, he tells us the identity of the fourth man.

How many went into the furnace? Three! How many did Nebuchadnezzar see? Four! Where did the fourth man come from? Nebuchadnezzar says, “It’s looks like the Son of God to me.” It’s a remarkable thing that Jesus was in the midsts of the furnace, in the worst of their experience.

Listen, we understand that Jesus didn’t begin His existence as a baby in Bethlehem. We understand that Jesus, He’s the eternal God who’s existed before His incarnation in Bethlehem. And at certain times, in certain situations, all throughout the Old Testament, it pleased Him to manifest Himself in different scenarios and this is just one of those places, where Jesus was right there with them. But listen, I don’t want you to think for a moment that Jesus just now appeared in the story. When those men stood before that great statue and when they were commanded to bow down before that statue, don’t you think that Jesus wasn’t right there with them? Maybe adding a little exact strength into their spine? Listen, Jesus was there with them even then. When they stood before Nebuchadnezzar, Jesus was with them then. Listen, they wouldn’t bow, they wouldn’t bend, but neither would they burn! And right there in the midsts of their furnace, Jesus Christ is right there with them.

When I think about that, I think of a few things. It’s a very important principle. God can deliver us from a trial, just like He delivered these men. But sometimes, it pleases God to not deliver us from those trials but instead to give us the strength to endure those trials to the very end. There’s been people who’ve been persecuted, either literally or figuratively thrown into the fire, who (and I don’t wanna sugarcoat this) burned to the glory of Jesus Christ. In fact, when we study the history of the church, of those that faced those trials, most of them burned or endured their trials all the way to the very end…and are we actually gonna say, “Well, if He rescues you from the fiery furnace, God is with you. And if He doesn’t, and your body burns, somehow God isn’t with you.” NO. Sometimes God’s will is manifested by delivering us from a fiery furnace and sometimes its just manifested to give us strength for endurance through those furnaces.

But in the end of it all, it was fitting that the Son of Man was there, walking around with them in the midst of the fire. You know why I think it was so fitting, so beautiful? Because Jesus is totally comfortable in the midst of the furnace. Jesus is very familiar with the furnace. He knows it well. He’s no stranger to that place. In fact, you could say that all throughout His life, Jesus experienced what it was like to be in the furnace. Jesus knew the furnace of temptation. Jesus knew the furnace of pressure and stress. Therefore when you find yourself in the midst of that furnace, look around, you’ll find Jesus. Think about the enormous weight upon His shoulders. Think about the responsibility Jesus bore and as a 30 year old man. Listen, when you feel the heat of all that in your life. Look around, Jesus is near to you. Jesus knew the furnace of rejection and unfair treatment. He faced a lot of that in His life and in His ministry. Did He not? Often rejected. Despised as man. The only person to come to this earth and never sinned against anyone and He was treated terribly because of it. When you’re rejected, when you’re treated unfairly, look around, Jesus is there, in the midst of that furnace. Jesus knew the furnace of pain and suffering. Jesus knew the furnace, ultimately, of death. He’s entirely comfortable in the furnace and if you look around you’ll find Him there in the midst of yours as well.

Understand that Jesus goes with you.

II. Jesus Burns Up that Which Binds You (vv. 25-27)

But let’s keep going. Point number 2…Jesus burns up that which binds you.

Another thing I notice before we move on to verse 26. Nebuchadnezzar says in verse 25, “I see four men, but not just four men, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire.”

How did the three Jewish men go into the furnace? Bound! Completely tied up by the special forces guys, right? The guys that absolutely knew how to tie a knot and make sure these boys were restrained.

What did the fire burn? Listen, it didn’t burn their hair. It didn’t burn their clothes. All it burnt up was the ropes that bound them. All it burned up was that which restricted and hindered them.

Listen that’s God’s glorious work in a furnace He may allow you to endure. In the midst of your furnace, you might ask “God, you sent me here to burn me up!?” “No, I sent you here to burn off your bonds.” Draw close to Jesus in the midst of that furnace and you’ll walk out of it with your bonds burned up. But listen, nothing else…even if your body burns…that’s still gonna rise to life again.

Nebuchadnezzar, he saw them walking around, free in the fire, at liberty, in the fire. I mean think about that for just a moment. When you read this, don’t you kind of get the sense that they enjoyed it? Walking about!…“Well, it’s a hot day but pleasant isn’t it?” Meshach says to Shadrach, “Yea, but it’s a dry kind of heat, it’s not as bad as you think.” It’s just one of those days, right?

Verse 26, “26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God—come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. 27 When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king’s advisers gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men: not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.”

Isn’t that beautiful? They come out and the only effect the fire had was to burn up that which bound them. And so, when Nebuchadnezzar cautiously comes to the mouth of the fire and says, “Is this thing still hot? I don’t get this.” He calls into the fire and what’s he say? It’s right there in verse 26, “Servants of the Most High God!”

Listen, I love this, because earlier we talked about this last week. In verse 15 of Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar, when he was so angry with these three young Hebrew boys, he said to them, “Who will deliver you from my hands? What god will deliver you from my hands?”

And listen, when Nebuchadnezzar said that, he revealed something about himself there. He revealed that he thought he was higher than any god. He didn’t say, “The God of the Hebrews, Yahweh, can’t deliver you.” He said, there’s no god who can deliver you from my hand, none. “My Babylonian gods can’t rescue you from my hand. I’m mightier than all of them.” And we kind of figured something out last week, right? Who did Nebuchadnezzar really worship as god? Himself! He worshiped himself as god. Nebuchadnezzar worshiped a common deity that most of us struggle with, king-me. For women, you might say, “Queen-me,” That’s who we worship. That’s who the real god of our life is sometimes…and that’s exactly who Nebuchadnezzar worshiped…Listen, let me tell you something…king-me, he was dethroned in Nebuchadnezzar’s life.

Notice what he says there, he calls Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego servants of the Most High God. “Most high, higher than me.”

Listen, if you only do one thing this evening, I want you to dethrone king-me in your life. Guys, he’s a rotten god. I know you’re a lovely person, you do a lot of good in the church and in the community, you love your family, you’re hard worker, you do all that, that’s great. But you know what? You’re a terrible god of your life. You need a bigger God. One that’s actually in control.

And so, king-me, he’s now dethroned in Nebuchadnezzar’s life…and he notices, the men, the fire, it had no effect on their bodies. This fire, this trial had no power over these men because they were thoroughly submitted to the power and the will of God. In fact, verse 27, it says very dramatically, “that the smell of fire was not on them.” Listen, this is showing us just how complete their deliverance was. The only thing that the fire burnt up was that which bound them.

Which moves us into the final point.

III. Jesus Demands Trust and Surrender (vv. 28-30)

Jesus demands trust and surrender.

Verse 28. “28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”

Notice this, when Nebuchadnezzar says this, in verse 28, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” he’s giving glory to God. He is. But notice this. He doesn’t say, “Praise to MYYYY God.” He says, “Blessed or praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” He recognized that their God was the Most High God. And listen, I want you to catch this. He recognized that Yahweh, the God of Israel, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was in fact the God of all creation. The Most High God, One who Nebuchadnezzar says is worthy of our praise.

And then he said, “He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him.” The king here recognized that this God delivered the ones that trusted in Him. Listen, I don’t want you to miss this, his statement revealed that he actually knew a lot about God and who He was. Think about it. From verse 15, early in the chapter, he says, “Who is the God that will deliver you from my hands. I don’t know this God. Who is He?” Now Nebuchadnezzar knows a lot about this God.

First, he knows that He is the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that He is the God of Israel. He understands that. Second, he knew that this was the God that sends help because He’s the God that sent His angel. Thirdly, he said that he knew that God delivered His servants. He knew that God was a God of great power and that He could deliver people from a mighty fiery furnace. Next he says, that He delivered the Jewish men that trusted in Him. Listen, Nebuchadnezzar knew that this God was worthy of trust. And then, he says, that God violated the king’s command and he knew that this God was worthy of total surrender. Because, listen, if God can violate all that you command, what’s the conclusion? You surrender to Him! And then lastly, he says, that no one should serve or worship any god except the God of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar knew that God demanded exclusive allegiance.

Nebuchadnezzar went, very quickly, from knowing nothing about this God, to knowing a lot about this God. But you know what he didn’t know? He didn’t know this God personally. We see that here in this text. This was still the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Listen, you may know a lot about God and still not know God for yourself.

You can learn a ton about God by coming to church. Hopefully so. Hopefully you learn about who God is through the worship here, through your time in God’s Word. But listen, you can learn a lot about God and yet still not know God for yourself, personally. Because here’s the key, to know God personally, it involves an element of your trust and your surrender. For you to truly know God personally, you have to trust Him and you have to surrender to Him. You can learn about Him without trust and surrender, but you’ll never know Him personally without trust and surrender.

Verse 29, “29 Therefore I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.” 30 Then the king rewarded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.”

Listen, I see a couple of things at work here. First of all, Nebuchadnezzar makes an amazing decree. At the beginning of the chapter, it was, “Whoever doesn’t bow down to this statue….fiery furnace for you.” Now at the end of this chapter, it’s, “If anyone says anything bad about this God, it’s off with your head and we’re gonna burn up your house.” And he says, “For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.” I love that phrase from verse 29. Listen, God works so remarkably in the lives of His people, other people will take notice.

And this last verse, I absolutely love it. It says, “Then the king rewarded (or some translations say promoted) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” Do you realize that this whole mess started because a bunch of government officials didn’t like the fact that these young Hebrew boys were in the positions they already were. Look at what God did, he placed them in a position to be promoted. Can you imagine the look on these guys’ faces? Listen, that’s just how our God works when you trust Him and when you surrender to Him. He’s makes the impossible, possible…He gives life to the dead.

Closing

And so as we close, I want you to think about your relationship with Jesus Christ. Our world, its moving quickly in this same direction. In a direction where soon we’ll be commanded to bow down to certain images and ideas, to conform to a society of acceptance and tolerance. If and when you’re commanded to bow, what are you gonna do? It’s easy to say I won’t bow…but listen, it’s harder to actually stand when you know the furnace awaits you. It’s so much harder to stand, especially when those you looked up to and those you respected are among those bowing down. Will you be among that group that chooses to stand.

Jesus tells us that the way to Him, its narrow. And in His parables, He shows us that so few of people actually hear the message of the gospel and are impacted by it. In fact, in the parable of the soils, Jesus tells His followers that one in four people that hear the message of salvation are actually impacted by it and remain standing and produce fruit. The remaining people that represent the other three may play the part, they may even love everything they’ve been taught about Jesus and who He is but the moment persecution comes their way, they fall away and they conform. Who are you? How has the Gospel impacted your life?

Listen, do you today, trust Jesus fully with your life and have you completely surrendered it over to Him? I’m not asking if you know Him, I’m asking if you trust Him and have given yourself to Him.

Recognize that you’re a sinner…that the wages of sin, its death. Understand, there’s nothing you can do about that on your own. See that God, loving us so much, sent His Son Jesus, to take on our sin…to die for us. Trust and submit to Him this evening, understanding that its not about anything you can do to earn favor, its all a free gift and dependent on His grace and mercy alone.

And listen, the beauty of doing just that, when you place your trust and faith in Jesus Christ, He’ll always remove the things that hinder you from accomplishing His will. He’ll always burn up that which binds you. In this case, He’ll release you from the chains of sin and He’ll give you freedom to walk in His ways.

And so, who are you this evening? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?…Or are you Nebuchadnezzar?…You might believe…but you haven’t surrendered?

Let us pray. [Pray]