Unstoppable Glory and Love

Introduction: Kids… do you have a favorite superhero? What is it? (You adults can answer too…)

So one of my favorite superhero characters is Captain America.

If you don’t know the story, it starts with a boy named Steve Rogers who wants to go fight in WWII.

He’s got a ton of heart, but the problem is, he’s too scrawny to get into the army.

And so this recruiter identifies him for this experiment to create a biologically engineered super-soldier who is strengthened to run faster and fight harder than any typical human could… and (of course because it’s a movie).. it works!

He grows like 12 inches… he’s jacked… he’s unstoppable!

But there’s this spy in the room at the time the procedure is done, and he steals the serum used to create more super-soldiers and he kills it’s inventor…

So here’s Captain America… finally strong enough to fight in war… and he finds himself sidelined to perform as a traveling side-show act promoting war bonds… it’s demeaning… it’s embarrassing… but he thinks its his duty...

Meanwhile he keeps watching news reports of US troops losing battles… knowing he could help...

And I think a lot of us feel that way in our spiritual lives at times...

We enter this world powerless against the evil powers of darkness because we are slaves to sin… we are at the whims and fancies of the rulers of this world… we’re just a scrawny kid...

And then Jesus Christ comes into our lives and makes us this whole new creation.

And we learn that he has infused us with this incredible spiritual strength to overcome temptation… and he’s given us this incredible spiritual access to actually talk to the God of the universe through prayer...

But then we find ourselves waiting… sidelined from what seems like the real battle.

The things we expected God to do seem to take an awful long time to play out...

The life-transformation we expected to see in our own hearts seems slow at times...

Our prayers for people to be saved or situations to change seem to go unanswered.

The timeline of God building his church and Jesus returning seems to drag on.

And meanwhile, the bad guys look like they are winning a awful lot of battles.

Have you ever felt like that?

I think that every believer will feel that way at some point in our Christian walk…

And if we are going to to maintain our allegiance to the indestructible Kingdom of God, we are going to need some endurance… specifically, enduring prayer.

I believe Daniel finds himself in a similar place as we enter chapter 10 of his book…

and through his experience with God, we can be assured TODAY that our enduring prayer is worth it.

Today we get a window into the cosmic battle that is behind our prayer… and behind the struggles of a fallen world...

So here’s what I hope you would to take away from Daniel 10 today...

Big Idea: In the the cosmic conflict of human history, experience Christ's unstoppable glory and love through enduring prayer.

The fact that we are in a cosmic conflict means we need to be enduring in prayer.

Your Bibles are open to Daniel 10 … read with me verse 1...

[Read Daniel 10:1]

This is an editorial comment probably added by one of Daniel’s disciples… it’s really a summary statement of the rest of the book… chapters 10-12 are really one unit that we are going to cover over the next three weeks...

And from this comment, we learn that this vision came in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia… which was the year 536BC…

Daniel was in his mid-to-late 80s… this is roughly two-and-a-half years after the handwriting on the wall… two-and-a-half years after God saved him in the Lion’s den… two years after his great prayer of confession that we studied last week…

And this is also two years after God laid it upon the heart of King Cyrus to allow the first Jews to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple...

But we are reminded here that even though God is working, it isn’t all going to come easy for God’s people… there is a GREAT conflict…

From Daniel’s perspective, God’s work is taking a lot longer than he expected… we are going to see in a moment that he is distraught over this...

And that’s because there is a GREAT conflict… not just between human governments like Persia and Israel...

This is a cosmic conflict in the heavenly places involving angels and demons… this is a conflict that started when Satan tempted Adam and Eve to rebel against God…

and so God had to rescue humanity from our sin and from the enemy of our souls.

Every single person in this room has been involved in this conflict… in fact it’s affecting us right this very moment.

Daniel is going to get some insight into this great conflict… and unlike some of his previous vision, Daniel is going to understand it.

It is going to help him make sense of what he is seeing unfold in the world.

And it can help us make sense of what we are seeing in the world even today.

That’s the summary over chapters 10-12… now let’s get into the details from Daniel’s perspective.

Look at v. 2: [Read v. 2-5a]

Here we see Daniel engaged in some serious enduring prayer…

He is praying and fasting for THREE WEEKS… no sweets… nothing savory… no wine…

Remember.. this is a guy who spent most of his life in the palace, so he would have been used to some GOOD COOKIG.

And this is interesting… we find out that he is specifically fasting in the first month… this would have typically been the time for the Passover feast… the time celebrating God’s deliverance from Israel’s enemies...

But we learn that he is fasting because he is mourning…

He’s so distraught that he is SICK.

You see, his previous visions of the power of God still aren’t panning out quite like he hoped.

Two years ago, according to the decree of King Cyrus, whichever Israelites wanted to go back to the promised land could go…

but according to the book of Ezra, all that they’ve accomplished in two years is clearing up the rubble and laying a foundation...

Not only that, but not very many of them went back…

only about 42,000 of them returned… which shows us that most Israelites didn’t really care about the promised land or the temple…

they were satisfied in the kingdoms of this world and not pursuing the Kingdom of God...

They had gotten to comfortable in the land where they were exiled and they forgot that this whole thing was designed to that they would become desperate for God.

I believe that’s part of why Daniel is mourning...

And not only that, but Daniel himself had not gone back… he’s out on the bank of the Tigris river.

He’s not even in the city of Babylon anymore… he’s out on the outskirts of the Persian empire, probably back in semi-retirement… sidelined from the action.

We don’t know exactly why he didn’t go back.

It was possibly because he was too old to be of much help in a rebuilding project…

Maybe he thought he could be of more help inspiring other Israelites to return… or helping represent Jewish interests to the Persian government...

But I bet his heart was in Jerusalem for sure. God’s place. The place he grew up. The place his mom and dad taught him to love God.

And now he’s sidelined on the banks of the Tigris river.

It’s a sad situation… it’s not where he expected to be 2 years into the so-called return from Exile.... and so Daniel is fasting and mourning and seeking God instead of feasting and remembering God’s deliverance from Israel’s enemies.

For three weeks Daniel is enduring in prayer… I’ve fasted for like a day at a time before and it feels long...

This must feel like it’s taking an eternity to get an answer.

So here’s the first thing I believe we can learn from Daniel’s enduring prayer.

Enduring prayer...

1) Prompts desperate expectation for Christ. (v. 1-5a)

You see, prayer is not some magic words that we say to get what WE want… prayer is an exercise of faith that gives us access to what GOD wants.

And more than anything, God wants our desperate... dependent... expectation… for him.

He wants our hearts to be set on him and nothing else.

I believe we can look at these first five verses (and our own prayers) in two ways:

The first way we could look at it is we could say, “Daniel HAD to pray and fast so hard for THREE weeks without an answer… God left him mourning without any comfort. How TERRIBLE for Daniel.”

OR we could look at it this way: “Daniel had the OPPORTUNITY to pray for three weeks… God let him build his sense of desperate expectation for Christ… and God used Daniel’s prayer to prepare him for the INCREDIBLE vision of Christ we are going to read about in a few minutes. How EXCELLENT for Daniel.”

You see, unanswered prayer is part of the way God refines our faith.

Answered prayer confirms our knowledge that God works, but unanswered prayer builds our expectation to SEE God working.

Unanswered prayer allows us time to talk to God and relate to him in the midst of the brokenness of this world.

It causes us to strengthen our faith muscle and to see our need for God.

And the longer prayer goes unanswered, the deeper the sense of satisfaction we have when it IS answered.

If you eat a full breakfast, followed up by a big lunch, and then sit down for steak at dinner, the steak will taste good…

But if you eat a granola bar for breakfast… and work through lunch… and THEN sit down for a steak dinner, how much more satisfying will that steak be?

Sometimes God delays answering prayers to build a desperate expectation in our hearts that can only be satisfied by his glory and love.

This is true on a short-term level… and on a long-term level.

Consider the shorter-term dynamic at play here: In chapter 9, two years before this scene in chapter 10, Daniel prayed for TWO paragraphs... and God’s answer came by the end of his prayer.

NOW, Daniel has been praying fasting and mourning for 3 weeks... [Pause]

Did God stop answering him? What was going on? I wonder… How long did that three weeks feel?

But even more than that… think about this on a long-term level… Daniel has been mourning and waiting for God to work for over 70 years since he first was ripped out of his homeland and taken to Babylon!

He’s been waiting to see a spiritual revival among God’s people...

He’s been waiting to see God’s people restored to prominence in the promised land...

He is SEEKING GOD’S KINGDOM in prayer… but he hasn’t seen the answer yet.

And ALL of that time, God has been developing a desperate expectation in Daniel’s heart.

He’s given Daniel vision after vision… mercy after mercy…

And so Daniel must know by now... these three weeks are all part of a greater cosmic battle… so he keeps enduring to experience God’s unstoppable glory and love.

You need to know this: your life is part of a slow-moving cosmic conflict...

The suffering you are praying to have removed...

The sin you are seeking to finally see eradicated from your life...

The child you are praying returns to the Lord...

The neighbor you are trying to share Jesus with...

It’s a slow moving cosmic conflict...

And that’s just the short term stuff in the grand scheme of things!

History… as it unfolds through election after election… ruler after ruler… empire after empire... is a slow-moving cosmic conflict....

but Christ is at work in it all.

Apply: Reflect on your prayer life for a moment. Do you have endurance in prayer? Do your prayers express desperate expectation for God to work according to his will?

What prayers have you given up on where God didn’t clearly say “no.”

Is it a person you are praying for to come to the faith?

Is it a relationship that has been strained for so long that you’ve just given up?

What would it look like to restart your prayers for that thing again this week?

I read a convicting quote this week from the English Evangelist, Leonard Ravenhill. He said, “We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, but few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; may interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

Will you be an agonizer… a pray-er… a clinger… a wrestler? Will you shed tears… intercede… fight in the cosmic conflict through enduring prayer? If you do, at some point you will find out that all the agonizing in prayer is totally worth it!

Daniel was engaged in that kind of battle through three weeks of mourning and fasting... …

His desperate expectation for God is at an all-time high... and he’s about to be satisfied.

Read v. 5-9.

I’m not going to go into all the symbolism of this description this morning… but I hope you can see that all of these descriptors together SCREAM one word… GLORY!

Enduring prayer...

2) Prompts a glorious encounter with Christ. (v. 5-9)

The person Daniel sees is consistent with a lot of descriptions of angels throughout the Bible… but there are a few parts of the description that are unique to descriptions of one particular person… the Glorified Son of God…

In Revelation 1, the Apostle John sees a person who he clearly identifies as the glorified Christ, and he describes him this way (see if this sounds familiar): “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” (Revelation 1:12–16, ESV)

Sound familiar?

Not only that, but the response in Daniel is so similar to John’s response in Revelation… John writes that he “fell at his feet as though dead...”

And the scene also reflects the Apostle Paul’s experience with the glorified Christ in Acts 9 when Saul’s companions were terrified but couldn’t see the vision.

While there are some scholars who would disagree, I believe Daniel is seeing the Second Person of the Trinity… the Son of God… the way he was before he took on flesh and blood… He is having an encounter with Christ.

This is how God satisfies the hunger and mourning Daniel is experiencing...

His answer is not first the explanation about Israel’s future… his answer is first a revelation of the glory of the Son.

The answer to our prayer is ALWAYS first a person (Christ) before it is the thing we wanted.

God wants us to see Christ’s unstoppable glory, so that we will know that he is able to work out his plan.

So let me just ask you… we’ve prayed a few times in the service already today…

Is this description that I just read the person you thought about while we were praying?

Did you realize… were you aware... that you were standing before this Savior and Lord as we sang our praises… and he was listening to you and hearing you pour out your heart to him?

When you sang, “I want to know you and know you more,” were you eager to get to know THIS glorious person?

Even right this second… as you are hearing this description of him, is your heart filling up with awe that THIS is your GOD and you are in HIS presence?

We must be REGULARLY overwhelmed… dumbfounded… by the glory of the God to whom we pray!

Every time we pray… every time we sing... every time we cry out to God (whether in the privacy of our home or together on a Sunday morning)… this is the Jesus who provides us access to the glory of God.

He is glorious and powerful and fearsome and awesome...

And through his work on the cross, he invites all nations to come and humble themselves before him and to seek his kingdom through the work of salvation he accomplished by coming, and dying and rising again.

Daniel’s vision of Christ is here for US so that we would know who we are praying to while we wait for him to return.

Daniel’s vision is here for US so that we would know that he is glorious and able to handle whatever is concerning our hearts.

I would encourage you… when you are praying… and especially when you are MOURNING… when you are LAMENTING in prayer... take time to WORSHIP the God you are praying to.

So many times I’ve been content with a little worship and a lot of requests… but I’m learning to flip my priorities around in prayer…

Spirit-led, scripture-fed, WORSHIP-BASED prayer… that’s what we are going for when we talk about prayer at Oak Hill…

As you endure in prayer, take time to REMEMBER his glory… this isn’t some small God we can just trifle around with...

This is a God who is glorious and who can work in whatever way he sees fit...

This is a God who will one day declare the final end of this great cosmic conflict… and he will do it with a WORD!

If you are reading along in our reading plan in Revelation, you will read about how he will do that at the end of time this week.

Dig into those chapters and encounter the glory of Christ in a fresh way this week through his word.

[Apply: When you pray, what helps you remember the glory of the one to whom you are praying?]

When we are engaged in a cosmic conflict through enduring prayer, we need to be overwhelmed by his glory.

But that picture of Christ’s glory can create another problem for our prayers… We can be left SO in awe that we can’t even get the words out to pray.

Remember last week, we talked about needing to remember both the fearsome AND relational attributes of God in prayer.

Daniel has just come face to face with the fearsome nature of Christ… and he is now face down in the dirt… asleep...

Read v. 10-21

So far Daniel’s enduring prayer prompts a desperate expectation for Christ… it prompts a glorious encounter with Christ… and finally it...

3) Prompts a loving encouragement from Christ (v. 10-21)

So we have these three angelic messengers…

If the first vision in verses 5-9 were in fact the Son of God, we know that these angels are different persons than the one that vision…

because Christ would have NO problem going toe-to-toe the prince of the kingdom of Persia… he certainly wouldn’t need Michael’s help.

So I believe these are merely angels… sent FROM Christ… to encourage Daniel as he is in shock from his vision of seeing God’s glory.

We see this in Isaiah… Isaiah says, “Woe is me!” and an angel touches his lips with a burning coal from the altar...

We see this in Revelation… angels are ministering to John to strengthen him throughout his vision.

Daniel needs to be STRENGTHENED to experience the glory of God… He needs to know that God is glorious… and in his glory, he is loving.

So the first angel touches him… and he’s able to make it off his face to his hands and knees...

And he encourages him… “O Daniel, man greatly loved.”

In other words, this vision that I’m about to reveal is not going to kill or harm you… it’s for your good.

And then he pulls back the curtain for Daniel (and for us reading this) to reveal a rare view of the cosmic battle…

Apparently, God sent his angel on day 1 of Daniel’s prayer… just like he did in chapter 9… but this time, he got into a fight with the prince of the kingdom of Persia.

Now, that’s not a human prince… that’s referring to a demon that is providing the power and influence to the Kingdom of Persia...

Our battle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against the rulers… against the authorities in the HEAVENLY places...

So this angel was held up for 21 days fighting this demon...

Like, do you think maybe Satan and his demons didn’t want Daniel to see this vision that we are going to hear about in chapters 11-12?

Do you think the cosmic enemy maybe has it out for God’s people so they wouldn’t be encouraged…

Or so that they would wear out in prayer and give up…

so they would stop devoting their allegiance to God and God alone.

That knowledge should inspire your enduring prayer, loved ones. Don’t give the enemy that kind of influence in your life.

So there is this three week wrestling match… the whole time Daniel is praying and fasting and mourning, the angel is fighting…

And he’s fighting to encourage Daniel’s heart with a message and a vision, “O Man, greatly loved.... I pressed through demonic opposition to get here. That’s how much God loves you.”

That’s super encouraging… But Daniel is still feeling weak.

He’s still on his hands and knees… he can’t even talk...

So one of the angels touches his lips… and Daniel responds, “How can you expect me to have this conversation with you after that vision of glory I just had!”

And so another angel is like, “Fair enough…” and he strengthens him again...

And he repeats the encouragement: “O Man, greatly loved! Fear not! Peace with you! Be strong and courageous!”

It’s like he pulls out every encouragement in the Angel handbook and uses them on Daniel all at once!

And so Daniel’s like… OK… I’m ready… go ahead and talk to me.

And the angel asks this weird question in v. 20, “Do you know why I have come to you?”

To which Daniel’s probably thinking, “No!”

But before the angel answers that question, he’s like, “I’ve got to go back soon to fight the prince of Persia some more… and then after him, I’ll have to fight the prince of Greece.

But I’ll tell you this… there is none who contends by my side against these demonic powers except Michael.

So what is the angel saying?

He’s saying, “The Battle isn’t over yet. I’m here to give you insight… but your prayers are going to need to keep enduring.

I’m going to give you a vision of what is to come in Persia, and in the Kingdom of Greece… and then in the time of the end… (that’s the rest of the book)...

and after I tell you the vision, I have to go back into the cosmic battle… because the time is not yet fulfilled. The battle is not yet over.

But I’ve come here today so that you would know… in the midst of your enduring prayer... that you are loved…

So that you would have peace and be strong and courageous because you have seen the glory of God in the image of his son.

And you may be sitting there thinking, “Well good for Daniel. He was loved. He prayed for three weeks and God visibly showed up and encouraged him. Nothing like that could ever be true for me!”

And you would be so wrong.

I’m not saying you will have a vision like Daniel is having… I’m not saying that seeing angelic messengers is some common thing for believers… it’s NOT!

But if you have come to know Jesus though faith...

If you believe that God SO LOVED the world that he sent his only begotten GLORIOUS Son…

If you trust that his death on a cross satisfied the righteous requirement of God to have you sins forgiven and removed...

If you understand that the glory of Jesus could not be stopped even by the power of Death...

Then you have come to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ just as effectively as Daniel saw him that day...

And you can hear the words, “O Man... O woman... greatly loved,” just as clearly as Daniel heard that day...

“SEE what love the Father has LAVISHED on us that we should be called the children of God… and that is what we ARE!”

If you’ve never come to that place of faith in Jesus alone to save you from your sin and to make you part of HIS kingdom, you can do that today!

You can receive the strength that only God can bring just as Daniel was strengthened that day.

You can pray big and bold and enduring prayers… prayers that seek God’s will to be done and his indestructible Kingdom to come.

You can KNOW that Christ’s work WILL be finished in the end...

nothing (including the ever-changing rulers and seasons of earth) can stop it!

I see the encouraging words and actions of the angels to Daniel reflected in the prayer of the Apostle Paul for the Ephesian church…

Remember, Paul had an encounter with the glorified Jesus very similar to Daniel’s that changed his life forever...

And he wants nothing less for the Ephesian church.

He prays for them, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14–21, ESV)

Is that your heart in prayer?

That you would have a desperate expectation to see God complete his work IN THE CHURCH and IN CHRIST JESUS THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS, FOREVER AND EVER… that he would bring about the end of history as we know it and usher in his Kingdom?

Is your heart in prayer that our church would encounter the full height and breadth and length and depth of the glory of Christ?

Is your heart in prayer that our church would be encouraged by knowing the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge?

Let’s endure in prayer so that we can see Jesus doing this very thing in our midst.

[Apply: Do you believe God loves you? How have you been encouraged by his love through reading the word and responding in prayer? ]

[Close your eyes… ] What is that thing that you’ve been praying for for a LONG time?

And maybe you’ve stalled out in that prayer… maybe you’ve kept praying...

Take a moment to pray for that thing again...

And remember the glory of the one you are praying to...

Put your faith and trust in him… seek HIM more than the answer to your specific need...

And then hear his words, “O Son, Daughter, Greatly loved… I’m at work… be strong and courageous… keep enduring in prayer… seeking MY kingdom and MY glory...”