The Miracle of the Confessing Church

Introduction: God’s People are Harrassed and Threatened All Over the World

Nebuchadnezzar’s Decree’s Wrath for All Who Will Not Worship a False Idol.

The decree defied God’s previous warning to the king.

N. set up a gold image 90ft high and 9 ft wide to emphasize his dominate power and supremacy of the gods of Babylon.

The command to worship was a pledge of loyalty to that state and to his leadership. He was asking anyone to give up their gods, but to reverance and honor the gods of babylon whose power was represented by this image and N. rule.

Down through the ages we have seen that those who claim ultimate power for themselves eventually demand worship.

“In the late 1930s, when Joseph Stalin was the dictator in the Soviet Union, Stalin’s name was mentioned in a provincial meeting. This ‘triggered’ a standing ovation and a standing dilemma—for no one dared be the first to sit down. Finally, an elderly man, unable to stand any longer, took his seat. They noted his name and arrested him the next day. He had failed to worship the idol long enough.”

We are seeing a soft totalitarianism in our own country that demands allegiance and worship. If anyone does not signal that they are in line with the value system of the age, then they are canceled, may lose their job and reputation. Bow to our ideologies or pay the price!

The decree placed a great amount of pressure upon God’s people to break the first and second commandments.

The first commandment is this - You shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment in Ex. 20 is “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

This situation is like many situations the church has faced down through the ages, we face pressure to disbelieve and disobey God.

This narrative highlights the kind of pressure the Church will feel in a hostile world.

The pressure of authority - notice that in the first seven vs. that tell of the decree it is emphasized six times that N. THE KING is the one who has set up this statue to be worshipped. The author is purposefully demonstrating the monumental pressure that came from the king’s authority that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced - the kind had the authority to exercise wrath and to burn them alive in a fiery furnace - the pressure is real!

The pressure of conformity - All the civil servants have gathered from all the peoples, nations, and languages.(develop this wording later in the sermon - pointing to how Revelation uses this language) Can you imagine the pressure of standing alone in this particular crowd at this particular moment? I think you can, because you are faced with the pressure to conform and to be like the crowds.

The pressure from malice. - notice vs. 8, we see that many of the Chaldeans already had it out for S.M.A. The king may have never even noticed that these men refused to worship the idol, but they were maliciously accused. We have pressure in our various circles to be liked and accepted by our peers. This makes it hard to go against the flow of ideas and to take a stand. As pressure mounts to conform to godless ideologies in our day, it will be co-workers, neighbors, and followers on social media who will try to get you canceled, fired, or imprisoned.

The pressure of intimidation - its one thing to have the authority of N. behind the decree, its quite another to have the King in your face and threatning to burn you alive. As one commentator wrote, “The prospect of roasting tends to motivate.”

The way the author shapes the narrative gives the Church encouragment to walk in obedience to God in the face of such mounting pressure.

The author of this narrative emphasizes 11 times that the idol is something that N. has made and set up. He is demonstrating the absurdity of worshipping a man-made god.

This is the same message of Is. 44:12-20

The church can face the pressure of the world because we serve a God made without hands, the God who has made all things and holds them together by his sovereign decrees!

N. poses a question - And who is the god who will deliever you out of my hands? How quickly has he forgotten his own proclamation that the god of the Israelites is the God of gods! S.M.A know that they serve the one true God. The God of Scripture is the only God who has the authority to destroy both body and soul for eternity in hell. N. could threated physical death, but to disobey and to disbelieve God, the consequence is eternal. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lost his soul?

The author emphasizes the variety of peoples, languages, and nations that come and bow for the idol. It is no accident that John uses this language to desribe the great mutitude of the redeemed from every tribe tongue and nation in the book of Revelation. This teaches us that when the church stands alone at any one point in time, we are not really standing alone. If you have to stand alone for Christ at school, at work, among your family - you are standing with S.M.A as they worship before the throne of God!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Fear God More Than the Wrath of Nebechadnezzar.

The respons of S.M.A teach us a great deal about the way we fear and reverance God while we face tremendous pressure to conform to the ideologies and godless practices of the world.

Their allegiance is to God alone - they are ready to live or die on the basis of their confession. We will serve the living God, not your false gods or the man-made image you have set up. This is the confession of the Church - JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! Is this your confession? Is your allegiance to Christ Alone?

Their confidence is in God’s Soveriegnty - They are not sure is God is willing to deliver them, but they know that he is able! This is an important truth to live by, God does not always will temporary rescue.

Their resolve rests upon God’s covenant promises. - They will burn in the furnace before breaking the commandment.

This episode helps us understand the meaning of Romans 10:9-13 - allegiance, confidence, resolve in the covenant promise of God for salvation.

Romans 10:9-13, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Lord Rescues His People From the World’s Wrath and the Wrath of God that is Coming Upon the Whole World.

In the midst of the fire there is fourth, mysterious person in the flames with S.M.A

I believe that this is a preincarnate depiction of Jesus, because it is Jesus who rescues God’s people from the wrath of kings and the wrath of a Holy God.

Jesus promised his disciples that he would be with them always, until the end of the age.

Jesus in the book of Revelation is in the midst of his church, he says to the church at Smyrna, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer(persecution). Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” and to the church at Philadelphia, “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world (wrath), to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Who is will you have as your king? Who will rule the throne of your heart? This questions needs to be answered today!

Conlcusion - What is the miracle of the text?

Is the main miracle of the text that God is able to rescue three guys from some fire? Is that the point of the story?

No - the miracle of the text is the confessing church. The miracle is that three guys who have been exiled from judah, a rebellious and idolatrous nation, have been so transformed by God that they are willing to defy the edict of N., face the fiery furnace, and confess their allegiance to God.

This is the miracle of the confessing church in the Roman Empire, in the Soviet Union, in China, and Burma, and North Korea, and this will be the miracle of the confessing church in the United States of America.

Rev. 12:11, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”