Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

-The book of Daniel doesn’t only give some interesting points of debate about prophecy and the future, it is also very timely as Daniel and his friends experienced what many are experiencing today.

Daniel and his friends were faced with a pagan nation and culture that was completely given over to the spirit of the age or the god of the age, or we might even say the god of this world.

And what happens quite often is that the demands from the world under the control of this god of the age will conflict with faith in the One True God through Jesus Christ.

That leaves a choice of whether you will take a stand for God or not.

-While we have our struggles with this in the West to a point, many in Asia and Africa find this to be a life or death issue.

If you take a stand for God against the God of the age, you will die.

Although we might not run into things that are quite that extreme (yet) the pressure that is put on us to stand down from our beliefs is very real.

When we look at how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood their ground, it will hopefully be an encouragement to us to do the same.

-As we pick up in the middle of the chapter, I want to give a little context.

Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a statue that represented the kingdoms that were to come in the Near Eastern world.

On the statue Nebuchdnezzar and Babylon were represented by a head of gold.

Many years later, inspired by this dream, Nebuchadnezzar had a statue built that was completely overlaid with gold, possibly a way for him to demonstrate his belief that he and his empire would rule forever.

Whether the statue represented him, his power, his empire, his gods, or all of them, he wanted to make sure that all the people who were part of his government bowed themselves before the statue to worship and demonstrate their complete loyalty and devotion to him and his gods and his power.

-Nebuchadnezzar said that anybody who refused to bow to this representation of the god of the age would be killed by being thrown into a fiery furnace.

All of the other political lackeys were more than glad to bow in worship and give themselves over in devotion to the god of the age.

Well, all but three of them were glad to do it.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow, but remained standing.

It wasn’t so much that they were standing in defiance as much as it was them standing in loyalty and devotion to the One True God.

And as we read the passage, may it give us the strength to do the same.

-There are several lessons I want us to consider tonight as we study this passage:

1) When you take a stand for God you may be persecuted

-Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t believe that someone would actually defy him and his commands, so he figured that the three Jews must have misunderstood what was expected of them, so he gave them another chance to do the [quote/unquote] “right thing” or “politically correct thing” or the “culturally acceptable thing.”

He gave them another chance to conform to the ways of the world and the ways of the god of the age.

If they did not conform, they would be punished.

-They were persecuted because they did not follow the same standards as the god of the age, but stood strong in following God’s standards.

They would not worship what the world worshipped, but kept all worship for the One true God.

Nebuchadnezzar even hinted that even the Jews’ God wasn’t powerful enough to save them from his hand (and what a lesson he would learn).

They were persecuted because they took a stand for something that was very unpopular, and they refused to bend or bow or compromise in any way.

-The world that is under the sway of the god of the age will go after anyone that will not fall in lockstep with its beliefs and values.

You will get cancelled.

You will get mocked by those who remain loyal to the god of the age.

I find it so strange that the generations that in the past were so into non-conformity, tearing down the system, are now the very ones that follow the system like a bunch of lemmings.

-But we don’t necessarily stand AGAINST the world system (although, we do to a point) as much as we stand FOR the Living God and for Jesus Christ.

And whenever you stand for God and Christ, the world and the god of the age will stand against you.

And this is expected, because the Bible warns us about this:

-Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego literally went through a fiery trial because they stood for God.

And now, when we take a stand for Christ we will face the same and so we can’t be caught by surprise when it happens.

2) When you take a stand for God you may be tested but also matured

-The faith of these three men were tested—did they actually believe what they said they believed?

Just like them, we can talk the talk: oh sure I have faith; oh sure, I believe God is sovereign; oh sure, I believe all the right doctrines.

But then, when push comes to shove, we really don’t.

We have it in our head, but it doesn’t really translate into our lives.

So now, like Abraham’s faith was tested, their faith and what they believed in God would be tested.

-The three men tell the king there’s no reason to go through all the pomp and circumstance, and they don’t even have to think about their response.

And they laid out for Nebuchadnezzar exactly what they believed.

They believed that God is more than able to deliver them from the fiery furnace and from the king’s hand.

The king asked who is the god who will deliver them from his hand?

And their answer is that our God can do it.

But, they also added a caveat, because they also knew that God’s sovereign plan might have a different result.

They started v. 18 says BUT IF NOT.

They knew that it was a possibility that God wouldn’t save them.

It all depended on God’s sovereign will.

He might deliver, He might not.

But either way, they would NOT blaspheme God or turn their back on God.

Again, this is where faith is tested.

-Do we believe God can deliver us from whatever?

Absolutely.

Is there a possibility that God might not deliver us from whatever?

Absolutely.

God might have different plans, and we will be tested if we are going to be OK with that.

As one author summarized:

Although no doubt existed in the minds of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego about the ability of their God to deliver them, they humbly accepted the fact that God does not always choose to intervene miraculously in human circumstances, even on behalf of his servants.

-Even if they were to suffer a horrible, painful death, they will still take their stand for God.

It is more important to stand for God than to preserve your life.

Jesus said that if you save your life you’d lose it, but if you’d lose your life you’d save it.

We see this principle elsewhere in Scripture:

-But by taking a stand in faith, before knowing the outcome, they actually grew and matured in faith.

James Montgomery Boice talks about how they matured in faith in three ways:

Daniel: An Expositional Commentary (The Sovereign God)

1.

They [grew in their conviction] that God was sovereign.

... This is no airy, speculative abstraction.

This is faith in the furnace.

It is a firm conviction of the sovereignty of God in the midst of all things contrary.

These men knew that God is sovereign, and therefore it was not foolish but wise for them to entrust their lives to him in this matter.

2. They [grew in their conviction of the truthfulness of] the Scriptures.

This is the reason they refused to bow down: God had forbidden it.

But knowing the Scriptures is also important for the reason that moral issues seldom come to us in black-and-white terms.

The world makes moral issues as ambiguous as possible, because when that is the case, it seems to free us to do what we want to do—or at least to do what we judge best in the circumstances.

If we are to do the right thing in such circumstances, we must know the Word of God, because only the Word of God will cut through such ambiguity.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego triumphed because their minds were filled with Scripture and because they kept coming back to Scripture as the only fully trustworthy and inerrant authority in all matters.

3.

They [confirmed in their hearts that they] were willing to die for their convictions.

I am sure you can see why this is important.

It is important because it is possible to believe in a sovereign God and know from Scripture what that sovereign God requires and yet fail to do the right thing because you are unwilling to pay the price of obedience.

It is true that not many of us are likely to be faced with a choice between compromise or execution....Many fail because they will not pay the price of a loss of popularity or loneliness or ridicule or persecution or economic hardship.

Only those who are willing to pay such prices make a difference.

-And when our faith is tested, my prayer is that we would mature in these areas as well.

And one quick last thing I want to note:

3) When you take a stand for God He will be glorified

-Placing their faith in God and God’s plan opened up a door for pagans to see God’s glory and majesty in such a way that they couldn’t even deny it.

The king was so mad that they dared question his authority and sovereignty (at least, what he in his mind thought that he had) and in his anger told them to fire up the furnace as hot as they could get it.

They threw the three Jews into the furnace from an opening in the top, and it was so hot it burned up the strong men they had throw the three Jews into the furnace.

-But instead of being burned to a crisp, the ropes by which they were tied are the only things to burn off.

They walked around in the furnace and were miraculously saved by a divine messenger sent from God.

Some believe it was a preincarnate Christ, others an angel, but either way God had sent a helper and Nebuchadnezzar found out what kind of God is able to deliver from his hand.

The king had to check his own sanity with his advisors, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He called for the three Jews to come out, and not only were they not burned anywhere, they didn’t even smell like smoke.

All of Nebuchadnezzar’s right-hand men were there to witness and confirm the whole thing.

The God of the Jews saved these men.

-Now, again, God could have chose not to save them, but He chose to save them.