Sermon Tone Analysis

A Life Well Lived

King Cyrus was the one chosen by God to be the one through whom God would open the doors for His people to return.

Daniel is probably 85 years old.

He may have wanted to return to Jerusalem, but his age and his responsibilities to the king (now serving a third nation/people group) made it difficult.

The last vision he records (Dan 11 and 12) is a complicated and densely detailed one describing many of the events the previous visions had revealed.

The depth of detail in this vision means we are going to focus on lessons we can learn from Daniel’s experience rather than trying to discuss the details of the vision itself is important and worthy of detailed study - but it truly needs more time than we can give on a Sunday morning.

Many of us, just like Daniel, long to be home where we belong - in the eternal kingdom of God.

Yet, in His wisdom, God has chosen to leave us here.

We are called to persevere, to stay faithful, to use the resources God has provided us to stay focused.

We aren’t to be distracted.

…as it is in heaven...

Jesus taught His followers a model prayer that is a powerful way to affirm our understanding of how God’s world works.

We often are far too casual about this prayer.

Look at one phrase: ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

Daniel’s experience in this last section of the book bearing his name is a potent illustration of this truth.

What is happening here on earth is mirroring what is occuring in heaven.

The vision (Dan 11) had so baffled Daniel he immediately began to pray.

As he began to pray God dispatched an angel (perhaps Gabriel) to give Daniel insight.

However, Gabriel was intercepted by one identified only as ‘the Prince of Persia.’

Until Michael, another archangel came to his assistance Gabriel was engaged in some sort of conflict.

One writer offers this assessment:

It would seem, then, that we are dealing here with a demonic spirit who engages in direct conflict with another angelic being.

Since he sustains an ongoing relationship to the nation of Persia (v.

20), I conclude that “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” is a demonic being assigned by Satan to this nation as his special area of activity.

His purpose was to provoke hindrance to God’s will and kingdom there, especially among God’s people under Persian rule.

As we think about Daniel’s experience we have to ask - are the challenges his fellow Jews are experiencing in Jerusalem a reflection of some cosmic conflict in the heavenly places.

Time doesn’t permit, but a glance at the experience of Ezra, Nehemiah and other men and women of God in that era demonstrate an almost constant effort to hinder their work of rebuilding the temple and the city.

At any rate, Daniel is told that God did not delay His response.

Rather, Gabriel had to contend with this demonic ‘Prince of Persia’ who certainly had no interest in allowing Daniel to understand the vision he recounts in Dan 11.

Once the vision was revealed by God we can bank on its fulfillment.

Once God speaks, nothing - no power on heaven or on earth - can keep God’s declarations from coming to pass.

Gabriel assists Daniel by lifting him back on his feet - the vision had literally thrown him to the ground.

The angelic presence strengthened Daniel so that he could hear and understand what the vision meant for he and his people - Daniel 10:14

“the people who know their God”

In this lengthy - and often confusing vision - the angel describing the events of the coming days reminds Daniel of a key truth:

Daniel 11:32–35 (HCSB)

With flattery he will corrupt those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will be strong and take action.

Those who are wise among the people will give understanding to many, yet they will die by sword and flame, and be captured and plundered for a time.

When defeated, they will be helped by some, but many others will join them insincerely.

Some of the wise will fall so that they may be refined, purified, and cleansed until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

Daniel 1 describes Daniel and his friends as those “suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving...” (Dan 1:4).

Then in Daniel 12 he is reminded by the angelic being

Daniel is reminded that genuine wisdom is focused on believing God at all costs, resisting evil constantly, teaching on another, and consistently living in an attitude of prayer.

The display of wisdom will not protect everyone however.

Some will fall away - we can all identify those who have fallen away.

Many well-known pastors and teachers as well as many friends and fellow church attenders have drifted into disaster.

Sometimes failure is God’s way of refining and purifying, a way God allows to cleanse the heart and mind of those who are genuinely seeking after Him.

People who live by the wisdom God grants know for certain: there is an end coming.

“go on your way to the end; you will rest...”

There is much in this vision that is hard to comprehend, hard to consider.

Earlier in Daniel’s experience (Dan 10:13) an angel was overheard asking, ‘How long?’

In the last chapter, we overhear again a similar question, ‘How long?’

Many have spent their entire careers studying these last few chapters of Daniel.

An uncountable number of books have been written - each claiming they have solved the unsolvable, they alone have unraveled the mystery.

Daniel, however, was told:

We need to hear and understand this counsel as well.

God has set us on a path.

God has placed us in a community, a family, a church, so that we can pray -Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven - in the place were we live and work.

It is intriguing to dig into these visions and try to match up the daily news headlines with the visions.

It is fascinating to try and interpret the times in which we live in light of these visions.

Like Daniel, though, let’s not get distracted from what God is doing here and now in our lives!

Second, there is an end coming.

Yes, we can long for and yearn for the coming of Jesus.

We may or may not experience that event.

What we can know for certain is that God has an end for us.

God, who calls the stars by name, God who knows the number of the hairs on our head, God who is alert to every sparrow that dies - He is directing our lives to an end.

We may not see it very clearly, but each of us have a place in His unveiling kingdom and each of us, like Daniel, have a part to play.

Daniel preceded Jesus and that first generation of followers by several centuries.

Peter, one of that group, reminded other believers of a similar fact:

1 Peter 1:3–5 (HCSB)

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Certainties We Can Count On

There will be spiritual warfare.

The world where God has places us is an active battlefield.

I’m not talking about finding the enemy under every mistake or every time something doesn’t go according to our plan.

I’m talking about the cosmic battle between God and His adversary: the Devil.

The conflict has been going since prior to the existence of man and woman.

It continues even while we are gathered here.

On one level it is intensely personal - If the enemy can thwart us from gathering together, if the enemy can create discord among those who gather, if the adversary can distract us from the kingdom assignment we’ve been given...

On another level we see this conflict played out in the culture around us.

Have you noticed that in the past few days people in Iran (yes, Iran) are rising up in protest against their staunchly Muslim government?

And finally, hidden to our physical eyes, there is a cosmic conflict occuring.

Daniel experienced spiritual warfare on a personal level - see Dan 1 and Dan 6.

Dan understood spiritual conflict on the level of national affairs - see the end of Dan 5.

Daniel’s prayer in ch 9 is his way of engaging in the warfare.

In Dan 10-12 Daniel’s eyes are opened to a completely different level.

We are to be prepared to be involved in battle.

At whatever age, whatever stage of life - we are engaged in a battle for the eternal lives of those living around us.

We have an assignment

Do we know our God?

Or do we know a god that we have shaped and molded according to our own image and desires?

To fully understand God we have to be willing to hold certain truths in tension.

God, who desires the salvation of all, has created an eternal place for those who reject Him.

God, who declared His creation ‘good, very good,’ is willing to reclaim His creation - in Genesis He sends a massive, worldwide flood to reclaim that which is His.

In the NT, He gives His own Son as the perfect sacrifice so that all who trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection can be rescued from the sin and guilt that are so devastating.

Rest…Receive

We pray, ‘Your kingdom come...” but we have no power to make that happen.

We pray to the One who does have the power and authority to make it happen.