Sermon Snippets

We've arrived at the end of the book of Daniel, focusing this week on 12:5-13. It has been a fun journey learning about God through his faithful prophet Daniel.  This book has traced Daniel's life from a captive young exile to an elder statesman who has served multiple kings and two different empires.

From these concluding verses, it is easy to imagine a steadfast but weary Daniel being comforted by God's message. It brings to mind another account, this one being a fictional elder-statesman who was also arriving at the end of his life's journey.

http://lesmiserables.wikia.com/wiki/File:Valjean's_Death.png

God provides comfort to this faithful servant by highlighting the promised deliverance and resurrection that are his:

 "As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance." (12:13)

What a beautiful way to end the book. God is in control and has great things in store for His people. This is the Gospel inserted into the Old Testament,

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever....Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked." (12:2-3, 10)

There are other promises within this passage that we will unwrap on Sunday, but the most important ones are those that speak to our ultimate salvation and our ultimate destiny. Praise God for this indescribable gift!

Sermon Snippets

This week, we are studying Daniel 9:20-27.

This passage is the most difficult passage in the whole Bible to interpret and understand.

It gets so complicated, some view one particular reference to refer to Jesus. Another widely held view on the same issue, believes it to refer to the future Anti-Christ.

That's how divergent and complicated it can get. After putting together this week's sermon, I'm mentally exhausted. I hardly know what to share in this preview of the passage.

What I do want to communicate is that no matter the interpretive positions you take, the hope we have in Christ is undeniably present in these verses.

End times material will sell a lot of books. End times material can attract a lot of attendees to a conference or seminar. End times material can create a lot of heated discussion in seminary classrooms and college dorms.

But end times material that is not centrally focused on Jesus is worthless. Any end times sermon that parses potential timelines but neglects the hope we have in Christ misses the point entirely.

The more I study God's Word, especially prophecy about the Last Days, the more I am convinced God would prefer we cling to the grace of Jesus rather than getting all the details right. The purpose behind what He's revealed to us about the future is to inspire us to faithfulness. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sermon Snippets: Daniel in the Lion's Den

If someone were to survey churches across the country and poll members on what bible stories they are most familiar with, I'd guess Daniel in the Lion's Den would be in the top 5.

I'd guess the results would turn out something like this:

1. The Cross/Easter
2. David and Goliath
3. Daniel in the Lion's Den
4. Jonah in the belly of the Whale fish
5. Noah's Arc

The challenge as a pastor is when you come to those stories in your sermon series. How do you preach them in a fresh way? How do you hold the audience's attention when they've seen this movie a hundred times and have all the lines memorized?

This week, I'm going to organize my sermon around both the story structure, as any good expositional preacher would, and around facets of the story that may get overlooked or forgotten.

In this week's edition of "Sermon Snippets", I'm including some info. that I find interesting, but failed to make the cut in the sermon because it has the potential to distract from the focus of the message.

The experience of Daniel and the Lion's Den is similar the experience Daniel's friends had to endure with the Fiery Furnace in chapter three. Both events forced our faithful heroes to stand up for their faith under the threat of death. Both events record the miraculous deliverance by God of his faithful servants.

However there are several differences between the episode with Daniel's friends and the episode with Daniel himself:

• With the Fiery Furnace account, King Nebuchadnezzar is the enemy, whereas King Darius is Daniel's sympathetic friend in the story of the Lion's Den.
• In the Fiery Furnace account, the King expresses doubt any god can help them (3:15), while Darius hopes Daniel's God will rescue him (6:16).
• In chapter three, Daniel's friends get in trouble for not worshiping an idol. In chapter six, Daniel gets into trouble for worshiping his God.

Many people over the years have also drawn comparisons between Daniel and Jesus. Some of the similarities include:

• Both were blameless, but had enemies conspire against them.
• Both had sympathetic authority figures who were unable to help them (Darius, Pilate).
• Both fully submitted to God during their suffering.
• Both Jesus' grave and Daniel's pit were sealed with a large stone.
• Both were discovered to be ok during morning visit's to the grave/pit.
• Both were saved by God and prospered upon their return to normal life.

Major differences cannot be ignored though. Especially the fact that Jesus actually died and was raised. Along with the fact that he alone was sinless, his faithful endurance of his trial enabled the salvation of all men. While Daniel was great, Jesus was greater.