Welcome to First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, GA! » Als Class http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org a place to learn about the First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, and listen to messages online Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:50:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Copyright © 2010 Welcome to First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, GA! wordpress@fbcwaynesboro.org (Dr. G. Al Wright) wordpress@fbcwaynesboro.org (Dr. G. Al Wright) Christianity baptist, southern baptists, Christianity, faith, truth First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, GA Podcasts a place to learn about the First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, and listen to messages online Dr. G. Al Wright Dr. G. Al Wright wordpress@fbcwaynesboro.org No no http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/wp/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg Welcome to First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, GA! http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org 144 144 Daniel 11:1-28 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/978 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/978#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:21:15 +0000 David http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=978 James Montgomery Boice reminds us that Daniel 11 [+/-] is the longest and most detailed prophesy in the entire book.  It begins and 11:1 and extends through 12:4.  We must remember as we approach this chapter and the culmination of this book that Daniel is in exile during the sixth century B.C. and is writing here in detail of events that will begin to take place one hundred years after the time in which he is writing.  Boice has noted that this chapter can be divided into three units:  the period of time from Daniel to the time of Antiochus IV, the critical career of Antiochus and the events that are yet to come.  Every student of the Book of Daniel is challenged by this chapter with reference to the issue of the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture.  Conservative evangelicals have taken the position that God revealed detailed historical truth to Daniel before it came to be; liberal scholars have taken the position that the Book of Daniel was written in the second century B.C. looking back on these events and writing as if they are yet to be.  Which of these positions do you take?


I.  The History of Near East from Daniel to the Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 11:1-19

A.  The transition of power from Persia to Greece.  God promises to reveal THE TRUTH to Daniel.  The announcement at the beginning of verse two is an invitation of the reader to check out the information in the Book of Daniel against the “facts” of secular or profane history.  The purpose for this invitation is not that the facts of secular history verify the absolute truth of the Word of God which would make the Bible subservient to history; the purpose of this invitation is to show that the meaning of history is found in the framework of “his story” without which history has no real meaning.  History does not derive its meaning from the horizontal plain but from the vertical plain where we see the hand of God orchestrating and organizing the events and activities of mankind.

B.  Three more kings will arise in Persia.  These three kings will come after Cyrus or Darius.  We know that the first was the wayward and wicked son of Cyrus, Cambyses (530-522) who was followed for just one year by Smerdes (522) who was followed by Darius I Hstaspes (522-486) who was followed by Xerxes I (486-464) who invaded Greece and in 480 was defeated at the battle of Salamis.

C.  The mighty king that arises both to have dominion and to do as he wills is Alexander the Great (336-323).  His Kingdom was not divided as he willed due to his sudden and tragic death but was assigned to four generals in his army:  Antipater, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucid with the last two of these being the strongest and them most notorious.

D.  The King of the south is Ptolemy I Soter (323-285).  Ptolemy I was a very powerful General under Alexander.  Another General Seleucus who is in the north is force to flee due to the power that was taken by Antigonus I Monophthalmmus.  Seleucus fled to Ptolemy for protection thus becoming one of his princes but when Antigonus was defeated, Seleucus returned to rule and take power over Babylon, Syria and Media.

E.  Verse 6 is one of those verses in this section that speaks with vivid detail about events that did not begin to take place until around 250 B.C.  Here is what happened.  Ptolemy II Philadelphus wanted to make peace with Antiochus II Theos by sending his daughter to marry him.  The problem was that Antiochus II Theos was married but he liked the daughter of Ptolemy whose name was Bereneice.  He planned to divorce his wife and disinherit her sons so as to marry Bereneice and have a child by her who would then be ruler.  But Laodice the wife of the king had other plans!! She had her husband and his lover poisoned and in that same year Bereneice’s father died, thus the accuracy of the details in verse 6.

F.  Bereneice’s brother Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221) ascended the throne and declared war against the Seleucid kingdom.  The conquering was complete and led to a treaty of peace between the two kingdoms until there was a swift invasion and an equally swift retreat.

G.  The sons of Seleucus II from 226-187 continued to engage in conflict with the Ptolemies until somewhere around 200 B.C. Ptolemy IV Philopater came against Antiochus III and administered a total and thorough defeat at the fortress of Antiochus  in Palestine known as Raphia.  Victory did not last as from this time the kingdom of the Ptolemies began to weaken as the Seleucid kingdom strengthened, 12-13.

H.  Many Jews did rise up against the Ptolemaic kingdom around 200 B.C. due to the heavy taxation and their preference for rule by the Seleucids.  The Seleucids under the leadership of Antiochus III the Great One began to dominate the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the extent that Antiochus gave his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy V in marriage with the goal being that the children born to the union would rule for him and his posterity that now dominated kingdom.  But Cleopatra turned toward her husband and supported him and away from her father.  Antiochus III the Great turned toward Asia Minor  perhaps even toward Rome and this greed for power would prove to be his downfall.  He was defeated by Roman and Greek troops and forced to sign a treaty in 188 B.C.  that involved the surrender of territory, troops, and tribute to Greece and Rome.  He returned home and was killed by an angry mob while pillaging a temple of Zeus in order to get some of what he needed to pay what he owed since among the hostages held by Greece and Rome was his son Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

I.  Verse 20 refers to Antiochus III’s son Seleucus IV Philopater (187-175) who sent a tax collector to collect taxes in order to pay the debt owed to Rome.  Thought of plundering the temple to garner gold and silver that would have helped alleviate the debt but was warned in a dream and did not do it (2 Macc. 3:7-40).  His death was a tragic irony as the one who devised and implemented the tax system, he was poisoned by his own tax collector.

J.  HERE IS A MAJOR TRANSITION IN THIS CHAPTER.  Verse 21 introduces us to Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  Took this name for himself although known by most as “Epimanes” or “madman.”  He ruled from 175 to 164.  He rules with reckless dominion for a short time.  Antiochs IV Epiphanes who gained power through political manipulation making promises that he did not intend to keep, kept power through the same means.  His dominance of the Ptolemaic Kingdom was the result of promises to men in power that he failed to fulfill.

K.  Verse 28 refers to that time after plundering Egypt that Alexander was returning home and passing through Palestine found an insurrection going on and Alexander stirred the pot through his desecration of the Temple which led to the Maccabean revolt.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/978/feed 0 Daniel 9:20-27 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/960 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/960#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:40:02 +0000 David http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=960 I. The Context for the Communication of the Word of God, 9:20-23

A. One of the very real passions for the people of God in every period is the passion to hear the voice of God. We want God to speak to us. We desire desperately to hear His voice. One of the very visceral evidences of being a true child of God is this deep hunger and thirst to hear from heaven. One of the great devices of the devil, however; is to get us to detour from the main road that must be travelled if we are to hear God’s voice.

B. We have already seen in the previous verses of this chapter that God spoke to Daniel through His Word while Daniel was seeking God in serious study and in earnest prayer. In our context, we would say that Daniel was seeking God on His knees as he read the Bible. This is how God spoke to Daniel. This is how God speaks to us. This is how God speaks to His people in every age. The study of the Bible is hard work. It takes devotion and discipline. This is why the deliberate investment of our lives in Bible Study is so very important. It compels us into the discipline of the dedicated and daily study of the Word of God. And this is how we hear the Word of God.

C. This serious study of the Word of God must be connected with prayer in the context of the public worship of God. God chose the time of the evening sacrifice as Daniel was among the worshipping community to come to him and to communicate truth to him. Daniel had been seeking God through the Word of God. He stayed with it and God spoke. He always does when we get serious about the study of His Word. God “made Daniel understand” (22) and He gave Daniel “insight and understanding.” He gave him the knowledge of the Word of God and the way that knowledge was to be applied to his life. He showed him the interpretation of the truth and helped him to make application of that interpretation to his own life.

II. The Communication of the Truth of God, 9:24-27

A. Three basic views of these verses have been offered and defended over the years:

1. The years are referring to the time that begins with the Babylonian exile and ends with the cleansing of the temple after its profanation by Antiochus IV or the time from 586 B.C. to 164 B.C.

2. The years are to be understood symbolically of three time periods that cover the time from the exile to Anitochus and then the time from Antiochus to the crucifixion of Jesus and then from the time of the crucifixion to the end.

3. The years are to be understood literally and speak of the time from the order to rebuild the city to the crucifixion of Jesus and then from that period to the very end.

Let’s look now very carefully and closely to the text and seek to hear what it says.

B. Daniel 9:24 [+/-] is critical to our understanding. Three issues stare us in the face here:

1. Most interpreters see the seventy weeks as “weeks of years” or 7 X 70 or 490 years. These can be read sequentially or they can be read as 1 + 62+ 7. Read this way the first week is the time of the exile (Jeremiah 25 [+/-] and 29 and Daniel 9:2 [+/-]); the 62 weeks are from the order to rebuild to the death of Jesus and the final seven years are the seven years of the Great Tribulation.

2. These seventy weeks are “decreed” and they have to do with the Jewish People and the city of Jerusalem. So whatever this is, its focus is on the Jews and city of Jerusalem. Thus, this prophetic word is very particular in its application. This is not a word that is connected to the Gentiles.

3. The purpose of the seventy weeks is six fold:

a. To finish the transgression which means to put an end to the power of sin over the lives of people; to deal with the abomination that is the avenue of destruction in the lives of people;

b. To put an end to sin which means to overcome the penalty of sin in the lives of people so that eternal death can be transformed into eternal life;

c. To atone for iniquity which means to cover the sin of sinners so that the sinner can be forgiven and set free from the power and the penalty of sin, even at last being set free from the presence of sin;

d. To bring in everlasting righteousness which means the establishment of an Edenic Kingdom in which all that is pure and true is practices perpetually forever;

e. To seal both the vision and the prophet means the complete fulfillment of the fullness of the vision of Daniel and other visions of the end, e.g.; the Book of Revelation

f. To anoint a most holy place which means the restoration of the Temple in the Holy City which will be the focal point for the worship of the people of God.

The first three took place when Jesus went to Calvary; the second three will happen only when Jesus returns to establish His eternal Kingdom upon the earth. Now it is right here that Covenantal theologians and Dispensationalists would depart. The former affirm a rapture of the church some time before the second coming while the latter affirm only the second coming where all that is inferred in the rapture happens concomitantly with the second coming.

C. Daniel 9:25 [+/-] gives us our starting point for dating these events. The starting point is the “going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one.” It seems that the most appropriate scenario here would be the captivity period that began in 587 B.C. and ended when Cyrus of Persia who is called “the anointed one” (Isa. 45:1 [+/-]) issues in 538 B.C. the edict that the people can return to their homeland. That is an exact period of 49 years.

D. The next period is the sixty two week period in which the city will be rebuilt and the time will be troubled and an anointed one will be cut off. It seems that this period begins with the command of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1 [+/-]) and ends precisely in A.D. 33 the year of the crucifixion of Jesus. This way of reckoning requires the use of the measures of the Jewish calendar or 360 days and the subtraction of “one” due to the transition from B.C. to A.D. Using the Roman calendar yields a date in the mid forties which is the position taken by John Macarthur who sees this time frame referring not just to the death and resurrection of Jesus but to the establishment of the age of the church as well.

E. The anointed one who is to be cut off seems to be a reference to Jesus. The prince who is to come seems to be a reference to the Antichrist whose minions are already present in the late first century (1 John). The time of the end is described in verse 26 and the work of the Antichrist in verse 27 with his final destruction decreed. What is found here finds its fulfillment finally in Revelation 19:11-21 [+/-].

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/960/feed 0 Daniel 9 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/931 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/931#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:05:21 +0000 David http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=931 Daniel 9 [+/-]
The interpretation of the Book of Daniel from an apocalyptic perspective depends almost entirely on the understanding of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9 [+/-]. Thus, at the outset of our study of this chapter we need to be clear about several very critical realities:
1. Although this chapter is as inerrant and as infallible as any other in the book, we must no more make our ability to hear the message of Daniel hinge on getting the seventy weeks right than we should make our understanding of the Book of Revelation hinge on our understanding of the millennium. The latter is just one small paragraph in a book of twenty-two chapters and the seventy weeks here is s small part of one of twelve chapters. So, let’s keep this issue in its proper perspective. There are those who are strong believers and good, solid Bible interpreters who see this passage limited to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and no later than A.D. 70 as well as equally gifted interpreters who see this text tied almost totally to the end of time.
2. This text has as much to teach us about the study of the Word of God and prayer as it does about the character of the seventy weeks. We will be greatly benefitted by what this chapter teaches us about prayer.
3. The two keys to understanding this chapter are the texts that Daniel studied to get the number of seventy years and the meaning of Daniel 7:24 [+/-]. We will begin our study of this chapter with these two issues.
I. Three Major Views of the Seventy Weeks
Daniel Nine is the key to prophetic interpretation and the backbone of prophesy, James Boice
I am going to present the three basic views of the seventy weeks of Daniel below. It is important, however, to remember that all the views emerge out of one of two understandings of the material in Daniel, and this same approach is applicable to Revelation. What determines the approach to the book is whether the weeks are seen as “symbolic” or “literalistic.” Symbolic interpretation does not require exactness in dating; literalistic interpretation does.
A. The first view is that the seventy weeks refers entirely to events surrounding he reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV from 175-164 B.C. This view is the most difficult to establish since marking 490 years from either 605 B.C. or 586 B.C. does not take us near the time of Antiochus. Even more difficult is fitting the key text of 9:24 into the framework of the period of Antiochus Epiphanes.
B. The second view takes the numbers symbolically and figuratively and does not tie them to any time frame at all. The arguments are rooted in the common use of number symbolism in apocalyptic literature so that 7 X 70 would be a perfectly complete period of time which would in effect be “kairos” and not “chromos” or time as it is useful in serving God’s purposes known only to Him which He works out in His own time. Most scholars, however, who take this view would suggest that it most likely refers to the time from the exile to the time of Christ with the “seventieth” week taking us through the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. By the way, one of the issues that this view raises that all interpreters of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation have to face is the issue of symbolism vs. literalism. We can know that a person is captured more by his or her theological system when he uses numbers symbolically and then literally depending on which way of seeing them assists the strengthening of his system. Yet, this way of using the numbers should cause us to stand away from any system that would interpret the numbers first one way and then another.
C. The third view holds that the seventy weeks refers to events around the time of Christ with the last set of seven referring to the end time. The issue for this view is two-fold. First, what is the starting date for the seventy years that culminate at the time of Christ and what date do we use for the point of culmination? If we use 538 B.C. when Cyrus gave the edict for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:23 [+/-], Ezra 1:2-4 [+/-]) this would yield a date of 48 B.C. which has no significance at all. Another possibility is the edict of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:12-26 [+/-]) in 458 B.C. which takes us to A.D. 33. This calculation also makes Dan. 9:24 [+/-] make sense. One other view is when Nehemiah was given letters from King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to begin the rebuilding of the walls of the cities of Jerusalem. This approach, of course, assumes that the numbers are to be understood literalistically and that the dates in the Bible that we construct by attaching them to certain events are exact.
I do need to mention here the view of John MacArthur which makes the most sense of this third view. MacArthur says that if we use the figure of 70 weeks and remember that Daniel was told that there would be seven weeks from the decree to restore Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one there would be seven weeks. If we take the decree f Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. and add 49 years to it, that takes us to 395 B.C. and then the Bible says that there would be 62 weeks from that point when the anointed one would be cut off or crucified. This would be 434 years with a year added for the transition year so that we are taken to A.D. 40 or to A.D. 33 and the crucifixion of Jesus plus seven years during which the Jewish and Gentile Mission of the church was clearly established.
II. Daniel 9:1-2 [+/-] and 24 as keys
A. Daniel 9:1-2 [+/-] is the first key. Daniel is studying the Book of Jeremiah and comes to a conclusion about the number of the years of captivity. It seems that Daniel would have been studying Jeremiah 25:1-13 [+/-] and 29:1-14. These texts ought to be carefully read and closely studied. Please pay close attention when reading Jeremiah 29 [+/-] as verse 11 is one of the most misapplied texts in the Bible. It was written as a promise of God to people who were under His judgment and the promise is to them only as they belong to Him. It is not at all about them and what they deserve after their pain; it is all about God and what He gives and does in spite of the pain.
B. Daniel 9:24 [+/-]. It is important to read verses 20-23 as the foundation for verse 24. We will study these verses as we move through the chapter but they focus for us the importance of this verse. And this verse would lead us to a more literal interpretation so that seventy weeks or years is decreed for the people of God and for the city of God. Now we have to be precise here in deciding whether the people of God or Jewish only or are they Jews and Gentile and is the city of God the real Jerusalem of the symbolic city of the saints of God, and we must not mix and match here. I believe that the word here is for the Jewish people and the city is the city of Jerusalem so that what follows if first and foundationally for them. And then when we read this text we see that there are six statements here with the first three very clearly focused on the first coming of Jesus and the second three very clearly focused on the second coming of Jesus.
1. The First Advent of Jesus is for:
a. Finishing the Transgression
b. Putting an end to sin
c. Atoning for iniquity
The focus for the first coming of Jesus is His cross; His sacrificial atoning death for sin. Now, if we go to a text like Luke and look at it from the perspective of what is being said here and in the context of the vocabulary that is used we see how the Bible is not only inherent but so very coherent. Look at Luke 2:10-11 [+/-]. The word for “people” in verse 10 is a word that in Luke always refers to the Jewish people. The shepherds were Jewish people and the good news is for them and for all Jewish people and the good news is that their Messiah has come and that their Messiah is Lord. Go then to the Book of Acts and see the struggle that the early church had taking the Gospel to the Gentiles and even watch Paul who was called to preach to the Gentiles but who always went first to the synagogue to his own people. The foundational focus of God in the coming of Jesus was the salvation of the Jewish people who were first called of God to be a light to the nations. This means that when Gentile believers are involved in outreach to Jewish people, we are involved in that which represents the very heart of God.
2. The Second Advent of Jesus is for:
a. Bringing in everlasting righteousness
b. To finish the vision of Daniel
c. To anoint the most Holy Place
Here again if this holy place is tied to the holy people then the focus must be the city of Jerusalem where the Temple will be rebuilt with a splendor unknown since the days of Herod and all the nations will flow toward Jerusalem for either ultimate salvation or ultimate condemnation. Read Zechariah 14:16-21 [+/-] for what is a prophetic understanding of the centrality of the city of Jerusalem and the reinstituted festival of booths or tabernacles that will be observed there in the last of the last days.
Now with this as a background and context we turn our attention to the three movements of Daniel Nine. We will look first at the focus of his study (9:1-2), then the faithfulness of his prayer, (9:3-19) and finally at the fulfillment of His prophesy (9:20-27).

The interpretation of the Book of Daniel from an apocalyptic perspective depends almost entirely on the understanding of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9 [+/-]. Thus, at the outset of our study of this chapter we need to be clear about several very critical realities:

1. Although this chapter is as inerrant and as infallible as any other in the book, we must no more make our ability to hear the message of Daniel hinge on getting the seventy weeks right than we should make our understanding of the Book of Revelation hinge on our understanding of the millennium. The latter is just one small paragraph in a book of twenty-two chapters and the seventy weeks here is s small part of one of twelve chapters. So, let’s keep this issue in its proper perspective. There are those who are strong believers and good, solid Bible interpreters who see this passage limited to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and no later than A.D. 70 as well as equally gifted interpreters who see this text tied almost totally to the end of time.

2. This text has as much to teach us about the study of the Word of God and prayer as it does about the character of the seventy weeks. We will be greatly benefitted by what this chapter teaches us about prayer.

3. The two keys to understanding this chapter are the texts that Daniel studied to get the number of seventy years and the meaning of Daniel 7:24 [+/-]. We will begin our study of this chapter with these two issues.

I. Three Major Views of the Seventy Weeks

Daniel Nine is the key to prophetic interpretation and the backbone of prophesy, James Boice

I am going to present the three basic views of the seventy weeks of Daniel below. It is important, however, to remember that all the views emerge out of one of two understandings of the material in Daniel, and this same approach is applicable to Revelation. What determines the approach to the book is whether the weeks are seen as “symbolic” or “literalistic.” Symbolic interpretation does not require exactness in dating; literalistic interpretation does.

A. The first view is that the seventy weeks refers entirely to events surrounding he reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV from 175-164 B.C. This view is the most difficult to establish since marking 490 years from either 605 B.C. or 586 B.C. does not take us near the time of Antiochus. Even more difficult is fitting the key text of 9:24 into the framework of the period of Antiochus Epiphanes.

B. The second view takes the numbers symbolically and figuratively and does not tie them to any time frame at all. The arguments are rooted in the common use of number symbolism in apocalyptic literature so that 7 X 70 would be a perfectly complete period of time which would in effect be “kairos” and not “chromos” or time as it is useful in serving God’s purposes known only to Him which He works out in His own time. Most scholars, however, who take this view would suggest that it most likely refers to the time from the exile to the time of Christ with the “seventieth” week taking us through the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. By the way, one of the issues that this view raises that all interpreters of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation have to face is the issue of symbolism vs. literalism. We can know that a person is captured more by his or her theological system when he uses numbers symbolically and then literally depending on which way of seeing them assists the strengthening of his system. Yet, this way of using the numbers should cause us to stand away from any system that would interpret the numbers first one way and then another.

C. The third view holds that the seventy weeks refers to events around the time of Christ with the last set of seven referring to the end time. The issue for this view is two-fold. First, what is the starting date for the seventy years that culminate at the time of Christ and what date do we use for the point of culmination? If we use 538 B.C. when Cyrus gave the edict for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:23 [+/-], Ezra 1:2-4 [+/-]) this would yield a date of 48 B.C. which has no significance at all. Another possibility is the edict of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:12-26 [+/-]) in 458 B.C. which takes us to A.D. 33. This calculation also makes Dan. 9:24 [+/-] make sense. One other view is when Nehemiah was given letters from King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to begin the rebuilding of the walls of the cities of Jerusalem. This approach, of course, assumes that the numbers are to be understood literalistically and that the dates in the Bible that we construct by attaching them to certain events are exact.

I do need to mention here the view of John MacArthur which makes the most sense of this third view. MacArthur says that if we use the figure of 70 weeks and remember that Daniel was told that there would be seven weeks from the decree to restore Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one there would be seven weeks. If we take the decree f Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. and add 49 years to it, that takes us to 395 B.C. and then the Bible says that there would be 62 weeks from that point when the anointed one would be cut off or crucified. This would be 434 years with a year added for the transition year so that we are taken to A.D. 40 or to A.D. 33 and the crucifixion of Jesus plus seven years during which the Jewish and Gentile Mission of the church was clearly established.

II. Daniel 9:1-2 [+/-] and 24 as keys

A. Daniel 9:1-2 [+/-] is the first key. Daniel is studying the Book of Jeremiah and comes to a conclusion about the number of the years of captivity. It seems that Daniel would have been studying Jeremiah 25:1-13 [+/-] and 29:1-14. These texts ought to be carefully read and closely studied. Please pay close attention when reading Jeremiah 29 [+/-] as verse 11 is one of the most misapplied texts in the Bible. It was written as a promise of God to people who were under His judgment and the promise is to them only as they belong to Him. It is not at all about them and what they deserve after their pain; it is all about God and what He gives and does in spite of the pain.

B. Daniel 9:24 [+/-]. It is important to read verses 20-23 as the foundation for verse 24. We will study these verses as we move through the chapter but they focus for us the importance of this verse. And this verse would lead us to a more literal interpretation so that seventy weeks or years is decreed for the people of God and for the city of God. Now we have to be precise here in deciding whether the people of God or Jewish only or are they Jews and Gentile and is the city of God the real Jerusalem of the symbolic city of the saints of God, and we must not mix and match here. I believe that the word here is for the Jewish people and the city is the city of Jerusalem so that what follows if first and foundationally for them. And then when we read this text we see that there are six statements here with the first three very clearly focused on the first coming of Jesus and the second three very clearly focused on the second coming of Jesus.

1. The First Advent of Jesus is for:

a. Finishing the Transgression

b. Putting an end to sin

c. Atoning for iniquity

The focus for the first coming of Jesus is His cross; His sacrificial atoning death for sin. Now, if we go to a text like Luke and look at it from the perspective of what is being said here and in the context of the vocabulary that is used we see how the Bible is not only inherent but so very coherent. Look at Luke 2:10-11 [+/-]. The word for “people” in verse 10 is a word that in Luke always refers to the Jewish people. The shepherds were Jewish people and the good news is for them and for all Jewish people and the good news is that their Messiah has come and that their Messiah is Lord. Go then to the Book of Acts and see the struggle that the early church had taking the Gospel to the Gentiles and even watch Paul who was called to preach to the Gentiles but who always went first to the synagogue to his own people. The foundational focus of God in the coming of Jesus was the salvation of the Jewish people who were first called of God to be a light to the nations. This means that when Gentile believers are involved in outreach to Jewish people, we are involved in that which represents the very heart of God.

2. The Second Advent of Jesus is for:

a. Bringing in everlasting righteousness

b. To finish the vision of Daniel

c. To anoint the most Holy Place

Here again if this holy place is tied to the holy people then the focus must be the city of Jerusalem where the Temple will be rebuilt with a splendor unknown since the days of Herod and all the nations will flow toward Jerusalem for either ultimate salvation or ultimate condemnation. Read Zechariah 14:16-21 [+/-] for what is a prophetic understanding of the centrality of the city of Jerusalem and the reinstituted festival of booths or tabernacles that will be observed there in the last of the last days.

Now with this as a background and context we turn our attention to the three movements of Daniel Nine. We will look first at the focus of his study (9:1-2), then the faithfulness of his prayer, (9:3-19) and finally at the fulfillment of His prophesy (9:20-27).

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/931/feed 0 Daniel 8 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/898 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/898#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:53:54 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=898 INTRODUCTION: The Book of Daniel shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic in 2:4-7:28 and here shifts back to Hebrew. The most likely explanation for this shift is that the use of Aramaic would enable many Gentiles to hear and to read the message so that the portion in Aramaic would be for the Gentile audience. Now with the opening of Daniel 8 [+/-], the attention turns back to the Jewish people.

This chapter is a straightforward declaration of a vision and its interpretation.

I. The Vision 8:1-14

A. The general contours of this chapter are relatively easy to discern; the details present the difficulty but at the same time take us into the deeper dimensions of the text. This text is a simple restatement of the visions that we have already seen that are related to the four emerging empires. What is clear is that they all come and go for a short period of time serving the purposes of the sovereign God without any awareness that they are controlled by God’s hand. This is the general picture. Now, let’s look at the details.

B. Daniel was in Susa when he saw the vision (8:2). Susa was the chief city of the Medo-Persian Empire. It was located about 250 miles east of Babylon. Daniel sees a ram with two horns, both of them tall but one was taller than the other (8:3). This is a clear reference to the Medo-Persian empire with the Persian Kingdom more powerful and pervasive than the kingdom of the Medes. Verse 4 shows the power and penetration of this kingdom.

C. Daniel sees then a goat that goes across the whole earth so very rapidly that it does not touch the earth, cf. the leopard, 7:6. The horn between the goat’s eyes is a symbol of significant power that then attacks and overcomes the Ram which is pointing the empire of Greece under the leadership of Alexander. This goat overcomes the ram but then the horn is broken off (8:8) with four horns toward the four winds of the earth which shows us the sudden death of Alexander and the assignment of his kingdom to four generals, the two most famous being Seleucus and Ptolemy.

D. The little horn that comes out of these four horns is the well known ruler of the Seleucids Antiochus IV. We need to know a little about him and his kingship. He was the eighth kind of the Seleucid dynasty whose intent was to “Hellenize” the kingdom so as to eliminate all other cultural customs. Second, Antiochus hated the Jews and their religious system. He sought to eliminate it at every place and in every way. Third, he saw himself as a “god” whose role was to do the work of the “gods” upon the earth. He called himself “Epiphanes” or an “epiphany” of the supreme gods of Greece. He demanded honor and obedience and desired to be worshiped. He was an agent of the devil, 8:10. He forbade the Jews to have copies of the Torah and ended the sacrificial system among the Jews, 8:11. He stopped the practice of circumcision among the Jews and called for its reversal among the adult males. Antiochus ruled from 171 B.C. until the Temple was restored and right worship reinstituted on December 14, 164 B.C. There are three very important realities that need to be in place at this point:

1. God tells Daniel that this wicked ruler will be in charge for 2,300 evenings. Now here is what is interesting: if we take the number as whole days and divide by the number of days in a year we come up with just over six years BUT if we count according to Jewish reckoning a day as morning and evening then we must half the whole number and then we come up with just over three years. Either way it reveals a historical reality. The time from the beginning of reign of Antiochus IV to the restoration of the Temple was just over six years; the time from the “abomination of desolation” to the restoration was just over three years.

2. The abomination of desolation came among the Jews to refer to that time when Antiochus came to Jerusalem with his armed forces, stormed into the Temple through all of its courts and offered a pig upon the altar. It desecrated the altar and the Temple and was called the abomination of desolation, cf. Mk. 13:14 [+/-]. Thus, the reign and rule of Antiochus became for the Jews and for Jesus the “type” of the coming Antichrist.

3. It was the rule of Antiochus that triggered the revolt from a Jewish family in Modin led by a father and his sons the most remembered of which is Judas Maccabeas who led to the eradication of the forces of Antiochus and the reestablishment of the practice of Jewish religion in Jerusalem. This restoration is celebrated every December in the feast of Hannukah. The center of this celebration is festive food and fun parties in homes where candles are kept illumined in the windows during the night. It also includes the exchange of gifts.

II. The Interpretation of the Vision 8:15-27

A. God sends Gabriel to interpret the vision for Daniel. This is the first mention by name of an angel in the Bible and look at how Gabriel is described: he has the appearance of a man and speaks with a human voice. He comes to Daniel in human form and his role is to help Daniel see the meaning of what he has just bee shown. What Gabriel wants Daniel to know that is of first importance is that what he has been shown has to do with the end.

B. To this point we know that there will emerge in the end a kingdom that is much like the ancient Roman Empire in its power and pervasiveness and that Kingdom will be tied to a religious system over which the Antichrist will rule. Now, we are about to learn about this one in the end who will be much like Antiochus Epiphanes IV.

C. Gabriel makes clear at the first what we have already seen about the two kingdoms, 8: 18-22. Then he turns his attention to this one who will come whose model is Antiochus; what will he be like?

1. First, he will be one who understands riddles. He will be like a Solomon in the exercise of his wisdom. He will be able to bring a resolution to very difficult dilemmas. He will be brilliant intellectually and very wise relationally. He will express knowledge exercised by wisdom.

2. Second, he will be very powerful. He will bring destruction to enemies because of his great power. He will be successful in what he does and his power that is used to destroy enemies will be turned against the saints. By the time he makes the Christians or followers of Jesus his enemies, he will have gained such influence that the world will go after him against the believers.

3. He will be able to do what he does against those who belong to God because he will be so deceitful. We do not know exactly what the scenario would be but remember that when the Roman rulers asked the early Christians to say, “Caesar is Lord,” that many so-called Christians who did just that were in distress over the Christians who would not do it because their not saying “Caesar is Lord” caused confusion and chaos for the rest of the church. In other words, compromised commitment became the standard because it brought the monetary and material blessings of those in power and the argument was that God wanted to bless His people so that those who refused to once a year say “Caesar is Lord” were just radical fanatics who didn’t love their country in the first place!

D. The angel tells Daniel two things in the end and then notice what Daniel does in response. The angel tells Daniel that God is going to destroy the Antichrist in a flash and that Daniel is to seal up the vision because its time is not yet come. This vision is opened up for us in a much more clear way in the Book of Revelation. Notice what Daniel does:

1. Daniel was sickened by the vision. Can you imagine one who had been through what Daniel had been through being shown that some would one day compromise their commitment so as to blend into the culture while still calling themselves committed people of God?

2. Daniel was appalled by the vision. It was not that he could not understand the coming judgment of God. It was that he could not understand why anybody for any reason would be deterred in their devotion to God by difficulty or danger.

3. Daniel got up and went about the king’s business. That sentence is so sacred because it speaks to the business of the pagan king being done in the context of commitment to the plan and purpose of the sovereign King. It reminds us who live in these days that trying to figure out all the events of the end can be a real waste of both time and energy if it deters us from doing the work that King Jesus has saved us and sent us to do.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/898/feed 0 Daniel 7 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/897 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/897#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:51:54 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=897 INTRODUCTION:  We shift from historical to “trans-historical” narrative with the opening of chapter seven.  We are moving from a context in history that we can carefully explore to a context beyond history that we can trust because everything that Daniel will teach us about what is to be is rooted in what has been and is confirmed by the Book of Revelation which means that a document that was written in the seventh century B.C. and a document written in A.D. 95 by different writers in different times are carefully connected in what they communicate about the future.

Chapter six ends with an announcement from a pagan King about the power of the sovereign God of Daniel. This king makes clear that the God of Daniel rules the world and the kingdoms of the world are to bow to the sovereignty of this God. The ending of Daniel six is paralleled in the Book of Revelation by Revelation 4-5 [+/-] where God is established as the Sovereign ruler of the universe who rules His world through and for the glory of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. The Structure of Daniel 7 [+/-]

A. Daniel is given a vision from God about what is to be, 7:1-8

B. The centerpiece of this vision is the throne room of God where we meet for the first time this figure known as the Son of Man through whom and for whom God rules His world; it is very clear that this Son of Man is the Lord Jesus so what we have at the center of Daniel 7 [+/-] is what is in reality the heart of the rest of the book: the kingdoms of this world will be raised up to exert power and prominence at various times and in various ways but all will bow at last before the Lord God Almighty as His Kingdom is established as the everlasting and enduring Kingdom, 7:9-14

C. The vision that Daniel is given is explained to him, 7:15-28. God takes Daniel from in the explanation of the vision from the sixth century B.C. to the very end of the age. The key, however, is that no matter how long the world last and no matter how many powers come and go, none will be able to overthrow or to impede the arrival and establishment of the Kingdom of God.

II. The Vision that is given to Daniel, 7:1-8

A. This vision must be connected with the vision of the statue given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 [+/-]. The kingdoms that are represented in the statue are represented here. The first year of Behshazzar takes us back to 553 B.C.

B. The vision is born out of a storm upon the earth that creates chaos so that all the beasts that are seen by Daniel emerge out of the sea. The sea was in the ancient world that which represented uncontrollable chaos. It was the deep dominion of darkness out of which came the forces that would seek to dominate the world, cf. Rev. 21:1 [+/-].

C. The first beast was like a lion with eagle’s wings that are clipped and the lion then has two feet and has the mind of a man, 4. Daniel is told that the four beasts represent four kingdoms and the fourth kingdom is the most terrifying of all the kingdoms, 17. The image of the lion is equivalent to the head of gold that is seen in the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar. We know that images of lions guarded the gates of royal palaces in Babylon so that the image of the lion refers to Babylon that is the kingdom in power during the time that Daniel is writing.

D. The second beast is like a bear and this bear has three ribs in its mouth and is commanded to devour much flesh, 5-6. This parallels to the chest and arms of silver in the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar and is thus a reference to the kingdom of the Medes and Persians led by Darius and Cyrus. We do know historically that Cyrus and his son Cambyses conquered at the cost of much life three other kingdoms during their reigns: Cyrus conquered the Lydian Kingdom in Asia Minor in 546 B.C. and the Chaldean empire fell to him in 539 B.C. and the kingdom of Egypt was conquered by Cambyses in 525 B.C.

E. The third kingdom is portrayed as a leopard with four wings on its back and four heads with dominion given to it. This parallels to the middle and thighs of the statue which was bronze and is an obvious reference to the exploits of Alexander the Great whose exploits extended throughout the then known world and were as swift as birds that fly and was as dominating as could be possible due to the extent of the influence of both Greek language and lifestyle. The number four is the number for the world but it also has significance in that Alexander’s empire was in the end divided into four areas with the region of Greece and Macedonia being ruled by Antipater, Thrace and Asia Minor were ruled by Lysimachus, Asia except for Asia Minor and Palestine by Seleucus and Egypt and Palestine by Ptolemy. This division of the empire set the stage for the next beast that would establish the contours and context for our understanding of the end.

F. The fourth beast was so terrifying and so strong that it could not be equated with either human or animal. Even Daniel in chapter two has a hard time explaining this fourth kingdom. It has legs and feet of both iron and clay, and it has ten toes on its feet just as this beast has iron teeth and ten horns. Now we know that this last beast historically is Rome and the Roman Empire. The empire fell apart in A.D. 476 but before it did it had established by God’s eternal design a definite picture of what the ruling kingdom(s) in the end will be and how allegiance to that kingdom will be established: Rome ruled the world through the establishment of a religious system through the church of Rome to bring people into conformity with the state through rigid and rigorous participation in the rituals of the church.

1. Rome was large geographically, strong economically, aggressive militarily, and exalted itself as a divine state or one that was both brought into being by God and thus blessed of God to extend its influence to the ends of the earth.

2. Rome established a church that was controlled by the state so that the rituals of the church produced responsive and responsible citizens in the state. The rituals of the church controlled grace and guilt.

Although the empire collapsed the church did not! And the empire itself was not eviscerated nor did it evaporate but went underground to emerge all over Europe and then into Americas and into Africa. The vestiges of the ancient empire are everywhere and they are held together by the teachings of the church that are controlled by and from the Vatican.

G. The “little horn” seems to be here the very first biblical reference to the Anti-Christ who is portrayed as very powerful and very prominent. He is pictured as a man who is almost God, cf. Rev. 13 [+/-].

III. The Center of the Vision 7:9-14

A. Daniel is given a vision of God seated on His throne that is to be paralleled with Revelation 4 [+/-].

1. The focus on the thrones is on the reality that they are passively placed. Could this be a part of the work of the angels as they give attention to the throne of God?

2. God is called the “Ancient of Days.” This title is used only in this chapter of the Bible and is a reference to God as Judge. This is a clear indication that the scene has shifted toward the time of the end.

3. The colors and images here paint a picture of purity in judgment. Fire is all about the judgment of God and the color white portrays the Judge as perfect in purity. The opening of verse 10 indicates not only that judgment is with God but also that judgment goes out from God.

4. Two groups of people are mentioned in verse 10: those who served Him which is the smallest number and those who stood before Him to be judged which is the larger number. The books represent the books of the deeds done by humans upon the earth. Remember that the Bible can be seen as a Book of Covenants with all of the Covenants clearly communicate in two kinds of covenants: The covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Those who do not respond to the grace of God in Jesus and thus do the works that God gives them to do will be judged before God by the works they have done which does not determine their entry into heaven but the degree of punishment in hell.

B. Verses 11-12 are to be paralleled with Revelation 18-20 [+/-] that show us the destruction of the AntiChrist and the defeat of Satan who are thrown forever into the lake which burns with fire. Please make sure as you are reading this text that you pay attention to the interlocking circles. For example, this chapter begins with the vision and ends with the vision and in the middle is the message that gives us the meaning of the vision: God is in control and has won the battle through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have in verses 9-10 a clear picture of God sitting in judgment followed in verses 13-14 by a very clear picture of Jesus and in the middle we have this plain proclamation about the defeat of evil. Do you see the picture and do you hear the message? God has defeated the enemy through His Son and only through His Son.

C. Verse 13 is to be paired with Revelation 5 [+/-]. Jesus is here the Son of Man. We will look at the meaning of this title for Jesus in just a few moments but recognize here that it is the most frequently used title by Jesus in speaking of Himself. It refers to his humanity and his deity and it declares him in the language of the Gentiles to be the ruling king and judge of the universe. The Gentiles would have been very familiar with this title and knew that it was a title of royalty and majesty.

D. God gives the Son of Man three realities all of which are for two purposes:

1. Dominion or authority that is absolute; He does as He desires because what He does is in keeping with the perfect will of the Sovereign God;
2. Glory or the display of the presence and power of God upon the earth. We see the fullness of God in the face of the Son of Man.
3. Kingdom or a place in which and through which He rules for the glory of God that is manifest partially in the church that is called to display the glory of God in the earth. We can be in the world and see the display of God’s glory in creation but we will never get to God except through the revelation of Himself in the fullness of His glory which He has chosen to demonstrate and display through His people.

The purpose of the coming of the Son of Man in authority, glory, and particularity is that first He might rule over all the world bringing it at last in subjection to Himself and second that He might display the greatness of God upon the earth which will be seen by all in the world and acknowledged by all in the world but unto eternal salvation for only a few.

E. The Title “Son of Man” carries the following content: (Boice)

1. Jesus uses this title to teach us about His preexistence, John 3:13 [+/-] and 6:62

2. Jesus uses this title to teach us about the necessity of His suffering, John 3:14-15 [+/-]
3. Jesus uses this term to teach that a person must be joined to Him in order to be saved, John 6:53-54 [+/-]

4. Jesus uses this title to teach us about the final judgment, John 5:25-27 [+/-]

Just as the Jewish understanding of “Messiah” was different from the way that Jesus saw it and shaped it so was the understanding of the “Son of Man.” The term referred to a royal and regal Man who would rule with an iron fist and enforce His way but as Eugene Peterson writes, “this Son of Man has dinner with a prostitute, stops off for lunch with a tax collector, wastes time blessing children when there were Roman legions to be chased from the land, heals unimportant losers and ignores high-achieving Pharisees and influential Sadducees.”

IV. An Interlude 7:15-18

A. These verses represent a breather of sort. What we have been shown until now is breathtaking and overwhelming. We are shown that all the great kingdoms of the earth are nothing in the site of God. He raises them up for His purpose and them brings them down. He does this with all Geo-Political Entities. He is not the God of any one nation but the God over all the earth. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom that is at work now through His Son and by His Spirit expressed in and through His Church among every tribe, tongue people and nation. His Kingdom will come one day in all of its fullness and those who have surrendered to His Sovereignty living out their lives under the Lordship of Jesus will rule and reign with Him forever. How do we respond to such information? How did Daniel respond?

B. His spirit was anxious and the visions alarmed him and he wanted an answer, 15-16. And he got the answer that he was seeking: The four beasts are representative of four kingdoms that become paradigms for all earthly kingdoms and now will last. All are humpty-dumpties and all will come crashing down.

C. Daniel knew enough to know, however, that there was something different about the fourth kingdom and he inquired about it. The answer that he receives shows us not only what Rome was like but what the primary pagan nation(s) will be like in the end. This material is critical.

V. The Fourth Beast 7:19-28

A. What does Daniel see about this Beast that causes him to distinguish it from the others?

1. This beast is different, 19
2. This beast is terrifying, 19
3. This beast is all consuming and all controlling and does both with power, 19
4. This beast is mysterious, 20
5. This beast hates God and His people, 21
6. This beast provokes the judgment of God in its final form, 22
7. This beast is used of God to bring the world to its end and to issue in the fullness of the Kingdom of God upon the earth, 22

B. The Characteristics of this last kingdom:

1. The number “four” is symbolic of the world so that this kingdom is a kingdom that will seek to rule over all the world, 23.

2. It will be a kingdom with great military might and populace enough to have the people to accomplish its mission, 23.

3. The Antichrist will emerge out of this kingdom. He will be a great ruler that according to the Book of Revelation will be a peace talker and peace maker. He will arise in a time of difficulty and provide the way out of the difficulties.

4. He will attack the name and character of God, He will assault those who carry that name and he will change the character of the times by changing what is the law and there will be a period of 3.5 years when he will rule with unrestrained aggression on the people of God. Please note that even in our culture the values of moral relativism, religious pluralism and tolerance have emerged as the values by which we measure what is to be valued even in casual conversations. Let me give you three examples using each of the above in terms of how times have changed just in our culture. There was a time in our culture that if a woman on a television or movie screen showed part of her breasts that we were offended at the loose moral expression; are we now? And if we talk about it we are perceived to be ___________________? There was a time when conservative evangelicals knew that the Roman Catholic Church was basically heretical in its teaching but what about now? And there was a time when we could name sins for what they are but now we have adopted the disease model for almost everything that we used to call sin. And what is most horrible about all of this is that nobody seems to be bothered and those who are bothered enough to say something are scathed as fanatics!

C. What God will do in response to this Kingdom:

1. God will come in judgment and take away this kingdom and the one who rules over it will be destroyed;

2. God will establish His Kingdom and give it to His people who will rule and reign with Him forever upon the new heaven and the new earth.

3. Daniel says that this is the “end of the matter” or that this is the way that is going to be.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/897/feed 0 Daniel 6 (part 2) http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/875 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/875#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:25:58 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=875 Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
I. The Identity of Darius, 5:30 and 6:1-2

A. A lot of ambiguity surrounds the exact identity of this king. Most have believed and still do that Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian are the same person. The Babylonian empire gave way to the Medo-Persian empire and it was not uncommon for people to have differing names based upon the culture in which they were involved, e.g. the Hebrew and Babylonian names for Daniel. Thus, it is most likely that Darius and Cyrus are the same person.

B. Far more important than the historical and personal identity of this ruler is the spiritual identity. What we see in Darius is what we see in any person of power who admires the Lord God Almighty but it is not fully faithful to Him. What we see in Darius is insecurity, plurality and greed. Look at how these three manifest themselves in his life and rule.

1. What first looks like very carefully connected and closely scrutinized organization is in fact an attempt to make sure that Darius has no leaks in His Kingdom and is thus secure as the king. He sets over his kingdom 120 Satraps and Three presidents. The three presidents supervise the satraps. The former answer to the King who in turn directs them in their direction of the Satraps. The issue here is not organizational efficiency nor is it leadership principles, but the paranoia of the man in power. Look at Isaiah 45 [+/-] and see what Darius does not compute in the composition of his leadership team!

2. He includes Daniel because Daniel was popular among some. He is remembered for his dream interpretations and his powerful wisdom as a leader. His appointment can appease the religious folks and show Darius to have some sympathy for things religious.

3. The phrase in verse 2, “so that the king may suffer no loss” has to do with income. The king was already wealthy beyond any in his kingdom but he wanted to be sure that he got every drachma that was coming to him. He did not want to miss one cent from the coffers that were his.

II. The Integrity of Daniel, 6:3 and 10

A. Verses 3 and 10 must be connected. Verse 3 is the result of verse 10. What Daniel is doing there is the reason for his success as a president in the Kingdom. So, let’s look first at the prayer life for Daniel for this is the key for the way he conducted himself as a president.

B. Daniel prayed as a part of the essence of his life:

1. Prayer was a PRIORITY for Daniel. He prayed to God after he knew that the king had signed a document forbidding such prayer even though the time frame for prayer being forbidden was just thirty days. How does Daniel’s refusing to obey the king in this edict have an impact on our understanding of good citizenship? Doesn’t it teach us that we live in two worlds or cities and one must always take precedent over the other?

2. Daniel prayed with a PROPER PERSPECTIVE. He opened the windows of his room toward Jerusalem. There was no practice such as this that was common among the Jews. He did that because this city was the city of God and He wanted to make sure that He was not talking to himself as he prayed but that he was focused on God and His will and way for His life. Nothing at all here about him being delivered from the den of lions!

3. Daniel prayed with a PROPER POSTURE. The point here is not that getting on our knees is the only way to pray. The point is that it is this posture that proclaims our complete dependence of God and our complete devotion to God. He is our King and we bow our hearts before Him and before Him alone.

4. Daniel prayed with PERSISTENCE. Again, there was no rule for the Jews to pray three times a day but the times of day that he was praying marked the entirety of the day. He prayed in the early morning before beginning his day. He prayed at the midday rest period having already faced the problems and pressures of the day and he prayed in the evening as he rested during the night.

5. Daniel prayed in order to give PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO GOD. The last line of verse ten sets before us the primary purpose of his praying in this as in every other season of prayer. The purpose of his praying was to give praise to God. The word “previously” at the end of verse 10 describes this purpose in his praying as the common and consistent purpose in his life of prayer. This is why he prayed and this is how he prayed.

It is upon this foundation alone that we can discover the discipline that determined both the devotion of his heart and the direction of his life as we see it set before us in verse 3. The “excellent” spirit that is in him is described elsewhere as a “spirit of wisdom and understanding” and is simply the outcome externally of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in this man.

Two truths are interesting to note as we begin to turn our attention to Daniel’s opponents: first, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people is found more frequently to be the case near the end of the Old Testament period as we come to the time of preparation for the coming of John the Baptist and then the coming of Jesus. Second, Daniel’s life of faithful witness for God and His glory provoked jealousy from the other leaders. They wanted to have the kind of influence that he had without living the kind of life that he lived. Could that kind of thing happen in a church?

III. The Industrious Intrigue of the Opposition, 6:4-9, 11-15

A. The plot and plan of the men is placed right in the middle to the words of affirmation about Daniel. This is more than a literary twist in the narrative. It carries weighty theological import. We must look closely at who these men are and listen carefully to what they say, and we dare not distance ourselves too far from them. We are much more like them than we are different from them.

B. These men were seeking to find fault with Daniel in the matters of his work for the king, and they could find nothing. Daniel’s devotion to his God was manifest in the manner in which he did his work. He worked with such industry, integrity, and efficiency that they could find no fault in what he did. So they turned their attention to his theology. They could not get him in the arena of how he behaved so they turned their attention to what he believed. What are they assuming here about him in terms of the connection between his belief and his behavior?

C. They approach the king to draft a document that for thirty days no one in the kingdom give honor or allegiance to any other entity but the king. And they asked him to establish this law as the fixed law of the Medes and Persians. This was a common phrase that carried the connotation of something that was so fixed that it could not be changed or altered in any way. The goal for these men was to capture Daniel in compromise; the goal for the king was to consolidate his power over his kingdom. So, he drafted the law and fixed it as the law of the Medes and Persians that for thirty days no prayers be offered except to him as the king.

D. Verse 11 is interesting. These men went to great length to catch Daniel so as to lodge a complaint against him to the king. They saw him as the source of their frustration and his elimination as the source of their satisfaction. What they did not know was that they could not eliminate him and that he was not the source of their frustration. The source of their frustration was their sin that blinded them to the reality that their frustration was produced by their absence of faithfulness to the God to whom Daniel was faithful and their frustration would consummate in their extermination. While they are celebrating, the lions are preparing themselves for a feast that is coming to them!

IV. The Intervention of God in a den of Lions, 6:16-24

A. The king had to do what he had declared would be done or he would revoke his right as king. Do not miss that although Darius was concerned about Daniel, he was not concerned enough to risk either his legacy or his life by revoking the law that he had written. He was willing to let Daniel die rather than to face death himself. We can only guess here but that could be in part because he trusted Daniel’s relationship with his God more than he trusted his relationship to the God of Daniel. So, he threw him into the den of lions.

B. Darius sends up a prayer and seals the opening to the den of lions. The similarities between the sealing of the den of lions and the sealing of the death chamber of Jesus must not be missed. And what must not be missed most of all is the reason for the sealing: even the pagans knew something of the power of the God of Daniel (Jesus) that He had the power to break either out of the den of death, 16-17. Daniel went into the den to enjoy a night of rest while Darius went home to enjoy a night of restlessness. Daniel was at peace in the Lion’s Den while Darius was perturbed and could not sleep while being housed in a security laden and safety conscious palace. It is not external circumstances in life that ever bring us peace. It is the presence and power of God within us. I met a man recently that had invested most of his adult life in saving money to build a dream home that when built he did not want to be in because of tragedy that invaded his life. I listened to the story and felt the enormous pain of this fellow believer but thought again as I listened how it is often that we look for safety and security in all the wrong things.

C. Darius came to the den the next day and called out to Daniel in the sure knowledge that if Daniel was safe it was only because of what God had done. And Daniel gave praise to God while honoring the king. Both are a testimony to the truth of this man’s character. Daniel knew what had happened: God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions. And to prove that this is true, God orchestrates it so that when Daniel in brought out of the den of lions, the detractors who delivered Daniel over are thrown in with their wives and children and all are immediately attacked and destroyed by the lions. Even the lions are controlled by the sovereign purpose of God. And for any who read this text and think this is too harsh, then think again about the horrible nature of sin and what it does to a holy God who chose in order to save some to send His Son to the cross and allow done to Him far worse than these lions did to these people. What they got is not as bad as what they deserved just as what we should get is only what we deserve and it is only when we see and savor this truth that we understand anything at all about the glorious good news that comes to us through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

V. The Intensity and Intentionality of the Declaration of Praise, 6:25-28

A. Darius declares the God of Daniel to be the God over all the earth. He exalts and exults in this God. He gives Him the praise that he deserves and desires and speaks to us seven truths about his God. Now remember that these are the last things that are said in the section of Daniel that are in the historical context of that time. And they are words about who God is and what God does:

1. He is the Living God;
2. He is the God who endures forever;
3. His Kingdom is an invincible Kingdom;
4. His Dominion is and eternal dominion;
5. He is the Redeemer
6. He does signs and wonders
7. He is the One who rescues from evil.

Darius declares that the God of Daniel is the God who is, the God who rules, the God who redeems and the God who reveals.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/875/feed 0 Daniel 6 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/873 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/873#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:11:40 +0000 David http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/?p=873 Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
I. The Identity of Darius, 5:30 and 6:1-2

A. A lot of ambiguity surrounds the exact identity of this king. Most have believed and still do that Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian are the same person. The Babylonian empire gave way to the Medo-Persian empire and it was not uncommon for people to have differing names based upon the culture in which they were involved, e.g. the Hebrew and Babylonian names for Daniel. Thus, it is most likely that Darius and Cyrus are the same person.

B. Far more important than the historical and personal identity of this ruler is the spiritual identity. What we see in Darius is what we see in any person of power who admires the Lord God Almighty but it is not fully faithful to Him. What we see in Darius is insecurity, plurality and greed. Look at how these three manifest themselves in his life and rule.

1. What first looks like very carefully connected and closely scrutinized organization is in fact an attempt to make sure that Darius has no leaks in His Kingdom and is thus secure as the king. He sets over his kingdom 120 Satraps and Three presidents. The three presidents supervise the satraps. The former answer to the King who in turn directs them in their direction of the Satraps. The issue here is not organizational efficiency nor is it leadership principles, but the paranoia of the man in power. Look at Isaiah 45 [+/-] and see what Darius does not compute in the composition of his leadership team!

2. He includes Daniel because Daniel was popular among some. He is remembered for his dream interpretations and his powerful wisdom as a leader. His appointment can appease the religious folks and show Darius to have some sympathy for things religious.

3. The phrase in verse 2, “so that the king may suffer no loss” has to do with income. The king was already wealthy beyond any in his kingdom but he wanted to be sure that he got every drachma that was coming to him. He did not want to miss one cent from the coffers that were his.

II. The Integrity of Daniel, 6:3 and 10

A. Verses 3 and 10 must be connected. Verse 3 is the result of verse 10. What Daniel is doing there is the reason for his success as a president in the Kingdom. So, let’s look first at the prayer life for Daniel for this is the key for the way he conducted himself as a president.

B. Daniel prayed as a part of the essence of his life:

1. Prayer was a PRIORITY for Daniel. He prayed to God after he knew that the king had signed a document forbidding such prayer even though the time frame for prayer being forbidden was just thirty days. How does Daniel’s refusing to obey the king in this edict have an impact on our understanding of good citizenship? Doesn’t it teach us that we live in two worlds or cities and one must always take precedent over the other?

2. Daniel prayed with a PROPER PERSPECTIVE. He opened the windows of his room toward Jerusalem. There was no practice such as this that was common among the Jews. He did that because this city was the city of God and He wanted to make sure that He was not talking to himself as he prayed but that he was focused on God and His will and way for His life. Nothing at all here about him being delivered from the den of lions!

3. Daniel prayed with a PROPER POSTURE. The point here is not that getting on our knees is the only way to pray. The point is that it is this posture that proclaims our complete dependence of God and our complete devotion to God. He is our King and we bow our hearts before Him and before Him alone.

4. Daniel prayed with PERSISTENCE. Again, there was no rule for the Jews to pray three times a day but the times of day that he was praying marked the entirety of the day. He prayed in the early morning before beginning his day. He prayed at the midday rest period having already faced the problems and pressures of the day and he prayed in the evening as he rested during the night.

5. Daniel prayed in order to give PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO GOD. The last line of verse ten sets before us the primary purpose of his praying in this as in every other season of prayer. The purpose of his praying was to give praise to God. The word “previously” at the end of verse 10 describes this purpose in his praying as the common and consistent purpose in his life of prayer. This is why he prayed and this is how he prayed.

It is upon this foundation alone that we can discover the discipline that determined both the devotion of his heart and the direction of his life as we see it set before us in verse 3. The “excellent” spirit that is in him is described elsewhere as a “spirit of wisdom and understanding” and is simply the outcome externally of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in this man.

Two truths are interesting to note as we begin to turn our attention to Daniel’s opponents: first, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people is found more frequently to be the case near the end of the Old Testament period as we come to the time of preparation for the coming of John the Baptist and then the coming of Jesus. Second, Daniel’s life of faithful witness for God and His glory provoked jealousy from the other leaders. They wanted to have the kind of influence that he had without living the kind of life that he lived. Could that kind of thing happen in a church?

III. The Industrious Intrigue of the Opposition, 6:4-9, 11-15

A. The plot and plan of the men is placed right in the middle to the words of affirmation about Daniel. This is more than a literary twist in the narrative. It carries weighty theological import. We must look closely at who these men are and listen carefully to what they say, and we dare not distance ourselves too far from them.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/873/feed 0 Daniel 4:1-37 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/839 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/839#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:56:02 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/839 One of the most amazing things about the work of God in our lives is the way He reveals Himself to us so as to move us along in our understanding of Him. He is doing that with King Nebuchadnezzar here in the Book of Daniel. And when we come to the opening verses of this chapter we hear the King giving the most exalted exclamation about the character of God that has yet been given. Now we must be careful here: Exalted exclamations about God do not save us and they may well speak to our experience of God in a given circumstance of life. They do not necessarily constitute to core of who we are in relationship to God. What are some other biblical instances where we see people being brought along by God in their understanding of God?

I. An Exalted Affirmation, 4:1-3

A. The king’s view of himself has not diminished at all. He is still the king of Babylon who sees himself as the ruler of the world. His edict is issued to all peoples, languages, and nations that dwell upon the earth. So, the King as sovereign over one land sees himself as sovereign over every land and thus can issue a decree for all. Who alone has this kind of authority and what does it say about any person who would issue this kind of edict?

B. The King’s decree is peace that would be multiplied to them. What is implied is that he is the source of this peace and that it can be multiplied based on the experience that he just enjoyed. So, what the king is about to enunciate emerges out of the emotion of his own experience.

C. The decree is about God but look at its focus: “it seemed good to me . .” “what the Most High God has done for me.” Both phrases are found in verse two and the focus is on the king and the force is not the Truth from this “Most High God” but the signs and wonders. So, here is a king who in this verse offers his most exalted exclamation about God: He is the El Elyon, the Most High God. In the King’s context this would mean that this God is the highest of all the gods. This is not monotheism. This is “supertheism.” This God is above the other gods because of His signs and wonders that were focused on the king. What makes God the Most High God for us? Is it His essence as the One and Only God or is it found in His expression of good to us? Do we feel better about our God when He delivers us from whatever or are our feelings about God consistent no matter what happens in the context of the circumstances of our lives?

D. The opening lines of verse 3 give shape to the closing lines of verse three. It would be an appropriate affirmation if the lines were reversed. What the King is saying is that God is great because of His signs and wonders so that it is these that make His Kingdom and everlasting and enduring Kingdom. The implication is that if we take away the signs and wonders then this Most High God who is King would be just like all the other gods. Here is a case where the words sound so right but they emerge from a heart that is so wrong. Is it possible for a person to grow up in a church and learn all the right jargon for sounding like a Christian and become so comfortable with the jargon that they can speak the language of Zion with ease but the words are empty of content?

II. The Second Dream 4:4-18

A. Verse 4 is so striking. Life is good for the King at home and on the job. He has peace at home and prosperity in the palace, what more could a king want or need? He has been triumphant in war so that his Kingdom is at peace and he enjoys the pleasures of the palace with its fine food, wine and women. And then he has another dream that deeply troubled him.

B. The king calls all those in his kingdom who might interpret the dream but they could not, 6-7; and then he calls in Daniel who has the name of one of the king’s gods but in him is the “spirit of the holy gods.” This is so interesting in the context of this culture. Names were taken seriously as reflective of character. The thrust here would be that Daniel should have taken on the character of the god after whom he was named, but he had not done that because of the power of the Spirit of God that was at work within Him. This Spirit controlled His life and thus formed His character. Now we know that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon and dwelt within those whom God had chosen to be used by Him in the extension of His Work in the world. And we know that for those in whom the Spirit of God was dwelling, there was a real and radical change of character. We know further that since the coming of Jesus those who are called out by God through His Spirit and commit themselves to Jesus as Lord are those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells daily so as to change both the character and the conduct of their lives. What are some evidences in our lives that the Holy Spirit has changed both the character and the conduct of our lives? Would others say about us what this pagan king said about Daniel, “The Spirit of God lives in _________________?

C. The King has learned to trust Daniel as a godly man who can understand and unravel mysteries so he tells the dream to the king, 9-18. Notice the vivid details of the dream and the clarity with which it comes to the king and with which he remembers it as he rehearses it before Daniel. The dream has a very definite pattern:

1. A tall tree that was very strong, 10-11
2. A fruitful tree that was fully sufficient, 12
3. A Holy One who descends to destroy the tree, 13-14
2a. A stump that is left bound with iron and bronze, 15
1a. The stump becomes a beast to show that every Kingdom belongs to the Most High God, 16-17

Then the king seeks the interpretation of the dream. The center of the dream and pivot point is number 3. The outer extremities are framed by the central point: Strong and fruitful trees are controlled by a Sovereign God who can turn them into stumps and fearful beasts at His command.

III. The Communication of the Content of the Dream, 4:19-27

A. The first thing that must not be missed is the care and compassion that Daniel has for the king. Daniel was dismayed and alarmed. He was silent before the king. He knew what the dream meant but he hoped that it was not true. He did not want the king to experience the judgment of God; he wanted the king to experience the grace of God. Imagine that! This is the king who had thrown his three friends into the fiery furnace and enslaved them in his own prison. This is the king who could do with Daniel whatever he desired to do. He could kill him. And Daniel sees what is in the dream and hopes that it is not true. This is not natural nor normal; this is the evidence that the Holy Spirit does dwell in Daniel.

The judgment of God in the world is real. There are those even now who are under His wrath and it will not be removed and there are those who will face in the end the full force of His wrath. There are those who are not saved and will not be saved because not all are saved but that must never mean that the people of God delight in the judgment and wrath of God and that we do not beg and plead for people to turn to Jesus even until they draw their last breath. It is not up to us to determine the sincerity or the integrity of a decision. That is given only to God but we must plead and pray that people will come to Jesus, commit their lives to Jesus and live under His Lordship. Sinners slipping into eternity under the hand of the judgment of God is no cause for us to delight. Daniel saw what this dream was about and it broke his heart for this pagan king.

B. Nebuchadnezzar is the strong and sufficient tree, 20-22. He will be brought down by God who will use other pagan kingdoms to bring down the Babylonian Kingdom. Greece under Alexander and then Rome will follow both of whom will have their day in sun, 23-26.

C. Daniel issues a challenge to the king: Repent of your sin and begin to walk in the ways that are right by demonstrating your devotion to God by showing mercy to the oppressed and perhaps God will be merciful to you, 27. Daniel does what we must do: call people to repentance and faith while trusting the sovereign God to work in the lives of those who come in repentance and faith. Only God knows ultimately who is truly repentant and truly faithful.

IV. Nebuchadnezzar’s Humiliation, 4:28-33

A. Nebuchadnezzar responded to the dream of Daniel by waiting and doing nothing and as far as he could tell, nothing happened. He waited one whole year and nothing at all changed in his life. He had heard a word of judgment and the judgment did not come. He assumed that since it did not come immediately, it would not come at all. He was working with what is an always deadly combination: human pride plus the passing of time can lead to disaster. Do you know people who do not know Jesus for whom life is going quite well so that any communication of the Gospel to them is met with deaf ears? They are operating on the above formula. The assumption is that if we are not right with God then something bad is going to happen to us and when it doesn’t we assume that we are ok.

B. The heart of he king is revealed in verse 30. He uses the first person pronoun three times. And it is in the assertion of his pride that the painful judgment of God falls upon his life. The king is confronted by God and cast out of his kingdom. Now God has a purpose in all of this that has to do with the exaltation of His name which requires the humiliation of the king. He brings the king down so as to elevate His own glory. Is there anything about what God does that would be considered an injustice or unfair? Did the king have ample warning about what God was going to do? Where does God communicate to us His character and His call so that we know who He is and how He acts? No human being can ever accuse God of being unfair or acting unjustly.

V. God’s Exaltation, 4:34-37

A. Reason returns to Nebuchadnezzar when he lifts his eyes toward the heavens. Here is the source of all right reason. It is not within us but beyond us. It is given to us by God through His Word. He makes Himself known to us in such a way that shapes the way we reason. Reason without revelation from God through His Word is irrational. Reason shaped by the revelation of God is a rational and logical approach to life. Whoever rules the world gets to establish the rules for how the world operates and how we are to operate in terms of understanding the one who rules the world.

B. The first thing that the king does when his reason returns is what all reasonable people do: he blessed the Most High God by giving him praise and honor. Praise has to do with worship while honor has to do with work. Worship always leads us somewhere when it is worship in Spirit and in Truth. Worship that does not lead to obedience is disobedient worship.

C. The second thing that the king does is that he assigns glory exclusively to God. Notice that the phrase about signs and wonders from the beginning of the chapter is not here. He praises God for His sovereignty, 34b; He acknowledges that humans are nothing in His sight, 35a; and that our God does whatever pleases Him in the heavens and upon the earth, 35b.

D. The third thing that happens here is that God gives the kingdom back to the king, 36; as a test of what had really happened in his life and the king gives glory to God whose works are right, whose ways are just, and who humbles those who are prideful.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/839/feed 0 Daniel 3:1-30 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/828 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/828#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:52:52 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/828 Daniel 3:1-30 [+/-]
INTRODUCTION:  Two major truths emerge out of this chapter.  First, God is showing us how Nebuchadnezzar is being brought to an increasingly dawning awareness of how great and mighty is the God of Israel.  The book opens with God showing the king that He has the ability to show his servants the meaning of dreams and the King honors God.  This chapter will go a step further and this king will acknowledge God as the One who is above and over all the other gods and then in chapter four God will be acknowledged as the great King whose kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.  The second truth that emerges out of this chapter is the response of the three to the king that God is able to deliver them but even if He does not it is because He wills not to deliver them and they will serve God in accordance with His will.  What these three say to the king belongs among those great sayings of the Bible such as Mordecai reminding Esther that her going to the king in behalf of her people may in fact cost her her life, but God may well have brought her to Persia for such a time as this.
I.  The Golden Image:  The Power of Idolatry  3:1-7
A.  The image of gold signifies the King’s own interpretation of the dream.  He makes the image entirely of gold to assert his absolute supremacy over every king that has come before him and every king that will come after him.  He is saying that his is the eternal and everlasting kingdom.  Babylon will be forever!
1.  The size of the image and the space upon which it is placed both speak volumes about the arrogance of the king.  The statue was ninety feet high and nine feet wide.  This is no small image, and all of pure gold.  It was both very expansive and very expensive.  The plain of Dura where the image was placed was located about six miles south of Babylon and is roughly equivalent to the location of the plain in Shinar where the tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11 [+/-]).  This tower was built for two purposes:  to assert their own power and to keep themselves from being scattered over all the earth.  They wanted something to keep them together so that they could move forward in pursuing their own purpose.  What was the plan on plain of Shinar is the same as the plain of Dura and both are frustrated by God.
B.  Nebuchadnezzar gathered all the leading officials and all the leading musicians.  It is no accident that the number for the list of officials and the number for the musicians is seven.  Nebuchadnezzar has created a sovereign image and has as he sees it the perfect plan to consolidate his power and the power of his kingdom for years to come.  We know something of what the king was thinking from a document that has been recovered from this period that reads, “beside my statue as king I wrote and inscription mentioning my name I erected for posterity.  May future kings respect the monument, remember the praise of the gods.  He who respects my royal name who does not abrogate my statues, change my decrees, his throne shall be secure, his life last long, his dynasty shall continue.”
II.  The Fiery Furnace, 3:8-30
A.  The Accusation, 3:8-12.  The key to this section is the word “maliciously” in verse 8.  What makes the accusation and malicious accusation?  We must read this account in conjunction with accounts like Esther and Joseph etc. because what is the essence of “malicious” here is the essence of “malicious” everywhere else.  And every one of us is very capable of it.
1.  The phrase “the Jews” indicates an animosity toward these men that was there and had been building.  Were they jealous of them?  Was there position a threat to these men?  Who is it in our lives that evokes this kind of suspicion?
2.  They are too affirming of the king and his authority.  They come to him with compliments but are not so sure of what he might do so that they remind  him of his decree.  They know what they want and they know what they must do to get it.  This is manipulation at its most marvelous.  Do we do this kind of thing when we want something from somebody so we have one person go to the other to say one thing and another go to say another so we can get that person to do what we want them to do.  If this kind of thing was sinful then, why isn’t it sinful any more?
3.  They accuse the Jews of ingratitude and impiety, 12.  He has given them leading positions and they neither honor him nor his gods.
B.  The Confrontation  3:13-25
1.  Here we come face to face with the focal point of this passage.  Nebuchadnezzar is in a rage and confronts the three. He gives them an opportunity to repent but they use the opportunity to respond to him out of who they are as children of God.
2.  Their response found in verses 16-18 includes three elements.  First, they want him to know that they do not have to respond to him.  He is not their king.  They are owned by another.  They will give him the courtesy of a response but they are not compelled to respond.  Second, they do not ever doubt that God is able to deliver them.  He can throw them in and He can snatch them out.  Third, they are submissive to His will which could be deliverance or destruction but either way they remain decisively devoted to God.  Isaiah 43:1-7 [+/-].
3.  Nebuchadnezzar is in a rage and orders the furnace heated to seven times what is normal and he ordered the three men to be bound and thrown into the furnace.  One of the supreme ironies here is that those whose lives were being lost were saved and those whose lives were being saved were in fact destroyed.  So fierce was the heat that when the men threw them in, the men were killed.
4.  The king saw a fourth man in the fire and recognized him as one like a son of the gods.  What about his appearance caused him to come to this conclusion?
C.  The Culmination, 3:26-30
1.  Nebuchadnezzar called out the three men and affirmed them as servants of the Most High God.  This term is the highest affirmation that he has yet used of God.  What he king sees along with all the other officials is that the fire had not harmed them, their hair was not singed, and their clothes had no smell of smoke.  Nebuchadnezzar affirms who they are as the servants of he Most High God.
2.  Nebuchadnezzar blesses their God as the one who sent his angel to deliver them because they chose to obey their God rather than men.  He honors their God by issuing a warning against anyone who would dare to speak anything against the god of these three.
3.  Nebuchanezzar promoted these men to an even more prominent place.
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

INTRODUCTION:  Two major truths emerge out of this chapter.  First, God is showing us how Nebuchadnezzar is being brought to an increasingly dawning awareness of how great and mighty is the God of Israel.  The book opens with God showing the king that He has the ability to show his servants the meaning of dreams and the King honors God.  This chapter will go a step further and this king will acknowledge God as the One who is above and over all the other gods and then in chapter four God will be acknowledged as the great King whose kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.  The second truth that emerges out of this chapter is the response of the three to the king that God is able to deliver them but even if He does not it is because He wills not to deliver them and they will serve God in accordance with His will.  What these three say to the king belongs among those great sayings of the Bible such as Mordecai reminding Esther that her going to the king in behalf of her people may in fact cost her her life, but God may well have brought her to Persia for such a time as this.

I.  The Golden Image:  The Power of Idolatry  3:1-7

A.  The image of gold signifies the King’s own interpretation of the dream.  He makes the image entirely of gold to assert his absolute supremacy over every king that has come before him and every king that will come after him.  He is saying that his is the eternal and everlasting kingdom.  Babylon will be forever!

1.  The size of the image and the space upon which it is placed both speak volumes about the arrogance of the king.  The statue was ninety feet high and nine feet wide.  This is no small image, and all of pure gold.  It was both very expansive and very expensive.  The plain of Dura where the image was placed was located about six miles south of Babylon and is roughly equivalent to the location of the plain in Shinar where the tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11 [+/-]).  This tower was built for two purposes:  to assert their own power and to keep themselves from being scattered over all the earth.  They wanted something to keep them together so that they could move forward in pursuing their own purpose.  What was the plan on plain of Shinar is the same as the plain of Dura and both are frustrated by God.

B.  Nebuchadnezzar gathered all the leading officials and all the leading musicians.  It is no accident that the number for the list of officials and the number for the musicians is seven.  Nebuchadnezzar has created a sovereign image and has as he sees it the perfect plan to consolidate his power and the power of his kingdom for years to come.  We know something of what the king was thinking from a document that has been recovered from this period that reads, “beside my statue as king I wrote and inscription mentioning my name I erected for posterity.  May future kings respect the monument, remember the praise of the gods.  He who respects my royal name who does not abrogate my statues, change my decrees, his throne shall be secure, his life last long, his dynasty shall continue.”

II.  The Fiery Furnace, 3:8-30

A.  The Accusation, 3:8-12.  The key to this section is the word “maliciously” in verse 8.  What makes the accusation and malicious accusation?  We must read this account in conjunction with accounts like Esther and Joseph etc. because what is the essence of “malicious” here is the essence of “malicious” everywhere else.  And every one of us is very capable of it.

1.  The phrase “the Jews” indicates an animosity toward these men that was there and had been building.  Were they jealous of them?  Was there position a threat to these men?  Who is it in our lives that evokes this kind of suspicion?

2.  They are too affirming of the king and his authority.  They come to him with compliments but are not so sure of what he might do so that they remind  him of his decree.  They know what they want and they know what they must do to get it.  This is manipulation at its most marvelous.  Do we do this kind of thing when we want something from somebody so we have one person go to the other to say one thing and another go to say another so we can get that person to do what we want them to do.  If this kind of thing was sinful then, why isn’t it sinful any more?

3.  They accuse the Jews of ingratitude and impiety, 12.  He has given them leading positions and they neither honor him nor his gods.

B.  The Confrontation  3:13-25

1.  Here we come face to face with the focal point of this passage.  Nebuchadnezzar is in a rage and confronts the three. He gives them an opportunity to repent but they use the opportunity to respond to him out of who they are as children of God.

2.  Their response found in verses 16-18 includes three elements.  First, they want him to know that they do not have to respond to him.  He is not their king.  They are owned by another.  They will give him the courtesy of a response but they are not compelled to respond.  Second, they do not ever doubt that God is able to deliver them.  He can throw them in and He can snatch them out.  Third, they are submissive to His will which could be deliverance or destruction but either way they remain decisively devoted to God.  Isaiah 43:1-7 [+/-].

3.  Nebuchadnezzar is in a rage and orders the furnace heated to seven times what is normal and he ordered the three men to be bound and thrown into the furnace.  One of the supreme ironies here is that those whose lives were being lost were saved and those whose lives were being saved were in fact destroyed.  So fierce was the heat that when the men threw them in, the men were killed.

4.  The king saw a fourth man in the fire and recognized him as one like a son of the gods.  What about his appearance caused him to come to this conclusion?

C.  The Culmination, 3:26-30

1.  Nebuchadnezzar called out the three men and affirmed them as servants of the Most High God.  This term is the highest affirmation that he has yet used of God.  What he king sees along with all the other officials is that the fire had not harmed them, their hair was not singed, and their clothes had no smell of smoke.  Nebuchadnezzar affirms who they are as the servants of he Most High God.

2.  Nebuchadnezzar blesses their God as the one who sent his angel to deliver them because they chose to obey their God rather than men.  He honors their God by issuing a warning against anyone who would dare to speak anything against the god of these three.

3.  Nebuchanezzar promoted these men to an even more prominent place.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/828/feed 0 Daniel 2:1-30 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/823 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/823#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:03:44 +0000 David http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/823 Daniel 2:1-30 [+/-]
INTRODUCTION:  Daniel One takes us immediately into the conflict that is found in every era between those who are committed to God and those who are not.  Make no mistake about this reality:  the Prince of the power of the air, Satan himself; wants to “brain wash” all who will listen to his ways.  He wants us to profess both a love for and honor for God while living to gratify our fleshly desires as they are fed and fueled by the ways of the world.  Those who live this way can be most sure that they do not belong to God but are most often the most boastfully confident that they do.  Daniel and his friends show us clearly that commitment is real and radical, and it is risky.
As we turn now to chapter two, we begin to see God’s sovereign hand setting up the situation that will show us as God’s people how we are to act as His people when we are in conflict with the world and its ways.
I.  The Dream and the Dilemma that is Created by the Dream, 2:1-11
A.  King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.  We are told three things in verse one that produce one response:
1.  The Dream
2.  The Troubled Spirit
3.  The Loss of Sleep
This was no positive vision in the night but a nightmare that troubled the king and roused him from his sleep.  The most powerful man on the planet who sleeps in his palace surrounded by military might cannot sleep because a power greater than any has disturbed him during the night.
B.  He commands all of those who have any power to help him to come to his side.  Let me show you the three groups that he calls in and then let’s see what they all have in common:
1.  The magicians (magoi) are astrologers for whom life was found in the stars.  They sought guidance that was “metaphysical.”
2.  The enchanters were those who would sleep the mind and refocus the energies of a person in a more proper direction.  Life was directed through the control of the mind.  They would be modern day “hypnotists.”
3.  The sorcerers (pharmakos) would manipulate the spirits in order to find direction in life.  This would develop into the management of herbs as a means of remedy for the body but at this stage it involved the manipulation of the spirit world.
The word that follows in most translations is “Chaldeans” which could mean that all of these who were called were Chaldeans or this could be a special class of dream interpreters who were specialists in understanding Chaldean culture and could function much like anthropologists, sociologists, or psychoanalysts.  Notice that one group looked to the stars, one to the spirits, and one to the “psyche.”  They all had the following in common:
1.  They were considered in their day to be very religious; they were treated by many as priests of a religious order;
2.  These men would have had the influence in their day that the medical community has in our day; these were not considered to be “quacks.”
3.  These men were seen as men who had contact with the “gods” who revealed to these men what these men most needed to know.
C.  They have here a dilemma that they had never faced before:  the king wants them to tell him both the dream and its interpretation, 3-9.  Please note that the Book of Daniel is written from 2:4 through the end of chapter seven in Aramaic.  We do not know exactly why that happened.
D.  The response of those summoned is the key to this particular passage.  These men who are the most trusted men in their culture speak what sets the stage for the rest of the book:
1.  No human being can do what the King is asking; it would require a special kind of knowledge that human beings do not have.  It is an admission of human finitude and limitation.  Those who sought knowledge for guidance in life from all kinds of sources are saying that there are some things that they do not know.
2.  What the king is asking us new and different.  This has never happened before.  There must be some reason that this taking place in this way.  The reason is still hidden and soon to be revealed.
3.  The only entity in the universe who can do what the King is asking is a “god.”  It would take someone who is on the earth but not of the earth to do what the King is asking.
II.  The King’s Decision and Daniel’s Response, 2:12-16
A.  The King decided to destroy all the wise men in his kingdom, 12-13.  This decision included Daniel and his friends.  Put yourself in Daniel’s shoes.  How would you respond to the awareness of the coming crisis?
B.  Daniel was calm, 14.  What was the source of his calmness?  He saw the tragedy as an opportunity.  He was conversant in a manner both of seeking information and offering companionship, 15.  Daniel was courageous, 16.  He acted in faith to do what needed to be done.
What follows now is a very critical teaching for us when faced with a “crisis of belief.”  Remember that we learned in Experiencing God that what we do at the intersection of a crisis of belief makes all the difference.  Daniel has trusted God and acted in obedience to His call.  Now he shows us what steps we all must take on the path of walking in obedience to God.
III.  When God calls us to Obey Him and we say, “yes” We then must:  2:17-24
A.  We must share what God is doing with faithful friends who will pray for us and encourage us while helping us clarify the call of God, 17.  What do we most often do when God is calling us in a certain direction particularly if that direction seems “strange” and “unusual?”  How quick are we to share our struggles in our families or those things that we are dealing with in our souls?
B.  He asked his friends to join him in seeking God for a purpose.  Notice the clear focus on seeking God as a precedent and foundation for the purpose.  He is seeking God about not being destroyed but the focus is on seeking God and not on deliverance from being destroyed.
C.  The mystery of the dream and its interpretation was revealed to Daniel in a “vision of the night.”  It came to him in the same time frame that the dream came to Nebuchadnezzar.
D.  Daniel immediately gave praise and thanksgiving to God.
1.  He exalted God who alone has wisdom and might;
2.  He is the ruler of the earth and all that is in it;
3.  He is the sovereign over kings and kingdoms;
4.  He gives both wisdom and knowledge bringing His truth to those to whom He chooses to make it known;
5.  He is worthy of our gratitude and praise and we should give that to Him with great generosity.
6.  He revealed the truth of the dream to Daniel so that all glory and praise is to be given to God.
Note that this prayer is remarkably God-centered.  You and I ought to look carefully at this prayer.  Whatever is the center of concern in our lives is the center of concern in our prayers.  Ask yourself this week in your prayer times:  are my prayers dominated by a deep desire to honor and magnify God no matter the cost to me or others or are my prayers dominated by my desires for myself and others and particularly if those others are limited to a very closely confined circle of family and friends?
E.  Daniel now acts in faith as the faithful servant of God, 24.
Notice the movements in this passage:  conversation, communication, confirmation, celebration, and commitment.
IV.  The Encounter with the King  2:25-30
A.  The perspective of the pagans is proclaimed in verse 25 that the interpretation of the dream is the work of a human.  Daniel’s response tells the truth to the King.
1.  He is an “apologist” for the pagan interpreters; they told the king that no person could do this kind of thing and Daniel affirms their assessment as true, 27.
2.  Notice the “but” in verse 28.  Daniel confesses His faith and gives praise to God.  This God is the one and only God who is the sovereign over the world.  And He has graciously revealed to the king what is about to take place.
3.  Daniel reveals to the king what was given in the dream and gives all the praise and glory to God, 30.  Daniel wants the king to know that this God whom Daniel serves is being gracious to the King.

INTRODUCTION:  Daniel One takes us immediately into the conflict that is found in every era between those who are committed to God and those who are not.  Make no mistake about this reality:  the Prince of the power of the air, Satan himself; wants to “brain wash” all who will listen to his ways.  He wants us to profess both a love for and honor for God while living to gratify our fleshly desires as they are fed and fueled by the ways of the world.  Those who live this way can be most sure that they do not belong to God but are most often the most boastfully confident that they do.  Daniel and his friends show us clearly that commitment is real and radical, and it is risky.

As we turn now to chapter two, we begin to see God’s sovereign hand setting up the situation that will show us as God’s people how we are to act as His people when we are in conflict with the world and its ways.

I.  The Dream and the Dilemma that is Created by the Dream, 2:1-11

A.  King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.  We are told three things in verse one that produce one response:

1.  The Dream

2.  The Troubled Spirit

3.  The Loss of Sleep

This was no positive vision in the night but a nightmare that troubled the king and roused him from his sleep.  The most powerful man on the planet who sleeps in his palace surrounded by military might cannot sleep because a power greater than any has disturbed him during the night.

B.  He commands all of those who have any power to help him to come to his side.  Let me show you the three groups that he calls in and then let’s see what they all have in common:

1.  The magicians (magoi) are astrologers for whom life was found in the stars.  They sought guidance that was “metaphysical.”

2.  The enchanters were those who would sleep the mind and refocus the energies of a person in a more proper direction.  Life was directed through the control of the mind.  They would be modern day “hypnotists.”

3.  The sorcerers (pharmakos) would manipulate the spirits in order to find direction in life.  This would develop into the management of herbs as a means of remedy for the body but at this stage it involved the manipulation of the spirit world.

The word that follows in most translations is “Chaldeans” which could mean that all of these who were called were Chaldeans or this could be a special class of dream interpreters who were specialists in understanding Chaldean culture and could function much like anthropologists, sociologists, or psychoanalysts.  Notice that one group looked to the stars, one to the spirits, and one to the “psyche.”  They all had the following in common:

1.  They were considered in their day to be very religious; they were treated by many as priests of a religious order;

2.  These men would have had the influence in their day that the medical community has in our day; these were not considered to be “quacks.”

3.  These men were seen as men who had contact with the “gods” who revealed to these men what these men most needed to know.

C.  They have here a dilemma that they had never faced before:  the king wants them to tell him both the dream and its interpretation, 3-9.  Please note that the Book of Daniel is written from 2:4 through the end of chapter seven in Aramaic.  We do not know exactly why that happened.

D.  The response of those summoned is the key to this particular passage.  These men who are the most trusted men in their culture speak what sets the stage for the rest of the book:

1.  No human being can do what the King is asking; it would require a special kind of knowledge that human beings do not have.  It is an admission of human finitude and limitation.  Those who sought knowledge for guidance in life from all kinds of sources are saying that there are some things that they do not know.

2.  What the king is asking us new and different.  This has never happened before.  There must be some reason that this taking place in this way.  The reason is still hidden and soon to be revealed.

3.  The only entity in the universe who can do what the King is asking is a “god.”  It would take someone who is on the earth but not of the earth to do what the King is asking.

II.  The King’s Decision and Daniel’s Response, 2:12-16

A.  The King decided to destroy all the wise men in his kingdom, 12-13.  This decision included Daniel and his friends.  Put yourself in Daniel’s shoes.  How would you respond to the awareness of the coming crisis?

B.  Daniel was calm, 14.  What was the source of his calmness?  He saw the tragedy as an opportunity.  He was conversant in a manner both of seeking information and offering companionship, 15.  Daniel was courageous, 16.  He acted in faith to do what needed to be done.

What follows now is a very critical teaching for us when faced with a “crisis of belief.”  Remember that we learned in Experiencing God that what we do at the intersection of a crisis of belief makes all the difference.  Daniel has trusted God and acted in obedience to His call.  Now he shows us what steps we all must take on the path of walking in obedience to God.

III.  When God calls us to Obey Him and we say, “yes” We then must:  2:17-24

A.  We must share what God is doing with faithful friends who will pray for us and encourage us while helping us clarify the call of God, 17.  What do we most often do when God is calling us in a certain direction particularly if that direction seems “strange” and “unusual?”  How quick are we to share our struggles in our families or those things that we are dealing with in our souls?

B.  He asked his friends to join him in seeking God for a purpose.  Notice the clear focus on seeking God as a precedent and foundation for the purpose.  He is seeking God about not being destroyed but the focus is on seeking God and not on deliverance from being destroyed.

C.  The mystery of the dream and its interpretation was revealed to Daniel in a “vision of the night.”  It came to him in the same time frame that the dream came to Nebuchadnezzar.

D.  Daniel immediately gave praise and thanksgiving to God.

1.  He exalted God who alone has wisdom and might;

2.  He is the ruler of the earth and all that is in it;

3.  He is the sovereign over kings and kingdoms;

4.  He gives both wisdom and knowledge bringing His truth to those to whom He chooses to make it known;

5.  He is worthy of our gratitude and praise and we should give that to Him with great generosity.

6.  He revealed the truth of the dream to Daniel so that all glory and praise is to be given to God.

Note that this prayer is remarkably God-centered.  You and I ought to look carefully at this prayer.  Whatever is the center of concern in our lives is the center of concern in our prayers.  Ask yourself this week in your prayer times:  are my prayers dominated by a deep desire to honor and magnify God no matter the cost to me or others or are my prayers dominated by my desires for myself and others and particularly if those others are limited to a very closely confined circle of family and friends?

E.  Daniel now acts in faith as the faithful servant of God, 24.

Notice the movements in this passage:  conversation, communication, confirmation, celebration, and commitment.

IV.  The Encounter with the King  2:25-30

A.  The perspective of the pagans is proclaimed in verse 25 that the interpretation of the dream is the work of a human.  Daniel’s response tells the truth to the King.

1.  He is an “apologist” for the pagan interpreters; they told the king that no person could do this kind of thing and Daniel affirms their assessment as true, 27.

2.  Notice the “but” in verse 28.  Daniel confesses His faith and gives praise to God.  This God is the one and only God who is the sovereign over the world.  And He has graciously revealed to the king what is about to take place.

3.  Daniel reveals to the king what was given in the dream and gives all the praise and glory to God, 30.  Daniel wants the king to know that this God whom Daniel serves is being gracious to the King.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/823/feed 0 The Book of Revelation http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/813 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/813#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 02:24:49 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/813 I.  The Nature and Character of the Book as Apocalyptic

A.  Most unique book in the New Testament and in the canon with the exception of Daniel in the Old Testament.  Uniqueness tied to its clear identity as the “unveiling of Jesus Christ,” 1:1 or as an Apocalypse.

B.  Characteristics of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

1.  Pseudonymity so that the writer wrote in the name of some ancient and revered person, e.g.;  Baruch, Enoch, etc.  The Book of Revelation is clearly from the apostle John with some suggesting John the Elder but clearly not an unknown writer;

2.  Conflict between the forces of good and evil with the outcome either unknown or known in the end; The Book of Revelation is the celebration of the victory that has been won for us in Jesus Christ.  Even the forces of darkness are under His complete control.

3.  Historical Contexts are contrived so that they have little or no meaning.  The Book of Revelation is written just as the Book of Daniel in a very clear and very precise historical context.

4.  Symbols often function in a variety of ways with a variety of meanings (multivalent) while the symbols in the Book of Revelation have very clear and concrete connections, e.g.; the One who is riding forth on a white horse is very clearly the Lord Jesus Christ.

C.  The Book of Revelation is a Biblical Christian Apocalyptic in which the coming victory in time has already been achieved by God through Christ upon the cross and the resurrection.  The clear historical context and the certain theological victory makes this book unique among Apocalyptic writings.

II.  The Role of Symbols in the Book of Revelation

A.  Symbols function as a part of the literal in this book.  They are part and parcel of the nature and character of apocalyptic literature.

B.  A look at some of the symbols:

1.  Colors:  White is for purity and victory, red is for the victory that is ours through the blood of Jesus, black is for evil and darkness and grey is for death.

2.  Numbers:  Three is for God, four is for the world, six is for imperfection and for humanity, seven is for perfection, ten is for completion and twelve is for the Old and New Covenant Community of Israel and the Church.  Multiples of these numbers can be found as well, e.g.; 144,00 which is 12 X 12 raised to the tenth power.  This is the number of completeness for the people of God that gather both to praise God and proclaim His glory in the work of His Gospel.

3.  Animate and inanimate objects:  horses are for strength and power.  Dragon is for the demonic of the devil.  The sea is a place of evil and dread.  Lampstands represent the One who is the light of the church.

III. Authorship and Date

A.  Written by the apostle John during the persecution of believers under the emperor Domitian c.a. A.D. 95-96.  “John received the Revelation almost in our own time toward the end of the reign of Domitian,” Irenaeus, Against Heresies.  The book is “not only a divine prediction of future events but also the divine diagnosis of the present state of affairs.”  It is rooted in history as the context and anchor for its eschatology.

IV.  The Four Basic Approaches to the Book of Revelation

A.  Historical.  This approach sees the teachings of the book being unfolded in history from the time of the apostolic church until the time of the second coming.  The events that are recorded in the book are future in the sense that many of them are yet to happen but not future in the sense that they are beyond the end.  This approach requires a millennial perspective that is either “amillennial” or “postmillennial.”  The first does not see a millennium at all; history progresses toward the end and then the end comes with the return of Jesus and all that follows.  Postmillennialism sees the millennium coming in the context of history with the world getting progressively better through the influence of the Gospel and the church functioning as salt and light in the world with the end coming after the millennium.

B.  Futurism.  This view sees everything from chapter six to the end as yet to take place.  The historical situation is established in chapters 1-3, the theological context is established in 4-5 and the eschatological events are chronicled for us from 6-22.  This view requires a premillennial perspective with the church being taken out of the world either prior to the Tribulation or during the Tribulation.  The Millennium then comes at the end of the Tribulation period culminating in the final defeat of Satan and his forces and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.

1.  One spin off of this perspective is historical futurism which sees the Book as both grounded in history with that history given substance and shape to what is in the end.  For example, the Roman Empire is real and is a stronghold of Satan during the days in which this book was written so that we can read and study what was going on in the Empire of that period in order to understand what will be going on in the final chapter of human history.

C.  Preterism.  Everything that is prophesied here to happen in the end happened in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70.  This was the return of Jesus to establish His Body as the Temple and to bring judgment.  The world will continue as is until the end when the final judgment falls and God brings into being the new heavens and the new earth.  Partial Preterism sees the second coming of Jesus, the judgments, and the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth as yet to be.

D.  Idealism.  The Book of Revelation depicts the struggles in which the church is engaged in every age and in the context of these struggles communicates the reality that we have already won the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

V.  Outline and Themes

A.  The Prologue that establishes the purpose of the book, 1:1-3.  The first word establishes the character of the book and the next two the source and the object.  This is an Apocalypse that comes from Jesus Christ and is all about Jesus Christ.  God gave it to Jesus to show His servants what was to take place “in short order.”  He wants them to know what is about to take place.  Then we are told to whom it was sent and blessing is pronounced on those who read it out loud.  It is this word about reading it out loud that has caused some to see the book as a drama that would have been acted out on the stage in the city of Ephesus.

B.  The Sender, Recipients and Greeting, 1:4-8.  Jesus is clearly established as the center as the One who was, who is and who is to come.  He is the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the Kings of the earth or Christ and Lord.

C.  The Vision of the Risen Christ that produced the writing of the book, 1:12-20

D.  The Letters to the Seven Churches, 2-3

1. The Letter to Ephesus, 2:1-7.  The church that left the love she had at the first.  The worldly church.

Identification of the Sender
What is positive in the church
What is of concern in the church
Call to repentance
Warning
Call to hear the Word of God
The Promise of God to His People

2.  The Church at Smyrna, 2:8-11.  The church that has endured and continues to endure suffering.  One of two churches for which there is no negative word.  The Consecrated Church.

3.  The Church at Pergamum, 2:12-17.  The church that compromised with the culture.  They created a kind of “cultural Christianity.”  The compromising Church.

4.  The Church at Tyatira, 2:18-29.  The tolerant church.  Wickedness in the church that was tolerated either out of a misunderstanding of love or being intimidated and fearful of the ones who were wicked.

5.  The Church in Sardis, 3:1-6.  The Seduced Church.  Much in the way of outward activity with little or nothing in the way of real, true life.  She had a name of being alive but was dead.

6.  The Church in Philadelphia, 3:7-13.  The Steadfast Church.  This church is being persecuted but is remaining steadfast in the midst of the persecution.  The second church for which there is no negative word.

7.  The Church in Laodicea, 3:14-22.  The Lukewarm Church.  Religion without righteousness.

Views of the Seven Churches:

1.  Actual historical churches in Asia Minor

2.  The state of the church in her various expressions throughout history;

3.  The state of the church at various periods in church history

E.  The Center of the Book and Controlling Thesis, 4-5

1.  Worship in the throne room of God with the four living creatures and the twenty four elders

2.  Worship in the throne room of God with no one found worthy to open the scroll in the right hand of God that contains the plans of God for the fulfillment of His purpose upon the earth until the Lamb of God who is at once the Lion of the tribe of Judah steps to the center of the throne room.  Four  hymns of praise hold the key to these two chapters.

F.  The Opening of the first six seals, 6:1-17

G.  The Sealing of the 144,000 Jewish Witnesses, 7:1-8

H.  The Multitude of the Martyrs who are persecuted and put to death for the Name of Jesus as Lord, 7:9-17

I.  The Opening of the seventh seal and the silence in heaven with the prayers of the saints as the great and terrible Day of the Lord draws closer, 8:1-5

J.  The blowing of the first six trumpets, 8:6-10:11

K.  The Two Witnesses, 11:1-14

L.  The Seventh Trumpet, 11:15-19

M.  The Woman and the Dragon, 12:1-17

N.  The Two Beasts:  The AntiChrist and his colleagues, 13:1-18

O.  The Song of the 144,000, 14:1-5

P.  The Three Angels, 14:6-13

Q.  The Harvest of the Earth, 14:14-20

R.  The Last Plagues and the Bowls of the Wrath of God, 15:1-19:5

S.  The Marriage Supper of the Lamb, 19:6-10

T.  The King is Coming, 19:11-21

U.  The Thousand Year Reign upon the earth, 20:1-21

V.  The New Heaven and the New Earth, 21:1-22:5

W.  The Coming of Christ, the Invitation to Christ and the Blessing of Christ, 22:6-21

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/813/feed 0 How to Engage the Culture War – Daniel 1:1-21 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/810 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/810#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 18:41:37 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/810 Daniel 1:1-21 [+/-]

I. Some Clean up Issues

A. First, Remember that the approach that I am taking to Daniel and the companion Apocalyptic in the New Testament is the approach of HISTORICAL PREMILLENAILLISM. This means first that the historical context becomes the primary environment for understanding the future so that we interpret what is to be “analogously” by what is given us in the context of the history. Second, this approach means that the church goes through at least some of the Tribulation period if not all so that this approach would not hold to a rapture of the church prior to the Tribulation. Third, this approach sees Israel in a two-fold way: on the one side Israel is an important entity as geo-political-national entity. In other words, the existence of the state of Israel is important to the purposes of God in the end time.

This does not mean, however, that all who are in the state of Israel will be saved in the end nor does it mean that all who are ethnically Israel will be saved. Israel is thus defined in two ways: on the one side is the State of Israel composed of those who belong to God and those who do not and on the other side is the Israel of God or all who have been brought into a relationship with God through His grace by way of the gift of salvation which comes through Jesus Christ.

B. Second, your approach to Israel is a part of your understanding of the end times. And there are three approaches that have historically been taken:

1. All Israel refers to all Jews so that all Jews will be saved. This would mean that God has two ways of saving people. One is through Jesus and the other is by being Jewish.

2. All Israel refers to the church so that Israel is a code word for the people of God so that our approach to the state of Israel is defined by what is politically feasible and not by anything biblical since from this perspective this issue is not addressed in the Bible.

3. All Israel is used in two senses with one having to do with the State of Israel and the other with the saved who are the people of God or the New Israel. It is this last one that characterizes my approach to this issue.

C. Third, I want to try to clarify my concluding remark in our last session about the Roman Catholic Church. I recently had lunch with a man who is a Roman Catholic who loves Jesus and is devoted to Jesus. But as I told him, I have struggles with some of the beliefs of the church and the most important of those with which I struggle is the issue of how a person becomes right and is kept right with God. We believe that we are justified by grace through faith and we are kept in right relationship with God in the same way. In other words, God calls us into a relationship with Him and gives us what we need to commit our lives to Him so as to begin a life of living under the Lordship of Jesus and the evidence of God’s work in us is seen in our devotion driven by desire to become by God’s grace all that God wants us to be. This is not the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

The RCC teaches that we are set apart for God through baptism and that as an infant but we are justified before God through those things that we do in and through the church that make us right with God. And if we don’t do enough in this life then we can have those who will pray us through purgatory so as to have us finally arrive at the justified state and thus enter paradise. In other words, justification does not precede sanctification as the free gift of God but follows sanctification as the means by which we become right with God through the works that we do in this life or the works that are done for us after this life that will in time release us from purgatory into paradise. That view in my opinion is not what the Bible teaches and the Roman Catholics that I know who are born again believers do not hold that view even though they continue to be a part of a church that does.

That is what I meant by calling the RCC an apostate church. But let me be very quick to add that liberal Protestant churches are as apostate as are Roman Catholic Churches. So my agenda is not anti-RCC but desiring to measure the meaning of church by biblical standards.

II. The Historical Context, 1:1-3

A. What God had prophesied through His prophets was now coming to pass; Babylon was invading Jerusalem and taking both possessions and people. Both in the earliest phases were of the finest sort. They were not after everything at first; they wanted to paralyze the place and her people by taking away the very best. How would someone who wanted to take over country go about it if their first focus was the first among places and possessions and the finest among the people? How would you go about changing the immediate condition of the country and the course of the culture? Babylon was after both these realties.

III. How to Change the Course of a Culture, 1:4-7

I just finished reading the summer issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology that chronicles the 150 year history of THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Reading about those horrific years of liberal leanings was so hard for me but it reminded me that in my short stint as a faculty member teaching Greek hearing faculty members talk about the goal of a three year program of study: the first year was about unlearning, the second was about new learning, and the third was about solidifying that new learning so as to send out students who were committed to the liberal/moderate agenda both in terms of the Bible and the Convention.

What we have in these verse is critical. They show us how Satan works to change the course of a culture. Pay close attention.

A. Target the youth, 4a. But not just any youth. Satan wants the brightest and the best. Look at the list of characteristics for the kind of children and youth for whom they were looking:

1. Morally decent or without blemish;

2. Good looking Guys;

3. Good discernment or skills in handling information

4. Knowing what education is and how to go about learning

5. Comfortable in the context of the palace and the university

B. Teach the Youth what you want them to know; Control the Curriculum so that you communicate what is true. Do you know that there is so much evidence for at least the teaching of Intelligent Design that is not allowed to be taught in many school systems? Why would we not allow this view to be taught since it undeniable that is scientifically viable? It is not allowed for the same reason that from a conservative perspective we do not want to teach that most of the founding fathers were deists and not men who were deeply devoted to God in the sense that you and I would understand what it means to be deeply devoted to God. But what do you teach the youth when you are wanting to change the course of your culture?

1. The literature that you want them to know; Here the reference is to history slanted to one perspective or literature written from one view only. Get your college reading list for your students and you will know what the angle is from which they are being taught.

2. The language that is the language of the culture. Language is the symbol carrying system of the culture. Culture has its lingua franca and its subcultural systems that is often found in the music of the subcultures.

3. The lifestyle of the culture. Teach them how to live by showing them what to eat and drink. Bring their taste for food and fine wine in to alignment with the language they are speaking and the books they are reading. It was no accident, for example, that in my early years of seminary when I was learning liberal theology that I also developed a taste for different foods and fine wines as well as wanting to learn to speak in a way that was not distinctively “southern.”

These are the three basic ways that Satan works in a culture to change the worldview of her people. And the place where this is prominent and paramount in our culture is on the campuses of our colleges and universities. You will not send a child to a public university and most private universities without them being radically changed unless they are really grounded in the Word of God before they go. Parents had better think seriously about this issue; there is where modern Babylon exists.

C. Take three years and then let the King determine whether or not they have arrived at degree status, 1:5. Seminary takes three years and a modern university without any breaks for summer would take about that amount of time.

IV. How to Remain Faithful to God in this kind of Context, 1:6-21

A. We must know who we are so that when someone tries to change our identity, we are clear about who we are regardless of what others say or do, 1:6-7 Daniel means, “God is my judge.” Hanniah means “The Lord is Gracious.” Mishael means, “who is what God is?” and Azariah, “The Lord is a helper.” Remember that names meant far more in that day than in ours; the name represented the essence of the identity of the person who bore the name. This is why the question of Moses to God in Exodus 3 [+/-] is so very critical, “what is Your Name?” Their names were changed to Bayblonian names that invoked the Babylonian deities Marduk, Bel, and Nebo.

B. We must resolve to live in commitment to who we are as the people of God, 1:8. The idea here is not that found in our first of the year resolutions. The idea here is the kind of commitment that comes out of an awareness of our identity. It would be something like this, “Because by God’s grace and His tender mercy manifest in the sacrifice of His Son for my sins, I resolve to live in the following ways so as to represent well who my God is and what my God has done for me: and what would some of the ways be?

C. Note the connection between verses 8 and 9. God’s favor was granted to Daniel because of Daniel’s faithfulness to God. Let me emphasize yet again that this basic Biblical pattern is never altered. We experience God’s presence and power in direct relationship to our determination to be devoted particularly when that devotion can be costly. It was here. It always is.

D. We must trust God and do what He tells us to do in a way that bears a winsome witness to those who would will and want us to do otherwise. Notice how gracious Daniel is to the representative of Nebuchanezzar. He is not defiant about what he is going to do. He trusts His God and asks for grace from the Babylonian official, 1:9-16.

V. God’s gift to Daniel and His friends in this difficult situation, 1:17-21

A. God gave them what they needed to learn the language and the literature while giving Daniel skill through visions and dreams to see correctly what was coming at them, 1:17. When we are being inundated by our culture we must have someone in our lives that can help us sort it so as to see it for what it is.

B. God enabled these four to be the finest and the fullest of knowledge among all who had been brought to Babylon. Do not ever think that being Biblical in your understanding is a defection to being dumb. That is what our culture communicates. The serious and saturated study of God’s work will produce with brilliant insight into what is going on in the world. The Bible is the Book from the hand of the One who created everything that is. Why would we ever think that knowledge of a University Science text would make us smarter than knowledge of the Bible? You better know the answer to that question by now!!. In fact we are told that when they stood before the king, 19; they were ten times or totally and completely more intelligent than any who were in Babylon.

C. The final verse is a frame for the first verse which tells us when Daniel came and how long he stayed which was in fact the 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Daniel was an old man when he went back to Jerusalem; the bulk of his years were spent in foreign land as are the bulk of our years when we recognize who we really are and where home really is.

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]]> http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/810/feed 0 The Book of Daniel: Study One http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/801 http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/801#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 21:54:04 +0000 Pastor Al http://www.fbcwaynesboro.org/archives/801 Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
INTRODUCTION:  The reforms among the people of God have always been generational.  What happens in one generation is no guarantee for either good or evil to happen in the next generation.  This does not mean, however, that what we do in one generation determines what is going to happen in the next except insofar as it conforms to the sovereign plan and purpose of God.  Such is the history that leads us to the period of the Book of Daniel.

Read 2 Kings 21-25 [+/-].  These chapters form the historical context for the Babylonian Captivity.  Josiah had become king in Judah and following the discovery of the lost law of God or Torah, Josiah led a real revival in Judah.  People repented before God.  The law of God was restored in the land.  Those who had lost their way returned to a righteous and godly way of living.  But Josiah left the scene only to be followed by kings who “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  And the promised judgment of God upon His people came in 587 B.C. when the Babylonians took many in Jerusalem and in Judah into exile.  Read Psalm 137 [+/-] to capture some of the sense of what the exiles were feeling while away from Judah and Jerusalem.

The northern Kingdom of Israel had been captured by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.  and now the southern Kingdom of Judah is under the judgment of God.  Daniel was with his friends among the first wave of citizens to be taken into exile as the King of Babylon was looking for some of the finest of the young men to train as leaders in his country.

Read 2 Kings 20 [+/-] and see how it is that the judgment of God came upon Judah because they kept cozying up to pagan peoples and refusing to be the distinctive people of God.

I.  The Date and the Distinctive of the Book of Daniel

A.  Liberal scholars date the book in the second century saying that Daniel is used as a pseudonym for the book since so much of what is predicted in the book happened in the second century B.C. and the book could not have been written prior to the events that are prophcied!!

B.  Historical Scholarship has dated the book from the sixth century B.C. covering the entire seventy year period of the Babylonian Captivity from 605-535 B.C.

C.  Daniel along with his three friends were leading young men in Jerusalem.  Daniel is mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14,20 [+/-] and 28:3 as well as Heb. 11:32-33 [+/-].

D.  The first six chapters are historical and the last six are apocalyptic.  The first three chapters of the Book of Revelation are historical; chapters four-five are the key to the whole book and chapters six-twenty-two are apocalyptic in nature.  John Macarthur says that what the Book of Revelation is to the New Testament the Book of Daniel is to the Old Testament.

E.  The Book of Daniel is contemporaneous with Ezekiel, Habbakuk, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah.  Read a little of Habbakuk or Zephaniah to get a flavor of the people in terms of how they saw God.  What is found in all these books is a people who saw themselves as the people of God as measured by external participation in the practices of worship and large populations of people who gathered at the places of worship.  Thus, when judgment was preached the people listened but did not hear until at last the judgment came.

Historical Periods and the Unfolding of the Purposes of God

The Babylonian Empire            605-539 B.C.
The Medo-Persian Empire        539-331 B.C.
The Greek Empire                331-146 B.C.
The Roman Empire            146 B.C.-A.D. 476

The Coming of Jesus into the World and the Beginning of the Last Days.  The Church was institutionalized and secularized as a part of the state in the fourth century A.D.

The Middle or Dark Ages            A.D. 500-1500
The Reformation                A.D. 1500-1700
The Modern Period            A.D. 1700-2000  This is the period of the enlightenment that brought us Darwinian evolution coupled with naturalistic science that from the perspective of the “academy” diminished the need for God except in things “supernatural” or “superstitious.”  The early twentieth century brought the rise of Freudian psychosocial sciences that explained the idea of God as a creation of humans to deal with our fears of the unknown so God became a human creation for coping and thus by the middle of the twentieth century we have come to the “death of god” theology as in not needing “god” as a category to explain either the origins or the meanings of life.  Evolution made humans into higher animal forms and psycho-social science made us into packs or herds of neurotics who needed medication and therapy to survive!

The Post-modern era            A.D.  2000-

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