Faithful in the Night: Dream, Discernment & A Divine Kingdom

[00:00:00] Isn’t it nice to know that even kings two and a half thousand years ago were struggling to sleep? The book of Daniel was originally written by Daniel to the Jews who were in exile. They were living in Babylon. And by the grace of God, it has survived all the way down to us so that we can read it and learn as well, for we are also a people who live in a foreign land, strangers and aliens, a foreign Babylon, and we await to be taken home to where we live Daniel is going to remind us that God is with his people revealing mysteries, that earthly kingdoms are short-lived, and that there is a kingdom that lasts forever, and in fact, has an eternal king Today we’re actually gonna pick up the story.

[00:00:49] We’re in Daniel chapter two. Daniel and his three friends are already living in Babylon, but last week we were already introduced to Daniel and his friends and the events beforehand, so a quick reminder of those and maybe a little bit of extra information. So first, the extra bit of information. Daniel is likely part of the royal family.

[00:01:08] I didn’t realize that until I was reading it myself to, getting ready for this sermon. But Daniel is either part of the royal family or he’s a noble, and given that he’s the kind of lead figure in the story, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he’s more likely to be a member of the royal family, and his friends who are with him are probably nobles, but also could be part of the royal family.

[00:01:30] Now, obviously, they could be cousins of the royal family, but still part of a royal family, a descendant of David They were all taken by King Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem back to Babylon. They were taken as slaves and put through an assimilation program to try and get them to become wise men of Babylon.

[00:01:51] And we saw last week that as they went through this assimilation program, they tried to keep themselves separate in some way, and in doing so, stood out as the four wisest men amongst all the wise men, and they entered into the king’s service. At this time, the, these men are described as young men. And it’s important for us to remember as we go into chapter 2 that being taken away from Jerusalem means that you were taken away from God.

[00:02:21] You are taken away from the temple where God dwells with His people, and you’ve been taken to a foreign land where there are foreign gods. And it seems, in those times you would s- you would presume that the gods of Babylon have defeated the gods of Israel or the God of Israel. And so that sets us up for our story in chapter 2.

[00:02:45] One of the processes that you go through as you’re reading the Bible, and I would encourage you to do this as you read the Bible for yourself, something I did as I was prepping for this sermon, was you could read through the chapter and you look for the words or the concepts that tend to repeat themselves a lot.

[00:03:02] Because often in stories, the thing that gets repeated is generally the main idea or at least a key theme that runs throughout that passage that you should be paying attention to. And I’m going to say that the key theme for Daniel chapter 2 is this idea of mystery. There is a huge mystery that is troubling the king, a mystery that needs to be revealed and can only be revealed by the gods.

[00:03:28] It’s set up for us very well by the astrologers. I’m just gonna call them astrologers. There’s about five different words that are used to describe this group of people. But the astrologers set it up for us in verses 10 and 11. I’m just gonna read a little bit of it. It says, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks.

[00:03:46] No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among flesh.” When I read these words, one of the things that really stands out to me and that I love is that I have a God who does dwell among men. Our God lives with us. Daniel is used to a God who lives and dwells with his people, and that actually has huge ramifications for the rest of our lives.

[00:04:15] We don’t have to get caught up in all, all this identity crises that the world tends to have, trying to find out what the meaning of life is, because Jesus has the answer for us. I’m not stuck here wondering what the purpose of my life is, because Jesus has provided me with one. And I’m not stressed out about what the future holds and whether or not I’ve made the right decisions or not, because I know the God who controls it, and I know that he has my good in his hands.

[00:04:45] And so these poor astrologers, they have nothing. They worship a God who is distant and who is not with his people And because of that, they just stir the king up into anger. And it goes from a king who was going to kill the group that was surrounding him because they couldn’t answer the question, to now he’s going to kill all the wise men of Babylon.

[00:05:08] And so Daniel now is at risk. Daniel has to find an answer. So in verse fourteen, Daniel, with wisdom and with tact, he goes to the king and he manages to get some time. And then with that time, he does two very important things that we actually did a couple of weeks ago. He goes to his friends and he says, “Hey, this is the problem.

[00:05:34] We need to pray.” And then he prays. We spent a whole week doing that, sharing with each other what our issues are that we need prayer for, and then praying for a whole week together and with Christians all over the world about this. Now, they are praying that the mystery might be revealed, and that in the night, God’s going to reveal the mystery to Daniel in a vision.

[00:05:56] And Daniel’s response is not what you would normally expect to happen, right? If the vision got revealed, I expect Daniel to wake up, run to the king, and save everyone’s life. Now, they’re all being executed, or maybe he’s paused it for a little while until Daniel’s time runs out before he starts killing them again.

[00:06:16] But Daniel takes a moment before he does that, and there’s a large chunk of text in this passage that’s given to Daniel’s prayer of praise and thanksgiving to the God who answered his prayers And we should be doing very similar things. In fact, I was, as I was prepping this sermon, like we need to be reminded to thank God for all the things that we’ve had answered prayer for, and then this morning we went, “What prayers were answered?

[00:06:41] Let’s thank God for them.” And we had people tell us of answered prayers, and we thanked God for that. And I think it’s amazing that us as a church, we actually have really good leaders who help us to do this, who help us to pray together, who help us to remember the God who answers those prayers, and to praise Him when that happens, when God answers those prayers.

[00:07:02] Because we do have a God who lives with us and who answers our prayers. Now, fortunately, sometimes it feels unfortunately, but fortunately He answers them like a parent answers prayers. Like if you come up to your parents and say, “This is what I want,” parents tend to go, “Yes,” “No,” “Maybe,” “Not yet,” “Maybe later,” “Sure, that sounds fine.”

[00:07:21] Okay? All those answers are great answers because the God who gives them knows what’s best for you. Now, I’m, I’m currently being harassed, for example, to give my 13-year-old a phone.

[00:07:32] But it’s my job as a parent to know what’s best and to say, “Not yet.” So God is going to reveal this mystery to Daniel. He’s then gonna go and tell the king after he praises God. The king then also is gonna give honor to the God who reveals mysteries. Because Daniel, when he comes, doesn’t take the credit.

[00:07:52] Daniel reminds the king, “The only reason that I can give you the answer is because I know a God who tells people the answers, who reveals mysteries. It’s not because I’m wiser than anyone else, it’s because I have a relationship with a God who does the impossible.” So he tells him the dream and the interpretation.

[00:08:13] I think it’s pretty smart of Nebuchadnezzar to say, “Tell me the dream as well as the interpretation.” And it makes full sense to me that he’s like, “You guys are all conspiring to give me false answers. That’s why you, you’re saying all these things to me and not just answering the questions.” Because if you really knew the interpretation of the dream, you should also be able to tell the easier thing, which is to tell the t- the story of the dream.

[00:08:34] Now, the dream is about kingdoms. This is gonna be our second repeated theme throughout this chapter, so let’s dive into the kingdoms. We should have an image up there of roughly, a, a vague idea of what the image is in the dream. So we have a statue that’s made up of different metals, each representing different kingdoms.

[00:08:53] And you’ll note that Daniel does not sit there and lay out its… You know, he tells Nebuchadnezzar that he’s the head, and then there’s just other kingdoms coming. Okay? Even though Daniel lives through the next kingdom, and in fact, the people he’s writing this book of Daniel 2 are living in the next kingdom, right?

[00:09:12] He lives until the second year of King Cyrus, which is Persia, but he doesn’t go on a- into all that detail. Even though he’s writing to Jews who would have already known what the second kingdom is, he doesn’t go into that detail. So I’m gonna skip over a lot of that detail and just say there’s four kingdoms, because actually who the kingdoms are doesn’t really matter.

[00:09:30] They represent earthly kingdoms. The thing that matters is the rock. This beautiful rock that is cut out, not by human hands, but we see it get cut out in the, in this vision, in this dream, comes down, strikes the feet, destroys the statue, turning it essentially into dust that gets blown away in the winds.

[00:09:51] And then the rock turns into this huge mountain that lasts forever and fills the earth. And so the dream has this twofold poi- point to it. Earthly kingdoms don’t last, but God’s kingdom does Nice simple point. But this is the mystery that God reveals to Daniel, that Daniel then reveals to Nebuchadnezzar, and that’s what Daniel then records as the mystery that’s revealed to the people who are in exile.

[00:10:19] And it’s what we now today need to also hear, is the mystery of this beautiful dream and what it means for us now. See, to the Jews who are reading this, this is great news. God is in control. The earth kingdoms, though they look great, and they’re strong and they’re powerful, ultimately will all fail.

[00:10:42] They’re fragile, but it’s also a warning to them not to rely on those kingdoms, to remember that they don’t belong to these kingdoms. And it’s interesting that at this point, Cyrus is the king who tells the Israelites that they can go back to Jerusalem to build the temple and build their kingdom again back down in Jerusalem, still belonging to Persia.

[00:11:04] But he’s the one who’s told them they can do that, and a lot of them didn’t go. I wonder if they didn’t go because Babylon actually quite a nice place to live. You know, there’s running water all the time. They’ve got wealth. They’ve got people around them. Even though they went there as slaves, they were went there…

[00:11:21] They came to be assimilated, not just to be slaves the whole time, but actually to become part of the Babylonian Empire. And so they have this sense of loss of identity almost because they’ve been there, and they’re starting to enjoy the comforts. And it’s the same message that w- comes to us today. We don’t belong to these beautiful and powerful kingdoms that we see.

[00:11:44] We’ve had more than four kingdoms that have passed since Babylon. They all come, and they all go. Many looked amazing. Some promised blissful community living. Others brought absolute destruction wherever they went. All of them have failed: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Ottomans, the Mongols, Japan, Britain, Germany, Russia, or it was the Soviet Union even before that, and even now with the mighty USA and the mighty China They’re fragile.

[00:12:19] They’re not gonna last. We are not to be seduced by this world or the promises that it makes to us Here in Australia, we have a beautiful promise. Look around at our country. We’re one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We’re far away from all the wars that are happening. We generally live in peace, and we have this kind of living the dream element.

[00:12:42] But don’t get comfortable. Don’t start to rely on the wealth of this country or the welfare that it provides us. Don’t rest on this world. It’s not gonna look after you. Your job is not secure. Your house that you live in will eventually crumble and fall. The luxuries that we have here in Australia are fleeting and temporary.

[00:13:05] We can’t rely on it, and Daniel today is reminding us to cling to the new and everlasting kingdom. See, that rock that destroys the earthly kingdoms and sets up a new forever kingdom, and it covers the entire earth, comes in with Jesus. He’s the rock, the new king who rules forever. And believe it or not, it was a mystery when Jesus came.

[00:13:30] It was a mystery that he revealed, and today is still a mystery that God reveals to the people all over the world Jesus is king. He doesn’t set up an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual, eternal kingdom. And we who belong to this kingdom, we serve our king in obedience. We’re loyal to him and are called to be loyal to each other.

[00:13:54] This kingdom has spread across the whole world. In fact, you sitting here in these chairs listening to me talk about this mystery that was revealed a long time ago is itself a fulfilling of that mystery that was revealed two and a half thousand years ago. We are the other side of the world where this kingdom has spread to, and we are celebrating and coming together around the king who rules that kingdom

[00:14:18] I find it interesting that the gospel itself is a mystery. It was made known to us through Jesus to the apostles, and then the apostles have continued to pass it on, and we continue to pass it on. Let’s just go through a few quick references to make sure I’m not lying to you about the fact that the gospel is a mystery.

[00:14:36] Ephesians 3:4, ” In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which is not, uh, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has been revealed by the Spirit of God to God’s holy apostles and prophets.” So a mystery that was maybe a little bit revealed, but not in the same way it’s been revealed through Christ.

[00:15:00] Colossians 1:27, “To them God had chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Or further in chapter two of Colossians, “My goal is that you may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom all– in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

[00:15:32] And again, in Romans, ” Now to him who is able to establish you lawfully by my gospel, the message that I proclaim about Jesus Christ in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all Gentiles might come to obedience that comes from faith.”

[00:15:55] When we share the gospel, we are like Daniel. We are being used by God to reveal his mystery to the people around us. So the next time God gives you that little poke because there’s an opportunity in front of you to tell someone about Jesus, I want you to take courage and then also take action knowing that you are actually about to fulfill a prophetic dream that was given to a sleepless king over two and a half thousand years ago This future that we live in was pre-planned and was brought about by the God who lives with his people and reveals mysteries.

[00:16:36] Daniel chapter two is a beautiful story of how God’s people live a faithful life in a foreign kingdom that they don’t belong to Daniel and his friends are prayerful, and they’re used by God to reveal his mystery to people who do not know him. The mystery of his own kingdom that covers the whole earth and has no end.

[00:16:58] We’re called to be like Daniel, to be like him and his friends, to make sure we are relying on the God who dwells with his people, to check in on our allegiances. Is it to Christ or to the temporary comforts of this world? We are shown how to live away from our ultimate home in exile as we await Jesus’s return.

[00:17:19] We’re to be people who pray for and with one another, people who take action to rescue people around us, people who fulfill prophecy by being used by God to reveal the mystery of the gospel and continue to expand his eternal kingdom all over the world

[00:17:39] So as I finish up, I just want you to remember six things from this passage

[00:17:43] I was told to keep it short ’cause the reading was so long. As you leave, I want you to remember that God dwells with us. We don’t have a God who is far away. Where two or three of us are joined, where we come together, there He is with us. He’s here in this room. He reveals life’s true mysteries. If you’re lost and questioning your life, your purpose, your identity, you can only find the right answer in Christ.

[00:18:07] It’s the only way. Everything else is gonna be futile, not last. We’re called to be loyal to Him and not to our country or our comforts

[00:18:16] Our loyalty must be to Him above all else. Number four, the kingdoms of this world are short-lived and cannot be trusted or relied on. We’re not surprised by wars and rumors of wars. That’s just part of life in this world Kingdoms will come and kingdoms will go, but it’s the Word of God that’s going to endure forever Number five, Jesus is the eternal king.

[00:18:37] His kingdom will know no end. He uses us to share his mystery as he grows his everlasting kingdom, just as he used Daniel to share the mystery with a sleepless and tiresome king who was prone to anger by the sounds of it. And then the last one, number six, we can use prayer and our actions to continue to bring this mysterious kingdom to save the people around us Let’s be like Daniel and his friends, constantly coming together, sharing our struggles, sharing people who we want to receive Christ as King with one another, praying for them, and then celebrating as he expands his kingdom and uses us