Message Description

Dr. Kurt Bjorklund closes out the series "Minority Report" teaching from the Old Testament book of Daniel to illustrate God's comforting plan for Christ's followers in the midst of life's peaceful and chaotic times.

Message Transcript

Well, you just heard Daniel 12 read, and I assume it's perfectly clear now, right? Everyone's got it and you know exactly what that's all about. We are finishing a series today that we've called the Minority Report. We've worked our way through the Old Testament, Book of Daniel. And I just want to commend you for hanging with this. This has required some heavy lifting. There's been a lot of text, a lot of concepts, and this has not been the easiest series to just hang with. And so, I just want to say, "Good job doing that." And here's really what the series has been about. The Israelites, some of the Israelites found themselves living in exile, meaning they were taken from Jerusalem where they lived into the Babylonian captivity. And when they got into the captivity, they lived as a minority, if you will. In other words, their perspective, their beliefs, were not the dominant beliefs of the culture. Their way of life was not the dominant way of life in the culture. And so, they lived as a minority. 

What we've tried to do during this series is explore what does it mean to live as a minority, because Christians have always lived as a minority in a culture. Even in America, when America had some values that seem to line up, there was still a disconnect. This is what we learned throughout the pages of the Bible, because in Romans 12:2 we're told, "Don't be conformed to the world." In other words, the world is always trying to shape and mold the values and the perceptions and the beliefs of people of faith. And so today we come to Daniel chapter 10 through 12, you just heard 12 read. And this is, again, a lot of text, but the reason we're taking this together is this is a singular vision. In other words, Daniel has a vision, and it's all one train of thought. And so, my hope today is that even though this may feel like drinking from a fire hose, that you'll be able to when we're done say, "I have an idea of what these chapters are about." 

And here's what we see. We see nations at war. We see terrifying images of all kinds of battles going on, and people raising themselves up against God and against the people of God. And yet in the midst of it, we see God's hand touching Daniel and comforting Daniel. Three times in chapter 10 we see this image of a hand touching him. Verse 10, "A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees." So, the first time that he gets this touch there's a little bit of trembling because he says, "This is terrifying." Verse 16 we see again this idea of being touched, "Then the one who looked like a man touched my lips and opened my mouth, and I began to speak." And then verse 18, "Again, the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength." He said, "Don't be afraid, you who are highly esteemed." Some translations say, "You who are loved." He said, 'Peace. Be strong, now be strong.'" 

And so, the touching hand here was to affirm Daniel to say, "You're loved in the midst of all the visions of chaos and destruction that you're seeing. I want you to know that you're loved. Be at peace, have courage. Don't be afraid with all that's coming." Now you may say, "Okay, what does this vision have to do with you or me today that Daniel had?" In order to answer that question, I want to ask and answer four questions that are tied to this account in the Book of Daniel. And here's the first, and that is, what is the origin of this vision, or where does this vision come from? And we see this in chapter 10 verses one through nine. Here's what we read, it says, "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel." Now Cyrus was probably a co-region with Darius, in other words, they led it a similar timeframe. Darius was Daniel six, Daniel nine, "It's message was true and concerned a great war." 

There's the image of the great war. So, in other words, he has a vision. It's about this great battle. "And understanding the message came to me in a vision. At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food, no meat or wine touched my lips. And I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over." In other words, he's so disturbed by this vision that he says, "For three weeks, I didn't eat meat. I didn't drink wine. I didn't use any moisturizer." That's what he was saying here. "And on the 24th day of the first month I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris," it's ways outside of Babylon. "And I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, and his face like lightening, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude." 

And so, this man appears to him with some obvious characteristics that are supernatural. And this has led some to conclude that this is a kind of appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. In other words, before Jesus came in the flesh that this was Jesus appearing to Daniel. And the argument for that is that in Revelation one you read about Jesus and you get all of the imagery. Much of it is the same that's used here. Now I don't actually believe that this is Jesus, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. And the reason is, is because in just a few verses we're told that Michael had to come and help this man. But here's what seems obvious. And that is that the appearance of this person means that this is a divine revelation, that this isn't just Daniel eating some bad meat and having a vision. 

This is Daniel having an encounter with God and God giving him a vision that he wants Daniel to understand, and he wants people for all time to understand. And here's why this matters maybe to you, to me. And that is the reason to pay attention to the Book of Daniel, to Daniel 10 through 12. Even though I know that if you have a Bible reading plan and you get to Daniel, kind of the late section, this is one of those that you're tempted to hit fast forward on pretty quickly and be like, "Let me read Psalms again. It's a little easier, a little more edifying than all these visions." The reason to read this and to consider it or to listen today is not just so that someday, if you're in heaven and you meet Daniel, and he says, "How did you like my book?" That you don't have to say, "I didn't read it. It was a little too convoluted." Because this is something that God wants you to understand, he wants me to understand, and it's for our benefit. 

It's something that will help us navigate the world that we're in today. So, what's at stake? If we know that origin is divine, what's at stake in this vision? And this is in chapter 10, verses 12 through 21. And here, what we see again in verse one is this idea of a great war. And then in verse 12 it says, "Then he continued, 'Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I have come in response to them.'" And listen to this, verse 13. "But the Prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the King of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come." So, what's at stake? 

Well, I believe that this image of a great war shows us that there's something more than just what we see, because he says, "There's this Prince of Persia," which is an illusion of a spiritual being, a supernatural being that is impacting the geopolitical realities of the days that Daniel lived in. And this idea of Michael showing up is the same thing. Now, again, you may say, "Well, wait a second. This feels like crazy talk, but why is this here?" Because I believe that God wants you and me to understand, and Daniel and all people for all time, that there are spiritual realities that aren't always seen in all that's going on in our world, including the geopolitical factors that we see that there are evil forces at work, trying to undo any good. And it isn't just on a geopolitical level, but it's also on a personal level. In other words, there are Satan's demons that want to destroy your marriage, your family, your life, your very being. 

This is told to us in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, we're told that, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the principalities, against the rulers." In other words, it isn't all that we see that is our struggle. There's something bigger going on that we may not see or understand. And in I Peter 5 we're told that, "Satan roams about this earth, seeking someone to devour." In other words, the images used in the Bible are terrifying about what is going on. And the thing that happens in our day and age is we often say, "That isn't what's going on. What's going on is what I can see. This was just a decision. This was just a result of some choices that people made." But what the Bible says to us is that there's actually other forces that are at work. And if you don't understand or appreciate those forces, you won't understand where the battle is really waged. 

And here's why, again this is important, because if we don't understand that what will happen is, we will live as if this world, what we see is everything. And we won't understand that there's a spiritual world that's impacted our present reality. C. S. Lewis once wrote a book called, The Screwtape Letters, and it was an extended allegory. In other words, something he made up to communicate spiritual truth, but in it is a conversation between a senior demon and a junior demon. And the senior demon is counseling the junior demon on how to do his work. Again, this is C. S. Lewis, it's not necessarily biblical, but it captures maybe the essence of this. Because at one point the senior demon in writing to the junior demon says, "One of the best things you can do is make it so that your subject, the person you're trying to impact against the things of God, doesn't even understand or know that you exist." 

In other words, one of the vulnerabilities that you and I have is not understanding that there are spiritual factors at play in the entertainment we take in, in the politics of our world, in the advertisements that are around us. In all of the things of our world there's a spiritual reality. And when we minimize it, when we say it isn't so, maybe not overtly, what we're doing is we're saying, "I'm just living in the here and now." And here's how we know by the way that we don't really see it or get it sometimes. And that is when we only pray with any kind of fervor or sustained prayer. When we find ourselves in trouble, do you know what people do? And I'm guilty of this, so I'm not pointing any finger that doesn't point back at me here. And that is we go along. And as long as things are good in our life, we don't pray a whole lot. But then as soon as we get into a crisis, what do we do? "Okay, God, I'm going to pray." What are we doing? We're saying, "Now I need God." But when everything's good, we don't assume that there's any going on. 

Now obviously prayer is something that comes and goes in our lives, but it's an indication, the little estimate that by and large the church gives to prayer of how little it really believes that there's a great battle and that there's something immense at stake. And here's maybe a way to just think about this. I don't know if when you were a kid if your parents ever took you to a haunted house. I think they've fallen on a little bit of hard times in terms of lawsuits and some other things. 

But when I was a kid, my parents would take me to haunted houses. And so, I remember going to a haunted house and when you're five, six, seven, eight, and this is a little spoiler alert. If you're five, six, seven, eight, I'm going to give you some good information right now. When you're five, six, seven, eight, and you go to a haunted house and you go through the house, every corner you turn, you're like, "Whoa, I'm scared." And you don't know what's going on. When you get a little older, what happens is you realize that there's a limit to how far the goblin's going to come out from behind the ship that's there. And that there's somebody behind the scenes that's orchestrating it. 

Now this analogy breaks down. I get that. But my point is this and that is, we live in something that's not contained or controlled in the sense that there are real forces bent on your destruction, bent on the destruction of all that's good that God wants. But there is something going on beyond what we see, where the battle is being waged. 

And we would do well to say it's on that level, the level of prayer, the level of spirituality, the level of submission to God that I want to wage my battle, not just here in what's seen. If your marriage is in trouble today, counseling is good. Talking it out is good. But do you know what else is important? Is getting on your knees and pleading to the God of heaven to work in something that you have said and assumed didn't have any spiritual dimension to it at all. If you find yourself in a place where one of your kids is making choices that are self-destructive, it's good to say, "I want to bring resources to bear and have an intervention and do all of those things." But it's important to also get on your knees and say, "God of heaven. There is something going on here that is bigger than what I can even see or understand." 

Too often what I do, maybe what you do is say, "There's a problem. I have to solve it." Rather than saying, "There's a problem. I want to do what I can, but I also want to engage the God of heaven to say there's something else going on here." We see that there is a divine message here about this great battle that's being waged. So, what does this vision foretell. In verse 14 of chapter 10 it says, "These are telling of things that will come." And what this vision foretells is really told to us in chapter 11, all of chapter 11. And I'm going to zip through chapter 11 fairly quickly. Not because it's unimportant, but because it's so detailed that if we start going into the details, we may miss the bigger picture. And here's what I believe is happening in chapter 11. And that is, you are seeing here a detailed account of some of what's in the immediate future for the people after Daniel lived. So, verses 1 through 35 tells the account of all of these kings. 

In fact, this probably goes back to Daniel 2, where you have the four parts of a statue being smashed by the rock. And most commentators would say that Alexander the Great is right away here in chapter 11. And then there are all of these historical figures. In fact, I saw one commentator say that there are 122 fulfilled prophecies in verses 1 through 22, or 1 through 35. In other words, 122 things happen that you can historically look at and say, "This is what was being foretold." And the reason that I say I want to zip through that is not because I don't want to show you some of the detail of it. Although I didn't spend a lot of time looking at it, to be honest, because it's mind boggling when you do. But what I did is I looked at it and what I see here is that there's one figure in particular, a man named Antiochus that appears to be predicted, who appears to be a type of something, that is going to impact people throughout the generations that follow. 

And Antiochus' story is told, at least in part in verses 1 through 35. And this is a man named Antiochus Epiphanes, who reigned from 175 to 164 BC. And some would say that this even goes back to Daniel 8, and he's the little horn that shows up in Daniel 8. And here's what we read about him. This is verses 21 through 24. It says, "And he will be succeeded by a contemptible person." So, Antiochus, and again, almost all commentators would agree that this is Antiochus Epiphanes. 

"A person who has not been given the honor of royalty, and he will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure and he will seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him, both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully. And with only a few people, he will rise to power. When the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and will achieve what neither his father nor his forefathers did. And he will distribute plunder, loot, and wealth among his followers. And he will plot to overthrow a fortress, but only for a time." 

Now you may say, "Okay, Antiochus Epiphanes what does this have to do with anything?" By the way, there are some commentators and scholars who look at Daniel 11 and say, "Because of how specific and clear it is in telling history, it wasn't written when the time of the exile, when Daniel appeared to live, but it was written much later because it couldn't possibly have come through with this great specificity." But what you have, if you read through this, is you have this king of the north, this is Antiochus, basically using deception to make a deal with people. And in making a deal with people, he uses that then to wage a battle. 

And then he goes into the temple we're told in extra biblical literature, and he sacrificed pigs in the temple, which was a way of desecrating the temple, what Daniel has called the abomination of desolation. Okay. So, what you have is you have this Antiochus guy raising himself up against the people of God using deception in order to gain access and to wage a battle. And again, most people who write books on these things would agree on this. And then you come to verse 36 and now there's significant disagreement, but I believe in verse 36 through the end of the chapter, verse 45, that now you're speaking about antichrist. And if you've never been around church, this may be a foreign term to you, but in the New Testament there's a phrase antichrist that seems to talk about a future figure that will raise himself up against God, will make a deal with people in order to gain control. 

And then will do this abomination of desolation thing once again. Now let me just take a step back from this chapter for a moment, and just say something about antichrist and how I understand this. So, this idea of antichrist, if Daniel looked ahead and I think I have a little chart here, because sometimes the chart helps, and he saw Antiochus chapter 11 verses 21 and following. What we learn in the new Testament in 1 John 2:18 is that there are many antichrists. And so, he didn't just kind of see Antiochus, maybe that's all he could understand at the time. Maybe he didn't even understand that, but now we can look and say there are many antichrists. In other words, what the New Testament indicates is that this idea of antichrist is always present. In other words, every generation will have people who try to manipulate things to stamp out anything that is of God, anything that's good. 

This is why generations have come along and said, "Well, the antichrist is," have you ever heard this? Like, "It's Adolf Hitler, or it's this person or that person," a long time, because there are many antichrists. And in the way that we can read I John 2:18, it doesn't just necessarily have to mean historical figures. It can mean anything that raises itself up against the things of God, things that compete with God for worship. And I've heard some people say, "That one of the ways you know what a culture worships are by what its biggest buildings are." What do they build buildings to? And so if you just ask that question in Pittsburgh, "What are our biggest buildings?" That tells you something about what we value most as a society. Well, certainly there are some big churches, Orchard Hill would be among them, but there are buildings that are bigger than churches. There are sports arenas, there's banks that tower over our skyline, there's healthcare facilities, there's entertainment venues. 

What does that mean? It means as a society, probably the things that garner the most attention, that are in a sense antichrist, things that raise themselves up against the things of God are our entertainment, our resources, our wellbeing. It's our sports industry. Now, those are all good things. They're not wrong, but what happens is they're things that make people of God say, "That's where my security lies. That's what I need, and that's what antichrist does." Antichrist says, "What you need is something that God doesn't give you. What you need is something that will give you fulfillment along the way." And so, some of us if we just take one of those, just take money. What some of us will do is we'll live our lives saying, "What I need is to make sure that I have enough money to live out my days comfortably. And that's where all of my security lies." And what we do is instead of saying, "My security lies in Jesus Christ and in the God of heaven, we assume that that's what will give us what we need." 

Now again, it's a good thing to have enough money to retire. That's not the point of this. As much as saying is when we start to say, "These are ultimate things." And then I believe that the Bible shows us the antichrist isn't just something that's manifested over and over many times, but that there is an ultimate antichrist. And so, here's, again, just this picture with another arrow that says, "There's an alternate antichrist." And I believe that this is what Daniel is saying in verse 36 and following. And this is again picked up in some of the New Testament in verse 36 of chapter 11. Here's what we read, "The king will do as he pleases." Now it's not Antiochus, but he's looking farther ahead. "And he will exalt himself and magnify himself above every God and say, 'Unheard of things against the God of Gods.'" Do you see it? The great battle raising himself up against God and against everything that's good. 

And what we see if you read through this account, is that again there's this same pattern of deception. And in the New Testament what we get as we get some indications of what this person is like. In 2 Thessalonians 2 we see that this person is a person who is opposed to what is good. And 2 Thessalonians 2:10, that's verse 3, we see that this person uses false signs to deceive people. In 2 Thessalonians, this person, called the man of lawlessness, and 2 Thessalonians, 2:11 and 12 that they use a strong delusion. But let me just read you some of what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 24. This is beginning in verse 15. He says, "So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation." The desecration of the holy things. "Spoken of through the prophet, Daniel." Okay, so Jesus basically says, "Here's what I'm doing. I'm telling you that Daniel prophesied this, and there is coming a time when there will be this abomination of desolation." 

He says, "This is what Daniel is talking about. This is what I'm talking about." And he says, "Let the reader understand. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the house top go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak, how dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Pray that your flight will not take place in the winter or on the Sabbath. Then there will be a great distress, unequal from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again." And so, what it appears to me, Daniel is looking ahead and seeing as he's saying, "There's a pattern of this great war of people and things raising themselves up against the things of God, trying to deceive the people of God to say, 'This is what's ultimate. This is what I need.' And then there's coming a great day, a great tribulation, a great battle where the ultimate antichrist will come and raise himself up against God. But then what we get is chapter 12 of Daniel. 

And this is the fourth question in that is, what does this vision motivate? What does it comfort in us today? How does it motivate? How does it comfort us today? And here's what Daniel 12 says. "At that time, Michael, the great prince who protects the people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then." Do you hear the similarity to Jesus' words? Jesus, "There will never be a time like this." Daniel saying the same thing. 

"But at that time your people, everyone whose name is found written in the book will be delivered." Now what's the book? Well, in Revelation we're told about this book of life. In other words, that the people who have come to not believe that their righteousness is attained on their own, that they somehow through their religious effort have made themselves acceptable to God, but have come to say, "Jesus has paid the price. He's the lamb of God who died for my sins, find their name written in the book." And so, what Daniel does here is he talks. And again, Revelation picks up this imagery and says, "There's this incredible battle. But if your name is written in the book, you'll be delivered." 

That's what we see here. And here's what he says next. He says, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." This is the clearest reference to date in the Old Testament about everlasting life. In other words, now the Old Testament isn't just hinting at this idea that there's something beyond, but now it's saying explicitly, "If your name is written in the book, whatever battle is waged, whatever happens in the future, whatever intrigue or difficulty comes, you can be delivered if your name is written in the book." Do you see where there's a little hope in the midst of this? In other words, the Bible is not saying that when you go through difficulty you should wring your hands and say, "Oh my goodness, this world is getting destroyed," and be angsty and angry. But instead, you can be a person who says, "I can live with hope and comfort because I know no matter how bad it gets, no matter what might come, that ultimately God will deliver his people." The people whose name is written in the book. 

And then it says this. "Those who are wise will shine." This is verse 3, "like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever." And this is an image that's picked up by Paul in Philippians 2:15, where he talks about shining like stars. And so, several New Testament references come back to this and basically say, "This is part of the ethos of the people of God." And if you've been here throughout this series, what we've talked about is this idea of being a creative minority. In other words, saying, "Part of what I want to do is not live and look at culture and go, 'We're a minority. This is hard, and there's difficult things happening.'" But instead live with a perspective of saying, "How can I build into the world that God has placed me in?" And you see it again here in Daniel, by having confidence that this world is not everything you can hold loosely, what this world promises and say, "My name is written in the book. Therefore, I have comfort and hope, and I can shine like a star where I am." 

Now shining like a star is an image of saying, "You're a beacon of light in darkness." And there are a lot of ways that people try to do this. In fact, as a church we're going to do something with the rest of this year that is taking some things we do every year but trying to give a little more focus to them, and we're going to call it, Love Pittsburgh. If you're in Butler, it'll be Love Butler. And what this is an attempt just to say every two months or so we do something to invest in our community. You may not even realize that, even if you've been here for a long time, you may be like, "Oh, I just know we do a food drive, a backpack drive, and a tree for a Christmas light of life and all this stuff." But what that is, is it's a very intentional effort to say, "As a church, we want to invest in our community." 

And so, this year under this Love Pittsburgh rubric we're going to take those things and make kind of a deal of them. Love Butler for those of you in Butler. And what we're going to do is say, "Here's a church-wide kind of initiative for these two months, but here are some things you can do personally." So, in March and April we're going to say, "How can we take and serve our community?" And in part, what we'll do is we'll be stocking the food banks. In the past you've done a beautiful job just bringing food. But then we're also going to say, "What can you do as a group if you're in a life group? What can you do as an individual? How can you serve some of the neighbors that are around you to say, 'We want to not just say, look at where the world's going, but here's an alternative.”? 

But here's the thing that I just want to say to you about that. And that is, it's easy sometimes to say that serving God means just loving people, and it is true, but it isn't very loving to simply give somebody what they need in the moment without pointing them to what they ultimately need. And you see it right in this text because what does this say? That the person who's wise brings other people to righteousness. And that doesn't mean that they come to their own righteousness, but that they come to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In other words, we don't just simply want to resource and bless our community. We want to resource and bless our community and share with them where the ultimate hope is. And in order to do that, sometimes we can miss the opportunity to bless our community. But here's my question really for you today. And that is, as we've gone through this series, how have you come to a point of just seeing yourself. You see, one thing that happens when you identify as a minority, and again, some people would argue with that phraseology, is that you simply retreat and say, "I'm going to kind of step back." 

But I think what we see in this book is people who said, "We're going to be for our community by pointing them to what is ultimate." And I know that some of us who maybe have been part of this series have said, "Well, all I really want right now is for God to help me get through what I'm going through." And I certainly understand that. But notice even here at the end of Daniel what's at stake, everlasting life, everlasting shame. See, the greatest thing you can do is not just simply have God help you navigate what's hard for you today. But to say, "I have now come to Jesus Christ in such a way that I know my name is written in the book. And I know that whatever happens in this world, which is completely unpredictable and uncertain, is not going to be something that taints what God has prepared for me." 

And when that becomes true for you, then you can say, "I can live for something bigger than just my own ends." And that's the invitation that God I believe gives to us as a community of faith, and to you, and so that is our hope as we walk through these next months of 2021.  

I'm going to pray. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we come see You this morning and acknowledge that there's a battle that we don't always see or understand. But at the same time, we acknowledge that you will ultimately win. And that in your victory, those of us who've trusted Jesus Christ and have our names written in the book can live with comfort and hope saying, "I don't have to be afraid," just like you said to Daniel, "Because I know I'm loved, I can be at peace." And Lord help that to become our reality. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.