A Future Kingdom - pt.1

We have made it through the celebrations of Christmas… Some of you may have already taken your decorations down, some may plan to do that as part of your new years eve celebration… and others leave them up so that you have a head start on next years decorating time.

Over the course of this past month we have been looking at the prophecies of Christmas and this morning we are going to be getting back into our study through the Book of Daniel.

Before we got into our Christmas series, we had finished the 6th chapter of Daniel and so today we will open up chapter 7.

There is a natural division between Chapters 6 & 7 of this wonderful Book…

The first 6 chapters of Daniel are about Daniel and his personal friends and are essentially historical in character. The remaining chapters are about Daniel’s future, along with the future of Israel and are mostly prophetical in character.

And so, as we dive into the second half of this awesome book, some things Daniel said would happen in the future have already happened, just like he predicted. Those events are now recorded in history for us. However, there's still a bunch of stuff he talked about that hasn't happened yet – it's still in the future.

In this one chapter, we receive a condensed overview of the world's entire future, starting during the life of Daniel and extending out to the anticipated, future Kingdom of Christ… which is why I have entitled the messages through through this chapter as…

“A Future Kingdom”

As mentioned a minute ago, Chapter 7 provides a brief summary of future events, while chapters 8-12 offer a more detailed exploration of each element that we will be introduced to here in Chapter 7.

I feel that it is important to point a few things out before getting into these prophetical chapters…

Prophecies in Scripture were provided to affirm the Bible's authenticity as God's Word.

John MacArthur points out… “There were many voices, there were many religious writers, there were many religious speakers, there were many people even as there are today, trying to draw people to them and convince them that they speak for God. That was very common in those times.

God had to have some method of confirming who was a genuine prophet. God had to have some means by which He could single out the true prophet. And one way that He did that was by predictive prophecy. You could tell a true prophet because everything that he predicted would come to pass. He would be 100 percent accurate or he was not a true prophet.”

And so, It's not just about giving us a heads up; it's a way to show that when what was predicted actually happens, we can be 100% sure it's a message from God.

The second thing that I want to point out, before we open up God’s Word is…

2. We shouldn’t become obsessed with Bible Prophecy.

So many Christians only focus on Bible Prophecy… It becomes their only biblical pursuit… …

Example… Shortly after I started here, there was a couple that came in to visit the church as they were searching for a new one to attend. I introduced myself and thanked them for being here…

The husband right away asked if I my messages revolved around the prophetic passages of the Bible, as they were looking for a Church that spoke on Biblical prophecy.

I simply told him that my approach is to preach through an entire book of the Bible expositor-ally and I would preach through those sections of Scripture when we arrived at them (just as I am now), however, Biblical Prophecy was not our main topic every Sunday.

Unfortunately, there are many who are just like that and they become so obsessed with Bible Prophecy and completely cut out everything else.

They forget that…

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture (not just the prophetic passages, But ALL Scripture) is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

We must be careful that we are not just focusing on certain parts of Scripture, we need to take it as a whole.

And lastly, before we get into this, I want to say…

3. Don’t be afraid of Bible prophecy… and I am preaching to myself with this point as well… It can be nerve racking studying through these passages…

With all the symbols, beasts, strange phrases, angels… it can see overwhelming… and people are afraid to try and understand these passages because they seem so difficult to unravel…

But if God didn’t want us to have it, then He wouldn’t have given it to us in His Word… remember… “ALL Scripture… is profitable… ” and the best way to help you understand what one portion of Scripture is saying… is by using other Scriptures that talk about the same topic.

With all of that being said… please open your Bible’s to Daniel 7… and we will look at the details of the first part of his visions. (Read vv. 1-8)

Details of the Vision...

Meat:

The first detail that we need to point out is…

1. The Date

This chapter begins by telling us that Daniel's vision occurred in the first year of King Belshazzar's reign.

Daniel 7:1 “1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.”

This chapter begins by telling us that Daniel's vision occurred in the first year of King Belshazzar's reign. To date this, Belshazzar was ruling with his father Nabonidus from approximately 553-539 B.C. So, this vision was given to Daniel…

1.1 Around 553 B.C.

Some of you may be thinking… “But Pastor… Belshazzar died at the end of Chapter 5…” … You are correct…

This means that Chronologically, this dream belongs between Daniel chapter 4, which deals with the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar, and chapter 5, which deals with the overthrow of Belshazzar.

The likely reason Daniel arranged these events in this order is to group his personal visions, which unfold in chapters 7-12… he wanted them grouped together...

This first verse lets us know that one night around the year 553bc, Daniel, as he slept, had a dream of visions and after receiving these visions, he made note of the main points of his dream… and this whole chapter is the summary of those main points.

v.2 gives us the next detail…

2. The Great Sea

Daniel 7:2 “2 Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.”

The Bible primarily references four seas: the Galilean Sea, the Dead Sea, the Red Sea and the one that is generally referred to as “The Great Sea”… which is…

2.1 The Mediterranean Sea

It is worth noting that the Mediterranean sea has Geographical significance in the fact that all the world empires mentioned in Scripture, at some point if not from the start, possessed territories along the Mediterranean coastline.

However, this great sea also has symbolic significance in the fact that it…

2.2 Symbolizes Worldly Nations

In the Revelation that was given to John, which is very similar to this one… we read this…

Revelation 17:15 (NKJV)

15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, … are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

Isaiah says this…

Isaiah 17:12–13 NKJV

12 Woe to the multitude of many people Who make a noise like the roar of the seas, And to the rushing of nations That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

So this great sea, symbolize people and or nations of the world… … and back here in Daniel, we are given a specific detail about this great sea…

It is being…

2.3 Stirred up by the Wind

“… and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea.”

Now, I personally love to watch storms come in over Lake Michigan. You can watch the sky change, you can see the rain wall coming towards you and you can watch a fairly calm body of water turn into a raging, white capping storm, that shows off the unpredictable nature of Lake Michigan.

Applying that to what we see here in Daniel’s vision… If this great sea symbolizes the people and nations of the world and the wind is stirring up the sea…

Then what I am seeing here is a world that is raging, a world that is utterly disturbed, a world that is in distress.

And what is the main cause of rage, disturbance and distress in the world???… SIN… … I believe that these winds symbolize the world's sin problem and that they are also revealing sin as the sole cause for the worlds chaos.

Some have speculated and I would agree, that God is showing Daniel exactly how He views the nations of the world. When God looks at the world and how lost in sin it truly is… He see’s nothing but utter chaos.

And it is out of this chaos that next the detail of this dream is revealed…

3. The Great Beasts

Daniel 7:3 “And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.”

The word translated as “great” literally means very great… Huge or massive… Daniel saw these massive beasts coming up out of the water.

It is important to note that… these are not animals, but they are “like” some animals. Daniel described these beasts with things that he was familiar with… and at that time, he was familiar with the animals that he lists in the next verses.

There are four of these beasts and each one is different from the other.

If you skip ahead just a little, and look at v.17… you will see that each one of these beasts refers to four different nations or empires that God would allow to reign over the Nation of Israel.

Daniel 7:17 “‘Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth.”

We still use beastly metaphors to represent countries today… For example, Russia is represented by the bear. China is represented by a Dragon. Great Britain is represented by a Lion. The U.S. is represented by an Eagle…

And so this type of political classification is not a new concept for our time, but it has been around since the time of Daniel.

Let’s look at these beasts that Daniel saw… and notice the order in which they rise out of the water… it is not all at one time and it is in sequential order as to when they were in power… Which is an amazing demonstration of God’s Sovereignty over the nation that He allows to rise and fall.

The first one is…

3.1 The Lion - Babylonian Empire

Daniel 7:4 “The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.”

Again, these are not animals, but they are “like” some animals and Daniel is describing it the best that he can…

And here is an artists rendition, based on the description that Daniel gave…

Lion

Again this beast represents the Babylonian Empire… and here are some interesting facts…

Listen to how Jeremiah describes Babylon… Jeremiah 4:7 “7 The lion has come up from his thicket, And the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your land desolate. Your cities will be laid waste, Without inhabitant.” Jeremiah is talking about Babylon and describes it as a Lion…

Listen to how Ezekiel describes Babylon… Ezekiel 17:3 “...‘Thus says the Lord God: “A great eagle with large wings and long pinions, Full of feathers of various colors, Came to Lebanon And took from the cedar the highest branch.”

and v. 12… Ezekiel 17:12 ““Say now to the rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon.”

So Ezekiel refers to Babylon as an Eagle…

Archeological discoveries have found that the national symbol of Babylon was a winged lion, and they have found winged lions to be at the entrances of the Babylonian royal palaces.

Daniel says that “it’s wings were plucked out”, which would be a severely traumatizing and dramatic event… It was then lifted up from the ground, made to stand on to feet feet like a man and then given the heart (or mind) of a human.

This is a perfect description of what happened to King N…

The next beast is…

3.2 The Bear - Medo-Persian Empire

Daniel 7:5 “ “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’”

Bear

If you remember from our study through chapter 5… It was clearly predicted that the medo-persian empire would replace Babylon… Daniel tells Belshazzar…

Daniel 5:28 “… Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.””

In describing this Bear like beast… Daniel says…

It was raised up on one side - meaning that one side was more dominant than the other. Persia was superior to the Medes. They had a partnership of power, however, Persia was the more dominant party.

It had 3 ribs in it’s mouth - as the Medo - Persians were rising to power, they had to take out the other ruling powers at that time… those powers were Babylon, Lydia and Egypt… and the Medo-Persians conquered them all.

This bear was ordered to rise up and devour much flesh - this is why the Medo - Persian empire was a much larger Empire than that of the Babylonians.

Beast #3…

3.3 The Leopard - Greece Empire

Daniel 7:6 ““After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.”

In getting a little ahead of where we are today… we can clearly see that Greece is the power that would replace the Mede’s and the Persians… In Daniel 8… and we will talk more about that when we get that far…

But here in v. 6, Daniel describes this…

Leopard

It had 4 wings of a bird (even though this picture only has two) - Think about it, a Leopard with 4 wings… sounds like something that could move very swiftly.

The Grecian Empire expanded very rapidly. In eight years, it conquered more than 11,000 miles of territory that spanned from the Greece in the West, all the was to India in the East.

It had 4 heads (you can kind of see in the picture) - and when Alexander the Great died, at the age of 32, he was replaced by 4 generals that co-ruled over their own parts of the Kingdom.

It was Given dominion - The key word there is “Given”. Most secular historians will tell you that Alexander was genius and that he came up with these amazing plans to conquer the armies of the world and he did it with only 35,000 men in his own army… 35,000 men against the world…

But that is not what God’s Word says… God’s Word says that “dominion was given” to Alexander… he didn’t take any of it…

It was God who permitted him to have victory and it was God who gave him the dominion.

We have one more beast to mention… … but my time to do so today is inadequate for the amount of information to give… and so, we will talk about…

3.4 The Monster - Roman Empire

Next week…

Closing:

As we close for today I want to make note of this…

Daniel’s dream here in chapter seven parallels the dream Nebuchadnezzar had in chapter two. His dream of the colossal image made out of four different metals.

The golden head was Babylon, that’s the lion here. The silver chest symbolized the Medes and Persians, like the bear here. The hips of bronze symbolize the Greek Empire, like the Leopard in this chapter.

So why did God repeat this dream to Daniel?… I think for 2 reasons…

(1) To reinforce the importance of these kingdoms

and

(2) to give many more specific details, especially about this fourth animal.

I believe that the dream N had in chapter 2 represented how mankind looks at the nations… strong, fierce, beautiful, or at least something that men desire to look at…

But here in the visions that Daniel has received, we can see exactly how God sees these nations… nothing but vile beasts, who only care about destroying everyone else so that they can become bigger and stronger…

God has given us these passages of Scripture so that we can learn from them. I believe that His ultimate purpose is to show us that the Kingdoms of the world…

Rise and fall on His command

and that they are temporary…

However, as we get further into this study, we are going to see the promise of A Future Kingdom…

A Kingdom that is ruled by Christ

A Kingdom that will last forever

A Kingdom that God wants us to be a part of…

But, you are only guaranteed a spot in that Kingdom if you have a personal relationship with Christ.

Have you repented of your sins?

Have you asked Jesus to forgive you of those sins?

Are you willing to honor Him with your life, here and now?

That’s what it takes to enter into His Kingdom…

Prayer:

Lord, we know that your return is imminent…

help us to get our priorities straight

that we would focus on eternal things and not temporal

Pray for hearts to opened to the gospel…

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