The Kingship of Jesus

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Good morning. Today I had fully intended to continue our journey in Acts and look at Paul in Athens and his discourse on Mars Hill. But as I paused to reflect on the events over this past month I realized that we are all feeling the tension that exists around us. Schools reopening, COVID-19, the unrest we saw in Washington DC, the election outcomes, and just this weak a presidential inauguration. Every time we turn on the TV News, read the paper, or peruse social media we are bombarded with discussions, images, and policies that seem to erode the very fabric of the Christian world view. I felt that if I were to continue in Acts this morning I am not sure how many of you would still be with me after 10 minutes. I am not saying that what we are studying in Acts isn’t important, it absolutely is, but because we are humans beings who are living in a rapidly changing world. Changing at a speed that is difficult for us to comprehend and so I want, in the brief time we have together and to consider how we can and how we must and how we are called to proclaim and live in the light of Christ’s Kingdom when surrounded by inveterate rebels. What is an inveterate rebel you may be asking, inveterate rebel is someone who has a long-established and unlikely to change rebellion against God. A rebellion that is animated by a world-view that is antithetical or diametrically opposed to God and a Christian worldview.

I would argue that the vast majority of conservative commentators and leaders do not recognize or interact with the centrality of the secular worldview nor do they understand its relation to what we are seeing happening in our nation and culture. As Christians we should be the first ones to recognize the centrality and importance, the presuppositional nature, of the worldview clash that is going on around us. When I talk about the presuppositional nature I am talking about those assumptions we bring with us into any discussion we may have. For example as a Christian I presuppose the existence of God. As a conservative Christian that holds a high view of scripture I assume the verbal plenary inspiration of the Word of God, that is to say that the Bible is the very breath of God and is the absolute rule of faith and practice. Therefore I take what it says as absolute truth. I believe in the physical reality of the virgin birth, the life, death and physical bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the fact He will one day return to set up his physical kingdom on earth. All of those beliefs come with me into every discussion I have as they are central to how I see and interact with the world. We have to understand that about ourselves, as well as understand that the people we will talk with or that are currently in leadership in our state and nation right now have their own set of presuppositions that are fundamentally at odds with ours. Even those leaders that are ostensibly in line with us politically may not be in line with us spiritually and worldview wise. In fact they are as defenseless as those on the other side who are simply being dragged along to their own eternal destruction by a secular worldview that robs them of all purpose in life. It robs them of all fulfillment and will rob them of eternal life, Matthew 7:13 tells us that the “gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” Theirs is even a more woeful situation. With all that said we need to know what the scriptures say and we need to be encouraged as believers that in the midst of a time when there are many who are questioning how can an ancient book of writings written by multiple people in multiple languages over the course of 1500 years, how can such a text be at all relevant in light of what we are facing today? There are many more asking that question, and my friends we have answers! We recognize that we would rather have a book that was given to us by the source of all truth. A book that has been supernaturally preserved and unchanging for 1500 years. A book that has been used throughout the ages to bring about spiritual life to any that hear and believe. Wouldn’t you rather place your faith in that message rather than that which will require a version 2.0 by the fall. Yet that is what the world is offering us. A changing and ever morphing set of moralities and ethics. A structure that calls into question the very things God created. And for the life of them, the world does not, and can not, understand why we would say NO, I am not interested in what you are selling and I don’t want it. I know that we have just a brief time this morning so please turn with me to Daniel chapter 6. As you are turning to Daniel 6 I want to emphasize the importance of understanding that idols know they are merely idols, we must understand that idols have no power, but we must make this known with the proper attitude in our own hearts. I will further unpack that statement this morning as we continue.

Daniel 6:3–15 ESV

3 Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.” 6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. 10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. 11 Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. 12 Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 13 Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.” 14 Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. 15 Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”

Pray

Now you know the rest of the story. This is the prelude to Daniel being cast into the lions’s den. If you are as old as I am you may even remember hearing this story in Sunday school as a child and remember the story being illustrated on something called a flannel graph. If you don’t know what that is flannel graph is you might have to find a Sunday School museum somewhere and see what it is I am talking about. But if, like me, you remember this story we learned that God delivers Daniel from the lions den and this is one of numerous illustrations found in the book of Daniel that displays for us the Power of Yahweh, the one true and living God, over the god’s of the nations.

But I want to focus this morning on the passage we just read because of what it tells us about Daniel and about mankind. What we see here in these 13 verses in Daniel is a description of political maneuvers and tactics that we may well see today. We have concern on the part of certain satraps and high officials. These officials can see that there is something special about Daniel. Daniel isn’t serving himself, he is actually serving the king but he does so with consistency, morality, brilliance, and insight. Traits these officials and satraps don’t have themselves. So these men collude together to find a reason to accuse Daniel of something, but they quickly realize that is not going to work. Look at verse 4

Daniel 6:4 ESV

4 Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.

It says they could find no complaint or fault because he was faithful, no error was found in him. In verse 5 it goes on to describe what their next plan is:

Daniel 6:5 ESV

5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”

There was something about the way Daniel lived, something about the way he made decisions, how he carried out his life even with his position of great authority. This description of Daniel reminds me of Joseph. I just finished Genesis this last week on my yearly reading plan, and Joseph is described in many of the same ways as Daniel. These satraps and officials saw that there was something about Daniel and they recognized that he was faithful to the law of his God, not their gods. In fact there doesn’t seem to be any thought in their mind about their gods being greater than Daniel’s God. They never said we should pray to our gods to overcome Daniel. They didn’t look to their gods to defeat Daniel’s God. In fact they don’t even think along those lines. I believe it is fair to say that these satraps and officials were politicians and the gods they served were merely things to be used when convenient for them. But they were clearly afraid of Daniel and his God as being someone who has higher authority than anything these leaders have, so they need to find something about the law of Daniel’s God to trap him with.

Daniel 6:6–9 ESV

6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.

So what do these officials come up with? How did they decide to lay their trap? They played on the kings pride and arrogance. Let’s be honest playing to the pride of someone in power is usually an effective strategy. They first stroked the king’s ego, and then convinced him to make an absurd decree that people pray only to King Darius. A decree that is based upon the idea that he is now the greatest ruler there is and so people will show their fidelity to him for 30 days. I mean its only 30 days right, reminds me of 30 days to flatten the curve. Only 30 days, you can get people to do almost anything for a brief period of time. All the officials were asking for was to stop praying to your god’s for 30 days. During this time your object of worship, your ultimate authority and ultimate object of prayer needs to be our great King and his government. After that time you will get to go back to worship your own god’s again. These leaders know enough about the law of Daniel’s God to know what Daniel will do, and in fact what Daniel will be forced to do by his conscience.

It is interesting to me that verse 10 says :

Daniel 6:10 ESV

10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

So Daniel KNEW the document was signed, remember that at this time the King was thinking of putting Daniel in charge of everything, just like Joseph had been, so he knows all about this new decree. Daniel is not stupid, he knows what the content of the document is. The king had just outlawed Daniel praying to God. And what did Daniel do? Did he throw a fit? Did he start a riot to try and stop the signing of the document? No Daniel knew the document was signed. It tells us that he merely went to the upper room of his house, opened the Windows facing Jerusalem, remember the Jews at this time were in Exile so Daniel faced Jerusalem because that is where God’s temple was, and would be again. Daniel got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. The homes of this day did not have glass windows with curtains and window treatments, they just had shutters. Daniel was not hiding what he was doing, he was just practicing his faith and remaining faithful to God.

There is something massively powerful in the fact that Daniel did not make a show of something that he hadn’t always been doing anyways. My friends, the world knows when we start play acting, they know when we start doing something that we weren’t doing before, but now we’re going to do it to sort of prove a point. Daniel had been doing this all along. Daniel did not hide his dedication to God. The attitude Daniel has is the right attitude. It is one of consistency, he had been consistent before, he remained consistent and he refused to hide. It was important to Daniel that he be open and honest about who he was and what he believed, even though he knew what the result of those actions would be. Do you actually think Daniel was surprised by this decree? No he knew what these guys were up to, and he knew that the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be changed. So Daniel knew something was coming, but he did not close his windows nor did he retreat into silence. Any testimony that we bear against the idolatry that poses as government better come from the consistent application of our principles in life. I want to make sure you hear that, any testimony that we bear against the idolatry that poses as government better come from the consistent application of our principles in life. It can’t be a a show; it can’t be that I am just going stick my finger in someones eye because I feel like it. It can never the something that draws out the sinful nature in us. It has to be based upon the consistent principles we have always lived by to begin with. Daniel does this and God delivers him in a fantastic way. And just as Nebuchadnezzar learned his lesson, so to will King Darius learns his lesson here.

What I want all of us to see this morning from the example of Daniel is his consistency and his unwillingness to compromise when the government made a decree that is only worthy of God. Now I wish it was always that easy and simple for us to identify exactly when the government does this, but its not. We will talk about what happened in the Roman Empire here in a few moments. But in this instance the unjust law was clear and Daniel is convicted as to what he is to do, he knowingly and openly obeys God. He obeys God and trusts God to take care of the rest.

Let’s turn to the book of Revelation Chapter 2. Of course Revelation chapter 2 is the letters to the 7 churches and it contains some of the richest material we have in the New Testament, especially as it comes from the lips of our risen Lord. Have you ever stopped and pondered that? John is hearing from the one who came and defeated death. The very one who had died, was buried, and rose again bodily on the third day and is now enthroned in all glory at the right hand of the father. And yet these letters show us that the risen Christ, king of kings, is intimately aware of everything going on within his church. We often talk about Christ being with us, here is an example of it. He knows what is going on here in Othello and in every one of his bodies every one of his assemblies around this world today.

But I want you to notice this morning, and please understand I am not going to even attempt to exegete, or interpret from the text, all that is going on here we just simply do not have the time. Instead I want to just point some things out to you and let the scripture speak for itself.

In Revelation chapter 2 verse 8 you ahve the beginning of the letter to the church at Smyrna.

Revelation 2:8–11 ESV

8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. 9 “ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

And then in the letter to Pergamum, notice what it says there

Revelation 2:12–13 ESV

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. 13 “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

So here we have two letters, in one martyrdom has already taken place. In Pergamum someone named Antipas, Antipas the faithful witness the faithful martyr, who was killed among them. In all probability Antipas was killed in their presence, and yet they hold fast to the name of christ and do not deny his faith. This is the commendation of the church at Pergamum.

To the church in Smyrna you have a form of prophecy on the part of the Lord Jesus. “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Do you notice something, Jesus is telling them the devil is about to cast you into prison, but the devil is not doing anything that Jesus is not in full control over.

Jesus isn’t saying to Smyrna “the devil is about to cast you into prison, I’d like to stop him but I can’t. I am doing the best I can here, but this is going to happen and I can’t stop it. I will try and make the best of it in the end, but its really hard.” No! That is nonsense and is a portrayal of a weak and ineffectual Savior. If you believe that about Jesus you can not even begin to understand these letters nor can you have any idea of what’s going on in the world then or now. God is not surprised by circumstances, he orchestrates them and uses them as the means for our growth and his glorification. Smyrna is told the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tested. Don’t be fooled though, the saints of Smyrna being tested was not the Devil’s purpose. The devil does not want you tried and refined and made even more like Jesus. The verse goes on to say that you may be tested, but notice here, you will have tribulation 10 days. Some people get really hung up here on the 10 days language. If you understand the book of Revelation and the language used, it could truly be 10 literal days, but I doubt it. What John is conveying here is the concept of you will be tested for a finite period of time, meaning it is limited, God has set a limit to the trial. The devil does not have power to cast you into prison and to cause you tribulation beyond the period of time that God in his sovereignty has established.

Please hear me as there may be some of you here this morning that has a fearful heart. Fearful of the election results. Fearful of the changes we see happening at an ever quickening pace. Fearful of the potential of future government overreach and tyranny. If that is you this morning take comfort in hearing what the promise of scripture is. It is not that you will avoid trials and tribulations. It is not that you will have smooth sailing because you are a Christian. It is not that you will not be arrested. We have dear brothers and sisters around the world right now that face imprisonment, beatings, or even death for being a Christian and attending church. But all of these events are under the control of the sovereign God and he sets the limitations. These words and this truth has provided such solace and comfort to hundreds of thousands if not millions of Christians over the past 2000 years. Christians who have found resolve and great strength from that understanding that God is sovereign. Be faithful unto death! We are not alone, nor are we the first Christians to face hardships and attacks against our faith. You will have trials and tribulations in your life, be faithful unto death. That means we can have no compromise on the truths of the gospel. We can have no retreat from the edicts of God. We must be faithful with the truths God has given us unto death.

We live a life is transient and short, but we know the source of eternal life, Jesus Christ. He has made a promise that I will give you a crown of life is the one who himself rose from the dead and you can trust him and rest in his embrace. When he says in Revelation “he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches” there are so many today that do not have an ear to hear what the spirit is saying. We are being bombarded by myriad of voices calling for compromise, many from within the Christian Church. In fact this week I saw a report that a “Christian organization” was calling for the removal of Franklin Graham from leadership Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I want to be clear the group leveling these charges, Faithful America, is really not a Christian organization by any biblical definition of the word. Regardless of any of this nonsense, our charge, like Daniel, is to remain consistent in our practice and beliefs and to stand firm.

In the first centuries the roman empire demanded that all Romans do what the Medes and the Persians wanted and that is to recognize the ultimate supremacy of the state. You can have your religion you can worship your gods but once a year you need to come and you need to take a pinch of incense, a small offering and place it on the altar of burning coals and flame up and the scent would be smelled and you're to say kaiser kurios caesar is lord you can say all sorts of other people are lord too but you had to say caesar is lord.

Many early Christians refused to bow the knee to Cesar, and therefore died gruesome deaths, many of whose names have been lost to history. We will not know these martyrs until we meet in eternity, but we do know Antipas was one such martyr from Revelation. It is unfortunate that we do not have more of these names, but we do have the great privilege to know some of the faithful martyrs throughout the centuries. Foxes book of Martyrs is a heart breaking read the torture and anguish many have endured fro their faith, but it also a boon to your soul as you also hear of people singing praises to god as the flames licked up their body. Tales of strength as faithful ministers of God refused to bow to knee and faced their execution with exultation as they were about to gaze upon the loving face of their true Lord and Savior. If you haven’t read the book, I would encourage you to do so.

Brother and Sisters in Christ, today I want to encourage you to take heart! Christ is our king. We will face trials and tribulations, but only for a finite time, and only under God’s control. It is very easy to become angry as we listen to our leaders talk. We can become frustrated with work, or school, or the culture at large as civility and honest discourse appear to have left the premises. We combat this by praying for each other. Pray for patience. Pray for wisdom. Pray for a spirit of peace. Pray with thanksgiving for those facing trials, as they are now counted as worthy of suffering for Christ. You know we are all called to be salt and light to the world. Light is an easy thing for us to understand, we like light as opposed to darkness. But what does it mean to be salt to the world? Do we raise everyone’s blood pressure? Well actually we probably do, but that is not what it means. In the ancient world Salt was a preservative as it slowed decay. When we are called to be salt and light we are called to help show the world the light of Jesus, but we are also called to stop the decay and preserve our society. Stand firm my friends. Be salt and light, be faithful to our Lord and Savior, even unto death.