Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This is our last week looking at Daniel. We just wanted to focus on the first seven chapters. There's kind of this contained story that happens in these first chapters, chapters two through seven, specifically written in the language of the Kings, written so that people who weren't Jewish would definitely understand what was going on. The people who were the ruling authorities would understand this. It was. The whole thing is constructed in the form of what's called a chiasm.
[00:00:29] And I've said you kind of think of a chiasm like a bullseye heading towards the center when it could happen. A chiasm in the Old Testament especially could hap New Testament too.
[00:00:41] It could be just a few sentences or it could be several chapters. This is several chapters long. And chapter two and seven are kind of the outside edges.
[00:00:50] Three and six are kind of the middle of the bull's eye or the next row and the very center of the bullseye, which Leslie dealt with yesterday with chapter four and five and those dealt with two kings. Last week she talked about God humbling Nebuchadnezzar in chapter four and humbling Belshazzar in chapter five.
[00:01:16] Two very different reactions. The first one, the first story would have happened when Daniel was.
[00:01:22] Well, in the first story.
[00:01:25] There's a situation here where, you know, Daniel has been with Nebuchadnezzar for a long time. They know each other. They seem to kind of have a trust for each other. But you got to remember that that story is written from Nebuchadnezzar, who is not Jewish, actually writes a chapter of the Bible which I find fascinating.
[00:01:42] And the whole story is told from his perspective. From his perspective, Daniel loved him. Like maybe that was true or maybe that was what Nebuchadnezzar thought about Daniel. I don't know. But like he's very respectful and all that kind of stuff and definitely didn't want this to happen to him. But because he was arrogant, God struck him down.
[00:02:01] Nebuchadnezzar did accept his humility and professed a humility towards God that God was all powerful and he was raised back up very different than what happened with Belshazzar. Belshazzar, probably Nebuchadnezzar's son in law comes along at a time when the empire is crumbling, like at the edges, it's already falling apart. He's a real jerk. He doesn't even know. Like Daniel has risen up in the ranks to become this really important person for Nebuchadnezzar. His son in law comes in. He doesn't Even recognize Daniel because he's. He's kind of rejected all of the wisdom that has kind of come before him.
[00:02:41] He is. He is like, insanely disrespectful of God using.
[00:02:46] Using the instruments of God's temple for a drunken orgy, basically, which is like, really low. It's not something. It's like it made sense that you would capture. It was common to capture the instruments of a people that you had conquered, but to use it that way, to desecrate it that way, he was just a real jerk. Daniel comes in, he's like, you're toast. He was toast. You saw the difference that happened there. But that the reason you've got these two stories at the center and not just one of them, is you see God.
[00:03:21] God's authoritative power over all people, regardless of their response. You see a response from Nebuchadnezzar, a person who is not a good man and yet was willing to accept humility towards God when the time came. And it was different from Belshazzar, who did not acknowledge his humility before God.
[00:03:47] Either way, like, the whole center of the story is that these kings rise up. These powers come to. These powers rise up through blood and through just power, and tear each other apart.
[00:04:06] And at the end of the day, they are nothing before God. And that was written in their language for them to hear.
[00:04:13] You think that you are godlike in your power. You're at the apex of your power, and you are nothing before God.
[00:04:21] That is important for us to hear. It's also important for us. It was just like it was important for the Jews to know as they are living in a captured environment like they are.
[00:04:34] They are in a world that they are not of.
[00:04:37] And it's important for them to remember those powers that are out there aren't powerful like you think they are.
[00:04:44] And that's important for us to remember too.
[00:04:47] Those powers that are out there are not powerful the way you think they are.
[00:04:52] That's the center of the story, but I think it's the outside. As a Christian, the outside edge of the story is what I find the most intriguing.
[00:05:04] Not because it's the outside edge of this story, because it's the part of the story that Jesus latched onto super hard in explaining what he was about. In that outside edge, you've got so God in chiasm, you have A, B, and C, that outside edge. God has a plan for the future. And that's the part that I really want to focus on. I didn't in the first week of this story. And I was looking at that outside edge. I really didn't get into the dream, Nebuchadnezzar's dream that Daniel interpreted. I talked about why it was such a big deal, how Daniel came to humbly turn to God when he had all kinds of things he could have done in face of Nebuchadnezzar's like, fury, the way he humbly turned to God to seek his wisdom. I talked about all that, but I didn't actually talk about the dream itself or how that dream was interpreted by Daniel.
[00:06:01] It was a dream about these four statues. Nebuchadnezzar was freaked out by it because they were fearsome statues, very powerful. He didn't know where he fit into this. Here's a person who's used to seeing himself as in control. In this dream, he did not feel in control. He used to see himself as powerful, but in this dream he saw powers far greater than him. And he was turning to Daniel to help interpret these dreams. These dreams are very similar to visions that Daniel has in chapter seven. And I want to look there in both of them.
[00:06:31] In the first one, Daniel interprets the dreams and he's very clear that these four statues are four kingdoms that are coming. The first kingdom being the Babylonian kingdom.
[00:06:40] The next three kingdoms, you know, I've heard different, but you're looking at probably like the Persian kingdom, maybe the Greeks, maybe the Romans, that kind of thing. Probably along that you've got successive kingdoms that are coming and overwhelming the kingdoms before them.
[00:06:56] They are powerful, made of stone, made of iron, destroying everything ahead of them.
[00:07:03] That's the imagery that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream in chapter two. But I want us to focus in on the same concept or the same dream. Basically the same thing, only through the lens that Daniel sees in chapter seven and there in his old age. So in chapter two, this would have been a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had when Daniel was like a teenager that he's interpreting for Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was a teenager and in chapter seven, he would have probably been in his 60s at this point.
[00:07:36] So you've got these bookends of these dream and these visions kind of telling the same story about kingdoms that are coming along, destroying one another, and what happens at the end of those.
[00:07:50] And that last one, the vision that Daniel had, is the one that I want us to look at.
[00:07:56] These are some bullet points from that chapter. I'm not going to read the whole thing. It's a lot there Were these four beasts that come out of the sea. They were different from one another.
[00:08:06] The first one was like a lion with angels wings. The second beast appeared like a bear and he had these ribs, he was just devouring ribs in his mouth.
[00:08:15] Another beast was like a leopard and it had four wings on its back. The fourth beast appeared. It doesn't, the fourth beast doesn't even say it was like, like a leopard, like a bear. It was just this fourth one, it was dreadful, terrible, very strong. It had two rows of teeth, like iron teeth. And it was just, it was just devouring everything.
[00:08:36] So the first three in the imagery, there are images of animals that would have been scary and deadly to humans.
[00:08:48] You said this beast is like this thing that kills people and it's got these extra things that make it even scarier, right? And so you're. Oh, that's scary. Oh, that's scary. The last one, he doesn't even give you a beast to imagine. It's kind of like it's. It's like when it's in the shadows and you just hear it and your imagination just fills in all the gaps. Makes it even worse than the. If I'd have compared it to like a hippopotamus or something which actually kills a lot of people, they're a lot scarier than you think.
[00:09:17] You'd have been like, oh, cute hippo. Nope, you don't have that. You're like, oh, this is like. This beast is so terrible that you can't even imagine it.
[00:09:26] I think probably Rome.
[00:09:28] It doesn't even matter.
[00:09:31] For us, looking back all these thousands of years, we can see historically that there are always beasts coming to devour the last beast.
[00:09:44] Humanity was built in the image of God.
[00:09:48] To be human means to be following God, to accept our role as the image of God in the world.
[00:10:01] When humans turn away from who we are, we are accepting something less than humanity for ourselves, like beasts.
[00:10:09] And instead of approaching the world through the idea that there is a standard for good might, ends up making, right? And we gloss over it all kinds of different ways. We kind of, we have all these different ideas about what justice is. We'll say like, oh, I was justified in doing this. Person hurt me. So it made sense that I hurt them back because that's justice. We got all these different ideas about what justice are, but we're making all of those things up. And without the standard of God at the core of the power that we are exhibiting, we are always just beasts.
[00:10:48] We might gloss it over, give ourselves reasons and we Might even get other people to accept those reasons and say, like, don't we agree we're the good guys? Sure.
[00:10:59] We're not the beasts, they're the beasts. The truth is, without God as the standard, all of the choices that you're making are beastly.
[00:11:12] These are the apex.
[00:11:14] This is four kingdoms that have come together like one successively and have cobbled together enough power to dominate and show dominion over all the previous, all the other, previous people. As far as they can possibly see, they are rulers of their land. They are apex predator beasts.
[00:11:37] And this is kind of the story of every time these people would have these, these visions, it's like they're, they're quake. They're just, they're the sense that they have when they see the world removed from the gloss of I have reason for what I'm doing. When they see the world for actually as beastly as it actually is in these dreams, they are horrified by it.
[00:12:07] I wonder sometimes if we are the ones dreaming because we are not horrified by it, that we strip away the reasons that we give to the evil in the world.
[00:12:25] We feel justified in participating in them and we say, well that makes sense.
[00:12:33] Maybe that's the horror, maybe that's the dream.
[00:12:39] In this vision though, at these successive kingdoms that are through their power exerting their will in the world to the farthest that they can.
[00:12:50] You come to the point, he says, Daniel says, in this vision I was watching until that last beast, the beast that was so overwhelmingly powerful and scary that I can't even give you a real beast to compare it to. That beast was killed and it's body destroyed and thrown into flaming fire.
[00:13:10] As for the, as for the rest of the beast, their ruling authority had already been removed, though they were permitted to go on living for a time and a season. That there are that, that the authority that made them these apex, apex predators were constantly removed. And even that that greatest one had its power thwarted. But how and by whom was it just another, another beast that came along next?
[00:13:37] This is the part of the story where it gets, I think, very interesting.
[00:13:41] Certainly this is the part of the story where it became very interesting to Jesus.
[00:13:46] In Daniel, chapter seven, verses nine through 10, Daniel says, while I was watching, thrones were set up. Now everything he's been describing are these like, just like these horror movie blood and guts beasts, like destroying and like tearing apart, rending, like creating whatever they want through destruction, right?
[00:14:09] But while I was watching, a throne was set up. So in the middle of the chaos you have this authority Figure that happens. And the Ancient of Days took his seat, the one that came before all the beasts and the one who will be there after all the beasts. The authority figure that is outside of time, that it's not under any of these beasts.
[00:14:29] His attire was white like snow, and his hair was like lambswool. Purity.
[00:14:35] All of the gore that's depicted among these beasts, he has none of it on him. He's got no.
[00:14:41] He is separate from the horror that has happened. He is not the cause, he is not the reason for it.
[00:14:51] He is just, and he is pure in a way that nobody can be if they are creating their own justice through their might and through exercising their dominance over someone else through force.
[00:15:04] His throne was ablaze with fire, and its wheels were all aflame. Just this.
[00:15:10] Just this crazy amount of, like, brilliant white and flaming fire. Like, it's just.
[00:15:20] It's grand, majestic, powerful, authoritative.
[00:15:25] A river of fire was streaming forth and proceeding from his presence.
[00:15:28] Many thousands were ministering to him or worshiping him, and tens of thousands stood ready to serve him. The court convened and the books were opened. So you've got this imagery in the middle of this.
[00:15:40] He's having this vision of this just layers and layers of horror taking place.
[00:15:47] And out from all of that, throne is set up, court is set up, and a judge who is above all the Ancient of Days takes his place. And he takes out a book which is definitely about judgment. Now, this is what the idea of judging is like, uncomfortable for us because we don't think, you know, we're not supposed to judge each other. Well, certainly true, because I don't have a stance from which to judge, like, what makes me right and you wrong.
[00:16:25] I got a problem with goodness the way you do to some degree.
[00:16:33] I have also abandoned the image of God and have accepted a beastliness that makes it impossible for me to understand good.
[00:16:42] And yet imagine living in a world where there is no judgment, that I can't even know what is good. We always think about, like, judge me. Like, don't judge me, like I've done something wrong. Like, you're better than me. How about this? You do something brilliant, something noble, something great, and I would be like, I can't judge that. I can't even. I can't say that anything you did there was of any good or any value, had anything worthwhile. I have no idea. If you're a good father, who am I to judge?
[00:17:10] How can I know that you've been a good and just man? Who am I to judge a world without judgment is horrible.
[00:17:19] You don't want to live in a world without judgment. You just don't want me to be the one judging you. Do you understand?
[00:17:25] It's extremely important that we have a North Star to work to. We can say that is good. Everything between me and there is getting better. And everything I'm moving in the opposite direction, that's getting worse. I need to know where good is. And if I can't judge good, how can I possibly get there? Who am I and what is my point? Without judgment?
[00:17:48] So I look at this judge pulling out his book, and I am grateful, in a world with beasts that there is an ancient of days with a book to judge. And he's not me, and he's not you.
[00:18:02] This is grand, majestic, beautiful, good and gracious.
[00:18:11] That this king, that this judge exists in this land of beasts. That's the image that he's seeing here.
[00:18:19] Beautiful. Thank God. I have had this vision where the scales have been pulled from my eyes, and everything out there that I've been accepting is okay. I now see it for the horror show that it is.
[00:18:33] And in the middle of that horror show, I have good that I can aim for. Thank God that's where he is in this vision so far.
[00:18:46] Now, this gets.
[00:18:49] If I heard this, if I heard this, if I heard this without knowing anything about Jesus, I would be like, this part. Everything about his vision so far. I'm like, yeah, man, Daniel, I get that this next part, except for Christ, doesn't make any sense to me. Honestly, I don't know. I thought about this, and I don't know how I would understand this. Apart from Christ.
[00:19:13] And with the clouds of the sky, one like a son of man was approaching. And he went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.
[00:19:23] To him was given ruling authority, honor and sovereignty. All people, nations and language groups were serving him.
[00:19:31] His authority is eternal and will not pass away.
[00:19:34] His kingdom will not be destroyed. I mean, what is this? Like a.
[00:19:39] Is this like a Daniel? Is this like a good Nebuchadnezzar?
[00:19:44] Is this an angel? Like, what could I have thought that this was. I get the ancient days. This is God. This is the one.
[00:19:52] This is goodness. This is love.
[00:19:55] This is literally all things that good is judged against.
[00:20:02] That's the Ancient of Days.
[00:20:05] But who is this that's coming before the throne and is given all authority, honor and sovereignty?
[00:20:13] All people, nations, language groups were serving him. All authority is eternal and not pass away.
[00:20:21] This is the end of history. The idea that there would be A, that there would be a type of governing authority that would be the end of what man could possibly achieve or experience.
[00:20:37] Who could, I imagine that could usher that in?
[00:20:42] Jesus shows up and he says, I am the Son of Man.
[00:20:49] He calls himself the son of man 80 something times 82 or 83 times.
[00:20:54] He calls himself the Son of Man far more than he calls himself. He doesn't call himself the Son of God very much at all. He actually calls himself the Son of Man over and he think like, what's the big deal? You're a Son of man. Like, he's like emphasizing, oh, he's being humble. He's emphasizing the fact that, you know, he's not just God, he's human, right?
[00:21:14] Nope, I don't think that's it at all. I think he's looking back at the passage in Daniel. All these, all these people that he was surrounded by would have known exactly. They were very familiar with this passage. They would have looked at this and they would said that that person that I don't know, the hope of a kingdom at the end of all of these beasts and monsters tearing each other apart. That hope that I'm looking for, I'll know it when I see it. Because one like the Son of Son of man will be the one that will be given all that authority. And I will know that we're there. I'll know that we've gotten to the end of all the death and destruction that I'm currently for Jesus contemporaries that he's currently experiencing under Rome, the horror of the procession of crosses, their neighbors, like experiencing the horror from Jerusalem to the sea. Like the amount of suffering that they experience and that they presume that they will experience if they do anything but obey Rome.
[00:22:21] Jesus is saying, I'm the end of that.
[00:22:27] We know that there will be an end to all of that.
[00:22:31] I'm the end.
[00:22:34] You've gotten there.
[00:22:38] Now this is something that's really important. I was actually, I said this to Michael. When we, when we're interpreting the Bible, I want to be very humble about a lot of things. Like, I don't.
[00:22:48] There's a lot of details in this and I'm not even going to try to like, I don't know for sure which king. I don't know why that leopard had four wings like a bird. You know, I don't, I don't know.
[00:22:58] Daniel might have known.
[00:23:00] The people he was talking to at the time might have known. I'm like, I'm lots of years separate from that.
[00:23:06] I don't know those details. I'll tell you this.
[00:23:08] I trust what Jesus has to say about these details more. Daniel had the vision, but my guess is that Jesus would have understood this vision even more than Daniel would. So anything that Daniel has to say about this, Jesus had to say about this vision. He is the tool through which we interpret all of it. If I'm like. If I'm like, I don't quite get that, but I've learned history, and I know that Daniel and his people would have seen it this way. But then Jesus is like, well, this is what this thing is like. Well, this.
[00:23:33] Jesus is smarter about things of God than Daniel. Daniel had a vision about it.
[00:23:39] Jesus has eternally lived it. He is the one behind the curtain that sees everything. So whatever he has to say about the Son of Man is what the Son of Man is.
[00:23:48] He has a lot to say about the Son of Man. He doesn't have a whole lot to say about the leopard.
[00:23:52] Things that I'm like, ooh, I want to know more about. Ooh, that sounds. It's so scary. I want to know more about these. I want to know more about that, like, creature with the double row of teeth made of iron. Ah, that would be a fun story to learn about Jesus. Like, whatever. That's not the point of the story. You're, like, majoring on things that don't matter at all.
[00:24:12] For Jesus, the core of this story is this one character, the Son of Man, because he is the one that goes before the Ancient of Days and brings the kingdom of the Ancient of Days to the people.
[00:24:29] I want to read some of what Jesus has to say.
[00:24:32] The core of what this message is about the future, about the end of the beasts, the end of the evil initiated when humans rejected their humanity, what the end of that looks like through Christ.
[00:24:52] First of all, Matthew 28, Jesus could not. When you read Matthew 20, when you read the Great Commission, let me read this one more time. From Daniel, chapter seven. To him was giving ruling authority, honor and sovereignty. All people, nations, and language groups were serving him. All authority is eternal and will not pass. His authority is eternal, not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed. Matthew 20:8.
[00:25:16] All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
[00:25:20] If you're Jewish and you're reading that, you're like, well, that sounds a lot like that Son of Man character from Daniel. Therefore, this Son of Man Jesus has expressed. Now, this comes after he was resurrected.
[00:25:34] There's something going on with him that's not beastly, seems to be eternal in the way of the Ancient of Days.
[00:25:41] He says all the authority that you are looking for, that you've been looking for, for the. The end of history, at the end of all these successive kingdoms when true justice will show up. It's shown up. I'm right here. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And remember, I'm with you always to the very end of the age in this kingdom different from the beastly Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Ancient of Days, under the Son of Man.
[00:26:20] The subjects of that kingdom won't be cowering in fear because of the power and might and struggle that happens like one feasting on the next.
[00:26:34] The fear that you experience if you don't do what that.
[00:26:38] What those cultures tell you you're supposed to do.
[00:26:41] There is no fear in this kingdom.
[00:26:43] I've already shown you.
[00:26:46] I have overcome death.
[00:26:48] This kingdom is eternal.
[00:26:50] And if you're a part of it, here is your responsibility. You are not cowering.
[00:26:57] Your job is to tell other people this thing's over.
[00:27:01] You don't have to be a subject to that kingdom anymore.
[00:27:07] Fear does not control us.
[00:27:11] We understand true justice.
[00:27:14] The Ancient of Days is our king.
[00:27:17] We are subject to the Son of Man.
[00:27:20] So go teach them to live differently. Teach them to live the way you would live. If you are not subject to the fear of the beasts, what would it look like to be to have the. The goodness, the judgment of true goodness out there for you to reach towards?
[00:27:39] What does it look like for you to live under that? I'll tell you what it looks like.
[00:27:42] Everything that I've taught you about being human, all the Sermon on the Mount, all the parables, everything that I've taught you, everything that I've shown you, I have shown you what it looks like to be a citizen of this very different kingdom. Do that. Go teach other people how to do that.
[00:27:57] Make this kingdom real for more and more people, make humans from beasts.
[00:28:06] Jesus description of the Son of Man over and over again in the Old Testament, in the Gospels is, I'm going to clump some of these together.
[00:28:17] They kind of speak to the character of Jesus and the character of the kingdom and reflects back on the citizens of the kingdom and what it's like for us. The Son of Man did not come to.
[00:28:27] To be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many entirely opposite of all the beasts.
[00:28:36] The upside down kingdom, where to be the king means you are the servant of all.
[00:28:44] To be a subject to the king means that you are desiring service not to be served.
[00:28:51] It's a world in which all of the rules, all the rules that lead to death and destruction are thrown out.
[00:28:57] Those rules are governed by a sense that I need to. I. I need to take care of myself, even if it's going to come at the expense of everyone else. That, that world's over for us.
[00:29:09] We're not ruled by that beastly character anymore.
[00:29:12] We have a north star, a kingdom that is forever. It says you don't need to protect yourself.
[00:29:21] You don't need to desecrate your soul in order to protect yourself.
[00:29:28] You can live differently now.
[00:29:31] The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. He's literally drawn to those that are hurting.
[00:29:39] The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they'll kill him.
[00:29:44] The idea that a king would look, talking to his subjects, the first few people that are following him, he would say, I am making myself a servant to everyone and I'm going to be killed by them.
[00:30:01] I'm going to lose.
[00:30:04] That's what it's going to look like to you. Every metric that you have for what a king is supposed to be. I'm telling you beforehand that, that I won't actually be anything special in that regard.
[00:30:20] But there is a different thing that matters to me.
[00:30:23] When I'm killed, I'll be raised up in three days.
[00:30:28] You think Rome is the enemy?
[00:30:31] Death is the enemy. The Romans are going to capture me. The authorities are going to kill me.
[00:30:37] Death won't keep me.
[00:30:39] At the end of the day, our enemy is much greater than the beasts.
[00:30:46] Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you and reject you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
[00:30:59] When you don't exhibit the character and submit to the influence and authority of the beasts around you, you will not look like one who's. Just.
[00:31:11] Because they've already decided that justice, justice isn't the standard that God has. Justice is whatever they've made up to be good.
[00:31:19] And so when you aren't, that you won't be good to them.
[00:31:22] It doesn't make sense that you would be.
[00:31:25] Because good is whatever they've decided they need to do to survive. And if you're doing anything that, that interferes with that, then you are not good.
[00:31:32] Expect to be treated like I'm treated because we're not participating in a beastly world.
[00:31:42] He also describes what it looks like for him to take on this role of justice that the ancient of days had. In that image, the Father judges no one. He has entrusted all judgment to the Son.
[00:31:57] This speaks clearly to his sense that he is God.
[00:32:05] Only God can judge.
[00:32:07] And he says, I judge.
[00:32:15] I want you to think about how arrogant that must have been to everyone who knew for a fact that he wasn't God.
[00:32:22] When people say, like, you aren't good, it's because they're start. If you're gonna follow Christ and you say this is what's good and this is not good, and they reject that, it makes sense because they've already decided that you can't be who you said you. Jesus is not who he said he was. So who you're following can't be good. And so when you say that that's good, it can't be good.
[00:32:51] So in a world where you are not going to be good by their standards, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the Son of man also be ashamed when he comes into the glory of his Father and his holy angels?
[00:33:13] If you decide that I am not your king, that I'm not your North Star, that I'm not your salvation, then I'm not.
[00:33:25] I am not going to be who you've decided I am not to you.
[00:33:30] If I am not the one that you trust, then I'm going to say you don't trust me. I'm not going to pretend that we have a relationship that you've rejected.
[00:33:46] This sounds harsh, but it's true. It's good.
[00:33:49] It is honest.
[00:33:52] If you want this relationship with me, then that's the relationship that we'll have.
[00:34:00] If my words. If you have to look. If you have to look at what I've said is good and compare it to the world out there, and the world out there is something that you want. You want to try to massage what I've had to say to make it more palatable to your friends who've rejected me, then that's not me that you love.
[00:34:16] It's a world of beasts that you prefer.
[00:34:19] And I'm going to acknowledge that it's beasts that you're following, not me.
[00:34:26] But I want you to know that the Son of Man also has the authority to forgive sins.
[00:34:35] Nothing that you've been has to be who you are.
[00:34:41] At the root of who Jesus is, is the Son of Man who has come to bring about deliverance from the beasts.
[00:34:50] Whatever you were yesterday, whatever shame that you've experienced, whatever measure of embarrassment that you had about God yesterday does not have to be the embarrassment.
[00:35:02] You could stand today and say, actually, I do trust Jesus.
[00:35:07] It was scary for me to acknowledge that. But when I look at my choices, I have to trust someone. And am I going to trust this culture around me, or am I going to trust Christ?
[00:35:20] As scary as it is for me to look around at other people, look in the eye and say, I do trust Christ. I'm prepared to do that now. I do trust him.
[00:35:28] He's not going to hold any of your past against you.
[00:35:31] His goal isn't to shame you for who you've been, but to create in you something that you were meant to be in the first place.
[00:35:43] All of this to me is so important because again, when I think of the Son of man and, oh, Jesus says he's the Son of man, I.
[00:35:53] I'm so embedded in the story of Christ that this is like, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. It doesn't make sense from a beastly perspective. From a worldly perspective, this makes no sense at all.
[00:36:08] That the king, the judge, the ruler would come and say, I am here to give my life up for you. Not to be the one that punishes you for what you've done, but to be honest about who we are. And when you're prepared to follow me instead of the beast, nothing that you've done in the past will be held against you. All I want is for you to be who you're supposed to be in the first place. My goal is your redemption, not your punishment.
[00:36:36] That's just not the way people think aside from Christ.
[00:36:44] Revelation 21.
[00:36:47] John looking ahead to this kingdom. He says, look, when we are past, we are living in this world where Jesus has come, where those beasts are still around.
[00:36:59] We are present to a kingdom that's already come, but we're living among a world that hasn't died off yet.
[00:37:07] John looking ahead to a world in which the coming kingdom is fully alive and all of those old beastly kingdoms have fully subsided. They have.
[00:37:16] They have fully been put away.
[00:37:18] He describes what life is like finally in that final kingdom.
[00:37:23] Look, God's dwelling place is now fully among his people. Jesus says, look around you. The kingdom of God is all around you. True, currently, the kingdom of God is all around us. The kingdom of God is inside us, but we also experience these beastly kingdoms around us too. At that point, it is just the dwelling place of God that's around us, they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
[00:38:04] The order that says that I need to take from you and in order to get from me and mine, the order that says there's a limited amount available and I need to struggle for it. I need to struggle against you for it.
[00:38:16] All that's passed away. Now we're in a kingdom and where we trust God fully. The ancient of days is in charge and we can rest in him at the end of the day when it's all over.
[00:38:31] The Son of Man is about hope.
[00:38:35] The hope of a kingdom fully realized separate from the kingdom of the beasts.
[00:38:42] This is our hope as Christians, as we the phrase. As we turn our eyes to Christ, as we lay our hopes on him, as we lay all of our burdens on him.
[00:38:56] We are turning away from a world of beasts, of tearing and gnashing and horror, and we're turning to a world in which we can have hope for a day when there's no more tears, no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain.
[00:39:15] That's the world that Jesus ushered in. The Son of Man.
[00:39:20] He said, I have come now and I have brought about the final kingdom.
[00:39:25] He's our kingdom. He is our king. We are his people.
[00:39:30] That's the world we live in.
[00:39:34] Let's pray.
[00:39:41] Father God, the opportunity is there for us constantly to live in fear of these lesser beings.
[00:39:49] They seem big and powerful and mighty, Lord, but that's only compared to us, God. Compared to you, they're nothing. They are pale imitations of what humans were ever intended to be.
[00:40:02] And God, as I look to my own spirit and I see reflections of that and I see a constant pull to be less than human.
[00:40:14] God, I pray that the fear that induces that in me is just wiped away.
[00:40:19] I can look to the hope that you've established through your resurrection.
[00:40:23] And I can say that's the world that I'm prepared to live in. You are my king.
[00:40:29] You've established your kingdom and I am your citizen.
[00:40:33] We love you, God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
![Daniel [7]: Daniel's Vision of the God's Final Kingdom](https://episodes.castos.com/66b3763c055959-54700241/images/2402968/c1a-2x15g-kpjg8nj5a7mv-pwgnsy.jpg)
