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We come this evening to the book of Daniel
and I have a confession to make and that is this.
It’s very difficult to be a guest preacher
and just to take one passage of scripture.
I’m expository preacher.
I preach through Bible books
and we just finished a series on Daniel this morning
at New Covenant, Kingdom Living in a Fallen World.
It’s something that the elders and I talked about
and we chose together for the people of God there
and the Lord met us and a great blessing of that.
And so it’s really coming off of that
that I want to tonight share with you Daniel chapter 12,
which I think holds a unique place in the scripture
and I’ll explain to you in a reason,
hopefully by the end of the sermon you’ll understand why.
But all that to say is that I like to just set up Daniel
chapter 12 a little because we’ve not seen
the rest of the book.
But if you know the book of Daniel,
you know that there are,
it’s a unique book in the Old Testament
in this that the first six chapters are historical narrative,
some of which is actually in the language of Aramaic,
which was the language of the Babylonians
where God had sent his people.
And in that context,
it was as if God wanted the revelation of himself
to be known even to the pagans of the world
and very mighty kings and God worked in tremendous ways.
And then Daniel moves to six chapters of visions
that Daniel himself had.
And those visions, you know,
so we go from written narrative,
which is fairly easy to understand
to apocalyptic language and visual and symbolic
and those sorts of things,
which is much more difficult to understand.
And there’s lots of speculation on those things.
And I will spare you all of that speculation
hopefully this evening,
but that to say is then we come to Daniel 12,
which puts it all in context
of why is this book given to us as the people of God?
And what are the lessons for us today?
And what it really does is it pulls together
all of the scripture concerning the end times.
And so that’s why if you’re studying the end times,
you cannot but focus at least initially
or along the way on what God reveals here
in Daniel chapter 12.
And so then last bit of introduction.
And I hope that, you know, this is not lost on you
because I know you’re well grounded.
But whenever we look at the scriptures,
particularly that which is prophetic,
know that there was a meaning for the people of that time,
but there’s oftentimes a meaning for people
far beyond that for our time.
And so the initial context of Daniel
was a message given to the people of God
as they were seeing world kingdoms come and go
right before them.
And it was to encourage them and to assure them
that God had not forgotten them.
Okay.
We live in such a time that we see world kingdoms
in conflict and perhaps we need the same encouragement.
But as we look to interpret this,
as we need to try to say, okay,
what does it mean for us today
the three basic principles of scriptural interpretation.
And again, I know that you probably have heard this.
So I’ll just say them briefly.
The first is that we must allow scripture
to interpret scripture.
Every cult,
every cult has a vision of the end times
and that shapes how they do what they do.
And it’s because they get hung on a certain thing
that they think is viewed a certain way
that they distort all the rest of the scripture.
And so as biblical Christians,
as those in the reformed tradition,
we hold the principle that scripture must be used
to interpret scripture.
And so we’re gonna be talking about how this relates
to other parts of scripture this evening.
The second is that we need to understand
the flow of biblical revelation.
We understand much more than the people of God
did in Daniel’s day,
but there’s a flow to biblical revelation.
And the Old Testament
points us to Christ
and the New Testament interprets the Old.
And so there’s a unity of the scriptures,
Old and New Testament,
and that unity is found in Christ.
And so as we approach God’s word and we say,
well, here’s a part of scripture that, you know,
was in the Old Testament, well, does it still apply?
Well, we look to the New and vice versa.
In fact, the early church, the New Testament church
had the Old Testament scriptures to guide them.
And so we would be well-served to make sure
that we maintain a unity of Old and New Testament.
What is the common revelation
that God has given to His people?
And lastly is, and this is somewhat obvious,
but sometimes we can get stuck
trying to understand what a particular passage
of scripture means.
And so what we need to understand
is there are some things in scripture
that are much more clear than other things in scripture.
And rather than start with the obscure
and try to read everything through the obscure
in our own speculations,
we would be better served to take that which is clear
and allow it to interpret that which is less clear,
particularly as we look at the prophetic writings
of both the Old and the New Testaments.
So I hope that that is an encouragement to you
and such a word may be a framework
as we’re gonna look at Daniel chapter 12
and the vision that God gives to Daniel,
which is picked up by every other prophet
and New Testament writer,
and even the words of Jesus Himself
that we read earlier.
So I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter 12,
beginning to read there at verse one,
hear God’s word.
At that time shall arise Michael the great prince
who has charge of your people.
And there shall be a time of trouble
such as never been since there was a nation till that time.
But at that time your people shall be delivered.
Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And those who are wise shall shine
like the brightness of the sky of love.
And those who turn many to righteousness
like the stars forever and ever.
But you Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book
until the time of the end.
Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.
Then I Daniel looked and behold two others stood
one on the bank of the stream and the other
on the bank of the stream.
And someone said to the man clothed in linen
who was above the waters of the stream,
how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
And I heard the man clothed in linen
who was above the waters of the stream.
He raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven
and swore by him who lives forever
that it would be for a time, times and half a time.
And that when the shattering of the power
of the holy people comes to an end,
all these things would be finished.
I heard, but I did not understand.
Then I said, oh my Lord,
what shall be the outcome of these things?
And he said, go your way Daniel,
for the words are shut up and sealed
until the time of the end.
Many shall purify themselves
and make themselves white and be refined,
but the wicked shall act wickedly
and none of the wicked shall understand,
but those who are wise shall understand.
And from the time that the regular burnt offering
is taken away and the abomination
that makes desolation is set up,
there shall be 1,290 days.
Blessed is he who waits and arrives at 1,335 days,
but go your way till the end
and you shall have rest and shall stand
in your allotted place at the end of the days.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
And Lord, we thank you for that which it reveals to us
and Lord, we pray now that your spirit might come
and that you would speak your word to us,
that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear
and hearts that are open to listening and obeying
and wills that are conformed to your will,
that we might be your people in this time and in this place
to the praise of your glory and in the name of King Jesus.
And so it’s in that name that we humbly pray, amen.
If there would be one overarching theme
of this particular chapter of God’s word,
Daniel chapter 12, it would be this.
Be prepared, the end of the world is coming
and Christ shall return to gather his people.
Be prepared, the end of this world is coming
and Christ shall return to gather his people.
And as we look at this particular passage,
what we’re going to find is that Daniel masterfully
illuminates this through seven themes,
a number of perfection, seven themes that run through this.
And we will briefly look at each one.
The hour is already, you spent the Lord’s day
with God’s people, but we do wanna look at these
because they’re picked up at other places of scripture.
The first thing that we are introduced to
is a cosmic spiritual conflict there at verse one.
There’s a battle being waged,
oftentimes in unseen places, we don’t fully always see
what God is doing or what is going on.
The battle is not just between men,
but as Paul says in the book of Ephesians,
the battle is between principalities and powers.
In verse one, at that time shall rise Michael,
the great prince who has charge of your people.
Now, who is this Michael?
He is identified elsewhere in Daniel
and other parts of the scripture as an archangel,
a messenger of God.
He is the one who has been sent to declare
the decree of God, what God intends to do
in human time and space.
God does not need to tell us what he intends to do.
He does not need to tell us what he is about,
but often he does.
In Genesis, God speaks to the people
and in Genesis, God speaks and worlds come into being.
And as we see from the rest of the scripture,
when God speaks, lives are changed and transformed.
So there is nothing beyond the hand and control of God.
Here in Daniel chapter 12, Michael comes to speak
and to give a message from God,
particularly to his servant Daniel,
because Daniel has had visions and dreams
of which he is greatly troubled.
The book of Daniel, it’s remarkable,
as you see kingdoms, earthly kingdoms
we can now look back on.
The Babylonian empire, the Medes and the Persians,
the empire of Alexander the Great
and even the great Roman empire.
And to see that through all those things
that God had his servant there as an emissary,
an ambassador to pagan kings,
that he might declare God’s will for them.
Remarkable that God would want his will known
to all the peoples of the earth.
And so as we come here to Daniel chapter 12,
remember though, there’s a battle being waged.
This is not a neutral time,
nor is it a neutral time for us.
There’s a cosmic spiritual conflict
between the kingdoms of this world
and the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And that battle was being played out
in very real ways in human time and human history
and even in our lives.
We could trace this battle,
and we won’t do that this evening,
from Genesis to Revelation.
Look, every time Satan is introduced in the scripture,
there’s a continuing theme.
Satan arises to thwart the purposes of God.
We see it in the garden.
We see it in the book of Job,
where we’re given insight where Job doesn’t know,
but there’s what’s going on in heaven.
We see it in the Old Testament,
the time of the kings and the ministries of Elijah and Elisha.
The prophets spoke about it.
Jesus himself, when he comes,
there’s more demonic activity.
Why?
Because Christ has come to establish his kingdom,
and there is opposition to it.
We see that in the early church,
how Satan sought to thwart its witness and its testimony.
And, of course, the book of Revelation presents,
in a very graphic way, this spiritual conflict.
And we need to understand that no matter what our time,
no matter what our place in this flow of human history,
as the people of God,
we are involved in some way in that great spiritual conflict
between the kingdoms of this world
and the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Which brings us to the second theme,
also introduced there in verse one,
and that is the theme that Daniel introduces
of the spirit of Antichrist.
At times, the spiritual conflict seems to be less visible,
and we don’t really see it, but it is being waged.
And then there are other times
where it sort of is stark contrast.
We can’t help but miss it, cannot help not miss it.
We see it for what it is,
and we see it because of an emerging Antichrist.
Now, is the Antichrist one single human being?
The answer is no,
because Jesus said the answer was no.
There are many, as we read there in Matthew 24,
for false Christs and false prophets will arise
and perform great signs and wonders
so as to lead the astray, if possible, even the elect,
to deceive even the people of God.
The Antichrist is any ruler that is anti-God,
who exalts himself, who does whatever he pleases,
who seeks to establish himself
as the one who is worthy to be worshiped,
and ultimately brings persecution
against the people of God.
Human history is filled with such men.
Hitler, Stalin, the Japanese Emperor Hirohito,
various rulers in the Middle East,
maybe even some leaders of the world’s democracies.
But in the end times,
the apostle Paul points to a single leader of the world,
a man of lawlessness, as Thessalonians talks about,
who is destined for perdition.
The apostle John in Revelation speaks of the beast
and the false prophet who served the dragon,
a political leader supported by a religious leader
in league with Satan, the unholy Trinity,
opposed to everything of God.
Daniel 11 introduces in the Old Testament
this person of Antichrist,
and perhaps is a reference to the events
and to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes,
who brought great persecution against God’s people.
It was at this time that the faithful were led
by freedom fighters of truth under Judas Maccabeus.
But a shift occurs in the book of Daniel
between chapters 11 and chapter 12,
suggesting that it’s not just about the battles
of Daniel 11, between the north and the south,
between Gog and Magog,
but a greater fulfillment at the end of time.
Not just the first coming of Christ,
but in fact what points to the second coming of Christ.
Much like the words of Jesus when he said to his disciples,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things take place.
And there are those in the Christian community
who believe that all these things that Christ spoke of
took place in 70 AD,
when the Roman Emperor Titus invaded Jerusalem
and destroyed the temple.
Great persecution and distress fell upon God’s people,
something of the nature of which
and the horror of which the world had not yet seen.
But there is a greater fulfillment
awaiting the end of time because Christ has not come.
And the same is true here in Daniel.
Certain things did occur in a short period of time
of Daniel’s visions among the people of God.
But chapter 12 points to a more final and fuller fulfillment.
A great cosmic spiritual battle,
the spirit of Antichrist is already out in the world,
which then leads us to a time of tribulation, verse one.
There shall be a time of trouble
such as never been since there was a nation till that time.
And that meant something particular to Daniel
and to the people of God there in Babylon.
It may not mean exactly the same thing to us today,
but nonetheless, the scripture teaches us,
it seeks to inform us that God’s people have always been persecuted.
In fact, that’s one of the signs of faithfulness to Christ.
Jesus said, if they hate you, remember they hated me first.
And so as we understand that
and as we understand the scriptures as they unfold
and what awaits the church as it awaits the coming,
the second coming of Christ,
the Church of Jesus Christ will be more persecuted
than the Israelites were under Pharaoh,
the Jewish nation under Ariacus,
even the early Christians under Roman empires.
Christ spoke of this when he said these words,
For then there will be great tribulation
such as not been from the beginning of the world until now,
no and never will be.
And if those days had not been cut short,
no human being would be saved.
But for the sake of the elect,
those days will be cut short.
We are reminded, are we not,
of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares?
Perhaps you know it well.
Being very faithful goes out into his field
and he does the hard work of tilling the ground
and sowing the seed and he works at it all day
and he goes home at night tired and exhausted
and to get rest.
And that very night while he is resting,
an enemy comes and what does he do?
But sows the tares, the false wheat among the wheat.
And it’s not known at first
because there are anyone who grows things.
I know a number of you in this congregation.
You grow all sorts of things.
You know there’s a time for sowing
and then there’s a time for growing
and things grow and they begin to flower
and begin to bear fruit.
And then as scripture says,
there’s a time for harvesting or reaping.
And so the temptation might be to say,
oh, even among God’s people.
Well, we see these false things
and so we just need to root them out,
stand them out and Christ’s words of wisdom are no.
If you pull all of that out,
if we remove Christians from all those things
or remove those things from even Christian lives,
no, we will destroy the wheat.
Wait until the proper time.
At the time of harvest,
the angels will harvest
and they will separate the wheat from the chaff,
the wheat from the tares
and one will be gathered into the barn
and saved and the other will be burned.
A clear instruction to us of that judgment
that comes upon those who are not of God.
And then followed by a great season of rejoicing
because any of you that have grown things
know that the great joy is after the growing
and the harvesting is then the enjoying
of the fruit of those things that have been planted.
And so we too, Christ himself,
will enjoy the fruit of what has been planted
by the testimony of the gospel.
So all that to say, you know,
as we think about and as people speak about
and blog and all the things that they do,
we have so many forms of communication these days.
There are various eschatological views
even among the Christian church.
We’ve understood those to be pre-mil
and post-mil and ah-mil.
Some teasingly say pan-mil.
It will all pan out in the end.
Which one of those are you?
Well, does it really matter?
In some ways it does.
We have to search the scriptures
and each of those positions
seek to be biblically grounded.
But there are things beyond what we can understand.
And ultimately God alone knows
and if that which is clear must interpret that
which is less than clear.
The big question that all of that interest
and there seems to be a great interest
in the Christian church right now
studying the book of Revelation
and all those sorts of things in light of world events.
But the big question that people
are ultimately asking is this.
Even those that are non-Christian in some ways
are asking this big question.
And that is this, will the world get better or only worse?
Will the world get better or only worse?
And the answer to that question often shapes
how people view even end times.
James Tenney commenting on Thessalonians
where it speaks about the second coming of Christ
offers this profound insight.
And so I share it with you.
The question is sometimes asked
whether the world gets better or worse as it grows older.
Optimists and pessimists take opposite sides upon it.
Both are wrong.
It does not get better only, nor worse only, but both.
Its progress is not simply a progress in good,
evil being driven from the field,
nor is it simply a progress in evil
before which the good continually disappears.
It is a progress in which good and evil come to maturity,
bearing the ripest fruit, showing all that they can do,
proving their strength to be utmost against each other.
The progress is not in good itself or in evil itself,
but in the antagonism of the one to the other.
The growing conflict, the growing stark contrast
between the things of God and the things of this world,
between those who serve God
and those who serve the patterns of this world
and ultimately themselves.
Which leads us to the fourth theme presented here,
and that is the separation of a godly line.
Again, verse 1 introduces it.
But at that time your people shall be delivered,
everyone whose name is found written in the book.
What book is Daniel referring to?
Well, from scripture we know it to be the book of life.
The names inscribed upon its pages
are those whom God has created and redeemed
from all mankind to be adopted into his family
through faith in his son and our savior, Jesus Christ.
And the fact that the division here
in the metaphorical language use of writing the books
speaks of God’s intentionality of calling us by name
and making a record of it,
lest we forget what Christ has done for us as his people.
And as we consider this truth
of what Christ has done for his people,
that if we are part of God’s people,
our names are written in the book of life,
it should humble us.
And this way of our desperate understanding
of the need of the gospel,
for none of us are worthy
to have our name written in that book.
All of us are sinners before a holy and a righteous God,
justly deserving his wrath and his pleasure
as the confession speaks of.
We cannot say, well, we’re better
than some of these other people.
You know, at least we go to church
or whatever else we might have some standard
that makes us think somehow that,
well, God would be obligated to work in our lives.
No, God has loved us because he loved us.
He set his love on us because of who he is,
not because of who we are.
There’s no place for pride in any of this
as we consider what God is doing.
The gospel reminds us that apart from the grace of God,
each and every one of us is doomed for destruction.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins,
but God, in his kindness and mercy,
by his grace calls us by name,
and he does everything necessary to secure our salvation
so that we might have a new heart, a new hope,
a new future because we have a new relationship
with God through Jesus Christ.
And this offer of the gospel is given to all.
The words of the Philippian jailer when he asked there
as he trembled, what must we do to be saved?
And Paul’s answer, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved, you and your household.
But nonetheless, it is only by God’s spirit
and his infinite wisdom that he applies that
to anyone’s heart, much less our hearts.
The answer is this, what do we bring?
Absolutely nothing to the table,
except for our dependence upon God.
What do we bring?
We bring ourselves broken in so many ways.
But when we do, when we come to that point
where we offer ourselves as we are,
God comes in his kindness and his mercy.
He calls us by name.
He welcomes us into his family.
He adopts us.
And then he does all things necessary,
not only to secure our salvation,
but to secure us as his people and to guide us
and to lead us on this Pilgrim journey.
It’s a remarkable thing.
And part of that journey, my friends,
if we understand the scripture,
is suffering and persecution.
The suffering and the persecution
which God’s people endure and will endure
and are enduring around the world at this point in time
is for our good and for Christ’s glory.
It’s redemptive.
You say, well, how is that possible?
Because it just sounds very, very painful.
And none of us want to say,
oh, yes, I’m ready to be martyred.
I’m ready to have to make that stand for my faith.
But it is redemptive in this way
that suffering and persecution draw a line of distinction
between those who are genuine believers
and those who are not.
And it separates the godly from the ungodly,
even among God’s people.
When Christianity is popular,
all sorts of people want to be associated with it.
Suffering and persecution have a way of weeding out those
who really are not true possessors of Christ.
They might profess, but they don’t possess him.
And because if it’s going to cost something
to follow Jesus Christ,
then many are saying it’s not worth the cost.
Remember what Jesus said.
That if anyone would come after him,
anyone would follow him,
they must consider the cost of being his disciples.
And lastly, one of the ways that suffering
and persecution is redemptive
is that it causes true believers
to place their faith solely in Christ.
When these things come,
there’s nothing in this world that we have to hold on to.
There’s nothing of our own thinking.
There’s nothing of our own experience
that can guide us in terms of what does it mean
to stand for Christ when our lives are on the line.
But what the experience of the people of God
has always been throughout biblical
and even early church history
is that when persecution come, God grants grace.
And they focus even on Christ, who is their hope.
As Stephen did while he was being martyred,
as other saints have done when put to that final test,
it brings a great clarity to whose we are
and to who is the one that we turn to to save us.
It leads to a separation, if you will,
a clear evidence to the world of those who belong to God
and those who do not,
who are willing to give up their lives
rather than to deny their allegiance to King Jesus.
It’s a judgment that’s in view, a final judgment,
that final dividing of the godly and the ungodly.
We see that here in verse two,
and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Verse 10, many shall purify themselves
and make themselves white to be refined.
But the wicked shall act wickedly
and none of the wicked shall understand.
But those who are wise shall understand.
We need to see God’s perspective on these things.
We need to make sure that our salvation
is not based on anything that we do,
not based on our own thinking, our own merits,
our own pattern of life.
Our salvation is not based on any of these things.
Our salvation and consequently our eternal destiny
is based upon Christ, the finished work of Christ,
who he is and what he’s done.
And as we look to the end of all things,
as the Bible encourages us to do,
there’s another theme pictured here in Daniel chapter 12,
and it’s that of eternal rest.
Look there at verse three.
And those who are wise
shall shine like the brightness of the sky above
and those who turn many to righteousness
like the stars forever and ever.
God’s people are promised an eternal rest,
no matter what happens to us in this life,
no matter how painful the final details
or the final days of our life may be,
no matter whether we die before Christ returns,
whether we are persecuted or martyred,
it ultimately does not matter.
What is assured to us through Christ is eternal rest,
everlasting life, life lived in the presence of God.
If you’re familiar with the book of Hebrews,
it traces God’s people’s history,
Joshua and the conquest entering the promised land.
The writer of Hebrews makes it very clear
that Joshua could not give the people of God
the rest that God spoke of.
The promised land was but a metaphor,
if you will, for heaven.
There is a Sabbath-based rest that still remains
for those who are the people of God.
We look forward in faith to it because of the one,
namely Christ, who alone gives it
because he is our Lord and Savior.
If you look in the Old Testament,
particularly at the Old Testament feasts,
they’re instructive to us in this way.
We gather together today on what we call the Lord’s Day.
It belongs to God, it’s given to us.
It is literally, though, the eighth day,
the eighth day of redemption,
the three Old Testament feasts that began
the first day and the last, the eighth day, with worship.
And if you follow it, you understand this,
that when the creation was complete
and God rested on the seventh day,
there was yet a final work to be done,
the work of Jesus Christ to redeem all things,
to restore them and to bring them to their full fruition.
And so we gather on this day, the day of resurrection,
the eighth day that corresponds to the first day
of the week, knowing that in Christ,
we too shall be raised, that in Christ,
the creation itself groans waiting
for the sons of God to be revealed,
that in Christ, God makes all things new.
God is at work in this work of redemption.
And part of that newness that we can look forward to
is eternal rest, which as we read
the Westminster Larger Catechism,
it describes all the things that are part of it.
Sin will be no more.
The difficulties of this life,
the things that we struggle with will be no more.
We’ll be freed from the bondage that we have
living here among the families of men.
We will be there in the presence of God,
and we will get to enjoy him forever
as we’re encouraged to do in our confession.
We will enjoy him in a way that Adam and Eve
enjoyed him in the garden, but even more.
And we will enjoy him as God intended
when he decreed that we would be part of his people
before the foundation of the world.
If that blows the mind,
if that’s a little bit beyond our full understanding,
that’s because we’re mortal.
We’re not God, but God reveals to us
some of the glory of that.
So that we might be encouraged.
Jesus said the same words in a different way, though,
to his disciples on his way to the cross,
knowing that they would be separated,
knowing that they didn’t understand all the things
that he had told them that he was going to do
with these words in the Gospel of John.
Let not your hearts be troubled,
believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you
that I go to prepare a place for you?
We are promised an eternal home.
Daniel was promised it as well there
in Daniel chapter 12, verse 13, look at it.
But go on your way till the end.
Literally, continue to live out your life, Daniel.
And then this great promise.
And you shall rest and shall stand
in your allotted place at the end of the days.
The saints of old were promised this
in the coming of Christ, this rest.
We are promised it too as we look back
at the finished work of Christ,
which leads us to this very honest question.
When will this be?
When will these things finally happen?
In fact, Daniel himself asks that question in this passage.
He says, what will be the outcome?
Literally, how long, oh Lord?
And you notice who appears to answer his question?
It’s Christ himself who appears to answer the question,
which leads us to another theme,
and that is the return of Christ.
Spoken of here in Daniel chapter 12, in this vision,
Daniel sees a man in linen above the waters of a stream.
The river that flows from the very throne of God,
as Ezekiel saw in his vision, the waters of life
in the book of Revelation,
upon which are the multiple trees of life given
for the healing of the nations.
The man in linen, a pre-incarnate vision of Christ
given to Daniel, is joined by two other messengers
or angels who stand on the rear banks.
And Christ speaks and he answers this question,
how long, with three cryptic words.
Verse 7, a time, times and half a time,
which many interpret as three and a half years.
Verse 11, 1290 days, three and a half years,
although we cannot really be sure
whether those years speak of the final time,
the final end, or just the persecution under Antiochus
that Daniel and his people endured in his time.
And then we come to verse 12, 1,355 days,
and we are just left wondering,
how does this relate to these other numbers at all?
John Calvin, in commenting on this passage,
says the meaning is very simple.
May be simple for Calvin,
perhaps a little bit more complex for us,
but this is what he says.
Twice means, because it’s repeated twice,
times a long time, times a longer period,
and a half means the end of the closing period.
The sum of the whole is this.
Many years must elapse before God fulfills
what the prophet has declared.
As if he has said, while the sons of God
are kept in suspense,
so long without obtaining an answer to their petitions,
the time will be prolonged,
may be even doubled.
With respect to half a time,
this is added for the comfort of the pious
to prevent them from sinking under the delay
or despairing through excessive weariness.
Many times, undiscerning people,
study Daniel or the book of Revelation,
trying to figure out the actual time of Christ’s coming,
and you hear about them,
and they make these proclamations,
and people gather, and they wait,
and then it doesn’t happen,
and they’re shown to be the fools that they are.
The point of these prophecies
is not to give us the exact time of Christ’s coming.
That’s not their point.
The point is that Christ will come,
and that when he comes, he will return in glory.
Just as the angels said to the disciples
they’re gathered on the Mount of Olives
when Jesus was ascended,
Christ will return in glory.
Jesus said this, no man knows,
not even the angels in heaven,
not the Son, but the Father only.
Therefore, as Matthew 24 encourages us,
stay awake, for you do not know
on what day your Lord is coming.
And the Apostle Paul gives us an additional revelation
where we read from Thessalonians,
and even as that hymn we sang references,
for the Lord himself will descend from heaven
with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of God,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be called up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we always be with the Lord.
Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
Though delayed, though prolonged,
beyond what we might possibly be able to understand,
Christ will return,
and he will return in glory
to accomplish all that God intends,
and the gathering of his people.
Which leads us then to the seventh theme
found here in Daniel chapter 12,
God’s sovereignty over time.
God’s sovereignty over people and nations and circumstances
has been the theme of the book of Daniel,
but here in chapter 12 it’s God’s sovereignty over time.
It was Einstein in some of his theories
who said that time was the fourth dimension.
If any of you have ever seen the older television show
called The Twilight Zone,
it referenced the fifth dimension,
a world beyond these worlds.
The point is this,
that God is beyond all human limits of dimensions.
God is beyond time and human space,
and yet God comes and invades human time and space.
Christ comes at a very particular time
into human time and space
to accomplish a very particular thing,
the salvation of his people for all time.
Christ came on a mission
to accomplish God’s purposes of redemption,
to rescue a people from the kingdom of darkness,
and to usher them into the kingdom of his glorious light.
And so we are to be prepared
for the end of this world is coming
and Christ shall return to gather his people.
So how do we begin to apply this to our lives?
And thank you for your kind attention
to this whirlwind tour, if you will,
as Daniel chapter 12 puts together
all these parts of other scripture.
I’d like to suggest three applications.
There are many others,
and God may, as you study and meditate on this,
God may reveal something particularly to you
and encourage you to be open to what the Spirit might say.
But I’d like to give you three applications
that come from the text itself.
And therefore, I think they speak
to all of God’s people in all time.
The first is this.
It is a call for wisdom.
We will not understand everything
that the Bible reveals to us about these things.
We just will not.
Everything in this life,
we will not understand much less the life to come.
Daniel, as wise as he was,
as God’s revelation to him,
the word of God given to pagan nations even,
a cause of repentance,
Daniel did not understand everything.
So we will not as well,
but it calls for wisdom.
And the Bible tells us that if any of us lack wisdom,
we need to ask.
And so when we’re faced with circumstances
and we’re saying,
Lord, why is this happening in my life?
Lord, how does this fit into your bigger scheme of things?
What am I called to do in this circumstance,
in this situation,
when the pressures of this spiritual conflict
are being brought to bear in very real ways?
We cry out to the Lord.
And we ask for wisdom
that we might be found faithful to Christ.
Second point of application I think is this.
There’s a call here for bold gospel proclamation.
People who are wise,
what does this text tell us that they do?
They lead many to righteousness.
They point people to Jesus Christ.
Because as we see these things unfolding,
as we know what the end will be,
things come into very stark relief.
There is but one thing that is certain.
Christ will come.
And he is the judge of all mankind
and everyone must give an account to him.
And so it is our responsibility as his ambassadors,
the ambassadors of the king,
those whose lives have been changed and transformed
by the very power of that gospel,
to proclaim that gospel to the ends of the earth.
That is what the calling of Christ’s people is at this time.
It’s not to stay in the holy huddle.
It’s not to say all things are going to just get worse
and there’s nothing we can do.
In fact, it means we need to pray
and ask God for opportunities
to boldly proclaim what we know to be the truth.
Jesus’ words to us are so instructive
where he said,
this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed
to the ends of the earth and then the end will come.
And so until that work is complete,
Christ will not come, but when that work is complete,
Christ will come.
It’s the progression of God’s plan and purposes.
God is not bound by human time and space.
He will accomplish his purposes,
but he chooses to use us.
Will we be found faithful?
Will we be found as those whose lamps
are trimmed and burning
with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,
the gospel shared to those whom God has called us to share it
because the Father is concerned to gather his elect
that every member of his family might find their place
in that family circle
that every one of them might have the assurance
of being before the throne of God forever and ever.
And what the Apostle Peter adds to us
in a way that we can’t fully understand
is this that says that as we are faithful
and as that gospel is proclaimed,
we hasten the day of the Lord’s coming.
It’s not as if when we think in a linear way,
you know, okay, it’s a particular day,
a particular time, those sorts of things.
No, it’s in God’s timing of things.
And so there is that as we are faithful,
the kingdom of God is established.
Persecution even is cut short as God’s word says
because God’s people, his elect, his family are revealed.
And then the third application here
is a call for faithfulness.
Call for faith, hope, and love,
those three Christian virtues.
Faith in Christ in the midst of world’s difficulties
because things as bad as they are,
in certain cases, they will get worse.
We know that to be true.
You ask Christians around the world today,
they are experiencing horrific things
because they named the name of Christ.
That persecution will come to us if we are Christian.
If we are faithful to Christ, it will come to us.
We will not be spared that.
And so it says that will we be found faithful?
Will we have our hope not in the things of this world,
not in the things that we can control,
not our own personal peace and comforts,
not the things that we think we can fully understand
and explain?
All those things will fail us.
Our hope needs to be in Christ.
And that Christ holds us in the palm of his hand,
that our life is hid together with Christ in God,
as the scripture says.
And that then leads us to love.
That in this time, that we’re called to love God
with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We’re called to love each other
because we’re the family that’s gonna be together
for eternity.
We’re called to love our neighbor in the name of Christ.
As Noah was called to preach for 120 years
before the flood.
So we too are called to love on people around us
who don’t have that hope, who don’t have that faith,
who desperately need the love of God
that’s found only in Jesus Christ.
And we do so believing God to bring the result.
And therefore the scripture encourages us,
Paul encourages us, be steadfast and immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.
For you know that your labor is not in vain with the Lord.
Everything offered to Christ matters.
Nothing will be lost if it’s offered to him.
And he receives it and blesses it.
And so as we come to the conclusion of this book
and even this sermon this evening,
what are we called to do?
But to live our lives in light of eternity.
To know that as we live our lives here
within our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods,
wherever God by his appointment sends us,
we do so before the face of God.
God sees, God knows, God hears, God cares.
At the same time in a much greater way, it prepares us.
It weans us from the things of this world
and prepares us to that day
when we truly will live before the face of God
where we will see him face to face,
where we will enjoy fellowship with him,
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, as he intends.
Let’s pray together.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you that it is true.
It is infallible.
It speaks of that which we cannot understand
except you reveal it.
And when it speaks,
it speaks for the encouragement of our souls.
Lord, may we hear it.
May we live it.
May we have the perspective that it gives to us
that we might be found faithful as unto you.
And Lord, with your people throughout all the ages,
we would make it our prayer.
Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come and come quickly.
And so it’s in his name that we humbly pray, amen.
I invite you to stand together
and we’ll sing our concluding hymn.
Number 386,
Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending.