Trusting in a God Who Reveals Mysteries (Afternoon)

Good evening. I am excited to be here with you tonight as we're continuing our series in Daniel. I know that we have a lot of new visitors coming to Redeemer these days and so if we haven't met, my name is Connor Koskaria. I'm of the pastors here and we're so glad that you're here and it's so good to be here with you at the 4PM. Tonight, we're gonna be in Daniel chapter two.

So if you wanna go ahead and turn there, it's 49 verses. I'm not gonna read all 49, but it will be helpful to to have the the entire passage there for you. So Daniel chapter two. If you wanna turn there with me. I've heard it said before that the middle of the night has a way of telling the truth.

The middle of the night it has a way of telling the truth. We're in a season right now, we have a precious four year old little boy named Levi and Levi is having a difficult time sleeping through the night. Whether it's just randomly waking up and needing to go to the bathroom or the many bug bites that he seems to have and needs band aids for. He wakes us up, he calls for us. And because of this, I've I've learned something about myself.

I'm not nearly as patient and compassionate at two in the morning as I am in the middle of the day. During the day, I can usually keep my frustration in check. I can take a deep breath, I can speak calmly, I can convince myself that I'm this gracious, merciful, patient father, but when I am startled awake in the middle of the night, when I've just fallen asleep, when I'm really tired, I'm disoriented, whatever patience that I feel like I have totally disappears. Maybe you can relate. Maybe your child wakes you up at two or three in the morning for bug bites or maybe your spouse snores or your roommate keeps a completely different schedule and in the middle of the night they come crashing through the door and they're wide awake.

During the day, I'm sure, like me and I'm sure many of you would respond reasonably, but in the middle of the night, something comes out of us that we didn't know or perhaps didn't want to admit is actually there. The middle of the night has a way of telling the truth. And because it's in this vulnerable state that we realize how little control that we actually have. It's where our fears, frustrations, those insecurities that are deep down, they grow louder, they reveal when we're startled awake what's really inside of us. Daniel two, our passage tonight, it begins in the middle of the night.

And in this passage, we see a different side of king Nebuchadnezzar. At this time in history, king Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man in the world. He commands armies, he conquers nations, people live and die based on his word. And during the day, he appears completely in control. But then he has a dream.

In the dark in the darkness of his bedroom, he is startled awake and his illusion of control begins to crack. He can't sleep and he's distraught by these dreams that he keeps having. He's afraid and this fear it spills out in anger, violence towards those who are closest to him. The middle of the night, it tells the truth about Nebuchadnezzar. Beneath all of that power lies a frightened man who's not actually in control.

But as we'll see, as we work our way through this passage, Daniel two is about much more than just Nebuchadnezzar's weakness. This passage is really about who actually rules the world. That's what this passage is about. Who actually rules the world? Nebuchadnezzar, he may sit on Babylon's throne but the God of heavens, he rules over kings and kingdoms and all of history.

And because Daniel belongs to that God, he's gonna be able to face Nebuchadnezzar in this death sentence with not only peace, but as we'll seek praise. So I want us to jump into the story. We're gonna start in verse one and we're gonna read verse one to verse 16 or verse 19 and then we'll jump ahead to verse 31. So verse one chapter two. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.

His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king and the king said to them, I had a dream and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, oh king, live forever. Tell your servants a dream.

We will show you the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the word for me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation.

He answered a second time and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time because you see that the word from me is firm. If you do not make the dreams known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the times change. Therefore, tell me the dream and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.

The Chaldeans, they answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asked is difficult and no one can show it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this, the king was angry and very furious and command commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out and the wise men were about to be killed and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.

And he declared to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions and told them to seek mercy from God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.

Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Jump ahead to verse 31. Verse 31 says, you saw o king and behold a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold.

Its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you for gathering us together this evening. Lord, we have gathered here tonight to pay attention. There's many things we could be doing, but we have come here to hear from you.

So God, we pray that you would speak for your servants are listening. In the name of the father, son and holy spirit, we pray. Amen. So before we dive into the details of this mysterious dream, the way that I want us to unpack these 49 verses, I want us to take a deeper look at the two men in this story, Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. Because on the one hand, you have Nebuchadnezzar who possesses extraordinary power, yet he's having these dreams and they're causing him great distress.

And then you have Daniel who has been sentenced to death and he's remarkably composed. You have the king who has everything consumed by fear and you have Daniel sentenced to death and he gathers his friends to pray. Why? How? It can't be because Daniel's circumstances are easier.

In reality, they're worse. Nebuchadnezzar wants him along with all of his chief advisers, he wants all of them dead. When you peel back the layers, where the difference lies is that where has Daniel and where has Nebuchadnezzar placed their confidence? That's the difference. Where have they placed their confidence?

Daniel is steady because his confidence rests in God and Nebuchadnezzar is crumbling because his confidence rests in himself. So as we work through this passage, I think it's appropriate for us to ask a similar question, to look in the mirror and consider, where does my confidence lie? I want us to consider where am I trusting? When my life is shaken, what's revealed? And so for my faithful note takers, we're gonna unpack this chapter, this passage in three movements.

Three movements. The first is I want us to consider Daniel's confidence and I want us to consider Daniel's steady confidence. And then next, I want us to consider Nebuchadnezzar's crumbling confidence. And then finally, I want us to look at the hope that we have in God's unshakable kingdom. So Daniel's steady confidence, Nebuchadnezzar's crumbling confidence and the hope that we have in God's unshakable kingdom.

Let's look at Daniel's steady confidence. If you will, look with me at verse 14. So Daniel, he's just learned that the king has ordered all of his wise men and advisors to be destroyed, to be executed. But notice how Daniel responds in verse 14. He responds with prudence and discretion.

The the NIV translation, says that Daniel responded with wisdom and tact. Put yourself in Daniel's shoes. How do you think you would have responded? If I received that kind of news, I would have immediately started to hatch an escape plan to get out of Babylon. But Daniel responds with wisdom and discretion.

In other words, he's not shaken, he's remarkably calm. How? Where does that kind of confidence come from? Believe that that confidence comes from because Daniel knows who's in charge. He knows that even while he is in Babylon and he is looking at this death sentence, he knows who in who is in charge.

You see the beginning of the book of Daniel, it makes clear that God is sovereign. He's orchestrating all of this, the exiles being here in Babylon. Daniel tells us in the first chapter that the Lord gave Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. Daniel's not in Babylon by happenstance. This isn't just his unfortunate lot in life.

No. Daniel is in Babylon because God put him in Babylon. And we see that his prayer in verses twenty twenty three is it confirms this confidence that he has. Daniel believes that God rules times and seasons. He removes and establish his kings.

He gives wisdom. He reveals mystery. Daniel calls the Lord, the God of my fathers. This is covenant language. See, Nebuchadnezzar, he he would have brought these exiles and he would have put them in the school of Babylon to try and try and strip away their worldview, but we see that he hasn't succeeded with Daniel.

It didn't work. Daniel knows his true identity and how he is one of God's covenant people. And in the face of this crisis, that truth that he belongs to God gives him that sure and steady footing. And so instead of trying to get out of Babylon, he gathers his friends to pray for God's mercy. Verses seventeen and eighteen, they tell us that Daniel gathers Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, the Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and they cry out to God to reveal this mystery to spare their lives.

It's a pattern that we see from the very beginning of the bible. God's people, they're in peril. God's people cry out to God and what happens? God shows up. Notice the contrast between Nebuchadnezzar's men and Daniel's friends, the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans.

They didn't have a place to go to find their answer. But Daniel and his friends, they go to the Lord, the God of heaven, the revealer of mysteries and God shows up. He reveals to Daniel the meaning of the dream and when he does so, Daniel erupts in praise. Look at verse 20, it says, he he says, blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons.

He removes sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with them. To you, o God of my father, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you for you have made known to us the king's matter.

Daniel praises God for his infinite wisdom and power. He praises God that he graciously reveals what no amount of human wisdom could conjure. Daniel isn't more skilled than these other advisers. No. He's dependent on God who is the revealer of mysteries.

Daniel's confidence is steady but because it is rooted in the God of his fathers and not himself. Daniel's confidence is steady because it is rooted in God and not himself. And as we'll see that God's gonna use this moment right here to prepare Daniel and his friends for what's ahead in the very next chapter. These same Chaldeans, the ones that Daniel saves will have Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown into a fiery furnace. Yet their faith is fortified because they belong to God and he is faithful.

And spoiler alert, guess what? He shows up. So I want you to think to yourself, think think about yourself for a moment and I wanna return to that question, that question that I want us to ponder throughout our study of this passage. When your life is shaken, where do you instinctively turn? Do you frantically try and regain control?

Do you begin to isolate yourself away from that community that knows you? Maybe you begin to lash out, you take out your fear on others. I think that Daniel models a better way. He models for us total dependence on God. Instead of turning in on himself to try and find the answer, he looked out to his friends and up to God.

In church, that's what I want us to resolve to be. I want us to resist the temptation to look deep inside to find the answers and instead to look out and up, to look out and to invite God's people into our crisis instead of isolating ourselves and then to look up to God, to remember and to remind one another of God's promises that are true and sure and steady. It's so interesting as we peel back the layers in the story how one event can cause two very different responses where Daniel's confidence really is unshaken but Nebuchadnezzar is totally unraveling. So let's let's look a little bit closer at Nebuchadnezzar. Let's look at his crumbling confidence.

See Nebuchadnezzar's confidence was crumbling because his life was built on himself. The early church father, Saint Augustine, he said it best that God has made us for him himself and our hearts will remain restless until they rest in thee, until they rest in God. And Nebuchadnezzar, he is the picture of a restless heart. The man who has everything is totally undone by a dream. If you look with me at verse 31, Daniel tells him about his dream.

He says, you saw o king and behold a great image, this image mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you in appearance. Its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand and struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. And we aren't we aren't entirely sure the circumstances surrounding these dreams that Nebuchadnezzar's happened.

We don't know if if Nebuchadnezzar truly just like couldn't remember the dream or if he did in fact remember the dream and was seeing this more as an opportunity to test his advisors to see if he could actually trust them. Personally, I think Nebuchadnezzar remembers the dream. And on top of that, I think he actually knows what the dream means and that's why he is so upset. There's a great irony that's that's going on with this dream. Again, come back next week, it's gonna be great.

But next week, we're gonna look at Daniel chapter three and you'll see that the beginning of Daniel chapter three, Nebuchadnezzar, he commissions this the building of this massive statue. It's a statue the size of the Statue Of Liberty and more than likely he's building this statue as a way to honor the gods, but it is so big, it is so dazzling with gold because he wants to project out to the entire world how powerful and how important he is. But here we see, Nebuchadnezzar is shaken by this dream because he ultimately knows that it's about him. It's about his kingdom being destroyed. The very thing that he has built his life on, the thing that gives him meaning, one day, all of it's gonna be taken away.

It can be tempting this to to look at this dream and especially as it relates to different kingdoms to study it like like a game of chess watching for you know, this kingdom to conquer, this kingdom to conquer, this kingdom to to guess when God will finally return and establish his kingdom, but the meaning for Nebuchadnezzar then and for us today, I believe is far more obvious. If you build your life on anything other than God, you will never truly feel secure. You will always fear that whatever that thing is will be taken away and when that thing is taken away, you too will crumble. If you build your life on your reputation, you're always going to fear what people think about you. If you build your life on money, your emotions, they're gonna be tied to the market.

If you build your life on how you look, your mirror is gonna be your judge. If you build your life on your kids, when they fail, you're going to be crushed. We have to ask ourselves regularly as a practice of repentance. Whose kingdom are you building and what is your foundation? Whose glory are you working for?

Asking the question, why am I doing this? That's gonna reveal whose kingdom are you building? Whose glory are you working for? The Westminster Shorter Catechism, it said that the chief end of man, the purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Friends, the true peace, the true real shalom that your heart is after, it is only found in the righteousness of Christ.

And this righteousness, it is not earned but it is freely given in grace. If you want to be free from the tyranny of building your own tiny kingdom, stop striving and rest in God's grace. Look at Christ's righteousness and how you were united to him because it is there. It is only there resting in Christ's righteousness that that is freely given to you by grace. It is only there that you never have to prove yourselves again.

Instead, you're given a seat at God's table in his everlasting unshakable kingdom. You were created to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And when you do that, you don't have to live your life on the highs and lows of people's opinions because guess what? You know that you're a sinner, but you also know that you're washed and cleaned by the blood of Jesus. You don't have to hoard your possessions, but you know that God owns everything and he's just called you to be a steward of your talents, your time, your treasures.

Your kid's success no longer define you. Instead, you can enjoy your children for how God has uniquely gifted them, disappointments and all. If you build your life on anything other than the Lord, you will inevitably be disappointed. It can't bear the weight. John Calvin, he, the great reformer, he he called our hearts idol making factories.

And if we you could expand that out to say that as our hearts make these idols, it also wants to situate those idols into these little tiny kingdoms that we are building, trusting that they're gonna give us that peace and security that we're after. As we see, all throughout scripture and especially in our passage tonight, there is only one kingdom that's going to last, God's kingdom that cannot and will not be shaken. So let's look together at verses thirty four and thirty five and I'm also gonna read from verses forty four and forty five. Verse 34 says, as you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold, and altogether broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found.

But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And then verse 44, and then it and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain and its interpretation is sure.

Daniel boldly declares to Nebuchadnezzar that God's kingdom will prevail over his and every other kingdom in history. He describes these four elements that are meant to point to various present and future empires, but it's the kingdom of God in the form of an uncut rock not manufactured by human hands that will rule over all of these earthly kingdoms. In other words, these earthly kingdoms, they're gonna come, they're gonna go, but God's kingdom is not built by human ingenuity, built by military prowess. It will be a supernatural act of God where he will judge these earthly empires, throw them to the ground and they will be blown away in the wind. Think of how encouraging that would have been for Daniel and his friends who are far from home in exile to hear that God's kingdom, it will ultimately prevail.

It's an echo of Psalm two where the Lord speaks to the Messiah and he promises and he says this in verses eight and nine. The Lord speaking to the my Messiah he says, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And church, we know that this promise was fulfilled when Jesus, the long promised son of David whom the prophets foretold the Messiah, he finally arrived. Jesus is the rock, not cut by human hands but given by God the father.

It's Jesus who reminded, if you remember, he reminded his leaders of that day that he is the cornerstone and he said in Luke chapter 20 that everyone who falls on that stone on him will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone, guess what it's gonna do? It will crush him. And it's Jesus who announced to the world that the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Jesus, the stone stone has struck the image.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

His kingdom, it's inaugurated. The mountain is growing. This is what it's meant to when you when we say that we're living in the already but not yet. What that means is that God God's kingdom has arrived with Jesus and it's growing and he invites us to participate in that work. Yet at the same time, we still wait for God's kingdom to be fully established.

We still live our lives daily like Abraham who looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. The author of Hebrews, he warns us about the day when this stone will deliver its final blow and God will set up his kingdom once and for all. The the author says in chapter 12, it says, at that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised. Yet once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken.

That is the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. That's bad news if your faith and hope and trust is found in yourself or in this world. But that is good news if your confidence is in God. If your confidence is in God, your your confidence can remain secure and steady even as you live in a land that's not your home. You can praise God through whatever crisis.

The middle of the night, it doesn't have to be scary anymore because you're not your own, but you belong to God and you're a citizen of his unshakable kingdom. And as we continue to live in this already but not yet, it's hard friends. But God has graciously given us reminders. He's given us the simple means of grace, ways that we can receive and be nourished and encouraged and strengthened to resist building our life on ourselves and on the world and to rest our confidence in him. And that brings us to the table this evening.

Tonight, we celebrate and every time we celebrate when we come to this table that the kingdom has already come because the king has come. Jesus has died, risen and taken his throne, yet we still wait for the day when every rival kingdom will finally fall. That that mountain will fill the whole earth and everything that can be shaken will be removed. This meal, it looks backwards and forwards because we remember the body broken and the blood poured out through which our king established his kingdom. And at the same time, we eat and drink until he comes longing for the day when our faith will become sight and we will feast with him at his table in his unshakable kingdom.

So on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took gathered his disciples and he took bread and he broke it. And he said, after giving thanks, this is my body given for you. In the same way, he took the cup after blessing it. He said, this cup is the cup of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The apostle Paul would later say, as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.

And friends, we rejoice as we come to this table proclaiming defiantly to the world that Christ will come again. So here's how we're gonna partake this evening. You'll come forward, we'll have four stations, you'll tear off a piece the bread, you'll dip it in the wine. This wine is non alcoholic and we also have grape juice here as well. And you're gonna hear this is the body of Christ given for you and the blood of Christ poured out for you, shed for you and then you can partake and and return to your seats.

We'll begin if the balcony, if you wanna come down first and then we'll proceed from the back to the forward, to the front. Let's pray and then the balcony can come forward. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace, your kindness, your mercy for providing us a meal to nourish our faith. We pray, Lord, that you would you would lead us to to turn from ourselves, to return to you. And Lord, in this meal, you would give us strength in our weakness, not to live our lives on our self, but to to rest in the righteousness we have in Christ.

We thank you Jesus. We pray this in your strong name. Amen.