The World on a Silver Platter!
Da 7:13-14
Beginning: In our Scripture read to us this morning the prophet, Daniel, has a vision, and says...
Da 7:13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
Da 7:14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Centuries later Jesus will say what Daniel saw was this world being delivered up to Him on a silver platter! Speaking of Himself, Jesus said...
Mt 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
Mt 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him...
Something the High Priest will call blasphemous! While on trial, if you'll remember...
Mt 26:63 ...The high priest said to <Jesus before> him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."
Mt 26:64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Mt 26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said <to the whole Sanhedrin>, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.
Mt 26:66 What do you think?" "He is worthy of death," they answered.
Mt 26:67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him
Mt 26:68 and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?"
Why such violent reactions, from such religious individuals? Because those OT scholars recognized Jesus was claiming to be that "Son of Man" the prophet Daniel saw centuries before in his vision, coming into the presence of the "Ancient of Days," the Lord God Almighty in Heaven, and receiving all the kingdoms of this world on a silver platter! Something reserved solely for God's Messiah! Yet something that's presented to the Lord Jesus at the end of our Bibles.
Rev 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
And the Church has been standing out of respect and reverence to those words ever since George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) immortalized them in the "Hallelujah Chorus" of his "Messiah."
(Please stand with me, out of respect, if you are able.)
The kingdom of this world is become
the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign for ever and ever
and He shall reign for ever and ever
and He shall reign for ever and ever
and He shall reign for ever and ever
King of Kings,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
and Lord of Lords,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
King of Kings,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
and Lord of Lords,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
King of Kings,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
and Lord of Lords,
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,
and He shall reign for ever and ever
and He shall reign for ever and ever
King of Kings
for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
and He shall reign for ever and ever,
for ever and ever,
King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords,
King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords,
and He shall reign for ever and ever,
King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Rev 11:16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
Rev 11:17 saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
This is like a rehearsal of what's going to happen in heaven! And God's people said? Amen.
(Thank you. You may be seated.)
This world is not going to hell in a hen basket, as some people say. For...
Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
And one day it will all be given back to Whom it rightfully belongs. To the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, whom the prophet Daniel, foresaw in his vision, 2600 years ago, receiving it unto Himself on a silver platter.
And at that time...
Mt 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Matthew 25:33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Matthew 25:34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
Matthew 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
And all those who have said they will not have this man reign over them... will be rid from the earth!
Lk 19:14 ...We will not have this man to reign over us.
AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER! Amen? Amen.
That's what the OT prophet saw a half of a millennium before Jesus was born in
· Daniel was one of the young captive's taken by the Babylonians when the
· And Daniel lived to see the Babylonian Empire fall to the Medes and the Persians!
· And Daniel was allowed to prophetically see the
· And then for Alexander's empire to be fought over and divided among his generals!
· Daniel was even allowed to see the rise and fall of the
Is it really any wonder that God reserved this vision, of The Final Kingdom, The Eternal Kingdom, God's Kingdom displacing all other kingdoms, and being handed over to Lord Jesus for the prophet Daniel? What better person to see it? Than the one who knows first hand just how temporal and transitory and short lived the kingdoms of this world can really be?
First, Daniel was allowed to see old King Nebuchadnezzar's vision of a large statue...
Daniel 2:31 ...enormous, dazzling... awesome in appearance.
Daniel 2:32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
Daniel 2:33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
Daniel 2:34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.
Daniel 2:35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
Then, Daniel was given the meaning of the vision. How each of those nations depicted in that statue would be replaced by the nation that followed.
· The head of gold, the Babylonian Empire, replaced by the chest and arms of silver, the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians!
· The chest and arms of silver, the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians, replaced by the belly and thighs of bronze, the Greek Empire that would follow.
· The belly and thighs of bronze, the Greek Empire, replaced by the legs of iron, the
· And the Rock that was cut out, but not by human hands, that would strike the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashing them, bringing down the whole statue, reducing all the earthly kingdoms of this world to nothing but sheer rubble and dust that wind will blow away! And that Rock that grows and grows and becomes a huge mountain that fills the whole earth is none other than the Kingdom of our Lord!
Daniel was allowed to see all that while yet living in the kingdom represented by the head of gold! Daniel was a man of understanding about the temporal nature of the kingdoms of this world that was far ahead of his time!
Then Daniel was given the interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar's vision of...
Daniel 4:10 a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous.
Daniel 4:11 The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth.
Daniel 4:12 Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter, and the birds of the air lived in its branches; from it every creature was fed.
Daniel 4:13 "In the visions I saw while lying in my bed, I looked, and there before me was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven.
Daniel 4:14 He called in a loud voice: 'Cut down the tree and trim off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches.
Daniel 4:15 But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze...
And Daniel was given the interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar's troubling dream. How heaven had had enough of King Nebuchadnezzar's prideful pomp and circumstance! And how easily God was going to dispatch His angels to cut the king down to size and remind the king just Who really provides for man and beast upon the earth!
Psalm 84:3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
Daniel was the prophet who was called in to interpret the words the fingers of a human hand had written upon King Belshazzar's royal wall.
Daniel 5:1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
Daniel 5:2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in
Daniel 5:3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the
Daniel 5:4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
Daniel 5:5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.
Daniel 5:6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.
And what did the hand write?
Daniel 5:25 This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.
And Daniel was called in to interpret the writing. And what did those words mean?
Daniel 5:26 "This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Daniel 5:27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Daniel 5:28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
And...
Daniel 5:30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,
Daniel 5:31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
Previously Daniel had had another dream...
Daniel 7:1 ...and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Daniel 7:2 Daniel said: "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea.
Daniel 7:3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
Daniel 7:4 "The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it.
Daniel 7:5 "And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, 'Get up and eat your fill of flesh!'
Daniel 7:6 "After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
Daniel 7:7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast--terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
Daniel 7:8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
Daniel 7:9 "As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
Daniel 7:10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
Daniel 7:11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.
Daniel 7:12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
And then comes our Scripture text read to us this morning. The conclusion to Daniel's vision.
Daniel 7:13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
Daniel 7:14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Daniel 7:15 "I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me.
Daniel 7:16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this. "So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things:
Daniel 7:17 'The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth.
We know them as...
·
·
·
· And
Each empire replacing the other on the stage of this world!
Daniel 7:18 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever--yes, for ever and ever.'
And I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad that our national motto is not, "In the United States We Trust!" But, "In God We Trust!" Amen? Amen. Why is that? Because if there is anything Daniel's visions teach us it is this: nations come and go. Kingdoms rise and fall. But The Kingdom of the Lord God Almighty, and of His Christ, endures forever!
You can count on it. You can bank on it. Your investment is secure in it. A whole lot more secure than the value of your home, or your IRA or 401-K; I'll tell you that!
· While the world holds its breath and watches the price of oil and energy rise and the value of their portfolios and savings fall, the Christian can just breathe steadily along without their hearts skipping a beat. Why is that? BECAUSE IT'S IN GOD WE HAVE PUT OUR TRUST! And not in modern economics or our bank accounts.
· And while the world trembles at the thought of terrorism and terrorists on their doorsteps, the Christian sleeps safe, sound and secure at night. How can that be? BECAUSE IT'S IN GOD THAT WE HAVE PUT OUR TRUST! And not in some humanly devised national security system.
· And as the generals of this world roll out their maps in their war rooms contemplating which national boundary they will cross next, Christians simply pray that God would direct those people to make good, godly decisions. And try to elect good, godly people into those positions. And then we move on. Go on about our business. How can we do that? When there is so much at stake going on in those war rooms? We can do that BECAUSE THERE IS A GOD! In Whom we have put our trust. And we know that it is He Who takes care of us, and not we ourselves.
Daniel was brought into the throne room of more than one king, of more than one kingdom, sitting on his royal throne, shaking in his royal boots, wondering what in the world God was up to. And whether his kingdom would endure, or whether it would be the next to fall on God's chopping block! And Daniel wasn't about to put his faith in the current party line; be it Republican, or Democrat! Daniel was far too wise to fall for that. Daniel had seen the future! And Daniel had seen many a king, and kingdom, come and go! And the only kingdom Daniel was about to put stock in was the Kingdom of the Lord God Jehovah!
Ending: Because Daniel lived through the life cycles of three earthly kingdoms. The Kingdoms of...
·
·
· And the Medes and the Persians
And Daniel was allowed to prophetically see the rise, and fall, of future kingdoms. And the only kingdom, without exception, that lives on, into eternity, is the
Forever, and ever.
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Who would join us in that kingdom? Now is your chance to come and claim citizenship in that kingdom.
· Who would come and be baptized into the
· Who would return to worshipping Him and serving Him in His earthly kingdom until He comes?
· Who would align your allegiance with this congregation of His until He comes?
If that's your decision, you come, as we stand and sing this song.
