Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
At Faith Presbyterian Church we are seeking to exalt Jesus Christ the King and to exhibit and extend his Kingdom through worship, community, and mission.
Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Daniel 1:1-21; Living Faithfully in the World
Jason Sterling September 8, 2024 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL
Bulletin
The following message is from Faith Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Join us on Sundays for our 8, 15, and 11 am worship services. For more information, visit us online at faith-pcaorg or download the Faith PCA app. Thank you for tuning in to Faith's podcast ministry.
Speaker 2:If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me to the book of Daniel, daniel chapter 1. So go after Psalms, right after the book of Ezekiel, you'll find Daniel. We're beginning a new series this morning in the book of Daniel. That'll take us through the fall. If you're new to our church or visiting, we just study the Bible. We normally rotate between Old Testament and New Testament. We just march through books of the Bible because we believe this is God's Word to us, and so we study the Bible and seek to apply it to our lives. So this week or this fall, we're studying the book of Daniel. By way of introduction, let me mention a couple of things here before we dig into the passage. First of all, daniel is in a section of the Old Testament called the Major Prophets. Because they're called Major Prophets doesn't mean they're less important or more important. I should say it just simply means they're longer and they wrote more, means they're longer and they wrote more. And the other thing I want to say by way of introduction is remember, context is really important as we seek to understand and study our Bibles, and so the context, obviously, of Daniel is really important for us to understand what's going on, and the context is exile.
Speaker 2:About 600 years before Jesus, jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, was captured and destroyed by the Babylonian armies. Daniel at that time was a young man and he was in a noble class, it says, and he likely saw friends, and possibly even some of his family, killed in the destruction of Jerusalem. And Daniel, along with others, are deported back to Babylon and the Babylonian strategy is to assimilate them, the Israelites, into the Babylonian culture. To do that so that they would become advocates, that they would become instruments for the Babylonian kingdom and empire. And from Israel's perspective, we need to understand that this would have felt like a total loss. They've lost their homeland, they've lost their government, they've lost their friends and family, they've lost their king and they're now living in a pagan world under pagan rule. And this is the context for the book of Daniel. This is the world that Daniel and his friends are living in, world that Daniel and his friends are living in, and I think it's fairly obvious why we would study this book and its relevance to us this fall. This is more and more is it not becoming our reality as we experience the world today? The key question or theme for the book of Daniel that we'll see go all the way through the book. The questions would be this how can we live faithfully in a place and in a land where God is not well known? How should we as God's people, as a cultural minority, how do we engage the world in which God has placed us? How do we engage the world in which God has placed us? And my hope and prayer is that, as we study this book, that we will learn to trust Jesus and faithfully follow God in this world where we often feel so out of place. So, with that background, follow along with me. This is God's Word, daniel, chapter 1. It's printed in your bulletin. It'll be on the screen behind me.
Speaker 2:In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility youth, without blemish of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, and of the nobility youths, without blemish of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning and competent to stand in the king's palace and to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among them were Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah of the tribe of Judah, and the chief of the eunuchs gave them names Daniel, he called Belteshazzar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael, he called Meshach. And Azariah, he called Abednego.
Speaker 2:But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank, and therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel I fear my lord, the king, who assigned your food and your drink, for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king? Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, hananiah, mishael, the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youth who ate the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food Must have been some pretty good food. So the steward who took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. As for the four youth, god gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And at the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar and the king spoke with them and among all of them, none was found like Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom, and Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Speaker 2:This is God's word. Let's pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to help. Father, we do need your help. This is a passage that for some of us we've been in services like this our entire life and we've heard about Daniel and I pray that you would come through your spirit and that you would make this passage like we're hearing it for the first time, that you would make it fresh to us, that you would challenge us, but more than anything, would you show us Jesus, the greater Daniel it's. In his name we pray, amen.
Speaker 2:In my study this week I read a story about Elizabeth Elliot. Many of you are probably familiar with Elizabeth Elliot or know some of her story, and part of her story involves Jim Elliot, who was martyred on the mission field. So she lost her first husband, who was martyred, but maybe you don't know that she remarried and also lost a second husband and one of the things she says that sustained her during her grief and loss and losing a second husband, she said the thing that sustained her was the Apostles' Creed, because she says the Apostles' Creed helped her to answer the question, in midst of all of my grief, in the midst of my pain what has not changed, what hasn't changed? And she said the Creed, though her circumstances were shifting and changing, and hard she said God had not changed, that God was the same God yesterday, today and forever. That's Daniel, chapter 1.
Speaker 2:Daniel in this chapter, along with his friends, they're in a foreign place, they're in Babylon, and God has not changed. Though his people are in exile and in Babylon, their God is still there with them. You see this theme. Look at verse 2, verse 9, verse 17. You see the phrase the Lord gave, god gave, god gave.
Speaker 2:The question this morning is what does faithfulness look like when people find themselves in a place where their assumptions about God are not shared? That's our question this morning, and this passage shows us that we need to remember three things being in a foreign place, where our assumptions about God are not shared, and that is, we need to remember God's faithfulness, god's presence and, lastly, god's calling. So let's look at those three things this morning. First of all, god's faithfulness. Look at verses 1 and 2. Notice what it says here.
Speaker 2:The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, besieged it and the Lord gave the king of Judah into his hand and some of the vessels of the house of God. That is shocking and that should shock us, because when we hear a phrase like this and Israel probably would have thought the same thing we attribute that kind of thing, this defeat, solely to evil and to a godless king who's in a far-off land. And this passage says no, that clearly. This is the work of God, that this happened because of God's hands, because God is in control. Now, to be very clear, this wasn't random and this isn't happening for no apparent reason at all. God is being faithful to his word, because just read the prophets, you'll see this. This is what the prophets are about. For hundreds of years and for generations, god had been warning his people that if they continue to rebel against him, if they continue to worship idols, if they continue to put their hopes in political alliances and not in him, that he would scatter them and give them over to their enemies and put them in exile. And now that's coming true. God is simply being faithful to the warnings that he's been giving for centuries.
Speaker 2:As Ralph Davis says in his commentary, babylon is God's severe faithfulness. And we hear that, and that's hard, isn't it? I mean, we think when things are going well for us, everything's lining up just right, when our life's working out perfectly, we're really quick to say God, you are so faithful. But what about when the opposite's true, when life's falling apart and when we're rock bottom? Rarely do the words that come out of our mouth include God, you are so faithful. But that's what this passage is teaching us. It's teaching us that God is always faithful, though sometimes that faithfulness is severe and, believe it or not, it's not the most shocking part of this passage.
Speaker 2:Look at verses 1 and 2 again. The Lord gave the vessels of the house of God, and Nebuchadnezzar brought them to his temple and placed them there. In other words, these holy objects that were in the temple in Jerusalem are now placed in the Babylonian temple and defiled. And you get the idea when you read through the Old Testament and then the ancient Near Eastern culture. When a people were conquered, then so was their God, and so the reputation of a God was tied to the people. And so when it says God gave his king and his people and his holy objects over to the Babylonians, the message that was going out on social media would have been Marduk wins. Marduk is the Babylonian God. Marduk defeats Yahweh. And guess what? God lets that happen.
Speaker 2:And then that sparks the question, doesn't it why? Why does God exercise severe faithfulness with his people and why does he suffer shame and let his reputation be tarnished like this? Well, ultimately, because he's after the hearts of his people. Ultimately, because he wants to bring his people back to him and he wants to purify them and bring them back home. Joe Novenson says God loves his people so much that he would rather them limp wounded into his arms rather than run healthy to ruin and destruction. And I don't know about you, but I think this is unbelievable, isn't it? It's unbelievable because you have a God who is willing to let the severity of his own faithfulness fall on himself in order to keep promise and covenant with his people and be faithful to them, in order to bring promise and covenant with his people and be faithful to them In order to bring them back home. That is at the very heart of the gospel. That's at the very heart of why God took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and came into the world. That's at the very heart of what Jesus is doing.
Speaker 2:As we read the gospels, think about the life of Jesus. What do he read? Mocked, shame, defiled. Why was Jesus eventually put to death? Why? So he could cleanse His people, so he could purify us and bring us back to God. Jesus takes our place. Jesus is exiled and gets the wrath of God for our sin that falls on him, so that life and grace falls on us. And so what does that mean for you this morning? What's the so what? Well, it means this that I don't know what's going on in your life this morning, but it means, however difficult or whatever severe the situation might be in your life, the reason can't be that God doesn't love you. The reason cannot be that God is being unfaithful. It can't be that. This passage shows us that. Look at the cross Most clearly shows us that that God is faithful, even when it doesn't feel like it to you, that God is faithful in the midst of the hard, even when we struggle to see it. God is being faithful. Secondly, let's look at God's presence. Look at verses 3 through 7.
Speaker 2:Again, notice of the royal family, nobility and Nebuchadnezzar's goal. The goal of the Babylonians is to re-educate and assimilate the Israelites into the Babylonian culture and tradition. Their goal was to erase the God of Israel from Israel's life, to take God out of the center of their life and put the Babylonian God into the center of their life so that they would depend on Nebuchadnezzar's God for all the good things of life. And that's one of the things I think we need to see here. Is that notice here that Babylonian strategy was to reprogram Daniel and his friends, not through condemnation and persecution, but through comfort and privilege. But through comfort and privilege, he gave them everything that they wanted so that they would be comfortable.
Speaker 2:And if you think about it, that's actually a really good strategy, isn't it? Because think about what comfort and affluence do to us. Think about it and you see this all through the Bible, and that's another sermon. But those things are a gift. They're not bad things, those are gifts that God gives us. But they're dangerous, aren't they? That's what the Bible says. Why? Because they can blind us and keep us from seeing our need and being dependent upon God. And slowly but surely, god starts to move out of the center of our life and all these other things start to move into the center and it eats away at our dependence upon God. And so that's the strategy. And it really begs the question, doesn't it? How is the world trying to reshape you through affluence and comfort and materialism? How is the world trying to take God out of the center of your life and replace it with something else?
Speaker 2:Verse 8. It's interesting here, because Daniel draws a line out of all the things he could have drawn a line with. He draws a line with food. Why does he do it? Well, the short answer there's been a lot of ink spilled on that and I could give you all the different theories and bore you to death. But the bottom line is we don't know for sure. But Daniel makes this request to the chief official not to eat from the king's table. Look at verse 9. God gave Daniel favor with the chief official, favor and compassion.
Speaker 2:Daniel notice does not know what's going on behind the scenes. He doesn't know that God has given him favor with the king's court. Daniel is simply walking by faith, trusting that God's alive in the details and that God is in control, even in exile, when he feels like he's in a place that he doesn't belong. And even the chief official, though he's favorable, you see that he doesn't give in to his request. He says there's no way I will do that because the king will have my head. And while we don't know exactly why Daniel draws the line with the food, verse 12 does show us how he handles the situation, which I think is a much bigger deal and very helpful for us living life in our world.
Speaker 2:Notice, daniel's not a jerk, daniel, he asked permission, he is gentle, he is humble, he is respectful and he humble, he is respectful and he has great, great wisdom and faith. He gets told no, he doesn't pout. He goes to the next strategy, he presses in, he makes adjustments, which shows great wisdom on his side. And he goes to the stewards. He goes to someone else and he says let's run a test for 10 days. Give us only food and water and let's see how we compare to everyone else.
Speaker 2:I love Ralph Davis' quote here. It says Daniel was not one of those people who believed that firmness of principle always involves acting stubborn and pig-headed. How often could Christians be called stubborn and offensive rather than humble and gentle and wise and bold? Verses 15 and 16. The steward's, agreeable. They do the test for 10 days and guess who looks better? Daniel and his friends. The appearance, it says it's fatter in flesh.
Speaker 2:What's the point? Well, the point's not Daniel, the point's not the test of the food and water. The point is God. The point is God intervened in such a way and showed his faithfulness to his people. You see, babylon, and this is the point.
Speaker 2:Babylon didn't sustain Daniel. God sustained Daniel, king Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. They think they're in charge, and this is reminding us once again, no, that Israel's king, he is the one in charge. Though in exile, god has not left them. God is present, god is at work, god is in the details, working out his purposes in the world. What does that mean for you this morning? It means that, whatever situation you find yourself in, god has not left you. God is still at work in Babylon. He's still at work behind the scenes. Therefore, that means that we don't need to be fearful, we don't need to panic, we don't need to withdraw from the world, we don't need to be rude and disrespectful and force the issue with people who disagree with us. God is with us, god will sustain us and therefore, therefore, we can walk by faith, we can trust, we can walk in faith, hope and love in this world.
Speaker 2:Number three God's calling. Verses 17 through 20. Daniel and his friends. After this. They're says we're found to be ten times better than everyone else. And I think this is this. I think it's a little startling here. I mean Daniel notice he doesn't just learn, he is excellent, but also notice he's excellent in what he learned. And it's more interesting, I think, is that it doesn't appear that Daniel was begrudgingly submitting to this re-education process in Babylon. No, he steps into it. That's the feel of the passage. He steps into this place and he serves this place that God has placed them and he does it with excellence. Let me say it another way Babylon was better because Daniel and his friends were in it. Because of Daniel's presence and faithfulness, the place was better. That's Daniel and his friends' calling. That's the calling God has for us. We are to be a blessing to the place God is calling us even in Babylon. Be a blessing to the place God is calling us even in Babylon.
Speaker 2:Jeremiah 29,. You should go home and read that this afternoon. The prophet Jeremiah tells God's people what they are supposed to do in Babylon, the way it's supposed to look, and you know what he says. He says you are to be a blessing to Babylon. You're to seek the welfare of the city that I have sent you. You're to pray for the welfare of that city, because in their welfare you will find your welfare. And then how does that look? What does that look like? Well, he goes on in Jeremiah 29 and says put down roots, build houses, plant gardens, get married, have children. All the things I called you to do in Jerusalem I'm calling you to do in Babylon. Go, do ordinary things and seek the good, and seek the welfare and the peace and the shalom of the city in which I have called you.
Speaker 2:What does it mean to seek the welfare of the city? Again, another sermon. We could list a hundred things. It most certainly means sharing the gospel, proclaiming the gospel. It means being a good neighbor, getting involved in community and politics and coaching and in the school systems. It means being a good student. It means working hard where God has placed you. It does not mean that you sacrifice your moral commitments to the law of God, but at the same time, it means that we should actively seek to love those who share different commitments than us. God is saying don't retreat, be present, be engaged, help the place in which I have called you. Be a blessing. It's radical. Anybody else think this is radical.
Speaker 2:This is deeply challenging because think about this, the context, this was the enemy city. The Babylonians, again, had killed Daniel's friends and possibly family and neighbors, and destroyed their homeland. And God is saying that city that has done all of that, the one that has hurt you deeply, I want you to go love. And we see Jesus saying the same thing, don't we? It's just a thread that just runs all the way through the Bible. We get to the Sermon on the Mount, which we've studied recently, and remember what Jesus says. Same idea Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and in doing so, you will be like your Father in heaven. Deeply challenging, but I think this is super helpful. I think it's super helpful for our current moment, because lots of people, and maybe you, feel this way.
Speaker 2:What do we do? What's our strategy in this world that seems hostile towards us? We're fearful for our children, we're scared for their future. What are we supposed to do? And God says put down roots, plant gardens, work to the glory of God, have children, get married and be a blessing and seek the welfare of the place in which I have called you. And so what are you to do tomorrow morning when you wake up, be faithful where God has placed you in this world. And then the question is okay, how do we do this, how do we seek to live this way and seek the welfare of the city?
Speaker 2:Well, we need to remember two things, and I'll close with this. First of all, we need to remember our need, because to be a Daniel and you can hear a text like this and we can very quickly think all right, the defilement is out there, the defilement is outside of us, the defilement's in the food and in the learning and in the literature and those sorts of things that are outside of us. And the Bible says no, over and over and over. The Bible says the problem's not out there, that the problem's in here, inside of us, with the human heart. Gk Chesterton has this story. He's a philosopher. Someone wrote him once and said dear Mr Chesterton, what do you see is the biggest problem in the world today? And GK Chesterton replied and said dear sir, you are sincerely GK Chesterton.
Speaker 2:And my question is do you believe that, because that's what the Bible teaches? Believe that, because that's what the Bible teaches, that's what Jesus teaches In Matthew, chapter 15,? He says what defiles a person is not all those things. What defiles a person is already defiled. You and it's your heart, and we know that, don't we? We know the sin inside of us and we know that, don't we? We know the sin inside of us, we know the compromise, we know the rebellion and the ways we ignore God, we know our hatred for the world, we know that we would curse the world in which God has called us to be a blessing and seek the welfare. Of See, we don't have to look far to realize that we desperately need a Savior and our hope is not dare to be a Daniel. Our hope is grounded in the greater Daniel, the true Daniel, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the entire Bible, to whom the entire Old Testament points.
Speaker 2:Because, you see, like Daniel, jesus entered exile, didn't he? Because of the sins of his people, and like Daniel, jesus wove himself into the ordinary places of this world. Jesus was a carpenter but, unlike Daniel, jesus was truly the only defiled and blameless person to ever live. You see, daniel, as good as he was and as faithful as we could say he was, and as wise as he was, he was still a sinner desperately in need of a Savior. He was still a son of Adam and Jesus, comes into this world and he lives a blameless, undefiled life. And Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. And so, friends, the message of the book of Daniel is not dare to be a Daniel, but rather dare to trust Jesus and then, secondly, to be faithful. Not only do we need to trust not ourselves, but trust the greater Daniel, jesus. Well, we need to remember that there's only one King.
Speaker 2:Look at verse 21. I'll close with this is be very brief. This is an amazing verse. That seems like a throwaway verse, but it probably stood out to me more than anything this week. It seems so random, but it's packed with significance. Look at what it says.
Speaker 2:Daniel was in this place until the first year of King Cyrus, that's almost 70 years later. Daniel is now in his 80s and he's still here. And who was Cyrus? Well, he was the king of the Persians and the Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire. And so what is this telling you? It's telling us that Daniel outlasted everybody. He outlasted his conquerors, and the point that this is making is that kingdoms and cultures and presidents and movements and trends and political parties, they will rise and they will fall, but God's people go on. Political parties, they will rise and they will fall, but God's people go on, and that God and his kingdom is the only place that's going to be left standing when all this is said and done, because God's the king.
Speaker 2:Jesus is the one true king, and so when we remember and trust in our greater Daniel Jesus, and when we remember that we are part of a kingdom that will endure forever you know what that does to us that gives us some confidence, doesn't it? It gives us some boldness, it gives us joy, it gives us peace and courage to move out into the city in which God has placed us and to seek the welfare of that place and to love that place. Amen, let's pray Father, thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for your presence with us as we walk through this world. Would you forgive us for our doubt, give us for our fear, for thinking that you're not there at work? Holy Spirit, help us to walk faithfully, trusting you as we seek to love the place in which you've called us. I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.