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 3:13-28; The Fiery Furnace
Jason Sterling September 22, 2024 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL
Bulletin
The following message is from Faith Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Join us on Sundays for our 815 and 11am worship services. For more information, visit us online at faith-pcaorg or download the Faith PCA app. Thank you for tuning into Faith's podcast ministry.
Speaker 2:If you have a copy of God's Word this morning, please turn with me Daniel, chapter 3. So we're not going to read the whole passage, but keep your Bible open, if you have a Bible with you, if you're visiting with us. We just study the Bible. As a church, we go through books of the Bible, seek to apply it to our lives and seek to lift up and glorify Jesus. And this fall we are going through the Old Testament, book of Daniel, and remember the context. We've talked about this, but it's important, I'll keep coming back to it. One of the strategies for the Babylonians when they conquered a nation was they would take the best, the brightest, the most gifted of those countries that they had conquered, and their goal was to reprogram them and to retrain them, with the hopes that after a generation or two, all the distinctions with their previous way of life would be completely erased and completely blotted out. That's what's happening, that's the context, and Daniel and his friends are showing us through this book on how to navigate life in Babylon, how to serve, faithfully serve God in a place that doesn't believe in God, that is pluralistic and very secular in its ways. And this morning we come to Daniel, chapter 3. And it's interesting, daniel's not actually in the chapter at all. In fact, we're not sure where he is in this particular scene. The main characters in this scene are his friends who refuse to bow down to the Babylonian gods. So let's read this morning and see what happens. And a heads up on the front end. I will say Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, more than you care to hear this morning, you will be begging for a personal pronoun. So hang with me. This is God's word.
Speaker 2:Then Nebuchadnezzar is in a furious rage commanded that Shadrach, meshach and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them is it true, o Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I've set up? Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good, but if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from this burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, o king. But if not, be it known to you, o king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
Speaker 2:And Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, meshach and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, meshach and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats and their other garments and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. But the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated and the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, meshach and Abednego. And these three men, shadrach, meshach and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.
Speaker 2:And then the king Nebuchadnezzar, was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors Did we not cast three men into the fire? They answered and said to the king True, o king. He answered and said but I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. And then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the fourth is like a son of the gods. And then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace and he declared Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. And then Shadrach, meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their head was not singed, their cloaks not harmed and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said Blessed be the God of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said Blessed be the God of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God.
Speaker 2:This is God's word. Let's pray. I ask for the Holy Spirit to help this morning word. Let's pray, ask for the Holy Spirit to help this morning. Father, we do need your spirit to come. We have a lot to overcome, actually, with this passage, because some of us have been hearing and reading this passage since we were children and it is so familiar to us that maybe it goes in one ear and out the other, and so I pray that you would come through your spirit and make it like we're reading this passage for the very first time. I can't do that. You can do that, and I pray that you would bring this passage off of the pages of the scriptures and put it in our heart and change us and challenge us, but also show us the beauty and the glory of Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
Speaker 2:We love rescue stories, don't we? Anytime you turn on the television, there is some series that has to do with rescue, and they're very powerful. That's what draws us into rescue stories. They captivate us. If there's something happening in real time, it's normally it makes global news and brings us and draws us all in One of the most famous rescue stories of my time. I'm going to date myself a little bit here, but I vividly remember this. Maybe you remember this too if you're 50 or older, but, baby Jessica, you remember this 1987. You're 50 or older, but, baby Jessica, you remember this 1987. I was 13. I remember being with my parents, being glued to the television.
Speaker 2:This was a rescue story that captured the world. Jessica McClure, 18 months old, was playing in her aunt's backyard in Texas, falls in a well and the well is only eight inches wide in diameter. And she is stuck in this well with her leg pinned against her forehead for 56 hours. You remember that the world was captivated by this story. We were glued to our TVs watching as they were around the clock trying to rescue this little girl. She was eventually rescued by paramedics.
Speaker 2:I tell you that story because Daniel, chapter 3, this story of the fiery furnace, is perhaps the most famous rescue story, not in our time, but in the history of the world, because this story has captivated the world for thousands of years. Even if you're outside of Christianity not a Christian, maybe unfamiliar with the Bible chances are you have heard of this story of the fiery furnace. If we were back then, if we were back 2,600 years ago and we were watching this in real time or experiencing this in real time, we would have certainly been on the edge of our seats glued if we had TVs to our television sets watching this story unfold. And when you glance at this story, at first glance it seems very foreign to us, very far away, and certainly that is true of some of the particulars of this story. But if we get behind this story and what's really here, we see something that is very relevant for us today, because you see, fiery trials 1 Peter, chapter 4, peter actually gives us commentary on this passage, and in 1 Peter, chapter 4, he tells us that fiery trials are given to us by God in order to test our faith, and so fiery furnaces are not strange at all. They're actually a normal part of the Christian life.
Speaker 2:Question this morning is what does faith or trust in God look like in the furnace? Or, to say it another way, what does it look like for you to have a furnace faith? Well, three things. It involves us resisting conformity number one. Secondly, it involves resting in the object of our faith and, lastly, it involves remembering God's presence. That's where we're headed. We'll take those in turn this morning, starting with number one resisting conformity. Look at verses 1 through 12. Again, even if we didn't read it, we're going to cover it. So look in your Bibles, at verses 1 through 12 with me.
Speaker 2:Nebuchadnezzar decides to build this ridiculously huge gold image and the thing is approximately 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. Let me give you a feel for what that would be like. The roof here is about 30 feet high. So this statue, 90 feet high, and it is meant, obviously and that's the feel of the passage it is meant to be impressive and this is a huge celebration as he is unveiling this golden image. It's a rally, it's a celebration, it's a party, and you see that by look at verses 2 and 3, 27. You see, over and over, he's listing the VIPs that are showing up for this event. All the very important people, the officials, are coming to see the unveiling of this golden image. It's also very festive like it's like a music festival. Over and over you see that's repeated here it's the instruments that were in the band. And at this festival, or at this rally, king Nebuchadnezzar is calling on everyone to bow the knee and to worship the golden image. Notice that he has set up, that he has made. Nine times in the passage you see it emphasized that Nebuchadnezzar made or set up this image.
Speaker 2:The author, right from the very beginning, is trying to get us to see the foolishness of this, the silliness of this idolatry, worshiping an idol that someone has made. And then the question is I will say, why would he do something like this? What's the purpose of the rally? Well, in short, he's after unity. He wants everyone to be loyal to Babylon. Notice, you see this in the passage as well lots of different languages and people, groups, and, like the Israelites, others have been conquered by Babylon and they find themselves in a foreign land. And the king wants everyone to get on the same page. How do you get on the same page? Well, you give the people a common allegiance. You give the people a common God to worship.
Speaker 2:This scene is meant to draw you in, so that you feel the pressure of this moment, and so get into this scene. This would have been an incredible amount of pressure for these three friends to conform and to bow down. Think about it. I mean, first of all, this is coming from the king. Notice the first six verses, first seven verses. Six times you see the word the king emphasizing his authority. This is coming from the king. And then you have all the important and powerful people that are there bowing down to this image. Not only that, everyone, it seems like, is doing it. You have the enemy. The Babylonians are watching to see if you do it, and they most certainly would have felt pressure, even from their Jewish people. Why? Because there would have been pressure. Just don't ruffle any feathers. You've got high places in the government, we've got some influence. Just don't make anyone mad and everything will be okay. And if that weren't enough, you have the three words that are repeated eight times in this passage burning fiery furnace, the pressure to bow the knee because you did not want to burn alive.
Speaker 2:And I think it's also important to understand here that this bowing of the knee in the ancient Near Eastern culture would have been no big deal. And here's what I mean. They were pluralistic, they worshipped many gods. They didn't care if you kept your own gods, but they did want you to acknowledge and bow the knee to their god, to the Babylonian God. Do that, that's all you've got to do, and then go home and you can go back to your own life. You can go back to worshiping whatever God you choose and whatever God that you serve. In other words, this would have been very, very easy to justify. It would have been very easy just to say, okay, I'm just going to mindlessly do this. Besides, I'm going to do this physically, but I know that my heart's not really in it and so I'm going to just go along to get along, I'm going to bow the knee and go home. I'm going to bow the knee and go home. You hear it?
Speaker 2:We live in a pluralistic culture, friends, and it's always going to demand we see it here 2,600 years ago, we see it today it's always going to demand that you compartmentalize your faith and privatize your faith. Believe whatever you want to believe, but just don't let what you believe, especially don't let it impact others, but don't let it have an impact on your own life. Friends, there is so much pressure, is there, not To conform and to compromise and to compartmentalize our faith. It's so easy inside to just self-justify and go along to get along. Yes, I'm going to believe in God, but it's not really going to impact my life. And we have a thousand of examples that we could obviously go through, but let's think of a couple in the area of sexuality. Come on, I mean, it's 2024. Everybody's doing it and that's just the way things are now.
Speaker 2:Or the business world. I hear you, but you don't understand what it's like in the real world. I have to cut corners, I have to not comply with regulations in my business or I lose and I can't compete and the competition will pass me by. And please notice and I want to keep drawing this out because I do think it's instructive they drew the line, but notice how they do it. They're calm, they're respectful. They don't make a spectacle out of this. They don't say, well, we're going next door and we're going to hold a separate rally. They don't do that.
Speaker 2:They're still seeking the welfare of Babylon, but they are quietly refusing to bow the knee and to privatize their faith. They refuse to compromise, they refuse to go against the first commandments. The first commandment, no other gods before me. So where is this happening in your life? Where is this happening Maybe this is a good conversation around the dinner table with your family. Where in your life are you hearing the music of the world playing and you're hitting a knee and bowing to the gods of the world? You see, part of living in this world and having a furnished faith is that you've got to recognize what's happening inside your own heart and around you and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we must fight and resist the self-justification that exists inside of our own hearts. Secondly, we must rest in the object of our faith.
Speaker 2:Look at verses 8 and following. Evidently, nebuchadnezzar doesn't even see these guys, that they're not bowing. Maybe they weren't even there, maybe they just quietly decided not to show up. But regardless, someone told on them, the Chaldeans, who were professionally jealous of them. Why? Well, because they were making their way up the ranks in the government. They were graduating the top of the class in their schools, and so they don't like that.
Speaker 2:Verse 12, they tell on them and they make it very personal in order to infuriate the king. Did you notice? They make it personal? Look, they say they pay no attention to you, they don't serve your gods, they don't worship the images that you have set up. They're making this very personal in order to bring anger out of the king. And that's exactly what happens. Verse 13, look at it. They bring in Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, and then he gives them a second chance Bow and you live. Refuse and you die. They immediately are cast into the fiery furnace and then you get this statement.
Speaker 2:Look at verse 15, the heart of the passage who is the God who will deliver you from this Out of my hands? Remember, in chapter 2, who is the God? Nebuchadnezzar asked that's wise enough to interpret my dream, and we know who. That God was Yahweh, the God of the Bible. Now you see another question who is powerful enough to rescue from this the fiery furnace? The three friends stand their ground. Look at verses 16 through 18. I think this is an amazing response and it's actually the true miracle of the passage, is it not? Look at it with me, o king. We need not answer. If this be so, our God, who we serve, is able to deliver from the fiery furnace, but if not, we will not bow to your idols.
Speaker 2:These friends oppose Nebuchadnezzar, three words that you see often in the passage burning fiery furnace. They have some words of their own. Three words, but if not, and these verses teach us a lot about the true nature of faith. One commentator defines it like this Faith and we're going to work through this faith knows the power of God, guards the freedom of God and holds on to the truth of God. Let me say that again Faith knows the power of God, guards the freedom of God and holds on to the truth of God. Let's look at those three phrases Faith knows the power of God, guards the freedom of God and holds on to the truth of God. Let's look at those three phrases Faith knows the power of God. God can and is able to deliver you out of any situation. He's all powerful. Second phrase Faith guards the freedom of God. Deliverance is not guaranteed. God may choose not to do it.
Speaker 2:And I want to stay here for a second because I think we need to hear this, because most of us, or lots of us maybe. You hear a story like this and you're thinking you see, that's my problem. If I could just have faith like these guys, well then, my life would be so much better. If I could just have faith like these guys, well then, my life would be so much better. If I could just have this kind of faith, then I wouldn't be in the fiery furnace right now. Everything would be working out for me.
Speaker 2:Friends, having faith in God does not mean that you will always have plenty. It does not mean that you'll never get sick. It does not mean that you will not lose someone you love. It does not mean that you'll never get sick. It does not mean that you will not lose someone you love, it does not mean that you will not face fiery trials. Faith guards the freedom of God, knowing that sometimes God chooses for reasons that we don't understand, because His ways are not our ways. But sometimes God chooses to put us through the furnace. But sometimes God chooses to put us through the furnace, to put us in fiery trials, as 1 Peter 4 says, in order to shape us and to mold us into His likeness.
Speaker 2:These three men think about it had a deep faith in the Lord and they got thrown into the furnace. True faith always has a but, if not. And the other thing we see is faith holds on to the truth of God. They say we will not bow to your gods. You see, these friends did not know God's exact, detailed will for their life, but they did know God's revealed will. They did know the commandments, they did know God's word, and that mattered more to them than their deliverance. They didn't know what God would do, but they did know what they would not do. They would not bow the knee in Babylon. Faith holds on to the truth of God. These three friends, you see, teach us that faith is more about the object of our faith and this is really important, not the quality of our faith. Their confidence was not in their own believing. It was not in their own believing. It was not in their own sincerity. Their faith was in God's wisdom and power and character.
Speaker 2:Remember the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is going to the cross. Father, take this cup from me, take this suffering from me. Jesus knows that God is able and that God can, and he even prays for him to do so, for God to deliver him. But then you remember what Jesus says Not my will, but your will be done. In other words, Jesus is saying but if not? But if not, I know that you are good and I know that you love me and I know that I can trust you come what may.
Speaker 2:The Bible primarily does not want to know about the quality and strength of your faith. The Bible primarily wants to know where is the object of your faith, where is your faith placed, where is it set? And the number one way God reveals the object of our faith is through what we see it all through the Bible. You see it here. It's through suffering. These people, or these men, were facing death and their faith was in God because they knew God was either going to deliver them from death or he was going to deliver them through death. Either way, they were going to be saved. They were going to be saved from the fire or, if they died, they knew they would wake up in the arms of God, but either way they would be delivered. You see, when our faith is in God he's the object, not ourselves in his character then you have something that can hold you in the midst of the fiery trials that we face in this world. Lastly, remember God's presence.
Speaker 2:Look at verses 19 and following. He's filled with fury, so much, you know he's so angry. His face changes. He orders the furnace to be turned up seven times more than usual. He orders these three friends to be bound and thrown into the fiery furnace, and the flames are so hot. Can you imagine this? When they open the door, it kills the guards, and then something amazing happens. Nebuchadnezzar looks into the window of this furnace and he sees these three friends unharmed, unbound and walking around in the midst of the fire. How can this be? Well, there's a fourth man in the fire. There is a fourth person with the appearance like a son of the gods, and the king brings them out.
Speaker 2:Verses 27 and 28, I thought were powerful and so amazing. Think about it we can't even grill a hamburger without singeing the hair on our arms or whatever, and you can't be around a campfire without smelling like smoke. Think about this they were not burned by the fire. They did no smell of smoke. Not a hair on their head was singed. And then he sees this and, just like in chapter 2, nebuchadnezzar turns from anger to praise. And in verse 29, did you notice, he actually answers his own question who can deliver you from my hand? Verse 29, there is no God that is able to rescue you in this way.
Speaker 2:We don't know the identity, exact identity, of this fourth man in the fire. Some people say it's an angel of the Lord, others say this is Jesus. But here's what is clear, and that is that heaven came down. That heaven came down and found these men in the fire, in the furnace, and he rescued them. What is clear is that this rescue points to an even greater rescue to come, and that's exactly what happened, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Centuries later, like this fourth man, jesus would come down into this world and he would find us. He would find us and he would rescue us, not only from false gods, but from the wrath and judgment of God, which is actually described in Matthew, chapter 13. You know how the wrath and judgment of God is described as a burning, fiery furnace. Before Jesus was crucified again, he was in the garden and, if you remember, he's sweating profusely. Why is he sweating profusely? Jonathan Edwards says that he knew that he was about to be sent into the furnace. Jonathan Edwards says the door was open and Jesus was looking into the furnace he was about to go into.
Speaker 2:And on the cross, jesus goes into the ultimate furnace, doesn't he? He takes the wrath of God in our place. He takes the punishment that we deserve for our misplaced faith, for the ways our hearts compromise in this world, for the ways we refuse and fail to hold on to God's Word and conform to this world. And in this furnace Jesus was all alone. He had no one walking beside him. Remember, on the cross, jesus says God, basically, where are you, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why was God with Shadrach, meshach and Abednego in the furnace in Daniel 3? And why was he not with His only Son? You know the answer to that For you. Jesus was suffering for us so that we can stand before the judgment of God, forgiven, clothed in His righteousness, unscathed by the fire, with not a hair singed and not a hint of the stench of our sin and our compromise and our unfaithfulness and misplaced faith. Is the gospel not amazing? I mean, every other religion in the world says do it yourself, clean yourself up, have enough faith. Only this God goes into the fire in our place and is faithful for us, and because of that you can trust Him in your furnace, you can trust Him in the midst of your own trials. The cross gives you, enables you to say, but if not, because it is proof that God will never leave you nor forsake you, in whatever furnaces you find yourself in.
Speaker 2:This morning, oz Guinness I'll close with this tells a story of the communist party in the former Soviet Union and he says one morning, on Sunday morning, the KGB was sent to some of the nation's churches and one officer walks into this church and sees this older woman down kissing the feet of a carved image of Jesus on the cross. And the soldier looks at this woman and says Grandmother, are you prepared also to kiss the feet of the beloved General Secretary of the Communist Party? And she replies with saying Of course, but only if you crucify him first. In other words, only Jesus gets my allegiance, only Jesus gets my allegiance, because only Jesus was crucified for me, only Jesus went into the fire for me. Only Jesus, then, is worthy of my worship.
Speaker 2:You see, friends, this passage is not go be like these three men. This passage is about go worship Jesus, because he's the only one worthy of our worship. And as Jesus becomes more beautiful and glorious than everything else, jesus will start his. The power of Jesus is one, and the glory of Jesus sustains us in the midst of the furnaces. Jesus gives you the strength to resist conformity to this world. Jesus gives you the strength to say but if not, and he assures you through his spirit of God's presence in the midst of the furnace. You see, nebuchadnezzar was right about one thing no one rescues like our God, making the gospel story truly the greatest rescue story in the world of all time. Amen, let's pray. Father, thank you for rescuing us, forgive us for conforming to this world so often in our hearts and bowing the knee, and would you help us, through your Spirit, to make Jesus more beautiful than everything else? Would you sustain us in the furnaces that we find ourselves in this morning. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.