Enclave Community Church Podcast

He Shall Have Dominion –– Daniel 7:9–15
Jacob Nannie –– March 12th, 2023
Good morning everybody. How are we doing? This is an insane passage. It's really exciting and I wanna start today by kind of asking a question, having us think through something for a bit. I want you in your minds right now to think about the future. Think about maybe your future, the future of your world, your church, your community, your city, your state.
And think about the future of the world in general and what kind of emotions or thoughts do you have concerning these things. Some of us might have negative emotions. We might look at the world and say, it's not looking well. You might have despair, pessimism and just negative thoughts, and that's okay. It's not necessarily bad to have those thoughts. And some of us might look at the future of our lives and the worlds and have really positive thoughts of hopes and expectations and optimism. Daniel, in the whole book of Daniel, not just this passage, he deals with this question of the future, in the future of the world and kings and kingdoms, but also the future of ourselves; how we feel and act in the world. And the thesis of really the book of Daniel, but this sermon is this.
This is the one takeaway. If you don't hear anything else in my sermon, hear this one sentence. God is sovereign and we find peace, comfort, and satisfaction in him despite our circumstances when we faithfully serve him. God is sovereign and we find peace, comfort, and satisfaction in him, despite our circumstances when we faithfully serve him. And this is a message that Daniel and his friends knew intimately. Daniel was written during the time of Jerusalem's exile under Babylon. And so they were faced with real severe persecution and oppression, and they had to rely on the sovereignty of God in their faithful service to him.
So we're gonna expand that sentence, look at that in the book of Daniel by doing two things. First, we're gonna look at God's sovereignty in the majority of what Elan read in Daniel chapter seven, verses nine through fourteen. And then we're gonna look at examples of God's faithful servants in Daniel three (which a lot of us are familiar with these stories) and in Daniel six, and in Matthew.
So let's look now at God's sovereignty in Daniel chapter seven verses nine through twelve. And this passage, I was talking to Christina, my wife a couple weeks ago, and she can tell you I was getting real excited about all of the imagery. Like, this is wild, wild, wild, wild. Imagine like before this, the first eight verses, there's these four beasts, right?
Imagine you're at Carmel Beach just hanging out. Favorite spot of mine. And a lion with wings, walks out of the waters and stands up and somehow, you know, it's given the mind of man. What would you do? I wouldn't be staying there, but let's say you're crazy enough to stay there, then this bear comes out with three ribs and this voice comes and it's like "devour much flesh.” And you're like, what? What's happening? And if you're crazy enough to stay, even then a leopard comes out with four wings and it has dominion, and then there's this terrifying, terrifying beast. Daniel doesn't even tell you what it is really. He says it's, it's terrifying and exceedingly strong, and what's crazier is what happens next.
And I have to read it again, verses nine through ten, "“I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire." So God, he comes, these beasts are, are crazy, insane, terrifying, which is why what Daniel says what he says in verse fifteen, but God comes and he sits down. Okay? He, he just sits down.
His thrown is fire. It's burning wheels of fire. And then this happens in, in verse eleven.
Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was killed, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
So you see these crazy beasts outta the water. And Daniel, like he actually saw this in a vision, right? They come outta the water and God, all he does it sits down and fire comes out from his throne and it kills the most terrifying of the beast. Not all of them. It kills the most terrifying one and strips the other, one, other ones of their dominion.
That is a crazy picture of God's sovereignty and his control, not only over the lives of the beast, but what they do. He can allow some of them to live and they still have no power. And what's even crazier is the following verses. He gives dominion everlasting to his son in verses thirteen and fourteen. This, this divine figure who's, who's like a son of man, right? And notice the parallels here. Four beasts in verse one through eight, they're beasts. They're not humans. They, they kind of act like humans. The lion stands up and has a mind of man, the leopard. It, it has dominion. The, the fourth beast has a talking horn.
And they, so they act like men, right? But Daniel says in thirteen, verse thirteen, one, like the son of man, this this divine figure who is human, comes up to the ancient of days, presented before him, and is given dominion everlasting. So in verses nine through through twelve, Yahweh, he kills the beasts and thousands serve him 10,000 times 10,000 stand before him.
But in thirteen and fourteen, he gives his dominion to the son and all people's nations and languages they serve him. So that there's the beasts that act like men and the son of man who, who is a man, and he receives true dominion. And this contrast we see back and forth throughout the book of Daniel: true humanity comes only from communing and being faithful to God.
Pastor Andrew talked about this a a couple weeks ago. The way to be truly human is to commune with God, be with God. And when you reject that, when you reject God's sovereignty and you're not faithful to him, you turn into a beast. And, and this is a story we know. Nebuchadnezzar rejected God and his sovereignty and he literally turned into a wild animal. And when God restored his humanity, he accepted and acknowledged God as Yahweh, as God. So true humanity. Again, it comes only from commune with God. Those who do not commune with God turn into wild animals, and those who do commune with God receive; they become all they can be in Christ and in Christ alone.
So God has conquered the powers of this world and he has set up his kingdom, and God is sovereign. And the application of that is when we look at passages such as this, we can know in our heads, right? This is important. We can know in our heads that God is sovereign and we can take comfort in that reality. But think back to how I had you think in the beginning about the future. I, there's crazy things happening in the world right now, right? And so a lot of our outlook might not be that optimistic. And so we know, hey, God is sovereign. But does that always, truthfully, does that always give you comfort? Like the sentence?
Just the sentence, just the words; when I say God is sovereign, are you like, "oh, all my cares are taken care of"? It's kind of an annoying answer when we're, when we're talking to Christian friends and we're explaining our troubles and trauma, and they're just like, oh, God's sovereign. Okay, yeah, but what does that do for me right now? And so sometimes it doesn't feel like he's sovereign. There's world issues, there's personal issues, and we see the sovereignty of God, we see this power of him sitting on his throne, flames coming from his throne. It's like, well, I wish that could be in my life. And so sometimes we don't see the sovereignty.
What do we do then? What do we do when we know in our heads that God is sovereign but can't feel it in our hearts and are not experiencing that power in our lives? Well, we look to faithful examples of God's servants, and we're gonna look at three of them.
First is in Daniel chapter three. A lot of us know this this story. There's, there's three men, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. And, and King Nebuchadnezzar, he sets up this golden statue of himself that Daniel told him would be destroyed in a dream, which is weird to have your statue destroyed and then make one. But he sets up this golden statue and he says, when, when the trumpet sounds, you're to bow down and worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar.
And you have three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They remain faithful to God. And what is the result of their faithfulness to God? They're thrown into a fire. Nebuchadnezzar takes them and puts them in a fiery furnace. Their refusal to worship the king and their faithfulness to God led to them facing death. And as they're taken there, the people who are taking them to the fire, they're killed, but the three men are saved. There’s this theme of like purifying fire. And as a result, here's the big thing. They're faithful, they're taken to the fire. As a result, what happens? Nebuchadnezzar says that all should respect, fear and tremble the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because only this God can do a mighty work like this. He actually says, if you don't do that, we're gonna tear you limb from lamb and burn down your houses.
He extols God, he says this is God, this is a true God. We're, we're, you have to respect this God. Transformation happened from their faithfulness, right? They, a lot of us, hopefully prayerfully will not suffer that type of persecution in our lifetime. And, and I read stories like this all throughout the Bible and through church history and say, man, if someone came to me and said, if you don't bow down before this statue, I'm going to throw you into a fire. Would I remain faithful? And, and God says in his word that when you do big things happen. It's not like they got taken out and we're like, okay, we're not gonna try to kill you again. Cause we obviously can't. No, the king makes a new decree that Yahweh should be feared before and trembled. Their faithfulness actually did something.
The second example is in Daniel chapter six, another famous story, Daniel in the lion's den. There's these people who are against Daniel. They, they get the king to make a new decree that says if you worship another God besides the king, you should be thrown in the lions den. And once that decree signed, the Bible says that Daniel knew it was signed and he went to a window and three times a day he prayed.
As soon as he knew it was signed, he went and remained faithful to God. He prayed to God three times a day until his captors came and threw him the lions den. And what happens is stones roll over it, the king's like, "Hey, I hope your god's with you," rolls the stone over. And Daniel says, angels came and shut the mouths of the lions. And God has preserved me. And Daniel was faithful. What happened? The king made a new decree that all should worship Yahweh. He says this in in Daniel chapter six, starting with verse twenty-five:
Then Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages who were living in all the land: I issue a decree that in all the realm of my kingdom people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; For He is the living God and enduring forever, And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, And His dominion will be forever. “He rescues, saves, and performs signs and miracles In heaven and on earth, He who has also rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.
Daniel was faithful, and it transformed lives. I have to imagine we don't have enough information, but I imagine the lives of the people in that kingdom were changed as a result of Daniel's faithfulness.
And the final greatest example is the faithful servant, Jesus Christ Jesus, right, is the ultimate example of a faithful servant to God. In every circumstance, and for Jesus, even to the point of death on a cross, he remains faithful to God. The reference I have there, Matthew 26:39, is, is Jesus sweating blood in the garden saying, let it pass, but your will be done, not mine. He's, he's, he's reaching the point of death. It's so imminent that he's sweating blood, but he's remaining faithful to God. I don't think I need to explain to you that Jesus' faith, faithfulness to God change the world, change hearts and minds and the world. And as a result in Daniel seven thirteen to fourteen, Jesus has given dominion. He, he ascends to the father, sits at the right hand and receives a kingdom that all peoples and nations would come and serve him.
Here’s the point of this second point: massive change comes by faithfulness and not human interactions and programs. There, there is a, there, there was some crazy things happening in Rome during Jesus' time. If you were, if you were a Roman soldier, I believe, and you weren't regularly having relations with young men, young boys, you were looked at as effeminate.That's pretty bad. We, I don't think we would even stand for that today. And not to mention there was other things that are widely accepted leaving... your babies out in the street if you didn't want them.
You know what Jesus didn't do though? He didn't get John and and Peter and say, you know what? I got some issues I wanna settle at the Roman forum. We're gonna go to the Senate, we're gonna, we're gonna talk to the senators. I'm gonna write my local official and change some laws. Jesus, the son of God who had all power, didn't seek legal change to clean up Rome. He was faithful to God and that faithfulness in God and Him just being God, but also transforming lives led to massive change in the Roman Empire over the course of history.
Daniel didn't, didn't hear a decree and say, ah, I'm not down with tyranny. We're going straight to the king. We're taking this straight to the top. He remained faithful to God and he prayed. He didn't get protests gathered up. He wasn't talking to his friends about policies and change. He was faithful to God.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faithful to God. They didn't seek to, to change laws. They didn't even really say, you're, you're that, that no one should obey Nebuchadnezzar they're saying, we can't do it. We're faithful to God. And change happened. God is sovereign and you wanna really believe that faithfully serve him. I don't think we understand the power of this because it's, it's hard for us to rely on it. Especially today, we have such a voice today, freedom to speak, right? And we rely on that because it's easier, it's tangible. What would happen if everyone in, in just this room, just in these four walls was sold out, faithful to God.
Forget the political change. Forget what's happening in the rest of the world. You're just faithful to God. Big things I promise you, big things will happen if you're faithful. This is not a if and or, but. When you are faithful to God, when you serve him in faithfulness, when you commune with him, lives are transformed. Your life is transformed. The lives around you are transformed. Your network; everything is transformed. This, this is a, a reality that we need to experience. I think I said it in one of my last sermons, like, sometimes we pray to God and when prayers get answered, it's like, oh, that's a coincidence that I prayed that and God answered it.
No, no, he answered your prayers and if you start being faithful, it's like, oh, it's interesting. This person's more interested. Stop. He's transforming lives. He's drawing people to himself through you, making you more pure and whole and changing society. During the good times and the bad, and in and outta season, god's people ought to be in our faithful to him, and when we are faithful, he transforms it. It, it’s… I don't get it, but it's real. It happens. Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Look at Daniel. Look at Jesus. You cannot tell me lives weren't changed from them praying and refusing to bow to idols. What would happen if you refused to bow to even just your own personal idols? Would transformation take place?
Would wholeness be had? Would true humanity be reached? Would you find God delightful? Would you take satisfaction and comfort and joy in him? I bet you will. But again, okay, God is sovereign. His people are faithful and that's a real thing that transforms lives. But sometimes we're scared and maybe even feel guilty because we look at these examples and say, I'm not like these faithful servants, but we're in good company.
Look at Daniel chapter seven, verse fifteen. He has these amazing, awesome visions that are terrifying and great, and Yahweh comes and kills the beast and the son's given dominion. And he says he sees all these great things and he says, "as for me Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.” You know, I'm assuming that God is sovereign, but do things alarm you? They give you anxiety. Lemme tell you a personal story. There's big things right now happening in Ukraine and Russia if you didn't know. And there, there's planes that fly over the orchard, like these military planes, and they always fly to the coast.
And it, it freaks me out. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's happening. We're, we're here. I know God's sovereign. I know he has complete control over nanoseconds and smaller of my life, but sometimes I hear those planes and I'm like uh, I don't know. Like something could be happening. I'm anxious and I'm scared and Daniel tells me kind of, even if I see visions of God with great power killing these things, I can still be anxious and scared.
Jesus, the son of God who knew who was God, he knew his mission, was anxious and scared of the cross. And so when we are feeling like I'm not like these servants, I'm not, I'm scared. I don't really, I don't know how to interact with God's sovereignty. What do we do? We dwell upon his sovereignty and we continue to faithfully serve him. I'm sure Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were scared. I mean, imagine you're being taken to a fire and as you're being taken there, the people that are taking you there are dying. They don't walk in, they're like, oh, it'll be all right. And if they did good on them, but I would be scared, but remain faithful.
God, I'm scared. I have, I have beasts in my life. I am terrified of them. I am terrified of the, of the seeming power that they have, but I gotta remain faithful. I gotta trust, I gotta commune with God, receive the father's love, the grace of the Son and the power of the Spirit. And though I'm scared and anxious and nervous, my faithfulness to God will see me through because God is sovereign. And here's the big point. When God takes up his throne in your heart and in your life, he kills the most terrifying. He strips the lesser beasts of their power. The beasts in Daniel, make no mistake. They are kings and kingdoms. Okay? That's what he says later in, in the chapter. But they can be applied to our personal struggles.
And when God takes his throne in your heart, those wheels of fire starts spinning, which is painful cause it's purifying, it's, it's refining what is holy in you and purging what is unholy. And he kills the most terrifying beast. What's the most terrifying beast in your life? It's sin, and it's really sin and death. He puts it to death and burns it forever. And the other things, the remaining roots of sin and death that are trying to, to rear their heads, he strips them of their power. This is what happens. And if you believe, God is there, and your capacity to experience that fire of God will expand as you commune with the father, the son, and the spirit. He has slain the most terrifying beast in your life, stripped them of their dominion and is purifying you, making you whole, turning you from a beast into all he has created you to be.
Secondly, we faithfully serve and commune with God and watch him transform our lives and the lives of those around us. God is God. God takes care of of all the things in our lives, and I want you to think right now of the most terrifying things you have. Do you have it in your head? God has taken care of those things. It can be a myriad of things. God has dominion over it. He has, he has has conquered it in all we do... like do you know you don't have to do anything to be saved. You just receive God's power and love through communion with him.
I'm reading a book right now called communing with God by John Owen, and he talks about the communing with a father, and he says the father loves you fully and completely at all times. What changes is your capacity to receive that and experience it? I'm not to the part of the son and the spirit yet, but I'm assuming the same thing kind of happens, right? It is showering you; like there's never a time where God doesn't love you as fully as God can, and he's God. We, as we remain faithful to him and commune with him, expand our capacity to receive that, be transformed by it, and then pour it back out on others and our lives.
I think what I'm really trying to preach here is that through God's sovereignty, faithfulness to him, change can happen, and I think it's time for change. It's time for change in my life and I have to rely on God's sovereignty. I get so low and the only thing I have to hold onto is that God has control. Like God, these beasts are terrifying. If I could run away from them physically, I would, in fear, and what do I have to hold onto? You're sovereign. Stay faithful. So my, my prayer for us is that as we dwell on the sovereignty of God and passages like Daniel in, in the gospels, in the Bible, as we read and pray and commune with God, that we would expand our capacity for faithfulness to him and transform the world.
If you believe you have this already: expand your capacity to receive it. And, and do, please do something. And if you don't believe this sovereignty, this comfort, this peace, this human wholeness is waiting for you. Repent of your sin and believe. Let's pray.
God, I thank you for, for passages like Daniel that are, that are terrifying and awesome and all these things, and I pray that we do take them. We look at them, we study them, and we really get a good glimpse of your sovereignty. And I pray that as we get scared or anxious or, and have fear that you would help us to remain faithful to you. God, show us what it means to be faithful. We don't have opportunities like Daniel and the three men in the fiery furnace but God show us where we can act like that in our lives. And God, I pray that you bring true repentance and change when we do so. I pray that it is abundantly clear in our lives and the lives of those around us.
Help us to be little like flags that kind of point the way towards you as we interact with you, as we remain faithful to you, as we believe in your sovereignty. I pray these things in Jesus'. Amen.