Light Over Darkness, Now

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, let's take a look and invite you to look along. You know, you need to, let's have you bring up the, yeah, that's good, good. Daniel chapter 7, we're looking at verses 9 through 10 and 13 through 14 this morning. But before we go to the reading, a little bit of an introduction. This part of Daniel is what's called an apocalypse, which means that Greek word is from the, that's the Greek word apocalyptos, which means to reveal something that was hidden.

[0:33] And there's a certain genre, you could say, of literature in ancient times. It's not just in the Bible, but there's other writings that have apocalyptic sort of readings in them. And they were popular. In our Bible, Daniel and Revelation are the main apocalypses. There are some smaller ones here and there scattered about. And there are several others in there. And there are some other things in the Jewish tradition of Judaism that aren't in our scriptures. And so you can find those in some of the apocryphal writings.

[1:04] But there's some common themes in apocalyptic literature. One is that there's a dream or a vision. And so this is the case in Daniel. There's a dream or a vision, often about the future. There's a vindication for the people who have been faithful, who have been oppressed. And there's always a story of conflict sort of at the end of time, or even before the end of time. Between these forces of light and these forces of darkness. And of course, in these stories, usually the forces of light prevail over the forces of darkness. Daniel is a little different from Revelation in the fact that Revelation is almost all apocalypse. Almost all of Revelation is sort of this vision and this dream. Whereas Daniel is part narrative, because you have the story of Daniel and the lion's den and all these sort of things like that. But in the middle of Daniel, you have this apocalypse.

[2:03] So today I chose this text. Normally, this would be one of the second readings for today. But I think it's good to look at Daniel. I don't think we've ever preached from Daniel here in the last 10 years. I don't think we have. I'm not sure. And so I thought, let's look at this and kind of get to some of the source material.

[2:20] Because today is Christ the King Sunday, as Victoria said. And the question becomes, how does Daniel fit? How does Daniel fit in with Christ as the King? Why was this reading chosen for this day of the year, in the liturgical year? And just so you know, Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of our liturgical year. It's the end. It's sort of like New Year's Eve. Next week is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent begins the church year. That's kind of like New Year's Day for the church. So we kind of should celebrate tonight, you know.

[2:51] But Christ the King is always at the last part of the liturgical year. Because it sort of puts us in a position. It puts a punctuation on the year. With Jesus ruling and reigning over all that has come before it. It's kind of this word of hope. It's kind of this word of kingship at the end. That just says, Jesus is in charge. Jesus is King over all of this.

[3:13] Both now and at the end of time. So the connection to our text today is that Daniel's apocalyptic vision includes a sighting of this mysterious character you're going to hear about called the Son of Man. The Son of Man. And that's kind of the title of the sermon today is who is the Son of Man. We're going to explore who that is later. But you now you see the connection I think. Because Jesus, if you read the gospels, often refers to himself as the Son of Man. And so there's a lot of scholarship on whether or not when Jesus says I am the Son of Man or he speaks about the Son of Man in the third person. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost for example he'll say. Is he saying that? About himself? Or is he connecting himself to this figure from Daniel which is sort of deep in the history of Judaism which is very interesting. So is he claiming to that mantle when Jesus says that? Or is he more generally connecting himself to humanity? I am the Son of a man. Or and he wasn't though he was the Son of God but he was descended from a human being. His mother was human. So we understand that as Jesus saying. I am a firstborn. I'm the firstborn.

[4:33] I'm the firstborn. So we get some overlap. So we get some overlap. So we get some overlap. So we get some overlap. 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. 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 courts were seated, and the books were opened.

[5:33] 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. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. This is the son of man. 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word, and we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus name, Amen.

[6:18] Ah, it's interesting. It's just such interesting stuff. You read this, this vision from Daniel. I want to give us a few notes about our text. One is that there's some context to this reading from Daniel that we didn't read. It's quite long. But the scene of God in heaven, the Ancient Days, sitting on his throne with fire and light, and ten thousand times ten thousand, I mean that's like a hundred million people right there, right? That's a lot of people standing in attendance before him. This grand vision. That scene is set in this larger vision about a series of, conflicts that take place at the end of time, or as time goes forward. And it's sort of symbolized by a series of beasts. It doesn't say much about these beasts, I mean it would be very interesting if we had pictures of them, but they are beasts that emerge from the ocean, okay? And the ocean here in scripture is often what we call an archetype, which is like a pattern or a common theme in literature, an archetype for chaos and evil. So out of the ocean come these beasts. Out of the churning of chaos and evil in the world, these beasts come out.

[7:31] And these beasts are a series of kingdoms and kings who subjugate God's people. So this is really dramatic. In the vision, these beasts come up out of the ocean. They do bad things. They say bad things. They oppose God. Of course, God prevails against them and sits then in court and the books are opened and everything is balanced. Everything is read out. Everything is accounted for. And evil is punished. So this is good news. But to get to this point, we had to see all these interesting beasts come out of the water.

[8:08] And these beasts, and some of them have multiple horns, and some of those horns represent different kings. It's kind of interesting. If you can read up, like a study Bible will. Kind of identify many of these for you specifically. Just fascinating. But they can be linked to the history of various waves of invasion that have come over God's people. And, you know, if you know Israel's history, there's been all sorts of sort of people groups. Because it was a small country, it was not very powerful. You know, except for maybe in the time of David and Solomon, it kind of had some independence. But beyond that much, it was always sort of a vassal state of other countries. So you had Egypt. And Egypt. And Assyria. And Babylon. And then the people were exiled to Babylon. And then Babylon was conquered by the Persians. And the people were allowed to go back. But in due course, then, their land was conquered by Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic culture. And then after Alexander's death, his empire was divided into four parts. And those parts, in turn, warred with each other. And the nations underneath them became a battleground. Including Israel. Including God's people. And then, I mentioned that because one of the horns, one of the kings that's mentioned here in Daniel,

[9:25] is sort of a descendant, or is in the line of what we call the Seleucids. These are the people that reigned, they were the descendants of the people who inherited the land from Alexander. And they had a lot of problems. The Romans came and conquered all of that. And after around 480, Israel was conquered many more times. By various kings. waves of armies from all directions. So it hasn't been a stable place to live. If you go to Israel, there's, you can go take a walk down Jerusalem, some streets in Jerusalem, and if you're with an archaeologist, they will identify with, to you, 18 different civilizations that have left their mark on the architecture that you see there. They're like, oh, that's Persian, you know, that's, that's Crusader, that's, you know, that's the Caliphate, you know, all these very interesting things. So that land has been kind of covered over several times. That's the history, that's the context of this, though, is that here are God's people, they're beset by enemies at all sides, they're being persecuted in their own land, they're, they're being held exile, Daniel wasn't one of the exiles, right? So the final beast that emerges and is opposed by the people of Israel, by God, and persecuted the Jewish people was a man named Antiochus IV. You don't really have to

[10:45] remember that, but that's, that, that will focus it in history. And, and he's really related to the story of Hanukkah, and if so, the story of the lights and Hanukkah, that's sort of grows out of the resistance to Antiochus IV. But he was terrible because he purposely defiled the temple, and so to the Jewish people, he's one of the greatest exiles that ever existed, and he's dealt with in Daniel. It's interesting. So we have this vision of the final reckoning, when all these beasts, and especially Antiochus, are, are dealt with, and in verse 9, and I'll ask Caleb to put that one up now, we have what we call the Ancient of Days sitting on the throne, which is God himself. Of course, quite a show, light and fire, and all these people in attendance, and it's this victory setting. Light has now conquered darkness. That's the old tradition. So, you know, we have this vision of the final reckoning, and we have this vision of the final reckoning, and we have this vision of the final reckoning, and we have this apocalyptic. That's kind of what we expect in an apocalypse. But there's more. So there's more to it then, and let's go to the next slide, Caleb, and it be starting with verse 13. This, you know,

[11:54] it could have ended here. I think it's interesting. It could have ended here. Like, God is reigning, the books are opened, the justice is being balanced, millions, hundreds of millions of people are there to sort of witness this, and it's, it's just this grand party. But suddenly, more happens, which is interesting. This is super interesting. So verse 13, this other figure appears, coming in the clouds, and he joins this thing that's, that's happening. And he appears like a human being. So that's perhaps the more correct translation of this. Instead of saying, son of man, you could say, one like a human being. Both of those are okay translations of that, of that text in Hebrew. So he's saying, son of man, and he's saying, son of man, and he's saying, son of man, and he's saying, son of man, and he's saying, son of man, and he's saying, to be derived from a human, he seems to have a human form and likeness, but he doesn't travel like humans do. He doesn't have a chariot or a horse, but he seems to have a, like a cloud limousine, and he just drives up in this cloud, you know, which is a pretty good entrance, you've got to say, like, and a bit of a contradiction, because how could a human, somebody in a human form be

[13:00] doing these sorts of things? It kind of makes you think. So when this son of man arrives, he's given great authority and power over the nation, and he's given great authority and power over the nation, which is set to live forever, to last forever, I should say, and he's called a king, and his kingship is this great everlasting kingship. So now you have the scene. I've kind of laid the foundation for us here. What's going on? Why is this happening? But then we are posed with kind of this interesting mystery. Who is this person? Why has he come? What is he doing? Who is the son, who is this son of man? There's a victory celebration over the forces of darkness, and in that moment, this new character reappears, and there's not much said after that, right? We don't know who this is, and then we get to the New Testament, and we really, I think, we really want this to be Jesus, right? When Jesus says the son of man about himself, we really want to go, oh, that must be, that must be him. It doesn't necessarily have to be, though. That's the interesting thing, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be. The Bible, we have to, we have to work with what we have, but Jesus actually does seem like a good candidate,

[14:13] right? He is the king of kings. He reigns with God in heaven. If anyone could share the royal court with God, it would be Jesus, right? Now, on the other hand, like we said earlier, when Jesus calls himself the son of man, it may be more that he is siding with humanity and identifying himself with humanity, and we stress this so often that he was, human. That was so important that Jesus's identity, both in the Gospels and as Paul wrote about it later, he felt pain, he felt sadness, he felt anger at death, he felt anger at disbelief, he felt love, he felt joy, and on and on, and he could be wounded, and he could be killed with violence, and so he had a human body. He had a human experience of life, and so in the grand scheme of things, that's probably more important. The incarnation of Jesus. The incarnation is more important than linking Jesus to this figure, this figure that gets one sentence or two in Daniel, right? And understanding incarnation is a much larger category than this.

[15:23] But, and again, the reason then, I just kind of said it, is there's only really one verse or two in Daniel that kind of identifies this person, and we don't really, we don't get much more than that, so it's kind of hard to develop a doctrine or a theology with that scant of evidence. And Jesus himself never says, I'm the son of man, and when I say son of man, I mean the guy from Daniel that you're all very interested in. But, so, you know, we're still not answering our question, and I'm sorry, but that's sometimes the reality that we're in, is that we don't know who the son of man is. Jesus may be the son of man in Daniel.

[16:02] There's a compelling case that this son of man in Daniel is actually the archangel Michael, or one of the other archangels. And if you want, I can't go into it now, but if you want to see that, I can show you some of that. And it's, I think that's, in my mind, like 75-25, like 75% probably Jesus is this figure. But there's good evidence, just based on other literature and other readings, that it could be one of these sort of very important angels.

[16:28] What we can say is that what the son of man does in Daniel is a lot like what Jesus does in the last. He comes, he's part of this movement of darkness, a light over darkness. He comes to reign. He has an eternal kingdom. And so, this is Jesus, in the sense, maybe not necessarily this son of man, but Jesus does come as king. Jesus does come to reign. You know, he talks about it with Pilate in our reading from John. Yes, I am a kingdom. My kingdom's not of this world, but I am a king, right?

[17:08] And so, the one thing I want you to hear from this is this, there's this incredible sense of hope that we have, and one sense of comfort that when we see chaos and evil in the world, it gives rise to idolatrous kings and kingdoms, which, let's be honest, I think that's happening all the time. Like, out of chaos and evil come forth these evil, idolatrous kings and kingdoms and rulers. It just happens. And so, we're seeing this over and over and over in time. And we're yet being, I think, in some ways, persecuted by them or troubled by them at the very least. That Christ will come at the end of time, and there will be a great battle between darkness and light. And light will prevail, and the books will be opened, right? As it says in Daniel. And the injustices of this world will be set to right, and the captives will be set free, and they'll return to their homes and families. And sin and death and the devil will be set free. And the captives will be set free, and they'll return to their homes and families. And sin and death and the devil will be set free. And sin and death and the devil will all be utterly annihilated. This is such good news. These are all things that are tied up with the kingship of Christ.

[18:15] The dead in Christ will rise first, and we will meet Jesus in the air. That's what it says. So, maybe he will be coming in the clouds, right? We will be with the Lord forever, and he will reign forever. And these are all promises. All the things I just said, these are promises that we can piece together from Daniel and from 1 Corinthians and Revelation and the Gospels and more. If you put that all together, there's this great promise. And I think that's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be putting this great promise in there. So, really, the final word to you today is comfort. We don't really know who the Son of Man in Daniel is. It could be Jesus. It could be somebody else. But even if it's not, Jesus does the thing that this Son of Man does, and he does far more. Your future is secure. But here's the rest. And this is the part where I want to send you out the door with a little bit of energy and a little bit of purpose. And we are doing this, and we're going to do this in a lot of ways. In the comfort and assurance of this promise that Jesus will reign as King, we are now free to live out lives that anticipate what that will look like and to sort of enact that promise now. I don't think he wants us to wait until the end for the books to be open. He

[19:29] doesn't want us to wait for the end for injustice to be opposed, for darkness to be vanquished by light. I think that needs to start now and has been the promise. And I think that's what we're starting now and has been going on now. So that means that we need to be this light. I really do think there is an ongoing struggle in this world between darkness and light, between truth and lies, between injustice and justice, between righteousness and iniquity, or whatever else you want to call it. There's brokenness all around us, between chaos and the ordered life of one who lives in Christ. There's a huge conflict yet going on, and we can't wait until the end for God to do it all for us. You're part of this now. You've got to be out there doing it. So you need to fight injustice. We need to fight injustice. We need to be people of truth and not deception or lies or falsehood or conspiracy theories. Those don't belong. We need to set captives free. We need to live in faith, and we need to share that faith. And the list could go on and on, and you have your own ideas when you leave this place. How else will you be part of this grand battle? We need to be part of this great battle. We need to be part of

[20:38] this battle between light and darkness. But God's calling you into it. Because the future's secure, you're set. You've got it made. Now you have freedom to join this fight. There's no resting on these laurels. They're comfy laurels. They're very cozy. There's no resting on them. And in the grand scheme of history, in wave after wave of oppression that comes at us, we are called to live in hope and then be driven to start the work that the Son of Man will finally finish. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for this challenge that you've given us in scripture, but thank you mostly that Jesus is King. Send us into this world as people who fight on your side, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.