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[0:00] Wow, kids. God really did have a plan, didn't he? But you know, it was a plan that Daniel! didn't expect. And I wonder if you thought it was surprising, too. Let's talk about it.

[0:15] So the Ancient of Days, he does represent God, just like Shadshak and Bendi suspected, suspected, especially God as the judge over all the earth. Now, a judge is someone who can say, this is right, and this is wrong. So God is the best judge because he made everything, and he knows right from wrong. So the Ancient of Days saw these beastly kings of the earth doing wrong, and he sat on his throne, and he pulled out his big book, and he judged the monsters.

[0:55] So what this means is that God has a law, and even though we can't see it all the time, God is keeping track of the way that beastly rulers are breaking his law and hurting his people.

[1:09] So this vision told Daniel that there would come a day when God would judge the monsters of this world, and he would actually defeat our biggest enemy, death. That's what the monster with the horns represents. Now, you might have thought, and Daniel probably thought, that the Ancient of Days would stand up from his throne and say, now I'm the king. But he didn't do that, did he? He did something much, much stranger and much better. The vision told us that someone like a son of man would come into the heavenly throne room. Now, this phrase, son of man, that's not something we say a lot, is it?

[2:05] Can you guys say that with me? Son of man? Son of man. Son of man. Can congregation, you say son of man? Son of man. This is not something that we typically say, but it really just means a real human being.

[2:23] A real human being. A real human person with hair and skin and teeth and lungs. The son of man is a real human person. And the vision says that God would give all power and rule and a great kingdom to this real human being, and God would make that son of man the king forever.

[2:49] And in fact, on our bulletin, congregation, y'all can look at this too. But our bulletin today, what do you see? So, we talked about this one earlier.

[3:01] What is, what does that symbolize right there, the crown? That's the king, right? Dominion. You might not know this one down here. This is not a red pair of glasses, although it kind of looks like it.

[3:16] Does anybody know what that is, what that symbol is? Yeah. The infinity symbol. That's right. The infinity symbol. So, this means the king forever.

[3:28] Isn't that cool? Now, when I think about this, we have a little bit of a problem, don't we?

[3:40] It's that we human beings, we don't live forever, right? Hmm. So, what kind of human being could this be? Well, kids, the only kind of person who could live forever is a person who is both God and man.

[4:03] Both eternal and human. So, do we know anybody who is like that? Yeah. Jesus!

[4:14] That's right. It's Jesus. Jesus must be, he is, this human king. And did you know that in the gospel stories, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man?

[4:34] Did you know that congregation? Yeah. In fact, Jesus calls himself Son of Man more than anything else. Just like in Daniel 7, the Son of Man comes into the heavenly throne room.

[4:50] So, when Jesus calls himself Son of Man, he's saying, remember Daniel chapter 7. That's me. The real human being in the heavenly throne room, the eternal king who will rule forever, that is me.

[5:07] That's Jesus. This is so amazing. Now, kids, maybe the most important thing is to remember that Jesus defeated the terrible monsters of this world not by coming with a sword, not by coming with power and violence, right?

[5:28] But he came with humility. He came even as a child. He came to be like us.

[5:40] To suffer all the terrible effects of sin instead of us. Matthew 10, 45, Jesus says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

[5:59] A ransom means giving over your life to save someone else. So, Jesus dies the death that we should have died. And when he does that, he defeats death so that we can live with him forever.

[6:15] So, kids, Jesus is showing us that the most powerful thing in the whole universe is self-sacrificial love. And that's who Jesus is.

[6:28] He's totally different. And he's so much better than all those beastly rulers of the world. And this is good news. This is what we call the gospel.

[6:40] It means that our King Jesus will reign forever. And he is a kind and warm, a merciful and a gracious, a real human person.

[6:50] And he loves each one of us more than we can even imagine. And he's a good king because he's righteous and he wants the best for us.

[7:02] And amazingly, he shares his glory with us forever. Jesus receives the crown of glory. And then he makes us sons and daughters of the Most High God.

[7:19] And kids, by turning to Jesus and putting our faith in him, he makes all of us princesses and princes of the true king forever.

[7:31] So, that's the good news that we have. That the Son of Man is our Savior. Jesus is the King over all the earth. Let us sing praise with a song.

[7:42]  Amen. Okay, kiddos, let's go back to our seats. Let's go back to our seats.